Episode 2: Early Show

INT. STUDIO

Baralai sat behind his large wooden desk with the oceanic backdrop. Beside his desk in the golden couch sat Celes and Cid.

BARALAI (to camera): And now it's time to check in again with our favorite reality show with the latest cast-offs from The Amazing Final Fantasy Race. Please welcome Celes Chere and Cid!

CID: Thank you, Baralai. Pleasure to be here. Well, perhaps a greater pleasure would be to still be in the race, but it's a pleasure nonetheless.

BARALAI: So let's get right into it: what happened? What went wrong?

CID: It was my fault. We were doing everything right, but I just couldn't go on at the end.

CELES: No, that wasn't it. It wasn't your fault. It was mine for not being able to get the toy car across the finish line fast enough. It put us behind by a good margin.

CID: That's true, I forgot about that. That really did put us behind quite a bit.

CELES: Oh stop it, Granddad! I'm a general, not some seven-year-old child! I don't know how to play with toys like that.

CID: I know. I don't fault you for it any more than I fault myself for all of my errors. Baralai, I believe it's fair to say we lost because everything went wrong. It was just not our day.

BARALAI: I see. Well let's discuss the Anti-Cute-Guy Alliance. Celes?

CELES: The one racer, Balthier, had mislead us and caused us to fight for last place on the first leg of competition.

CID: After reviewing the footage, we were able to see that Balthier nor Fran were trying to trick us. In fact, they were attempting to help us because they believed us to be weak and wanted us to fill seats on the first spaceship.

BARALAI: That's gotta make you feel like crap.

CID: Not really. It was directed at me for my age, and I accept it. You saw this last time that I really wasn't cut out for the physical competition. I was even outrun by the love-starved Brahne.

BARALAI: Talk about that, Cid. She was so captivated by you. Why is this?

CID: Tell me why it isn't, Baralai. I mean, look at me! But seriously, I'm not sure. I'm not the most attractive man, I don't dress snappily, and I'm rather old. But despite all of that, it was nice to hear. Perhaps I'll tune into your show here when you interview Brahne, hopefully as the winner.

BARALAI: So you're cheering for Garnet and Brahne, apparently. Anybody else?

CELES: I haven't seen much from the rats, Freya and Fratley, but they seem very nice. And Barthello is a strong competitor with a good heart, though I can't say as much for Dona.

CID: Yes, Barthello is one to watch out for. I hope Dona doesn't hold him back.

BARALAI: We're running out of time and Nooj is pointing a gun at me, so I think I'll just ask one final question: Celes, you joined with Garnet in the final roadblock to complete the task faster, but it turned out that you and she were racing for the last two spots. Do you regret teaming up with her?

CELES: Not at all. I'd never betray an alliance. We had a solid plan that should have worked, but I underestimated Ma's running abilities. Garnet and Brahne quickly became friends with us, and I will always stick with my friends.

NOOJ (O.S.): I'll fire.

BARALAI: It's true, he'll kill me, so we're done here tonight. Thank you, Celes. Cid. I wish the best for you two. Now let's go to commercial and when we come back we'll talk about somebody who died recently.