"This... This was where everything truly fell apart. The GC-9 Incident... It changed the course of everything we had come to know up to that point. Past cases had us feeling drained and defeated even in the face of a victory, but this one... It was slated to end in tragedy regardless of what we did. There was no way for us to know what was coming next, but this... This was the end of everything we understood. This was the end of normalcy for all of us. This was the beginning... Of the Oracle of the Law. It was the beginning of a new era for everyone we had ever known, and it changed everything... One moment changed it all."

September 18

Sparx Factory

11:25 AM

Cotoli Morix

I couldn't help but practically buzz with nervousness as I approached the entrance to the Sparx Factory, Chrysalis and Venus at my side. I smiled gently up at the building despite the anxiety rattling around in my stomach. I knew I was going to have to face this sooner or later, but that did little to change how worked up I was about it.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this nervous, Mr. Morix," Venus commented with a sideways smile. "You really are excited for this, aren't you?"

I nodded gently. "Yeah... You could certainly say that," I replied softly. It was true; I was ready for this. The last few cases had been a whirlwind of activity, and the case where we defended the chief prosecutor was the apex of it all. This was hopefully going to change all that though. We were ready to be given the chance to enjoy ourselves, as I'm sure you can imagine. Chrysalis and Venus had been excited when I told them about the plan as well, and I was sure that excitement was only going to grow as time went by.

We were coming to Sparx Factory to meet with someone important to me: my mother, Natasha Morix. I didn't think anyone had ever been a more important figure in my life, truth be told. She had been there for me when all other adults had turned their backs on me, and she practically did everything she could to raise both me and Chrysalis. Our childhoods were a set of troubling circumstances, but my mother... She did everything she could to make it a little bit easier. That was just the sort of person she was. She always wanted to help others, and this was just another part of that.

She had invited me, Chrysalis, and anyone else we wanted to bring to Sparx so that we could see her and get the chance to witness a new project the factory had gotten involved with. Sparx was focused on developing new technology, and they had apparently struck gold with this most recent development. My mom was really excited about being given the chance to show it off to us, and given that I knew we could all use a break in light of recent events, I figured there was no time quite like the present to see what she had managed to put together with the other occupants of the factory. In fact, I had come to look forward to it quite a bit over the course of the last few weeks, and I could already tell it was going to be great.

"I wonder about the other thing she was telling us about on the phone," Chrysalis interjected, pulling me out of my thoughts immediately. "She said that she wanted us to meet someone... I wonder who that could be. I don't think there would be anyone around the factory she would want to show us to all of a sudden, but I guess we'll just have to see how it all turns out, huh?"

"I trust her judgement. If she wants us to talk with this mystery person, then I have a feeling it'll be for a good reason," I announced before looking over to Venus with a small smile. "I'm sure she's going to really like you too. She's a nice person, and given how much Chrysalis and I care about you... Well, you're going to fit right in."

"That's so sweet of you to say," Venus cooed with a bright grin. "I hope she likes Cassidy and Yuri too. Those two came ahead with Sora, didn't they? That means we're going to have to meet up with them once we get into the factory proper."

I nodded at that and realized that we hadn't exactly made any moves to get into the factory despite all our talk about how it was going to be great once we got in and were able to meet up with my mother. I shook my head at my own show of ridiculousness before reaching into my pocket and pulling out the small keycard my mother had given me so that I would be able to get inside. It was rather easy to swipe it across the open pad on the door, and from there, I walked inside without any issues, waiting for the others to follow me. Chrysalis and Venus didn't miss a beat as they did so.

The first thing that hit me was just how amazing the contents of the factory were. I had been here a few times before, but it always seemed to impress me all over again when I came back after a while. I could tell this was a place where dreams were born in terms of new technologies, and I knew my mother was doing everything she could alongside the others in the factory to try and help everything to come together. I smiled at the sight, letting out a gentle sigh. In a way, it was like coming home after a long vacation and finally being able to see everything I had missed while I was gone for all that time.

