Cecil's feet splashed in Sanctuary's water.

Someone was already yelling. "I need some help here!" He didn't realize it was him until the words were already tumbling out. "Please! Help me!"

Cosmos vaulted to her feet and motioned to her throne. "Lay her here!" she yelled.

Cecil ran past her and climbed the two stairs. As he passed, Cosmos reached for Rosa and read her energy. Whatever she felt, it clearly wasn't good. She whispered softly, " . . . By the Great Will . . . " and the tears that had been waiting pricked Cecil's eyes. Utter dread welled up in his heart, aching through him like someone was crushing it with their fist.

He swallowed down the sob and sucked in as deep a shaking breath as he could muster, blinking the tears away. "Do not listen to her," he told himself. "Rosa is in bad shape, but it's not over yet." He wasn't supposed to give up on her yet. If only for the principle of it, he was meant to hold on to her. Hold on for her, no matter what anyone else believed.

He lowered Rosa's limp body to the throne as gently as he could. Her head rolled as he slid his arms out from under her, so heavy and loose that he thought her already dead. All of the hopeful sentiments he struggled to believe crumbled pathetically, and a chill so deep he couldn't breathe shot down his spine. He shifted to Paladin and leaned over her, pressing his ear to her chest while Cosmos handed out orders.

There was a heartbeat. It was slow and faint, but it was there. Her breath was wet, thick, labored, uneven and hitched, but there. He couldn't pull away right away. An odd logic weaved its way into his head that if he stopped listening, then the heartbeat would stop. She was only breathing because there was someone there to listen to her. He kept his ear there. His cheek was becoming wet. He ignored it.

"Zidane, Vaan, bring the items!" Cosmos called, and they appeared from somewhere in the wings carrying a mess of Potions, Ethers, and Elixirs in their arms, as well as conventional bandages and medical supplies from their stock pile. They unceremoniously dumped them on the throne next to her. "Lightning!" she yelled next, and she was at her side immediately. It was obvious Cosmos had everyone briefed and prepared. Lightning grabbed a few Potions and went to work. She sat by Rosa's head and dug through her matted hair, jerking her head this way and that to find where she was bleeding from.

"Be careful!" Cecil snarled before he could help himself, picking his head up from her chest.

She barely acknowledged him. Apparently finding the source, she uncorked one of the Potions and sprinkled a generous bit on her hand, tracing a line somewhere under Rosa's hair. When she was done she took Rosa's chin, tilting her head back and pulling her lips apart. She poured the rest of the Potion into her mouth, little by little, even when Rosa's throat didn't move to swallow it down on reflex. The Potion somehow still did its job, and Rosa's skin glowed with a tiny green light. Lightning unrolled a long strip of bandages and wound them around her head with better care to soak up some of the bleeding.

Cosmos went to work as well. She straightened Rosa's leg out and closed her hand around the hilt of the reddish-black sword stabbing it through. She tugged and it came free easily with a wet sucking sound. The moment it was free of her skin, it shimmered and melted away, dissolving in Cosmos' hand. "How very clever, Ultimecia," she said dully, frowning into her palm with distaste. She clasped her hands over her chest, and a warmth that was so powerful Cecil could feel it emanating off of her built in the air. Her gold aura surged and Cosmos pressed her hands to the slice in Rosa's leg, pouring the fully powered Curaja directly into it. The bleeding slowed and stopped, the exit wound on the back of her leg closed smoothly, but the hole remained open and angry. When she pulled her hands away, they came away red. Lightning's hands were red. Rosa was covered in red.

His hair was covered in red, the white waves clumped together and stained from where he rested his head on her chest. He looked down, knowing it came from the thick scratch that stretched from her hip to her shoulder. Or, had it come from right from her shoulder? It was bleeding just as terribly. It could have been the stab wound on her side. All of them looked bad. All of them were bleeding. He needed to make it better.

"Make it better. Just make it better!" he urged, and his hands moved of their own volition. He called the minuscule White Magic he held in his heart and blindly cast Cura on her, stretching it from her head to her feet. "Make it better." Not focusing on anything specific, because he didn't know what to work on first. She was in bad shape. She was dying. He just needed to make it better.

He cast again, two, three times, and stared at the wounds. He waited for the Cura to go to work and stop the bleeding like Cosmos' did. Stitch the wounds closed before his eyes like it was supposed to do. Heal her cuts and bruises and bring her back to consciousness. Mend torn flesh and muscle. He cast again, but the wounds went unchanged. His anger flared, his tears burned, and he cast again and again until he spent his magic. When it refused to spark again in his heart and build into a spell he reached over and snatched an Ether, draining it in one gulp. He called on his magic again and spread his hands over her to cast another Cura, but Lightning grabbed his wrist.

She scoffed. "You gotta slow down! You're not helping her."

