Chapter 23

As planned, William and Claudia met with Ada outside the Garden Seer's house. Her Aura still seeped from her like steam, filling the entire block in a sort of thin fug visible only to William. He still couldn't believe some held so much Aura. If her ability had been anything but amplifying other abilities, she would be unstoppable. Practically invincible. She kind of was, already, in a sense. With her amount of Aura, she could potentially heal herself from almost all kinds of damage. Her body would regenerate at a tremendous rate, making her semi-immortal.

"Shall we?" She said, leading William and Claudia into the house.

The house still looked like a rainbow to William, and he could've swore that the colors had changed since the last time he was here. They entered, greeted by the girl Tally, friend of Orion. Inside, and as usual, the place was full of people waiting to be called for the Seer's 'readings'. Ada, with her regal appearance, and authoritarian demeanor, introduced herself to the people as a high ranking Royal, and asked to leave. They knew better than to disobey a Royal and quickly filtered their way out the exit. All except one, a Royal. A short man who clearly didn't know who Ada really was, or how important she was. He walked up to her, challenging her authority. William saw his Aura ignite and his eyes started to glow.

"Sorry, grandma, but I was here first." He said. If the fool could see Aura, he would do well not to challenge Ada. But he couldn't. No matter what ability he had, it won't be enough to truly damage her.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Erwin." Tally said to the short man. "But she is one of madam's special guests, and she won't be seeing anyone else today. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."

"Like hell I would-" He said, but was interrupted by William, who had copied the man's ability. William's eyes glowed like his.

"If you want a fight, little man." William said, stepping between him and Ada. "Then how about me as your opponent? Don't you want to know if you can match the Vigilante Lord?"

The man's eyes widened, no longer glowing. He said nothing and ran. William shrugged, smiling. It felt good, knowing the Royals feared. Some. Most.

"I see you no longer fear publicity." Ada said.

"No point in hiding," William said, then shrugged again, though he noticed the frown on his sister. Claudia clearly didn't like him going around showing off. Not that it mattered. The Lord Ruler already knew who William was. Heimdal had seen his face at the abandoned warehouse yesterday. William had little reason to hide his identity anymore. "Besides," He added. "It's better this way. I can avoid unnecessary fights by scaring away the Royals with some sense." 

Ada said no more, and Claudia said nothing. Tally led the three of them further inside the house, to the Seer's Audience chambers. She was sitting by her chair, clearly waiting for them. Expecting them. Ada had mentioned visiting the Seer and asked her to use her ability to delve into her past. A past that she wanted William and Claudia to see.

"You are ready?" Ada said to the Seer, who nodded. William noticed the Seer's Aura suddenly burst, then growing exponentially. A golden fire that enveloped her. William knew what it felt like, to have one's ability amplified by Ada's ability.

***

Eve had been expecting this. When Lady Ada amplified her ability, she felt her Aura swelled within her, more than the first time. She felt renewed, filled with energy she'd associated with youth and health. Her exhaustion vanished entirely, and she felt awake. Alert. She stood from her chair and approached the trio.

"Tally, please keep watch." She said to her young companion. The young woman nodded. Eve asked the siblings to hold hands with Lady Ada while she prepared to use her ability to dive into the woman's memories. Lady Ada had told her which memories to look at, and at which age to find them, so she knew where to look. Three memories. Three ages. Eve closed her eyes. "Let's begin." She placed a hand on Lady Ada's forehead. Eve's ability, as she now understood it, was simply the power to witness people's memories, whether they'd be from the past, or the future. That included her own. It was a rare ability. Useful. Being able to see past memories, or future ones in detail, was an advantage.

***

The world around Claudia suddenly disappeared, vanished, replaced by a white hallway that seemed to stretch endlessly in either direction. Golden doors with numbers on them adorned the walls, increasing in one direction and decreasing in the other.

"Where are we?" She asked the Seer, Eve.

"I was expecting… something else." William said. Claudia had him explain to her what he'd seen when he'd copied and used the Seer's ability. According to him, they would be experiencing Ada's memories as seeing through her eyes. This hallway was new. "Are we inside her mind?"

"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure." Eve said. "We are, and we're not. These doors lead to her memories. The numbers represent her age. Come, follow me." She started walking down the white hallway, the numbers on the golden doors descending. "She told me to show you three of her memories, in a specific order. To make it clearer."

"Make it clearer?" Claudia echoed.

"Whatever message she wants to give you, according to her, can only be delivered using this method." Eve continued to walk, leading them further into Ada's past. Claudia read the numbers on the door as she passed them. 56… 55… 54. They continued until Eve stopped at the door with the number 14 on it. Claudia guessed they would be seeing through 16 year old Ada's eyes.

