The Castle Oblivion arc was a rough one in a couple of ways. Namine's head is always a fun place to be is one of them. The fact that Castle Oblivion is just an awful place is another. Granted, my CO has changed a lot since its original in-game incarnation, things are still rough there. Also, during the stuff at CO, I've also got the Sephiroth battle going on alongside of that. So, fun times.
Of course, I didn't even start us in CO during this sequence. I have us in Port Royal with the Wayfinder Trio. I liked discussing that perhaps Port Royal had forgotten about its magic. Because Pirates of the Caribbean is a much more realistic movie than the other included Disney movies. While yes, there are curses and some magic, it's not anywhere near the level that we see in say Cinderella, Aladdin, or Frozen. So, the "dried up magic/people forgetting about it" was an interesting thing to kind of allude to. And Aqua would think about those sorts of things, being so much of a heavy magic user.
But, of course, the tranquil ponderings can't last forever. Let me just dump a Remnant on them. And then they can fight for a bit, and then Kuin, whose glider is taking her all over the place, can show up and she can help them for a bit. Perhaps I made you think for a second that he was going to get Ven. Probably not. I've made it pretty clear that Ven's about as untouchable as Kairi. But that doesn't mean the Remnant still can't hurt Ven.
Then we've got Sephiroth showing up. Well, not quite at the beginning of the chapter, but it's alluded to. Cid can tell. Barret's POV is fun to be in though. Because he's never run into Sephiroth before, so he has no idea what's coming. Because, when Cid announces it, he really has no idea what to expect. And whatever he does expect, is not what he gets.
Oh, for the record, that teleportation block? That was Cloud doing things when I wasn't looking again. That's why Leon had no idea what it was but Rinoa did.
Let the battle with Sephiroth begin. Of course Cloud and Zack would be in the middle of it all. Tifa won't stay back forever. And neither will Leon. He just gets too itchy about not fighting. Man though, that battle was hard writing, trying to keep track of everyone. Because literally, everyone was there. Except Denzel, Marlene, and Merlin.
And then I've got Namine's feelings about something bad going to happen. The reason why she's not seeing any images, for the record, is because she couldn't see an image of Xehanort getting into her head. That's why her mind's drawing a blank. Fun times. I think it's completely legit, it also meant that none of you knew that he was going to go for her. Or maybe you did. I really just loved Namine's thoughts about talking to Leon about what he experienced inside of his head. Because, honestly, the two of them would have had the most similar experiences. (Them and Marluxia.) Riku and Terra had different experiences because it wasn't a Remnant who originally went after them. Terra had full-on Master Xehanort and Riku dealt with Ansem. Also, Namine banishing Xehanort from her heart with a combination of memory prowess and light=beautiful. I love Namine.
Ah, yes, Cloud regaining light attacks. Okay, more just like his limits again. I think that first one he used was Braver. And he's all like "Aerith, was that you?" and she's just like *shakes head* Because she knows that Cloud is regaining his power again and growing strong. Because, as far as my canon goes, Cloud had the ability to do light attacks and stuff. He just slowly lost them as Sephiroth drained on him. Of course, then the battle gets hairier as Sephiroth literally starts causing despair and Aerith is out of Megalixirs so she has a harder time combating darkness. (Which causes her to swear. Yup.) And then Zackgets skewered. And Aerith is having none of that. Absolutely none. I love the image of her jabbing her staff at Sephiroth. It's beautiful. So is Cloud beating Sephiroth into nothingness.
Then back to Castle Oblivion. Where everyone else realizes that Namine's in trouble and they end up relying on Riku's sense of smell to find him. I love poking at Riku's sense of smell and Xehanort's stench. Riku making up swears that Axel doesn't recognize is also a beautiful thing. Because while I hardly ever use actual swear words in my KH fics to keep ratings down, I can leave that up to your imagination. Riku and Axel are my biggest swearers. Namine fighting the Remnant in that form is also gorgeous.
Side note... while I initially wrote that chapter before Monty Oum's passing, it is certainly my tribute to him. I loved the concept of Namine with all those Keyblades and I loved Dead Fantasy and I'm sad to see that the story will not continue. RIP Monty Oum.
Now for some timey-whimey stuff. The Remnant in Port Royal could very well be the same Remnant that showed up in Castle Oblivion. Could be. It could also not be, depending on how many Remnants you believe are walking around at the same time. Kuin, of course, went straight from Port Royal to Castle Oblivion, where she gets momentarily stopped by Axel (really got attached to that lol) and then can't fight the Remnant until Namine gives the go-ahead.
Then we get to do clean-up in Hollow Bastion. Aerith and her massive need to heal everyone. Cloud of course, has got it the worst, having just killed his own shadow. Though, Zack is also not in too great of shape. Aerith expelling darkness with Rinoa, Tifa, and Yuffie's help was definitely a thing that was fun to write. Just, the concept of what rar and I figured darkness can and cannot do and it's reactions to different healing magic. Yup. And then it's raining, because it's always raining. But then Cloud wakes up and he's feeling lighter and happier, which is good. Very, very good.
Then we've got a transitioning chapter out of Castle Oblivion. This was my chapter 100. My fluff chapter. My chapter of: everything's fine at Castle Oblivion, we're all gonna go back to the islands now. Namine has a chance to recoup from what she just went through, everyone else gets a chance to splash around at the beach, which was just fun and cute to write. Writing SoRiKai derping around in the water because they're all such Island brats was also great. *nods*
Then closing off with more of the Wayfinder Trio. This time, instead of running into a Remnant though, they're on a beach and they run into Xigbar. Well, not before they have some fun playing with the beach ball. I had a lot of fun writing Xigbar's dialogue though, because he really just wants to live, but he's slowly coming to the realization that a world with him in it also means a world with Xehanort. And he's got too much pride to ask the Keyblade Wielders if they can destroy just a part of his heart. (There's also a good portion of him that thinks his heart is too far gone to Xehanort for that to even be an option.) Sure, he'll taunt them about it, but he'll do it while he's shooting at them, not during a pleasant conversation.
I remember having a hard time deciding how to wrap this scene up, so I wrote in the two boys with the beach ball (and then also the boomerang) interrupting and Xigbar being like "Nope, not gonna fight a couple of actual kids" and then he leaves. The kids, btw, are like unofficially my universe's Joseph and Toby.
That's all for now.
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