His heart sank. "Then what can I d-do?" He choked, and more tears.

"Focused healing. Stop casting on her whole body and focus on one wound. I got her head and face. Cosmos is working on her legs. Pick something - pick the injury on her ribs." While she directed him, she grabbed another Potion and poured it into Rosa's mouth again.

Her ribs. Cecil stood up on weak, shaky legs and stumbled around to the other side of the throne to get a better look. One of Ultimecia's blue crystal arrows stuck out of the side of her chest. Her blood was leaking onto the throne, discoloring the pure white that had gone undisturbed for cycles.

"Get some bandages ready," Lightning told him, snapping him back to reality. "If you pull that out, she may bleed a lot." He reached for them and found his hands shaking. He took a deep breath, hoping to calm himself, but instead it hitched in his throat. His heart started to race and he looked down at her. At a bruise that covered the entire side of her face and crept up over her eye, painting it a nasty purple. Four deep claw marks, thick with congealing blood, tearing the skin in uneven, jagged lines over the bruise. Even when Lightning poured another Potion over them, only one barely closed. There was blood everywhere. Blood on her head, on her face, on her torso, seeping down her neck, on her shoulder and down her whole body until one wound seemed to merge with the rest and he couldn't differentiate them. The bones in her shoulder jutted out at unnatural angles under her skin, bruised and swollen and dislocated, pushed further out of place by a red and black knife-looking projectile. That long cut that stretched from her hip to her shoulder, and two stab wounds - one under her ribs and one in her stomach - with three smaller cuts that appeared to be placed randomly around her body. Her right hand was swollen to twice its normal size, her fingers and knuckles fat and bruised, and all around she had scrapes and cuts from being tossed around. Her tights were burned away at the ankle. When Cecil looked closer, he could see red, blistered flesh peeking out from under her boot.

There was no question in his mind that she was going to die, and the realization busted through every shred of control he tried to maintain. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, and white crept into the sides of his vision. The tears fell freely. He felt faint. "O-oh, gods-"

"Hey!" Lightning snapped. "You gotta get a hold of yourself. Okay? She needs help, so do what I tell you, or back off. Take care of her ribs!"

He couldn't respond. His throat was closing with a building sob. He shook his head, and blinked hot, angry tears down his face.

Someone approached from behind and touched his shoulder. Tugged him gently away from her. "Maybe you should come away," they said, and he heard Kain's voice. It cut through some of his panic. "Cecil?-"

"Ah! N-no!" he sniffled thickly, throwing Kain's hand off. "I need to sa-" He swallowed thickly. "I need to save her."

"Then focus," Lightning said, in a way that would have sounded nasty coming from anyone else. "Calm down, and help." He took a broken breath and sighed out the rest. The tears were there and wouldn't stop, so he worked through them. Another Curaja from Cosmos wrapped around Rosa's leg, and the raw power near him worked to ground him further. Even in what would have been a 'weakened' state, Cosmos' magic still dwarfed all of theirs. Would have potentially dwarfed Rosa's, and even that worked to dissipate some of the emotion in his chest so he could focus. Cosmos moved on, sliding down to her ankle and taking off her boot. Lightning had given up on the scratches on her cheek, and had moved down to her shoulder wiggling her pauldrons to loosen them off.

They worked in relative silence, and when Cecil was ready he grabbed the piece of arrow that he could see and swiftly tugged it out, holding his breath. A thought he never considered briefly flashed across his mind - that she could feel everything they were doing, and was in excruciating pain. He had to dismiss it as well. He couldn't allow those kinds of thoughts to impede him again. Lightning tossed the roll of bandages at him and it bounced off his chestplate before he could snatch it. He trailed a thread out and tore it, quickly pressing it to the wound, but the blood didn't pour out as she thought it would. She peered over and checked it alongside him.

"You need to make sure there aren't any remnants of that Azure Axe in there," Lightning told him. He slid from the throne and knelt next to her, peeling the skin apart so he could look inside. The cut was smooth and even, and he couldn't see any other pieces of the axe that could have been doing more unseen damage.

"I don't think so," he said back, and his voice sounded small.

"Heal it as much as you can."

He called the Cura, closing his eyes and pouring as much mental energy as he could into it. He tried to copy the spirit and vitality he felt in Cosmos' magic. He strained, his chest warmed, and he was about to cast it.

"Hey, is . . . is she gonna be okay?" Tidus yelled from somewhere in Sanctuary.

His concentration broke. Cecil opened his eyes, thinking that perhaps she was crashing. He gasped, nearly jumping out of his knelt position to lean over her. He didn't see anything different. She was just as pale, and just as still as she was before they healed her. His rage flared, and he whirled around to face him.

