July 7

Blackgate Hospital

5:00 PM

Yuri Rinko

I had never liked being in the hospital.

I suppose that was to be expected, yes, but I absolutely hated it. The white walls, everything being so eerily clean, the way everyone spoke so quietly as if talking out loud was a sin... It always made me feel out of place. I had most recently felt this sting during the attack case against "Eileen Liyle," and I had hated it back then too.

Now, we were yet again here because of a case, and I still despised the fact that we were there at all. It was good that Albert had survived the attack, but I would have preferred it if he had not gotten hurt at all. Then again, if the universe listened to me about anything, then we probably wouldn't have wound up in this situation in the first place.

The first thing I noticed when we walked into Albert Devine's hospital room was just how much he looked like his brother. They had the same platinum blonde hair, though where James' was cut close to his face, Albert kept his long and flowing. I could only assume he regularly had it in a ponytail so it couldn't get in his face, but that was hardly an option as long as he was concentrating on recovering from his wounds. Instead, his hair fell in a curtain around him, and his green eyes were just as striking as James' always were. The two of them looked a lot like one another, albeit only with the caveat of Albert being much taller thanks to being older.

The second I noticed about him was how completely exhausted he looked. No, it wasn't just that he was tired; he felt guilty about all of this. He felt bad that this was how everything had ended, and even though he didn't say a thing about it, we all knew the truth of the matter. He hadn't been planning for things to end up this way, and he was going to make that perfectly clear when he spoke to us.

Albert had been staring vacantly at the covers over his legs when we first arrived, and he only perked up when he realized that we had invaded on his space. His eyes went wide with shock, though I could tell he was pushing himself to be vertical at all to greet us. "Ah... I didn't realize I could be expecting guests so soon," he said with a light smile. "The detectives said they would be back shortly if that's who you were going to..."

His words trailed off as soon as he realized James was standing to my right. The two met eyes for a few tense moments, both of them trying to read the other and understand just how they had come to this point. James was the first to break the thin veil of tense silence and stillness between them, and he rushed toward his brother before pulling Albert into a tight embrace.

Albert was stunned for a moment, but he returned the gesture once he was able to bring himself to move again. His shoulder was still tense, no doubt a result of the bullet that had wounded him so greatly, but he kept his composure. "James... I didn't think that..." He didn't seem to know what to say beyond that, so he instead pressed his lips together in silence, looking off to the side despite how much he wanted to meet his brother's eyes once more.

"Of course I'm here," James replied for him with a shake of his head. "Did you really think I was just going to leave you on your own after everything that happened? You're finally back here with me. I couldn't abandon you."

Albert faltered at that, and the pieces finally seemed to come together in his mind. "They didn't tell me who it was that found me," he murmured. "I suppose it would have been you then."

James nodded. "And... I need you to not do that again," he said firmly. "I know why you were out searching, but... Please. You can't do that to me again. You can't do that to our mother again."

"Mom..." Albert whispered, like he hadn't said the word in a thousand years. He looked up to James again after a few moments of consideration. "How is she doing?"

"She'll be here within the hour to talk to you about everything," James replied before he looked over his shoulder at the rest of us. "Before that, I want you to tell them everything you know."

Albert didn't seem to realize just how many people had accompanied James until after he gave us all a once over, and he nodded to himself. "I wish we didn't have to meet in such dismal circumstances, everyone," he remarked, and I could tell by his slight flair for the dramatic that he was definitely James' brother. "I didn't want it to be this way."

James shook his head. "No... I didn't want it to happen this way either," he agreed before taking a seat right next to his brother. He pulled his chair up as close as it could get, and the two held hands tightly and firmly. "Let's go over introductions and then get right down to business."

The process of introducing everyone-defense, prosecution, and Mukuro and Aiden-was far from easy, but it was probably going to be the simplest part of this entire conversation, so I was more than happy to go along with it. By the time we were done, I noticed just how many people were crowded in the hospital room, and I was glad that the staff had given Albert a larger room than average. That certainly made all of this a hell of a lot easier for us, to say the least.

Albert let out a careful, controlled exhale once everyone had introduced themselves. "Alright... I suppose now is when we begin the explanation," he said softly. "Where do you want me to start with all of this?"

"I told them everything I know," James chimed in. "About how our father was an attorney at one point, and it was because of him that you ran off to learn more about the past."

