The Night Before

Julian found this night peaceful, perhaps one of the most relaxing he had in a long time. Of course the dungeon cell he was in was a far cry from the posh bedroom he shared with his brother Miles a lifetime ago or even the dormitories he had stayed in during his time at the Institute, but he wasn't expecting to be offered accommodations like that anyways. Instead it was the cool, damp air combined with the unique mixture of smells in this place that made Julian feel like he had come home. Julian remembered the time he and Miles had snuck into these very dungeons. Of course their parents had expressly forbidden them from coming down here, but that just made it even more appealing to a pair of adventurous boys like them. Of course the experience turned out to be a bit more scary than expected (though Julian now chuckled at how they had found it scary at all) and they got royally chewed out when they got discovered (pun intended), but as they were serving out their groundings together Miles had thanked Julian for going down here with him, saying that he wouldn't have been brave enough to go by himself.

This memory gave him a rather bittersweet feeling. On one hand Julian was glad to have a pleasant memory of Miles that didn't involve Julian's misusing his abilities that he didn't yet fully understand or control. On the other hand Julian was intelligent enough to recognize that this rather innocent act of defiance was likely one of many that led to the incident that claimed Miles' life. As much as he treasures this memory, he'd rather have Miles here instead. Unfortunately Julian knew better than most that changing such an event is impossible.

in spite of the grim fate awaiting him in the near future Julian felt at ease. The one thing that he felt regretful about coming here was Elsa. Well, that and his mother, but mostly Elsa. His mother's reaction to what was essentially the end of the trial he had pretty much expected, so while it was painful to hear Julian at least drew comfort from the belief that his father was strong enough to get her through this. However, while Julian was aware of just how strong willed Elsa was, due to the similarities of their pasts and how she has reacted to events comparable to ones that he experienced himself, he wasn't prepared for just how stubborn she would be. Julian had naively thought that she would let the law run its course once she saw how the case was stacked against him, and instead she fought tooth and nail to try and clear him of wrongdoing until she was finally told flat out that no amount of character witnesses would be able to get him found not guilty or even reduce his sentence, and his inability to talk her out of it was one of the Julian's biggest regrets in his recent years. Now on top of the loss of a friend she'll have to deal with the pain of failing to save someone close to her, a hellish experience Julian was trying to NOT share with her. At least he never tried to see if they could be more than friends as others suggested that he should, losing a friend like a brother is hard enough.

For a moment Julian just relaxed on the threadbare cot, listening to the crackle of the torches, watching their light flicker across the walls and ceiling, letting them lull him in a near-meditative state as these thoughts pass through his mind. Then Julian became aware of a set of footfalls drawing ever closer. This came to Julian's attention because they were too light to be the guards and too numerous to be just his mother. Julian then groaned in frustration because once he felt the energy signature of one of his guidance stones he knew exactly who this was. Julian covered his eyes with one hand while flicking his other towards the bars of his cell just as Elsa and Anna snuck through the main entrance to the dungeon.

"Now we don't know if they keep the keys to the cells in here and we don't want to make them suspicious by poking around here too long, so you'll need to use your flames to melt the lock," Julian heard Elsa whispering, most likely to Anna, "Keep the flames small but hot, I don't think that Julian would appreciate us burning his parents' place do-oooww!!"

Julian had kept his eyes closed and covered, but the crackle-pop he heard along with Elsa's instructions being cut off by her pained yelp told him that the static charge he'd applied to the bars of his cell just now had done its job. This was soon confirmed when he heard a second pop and another, higher-pitched yelp followed by Anna saying in disbelief, "The cell bars are electrified?"

Elsa sounded just as bewildered as she said, "Their blacksmith craftsmanship was exceptionally remarkable, but they didn't strike me as being that advanced."

"They're not, not yet anyway," Julian told them as he dropped his arm to his side and sat up to look at them, "I'm the one that applied the charge to the bars."

Anna and Elsa shared incredulous looks as Anna exclaimed, "Are you crazy!? You trying to kill us!?"

