It wasn't that the Emperor welcomed other Chaos warriors into Pandaemonium, but he didn't mind if the occasional warrior passed through to plan, to pass information, or even just to chat if the mood struck him. Then again, after thinking harder into it, he supposed that depended on both the warrior, and the time. At that moment he still loathed the thought of interacting with any of Chaos's other warriors. They were no doubt laughing at him still over Chaos's attack.

"Have you ever though about Exdeath's helmet? I mean really thought about it."

"Kefka," the Emperor sighed, "I granted you permission to stay in my presence. But if you do not close that cavernous hole you call a mouth, I will step down from this throne and close it myself."

Of all the warriors that could have wandered into Pandaemonium, of course they had to be Kefka. "Luck does not favor me this cycle," he thought to himself. First Chaos, then Rosa, and now the ridiculous clown to annoy him.

Kefka snorted, crossing his arms tight over his chest like a defiant child. "Hrmp! Why? Are you brooding?" he leered, saying the word in a low register that cracked his voice.

"Planning."

"As if there's a difference with you," he grumbled.

Every word frayed the Emperor's nerves. He could feel them unraveling one by one. His fists clenched so hard his nails cut into his palms. "Do you want to be a part of this, or not?"

"I. don't. know," Kefka enunciated slowly, pointing each word in the air. "You. haven't. told. me. what. we're. doing."

"I'm trying to formulate the plan, but you find it convenient to distract me!"

Kefka turned away, sticking his hooked nose in the air. "Well maybe if you concentrated better, I wouldn't bother you." He continued to grumble under his breath, and the Emperor figured that was the best he was going to get.

"From the beginning, then," he thought, taking a deep breath. "Ultimecia, Exdeath, and Kefka hunt Rosa down and destroy her. Kefka and Exdeath will agree on principle of Chaos warriors destroying a Cosmos warrior, but Ultimecia is unlikely to enter my employ without some kind of incentive. I need to offer her a reward for her services to ensure she agrees. What could I offer that would maintain her interest?"

He had small prizes in his possession. Physical trinkets and rarities that were of incredible value to the Moogles for trade. He could start with those. A Tome, or perhaps a relic of the Eidolons. He certainly had a few relics in his collection he was willing to part with, to ensure Ultimecia's preoccupation with Rosa and not with him. If she was unimpressed, he supposed he could offer a larger prize, from his larger scheme. His long-term scheme, to lord over the gods and over the cycle itself. Perhaps his ultimate promise could be a piece of Time Compression in the world he controlled after Chaos's destruction.

"But Exdeath! Do you think he even has a face under there?"

He could start with a swatch-

"I betcha five Gil he doesn't."

-of Shiva's veil-

"How much do you want to bet? Do you have a guess?"

"Kefka."

"Hmmmm?" he sang, raising the pitch to a level that rang in the Emperor's ears. He winced against it and rubbed at the headache that sparked in his temples. Kefka was only looking for a reaction. He was looking for the Emperor to lose his sanity, to stoop down to his level. He refused to oblige.

"Kefka," he said again, "I know that you've set this special time aside to utterly ruin my entire day, but if you could perhaps . . . refrain for five minutes, then maybe I won't rip your mouth from your face."

"But Emperorrrr," he purred, "you know I'm impatient." Like the Emperor was trying to tease him. He bristled, clamping a hand to his side to steady the wound as he shifted his weight in the throne.

" . . . Do you want me to tell you . . . faster?" The improper sentence rolled awkwardly off his tongue but Kefka understood him anyway, perking up like a puppy offered a treat. He nodded enthusiastically. "I need Ultimecia and Exdeath here as well. Go and fetch them, and the moment all three of you are here, I will indulge you."

"Yes! Aye-aye, cap-i-tan!" he said, saluting the Emperor before hopping up into the air and disappearing. The Emperor rubbed a gloved hand down his face.

"What is it that you see in Rosa?" Warrior asked Cosmos.

She looked up at him from her seated position on the throne. "Warrior, can you not feel her power? She is incredibly strong, physically and magically."

