"That's enough! I see no need to longer prolong this trial. The court's decision of seven years ago stands. Prosecutor Simon Blackquill remains guilty for the murder of Dr. Metis Cykes. Court is adjourned!" The judge banged his gavel.
Athena couldn't believe it was happening again. She and her boss had tried everything to get the truth out of Simon, but he kept stating that he murdered his mentor. Everything Athena had done in all those years was aiming to save him from that false conviction, so she could overcome her failure from seven years before and the fears that still haunted her. But she had tried her best and failed. Again. And the person who was making all of her efforts pointless was the same person she was desperately trying to help. He was lying, the discord in his voice made it clear. But why was he doing it?
"Objection!" A distorted voice coming from a robot interrupted Athena's train of thought. "I don't remember giving you permission to adjourn the court."
"Stop this nonsense now, Aura. Don't make your situation worse."
"My situation? You are the one who's going to be executed tomorrow, Simon!"
"Exactly. It's my execution, not yours. Therefore, it's my business, not yours."
"Damn it, Simon! I'm just trying to help you!"
"I've never requested your help." Those words pierced Athena like spears, even if they weren't for her. Did he really think of any attempt to save him as just a nuisance? After all she had gone through, now she was nothing but an annoyance?
"Simon, don't throw away your life for the princess! She doesn't worth it!"
"My life belongs to me. It's my choice what to do with it. So it would be most appreciated if you put an end to this and allowed me to pay for my sins. The UR-1 incident was solved seven years ago. This farce of a trial was never necessary."
"It's the legal system what is a farce! The trial from seven years ago was the farce! There's no way I'm letting this end here!"
"I can't say that I'm satisfied with this outcome." The Chief Prosecutor intervened."But our arrangement was a fair and just retrial for the UR-1 incident, and that much we have performed. Now you must fulfill your end and release the hostages."
"Our arrangement ends right now! I have new conditions. Release Simon or I'll kill the hostages."
"What!?" The sudden yell of Mr. Wright made Athena flinch. Since his daughter was one of the hostages, it was a very natural reaction, of course, but he had managed to stay calm until then and it was somewhat shocking seeing him out of his usual,collected self."No! You can't... You promised..."
"What's the meaning of this!?" The chief prosecutor punched the bench in anger. "That's not what we..."
"Past is past." Aura didn't let him finish the sentence. "What I said before doesn't matter anymore. This is the situation now."
"Why would we believe someone who has already deceived us once? Your word is worthless!"
"Think what you want. But as long as I have 12 hostages, I think have the upper hand here."
"You better be jesting, Aura!" Simon huffed.
"Do you think this is a bluff, Simon? That I'm not capable of fulfilling my threats? Why don't we hear the hostages' opinion, then?" Aura really sounded like she had lost it "Stop that, magician girl! Playtime is over! Things are gonna get ugly from now on! Hostage number seven, tell them that I'm not bluffing!"
After a lot of coughing, a new voice came out of Clonco."Please, let me go... I need my cough medicine." Athena could have recognized that voice anywhere, even if it was distorted.
"Junie!?" What was she doing at the Space Center?
"T-Thena?"
"Are you two friends? That was unexpected" Aura chimed in. "Then you should be the first to die, so the princess knows how it feels losing someone close. Maybe then she'll think twice before killing again." Junie burst in cough again.
"What? No! Wait, Aura!" Athena's heart almost stopped. "I understand your feelings. It's the life of your brother what is at stake. Try to calm yourself. If you need to talk, I'm here."
"I don't need a counseling session! Want to save your friend? Then confess! Tell them that you killed Metis! You confess or she die! Your choice!"
Was she serious? Was she really willing to kill Junie? Athena couldn't take the risk. "I did it. I killed my mother." Saying that was too hard, even if it was a lie. The tears she had held since she was arrested began falling down her face."The UR-1 incident...is all my fault."
"There you go, judge. She confessed. She's guilty. Hand down the verdict."
"I would say this confession was coerced." The judge replied" I can't render a proper verdict based on it."
"Hmph. As if a proper verdict could come out of this absurdity." Simon broke in."Aura, you've gone too far. What I did seven years ago will not change just because you're too obstinate to accept your defeat humbly. I'm ready to take my punishment. I don't intend to leave my cell even if I'm given permission to do so."
"I haven't asked your opinion, Simon. This is a threat. Come tomorrow to the Space Center. If you are not here at 12:00 PM, 12 innocent people will die."
"Are you seriously appealing to the mercifulness of a cold-blooded murderer?. You're too naive."
