Chapter 10: The Trial of Penelope Pt1.
January 4, 9:50 AM
Camp Half-Blood
Outside Hades Cabin
Pip, Penelope and Meg were standing before the doorsteps of the Hades Cabin, waiting for the courtroom to be prepared.
Today was the day. It was Penelope's trial.
Or rather, it was an interrogation but with several people.
After all, Meg seemed to want to do something 'attorney-like' for today.
But this did seem to be less stressful to Penelope. She was more scared about being ganged up on by everyone else because of her 'suspiciousness.' People being there to defend her was probably very reassuring for her. Then there was what happened last night…
Pip started blushing. Oh gods, that was the most embarrassing thing she'd done in a long time. It was just as bad as that time she tried to flirt with that Roman dryad and found out that she was already dating someone. That was awkward. But she liked to think that helped. And judging by how shy Penelope was being around her, she knew she was correct.
Pip leaned over to Meg and whispered.
"So how is this going to work out?"
"Well? It'll be easy! The prosecution will do its thing, I'll turn the tables and prove her innocence and then we'll all get back to our daily lives!"
"But the prosecution has no evidence or testimonies!", Penelope said.
"Like I said, easy."
"And neither does the defense!"
"…Still easy."
"I know you're doing this to help me, but this whole trial just seems like one big farce."
"Ok, maybe the court record is emptier than a blemmyae's head. But that's not the point! Whatever happens in court today, I swear that I will not fail to get you a Not-Guilty verdict."
Pip was pretty sure that Meg had no idea what she was doing but Penelope did seem to feel slightly comfortable at Meg's words. Slightly.
The door opened and out in a bailiff's uniform came Apollo.
"Well, everything's prepared, you may enter the courtroom."
He then said in a low voice,
"You guys are prepared, right?"
"Uh, yeah.", Meg replied.
Apollo breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good, cause from what I overheard last night, the prosecution is not messing around. He's even got witnesses!"
Pip felt the mood shift. The defense was a lot more nervous now. She felt a wave of panic coming from Penelope before it was suppressed.
Holding their breaths, they stepped into the courtroom.
January 4, 10:00 AM
Camp Half-Blood
Inside Hades Cabin
The Hades Cabin looked imposing enough from the outside with its obsidian walls and Greek Fire torches and the spooky scary skull on the front door but inside was a whole 'nother kind of imposing.
The living room had been rearranged to look like a courtroom, with the bunks taking the place where the jury would sit. Three large coffins had been placed on the Judge's, prosecution's and defense's stands and simple desks were used for the defendant's and the witness' stands.
Chiron was at the Judge's stand, wearing grey robes and holding a wooden gavel.
Nico and the blonde boy, Will Solace, as she had found out, were at the Prosecution's stand. Will waved at them while Nico glowered specifically at Meg.
Pip and Meg made their way to the Defense's stand and Penelope went to the defendant's stand.
"It seems that everyone is present. Very well, Court is now in session for the trial of Penelope Hayes.", Chiron declared.
"The defense is ready, Your Honor!", Meg said boldly.
"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor.", Nico said coldly.
"Very well, the prosecution may give their opening statement."
Nico took a deep breath and started.
"Your Honor. As you may know already I had considered the defendant, Penelope Hayes, to be a very suspicious person. In order to verify this I wanted to interrogate her. But instead, I've been forced to participate in this trial. A trial that has rushed all the way to Hades.
"Neither the prosecution, nor the defense, has any form of evidence or testimony. I particularly blame this on the impulsiveness of the defense, who I'm pretty sure is trying to 'LARP' a lawyer video game. Speaking of which,"
He looked at Meg.
"Why didn't you request for even a day of investigation? Have you even played past the first case?"
"I- So what?!"
"Wait, you haven't played past the first case?", Penelope said, shocked.
"I watched a video of it while I was travelling back to Camp."
"What?!"
"I was busy, okay!"
Nico slammed the table and the room went quiet.
"The point is, none of us have any evidence to make concrete cases."
"Hmm. That does seem to be the case." Chiron said, scratching his beard. "What does the prosecution propose?"
"I propose that we have the defendant testify on the matters the prosecution requests."
"Hmm. I don't see why not. It can provide valuable evidence after all."
"Thank you, Your Honor. Before I begin, I would like to say something to the defense."
"What do you wish to say?", Meg inquired.
"As you know, the conditions of this trial are that if your defendant isn't 'Guilty' I will stop pursuing her."
