Hello Everyone! This story is going to contain a whole lot of chapters, almost 70ish, but it wont be boring I promise! its going to be about Skylar's life, at the beginning it will centre around her, but after a few chapters it will start to drift off to other characters, like Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, Nanaki, Reno and even a few unscheduled appearance by some characters we love but haven't been able to see for long. I've worked a lot on the character arc, and did my best to make her as human as possible. i hope you enjoy the story, and i would really love it if you could review it for me!
Chapter One:
It required a lot of focus, a lot of care and attention. Even so much as a shake would ruin everything. Her arms and back were aching, and her neck was throbbing, but she wasn't about to quit now. Quitting now meant ruining the decoration, and she needed to finish the damn twirl before she takes a break; she had to. Maybe that was a little OCD, but if she wanted to be proud of her work she has to do it right.
Skylar Genttean -who preferred to be called Sky- was leaning over a large fresh-out-of-the-oven cake. With a squeeze bottle filled with blue decorative icing in her left hand, and her other arm steadying her precariously. She was standing next to the pink counter of her mother's bakery; Calla's Bunnery. The air smelt of freshly baked bread, melted chocolate, and a hint of vanilla, mixed with the distinct sweet smell of icing and lots of sugar.
She could almost count the millimetres left; almost there, almost there… almost there… done!
Success!
She pulled herself up to stand straight. stretching her back, she sighed heavily.
She glanced around, it was still early in the morning, and the shop was still closed. There was no one but her standing in the pink and white lace bakery. The glass case fridge was packed full with cakes, pies, brownies and cookies, and the shelves behind her was stacked with an assortment of breads, donuts, and rolls. The shop itself had a couple of tables and chairs placed around the area. The tables were covered with white lace cloth, and the chairs were light shades of pink, blue, and yellow. The pink counter she was standing behind, had the cash register, also painted a light shade of blue, and placed neatly over white lace.
She glanced down, the cake she was working on was complete. It was a birthday cake as it read. Covered in swirls and twirls, it was indeed in the shape of a butterfly. Sky smiled proudly at her handiwork, placing it in a box, and tacking a piece of paper to it, with the words "to Madeline".
There was music playing from a jukebox over in the corner of the room, a familiar song Sky couldn't help but sing along to, she glanced around checking no one was nearby first, as she sang rather off tune. The door to the back room was open, and Sky could feel the heat of the oven radiating through. The phone rang, and she heard her mother pick up, her singsong voice was loud and clear, from dealing with so many elderly customers that were very fond of her apple pie.
"Calla's Bunnery at your service! got a sweet tooth? Today's special is blueberry pie! what're you craving today?" a moment of silence passed as the other party spoke. Sky shuffled around, remembering that she forgot to put on her apron, her mother tends to be very critical of that. She took it out from under the cash register, and quickly pulled it on, tying it behind her waist.
"Rocket shaped double chocolate fudge cookies, you say?" came her mother's answer, interest piquing, Sky walked into the back room to watch her mother, the smell of fresh cut oranges and lemons hit her; her mother was baking a lemon cake. Her mother gave a short laugh, "oh dear me, of course we can!"
Sky rolled her eyes with a smile, her mother sounded so confident of herself just now. Rocket shaped cookies would mean Sky had to go make the pan they were to use, unless they made it into a large rectangle and then cut off the extras, but that would be a waste of good chocolate and flour.
"Two days from now? Alright sir! We are on it!" her mother sang, jotted down a number and hung up the phone.
Sky sighed, another day of blacksmithing. She hated it. It made her anxious.
"You better get started sweetheart, two days isn't that far away," her mother said, taking the slip of paper and tacking it to the wall of papers behind her. Her mother had spent months trying to get Sky used to the complex system on which the papers and slips were organised, from left to right it was organised by day, and from top to bottom by urgency.
"What about the other cakes we need done?" Sky questioned, watching her mother glance into the oven's window. Sky was proud of her oven; she made it when she was still so young, and she took care to make it large enough to bake three pans of cookies, and wide enough to contain two large sized cakes per pan. The window and the small light installed inside took a bit of work, as she had to search for something that could stand the heat, but eventually it all paid off. Her mother seemed quite fond of it.
"Leave them all to me," her mother said. Turning towards her and giving her a warm smile, her grey eyes were twinkling, and her strawberry blond hair was tucked away neatly under her hairnet. She continued authoritatively, a playful smile playing on her lips, "We had a deal, you do the mechanical side of things first, and then you help out with the rest later, without worrying and making me feel like I cant do things on my own."
