A/N: And here we are! I'm supposed to be doing homework, but I'm hitting major writer's block with that, so I decided to avert my attention for the day. Hopefully I'll come up with something for tomorrow… since it's due on Sunday.

So, here we go!

…

Chapter Ten: Truth

Athena settled in the chair and activated Widget. Josh watched curiously, having seen this before, but never been on the receiving end of one of these sessions. Athena smiled warmly at him.

"Alright. Tell me what happened," Athena said. Josh nodded, then hesitated.

"Before we get started, there is something you should know," he said. Athena looked up at him from the hologram screen.

"Yes?"

"I can… see and talk to spirits," he said. Athena tipped her head to the side for a moment, then smiled.

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind then," she said. Josh nodded, and Athena looked back at the screen. "Ready whenever you are."

"After Dad yelled at me in that meeting, I decided to go find Luke and all myself," Josh began. The screen showed an image of him stuffing supplies in his bag, while both the anger and fear indicators flashed lightly.

"M, a spirit who's been helping me, knew the way and was going to show me," Josh continued. A shadowy person appeared behind Josh. The anger stopped flashing, but the fear indicator picked up a little, while the surprise indicator started as well. Athena's eyes flickered to those, and she frowned slightly, but let Josh continue.

"Misty and Amethyst showed up then. I admitted I could see spirits. And they actually believed me!" The two girls and Sapphire appeared on screen, and Misty was hugging Josh. The happy indicator began to flash and the surprise one quieted. But, what alarmed Athena was the fear indicator. It was getting louder and more insistent with each statement.

"They wanted to come with, but I made them stay home to cover for me." On screen Josh walked away from the girls, waving to them. The happy indicator went dark, while the fear picked up. Athena shook her head.

"Joshua," she said in her best soothing voice. "Multiple people witnessed Misty leaving the village with you that night. Not only that, but you felt fear while talking about M, as well as surprise.

"But… I asked Misty to stay home. And I don't know why I'm surprised when I think of M…" Josh said, confusion lacing his words.

"Perhaps you're remembering wrong? Amethyst even covered for your guys," Athena said.

"Amethyst… Wait… that's right," Josh muttered to himself.

"As for M, perhaps she wasn't who you thought she was?" Athena added. It was like a light bulb flickered to life in Josh's head. His eyes widened, losing some of their glassiness.

"Oh… oh god…" he gasped as the heart monitor picked up. On screen of the mood matrix, the fear indicator grew in intensity until it knocked the rest of the indicators off screen.

An out of control emotion! Athena thought. Just then, a nurse ran in.

"What's going on!?" she demanded.

"A therapy session, ma'am. This'll help in his recovery, believe me. Now I need to ask you to leave for confidentiality purposes," Athena said soothingly.

"Did his parents consent to this?" the woman asked.

"Yes. In fact, they asked me. Now, please?"

The woman huffed and stalked out, before Athena turned to the boy.

"Joshua, I need you to talk to me. What's going on?" she pried softly.

"Misty… Misty did come with me," Josh muttered. On screen showed the two of them walking out of the village together.

"We followed M to the caves." On screen showed that shadowy figure again. She stood behind Misty.

"Misty channeled her because I kept getting distracted by angry spirits." On screen Misty turned into the shadowy figure. Athena decided to stop it there.

"Joshua, do you know the spirit's real name that Misty channeled. You'd have to, right? Isn't that how channeling works?"

Josh dug the heels of his hands into his forehead, closing his eyes tightly. "I… I can't! I can't remember anything past Misty channeling her, other than Morgan doing something to my head!" he cried, grinding his hands against his head even harder, not even realizing what he just said.

"Wait. Morgan?" Athena asked. Josh's eyes snapped open, and finally lost the last of their glassiness. His emotions went quiet for a moment, before starting again, double their volume. Only this time, mixed with the fear was anger.

"That's right! Morgan Fey! Misty summoned her, then grandma told me I couldn't trust her and I should cast a Spirit Severing Spell, and I went to and she did something to block my powers." Images flashed quickly across the mood matrix screen, too fast to make sense of. Athena quickly sat on the edge of the bed, taking his hands and pulling them away from his face.

"Josh, Josh, I need you to calm down. I understand the situation is destressing, but—" she cut off as all of the emotions in his heart quieted again, only this time to be replaced by a somber, cutting one.

Guilt.

"This is all my fault, Athena…" the boy whispered, not looking up at her. "Morgan lied to me the whole time. I knew it was suspicious, but… she wanted to teach me. She didn't think I was just jealous, or acting out." His shoulders began to shake. "I'm such an idiot."

"No, that's not true," Athena said sternly, hugging him, despite the headache she was getting from how loud his heart was. "You were put into a situation that no one understood."

"Morgan has Misty's body. If it's been two days… who knows where she could have gone to?"

"They've been watching both entrances to the caves since they realized Misty was missing," Athena said.

"There could always be a third entrance…"

Athena sighed, knowing his logic was sound. After all, who knew exactly anything about the layout of that place? She gave Josh a squeeze and stood.

