July 27

Gather Law Headquarters

12:45 PM

Sky Amaya

Mr. Wood guided me carefully through the main halls of Gather Law, one hand ever on my shoulder. His grip wasn't terribly tight, but I still felt like I was being trapped somehow. I glanced around the area, trying to figure out if I should have been trying to escape or if it was for the best that I was going along with this to try and see what I could learn. My heart was screaming in my chest, and I knew that even if I did find answers out of this, it would come at the cost of shortening my lifespan by at least two years from pure stress. I swallowed dryly, trying to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other without showing just how nervous and worked up I was.

Mr. Wood looked over to me, and when he noticed just how concerned I was, he let out a laugh and shook his head. "I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about, young man," he told me, but somehow, I didn't believe it as seamlessly as he had probably been hoping I would. "I just want to have a little conversation about the past."

"Okay," I replied, though my voice wanted to squeak in terror. I had always dreaded big conversations like this, ever since I was a young child, and this time was no different. My stomach was going to eat the rest of me alive if I wasn't careful. I really needed to find a way to calm down before I had to open my mouth again to make sure I didn't embarrass myself spectacularly.

Soon enough, Mr. Wood stopped just outside what I could only assume was some kind of small office room. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key before inserting it into the lock and twisting it. He opened the door from there, gesturing for me to enter first with a grand smile on his face. I just nodded my thanks to him as I went by, trying to not show just how tight my throat felt. Surely someone like him wouldn't be able to smell fear, right? Of course not. No person could do that.

And yet, I knew that he was fully aware of how trapped I felt. He knew that I was trapped like a deer in the headlights, but here we were all the same.

"Alright then. I was hoping to speak with you about... An event from many years ago," Mr. Wood continued to say. "I remember hearing the name Amaya both in the news and from my own research outside of common sources... And I can tell that you're the perfect age to line up with it all perfectly."

"What are you talking about?" I asked even though we already knew exactly where this was going. My stomach was twisting again and again with anxiety, and I swallowed dryly. He knew a lot more than he had wanted me to figure out at the beginning. Of course he did. He ran a company that was dedicated to collecting information about serious subjects like the one I was trying to avoid. He knew everything I had been hoping the world would never discover.

"Many years ago, an incident took place in the Council of Six headquarters... A hostage situation," Mr. Wood began even though he knew that I had been aware of this incident for years upon years. "The Emsthorpe assassins decided to take to unsavory means to accomplish their goals, but it wasn't the usual set of killings. Instead, they took a few children hostage for the sake of luring in their targets... But it didn't exactly work the way they had been hoping."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" I found myself questioning before he could go any further. I hadn't heard anyone talk about this situation in years, and suddenly hearing it brought up again... The mere idea made me want to be sick even though I knew that I was just going to have to grin and bear it until we had managed to push through the matter at hand.

"Because I know exactly who you really are even if you don't want the rest of the world to know," Mr. Wood told me with a dark smile. "Your father was a judge, and your mother was a prosecutor. They twisted the truth together and would have done anything for the sake of preserving what they thought would help their reputations. Their corruption ran deep, and many people feared them about fifteen years ago since that was the best course of action to stay safe. Fear is the best way to remain protected, after all, and if you avoid the ones that scare you so much... You can figure out the rest."

I swallowed back my nerves to the best of my ability, but I knew I wasn't fooling anyone. "I... I don't know what you're..." I began weakly, but when he gave me a look that said that he wasn't buying it, I let out a hefty sigh and looked away, trying to pretend there weren't tears pricking at my eyes. This was ridiculous. I couldn't just let him talk to me about something like this. If I got upset about it, then that would be a domino effect to Felicity getting upset about it, and I couldn't let that happen. Under no circumstances could I let her find out about this.

"Your parents were terrible people, and they had been hoping to use both of their children to uphold their legacy even before they turned ten years old. Your entire life had seemingly been set in stone the instant you were born," Mr. Wood continued. "But the Emsthorpe family decided that there was going to be more to this story, and so, your parents were targeted."