But when Eve opened the door, and they stepped through it, Claudia instead found herself standing beside Eve and William, both looking like ghosts, almost transparent, like herself. They were in a park. It looked familiar to Claudia. Over by the swings, a boy was pushing a girl. Both teenagers. They were both alone in the park. 

"Where are we?" William asked, looking around.

"Garden district." Eve said. "A little over seventy years ago. And that's her. Lady Ada." She pointed towards the girl being pushed in the swing. Claudia remembered the number on the golden door. That was 16 year old Ada. "And the boy," Eve added. "Is her brother. I assume you already know who-"

"A young Lord Ruler." William said. "So this is what your ability can do while amplified."

Claudia looked over at the siblings by the swing. The boy was saying something. "...can you imagine it, Ada? A world where everyone has abilities. Even the adults. A world where we don't lose our gift. You don't want to lose your ability, do you? Lose the benefit of Aura."

Teenage Ada shook her head. "No." She was looking sad, like she had just lost something important. "Adrian," She said, looking up at her twin brother. They looked so much alike, same dark hair, and light eyes. "Promise me something."

The young Lord Ruler, Adrian, stopped pushing the swing and walked over to sit on the one next to Ada's. "What is it?" He asked.

"Promise me you'll never change."

Young Adrian frowned. "What do you mean?" He paused. "Are you talking about what I did to those assholes? I defended you! They deserved it."

"I know- I just- I just don't like it when you get mad like that."

"Ada…" Adrian hopped off the swing and walked over to his sister, to stand in front of her. Their eyes met. "I promise." That seemed to lighten Ada's mood. "But I'll defend you always."

Then the vision ended, the park disappeared, and Claudia found herself back in the white hallway.

"Not sure what we were supposed to take from that." William commented a moment later. But Claudia had an idea of what Ada was trying to tell them. She understood a sister's love for her brother. Ada had made it clear that she wanted to protect the Lord Ruler, knowing full well that a fight was inevitable. Claudia guessed that Ada was trying to show that the man they knew as the Lord Ruler hasn't always been a tyrant.

"The next one's this way." Eve said, leading them to a door with the number 18. They walked through. In this memory, Ada was sneaking through a dimly lit hallway. She passed a few doors with signs that read: Experimental Room. Claudia, William, and Eve followed after her. Claudia had the general vibe that they were in some sort of laboratory. They passed a room with see-through glass. Inside the room a teenage boy was using some sort of telekinetic ability to rearrange some sort of cube puzzle. A metal helmet was strapped to his head, cables attached to the helmet were also connected to a large machine that seemed to read the boy's brain waves. A man in a lab coat observed and took note.

Still, Ada sneaked past the room, turning in the hallway, narrowly avoiding being caught by another man in a lab coat walking by, leading a teenage girl into another room. Claudia had heard stories, posted online by strangers, claiming that there were secret organizations experimenting on children around the globe. It made sense to Claudia that experiments, and tests, and the such things needed to happen for a better understanding of Aura. To learn its secret, what it really is? What's its connection to Lunam? How does it grant abilities? All questions that could only be answered by letting scientists run tests on Ability Users. That's how Ambassador Jiang's people discovered the ability dampener serum. But Claudia had always been under the impression that these tests were all consensual. 

So why was Ada sneaking about? She sneaked into a room, the doors had been slightly ajar, and hid behind a counter. She had a terrified and angry look in her face as she looked at her twin brother. Teenage Adrian was sitting in a metallic chair, screaming in pain. A group of men in lab coats were observing as a large complex machine with a tank filled with a golden liquid, sucked Adrian's Aura through multiple tubes embedded in his skin. Claudia could make out the slight traces of blood mixed in the golden liquid. "Aura lies in our blood." She had voiced that thought out loud, watching the machine work. Didn't Ambassador Jiang mention a machine as well, when asked where he had gotten the serum?

"I suppose it makes sense, no." William said, his eyes narrowing, his fist clenching. It was clear now what was happening in this lab, and the experiments were not being conducted legally. 

One of the scientists, a broad-looking man, held up a vial containing liquefied Aura. Adrian's Aura. "Marvelous, isn't it? Gentlemen." Adrian's painful cries rang in the background as the man regarded his fellow colleagues. "Never before had such an ability been awakened, and who knows when it'll happen again. We must extract as much as we can. Imagine, with the means to temporarily negate abilities we'll have absolute control."

