A/N: If I owned Willy Wonka… well lets just say.. I don't think I'd be here writing fanfiction! So yeah, he as well as Tim Burton's take on the book are NOT MINE!

Also, this is my second fic, please be patient and gentle. Thank you.

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Ch. 1: Golden Memories

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As Willy Wonka, the self proclaimed magician, genius, and Chocolatier, straightened the last of his hand placed Golden Tickets on his unsealed top selling Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemellow Delight bar with a single purple clad finger, he contemplated whether his game was actually going to play out right.

Well of course it would!

He had every detail down to the last teeniest, tiniest bit, all planned out, except for the game's pieces. Once those were in place he would be able to manipulate them to his heart's content. He knew what he was after, he knew how to get what he wanted, and most importantly, he knew it would be oodles of fun narrowing down his … search. Fun except for the bit about actually having to socialize with other members of his species, he found that fact truly disconcerting. Luckily he had all of his little friends to help him out along the journey, as well as three extra pairs of gloves in his coat pocket at all times.

I only hope there aren't any snags, he thought pessimistically before straightening up and exiting the packing room in order to set the rest of his plans in motion.

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Elsewhere in the same small city was a young woman of nineteen working very hard in a very horrible job. It was not horrible for everyone, this fact she knew, but it was horrible for her. She did not want to be working so much. She did not want to have to support herself and her younger brother. She wanted more than anything to go to college and finish her education. She wanted to make something of herself in the world that had thus far been so terribly cruel to her small family.

Those were not the only reasons that she did not like her current job though. The main reasons were her employer and his nasty customers.

Working at Fickelgruber's Ice Cream shop was tiring, messy, and aggravating. All day long she had to clean up spills, most of which were deliberately made on her behalf, and deal with bratty little kids and an even brattier boss.

Maybe bratty was not the best word for him…

"Kally! What are you doing? Get up off that floor and serve the next customer!" Bellowed old Fickelgruber himself.

Kally had been attempting to clean up all of the evil non-melting chocolate ice cream that a regular had decided needed to be dumped and then smeared all around the floor below his booth. The regular in question, a small boy with an evil streak that would give his own mother nightmares if she knew it existed, was staring down at her with a smirk. He proceeded to laugh aloud when she jumped, banging her head nicely on the underside of his tabletop after her boss's call startled her. With a glare in the boy's general direction she straightened up, turning to address the next customer.

All of her days were just like this one; if ever it did differ, it was only to differ for the worse.

--

Kally trudged home through the lightly falling snow; a foot deep in places along the walk, but for the most part merely slush. Slush was the worst because it held the potential to cause one to fall. Injury was out of the question. No time for that kind of nonsense.

Pushing open the front door to her tiny apartment above her second job, a night club called "Meeka's," Kally sighed with relief. She had a couple of hours before her part time bartending job below started, so she could grab a quick snack and take a nap; if, that is, Justin did not need any help with his homework.

Her 'little' brother, Justin, was sixteen and nearly ready to take on a job of his own. Kally wanted him to finish school, mainly to have a better chance at the life she knew that she may never get, but he refused with the logic that he would be old enough to take on a real job and lessen her burden. Justin was a very good boy.

Kally entered the kitchen to find Justin closing a schoolbook and draining the last bit of milk from his glass.

"Kal! How was work?" He said, already knowing what the answer to his question would be.

"How do you think? My gosh, those little brats.. I.. no offence bro, but I can't bloody stand kids! Wankers, the lot of em'!" She sat in the chair across from him at the small two seater table with a heavy sigh.

"Come on sis, they can't be all bad. Not everyone's a wanker, eh? And why would I take offence? I ain't so little anymore." He said, trying to get his sister to lighten up a bit.

"There are a couple that are alright. There's this little girl who is probably the most polite little person I have ever met. I believe her name is Vivian. She's a doll. So pretty. And there are a few little boys that aren't as bad as the rest but you know I don't really hate all kids, just the brats that frequent Grubby's. That's all neither here nor there… I need to find another job. I can't believe I've worked there for three bloody years now."

"Well then find another job; one that's not so… public. Can't you work at the animal shelter or library or something?"

"Its too big of a risk, Jus. I can't just quit whenever I feel like it. You know that. I'd need a really good reason to risk it. Anyway, those types of places like volunteers better than paid workers. I'll find something eventually."

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm gonna go have a bit of a lie down before my next job."

"Ah Kal, we hardly get to see each other anymore les' I stay up too late or wake up too early."

"I know. Well you can always sneak down to the club."

"Meeka said I can't be doin' tha' no more else she's gonna give us the boot."

"Meeka is mainly only there on weekends. And you know she was joking, she loves us. But .. well I'm always busy anyway.. so we wouldn't get ta visit much. I'm sorry Jus."