"You don't need to tell me my own life story, you know," I cut in. "I already know exactly what happened. Why are you going on about this when we both know the truth and don't really need to explain it the way you think? It doesn't... That's not... It makes no sense."

"I knew that you weren't going to just come right out and admit your role in all of this if I didn't prove that I already knew what was going on ahead of time," Mr. Wood began, and I had to admit that he had a bit of a point there. Of course I wasn't going to just talk about it without someone elsewhere putting the pressure on. I didn't want to acknowledge any of this, and I had been trying my best to ignore it for years.

I sighed. "Then let's just leave it here. You know what happened, and so do I. The assassins grabbed me and my sister, hid us in the Council of Six headquarters, and waited for my parents to arrive. It didn't work though, so we were there for days on end. It seems they didn't take into account just how selfish and brutal people can be when they don't care about anyone but themselves."

"If I recall correctly-and I'm certain that I do-this is also where a member of the Emsthorpe family died," Mr. Wood frowned to me. "Am I correct in that belief?"

I hesitated at that. What was the point in hiding all of this anyway? Avoiding the topic had been saving me over the course of the last few months, yes, but at the same time, the weight was becoming crushing. Felicity was normally the person I went to with everything, but I couldn't talk to her about something like this. She didn't deserve to have all of that thrust upon her when she didn't realize what she was getting into. I couldn't talk about it with anyone, as a matter of fact. If I did, I was going to find a way to mess up, I was sure, and I didn't want people to pity me nor did I want Felicity to find out about it because people went behind my back and against my wishes.

But Mr. Wood already understood. He knew a lot more than I had originally expected, and there was nothing I could do about the fact that he was aware of the truth when he had known about it for years. If there was anyone who I would be able to talk to about this, even if it was only in passing, it would be someone who was already fully aware of everything that had happened.

I nodded carefully at his words, though it felt like my head was filling with static and a thousand bees were stinging at my chest constantly. "Yes... You are," I agreed carefully.

Mr. Wood nodded before continuing, though I was certain that he had already expected this was how it was going to end. "Mabel Emsthorpe married into the family after falling in love with Augustus Emsthorpe... Before he began his pursuit of revenge, that is," Mr. Wood explained. "But the longer he was left with his rage and hatred, the more it began to grow, and he began his business in full with others who sought the destruction of the legal system. In the beginning, it wasn't even a family business, just a group of people who hated the legal world just as much as he did. When he and Mabel had children though, all of that began to change, and he was able to expand his empire into a genetic one."

My throat went tight once again, and Mr. Wood seemed to sense that he wasn't going to be hearing anything else from me for a short while longer. "But she never wanted anything to do with it. She wanted out of it from the start but couldn't quite escape her husband and his wrath toward the world. In the end though... Her boundary was the children who looked just like her younger children," he went on. "She tried to save you and your twin sister, and as a result, she was killed."

There it was. The one piece of this story that I had been dreading the most. I had known it was coming from the start since it was the way that it had ended back when Felicity and I were children too. Mabel Emsthorpe, despite it all, had decided that our lives were worth saving, and she sent us away as soon as she could... Only to be stabbed in the back by her husband, killed just before my sister and I could get away. We managed to slip out despite it all, but by the time we had managed to return home, it was already too late. The other assassins had realized that our parents weren't coming to extract us from the hostage situation, and they left to go and attack our parents on their own. When Felicity and I first opened the door, we were met with the rushing stench of blood, and we already knew that everything had fallen apart well beyond the point of return or fixing.

"I... I try to not remember it when I can avoid thinking about it," I began carefully. "The mere idea makes me feel sick to my stomach. I... It shouldn't have been that way. She died because she thought that two random children she had never met before then were worth saving."

"She's the reason you're still here today," Mr. Wood frowned tensely. "Most of the world has no idea what happened to Mabel Emsthorpe. I was only able to figure out through years of research... Partially because I couldn't speak with you or your sister about everything that you had seen during your escape."

"I wouldn't have let you talk to her even if you had come," I said immediately. "It's not... She doesn't really..."