"I guess we should try to find Ms. Morix, right?" Chrysalis questioned. She still insisted on calling Mom by her surname for some reason even though she had done a lot to raise both of us. One could argue that my mother had done more for Chrysalis than Chrysalis' actual birth mother had, but that was a discussion for another day. No matter how much I wanted Chrysalis to break the habit of her own formality, she never seemed to actually want to do it, much to my frustration.

Still, I didn't want to push her on it today, so I simply nodded in response. "I agree. We should look around and see if we can figure out where she wants us to meet. I was under the impression that she would be waiting for us here at the entrance, but I suppose that plan wound up falling through for some reason or another," I declared.

"We might be able to make more progress in finding her if we split up," Venus pointed out. "I mean, this is a giant factory that may or may not be haunted, but we would be able to get a lot more done in terms of searching for her if we looked at different parts of the factory at the same time, right?"

"This factory is not haunted," Chrysalis snorted with a shake of her head. "If this place was haunted, I would know about it, and since I can tell you that it's not haunted, you have nothing to worry about. The agency on the other hand..."

"Yeah, I know. That place is definitely haunted," Venus finished for her with a light snicker. "Either way, I don't think that really changes my plan of saying we should split up until we're able to figure out what's going on. In fact, I think we should go on and take care of that now. We can text each other once we've figured out where to meet, and from there, we can talk to your mother a bit more. How does that sound?"

I glanced down to Chrysalis with a light smile on my face. "What do you say? Are you ready to brave the haunted factory by yourself?" I questioned playfully.

Chrysalis simply rolled her eyes. "This place isn't haunted. If you want an example of a place with ghosts, check out the agency. The curtains are always ruffling, and if they're not the things moving, then there's random objects being knocked off shelves. That place definitely has a few spirits lying around."

"You talk about this so casually," Venus muttered with a shake of her head. "But I guess it can't be helped. Besides, we're not at the agency right now, are we? That means we get to make jokes and be ridiculous somewhere else. You know, within reason. I don't want to get thrown out of this place."

"Ms. Morix already should have passed on the message to others working in the factory that we were coming by today. Hopefully, that will mean we won't be stopped while we're trying to figure out where she is," Chrysalis said. "We can call or text each other once we've figured out what's going on. How does that sound?"

I nodded my understanding, and from there, Chrysalis and Venus both took off down separate hallways not far from the entrance. I watched them go with a tender smile before I dug into my pocket and fished out my phone, staring down at the screen with the same serene grin as before. I was still beyond excited that my mother had found the time to invite us here, and I fully intended to take advantage of it. Chrysalis and I had been here a few times before, and Sora had even been able to join us sometimes, but we hadn't ever been here when she was so excited about a piece of new technology.

That was the reason for her inviting us, as a matter of fact. Something new had been developed within Sparx that she wanted to show us, and once she had gotten approval from the higher-ups at the factory, she was allowed to give us a tour. Of course, it was somewhat difficult to begin such a tour if she wasn't meeting us near the entrance of the building, but I had faith we would be able to find her sooner or later, and when we did, everything would come together. That was just how things like this went. Everything was going to be alright, and I couldn't wait to see it.

The specific piece of technology she wanted to show us was an artificial intelligence program of some kind. To be more specific, it was a virtual reality simulator that was originally developed as a way of helping heavily traumatized patients go through therapy. The people in the factory wanted to help those who were struggling, and this was a great way for them to start, or so Mom had claimed. I trusted her judgement on the matter, and in fact, I was excited to see what the technology had to offer. It was still in its newer stages, but I was looking forward to seeing what it might be able to do in the future when it was released to the public. I could already tell it was going to be a winner.

I scrolled mindlessly through the messages I had received from my mother for a moment, simply smiling down at everything I was seeing, before I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket. As much as I would have liked to be caught up in my own nostalgia forever, I knew that wasn't going to be an option as long as we were trying to navigate the factory to meet up with her. Chrysalis and Venus were doing their part to search, and it was only fair that I did the same thing.

