Hi, everyone! I'm here with ch. 25, but ch. 26 is probably going to take a while to come out. This is because:

1. I have a Calc BC final tomorrow (and that class is rough because everyone in it is an A student but the teacher only gives out about half As), and a Chem final the day after, so I won't be able to work much.

2. It's really long (maybe 5k words...?) and I need to add something to it (and yes, I really do need to add it. It's pretty vital to Claus' character).

Anyways, ch, 25. It's probably the saddest chapter (8 is darker, but this one is sadder). :( However, I would also say that it might be the most uplifting. Just hang in there! :) Oh, and it's all Ana POV, so I hope that you like her (as a character, I mean... xD). Ch. 26 ties a bunch of stuff together (POV for Jeff, Ness, Claus, Kuma, Lucas, and more... phew!), but this chapter and ch. 27 aren't very long. I felt like I had a really good ending spot for this one, so I moved some stuff over to the next chapter.

Oh, and for those of you that care, I thought that it was pretty fun to write from Ana's POV as a seven year old. I'm not sure if any of you were like this, but as a little kid I was both highly emotional and highly logical (still am, kinda...), so I would throw a bunch of tantrums but there would be a voice in the back of my head that would tell me that I'm overreacting. I tried to incorporate that into Ana's flashbacks last chapter and this one (oh yeah, spoiler alert, there's another flashback). This chapter in general felt really good to write because it has a lot of stuff that I want to get out.

I only used 3 emoticons this time. Yay...?

Review Responses:

Guest: Thanks! :)

SMF: Well, we get to see what happens to Ana now! :) More sad stuff ahead, though... :( Lucas' acquaintance... I dunno if I should say. I guess I will (it's not all that mind blowing). It's Voice. He set up the meeting between Lucas and Claus back in ch. 11, too.

And I got "I SAID STOP!" directly from Namine (how do you do the accent mark?). For the longest time, I could remember the words and the voice, but I couldn't remember who said it. xD Then one day I was like, "Oh, that's Namine! Why didn't I remember that?" KH is pretty sweet. :) I do feel that some people go overboard with that series, though...

PK Love Gamma: You didn't get a feel trip with the Ana flashbacks? Guess I did something wrong. xD Those were supposed to be sad. And I don't play PMD, so I don't have any advice. Sorry!

A Fan: Hey, I just saw that I forgot to answer your question about the protagonist. I am SO sorry. .

I consider Lucas, Ness, and Claus to all be protagonists (but even then I don't really draw a thick line between a protagonist and supporting character; I kinda feel that Ana falls in the middle). If I had to choose one person that I would say is the protagonist, though, I would pick Claus. He has the most POV text (I think...) and goes on a pretty stereotypical journey, so he fits the description well in my head. If you see Lucas as the protagonist, though, that's cool :) My opinion isn't the only (or even the best) one with regards to my story.

Yeah, I was pretty surprised when you predicted the Magicant thing. Great call! :)

You bring up an interesting point with the pain thing, because in my story (and irl imo) pain can either help or hurt someone depending on the length of the pain and the character's mindset. A dull, constant pain is more destructive, while a quick sharp pain can snap someone back into focus. I feel that pain makes Ness, Lucas, and Paula stronger, makes Lloid, Kumatora, Voice, and Poo weaker, and has mixed results for Ana, Jeff, Claus, and Ninten. Again, feel free to disagree! :)

As for Porky with time traveling, yes. I don't have a specific explanation for how all of that stuff happened, but I'm just saying that it worked out that way. :)

Ohmygosh I love Chrono Trigger! :) I never use the dual techs, though (I didn't think about that with Ness and Lucas). My strategy is to throw all of my best defensive gear and buffs on Marle so she becomes practically invincible and use her to buff/heal/revive the other two, both of whom spam their most powerful tech. I dunno if that's a good strategy (the game's pretty easy haha), but it works for me. :)

Oh man, that was so much text! xD I hope that you don't mind. :P

The end draws near; I can feel it in these old bones of mine.

If we lose… something so terrifying will happen that my hand shakes whenever I try to write it down.

That is why we cannot lose.

There is no other option.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Ninten encouraged jovially.

"I believe we have different definitions of 'not so bad,'" Ana replied bitterly, noticing once more the icy cold of the raindrops that soaked her.

Ninten laughed, not unkindly.

"Ana, I know you well enough to tell that you're not as hurt as you look by that memory."

"Hmph," Ana huffed.

Ninten knows me too well for my own good, she thought.

Ninen's smile broadened.

"So," he said casually. "What's really bugging you?"

