Rosa broke through Sanctuary's clear hexagonal barrier, bracing for pain when it brushed across her shoulder. Luckily her pauldron protected the wound from any physical sensations. The air inside Sanctuary was gentle and warm, utterly removed from any of the turmoil she had gone through outside. It should have been comforting to her, marking Sanctuary as a refuge from her troubles, but it only felt sweltering. She was sweating, she was bloodied, and she panted Sanctuary's warm air back into her lungs from the sprint back.

She stopped just inside of the barrier and put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She raised her head to see who all was there, and who all would hear the news about Zidane. Cosmos was on her throne still, like she hadn't moved. Rosa looked around for Bartz, Zidane's best friend as far as she could tell, and she didn't immediately see him. His absence helped her breathe a bit of a sigh of relief. Someone else could bear the burden of telling Bartz after she told Cosmos the news.

When she felt she could speak easily, she ran towards the throne. "Cosmos!" she yelled. "Cosmos!"

Cosmos smiled in her direction, but when she saw Rosa's singed shoulder her face fell. "Rosa-"

"No, no! Zidane!" she screamed, pointing back the way she came with her good arm. "He was- He - I found - he-" Her thoughts tangled. She couldn't decide between starting with her battle with the Emperor and ending with how she found Zidane, or starting with finding Zidane and then revealing the circumstances around it. She took a deep breath. "I found him just outside, and he was-" The word 'dead' rang hollowly in her head, but the word refused to form around the lump in her throat. "Crystal! He was purple, and he looked like crystals had grown all around his body, and he- . . . Someone attacked him, and-" Rosa forced as deep a breath as she could muster into her lungs, and she practically screamed out what she wanted to say. "He's dead!"

She wasn't sure what she expected, but she expected some kind of reaction from Cosmos and from the other warriors around her. She expected solemnity and violent grief, she expected tears, perhaps, if they knew Zidane well, and she expected at least shock and surprise. She received nothing, not even from Cosmos. A dead and bored silence from everyone greeted her in the wake of her announcement, and she let the confusion cross her face.

"I tried to revive him, but . . . " she continued, uncomfortable with the silence.

"Your shoulder is injured."

"Are you listening?" she asked, knowing it was a rude way to ask but too taken aback by their lack of reaction. "Zidane is dead! He's been turned into crystal! Aren't you upset? Any of you?"

"Fear not, Rosa," Cosmos said calmly, with the grace of a queen. "The warrior you saw wasn't the real Zidane."

" . . . What?" Rosa asked.

Before Cosmos could continue her explanation, Cecil's voice called above the crowd, "Rosa!" He pushed his way to the front, and his face paled when he saw her shoulder. The small trickle of dried blood down her arm. "By the gods, Rosa, are you alright?"

"Yes, yes," she said quickly, waving him away irritably. "Who was that, then, if not Zidane? What do you mean?"

"Rosa, at least heal yourself first-" Cecil tried to press. She shook her head and held her hand up to him, palm out.

"Shh! Cosmos, what do you mean, that wasn't Zidane? Is he gone, or isn't he?"

Cosmos gently shook her head, answering Rosa's question, and when she looked up her crystal blue eyes were flat and emotionless. Different from her usual warmth and motherly tenderness. "What you encountered is the monster of this world. They are imperfect replicas of the warriors who are called here, formed of crystal. We call them 'manikins', because they are mindless. They know only fighting, and they know only destroying those of you who fight for me."

"Manikins," she breathed, testing the strange word. "It's a copy?" she reiterated, just to make sure she was clear. "It's a crystal copy of Zidane? It's not really him?"

"It's not," Cosmos said, nodding to affirm Rosa's understanding. She clasped her hands over her heart and closed her eyes. "Zidane is still well," she said after a pause. "He travels with Bartz, the Onion Knight, Vaan, and Squall near the Bahamut Isles." Rosa didn't know where the Bahamut Isles were, but she nodded as though she did. "I'm sorry," Cosmos continued. "We would have warned you about the manikins, but you left so quickly-"

"'We'?" Rosa asked. "They all know about them?"

"My other warriors? Yes," Cosmos said. "The manikins have existed in this world since its dawn. All those who have fought with me for any length of time have encountered them."