Warrior frowned, looking away from Cosmos to stare at Rosa, chatting softly with Firion. "Hm. I can, but she is yet clumsy and inexperienced."

"So were you, until you gained your bearings in this world," Cosmos reminded him. Her eyes glazed slightly and she smiled fondly at what Warrior could only guess was the memory of him awakening in this world next to her throne. When she spoke again her tone was quiet and distant. "When Rosa regains a bit of her memory, she will be a force to reckon with. Cecil has said that during their travels on their home world, she was indispensable to him and to their other allies."

Warrior paused, then said, "I assume you believe her to be pivotal in breaking the cycle. Otherwise, the strength and power you valued will be lost here." Cosmos blinked, lowering her eyes to the water in front of her, and Warrior received his response. "You did not think that far ahead," he said to her, not as a question.

"I did consider it, but I need her magic anyway, broken cycle or no. I need someone - a powerful White Mage - to keep our ranks healed and fighting within and between cycles. If we fall less, and are given multiple opportunities within a cycle to attack, we can switch to the offensive, and I can begin to amass power again. She has to stay alive here."

So Cosmos acknowledged what he'd been noticing for the first four cycles: she was only defending, while Chaos's warriors attacked again and again. If Chaos's warriors continued with their normal ferocity, Rosa would be destroyed long before she ever had the chance to do the job Cosmos called her to do.

"She should know these things, should she not?" Warrior asked. "Why have you not told her of her important role in these cycles?"

"I'd rather her grow comfortable first before I press knowledge of the many lost cycles upon her. And the pressure," she added, "of being the only White Mage. She is essentially charged with keeping all of her companions alive. Any cyclic failure after that would be a morale blow to the ranks, and any Purifications after that would be a personal blow to Rosa." Warrior looked down at Cosmos, and he saw immense sadness in her eyes, and a heaviness that seemed to deaden his own limbs. "Tell all of my warriors to keep it a secret. I don't want anyone telling Rosa or Bartz about the nature of the cycle just yet. I will be the one to tell them, when the time is right."

"So you are depending upon blind luck?" he asked. "For all our strategy, you gamble on one warrior, hoping she is enough to turn the tides?" Cosmos's eyebrows furrowed and she frowned, looking down into her lap. "Forgive me," he said quickly, afraid that he had offended her. "I trust your judgment. If you believe that Rosa is the key, then I shall put my faith in her as well. Within reason," he added, and she seemed to accept that, looking out over Sanctuary's water at the group assembled.

Warrior only had one duty, to Cosmos. Nothing more. No matter how Cosmos moved around him, he would trust her and defend her, Rosa or no.

Zidane was alive. Zidane was alive, and what she saw was a manikin - a copy.

Rosa wanted desperately to believe it. It hurt her heart to think that Zidane, or any warrior in Cosmos's ranks, was dead, but the hope refused to take root in her heart and calm her panic. The image of the dead crystal manikin was so vivid in her mind, and her worry was so potent, that until the real Zidane walked through Sanctuary's barrier she wouldn't be able to believe he was alive and well. The shreds of her doubt were too strong to ignore.

Rosa crossed Sanctuary and strolled up to Firion. "Hello," she greeted him. He opened his mouth to reply but Rosa didn't give him the chance. "How long has Zidane been patrolling? When will he be back?" She didn't have the patience to idly chat.

"He left, ummm . . . " Firion trailed off. "Hey, Laguna, when did Zidane leave?"

The warrior with the blue jacket and brown pants turned towards them. "I don't know, like, a half hour ago? Probably." He shrugged. "Sorry, I wasn't watching when he left."

"No, it's fine," Rosa said. "The manikin encounter scared me. I'm anxious to know he's alright," she told them honestly. She had no reason to hide it. If they had any sort of similar encounter when they arrived here, they would understand.

Firion nodded quickly. "Understandable. He'll be back soon. It takes anywhere between twenty and forty minutes to patrol the Isles depending on whether or not you encounter any trouble. Considering how many of us he took with him, even if he encounters trouble he'll be fine."

