Feels good to get back to writing again after that small week hiatus. I was really tired from work today but I just wanted to type this chapter out. I figured it was about time to start wrapping this story up. After all. I'm already planning on a sequel! Haha, don't worry, that one won't be as long as this one I feel. Mainly because it will have less action and will focus a lot more on the development of Apollo's and Nick's relationship. But enough talk about the future. Let's continue on with chapter 26. More clues!

Apollo and Trucy walked out of the hospital together. Apollo had his right arm in a cast and a sling and his left hand had bandages around it. He started rubbing his right arm with his bandaged left hand.

"You know it's funny, I have never had a broken bone in my entire body. I was always so careful because at the orphanage they wouldn't take care of it for you. Now here I am acting so recklessly and what happens, I break my arm."

"Does it hurt or anything?"

"Nah." Apollo brought his left arm down. "Hasn't hurt all day. I guess the adrenaline in me is still going. I know I'm still wired. I want to go do stuff."

Trucy looked down at the watch on her wrist. "Apollo, it's 11:30. I think we should just call it a night and go home. Besides it's not like we can do anything right now."

Apollo sighed and looked forlornly at the ground. "Yea I guess you're right. Still I want to go do something!"

"How about we go home and rest? I'm kind of tired. This has been a long day for both of us and some sleep would probably help both of us out. Maybe even get you thinking straight again."

Apollo rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. "Yea I guess you are right."

Trucy and Apollo walked in a comfortable silence back home. Apollo would occasionally check over his shoulders to make sure no one was following him but the streets were empty. There were no cars, no people, even a lack of animals. It all felt too quiet to Apollo. Occasionally Apollo would stop Trucy and pull her aside so he could check around alleyways. Alas it was just a quiet night with nothing dangerous happening. They eventually made it back to the office and walked up the stairs. Apollo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well I am glad nothing happened."

"Did you think anything was? We are still under the ban. No civilians are allowed outside except for extreme emergencies."

"I guess you are right. Still I know I'll be on alert for the next few days since we're not out of the clear yet. I just hope no one plans on kidnapping me or anything."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing? At least you'd be with Daddy."

Apollo tapped his chin and rubbed it. "I mean that's a morbid thought but it is one way to put it…"

Trucy opened the door to the office and stepped inside. "This is going to be an interesting night without Daddy."

"What do you mean? He has left us before."

"Yea but before I always hoped he would be safe and would come home safely and I had no idea where he had been. Now I know he's in trouble and I don't know what the outcome is going to be. It's like an advanced loneliness."

"Oh. Yea I get that. Well I mean I will sleep over again tonight to make sure you're safe again so at least you'll have me."

"Thanks Apollo, I'm going to go get ready for bed. I washed Daddy's pajamas today so you can wear them again tonight if you would like and we can… uhm. Try to find some extra clothes for you tomorrow."

Apollo looked down and finally got a good glimpse of how his outfit actually looked. "GAH! You let me walk around like this today?! This is disgraceful!"

"Well it's not like you could have changed."

Apollo fell onto the couch and groaned. "Ugh… Still I wish you would have told me so I didn't hold my hand in my right armpit. That's a huge blood stain… this shirt is ruined."

Trucy giggled and tossed Apollo his pajamas for the night and went off to her bedroom. Apollo walked back into his office to change. The pajamas still were very big and falling off him. 'It's going to be another long night.' He walked back out to the common area and laid down on the couch. 'I need to come up with a plan to figure out how to get back on this case. But how? Franziska will never let me back. She already knows me feelings for Nick will probably cloud judgment so I wouldn't be useful that way. Is there any other way I can be useful though?' Apollo looked around the common room again and spotted the piano cluttered with magic equipment. He got up and walked over to it and sat down on the bench. 'This office does feel a lot lonelier than it did the other night Nick wasn't here.'

Apollo stood up and started rummaging through the objects on the piano. 'I never understood why Nick became a pianist. I understand to try to make money for Trucy but there are so many other jobs that Nick could have done. 'Apollo looked through some trick cards, an extra hat and some handkerchiefs everywhere. 'Trucy and I really should clean up this place. There are so many things everywhere I'm surprised we haven't had any accidents.' Just as Apollo said that he forgot about the piano bench behind him and tripped over it knocking it down with a loud thud.

"Apollo are you alright?" Trucy said as she stepped out of her room.

"Yea just fine. I tripped over the piano bench.

"Be more careful next time 'Polly!" Trucy giggled and went off again into her room.