Mr. Wood watched me quizzically for a moment before his eyes began to grow wide. "She... She doesn't remember it at all, does she?"

I shook my head stiffly. "No... I think she was so hurt by what happened that she shoved it down and repressed it. I've heard that it's a thing that can happen, but... Nobody ever really understands the extent of what repression means until they see it for themselves. Felicity completely changed after the murder of Mabel Emsthorpe and the subsequent murders of our parents. She didn't remember a thing about it, and if I came close to talking about it, she was saying that I was being ridiculous and needed to talk to someone about my nightmares."

"You remembered it, but your sister did not," Mr. Wood concluded with a small nod. "I see. That makes quite a bit of sense... You were trying your best to protect her from everything that happened, and so, you didn't bring up any of it after the case was opened and closed."

"I couldn't do that to her. How was I supposed to look her in the eye and say what I knew had happened? It... It wasn't going to happen," I told him softly. "She thought that we were orphans whose parents had just dropped them off one day at an orphanage. That was all she really needed to know. That was where we wound up in the end, an orphanage, and I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. She had seemingly erased the truth from her memory for the sake of keeping herself safe, and I wasn't about to shatter all of that. When the murders first happened, all she did was stare at the wall for days on end. She didn't know what else she was supposed to do. How could I ask her to do anything else?"

"I understand completely... And I wish there was something else I could do to help you," Mr. Wood told me gently. "Do you think she'll ever remember what relaly happened to your parents?"

"She's getting close to figuring it out. That much I know for sure," I replied quickly. "There was a case that took place in the Council of Six not long ago, and she's been acting weird ever since then. I think she started to realize around then that something was wrong, but she hasn't put the pieces together quite yet. I think the memory is still just barely out of her reach, so there's nothing she can do about finding the full truth for the moment."

"I see... I imagine that you're here instead of her because you want to keep the truth out of her hands if you can avoid it," Mr. Wood said, and I nodded tensely. "I want to emphasize that I have no plans of going behind your back to tell her the truth of what happened all that time ago. I simply wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter, and now that I have, we can pretend this conversation never happened in the first place."

"Yes, please," I said, my voice starting to edge on desperation. I knew that I sounded ridiculous, but I couldn't even begin to calm down either. No matter what, I couldn't let Felicity find out about this. She had been through more than enough, and if I could keep her safe by making sure that she didn't know about the thing that had ruined both of our lives... I had to at least try to do it. She had been hurt enough by what happened all those years ago, and I couldn't just do that to her. If she was going to forget, then I wasn't going to make sure she remembered.

Mr. Wood remained quiet as I started toward the door, only speaking up again when my hand brushed against the knob. "She's going to figure it out sooner or later, I'm sure," he whispered. "Are you going to tell her yourself, or are you going to just wait for her to find the truth on her own?"

I hesitated at that. I didn't know the answer, if I was being honest. I didn't like having to hide things from Felicity at all, but at the same time, I knew that this was the only real option if I wanted to keep her out of trouble. She didn't know what she was getting into at all by wanting to know what had happened all that time ago, and I wasn't going to be the one who opened the floodgates, at least not yet. If she wound up getting close, then... Well, I suppose I would have no choice, but...

"I don't know," I finally managed to choke out. "I don't want her to remember any of it, but... I just... I have no idea what I'm supposed to do about all of this. All I know is that I want to do everything I can to keep her safe from all of this. That nonsense shouldn't have ever happened, and I know I can't change the past, but if she forgot, then I'm not going to be the one who forces her to remember."

"The body loves to remember that which the mind forgets," Mr. Wood pointed out. "She may have sealed those memories of the past as far away from herself as she can, but the body still wants her to understand what happened. She's been distressed because she needs to know what happened, or at the very least, that's what her body believes."

"I know," I sighed with a shake of my head. "I can tackle that bridge when we come to it, but right now... I just can't push her the wrong way, at least not yet. Besides, I can't tell her right now even if I wanted to. We have a case to take care of, and I'm not going to drop all of that in favor of just going back and telling her the one thing I don't think she should ever have to understand. If she's going to find out from me, it's not going to be until after all of this is over."

