Apollo was increasingly unable to see his companion's face, as night was beginning to fall outside, but the street lights had yet to flicker on in the progressing dusk.

Considering what Blackquill had just said, it made sense that he was trying to uphold their now more than a little awkward conversation, even if it meant admitting that 'It is what it is,' as he had phrased it last night, was an attitude he wished he possessed, rather than actually operating under its premise.

"I… I think I understand where you're coming from there. I mean, granted, I haven't sat in jail, let alone with a death sentence, but…"

Perhaps it was time to offer up some of his own personal demons in exchange.

"… you know I was mentored by the attorney who was the other factor in the 'dark age of the law' starting eight years ago, right?"

"You were affiliated with the elder Gavin?" Blackquill sounded slightly taken aback.

"Yeah… I mean, not at the time when he framed Mr. Wright for his evidence forgery, obviously, I was still in high school at that point, but Kristoph Gavin was my mentor after I first passed the bar two years ago. And in my first trial, I had to finger him for murder and make myself unemployable, or so I thought at the time. No one has ever held it against me that I was trained for the job by the man who began the forging trend among defense attorneys, thought that the end justifies the means, because not that many people know – I started working for the Wright Anything Agency after that trial, so only one set of court minutiae ties me to him, but considering that it was Mr. Wright himself who was under fire for it first, I've been really lucky that it didn't backfire on me."

Directing his gaze down toward the dully glinting ring of metal around his wrist, Apollo continued.

"Still… I've had a hard time trusting people since then, especially when they set off my bracelet, even if it's the stupidest little white lie they're concealing. Maybe that's why I took a leave of absence after the courtroom bombing, because Athena was getting more and more tense… yeah, now I realize that it was because she was hiding her connection with you, had probably heard that you were running out of time, and was trying to find out the truth about the UR-1 case, and not because she killed Clay – or her mother – , but how was I supposed to know?"

"There was no way for you to know," Blackquill replied quietly. "The available evidence seemed to speak against her in both cases. I was not entirely sure that she played no part in Dr. Cykes' murder until your superior was able to prove it – I suspected some sort of accident to have occurred for the longest time, rather than a premeditated killing. Although the HAT-1 sabotage was attributable to the Phantom, meaning that he had obviously had access to areas of the Space Center closed off to regular visitors, and I was working on his psychological profile with my mentor at the time, there was no proof to connect the two incidents, or at least none that was officially disclosed. And seeing that Athena herself was too traumatized to recall what had occurred until Wright-dono was able to restore her memory…"

Apollo slowly shook his head. "And yet you still shielded her."

Blackquill emitted a huff. "She was but a sheltered child in those days, with no conception of life or death due to her limited experiences, as her attempt to fix her mother amply proves. Even if she had done the deed, she would have been in need of psychological help, not of being incarcerated, be it in juvenile detention or an adult facility. My mentor would not have stood for it, and so I could not."

Silence descended for a long moment after that statement.

"I bet you're happy to see that she's become so much more of a people person since then," Apollo then mused quietly. "Then again, she kind of fits right in at the agency – she and I are both orphans, as is Trucy, Mr. Wright's adopted daughter…"

"Thus your comment yesterday that you were uncertain as to whether or not you had siblings." The prosecutor seemed unsurprised – he had apparently already guessed at this fact, but had been too tactful to bring it up.

"Pretty much. I mean, I guess I'm a bit different in that I never knew either my biological mother or my father to begin with, other than the girls. Maybe they're dead, maybe they're still alive, maybe I have brothers and sisters, maybe I don't. I never bothered looking. I grew up in the foster system, and the three families who took me in over the years were nice enough, I suppose, even though I don't really have much contact with them anymore. The third one was pretty well off, so they shipped me off to a good school with a dorm for boarding students. That's where I met Clay… Clay Terran."

"The victim in the HAT-2 murder case? That clarifies a few things. You were… close, I take it?" The pause in Blackquill's final question did not ring of insinuation; rather, it contained a hint of uncertainty in how to proceed, given that the subject of their conversation had only lost his life a few months ago.

Apollo felt a melancholy smile settle on his lips. "You could say that. He was the brother I never had, and he was always so optimistic… whenever I had a hard time because I was bullied, or because I was angry that everyone got to go home over the shorter holidays while I had special dispensation to stay at school because my 'family' was off traveling somewhere with their biological offspring, he would make me stand up and yell that I was fine, that everything would be fine, and it really helped. I've only seen him down in the dumps once, the night his mother died… and even then, once I reminded him of his own technique, he managed a smile. As you've heard this morning, I'm still doing that – it helps me to focus on the present, on what I have to do, without looking back and drowning in regret."

"… I thought I recognized your yelling from somewhere," Blackquill muttered. I did not know young Terran very well when I was still under Dr. Cykes' mentorship, but I did witness him training with Starbuck once or twice – he was at the Space Center in some sort of semi-official after-school internship, or so I understand. He seemed like a rather energetic young man, and given to loud, if usually positive, outbursts."

Apollo laughed quietly. "Yep, that was Clay, all right. I was really happy to see that he managed to make his dream of going into space a reality – he always said that it was better to reach for a goal and fail than to never try anything at all. When I told him I wanted to be a lawyer, even though the profession already had a terrible reputation when I started studying for the bar, he said I should definitely do it. I even changed my name to 'Justice,' kind of as a statement of what I was looking for. Not easy wins, or hairsplitting, or outright underhanded stuff to get my client off by any means necessary – justice. I guess that all sounds pretty idealistic and cheesy to you…"

The prosecutor did not answer for a while, and Apollo was wondering what was going through his head, but did not dare to interrupt the other man's thought process.

Finally, Blackquill responded. "I was idealistic once, too, Justice-dono. I have since unlearned how to be, for obvious reasons… but if there were no idealism left in the courtrooms, the darkness that has descended on them would be doomed to stay forevermore. Perhaps, I shall even reacquire some of my idealism as change begins to surface."

He paused. "Do you happen to have the time?"

The street lights outside had now long since come to life, and the dim orange glow from the windows allowed Apollo to check his watch. "It's about 10:30."

"Perhaps an attempt at resting would not be amiss, then." The prosecutor rose from his chair to walk towards the alcoves, only for his steps to come to a halt halfway there. The defense attorney could dimly see the man's pale face turning back towards him over his shoulder as he added, "I will endeavor not to disturb your slumber tonight."

"Oh, haha…" Apollo scratched his neck. "It's fine if you do – this place never gets really bright without the lights on, anyway, so I can sleep whenever…"

A few seconds passed without a word, then Blackquill turned away again with an almost inaudible "Understood."