"I'm going to go talk to your parents," she said. Josh nodded, curling up on his side, his back to the door. Athena sighed softly and stepped out of the room.

"Well?" Phoenix asked. Athena had a mental debate on how much to tell them, before realizing they needed the whole truth.

"He remembers what happened now. About Misty going with him, and what happened to her."

"Well?" Maya demanded. Athena sighed, fiddling with her earring.

"They were following the guidance of a spirit named M. Apparently, M was the one training him with his abilities. He found her suspicious, but still followed her since he was made to feel like she was the only one who believed in him." Phoenix winced at those words. Athena could hear his guilt, and Maya's. She felt bad, but pressed on. "This M lead them to the caves, where a bunch of angry spirits swarmed Josh. So, Misty channeled M."

"But who's M? A medium needs to know a spirit's full name before they can summon them," Maya pointed out. Athena looked at her. This name meant nothing to herself, but she knew it would have some meaning to Maya.

"Does the name Morgan Fey ring any bells?" she asked. And she was right. Both Phoenix and Maya gasped, and Maya grabbed Phoenix's arm, clutching it tightly.

"No…" she breathed.

"I knew we should have told them about her…" Phoenix sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

…

Eric, Luke, and a few of the men from the village carefully made their way through the caves, searching for Misty, with no luck.

"I just don't get it," Luke sighed. "Where could she be?"

"Your guess is as good as mine…" Eric replied with a sigh.

"Hey… what's that?" one of the men asked, spotting something ahead. The group moved closer and spotted a young man, probably in his mid-twenties, dozing against the wall. He was tall and lean, with messy dark hair that formed spikes around his face.

Luke thought he looked oddly familiar.

"Hey, wake up. Are you okay?" the medic of the group asked, gently shaking the young man. His eyes snapped open.

"Wha-!?" he gasped, before quickly scrambling away from the group.

"Whoa there. What are you doing down here?" Luke said, making a calming gesture with his hands. The young man scowled, moving further back from the group.

"Trying to give the spirits here the rest they deserve!" he snapped, before swinging a glowing hand upwards at the ceiling. The light shot from his hand and slammed into the ceiling. With a loud tremble of the cave around them, the roof collapse in between the young man and the group.

"Everyone okay?" Luke called as he waved dust away. There were multiple calls that they were fine, and he relaxed.

"Looks like we just found our saboteur," Eric said.

"Seriously. Though… what do you think he meant about those spirits?" Luke asked. Eric shrugged.

"No clue."

…

After the Mood Matrix session with Athena, Josh felt overwhelmed with guilt. It was so bad, that he couldn't even look at his parents. So, he stayed curled in a ball on his side, facing the wall, despite feeling Maya's fingers run through his hair, and despite their attempts to talk to him, and despite Pearl and Amethyst coming to visit.

Just then, Miles Edgeworth knocked lightly on the door, a file under his arm, as he entered. Phoenix looked up at gave him a strained smile.

"Hey, Miles."

"Wright," he said, nodding to him, before looking over at Josh. "How is he?"

"Recovering… but upset. He blames himself for this mess," Phoenix sighed, looking down. Edgeworth got the feeling Josh wasn't the only one.

"Well, after you told me what he said about having spiritual abilities, I did a little digging into your ancestry," Miles said, passing over the file. "Apparently, Naruhodō Ryūnosuke wasn't your only famous ancestor."

"Huh?" Phoenix asked, opening the file.

"Your great-grandfather on your mother's side, Fenikkusu Taiyō, was said to be able to cast spiritual spells, commune with the spirits, and summon spirits in the form of ghosts. He was quite famous for it in Japan," Miles explained. "I decided to look into this because I know women can't be the only spiritual ones. After all, there's a male International Prosecutor who is also a monk." Edgeworth pushed his glasses up his nose a little.

"This makes a lot of sense, actually…" Phoenix sighed. "Grandpa was always going on about how he 'locked away the family's curse for his descendants, even if his brother refused.'" Phoenix shrugged. "He never said what the curse was, and we all thought he was just senile, but… this could be it," he said.

"Which would explain how you can use the Magatama so well, and how you survived that training course at Hazakura," Maya said brightly. "And didn't you even see sis's spirit at one point or another?"

"Yeah. I guess spending so much time around Spirit Mediums… but then, Josh shouldn't have it so powerful," Phoenix said.

"Actually, Luke had a theory," Pearl suddenly said, gaining everyone's attention. Even Josh's, though he didn't show it. "The people he's been studying were very spiritual, so be believes Ami Fey chose the location she did because she sensed there was something in the ground that would unlock dormant spiritual abilities. Maybe it was too late to awaken your abilities fully, Nick, but Josh was born there, and spent the formative years of his life there."

"That's true," Phoenix mused.

"I doubt it's worth mentioning, but one of your cousins, a third one, to be exact, has dropped off the grid," Miles said, pointing to that part of the report. Phoenix narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the name.

"Dracon Sol…"

"Do you know him?" Maya asked. Phoenix closed the file and looked up.

"Nope."

…

A/N: And there we have it! I had fun coming up with those names, heh.