"You... I know you. We've met each other before."

"It's been a long time, hasn't it? Much has changed since then... But we find ourselves here again."

"...I'm not in that life anymore. I don't want anything to do with you. Please... Just leave me alone."

"You're a harsh one, aren't you? After all those years you put in, you just stab everybody in the back... You're a traitor, you know, and I'm sure you're fully aware of the punishment that comes to traitors."

"Y-You can't-"

"Your fate was sealed the instant you went behind our backs... Now you'll see just how much of a mistake you've made by daring to leave us all behind!"

"Noooooooo!"

March 27

Morix Law Offices

11:00 AM

Victoria von Graye

In a word, the agency was quiet.

It wasn't as if this was particularly surprising. Deirdre was gone and had been for the last few hours. She had swung by early in the morning to say that she was going out to the park for the day, picking up her jacket before leaving. She hadn't said it was a date explicitly, but given the fact that she was going out with Prosecutor Cruz, it was pretty easy to assume. As for the others, it was Lily's day off, and Yuri was taking care of homework as part of school. Felicity and Sky were out doing... Something, though I admittedly didn't know what. I hadn't asked, and I figured that was for the best. Felicity had been acting somewhat off for the last month, and Sky hadn't been much better. I figured it would be good if they worked out whatever it was that continued to bother them so fervently when the rest of us weren't around since that would probably only stress them out.

That left only me, Pieter, Chrysalis, and Mr. Morix in the agency. We were all sitting out in the main area and doing our own separate things, and that should have been fine. I mean, it wasn't as if this was out of the question for anybody in the agency. We could spend time together without actually doing anything with one another. That was a great way to get closer, as a matter of fact, but this... Felt different.

I knew exactly why it was too. Mr. Morix and I had tried to make conversation a handful of times, but we were always intercepted by Chrysalis and Pieter. Neither one of them had directly spoken to one another yet. It was a problem that had been prevalent ever since Pieter first returned to the agency a few months ago. Chrysalis hadn't been dealing with it well, instead retreating into herself because she didn't know how to talk to him. Pieter had told me before that he wanted Chrysalis to be the one who set the pace for their relationship, so he held back on talking to her to make sure that he didn't do anything to accidentally upset her. He was considerate, but I could tell that he was nervous about all of it.

The tension was obvious, and everybody in the agency knew it. I didn't know why Felicity and Sky weren't there, but I could only assume that they had been relieved to get away from the hustle and bustle of the agency combined with the nervous tension between Chrysalis and Pieter. With Chrysalis not wanting to talk to him because of her anxiety that she refused to talk about and Pieter not wanting to do too much to infringe on her boundaries, the agency had become the most awkward place on the planet. It made sense given the context, but it was still unfortunate just how much was getting in the way of everybody getting along.

"So..." I began to say when I started to get tired of the silence once again. Pieter looked up to me, but Chrysalis was still as she continued to look at her phone. She hadn't been talking to me as much since she found out about Pieter either, not that it was too surprising. She was upset with the fact that I had done so much to hide Pieter's presence from her, and I couldn't blame her for being mad. I hadn't exactly known the depth of Pieter's relationship with her since neither one of them had talked about it with me, but... It was still a lot to have to deal with on both ends. Since Pieter had come back, they practically couldn't get through the thick fog of nervousness that had fallen between them, and I had no idea how to handle it.

"What is it, Victoria?" Pieter asked, looking over to me with the kindest eyes in the world. I smiled at the sight, knowing that if anybody would be able to cheer me up, it was him. Of course it would be Pieter. I didn't think there was a person in the world who was anywhere near as perfect as him. He was generous, kind, patient, and-

I cut myself off by speaking once again. "I was just wondering how you were doing today," I told him simply, desperate to break the quiet but not wanting to do anything that could upset Chrysalis. It wasn't as if forcing them to talk about their feelings would be particularly productive, at least not right now. If Chrysalis wasn't in the mood, then it would probably go poorly. If there was one thing I had learned from Chrysalis' work as Oracle, it was that if she wanted something hidden, she would make sure that it didn't come out no matter what. It was frustrating, albeit expected in her line of work.

