Rowan must make a very difficult decision. With they merge with their human half, or their Power half? Part two of the three-part finale of It Lives Within.
Tropes:
- Chekhov's Gun: Nearly all of the collectibles you've acquired over the course of the story will come into play during the Final Battle here (assuming their users are alive and still with the group). Amalia will stab Matthias with her spear to release his control over Rowan's body, Abel will use his shield to protect him and Rowan from a falling boulder, Jocelyn will use her whip to tie Matthias' hands up and stop him from creating an illusion, and Lincoln will use his time-turning watch to revive Rowan if they died (and it hasn't been used up yet). If Rowan is on the Judas Kiss route, Moss will show up and fight for Devon or Noah (regardless of whether Rowan recruited him or not).
- Death Glare: Rowan's ghost gives them one after Rowan, if they've committed enough terrible (or terrible enough) actions throughout the book, asks why they haven't moved on yet.Rowan's Ghost: Because I died, and you stole my body. It's hard to move on when some imposter is running around in your body. Especially when that imposter is a horrible psychopath like you.
- Final Battle: Unless you're on the Judas Kiss route, Rowan will battle Matthias for the fate of the world.
- The Hero Dies: If Rowan makes the wrong choice and Lincoln doesn't have the watch (or it's already been used up, or Lincoln is dead), they will die.Matthias: Thank you for your sacrifice, Rowan. It will never be forgotten.
- Heroic Sacrifice: If Rowan is on the Shadow route and they defeat Matthias, they will give themself back to the breach and surrender their human form, healing the Power in the process.
- Last-Second Ending Choice: Played with. The decision Rowan makes in this chapter will decide the ending, assuming they don't die at the end of the chapter. Where it differs is that if Rowan makes a decision that goes against their previous Blood/Shadow choices, they will lose a lot of Nerve. If most of their choices are Blood-related and they merge with their Power half, or if most of their choices are Shadow-related and they merge with their human half (meaning, whichever side they merge with has at least 5 less points than the other), their Nerve will drop to 0. Assuming you don't have Lincoln's watch, this leads to inevitable death for Rowan.
- List of Transgressions: Rowan's ghost will bring up all of the questionable (or downright horrible) things Rowan has done over the course of the story (if they've committed these actions). These actions are, in the order that Rowan's ghost will list them:
- They pursued both a father and sonnote , despite how messed up this is.
- They pursued multiple love interests (possibly without any regards for their feelings).
- They were so selfish that they chose not to fix Amalia's college records despite erasing them in the first place and knowing how important college is for Amalia.
- They were such a bad friend to Amalia that she left and never came back, even after her college records were fixed.
- They killed Connornote (to be fair, Rowan didn't mean to kill him, and they did it to save Devon/Noah's life), even though he gave Rowan a place to stay when they had nowhere else to go.
- They meddled in Devon's relationship to the point that they and their partner split up.
- They beat (or even killed) Jocelyn for her betrayal because they lost control of their anger.
- They refused to use Lincoln's watch to go back in time because they needed it for themselves if they lost against Matthias (which to be fair, would cause the deaths of countless more), thereby putting their own fear and selfishness over the lives of their friends.
- They either nearly joined or did join Matthias' side, despite Lincoln, his son telling Rowan repeatedly (read: in nearly every scene concerning Matthias) that he couldn't be trusted, but Rowan thought they knew better.
- No Points for Neutrality: Both played straight and inverted. Rowan has the option of not uniting with either their human half or their Power half and staying as they are. How well this works out depends on what route you're playing.
- On the normal mixed route, Rowan's Nerve score will drop by a quarter (25) if they unite with either of their halves (and they won't lose any Nerve if they stay as they are). However, if their Nerve score was high enough beforehand, they will still be "Coping" afterwards, allowing them to survive if they make the right choices (even without Lincoln's watch). As such, it's actually better to have roughly an equal number of Blood and Shadow points if Rowan has (close to) maximum Nerve, since they have the chance to survive regardless of the choice they make prior to the Final Battle with Matthias.
- On the Judas Kiss route, however, if Rowan doesn't unite with either their Power half or their human half, they will lose to Noah or Devon (whoever became Redfield) no matter what (even if their Nerve score is 100/100).
- Series Continuity Error: Due to a bug, if Rowan threw away Lincoln's watch in the last chapter, Rowan's ghost will react the same as if Rowan had simply chosen not to use it in this chapternote . It is unknown how Rowan's ghost would have reacted if the "Rowan destroys the watch" scenario had registered properly, though considering that said scenario causes Rowan's friends (save for Jocelyn, who approves of the act) to lose twice as many relationship points as the "Rowan doesn't use the watch" scenario, they probably wouldn't have been happy, to say the least.
- The Sociopath: Generally averted with Rowan, but their ghost calls them one (a "horrible psychopath" to be exact) if they've engaged in enough Video Game Cruelty Potential throughout the story.
