As the last rays of the sun disappeared below the horizon, Apollo's head crashed onto the desk amongst the paperwork. He was too tired to keep working. Too tired to keep himself awake...

But this trial was so important. He had to find out the truth. Of course, he already knew the truth... well, some of it. Phoenix Wright was innocent, that much he knew. He could never believe he could ever do... that. Not him. Sure, there were some sick and evil people in the world, but by no means could his mentor ever be one of them. Anger at the accusations and the unknown person – or people – responsible roused him to sit up, turn up the light and set back to work.

"I'm going to prove Mr. Wright innocent if it's the last thing I ever do," he muttered through gritted teeth, surprising himself a little at the thoroughness of his determination. He picked up the sheet of paper on the top of his desk and read through the profile once more. There was something strange about this woman… he was sure of it. And yet her testimony was flawless.

Much as he hated to do so, he picked up the pictures of the crime scene and studied them once more, suppressing a tide of sickness at the sight of the grotesque, mutilated corpses. Amadi and Kennedi Snyder-Coupe, 4 and 5 years old, found dead in their bedroom with… once again Apollo wanted to throw up and forced himself to swallow and concentrate. Dead in their bedroom with Amadi's head sewn onto Kennedi's neck, and vice versa. Examination of the wounds to the necks had revealed that they had been cut with some kind of saw, probably slowly and painfully, and the presence of white blood cells proved that the cutting had been started whilst the children had been alive. There was also bruising on the back of Amadi's head.

Who could be so cruel? It just didn't bear thinking about – that there were people in the world who would do such a thing. And the person accused by the children's parents of committing this most heinous crime was… Phoenix Wright?

Phoenix sat hunched up on the chair in the Detention Center with his head in his hands, thinking hard. He still couldn't work out why on earth these people wanted to accuse him. He had never seen them before in his life, he was so sure of that! And yet they obviously held a grudge against him, because not only had they accused him, they had made up a motive as well and he couldn't prove them wrong. Yes, he had been for a walk in People Park that day, the day he had supposedly turned murderous, at exactly the time his motive was supposed to have arisen... he had no alibi. People could certify that he had been at the park then. But nothing had happened!

But he couldn't prove that nothing had happened. No-one could. He replayed the description in his head.

"We had been taking a family walk in the park, People Park. We – we were going to play h-hide and seek in – in the t-trees…" Here the mother had sniffed, wiped her eyes with a tissue and continued. "Th-they loved hide and s-seek. Mr. Wright had been walking through the same patch of trees as my – little – baby – girl –" Here she had completely broken down and her husband took up the story.

"When we went to find them, Kennedi was crying. We saw Mr. Wright walking away. She said – she told us that she had run into him by accident and he had been angry. He had said she had hurt him, and he had pushed her over. We saw Amadi running after Mr. Wright, yelling at him for upsetting his sister."

"My big brave boy!" Here the mother interjected again. "My big brave boy defending my baby girl!"

Strange, Phoenix thought suddenly. My big brave boy, but my little baby girl. But Kennedi was older than Amadi! He stored this observation at the back of his mind, along with a mental note to tell Apollo as soon as he saw him, and continued the mental replay of their account.

"Mr. Wright turned and hit Amadi round the back of the head," continued the father, tears in his eyes. "Amadi started crying too. We heard Mr. Wright shout, 'You stupid child!' and saw him stride off angrily with his fists clenched. It seems such a small occurrence, but we could tell Mr. Wright was unstable at the time."

"Hold it!" Apollo had shouted. "Mr. Snyder, since when has Mr. Wright been 'unstable'?"

This was the bit Phoenix couldn't get over. His doctor had stood up and given a testimony that Phoenix had indeed been known to be mentally unstable and that he had recently been worried about his mental health. Why, oh why had he done that? You were supposed to be able to trust doctors. The last time he had visited the doctor's was to ask if he thought a paper cut on Phoenix's finger was infected.

Suddenly Phoenix saw a movement by the glass and saw a familiar face smiling in at him. "Apollo!" he cried, leaping up from the chair so abruptly that the guard, who had been extremely bored and half-asleep, started. He crossed over to the glass. "Apollo, there's something I noticed whilst I was thinking about what Mr. Snyder and Ms. Coupe said about the – why are you sighing like that?"

"Because – I don't know, I thought for a moment we might be able to talk about something other than the case…"

"What else is there to talk about? I don't know about you but I haven't been able to think about anything el – Trucy?!"

"Hello Daddy," smiled the teenage girl who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere at Apollo's side.

"What are you doing here?" Apollo asked, surprised.

"Uh, visiting?" she pointed out, making him feel stupid. "What, am I not allowed to visit my own adoptive father now?"

"You just surprised me," he replied defensively.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" inquired Phoenix.

"It's Saturday, Daddy."

"Oh…" Phoenix scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed. He had forgotten that… whoops. "Well I'm glad to see you anyway. How have you been getting on?"

"Hmm… alright I guess. I don't know whether you'd be happier for me to be doing great or terrible without you!" She laughed, as did Phoenix and Apollo. "I'm… I guess I'm fine really, I just wish you were out of here and proven innocent already."

"Don't we all," muttered Phoenix.

"Well, I'll have to be in court in an hour – and of course so will you, Mr. Wright…" Apollo pointed out, seeming oddly nervous. "I'd better be off. Make sure I've got all the information I need, you know –"

"Wait! I didn't tell you what I noticed just now. About the parents' account of the day in the park –"

"Tell me in the defense lobby before we go into court. You and Trucy should have some time to chat; I'll see you there." And he was gone before Phoenix could say so much as 'bye'. He sighed but then smiled at his adopted daughter.

"So Trucy. Tell me more about what you've been up to whilst I've been stuck in here…"

*