"No, she won't be okay, unless you let us concentrate!" he yelled, and Tidus flinched back, too shocked to come up with a response. His face slumped into a frown, he shook his head and shrugged, clasping his hands behind his head and pacing around Sanctuary.

He healed Rosa again, but it wasn't the same. Even trying like he did before, the spell didn't feel as charged up as the one before would have been. He cast three more times on the wound. Already, fatigue was starting to set in. His panic was starting to feel fuzzy around the edges. His head was just starting to swim, and concentrating was getting harder. He grabbed another Ether and drained it, restoring his magic power. Right as he tried to call another spell, a crowd of people splashed through Sanctuary's barrier. He looked over his shoulder and saw the rest of his patrol group. Firion, Laguna, Cloud, and Yuna.

Yuna made a beeline for the throne. "I'm here to help!" she said, breathless from running back to Sanctuary. "How can I help?" She looked to Rosa, and her naturally bright disposition fell immediately. She quickly hid her reaction, hardening her eyes and bracing her shoulders. Her hands tightened around her staff, as the only outward sign of her fear.

"Heal her ribs and stomach," Lightning said. Cecil paused. He was already working on her ribs, but when he glared up at Lightning she was staring straight at him. He knew she told Yuna to take over his job to push him out. Yuna slid in next to Cecil, but he refused to move and even pushed against her. He called another Cura and poured it into the wound, noting the small trickle of blood growing smaller, slower. The wound closed a tiny bit, and his heart sank as he realized it wasn't much. He cast several more times, until his magic was drained again. His magic, and more of his physical strength. The dizziness was growing stronger, harder to ignore. A small headache sprouted in his right temple, pounding its pulse into his brain.

Yuna nudged him slightly. "Cecil, may I sit there?" she asked politely, if a bit strained.

Kain grabbed his shoulder again. "Cecil, it's alright now. Yuna's here. Come away now, and let her work. She and Cosmos are far more powerful than you, and they-"

"How dare you, Kain! I will not leave her! Any help is better than no help!"

"Then go help Golbez," Lightning offered, cocking her head towards where he stood hunched over. "He's still here, and he's wounded."

"He's wounded?-" Cosmos asked, turning to look at him.

"It's nothing!" he yelled up to them, but his voice was clearly strained from pain. He kept his hand clasped tight to his side, and his breath seemed shallow and weak. "A scratch. A small price to pay for Rosa's safety."

"Vaan, Zidane," Cosmos said, "take some Potions and Ethers to Golbez-"

"I assure you, I'm fine. Help Rosa, please. Her condition is dire. Tend to her." His knees were visibly shaking, and the last of their strength failed. He sighed and collapsed to one knee, then dropped his other knee to the ground, letting out a small noise of pain. He collapsed back until he was flat on his backside with his legs curled up under him. He clutched at his side with both hands. "I will accept no offer of help."

Warrior stepped towards Golbez and adjusted his grip on his sword, the unspoken threat. "If you'll not accept healing, that is entirely your prerogative. However, you'll not linger here in the meantime. We are grateful to you for rescuing Rosa from her captors, but if you have no further business here, perhaps you should move along."

Golbez chuckled, cutting the noise off before it turned into a cough. " . . . You would throw me out?"

"I'd rather not risk an attack should Rosa's attackers be chasing you."

"I'll not leave until Rosa's well-being is assured."

"Be sure that it is!" Warrior snapped. "She is in Cosmos' care now-"

A rogue wind that never existed in Sanctuary's perfect dome rose up and fluttered around them. It picked up Cecil's capes behind him, and even picked up Rosa's hair, plastered to her head and face. A small brown tornado picked up next to Golbez, and some water picked up with it, thickening and muddying the dirt and dust until Cecil couldn't see into it anymore. A wave pulsed from the tornado and when it cleared, a scantily clad woman stood in its place. A woman with glowing yellow eyes and hair as wild as the wind itself. He knew instantly who it was.

"Barbariccia?" he asked.

She ignored him completely and floated over to Golbez, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him from behind.

"HhhhhI drove them from the world, my dear- Oh! Hhhhhhello," she hissed, spotting Warrior. Kain, Cecil noticed out of the side of his eye, had half-ducked behind him so she couldn't see him. She smiled and her eyes roved from the horns on Warrior's helmet down to the armor on his shoes and back up. "What's your name, sir?" She toddle-oo waved, and his nose curled up in disgust.

"This is unacceptable! Your fiends are not welcome here!" Warrior yelled. "Her presence will not contaminate Sanctuary. You both will leave, now!"

Barbariccia pouted, detaching from Golbez. "Hhhhhhhe's so mean!" she said in a whiny voice. He flourished his sword and she giggled, pretending to hide behind Golbez. "After all I did for his friend!"

