Annie Barrs

Annie Barrs is one of the characters in Tales of Rebirth. She is a fragile Huma girl with an initial dislike towards the Gajuma race, because her father was killed by a Gajuma. On the other hand, though, she's a kind girl who has a dream to become a doctor like her father. Annie uses a staff in battle and mostly plays the supportive role, casting enchantment spells that would benefit the party or decrease the enemies' abilities. She is the possessor of the Force of Rain, in which she used it to either manipulate weather, confusing her enemies, or calm an enraged/panicked person down.

She is voiced by Akiko Yajima.

Early Life
Annie's personal past life wasn't viewed a lot in the game. However, it is known that she is the daughter of Doctor Barrs, Karegia Kingdom's head doctor, and learnt many medical knowledge from her father. He used to boast on her abilities as a doctor and she also had dreams to succeed her father as a doctor.

Tragedy struck after the event called 'The Setting Sun of Ladras'. The Gajuma King of Karegia died of illness, and struck the world with a great force that caused several Huma to develop Force powers. This was probably how Annie developed her Force of Rain, but the result of her newly-awakened, berserked power of her Force was not revealed. Commander Eugene Gallardo attempted to consult Doctor Barrs regarding on the King's illness, however he suddenly acted strange and attempted to kill Eugene as well. In an act of self-defense, Eugene dealt a fatal blow to Doctor Barrs, causing him to return to his normal self. His last words before his death was for Eugene to look after Queen Agarte and Annie. Afterwards, Eugene was exiled from the kingdom.

However, Annie misinterpreted this event. In her mind, she thought Eugene killed her father out of cold blood. Afterwards, she left her home, her heart filled with hatred towards the race of Gajuma, but she hated Eugene more than anyone else, as she thought he took away her father from her.

Unexpected Encounter
After several months of wandering and mastering her Force power, Annie learns that Eugene is on the way to the town of Minal. She uses her Force of Rain to create a heavy rain and mist and traps him and his traveling companions within there. Her Force's effects are fizzled down by Eugene's 'foster son' Mao, and Annie has to reveal herself, calling in previously-hired mercenaries. She fights and eventually loses. In spite of that, she doesn't give up and stabs Eugene with a knife, but he didn't flinch, stating that he won't run away from his crimes of killing Barrs, and tells Annie to live to hate him. She eventually collapses due to fatigue and is taken to Minal.

When Annie wakes up, she becomes very startled when she learns that she has been treated by a Gajuma child, named Misha. She tells him off with harsh words, causing his Force to go berserk and he runs away. When Mao questions her racist remarks, Annie says that it is nothing to call something detestable as detestable. However, Eugene's other companion, Veigue Lungberg, stuns her with a question regarding on how Eugene killed her father.

"If the criminal was a Huma, what will you do?"

Eventually Annie feels like she doesn't want to be the source of another person's suffering. Ignoring her condition, she follows Veigue and the others and helps them calm Misha down. In that same occasion, Eugene willingly protects her from an incoming harm, but it doesn't change Annie's mind. Eventually Misha's teacher Doctor Curia comes to pick her apprentice up. Before leaving, she tells Annie about Doctor Barrs' favorite phrase: "There is no color in life". Annie is left to find out the meaning of that phrase.

When Misha recovers, Annie attempts to wander alone herself, but Eugene invites her to join him in his quest, so she'll stay close with him and has many chances to kill him. Annie reluctantly agrees.

To Balka
Veigue and the others are heading to Balka in order to investigate the mystery behind The Setting Sun of Ladras. After Annie comes along, they also gains the help of Tytree Crowe, a hot-blooded worker from Petnadjanka and Hilda Rhambling, a Half formerly under the Four Stars. In this journey, Annie's fragile body takes toll on her capabilities. When the group crosses the desert, she is struck with a deadly disease called Death Garo Fever. Even during her sickness, she still has time to make small racist remarks. However, the group, especially Eugene, ignore all that and work to find a way to cure her, helped by the treasure hunter Frantz. Annie is eventually cured and is thankful for her friends, though she is still reluctant on Eugene.

Although she dislikes Gajuma, Annie is very kind towards Huma in general, even on misunderstood enemies. When they encounter the 'Black Wings' injured and unable to move on, she tends to their wounds and in turn, when the group reached Balka and is imprisoned, the 'Black Wings' come to their rescue.

The journey's climax come when Veigue defeats a recently-revived Geyorkias from Agarte's ceremony and rescues his childhood friend Claire. Afterwards, the group goes on their separate ways.

Part of Truth from the Sacred Beasts
Just a short time after the previous journey, Annie is contacted by Mao who informs her about Eugene suddenly locking himself in Mesechinia Cavern in fear of going berserk. Apparently after the battle with Geyorkias, many Gajuma begin to develop hatred thoughts towards Huma. As on Eugene's words, who constantly calls for the names of Veigue and Tytree, Annie decides to fetch them while Mao guards him. However, it's only because she doesn't want to get close with Eugene, her hatred towards Gajuma has yet to completely vanish.