"I know Kal. Hey, go take your nap."

"Alright, see you later."

"Ta."

--

Much later, when Kally returned upstairs exhaustedly counting her tips from the night, she immediately noticed that the lamp was on and her brother was not in bed, but up, dozing on the small sofa, apparently awaiting her return.

"Jus? You shoulda went to sleep, you're gonna have a hard time gettin' up in the morning."

"Kal? Can we talk?" He said, his voice quiet and pleading.

Kally recognized this tone. He was going to ask about their life. He wanted to talk about their parents. He wanted to dredge up the past. He tended to do that quite a lot, not realizing the strange affect that it had on her.

Sighing, Kally shrugged off her shoes and curled up on the couch next to her brother.

"What do you wanna talk about Jus?"

"I wanna talk about dad."

"Ah."

"Yeah. Why.. why'd he have to go and .. go?"

"Justin, ..he was very sad. He was depressed. Some people, when they're depressed they.. well they do foolish things because they can't see any other thing to do."

"But he didn't have to.. and mom.. mom she… Kally.. I killed her!"

Kally hated it when he said things like this. No matter how many times she told him the truth it was like he was bent on wallowing in grief. She wallowed as well, but silently, and for far different reasons.

"Justin you listen to me okay? And actually listen this time! You did not kill mum! She died from a heart attack. It wasn't your fault. The doctors warned her not to try and have another child after me because of her bad heart but she insisted. It was her own bloody stubbornness. You didn't choose to be born!"

"I .. I know. I just wish things had been different. If one of them.. if.. both... you could finish school, and so could I, and we could have careers and there would be plenty of money and.."

"I know Jus. Look, its really late, you should stop worrying about the past and concentrate on passing your classes, alright?"

"Fine. But don't you ever think about them? Don't you ever wonder about.."

"Yes, I do. I just.."

"You never say anything! You never talk about dad and you only talk about mom once in a blue moon."

It was clear from his raised voice and slightly flushed face that Justin was angry about the fact that his sister never seemed to think of their parents. Kally knew that it bothered him, it bothered her as well, but she just could not make herself do it.

"I know! I just don't want to talk about them alright? But I do think about them sometimes okay? Go to bed Jus. I need to eat something and then get some rest myself."

"Fine. Night."

"Goodnight yah butthead."

With an eye roll at his sister Justin turned and went to his cot in the corner of the room. Their apartment was only one bedroom so he had to make due. Kally went to the kitchen and then retired to her room after eating a quick sandwich.

Before sleep would come Kally did think about their parents. The truth was, thinking about her mother always made her depressed and then those thoughts would inevitably turn her thoughts to her father. Whenever Kally thought about her father she felt a whole series of emotions. She would begin by feeling grief for their loss but that grief was always quickly replaced by anger; anger at her father for being such a coward. Most importantly, anger at what was so wrongly done to him all of those years ago. She was so angry about that day that she could hardly think straight when reliving those dark memories that were not even hers to relive.

How could such horrible things happen to such good people?

Their life had supposedly been wonderful. They had lived in the better part of town, in a three-bedroom house with a large lawn. They had had everything that they needed or wanted. It was a household full of love and generosity. Her parents had only been married a couple of years before her birth. They still had the newlywed mentality and were very affectionate. When Kally's mother had passed away while giving birth to Justin, Kally did not understand. Kally hardly remembered anything anyway, as she had been far too young at the time. The only reason she knew that things had once been better was because she had the photo albums and her Great Aunt Dorsey to tell her the tales. But Aunt Dorsey had passed away some three years ago, leaving Kally, at age sixteen, to fend for herself and for her brother. Unfortunately, Aunt Dorsey had been renting, so they were required to move out of what had been home to her for fifteen years. Kally was forced to quit school and find a job. Luckily Meeka, a woman who had newly opened a night club but was not desperately in need of the quarters above it, felt for their plight, and offered the quarters to the siblings when they had come in one stormy night saying that they had nowhere else to go.

Kally often wondered why Justin was so depressed over their parent's absence in their lives. He had only been living mere moments before their mother had died, and had only been with their father for about a year before…

But it was due to Aunt Dorsey's talks and memories. Aunt Dorsey had played a large part in their lives.

Getting out of bed and sneaking quietly into the bathroom, Kally quickly took a sleeping pill because she knew that sleep would never come to her willingly. She had inherited a couple of maddening things from Aunt Dorsey; her inability to get to sleep when plagued with thoughts, and a hatred for someone so strong that it sometimes scared even herself.

Aunt Dorsey had unknowingly, through nearly constant prejudiced remarks and theories, instilled this firm hatred inside of Kally from a very young age, and Kally would never forgive her for it.

It was one thing to hate someone.

It was fully another to almost be blinded by rage at the mere mention of that someone's name.