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This was a tough chapter to write, mainly because I had to look up the backstories of all these characters, and come up with some. Also, I wrote part of this at the Hotel Jay in northern Vermont, which does not have the world's best Internet. Seriously, it was blizzarding there the whole time and I didn't have much fun skiing. You'd think with a name like SNOWLucario, I'd be able to weather this weather well, but not really.

I've never been to court before (what, you think I'm the kind of guy who gets in trouble with the law all the time?). I might have pictured it like an American courtroom you would see nowadays on TV, but it would probably be either more futuristic or more like an old church building. Or, as it is described in the chapter.

Also, I was going to give Dr. Howler a first name, but I decided that naming her something like Dr. Olivia Howler would COMPLETELY change the way I thought of her. So, she's just Dr. Howler.

Finally, I know that in real life there would be a filibuster here, but that's not how this court works. Just a simple majority of seven can convict a defendant.

LUCAS'S POV

The next morning, we were supposed to attend the court. We were going to observe Konstantin's trial, to see if he was found guilty or not. We ourselves were not on the jury, so we would not be allowed to directly address the members of the court. However, we would be permitted to quietly talk to each other. If we did that, we would be severely punished, we were told.

After eating breakfast, we were shown the way to the courtroom. As has been said before, only the students who used to sleep in room 37405, as well as Willow, were going. This was because we were considered the most likely to know what might have happened with Konstantin, in order to make him betray the school to the Anglars, or even if he had done that at all.

We were led down the underground path, until the walls began to turn into dark stone. Only a dim light shone from the fixtures on the sides, and that definitely added to the vibe about how Konstantin might be put to death if found guilty.

It felt like we were going directly into the middle of Corneria, which we kind of were. We must have descended the equivalent of fifty flights of stairs before we reached a large set of double doors. After so long of just rock, it was very unusual to see two ornately carved crimson doors into the not-quite-black rock.

The person who was escorting us, which happened to be Mrs. Hooter, the same person who had administered the tranquilizer in order to capture Konstantin and send him here, said, "This is completely soundproof, because we are more than five hundred feet below even the spring used for Aquatics. I wish that you do not divulge anything you witness or say in here, do you understand?"

I nodded. So did Willow, Cole, Will, Mike, and Seventy-Four. She had made clear enough the gravity of the trial that we were about to witness. And to think that she wasn't holding her crossbow today!

"I'm still feeling the effects of the altitude a little" Cole said.

"In what way?" Mrs. Hooter asked, clearly not pleased with my friend.

"Well, I'm from Michigan originally, and that's a very flat state. I'm kind of out of breath right now, aren't we seven thousand feet above the original academy?"

Mrs. Hooter nodded. "Well, I'm sorry, McCallen, but you'll just have to watch the trial in its entirety. Dr. Howler will be there just in case; she's a witness".

"She is?" I asked in disbelief.

"She was waiting on hand for anyone who would need antivenom when the Anglars came" Mrs. Hooter explained, which answered my question.

I then turned to Cole. "Why should you be worried about the altitude? It was at least this high when you dug me out of that avalanche".

"That was different. We had high-tech tools for getting the ice out of the way. Here, we only have our own legs".

"Are you guys ready to enter the courtroom?" Willow asked impatiently. Way to let your girlfriend scold you for having side conversations.

"Yeah" Cole said.

And then, we pushed open the crimson doors.

The courtroom was surprisingly ornate, even though we were so far underground. It looked like a medieval church building, except there was no religious artwork. Instead, tiles in every color you could imagine were scattered throughout the place, while unpolished stone made up much of the rest of it. Skulls were staring down at the defendant's chair from the ceiling. Clearly, this was a room designed to intimidate.

In the middle of it was a large chair that Konstantin Brockenbough was sitting in. A cage of metal grates was surrounding him, and it looked much like the scene in the Harry Potter movie where Igor Karkaroff is giving the Ministry Of Magic names of other Death Eaters in exchange for being released from Azkaban. Chains bound his legs to the floor, and his arms were shackled to a bar a little above his head. I didn't know how long this trial was going to last, but that could not have been comfortable for any length of time.

"The accused is present, as is the jury and all witnesses. With that, it is time to begin".

This was said by a very deep voice coming from the front of the room. I couldn't see where it was coming from, until I realized that it must have been a hologram. And then, I saw it.

The face of what appeared to be Fox McCloud with sunglasses was, in a cyan color, hanging in hologram form from a dais in the corner of the room, in front of the jury. I realized that this must have been James McCloud, Fox's father, who died fighting the evil scientist Andross in the first Lylat War.

Who knew what technology they might have been able to use here?

"This looks like something from Harry Potter!" Will whispered slightly too loudly to be called a whisper.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology can be indistinguishable from magic" Mike said. "Haven't you read any Arthur C. Clarke?"

