She tossed and turned on her air mattress. There was the school, but it was dark. Black magic swirled around it, seeping in the windows.

Students talked, unaware of the danger, and it took then captive one by one. It smothered them first, they fought back only to glitch away and their bodies dissolve.

The destruction went faster now, rushing down the halls as the dissolving students formed screeching images.

The darkness barreled towards three remaining bodies, lined up like victims of a firing squad waiting for their final roulette.

An awl clattered against the ground, spilling blood as it did. A familiar face lay on the ground as blood spilled around, and the remaining three from the hallway finally showed their faces.

She clawed in her sleep, freezing up.

"J-Junie?"

She was late. Late to her first non-court related event.

What an impression she was making.

The boss may be incredibly understanding, and Apollo seemed very forgiving.

But Apollo didn't know her, the real her. Mr. Wright was likely just full of pity.

Stupid Athena. She shouldn't have mentioned her condition. What even motivated her to do so?

A last ditch effort to save face, most likely. She was so embarrassed.

Even though she'd only been in the country for a day when everything happened… she could already tell a difference in Mr. Wright's behavior towards her.

Apollo had told her the boss had a tendency to conceal information and motives, but Athena had never witnessed it once.

Possibly because she was doing the exact same.

She wanted to tell him. She wanted so badly for her to know her, to trust her fully.

But he'd been hurt by an insane attorney. He couldn't trust the real her.

Then there was the boss.

Everyone was technically dying, right? What does it matter if our time left is limited to twenty years or sixty? Everyone's days are numbered. Why did it warrant such a long-standing reaction from him?

Experimental medicine that could have saved her was too risky. There was a chance of something going wrong. She couldn't take it. She had someone to save.

Another's fate had sealed hers.

The boss was her death age. It chilled her just thinking of it. In all her studying, she'd never discovered just what made her so afraid. She had a higher power, said the Catholic cross her "relative" had given her as a graduation gift. She had one waiting for her there, Mom. She had plenty of time to prepare, an estimate of over twenty years at the time of the diagnosis. Perhaps it was a worry for the people she'd leave behind, if any existed.

If Mama didn't want her anymore, who would? Who could love a psychopath?

Themis Legal Academy

The sign gave her flashbacks, flashbacks of the dream. It was so horrible, so surreal…

But Junie? What was she doing in it, staring over a dead woman? Was it the trauma of her past returning for good, combined with her hope for a fresh future?

The woman wasn't Mom, she checked that first. She definitely wasn't Mama either. She had brown hair like Mom and a similar figure. Eventually, her conscious and subconscious finally determined the deceased woman was not her late mother. She didn't know who it was, it probably didn't even matter. It wasn't Mom, and it wasn't Mama. That's all that mattered.

"Ma'am! Why aren't you in uniform? The festival is no excuse for costumes!"

Oh great. Speaking of looking similar, it seems yet another authority figure had mistakenly identified her as a high school student. "I am a lawyer at Wright Anything. I was brought here with my boss and partner." Athena flashed her badge with barely a look at whoever was calling her out. This was the last thing she needed.

"A true professional always looks others in the eye! How can you possibly think you'd fool anyone with such a disrespectful act?!"

She was about to commit a disrespectful act alright. Even though Apollo had strictly coached her not to reprise it.

"Now come! We'll fit you with one for the day. The academy has guests!"

Cooperation with strangers was not her strongest suit. She struggled away, but the person, a woman older than the boss, grabbed her wrist and drug her along. She was able to resist the burning fear that ran through her tendency to toss people in the air, but continued to dig her heels all the way to administration.

"Hey, Boss? Where's Athena?" Apollo glanced at his phone. "She was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago."

"Maybe she got lost. It's a big building, and almost everyone here is her size and age."

"...She's taller than me, Mr. Wright. Please no height comments."

"Sorry, Apollo. They just issued the announcement to gather for the mock trial, so she should stumble around."

"Mr. Wright?"

