Rhondia Island – 7.30 a.m. (Dollet Time)
Rinoa suddenly woke up from a nightmare. She envisioned Squall and Quistis, jogging together along the golden-sanded beach of Rhondia Island like a couple more intimate than Squall and herself. Her vision then skipped to the next scene, where she was invited to the top of the Belle Lighthouse. The room that housed the lighthouse's spotlight, was all newly painted in white with shades of pink. She climbed to the roof of the lighthouse, where the space was decorated lavishly with fabrics and flowers, Squall and Quistis, in their wedding clothes, kissed each other in front of the ocean. Squall then turned from Quistis to Rinoa and sneered at her.
"Come here darling," he said. Rinoa approached Squall, who soon pulled her by the arm and swung her to the edge of the roof. Rinoa dangled below the roof, holding on to a protruding steel pole with both hands. Quistis then walked to the edge and bent down, grinning at Rinoa devilishly. She lifted up Rinoa's finger one by one. Rinoa eventually fell, and it was that frightening vision of herself falling that woke her up abruptly.
"Squall, wake up!" Rinoa shook Squall's body violently.
"Rinoa, it's still 7 in the morning. Don't get too excited okay?" Squall said sedately in his sleep.
"Squall I had the most terrible nightmare! Don't you care about me?" Rinoa jabbered in panic. This time Squall woke up irritably.
"Okay, I'll take you for a brief walk by the beach," Squall answered.
At eight, the four teams waited anxiously for the front gate to open. Belle Lighthouse's white-painted exterior seemed glossy under the morning sun.
Seifer and Selphie were then seen jostling towards the lighthouse.
"Oh, we're right on time!" Selphie said out of breath.
"The gay lover has returned to see Squall!" Jack said sarcastically, remembering the game they had played last night.
"What?" Seifer said abruptly at Jack who turned away from Seifer and whistled to himself. King then jabbed Jack on his chest.
The gates flung open and the five teams ran to the entrance that was marked by the yellow and blue flag. They came to a flight of stairs, climbing it one person at a time. Selphie, being the first person to climb the stairs, reached the top of the lighthouse. The room was breezy, as there were no walls but pillars supporting the ceiling. The view of the ocean surrounded the room. At the center of the room, Selphie saw a huge spotlight behind a glass casing. Next to the control panel that operated the spotlight, she found the clue box, and immediately took out one of the envelopes.
"ROADBLOCK!" Selphie said to herself the first word that popped out from the envelope. "Before opening this, choose someone who wants to be on top of the world."
As Seifer surfaces from the stairwell, Selphie approached Seifer excitedly.
"Woohoo! I'm going to bungee-jump!" Selphie cheered.
Seifer looked down from the edge of the wall-less room, goggling at the waves drumming the rocks below the lighthouse.
"Selphie are you sure you'll be okay?" Seifer said.
"Don't worry I've seen people doing this in TV and nobody gets killed. It's safe," Selphie replied smilingly. "I'm going to the roof!" Selphie disappeared into another flight of stairs that ascended toward the roof. Seifer stooped again at the jagged rocks below and began to feel nauseous.
Selphie was now standing at the center of the roof, a flat red disc mounted on top of Belle Lighthouse. Her hair and blouse fluttered freely to the ocean breeze as she stretched out both her arms perpendicular to her body.
"Woohoo! I'm the king... err... queen of the world!" she cried at the spellbinding view of Balamb Continent, a tiny green isle from afar. She put on a safety helmet while the operator attached on her the bungee cord that was fastened to a horizontal pole sticking out of the roof. At the edge of the roof, she saw the dot of a blue mattress for her to land on at the tiny littoral below.
"I'm ready!" She gave a thumb's up to the operator and then inhaled one big heavy breath. "Here goes."
"Selphie!" Seifer yelled from the landing zone, looking up at Selphie who had her arms akimbo. The wind began to pick up again.
He saw Selphie tilting off the roof with her arms stretching away from her body, drifting in the air like an angel and then plunging down parallel to the walls of the lighthouse towards the littoral. He heard Selphie screaming, screaming in exhilaration. As Selphie reached the mattress, oscillating and laughing maniacally, Seifer pushed away the operators to help Selphie to gain her footing.
"Oh I feel dizzy," Selphie said moving her head in circular motion. She then came back to her senses and received the red-colored envelope from the operators.
"You have proven yourself to be king or queen of the world! Proceed to the next pit stop, Lord Denithera's Castle in the outskirts of Dollet!" Selphie said excitedly while waving the paper back and forth. "Last person to check in will be eliminated!"
"See you at the bottom," Quistis, who was the second person to bungee-jump, said to Rinoa. Quistis pushed her feet off the edge of the roof, freefalling to the littoral below. It was Rinoa's turn next, as she nervously put on the helmet, reluctantly walked to the edge of the roof.
Squall tilting his head up with his hand shielding his eyes from the morning sun looking at the edge of the disc-like roof, expecting Rinoa to show up. After the bungee cord had been attached, Rinoa stooped at the waves hitting the rocks below the lighthouse. It was nauseating.
"Oh my goodness, she needs help," Squall thought when he saw Rinoa moving away from his sight. Squall immediately got back to the lighthouse.
"Sir you can't..." Squall pushed a man guarding the entrance of the lighthouse aside.
"Rinoa, you can do it!" Rinoa told herself.
"No, remember the dream? You'll die if you fall," the fear in her said at the same time.
Squall neared Rinoa who was hiding her head in her knees at the center of the circle. Rinoa sensed his presence and turned to him in tears.
"Squall I'm scared!" Rinoa muttered as Squall raised her, comforted her, but she did not expect her boyfriend to push her to the edge of the rooftop, forcing her to fall of the roof, just like in her nightmare. She screamed to sensation of freefalling, and to her it was not exhilarating. It was morbidly terrifying.