Sky pouted, she knew she had promised, but she couldn't help but worry. After her father passing away so long ago, Sky always made sure someone was around her mother, to watch over her and make sure she had everything she needed.
"I had everything under control even before you came home, you know!" Her mother poked lightly, turning round and grabbing her oven mitts. It was true, life had been different when Sky wasn't around, her mother got by just fine without her, she was sure. But at the same time, she still worries for her sometimes. Her mother never really did well with being alone, or so Sky believed.
"Alright," Sky began, slipping off her apron, "I'll be out back, in the forge."
"Mm," her mother nodded, humming a tune to herself as she watched the pie she was baking rise.
"Don't forget the respirator, dear," she heard her add.
Sky turned to exit the kitchen, and her eyes caught sight of a familiar face on the television screen hanging from the corner of the ceiling. She froze, transfixed by it. Her eyes narrowed and her lips tightened, the more she studied the face of this man, the more hatred mounted up inside her. Light blond hair, blue eyes, and dressed in white. The twenty-four year old prodigy was flanked by two black suits, a blond woman and a wutain man.
Rufus Shin-Ra. Vice President of Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, now President after the death of his father a year ago. the man who sought to control the world with fear. He embodied everything Sky hated; as a person he was a terrible monster, but he also reminded her of her time working at Shin-Ra. She was recruited by order of said Vice President, 'Your technical and mechanical prowess is far too palpable to forgo', said the recruitment letter.
Sky glared at the screen.
She could remember how difficult it had been to leave her mother behind, but they had needed the money. If she thought about it from a financial perspective, taking the job was the smartest thing she had ever done, without it they wouldn't have had the luxury of opening a bakery, as it was a fairly expensive trade.
She sighed, she remembered working hard, and trying to climb the corporate ladder, she had the feeling of being pulled out of the darkness and into the light, and then trying to take in as much light as she could. She remembered pining after other engineers' knowledge and information, afraid of missing out on anything.
But this man, he was a monster. The Planet was slowly dying, everyone knew that. It was his fault, but it was also hers; she was part of ShinRa. She worked for him, for the company that killed the Planet, and she hated him even more for being the reason for her recruitment.
"Honey?" came her mother's soothing voice, a gentle hand on her shoulder snapping her out of her reverie.
Sky turned to look at her mother, she had a concerned look etched on her face. Sky tried to give her a big smile, to push away the worry, but she failed, she knew her mother could see through her.
"That easy to read, huh?" Sky chuckled.
"I'm your mother, of course I can read you, like an open book too!" She nodded. She glanced at the television screen, and watched Rufus Shin-Ra murmur silently about the importance of finishing the Meteor Monument, which stood tall behind him, towering in the middle of Edge. She sighed, "Cain says he has Geostigma."
"Of course he does, the Planet must hate his guts," Sky muttered darkly, hinting at the rumour that Geostigma, the plague ravaging the Planet's inhabitants, was the own Planet's creation.
"I know you hate him, but at least he had the common sense to fire you and make you leave Midgar before AVALANCHE broke it, dear."
"I'm sure he didn't fire me for that reason, mom," Sky drawled, "he isn't that kind or thoughtful. He broke the Planet, not AVALANCHE."
"Well, the Planet is like everything else, it lives and it eventually dies," her mother said, walking towards the back window, glancing out to the backyard, towards a specific stone under a large oak tree. It was at moments like these, when her mother's voice is heavy with wisdom, that Sky became aware of the weight her mother carried on her shoulders, the weight they shared.
Sky bit her lip, regretting the direction the conversation took. She knew what her mother was looking at. She crossed her arms over her chest, and stared away from her mother. absentmindedly touching the little scar on her jaw, a little ways left of her chin, as she thought of how she could have guided the conversation away from this.
"You're right," Sky began, "Everything dies eventually, but I'm not about to roll over that easy, and neither are you, you don't have a choice! We're in this together, mom."
Her mother gave a light laugh, nodding her head. Sky moved forward and gave her a bear hug, planting a kiss on her mother's cheek.
Once outside, Sky made her way through the grassy garden, past the rusty old swing chair, and without a single glance, deliberately passed right by her father's tombstone under the large oak tree, and into the dimly lit forge.
The smell of metal and wood, of copper, of rust and corrosion and the faint hint of WD-40 hung in the air. The messy place was furbished with a stone and brick furnace, next to it were remnants of her father's days; coal. He had been traditional in his ways and liked to use coal.