The answer to that was a cracking sound. Probably Aura had broken whatever she was using for controlling Clonco in anger, because the robot was shut down.
"Fool Bright! Let's take the last stroll to the clink."
"Yes, sir!" Detective Fulbright was waiting in the doorway.
"Don't be bothered about the hostages' safety. Aura may be extreme, but she would never kill someone, I can assure you. She'll realize eventually that this is pointless." Simon said while leaving the courtroom.
His words weren't very relieving for Mr. Wright, who had his head buried in his arms, maybe in an attempt to hide from Athena how broken he really was. She, however, decided to believe them. Not that she had a choice. She couldn't do anything for Juniper but hoping that she would be fine. Tears kept coming out of her eyes, though. She had tried to stop it, but she couldn't. They had been hiding for too long.
As she watched Simon crossing the door, she remembered the time when she was a kid and he took care of her and played with her. Her mother was always busy with her research and she barely talked with other kids at school, so he was her only friend besides Junie. He was so kind and gentle to her, back then. Almost every happy memory of her childhood were with him. And now, all that he wanted for her was to let him die. What had happened to him? Jail, of course. He had been imprisoned for seven long years. If only she hadn't been a helpless kid then. She had naively thought that she could save him if she became a lawyer, but seven years later, she was still a helpless kid. She couldn't save him. He was going to die. And worst of all was that he didn't even care. It had to take losing every last little drop of hope for someone to get there.
But he was still alive. And the man she knew had to be somewhere inside that worn shell. It couldn't end there. Not like that. She burst out of the defense bench and quickly head to the hallway. Some shocked voices tried to yell something at her, but she didn't pay them any attention. She didn't even bother wiping her tears. She ran all over the courthouse as fast as she could, until she finally found him heading to the front door, escorted by Detective Fulbright.
"Simon!" She yelled. "Please...Let me help you."
"Help me?" He stopped walking, but didn't turn his head. "You can't help me, Athena. Nobody can't. We can't change the past. My crime will not disappear."
"I know you're lying, Simon. I hear the discord in your voice."
"You're wrong. Maybe all those experiments to which you were subjected as a kid damaged your hearing."
"My hearing has never failed me! And Widget noticed the noise during your testimony, too."
"My mentor gave that to you, right? Maybe she wasn't as wise as she thought she was."
"Simon...Why are you doing this?" She was crying again, or maybe she had never stopped? Likely the second, given the huge itchy feeling under her eyes. "Why do you keep piling lie on top of lie? Why don't you let me help you?"
"And why do you wish to help me? I killed your mother. You should hate me."
"You said earlier that you did that for me."
"I recall you saying quite convinced that the end doesn't justify the means. Why is irrelevant. Killing is an unforgivable act. I've brought much anguish upon many people. I'm a despicable man who deserves no commiseration. That's why I'm willing to humbly accept the retribution."
"Simon..." Athena really wanted to say something, but no words came out of her mouth.
"Farewell, Cykes-dono. I apologize for the trouble I've caused to you and I wish you a blissful life. And, please, keep this in mind: My death is not something that should cause you grief."
That was the last thing that Simon said before leaving the building with Fulbright. He hadn't even bothered to look at her. She was definitely a hopeless kid unable to help anyone. She kept staring at the door for a while. It could have been minutes or it could have been an hour, she had lost track of time. She wasn't thinking of the fate that awaited Simon, or the last words he had said to her. She wasn't thinking of anything at all. She was just there, staring at the door. Suddenly, she felt someone gripping her wrist. Otherwise, that person would have probably flown a few feet, but in her current state, it took all the little willpower she had left to just turn around and see who was it. It was the police officer that have escorted her to the courthouse.
"You can't walk free. You are still under arrest." She had completely forgotten about it. She wasn't under arrest for the UR-1 incident, but for the murder of Clay Terran. The policeman handcuffed her. "What you've done is considered an attempt to escape."
That probably was going to come against her in her trial, but she didn't reply.
She didn't care.
Athena was walking in the Space Center. She had just finished a picture and she wanted to show it to her mom. Mom was always researching at the robotics lab, so she went there. When she entered the room, she dropped the picture. Mom was on the floor, with a katana sticking out of her and a handkerchief over her face. Next to her there was a man wearing her jacket and her Noh mask.
"Y-You broke mom!"
The masked man didn't reply, but ran to her and tried to punch her. She ran from him across the room, but tripped over something and fell. She looked down to see it was an utility kit. The blow had opened it and now all the tools were scattered on the floor. The man was approaching her, so she grabbed one of them and attacked him with it. He dodged it, but she tried again and the knife went onto the back of his hand. Then she saw a leg approaching her face.
