CHAPTER 6 - ACCELERANDO I

  "So she also waited all creepily at your house?" Keisha speaks, holding back a snort.

  Although these homes are built largely the same, as is the case with many suburban areas in America, Siena is surprised at how much character these places can be given. Keisha's is actually quite orderly, the opposite of what you'd expect for such a scatterbrained person, but there are still little signs of her everywhere. Shoes kicked off by the door instead of neatly placed, an empty soda can on the counter, a jacket slung over the back of a chair.

  Nothing messy enough to be a problem.

  Siena catches a glimpse of fairy lights all over her sister's bedroom which flash with a subtle purple along with crumpled clothes on the side of her bed—the room looks to be far more disorderly than the rest of the house. A faint smell of some kind of candle emanates from it, the same kind Gabriel likes. Maybe they could have been friends, once.

  Megan just stares blankly. "How else am I going to catch her before you whisk her away into your nonsense?"

  "Pfft. I was totes busy today anyway," the dark-skinned girl says; she bends down to grab the TV remote before Megan gives her a look. Keisha raises her hands innocently. "Fine. I guess I won't be watching more Love Island."

  Siena balks. "Love Island? That garbage?"

  "Sheesh. Someone's original body hates dating shows." She rolls her eyes and jumps back on the couch, allowing her true self to show for a moment—weak and tired and sharp shadows in her eyes. "Not that I like 'em," she whispers. "It's just background noise to keep myself from going crazy when I'm cramped inside this house."

  Unlike Siena, she doesn't offer anything to her guests. She doesn't even seem to care that it's the first time the three of them are meeting together. Megan doesn't either, but it's difficult to gauge her care for anything beyond their immediate survival; everything else didn't matter.

  Siena cares. These are her sisters, her kin, her blood. She feels safer and more comfortable here than she ever has in her short life as a human, even if Keisha nearly killed her the other day.

  There's a tense silence for a few moments. No one knows what to say, and even Megan hesitates to jump right into the meat of the meeting.

  "This girl Maya tried to make me listen to music while she drove me," Siena says. "We're… friends, maybe."

  "Ha! Trapped in a car with that thing they call music? I would have loved seeing your face," Keisha laughs and kicks her feet. "Little Siena trying her best to be normal. 'Wonder if you succeeded."

  "Maybe?"

  "We had a conversation afterwards, the three of us. Maya will have questions, but she won't in a million years figure us out," Megan cuts in. "I'd like to get to the point of this meeting, if you'd like."

  "No, I wouldn't like." Keisha crosses her arms and grins. "What I'd really want right now is to be on a beach in Hawaii, but we can't all have what we want."

  Noticing that Megan pinched the bridge of her nose and let out the smallest of sighs, Siena chimes in as she sits. "Well, actually I'm sure Megan was asking that question rhetorically. Like when you tell someone they can have some of your food if you'd like but you really just want to appear nice—"

  "This is important," Twilight Ember interrupts, letting her southern accent slip. She's even begun to pace, a far cry from her usually calm and still demeanor. "Star Sentinel wants to question you, Keisha. You're in grave, grave danger if you half-ass it. She is on a warpath."

  It takes a few moments for the words to sink in.

  Star Sentinel, the second most powerful Magical Girl in America despite her young age of twenty. Star Sentinel, who wields gravity and therefore time and space as she pleases. Star Sentinel, the savior of Nova Scotia, taking down a Cantor when she was just sixteen, even if it was with assistance. If Golden Promise is the symbol of American positivity and exceptionalism, Star Sentinel is a stark reminder of the power said nation holds that few can hope to match worldwide.

  Even Keisha has to gulp. "Okay. Should we just run?"

  "Run?" Megan scoffs and shakes her head in disbelief. "We have a mission."

  "Okay, but we can't do the mission if we're dead, can we?" she pushes, eyes swirling with darkness. "Golden Promise is about to wake up, knowing who knows what. We don't have enough information to stay here and ensure our safety."

  "Our lives are ultimately second to the mission itself—"

  "I don't disagree in theory." Shadow Lily's leg can't help but bounce up and down anxiously. "I just want more than just… this."

  "This what?"