"Athena?" Apollo called out. "Athena, over here!"

She ran to them and they smiled even after her unprecedented attire change. "I see you're getting real into the spirit of things!"

"Thanks for not laughing at my being abducted by an administrator, Apollo."

"Oh! Mistaken for a high school student again?"

"Sadly, yes. Is death by humiliation a prosecutable offense?"

"If you could build the case as harassment or hazing, probably. But don't die. You look nice."

"Thanks. Sorry for being late, Boss."

"Don't worry about it. You obviously got caught up in some unforeseen circumstances. There's a bathroom right across the hall if you still have your usual outfit."

"Thank you, I'll be right back."

"I always forget how much younger she is than me… at least until we run into things like this."

"She really stands out in the field, doesn't she?"

"Mr. Wright, Mr. Justice, it seems Professor Courte has yet to arrive." A nearly monochrome man with a globe staff approached them a few moments after Athena was gone. "How unprofessorial of her to keep visitors of our esteemed institution waiting like this! I shall make her write 'I will not-' …Oh, who do we have here?"

Apollo blinked at Athena's quick return. How do women seem to just magically poof in and out of outfits?

"Oh, you haven't been introduced yet."

"Ah, yes. You must be the young lady Mr. Wright was telling me about. I am Aristotle Means, a professor at this hallowed hall of learning. I oversee the lawyer course here. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Athena Cykes! I just recently got my attorney's badge myself! Nice to meet you, too!"

"How wonderful! So vigorous and vivacious. You just earned yourself a gold star."

She scratched her arm, trying hard to avoid the metallic clinking that came from the area.

She was so bored . Mr. Wright was asleep on the sofa, and Professor Courte was still nowhere to be found.

At least until a resounding crash made her jump and grasp her arm, letting out a yelp. "Wh-what was that?!"

"...Athena." Mr. Wright yawned and stretched. "I could've sworn I just heard something fall down and break. If you go running now, they'll think it was you."

"W-well, it wasn't me." Why was he laughing? "I think it came from somewhere outside."

"Oh. Well, we better go have a look, seeing as everyone else is in the lecture hall."

"Okay!"

"Is this stage for some sort of concert? It kinda reminds me of a courtroom."

The boss' expression ran cold. "Wait, Athena. Behind the witness stand!"

"W-what?" She approached the witness stand, only to shriek.

The dead woman from her dream! She was right there, dead!

"Professor Courte! Can you hear me?! Professor!"

"Wait, that's… that's who we were supposed to be meeting with?!"

"It looks like our meeting's been canceled for us."

"No way! This… this can't be real!"

She instantly called the police, the 911 operator trying to calm her while they took information. The boss told her not to go barge into the lecture hall, but to investigate before the authorities arrived. Investigating the body made her blood run cold, but it was something she had to do. She had to prove her value to the agency.

Almost instantly, it was determined as a homicide. How exactly it was committed, however, they couldn't figure out. The murder location wasn't the stage, because she was cold. Students had been in the area until recently, meaning she should have been discovered earlier. She had to have been moved.

"Mr. Wright! Athena!" Apollo barreled towards them, panting for his next breath. "Listen! Something big's happened! I was at the mock trial when the police announced a body had been found on campus!"

The boss brushed his attorney's badge with his hand. "That's right. And we're the ones who phoned it in. We found Professor Courte dead behind the witness stand over there."

"Wh-what?! Can you show me?!"

She filled him in on how there wasn't much to go by, other than it was a homicide.

He interrupted to announce her death matched the mock trial death exactly.

Shortly after, the police arrived and escorted them from the scene.

The school went into uproar, and all classes were canceled. The Wright Anything Agency once again met in the third floor lecture hall, before Mr. Wright went to make a report to Professor Means. Her and Apollo were instructed to wait until their statements were given to the police.

Being handed over to the police was terrifying, but with Apollo by her side…

Her truth was clasped under her sleeve. If anyone who knew about her court order saw her… he would know everything… it would all be over between them.

