A/N: Like previously stated, I'm going through fixing all of these chapters.

That includes me removing my personal rants from the beginnings of these chapters.

Without further ado...

Skij Leonhart

Chapter 2:

"Daddy, can we go see the fair today?" Jessica asked in a whiny, high pitched voice. It seemed to be her tradition, four years running , to continuously bug her father about the fair. This was the second to last day of the fair, and Jessica was hoping to keep it in the forefront of her father's mind so that she could plead with him tomorrow. Victoria clung to her father's arm as their brother walked a few steps behind them, pushing their cart of groceries down the sidewalk. The old man sighed and ran his free hand through his peppered hair.

"Yes dear, we can." Victoria stopped and looked up at her father quizzically while her sister screamed and jumped for joy, their brother chuckling to himself quietly. Jessica recovered enough to run over to her father and cling to his other arm, uttering a string of words that sounded like "thankyouthankouthankythankyothakyou" until it regressed to screaming. The brunette girl on the other side of the old man drew her brows into a frown; sometimes her sister could be so darn loud.

After stopping by their home for a few minutes so they could drop off the groceries and so Jessica could "omg i gotta pick out a dress", Victoria slipped inside to grab her trusty notepad/journal. The journal being half-way full already, she figured at the fair she could burn through another fourth just by drawing sketches of all the tech on the real side of the fair. The little girl chuckled as she grabbed it off her nightstand and turned around to see her brother peeking inside the room.

"You gonna need an escort, little lady?" It was their secret; Victoria would say she was just following her brother, and he would pretend to be interested in the various tech and demo the ones that were available to do so; all of this while the unsuspecting little girl took notes and wrote down what she thought most fascinating. "Truth be told," her brother thought as he made his way back into the hallway, "some of the stuff is interesting, but sometimes I think Victoria's a little obsessed."

"Speaking of obsessed…" The dark-haired kid mumbled; the slightly older, much-louder blonde sister had finally darted out of her room in a simple yellow dress, much reflecting her mood and outlook for the fair. Both dark-haired siblings glanced at each other as their blonde sister gave a twirl with her dress on. When she realized the two weren't quite as excited as her, she scoffed and ran outside, yelling, "I won't let you two rain on my parade!"

Laughing, the two made their way out to the car and climbed in. There was a short, 10 minute ride to their destination which was already crawling with people; Jessica jumped from the car before their father could finish parking and ran towards the lake, where most of the festivities were. As the car rolled to a stop, Victoria slowly slid out of the car, followed closely by her brother. Their father sighed as they stood on the curb, staring after Jessica's disappearing figure with slight annoyance. Turning, he tossed the keys to the younger male for safekeeping.

"Don't take off without us, okay?" The older man joked as he made his way purposefully down towards his wild daughter. Free of her father, Victoria perked up considerably and grabbed her brother's hand, the other busy holding her notebook. Half-dragging him, the brunette ran towards the tail end of the exhibition stalls; the start was near the fireworks area, which was where she wanted to end up. Sighing, her brother rolled up his sleeves and started examining the various bits of technology as his sister flipped open her spiral and began to take notes.


Three hours after they had arrived at four, the sun had begun to set and they were nearing the end of the exhibition line; one particular invention had taken thirty minutes to build up to a spectacular ending of a program sequence before malfunctioning terribly by short-circuiting itself with the water it was demonstrating with. Everyone had walked away, disgruntled, as the owner flipped multiple shits over the sparking machine.

One of her favorites so far, though, had been the schematics for a weapon that piqued her curiosity. Some tables had handouts at their booths with pictures or blueprints; this one was a model of a shape-changing weapon. It changed from a massive hammer to a cannon-on-a-stick, as her brother had articulately put it. The operator included that it was "lightweight" and "easy to maneuver", but she thought it a bit too big for her taste. her brother asked her why she was interested in weaponry, of all things, and Victoria struggled to give him an answer.

"Well… I'm not sure; it just resonates with me inside. I'd love to be at the helm of something like that… in my size and color, of course." Her brother just shook his head as they walked on to the next booth.

Another favorite of Vi's was a set of augmentation boots and leg-braces; as the operator demonstrated, the brace-boot set allowed the user to jump and dash for quite the distance; and optional arm set allowed for similar strength in the upper body. This stand included an all-inclusive blueprint; the owner of the idea simply wanted to get his idea out into the world, not make money. Victoria took two copies, tucking one into her skirt, (just to be safe, she said) and walked towards the final booth she and her brother would make their way to for the evening.

This booth was much smaller than the rest, and seemed out of place; the color scheme was dull, the size awkward in comparison, and the arrangement strange; it was a closed booth without any display tables in front. Only a counter with a single, middle-aged woman behind it. When Victoria began to walk towards the booth, her brother grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Confused, she turned around to see him shaking his head no.

"But… it's the last booth! We went to every booth last year… and the year before that… and the year before that, too!" Victoria's whining seemed to rival Jessica's at this point, and her brother caved. "Be careful; I don't like the look of this," he mentioned, and stayed a ways behind her but still within earshot.

As Victoria walked up to the stand, she could tell the woman was asleep; light snores could be heard from behind the counter. Victoria stood on her tippy-toes to plink the bell, producing a light tone that jarred the poor old woman out of her sleep. Victoria stood patiently with her hands holding her journal to her chest as the peppered-hair lady made her way out of her chair, opening a door on the side of her booth with a box in her hands.