"Warrior, enough!" Cosmos said after she completed another Curaja on Rosa's ankle. "Golbez, you are always welcome." Her tone, and the emphasis on 'you' was the unspoken order for him to dismiss Barbariccia. Golbez reached out towards her and clenched his fist, and she sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes to the heavens before disappearing.

Cecil looked again at the burn marks Cosmos was working on, and it seemed like the only injury that looked almost completely healed. Cosmos drew on another spell, and Cecil felt another wave of her absolute power flood over Rosa as she directed it over her whole body. Cecil's Cura didn't even compare. Every wound over Rosa's body seemed to lighten, lessen, and even though it wasn't exactly visible, he could tell that Cosmos made them better. Better than he ever could make them.

It was enough to make him grudgingly realize that Rosa was indeed in more capable hands than his. That, coupled with the knowledge that he was already nearly completely spent, allowed him to move over and allow Yuna access to her. She immediately began to cast on the cut to her body and the stab wound on her stomach right as Lightning finally slid her pauldron off down her arm. Lightning tugged the arrow out and it disappeared like the other two. She dabbed at the blood with bandages, waiting until they were saturated before discarding them. She tossed them aside and reached for an Elixir, spritzing it across Rosa's entire body and pouring the rest directly into her cut. The yellow light worked to close the more shallow parts of the wound, sealing the ends of the long cut and shrinking the holes. When she was finished, she probed the bruise on Rosa's shoulder. She found the source of the dislocation and took Rosa's elbow and wrist, turning and twisting. When she got it into a position she seemed to be happy with, she lifted Rosa's arm up and over her head. A sickening pop echoed over their little group, and Cecil winced as her arm slid neatly back into place. Lightning picked up her wrist and inspected her broken fingers last. "We'll need to splint this as we heal it." Cosmos nodded. Yuna cast until the wounds refused to close any more for her. Cosmos gestured for her to finish, then followed up with several more Curajas.

After her last one, she sighed and leaned back. "We've done all we can do. Magic can only do so much before a wound must be left to heal naturally. Her fate is in the cycle's hands now." Cosmos stood up and blinked rapidly, nearly toppling over before Warrior sprinted forward and steadied her. He helped her to the stairs and lowered her down to sit. She slumped over and cradled her head in her hands, and Warrior fetched her an Elixir.

The dread that had slowly abated while Cecil concentrated on her healing surged back, dropping his heart into his stomach. He wanted to cry again. He wanted to scream, or curse, or do something that would alleviate some of the emotion lingering and thickening his heart again, but he couldn't bring himself to cry anymore. Only a frightening resignation that he was meant to prepare to mourn her coursed through the back of his head and wouldn't go away. It pulsed louder with his headache and he couldn't ignore it. Even though Rosa's body was on its way to healing, if all her strength had been spent Shinryu would still decide to not return her to the cycle.

She would be lost forever.

He took stock of all of Rosa's injuries. Her ankle was only slightly red. Cosmos was able to heal it completely. Her random scrapes and cuts were all gone, giving her body a more 'clean' appearance. The hole in her thigh was still large and open, but he only caught a glimpse of it before Yuna had it covered with bandages. She probably would not be able to walk until it was healed. The stab wound on her stomach and the cut across her body were closed, with only a small circular scar and a long thin scar to show for them. They hadn't been as serious as he thought. His magic was simply too weak to help at all.

Her shoulder wound was still red and angry, and looked worse with the bruise from its dislocation. The gauze Lightning had covered it with were already wet and stained with Blood, so Lightning took more and wrapped them as best she could around it. The bruise and scratches on her face were there to stay for the time being as well, as were the bandages wrapped around her head where she had been cut.

This would be it for her, he knew. He never had the chance to help her remember their relationship. He never was able to experience her at her best - at her most compassionate and at her most loving and at her most bright and enriching personality. The hope that she could be alright and that he would yet have a chance at them refused to build in his heart.

He stood from his kneeling position to sit beside her and nearly toppled over as well. The dizziness overtook him and the black in his vision prevented him from reorienting himself right away. He flopped down and luckily he guessed right. The throne was there to catch him. He leaned over his arm to wait for the dizziness to go away, but when it did his muscles felt cold and tired. Heavy, like moving them at all was a monumental effort he lacked the mental capacity to undertake at that moment. He managed to reach out, dragging his hand across the throne rather than pick it up, and grabbed her left hand. Her uninjured one. And he squeezed it. He was too tired to do anything else.

He looked down at her face, staring again at the cuts along her cheek, the large bruise purpling them. She had patches of blood in her hair that turned it pink in streaks and knots. She still looked beautiful. She still looked strong.

He prayed she would be strong enough to endure.

He lay his upper body down on the throne, careful not to touch her shoulder. Just to rest for a moment, he told himself.

He was out the moment his eyes closed.