"No, I'm trying to keep you guys from killing yourselves," Julian explained as he stood up from his cot, "or worse: end up having done something that you regret and living with its weight on your heart, the way that I do."

"Are you saying that we're not capable of taking care of ourselves?" Anna asked indignantly.

"I know how strong you guys have gotten, especially you Anna," Julian assured her, "but power is disparate from control. You just got your powers and learned to use them, Anna. Even if you guys could get me out of here without destroying my family's home or harming the guards who are just doing their job of protecting it could you do it while they're not holding back? Besides, you guys insisted on going through with this trial and I agreed if you would abide by the ruling."

"I agreed to accept the verdict of a fair trial!" Elsa said with a stubborn set of her jaw.

"This was a fair trial," Julian argued back.

"Not where I come from!" Elsa said heatedly.

"We're not in Arrendale, are we?" Julian said firmly. Even if the set of her lips and the hardness of her eyes wasn't telling enough Julian would know that Elsa was upset by the fact that it dropped ten degrees down there in as many seconds. Julian said in softer tone, "Look, Elsa, I understand that you likely had your hopes on getting me off here, and for what it's worth I think that you did an amazing job. I don't believe that Phoenix Wright or his ancestor Naruhodo could have done any better, and they were legendary. The law just happened to be against you this time. However, due to the effort that you had put in showing how unfair it was to people in my position I believe that changes will be made so that, should anyone else find themselves in a similar situation, they will find that they're not in such a hopeless position and any punishments they face, if any at all, will be made more just and fair. So please don't think that what you did today was pointless because that's just not true."

"That's not something that you should have to give your life for," Elsa told Julian firmly.

"If you're not able to give your life for your family and your people, to make things better for them long after you're gone, then was your life worth living in the first place?" Julian reasoned with her.

"You're just being stubborn now," Elsa argued back, "Just let us get you out of here before the guards realize that this isn't just a visit."

"Is that what you would have done?" Julian asked Elsa flatly

"If Anna didn't survive the accident in the ballroom when you were kids," Julian clarified in the same tone, "or, perhaps more appropriately, if she didn't recover from the ice that you put in her heart years later and died: if your people held you responsible for and wanted you to pay for Anna's death would you have run away to save your skin knowing full well that your parents, who are still around in this scenario, would have bore the brunt of your people's anger and been dethroned or worse?"

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth Julian felt regret, particularly when he saw the look in Elsa's misting eyes at the mental image and she said in a choked voice, "That's not fair!"

"No, it isn't fair," Julian agreed in a carefully controlled tone, "it also isn't fair that I get to live while my brother Miles doesn't, that he never got to make his mark in the world." As Elsa didn't put any distance between herself and the bars of his cell and instead seemed to drift closer Julian walked up and gripped the bars with both hands, draining the remaining charge as he continued in a softer tone, "Today you reminded me that I had made a positive difference in many people's lives, and thanks to you I have a chance to leave my home a better place than it was before. If I was to do as you say and dip now, however, then all of our efforts today will be for nothing. Due to how lax security is here and the fact that I'm not wearing shackles or leg irons my parents will likely be blamed for 'letting' me escape. Any chance that I can convince everyone to let me send you two home will disappear and at best you'll be stranded here and never see your parents again, at worst you'll be hunted down and made to share my fate. Even if we manage to get away safely with minimal collateral damage and my parents escaping culpability they'll no doubt be under tremendous pressure to retaliate against Arrendale, which in this era would stand no chance against them, and we don't know what effect that would have on you guys or your counterparts in Emma's world. Tell me, is it worth risking all or even any of that just to save someone like me?"

Julian could see that Elsa was really struggling to find a counter-argument to convince him to go with her or a justification to break him out against his will, and he also knew that she wouldn't be able to. Due to how similar they were Julian knew that Elsa valued family, friends and her people very highly and in that order, which is why he chose those points to bring up in his argument against her impulsive decision.