"Wake up, Ms. Cykes. It's time to go." Athena turned her head towards the voice that was calling her and slowly opened her eyes to see a policeman behind bars. Was he arrested? No, she was the one inside the cell. Her mind was slowly becoming clear. She was at the detention center. She was arrested for the murder of Clay Terran. It was the day of the trial.
The officer opened the cell's door and handcuffed her hands in front of her body. "Normally, we don't use handcuffs on the suspects at the detention center, but you've already tried to escape once."
While he escorted her down the hallway, Athena thought of the dream she had just had. It had really been just a nightmare? It had felt more real than any other dream she had had before. She had even felt the warmth of the blood on her fingers. And there was something else, she had had the feeling that she had already experienced that situation. A déjà vu within a dream? No. Everything suddenly came to her mind. That dream wasn't a figment of her imagination. She had lived it for real, just not that night. It had happened seven years before, on the day that her mother was murdered. And if there was someone else there that meant...
"Simon is innocent!" She yelled.
"What?" The officer jumped in shock.
"I saw a man in the robotics lab the day my mother was murdered. He was wearing a mask and next to her body. That was before Simon arrived." The policeman didn't seem to understand what she was talking about."Please, let me talk to Prosecutor Blackquill. It's urgent."
"There's no time for that. Your trial is in half an hour. You can talk to him later." But she knew she couldn't. She didn't know the scheduled time for the execution, but every second counted. She made a decision. She had to save him. She kicked the officer in the stomach and ran away as far as she could. She could apologize later.
She didn't know where Simon's cell was, but she had a plan. The scaffold was a part of the same facility as the prison and the detention center. She would wait there until they brought him. She ran down the hallways following the sings pointing the way to the scaffold. Thankfully, she didn't bump into more police officers until she saw a familiar face. It was Detective Fulbright, ripping up some paper sheets and tossing them in the trash. He wasn't looking at her, so she tried to pass by without him noticing, but he grabbed her arm."
"What are you doing here? Wasn't your trial today?"
"I have to save Simon. Please, Detective, let me go. Do it for him. Weren't you friends, or, at least, partners?"
"I'm sorry, Ms. Lawyer, but justice is beyond any kind of partnership."
"But he's innocent! There was another man there that day. I saw him. I remember now." His grip weakened. Was he going to get caught in one of his riddles about justice? She had no time for that. She got rid of his hand with a sudden move of her arm and ran away.
She continued running until she got to a door with 'Scaffold' and 'Only authorized personnel allowed' written on it. She was ready to batter the door in if necessary, but it was open. Behind it there was a wooden staircase. She ran upstairs and when she had almost reached the top, she tripped and fell face down on a flat, wooden floor. The handcuffs and the weight of her own body prevented her from movin her arms, so she tried to use her legs to get up, but a sharp pain in her left knee wouldn't let her. It must have been injured in the fall. He looked up and saw the back of a person.
"Simon?" He didn't answer or move, but his hairstyle and surcoat left no doubt about his identity. She used all of the free parts of her body to crawl towards him. She couldn't look at him and crawl at the same time, but she just needed to move straight to go in the right direction. When she thought she was beside him, the floor disappeared and she fell.
The hit of her chest against the floor made her breathless. She gasped, trying in vain to refill her lungs with oxygen. She spat some blood, then burst in coughing and then puked. After that, her breath slowly came back and, while panting, she analyzed the situation. She was lying face down on a flat surface. She was a little dizzy and could feel something warm coming out of her nose. Was she bleeding? It wouldn't be odd after falling a few feet. It was dark, but there was a square of light coming from above. She remembered why she was there. She made an effort to turn around and look up, hoping to see Simon Blackquill.
But what was there wasn't him. It wasn't even a person. It was a body hanging from a rope. It was too late. He was dead. It was her fault. She had known the truth for all those years, but she had been hiding it, even from herself, just because she wasn't brave enough to face it. And now an innocent man was dead because of it. What a lame lawyer. Her eyes began to eject tears, but her current lying position prevented them from falling, so they kept there, clouding her sight. He had told her not to mourn his death. She wasn't even able to fulfill his last wish. What a lame friend.
