"How's that?" A girl, about the age of 15 stands atop a ladder, trying her best to hold a large wooden sign steady. "Is that better?" She calls down to her mother, who is giving her a pitiful look in return. Her mother stands tall from the alleyway, with her hands on her hips. "It's fine how it is, just come down before you hurt yourself!" She laughs to herself, shaking her head. Her daughter was always trying so hard to make their lives better.

The girl sighed in frustration, standing on her tip toes to get the sign just right before she continued hammering. She heard her mother call out again. "I'm gonna finish closing up shop now. Come find me when you finally finish Vanessa! Then we can go get some dinner or something!" With that her mother waved her off and headed back inside the shop, her long shirt swaying against the pavement as she did so. Vanessa mumbled something in response but it was unintelligible, as she had placed extra nails between her teeth for convenience. After she had finally gotten the last nail in, she grabbed the edge of the sign with one hand and jerked it.

To her satisfaction it didn't budge. She let out a relieved sigh and glanced over to the horizon. East city was still fairly bustling with activity, and by this time the sun was setting, leaving the sky a orange hue. She noticed the some of the street lights flicker on, one by one. She glanced back over to the sign and frowned at it. "Just a few more nails, just to be safe." She blurted out loud. Vanessa could never let good enough be. She was always trying to fix things that weren't really broken, which was sometimes more of a burden to her mother, who hated to constantly see her daughter trying to repent.

Vanessa kept herself busy hammering for awhile, until a noise caught her attention. Her gaze was suddenly directed someplace towards the other side of her mother's shop, which sat on the corner of the block. A loud boom shook her place on the ladder. Vanessa's hammer fell from her hands as she grabbed onto the now-sturdy sign to keep herself from falling over. "Was that..?" She thought aloud. "An explosion?!"

Then she saw it. Smoke came bellowing out from some buildings in the distance behind the shop. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus on the source of the destruction, but to no avail. The smoke was thick, and her heart suddenly started racing in her chest, as she heard the screams of panic echoing through the streets. She stood high on the ladder still trying to focus her eyes when another loud boom came, much closer this time.

This time the earth shook a lot harder, causing Vanessa to lose her balance as the ladder tumbled out from beneith her. Her stomach sank immediately, as she tried to grab onto the sign in front of her. Her hand slipped just out of reach of its wooden surface, and she let out an involuntary shriek. She fell backwards, hitting the concrete hard several feet below from where she was originally standing. The impact left the wind knocked out of her, and her vision blurry.

She didn't have much time to compose herself before she heard footsteps thumping past her, and more shouting. She had barely pulled herself up to her elbows when she saw a man run past her, dark skinned with red eyes. Her confused gaze locked onto his. A glare. Those eyes. She thought innocently. An Ishvalen..? But-

"LOOK OUT!" Her attention was pulled away from the intimidating man to what the new voice was warning her about. Her eyes slowly moved in front of her and upwards. Her breath escaped her lungs as she watched, wide-eyed, and dumbfounded as her mother's shop was now beginning to collapse. Not only that, but it was falling towards her. Vanessa felt her fingernails scrape against the pavement as she clenched her hands, her heart racing. She froze, and before everything would go dark, a red blur pushed itself on top of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and winced. She heard a clap, followed by a familiar ringing sound before the deafening roar of the falling structure consumed her and the figure in red.