Every time she looked at those coals, she remembered thinking as a child, who coveted her mother's beautiful strawberry blond hair that reminded her of sunshine, that maybe if her father hadn't used so much coal he wouldn't have given her his black hair, that maybe under all that coal-y black lay equally beautiful 'sunshine' hair. and she remembered her mother consoling her, that though she may not have had the 'sunshine hair' she wanted, she had 'midnight hair', which was equally as great and beautiful.
She sighed, crossing her arms as she shook her head. She remembered thinking, that at least she had her mother's stormy grey eyes and not his gloomy black ones.
After coming back from Shin-Ra, and realising it might be more lucrative for the two of them if she helped the town's people by rebuilding broken things, she had modified the old coal furnace by installing a fan and a gas dispenser. Because she preferred to use propane gas which was cleaner and more convenient, although the old furnace was large, which meant it was a lot more time consuming to heat it, but she was used to that sort of hassle at this point.
An acetylene torch stood over to the side, with several canisters by it. From the ceiling hung several clamps, tongs, and hammers of different sizes and shapes, each one served a specific purpose. Propped against the wall were steel rods, and flat stock. A vise and anvil stood side by side in the middle. The little forge contained everything a blacksmith needed.
She walked to her respirator as her mother advised, and pulled it on, covering her mouth and lips, and buckled on its belt. Next were her gloves and the welding mask, which was a shield of hardened glass, that wrapped around her face and held to her chin. She was very fond of the mask as it made her feel like a hardcore motorcyclist, who sped so fast the air became too thin to breathe.
Slipping on her gloves, she quickly went about her work, grabbing a flat stock and laying it over the table, and the acetylene torch. She cut a large rectangle, having its specs already memorised from making so many things for the oven. Threw it in the furnace, lighting the pilot light of the gas, and flicking on the fan.
Next, she took out a block of wood, and proceeded to draw out the shape of a rocket, and began to cut it out using a jigsaw. Slowly but surely she traced it, and popped out the shape.
She searched the room for aluminium blocks to melt; coating the steel with aluminium was a must to make it food friendly. She walked back to the furnace turning the steel rectangle over with a clamp. It was slowly getting hotter and hotter by the second. She took a moment to step out of the forge.
She stared up at the sky, it was noon now. Her mother had lit up the lights outside for her. She turned to take a seat, a chair was neatly placed right next to the door, the chair she used to sit in as a kid and watch her father work.
The place was riddled with memories she wanted to keep away, and yet after the destruction of Midgar, she had no choice but to remain with her mother, not that she minded her mother of course, on the contrary her mother meant the world to her, but she didn't like having to work in her father's old forge.
Granted, her mother needed a mechanic and a smithy by her side as she had a habit of challenging nearly impossible cake shapes, and man-handling some of the tech she owned. But working there put Sky on edge, and made her revisit memories she would rather bury away.
She glanced at the table next to her, spotting her journal, -now covered in bits of saw and flecks of metal, and flipped its pages. The first half of it contained notes of the information she had gathered while working at Shin-Ra. She read past a few as she flipped the pages; 'for inducing higher bullet count for handheld machine gun, need bigger clip, consider using round-shape, might cause worse aim.' and 'Buster Swords not aerodynamic, need redesign despite charm,' and 'Mythril stronger and lighter than steel, experiment with armour or weapons'.
She rolled her eyes, the tone she used when jotting down information made her sound like some foreign mad scientist.
She continued flipping over the pages, the last few were of her last experiment, the one that resulted in her quitting. While experimenting with the Mythril shields, bodysuits and armour, the test subject had been recently infused and augmented with Mako, which is the liquid form of the Planet's Lifestream that is used as a power source.
He was still covered in it because he had been "too lazy to take a shower, I mean, really, who believes all the shit they tell you about Mako poisoning, I keep telling them, come on man, get your shit together and bare with the smell. wait, sweetcheeks, are you one of those sensitve-nose types?". Of course, he had failed to mention this before, and only thought of saying this after she buckled him up from behind and smelt the awful stench of Mako.
The Mythril bodysuit had been a prototype, and unexpectedly had bonded with the Mako on the subjects skin, and resulted in 'deformation of the Mythril/Mako kind, green impenetrable skin, sluggish movement'. A few days later she got a call, the Mythril had spread through into his body, making him incapable of digestion, and soon died of starvation.