Of course Julian doubted that these arguments would have had as much weight when they first met, back when Elsa was just beginning to reconnect with her sister after years of isolation and had no friends or connections to her people, not to mention that their parents were still believed to be dead. Now, with all the connections she made since then Elsa had too much to lose and Julian knew it. Of course this knowledge wasn't entirely one sided, and his strategy would have been painfully obvious to someone even younger than Miles when he died, so Julian wasn't surprised when, after a moment of biting her lip, Elsa got a bitter look in her eyes as she said in a barely audible voice, "Damn you!" before turning on the spot and walking towards the exit with all the royal dignity she had been raised with. Anna stood there for a moment longer, rooted in shock as she looked back and forth between her sister who was clearly distraught and the young man who (from Anna's perspective) didn't give two shakes about her sister's feelings. Then Anna leveled a death glare at Julian before hurriedly following her sister out the door.

The instant the sisters had left Julian felt a sense of relief mingled with regret. The relief came from the belief that Elsa and Anna wouldn't be trying anything else crazy tonight and he'd likely be able to get them home before the end.

On the other hand Julian felt really crummy for how he had to go about convincing Elsa to let it go. It didn't help that he didn't see any alternative, but the look in Elsa's eyes made him feel like that kid in that Disney movie who was ripping the heads off his sister's dolls (though Julian was sure that Sid never regretted what he was doing until the fear of God was put in him.)

Regardless if he had discouraged Elsa the right way or if there was another way that he simply overlooked Julian figured that Elsa wouldn't be back down tonight to reenact Escape from Alcatraz, so he left the bars uncharged and layed back down to get what sleep he could.

Unfortunately sleep would still elude him, as Julian once more heard the sounds of footfalls making their way to the dungeon. Since they were more numerous and heavier set than Elsa and Anna's earlier Julian didn't make much of it, figuring it was just the guards coming to set a station to prevent what Julian had just talked the sisters out of. His only concern was that they had caught wind of Elsa and Anna's suspicious activities and apprehended them, but he doubted that they would have been caught without a fight loud enough to wake everyone within 3 miles of the castle, and even if they were caught Julian would simply use his powers to send them home to Arrendale sooner rather than later.

Julian saw just how off his hypothesis was when the dungeon door opened and the guards entered, accompanied by none other than his mother the queen. Even stranger was that the guards behind the queen seemed to be carrying something, and when she turned to head towards the bars beside his cell door his confusion deepened and grew worse when he saw it was a dead body. When he noticed that the male cadaver they were bringing up to his cell was about the same size and build as himself the pieces fell into place, and Julian groaned and held his hand to his head as he sat up before standing and turning towards his latest visitors as he said, "Not you too, Mother!?"

"Don't you worry, Julian. I'll take care of everything," the queen assured him in an authoritative voice that was also rich in maternal compassion. She then waved forward one of the guards that wasn't carrying the body, who proceeded to grab an iron key ring and use one of them to unlock Julian's cell. No sooner had he heard the metallic click, and before the guard could open the cell door or even remove his hand from the key, did Julian reach out with his powers to electromagnetically grip the tumblers and twist them back into the locked position and hold them there. As the guard fought in vain to unlock the door again Julian silently reflected on how much stronger the keys in this era were, not bending or breaking off under this much pressure like they would in Xavier's time, though the locks were more complicated and harder to pick than they are here and now.

Julian's mother looked in disbelief back and forth between her son and the guard, likely correctly guessing that he was the one preventing the guard from opening his cell, before asking incredulously, "What are you doing!?"

What are you doing!?" Julian asked back, matching his mother's tone and volume.

"I'm trying to save my son from a punishment that he doesn't deserve!" the queen told him with a fierceness only a mother could muster.

"Did Elsa and Anna talk to you?" Julian asked her, his tone coming off as more weary than exasperated.

"The friends you came here with?" his mother asked, "They were here?"

"Yeah, and they had the same harebrained idea as you," Julian told her in a low whisper, unsure if he could trust the guards with this info even though they seemed complicit with his mother's scheme, "minus the dead body, of course"

"And you didn't go with them!?" his mother practically exploded in disbelief, apparently not caring if the guards heard her, "You know what is coming, what the law's gonna demand! Why on Earth would you stay!?"

