The Fight against the Darkness (21)

I am aware that that blog post title only applies to one quarter of the chapter that I just posted, but it's really the only fight that's going on in this chapter (as opposed to gearing up to the fight against Adel and Cid's fights against libraries and bookstores.  Neither of which make good blog titles.

Link to chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/21/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

Link to liveblog: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch21/chrono

And the truth behind why Rinoa had magic in chapter two comes out.  Adel tried to possess her.  See, when I wrote the chapter, I hadn't quite decided whether or not Rinoa was a Sorceress or not.  I think in my head, I assumed she was, because she needed to be for the chapter for the plot I already had in place to function.  It was only later that I decided that Rinoa wasn't a Sorceress yet because, I liked the transfer of powers idea and there really was no other way (that wasn't ridiculously complicated) that I could work it out.

But, in the game, Rinoa doesn't become a Sorceress until Sorceress Edea almost dies and transfers her powers.  In my canon, here's Rinoa exhibiting Sorceress powers before she'd even MET Edea, so I decided to go with the possession (or attempt of possession) route.  Because, it's so Kingdom Hearts.  It really is.  Okay, well, it's so Xehanort, but still.

The raw magic, as explained by the chapter, came from an attempt of possession by the Sorceress Adel, who was trying to possess another girl in order to free herself from prison.  Rinoa seemed like a good enough candidate because of her connection to one of Galbadia's generals.  However, the full possession attempt fails because of the safeguards around Adel's prison.

Rinoa was then able to use magic for about six months while the residual Sorceress power slowly drained from her system.

Cue everything between chapter 2 and chapter 21.

Rinoa decides that now is as good of a time than ever to mention that she had magic before, answering just about all of Quistis' questions as well as getting some of her own answered by Edea.  Meanwhile, Leon and Zell are just like "okay, whatever".

Moving onto Cid! (I wonder if this is going to be a long blog... probably not... because I really only am going to ramble on and on about the Sorceress part of this chapter)

See, I knew that Cid researched, I just was never quite sure when, so I decided that I would explore in a chapter snippet when he's researching.  So look, there he is researching gummi ships (because, face it, they're more stable than star shards).  This also marks when he decides to start collecting gummi blocks.

So back to the Sorceress plot... Everyone makes plans to fight Adel and while everyone's like "oh, it's a super good idea for Rinoa to do this", Leon's the only one who's like... "Who decided this is a good idea? This is not a good idea! Rinoa, you could die!" (Leon loves her, it's a thing, but he doesn't admit it yet and he won't for a while.)  And then Edea's like, "Well, you're going to need a Knight..." And because Leon's in love with Rinoa, he agrees to it without really thinking about what he's getting into.  And he justifies it by saying he's just trying to keep her from doing something stupid, when really, he loves her.

That's not spoilers, it happens in the game.  The him loving her part.  Not the Rinoa absorbing Adel's powers.  Though... I'm forgetting who absorbed those in the game, I think it might have been Ultimecia... the game was very much like "We have to kill Adel so Time Compression can start" and there wasn't a lot of "who's absorbing that power?"

It was while I was writing this part of the chapter that the lone post on the livetumbl came up.  See, I was plotting things that happen upon Adel's death and I was wondering if I was being a bit mean to Rinoa, but then I figured that a ton of crap happens to the game.  Of course, then I wondered if I was making her character useless, which led to a huge brainstorming session in which I could both be mean, and still have a good character.  Yep.  That happened.

And then, stuck at the end of the chapter, is Cloud's fall into darkness.  I knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to be like other's falls into the darkness.  His descent (because, it's kind of a descent, since he does eventually end up with a shadow (not spoilers, it comes up in Betwixt and Between)) isn't really his fault.  He just wanted to adventure, and then he was unfortunate enough to be on a World as it fell into darkness.  He will then be IN the Realm of Darkness for a while, and he won't be the same when he comes out.  I won't say too much, because I haven't even written all of that yet...

So, yeah, wow, long blog post...

Review Replies!
KKBeckett, I answered most of your review above in my rant lol.  But yes, that's what happened with Rinoa, and yes, he totally LIKES her.
And Cid's feels are so adorable! He's secretly a Zerith shipper.
As for Cloud, and that World being plunged into darkness, I suppose it's technically Xehanort's fault.  Though, I'm pretty sure this one was Ansem or Maleficent.

Have a video! (From Geek Week on YouTube not too long ago)