January 04, 02:36 PM
Themis Legal Academy
Entrance Hall
#
It was Franziska who took the paper out of Juniper's shivering hands and read it, first silently for herself, then out loud for the lot of them.
"To the honorable Miss Juniper Woods.
I regret to inform you that the student knows as Hugh O'Conner is currently in my posession. I advise you to stay calm and follow the orders I will give you.
This letter has reached you along with a box. DO NOT OPEN IT. Your only job is to mail this box to the address written on it. Fulfill this task and your friend will not be harmed. However, should you attempt to open this box, refuse to send it or alert the police, I'm afraid I will have to end Mr. O'Conner's life. I trust that you will make the correct choice."
She looked down at the text. "I see. Under this circumstances, I admit that your choice of action was understandable."
Phoenix felt faint.
The scarred face of Matt Engarde flashed before his eyes.
And here I was, trying to be a good boy for you...
Followed by another face, a face split in half by a row of stitches.
You don't need to know who I am. I think you have other things to be concerning yourself with... such as...
And then Maja's voice, the realization and the courtroom, Adrian's tears and her yells, her pleas of innocence, his crumbling faith; he had judged himself for that, judged himself for losing faith in his client wasn't that the most important part of being a defense attorney and when he'd went to make himself feel better, to regain his trust he'd been met by Psychelocks, quickly broken to reveal the monster underneath, guilty as sin. Maya, the girl he knew and cared for and was, in a way, responsible for now that her sister was dead but she knew, she knew about the situation and poor Adrian had been just an bystander, all innocent, not knowing why she was being accused, forced to stand there screaming her innocence, begging, pleading and she'd die, die, die without ever knowing the reason for it but Maya...
He knew at that moment that, if anyone would dare to judge Juniper for what she did, he would defend her with all he got and a little more to boot because if he'd been in that situation, just having to pass a package to someone else... he wouldn't even have hesitated.
Something brushed against his shoulder and he looked up to find Athena, looking at him with concern on her face.
"Mr. Wright? Are you... are you okay?"
"Y-yes. Yes." He was on the floor. Why was he on the floor?
Slowly, he got up, awkwardly looking over to Juniper. She seemed calm, calmer than he was, but now Robin was quivering with tears in her eyes. "We... we have to help Hugh!", she whispered, "we have to call the police, we..."
"FOOL!" CRACK! "We can not endanger a hostage's life like that!"
She was right. She was right, of course she was. That was the most sensible course of action. Followed by... what?
"We should get that picture analysed", he said and his tongue felt like wet paper. "Maybe we can figure out where and when it was taken."
"Good thinking, Phoenix Wright. I will take this back to the office with me. You will be alerted, should I find something of interest."
Oh. That was... surprisingly kind of her. He gave her a smile, that was the strongest thing he could master right now. But she understood.
"Ah, and... Juniper Woods? Do not be concerned. As you have fulfilled the task given to you, Hugh O'Conner's life is not in danger. Just relax and let us take care of this. The same goes to you, Robin Newman! Phoenix Wright, Athena Cykes, I will be taking my leave now."
"I'll leave, too", he said and turned to Athena, somehow forcing another smile. "What about you?"
"I, uh... I'll stay a little longer."
"Very well. I'll be in the agency if you need me."
#
January 04, 01:51 PM
Themis Legal Academy
Art Room
#
Unfortunally, Juniper had to return to her classroom, leaving Robin and Athena behind. Robin explained that her teacher had gotten ill on a short note, leaving the prosecutor course with an free hour. As there was nothing else for either of them to do, Athena had followed Robin to the art room and was now watching her mold something from clay. Neither of them said anything. Athena could feel the pain in Robin's heart, but it was painfully obvious that the girl didn't want to talk about anything regarding Hugh and so Athena kept silent. Maybe creating pottery was Robin's way of dealing with Hugh's situation. It had to be a shock, learning about it like that. Sure, it had been a shock for Athena, too, but for Robin, one of Hugh's best friends...
What even was she making... a flower pot?
Ugh, but there was also no other topic she could think off, nothing else to talk about. Thus, she just kept watching. Thinking. And watching.
How late was it, how much longer until Junie's lesson was over? She pulled out her phone to check the time, but what she found instead was a text from Apollo. Oh, yeah, Mr. Gavin's lyrics. She'd forgotten all about that.
#
Apollo, 12:32: Bruder, lass uns Hände geben
durch das Gitter deiner Welt
bleibe bei mir wenn dein Leben
durch die Tür des Galgens fällt
Bruder, Bruder
Dieser Tage
lass mich deine Tränen sehen
halte mich und lass uns gehen
in des nächsten Lebens Licht...
Nein, alleine stirbst du nicht
#
She stared at it.
That had to be a joke. That... no. That just had to be a joke. Had Apollo learnt German just to prank her? If so, he'd put a high amount of effort into it because German was difficult. And this... perhaps someone else had written this, slipped it into Mr. Gavin's pocket to hurt him? But why? Why would anyone... make fun of his troubles like that? But if that wasn't the case, if he truly had written it himself, then... then...
Then!
There'd been another one of those, a previous one, right? Right. Surely that note would explain everything. Surely that other note would turn this into something perfectly harmless and normal. Yes.
...