Albert nodded. "That is true... Our father was a defense attorney... Richard Devine. He worked as a member of Wattson Law Offices, and they were all absolutely incredible. Truly, they were," he began with a light smile on his face. "But their time of glory was not slated to last long. There was someone out there who wanted to see them torn from grace, and he... He was the reason for all of this."

"Alphonse Clarence," I said with a frown. Albert seemed shocked that I knew about him, and I let out a small nervous laugh. "We were the defense team on the case where he was killed. Well, members of our agency were part of the defense team. Not the three of us specifically."

"I see... In that case, I suppose you already know part of the history," Albert remarked softly. "Wattson Law Offices was run by an incredible woman by the name of Amelia Wattson. She was a powerful force in the courtroom and out, and she figured out that Alphonse Clarence was forging evidence for his trials. Before she could take the truth out of her hands and submit it to the public, he killed her."

"The defendant was never really declared innocent or guilty, but the truth was never found," I went on. "The judge was shot in the middle of the trial, and that sent another series of events spiraling into motion before anyone knew what was happening."

"Yes, that's right. The judge was shot, and the one arrested for it was a man with the last name of Emsthorpe," Albert continued. "That was how the Emsthorpe assassins found their starting ground, you know."

"It was?" Sky questioned, his eyes going wide. "I knew the family had it out for the legal system, but I never would have thought it would go quite like that..."

"The original defendant of that trial was a member of the Emsthorpe family. Antonio Emsthorpe was the father of Augustus Emsthorpe, the leader of the crime family we know today," Albert explained. "Antonio was not the killer, but the judge was bribed into staying quiet. Antonio was found guilty, and he was eventually executed for killing one of the most powerful judges of his time. His son developed a burning hatred for the legal system for the way it had taken his father away from him, and he went on to establish the Emsthorpe assassins. He and his children have since done everything they could to defeat the legal system for the sake of vengeance."

"That makes a lot of sense," I said with a few nods. "He would hate the legal system after something like that, and... Well, I can't say that I can defend his actions after he killed so many people, but his rage comes from an understandable place."

"In a way, I suppose it shows that even the worst of criminals were reasonable at some point or another," Prosecutor Daegana murmured with a shake of his head. "Though I think there's a bit more to the situation at hand than that."

"You would be right," Albert confirmed with a nod. "There's much more to it than we originally expected. The identity of the judge... Did you happen to hear his name?"

"Do you mean the judge that was killed or the one who was bribed into keeping quiet about Alphonse Clarence?" Sky asked with a light tilt of his head. "Either way, the answer is no. We didn't have the chance to dig that deep into it since we were a bit busy after the case surrounding your assault began its investigations."

"The name of the judge that was murdered... It was Gabriel Wood," Albert explained, his eyes striking. "He was a famous judge at the time, and his death sent shockwaves spiraling in every direction of the legal world."

Before Albert could go on at all, I held up one hand. "You can't possibly mean-"

"Niamh," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke whispered before I had the chance to speak. "This has to be the reason for all of it. Damn it. That's why everything has been happening lately, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Aiden questioned, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

"I mean the fact that somebody deliberately pinned a murder against her recently. I'm also talking about the case that led to her scar," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke snarled under his breath. "She didn't talk about it until recently when she realized that she had no choice, but it was because of the Emsthorpe assassins. All of this has been because of them, and even now, they're insisting on making our lives miserable."

"I suppose you would be a bit closer to the heart of the action on account of being involved with the recent cases that involve the Emsthorpe assassins," Albert commented with a frown. "Gabriel Wood's two sons were held hostage to force him to render a guilty verdict against the defendant of the case for Amelia Wattson's death. Before he could declare the verdict though, the killer decided to silence him for the sake of keeping everything as quiet as possible. The truth was swept under the rug, and Antonio Emsthorpe was accused of killing the judge behind the case."

"And that was how it all began... Horribly and tragically," Prosecutor Daegana whispered. "And that no doubt led to hatred for the Wood family on behalf of the Emsthorpe family, at least in some form or another."

