Rosa was right to be wary from the moment she saw him. And as soon as he touched her arm, she should've planted a swift kick to his jaw and ran. But no, she stayed, and now he was attacking her.

"Why did I stay?!" she screamed at herself.

Rosa had never been so scared in her life. Her heart pounded in her throat, her breath couldn't seem to come fast enough, and she didn't know what to do. Oh, gods, she didn't know what to do. She thought she practiced. She thought she prepared. She didn't realize until now how pathetic her 'practicing' really was. A few shots at a false target? Really?

The Emperor let her go, and she ran behind a pillar, taking cover for a second while she knew she still had time. Her first battle. "I hope you know what you're doing," she warned herself, nocking an arrow to the string of her bow. Her stomach tightened, like there was a ball in there, knotting tighter and tighter. She felt light-headed, like she would be sick. Oh, gods. She would have to shoot him. She may very well have to kill someone, albeit a Chaos warrior, on this day.

"Oh, no, girl, you'll not escape me now!" she heard him yell.

So, now she was 'girl?' In a way, it justified her concern. Two seconds ago he would have ridden an antlion bareback for her if she asked him, but now that his prize was lost, she was nothing to him once more. "I called this one right," she thought to herself, momentarily proud in her judge of character despite not knowing a thing about this world or its warrior.

Okay, okay. She couldn't hide forever. Time to go. Rosa took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She side-stepped to step out from behind the pillar, but when she turned her head she came face-to-face with the Emperor. She let out an involuntary shriek and loosed her arrow straight for his face. He turned at the last second, and her arrow just grazed his cheek before clattering loudly to the floor.

The Emperor recoiled with a grunt of pain, hand flying to his cheek. When his hand came away, his mouth dropped open in shock at the sight of blood on the palms of his gauntlet. With a small growl he rushed at Rosa, using his magic to swing his staff for her head. She ducked beneath the blow, and he used the arc of the swing to bring it back over his head. He slammed the end down into the ground, throwing bombs in her direction. Inexperienced, she lurched clumsily to the side but the shock of the blasts threw her backwards.

Something natural clicked inside of her head while she was in the air. Something cold, and calculating. Rosa made a split-second decision to tip her head back and arch her back, throwing her feet over her head in a back flip. She landed on her feet, pausing to assess her situation. He was directly in front of her, blocking her exit. From what she could see, there were no other escape routes. He was a distance fighter, using magic to control his staff and throw bombs at her. He probably had other magics as well. Rosa quickly listed her advantages and disadvantages: she was ranged, mid-ranged, and close-ranged - completely versatile with her knife and her bow. She had white magic, so she could protect herself. She was at a disadvantage because she did not know what kinds of tricks he may have up his sleeve.

Another advantage: his ego. He was cocky, overconfident. Easily flustered.

Her sense of battle startled even her. Her mind moved at an impossible rate, fueled by adrenaline and instinct.

Until the memory came. Like a portal she was whisked away to another dimension as the flashback played out:

"Oh, you cherish this one, do you?" a thick, deep voice asked. His dark tones reverberated off the glass all over, making it seem louder than it was. The owner of the voice stepped closer to Rosa. "Then let me take her along as well . . . to hold in trust until we are graced with the chance to meet again."

He wrapped his massive arms around her, pinning her arms in place. She struggled and kicked, but he held her too tightly. He began to drag her from the room, and she screamed and fought. Cecil was defeated, lying on the cold floor of the glass room, and Kain was nowhere near her to help. With a sweep of his cape, he teleported, cackling as the world spun away from her eyes.

She was snapped out of the memory by a mild blow to her middle. It barely even hurt, but it did knock her off-balance. Staggering back, she focused once more on the Emperor, who waved his staff in the air and drew another crest of purple light. Five orbs of purple magic shot out of the sigil. Heading straight for her. Frozen.

"Dodge, dodge, DODGE!" she yelled at herself. She leaned to the side, but the others had fanned out. She stepped right into another's path. It hit her shoulder, so hard she almost spun completely around. Rosa could feel the adrenaline starting to kick in. Her sweaty hands shook on her bow, so violently she saw the string tremble. She felt like she couldn't quite get a solid grip on it, and her chest tightened around her heart, making her pant harder just to breathe. The sweat beading on her hairline was already gently dripping down her face and she just wanted to run.

Run. "Just run!" she yelled again to herself, spinning around. She didn't get two steps before something glinted on the ground in front of her, like a spark. Pink-ish spikes rose up around her, looming over her and blocking her in. She skid to a stop, and the orbs of the Dreary Cell charged up, throwing sparks all over the place. She cringed and shied away, thinking they were going to immediately detonate, and landed on her backside.

The Emperor chuckled. "I believe you've just seen a memory, dear Rosa," he said, snarling her name. "A vision of your husband, perhaps? You'd best be careful, lest he always get in the way like that!" Rosa scrambled to her feet.

The trap detonated around her.

An orb exploded near her side, knocking the breath out of her. She choked, then careened right into another, and the fire engulfed her right shoulder.

For a moment, all she felt was white-hot, excruciating pain. A weak, breathless scream ripped from her throat while her skin sizzled and burned under her pauldron, and before Rosa could even pull away on her own she was thrown back around, onto her knees. She reached for her shoulder - when did she drop her bow?-

BOOM. Somewhere around her another went off. She didn't know where anymore. She couldn't see. Her ears rung. She was dizzy, and disoriented, and she couldn't breathe. Rosa dropped to her stomach and curled up, trying to make herself as small as possible to protect herself.

"Protect!" she yelled to herself.

