At last we have a new version of this story, baby! One whole year I've been waiting for this—one actual year.

So, if you're new to this, let me explain! What you're about to read is a new version of my old fanfiction called Imagination is a Powerful Force, but this time, I've changed the title to something much more dramatic to heighten things up a little more. And I certainly hope it does, because I cannot wait to share the revised version of this story with you all.

Now, let me make a few things clear: since this is my persona's life story (aka, a complete self-insert of me (so I guess she's technically me?)), there are some bits in here that are mostly based on real life. The rest I made up for the sake of keeping this fictional. We good with that? Good.

Content warnings for self-harm, physical and mental, and tons of self-doubt. Let's just say I may have changed a few details about life and other stuff, past and present, for this fanfic and the books that may follow its story…

With all of that out of the way, I hope you enjoy and be sure to leave a comment giving feedback and what you thought of this new revised version. Let's just avoid the flames, as Ate Nataliepthatsme likes to say. That's all for now, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

They say that many heroes' great stories start with the most humble beginnings. Our protagonist wouldn't call herself a hero, but hers started just like that. Nothing but an ordinary girl with an ordinary life—until she wasn't. Even today, she still finds her current life to be the most unbelievable situation she's found herself in since day one. And to think this began not when she was twelve, but all the way back to her own childhood…

Our protagonist's name is Alexa Garcia Sulat. And this is, in a way, how her adventures actually began.

The pandemic was a time of isolation when the Corona virus disease spread across the world. People had to lock themselves in their own homes and stay with the same people they stay with for a very long time, in which both are enough to drive one mad. Alexa was almost one of those people, nearly driven to actual insanity over at-home affairs that were the pieces to changing her life. No matter how much they were destroying her on the inside, mentally she means. The damage is still kinda there after four years…

That fateful day all began when she had lost everything. When the pandemic began and students had to switch to online schooling, she had decided to become a writer, as there were many ideas she really wanted, and still wants, to bring to life. Some of them were original, but most of them were what people call "fanfiction", works that relate to another work without having any actual association with the property.

If this is hard to wrap your head around, imagine writing your own version of Alice in Wonderland or making your own sequel to it even though you're not the original author. It's just like that, in a way. Some fanfiction is about expanding on a main story. Others are about creating new tales. Others like to mesh universes together and call them "crossovers". Those are her favorite kind of stories, fanfiction or not. It's always so interesting to see two universes somewhat colliding and everyone's stories somewhat coming together.

Anyway, that was exactly the reason Alexa was in trouble that day. Her mom didn't—and she still doesn't—approve of her being a writer. Looking back, Alexa can see why her mom deleted everything she had. It was distracting her from the more important thing, which was school. Alexa's grades were already failing, and her hobby was making things worse. Occupying every working moment with vivid words on a digital page.

Yeah. Not good at all.

She was very mad that afternoon. Like, actually sobbing mad. To her, her reaction was that of any immature 12-year-old who can't keep her emotions in check. It's honestly amazing how it took her so long to learn to never cry unless it's truly appropriate. To this day, it's still a hard lesson to remember.

Alexa cried for a very long time that afternooon. She still doesn't know, nor understand how long she had been crying for. But it was so late in the afternoon that when she looked up from her pillow, eyes red and nearly dry, the sky was a very dark blue and the view outside was almost nonexistent. She wiped away the remaining tears and forced herself to calm down, no matter how much she didn't want to. Exhausted, she went downstairs and pushed away her anger and emotional pain to get along with the family like normal again—as normal as it could be, of course.

After dinner was over, the family all went ahead and prepared for bed, going off to sleep with almost no trouble. Of course, Alexa was the only one still not feeling up to it.

Obviously because she was emotionally and physically exhausted. You'd think she would've been able to fall asleep immediately in that state, but nope. She was lying awake and staring up at the ceiling, breathing almost erratically. And if not that, Alexa was tossing and turning and trying not to scream.