Pieter seemed to recognize this for what it was, and he glanced to Chrysalis out of the corner of his eye before nodding. "I... I'm doing well," he told me simply, a small smile starting to spread across his face. I could see the tension written all over his features though even if he didn't want to be the one to say that he was nervous. Why would he want to admit it with Chrysalis sitting right there? For all he knew, that would just make things worse.

I turned to Chrysalis next. "Chrysalis, how about you?" I asked, admittedly not having much of an idea of how she was going to respond. Chrysalis and I knew each other somewhat well, but all of that had been before Pieter had returned. She had seemingly come to peace with the fact that I hadn't been able to tell her everything that happened, but that didn't do much to change the fact that she didn't know how to approach either one of us. In a word, the situation was complicated. There were few other terms that could even come close to describing it all so perfectly.

Before Chrysalis could reply, a phone rang into the silence, and Mr. Morix let out a small gasp before he rose to his feet. "I apologize. I'll have to take it," he announced. He walked out a moment later, and I resisted the urge to beg him to stay so that Pieter and I wouldn't be left alone with Chrysalis and her piercing glares. Still, I didn't get the chance to say anything on the matter, and I instead let out a heavy sigh before continuing to stare at the door where he had vanished, wondering just what could have been so pressing.

"What do you think that's about?" Pieter questioned, seeming to recognize the weight in the air before anybody else could dare to speak about it. "I doubt he would leave to take a call unless it was something important."

"We'll just have to see," Chrysalis said simply, though she wasn't exactly talking directly to me or Pieter. Instead, she simply focused on the ground below, a frown tightly knit across her features. There was a lot on her mind, and even if neither me nor Pieter was able to break through and figure out what it was, I could only imagine that it was something heavy.

We waited in the silence of awkwardness for a few more minutes before Mr. Morix came back inside, and he tucked his phone away into his pocket. "That was Deirdre," he declared. "Something went wrong when she was out today, and she needs a defense team. She wants us to get down to the detention center as soon as possible."

I actually sighed with relief at that, only realizing what I had done after the fact. I didn't bother to cringe at my bad habits though, instead simply raising one hand in the air. "I have to wonder... Who all is going to take on the case?" I asked. "I mean, three of us can go while one person stays here, or we could split up two and two with one group investigating while the others look after the agency."

"You can go investigate if you want. I'd be fine with staying here," Chrysalis said, though I could see that for what it was. She was nervous about being around us, and she didn't want to be stuck with us on a court case because she could tell that it was going to reveal all the cracks that she had been trying so desperately to shove aside.

Mr. Morix thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. "No... I think you three should go and do it," he declared. Chrysalis' eyes popped out of her head, and Pieter looked over to me in shock as Mr. Morix continued. "I don't like having to sit here and watch you dance around each other because you're nervous and afraid. The best way to work out problems like that is to do something about them, and taking on a case together is a good way to jumpstart that. Besides... I have no doubt that you can all put your feelings aside in the name of being mature while investigating a case, yes?"

Pieter nodded at that, though he seemed too stunned to do much else. "Of course," he murmured before glancing back to Chrysalis. "But are you sure this is really a good idea? The last thing I want to do is step on anyone's toes."

"You haven't taken on any cases since coming to work here. I think it could do you a world of good. Besides... Chrysalis has to talk to you sooner or later, and I think it's high time that we took care of it," Mr. Morix said. It seemed that he was tired of seeing his sister try not to talk about her feelings too, and the pointed way he looked at her made that clear. She winced, though she didn't say a word about it.

"So... You want all three of us to go down to the detention center?" I questioned of Mr. Morix, just wanting to make sure that I had all of this right. I could understand making Pieter and Chrysalis work together after all their time apart, but I wasn't quite sure if I would get in the way of that or not. I mean, I was kind of caught in the middle of whatever had happened between them-or to be more accurate, a lack of things happening between them-but I had no idea if that was going to turn out well for us or not.

"I think it would be for the best if you all worked together," Mr. Morix replied. He glanced over to Chrysalis at that, no doubt trying to tell her that she couldn't get out of this one even if she tried. "You've never worked on a case together as a trio, and I think this would be a great way for Pieter to shake off the cobwebs when it comes to being in a courtroom. On top of that, you all need to get closer. I'm really tired of seeing you all dance around each other when you're supposed to be working together. You don't need to regard each other with such anxiety, and I intend to prove it to you."