The guilt tortured her, she couldn't bare it, and soon enough she quit her job at Shin-Ra, and left for Kalm. Luckily, she escaped dying via demolition of Midgar, but she couldn't say the same for her dead subject. She had 'forgotten' to mention this to her mother, because she was afraid of the consequences, like a child who had failed an exam at school and was afraid of being told off by their parents, and afraid of dealing with the disappointment.
Sky sighed heavily, although a year had passed, it still hadn't settled very well with her. She knew there was nothing she could have done, it wasn't her fault so much as it had been a combination of faults; her excitement to see her work in action, and his laziness to take a shower, had combined to end his life.
That gave her good enough reason to second guess almost every move she made ever since.
Pushing the memories back down, she flipped through the book once more. Reaching to the most recent entries. A bird's eye view of Calla's Bunnery, a drawing of a toy action figure that a kid broke and she had fixed for him, a map of the city of Edge, several drawings of weapons, a diagram of the Mythril body suit with corrections of her previous model, a sketch of the Meteor Monument with some lyrics of a song jotted over to the side of it.
"Oh the distance is not do-able
in these bodies of clay my brother
oh the distance, it makes me uncomfortable
guess it's natural to feel this way
oh, are we locked into these bodies?
let's hold out for somethin' sweeter
spread your wings and fly"
She wanted to go to Edge, she wanted to help the citizens, and make amends. She felt her chest knotting, but at the same time, she didn't know if she would be good enough. It was a scary thing; a man dying at her hands. What's to prevent that from happening again?
A new day carried new orders and requests for their little bakery. Already into the evening, huddled in the small over-heating kitchen, the pair worked at making a three layered cake. They had successfully placed the layers on top of each other a few hours ago, and left it to set, and were now in the process of decorating it.
"We should put a white base, right?" asked Sky, grabbing hold of a spatula as she dug into the white cream.
"That would take too much time, and would waste too much cream," her mother answered, hands hovering over the cake as she watched it carefully, just in case it decided to fall apart or lean one way. She continued, "look for the food colouring."
"Where…?" Sky began, turning around to search, rummaging through a few cupboards, which was of no use, "where do you put them?"
"You still don't remember?! its already been a year!" her mother groaned, "Aren't you an Engineer? shouldn't you have some sort of memorising ability or something?"
"That's a literature student, I think…" muttered Sky, still opening and closing cupboards in search of the illusive food colouring, she paused for a second pondering her mother's choice of words, "Maybe if you arranged things systematically, it would make more sense and be easier to understand? At least if you forget where something is, you'll find it with logic!"
"Well, how about you 'systematically' and 'logically' get me the food colouring?" her mother mocked.
"Yes, Ma'me," came Sky's joking response, she sighed, taking a step back to be logical about it, "You usually use food colouring with cream, and cream is made from eggs, and the eggs are…" She walked over to the small counter, on which the eggs sat, "which means, the food colouring must be either here, or…" She opened the cupboard above it, "Voila! Logic triumphs!"
"Bring them here, now," her mother murmured absentmindedly, taking the small colourful vials into her hands. She began to quickly separate the cream into three different pots, as Sky began to make more of the cream.
Soon enough, each layer of cake was covered with a separate colour; red, orange and then topped with yellow. For over an hour, the pair experimented with the different shades they could make, until they finally settled on a couple. Using squeeze bottles, they expertly began to draw lines criss-crossing over the entire cake, giving it a nice 'systematic' affect. As soon as they were done, they carried the three layered cake into the walk-in fridge; a creation of her father's.
"Alright, we'll leave it for an hour then," her mother said, working the small dial Sky had installed for the fridge next to the door. She turned away, yanking the hairnet off, and letting her short bob of strawberry blond hair cascade down, Sky eyed it sullenly. Then she added, reminding Sky, who was known for dozing off on breaks, "We'll come back in an hour to put the small delicate pieces in place."
Sky nodded, plopping down to the ground tiredly. Sky pouted slightly, remembering the reason for the lack of chairs in the kitchen; a few months ago, she dozed off in the kitchen and burnt a few cookies, ever since then, her mother took away any sort of flat surface that she could use as a bed.
RRING!
Sky watched as her mother quickly stood up and made her way to the phone, halfway there Sky's eyes landed on the television screen. It was a news report on Edge, a tour of sorts by one of Shin-Ra TV's reporters, telling the viewers what the small town contained, how quickly it was built, and how 'helpful' Shin-Ra was to the process. The reporter was a ginger haired beauty, charming freckles on the bridge of her nose, a pretty white-toothed smile, perfectly drawn blue eyeliner to compliment her gorgeous eyes, and lips stained a dark shade of red, the right shade of red.
