ITEMS TO GET: None

   Take the ship back to the Outer Continent and return to the Black Mage Village. No one's here, except for Black Mage #288. You'll find him still at the hill; he tells you all that all the mages have been taken away by Kujya. Now go to the chocobo shrine in the upper-right corner; two of the other remaining mages will let VIVI in. The big egg hatches into a baby Chocobo. VIVI leaves to go with #288 again, and there's a couple of automated scenes. Eventually, you'll be controlling Zidane again.

   Note that Sabotenders are now all over the Outer Continent overworld (they didn't seem to be here before). They don't yield lots of AP as they did in past games, but you can learn Quina's 1000 Needles skill by eating one of them.

Zidane and his vertically-challenged friend

   Your next mission is to head to the desert and find the missing mages. There's a fairly long sequence ahead, so you may want to take care of sidequests now. To continue on, take the ship to the far east end of the Outer Continent. Grab a Chocobo and look for the four sand whirlpools. Touch the northwest one and you'll be sucked into Kujya's headquarters, the Desert Empress. (If you touch any of the other pits, you'll fight an Antlion.)

black garuda is a garuda tat is black

   Zidane and Cid end up in a cell by themselves. Kujya talks for a while, and then you're released from the cell. Head south across the bridge and the two mages will teleport you to Kujya's room. Kujya wants Zidane to find the Gulg Stone in Oeilvert as ransom for his friends. You have to pick three characters to take with you; you won't be able to use magic for most of the upcoming quest, so take a fighting-oriented party. The other four characters will see some action too, however; so make sure the parties are fairly balanced. (For example, you'll want to split up Garnet and Eiko since their abilities are so similar.) Be sure to leave VIVI behind.

   After you finalize your party, Kujya will warp the four of you down to its airship dock. You'll fight Ogres down here, but they're pretty easy. Climb up the stairs to the right, then cross on the bridge on the left. Work your way around the looping stairs and board the airship.