Excited, the girl made her way towards the woman quickly; her brother's sense of awareness got him to the woman first, holding back Victoria with his arm.

"Let me open it first; it could be dangerous." The old woman just laughed a pitiful, wheezing laugh; the laugh of someone with just days left.

"Please, boy. *cough cough* Hardly anyone around here gets gifts, anyways. *cough cough* I'm sure your girl wants something for her birthday, or maybe Christmas. *cough* It would make a nice g-" Victoria's brother interrupted as her own face turned a light shade of pink.

"Oh, no, no, she's not my, uh, girlfriend."

"Just a friend, then?" The old woman smirked as Victoria's face edged towards red. Her brother seemed to be flustered for the first time that the younger girl could remember.

"No. Just. My. Sister." He managed through clenched teeth; the old lady just laughed more, followed by wheezing, coughing and then more cackling.

I'm glad she seems to be having such a great time.

Victoria heard her brother whisper in her ear, "Can we please go now?"

The old lady seemed to read their minds and managed to contain herself as she bent down to set the box on the ground without the top. White wrapping paper covered whatever was inside.

"Go ahead, take it." The old lady then sat down behind it, cross-legged, and closed her eyes. Victoria pointed at her with wide eyes and then turned to her brother, who shrugged and bent down to pick up the box.

How can she bend like that? She looks like she's 90.

The old lady opened one eye and rose an eyebrow, then closed and lowered both quickly; Victoria blushed in shame, lowered her arm and decided to look at the box; her brother was removing the paper.

The girl removed the item in question; it was a pair of gloves, black in color and similar in length to dancer's show gloves. The material was closer to leather, however, and the knuckles were colored pink; a wiring could be felt running along the wrists and palms. As she slid them on, a click sounded as each glove tightened on the brunette's hands; Victoria frowned as the gloves seemed to meld to her skin a little bit.

The old lady jumped up quickly, again to Victoria's surprise, and grabbed the girl's newly sheathed hands, staring in astonishment. After a few seconds, an understanding seemed to seep into her features as she sat back down, sighing contentedly. Her mouth then opened, and without moving any other feature of her face, she began to speak in a deeper voice than before.

"You will endure great suffering before enjoying great pleasure, young one. Go forth and embrace your destiny; these gauntlets will serve you well in your darkest hour."

The woman gasped as if she 'woke up' from her trance to a bewildered Victoria and a protective big brother; he had his arm across her shoulders and was standing between the two. The girl was now clutching her journal that she had set down with her newly embraced hands.

"I don't know what that was, lady, or what that means… but my sister and I will be leaving. Thank you?" He ended on a question, and the woman nodded.

"No; thank you. Now… I may sleep." and with that, the woman closed her eyes and went limp; only her neck remained upright.


Victoria and her brother sat awaiting the fireworks; her brother readily stuffing his face with a funnel cake he had just bought. Victoria was busy scrawling in her notebook; a fresh page topped with the eerie message she had received from the possessed old lady.

"What do you think it means?" Her brother rolled his eyes and swallowed his piece of fried flour.

"For the fiftieth time, sis, it means nothing. They're just gloves, they look cool, they're probably warm, and we'll never see her again. Get over it." He managed before cramming another piece into his mouth.

"Psh. Boys." Victoria rolled her eyes as she looked back down at her journal. "This has to be important!" She wondered as she stared lazily into the journal, tracing the words with her fingers. As her brother walked back to the table, (when did he leave?) licking his fingers, he suddenly had a thought.

"Hey, sis." This snapped her out of her trance, and she looked up with her head inclined in inquiry.

"Try doing this." Without warning, he slammed his fist into the table, knuckles first, leaving a cross-pattern indent on his fingers from the picnic table's arrangement. Shaking it off, he looked over at his sister, who, wide-eyed and shocked, gently tapped her closed fist into the table.

"No, no, that won't do. Harder; c'mon. I'm trying to see if the gloves offer any protection; they're pretty thick looking. And what's that pink stuff on the knuckles? I wonder what tha-" Victoria interrupted her brother by slamming her encased left hand into his only supporting hand on the table; the reaction of which pulling his hand backwards in pain. This caused him to fall forward, having him crash face first into the table. She giggled as her brother pushed himself up with his good hand off the table, cradling his face with his injured hand.

"You're lucky you're a girl, little sister." He remarked with a playful scowl; Victoria giggled even more. Eventually the scowl made way for a smile and he shook his head; it was his fault, after all. Interrupting them both was a loud-speaker announcement, preceded by a bit of feedback.

"-bzzt- Just letting everyone know that we're starting the fireworks in five minutes! We're gonna do a little test of our igniter here in a few seconds; don't be alarmed."

A joyous noise erupted from the crowds, and as the people started to venture towards the lakeside, the siblings (mainly Victoria) picked up their things.

"You know, sis, I had a good time today. I hope you did too." Victoria looked over and nodded with a smile, taking his injured hand and sliding hers over it as they made their way towards the lake themselves. Not even 10 steps into their walk, her brother turned to ask a question, and the last Victoria remembered of that night was his face, mouth slightly ajar sa he posed to ask a question; the previous smile slightly faded as his brows began to crease into a concentrated frown. All of this she would remember… forever.

Then the blast came.