She sat alone facing the TV she didn't turn on as she polished her nails. She combined numerous pastel colors together, and using sticky tapes to help, she created many patters such as bolts, leaves, stars, even flowers. But even when she was done, she wasn't satisfied.

She turned to her mirror and grimaced at the bruised cheek. It was still hurting when she touched it. She puckered her lips in distaste, remembering her conversation with the man who forced her to do dirty jobs.

"You let him get away?!"

"Yeah, so what?"

"We need him to give us the key! We need him to tell us where the money is!"

"He couldn't help us even if he wanted to! He knows nothing!"

"He knows! The circle will tell you all!"

"Well obviously you're wrong because all he gave me was a questioning look!"

Cain was so angry that he punched her in the face after that. Even being someone trained in martial arts since she was a little kid, she was caught off guard by the sudden attack.

"Danielle? Are you inside?"

She looked at the door and answered, "Yes, I'm inside. Just come in, the door is unlocked."

Her father, Damion, walked in the room and wrinkled his brow when he saw the bottles of nail polish on her table. "Why do you keep spending money? We need all the money we need to get you to college again."

"I bought everything with my own money, Dad," Danielle scoffed. "And besides, this is how I earn my living. Many people love nail art, you know."

"Doesn't mean you can just spend money as you wish."

"Dad! I bought the nail polish with my own money! I have a right to use my money as I like!"

"But we need to re-enroll you to the college, Danielle!"

"I never said I wanted to."

Damion's facial expression changed. "Are you saying you want to keep living this way? Working so hard your whole body aches without decent pay?"

"First, the pay is pretty decent. Second… no. I don't want to keep living this way."

"Then start saving more money. It's for your own future. You told me yourself you want to re-enroll in college, be a literature major, and all those things you wanted to do."

"But is taking the money of others the right thing to do?"

Damion stiffened when he heard his daughter's question.

Not realizing her father's reaction, Danielle went on, "I'm sure that Apollo Justice needs the money as well. How can we just take away what's his to take?"

"Danielle… it's just… I want to make sure you can go to the college you want."

Danielle looked away. "Where's Cain?"

Damion visibly relaxed when the topic was changed. "He went out for a while. Said it was a family visit he has to make."

Danielle snorted. Somehow, she knew that the 'family visit' Cain went on wasn't really a friendly visit.

Hera weaved her way through the People Park easily. She was so used to walking around the park that she had practically memorized every road, every twist and turn the park had. She didn't care, though. The park had the best view in the city.

"Hey Sis."

She froze instantly, recognizing the voice. She turned in disgust and forced a smile to her lips. "Hello to you too, Brother."

Cain smiled at her. His dark brown hair was ruffled and his black eyes looked tired. His shirt was crumpled, as if it had been worn for days. Maybe it had.

"It's been a long time."

"Why yes, it has. Truthfully, it makes me really happy not to see you, so please go away."

"Ouch! But I miss you."

"Bullshit. Go away, Cain. I know you're only looking for the money Ares left Apollo. It's his money, not yours."

"Oh, come on. I know you know about the whereabouts of the money. Tell me."

"The circle will tell you all and bring you to the scale. Look for– "Hera's words were cut short when Cain kicked the park bench near them angrily.

"I don't need you to recite the riddle, I already memorized it years ago," Cain said. "Tell me the answer behind the riddle. Tell me where it is. Tell me what the key is. Tell me everything."

"The money isn't yours, it's Apollo's," Hera answered coldly. "I've told him about it. It's only a matter of time before he takes it himself. Why would I want to tell you?"

"Maybe because I'm your brother."

"Maybe because you're a pathetic man who can't even find a decent job."

"I just haven't gotten the luck to –"

"To what? To win a bet? Then face it, Cain; you will never have enough money. You will never win a bet. Those casinos will only rip you off of your money."

"No! I will win, sooner or later."

"And to win you need to place more bets. To place more bets, you need more money. Is that why you need the money Ares left to Apollo?"

"… No. That's not the reason."

"Then why?"

Cain averted his eyes from Hera's.

