Key of A.C.E

Chapter 3

Novermber 4th 2012- London

Adeline, Cecilia and Erika spent their Sunday morning like they usually did, sit around in the lab and hope nothing happened. No trips to the cinema, to dates with classmates. Nothing. Axel and Max had woken up, deciding that they would finally question the girls about their powers. They burst in holding a handful of snacks and warm blankets. "Let's... party?" Cecilia furiously typed on her keyboard, Erika read a magazine and Adeline was drawing.
"We're good," Erika mumbled. "If you're going to party, I'll go and practice for a while."
"Ok..." Axel went. "Anyone else?"
"I would like to continue my research," Cecilia commented without looking up.
The two boys frowned. Max spoke after a deafening silence. "Don't be like that. Come on. I got a favour to ask of you." He grabbed her wrist, dumping the snacks on the sofa, and dragged her out. Cecilia tried to break free but didn't seem all that bothered, nor any other emotion.
"So that just leaves us. What do you want to do?" Axel asked. He walked over to Adeline's table where she was drawing the vase of flowers in front of her. "This is amazing. Do you like to draw?"
She smiled softly. "I... don't know." Axel raised an eyebrow. "It's a long story. Are you willing to listen?"
Erika found herself in the familiar music room of the new school building. She sighed as she gently brushed over all the instruments. The door creaked open, revealing Lio and Irene, the two people she didn't want to see right that moment. Irene spotted her and looked delighted. "Hello. Have we met before? Specifically at the Walter estate? A maid's daughter maybe?" Erika shook her head. Irene glanced at the instruments that she was touching. "Do you play? Could you play for us?" Erika gulped. She looked over at the instrument by her fingers. A full-sized violin. She picked up the instrument and adjusted it by her chin. She then began to tune it, turning the pegs and fine tuners to her liking. And a few seconds later, she picked up the bow and hovered it over the four strings. She gently played a song she remembered. Though she didn't remember many she remembered the ornaments and the techniques and the vibratos. Her sound was crisp and clear like a water droplet splashing into a lake. She breathed out as she finished. Putting down the violin, she saw Irene staring in awe. Lio stood beside her with the same expression. She quickly rushed past them towards the door, neither of them following after her.
She couldn't believe what she had done. Before entering, she had placed a cookie under her tongue, as a reminder of how she uses to play with the intent of enhancing her abilities. As the two entered, she had swallowed the cookie whole. Due to certain benefits from being a halfling, she didn't transform, despite summoning her powers. She had used the music of the violin to hypnotise the two for a few minutes which gave her plenty of time to escape. As she exited the building she met, Mrs Belpois, their science teacher who was going home for the day.
"Erika?" she asked. "Where you the one playing that beautiful violin?" Erika scowled, before running off.
"No matter how hard you try, it won't work," Cecilia said. Max had dragged her to the media and audio room where a laptop was connected to a TV.
"Think of this as an experiment." He sat down by the wall opposite the TV. He patted the floor, gesturing her to sit. She sat down. "This is an experiment to see if you can feel emotions."
"This... is your favour?" she mumbled. He smiled as he began to search the files of the computer.
"You are going to love this. We're going to spend all day watching the first two seasons, and one day, we might be able to recreate it with your creation magic." He played a video, a cartoon. "This took me ages to find. The internet is a scary place and downloading this was a nightmare." He stared at the screen, singing along to the opening.
Adeline had gotten out a large whiteboard from one of the other rooms. She had drawn a diagram of something and Axel wondered what this had to do with her hobbies. "This is Älva Märchen. Our homeland. There are four elfin classes: Samurai, Geisha, Feline and Angel. Each type is attributed its own sector of the land: Ice, Desert, Forest and Mountains respectively. It's illegal to marry or elope with someone from another class."
"Why's that?" Axel asked.
"If you give birth with someone from another class, your child will gain both your powers. The power becomes unstable and they will be overpowered. The four regions decided to place this rule, killing off all halflings. We were able to avoid killing though."
"What makes the Elfins different from us humans?"
"Depends. Samurais have super-speed and quick reflexes. Geishas can hypnotise. Angels can fly and turn air particles into anything simple. Felines have animal ears and acute hearing and smell."
"And what class are you?" Axel asked. "Your clearly half human."
"I'm a Feline and Samurai. Erika's a Geisha and Cecilia's an angel." Axel looked confused. "My parents were both halflings. My mother was half human, half Samurai; my father was half human, half Feline."
"That explains the ears and the... outfit," he smiled. "But what does that have to do with you drawing?"
Adeline frowned slightly. "When we were ten, Erika, Cecilia and I were taken and used as test subjects on something called 'the key.' I don't know what it is but, we were experimented on, because we were halflings." Axel let out a small breath of regret. "The key... gave us superhuman powers, even for elfins. However, there must always be balance in the world. Erika became unable to die in exchange for her will to live. Cecilia lost her emotions in exchange for her knowledge. And I... I lost my memories in exchange for my strength. We call them the 'Exchanges.'" She looked at Axel in the eye. "Right now, I'm trying to figure out what I like and don't like."
Axel began to feel guilty. He hadn't tried to intrude on their lives but was curious. And the curiosity killed the cat. "That's why they want to hunt you down? The key?" She nodded. "And you're trying to get it out before they do. Then get them to sign a contract and leave you alone." She thought for a moment and nodded.
Max had wondered back to their room for dinner. At this point, he and Cecilia had eaten all the snacks, so he came back to get more, and change clothes. A little after ten, he snuck back to the old school building, opening the door to the room with his time turner, only to see Cecilia already there. "You're already here?" he asked, closing the door behind him. "You must really love the show." "Not really. You already know I'm not capable of emotions." She stared at the screen. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner I can get back to the extraction."
He smiled at her. "Let's take a little break. Adeline told Axel who told me all about your past. Must've been hard."
The girl faced him, her expression remaining emotionless. "I was the eldest out of four. My mother was of human and angel descendant but grew up in the human world with the very limited power she had. After that, she gave birth to me, but couldn't conceive after that. She's dead now. My father remarried someone younger who birthed my three younger brothers. Magic wise, I was the weakest so I was sent off to experimenting."
Max's smile fell. "I... I'm sorry." Cecilia moved her attention back to the screen. "Then shall we continue? To episode 47?"
Erika awoke the next morning with bags under her eyes. She couldn't sleep due the constant fear of being found out by Irene, or worse some stranger. Axel and Max were allowed. Why couldn't anyone else? She put on a purple blouse with black leggings and light brown boots. As any dedicated musician would do, she headed for the music room at the crack of dawn. Unexpectedly, someone was already there; a tall woman with jet black chin length with hair, wearing a black and red blouse, black jeans and black boots.
"Hello," she spoke softly. "Are you... Erika Strobel?"
"Yeah. I am. Who are you?"
"I'm an examiner, for the Begåvad Gifted Institution. I'm here to evaluate your playing."
"Wait. I never applied for anything like that."
"We came by recommendation. One of your teachers sent an application yesterday."
"Well. I don't want to go. You can't make me and I'm not doing the exam."
The woman frowned. "The teacher did say you would be hard to convince." She flicked through a file of paper. "However, if you do not take this exam, you will be expelled from this school. Besides, think about how proud your parents would be." Erika thought, alright. She thought of her deceased mother and her ignorant father, before making a disgusted face.
"Proud?" she scoffed. "I'd like to see him be proud of me. That will definitely be a sight to see." The woman raised an eyebrow. "I'm not doing it. You can give me hours and hours of detention but that's all you'll be able to do. You can't expel me because my parents pay money for me to be here," she lied, knowing that she was only there because of her hypnotism. "Now... If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get the principal to reduce the hours of detention that I already have." She walked off, her head held high.