She noticed something uncomfortable under her back and rolled to her side to see what it was. All she saw was some kind of golden powder. She put her shoulder to her right ear and confirmed her suspicions. Her earring wasn't there and drops of blood stained her jacket. Then something else further on the floor caught her eye. It was rounded and it has a completely black and cracked screen. Next to it there was a gray cord. She lowered her eyes. Widget, her companion, wasn't hanging from her neck as he always was. She only had two things left from her mother and she had broken both in a row. What a lame daughter. She tried to stand up and come near Widget to check if it could be fixed, but the pain in her knee made her fall again, this time face up. What a lame person.
She could now see Simon's body. It was even paler than usual and the expression on his face resembled a flinch. For some reason she had expected a smirk, but apparently dying was too much, even for him. That was a rather unpleasant sight. She felt something coming up her throat, but she didn't bother opening her mouth. Part of it escaped her lips like slobber and fell down her chin and cheeks, and the rest went back where it had come from.
A bunch of heads popped out above. She recognized Fulbright and the officer she had kicked among them. Every one of them was making a grimace. She must have looked quite pathetic, down there, handcuffed, soaked in tears, blood and puke and unable to move.
She didn't care.
Athena had expected to be more terrified than ever, but oddly enough, for the first time in her life, she wasn't afraid of being in a courtroom. There wasn't room for that feeling in her heart anymore. It was full of sadness. She just didn't care where she was.
"Objection! The defendant had no reason to kill Mr. Terran. " Mr. Wright had been off throughout the trial. He hadn't been able to come up with anything sound against the lighter with her fingerprints on it or the security footage that only showed her coming out of the Space Museum and was now desperately grasping at the lack of motive. She couldn't blame him. Right before the trial, they had received a call from the police: Aura Blackquill had escaped with all of the hostages. Out of concern for Trucy, Mr. Wright had requested to postpone the trial, but his petition was rejected because the trial had already been delayed once due to the incident at the detention center the day before.
What was Aura up to? Probably nothing. She had given up everything to save his brother but it had been useless. She had nothing now. Who knew what she could do in that desperate state. Athena was very worried about Junie. She wanted to cry and scream, but she couldn't. That was the last thing Mr. Wright needed, and she had already given him enough trouble. It was her fault that they couldn't postpone the trial after all. She failed at forcing a smile, but at least managed to hold back the tears.
"That again?" The prosecutor said, clearly annoyed. Athena didn't know how that man looked. She hadn't looked at the prosecution bench. She knew that she would break down if she did it. Not hearing hawk's chirps and shackle's creaks was hard enough. She only knew two things about that prosecutor: He was quite sure that she had killed Clay Terran and he had convinced the entire courtroom of it. She could feel the contempt in the eyes of the people in the gallery. "A lot of defendants are found guilty before their motives are clarified. Ms. Cykes is the only person who could have committed this crime. That's all that matters. Besides, why would she try to escape if she wasn't guilty?"
"Objection! That was explained during Detective Fulbright's testimony." Indeed, the prosecution had tried to use Athena's so-called two escape attempts against her, but Fulbright testified that she hadn't actually tried to escape. He had also testified against her regarding the lighter and the security footage. That man's devotion for justice was certainly admirable. "The defendant was in a frail psychological state."
"But she did it twice and even assaulted a police officer."
"Well, people can do pretty extreme things when they are in a frail psychological state."
"Granted. Maybe even kill."
"What are you implying?"
"If the defendant was in a frail psychological state yesterday and the day before, it could have easily been the same the day of the crime. She could have killed the victim in an outburst."
"Certainly, I've presided some cases in which the culprit just lost it and killed the victim without ulterior motive." The judge joined in.
"There you have your motive. Just a psychological issue." The prosecutor said. Athena bit her lips. Even psychology was against her.
"But...That's..." Mr. Wright buried his head between his arms.
"I see no need to longer prolong this trial" The judge stated. "The prosecution's claims have been proven undeniable. This court finds the defendant, Athena Cykes, guilty of the murder of Clay Terran."
She didn't care.
The new cell was even emptier than the one in the detention center. All that was there was a bed. A rather uncomfortable one. Athena didn't care much. It wasn't the bed what had prevented her from sleeping the night before and it wasn't what was going to prevent her from sleeping that night.
"You have a visitor." The cell had changed, but the man keeping an eye on her was still the same. She wouldn't have needed her special hearing to notice that he didn't like the idea. She didn't talk to him, just follow him to the visitor's room. He probably preferred it that way. Don't you worry. She won't kick you again. Widget would have probably said something like that if he had been still around her neck. She had never thought she'd miss her thoughts being blurted out.
Behind the bulletproof glass was Mr. Wright.
"Hi, Boss."
