Disclaimer: The rights to Ace attorney belong to Capcom. I own nobody...maybe except for one or two characters in this story.

Turnabout Matrimony


Phoenix and Athena still couldn't believe the reality of the situation they were in. Juniper was arrested...on her wedding day!

She didn't do anything to deserve this and she was just pulled off towards the detention centre, leaving poor Polly to be a mess of negative emotions and despair.

Both Phoenix and the maid of honour, Athena, immediately started looking for evidence as they were pretty confused as to what made poor Junie become the main suspect in the first place. They had help from Trucy clearing out the place since the guests were still shaken up about the whole event and were wondering around aimless.

The church was soon cleared and, after the police had finished their investigation, Phoenix and Athena didn't hesitate before starting theirs.

"Now, Athena, we just need to find some hints as to who the real culprit was since it obviously wasn't Juniper." Phoenix said, his finger scratching his chin thoughtfully as his eyes wandered towards the ceiling.

Athena nodded.

She didn't agree that Junie would ever do something as diabolical as killing her grandmother and, plus, Athena knew that both Juniper and her grandmother had a very close relationship since they basically lived together. She refused to believe that her friend would kill anybody, and she was certain that Apollo felt the same way whenever he went off somewhere.

She could hear her boss' determination in his heart and refused to believe that stupid allegation to be true! She would stick by her friend.

"I agree, but where do we start?" She asked, fiddling with her earring.

Phoenix simply pointed towards the tapped outline where the corpse was. It was leaning against a bowl that was probably filled with grape wine once upon a time. The rest of the body outline, though, was sprawled on the floor as if the person the tape was drew around were laying on their back.

The floor was still stained the remaining liquid.

Athena held her breath, trying to keep herself calm as she felt somewhat nauseous.

Kneeling down, Athena examined the body outline tape very carefully as she didn't want to miss a single detail. She studied the body with careful keen eyes as she softly brushed her fingertip along the round facial area of the tapped shape.

She frowned when she saw a small amount of blood just around the chest region as well as the abdominal area. Biting her lip to prevent vomiting, Athena blanched and she put her hand over her mouth as she looked and found something right beside the hand of the deceased's tape drawing.

Reaching for it, she took it into her hand and studied it carefully.

"Hmmm," Phoenix said, kneeling down beside Athena and studying the object of interest. He looked very curious about it as he observed it before he removed a folder and held it out next to him, opened it, and slipped the strange little metal object inside it.

It was labelled court record.

"It looked like an earring or something." Phoenix said, thoughtfully "It could be important evidence..."

Athena nodded again. Upon looking at it, it looked like a diamond encrusted earring. She had no idea what it would be doing near the body in the first place anyway and she could feel her curiosity stirring as she looked at Phoenix "Maybe."

But then her focus turned to something else...

"Hey, look at this!" She exclaimed, pointing out something that glittered out of the corner of her eye. She slowly got to her feet and went towards the object of interest and she walked heavily with a small keel in her step as she was almost bent over. She didn't know why but she felt like she was being watched...intensely...with one of the sharpest eyes imaginable.

It was almost enough to make the red-haired-attorney break into a nervous sweat.

She walked over and bent down, picking up the object and muttered to herself "...It looks like a silk glove. The victim's."

It was true. Phoenix and Athena knew that it was Granny Woods' glove, it looked very fine and self-made. There was no doubt that, it was very precious and pure. Granny Maple Woods' creations were always so genuine and pure.

Athena still couldn't believe that Granny Woods was gone...

With a depressed face, Athena slipped the glove into the court record and she silently wondered to herself as she fiddled with her earring again. Just what was the gloves doing so far away from the body, it just wasn't possible! No...what wasn't possible was the stupid allegation that Juniper was the killer! She wanted to strangle the person who did such a thing...!

Phoenix seemed to have noticed his protégé's anger as he firmly put his hand on one of her tense shoulders and he slowly pushed against it, silently telling her to calm herself and that they would do whatever they could to get Juniper and Apollo married properly.