Chrysalis was silent for a long moment, looking over to me and Pieter in nervous silence, before she nodded. "I understand," she murmured. "If that's what you think is for the best, then we'll head down to the detention center now and do what we can to speak with Deirdre."

"Did she tell you who we were going to be defending?" Pieter asked of Mr. Morix, concern written all over his face.

Mr. Morix shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It would be for the best if you could talk to her about it as soon as possible though, so you should get going. I'll stay here to look after the agency until Felicity and Sky come back. Good luck out there, and if you need anything, you know where to find me."

I nodded at that before turning to walk away. We all made it to the elevator a moment later, though we stood in tense silence once we were inside. Chrysalis and Pieter kept on shooting one another glances out of the corners of their eyes, but it was never quite enough to meet gazes. They were still unsure about how to approach one another, and it was clear as could be.

I could already tell this was going to be a long case.

March 27

Detention Center

11:30 AM

Chrysalis Starr

Would it have been rude of me to say that I wanted to fight my brother?

Okay, maybe I kind of wanted to fight both of them right now, but I knew what Cotoli was doing here. He was trying to make me and Pieter talk to each other by forcing us onto a case where we would have to work together. Cotoli had been egging me on when it came to talking with Pieter for a short while now, but he was never quite able to get me to commit to it. To put it simply, my feelings towards Pieter were complicated and contradictory, and I didn't want to entertain them more than I absolutely had to. He had been gone for a long time, and a lot had changed and happened since he was last in my life full time.

But the fact remained that this wasn't about that. I was going to have to talk to Pieter eventually, but the main reason we were here together was because we had a case to work on, and that meant seeing our client. Deirdre was set to meet us in the visitor's room as soon as we got there to introduce us to the client. She hadn't said who she was going out with that morning, so I silently flicked through a list of people she would have gone to the park with. I hadn't exactly known her to be the type to do this sort of thing on her own, so who made her want to make a journey into nature to begin with?

When we entered the visitor's room, Deirdre was already waiting for us, her arms crossed over her chest. Everything about her was the picture of anxiety, and that was already a bad sign. I didn't think I had seen her this worked up... Ever. Not since really bad things had happened in the agency, and even that didn't quite compare to the look of pure nerves that was written all over her face. Even if she hadn't explained it yet, I could tell that something had gone seriously wrong that morning, and she didn't even know how she was supposed to respond to the fallout that came with it all.

"What's going on?" Victoria questioned, her expression immediately melting into worried sympathy. "We heard that somebody was arrested while you were out at the park today. Who was it?"

Deirdre opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off when the door to the other side of the room slid open. I looked up to see an officer escorting the suspect inside, and my jaw just about dropped to the floor from shock.

"Fancy seeing you here," Prosecutor Cruz began as he was slowly pushed to sit down. The guard abandoned him soon afterwards, and Prosecutor Cruz leaned forward against the table with a nonchalant expression and all the dissatisfaction in the world. He wasn't even wearing his sunglasses anymore, and I couldn't help staring, wondering if I had ever seen his eyes under circumstances like this before.

"Oh," was all Victoria could say. She looked around before grabbing a chair and pushing it up to the glass. Deirdre and I did much the same, and soon enough, all four of us were gathered together and watching him carefully.

"Might I ask who this is?" Pieter asked, his expression tilting into a frown. "I don't believe I've ever met this young man."

"This would be Prosecutor Vito Cruz," Deirdre introduced. She fell quiet for a moment before offering a small smile. "He's taken on a few cases that the agency was involved with, so we've faced off against him in court a handful of times. I told you this morning that I was going out to the park, yes? Well, I was actually going with him and my older sister. We were bringing the dogs and everything."

"Thanks for getting Moira to look after Diablo and all that, by the way," Prosecutor Cruz said next. "I'm sure he and Kiki will get along well when they get the chance to romp around outside of the park." Given the fact that Deirdre's sister's dog was named Kiki, I could only imagine that Diablo belonged to Prosecutor Cruz. It was a fitting name for somebody like him to assign to a dog. I mean, if anybody was going to name their dog something like that, it was going to be Prosecutor Cruz.