Rosa knew the spell. Without thinking she reached over her head for her staff, but the burn on her shoulder halted her. Instead, she used her hands. The warmth built in her chest. She tried to speak the word, but her breath still hadn't come back properly. She barely managed a quick Protect barrier before the rest of the mines went off. She held it until the smoke cleared, but when she lowered her hands, the Emperor was nowhere to be found. Where was he, oh gods. Where was he?! Shaking, shoulder throbbing. She was weak, inexperienced, and he knew it. He knew it, and he was going to attack her at any moment.

Rosa circled, feet frozen to the spot in tension, looking all around for the Emperor's next attack. She picked up her bow from where she dropped it, pulling the string to mid-draw. Her shoulder twinged, her skin ached hot, and she could even feel the heat from her red, blotchy skin rising off of the wound. She bit her lip and swallowed down the scream she wanted to let loose.

When she didn't feel the arrow rest on her hand, she looked and realized she never nocked another one. Growling in frustration, she grabbed one and slammed it in place.

His laugh resonated through the world. Laughing at her, laughing at her pain, laughing at her clumsiness. His voice bounced and echoed off the columns, making it seem like he was everywhere. The small of her back tingled and tightened. She felt like she was being stared at. Attack coming-

Rosa jumped, spinning around. Nothing. She pulled the string to full draw, faltering for an instant as her shoulder pulled and tore with it. The wet, warm blood that had dripped to her fingers made the string slippery, and she had to take an extra second to get a firm hand on the string for full draw.

"Does your husband have powers like this?" he asked, his voice circling around her. "Hmph! And here I thought we could make use of our strengths. But now I see that you're the one with no real strength at all. Just another pretty face, doomed to fade just as those before you."

"Where are you?!" she cried, circling again.

"Hahahaha!" His warm breath trickled down her neck and she dropped her bow to reach for her knife. She swiped at air behind her.

If she didn't figure something out, he was going to toy with her forever, then kill her. Her stomach hurt, her shoulder hurt. She couldn't run. She knew if she did he would be right there with her to push her back. She didn't know what kind of magic he was using. Maybe she could dispel it. She thought of the word, even imagining the painful warmth from her shoulder powering into the spell. It traveled to the center of her chest again, and Rosa clasped her hands over it, hoping to draw more power. Cursing her shaking hands, her shaking knees. And the blood on her fingers. Staining her clothes. She would have to cast this to the entire reaches of this place to find him.

When she felt it was powered up enough, she threw her hands out, imagining a purple wave shooting out from her to all sides. She pictured it pulsing to the edges of the world. Filling the space.

Rosa stood and waited for him to appear.

Waited.

Waited.

Right when she thought the spell didn't work, she heard a whoosh behind her. There! Rosa took the knife in her left hand and spun over her left shoulder, hurling her knife overhand towards the Emperor. He appeared right in its path, and it embedded to the hilt into his collarbone.

"Agh!" he yelled, and Rosa felt a wave of morbid relief wash over her. She landed a hit. The blow threw his shoulder back, and she rushed him once more. She picked up her bow as she went by and parried a swing from his staff. With a sweep she ripped it from his hands with the arm of her bow, throwing it to the side. Her second swing back collided with the Emperor's jaw, and she went for a third, but he grabbed the bow, halting it. Rosa reached behind her back, grabbed a gold plumed arrow and the string, and leaned back on her heels as far as she could go, pulling the string with her weight. She snapped the arrow into place and let go. It pierced his shoulder, and she let her momentum carry her through a back hand-spring. She then slid forward, ripping her knife from his shoulder to jam it into his exposed ribs.

Forcing him to a knee, she jumped and pushed off his leg to over to the wall. Using the wall as a floor, she ran along shooting arrow after arrow. Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Until five fresh shafts protruded from the Emperor's chest. She crouched, pouring all her muscle power into her legs for a final leap from the wall, and she drew one last arrow, landed before the Emperor. Rosa channeled Holy magic from her body straight through to the arrow, so powerful that the tip glowed white from it. The heat burned her fingers but she held it, afraid that if she even twitched, it would slip. A snarl of power and rage escaped her lips as she put the tip to his throat. He lifted his chin and stared up the shaft at her, wide-eyed and panting.

"Shoot him, Rosa! Shoot him!" she screamed to herself. "He tried to kill y-"

No. No, no. Rosa's eyes were open, but for a minute there, she wasn't sure she was seeing anything. Like waking up, time seemed to slow down, and things started to pour into her senses from all over. She blinked once. Twice. Looked around and remembered the pillars, the magenta ribbons around her, remembered where she was. The pain of her shoulder returned and she winced, skin aching as her fingers clenched the string of her bow too tightly. She looked down and saw the Emperor. A real person. A warrior of Chaos, but a person, staring at her. Fear in his eyes. Fear of her. Breath laboring, weaponless, bloodied from the knife in his side, hands frozen on their way to clutch at it.

Rosa lowered the tip away from his neck and cast her bow away, but kept one hand braced against his shoulder in case he tried anything. She never took her eyes from his, willing him to stay in place - no, begging him with her eyes to stay there. She was sure hers looked as wide and fearful as his. Even as she leaned down and touched the hilt of her knife. He squirmed, pursing his lips together and muffling his noise of pain.

"Mmf!" She tugged her knife from his side and he gasped, throwing a hand to his side.

Everything in Rosa was telling her to run, now impossible to ignore. She slowly backed away from the Emperor before finally turning around and running from the battleground when she felt it was safe to.


Rosa's first battle! It was difficult for me to find the balance between conscious and unconscious mental/physical inexperience and conscious and unconscious mental/physical experience. Let me know how I did!