Annie arrives in Sulz when she witnesses Veigue being strangled with his Gajuma aunt. She uses her Force of Rain to calm his aunt and explains everything to him. Eventually Veigue sets on a new journey, but on the way, he still asks questions regarding on Annie's thoughts on Gajuma in general, which slightly upsets her. On the way, Claire also tags along. They also manage to pick up Tytree in his hometown and visits Eugene just one time before he goes berserk and they have to leave to Razilda to obtain the cure.

They manage to pick up the cure, reunite with Hilda, and eventually cure Eugene completely. However, as their new journey to ressurect the Sacred Beasts, whom they thought has connections towards the newly born hateful thoughts, they witness on how racial issues start to pose a serious problem to the world.

While the group make a stop in the snowy town of Nolzen, the group is reunited with Curia and Misha. The town is soon under attack by viruses and many soldiers require medical aid, be it Huma or Gajuma. Curia asks for Annie's help since she can't handle them all alone, but Annie is still reluctant. After being reprimanded that she'll be treating 'patients', not 'Huma' or 'Gajuma', Annie goes off to help.

Even in front of a struggling patient, Annie is still reluctant to help. After Veigue reminds her again about 'There is no color in life' and seeing the patient is really dying in front of her eyes, she breaks down in tears and slightly realize what her father meant. In turn, she willingly saves the patient with the help of Hilda and proceeds to tend to the other patients. All of them are successfully saved.

The group eventually make their way to the Tower of Bayo Plains, where the Sacred Beast of Wind Wontiga awaits. Annie is given many trials which reveals parts of her racist sides, but Annie, who has traveled and fought alongside Eugene, who keeps on helping her despite her hatred, continue to deny her racist thoughts. Eventually, after reaching Wontiga, Annie witnesses the whole death of her father with her own eyes. Although it sort of shows that Doctor Barrs was acting evil, Annie still believes that the phrase from her father about 'There is no color in life' is still true and so she believes of the possibility of Huma and Gajuma understanding each other. With it, she achieves the power of Wontiga.

As they exit the Tower, Annie tearfully apologizes to Eugene. However, he lets out one more mystery for them to solve. The Doctor Barrs he knew was someone who would save any life and wouldn't plot to murder the King he served faithfully. With it, Annie becomes determined to find out about the whole truth. And at that point on, she no longer has any hateful thoughts about Gajuma and accepts them willingly.

Along with their journey, they learn that after the ceremony in Balka, Claire ends up switching bodies with Agarte.

The Ultimate Truth in Final Battle
After the team gathered the power of all Sacred Beasts, the thoughts of hatred are cleared from the world, but not the conflicts caused by it. The group find themselves wandering throughout the world to quell many racism issues that come off, while searching for the real Claire. Eventually it is decided that the group must revive Geyorkias again in Mount Sovereign and persuade him to dispel the evil thoughts, as he's the only one who can do it.

They reached the top of Mount Sovereign, but are stopped by Zilva Madigan, the advisor of the Kingdom. She reveals that she will be reviving Geyorkias to wipe the Huma out of the planet. When she strikes a gesture, both Annie and Eugene is shocked in which they recognize the gesture as Doctor Barrs' when he plotted to 'murder' Eugene. Zilva reveals that she switches bodies with Doctor Barrs to have Eugene kill him and it got him stripped off his ranks, enabling her to manipulate Agarte to make her ambition come true more easier.

The party defeats Zilva, and Annie is about to deal the last attack to avenge her father, but she hesitates in the last moment, perhaps reminding herself on how she no longer hate Gajuma. However, Zilva continues to spit on the party until her last breath and dies. The whole truth revealed, Annie is very thankful to Eugene for getting her to know the truth and for actually standing up for her father.

The party attempts to persuade Geyorkias, but he states that it's all too late, for the negative thoughts in the world has created one being called Yuris, that even he could not defeat. The party proceeds to fight Yuris, and although they are losing strength at first due to the negative thoughts, the people start to understand on each other and the negative thoughts are dispelled, giving the party to vanquish Yuris for good. Agarte and Claire switch their bodies to the proper place and the former uses her power to banish Yuris. However, she ends up dying shortly after restoring everything back to normal.

In the ending sequence that follows, Annie finally achieves her dream and becomes a full fledged doctor. She opens her own clinic and welcomes any patients kindly, be they Huma or Gajuma.

Trivia

 * Although she is technically the 'healer' of the team, Annie has no spells used by previous healers in other Tales games, such as First Aid, Heal, etc.
 * Annie appears in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology as an NPC.
 * Annie is a rather polite girl, addressing many people that are close to her with the suffix '-san'. The only exception to this rule is Eugene, even after she throws away her racist thoughts.