As soon as Cosmos ended their meeting, Cecil watched Rosa spin on her heels and run to the edge of Sanctuary.
"Where's she going?" Onion Knight asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's a little rude, isn't it?"
"She's probably overwhelmed. Give her some time," Kain said, staring after her as well.
"Wait, did anyone warn her about the manikins?" Firion asked, glancing wide-eyed at Cecil.
"No," he said. She needed to know or she could get hurt. He took off after her, calling her name. "Rosa! Rosa, wait! There's something-" She already pushed through the barrier.
She paused at the edge of Sanctuary's platform and stared, probably surveying the world below. Cecil pushed harder, sprinting to catch her before she left. By the time he reached the barrier and pushed through, she had already touched the yellow Teleport Stone and was gone. He slowed down and jogged to the platform's edge, staring over the side until he saw her appear in a flash of gold light at the very start of the Cornelia Plains. She looked around, left and right, before deciding on a direction - left, towards the Melmond Fens. Then she took off.
"You're not going after her?" Kain asked behind him. Cecil didn't even realize he'd been followed.
"I'm not sure. Clearly she has some reservations about us, and I don't want to make her uncomfortable. But she could get hurt."
"She's strong. Smart. And skilled," Kain said. "She should be fine on her own."
" . . . Sure," Cecil said. "I believe in her."
Rosa ran to the outskirts of Sanctuary, praying the protective barrier she encountered on the way in would let her through. She placed her hands flat against it and gently pushed, and luckily it unfolded around her. She stepped outside the confines and a burst of chilled air cut through her. She shivered, hugging her arms over her chest, and imagined Sanctuary was like a perfect little bubble. So removed from everything, so protected and cocooned, it was easy to forget that an entire world existed around it. The crystal platform that Sanctuary's dome rested on extended out for fifty or so feet in any direction and was sprinkled with sharp crystal formations, and Rosa weaved in between them and ran to the edge of the platform to peer over it. She received a perfect bird's eye view of the tiny, but admittedly beautiful, world.
It looked to be split into two horizontal halves. An ocean spread from left to right and separated two landmasses across the middle, and an extremely narrow path connected them together on the right hand side. Rosa traced the path with her eyes as it weaved back and forth over the water until the curve of the land carried the path beyond what she could see. The differences between the two landmasses were striking. Order's Sanctuary was white and clean, sitting directly in the middle of the southern landmass, and the world around the pillar was flat and calm. Rosa spotted gently rolling plains stretching to her left, peppered by the occasional mountain peak or plateau that looked mild and unthreatening. The beginnings of soft, snowy mountain caps lay on her right, just outside of her vantage point, and the sky above was the constant cloudy grey that she assumed was the norm. Sanctuary's whole side of the map possessed a softness that gave it a remote, undisturbed and peaceful look. In contrast, the sky over the northern landmass looked angry and red, so bright it looked almost apocalyptic. Occasionally a ball of flame or two rained down from the sky, and the clouds above were black and rolling violently. All she could see were harsh lines, jagged rocks, dangerously steep mountains, and black, choking smoke that barreled into the air from a volcano to the left. It constantly spit lava and rock into the air, and the roaring fire made it seem loud and hostile.
"Rosa, wait!" she heard behind her. Cecil. She didn't want to talk.
She touched the Teleport Stone, and its light grew brighter and brighter, blinding her. She shielded her face and turned away while a feeling of weightlessness lifted her feet off the ground. She flailed, feeling like she was going to fall, and then the ground underneath her solidified once again. When she opened her eyes, she was standing at the bottom of Sanctuary's pillar, where she was just looking a moment ago.
She had two choices - left through the plains, or right to the snowcapped mountain ranges. Rosa considered both for a moment, then on a whim decided to go left. She only made it a few steps before hesitation stopped her. Perhaps running like she was, without anyone with her, was a poor decision. She did not know the world except for where she was standing. She didn't know what the specifics of the terrain were, what kinds of enemies may be prowling about, or what kinds of tactics she needed to defeat them. She wondered if she truly knew what to do if she encountered a warrior of Chaos. Or worse, Chaos himself. Cosmos rarely left the throne, so she was told, but in the event that Chaos prowled around the world seeking to destroy her warriors, could she truly assume to engage in a battle?