Now she needed that note. She needed it. She had to have it. She had to know. Perhaps this was even... no, god no. That was way to complicated and insane, even for someone as... unique as Mr. Gavin. Besides, why would he involve poor Junie? Stupid, to even consider that. This note probably had no connection to this case at all. But... she had to know...
How, though? By going to the prosecutor's office? Actually, yes... she could ask Simon! But no, to go there, to talk about this with Mr. Gavin's colleagues... that was an absolute no-go. So, no. But then, what else? The note in question had been with Mr. Edgeworth and Mr. Edgeworth...
...wrote everything down in his organizer.
Which had been in his suit when he'd fainted, she just knew that. But was even Miles Edgeworth patient enough to copy an entire note, one which probably had no bearing to the case at hand.
Yes. He was. No need to even ask. And in that case...
"I'm D-O-N-E now! Whatcha think, man?!"
She looked at the... object Robin had created, a... an... an...
"Uh... it's a really nice ashtray?", she said and Robin frowned, turning the misshapen piece of clay in her hands. "It was supposed to be a vase."
"Oh. Uhm... sorry."
"I think it's a plate now."
Her voice was shaky and Athena wasnt sure of what to do. Leaving Robin alone in a moment like this felt wrong. But another glance at her phone told her that the school bell was just about to ring and once that happened, Myriam and Junie would be there for her.
"Uh, Robin? I need to go now. Apollo just send me some... new information about the case. It's really important." Liar, liar. She placed a hand over Widget to keep him from yelling out her thoughts.
But Robin didn't notice the lie, bold as it had been. "Yes... that's fine. I'll stay here and fix this plate and..." she gulped and looked up, "...if... if you find anything about Hugh, then... then..."
"I'll tell you, I promise. Please don't worry, yes?" I'll worry for you.
She left Robin and her pottery behind, left the school just as the bell rang out. Her feet carried her to the bus stop. Six minutes. Or four, if she took the one to People Park and changed there. But no, that was too difficult and would probably take longer in the end. Thus, she let the first bus pass without getting on.
She ended up regretting her desicion soon enough as she ended up pushed against the window by way too many people, none of which had the slightest right to exist in such an obstructing manner. The five stations between the academy and the hospital were sheer torture, but eventually she managed to escape the crushing death trap and found herself in front of the Dye-Young Hospital.
Her lucky star was apparently shining because nurse Byrde was on the job and allowed her to go see Mr. Edgeworth without any complaints. Only when she entered the room did she realize that she didn't even know where to search. His jacket was draped over the bed, so perhaps she could search the pockets? But that resulted in absolutely nothing. They were empty, save for a rather childish keychain.
Slowly but surely, she realized that she had absolutely no clue of what to do now that she was here. She'd been so worried and exited, she hadn't spend any time thinking. So... so what?
There was a chair nearby. Athena pulled it close and sat down, pulling her phone from her pockets and reading the damned text again. It hadn't changed, unfortunally.
It really was worrying, especially because she knew exactly how it felt to be in such a state of mind. God, she'd been a child at that time, one who hardly knew the meaning of 'death', one who'd tried to fix a dead body as if it was just a machine... and still, she was almost certain that she had had the same ideas as Mr. Gavin, would have written something similar if she'd been capable of writing songs. But the most important thing was whether this was simply a manner of coping or actually a...
Aaargh, if only she had that cursed first part to know more details!
"Athena?"
She flinched and turned around as if she'd been caught stealing from the donation box.
"Apollo? You're still he..."
"Klavier's condition is getting worse."
There was nothing in his voice, nothing in his eyes. Just stating a fact.
"What... what do you mean by getting worse?"
Apollo stared down at the ground. "He stopped breathing earlier. As in, completely stopped. They say he's fine now, but I know they were lying. My bracelet..."
He didn't look up. "Apollo..."
"They made some adjustments to his IV line and his oxygen supply and I think I heard some talk about how he might need an operation one day. I don't... I'm not allowed to see him, but I couldn't just leave..."
What to say? Assurance, encouragement? But all she got out was: "I... I thought he didn't take a lethal dose?!"
Wrong thing to say. Apollo actually jumped back and stared at her, eyes wide in terror. "He... he didn't! That's completely true!"
"Then..." Encouragement. Assurance. "Then... I'm sure he won't die, Apollo. He's been badly poisoned and it's maybe a little worse than they thought, but he... he's not going to die. I just know it, okay?" If that was true, then why was she putting so much energy into staying perfectly still? There was no reason for her to be nervous and thus there were no nervous ticks and thus, thus there was nothing for Apollo to pick up on and nothing for her to hide and...
Great, now she was twice as concerned as she'd been earlier.
"I just... I hope you're right. Can we..." A sigh. "Can we talk about something else? What about the investigation? Anything new?"
She jumped onto the new topic, gave him a grin and rolled her eyes. "Oh, you have no idea."
It took her about ten minutes to explain everything, his eyes getting wider and wider with every passing minute. Once she reached the end of her story, all he could do was shake his head in disbelief.
"But... Why? Why... go through all this trouble just... just to kill Mr. Gavin? Why...?"
There was no answer to that, at least not as far as Athena knew. She opened her mouth to give one anyway.
She never got around to it. Somewhere behind them, Mr. Edgeworth moved.
And opened his eyes.