No, it wasn't just because of her still-lingering anger, no no no. There were whispering voices in Alexa's head, all of them mocking and laughing with their voices growing louder and their laughter turning to cackling. They relentlessly spit in her face the stupidity she had, her lack of disciplline, and every other negative trait she had that always lead me into deep waters. No matter how much she covered her ears and tried to think of a favorite song to block them out, they kept screaming and cackling louder and louder and louder—

In a desperate effort, Alexa boxed her ears until they rang and banged her head against the wall until it ached. All she could hear were a thousand bells and no more of the mocking voices—and then the small sounds of sobbing.

Alexa still doesn't like that this is all the current her—emotional over a single, petty even, affair that can simply be fixed. To this day, she still gets so upset over the smallest things that one could call her a baby with her attitude. It's… ashaming, to say the least. Not to mention she was the oldest in her family…

Alexa cried and cried until there were no more tears to shed. Taking in heavy gulps of air, she finally relented to the to the weak cries of her body and went downstairs. She took a huge gulp straight from the jar in the fridge, relishing in the cool liquid that finally put her exhausted throat at a bit of ease. As she put back the jar and closed the door, Alexa put a hand to her chest and nearly collapsed on the floor.

This… feeling had returned.

Whenever Alexa experienced a strong amount of emotion, especially a negative feeling, she would get a strong feeling in her body that she always had a hard time decribing. It almost always hurt a little bit, stinging pain surging through her veins worse than pins and needles. When it flowed through her, it was like a thick liquid like honey, or when she was

She's had this feeling in her body for years, and she'd only noticed it when she was nine years old. At the time, she had discovered the rich and vibrant world of Pokemon. Ever since then, she had often wished she could run away to that world and have so many adventures there, discovering all the secrets and seeing all the sights. Not stuck in this world where nothing so exciting happened to her here.

As the flow in her body finally subsided, she sighed heavily, her voice and her breath shaking as the moonlight from outside shone into the window. Alexa slowly stood up and had to drag herself to bed, what with her body feeling so heavy and all as if she were sick even though she was perfectly fine. Every step felt like she was dragging rocks in her feet, and she had to keep her hands on the wall and railing to keep herself from falling backwards onto the staircase.

Muttering with frustration, Alexa rubbed her forehead to relieve a headache that was sure to bug her for the whole evening. She did not have enough stress to go back downstairs and get that V-Rub. She'd rather just go to bed and get some rest and be prepared to face another stupid day tomorrow. She just wished something would change, just for once… even for just one day, could something go the way she wants? Is that really so much to ask?!

She shook her head again as she finally got back under the covers, pulling the blanket back over her as she sighed. Right now, Alexa really wished one of her favorite media was real, and she could somehow run away to the world of one of them. Maybe she could never even come back to this boring old place. Or if there was a magic book like in Dora the Explorer, the series featuring her childhood heroine, and jump into the world of the book just like those episodes—or better yet, just like some of her recent favorite stories that she had only learned recently were called fanfiction. Explore a world she already knew about, while keeping close to the characters she had always wanted to meet.

If only such a thing could be possible, of course.

With a tired groan, she rolled over in bed and closed her eyes to force herself back to sleep. Any other thoughts she had would have to wait for tomorrow, especially since it'd be bound to be another day full of assignments and schoolwork. Writing could come when there was nothing left to do—whenever that would be. Hopefully this weekend, her mom would let her off a little easy…

As she drifted off into another restless slumber, there was a soft, faint glow from the room. A small ball of light floated in the air, a result of energy gathering and clumping together to be properly stabilised. It hovered in the air for a while before expanding to slowly overtake the darkness of the night, overpowering even the small bit of moonlight that shone through the windows. It wasn't glaring, but rather, it was warm and comfortable. It put Alexa into a more comfortable rest as her eyes stayed closed and she stayed perfectly oblivious to what was happening around her in the world.

And then all was quiet as the light faded, and the darkness took over once more.