"I think I know what the last memory that you're going to show me is, and I am not reliving that. It was painful enough to suppress that memory in the first place!"

"Pain can sharpen your purpose, Ana. Just one more memory, that's all I need to show you."

"No." Ana crossed her arms and turned away.

"Well then," Ninten started with a sigh. "I suppose that you'll just stay here and die without ever knowing the truth. It's funny to see you refusing to learn about your past considering how hard you worked to learn about science." Ninten paused in thought. "Although, I guess I am grateful that you didn't manage to beat me in this last challenge… We both die without facing our past. I guess you're not good enough, just like I wasn't."

Ninten started to float away.

You little… Ana's rage began to boil.

"Wait!" Ana exclaimed. Ninten turned around, trying to hide a smile. "I'll see the last memory. Damn you, though, and damn my competitive nature. I never knew that you could be so cunning."

Ninten broke into a grin.

"Think about it this way, Ana. If the memory is painful, you can always kill yourself after with the full knowledge of your past."

The world swirled around Ana for the third time.

Seven years ago:

"Mommy?" Ana asked weakly, plodding through the deep snow with all of her might. "Daddy?"

It was scary being alone. Once, Ana had seen seven as an old age, but she was still a baby, really. The wind howled in agony as it whipped by Ana, stinging her unprotected face. She was lucky that she wore a heavy coat, snow pants, gloves, and a scarf. The winter's wind was cruel and unforgiving. Snow fell around Ana, but she hardly noticed.

"Mommy?" She asked, louder this time.

The only response was the howling of the wind.

Ana felt panic rise through her system. Her parents were abandoning her! They promised never to leave her, no matter what happened, but… they were leaving her. They had to be leaving her. Ana's terrified mind wouldn't accept any other explanation. She ran faster through the snow, remembering that she was running away from the scary man in the pig mask as well as towards her parents.

In her haste, Ana tripped and fell face first into the snow. Her face burned from the cold, and Ana started crying. She would never make it! The town of Snowman was so far away… Ana couldn't possibly do it on her own!

Focus, she told herself. You just tripped.

Realizing that she was making a big deal out of nothing, Ana struggled to a stand and continued to walk towards the place where she told herself that her parents would be. Tear residue froze on Ana's cheeks, burning her further. She started to feel light headed and struggled to keep her balance. The wind whipped by Ana with a mocking howl, almost blowing her away like a leaf.

Baby steps, she told herself. I have to take baby steps. She could focus on that, right? She put one foot in front of the other, not thinking about her parents or the scary people in pig masks. She blocked out all of the sounds of explosions in her mind. She put one foot in front of the other. That was all that mattered. The wind laughed in the background.

Ana couldn't have said how much time had between then and when she had arrived at Snowman. Her face was numb from the cold, but she still felt a sense of relief. This was her home. She would be safe here, right?

Ana noticed the desolation around her.

Houses were reduced to piles of splinters and massive trees had been toppled. With a sense of terror, Ana remembered the weird flying things (she thought that they were called "missiles") that exploded. Had they caused all of this damage? Ana's panic renewed. If the explosions could take out a house, what would her parents be like? Would her mother be missing an arm, leg, or even her head?

No, Ana told herself. They're fine. They said that they would always be there for me…

Her fear somewhat reduced, Ana uneasily walked into town. Where was everyone? Normally, people would be out and about, even in this cold weather. Ana's anxiety bubbled back into fear. The wind whooshed past her, but she almost didn't notice over her alarm. Ana broke into a sprint, almost tripping herself again.

In the distance, Ana saw a field of people lying down. She rushed over to them to see what they were doing. As she arrived at the first person (a boy not much older than Ana), she noticed the red snow around him. That's weird… snow wasn't usually red…

That was when Ana saw the dark wound under his jacket. Something primal in Ana screamed in horror as she gasped. It was like a boo-boo, but… as large as a tennis ball. Ana didn't have any Band-Aids that could fix him up. In her dismay, Ana realized that this boy must have bled gallons due to the amount of red in the snow. Her parents always said that bleeding was bad.

Ana looked at the boy's face and saw that his eyes were closed.

"Hey!" Ana shouted weakly. "You're hurt! Open your eyes!"

No response. Was this the "death" that Ana's parents talked about in hushed voices? Ana had talked extensively about death to prove her strength (she figured that if grown-ups wouldn't talk about it then it must be scary), but she had never expected it to be like this.

"No," she told herself out loud. "He's just hurt and will wake up soon. Mommy and daddy will know what to do…" Ana trailed off as she saw her parents lying down in the red snow.

"Mommy!" Ana yelled in alarm as she rushed towards them. "Daddy!"