"Th-that is the condition yes."
"However, if she turns out to be 'Guilty', in other words, a threat to Camp Half-Blood."
He stared fiercely at them.
"I will personally make sure she never sets foot in this Camp again, is that clear?"
Meg gulped.
"C-clear."
"Good. Now."
He turned to Penelope.
"Defendant. There is something I'd like for you to testify."
"Y-yes?"
"I have heard that you had previous knowledge of Camp Half-Blood. Tell us what you knew and how exactly you acquired it."
Pip was caught off guard by this. Apollo was right, he really had prepared!
"O-okay! I didn't really know that much about Camp before coming here but I had heard about it from my mom. She simply told me that it was a summer camp for 'special people like me'."
"I see. So how did you get here in the winter?"
"Oh! Uh, M-Mom just said that they accept people even in the winter."
"Hmm. I have also heard that you were found sleeping on a bench when you were discovered by your Protector."
"Y-yes. Mom told me to sit there on the bench and wait. Apparently someone was going to pick me up. While waiting for that someone, I kinda dozed off."
"Hmm. I see. When was this?"
"The afternoon I guess? I didn't really check the time."
That got Pip thinking. She was sensed the signal during her morning walk and she had found her during the evening, at around four to five o'clock. Yet the signal seemed to have been triggered by sleep. So what was happening? She could have been wrong about the signal being triggered by sleep but it wouldn't make sense for it to be triggered all the time. There was something fishy going on.
She then looked at Nico. He seemed to be thinking about something.
Then it hit her. He must be thinking the exact same thing. He seemed to possess her testimony from when she had to report her mission to the Camp authorities so he's got the same information she did. He could use this strangeness to his advantage. In other words, Penelope had just given him a weapon.
Penelope seemed to realize this too. Anything she said could be used against her, so she had to be careful. And now she had given him ammunition for his case. She was mortified.
"I see. Now then, there is another matter that needs to be resolved. And that matter is about her powers."
Ah, he was moving on to the juiciest part. Pip could feel a sense of anticipation in the courtroom.
Then she heard something. The voice of a person echo through the courtroom.
"And so we move on to the best part."
Everyone was startled. They looked for the source of the voice.
"Who goes there? Show yourself!", Chiron exclaimed.
And then the owner of the voice revealed himself. And Pip's stomach lurched.
Eric stepped forward from behind the pseudo courtroom.
Pip glared at him venomously.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Eric sneered at her.
"Well someone's pissed."
"Wha-who is that?", Meg said.
"Oh, I'm just one of the new campers, name's Eric L. Smith."
"Uh, nice to meet you too.", Meg greeted back, slightly unnerved.
"How did you get here, Eric?", Chiron asked.
"Well, I tried to bribe the bailiff at the front door but he seemed to take his job seriously so I just used the backdoor."
Nico looked confused.
"We don't have a-…You little-"
"Come on now, is that any way talk to the guy who got you a free Lamborghini?"
"You rammed a Lamborghini into my Cabin?!"
"No need to thank me.", he said with a smug look on his place.
Chiron sighed.
"Why are you here, Eric?"
"Well, for starters, I wanted to know what was going on here. The prosecution was sleuthing out clues in the middle of the night, after all. After I got in here and listened to you all bullying this poor girl here-"
"Wait we're not bullying her!", Meg said
"I decided to become the Jury!"
"A one man Jury? How novel.", Nico said amused. Then his voice turned cold, as it was prone to do.
"Just what makes you think that I won't order the bailiff to kick you out of this courtroom?"
"Well…"
Then they heard loud sobbing coming from behind them.
"CASSANDRA WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?!"
"That."
"Well," Chiron sighed. "It seems that the bailiff is no longer in a mood to uphold his duties,"
"MY LIFE IS MEANINGLESS!"
"So we have no choice but to… tolerate his presence."
"Thank you for your kindness." He said and propped himself on one of the bunks.
"May I continue my previous statements, Your Honor?"
"You may, Prosecutor di Angelo."
Nico paused for a moment to think how cool that title sounded before continuing,
"As I was saying before the Jury somehow drove a Lamborghini in without us noticing."
"I'd tell you how, except I won't."
"The matter of Penelope's powers is a mystery to most of us. She is able to do Magic without being a Daughter of Hecate, has some kind of connection to Chaos and holds a Magic Construct that is obscenely powerful. I have prepared witnesses to try to explain the first two, but before that."