Apollo got up and set the piano bench upright. He noticed doing this though that the piano bench had slightly fallen apart. Or at least that's what it seemed. 'Huh, it looks like it is one of those compartment piano benches.' He lifted the lid off and his eyes went wide. 'What's this doing in there?' There was nothing in the piano bench except for a single cell phone. 'Whose cell phone is this?' Apollo opened it up and it looked like a simple cell phone. Not rigged with anything or put there for any reason. 'I wonder…' Apollo pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number on it and hit call. Sure enough the cell phone rang and started playing the Steel Samurai theme song. 'This is Nick's! But why is it here?' Apollo flipped the phone around and looked at it more thoroughly. The phone didn't have any scratches or cracks on it so it wasn't just thrown there. He did have it when he came to the Criminal Affairs Department, right?' Apollo looked up at the ceiling and tapped the phone on his chin. 'Actually I don't remember. It's not like he had a chance to take it out. Besides, there is no chance he was able to leave this phone here in between the kidnapping and his race back home. Otherwise Trucy would have found out and knew he was home. So why would Nick place his phone in here? Why not just leave it out in the open on the coffee table or something?' Apollo walked back over to the couch and sat back down. 'Guh, it's too late to think of something like this.' Apollo placed the phone down on the coffee table and laid back.

Eventually Apollo's thoughts started to become cloudy and Apollo's eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep. The next morning he woke up and saw Trucy already up and dressed.

"About time sleepy head!"

Apollo rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Morning Trucy." He looked at the cell phone on the coffee table and the time on it read 9:34. "Hey Trucy, do you remember if Nick left here with his cell phone yesterday?"

"Um, no. Actually I think he left it here in the piano bench." She glanced over at the coffee table. "Oh, you have it now. Why do you ask?"

"It's not like Nick to walk out without his cell phone. Now knowing he doesn't have it means we can't triangulate his position."

"Oh. Well for some reason he said to not tell anyone about his secret phone hiding space. I don't know why though. No one wants that cell phone. It's archaic and has a really dumb ringtone."

"Well you know Nick and his fascination for the Steel Samurai." Apollo and Trucy shared a laugh. "So where are we going to get some clothes for me?"

"Well Daddy has a few things in his closet that he's probably outgrown. We can probably go find something there."

"Alright." Apollo got up and followed Trucy into Phoenix's room. It was well kept with a made bed and not a single bit of clutter anywhere in the room. Trucy walked over to the closet and opened the door up. She stepped into it and started throwing clothes around. Apollo walked around the room. He felt a little awkward as he had never been in here before. He looked on the dresser and noticed Phoenix's locket. He picked it up and turned it over in his hand. 'I remember about this. It has a picture of Trucy inside. I used this as a piece of evidence in my first trial.' Apollo smiled and opened up the locket. His smile turned into a frown and he held the locket close to him. He put it back down on the dresser and left it open. It showed a picture of Trucy on one side but on the other side there was now a picture of Apollo.

"Alright I think I found you a shirt at least try this on!" Trucy threw a shirt right into Apollo's face. He took his pajama shirt off carefully and put the blue polo on. It was slightly long on him but fit well otherwise.

"This works. Now I just need pants."

"On it!" Trucy stepped back in the closet and continued throwing more articles out. Apollo continued surveying the room. Despite appearances in the common room it seemed like Phoenix really liked to keep his room clean it seemed. Apollo sat down on the bed and looked at the night stand. On it were two things. A clock and a weird yellow faced pin.

"Hey Trucy. Isn't this the button that is on Nick's beanie?"

Trucy stepped away from the closet and walked over to the night stand. She picked the pin up and turned it over a couple of times. "Yea this is. But I could have sworn I saw it on him yesterday when he left."

"I remember seeing it too. That's weird. Are you sure he didn't come home at all yesterday?"

Trucy placed the pin back down and walked back into the closet. "Not that I know of."

"So how do you explain this being here?"

"Maybe he took the camera button with him instead?"

Apollo looked at the pin and noticed that it was just that. A pin. "Trucy that's it!"

Trucy stepped out with a pair of black cargo shorts over her arm. "That's what?"

Apollo grabbed the shorts and ran into the bathroom. He ran back out with the shorts on, although at this point you could probably consider them closer to capris. They came down a few inches below Apollo's knees. Apollo looked down "Am I really that short?!"

"What were you saying earlier Apollo?"

"Oh right! If Nick has his camera button with him we will be able to view the footage and see who kidnapped him and where he is."

"But how do we do that without the camera itself?"

"That's actually easier than it sounds. I think Nick knew he was going to be kidnapped yesterday. He is a lot smarter than I am and can see the bigger picture half of the time. With that camera it actually has two options. He told me this on the case with Vera. First is a simple recording option, but the second is a live feed. Like a video surveillance. However it can't record anything. In addition it doesn't pick up on audio."

"So where does the live feed get uploaded to?"

"Simple, what's a mobile receiver that Nick would want to make sure we had and no one else?" Apollo ran out to the common area and Trucy followed behind. Apollo grabbed the phone from the coffee table and opened it up. He powered it on and scanned through the phone. He eventually found a file that said 'Camera.'

"Well is it there?"

