~Chapter 6~

POV: Apollo

"Wait… Do we even know the defendant's name?!" Athena asked once we entered the detention center.

"No…" I replied sheepishly.

"Trucy was talking about him… I can't quite remember his name, though."

"I'm sure we'll find him."

We walked from window to window, glancing at the faces behind the bulletproof glass. There weren't many teenagers there, and none of them looked remotely similar to the prosecutor.

"Argh! I'll bet he's in for questioning," Athena mumbled.

"Who are you looking for?" I looked around for a police officer, but instead the owner of the voice was lounging in a questioning chair.

"We aren't quite sure, actually…" I replied. "Their last name is probably Barnett."

"Are you looking for Dylan Barnett?"

"Oh, yeah!" Athena exclaimed.

"Uh, that would be me, actually," he responded. I took a moment to look him over- he didn't look remotely similar to his sister. Well, the glasses are the same. And the eyes… And the freckles… And the nose… And pretty much everything except for his hair color, and the fact that he can smile.

Well. I felt brilliant.

"Oh! It's nice to meet you, Dylan! I'm Athena Cykes, and this is Apollo Justice! We're here to take on your defense."

"Oh. I've heard a lot about you from Trucy," he replied.

"Can you tell us about what happened today?" I asked.

"Well… Amber had a trial today, so I went to her office and hung out there until she got back. She was pretty grumpy." My bracelet tightened as I saw, not Dylan's, but Athena's fist clench. What happened at that trail?! "Well, Keith was trying to cheer her up, and Amber sent him down to the basement to leave some evidence there."

"Wait… For the trial? I thought there was an evidence room in the police department," I replied.

"My sister has a safe in her office that she keeps evidence in. Once the trial's over, all the prosecutors take the evidence down to the basement, and leave it there to be organized in the evidence room."

"Oh, that makes sense," I responded.

"Well, after about ten minutes, he didn't come back up, so my sister sent me to find him. I got into the basement, and it was pitch black. I turned on the light, since I didn't want to be stumbling around in a room full of murder weapons." Athena tried to stifle a laugh. "Well, the office was a mess. I saw papers everywhere, and there was even a broken table… With a person on it. I got closer, and I found Keith with a knife in the side of his neck… I, uh… I yelled for help after that." My bracelet tightened around my wrist.

"Did you do anything between finding the body and yelling for help?"

"Uh… I don't think so," he replied, tugging at his skull necklace.

"Gotcha," I said, feeling somewhat triumphant. "What about finding the body would cause you to touch your neck?"

"Ack!" The boy winced. "I guess you'll figure out eventually… But you won't be happy with me. I… I took out the knife. With my bare hands."

"Oh no!" Athena yelped. Fingerprint data is NOT going to help our case.

"I didn't kill him, I promise… But everyone thinks I'm guilty."

"Are the fingerprints the only reason?" I asked.

"No… There was a problem with the escape route."

"The escape route?" Athena asked.

"Yeah… There's a security camera on the stairs, and one in the basement. I heard something from Kay that the one in the basement wasn't operating, though. There's only two ways out of the basement: The elevator, and the stairs. The elevator was broken… The chain snapped. Someone probably cut it, since nobody was on the elevator when it broke. As for the stairs… I'm the only one who came out of the basement after 1:20, which was when Keith left our office."

"Did anyone go down that didn't come back up?" I asked.

"Nope, nobody... They checked the security tape."

"Couldn't someone have gone down the elevator before the murder?" I asked.

"Huh, I didn't think of that," he responded. "Wait… I just thought of something. If someone did go downstairs… They couldn't have known that he was going to go down there."

"Oh! You're right!" Athena exclaimed. "So… It wasn't premeditated?"

"That's one explanation," I replied.

"What other explanation is there?"

"I've learned to take nothing for granted in a trial… It saves you a lot of stress further down the road."

"Objection! You? More stressed out?! I didn't think that was possible!" she joked. I grumbled before turning back to Dylan. It's not as if you make my life any less stressful.

"Do you have any idea who would have had a motive to kill Keith?"

"Nope. Sorry." He seemed somewhat bothered by this.

"That's okay… We'll figure it out. What can you tell us about your relationship with Keith?"

Dylan smirked. "I'm not gay, especially not for a guy twice my age."

Athena burst out laughing, while I desperately attempted to regain some form of dignity. "Relationships don't necessarily have to be romantic! I'm in a relationship with Athena, but we aren't-" I was cut off by another burst of laughter. "All right, poor choice of wording! How do you feel about him?"

"That still sounds really sexual," Athena choked out between laughs. My face burned red.

"Just answer the question!"

"Heh, alright. Keith and I were really good friends… He was always a role model for me. When Amber was in college, Keith acted like a dad to me… A really cool one, not like some forty year old man who thinks he's cool with his 90's music." But the 90's were the last decade of tolerable music.

"Aww, that's so sweet!"

"I'll admit, I was really upset when I found him… I cried. A lot." Huh. He doesn't look like a cryer. Taking a look at Athena, I remembered that she was, tears blurring her eyes but refusing to fall down her face.

"Dylan… You're innocent! I know you are!" Athena decided. "And we're going to prove it!" Do you have to shout it out like that?