He slammed the coffin for emphasis.
"Defendant, I would like you to testify to the court about your connection to Chaos.", he said harshly.
Ah, straight to the point. Pip looked at Penelope nervously. She wondered what exactly she was going to say but then,
"Um. Your Honor?"
"Yes?"
"W-will my testimony be made public? I'm still in the middle of processing that information, you see."
Chiron looked at her and said,
"Yes, you may testify about your condition."
Will looked a little alarmed at the word 'condition' but before he could ask, she started.
As she told everyone in the court about 'The Pull' she could see many reactions. Meg was began to feel pity for her and then a resolve to prove her innocent. Will felt immense amounts of guilt and was ashamed, probably about siding with Nico. Nico himself seemed to feel some amount of regret but he seemed to ignore it, as his he was steeling his resolve to brand her as a threat. Eric didn't seem to care. He was simply looking at them with amusement.
But strangely enough, as Penelope testified, Pip saw that she felt relieved. She finally had a name for the curse that had been haunting her life. And now she could accept it. At least, that was what she wanted to believe. In truth, Pip thought that something like 'The Pull' can't be accepted. Most people who had it died. And Penelope was probably the only person who survived it. Accepting something like that could take years. Which was why it made sense that Pip also felt uncertainty in her voice.
After Pip finished, Nico sighed.
"In summary, you have a curse that should have killed you and driven you insane but you're protected from it because of your pendant."
"Yes."
Then, to Pip's surprise, he smirked.
"This means that you are admitting to the fact that the pendant protects from 'The Pull', am I correct?"
Something was wrong.
"Y-yes."
"Ergo, you are claiming that your pendant is just a simple defense charm thatdefends you from 'The Pull'. Am I correct?"
Oh.
OH.
Pip stood there like a deer in the headlights of a car. She remembered that initially, she was afraid to approach Penelope due to the Silver Key Pendant. It seemed to have some kind of strange power in it. Later, Pip had hand-waved it away since it was a protection charm against Chaos. But now she was being confronted with the truth. If it really was a protection charm, even if it was against Chaos, there was no reason for it to be this powerful!
Nico had realized this and was going to use it to get more evidence against her!
Penelope had realized this too, and was deciding on what to say. Then, she answered his question.
"Yes."
Pip felt relief. The prosecution had no means of telling whether her statement was a lie. It was a major blow against his case. The trial was shifting in her favo-
"Objection. There is a contradiction in the defendant's testimony."
Well shit.
"What?!", Meg exclaimed.
"Prosecutor di Angelo, what is the meaning of this?!"
"It is simple, Your Honor. The defendant claims that the pendant she possesses is a 'simple defence charm.' However, this statement is false!
"A simple defense charm should not have this kind of power! The testimonies of the eyewitnesses did state that a surge of magical power was felt from the defendant's pendant when she banished that hellhound to Chaos. The testimonies of the Council of the Wild, the Dryads and the Nereids also state that the felt a strange surge of power on the 31st of January at 9:14 PM, the same time as the defendant's little stunt. And from the testimony of the Palikos, the Mymerkes felt it, the Mymerkes."
He slammed the coffin.
"Explain to me exactly how a 'simple defense charm' can accomplish that!"
Pip urgently whispered to Meg.
"He has a point."
"Shut up."
"He's winning the trial!"
"Shh! Not yet he isn't."
Meg turned to Nico.
"You do make a fair point, but do tell us, what exactly does this prove?"
Nico fell silent.
"You have only proved the possibility that the pendant is not what it seems! None of us here know how magical artifacts work! Ergo, you don't have decisive evidence to prove that the pendant is not a defense charm! So take that!"
"Hmm. So that's your comeback? I don't have decisive evidence?"
Meg froze.
"Y-yes! Of course! You have no evidence."
Nico smirked.
"You are correct! I have no evidence!
"However." He pointed at Meg. "I have something better! Witnesses!"
"Wh-WHAAAAAAAT?!"
Pip gulped. Apollo had warned them that he had prepared witnesses and now they could see that that wasn't a bluff. He really would stop at nothing to get decisive evidence.
"The prosecution calls Lou Ellen Blackstone and Mary Castle to the stand!"
"The Hecate Campers?", Chiron mused. "Very well, Bailiff?"
Apollo, who looked like he had been sobbing uncontrollably for the past hour, walked in.
"Please bring the requested Campers to the Hades Cabin."
Apollo nodded sadly and headed out.