Hera's eyes widened. "You mean… Cain! I've told you never to take money from loan sharks!"

"I had no choice!" Cain yelled defensively. "If I didn't do it then I wouldn't have been able to place bets! At least I won some that night."

Hera took a deep breath in her attempts to calm down. "And then you lost some more. Isn't that right?"

"Um…"

"Tell me. How much exactly do you owe them?"

"Well…" Cain thought, "At first it wasn't really that much, but now it's… around six hundred grand, I guess?"

"Six hundred –" Hera gasped in shock. "I swear to God, if you weren't my brother you would be dead by now."

"Then I'm in luck, because I'm your brother." Cain ignored the piercing glare Hera gave him. "Listen, Hera. I need the money badly. The loan sharks are beginning to lose their patience. I need to pay them back as soon as possible."

"Then work! Don't just stay there gambling and placing bets!"

"But borrowing money from you would be much faster! I know you wouldn't lend me, though, that's why I'm asking about that boy's."

"No. That money isn't yours. Back off."

"Hera!"

"No, Cain. My answer is final."

"Do you want to see me being chopped off by them?!"

"No, that's why you have to work. Now then, Cain. I have to go. I have a work to do, unlikeyou."

"No, Hera, wait!"

"Back off, Cain! Make money yourself. I no longer have any business with a useless, jobless brother like you!"

Anger enveloped Cain, and before he knew it, he pushed Hera as strong as he could. She let out a small squeak as she fell down. Had she not worn her stiletto, she might had been able to step back and regain her balance, but the heels only made her lose the balance she tried to regain, and she fell down.

Cain watched as Hera fell, the trajectory somehow slowed itself in his eyes. He saw where Hera's head would land and bolted to help, but he was too late.

Hera's head connected to the park bench with a painful crack. She screamed in pain, but soon the cry faded. She lied down on the ground with a hole on her head, blood oozing out of the wound. In the pained stupor, she reached out for Cain and managed to whisper, "Help." However, her hand then dropped uselessly by her side. Her eyes, still open, were no longer seeing.

Cain looked at his sister's body in shock. What had he done? Had he killed her? No, that couldn't be possible. Hera must be pulling a prank on him; she would probably jump up alive soon.

Deep down, Cain knew it wasn't possible.

So he turned away and frantically fled the scene.

Apollo sat on the couch, holding the paper with the riddle Hera had written for him. He read the riddle once again, silently admiring Hera's neat, thin but elegant, handwriting as he compared it to his. Looking at his ugly, almost unreadable script, Hera's was much more beautiful.

He remembered, the day before Hera went away, she told Apollo that she actually knew where the vault was, but she refused to tell Apollo because she wanted to know if he could find the answer to the riddle and crack the code himself.

He didn't understand any of the riddle. If he was supposed to be the circle who will tell all, how come he didn't know anything?

Suddenly he remembered what Hera had told him. His father was a performer. He died in a failed act, drowning in a tank of water.

Dread filled his chest when he remembered that an image of a drowning man in glass tank had flashed before his eyes. Was that his father?

Someone sat on the couch next to his. He looked up to find Thalassa, sitting calmly while holding a cup of tea in her hand while staring at the paper in his hands curiously. Apollo stared at her and mumbled, "Um…"

Thalassa looked at him, smiling faintly, as she usually would to him. "What is it, Apollo?"

Apollo averted his eyes from hers. "That day… did I see Father die?"

Thalassa's smile faltered slightly. She put down the teacup she held. "Yes," she finally answered after a long time. "I was there, too. I was too shocked to do anything about it."

"If I remember correctly, Father was always very careful about his props," Apollo said. When he saw Thalassa nod, he asked again, "Then how come the act failed?"

"I don't know, Honey," Thalassa sighed. "Maybe I should've done more. Checking the props with him or something. But everything is in the past now. We need to stick to the present."

