December 16, 2027
10:00am
District Courtroom Number Four
"Hey, Hey!" A man in a bulletproof police uniform rushed the stand. "There's a live bomb! The bomb's been reactivated!"
Pandemonium flooded the courtroom as the gallery fled the courtroom.
"Apollo!" The red-vested lawyer's young co-worker pulled his arm. Her eyes darted around in terror, and her personal AI glitched around her neck. "Come on, Apollo!"
"No! I can't let it end like this!"
"Stay with me, Apollo!" Her brute strength overcame his reluctance, and they began to move.
He heard a scream, and yanked away from her. "Keep going! I'm right behind you!"
That was the last thing Athena remembered before pain blazed through the sides of her head, then stabbed the back, and her vision went black.
December 16th, 2027
11:00am
Central Japanifornia High School English Department.
It was family week at CJHS. Normally, such celebrations were reserved for the lower level schools, but the week-long celebration of family relationships was part of a greater study on the effects family had on the societal state of the youth.
Big words aside, it was a study to see if certain types of mental and physical states were directly connected to the presence, or lack of presence, of the student's family.
Trucy Wright had narrowly escaped being auto-sorted into the 'suspected personality issues' group. The study had already suggested imbalances with orphans, especially when the individual aged out of the foster system. She already knew this because her brother, or she called him her brother, Apollo Justice, was called on to be tested for the Aged-Out group. His special someone (as her best friend Pearl always designated), Athena Cykes, was also an orphan. She was pulled for two different groups. One was orphans who moved in with relatives instead of being surrendered to the foster system. Athena wouldn't talk about the other. At least not around her. Daddy knew, and she guessed Apollo knew too, but Athena kept very tight lips.
This made sense, as Athena was legally insane. She knew she'd be a bad mark for orphans. She was sweet as Pearl's rice cakes from her hometown of Kurain Village, but that designation would follow her the rest of her life.
Apollo wasn't the greatest advocate for orphans in the study either. Her brother in spirit had severe attachment issues. He was cynical, sarcastic and experienced episodes of heightened anxiety whenever suddenly separated from one of the three of them. He reacted the most when separated from Athena, which made her dad, the legendary Phoenix Wright, designate them as an official legal team so the court would automatically assign them both to every case they worked on. Justice n' Cykes, the Wright Anything Agency's shining stars in the darkness of the law.
No one explained exactly to Trucy what the Dark Age was, just that it caused her to lose her real daddy, Apollo, to become naturally distrustful, and traumatized Athena to the point she eventually moved in with Apollo to find respite from her nightmares.
At least, it was all like that until recently.
Apollo's friend died suddenly yesterday morning.
He didn't come home to Athena last night. Daddy was on the phone with her all night, trying to soothe her fears.
They started fighting at work. Athena hadn't come home the night before, and he demanded to know where she'd been after the initial investigation. She couldn't answer.
Daddy removed her from the room.
Being taken away while her brother and the woman she'd been certain he loved fought was frightening. Was this the Dark Age? Of course they had to have their huge fight the day of Family Intros. How was she supposed to introduce her family? She had her daddy, her brother, and her brother's girlfriend, but her brother suddenly started yelling and throwing things at his girlfriend, who happened to be insane?
She thought everything was going to be better now. Apollo was always happier with Athena, and Athena with him. The only thing she was lacking was a mom, which her and Pearl were working on behind the scenes. She didn't want to see Justice n' Cykes fight, it worried her.
At least her and Pearl were alright. Pearl had basically been raised by her dad and Pearl's cousin Mystic Maya (who was Trucy and Pearl's choice for a new mother) after her mother was convicted of murder, and would have been in the same group as Athena if she'd been just a few months older. She'd been telling Pearl about everything: Apollo's friend suddenly dying, him and Athena fighting. Pearl was glad to note they seemed a little more normal this morning when she left for school: Apollo kissed her head and bopped her hat and Athena was happily blabbering on about this and that before giving Trucy a bottle of orange juice, lemon bars for the whole class she'd baked to keep her mind off things, and a prop she'd polished for the day's presentation; though a bit removed from Apollo.
They both seemed removed from each other, but considering Apollo didn't go home last night, she supposed that wasn't too odd. It was definitely awkward for her when they arrived at different times.
Phoenix had texted her about 8:45 to tell her the pair had finally started talking to each other, but captioned it with the fact he'd rather have been with his daughter at school; it was awkward at the office.
She decided to ignore yesterday's events when she was called up, and had the happiest picture of the Agency she could find to show her class. "This is my family. Officially, it's only me and my daddy, Phoenix Wright. But the man in the red on the left is basically my brother, Apollo Justice. Daddy had asked Apollo if he wanted to officially be adopted, but he didn't want to. Polly's a lawyer, and wanted to reserve the court's time for adopting little kids and not his twenty-three year old self. But he did accept being considered part of the family. The lady on the right is his girlfriend, Athena Cykes. She's a doctor of psychology, and Apollo's legal partner. She's an orphan like Polly, but they seem to have a pretty good idea of family when they're together. She made the food I brought for the snack bar, and is only two years older than I am! I really look up to her when I need to know what a strong woman is. She can throw Apollo! That's actually how they met, she accidentally threw a full-grown cop onto him!"
The class erupted into laughter, and so did Trucy. Remembering the happier times helped her worry less about the current situation. At least until the phone rang.
"Of course, yes, I'll send her right away." Her teacher looked in her direction. "Trucy, you've been called to the front office. Checked out."
"Oh, okay! Thank you." Trucy handed the pointer back to her teacher and gathered her things.
"Tell Athena the lemon bars are really good!" Pearl muttered with mouth full. "I bet that'll make her happy!"
"That will make her day, Pearlie. I'll see ya later."
She carried her backpack out to the main office, where Prosecutor Gavin and Detective Skye sat uncomfortably on the carpeted chairs, muttering amongst themselves. It was Gavin's silence that struck her the most. Ema was like Apollo, with that no nonsense personality. Gavin though, was like Athena on a sugar rush. She expected the former rockstar to be flirting with the detective, strumming on a guitar the tune of 'Guilty Love' or 'The Guitar's Serenade.' He remained silent and subdued. "Ah, Fraulein Wright. Good."
"Prosecutor Gavin? Are you and Detective Skye here for me?"
"Yes, Trucy. Your father's gone on ahead, and requested us to pick you up." Ema held open the door and Klavier escorted Trucy out.
"Gone on ahead? Prosecutor Gavin, what happened to Daddy?"
"Nothing happened to Herr Wright… it was Herr Forehead and Sunshine."
They climbed into Ema's compact little car, sitting in excruciating silence. "What…? What happened?"
Ema bit her lip and crammed a fistful of Snackoos into her mouth, Klavier took a few too and munched nervously.
If it had something to do with Athena and Apollo's fight, the whole legal world must know. "What happened to Polly and Thena, Ema?"
She sighed, sliding out a box of tissues from under the dash. "There was a bomb, in the courtroom…" She nodded.
"W-what about the bomb? Polly and Thena are okay, right?"
"Fraulein, your so-called brother and his… special companion were inside the building when the bomb exploded. Their bodies were found in the rubble by the search team. Your father is at the hospital now awaiting their condition. We will meet him there, and hope for the best. From what I heard from the first response team, " His face tightened into that serious gesture that humorously reminded Trucy of an emoticon, though it was anything but humorous now. "we should expect they passed instantly."
They received a text while on their way:
Currently alive, not well. Over 70% of P's burns 3rd degree. Being kept under. T in surgery. Brain hemorrhaging in back brain from impact. Neither guaranteed.