"Because my life isn't worth preserving at the cost of what would happen to you guys, our kingdom or Arrendale," Julian told her matter-of-factly.

"You just let me and your father worry about the kingdom, and if the kingdom decides that it doesn't need us anymore we'll deal with that when the time comes," his mother told him in what was likely meant to be an assuring tone, but instead it just raised the hackles on the back of his neck, "Anyways if anyone finds out what really happened we won't let your friends or their kingdom come to any harm, so don't let it trouble you and just go."

Julian realized that she must have been referring to the body she had the guards bring, likely to make it appear that he had committed suicide or was murdered rather than having escaped. Pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment to calm himself, Julian looked pounty at his mother and said in the most even tone he could muster, "Mother, that thing doesn't look anything like me."

Julian's mother looked at him like she was somewhat disappointed with how slow he was being but she loved him anyway, and with a shake of her head and a smile she informed him, "Well I don't think that there would be enough left for him to be positively identified as you or someone else."

Confused, Julian looked at the guards again, which is when he noticed that several of them either were holding glass vials in their hands or had them strung up on their belts. judging by the color of the liquid he could see within and the smell he could pick up past the stoppered openings Julian guessed that they likely contained Greek Fire or possibly some derivative. Now what his mother was saying made sense. Greek Fire certainly would be sufficient to destroy any visible features that could be used to identify the body as being Julian's or someone else's, leaving only DNA or dental records (neither of which was available to his kingdom at this time.)

While in theory what he pieced together of his mother's plan was possible, Julian unfortunately knew just how dangerous Greek Fire was. He seriously doubted that they had the means to control the Greek Fire's blaze before anything and anyone else was hurt, and the time that they spent trying would surely see guards not necessarily aligned with the queen's goals being alerted and drawn down here. No matter what, this plan would end up with some innocent getting hurt and that was something that Julian was not prepared to tolerate.

"I'm sorry, Mother, but I can't let you do this," Julian told her softly.

"And I can't let you die!" Julian's mother retorted, her voice cracking as tears ran down her face, "No parent is supposed to outlive their children, and I've already had to bury your brother. I beg of you, please don't make me bury you too. I don't think that I can survive that, I'd rather die myself instead."

Julian had thought that he had prepared himself for his mother's words, but they still hit harder than he'd expected. All the lines of logic and reason that he prepared to counter his mother's arguments fled in the face of her grief, leaving him utterly speechless. Instead of coming up with a new argument to use to convince his mother or insisting that this was his choice, Julian found his mind racing to try and discover a means of giving his mom her wish. Most of the scenarios he concocted he concluded would end as disastrously as the ones that both his mother and Elsa came up with.Still he eliminated them one after another until only one remained. It had a laughably small margin of error, but within that margin it had the highest chance of success. That would come at the cost of some considerable emotional trauma for many of those involved, but since his mother was ready to risk burning down this castle which has stood here for generations Julian figured he better bring this alternative to her.

Julian sighed and gave his mother a half grin and he said ruefully, "Why did one of the few constants of the multiverse have to be the mothers' guilt trip?"

"I won't apologize for trying to save my son's life," his mother said firmly while returning his smile to him.

"Nor would I ask you to. I'm glad that you care enough to go that far for me," Julian told her gratefully, then he continued in a more serious tone, "Of course if you're that determined to save me then I have a plan that should work better than yours involving the accused being 'burned alive before his verdict and sentencing,' but for it to succeed you would have to do something incredibly difficult, and you can't tell my friends anything about this."

"Whatever it takes," Julian's mother told him, "What did you need me to do?"

Julian took a deep breath, his heart aching in anticipation, and he wondered if this was how Steven felt when he was telling Tony that there was only one way to defeat Thanos while knowing what that success would cost, then he told his mother somberly, "If you want me to live, you're going to have to watch me die."

Julian's mother looked very shocked at this revelation, but to her credit she didn't flinch away or ask him a million questions that he had no time to answer. Instead she nodded for him to continue, at which Julian said, "Now here's what I want you to tell Father..."