A/N: We reach a new phase of the investigation, and one that is unusual. What is being investigated is something immaterial, but equally as important as physical evidence. Enjoy, my readers!

Once Juniper recovered from the shock of seeing the newspaper clipping's headline, she paid closer attention to the text of the article. It seemed to cover the time a businessman named Redd White had been accused of extortion and corporate malfeasance.

"Now that is a familiar name. Herr Wright's career as a defense attorney began with taking down Herr White," Klavier said, studying the article as well. "His countless crimes earned him the capital punishment, which was carried out years ago."

Juniper caught onto the implication behind Klavier's words and shuddered. She turned her attention back to the article, reading the text out loud.

"It says, 'the up and coming prosecutor Diana Newman expressed confidence in her case against the well-known CEO. However, when it came time for the trial, the prosecution's star witness testified to Mr. White's innocence instead. In an interview after the trial, Prosecutor Newman insists that the witness had a damning account. However, now that a Not Guilty verdict has been delivered, there is no way to try Redd White again'."

"I must sound like a broken record by now, but this case is about the suicide of Detective Tony Smokes," Hugh said. "This older case doesn't seem to be related to it."

"Herr O'Conner, in life sometimes it is best to take things nice and slow," Klavier said, smiling lightly. "Consider this section, squished in the corner."

Klavier pointed at said corner, which had a small photo of Detective Smokes. Under it, was a single paragraph: "As the lead detective of the case, I stand by my findings, and the prosecution's case. There is no reason why Prosecutor Newman should have lost this case. I suspect foul play."

Old Case File updated in the Court Record

Hugh rubbed the back of the neck. "Looks like I'm the one eating crow instead, Prosecutor Gavin. If we were in court I might consider that a reason to be worried."

Klavier put his arms on his hips. "Perhaps we could work together in court after we take care of this case. With a certain loud attorney out of the country, I am feeling a little lonely."

"That's not my problem," Hugh said, a light blush now on his face. "But if we happen to cross paths then I certainly won't hold back."

"That's all well and good, but we can't stop now!" Robin shouted, bringing attention back to herself. "Now that we know that this case file is related to the Detective Smokes, we should dig into him more! Maybe if we learn more about him, we could learn why someone would want to stab his body!"

"It seems like we're done investigating Mrs. Newman's office, so this would probably be the best time to move elsewhere," Juniper said. "But if we wanted to learn about Detective Smokes, where would be the best place to start?"

"That would be the criminal affairs department, but I have an idea," Klavier said. "I will go there myself and make some inquiries, while the rest of you continue the overall investigation. The crime scene could still be hiding more secrets, and you should probably give Fraulein Bailey some much needed attention as well."

"A lot of the information we learned is about her mother, so she could also give us some insight on what it means," Juniper mused to herself. "Then Hugh, you can drive to our law office so we can take a breather, and after that we can resume investigating."

"Times like this I'm thankful I saved up money from my construction job. Gas for the car isn't cheap," Hugh said dryly.

"I thought I heard voices in this office." Stephanie Payne entered the room. "It's not every day that I see so many people in here."

"Hello, Prosecutor Payne! I haven't seen you in so long," Robin said cheerfully. "Especially since I got fired recently."

"The energy that you bring to the office has been sorely missed," Stephanie said. "Not that there are many prosecutors left to appreciate it."

"I've heard several times that the prosecutor's office has been severely understaffed," Juniper noted. "Were there really so many of them that were corrupt?"

"I won't deny that there had to be a lot of prosecutors that needed to be removed for corruption," Stephanie admitted. "Of course, I am not one of them! After our encounter in court, Attorney Woods, I refined my prosecuting style and now I am ready to face you again!"

"Back up, Prosecutor Payne. You didn't answer the question," Hugh noted. "Is corruption the main reason why the prosecutor's office is so empty?"

Stephanie chuckled, tapping her coiffed hair. "I see you aren't the leader of Ms. Woods' attorney office for nothing. Yes, the purge is the initial reason why this office was thinned out. However, in the years since then, not a single new person has applied to join, aside from you."

The last sentence was directed at Robin. "Wait, am I seriously the last new prosecutor this office has had in years?!"