"I should go back," she thought, and she even stepped in front of the stone to do so, but she had her bow. She had her bow, she had her staff, and she had her knife. And based on her encounter with Cecil earlier, she remembered how to use them. Or at least she remembered how to use the bow. The natural skill she knew she had gave her confidence that she could hold her own. She summoned the bow, feeling the weight of the wood in her hands and the draw weight, and she checked to be sure her quiver of arrows was full. She drew the string a few times and mimicked some practice shots before she decided she'd be fine.
Directly in front of her, Rosa saw a cluster of shattered, deteriorated, and broken boulders that she had missed when she first woke up. Rosa inspected them closer, and realized they weren't boulders at all. They were rectangular bricks, with some built up in a cylindrical shape, and some square. They had small holes in them that looked like arrow slits, as well as other battlements. It looked like the remnants of an old castle, and it provided the world with a bit of lived-in ambiance that it had lacked when she woke up before. Lived in, but abandoned. If any people had ever lived in the world, surely they had been driven out by the destruction created by a war of the gods. She found herself idly wondering what the history of the castle had been, but it made her feel strange about being in a foreign world and fighting in a foreign war in a way she couldn't quite source or pin down. She continued along the path she chose, trailing to the left of her starting point. The utter blandness of the terrain amplified the abandoned sense and made the world feel as dead as it looked. It gave her the impression of apathetic cruelty. She had called it beautiful when she could see it from above, but she didn't feel that way anymore. It was empty and tense, waiting for destruction at any moment. Regardless, she pressed forward, pushing through brush, fighting through fine sand, and crunching over rocks and dirt.
At one point she came to another circle of castle remnants and a yellow crystal. For the sake of exploration, she kept going, circling around the back of a line of rocks to cross under an archway. On the other side was a circular area completely surrounded by rocks. The dense brush grass was arranged in a circle around a standing archway in the middle, and in the archway itself was a glowing blue sigil. Unsure of what else to do, Rosa held her hand out to it, hoping some sort of magic would let her through. When nothing happened, Rosa simply tried to walk through it. She heard a whoosh, felt the rush of air, and once again the ground spiraled away from her. The sensations made her a bit lightheaded, but it only lasted for a second. There was a flash and she was back on the ground, on a dirt path of sorts that looked to be shaped in a cross.
It was completely abandoned, just like the world around it. There were shards of crystal of all different colors that littered the trail at certain points, but otherwise it was empty. Rosa turned around and looked behind her, spotting a black statue sitting at the very top of the cross. The center looked like a horned face, circled in by a swirl. Rosa figured she had to touch that, and that would transport her to wherever she needed to go since she couldn't see any other way to exit. All around her was grey swirling - the clouds above Sanctuary. She must be extremely high up. She didn't want to step off the path and fall, if that was even possible.
Leaving was a poor choice. Back at Sanctuary she had sparring partners, opportunities for practice, people to answer questions and quell her concerns. Leaving was rash - and from what she wanted to assume she wasn't a rash person. She liked thinking she was level-headed, but could she even say that when not two hours ago she didn't know her own name? She didn't know her name, she didn't know her own temperament, she didn't know a thing. The person who did know was Cecil, and she didn't want to talk to him. A brief flare of rage festered in her heart, at herself and her memory and her situation, but she quickly tried to keep it contained. Rage would do her no good. She needed to take a few minutes, maybe even a few hours, and sit and reflect. Lay down everything she learned and everything she knew, and line up some questions she could ask her comrades or Cosmos when she got back.
When she touched the black symbol, she appeared in another unknown realm. There were columns so close together she nearly felt claustrophobic, and the sky of this remnant of world held a purple hue. In the center of the grey transparent floor was a bright swirl of blues and lavenders and whites. Magenta chords of light arched overhead and coiled between the pillars. Rosa took in her surroundings, then sat with her back against a column and stared into the empty sky. She felt like she could think in that place.