"No" Will said.

"Shhhhhhh" Mrs. Hooter chided him. "It's time".

"I am James McCloud, the judge in this trial. We have the twelve members of the jury here, as well as the eight witnesses. Six of them are standing before me. They are Cole McCallen, Lucas Enfield, Michael Kirk, 'Seventy-Four', William Wexford, and Willow Foster. They will all swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We also have Dr. Howler and Wolf O'Donnell as witnesses. Each of you will tell your stories, and anything you may know that could be pertinent to the case. And take your time; we're in no hurry".

I wasn't so sure about that. Konstantin already looked uncomfortable, and I wondered why such a scientifically advanced society would need to use such torture methods as this. Wouldn't they think there were more humane methods they should use first?

"The accused is one Konstantin Brockenbough. The charges against him are as follows" James said, clearing his throat.

"That he did knowingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the consequences of his actions, sell information about the location of the Grey Clouds Flight Academy to the Anglar army, causing them to invade and destroy the school. This could have resulted in the deaths of any and all of the students and faculty of the academy, and Brockenbough faces the death penalty if he is convicted".

James then looked over at Konstantin. "Do you deny said charges?"

"I'm afraid I must" Konstantin said. "Reason being, I did not do any of those things".

One of the jurors snorted. "As if that means anything coming from the mouth of the accused!" she said.

James banged his ghostly gavel. "It's time for our first witness to testify. Mr. Cole McCallen is up".

COLE'S POV

I walked up to the witness box, and Wolf pulled a lever. "This will increase the sound of your voice, so that it may be heard throughout the room. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" he said.

I put my hand on the tablet Wolf handed to me. "What's this?" I asked him.

"In the human dimension, in your puny country known as the United States, they-".

"Come on!" Konstantin said angrily from his chair. "I grew up there!"

I wanted to shush him up. Outbursts were not going to help his case. In fact, they were likely to do the opposite.

"Anyway", Wolf said, clearing his throat, "they have you swear on the Bible in America. In the interest of having a secular government here, though, we don't swear on any religious texts here. Instead, you just swear on the iPad 225, because that is how most of us gather our guidance, from the Internet".

"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" I said.

"Okay" James said. "Now, Mr. McCallen, how about you tell your story?"

This is the story that I told him:

Cole grew up in Michigan, in Detroit to be more specific. It wasn't easy being a scared white boy in a black neighborhood, but that's beside the point. He was born to Lauren and Curtis, but for whatever reason they decided that they did not to take care of him anymore once he reached the age of five.

Part of this may have been due to the fact that he was already demonstrating naughty qualities at such an early age, such as stealing toys from other toddlers. Whatever theory you choose to believe, this is the truth.

He was adopted by Christine and Paul McCallen, who proved to be far more tolerant parents of Cole's ways. However, they could only tolerate so much of his behavior. From eleven onwards, he started getting in more serious trouble, including vandalizing buildings. He and his friends occasionally had run-ins with the police, but he was never charged with any official crimes.

At one point, his adoptive parents decided to send him to a summer camp in the northern part of the state, in order to hopefully curb some of his delinquent tendencies. However, a few nights into the program, he pulled off one of his biggest stunts yet by working with his friends to put a wasp nest underneath the counselor's bed. This was a very dangerous thing, and he got in so much trouble that he was kicked out of the camp and sent back to his parents, who were very unhappy with him.

Over the next four years, Cole got into more and more trouble with the law, to the point that they decided to give him an ultimatum: either he could go to jail and stand trial (because he was sixteen now, and old enough to stand trial due to the amount of offenses he had committed), or he could go serve in the military in Corneria. Since he loved video games, he jumped at the opportunity to do it. As much as he loved his parents, he wanted to help someone else.

"The last question is" ,said James, "do you know anything with regards to the Anglar invasion of the school?"

"No" I said. "I don't know any more about it than you do".

"That is all very well and good. But now, it is time to move on to our next witness. Will William Wexford please take to the witness box?"

Will took the oath, and then he sat down in his chair in order to tell his story. The others did, too, and I managed to catch on to a common theme that was going on with these stories.

All of them seemed to have lived a fairly normal life at home, even if there were a few social problems or family issues present. However, either their parents had sold them to the school, or, in my case, they had elected to go on purpose because they didn't like the alternative that had been offered.

Finally, it was Willow's turn to tell her story. She went up to the witness's chair, and I saw her tell her story.

Willow grew up in Swanville, Maine, a small town in interior Waldo County, located in the central part of the state. She had a very interesting childhood, to say the least. While she did not get in nearly as much trouble as Cole, there wasn't a single person who was completely innocent as a child. But that's beside the point.