Mr. Wood hummed. "I see... In that case, I would simply ask you to exercise as much caution as you can until the moment comes where you can talk to her. Something tells me that this secret will change everything she knows about her life," he said.

My shoulders went tense at that. I knew exactly how it was going to change Felicity, and that was the thing I had been afraid of the most. When we were children, Felicity had always been the quiet independent one, always able to take care of herself. She took pride in not needing to rely on others. After the kidnapping though... She wound up acting more like how I did when we were children. She was desperate for human connection after losing it from our parents so suddenly, not that they had offered much love toward us in the first place. That was the reason that she behaved the way she did now.

I, on the other hand, had been the complete opposite. When we were children, I was always the clingy one, trying to stay behind her because I thought that she would be able to keep us safe with her powerful independence. I was much more optimistic in those days too since there were no doubts holding me back at the time. After the kidnapping, all of that faith in the world melted away from between my fingers before I could fight to get it back, and all I could do was stare as my universe collapsed. After that, my clinginess seemed to amplify itself tenfold. Felicity was the only person who I could rely on at all, the only person I had left who would be able to help me. Of course I was attached to her. I couldn't just leave her after everything that we had been through.

I was afraid of what would happen if Felicity realized the truth of that bubbly personality of hers. She had taken on those traits by copying me from when we were children even though I hadn't behaved that way in years. It would shatter everything she had come to know about herself over the years, and that was the one thing I knew I could never do to her. She deserved better than that, and I didn't want to ruin it.

"I know," I told him carefully. "But... I-I can handle it after all of this is over. For now, we have a case to take care of, and I think the rest of my team is going to start wondering where I ran off to if we take any longer to talk."

I was out the door before I could even hear his response, scurrying off to find the other members of the agency. My heart was still thundering in my chest, and I knew that if I presented myself before Lily and Pieter now, they were going to start asking questions. After that conversation with Mr. Wood, I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle any questions, so I instead tucked myself into a one-stall bathroom, locked the door behind myself, and poised myself before the mirror. I got my hands wet before dragging my palms down my cheeks. I felt ridiculously warm even though I didn't look overheated at all. That was what anxiety could do to a person, yes, but it still struck me as weak and embarrassing.

I didn't know how all of this was going to come out, but I was confident that the truth would find a way to the rest of the world with time. The fact that Mr. Wood had been able to figure out so much about me from when I was a child just by hearing my last name wasn't a good sign. It was only a matter of time before everyone else's long memories stabbed me in the back and showed that they knew much more about my history than they wanted to admit. If Mr. Wood had already figured it out, then who was to say that others had as well and were just too nice to bring it up? Chrysalis was Oracle, for heaven's sake. She probably knew just about everything there was to know.

Tears started flowing before I could stop them, and I swallowed dryly before shaking my head and pushing all of my anxieties back down right where they belonged. Everything was going to be fine. I was going to be fine. All I needed was a little bit of time to work through this. I would be back with the rest of the group soon enough, and everything would be perfectly fine.

That was the hope, at the very least, and in the name of all things holy, I was clinging to it.

July 27

Gather Law Headquarters

1:00 PM

Lily Shield

I crouched down beside the victim's body, frowning as the stench of blood grew more prominent than before. There wasn't all that much to be said about this crime scene, as much as I hated to say it. One thing I could declare without a shadow of a doubt though was that the killer, whoever they were, must have had it out for the victim of this case. I felt like I saw new evidence of a new stab wound every other second, and it was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach. I pressed one hand over my mouth as I tried to keep myself composed, but when I saw nothing on the victim's body, I decided it wasn't worth it and took a step back, pinching at the bridge of my nose.

"Yeah... It's a bad one," Prosecutor Wood said. She was still facing the opposite direction, holding up her hands on either side of her head to make sure that she couldn't see even the slightest traces of the crime scene behind her. "I don't know what happened for the killer to decide to be so openly brutal, but I don't think I want to ask any questions about it either. That just... It sounds like a bad idea."