"Yeah," Laguna agreed. "Cosmos said he was okay, right?"

"She did," Rosa told him, "but I'd still like to see him." Verbal reassurance, from Cosmos and whoever else, wouldn't equate to seeing Zidane. "How often do we patrol?"

"There really isn't a 'day' or 'night' time here in these worlds," Firion explained. "So we mark time by Sanctuary's shadow on the world below us. We send a patrol out every quarter-shadow, whether or not the first patrol returned. We don't send out more than two groups before one of them returns. Warrior came up with that system. Though, once you've been here a while you tend to develop the 'feeling' of time in this place. I haven't checked in a while, but I can already tell we'll send out another group in ten minutes."

"You must have been here a long time," Rosa observed.

"Me, I've been here . . . " he trailed off. His eyes circled around the air above her, clearly thinking it through. "Hmm . . . Not sure exactly," he finally settled on.

Rosa huffed out a breath. "Can anyone give me a definitive answer? Who's been here the longest?" she asked Firion.

"That, I don't know either. Probably Warrior, if I had to guess. He was here even before I first arrived, and I was one of the first. Maybe you should ask Cosmos."

Rosa shook her head. "Cosmos doesn't seem too willing to answer questions right now. She sent me to speak to the rest of you." It upset Rosa, but she kept it to herself. She was too new to have any true complaints about the goddess, and doing so would only seem undermining and contemptuous.

"Maybe she thinks we'll be able to answer more specific questions," Firion suggested. "She has never directly fought in the war that I can remember, even before she grew weaker, so it makes sense we would know more about the fighting." Rosa could follow the logic, but it still made her angry. Cosmos would know the specifics for herself if she had ever fought the battles. Instead she let others fight and die for her.

"Maybe," Rosa mumbled, hoping to end the conversation. She stayed close to Firion but turned away from him, and stared at the other warriors lounging around. Sanctuary was rather boring, she decided. Not much to do but sit around, or spar. She figured that patrols would be her saving grace for a while, since they were excuses to venture out and simply explore. She would bring companions with her next time, so she wouldn't have a repeat encounter with the Emperor or someone like him. With nothing else to do, and unwilling to speak to anyone else until Zidane arrived, Rosa decided to pass the time by looking at all the warriors and seeing how many names she remembered.

"Warrior," she thought, when her eyes roved over him. The horns on his helmet were incredibly identifying, along with his blue armor, and his physical imposition. He never seemed to venture very far from Cosmos unless she asked him. He was beside then, softly holding a conversation with her.

Of course she knew Firion. He favored roses as part of his dream. His bandana and odd hairstyle underneath made him incredibly memorable, not including the fact that he was a one-man armory. Laguna, she had forgotten, but luckily Firion had said his name. She'd have to find some identifying feature to memorize about him to commit his name to memory. He had a necklace on that looked like two metal bars. They clinked together when he moved suddenly. Perhaps she could use that.

Tifa was easy to remember from her introductions. Rosa liked her upon meeting her. She had long, beautiful black hair tied loosely at the bottom, and a pleasantly smiling face with kind eyes. Rosa found her behind Cosmos' throne, talking animatedly to the man with striking blue eyes and alarmingly blond hair. She couldn't immediately recall his name.

Tifa was trying to corral another woman into the conversation, too. The one with curly blond hair who Rosa thought looked ready to burst into tears at any given moment. Terra. The women were easy to remember, since there were so few of them. Yuna was the summoner, with one blue eye and one green eye. Tidus had the kind of personality that demanded to be remembered, so Rosa easily recalled his name and face. That, and he had one pant leg that was longer than the other, and Rosa found that odd. One of the last warriors, off all by herself towards the edge of Sanctuary, was the pink-haired woman named Lightning.

"Ah! Cloud!" Rosa thought suddenly. "The spike-haired man's name is Cloud." There was a woman named Lightning, and a man named Cloud. Rosa spun around slowly. The only others that were left was Kain, not even in Sanctuary, and-

"Hi, Cecil," Firion said.