"Thanks… I believe in you guys, too."

"We won't let you down," I promised, desperately hoping that I'd actually be able to keep it.

"Is there anything else you need to know?"he asked. Let's see… I think we've got everything important.

"I think we're fine for the time being… We'll be back if we have more questions."

"All right… Thank you." He grinned.

"Hey… When you get bored, try and talk to the bailiff. They aren't too smart, and it's funny to trick them," Athena whispered. What did she do while she was in jail yesterday?!

"Heh, I already convinced one of them that I have a severe cookie addiction, and if I don't get cookies every hour, I'll have seizures," he replied with a wide smirk.

"Aww, I should've tried that!" Athena moaned.

"I'm glad you didn't," I muttered.

"Aww, you don't get it. You haven't had the jail experience yet! It's a vital part of being a lawyer!"

"It seems a bit unnecessary."

"Hmph. You just don't understand."

"Well, Dylan," I said, ignoring Athena, "I think we should go and check out the crime scene. Try and find some… legal methods of entertaining yourself."

"Don't worry, Amber already gave me this whole spiel. You two just go do what you do… I'll be fine." Hearing my friend's catchphrase stung, but I shook it off- If Clay were here, he'd tell me that I was just fine without him, and that I needed to keep my eyes on the road; he'd often told me that you can't drive a car if you only looked in the rear view mirror (not that either of us had much driving experience).

I'll be fine, too.

(O)

I knew that Ema was going to be on the case, but I hadn't really thought about the fact that I was actually going to see her for the first time in over a year. When I arrived at the crime scene, the two thoughts collided as I saw the only real detective I'd ever worked with.

"Apollo? Is that you?!" She asked, clearly shocked.

"Uh, I think so. I haven't seen too many other people with hair like mine," I joked.

"Hmph. Compared to what I've seen lately, yours is pretty normal." She smirked. "So, are you going let that girl stand over there silently, or are you going to introduce us?"

"I don't know, it's been a while since she's been this quiet," I remarked. Athena glared at me. "This is Athena. She works with me at the agency."

"Oh, Mr. Wright told me about you," she commented.

"Athena, this is Ema. She's a detective… She likes science. A lot."

"Nice to meet you!" Athena said, holding out a hand. Ema shook it once, and dropped her hand.

"You're in a good mood today, Ema," I noted.

"So are you."

"I am?"

"Yeah," Athena interrupted. "You haven't scowled since we got here. You know, during our first trial, Mr. Wright asked me to count how many different annoyed faces you made. There were at least twenty."

"I think finding a dead body, getting a hopeless case, dragging a ladder all the way into the Alderman's room, and having a police officer thrown at me are good reasons to have annoyed faces."

"But you always have hopeless cases," Ema teased. The sad part was that it was completely true.

"Speaking of hopeless cases… Can we see the crime scene?" I asked.

"We're having a difficult time with the beginning of the investigation. The forensics team is down there now…" Ema frowned, and I shot her a sympathetic look. "I'm still feeling pretty good though, since the fop hasn't shown up yet," she reassured me, presumably guessing my thoughts.

"Is he prosecuting the case?" I asked.

"I don't know. Mr. Edgeworth seemed to be having trouble picking out a prosecutor."

Athena flicked her earring. "Why's that? Did someone else want the case?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I'm just here to not check out the crime scene," she mumbled. She pulled out her infamous bag of snacks, which I'd been wondering about.

"What are those?" Athena asked.

"Snackoos," I answered. Ema was too busy chewing to answer. "Ema eats them every time she's annoyed, bored, or hungry, from what I can tell."

"What do they taste like?"

"These ones are chocolate flavored," Ema replied after swallowing. "They're my favorite. They have lots more flavors, though."

"Oh, right. Ema also throws them when she's especially annoyed." Ka-tonk. "Was that so annoying?" I asked, rubbing the shoulder that had been shot with a brown bullet.

"Nah. It just seemed fun." For you…

"Snacks aside, I'm assuming that we aren't allowed to go on the crime scene?"

"Your assumptions are right. I doubt you'll get to check it out until tomorrow morning," she replied, ending her statement by shoving a handful of chocolate snacks into her mouth.

"Wait," Athena said suddenly. "What time is it?"

"It was 6:20 ten minutes ago," Ema replied.

"Hey, Apollo! We can still go see Trucy's magic show!"

"Her shows are pretty good," Ema agreed. Wait. When has Ema EVER seen one of Trucy's shows? "I wish I could come… It's not like I'm doing anything useful here."

"It would be fun. Though Trucy does have a show every day… Maybe you can catch one with us after the case," I pointed out.

"Hmph. The fop will probably find some work for me to do between seven and nine every night," she grumbled, eating a few snacks. "If I can find the time, it would be fun, I have to say."

"Yeah, it would be great to see you. Well, we should get going if we want to see that show."

"All right, see you."

Once we were out of eyesight, Athena whispered something in my ear. "You seemed awfully happy to see her."

"Yeah, she's a good friend." Why's she being so secretive?

"Just a friend?" I thought about what that meant, until the implications hit me, followed by a mental picture of Ema acting romantic. It was terrifying, to say the least.

"Yeah. Definitely just a friend."