"I'm sorry, Athena." She had never seen him so down. "It's because of my incompetence that you're here for a crime you didn't commit."
"Don't worry. It's not your fault. Besides, it's not that they put me on death row."
"Life imprisonment is neither a pleasant sentence."
"But means that we have plenty of time to overturn the verdict!" She tried to give her best smile.
"Athena, you don't need to pretend you're fine. Even without Widget's screen, you're still transparent. I know you want to cry. It's okay. Do it."
"No! I can't cry! You told me once that a lawyer only cries when everything is over. And this is not over yet! It can't be over! Maybe Simon is dead but..." She swallowed at the thought."... I can't let everybody think he's a murderer. I want to clear his name. It's... the least I can do. He deserves it. I remember it clearly now. The truth about the UR-1 incident. We have to..."
"Athena...they're not going to reopen a case after executing the convicted culprit."
"But he is...was innocent!"
"That's the problem. We are in the dark age of law. And reopen the case would be admitting that they executed the wrong man. It would take irrefutable proof to get there. And you're imprisoned for murder. They won't accept your testimony as a reliable lead."
"But it's the truth. There was a man there."
"I'm sorry." He hid his head between his hands. "I wasn't able to clear neither you nor Prosecutor Blackquill. I'm a failure as a lawyer. And as father."
"That's not true."
"It is. There's no point in denying it. I'm taking off my badge."
"But Boss...Mr. Wright, I can't clear Simon's name alone. I need help. I need your help. Please...help me."
"Don't worry. I'll find you a lawyer. One better than me. You can appeal and maybe get out of here. Tell them whatever you want to do. They'll be more helpful than me, that's for sure. No time to waste. I'd better get going."
Mr Wright rose from his chair and left. The way back to Athena's cell was as silent as before. The guard locked the cell and she sat on her bed. There was only one thought in her mind: Phoenix Wright had given up. The man she worshiped as a hero, the man who always found a way to turn around even the most hopeless situations didn't' believe himself capable of helping her. If he couldn't do it, who could? She needed help. She couldn't clear Simon's name on her own. She didn't know how to get any help while being in jail. She didn't care. She had a lifetime to figure it out, after all. If only she could do...something. But she couldn't do anything. Why was she so worthless? She punched the wall, and a thin trickle of blood fell down it. Then her body remembered that human beings need to rest. After about 60 hours without a single minute of sleep, it was unavoidable. Her muscles loosened and her eyes closed.
A bunch of clanks wake her up. She open her eyes to see the same officer hitting the bars.
"Another visitor." he said dryly.
"I'm not expecting anyone. Do you know who it is?"
"No. But I think he's a lawyer. He has one of those attorney's badges." It must have been the lawyer Mr. Wright had found. "Let's go."
When they got to the visitor's room, she saw a familiar face and two distinct spikes.
"Apollo!" She hadn't seen him since he took that leave of absence. If it hadn't been for the bulletproof glass, she would have pulled him into a hug on the spot."I'm glad that your arms healed." He was still wearing that jacket and the eye-patch, but not all those bandages he had back then. "Did Mr. Wright told you to come?"
"No." He said, staring at her. "I bumped into him on the way here, though. He asked me to take over the office, but I rejected. He apparently doesn't want to keep it, either. The Wright Anything Agency doesn't exist anymore."
"Why did you reject?"
"I don't feel like doing lawyer things. I don't feel like doing anything at all. The only reason I got out of bed today is because there's a question a need to answer."
"A question?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Why?"
"Why did you kill Clay?" He kept staring at her. Had he really said that? It had to be a bad dream.
"Do you think...I did it?"
"That's why you are here, isn't it?"
"But I didn't do it. Believe me. Please, believe me. You have to believe me."
"I wish I could. All I've done in the past few days is looking for a possibility, even the tiniest, that you were innocent. But there isn't. Unless there's some fact I've overlooked."He leaned towards her and his expression turned into an expectant one. She noticed that his eyes were watery. He really was begging her to tell him a new fact that could turn around the case. But she couldn't. She knew that she hadn't killed Clay Terran, but she didn't understand anything else about the case. "The lighter has your fingerprints on it. It's possible that someone planted them on it, but then, how did the culprit escape? You're the only one in the security footage. The only other explanation would be a different escape route, but the best I could come up with was that the culprit jumped outside during the launch pads' switch and had a helicopter or something waiting for them."
"That sounds like a spy movie." Those probably weren't the best words to say at that moment, but her brain was too tired to come up with more than that.