Ana knelt down, looking at her parents' wounds. Her mother was bleeding from a hole in her stomach while her father's crimson wound was located on his chest.

No, Ana thought her heart sinking into her stomach.

"Wake up!" Ana shouted. "Mommy! Daddy! You said that you'd be there for me!"

No response.

"Wake up… please. You need to put Band-Aids on your cuts."

More blood flowed from the wounds, getting over Ana's clothes. Ana's parents' eyes remained closed.

"Don't leave me here, please…" Ana begged, tears blurring her vision. "I can't live on my own!"

It was true. She had no way to get food and the scary pig people might hunt her down. She needed her parents to wake up quickly. Ana knelt down to her father's ear.

"Wake up!" She shouted as loud as she could. "Don't just lay there!"

Her father didn't change his empty expression.

"No!" Ana wailed. "No! You said that you would protect me! You have to keep your promise! I can't live on my own! I love you, mommy and daddy…"

Snow fell around Ana, obscuring some of the red, obscuring some of the truth. Ana frantically rushed over to her mother and opened one of her eyelids. Upon seeing her mother's eye, Ana let out a yelp.

Mother's eye… doesn't move!

Something about the icily still eye creeped Ana out. An eye should move around and examine its surroundings. Ana closed the eyelid, breathing heavily. The picture of her mother's zombie-like eye was seared into her mind.

"Please," Ana whispered weakly. "Please end this. Let's just go back to how we were before. Mommy, you said that you would make hot chocolate for me today. Daddy went out to buy some of my favorite marshmallows and we were going to sit by the warm fire and be happy. Can't we go back to that?"

In the back of Ana's mind, she knew that she would probably never taste her mother's hot chocolate again. She would never hear her father's hearty laugh again. She would never make snow angels with the other kids and show them to her mother again.

Ana blocked out those thoughts.

I'm going to be fine, Ana lied to herself. Mommy and daddy are going to wake up soon. I know they will. We're going to be one happy family again… we have to be one happy family again…

Something inside of Ana recognized that her words were lies. She screamed in anguish.

I can't take this anymore! I'm freezing and mommy and daddy won't wake up!

Were her parents… dead?

NO! Ana told herself. They can't be dead. They promised that they'd be there for me. They promised…

Ana started bawling, hoping that someone, anyone, would care.

Nobody did.

I should lie down with them, Ana thought, despair giving way to emptiness. That way, we'll still be a family together, right?

As Ana was about to lie down next to her parents and close her eyes, she saw something in her mother's hand. She inched over and pried her mother's hands off of the object. It was a snow globe. The cartoon snowman was smiling. What a strange expression.

"I…" Ana couldn't speak.

More tears ran down her cheeks, leaving behind a liquid that burned in the cold. Ana remembered her parents' voices:

"I used to play with that all of her time," her mother had once said. "It was a special gift from your great-grandparents to me. It's very special, so be sure to take good care of it, all right?"

"It kept your mother safe for all of these years," her father added. "Now it's your turn to live under its protection. Make sure to take it with you when you go out. When you have this with you, even the coldest winds won't be able to hurt you."

Ana screamed at the sky until she broke down into a coughing fit.

"The globe kept me safe, but mommy and daddy aren't waking up! I just want to die!"

Ana looked at the snow globe again. The snowman standing in it was happy. It took Ana a moment to recognize that emotion; it seemed so foreign to her. Ana looked around at the desolation around her.

She really didn't want to die.

Suddenly, an overwhelming fear overtook her. She didn't want to die! She couldn't die here! But… there was no way to live, was there?

It will keep you safe, Ana remembered.

Of course! The snow globe would protect her. When her father had first spoken those words to her, she had rebuffed them. How could a snow globe keep anyone safe? It didn't make sense. But now, Ana didn't so much as hesitate. She had found something to hang onto, and she would cling onto it for dear life.

Ana picked up the snow globe and cradled it in her arms. She brought it up to her chest, squeezing it so hard that it threatened to break. Ana closed her eyes as the frozen wind tried to whip her into submission.

"I'm going to be safe," She whispered desperately.

The wind slashed at her face, sending yet another wave of cold over her face.

"The globe will protect me."

Real snow fell around Ana, erasing all traces of the slaughter.

"I'm going to be safe!" she lied to herself. "Mommy and daddy will wake up… they have to wake up! Then we'll be one big happy family again… everything will be okay…"

Ana started to freeze, not knowing that she would be dead in minutes if she couldn't get help.

"AAAH!" Ana exclaimed. "I… can't take it. Damn you, Ninten!"