I nodded my agreement at that as I turned my attention to Pieter. "What do you think?" I asked. "I mean, there has to be something around here that will point us in the right direction."

Pieter shook his head as he continued to look down at the victim's body. "I'm not entirely sure what could have happened, but I believe that the sleeping agent that Buddy was given must have been strong for him to have not stirred at all within the closet while all of this was happening," he began. "I believe the most likely motive is that the criminal was trying to get at the files throughout this room and wound up finding somebody they never could have expected along the way."

"That wouldn't surprise me, but we still don't know who it is that we're looking at for something like this at all," Neptune muttered crossly. "The door to this room doesn't open for just anyone, you know. Only the approved personnel are able to come in here, and I can promise you that the killer didn't apply at all. The culprit must have snuck inside with somebody else, but I can't exactly figure out how they would have done that without being caught."

"Maybe they snuck in with Buddy," I suggested. "I mean, he was the first person in here around the time of the crime, and they probably followed him inside to try and push him into the closet or whatever it is they were trying to accomplish. It's probably difficult to say for sure what they were up to, but... The point is that they couldn't have come in here on their own."

Pieter nodded his agreement. "That certainly seems likely, but if he didn't see anyone coming in with him, then that's going to make this a lot harder," he remarked. "As much as I hate to say it, we're going to have to track down this killer on our own without any help from outside clues. Or, at the very least, that's what it's starting to look like."

"We already told you everything we know about the day of the crime," Clarith chimed in. "We didn't see anyone suspicious lurking around, so if they were here, then none of us caught onto the fact that they were in the area."

"What she said. Still, I don't think Buddy could have done this. I mean, it's kind of just... Impossible, if you think about it," Neptune said. "I mean, the police aren't exactly known for making rational decisions as long as it's going to boost their arrest rate or whatever, but I can say for sure that Buddy didn't do this. I mean, if he did kill the victim, it stands to reason that he would have been covered in blood when we first got back here, but there was nothing."

"And since there wouldn't have been any time for him to burn or otherwise destroy clothing that was used to soak up the brunt of the bloodstains, we can say that he wasn't the culprit," Prosecutor Lin concluded. "I think it's a solid piece of countering evidence. Of course, I'm not entirely certain how we're going to use that in the long term when we don't know who it is that we're supposed to be looking for, but I suppose we'll just have to see in the future."

"There's not much else we can look for here, I'm afraid," Prosecutor Kalles announced. "Right now, I think it would be for the best if we left the remainder of the investigation to the family who runs the company. The most important piece of information as far as I can tell right now is the evidence that was taken from this room. There must have been something here that intrigued the killer enough for them to sneak inside and resort to murder, and if we can find out which evidence and files went missing, then we should be able to construct some idea of the motive."

"I have a really bad feeling about all of this," Prosecutor Wood muttered under her breath with a shake of her head. "I just... I don't know what to think. There has to be something around here, and I'll agree with you on that, but searching through a room this massive is going to take forever. We don't know if the criminal took evidence from multiple spots too, so even if we find a sign that somebody was rifling through the files, that's not proof of everything they took. It's going to take a manual search in order to figure out what went missing."

"We have digital backups of most data that's stored back here, so even if the killer made off with the file, we should still be able to access that information," Neptune announced. "We're going to start with our own investigation soon just like you want, and we'll do our best to figure out just what it is that we're supposed to be searching for. I have a bad feeling about this too, but I don't want to stress anyone out too much just before the trial."

"I guess that's all we can do for now then," Pieter murmured. "I suppose that we should find Sky and then head out for the day. We can see if any new developments have come through when the trial begins tomorrow."

I nodded at that, though I really hated just how litle we had been given. There had to be something around here that would point us in the right direction to the killer, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Neptune was right about how Buddy couldn't be the criminal because of the lack of blood staining his clothes. That left us to wonder who it actually was though...

Along with what exactly it was they took to spark all of this.

never before revealed lore!

-Digital