Even though Willow was an illegitimate child, born before her parents were married, her parents still loved her and treated her like a true daughter. Her mother still waited a decade to have any other children, exhausted from having a child.

She grew up with a younger half-sister named Olive, who was eleven years younger than her, and a younger half-brother named August, who was thirteen years younger than her. She was more close with Olive, mainly because they were a little bit closer in terms of age.

When she was only one year old, Willow's father, who was ten years older than her mother, died. Mrs. Foster was quick to remarry to a man named Kyle. Kyle was a loving stepfather, but he was often stricter then Willow's mother, which led Willow to have mixed feelings about him. Even so, she did love her family, and would never have dreamed that they would have sold her to the school.

(Willow did not know this at the time)

However, when her family fell on hard times, Kyle was approached with an offer. He could sell his oldest stepdaughter to a military academy for $5,000,000 and keep the rest of his family safe, or he could allow everyone but Willow, including himself, to be imprisoned in Corneria for noncompliance. He didn't lose too much sleep over the decision to sell one of his stepchildren in order to protect himself, his wife, and the two younger children.

Once Willow had gotten shot with a tranquilizer dart and loaded onto the helicopter, the five million dollars had been wired to the Foster family's bank account, and they were now multimillionaires, just like that. They loved their children, but they loved money even more, not having enough for much of the time.

LUCAS'S POV

"That's kind of a sad life story, Miss Foster" said James. "I must ask you, much like the others...did you see any evidence that Konstantin Brockenbough did betray the location of the Grey Clouds Flight Academy to the Anglar army? Please answer honestly".

Willow looked straight up at the hologram of the deceased vulpine. "I did not" she said.

"Very well, then" James said. "And it is now time to move onto our sixth witness. Lucas Enfield is your name, correct?"

I jumped at the sound of my name. I knew that he wanted to hear everything about me, and I wondered how the others could have been so brave as to spill what basically amounted to their entire life stories.

And yet, I realized that there was no way that I would be able to get out of this. Not if I wanted to keep my self-respect, and the respect of my friends.

Okay. Here goes.

"I was born in 200R in Maine. More specifically, I grew up in Swanville, the same town as Willow. We were students at high school together until...you know. We were kind of dating, but not really. The truth is, we were actually at a holiday ball at the JCC in Swanville on the night that we were captured. But I'll get to that later".

"You will tell us more about yourself, will you?" James asked. "I want to hear about how you are different from Willow, not the same as Willow".

"Well, both of my parents are still alive, unless one of them had a heart attack or something in the time that I have been here-"/

"They haven't" James said, interrupting me. "Both of them are still alive, but that is not relevant".

"Anyway", I said, "I was always rather socially awkward, and was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of two. I've always been somewhat of a recluse, preferring to read things on my iPad during lunch at school rather than talk to my peers. I don't think that I was ever in the popular clique, but I was never really a designated 'nerd', either. I was just...there. As I seem I have been at this school, too".

Of course, that last sentence was not accurate in the least. What with the glitch in the flight simulators, nearly dying on the mission to defuse the bomb underneath the glacier, and being very open in my relationship with Willow, I had no doubt that I was making ripples in the social structure of the school.

"Interesting life story" James said. "Do you have any other things to tell us? For instance, what happened on the night of the holiday ball? The night you were sent here?"

"Sure. Willow and I were walking back from the JCC when we heard the sound of revolving blades. She pushed me into the snow, and then I saw her keel over. I thought she'd been shot with a bullet, but I didn't have time to realize this before I was shot myself and blacked out. I woke up in the helicopter on the way to the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, and the rest is history, really".

"And did you see any evidence that Konstantin Brockenbough alerted the Anglar army of the location of the school?" James asked me.

"I did not" I said, confidently. I knew it was the truth. Maybe Konstantin did, maybe he didn't, but I was not convinced based on the evidence that had been provided, if you could even call it that.

"Very well, then" James said. "We have two witnesses left. Will Dr. Howler please stand up?"

"So you are the matron of the Grey Clouds Flight Academy?" James asked.

"Yes, the fourth one" Dr. Howler said.

"I should know. My son, Fox, is an alumnus of the school. But let's get to the point. Did you see anything related to Konstantin Brockenbough alerting Anglar forces?"

"No" she said. "I wholeheartedly believe that he is innocent on that charge".

James nodded, as though he was accepting what she had said as true. But then, he looked at her critically. "Tell me, Dr. Howler...being the matron of such a school must be a very taxing job, isn't it?"

"Why is that relevant?" she asked indignantly. "Are you implying that...". She didn't need to finish the sentence.

Because I knew full well what James was trying to imply here. Maybe Dr. Howler's stressful job was causing her to not see things that she should be seeing. But it wasn't like the other six of us were all determined to make Konstantin seem as innocent as possible. In fact, many of us, myself included, rather disliked him. We just didn't want to see him possibly put to death for a crime that there was no evidence he committed.