Rosa turned, and there he was. In his white and purple Paladin armor that seemed to glow with Sanctuary's light. Back just as straight and chin just as elevated as when he officially introduced himself to her.

"Firion," he said, nodding to him. "Rosa." He offered her his open hand, pressing a swift kiss to her knuckles when she obliged. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I was hoping to have a moment alone with Lady Rosa. Do you mind, Firion?"

"Oh! No, not at all! I'll leave you two alone. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, Rosa," he said, backing away from the two of them. Rosa dreaded a conversation alone with him, more than sure he was going to try and unintentionally pressure her into some sort of familiarity that simply wasn't there.

"You know," Rosa blurted out before he could speak. She wanted to get the first firm word in. "I find your gravitation towards me somewhat . . . " She couldn't find the word. Uncomfortable wasn't exactly right, but generally bold, assuming, brazen, and invasive were all contenders. "You know so much about me, and I know so little about you. It's alarming to hear about myself from someone else."

He glued his eyes to the ground. "I . . . I know. I'm sorry. It is not my intention to make you uncomfortable."

"Well, you are," she wanted to say, but he already looked so demoralized. Her heart bled, and she suddenly pitied him. Her lack of memory of him clearly caused him pain, and something in the back of her mind upset her over it. She knew he wasn't doing it intentionally. "I suppose it could be worse," she thought to herself, already trying to rationalize it. At least Cecil was the one hovering, and not Kain. "Better you than Kain, I suppose."

He looked up sharply. "What do you mean?" he asked, blinking his surprise and confusion at her.

"Before I left earlier, I had a memory return to me, remember? Kain was in it. I was bound, and I was lying on a metal floor. Golbez stood before me, and Kain bent down over me and smiled at me. But it was cruel," she said quickly. "It was the most empty and soulless smile I've ever seen. It scared me. Did Kain ever work with Golbez? Or betray us?"

"Yes, but not of his own volition. I don't really . . . think it's for me to say," Cecil said carefully. His eyes flicked around, clearly thinking through his point and choosing his words carefully. "He went through many hardships, so if you'd like to know, I would ask him. I'd rather him tell you himself than me say something poorly and potentially damage his merit and credibility. Kain is a man of honor, though, and I wouldn't hesitate to trust him with my life."

"But did he kidnap me?" Rosa wasn't in the mood to mince words. Not when something as significant to her as this occurred sometime in her life in Baron. Not when Kain was pretending that nothing was wrong. If Kain was as malicious as she thought, he was taking advantage of the fact that she forgot.

"It was Golbez!" Cecil protested. "Rosa, I understand your wariness, but I promise you, whatever you think happened is not the whole story. He is self-conscious and very embarrassed of what happened as it is. I don't want anyone blaming him more than he already blames himself. It would make him feel worse. He is very dear to me, and I will not allow anyone to slander him."

Rosa was struck speechless by the ferocity with which Cecil was ready to defend him. She didn't realize how much Cecil trusted Kain. She quickly relented, backing away from the conversation. "No, I'm sorry," Rosa said. "What I said was unfair. I didn't know it was Kain, but I made a terrible assumption."

"That's alright. Let's discuss something else," Cecil said, and his shifting eyes told Rosa how uncomfortable the conversation made him as well. "But anyway, I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable, at all, I just . . . I knew you, from before. I knew you from when we were in Baron together. We spent- . . . a lot of time together." He hesitated on the last sentence, and Rosa looked up into his face to try and read any sort of emotion there. She could see sadness - but it was always there, deeply buried in the back of his eyes every time he looked at her. Sadness, but also the softness of innocence and amiability. A soft, small smile. The way his eyes crinkled in genuine emotion at even the slightest show of it.

She'd seen that smile before.

"We were best friends," he added, and instantly, she was transported back to Baron, to her childhood:

CLANG.

The sound above them startled Rosa out of her concentration. She lifted her eyes from the book and glanced curiously at the stairs. "Archmagus, what was that?" she asked her teacher.

TCHINK!

"Just some sparring, probably. Pay no attention, Lady Rosa. You must be able to keep your concentration if you hope to-"

"Argh!"

