Ana knelt before the fading fire, engulfed by the thick purple smoke that still hung in the air. Her whole body was rigid and utterly still. Only her lips moved, trembling and mouthing the words that she could not make herself say aloud.

"I had to do it. I had to. I had to…"

The Cullens did not know what to do. None of them had stopped her when Ana turned on Nico, though they had once again moved into a protective formation. When Ana had demanded a lighter, voice a coarse hiss, Carlisle and Bella had moved to intervene, wanting to prevent the final destruction, but were held back by their family. Now, as they watched Ana and the smoldering ashes that were all that was left of Nicholas, they wondered how to act.

After a while, Rosalie approached Ana cautiously and knelt down by her side.

"I had to do it," Ana repeated again, not looking at Rose, eyes still trained on her lover's pyre. This time, however, there was a note of uncertainty to her whispers. Rosalie understood that the words had become a question, that Ana needed confirmation that she had acted rightly, that Nico had had to be destroyed. Rose gave her a quick nod, eyes fierce and faintly burning.

Out of nowhere, Ana had thrown herself forward at Rosalie. Her steel nails raked across the rock hard skin of Rose's face, creating a terrible sound ten times more piercing than the screech of nails on a chalkboard. Emmett lunged forward to wrench the small vampire off of his mate. He seized Ana around the middle, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled violently. The vicious rage with which she had attacked Nico surged back into her, but Emmett's hold was unbreakable.

"Don't hurt her," Bella shouted, reaching one hand out from behind Edward's protective stance as if to stop Emmett. She held Renesmee close to her with her other arm.

"So much pain," Jasper murmured through clenched teeth. Part of his mind considered in shock the fact that he had not jumped in to interfere as well, but he was quickly able to explain this away. The absolute agony radiating off of Ana was staggering, so much so that it stunned him. As he spoke, he felt his family's gaze turn to him.

"Jasper," Carlisle said, and Jasper easily understood from his tone what Carlisle wanted. Moving slowly, Jasper approached Ana and Emmett. He held one hand outstretched, reaching toward the bare skin of her arm where the sleeve had been torn away. She snapped at his hand and Emmett tightened his grip, crushing her into his chest. Jasper took firm hold of Ana's wrist and the response was almost instantaneous. Her thrashing ceased and she hung limp in Emmett's arms. Her head fell forward, her cheek resting on Emmett's thick forearm.

"Oh Nico," she murmured into Emmett's arm. Her voice was placid under Jasper's influence, but he still did not let go of her wrist, unsure of how long the calm would last and whether Ana's rage would return. Rosalie, however, seemed certain that the attack was finished. She slid in between Jasper and Emmett and held out her hands. Emmett's eyes creased for a moment and he glanced at Alice to check that Ana would be safe. When she nodded, he relinquished his hold on Ana, and Rosalie took her up in her arms. Ana buried her face in Rosalie's shirt and let her guide the way back to the house. As they passed where Edward stood, however, Ana stopped and turned her face up to him. The calm was still there, but it was already evident that it would not last long. Edward angled his body ever so slightly so that he was between Ana and Bella and Renesmee.

"I feel so lost," Ana whispered, her voice a rough sigh. Edward's teeth clicked together, but the movement was not hostile. He closed his eyes and nodded and Ana turned back into Rosalie's chest.

Watching Rose and Ana trudge back into the house, Bella took Edward's hand.

"What did you agree to?" she asked softly.

"She wants help trying to fix her memory," Edward replied, lacing his fingers up with hers, "to decipher what is real and what are Nicholas' inventions."

"Was any of her story true then? Can you tell?"

Edward sighed. "Not yet. I only know for certain what I saw in Nicholas' mind before Ana turned on him." His eyes flickered, unwilling, toward the smoldering ashes lying a few feet away. "Her mind is so chaotic right now. She's going to have to concentrate very hard it seems to sort everything out. I hope I can help."

"I'm sure you can," Bella said, bringing their linked hands up to her lips and kissing his fingertips. He smiled, but his eyes were sad.

"I'm just not sure that the truth, if she can remember it, is going to be very pleasant."

In his old bedroom in the main Cullen house, Edward and Ana sat across from one another in deep silence. Both had their eyes closed in concentration. They had been frozen this way for hours. Once Ana had recovered herself a bit from her grief, she had gone to Edward for the help he had promised. He had instructed Ana to think back to the time when Nico had first joined her and her old mate, Christopher. Reluctant at first to actively think about Kit whose memory she had so carefully avoided for so long, Ana had soon thrown herself into the project of remembering after Edward explained that this was the only way to help her recover herself. He sifted now through the fog in her mind, trying to draw out the clearer pictures that lurked behind Nico's fabrications. When he came across a thought that seemed more well-defined, especially one that resembled the memories he had pulled from Nicholas, he would quietly ask her to focus on it, coaching her through until the true memory was able to force its way to the surface and overtake the lie.

The memories kept hitting Ana one by one. She felt as if she were being beaten by a particularly strong newborn vampire, each memory a blow that cracked up and down her stone body. The pain was worse than when she had received her scars, but she wanted this pain. She craved the truth, needing the information to prove to herself that she had done right, that Nico's annihilation had been her only option.

"Would you like to stop?" Edward asked. Though his eyes remained closed, his words were tense with worry.

"No," Ana replied. Her voice had not moved above a hoarse whisper since she had burned Nicholas. The crushing weight of her grief smothered her and she couldn't quite draw a full breath.

"I think we should take a break."