I started off down a hallway that neither Chrysalis nor Venus had gone through, and I glanced around the area with a grin on my face. I vaguely understood the layout of the factory, but I wouldn't say I was an expert with it. There was a lot I had yet to understand, though I figured it was just a matter of time before I was able to comprehend everything about the area. My mother would make sure to show us everything we needed to know about during the tour, and I already couldn't wait.

As ridiculous as it was to think about, I dreamed about this place a lot when I was a kid. I thought it was amazing that such advancements in technology were happening in such a simple building. So many people were working with everything they had to make sure that they were able to make significant progress in the world of the technological, and it had been incredible to me from the first day I got the chance to look around inside. The fact that my mother was so heavily involved with it only made my dream seem brighter, and I hadn't even thought that to be possible. I wasn't able to visit the factory often because I spent most of my time living with my father, but when the opportunity was granted to me, I had to take advantage of it.

I continued to smile to myself as I glanced around the area. I remembered this place having countless workers bustling around as they worked on some new breakthrough or another. It seemed like those always happened when Chrysalis and I came to visit the factory, and Mom had even come to refer to us as her good luck charms. Maybe that was one reason she wanted us to come check out this new technology of hers. It could end with us all being blessed by the universe if we stumbled into chance the right way.

The longer I walked through the building though, the more I was struck with something odd taking place. I frowned as I continued to put one foot in front of the other, realizing there truly weren't many people in the building at all. I would have expected to be able to speak with at least someone by now to ask where my mother was, but it seemed as if I was left clueless and alone instead. It wasn't going to be easy to track her down if there wasn't a way for me to get directions from someone else.

Beyond that, the fact that there were no other people in easy view made me feel sick to my stomach. There had to be some reason for it, but that didn't change the way that I was oddly nervous to be alone in such an important place. That would have been my dream when I was young, but now, it just made me feel like something was fundamentally wrong. Why would something be wrong in a place like this though? The factory was a great place to be. My childhood had proven as much, and I didn't think there was anything that would be able to pull it out of such good standing.

I looked down to my phone, wondering if Venus or Chrysalis had texted me, perhaps to comment on the lack of people. I didn't have any new messages from either one of them though, so I instead dropped my phone back into my pocket and shook my head. Maybe I was just getting unlucky and not finding anyone who would be able to answer my questions about where my mom was. That had to be all there was to it.

I don't know for sure how long I was wandering around the factory, but I still wasn't able to find much of anything along the way. A frown had started to etch itself notably in my features, and I was having trouble keeping myself held together. I didn't know why, but I had an endlessly terrible feeling about all of this. Why was the factory so empty? Perhaps I had just gotten unlucky, but something deep down told me it wasn't going to be quite so simple.

I once again pulled my phone out and sent a quick message to Venus and Chrysalis asking if they knew what was going on. I stared at the chat log for a long time, waiting to see something of note, but there wasn't anything that came to view even after the seconds began to pass by. If anything, all that did was confirm my awful feeling, and I felt like I was going to be sick all of a sudden. My stomach twisted itself into a knot, and from there, I just started running. I didn't know where I was going, but I had an awful feeling about this for some point.

The factory suddenly seemed so much more complex than it ever had been when I visited it as a kid, and that did nothing but add to my awful feeling. I felt like I was getting lost in the midst of the hallways, and all the rooms that had once looked so familiar and welcoming suddenly seemed distant and detached. The sensation that came with feeling trapped made me feel like I was going to be sick, but I didn't let it stop me. If something really was wrong, I had to figure out what it was as soon as possible.

I rounded a corner and just about ran straight into a woman, and I stumbled backward just before we could make contact with each other. She wound up running into me anyways, prompting her to retreat by a few feet. "Hey!" she exclaimed sharply. She glanced up to me a moment later, a small frown on her face. "Um... Who are you?"

It took me an embarrassingly long time to come up with an answer to that question because of how stressed I was, and I fumbled for an answer before sighing and taking a deep breath. That was all it took to calm me down, it seemed, and I pushed the words out from there. "Cotoli Morix," I introduced, not caring at all about how clumsily the words were coming out. "I'm looking for a few people around here."