The sounds of birds was the first thing Alexa heard when she woke up, and that was a first. The sparrows in the neighborhood usually never even bothered to stop by, always bouncing around on the telephone poles and gossiping with one another (if they could talk of course, which was another one of Alexa's silly thoughts). The air smelled warm and that of wood, which she was assuming was because of her cabinet. Even though she had never bothered to take in the smell of wood before.

And was her bed wet? Had she been crying last night? Actually scratch that, where in the world was her blanket?

The room was chilly and the breeze was blowing a little hard… really unusual for her room's environment. She rubbed her eyes and groaned softly, opening and blinking them a little—and then she froze on the spot in terror, wonder, and shock all at the same time.

She was no longer in her room; but rather, a forest.

Alexa sat herself on her knees and looked around, trying to remember what happened before this. Surprisingly, it was all a blur, like she had just woken up from a dream. Immediately she slapped the side of her head lightly worried there might be any missing details in her noggin.

'Okay, so… my name is Alexa Garcia Sulat, I'm 12 years old, and I am a Filipino who enjoys adventure, a bit of fantasy, and most of all, writing. I have two little sister's and my parents are still around, and we all live together in the Philippines where I was born. I also like reading and watching cartoons, and I'm not exactly the best at art, but I hope to be able to learn someday.'

Alexa let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, as she opened her eyes, and sat up on the grass to examine her surroundings. Now that she noticed it, the grass, the trees, even the sky above her appeared to be painted with watercolor. she would've questioned it if she denied that it all looked very familiar. Instead she stood up and brushed off the grass from her clothes, frowning when she realized she was going to have to watch her step in the woods. Alexa needed to find help, and fast. But where would she even go? She didn't even know a soul in this strange place! But now, she found herself walking through the woods, mud and grass squelching under her bare feet with every step. Deciding to let her intuition lead, she simply walked until it lead to somewhere. What other choice does she have anyway?

While she walked, her mind was swimming with so many questions, even as she kept her eyes focused to find a path. What was she doing here? How did she get here? Was she dreaming? Even though it all felt so much more vivid then any other dream in her life?

Her head was spinning so badly, Alexa felt sicker than she had almost had been in her entire life. Putting her hand out blindly, she stopped for a moment. With a groan, she shook away the dizziness to focus on the trail she had found. She could ask herself these things later when she wasn't in the danger of the woods. Hopefully she wouldn't run into any more trouble if she actually found someone at the end of this trail…

After a while, her thoughts finally calmed down, and she slowed down just a little bit to walk at a steady pace. Living in a subdivision and barely getting out and about, Alexa had never really gotten to experience nature. But now that she was practically surrounded by it, it was hard not to notice a few things. Like the birds chirping as they sang an early morning song, or the soft but subtle breeze blowing through the trees. Forgetting for a moment that she might be in potential danger, Alexa closed her eyes and smiled for the first time since she had woke up in this place. She took in the deep sweet smell of flowers and grass, and the trail under her bare feet no longer felt dusty and strange. For a while, she let her senses lead the way, subjecting to blind faith, both literally and figuratively—until she stopped.

The smell of grass was sufficiently a lot less stronger here, and there were no longer all that many birds singing either. The morning heat was slightly warmer, meaning it was far past an early morning at this point. She opened her eyes and they widened when she saw the little brown cottage in front of her. Before she knew it, she was walking up to the front door to knock. She didn't know why, but somehow, she had a gut feeling that the people inside would help make everything alright.

Her knuckles lightly tapped on the wooden door, then she stepped back a few inches and waited.

And when that door opened a few moments later, she knew that gut feeling was right.

The moment she saw those two little boys with a cup and a mug for a head did she know where she was.

Her thoughts were spinning. She felt like she was going to faint. She didn't know what to think or believe. Any moment now, she would probably collapse onto the ground and make a fool of herself and maybe even wake up from this amazing yet overwhelming dream. So instead she forced herself to keep her eyes open to smile and wave and be polite.

"Hello?"

A. N. Wow, talking about your own life struggles will take a lot out of you, good and bad.

If you liked this story, and even if you didn't, please leave a review of what you thought of this new little tale! But please, let us avoid the potential flames