  "Getting here, failing, and then getting crushed by some crazed, obsessed gravity bitch like an ant!" She shoots up, glaring at her sibling. "We should run, then come back only if Golden Promise doesn't remember what happened. If she does, then we start…" she throws up her hands. "I dunno, destroying shit! Taking names! Siena, back me up."

  She hates seeing her sisters fight, but she knows that staying quiet and shutting down is what her old self would have done. "If we run," she begins, small voice trembling, "we're essentially admitting that we at least know something now that Megan spoke with Estelle."

  "No, no, no, girl. We can just say—we can just blame Seattle, yeah? Say it was—"

  "I am tired of that excuse."

  Both girls look at Siena like she's grown another arm. There's something akin to respect in Megan's eyes and disappointment in Keisha's. At a certain point, a tiredness at always being left to the whims of whoever Siena has last spoken to gets tiring.

  "Plus, the amount of harm the three of us could do in the grand scheme of things isn't worth blowing our cover for. And even if Lucienne knows, the odds that they'd be able to figure us out are slim should we stay in character. The Conductor's assured us that." She takes a shallow breath. "Yes, everything is under control," Twilight Ember says. She's calmed down enough not to pace now and has returned to being still, but there's still a slight southern twinge in every word. "And this is… seditious thought. I'm surprised you haven't been cut off."

  Verbally beaten down and defeated, Keisha just nods and whispers, "forgive me, Conductor."

  It's at times like these that Siena feels even more isolated. When she sees her siblings commune with the Orchestra, with the Conductor, and that she still gets punished despite her dedication to the cause. Her mistake was grand, yes, but when will her repentance be enough?

  Why does Keisha get to be borderline treasonous and still listen?

  This jealousy is new to her—it isn't of the romantic kind, but something different. The same kind she'd get as a kid when Gabriel started making friends and spending time with people other than her, though their mother put a rest to that rather quickly.

  "Now that we've reached a harmonious agreement," Megan just moves on and begins the meeting, "I made a PowerPoint for this; let me link my phone to your TV. Keisha, you want to maintain your aggression, but it has to remain to a believable level…"

  —

  The presentation goes as well as it can given that both Keisha and Siena are focused on learning. As a social person, Megan knows and understands what they are up against and teaches them what Estelle is like, what ticks her off, the questions they can expect, et cetera. Shadow Lily keeps complaining that it is unfair for the Agency to allow her free reign like this, but alas, they live in a world wrought with favoritism and inequalities. Megan uses the opportunity to tell them that this is why this land must be taken and conquered, for individuality has wrought injustice while the Orchestra renders equality unto all.

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  But Siena knows this isn't true. The Conductor ignores her still; is this not unfair for him to not even have given her a single word? A little bit of guidance during her first few days confused and terrified of this new world?

  "I texted her that she could come over, so it'll probably be a few minutes from Headquarters," Megan explains calmly. "Just act as your old selves normally would, keep your stories straight, and don't give her a reason to further doubt us should Golden Promise know about our kind."

  With that, she leaves; in character, she has no reason to want or need to be here. She's rarely spoken to Silent Ash or Shadow Lily, and while she aims to be social, Estelle's investigation isn't something she'd want to oversee or want to get in the way of. In this sense, they've lost their leader—not that Keisha would ever admit this—at a crucial point in their mission.

  United they stand, divided they fall. It'd be best to remember this.

  A faint, red glow shines through the window and they hear the muffled roar of fire. She can almost imagine the burning smell tingling in her nose.

  Megan is gone.

  "Ever think we're way in over our heads, Siena?"

  The silver-haired girl blinks at her sister and frowns. "What do you mean?"

  Keisha shrugs, throwing her head back against the couch. "I dunno. Even if you'd snatched Golden Promise and sabotaged humanity from the inside, fighting with an arm tied behind your back while we harmonize the planet bit by bit, it's just the three of us against eight billion people. Three clueless children with no information and no orders other than to stand by." She laughs bitterly, smiling as she stares at her ceiling.

  "It might have been different if I succeeded," Siena offers. She shifts in her seat uncomfortably. "We might have had the Conductor's hand guiding us, still. He'd know what to do."