"It's no issue at all," Deirdre assured him. "We're happy to be able to help after what happened... You deserve better than to be locked up here for a crime we know you didn't commit. I'll probably have to testify in the trial tomorrow, so I did what I could to get help. I'll let these three take on the defense to make sure that we're able to prove your innocence."

I glanced back and forth between Deirdre and Prosecutor Cruz, my eyes narrowing in the former's direction. "So... This park trip of yours..." I began, silently musing on how I had been right to believe that Deirdre wouldn't just randomly decide to go to the park on her own. "Was it a date?"

Prosecutor Cruz was stunned into horrified silence at that, and Deirdre paused for a moment as her cheeks went pink. She shook her head as soon as she was able to get a grip on herself once again. "Of course not. We just went as friends," she assured me. On the other side of the glass, Prosecutor Cruz seemed to recoil at that, almost like he had been hoping it would be something more.

I had known for quite some time that Deirdre had other feelings towards Prosecutor Cruz. She thought that she would be able to hide it because she was the master of psychology and all that crap, but there were some things that simply couldn't be kept secret as far as I was concerned. I narrowed my eyes once again at Deirdre, though she didn't seem to notice I was glaring at all. "Yeah... Just friends," I muttered even though it was so obviously not true that it was painful. I didn't know why she bothered to put up the facade of there not being anything between her and Prosecutor Cruz when everybody knew the opposite was true. Then again, I supposed that was what I got for letting her get away with anything like this.

"I think we should get down to the matter of what happened that day," Pieter suggested. He hadn't even bothered to introduce himself, though I could see why. He was trying to not do anything that could potentially upset me, and he even kept casting me nervous glances out of the corner of my eye. I frowned to myself, but I didn't say anything about it. Nearby, I could feel Deirdre's eyes on me, no doubt wondering why any of this was happening to begin with. I didn't want to answer her inquiries though, so I just hummed to myself and focused on Prosecutor Cruz once more.

"Of course," Prosecutor Cruz said, though he sighed and shook his head with the words. "Well, earlier this week, I decided that I needed a bit of air and to get out of the office on my day off. I called Deirdre and asked if she wanted to come with me to the park and bring the dogs so they could romp around. In the end, it turned into Moira, her caretaker, Deirdre, and me all going to the park to give the dogs the chance to play around and get to know each other a little bit better.

"Moira's... Caretake?" Pieter asked, his head tilting to the side slightly in confusion. It occurred to me that he had probably only heard about Deirdre's sister in passing, so he wouldn't know all that much about her life on a more personal level.

"My sister is in a wheelchair and can't do most things for herself, so there's a caretaker who helps her with most daily tasks," Deirdre explained. "Kiki is her service dog so that she can function well even without her caretaker present. All of us were together when the crime took place in the park."

"Somebody was found dead in a pool of their own blood, and guess who just so happened to stumble into it all," Prosecutor Cruz muttered. He snorted and shook his head. "I can't believe my luck. I was just trying to have a nice day with Deirdre, and then, it turned into all of that... From there, I was arrested under the suspicion of murder, and I came back here because I wasn't given any other choice. I've been sitting here in the detention center ever since while the investigation has been going on."

"What do you know about the victim?" I questioned. Prosecutor Cruz immediately shifted like he was trying to pull away from the question, so I could tell that I had hit a nerve. If it was somebody close to them who had died, then I would have expected a stronger reaction from somebody involved, and yet, they remained somewhat detached with concern on their lips. This was where things were going to get interesting. I could already see it.

"The victim... That would be a man by the name of Lennox Kennedy," Prosecutor Cruz replied carefully. "He was shot a single time in the chest and died instantly. I was out getting a snack since we hadn't eaten yet, and that was when I saw his body. The police showed up as soon as they realized what the commotion was about, and since I was found standing over the corpse, they decided that I must have been the culprit."

"Do they think that you really killed him when you were away from the others for a few short moments?" Pieter asked, his eyes going wide. "I don't know if I would be able to call that a strong ground to base a case on..."

"That's not it," Prosecutor Cruz told us. "He was killed earlier in the day, but the police are convinced that I was going back there to check up on my victim and see what others had done or heard about it. That was when I was found and arrested. Of course, I wasn't the one who did it, but it's not like the officer who initially arrived at the scene was convinced that I was the truth. I tried to explain that it was an accident, but there wasn't a thing I could do as far as the police were concerned."

