A/N: Here's to starting fresh: without further ado, ladies and gents.

How Things Used to Be, by yours truly; Skij.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1:

Light hadn't even begun to poke its fingers through the brunette's blinds yet, and still her alarm insisted on screaming its two-tone siren call over and over until Victoria slammed her hand down on it, effectively snoozing it for another five minutes.

"Oh, no you don't."

A strong hand grabbed Victoria by the collar and threw her down onto the floor, violently disturbing her peaceful sleep. Groaning, she sat up and rubbed her head, trying to discern who had done such a vile deed when the perpetrator himself decided to lean down and plant a kiss on her forehead. The act brought a smile to her face and prompted her to struggle to her feet, leaning on her dresser for support.

"Come on, love, we have a long day and it's already five-thirty." Following the bewildered look on Victoria's face, the young man smiled and noted, "I took the liberty of setting your alarm back thirty minutes, considering you snooze through it anyways. Now hurry up and move!"

The tone faded back to his signature bit of authority, and Victoria immediately started over to her closet to see what she would put on today. As he left the room, a smile crept across the girl's face.

The man left the room and headed down the hallway to enter the dining room, where Victoria's sister, Jessica, was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, eating yogurt noisily as the other man entered the room. He merely glanced at her in disgust as he turned to open the fridge, ignoring her icy glare in response.

"You know you could just say good morning, like a civil person."

"I only speak civilly to people who act civilly, Jess."

"Please. I act well enough for you to not kick me out; that ought to count for something, right?" Jess implored, only to be immediately rebuffed. The young man replied in a mocking tone, " 'Please.' You know the only reason I keep you two around is because of Father's wishes; if it were up to me, I'd have you gone in a heartbeat."

The two held frigid glares for a moment before bursting into laughter; sometimes, only sometimes, would the man laugh.

Victoria entered the room to see the rare sight of her sister and the young man joking around; she rose an eyebrow as she entered the kitchen, yawning and raising her arms to reach the cabinet for a cup to pour herself some orange juice.

"Please, allow me." The man gestured for the glass as he already had the bottle in hand. Smiling, Victoria handed the glass over and looked at her sister, who was frowning but for what reason she couldn't tell.

"Here you go; your morning glass of 73% water, 26% sugar, and one percent fake oranges, served right to you!" Victoria and the young man chuckled at his corny, yet true joke; the orange juice was rather processed and tasted awful.

The light brunette took the glass with another smile and looked towards the clock underneath the windowsill; it read 5:47 in its flashing blue LED lights. Just past the time-teller was a sight that no one should have to wake up to; but 80% of the city's inhabitants did, the grungy, infested streets of Piltover's slums.

"You know, I've been wondering…" Jessica began, snapping Victoria out of her window trance.

Jessica always does this when she wants something… Why doesn't he see it? Victoria mused, knowing that whatever her sister suggested was going to be outrageous, but somehow she would talk him into it. As usual. Victoria took a sip of her processed orange juice and stood in front of the sink, waiting for Jessica's suggestion and staring out the window.

"Can we go see the fair this year?" Victoria spit her juice out in the sink while the man gasped in horror, awestruck with her request. The words struck Victoria like a spear through the heart, and the young man's face now slightly distorted as if someone had held sulfur under his nose.

"Are you out of your mind, Jess? You know the festival's only for the New Pilts, ever since…" He coughed, paused and resumed.

"You'll be detained and kicked out on the spot if they catch you and…"

It seemed like Jessica was waiting for the 'if', and simply smiled at them both.

"If they catch me, right?" the blonde interrupted; Victoria merely shook her head; only crazy, insane out-of-their-mind people tried to sneak into New Piltover. But their brother was even further enraged by this statement.

"I will NOT have you leaving this house except to go to school until the fair is FINISHED!" He was yelling now, cheeks flushed with red-hot anger. Finally, Jessica played her last card.

"I… well, I… just thought it'd be neat… 'cuz we never get to go… not since…" She burst into tears as she started off towards her room. Victoria thought it was fake, per usual, but her brother just shook his head and sat down in a chair next to the counter, face in his palms.

"Cheer up; maybe she'll change her mind tomorrow?" The young girl offered, knowing that he'd go on another self-deprecating speech about how it was impossible to keep the family together since their father's passing and this and that, and Victoria would offer words of condolences, and then her brother would wave her off, and she'd go and get ready, and the car ride to school would be another silent one.

It seemed like she was always left to be the strong one; even though she had the least experience in life, she always knew what to say.

When she arrived at school, though, things were different. Only being in the sixth grade, she had to walk the long way to the 'middle' section of her school; this passed by both the elementary and high school sections. The latter was abuzz with activity, but as she walked by, it seemed to quiet down slightly.

"Hey man, you got any ideas for that-"

"Yea, I came up with a plan to-"

"Do you know how many guards-"

"-if only there was another way in-"

Snippets of conversation here and there that she had picked up made her think of the conversation her family had this morning, and sneaking into the fair. Oh, the wondrous fair… the part she hadn't told her brother was that she wanted to go as well. It was such a wonderful event, and most of the kids from her part of town just wanted to go for the fireworks, which started right after sunset. They'd want to sit there, maybe holding hands, eating a cotton candy, enjoying the sights… But not Victoria. Sure… the pretty lights were pretty, but that's all they were. She wanted to go for the inventions, the part before the fireworks that everyone seemed to neglect… but not Victoria. She knew the value of a good invention, and its power to save… and destroy.

Before the brunette girl could get lost in her thoughts and imagine the fair in its entirety, arms wrapped around her shoulders and yanked her into the adjacent room. Before she could scream or turn around and see her assailant, a cold, metallic object knocked her on the head and spots clouded her vision as she was dragged and sat up against the wall, pink backpack still in tow. The last thing she heard before passing out was a lock on the door being clicked shut.

The world went silent.

"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 noted as he made his way back into the hallway, "some of the stuff is interesting, but sometimes I think you're a little obsessed."

"Speaking of obsessed…" The dark-haired girl 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 me, 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 an ominous voice, deeper 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.

A/N: Review, follow, favorite! ^^

-Skij