"The pigmasks killed your family, didn't they?" Ninten asked sympathetically. "They destroyed your whole town."

Ana shivered in the cold rain. Rain, snow, it didn't matter. Ana's destiny would always take her somewhere cold.

"Why did you think that I could take that?" Ana demanded. "Why did you think that I wouldn't be destroyed by the truth?"

"Because you weren't when you were seven," Ninten answered bluntly.

Ana laughed viciously.

"Ninten, I worshipped a snow globe while I started to freeze! I was shattered by that scene!"

"You cannot rebuild without knowing what the problem was in the first place," Ninten said. "Besides, you had the right idea. All that you needed was something to hang onto when all else was taken from you."

"What do I have to hang onto?" Ana asked. "If you expect me to worship another mundane object…" Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Ana," Ninten said in a steel voice that surprised Ana. "You saw what the pigmasks did to your town. You're the only one that knows."

"And?" Ana demanded harshly.

"…And they're planning to do that to the whole world," Ninten continued.

"I don't care!" Ana yelled. "And even if I did, there's nothing that I can do! I'm… too weak."

Ninten raised an eyebrow.

"Surviving all of what you went through is not something that a weak person could accomplish," he maintained.

"Surviving is easy," Ana said scornfully. "It's living that's the hard part. I… am physically incapable of feeling bliss, Ninten. Ever since my parents died, I have never felt joy! Not once! I'm not really living if I can't feel."

"And will other people be different?" Ninten demanded. "Will other people feel joy as the pigmasks destroy the world?"

"I…" Ana had no response to that.

"Ana," Ninten said, gritting his teeth in pain. "If you think that the destruction that you saw was bad, imagine how it will feel when the whole world dies!"

A searing headache overtook Ana.

"Aaaaaah!" she yelled as a picture started to form in her head.

NO! Ana told herself. I… won't let myself see that again!

But it was too late. She already had.

Ana saw a field of bodies in the snow, each of them leaking blood. The bodies were surrounded by broken heaps of wood and icy snowflakes.

"No!" Ana yelled out loud. "No…"

"And what if people live?" Ninten asked. "What if people live to never feel joy again, just like you?"

"AAAAHHHH!" Ana screamed as her head filled with agony.

In the scene, Ana saw herself standing over her parents' corpses.

No, block it out! Ana screamed internally. Please…

It didn't get blocked out. Instead, it zoomed out.

Ana could see the world from an aerial view. Wherever she looked, bodies lay on the ground. Occasionally, Ana saw someone standing over a heap of corpses, their face twisted in despair. There must have been thousands of corpses and hundreds of survivors.

"That's what happens when the world ends, Ana!"

Ana had felt so much pain over the last seven years of her life. And each of these survivors would hurt like she did. But there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of them. Ana multiplied her pain by a thousand and received a number that was too large to comprehend.

"NOOOO!" Ana shouted, gasping heavily. "I… suffered so much… and these people… will suffer more. Even if there are survivors, they will each feel the pain that I do. And if there aren't…" Ana trailed off.

If there weren't survivors, everyone would be dead. That was just as scary, if less easily comprehendible.

Ninten nodded sadly.

"I AM SO WEAK!" Ana yelled. "Which… is why I know how it feels. I can't let thousands of people die and others get reduced to the same state that I am at. I can't…"

"You're deciding to live?" Ninten asked hopefully.

Ana struggled to her feet. She almost tripped, but she caught herself on the wall next to her.

"I am weak," Ana repeated, "But I am not so weak to try to prevent my fate from happening to others. I will fight, Ninten. My weakness will be my greatest strength. Because through my weakness, I have empathy."

"I can't believe that was actually uplifting, considering the terms that you applied to yourself," Ninten said playfully, "But it was. Trust me, Ana. I know how it feels to look at your parents' dead bodies and know that nothing will ever be okay again."

"You… do?" Ana asked.

"My parents died in a fire seven years ago," Ninten explained. "I suppressed that memory, just like you did. My biggest regret while I was dying was not facing my past. I'm so glad that you made it through facing yours, Ana."

For the first time in seven years, Ana felt joy flush through her body, joy that she had accomplished something. It made her feel like she could accomplish anything. It didn't matter that she was weak and starving.

What mattered was that she was alive.

"We are more alike than I ever knew," Ana whispered. "Just watch me, Ninten! I'll save this damn world so that nobody else will have to know our pain! I'll live through this day and prove Kumatora wrong."

"I don't doubt it, Ana," Ninten replied with an ecstatic smile. "I have to go now that my job is done, but remember… I will always be there in your heart."

Normally, Ana would have snorted in derision, but this time she smiled back.