"Stop! Please!"

Two mens' voices. Shouting and grunting. A clash so loud it set Rosa's ears ringing echoed through the halls of Baron Castle, down into the White Mages' training room. "That sounds like real fighting!" Rosa said, hopping from her stool. The white and red skirts she wore as a White Mage in-training pooled around her legs, and Rosa had to gather fistfulls of them to haul them over her feet.

"Lady Rosa, do not interfere-" her Archmagus tried to yell.

"They could hurt each other! We have to do something!" she yelled, running past the Archmagus and tripping up the stairs. Open and friendly combat was common among the men of Baron Castle - even encouraged. Disputes were normal, after all, and the King always insisted on settling them 'Ye Olde Fashioned Way', as he called it, but this fight sounded too vicious to be in fun. Weapons didn't clash so forcefully when the parties weren't aiming to harm.

As a future White Mage, she had a duty to ensure that neither man ended up in her care.

When Rosa reached the top of the stairs, she expected to see two men, fully grown and clad in armor, trading blow after experienced blow in the hopes of landing the fatal hit. Instead, when she hefted her skirts above the landing and raised her eyes, all she saw were two boys. Not much older than she was at ten, one boy with bright blond hair and the other with soft silver hair. She recognized the silver-haired boy; he was the King's ward. Orphaned as a baby and taken in by His Majesty as a favor to his mother.

The two of them rushed each other again, but it was clumsy and almost comical. The blond boy hefted a too-long, too-heavy spear behind him while the King's ward sported a short sword that he had to wield with both hands. They slammed their weapons together, and they bounced off each other and hit the ground with another harsh metal sound. The two paused, panting awfully, so Rosa took her chance. She ran forward and placed herself between them.

"Hey! That's enough! What are you two doing?!"

The King's ward immediately relented, stepping away from the other boy and lowering his sword to the ground. She turned towards him, and he blinked in surprise at her. "S-sorry," he stammered. "Sorry, Lady Rosa." He bowed awkwardly to her.

He knew her name. Rosa's own surprise forced her back a step. "You know me, but I do not know you, except that you are the King's ward. Who are you?"

He glanced into her eyes. Smiled that smile. A smile that crinkled his eyes, and seemed to brighten up the room around him with its genuineness. It lifted spirits - she could feel it in his energy and in his politeness. He completely disarmed her and stripped her of her anger, and she could only smile back, staring into his royal blue eyes. Silver hair. Cute face.

"Cecil Harvey, Lady Rosa."

"Woah!" Rosa yelled on impulse. The memory struck her mind so hard, she felt the beginnings of a headache creep into her temples. "I just remembered something!" she blurted out, gently touching her hand to her head.

Cecil gasped. "What?" he asked, turning towards her. He lurched forward and grabbed her hands, overexcited for her. She almost pulled away, but realized that the motion didn't feel as unintentionally threatening as before. As though the memory brought with it a basic level of trust in Cecil she hadn't remembered before. He was so excited he even squeezed her hands.

"We were childhood friends! Right?" she said, asking him for confirmation. A genuine smile lit up his entire face, and he nodded so forcefully she thought his head would tumble from his neck. Joy and relief swept over Rosa, lifting enough weight off her shoulders that she felt lighter. She remembered something about herself. A small piece about herself, but it was enough for her. A laugh bubbled up in her chest and tumbled out, and she grasped Cecil's hands in return. "We met when you were fighting with another boy-"

"With Kain!" Cecil said, practically vibrating with excitement. "We grew up together in the castle-"

Rosa tilted her head back and closed her eyes, letting the little sunspots that poked between the canopy of leaves warm tiny spots on her face. Was right then the best time to ask Cecil? Maybe she should save it for another time. Another day under the tree - tomorrow, when they would no doubt be there again, perhaps? Any other day when the afternoon sun wasn't the perfect temperature and the breeze wasn't so refreshing and there were more clouds in the sky.

No. She had to ask him, today. She had to open up the dialogue. "Cecil, may I ask you something?"

"Of course."