"Both of Gabriel's sons went on to establish powerful positions in the legal world. His older son dedicated himself to the collection of information, and he became a powerful businessman in that field. His younger son established the Council of Six, a group of judges meant to hold powerful seats to stop the Emsthorpes before their rot could spread," Albert went on. "That didn't work out the way he had been hoping though. Robin Wood had painted a massive target on his back, and when the Emsthorpes went on their first major killing spree years later, assassinating people in the legal world, they wound up killing Robin Wood's wife."

"That was when he sent his daughter away for the sake of protection," Prosecutor Burke frowned. "She wound up at Ashbrook, and everything continued to fall apart from there, albeit not because of the Emsthorpe assassins this time around."

"That is correct," Albert confirmed. "Robin Wood thought it was too dangerous to keep his daughter close by just in case the assassins decided to strike again, and he was confident they would, so he left her in the care of family and disappeared into the mist to try and stop them. In his mind, he felt that he should have done more to stop the assassins because him being a hostage was in part what led to everything falling apart in the first place."

"That's not his fault at all though. He couldn't have known that was how it was all going to end, and he certainly couldn't have defended himself if somebody was coming to take him hostage," I frowned. "I suppose that you wouldn't be thinking all that rationally about all of this as long as the assassins had killed your wife and posed a serious danger to your young child..."

"It was too much of a risk for him, so he hid his daughter away and vanished. The truth of the incident of his father's death was lost for many years... But an investigation opened later on for the sake of uncovering the truth," Albert said before he looked over to Mukuro. "As a matter of fact, your father was one of the people involved with it."

"My father?" Mukuro echoed, his eyes wide. "That's right... I suppose he would have been a young child at the time that all of that happened, so if he was going to try and unwind the truth, it would be to satisfy everything he had seen when he was younger."

"That was his goal, yes," Albert nodded. "He worked on finding the truth alongside the lawyers that had once worked alongside Amelia Wattson when she was still alive. In the end, they stumbled into the truth Alphonse Clarence had tried so hard to hide. It was a bitter struggle, but they were able to lock him up, and he was held in the prison for years before he was eventually killed by the head of the Emsthorpe family. Augustus Emsthorpe wanted vengeance for the execution of his father, and he was determined to have it."

"And we were the ones in charge of that case," I finished for him with a small nod. "And now, we're here, trying to figure out what it is we're supposed to do to solve all of this before it can blow up in our faces more... The Emsthorpe assassins are back to being active again, and we have no idea what to do about all of it."

"They're waiting for the right opportunity to strike and carry out more of their vengeance, I'm sure," Albert sighed with a shake of his head. "They have their ways when it comes to their killings, and... It's dangerous. Getting involved with anything that could provoke them, even if it's only inadvertently, is dangerous. You never know when they could decide that you're better off dead than alive... After all, that was exactly what happened with my father when he tried to find a way to right the wrongs of the past."

"He was trying to investigate the Emsthorpe family... Wasn't he?" James asked slowly. "That was what led to his death in the end."

Albert hesitated before nodding. "Yes... That's what happened," he replied softly. "He thought he could have and should have done more to stop the Emsthorpe family from spiraling out of control the way it did, so he dedicated himself to stopping them in any way he could. That meant investigating... He was the first one to start the search for the truth behind Amelia Wattson's death long before anyone else. That was what ultimately led to his downfall."

"And it was why my father cracked down on figuring out what really happened, if I had to guess... He wanted to make sure that nobody else got hurt because of that case," Mukuro realized. "Alphonse Clarence was locked away after all of it, but..."

"Our father got a bit too deep into trying to learn about the assassins, and they killed him. I went out to find the truth, but I wound up on the receiving end of their actions as well. I thought that I would be able to keep myself safe if I hid well enough, but... Last night shows that was far from being enough," Albert said. "It was one of their assassins who attacked me, though I couldn't say her name. The Emsthorpe family has always known how to cover their tracks, and I wouldn't be able to identify my assailant even if I tried."

"We were able to catch the woman responsible. She has black hair and called herself Jane Doe," I told him. "She's awaiting trial as we speak. She confessed rather easily once we cornered her, and she barely even bothered putting up a fight when she realized there was no way out of this."

Albert raised one eyebrow in curiosity. "That hardly sounds like the assassins I've come to know and detest so much... Though I suppose there's little I can do about it now," he murmured. "As long as she's been caught, I suppose that's what matters most."