"If you just found the body, then that doesn't mean you're the culprit. I feel like there must be some stronger evidence involved with it all than that," Victoria pushed. "I mean, what about the motive? There must be some reason the police believe that you did it."

Deirdre went tense from beside me, and I glanced over to her with a frown on my face. "What do you know?" I asked, already able to sense that this wasn't going to be something we wanted to hear.

"Lennox Kennedy... He was not an ordinary man by any stretch of the imagination," Deirdre answered carefully. "He was... At one point, he was involved with a terrible group of people, and he managed to get out of that life. However, it seemed as if he could never quite escape his past, and if I had to guess, I would say that was what killed him."

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked, her hesitation and worry clear as could be. "What could he have possibly gotten involved with that would end with his death? Was it gang activity? Or could it be-"

"The Emsthorpe assassins," Vito replied bluntly. "He used to work with them, but he managed to get out of it. That's... That's the reason the police believe that I committed the crime. They know about my grudge against the Emsthorpes, so they decided that I must have been the one to kill him when combined with the fact that I found the body."

"The Emsthorpes came up in a case that others in the agency were on too," I realized as I looked over to Deirdre. "It was you, Felicity, and Cotoli. You were all working on the case, and the culprit turned out to be an Emsthorpe coming through for an assassination on behalf of the group."

"I wouldn't say that my relationship with the Emsthorpes is particularly kind," Prosecutor Cruz confessed with a loose shrug. "I mean, somebody who was involved with the group killed my father a few years ago. I've hated them ever since then. Unfortunately, they've stayed just out of reach since those days, so I haven't been able to find out much of anything about them, but... I know that they're still out there. The victim of this case... He supposedly tried to leave that life behind, but when he couldn't get away, he was killed for it."

"If you ask me, it sounds like one of the Emsthorpes committed this crime to make sure that nobody could figure out what had happened with their former associate," Victoria remarked. "In fact, that makes a lot more sense than what the police believe Prosecutor Cruz to have done. I mean, how would he have been able to figure out the fact that this man was supposedly involved with the assassins at some point in the past? He wouldn't have any route to acquire that information, and I doubt he would have made a plan to kill the man in a random park where he could have so easily been caught."

"You're a prosecutor for murder trials. I would like to assume that you know a bit more about what it means to commit a crime than to do something in the open in the middle of a day where people are going to be all around you," I agreed with a nod. "I mean, you weren't the one who killed him, but if you were, then I feel like you would have been at least a little bit smarter about it all. I mean, you know what you're doing when it comes to subjects like this."

"I was thinking the same thing, but it seems as if the police don't exactly agree with the idea that I wouldn't have done this," Prosecutor Cruz murmured angrily. "I didn't even know the guy. As much as I appreciate the suspicions about him being involved with the Emsthorpe family at one point in the past, I don't think that means much now. He was able to get away from that, and i wouldn't have been able to get my hands on information like that even if I wanted to. It just isn't in my pay grade to be able to find something like that no matter how hard I searched."

"If the police want to play stupid games like that, then it's their decision," I announced. "We're just going to have to do what we can to show that they don't know what they're talking about. There has to be evidence that will tell us what actually happened, and it all starts with us going to the scene of the crime and talking to anybody who may have been there at the time of the victim's death."

"I can come with you," Deirdre interjected. "Like I said before, I'm probably going to have to testify in the trial, and I have no doubt that Moira and her caretaker are going to have to do much the same. I can take you to them and hopefully convince them to talk openly about what they saw. The more information you can gather, the better off all of us are going to be, after all."

"I'm glad that we all agree on the best course of action then," Victoria announced with a smile. She rose to her feet and pushed her chair out before smiling to Prosecutor Cruz. "We're going to make sure that you're found not guilty no matter what. I promise."

"Thanks," Prosecutor Cruz said softly. He gave a thankful smile in Deirdre's direction, and she returned the gesture with a reassuring grin.

I watched them with a sigh before looking over to Pieter. I still had no idea how we were supposed to handle this case as long as we were working together. Then again, I supposed that I couldn't just run from everything that had happened between us forever. The past had caught up with me, and the best option left was to face it.

No matter how much I didn't want to, unfortunately.

No classes today for me woo

-Digital