ALL MY FEELS (ch34)

I can't come up with a better chapter title.  But this is feelsy.  Like, I cried through this whole sequence in the game, and then I knew Zack would have nightmares, and Aerith would be healing him and...

I should slow down.

Link to the chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/34/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

Link to the tumbl: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch34/chrono

So, slowing down a little, I do a lot of POV switches in this chapter, unlike how I usually do it, mostly because these aren't separate scenes, they're all one scene that require different POVs.  I think originally I wanted it all in Aerith's, but I realized the impracticality of that, so I ended up having a bit with Cid and a bit with Zack as well.

cosplay by Narga-Lifestream

So first there's the repeat, with Aerith finding Zack and realizing that he's injured.  She's also piecing together possible situations of what happened, which I alluded to in the last blog, but here it is, actually happening.  And she just feels so awful and wants to ask all the questions, but she doesn't because Zack's crying and that's never a good thing.  Plus, she should heal Zack because he's not in great shape.  Everything else, at that point, can wait.

And she's mentally calculating just how much healing she's going to have to do and where Zack should sleep and well, shoot, she might as well just put him in her own bed and then worry about everything else later.  And Yuffie should just go sleep in Leon's bed because Yuffie should NOT be watching a healing.  And Aerith also wants to give Zack privacy.

And that poor hotel owner I think has learned not to ask questions by now.

Also, I'm listening to the Crisis Core soundtrack as I write this... because, apparently, I need more feels.

Moving on, though, we've got Cid's portion of the chapter, which does have some humor in it, grim humor, but humor all the same.  Cid is the one to draw the connection between Zack and Aerith to Laguna and Raine, because Raine was the healer before Aerith's mom, who was the healer before Aerith in Cid's eyes.  Cid's also the one landed with keeping Yuffie out of the room.  And while he doesn't want to argue with Yuffie, he knows Aerith can't right then, so he's going to have to.  And though it doesn't happen in-scene, he does somehow manage to get Yuffie out of the room.

And then we're back to Aerith with the healing.  She uses nearly her entire stock.  She'll be making a shopping trip in the morning after that one.  This is also where Zack tells her exactly what happened.  And while she's totally cool with him waiting and telling her when he's ready, Zack needs to tell her what happened now or his brain is going to explode with the information.  So he tells her and she feels awful on so many accounts.  And there's absolutely nothing she can do but be there for Zack.

This is a HUGE development for their characters.  Yes, Zerith is probably one of my most happy-go-lucky couples in the grand scheme of things.  However, Zack's loss of Angeal makes the two of them realize just who they are to each other.  Because, this is also where Zack's nightmares begin and Aerith is bound and determined to keep them away.

(Which of course, made me go all A:LGHSDG:KLHDSG over it because Riku tells the same thing to Sora in canon.  Ugh.)

And then there's Angeal's letter to Zack, which he delivered to Aerith some number of chapters ago (I wanna say it was about five).  Aerith never read the note herself, but she knew that this is what Angeal meant by she'd know when to give it to Zack.  And that's what she did.  And all Angeal wants is for Zack to live on, and be good to Aerith and let Aerith protect him as much as he wants to protect her.  Because Angeal is the biggest Zerith shipper ever, I swear.

Aerith's the biggest Squinoa shipper, it's cool.  (And I don't think they're official yet, heheh....)

So let's do some review responses:
archsage: Thank you very much! I'm glad I have Angeal's character down.  I know you were hoping that he would live... but I wanted to stay true to the story in this instance.  And a part of who Zack is is living through the death of Angeal.

KKBeckett:
No, it's not bad at all that you're laughing.  I'd say I put in the humor there on purpose, but I really didn't.  That's really just what Cid does.  He's bitter but slightly humorous.  But yes, that was muscle and I agree with your cringing.  But... *hands you cookie* hopefully it'll help with the feels.

And, to finish off today's feels-fest:

(I'd recommend going to YouTube and clicking on the higher quality video, honestly.)

Stay tuned for more feels tomorrow! (Heheh.)