Rosa looked around, to all the faces who were staring at her, mostly expressionless. Some looked upset for her, but Rosa knew it was regret that she had to find out the way that she did, by encountering one and believing her friend was dead for a period of time. Shame and embarrassment heated her cheeks, and she looked down before any of them saw how embarrassed she was. She hated not knowing anything about the world. She hated wandering around blindly, just taking things as they came. Rosa supposed she wasn't reacting properly to the news either. At knowing Zidane was probably fine - or at the very least the real Zidane wasn't lying out there turned to crystal - she should have felt relieved. Instead all she felt was a disturbed confusion, and an anger at feeling slighted. Cosmos clearly knew about the crystal manikins, and hadn't told her. None of them told her. Her heart burned, but she tried not to take it very personally. It was unlikely that they had intended to be malicious.

"Did the manikin injure your shoulder?" Cecil asked.

Standing still for so long, Rosa very nearly forgot about it. Aware of it again, a heated itch sparked along the edge of it, and Rosa winced, resisting the urge to scratch it. "Ah, no. That was from a real person."

Cecil reached out to grab her hand, but she backed away from him. His shoulders slumped the slightest bit, but he backed away a step. "What happened?" he asked, dropping his hand to his side.

"A Chaos warrior threatened me, and attacked me. We fought, but I ran when I wounded him."

"Who was it?" Warrior asked, barely after she finished her sentence.

"He called himself Emperor Mateus."

Firion perked up from near the back of Cosmos's warriors. "You fought the Emperor?"

She nodded. "Is he yours?"

"Yes. He's a power-hoarding tyrant."

"I gathered as much."

"You wounded him, you said?"

"Yes. Not fatally," she added. "I shot him five times, but I wasn't intending to kill him. He landed a few hits." Rosa glanced at her painful shoulder, gently undoing the buckle for her pauldron on the underside of her bicep. It was hard with only one hand, and Cecil watched her fumble for a second or two before offering his hand. Rosa shook her head. She didn't want anyone's help. She already looked ignorant a moment ago with news of the manikins. After a minute, the buckle came off, and the pauldron slid off her shoulder, grinding against the whole burn. Fiery pain radiated over her shoulder. Rosa pursed her lips, managing to quiet down her cry of pain, but she wasn't able to stop the tears from welling in her eyes. She froze and breathed the pain away until she could move, sniffing in its wake.

"I can help you-" Cosmos started.

"No," Rosa insisted. "I remember that you were weakened by calling me. Save your strength." Hovering her hand over the sticky, oozing patch, she could still feel the heat from it. She closed her eyes and called the Curaga spell, guiding it straight into the wound. Like before, the warm tingle grated on her nerves for just a moment before turning into soothing relief. Before her eyes the red skin healed into healthy pink, stretching over and closing the wound.

Rosa openly sighed. "See?" she said, to Cosmos, Cecil, and anyone else who was still listening. "Good as new."

"Yes," Cosmos said, smiling down at her. "Well done. Your magic is extremely powerful, Rosa Farrell. Every moment you are here, you validate why I called you." Rosa saw Cosmos's eyes flick to the side, and when Rosa followed her gaze, she realized Cosmos was glancing at Cecil. In turn, Cecil's eyes flared - the only visible sign that Cosmos' words meant something to him. Rosa couldn't even begin to guess what their interaction meant, unless that was why Cecil had attacked her before. Rosa quickly put the pieces together in her head: he became irate with her calling, and that was why he attacked Cosmos before.

Cosmos was possibly offering him a subtle dig. Cecil raised his chin, as though raising himself above her words, before turning and walking towards the edge of Sanctuary.

"You've earned a rest," Cosmos said to her. "Please spend some time here. And speak to some of your comrades. They may offer more insight as to the ways of this world, and they may be able to answer your questions."

Rosa hoped her indignation didn't show on her face. "I had assumed that to be your job," she thought to herself, "since you are the goddess here." The goddess, and an architect of the war they were fighting. Regardless, Rosa turned away from Cosmos and took her advice, walking over to Firion.

A/N: Now Rosa knows about the Manikins, but there's still a lot she needs to discover about this world. She's a very driven woman, and she hates being in the dark. :)

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