Both Apollo and Thalassa knew they wouldn't be able to keep themselves from thinking about Ares' death, but both kept silent about it. Apollo put down the paper and took the black wooden cube and felt its sides. He had checked the cube before, and he knew that it had six symbols engraved to it; a circle, a scale, an owl, stacks of gold coins, a water droplet, and something he couldn't identify. However, he soon realized that the symbols were the same as what the riddle said, so he presumed that the last symbol was splatters of blood. Absent-mindedly, Apollo began to twist the cube, trying to solve the puzzle.

"Polly, can you solve it?" asked Trucy, who seemingly popped out of nowhere.

Apollo, who was already used to Trucy's antics and thus no longer surprised, shrugged. "I should be able to. I've been playing this forever."

"Eh? Really?"

Thalassa smiled. "He even has one in our apartment. But it's a regular Rubik's cube, of course."

A small, proud smile made its way to Apollo's lips. "I played this a lot in the orphanage. All the other kids can never sit around long enough to actually finish it. I can always finish it."

"Why didn't you play the other games?" asked Trucy.

"The cool games are all taken by the other kids, and I honestly didn't have the patience to play with them because they cheat all the time," Apollo answered, even as he was still twisting and twirling the puzzle in his hands. "The other thing I could always get my hands on was the hula-hoop. Other kids hate it because they find it hard to play."

"I see," Trucy nodded. "But I agree with them, though. Rubik's cubes are tough to solve. Though I'm starting to get the hang of it with the hula-hoop…"

"Yeah, I see that you – oh, it's done."

Trucy's eyes fell on the cube. "Whoa!" she exclaimed in awe. "Polly, you're great!"

Apollo smirked proudly. It wasn't easy to impress Trucy, so simply being able to earn her praise was a feat.

"I just wish that you were as great when it comes to your hair."

Apollo's smirk instantly vanished, replaced with a pout. What made him even more upset was the fact that Trucy didn't seem to realize that she had hit a sore spot. What was wrong with his hair, really?

Apollo turned on the TV dejectedly, sighing in defeat. He quickly searched for news, but when he finally got it, he wished he hadn't turned the TV on at all.

The scene showed that it was shot in People Park. To his surprise, the screen showed that it was a live show. The somewhat sexy but unappealing reporter stared at the camera seriously, her blue eyes twinkling because of the light shot to her face.

"It seems that People Park attracted murderers, because once again a murder has occurred in this park. The victim has been identified as Hera Winters, a fashion designer. Her body was found early this evening by a passerby," reported the woman. She then turned and the camera panned sideways to reveal the police surrounding the outlined body on the ground. The body was blurred, but a photograph of Hera, smiling brightly at the camera, appeared on the screen. "Detective Ema Skye, who handles the case, has been working with the body since she got here."

The camera's view changed to reveal Ema's upset face. She was obviously angry because her work had been disturbed. "Scientific investigations suggest that she died from blunt force trauma to the head, possibly from being knocked to the bench where we found traces of her blood on," she said. "She might've been able to live for several minutes after that, but we have to wait for the autopsy report to be sure."

The camera panned back to the reporter. "We have been told that the identity of the murderer is still unknown. However, an eyewitness reported that he saw the two of them having an argument before he shoved the victim and ran away from the scene. It has been confirmed that the murderer's gender is male. He has brown hair and tall stature. He is approximately forty years old. He was seen wearing a grey jacket and ruffled jeans. If you see this man, please report to the police immediately."

The reporter then tried to get more information from the police, but Ema shunned her away for 'hindering police work'. Apollo didn't care anymore, though. He turned the TV off.

"Hera was killed?"

A/N: exams. I hate 'em. I hate 'em so much.

As you can see, this chapter deals more with the OC (please don't kill me. Oh, on a second thought, kill me. Maybe there isn't any test and exam in the afterlife). The next one will deal with the canons, though, so please bear with it.

And now, since the chapter's finally posted (I've been wanting to post it, but the exams held me down), I'll go back to my piles of textbooks and handouts. The exam would end next Tuesday, though, and I hope I have the strength to carry on... Well, on the the land of doom and gloom...

Oh, and please review! Who knows, it could be a piece of rainbow for me in the darkness that is the exam. Please? *stares intently like a cute puppy*