"Fine, if you don't want to help anymore – "

Edward's eyes snapped open.

"That is certainly not the case, Ana. I promised to help you and I will not break that promise. I simply think that we would be able to accomplish more if we both had a rest."

A shaky sigh broke through Ana's teeth and her eyelids fluttered open. Her eyes were sick with misery.

Jasper, who had been waiting outside the room, prepared to step in if anything were going wrong, slid into the room now. He leaned casually against the door frame with his arms folded tight across his chest. Ana's distress was so great that it weighed on his concentration. All he wanted was to lessen her pain. He uncrossed his arms and held out a hand to her and she took it, greedily awaiting the relief his gift provided. Her shoulders sagged and she took a deep breath, relishing the enforced calm that released her temporarily from the harrying need to recall her true past. She followed Jasper out of Edward's room, slipping by the few Cullens who were collected in the living room and heading outside, leaving Jasper at the front door. There she sat down by one of the enormous oak trees surrounding the Cullens' home.

Bella came to stand behind Jasper in the doorway and watched Ana. Alice joined them a moment later.

"She looks so bad," Bella murmured so softly that Ana would not be able to hear. She considered Ana's eyes, her marble skin so deeply creased that it looked as though it had been chiseled that way. Ana sat on the forest floor with one knee pulled up to her chest, her head leaning back against the trunk of the ancient oak. Her breath was slow and gentle under Jasper's influence, but even his assistance was only superficial. He was afraid to leave her alone and stood rooted in the doorway with his arms once again folded across his chest. Alice put a comforting hand on his back. None of them could find anything else to say.

Suddenly the sound of Ana's breathing was no longer even, but sharp and erratic. Edward was already out the door, flying past his wife and siblings. Ana had lurched forward onto her knees, one hand clutching at her throat. Her eyes were round, her mouth slightly open in an expression of sheer disbelief.

"It wasn't him." She grasped her head with both her hands and pressed on it from both sides, as if trying to force information from her confused mind. The rest of the Cullens were assembling outside the house, watching her with varying expressions of fear, sadness and pity. All were wary for what she might do. But she didn't do anything. After another moment, she crumpled back against the tree, letting her hands float limply to her sides. Her head fell back against the thick trunk of the tree again. She made no move after this and everyone exchanged looks, wondering what to do. It was Esme who finally reacted, moving much more slowly than she needed to. With one hand already outstretched, she fluttered to Ana's side, kneeling on the ground next to her. Her tone was incredibly soft as she crooned in soothing tones, all of her motherliness coursing through her words.

The now crystal clear memory flooded through both Ana and Edward's minds at the same time. It had burst on her in a sudden gust, loosened by her work with Edward. Nicholas, not Kit, turning on Ana. Nicholas biting and tearing her flesh, scarring her irreparably. Nico burning the chunk of her shoulder that he had ripped away with his teeth. Nico altering her memory so that he became her protector. Kit's absence like a void in the background.

A slew of thoughts flashed through Ana's awakening mind with such speed that Edward could only catch the barest impressions.

"What happened?" Rosalie hissed at her brother, eyes still trained on Ana. "What did she remember?"

"That Nicholas was the one who gave her those scars, not her former mate," Edward replied with a sigh. "Kit was already gone by that point." Though he had seen this in Nicholas' mind, the pain accompanying the memory for Ana, both physical and mental made him feel ill. His disgust for Nico had reached a new level and he had to suppress a snarl. He was suddenly distracted by a flicker in Jasper's thoughts. "What do you mean she was happy?"

Everyone except Esme who still knelt beside Ana, murmuring comforts, turned to stare at Edward.

"It was only for a moment," Jasper said, reluctant for some reason, "but there was unreasoning joy in her mind just for a split second."

"I don't understand it," Edward said, skimming through the memory and looking for some key that would explain such a reaction that he could not make out.

"I think I do," Bella interjected. Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. She was looking down at her feet, but after a moment's silence she lifted her eyes to meet Edward's confused gaze. Gliding across the open space to him, she took his hand in both of hers. Her eyes fell back to the ground and she seemed to lose her nerve.

"What is it, love?" Edward asked.

"It's just, I can understand where she's coming from. Imagine believing that I had done something like that to you, attacked and hurt you, and then abandoned you. Imagine living for decades being absolutely certain of that. Then, suddenly, you learn that it wasn't me after all. It was someone else who had done those terrible things. Wouldn't part of you be utterly euphoric to learn that it wasn't me, that I really wasn't capable of hurting you like that? If Ana is still really in love with Kit, and I can't imagine that she isn't, she just found out that he wasn't the one who hurt her so terribly. How could she not rejoice to learn that truth?"

"Then why is she so torn up again?"

"Much as her heart is devoted to Kit, Ana did seem to be in love with Nicholas too. And she just took his life less than a day ago." He was her Paris, Bella added to herself, remembering the time when she had considered the possibility of accepting a replacement love when Edward had left her, and feeling thankful for the thousandth time that Edward could not read her thoughts without her permission. But that happiness only lasted a second as the situation unfolding before her snapped back into focus. The pain of it twisted her stomach. She had briefly thought she understood, that she and Ana had gone through something similar, being told by the one they truly loved that they were no longer wanted. But this was something so much worse. Not only did Ana now know that Kit had been driven away for nothing, but she had also taken the life of the one she had turned to for support. Regardless of the truth of Nico's actions, Ana had opened herself up to him. Now both of them were gone. Bella could not fathom that pain and pulled herself closer to Edward for comfort.