  "I hope so."

  A few moments pass in silence. Silent Ash passes her fingers over her knuckles and thinks for a second. "Death terrifies me."

  "It scares me too. I know it's not supposed to."

  "I don't know. Before this, before I took Siena over," she looks down at herself, "it was something I was willing to accept with open arms." A vision of her satisfied smile as she died flashes in her head. "My mother's noticing changes too—and my friend Maya. I've… changed a lot already, even if it might not feel like it."

  "I've changed too." Keisha's head swings back down, and she gives Siena an amused look. "Not that I want to be rude, and not that I think you're wrong, but what's that got to do with anything?"

  "If we have, doesn't that mean we've acquired… individuality of some sort? If we have our own wants and needs and desires—" her mouth snaps shut. "I shouldn't be bringing this up."

  She serves the Orchestra. She serves the Orchestra. She serves the Orchestra. Nothing else matters.

  "I guess we're having a heart to heart, Siena," Keisha snorts. "Fancy thing to do before we could get crushed by some girl because her unrequited love got put into a coma." She stretches, groaning like an old woman—Siena doesn't know much about romance, but she figures she's correct. "I guess that attempted murder really shook you. We should do it again in one of the sparring gyms one of these days if today goes alright. I think I need to blow off some steam somehow."

  "Um, I'm not that much of a fan of fighting—"

  A knock on the door interrupts her; her heart drops like a stone in her stomach.

  "Already? That was like two minutes—"

  Another knock, this one more forceful. Keisha swears under her breath and lethargically decides to go open the door while Siena recuperates her spirit. This is it, she thinks. Do or die. Already, her mind's decided to search for escape routes, but it's not like she could run away from Star Sentinel. Her powers have survivalist and escapist potential she hadn't seen before her fight with Keisha, but she hasn't yet experimented enough.

  Now she wishes that she had.

  "Coming! I said I'm coming, God, you piece of shit!" Keisha screams at the top of her lungs.

  She opens the door, and Siena feels a little tug toward the girl who walks in undisturbed, an indescribable pull as if she's about to fall sideways. An intimidation tactic, perhaps—but there's no time to decipher every subtle action.

  There is indescribable grief in her eyes, a far cry from the usual nonchalance Estelle brings wherever she goes. It sits in them like a dying universe with naught but the last few stars that witness its cold and empty end. The pale girl steps into the house without a word, her dark purple hair floating as if she were in space.

  "Not even a hello?" Keisha jokes.

  "Hello," she says, her voice laced in irony. "I have questions for you about Seattle. You'll forgive me for intruding, but I have tried time and again to get in touch, and you've avoided every attempt, Shadow Lily." Her distant eyes settle on Siena. "You're Silent Ash, but your name…"

  She didn't even know of her? The monster wishes it had stayed that way. "Siena."

  "Siena, then."

  Siena's sister chimes in. "Can we just get this over with so I can go back to watching my shows before I'm inevitably called back in to work after the Choir stops having its little break?"

  "Don't worry, I don't plan on wasting any time. First of all, Shadow Lily. During our operation in Seattle, you were assigned to Lucienne's squad. Your Handler noted that you went unresponsive for twelve minutes and thirty-six seconds. You said your systems were jammed by Anthems, yet there's no way Lucienne wouldn't have dealt with those." The girl tilts her head. "And you'd most likely have been harmonized."

  Just like land can be harmonized, a person can as well if they hear the Choir's music for long enough. They don't join the Orchestra as much as they lose their sense of self and essentially become braindead, stuck in an eternal dream you'll never wake from. When the first Overtures started happening, entire cities were put to harmonization at once. Hundreds of thousands of people gone just like that.

  "I got lucky just like your girlfriend," Keisha replies dryly.

  Estelle doesn't even rise to the bait, and Siena breathes a sigh of relief. "You were stuck in one place for a while, meaning you didn't try to escape, and your vitals went all over the place. I'd love to know.

  "The fuck? Samuel gave you that?" Siena can tell her sister wants to kick something. "That's confidential!"

  Estelle just stares.

  She expects an answer.