"Alright. Time to assess things," she thought to herself. "I know my name. My name is Rosa. Rosa Joanna Farrell. I am an archer, and a White Mage." What else did she know about herself? "I hail from a world called the Overworld, and from a town called Baron." Cecil told her that, when she first met him. "Cecil Harvey and Kain Highwind hail from Baron as well. We grew up together." She had no memories of it, but she felt like she could trust Cecil based on his reaction when he first saw her, and based on the fact that he knew a lot about her. "At one point, Kain Highwind betrayed me." That's what she saw in that memory. Why else would she have been tied up? And why would Kain smile at her like that, with that empty grin?
Regardless of what happened then, she was there now. "I am in this world because I was called by Cosmos, the goddess of Harmony. I am here to fight for her against the god of Discord, Chaos, and his warriors. I am fighting alongside sixteen allies. The Warrior of Light is the leader, then there is Firion, Tifa, Laguna, Vaan, the Onion Knight, Squall, Lightning, Yuna and Tidus, Zidane, Cloud, Bartz, and Terra, as well as Kain and Cecil. Cosmos told me that Chaos summoned one person from each of our worlds for us to fight specifically. She told me my nemesis's name is Golbez. He wears black armor, and I believe I saw him in my memory." Also, Cosmos told her that her memory would return with time. Cecil and Kain had to have been there and fought there for a long time since they remembered so much. Rosa couldn't tell if she wanted to be there long enough to remember as much as they did, or if she wanted to end the war as quickly as possible and just go home.
"My plan is to find Golbez. Cosmos said that he is friendly, and a spy for Cosmos. He will probably help me. In the meantime, I will engage and fight any other Chaos warrior that I encounter, so that I can achieve my goal and end this conflict." Laying it all out in such a linear and clear-cut fashion brought her comfort. It made her feel more grounded, as less frantic, and it made her breathing come easier and her nerves detangle. She felt more organized, and that she had some semblance of a plan.
Rosa stood to head back to Sanctuary, but she heard a noise like a whoosh from behind her pillar, in front of the exit. Angry, stomping footfalls paced back and forth, and the person they belonged to growled through their teeth. Whoever they were, they were clearly upset. Rosa leaned around the pillar to get a better look at them, and she caught a quick glimpse of a purple cape. The man slammed his weapon on the ground and drug it behind him with a shrieking scrape, leaving sparks behind it. He turned around in his pacing, but her angle was just off. She still couldn't see his face.
He rolled his hand around in the air, and a purple pulsing light appeared in his hand. Rosa didn't know what it was, but she didn't have time to figure it out. He spun and threw the light at one of the standing pillars. It exploded, and bits of rock blew out from every direction. Rosa cried out and retreated behind her pillar again, watching bits of stone ricochet from around her cover. When it was quiet, she leaned over again and peered at the man, holding her breath.
He was hunched over, with a hand to his ear. The explosion must have harmed him as well. He was thrashing, spinning around and breathing heavily. If she moved just a bit closer, she would see his face so she kept watch, leaning farther and farther. With obnoxious clacks, the arrows in her quiver shifted, hitting against one another and betraying her position. Rosa dashed back behind the pillar as all motion stopped.
"Who's there? Is it Exdeath? Sephiroth?" The man's purring, haughty tone hissed the second name, sounding more like a snake than a man. "Where are you, you pathetic coward? So Chaos sent you to destroy me already, did he?" The message was clearly not intended for her. She didn't answer, didn't even breathe in the silence. "You should know that I am still in an extremely foul mood! Show yourself, and face my power!" A chill spread down her spine as she realized the voice was getting closer. He was walking through the world, peering between the pillars. He was blocking her exit. She would have to face him. "Whoever dare challenges me, the Emperor Mateus of Palamecia-"
There was no way out. Rosa's heart leapt into her throat as called her bow, and stepped out from behind the column.
A/N: Aaand, we're about to heat things up! :) Leave a comment if you have time. The Emperor was just released a little bit ago for the Dissidia update, and he looks BEAUTIFUL! It made me super excited to continue rewriting this fic!