The Fall of Radiant Garden (Prequel Ch8)

And the feels begin.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/8/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

EDIT: Forgot to put this in last time... the tumblr liveblog! http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch8/chrono

This is one particular plot point wasn't even something that I WANTED to happen.  It was something that HAD to happen.  The fall of Radiant Garden, I feel, is such a crucial point in Kingdom Hearts backstory.  It shapes the lives of Cid, Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie so much.  

by *jameson9101322

Orchestrating the scene was a bit of a challenge, actually.  I wanted to get the feeling of the sucking darkness that happens on Destiny Islands at the beginning of KH1.  I also wanted to capture fear and franticness.  I then needed to include certain characters.  I think I did a good job, I haven't received any comments telling me otherwise.  KKBeckett talked about how I crushed her feels.  Which, well, I suppose that's a bit of a success, because that is what I was going for.  

So, brief comment about the pictures: I found them ages ago when I was looking for pictures of young Squall (think the first chapter, actually) and I liked them so much that I saved them both, figuring I could use them for a future chapter.  Well, this is that chapter and you get two images with it!

Anyway, so I chose to tell this chapter from Aerith's POV because Aerith has this thing where she can sense things.  She can sense the darkness, she can sense when people die.  She's just special.  She's special in the games, too (both the FFVII Compilation and the Kingdom Hearts series).  But even in my canon, she's pretty special.  I mean, she's the girl who just FINDS mega-elixers and would rather bop Shadows on the head to get them out of her house, rather than just kill them.  (Of course, the Aerith that exists in the prequel right now is not that kind to Heartless, that's a trait that comes with time.)  

by ~Rinny09

Aerith's becoming a very interesting character.  She's very full of light, but that's just something I know and haven't really brought up too much in the prequel.  (I actually have a headcanon that if Aerith was born a year sooner, she could have been a Princess of Heart instead of Snow White or something like that.  Heh.)  But Aerith is very full of light and very special.  

And I totally just ripped her whole world out from under her.  (Technically, KH canon did that, but still.)  Her mom is gone, her home is gone, her life is gone.  She's got Yuffie and that's about it.  Sure, she's got Squall-now-Leon and Cid as well, but at this point in the story, she hardly knows them.  But she's going to make do.  Because Aerith's a fighter.

Now that all my Aerith feels are out of the way, have some Leon ones.  He's just trying to save everything and he knows he can't.  Cid sends him out to grab some people and the only alive people he runs into are Aerith and Yuffie.  So he rescues them.  And he's totally willing to help Aerith and Yuffie get back to Aerith's mom's place.  Except for the fact that the darkness sucked that in before they got there.  (So it's honestly a good thing that Aerith went running off to Kairi's house.)  And so he just makes a new plan, which was actually the old plan, and goes back to Cid's.  

And then his life is overturned, too.  Not that his life in Radiant Garden was as happy as Aerith's, but it was his life.  And it's gone now.  And he's got all this self-doubt and anger and longing to have been able to fix it even though he knows he couldn't have.  But he changes his identity anyway.  Yep.  It's a thing.  

And the end.  The end just kills me.  Yes, KKBeckett, that's the scar.  He got it during the dirge of Radiant Garden.  (Gosh that's a fun word, dirge.)  And... Aerith's just like... "I know you couldn't save anyone, but it matters to me that you saved me and Yuffie."  And... well... feels.  

And that's really all I have to say on the matter.   

Have a video.  Particularly one that gives me Zerith feels.  If you want a deeper analysis on why, ask rar.