She dropped her head, but did not look at him. She didn't want to see what his reaction would be to her question. "Do you even like training to be a Dark Knight? Do you even want to be one?"

"Yes, of course!" Cecil answered immediately. But Rosa knew him better than that. She knew after five years when his tone was genuine and when it wasn't. She could hear the uncharacteristic flatness that never bled into his normal, positive speech.

She threw the grass she was picking to the side and rolled towards him, resting her elbow on the ground and propping her head up with her hand. The hillside where they were laying was perfect for it. Outside of the Castle walls, where they could talk unheard, and uninterrupted. "Do you?"

It was Cecil's turn to look away. " . . . There's nothing else I'd rather be doing with my time, or my skills," he said distantly, choosing his wording carefully. Rosa could tell that he meant what he said, but it upset her that he had to think of it in such a way. Having to word it exactly correctly so it wasn't false. That, to her, spoke volumes. "Plus, I owe a debt to His Majesty. He's never held it over me, not once. But I still feel I owe him something for taking me in the way that he did. Giving me the privileged life he has given me. If he wants me to be a Dark Knight, then I will be a Dark Knight. If he had asked me to be a Dragoon like Kain, then I would've been a Dragoon." He paused, and Rosa could see him thinking the entire situation through behind his blue eyes. "I think of His Majesty as my father, and he's treated me like a son. If he wants me to be a Dark Knight, who am I to question his judgment?"

I'm not saying that because of His Majesty, as though he made the wrong choice. I'm just wondering if it's what you want. I don't want you to feel . . . " Rosa couldn't think of the right words. "Pressured," she decided on. Or, no, that was the wrong word. "No, not 'pressured', but obligated. I don't want you to feel obligated to do something you don't want to do-"

"Rosa," he started, but she continued talking. She had to say what she was thinking.

"You're almost fifteen, so you'll be going to war soon under the Red Wings. I just want to make sure that you're doing what you want, because you could die. Do you understand that? I'm scared for you-" Cecil was already shaking his head. "-and I care too much about you to see you throw your life away over something you don't want to do. His Majesty would understand if you chose another path-"

"Rosa, I'm not choosing another path! Death is the risk that any man takes. I'm nearly at the top of the ranks already, after only training for four years - about to be promoted to Captain! I truly am happy training as a Dark Knight. It is what I want to do. I'm extremely good at it, and I want to make His Majesty proud. I know you're scared. War is a scary thing. But my training and my skill will carry me through."

"You're my best friend. I don't want you to go."

"Don't worry. You're my best friend, too, Rose, and I wouldn't ever leave you. The Red Wings' campaigns are only weeks long now, instead of months. We'll see each other soon." He sat up, inching closer to her, and put his arm around her in a soft hug.

Rosa blinked, and Cecil was in front of her again., not beside her. Not wide-eyed and small, but a confident man, holding her hands. Face bright with excitement. She remembered that tree, the familiarity of that place, and the feeling of the shade and the sun. She remembered the first time he took her there. "We always used to sit under a tree and talk. Just the two of us."

"That's right! But that wasn't the only secret spot we had. Do you remember the other one? The one that we shared with Kain?"

"Kain, wait!" Rosa called. "Slow down!"

"You have to hurry, or we'll miss it!" Kain insisted. He did slow his pace, but his long legs, even though he was only twelve, still gave him an edge over Rosa. Together the two of them ran through the Baron town, so fast that the air made Rosa's eyes water, stinging against her face. Past the Inn and Item Shop, past Rosa's mother's home, and behind the armory. They came to a halt at what looked to be a solid wall of hedges. It blocked their view of what lay beyond, but Rosa could tell that it was the stream. She could hear the gentle babble of water.

"What are we doing back here? It's a dead end," Rosa said.

Kain just shook his head, and walked over to the wall of shrubs and hedges. He grabbed a section of them, and to her surprise they came away easily, opening up like a makeshift door. Behind it lay an old, broken and decrepit stone bridge that traveled across the stream. Kain grabbed her hand and led her a few steps across, but when a brick wobbled under her feet, she froze in panic.