"As long as we're talking about attacks from the Emsthorpe family, I have a question for you," Mukuro chimed in with a frown. "We've heard a bit about something else happening with the Wood family... To be more specific, I want to hear what you know about Niamh."

Albert hummed. "Niamh Wood... For one, she was sent away by her father when she was young. She found herself with her extended family, her aunt and cousin, but her aunt's health began to decline soon after her arrival. She and her cousin, Zachary, wound up at Ashbrook Academy. From there, a tragedy unspoken played out at the hands of a few scientists whose identities elude me even now. After that, she sought justice, and she set out from the school to find the ones who were responsible for all the harm that had been done to her classmates at the school," he began to say.

"She was attacked while she was trying to get closer to the truth," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke cut in, his eyes hardened and dark. "She met with her father for the first and final time, and they were attacked. Her father was killed, and the assassin behind it injured her eye. She could have been killed, but she was saved at the last minute."

"The Emsthorpe family had been trying to eliminate Robin Wood for quite some time, but after he went into hiding, they had to try a different approach. Other members of the Council of Six were targeted to try and get to him, but it never worked... Until the day he decided to meet with his daughter at last," Albert went on with a sigh. "They were attacked, and the one behind it was none other than the leader of the Emsthorpe family back for revenge. Robin had been trying to stop the assassins ever since he came to his position, and that was enough of a justification for his demise in their eyes. Augustus Emsthorpe, the leader of the crime ring, got away, and he hasn't been seen since then... Well, with the exception of the time he emerged to murder Alphonse Clarence."

"And that leads us up to now," Sky declared. "The Emsthorpe family is back once again, and they're doing everything they can to make our lives as difficult as possible."

"There is one thing I don't understand about all of this though," Prosecutor Daegana interjected. "If you will recall, they were quite active about two years ago. That was when a spy infiltrated Morix Law Offices to try and destroy them from the inside out. That activity ended when their spy was killed, but... I would have thought they would keep up the momentum rather than stop it then and there."

"I could not tell you what changed on their end, but if I had to guess, it had something to do with an internal conflict," Albert replied. "I've heard whispers of there being something bad that stirred within the family over the course of the last year. I believe the son of the family-the oldest of the four children-left behind the assassination business. I can't certify these rumors or anything similar, but I have to wonder if perhaps the whispers are true... If someone from within the family really did decide to abandon their history and retreat into the shadows."

"That would make a lot of sense... They would have a lot to deal with internally, so they wouldn't be able to spare all that much time to make our lives miserable," Prosecutor Burke muttered crossly. "I'm glad that they were distracted with other things, especially while we had other matters to attend to."

"On that note, I suppose I should admit that I've been keeping an eye on all of you from afar as well," Albert commented. "Morix Law Offices, the prosecutors they work with, the detectives who help them... You all have quite the potential, and you've done much to change the course of our legal system. I believe that you could be the ones to bring the Emsthorpe family to its knees."

"You can't possibly mean that," Sky whispered, his eyes going wide. "We haven't... We're not..."

"You have the potential to bring them down, but you have the potential to face their ire just the same," Albert cut in. "You are capable of many things at once, and right now, I can see that you could change this entire world for the better. That is one thing the Emsthorpe family will not sit back and allow. They still believe their cause to be righteous, and I doubt such a thing will ever change. To them, the only way to see peace in this system is to kill everyone who dares to stand in their way or oppose their ideals."

"We've already suffered because of them once," I murmured. The time the agency split up was one of the darkest times in our history, and I was glad that it had never repeated since then. We had come back from the brink all the stronger for it, but there was still so much we didn't understand about any of this. The Emsthorpe assassins were just as dangerous as ever, and we had no easy way of fighting back against them.

"I know that you hold a great secret that could change the fabric of the future as well," Albert said slowly, clearly trying to give us the time to process his words in full. My eyes went wide at that, but I did my best to stay calm for James' sake. He didn't know what any of this was about, and he couldn't hear about it either. The great secret Albert was talking about had to be the true identity of Oracle. We had already expanded our circle as much as we were willing to, and we couldn't let that circle push outward any more than it already had.

"Not a word of it to anyone," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke cut in before Albert could even think of continuing. "I don't know what you think you've found or how you managed to uncover it, but I don't want to hear it. This is our secret to keep, and you're going to stay out of it from here on out. Do I make myself clear?"