The ginger haired beauty was in stark contrast of the desolate background behind her; the greyness, the dirty streets, the rusty walls, the broken people. Sky sighed, it pained her to see it.
The reporter lady seemed to be talking excitedly about a specific bar behind her, apparently she wasn't allowed to walk in for an interview, as the bar owners were not too fond of publicity -or more correctly not too fond of Shin-Ra. Yet, she had heard enough about the sweetheart of a bar-woman working behind its counter to make the story.
Just as she was about to end it, a spiky blond-haired man walked out of its door, took a single glance in her and the camera's general direction and began walking away, a scowl contorting his handsome face. The reporter lady practically stumbled over her wires as she tried to catch his attention, perhaps for his aloof and intriguing appearance, but most probably because he had exited so casually from the bar she so desperately wanted to get in.
Sky smirked in amusement, chuckling lightly, as she watched the beauty run after this mysterious man, who -without a care in the world for who she was or what she looked like or how hard she was trying to talk to him- continued trekking away into the distance, just out of her reach. The camera zoomed in on his disappearing back, where an enormous broadsword hung.
the reporter lady glanced back at the camera, clearing her throat and dusting herself off, she continued her story. Sky caught sight of a pair of orphans scurrying about behind her, their arms covered in the black of Geostigma, and carrying pieces of a broken bicycle. Sky watched as they tried to put the pieces together. Her hand gently fingering the scar on her chin as she fell into deep thought, the sight broke her heart.
The bicycle they were carrying was seemingly broken beyond repair, after a few attempts, the pair dropped the pieces to the ground, a deflated look on their faces, as they stood up and walked away, dragging their feet, with one of them turning to deliver a frustrated kick to the broken bicycle and walking away. She bit her bottom lip, feeling the small scar with her forefinger as she thought, it would be so easy for her to fix it for them, a blow torch here, and a few tightened screws there.
Sky sighed, hand dropping away from her chin, she pulled out a pen, and doodled on her right arm as she thought. A habit she picked up after her mother banned Sky from carrying notebooks into the kitchen, not to mention she always lost them eventually.
After the demolition of Midgar, Shin-Ra's capitol, there was a huge amount of orphans residing in Edge, she noted. Perhaps the easiest way to bring them joy was to fix their toys, as she couldn't really adopt all of the orphans there, and could barely take care of herself to begin with. She sighed, maybe I should get a dog?… i'll get used to taking care of someone other than myself then. she shook her head, Mommy isn't a dog person…
"Time's up, sweetheart!" her mother announced, once more snapping her out of her reverie. Sky's head shot up, watching her mother tack another slip of paper to the wall, she turned to stand in front of Sky, holding her hands out to pull her up. "Up you go!"
Sky grinned, pocketing her pen as she took her mother's hands, and pulled herself up.
Her mother paused for a moment, and eyed her arms sternly. Following her eyes she glanced back down at herself, noticing the drawings she had absentmindedly drawn; a bicycle, arrows and diagrams jotted next to it, and a strange looking broadsword; a Buster Sword. She stared at it for a moment, wondering where she had seen it before. Glancing back at the screen, where she had been looking a few moments prior; the stoic man's silhouette. Sky instantly recognised the familiar sword; Buster Swords were used by SOLDIER, Shin-Ra's elite army of Mako infused warriors.
"They say its bad for your health, sweetheart," her mother warned, staring down at the black ink.
"So is cake!" Sky retorted, sticking her tongue out, her mother gave her a light slap on her shoulder as she turned and walked.
"Let's do this!" she encouraged, thrusting up a fist in excitement, and making her way to the walk-in fridge.
The weekend had arrived, at last. Sky and her mother were seated outside of their little shop, Calla's Bunnery blazing over their heads, giving the shop a pink halo against the midnight sky. Music was playing from the jukebox inside the shop, a song called What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong, floated on the mid-summer night air. Outside, the pair were sipping tea, and eating leftover cakes that hadn't sold that day. Sky was munching away happily at a peanut butter cookie, and her mother was enjoying a thick slice of apple pie.
"Maybe you should start cutting down on the cake, sweetie, you've gained a few kilos," her mother stated, trying to sound as warm as she could, but delivering a harsh remark was always difficult and hard sounding.
"I knowww! Mia told me yesterday!" Sky whined, pouting slightly at her mother as she mentioned her dearest friend Mia, she placed a hand on her chubby belly, and continued, "but I sort of don't really care at this point, the cake is too good!"