"While we wait for the witnesses to arrive, the defense and prosecution should reconvene. In other words, the court shall enter recess. We shall continue after the witnesses have arrived."
January 4, 10:50 AM
Camp Half-Blood
Outside Hades Cabin
The defense and the defendant stepped outside the courtroom. After a few moments of silence, the defendant spoke.
"Um, Meg? Pip? I gotta ask. WHAT IN THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
"I HAVE NO IDEA! WHY IS HE SO WELL PREPARED?!"
"I'M LITERALLY DEAD IN THE WATER JUST THROW ME INTO THE LAKE."
"THIS IS NOTHING LIKE ACE ATTORNEY!"
As Meg and Penelope sobbed at the top of their lungs, Pip realized exactly how bad their current situation was. But Pip knew that panicking won't solve anything.
She looked at the two screaming children and yelled.
"QUIET!"
Both of them stopped crying.
"Okay, what do we know?"
"Well, the prosecution has evidence, testimonies and witnesses. Which is much more than we have." Meg said.
"Right, let's try to change that. Penelope?"
"Yes?"
"Nico is targeting you via the pendant you have. I think he believes there's some kind of incriminating evidence in it. So what I want you to do is tell us everything you know."
"Uh. I have a confession to make."
"You don't know anything about this pendant, do you?"
"Um. I do know that if I squint really hard at someone for 10 seconds straight it starts vibrating and then these funky letters show up!"
"…Odd. But not enough! That thing is way too powerful! It must have more than a few functions!"
"I-I don't really know too much, but Mom does! She's the one who made it after all!"
"Hmm. The DelphOS mobiles have a pre-registered call data on them, containing numbers from dear family members. But you can't put new numbers in, you'll have to submit it to Apollo. I remember trying to put my dryad friend Joshua's number but it took days for it to be received." Meg explained.
"And, no offence, I don't think your Mom's number is there, considering the fact that none of us know anything about her at the moment." Pip said.
"That's fair. Mom is kinda secretive about her personal information. But does this mean I have no way of contacting her?"
"Well, we can try Chiron's computer! He's the only person who hasn't gotten DelphOS installed so we could be able to host a video call from there."
"Are you sure? He's the Judge, you know."
"Eh, we can just say that you were feeling homesick, he won't be able to resist that."
"Huh. We actually have a plan!" Meg said, beaming.
"But what about Nico?"
"Eh, I don't think he'll even dare to object to Chiron, He's the Camp Counselor! Doing that would mean defying the authorities! And that is a horrible idea only idiots would try to do."
"…Aren't you the one who stole a bike from some guy just to do your job?"
"Well, if you do a bad thing to do a good thing it automatically cancels out and you are free to do whatever you want."
"...You have a strange moral compass, my friend."
"Eh, whatevs. We should probably get this done before- oh gods." Pip said, as she saw Apollo approaching with two other Campers.
"So much for that plan." Penelope said miserably. "Well, you two have fun, I'll just go sleep with the fishes in the lake or something."
"Wait." Meg said, and grasped her arm. "I told you that I would get you a non guilty verdict. I'm not backing up on that promise."
"The prosecution is far ahead of us. There's no way we can-"
"Look. I'm aware of that. I'm aware that our case isn't very good. I'm aware that the prosecution is far more powerful. But I don't care. I don't care about all that. I don't care about why he's doing this or how he's going to 'win' this trial. All I see is someone trying to ruin another person's whole camp experience over some dumb reason. And I'm not going to stand by and let that happen."
Meg raised her arm and pointed her fist at Penelope.
"Let's kick some butt in there."
Seeing this, Pip raised her fist as well.
"Yeah, let's go, Penelope."
Penelope remained silent for some time. Then she looked at both of them, determination welling up inside of her.
"You know what? Yeah! I'm not gonna be declared guilty today! Let's do this!"
She raised her fist and fist-bumped the other two. Seeing the two, Pip understood that a resolve had been made. They weren't going to lose today. And even if they were outmatched, they were going to go down swinging.
As Apollo approached, the three stepped back into the courtroom.
Fun fact: This whole trial was going to be one whole chapter but I realized that that would take me a thousand years to write so yeah, i guess this is a two parter now.
Also, here's the character alignments of the Original Characters so far! Just as a fun little surprise for you nice ol' readers, you.
Pip: Neutral Good with shades of Chaotic Good.
Penelope: Neutral Good.
Eric: Chaotic Neutral.
-AlbusTheMage.