"Why do you think that you've seen the likes of convicts and prosecutors from other countries taking on cases here?" Stephanie pointed out. "If prosecutors aren't brought in from such sources, then there wouldn't be enough to handle all the cases."

"I guess the negative reputation associated with being a prosecutor scares people off from wanting to be one," Juniper said softly, thinking back to her own experiences as a defendant. Being grilled by harsh prosecutors like Gaspen Payne and Simon Blackquill.

"You could say that. Within the purge of corruption was mass quitting among the ranks too. Prosecutors tired of being expected to deaden their hearts while on the job." As Stephane talked, bags under her eyes became more prominent. "Of being expected to find the culprit in one shot, with risk of salary cuts or dismissal breathing down our necks. I myself barely finished serving a suspension after the case against you, Miss Woods."

"You got suspended because you lost a case? That's so unfair!" Robin yelled.

"More because I did not discover the background of my witness," Stephanie said bitterly. "I am unsure how I was meant to find this information, given that it was covered up."

"If it means anything, I certainly didn't want you suspended," Juniper said apologetically. "I only wanted to defend my client."

"I understand that, Miss Woods. Which is why I am going to tell you something you might find useful," Stephanie said. "I would ask that you look back over your previous cases. I heard on the prosecutor's grapevine that those cases are not completely closed yet."

Juniper bowed at the waist. "Thank you for the advice, Prosecutor Payne. I'm glad that I ran into you."

"We are definitely going to meet again!" Robin added cheerfully. "So get used to having me around in one way or another!"

Stephanie had a dismayed expression on her face. "I pity whoever ends up in the crosshairs of this group. It's enough to make me almost consider retirement."

June 6th, 2029

O'Conner and Co. Law Offices

4:00 p.m.

But after such a long investigation, the group returned to the law office to unwind and straighten the information they had on hand. Already in the office were Athena and Myriam.

"Thank goodness you're here, Junie!" Athena immediately exclaimed. "I've been alone for what feels like all day!"

"I was here for a few hours to keep you company!" Myriam snapped.

"You spent half that time in your cardboard box," Athena said. "It's not exactly easy to talk with someone when you can't even see their face."

"I'm here now, Thena. I'm going to catch you up on everything that's happened so far."

Athena intently listened to the summary, saying it out loud to herself to help remember. "So early in the morning, the people in the house were the Chief Prosecutor, Prosecutor Gavin, the Newmans, Detective Smokes, and Bailey. The mail for the morning arrived, and the detective went into his room."

With a turbulent expression, Robin said, "At some point after entering his room, Detective Smokes killed himself! In fact, I think it was before we showed up, because we never met him on that day!"

"Then shortly after we showed up, there was a blackout. We went to check on him, but we found his body instead, and… I passed out," Juniper muttered shamefully. "Prosecutor Gavin, could you fill in the details?"

"Of course, Fraulein Woods. Herr Edgeworth immediately seized control of the investigation, personally visiting the crime scene," Klavier said. "But given his position, he couldn't continue to oversee the case. Shortly after that, he received a message that Amara of Khura'in would assign a prosecutor to help."

"Wait a second. So Robin's mother was already in the manor, but she was also in contact with a former queen?" Athena asked. "Did Mrs. Newman manage to plan for this exact situation?"

"We don't want to make assumptions we can't prove, but it does seem like it," Hugh said thoughtfully. "If nothing else, Mrs. Newman is very adaptable."

"But we found an article about a past case that Mrs. Newman did," Juniper said. "And it ties Detective Smokes into it as well. Prosecutor Payne recommended that we look into my past cases, but maybe we should look into that one as well."

"Moving on with the explanation, Mrs. Newman has been in complete charge of this case since then," Hugh said. "She has been a difficult opponent to deal with."

The entire time, Athena played with her earring, a thoughtful look on her face. "Before we leave this office, can someone call Mrs. Newman, and put it on speaker?"

"I guess we could do that, but do you want to listen to my mother talk?" Robin asked.

"So to speak. I want to listen for any discord in her voice," Athena said, to everyone's shock. "I think we could get a lot of answers this way."

"Thena, I get what you're trying to do, but will you be able to pick up anything over the phone? Mrs. Newman's voice is going to be modulated," Juniper pointed out.