As she arrived at the reception, she found that no one was there. She scowled, knowing that most people would be in bed right now. But she was bored. She needed to do something, anything. Then she got an idea. She was an above average artist and spray painting couldn't have been so hard. Right? She rushed to the art room, picking the lock and grabbing the various array of colours. She already knew what she would paint, the latest album covers of her favourite artists, Royal Pheonix.
People began to gather around her as she finished her masterpiece. She put the can down and realised that she had gathered a crowd. A teacher came through, appalled by the work. "Miss Strobel!" she screamed. "To the principal's office. Now. You'll be lucky if you don't get expelled."
"Expelled?" she repeated. "Not today!" she threw the can at her feet and ran towards the music room, where no one would bother checking.
As she entered, she saw the examiner and remembered why she was there. "Have you reconsidered?"
"Yup!" she replied hastily. Without thinking she picked up the violin and began to play. She sighed as she finished. "I'll play another instrument as well." She was just worried that the teacher would see her come out of the room, again. Her second piece ended swiftly. "I have a question. What exactly do you mark me on?"
The examiner didn't look up as she said: "tempo, fluency, rhythm, technique." Upon hearing this, Erika sprinted out of the room once again.
She closed the door to the lab, where Adeline was reading a magazine. "Could we do a return in time? I may have made a mistake and I know how to fix it." She looked around. "Where's Cecilia?"
"With Max," Axel replied, as he entered. "I know where they are. I helped Max set up." He led the to the tv room where Cecilia was leaning against the wall, her knees to her face. Max was curled up in his blanket, laying on the floor. Erika shook Cecilia vigorously.
The girl stirred and her eyes flung open. "We need to do a return in time. Twelve hours." She nodded and turned the dial. The familiar white light engulfed the five.
Erika sat in her room, the bed opposite hers still empty. She got dressed into the same purple blouse and black leggings. This time, she got out an old box, containing sheet music from when she was young. She picked up her favourite piano piece: Claire du Lune. Too bad I'll have to ruin it and play awfully, she thought to herself.
As she picked up her violin piece, she felt a prick on her finger. "A papercut," she sighed. She waited a while but it wasn't like usual. This took longer...
Cecilia and Max finished the season finale, leaving Max in tears. He picked up a tissue and blew his nose. "No matter how many times I watch it, it still makes me cry. Tissue?" Cecilia didn't move. "Oh, right? You don't feel any emotions." She faced him and his expression changed from teary eyed to surprised. "That's... a tear."
Cecilia's left eye had let out a single drop. Her hand flew to her face. "But... I'm not supposed to feel emotions... or display them."
The dream was blurry. She was in a green room with a bed in the middle. A brown-haired woman sat on it, looking frail and pale, someone she recognised through the only photo she was able to scavenge before escaping. Her mother. "Adeline... I'll be fine... Whatever you do... don't resort to murder... like I once did... I'm sure you can help others... if you tried. The vision became blurred. She was in tears. She wanted to say so much but nothing came out. Then she flatlined.
Adeline jumped up from her bed. She could feel the cold tears run down her face. She got dressed wondering what that was. A memory? A dream? A vision of the future? That could've been anything.
She stood outside, wearing nothing but a large pink dress. "Having trouble sleeping?" Axel asked.
He noticed her dress, immediately taking off his own and giving it to her. She wore it reluctantly. "Want to talk about it?"
"I remembered something. Someone. My mother. On her deathbed," she mumbled in one breath.
"Adeline!" she heard two people scream. In one direction came Erika and in the other came Cecilia and Max. "Listen to this! My paper cut took a while to heal!"
"That's nothing. Cecilia shed a tear!"
"And I remembered my mother's death." The group went silent. "Could it be that... our Exchanges are getting weaker?"