"I am not missing things, James McCloud" she said. "My mind is very sharp, as it must be in order to perform surgical procedures that can be a matter of life or death. I'm not going to miss an obvious alien communication because I'm changing bandages or inserting an IV, or even doing surgery".

James held up his hands defensively. "I never meant to imply something like that! I was just...wondering if maybe...".

"I do not believe that Konstantin Brockenbough did that which he is being indicted for! Let's move on to the last witness".

"Hold on, I've got to make that call" James said. He then consulted a piece of holographic blue paper. "But...it is time for Wolf O'Donnell. Please come up here, Wolf".

Wolf addressed the jury, looking furious.

"As for whether or not Konstantin ordered the aliens here...I think that is true for sure. I think it is better to lock people up if you don't know that they did it or not. You really would rather be safe than sorry, am I right?"

The jurors started conferring amongst themselves, as if saying, Hey, I think Wolf's got a point!

"As for if there is any evidence, there is definitely some circumstantial evidence for this. He did sing a patriotic song for the U.S. instead of giving a speech. And he is definitely showing disdain for the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, and Corneria in general. How long is it before he does something more tangible? And", he said, gesturing at the jury once again, "if I might...you would rather not have him divulge the new location to the Anglars, and we would have nowhere to go. Really and truly snookered. So...please think this through".

It was like a bomb had gone off in the jury box. Even more discussion and arguing ensued, making it clear that this would not be as open-and-shut a case as some of us had been expecting.

"That is enough, Wolf O'Donnell. Thank you for your testimony".

He then gestured to a box on the floor. "I want you to each, in turn, cast your votes in that box, in that room a little down the hallway. The last person will, without reading the votes, carry them back here, where I will arrange them in order and name the verdict. A majority of seven will find Konstantin Brockenbough guilty, and then he will be sentenced if that is the case. So, I implore you...make the right decision".

KONSTANTIN'S POV

My heart was pounding. Even harder than it would have if I was in a hundred-meter dash. And, considering that I was relatively out of shape, that really was saying something.

A jury of twelve people were about to decide my fate. I could see that, like the other Cornerians I had seen, they were all anthropomorphic animals. Not like I had anything against furries, but I just didn't know what to make of that.

All I did know was, I hated this society.

I preferred the good old U.S.A., where you could be found guilty only if all twelve jurors unanimously voted to convict you. If not, you would not go to prison. Here, it was just simple majority.

Still, I felt confident I would be acquitted. There had been some murmurings, but I didn't think it would amount to anything.

The last juror came back with the voting box and handed it to James. Even though he was a hologram, he was still able to hold physical objects. Again, whatever else you might have been able to say about Corneria, their technology was light-years ahead of that on Earth. And, given that I was a guy who loved technology, maybe I would have liked to live here if I had not been taken here against my will.

In any case, much like Jeff Probst did on Survivor, James took the cover off the box and started reading the votes. I was sure that he had arranged them in the most dramatic manner possible.

"First vote", James said, "not guilty".

I breathed a quick sigh of relief, but then came the next vote.

"Not guilty".

My relief grew greater. Maybe the vote had been unanimous after all. Only time would tell...

"Guilty. That's two votes not guilty, one vote guilty".

My heartbeat quickened again. A guilty vote. Was it just random, or was it going to be the ultimate verdict?

"Not guilty".

"Guilty".

"Guilty".

Each new guilty vote made my heart drop further. How could this many people honestly believe that I was guilty? What was wrong with them?

"Not guilty".

"Not guilty. That's five votes not guilty, three votes guilty. Four votes left".

I breathed another sigh of relief. Unless all of the last four votes were guilty, I would be going free...unless someone flipped on the revote.

"Guilty".

"Guilty. We're tied. That's five votes guilty, five votes not guilty".

I tensed up. My legs were numb after being trapped in such an uncomfortable position for so long. This was very unpleasant, and yet the last two votes would decide it.

"Guilty. That's six votes guilty, five votes not guilty, one vote left".

I gulped. There was no way I was going to be acquitted immediately. And, if this last vote was guilty, then...I didn't want to think about it.

"And the final verdict is...guilty. By a margin of 7-5, the jury has voted that Konstantin Brockenbough is guilty as charged. It is now time to sentence him".

James looked right at me, with fire in his eyes...even though he was wearing sunglasses.

"Konstantin Brockenbough will be executed, in front of the entire school, by firing squad four days from today. This, we feel, is a necessary measure to protect the school. And, with that, justice has been served".

What little hope I had was now dashed. I felt as though the immense weight of all the stone above me was about to come down, crushing and interring me.

This would be my grave.