"Then we have that in common," the woman snorted, though something about her didn't seem to match the demeanor of the regular occupants of the factory. She crossed her arms over her chest as she gave me one final glance over. "You don't work around here, do you?"

I shook my head. "No, but I know someone who does," I replied simply. I didn't know what it was about this woman that told me I should tread carefully even when I was this hazy, but I found myself listening to my instincts either way. "What about you?"

"I'm looking for someone too," she replied, tossing a small amount of her brown hair over one shoulder. "I guess we might as well look around together. You're probably going to sprint into a wall if you're not careful, right?"

I would have laughed at that if I at all had the energy to do so, but my sudden spike of paranoia had drained just about any sense of humor I had, prompting me to simply nod and put one foot in front of the other. Luckily, the woman didn't seem to mind, and she allowed us to fall silent a moment later. She didn't seem to be much of a talker either, and I was more than fine with that. If that was how she wanted to be, who was I to complain?

We walked through the hallways of the factory for quite a while, and the minutes seemed to stretch out into something impossibly long, almost like hours were going by. I knew that wasn't the case, but that didn't change how awful I felt about all of this. Why was I so paranoid all of a sudden? This was supposed to be my chance to relax and enjoy myself with my mother, and yet, I felt like I was going to be sick to my stomach just because I hadn't been able to find her yet.

Nobody is here. That's strange. It feels like there should be at least a few people around here, but they're all gone. Something has to be going on.

I did my best to shove the voice in my ahead aside, but I could already tell I was going to be hearing the manifestation of my paranoia a lot that day. I continued to focus on putting one foot ahead of the other, not even caring about how potentially weird I looked to the woman who had come to be my only companion. I noticed there was a headband in her hair, and the bow attached to the band itself bounced slightly whenever she moved. It was a distraction, and I found myself staring at it while simultaneously hating how creepy I felt. Why did all of this have to happen at once?

"Wait."

The woman suddenly threw her arm out to the side, and I stopped in my tracks to make sure I didn't run into her again. I glanced over in her direction to try and ask for an explanation, but the words refused to form no matter how much I tried to push them out. Luckily, she wasn't waiting for me to say anything, and her eyes narrowed into something solemn. "Do you smell that?" she asked carefully.

It took me a moment to contemplate the words, and I inhaled deeply, realizing my breaths had been rather shallow under the influence of my paranoia up to that point. As soon as I breathed in though, I wished I hadn't done so. There was a smell in the area just as she had said, and I knew exactly what it was immediately.

Blood.

"We have to go," I murmured, immediately marching off in the direction of the scent. I didn't know what was going on, but I was sure that smell spelled trouble for all of us. My heart was starting to pound fiercely in my chest now, and I once again felt like I was going to be sick, but I refused to allow myself to stop. If that really was the smell of blood, then I had to make sure that everyone else was okay.

There was a door left slightly ajar not far from where the woman and I were walking, and she approached it before gesturing for me to come closer. I did so carefully, and she pressed one hand against the side of the door carefully before easing against it, pushing it open slowly.

As soon as she did, I knew the world had crumbled.

There were many figures scattered throughout the area, all of them slumped over and unconscious. I counted five in a quick sweeping headcount, but my eyes refused to stray from the figure at the center of the room.

There was a woman dangling from the ceiling at the center of the room, her dark hair falling around her face in an ominous curtain. A rope had been tied firmly around her neck, and bruises could be seen where something had rubbed at her throat enough to leave it almost raw. She wasn't moving, and I could already tell from afar that her body had no doubt gone cold a while ago.

"M-Mom...?" I whispered in shock, my eyes going wide. I couldn't help but stare up at her body in endless shock, and my knees gave out from beneath me a moment later. I felt like I was going to throw up, but I didn't think I was going to be able to fight back against it. My mother couldn't have been dead. She was supposed to show us around the factory and tell us all about everything that was happening in her line of work these days, but instead... She was gone. She shouldn't have been dead, and yet... She was...

"Anton!"