Athena grinned. "I was able to pick up discord in a person's voice while they talked through a helicopter drone. There's nothing that my ears and Widget can't handle!"

"I have a feeling that there's stuff that my mother is hiding from me. So with Athena's help, I want to find out what it is!" Robin declared.

"One more thing, Junie. If Mrs. Newman hears me, then she might catch onto what's happening and we'll lose our chance," Athena said. "So I need you to lead this therapy session."

Juniper could feel pressure from this, but she took deep breaths to ready herself. "I understand. Truth be told, I've been wanting to understand her more too!"

Robin dialed up her mother on her phone, before putting it on speaker. As a dial tone filled the room, Athena booted up the Mood Matrix, giving a signal to Juniper to pay attention to the screen.

"Hello, sweetie. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Mrs. Newman's voice rang clearly through the room. On the Mood Matrix, there was a dominant feeling of joy, with a muted sadness beneath it. Of course, there was also distortion to deal with, a full a hundred percent on the screen.

"Prosecutor Gavin's been helping me investigate this case," Robin said, which was technically true. "And in the investigation, we found something related to the case from back then."

"Did you now? I should have known it was only a matter of time." On the Mood Matrix, Juniper immediately picked up on something.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Newman. I hope you don't mind if I speak up," Juniper said. "But while you claim that you expected this, you sound really surprised."

"Junie, so you're there too. I knew that my daughter would look more into that case eventually, I was just shocked that she's finding information so fast."

The distortion did go down, but not by much. Robin continued the phone conversation, "Prosecutor Gavin let me into your office, and we discovered that it used to belong to Professor Courte!"

"You found that out too? If you don't want to be a prosecutor, maybe you should be a detective instead," Mrs. Newman said. "That happened to be the office available when I returned to the office, so that's where I'm staying."

Wait, there's a contradiction in this account. Juniper brought Robin's attention to that thought, and the other girl caught on.

"If you only got that office by chance, does that mean you didn't know about the picture of you that Professor Courte had?" Robin asked.

"No, I didn't know about that picture," Mrs. Newman said, her voice sounding oddly forced. "But there isn't much to read into it."

This time, Juniper knew exactly what was wrong. On the Mood Matrix, there was a feeling of intense sadness. "Mrs. Newman, you are clearly harboring deep pain in your heart. Why don't you tell us about it?"

"I suppose there is no point in feigning ignorance," Mrs. Newman said. "Constance Courte and I were coworkers. Her death came as a shock to me, and the bigger shock was seeing that she kept a photograph of me."

On the Mood Matrix, the noise went down from a hundred percent to roughly seventy percent. Athena gave Juniper a thumbs up to indicate that the therapy session was going well.

Robin continued talking, "I'm asking because this investigation is starting to cover a really wide scope! There might be a reason to be on guard!"

"You worry too much, my dear. There are many people supervising this case," Diana pointed out. "There is Detective Skye, Prosecutor Gavin, and even the Chief Prosecutor."

The next oddity in Mrs. Newman's emotions became apparent, and Juniper spoke up. "Your tone has a lot of anger, but it didn't come up until you mentioned Edgeworth. You two don't seem to agree on a lot, but is there a bigger problem?"

"Junie, I try to accommodate you whenever possible, but there are limits," Diana said, her tone suddenly frosty. "Especially when it comes to that utterly unreasonable man!"

Suddenly, Athena jammed the mute button on Robin's cell phone, and a second later the Mood Matrix let off a shrill alarm. "There is an overload of fear going on here!"

"Fear towards the Chief Prosecutor? That actually makes a lot of sense, sss sss sss," Myriam said. "My grapevine tells me that most people melt like snow in the summer sun when faced with his glare."

"But before he took that position, my mother was already working in that prosecutor's office," Robin said. "So there has to be more to this!"

"We can't stay on mute much longer, or Mrs. Newman is going to get suspicious," Athena said urgently. "I'm afraid you'll have to play it by ear!"

She unmuted the phone, and Juniper said, "Sorry for stopping like that! I needed time to process that. Of course, if there's anything I can do to help you, you can tell me!"

"You are as kind as always, but this is something that you can't really do anything about," Mrs. Newman said. "This is involved with the prosecutor's office, and if it hasn't changed after all this time, it may never change."