Albert watched him for a long moment before nodding. "Of course. I had no intentions of breathing a word of the truth to anyone else to begin with," he assured the other man. "I simply wanted you to know that there are dangerous shadows lurking around every corner... Shadows that would like to see each of you laid low. Be careful of who you trust and where you place any leftover faith."

"We always are," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke assured him. He would know better than anyone just how important it was to keep the truth under wraps; he and Prosecutor Burke were the only ones in this room who had been part of Oracle's founding group. Ever since the beginning, they had been the heart of this, and they would remain at the core of it all until the bitter end as well. Such was their duty.

"Is there anything else you want to tell us?" Felicity asked, seeming to notice just how quickly and suddenly the atmosphere in the room had changed. There were still a few people who the secret needed to be kept from, and that meant changing the topic as soon as possible in the name of ensuring everything remained under wraps the way it should have.

"There... There is one thing," Albert began hesitantly. "You may not believe me when I say this, but... I don't believe the woman who attacked me-Jane Doe, you said she called herself-was there for my death."

My eyes went wide. "What?" I asked. He was right; I didn't believe it. Why in the world would somebody have him shot if not for the purpose of trying to kill him?

"If it wasn't a murder attempt, then just what was it?" James asked, stress already starting to bloom across his features in full force.

"It was a warning," Albert replied firmly. "She didn't want me dead. She simply wanted me to abandon my quest for the truth as it put me right there. She hoped that I would stop instead of pursuing this any further, and the shot to the shoulder... It was a mercy she knew I would be able to survive. I cannot tell you how I know for sure that she meant to hold back, but she had every opportunity to kill me, and yet, she chose not to. This was not a murder attempt. She did not try to destroy me when she easily could have."

"You know... She surrendered awfully easily when she realized that it was a lost cause," James frowned. "I mean, we already knew something was strange there, but... I don't know. I have to wonder if perhaps she gave up not because she knew that she wouldn't be able to get away with it, but because she didn't want to get away with it to begin with."

"It's certainly a possibility, but it's nothing we can figure out right now," Prosecutor Burke announced. She cast a brief glance over to James before looking to the door. "If that's all there is, then perhaps we should leave for the time being. I imagine James has quite a bit to discuss with his brother, and we have a lot of paperwork to fill out in preparation for when this case goes to trial."

"Of course. Let's go," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke announced as he headed toward the door. "Thank you again for telling us all of this... And know that we're trusting you to know when lips must remain sealed." One hand fell upon the hilt of the knife he ever kept at his side, his fingers dancing gently across the surface. It was not a threat, but it was not a sign of safety either.

"Of course. I understand," Albert assured him with a nod. James waved as the rest of us left, and the door tapped shut with only the brothers still inside, a perfect chance for them to bond after everything that had happened over the course of the last few years. After all their time spent apart, they could bridge the gap that had come between them, and they would be able to act like brothers once again. I pretended to not hear the gentle sobs from the other side of the door as James finally let the act drop. His brother was home, and his relief hit him like a tidal wave, bringing bittersweet joy unlike anything he had ever seen before.

And with that, everything seemed to be over. That was what we thought at a first glance, at the very least... Though it didn't wind up being as true as we would have liked. This case was just one whisper leading to a greater catastrophe, and while we had known the Emsthorpe family was dangerous, we never could have imagined that we were getting so close to the climax of it all. Albert's attack was the first step of a growing crescendo none of us quite knew how to face.

It wasn't until a few weeks after the fact that we learned that 'Jane Doe' had never seen the courtroom at all. She has been spirited away just before her trial could begin, though we all knew the truth of the matter was that the Emsthorpe assassins had saved her from the consequences of her actions. We didn't know how she fit into the greater puzzle, but she was gone before we could ask any questions. The interrogations leading up to her trial had ended only with confusion and guilt that nobody quite understood. It was a disaster on all levels.

But this was only the beginning. There was so much more waiting for us around the corner. Nobody could have envisioned it then, but we were growing closer to one of the most terrifying nights of any of our lives. A plan was set to be put in motion soon, and we would all be made its victims.

The Night of Calamity was coming, and there was nothing we could do to prepare for the disaster it was going to bring us before day could break.

TURNABOUT RETURN

END

mmm this case

-Digital