"Yea I think I found it." Apollo opened up the program and in it were a bunch of video recorded files. The majority of which were about the case of Vera Misham. "Huh, it doesn't seem to be like the video live feed is working. It should automatically come up if the camera is on."

"Maybe its batteries died?"

"No, this camera can last for a good week if needed. There's no chance, and I know Nick would have been smart enough to make sure it was operating in surveillance mode and not recording mode." Apollo placed Phoenix's phone in his pocket. "We'll at least keep it with us so we can check up on it just in case."

"Alright, well now that you have clothes what should we do?"

"Well I can shoot Miles a text and ask him what he's up to, but I really don't feel like notifying him that we're up and about. If Franziska gets his phone from him she'll kick Miles off the case then we'll be completely in the dark."

"So the other option is?"

"Simple. Calling Miles's friend he was speaking about yesterday."

"Who is…?"

"Kay of course! She should be able to help us investigate a few things. Maybe she can even add some testimony so we can make sure that Nick really did leave this cell phone here for us." Apollo grabbed his phone and pushed some numbers into his phone. A girl's voice picked up on the other end.

"Kay Faraday chief of the Yatagarasu Master Thief Inc. how may I help you?"

"Do you seriously answer your cell phone like that?"

Kay giggled, "Just for those who know. Ha ha, what's up 'Polly? Miles said you would probably be giving me a call."

"I was wondering if you would join my separate private investigation since I have been kicked off the general one."

"No problem. I actually am already on my way over should be there in a few minutes."

"Great, by the way I had a question for you. Did you and Nick ever make it inside the office by any chance?"

"No and he said that it was a good thing because then 'it' would stay hidden. Of course he wouldn't tell me what 'it' was."

"That's ok I think we have 'it.'" Apollo turned to Trucy. "Well that solves that riddle."

"So Apollo, where were you thinking of starting this investigation today?"

"Well have you heard of anything from Miles yet about what Robyn said or about the warehouse?"

"Nothing special. There was nothing left in the warehouse. There wasn't even video recording equipment so we know that whole building was just a backup plan."

"Any traces of tracks leading away from the place?"

"That is also a negative. The van was actually left at the warehouse. So either they are close in the area or did utilize a boat to transport to somewhere else."

"Well there was no evidence that a boat was used there. We can always ask the harbor master if they saw anything yesterday but I really doubt he would turn something up."

"Right, as for Robyn she is failing to cooperate now. She keeps sticking to the fact that she is not part of the Red Kakumei. Without proof we are at a standstill with her. I heard about your dispute with her yesterday. Apparently Franziska did try to look into the uniform. It was a handmade uniform but she is confused to why."

"That actually confused me too yesterday. You would think if the leader of your organization has full access to police uniforms you would just get regular ones and not make your own. In addition he should know what the Blue Badger patch looks like anyways."

"It is quite a mystery."

A beep went off in Apollo's pocket. Apollo looked down and pulled out Phoenix's phone. "Hey Kay I'll see you in a few minutes. Some weird notification just came up on Nick's phone. See you soon."

"Gotcha!"

Apollo opened the phone up and noticed the notification read, "Camera Msg Available."

"What is it 'Polly?"

"It looks like we have a new video." Apollo pulled open the file and played the new recorded video.

There was a lot of yelling but nothing could really be deciphered. The camera thrashed wildly from side to side. There were figures that looked to be brutally punching Phoenix's head back and forth. Eventually a familiar voice came across the audio. "What did you think you would be a hero!? Did you think you could save everyone?! Well you can't! There is no one to save you now. You are just another pathetic dog of the Justice System. I should kill you for that!" With a hard punch the camera went flying. It fell a few feet away and pointed up. There seemed to be a crack on the lens now though. You could barely see Phoenix's face in the lower left hand corner. His head was looking down at the ground so it was easier to decipher details. He was bleeding from his nose and there seemed to be blood coming from his mouth too. The camera started moving again and the person who had picked up the beanie looked right into the camera lens, he then turned his head and screamed, "You were recording us the whole time!?" The face then turned back to the camera lens. "Listen up here Interpol Agents and little Defense Attorney, I know you are watching this somewhere, and we are going to get you. Give yourselves up and no one will get hurt. Failure to comply and I'll see to it the entire force is destroyed in one swift blow. I know who you are and where you all live… Apollo Justice, Franziska von Karma, and Shi-Long Lang. I'm coming for you. The Red Kakumei has warned you. Consider yourself lucky!" The video shut off.

Apollo dropped the phone and fell back down onto the couch. His face was pale and his mouth was gaping open from both shock and fright.

"Apollo! What are we going to do?!"

Apollo remained sitting there in his stupor.

"Apollo we're in big trouble! We need to get out of here! Now!"

Apollo shook his head. "We'll wait for Kay to get here, and then we need to get out. I need to warn everyone." Apollo took out his phone and started texting Miles and Franziska.