Sighing, Athena looked at her boss and avoided eye contact. She knew that the ace attorney was probably a bit on edge with what was going on and she didn't dare say anything to make him feel hurt in anyway.

The two lawyers stayed quiet for several moments before a light tap broke them up from their silent seething in anger. Phoenix and Athena both looked up to see who had disrupted their moment of silence and they were met with the face of the woman who had disturbed the wedding ceremony initially.

"U-Um, excuse me? I was wondering if I could talk to you...?" She sounded meek and timid, quite understandable for someone who had discovered a body.

That's what they hoped she was since everyone else, excluding one or two guests, were actually at the ceremony.

The woman looked at both Athena and Phoenix with genuine worry in her eyes as she asked "A-Are you going to defend Juniper? P-Please, if you are, let me help!"

Athena and Phoenix were shocked. This woman seemed determined to help out and quite genuinely at that. She seemed seriously worried about the welfare of Juniper and because of this, Athena just couldn't help but inquire something about it.

"You're Junie's cousin, am I right?" She asked, using a soft tone of voice.

The woman nodded "Y-Yes...I'm Alicia Woods."

Phoenix cleared his throat, starting to sound like a professional as he softly glared at her with his hand in his trouser pocket for whatever reason. Athena looked at her boss with curious eyes as she watched the exchange between witness and attorney at law.

She could basically hear the mix of confusion and fear inside Phoenix's heart as the man with spiky hair simply chatted to her about the crime, his voice sounding somewhat dull inside her special ears.

She couldn't help but narrow her eyes skeptically as she knew that her boss must have noticed something pretty quick if he had noticed what she thought he had noticed.

"...Tell me, mrs. Alicia Woods, do you know who killed Grandma Woods?" He asked, his demanding tone smoothly disgusted as a questioning one as he kept his eyes on her without blinking once. His fingers tightened around a certain comma-shaped jewel in his pocket as he asked this simple yet important query.

Alicia shook her head, clearly confused. "No. I d-don't know."

Athena noticed her boss' eyes narrow instantly after she answered that and she could tell that he only looked like this when...! She knew exactly what was happening and she could feel surprise build up inside her heart...but then she noticed something about the woman they were speaking with, something that she found seriously confusing...

Phoenix seemed to nod slowly after a long pause and he dismissed her with a tone in his voice that seemed skeptically low and dangerous.

Athena looked at Phoenix with wide eyes, deciding to confirm her suspicions now "B-Boss, did you-?"

Phoenix nodded his head.

He wore a grim expression on his face as he looked Athena right in the eyes, his heart filling up with fear now as it built up. He fear in Phoenix's heart was slowly breeding and multiplying and it was a phenomenon that intimidated Athena so much that she was almost ready to collapse to the ground with her own amount of fear that started to build up inside her heart.

The spiky-haired attorney swallowed and confirmed Athena's suspicions "Yes. I saw three psyche locks..."

Athena was beyond shocked. Didn't this lady want to help them!? Why was she keeping secrets from them so much after that...?

"...C'mon then."

But, before she could tell Phoenix on her discovery, the both of them were shocked upon hearing a voice come from directly behind them. They both turned and they were shocked upon realizing that it was actually Apollo whom walked up to the both of them with his cheeks tear stained and his tone carried no-nonsense.

Apollo didn't really acknowledge them as he pushed passed them and walked out of the church, not waiting for either of them as he continued "Lets go see, Juniper. The questioning session should be over by now..."

Upon looking closely, Athena noticed that Apollo held something in his grip. She didn't see it very much on account of it being held so tight in the man's clasp but it looked important. Seriously important.

Athena examined it more closely and she was absolutely mortified to find that it was actually the engagement ring. Juniper's engagement ring, to be more specific.

Before following him, Athena looked up sadly to the sky above and she clasped her hands as if praying for a miracle.

(Oh, Junie...just why is this happening on you and Apollo's special day...?)


A/N: Look, I know I said about the detention centre but I just hoped to get this chapter done because I was looking forwards to updating the story.

Next we see why Junie was arrested and we might even get to see more on the case. I hope I can update quicker this time around.

Please review.

-Chloemcg