  "I told you didn't I? My systems got jammed and I was busy trying to fight off the Choir's influence on my mind while I fought for my life. It's what I told the bigwigs during the after action report."

  "I have it on good authority that your story's changed a little bit depending on who you talk to. In your psych eval, you said you felt fine and that the Anthems barely got through your earpieces." Because she hadn't wanted to go through all the tests and rehab in a fresh new body. "You told your friends nothing happened—"

  "Because I didn't want to worry them, you—ugh," Keisha groans. Good. She's still in character, even though Estelle is getting dangerously close to the truth. "Listen, I just didn't want to sit through weeks of shrinks making sure I was okay."

  "You do seem quite okay for someone who heard Anthems for that long."

  "Yeah. It's called mental fortitude, and you should try it."

  Star Sentinel floats a few inches above the ground and stares down at Keisha. "Interesting. You are hiding something."

  "Sorry I don't want to give information to someone who just has no sense of privacy." Her eyes darken, and the room seems to grow a little darker. "I'm already doing you a huge favor answering these and you've been nothing but rude. Do you really think that if I knew what happened to Golden fucking Promise, humanity's hope, I would have kept quiet about it?"

  Stars twinkle in Estelle's eyes now—the pale girl smiles, and gives a solemn nod. "Sorry, you're right. I've trampled over a lot of people to get all of this and burned a lot of capital. I'll let it go and hope your petty hatred of Lucienne's success isn't clouding your judgment." Her head drifts toward Siena. "Now, have you seen anything? You were separated from your squad quite early, right?"

  The monster shakes her head. "I didn't have the experience to be there and I just held them back. I… got surrounded by some Choristers who made it past the beach, and I had to fight them off. I've faced a few before, but never in such large numbers."

  "And you saw nothing?"

  "Besides glowing in the distance, no. I was too busy fighting for my own survival."

  "Your handler says you disconnected from the line and went off on your own."

  Siena's throat tightens. She'd remembered, of course, but it seemed so foreign to what she would do that she didn't even think about what to answer; Megan had missed the mark here as well, but only because she hadn't known. Because Siena hadn't told her.

  "Hey. Leave it alone," Keisha half-snarls.

  "It's a curious course of action. You could have been rash and wanted to prove yourself—"

  "Leave it."

  "—but you don't seem like the type. If you could just shed some light on—"

  Light recedes into the deepest cracks of the house, and shadows come to light within a second—Keisha groans, and buckles to her knees; light snaps back into place like a rubber band.

  "I'll be generous and keep this attack under wraps given how I trampled over your privacy." Estelle doesn't even have a minute amount of fear in her tone. Siena hadn't noticed her hand move forward, and how the world around Keisha seemed to be vibrating. She can't stand; she can barely even move under the force of gravity. Siena falls back and quickly crawls away until she bumps against the wall. "I didn't want it to come to this, but I'll acknowledge I let my emotions bring me too far. I'm sorry. Will you put your powers away if I let you go?"

  "Fuck off," Shadow Lily snaps. "But fine."

  It's remarkable how quickly things go back to normal when the two girls had been inches away from killing each other. No doubt, Star Sentinel had expected Keisha to lash out and thus been able to react, but the sheer power she brings is still terrifying to see. This whole house could have been crushed underneath her will in the same amount of time should she have wanted to.

  The questioning is over. Star Sentinel has evidently gotten what she wants from this meeting, and Siena doesn't like that. Keisha's suggestion of running away feels more and more appealing by the day, even if she knows it would be foolish. The time to have done it would have been right after waking up, not now. And even then, it would have gone against their mission…

  Fuck. Her mind keeps slipping into disobedience.

  Before Star Sentinel leaves, she has this question.

  "How'd you two start hanging out?"

  "We met in Albuquerque. I wanted to have some time away from this hellhole, and they know a thing or two about living, unlike you. Bully."

  The door closes.

  "Sorry. I fucked it all up," Keisha says through grinding teeth. "I just didn't like how she was probing at your… attempt like that. Even if it was technically a different person. Heh."

  "I think that went okay. You… you were still in character if we're friends."

  "Nah. If Golden Promise knows," Shadow Lily whispers, "we're fucked."

  Siena is pessimistic enough to agree.