"Hey what's that?" Zell said, sitting in a speedboat with Irvine heading for Rhondia Island, as he saw a figure diving in the air from the top of Belle Lighthouse. Zell and Irvine then faced each other in excitement.
"BUNGEE-JUMPING!"
Rinoa finally opened her eyes and found herself, lying on the mattress as the operators undid the knot around her legs. She then sensed the sand's vibration to Squall's heavy footsteps.
"Squall, why did you do that?" Rinoa cried. "You almost got me killed."
Squall did not say anything to soothe Rinoa. He took the envelope on Rinoa's behalf. After reading the clue, they took a boat back to the beach and then, upon reaching the main port, they got into a taxi.
"Squall you could've killed me," Rinoa could not pull back her tears as she expressed her fear that eventually fell onto deaf ears. After a momentary sniffle, she rested her head on Squall's chest and sobbed some more. Squall felt deeply embarrassed as Rinoa's tears wetted his black shirt.
"Get us out of here," he said snidely to the driver, wanting to leave Dollet as soon as possible.
Cid Kramer waited for the teams to arrive at the square of Lord Denithera's Castle, a fortress that was built over 200 years ago after the kingdom of Dollet came into the rule of the dukes led by Lord Denithera, the first duke of the new parliament. The sun moved upward to shine on Fujin's eye patch, running with Raijin towards Headmaster Cid, leaving their backpacks at the gate.
As Fujin and Raijin thudded on the mat, an old woman in medieval Dolletian clothing greeted them. "Bonjour and welcome to Dollet."
"Fujin and Raijin," Cid began. "You're team number one!"
"Glad it paid when we got lost in that forest, ya know." Raijin breathed deeply in relief, wanting to hug Fujin but was rudely shoved away.
"Wow, it's so pretty that it looks like it came out of a storybook!" Selphie remarked as she admired the brick-red castle standing proudly and erect on top of a hill adorned with four great turrets. The road turned bumpy as the taxi traveled up the slope toward the front gate of the fortress. Selphie and Seifer got off the taxi and retrieved their backpacks, ran across the moat and into the fortress to get to Headmaster Cid on the pit-stop mat.
"Seifer and Selphie, you're team number two," Cid told the couple who then cheered triumphantly.
Zell just could not wait to bungee-jump, but after looking down at the small dots below and the sharp rocks surrounding the littoral 1000 feet below the lighthouse, gastric juices started to build. Zell wanted to throw up.
Irvine gaped as he saw Zell retreating from the edge of the roof.
"Dude, are you all right?" he shouted but his voice barely reached to the top of the lighthouse.
Zell then started to think about Seifer to psyche himself. If he were here waiting for the jump he would profusely call him a chicken-wuss and people will start laughing at him, and he pictured it vividly: Seifer standing in front of him mouthing 'chicken-wuss'.
"I'm not a chicken-wuss!" Zell ran to the edge of the roof and jumped off the roof, free-falling towards the landing zone below.
"Woohoo!" Zell cheered as he bounced up and down upon reaching the bottom of the lighthouse.
It was then Edea's turn to bungee-jump.
"Don't let it get to you!" Kadowaki yelled from the littoral at Edea who was already on the roof. After wearing the safety gear, Edea neared the edge of the roof, closed her eyes, and made her once-of-a-lifetime jump that would probably haunt her forever.
"Oh my goodness, I can't believe I did that!" Edea exclaimed when she reached the bottom. Kadowaki started to worry after reading the clue handed to her.
"Come on girl. We've got to go and lead the boys or else we'll be eliminated!" Kadowaki said.
"Rachel and Daniel, you're team number six."
Rachel and Daniel cried out in relief after Cid auspiciously announced the result. Cid then waited again patiently for the arrival of the last two teams.
Twenty minutes later, a taxi stopped abruptly at the front end of the moat. Cid caught the first glimpse of the person that stepped out of the taxi; straight static blonde hair and a face tattoo, Zell.
"We're ready to hear it," Irvine said after he stepped in front of Cid, wrapping his arm around his pardner. Cid did not say anything until Zell and Irvine stopped huffing and puffing.
"Zell and Irvine." Cid paused to build suspense. "You're team number seven!"
After realizing that they were the second last team, Zell and Irvine hugged each other and cheered.
Zell then spoke to Cid happily, "The next you'll know we'll be winning the one million gil!"
A few minutes later, Edea and Kadowaki were seen running towards the square of Lord Denithera's fortress. The two women wrapped one arm around each shoulder and stomped on the mat together.
"We're here finally hubby," Edea, being Cid Kramer's wife, said, smiling although she was gaunt.
"Edea and Kadowaki, the students back at Balamb Garden really missed you since day one…" Cid said half-heartedly. "And because of that I'm sorry to tell that you both have been eliminated from the race. We'll be sending you two back to Balamb shortly."
Edea then fell her head on Kadowaki's shoulder and sobbed.
"I know it's hard to accept but we'll have to face the fact that we're in competition with teams who are younger and fitter than us," Kadowaki said, making the best out of their loss.
Edea then lifted her head up and wiped off her tears.
"Honey, can you give our best regards to Zell and Irvine 'cause they have been our best friends?" Edea requested.
Edea and Kadowaki half-heartedly entered the van that would transport them back to Dollet and then they would board a Balamb-bound vessel from there.
At the deck of the ship, Edea and Kadowaki set their eyes on the golden city and its splendid five lighthouses for the last time, leaving the thrills of the race for good, but those memories would still remain in their hearts.
Edea and Kadowaki are the second team to be eliminated from the Amazing Race!