"cause you never think that
the last time is the last time.
you think there will be more.
you think you have forever,
but you don't."
-
Ignoring the fact that Vienna Markos was raised as a key piece in her father's gang, she had a pretty normal childhood. She was the middle child of five, the second grisha. Her older brother and younger sister always were favored in terms of usefulness, but as a young child, Vienna was always the one who had a lot of potential. With the power to control animals, she could get just about anything she wanted. Anything except her father's attention. No matter how hard she trained against her two older brothers, no matter how many missions she pulled off, she just couldn't get him to look her way. All she ever wanted was to be his star pupil, but all of his focus was on Vincenzo. On the other hand, her mother loved her with all of her heart. Dienna Markos was the one who kept everything put together when her husband lost his head. Dienna Markos was the real power player of the gang. She listened to all of the men talk, she watched her children train from dawn until dusk, and she watched them all grow up much too fast.
Vienna was the one who wasn't cut out for the gang life, but that doesn't mean she didn't try. She used her abilities to her advantage, using her hounds to get answers out of people, but much other than that, she was no help. She paled in comparison to her older brothers in combat, always ending up with bloody noses and bruises scattered all over her shins and cheekbones. The one trait she had that surprised her father was her perseverance. Every day she would spit blood onto the floor and pick herself back up to face her sparring partner of the day. She would get back up until her father told her to stop, or her mother forced him. After so long, Vienna was starting to get tired of getting beaten, so she learned to use her size to her ability. Her brothers were big and slow, but she was small and fast. Instead of using heavy weapons that would do the most damage if swung hard enough, she used knives that she could make dance in her hands. It was then she piqued her father's interest. She became good enough that he let her go on missions with Vince and Valentine, much to her mother's distaste. Everyone in Nedora spoke in hushed voices of the new member of the Markos gang. They called her The Shadow. Nobody believed that the tiny 14 year old daughter of Dienna Markos had become the Markos' secret weapon.
With all the fighting and the battle tactics that went on within the hotel, Dienna made sure that her kids made it out into the public eye and had normal days. Through all of her years growing up, once every few weeks the Markos family would go to the poorer districts of Nedora and do charity work. Vienna was usually the only one who did anything, the other four would run and play with the kids of the neighborhood while she helped women clean laundry or cut their vegetables for dinner. Vienna was usually the only one who did the cooking and cleaning, she was the only sibling who knew how. Her mother taught her from a young age, since she knew that her daughter was not her husband's favorite child.
"Do you have any apples?" A kid about her age approached her one day, wringing his hands together. He looked thin, dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept in days.
"Here, my mom says the red ones are always the sweetest." She smiles at him, extending her hand with the apple in her palm. He snatched it, and took a bite. She pulled her hand back in shock and stared at him with wide eyes. She'd never seen anyone so hungry before. "I'm Vienna, what's your name?"
"I'm Lorenzo. Hey do you think I could have another apple? My sister -" she was already placing a bag of apples in his hand by the time he started to explain himself. "Thank you, uh... Vienna." and then he was gone.
She didn't think anything else of it years later when she caught her mom dipping yet another rose in ink. A bad omen. Not only for the receiver, but for the four Markos children in the business. Valencia was still training, so she wasn't allowed on the Inked Rose missions, only the older four were.
"What are you doing?" she sat at the dining table opposite her mother, her palms laying flat on the table.
"Well what do you think I'm doing?" Her mother's tone was even, she didn't even look up at her daughter as she spoke.
"Well - I guess I know what you're doing, I just wanted to know to whom." Vienna chuckled and watched as Dienna meticulously made sure that every inch of the flower was covered.
"They're a sibling duo. The Riones. Lorenzo and Pippa, two would-be geniuses if they hadn't used our money to buy their property."
Vienna nodded. A sibling duo wasn't anything in comparison to the other people they'd sent roses to. "Okay, when do you want me to deliver it?"
Her mother's reply was quick and simple. "No. Rian is going to do it."
Vienna went to bed without anything to say to her other family members.
Two days later and her younger brother burst into her room to tell her she needed to suit up, and that mom had gone missing.
She knew exactly where her mom was, and so did Rian. The five Markos siblings were out in the streets of Nedora within three minutes of finding out the matriarch of the family had gone missing.
The large warehouse doors were closed, and no lights were on. Vince pushed the door open and the building was empty.
Vienna stalked the halls of the warehouse until she stumbled upon a room with the door wide open. She took a step inside and gasped out loud. It was her mother, laying on the floor with two shots to the torso, and the inked rose in her hand.
She couldn't contain her screams.
Vince snatched her from behind and held her to his chest, flipping her around so she could hide her face.
A lot happened after they found her mother, her dad went into a rage, calling Vienna a failure and screaming every nedorian curse word in the book. Valencia stepped up in the gang, four tiers higher than she was to begin with, and Vienna stepped out. She became the quiet caretaker that her mother always wanted her to be.
After her mother died, she still went down to the poor parts of Nedora and fed the poor, making sure that no child left hungry and that the city was a better place every time she contributed.