"I know, it's ridiculous. I just wanted a possibility. But someone would have noticed something as striking and I can't imagine a person able to do something like that in real life. And then there's the fact that you lied to me."
"What!?"
"I could see all your tells, Athena."
"But I wasn't lying."
"Maybe lying isn't the best way to put it. I never asked you if you were the culprit, after all. You were hiding the truth, that's more accurate. And now I know that it wasn't just my imagination. Why didn't you tell me that you lived in the Space Center? Why didn't you tell me that you were there the day of the crime? You could have been a key witness!"
"I fainted in the Space Museum. I never thought that could be relevant to the case. "
"You fainted? Quite convenient. And passing out at the very building you're investigating for a murder at the very time of said murder is the kind of thing you tell your co-worker. Unless, of course, you have something to hide."
Athena cursed herself. If she had been honest with him from the beginning, maybe they wouldn't be going trough that. How could he trust her if she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him the truth? She had forgotten why she had decided to hide everything, but whatever it was would sound stupid now.
"Don't you reply? Are you conceding? Not that you have a choice at this point. There wasn't anyone but you at the crime scene at the moment of the crime. It's you or a ghost. And phantoms don't exist." He was smiling now, but it wasn't that cheerful smile that always made everybody know that everything was going to be fine. That one was somehow scary."So then, why did you do it? Was the prosecution's claim right? You just snapped and killed him?"
"No! I don't have psychological issues. It's true that I've done some wrong things these days, but that was because I was worried about Simon."
"So it was for him? Did you thought that Clay had something to do with the UR-1 incident? That's why you killed him?"
"I didn't even remember his face."
"Then it's true that you're a spy? I suppose it's possible. I mean, Prosecutor Blackquill was accused of it once, and apparently you were very close back then. Plus, you were overseas until a few months ago. Are you her apprentice or something like that?"
"Apollo...that doesn't make sense at all."
"It doesn't make sense at all? It doesn't make sense at all!? Everything stopped making sense the moment Clay was murdered!" As he snapped, his voice was overwhelming with anger. "He was the best person I've ever met! The very thought of someone who might have a motive to kill him is nonsensical itself! And yet, he's dead! Someone murdered him! You murdered him! Why!? Why did you have to kill him!?"
"Apollo, please, calm down." Tears were falling down her cheeks. She had never seen him so furious.
Apollo took a long and deep breath. "Fine. I overdid it. Let's talk calmly and civilly. Please, tell me the truth. If it's the security camera what's bothering you, don't worry. They can't use its footage as evidence. You can be honest with me."
"I didn't kill Clay." That was the truth. She didn't know what else to say.
He sighed again. "It's funny, you know? I used to think that you were transparent, that you couldn't hide anything about you. And now...I have no clue who you are anymore. Was everything an act? From the very beginning?"
"Of course not! I really enjoyed working with you, I learnt a lot. And I've always looked up to you. Even if it had been only eight months, they were some of the best of my life. I can't describe how glad I am that I met you. And... "
"Enough. I'm not sure if you're trying to regain my trust with flattery or just making fun of me, but if there's the tiniest bit of truth in that, please, tell me why you killed Clay."
"I've already told you. I..."
"Athena, please, I'm begging to you, I just want to know the truth. It's all I have left now. I don't have anything else. Clay is gone. Trucy is gone."
"No! Trucy is not gone! She'll be fine! Didn't you get along with Aura? Do you think she would kill someone?"
"Well, I never thought she was capable of killing. But my ability in picking up who is capable of murder is obviously lacking. Anyways, they seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. Dead or alive, I'm not hoping to see her again."
"How can you say something so horrible?"
"Denying the truth won't make it change. You killed Clay and I won't see Trucy ever again. They are undeniable facts. It's better to accept them."
"D-do you think...I'm not going to see J-Junie ever again?" Until that moment, she had managed to set aside her concern about Junie, hoping blindly that she would be fine, but Apollo had just pricked her bubble.
"Juniper was among the hostages? That's awful. And, yes, I doubt we'll see her again."
"I promised her...I would protect her."
"And Clay promised me he would go to the moon, and I promised him he would be fine. People should be more careful with their promises, huh?
"B-but...there has to be something we can do for her."
"It's over, Athena. Everything is over. I've lost everything. You've lost everything. None of us have anything left. Nothing but the truth. The truth is the only thing that can help us. Tell me the truth and I'm sure we both will feel at least a little better. If it's true that all this is being hard for you, please, tell me the truth."
"I...didn't... kill...Clay."