"Here. Hold on to me," Kain said, looping her arm in his. He carefully led her across the rest of the way, tapping each brick to ensure his footing as well as hers. When they were finally across he kept her arm locked in his, and led her down a dirt path, and up a set of stone steps. Rosa looked around the small stone enclosure they were in, and realized they were at the top of the reservoir. The three waterfalls that pooled into the stream spilled in front of her, and the water's roar echoed off the stone.

"Oh, wow! This place is beautiful!" Rosa said, squinting and shielding her eyes against the glare of the sunset.

"Wait. That's not the best part." Kain let go of her and dropped to the ground, lying on his back and facing the water. "If you lay like this, the sun makes colors in the water."

Rosa followed suit, and sure enough, as soon as she was level with the water, she caught the glints of an entire rainbow arcing over the foam and steam of the waterfalls. It was magnificent, a beautiful pool of color, and Rosa sighed in awe.

"Wow. This is amazing," she said. She looked over, and caught Kain staring at her.

"So are you," he muttered under his breath, but while looking at her. As though he didn't want her to hear it, but wanted her to know he was the one that said it. He offered her his hand, but she didn't want to take it. He dropped hints like that constantly, but she was already entertaining courtship from Cecil. She didn't enjoy his advances, subtle though they were. Caught in the middle of not knowing what to do, she started to shake her head before footsteps entered their enclosure.

"Hello!" Cecil said. "I see you showed Rosa the spot!"

Relieved for the timely distraction, Rosa quickly stood and went over to Cecil, dragging him over next to her. "Come sit beside me and look at this!"

Rosa returned to the present, and saw rainbow reflections in the water, just like in her memory. She gasped, believing for a split second that she was back home. Back near the waterfalls with Cecil right in front of her, holding her hands. But when she looked around in surprise, she realized it was Sanctuary's water, not the water of the Baron reservoir.

"Do you remember?" Cecil asked again. She almost forgot the question. Where they used to meet.

"The waterfalls! The three of us always used to go there and spend time together after we were finished with training for the day." They were only a few full conversations that she saw, but in her mind, there all of a sudden as if they had been there all along, were small snippets of other conversations. Hundreds and thousands of childish conversations. About new spells they made up, about what creatures could be on the moons, about anything and everything. Even a few fights that Rosa broke up between the two of them. Dragoons vs. Red Wings nonsense. When they got older, she recalled conversations about deeper subjects.

"Yes! The waterfalls! Rosa, I'm so happy!" he said, pulling her in. His arms wrapped around her shoulders, his warmth encircled her, and Rosa relaxed into his now familiar touch. He no longer felt foreign. He no longer felt like a complete stranger trying to win her trust. Instead, he felt like an old friend now. Already, she felt more complete. The holes in her heart were starting to fill, and she couldn't have been more relieved. She lifted her own arms and curled them around him.

And just for a moment, everything felt right.

Cecil gasped like an exuberant child and pulled away, holding her at arm's length. "We need to spar with each other, too!"

"Spar? Why?"

"It may bring back some more memories!"

"But Cosmos said that doing battle with an adversary would bring back memories."

Cecil nodded quickly. "That is true, and battling Golbez probably would bring back the most memories," he said, "but doing battle in general can help as well. Especially if it's with someone you are familiar. Would you like to try?"

If it meant bringing back more memories, she was ready to try anything. She desperately wanted to know more about herself. She wanted to know more about Baron and about him and about Kain. She wanted to fill in every gap at once.

"Absolutely-" In Rosa's excitement, she very nearly forgot what was making her so anxious before. She still needed to see Zidane, who would be back from patrols in less than ten minutes. The nerves she felt before didn't compare to her happiness now. She almost thought about abandoning her search for the real Zidane, unwilling to return to that scary and dark mindset. "Oh. Umm," she said. "Wait. I still want to see Zidane. Can we wait for him?"

"Of course," Cecil said.

"I just want to talk to him for a moment or two. It won't take long at all."

"It's fine! Just let me know as soon as you're ready."

"I have . . . a lot of questions for you in the meantime."