The voice of the woman pulled me out of my daze, and I glanced up and realized she was leaning over a small boy who was slouched against the wall. She was shaking at his shoulders gently, and I realized a small amount of blood had come to rise in his pale blonde hair. He wasn't the only one who was leaning against the wall though, and when I gave the room a more thorough scan, I realized I recognized more of the people in the area than I thought.

One of them was a girl with short black hair who I recognized as being Chrysalis' classmate from school, Mukuro. It was difficult to see what had happened with her, but she was most certainly not moving. I could barely tell if her chest was moving, and that somehow made the situation even worse. My mind was racing over the idea of my mother having died already, and the thought of others having joined her only made me more convinced I was going to somehow lose everything in the moments that came after the discovery of the body.

The next person I noticed was Sora. She had said she was supposed to meet us at the factory for the tour, but I hadn't expected to find her here. There was blood starting to rise in her hair as well, though there wasn't much of it. I was relieved by that, and a moment later, I realized that her chest was gently rising and falling as the seconds passed. That was enough to hit me with a tidal wave of relief, but it wasn't enough to cancel out the sickness I felt over everything else.

My gaze was careful when I turned to look at the final figure in the room. Blood stained her body, and the source seemed to be her eye. She was slouched over unconscious and wasn't moving, and crimson could be seen practically everywhere in the area around her. I immediately assumed this was the source of the bloody smell the woman and I had picked up on, but that wasn't what caught me by surprise about her.

It was Yuri.

I could feel my hands shaking, and I stared down at them in a desperate effort to make the trembling stop. My breathing was starting to speed up, and I began to grab at my arms in the silence, not sure about if I could do anything else. What was I even supposed to do? It wasn't supposed to end this way, and yet, here we were. My nails were starting to dig at my skin through the fabric of my jacket, but I didn't even care. I was too focused on trying to block out the world for a few precious moments to even think of looking after myself.

My phone began to ring a few moments later, and I struggled to push my way through the haze to pull it out of my pocket and answer it. I didn't even bother to check who was calling before I picked up. "H-Hello?" I questioned, hating the way my voice shook so much when I tried to speak just the one word.

"Cotoli, we need to talk," came Ghastly's voice from the other end. He was talking quickly, like he was on the verge of panic as well. "It's about Chrysalis. I was wandering the factory trying to figure out where we were supposed to be meeting up, and she ran up to me in the middle of a panic attack. She said that something was going on before passing out. She's with me right now, but she won't wake up no matter what I do. You have to come as soon as possible."

I didn't even know how to respond to Ghastly's words, and I processed what he was saying both all too quickly and all too slowly. Chrysalis was hurt too? If that was the case, what had happened with Venus and Cassidy? The two of them were supposed to be here too, and if they were here, they could have gotten hurt along the way. Just what was going on to cause everything to fall so far out of our control? Who could have done this? What was happening?!

Ghastly was calling my name from the other end of the phone exchange, but I could barely hear it. My vision had started to tunnel in on the body hanging from the ceiling, and I realized that my mother's death was simply the beginning when it came to everything awful that had happened today. So much else was going on, and I had no idea how I was supposed to handle any of it. So many people had gotten hurt, and there was no way to say what had happened to the others who were still unaccounted for.

The woman was typing something on her phone, and a moment later, she raised the device to her ear. I realized she was calling emergency services to come and help us with what had happened, but I didn't think there was anything I would be able to do to help her. I was still shaking, and I couldn't even bring myself to respond to Ghastly on the other end of the call.

At some point, I had started to cry, and a choked sob escaped my lips. Suddenly, Ghastly's voice came into focus once more. "Cotoli, what's going on? Talk to me."

I couldn't bring myself to follow his instructions, instead simply letting the phone fall away from my ear slowly. I continued to look up at my mother's body, my vision blurring endlessly with tears. I didn't know why this had happened or who had done it, but I knew I had to find out as soon as possible.

It shouldn't have ended this way... I'm so sorry, Mom. I am so, so sorry.

Hello case six

-Digital