"So that's your answer. Fine, don't tell me." Apollo left his seat." Anyways, the Athena Cykes I know would never kill someone, no matter the reason. But I suppose that person doesn't really exist."
Athena watched him leaving the room. Her mind went blank in an attempt to not process what had just happened. She heard a voice behind her, but she didn't move. Then she felt someone grabbing her arm and pushing her, and somehow she was back at her cell. Thoughts began to come back to her mind, but she didn't want to think. She tumbled into the bed and sank her head into the pillow. She wasn't sleeping, just lying there and desperately trying to keep any thought out of her mind. But It was useless. Apollo thought she was a murderer. That sentence kept echoing in her head. She didn't knew how much time had passed when she heard a clank.
"If it's another visitor, tell them to go. I don't want to see anyone."
"This isn't optional. It's an order. A detective wants to question you."
"Question me? About what?"
"I don't know. Just get up and come."
The guard escorted her again, this time to the questioning room. She had already been there before. It was a small room with just a table and two chairs. The officer stood near the door and she took the closest seat. Sitting in front of her, there was a familiar face: Detective Fulbright.
"What can I do for you?"
"I've been thinking about what you told me yesterday about the UR-1 incident. Was it true?"
"Do you...believe me?" She felt tears rolling down her face. She couldn't help it. The fact that there was at least one person that didn't take her words for just the ravings of a madwoman was so relieving.
"I haven't decided yet. However, as a champion of justice, I must make sure that any possible leads are investigated!"
"Are you...going to reopen the case?"
"No promises, but I'll try if that is the path of justice."
"It is, Detective! I'll told you everything I remember. There was a man in the robotics lab before Simon even came there. He was wearing my mother's jacket and a Noh mask, and I think I stabbed him in the back of his hand."
"That definitely could turn around things. But I'm afraid your testimony alone is not enough to reopen a case. We'll need some evidence to back it up if we want to get somewhere with this."
"And how can we get it?"
"Maybe there's something among the evidence from seven years ago that could help us. Something that they overlooked back then because they lacked the context. It's just a possibility but...justice never leaves loose ends! The evidence from closed cases is stored in an underground vault near the precinct. Let's go and check!"
"Detective Fulbright!" The guard yelled. "Are you planning on bringing a felon to the records room?"
"It's the most just thing to do, officer. She won't be able to try anything if both you and me keep an eye on her."
"Thank you...Thank you very much." Still crying, Athena hugged him. They definitely weren't close enough for that to be proper, but at that moment he was just the only person she still could count on. The officer gave them a disapproval look.
She didn't care.
The records room was a huge underground room full of shelves filled with boxes. There were also a bunch of lockers in one of its corners.
"They're for cases solved recently." Fulbright explained. "Each detective owns one of them. Long time ago they were in a separate room up at the police department, but nowadays they're here too."
Athena, Detective Fulbright and that officer whose name she still didn't know walked down one of the hallways.
"UQ-7...UQ-8...UQ-9...Here, UR-1." Fulbright took the box with said name and put it on the floor."But you can't check it properly with that handcuffs on. Take them off, officer."
"What!? Are you mad? She had already tried to escape twice! Why don't you check the evidence yourself?"
"I told the chief that I had to check some evidence of one of my recent cases in order to get permission to come here." Fulbright replied. "But lying is unbecoming of a champion of justice, so I'm going to my locker and check some evidence. It's an order, officer. Take the handcuffs off. I'll take responsibility if something happens."
"This is ridiculous." The officer retorted, but obeyed.
"Well, let me know if you find something interesting." Fulbright turned and went away.
Athena agreed with the officer last claim, but she didn't complain. She now had the chance to clear Simon's name and that was all that mattered. She started to pull things out of the box. There wasn't really much evidence. Just the case files, the autopsy report, some photos, a CD with a security camera footage and the katana. Seeing it sent a chill down her spine. She spent some minutes reading the files and looking at the photos, but she didn't notice anything strange. Then the CD catched her eye.
"Mr. Officer, do you think we could watch this?"
"Do you want me to go and look for a video player and lose sight of you? That's not going to work."
Before she could reply, the lights suddenly went out.
"Damn it! A blackout? Now!?" He turned on a flashlight. "I'm going to check what the hell happened. You better be a good girl and don't try anything funny."
"Yes, sir." She had no intention to disobey. She didn't want to lose her last chance to do something for Simon.