"How are you going to get a boyfriend? If you keep eating like this he wont be able to fit you through the door!" Her mother exclaimed.
"Pfft! I refuse to lose wait for some guy, if he cant handle some chub he wont get any rub-a-dub-dub!" Sky said jokingly, sticking her tongue out as her mother gasped at Sky's racey comment. The two laughed lightly, and continued eating. Sky's cookie crunched as she took her bites, and as she neared its moist centre, she couldn't help but smile in excitement, she loved the chewy part in the middle, and always made sure to eat off the crunchy edges, and leave the best part for last.
"Looks like this week is going to be a light one," her mother began, taking a bite of the apple pie, the smell of cinnamon and apples on her breath. Sky nodded, watching her mother, who seemed like she had more to say, she could hear it in her voice, and see it on her face. She braced herself.
"You can take a break if you want, dear," she continued, taking another bite and preparing the next one. Sky contemplated her mother's words, she was sure this wasn't all it.
"Are you bored of me already?" she joked, playing along.
"You know that's not it,"
"I dunno where i'd go, to be honest,"
"Cain's been looking around for a place for you," said her mother softly, pausing her eating, and taking a deep steadying breath, Sky held hers, wondering what was on her mother's mind that could make her so anxious. Assuming that Cain was indeed looking for a place for her in Kalm, there wasn't much for her mother to be nervous about, unless she has to become neighbours with her old school friends. She waited.
"You should go to Edge." came her mother's singsong voice, the kind of tone she used to convince customers, and to lure children into buying her candy.
"No." came Sky's quick and curt answer, deliberately watching her mother out of the corner of her eye, as she took another cookie into her hands.
"You can help them, Sky, you can help the Planet." her mother coerced.
"I wouldn't know where to start,"
"You'll start somewhere, you'll find your way, dear, you'll find your place like you always do," her mother pushed on, Sky bit her lip, still not convinced, her mother continued, "You're good at these things, and you want to help, its perfect, your true calling!"
"No, mom!" Sky interjected, putting down the cookie as she sighed in exasperation, "Just… let go of the ideal you have for me."
"Its not an ideal, young lady," her mother said, her tone suddenly changing, from the tone of selling cookies and cake to the tone of a mother. Giving her a stern look, she continued, "Like I said a few days ago, I can read you like an open book. I know what you want to do before you even think about it!"
"Not this time, mom," Sky sighed, lying. She shook her head as she crossed her arms over her chest; she had already made up her mind. "I'm not going to Edge."
The older lady's mouth opened, preparing another attempt. Sky felt sad for her mother, who was working so hard to insure her daughter's happiness. Indeed she could see right through her. She cut her short, she didn't want her to waste her energy.
"I can build you an oven, I can't build you a city."
Her mother nodded, Sky watched her out of the corner of her eyes; disappointment evident on her face, her attempts had failed.
The pair continued eating in silence, both deep in thought.
Going to Edge meant leaving her mother alone, it also meant that she'd be at position where she might be asked to do more than she could handle, more than she could bear. Sky knew how to forge a pan or an oven, but Edge was an entire city, what could she offer to them that they didn't have already? It all seemed too far away for her, Edge seemed far away. her hopes of aiding its citizens, making amends, and leaving a mark on the world were slowly fading away into the reality of her situation.
She was a petty mechanic, who believed she aided in breaking the world, who killed a man in one of her experiments, and was now working in a bakery.
She sighed, eyeing her mother, who's face was practically sliding off in sadness and disappointment. Maybe now was not the best time to be thinking so selfishly, she thought.
The music changed, Chocolates and Cigarettes. She pushed herself up, her mother glanced up at her, worry and fear in her eyes, apprehensively even. Sky grinned down at her, as if consoling her mother,
"How about a dance, mom?"
Her mother smiled shyly, "you know how to make me smile,"
"Its our little thing, isn't it?"
"Mm!"
The pair began to dance, Sky loosening her mother's strings by dancing around her like a crazy person, her mother danced like a queen; calm, poised, and graceful. Her mother hummed lightly with the music, pulling Sky to a standstill, as she guided her daughter through a calm and smooth classical dance.
"Ah! My favourite!" Sky said excitedly, grinning. Her mother nodded lightly, smiling back.
"You always liked it when your dad and I danced it,"
"You looked like a King and Queen,"
"Still too young to fail, too scared to sail away
But one of these days I'll grow old
And I'll grow brave and I'll go
One of these days"