"What about the sister?" Another said. "Her ability is also quite… unique."

"We'll start her Aura extraction tomorrow." The broad-looking scientist said, a twisted smile on his fact.

"Eeek!" Ada yelped, revealing herself. Terrified she scrambled to her feet and ran out the room.

"Get her you fools!"

The vision ended there. Claudia and the others were thrown back into the white hallway, a long silence hung over them. They had been illegally experimented upon, had had their Aura's forcefully extracted, the process seemed painful. Was this what the Lord Ruler had gone through as a teenager? Claudia couldn't imagine if they had found William out. Luckily, William disguised his ability by copying hers and claiming it was a version of Time Manipulation.

"C- come on." Eve said. "There's one more to see."

***

William could feel his anger rise with each passing moment after watching the last vision. Torture. Those men were torturing children without consent. Is that what made the Lord Ruler become the person he is?

The last vision that Eve was going to show them was through the number 18 door. They found themself in the middle of chaos. The scientist lay dead around them, some had been burned, others mauled, blood everywhere. The walls were broken and shattered, doors lay loose on their hinges. The scene was the aftermath of a fight.

"This is Ada," A young man's voice. The Lord Ruler. He was standing amidst the chaos, a small group of teenagers stood around him, of them had massive claws of hands. Ada was on the ground weeping. "This was a long time coming. They had to die. All of them." William just now noticed the body of a young boy on the ground. So some of the teenagers had taken the scientist's side and had fought the Lord Ruler and his small gang. Adrian kneeled beside his sister, holding her. "I made you a promise. I'll create a world where there will be no more experiments. Where people like us will live as we want."

"Hate to break it to yah, Adrian." A fat looking boy said. "But we'll be losing our ability in a year or so. No doubt making empty promises."

"Right," Another said. "Let's just get out of here."

"No." Adrian said, standing up. He regarded the others. "We will do neither. I figured out a way to keep our abilities past our twentieth birthday. These fools were cruel to us, but they were onto something. Something that I've managed to complete. We'll make this city our capital, and we'll rule it as royals. I made a promise." He regarded the others. "Are you with me?" 

There were nods of agreement amongst the group. Ada being the only one who didn't, there was worry in her eyes. Then the vision ended.

***

Some time later, they stood in silence at the Seer's Audience chamber, Claudia trying very hard not to pace. The Seer herself was sitting at her chair, her young helper, Tally, stood by her side. William stood by the door, arms across his chest. 

Ada spoke first. "Have you seen, then?"

"That lab," Claudia said. "Where was it?"

"Imperium." Ada said. "Before my brother turned the building into his seat of power, the building used to be a lab where… well, you saw what they did to us."

"The Lord Ruler killed them all, didn't he?" William said. "The scientists, I mean."

Ada nodded. "He rallied a group of other kids, promising them freedom, and… he delivered. That day was the day my brother showed hints of the man you claim he to be, but that wasn't always the case. He did what he did for us. He wanted to create a world where everyone was a Royal. Where no one loses their abilities. Where everyone is equal."

"Yet he created the Royal Hierarchy System." Claudia countered. "A system where Royals treat the common people as inferior."

"That's…" Ada was finding it hard to defend her brother's actions. "It's complicated. Things weren't supposed to turn out like this. The people, they-"

Ah. I see." Claudia was beginning to understand the twin's motivation now. "You never considered that not everyone is a good person. There will always be people who'll misuse their abilities. By creating the Royals you just gave those people an excuse to show their true colors without much consequence." Claudia paused for a moment, then sighed. "Lady Ada, I understand what you're asking of me. Of us, Spectre. And believe me, the Lord Ruler is none of my concern, our aim is to destroy the dome. To rid the Royals of their source of power. But you have to understand that the Lord Ruler will not sit by and let us destroy the only thing that's keeping him in power. He'll try to stop us at all costs, and we'll have no choice but to defend ourselves. You also know that this confrontation is inevitable, yet you still aid us. I can only promise that, given the chance to do so, we'll not kill the Lord Ruler."

"I'm not worried about you killing my brother, Miss Dia." Ada said. "No one on this city could defeat him in battle, no matter what ability they use. My concern is what happens after the dome is gone. You know what will happen once the Royals lose their abilities."

Claudia had a guess. There were a lot more Commoners than Royals in New Miami, and the Royals had been very bad bullies. And at the top of Commoner's hate, was the Lord Ruler. Ada was asking Spectre to protect the Lord Ruler after the rebellion. "I promise to protect the Lord Ruler as best we can." Was all that Claudia could say at the moment.