As the man walked off, the light slowly disappeared and everything went dark. She couldn't do anything, so she spent the time analyzing everything she knew, but she couldn't come up with anything. She really needed to check the security footage. If the man she saw was in there, that was all she needed to back up her claims, but if he wasn't there, that would mean that he had access to it back then and had meddled with it. Would Fulbright still believe her if she told him that? A loud noise interrupted her thoughts. She would have said that was a gunshot. She turned to where the sound had come from. A pretty stupid movement given that it was pitch-black, but oddly enough, she saw a weak light far away. She walked to it, slowly to avoid tripping. She ended up in the locker's corner. One of them was open and a green light on it illuminated a disturbing scene. On the floor, there was a pool of blood next to a body. She recognized the officer that had been watching over her the past few days. She knelt down and tried to wake him up, but there was no answer. She noticed some objects scattered on the blood, some of them very familiar. There was a bullet, a utility knife and a lighter, all of them presented as evidence during her trial, but also a white glove and a gun. Then she heard steps. She grabbed the gun and pointed it to them. It was a reflex. She had never held a gun before. A person came out of the darkness. It was Detective Fulbright.
"What's going on here!?" He flinched." What have you done!?
"No! This is not what it seems! I-I've just come here!" In her nervousness, she didn't notice that she was still pointing the gun at him. "Wait, where is your right glove?"
"Oh? I'm not wearing it? It must have happened when I opened my locker. They use fingerprint recognition technology, so I had to take it off. And then everything went dark and I went to check what was wrong. I probably forgot it then. Oh, look! There it is, on the floor, next to the evidence. Wait. Are you tampering with the evidence!? That was your plan from the beginning!? Did you dare to betray the champion of justice!?" He raised his fist in anger and Athena noticed something on the back of his hand. A scar. A scar in a familiar shape. It couldn't be. She had gone mad. That didn't make sense at all. But she gripped the gun stronger.
"How did you get that scar, Detective?"
"This? It was long time ago, while I was working. Being a champion of justice can be very dangerous sometimes." There wasn't discord in his voice. But something else struck her. There wasn't anything at all in his voice. He had just found a dead body and thought that someone had betrayed him and she was pointing a gun at him, and yet he didn't feel sadness, anger or even shock? What was wrong with that guy?
"Care to elaborate?" She kept pointing the gun at him.
"Are you threatening me!?"
"...Yes."
"Okay. It's pointless to keep hiding it." His expression suddenly turned into one that she had never seen on him. His face was now devoid of any kind of emotion."It's just what you're thinking. This scar is your fault. I'm the man you stabbed seven years ago. I killed your mother."
She closed her eyes and all of her senses, even her sensitive hearing, were shut down. Suddenly, all she could feel was the gun in her hand. The only person she still could count on had turned out to be the man that killed her mother. And it wasn't just her mother. Everything that had happened were consequences of that day. She had lost everything and it was his fault. The man who screwed up her life was right in front of her. And she was holding a gun. She could make him pay once and for all. And she wanted to. But he wasn't threatening her. He wasn't even provoking her. If she did it, it would be a murder.
And who cared? Everybody thought she was a murderer already, anyways. She pulled the trigger. And then she did it again. And a third time. She kept doing it several minutes. It was impossible for that gun to have so many bullets inside, but she didn't care. She didn't stop until she got all of her anger and frustration out of her chest. She was panting. She slowly opened her eyes. Fulbright was still standing in front of her.
"I'm not stupid." He opened his left hand and dropped five bullets. The tone of his voice wasn't a mocking one. He was just giving information.
Athena dropped the gun. It wasn't because that man was still alive. What disturbed her was what she had just done. Now that her mind wasn't overflowing with anger, she could think calmly about it. Had she really tried to kill a person? I recall you saying quite convinced that the end doesn't justify the means. Why is irrelevant. Killing is an unforgivable act. The Athena Cykes I know would never kill someone, no matter the reason. But I suppose that person doesn't really exist. Apollo was right. Athena Cykes would have never done something like that. And yet, there she was, willing to become a murderer. Who was she, then? She didn't know. She had lost her mother, she had lost Simon, she had lost Widget, she had lost Junie, she had lost Trucy, she had lost Mr. Wright, she had lost Apollo, and now, she had also lost herself.
"Well, you've killed an officer and tried to kill a detective. I'd say this is justified self-defense, isn't it, Ms lawyer?" He pulled out his own gun. "It's nothing personal, really. I don't hold a grudge about this little scar. This is an entirely professional matter. I just have to tie up the loose ends I left seven years ago and you happen to be one of them. Goodbye."
When the man in front of her pointed his gun to her head, Athena realized she was going to die.
She didn't care.