Juniper looked over the statement on the Mood Matrix's screen, the overload of fear drowning everything in blue. I heard about some of this earlier from Prosecutor Gavin. I feel like I have most of the pieces of this puzzle, and just need to solve them.

"Mrs. Newman, the source of your distress seems to be the idea that the prosecutor office will 'never change'. I know this might be presumptuous of me to ask, but why do you care so much about the office as a whole?"

For a moment there was silence on the line, and Juniper was afraid the call had been disconnected. But then Diana said, "Because I love being a prosecutor, and I want what's best for everyone that wants to be one. That goes double for my daughter, naturally."

"I've heard that no one has applied to being a prosecutor for years," Juniper said. "The profession does tend to have a negative reputation."

"I do what I can to improve that reputation, but there's only so much I can do on my own."

As the words were fed into the Mood Matrix, Juniper studied them to see what would stick out. Her eye finally caught a phrase that stuck out. "On your own? That seems like a lot of responsibility for one person."

"It seems to be the reason that you're so upset!" Robin added. "So if there's anything I can do, let me know!"

"If you hadn't been kicked out, I would have been happy to work with you to that goal," Diana said softly. "But I guess there's no use thinking about it right now."

Athena had a grin on her face: the fear overload had calmed down, allowing the Mood Matrix to delve into Mrs. Newman's emotions again.

Robin continued, "I know that there are very few prosecutors working in that office right now, but I'm sure that if we could all put our heads together, we could improve the office to the public!"

That's a nice thought, but if it's not possible, then it's not possible," Diana said pessimistically. "Not when nothing can be done about what really matters."

The vague nature of Mrs. Newman's words made it hard to parse her meaning. Athena pointed at the images on the Mood Matrix, and Juniper looked at where she pointed.

Like during Juniper's second case as an attorney, the Mood Matrix showed images of what Mrs. Newman was supposedly thinking. I do know what it feels like to be powerless, and to have your fate in the hands of other people. Maybe if I continue down that line…

"I think I finally got it. What the source of your fear was, and why you feel so helpless when it comes to the perception of what a prosecutor is," Juniper said. "Because there is one person that everyone looks to, to represent the profession. The Chief Prosecutor that commands every other prosecutor in the state, Miles Edgeworth. So you believe that the one responsible for all the ills plaguing the profession is him."

"How did you-?!" Diana's shock came across clearly over Robin's phone, while in the Mood Matrix, the discord indicator fell all the way to zero.

"I have a good idea of how you feel, Mrs, Newman. When you are forced to sit back and watch other people decide your fate," Juniper continued. "Which is why I am the one person that can understand you."

"...This conversation can't happen over the phone," Diana finally said. "Come to the Smokes Manor, and we can have the privacy to talk about everything."

There was the click of Diana hanging up the call, and Robin put away her phone.

Everything that occurred in the conversation hit Juniper all at once. "I hope I wasn't stepping out of line, Robin! Diana is your mom, after all! You probably know her much better than I ever could!"

"I think that's exactly what she needed to hear," Robin said, smiling. "And if there's anyone I would trust when dealing with my mother, it would be you, Juniper!"

Athena nodded. "There is a value in sharing a similar experience to someone else. Empathy is a very powerful force, and it's something you have in spades, Junie!"

"It's nothing that special…" Because if it was, I'd be able to help more people. "Besides, we have yet another reason to go back to the Smokes' manor. We probably shouldn't dely much longer."

"I won't be going. But that's because you mentioned that Prosecutor Gavin is doing his own digging," Myriam said. "I think I'm going to join him. We're going to dig up everything, even the roots, sss sss sss!"

"Actually, I may join this group," Athena said. "I'm banned from the manor. But before I go to the police precinct, I want to see Bailey again. Are you going to visit her first, Junie?"

"I am. There's a lot we need to talk about, regarding the case… and regarding her mother."

The further I dig into this case, the more Professor Courte's name seems to be popping up. I am still not sure why, but I want to find out.

To be continued

A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed the cameo from Stephanie Payne! As the first OC created for this story, I have a soft spot for her. So I felt it was fitting that Stephanie put her own two cents for this final case. See you next time! Please review.