Thankfully, Junie appeared out of nowhere. Apollo decided to question her, which distracted them both. She was so different now… but then again, so was Athena.

They met the two mock trial participants… the two men supposedly fighting over Juniper's heart. Juniper and these two men, Robin and Hugh, talked of their friendship, but their hidden discord overwhelmed Athena.

"Everyone, stay right where you are! Don't move a muscle!"

Her blood ran cold. The one police officer who knew everything, the worst possible detective to show up… was right behind her. "D-Detective Fulbright? Is something wrong?"

"Why, if it isn't my little lawyer friends! Sorry, but the small talk will have to wait." Frozen eyes fell upon Juniper. "Juniper Woods, you're under arrest for the murder of Constance Courte!"

She forgot all her fear, the danger this very detective presented to everything she held onto. "W-Wait a second! What's going on here?! Why are you arresting Junie?!"

"Please, Detective Fulbright." Apollo was willing to help. "We're involved in this case too."

"Ah-ha! So you're the lawyers dispatch said were first on scene! I can't tell you everything, but I will say this. There are two major reasons for her arrest. Number one! The suspect led somebody to where the body was. And number two!" He continued despite Junie's protests. "The crime scene is exactly how the suspect portrayed it in her script!"

"But, you can't arrest her on just those grounds!"

"True. But there's more! However, Prosecutor Blackquill specifically told me to say no more than that!"

Of course Prosecutor Blackquill was on the case. Wherever Fulbright went, her convict uncle was right behind him, his strings twirled around Taka's talons.

Meanwhile, officers had been searching Juniper. "Detective Fulbright! We found this in the suspect's pocket!"

What? A bloody awl? But the murder weapon was an arrow!

"But, that's evidence we made for the mock trial!"

"A… mock trial? Never heard of such a thing, but it sounds fishy. Real fishy! Now, if you would, officers."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do!"

Hold it!

She called out to Juniper, declaring her intent to defend her in court.

"Hate to interrupt your bonding time but…" He tipped his sunglasses towards her. "Aren't you rather new to all this? You're barely even a lawyer!" It seems he finally focused on her. "And out of compliance! How can anyone expect you to provide fair justice?"

"Well, I don't have much experience, and I may need Apollo and Mr. Wright's help at times… but no one believes in Juniper as much as I do!"

"I'll help you too, Juniper. There's no way you murdered your professor."

"Thena…" Juniper went into a coughing fit. "Apollo… Thank… you both. I'm counting on you."

"Guess this matter worked out after all. But there's still the matter of your being out of compliance, Miss Cykes."

Looks like he wasn't going to drop it after all.

Apollo pressed his finger against his forehead. "What do you mean 'out of compliance'? What compliance?"

"Your partner still doesn't know, Miss Cykes? That's unjust! We had on record that he was to be informed back in April!"

"A-April? What?"

"Now, Miss Cykes. If you don't have it on you, we'll have to escort you to the station as well."

"Please… no…"

"Athena? What are you hiding?" Apollo flashed his bracelet.

"Apollo…"

"Officer… please take Miss Cykes with us."

"No, no! Okay, okay, fine! I'll comply!" She reached up to the cusp of her jacket and hot tears leaked down from her face. She took one more look at Apollo, then dropped her jacket to the floor.

Two metallic cuffs, clasped and secured on her upper right arm with silicone and connected by chains that dangled slightly between them, glimmered in the light. There were a few lines engraved on each, but Apollo was too distracted by everything else to focus on them.

"Thank you, Miss Cykes. Officers, it will just be Miss Woods coming with us to the station."

She was so busy thinking about Juniper's arrest, that Apollo's loud voice was twice as startling.

"Take a deep breath and relax, Athena. I'm here to help with whatever you need, so let's get right on the case!"

"R-Right! Thanks… Apollo."

The two men participating in the mock trial said their goodbyes, then departed in a rush.

"Now that those two are gone, we can deal with a more serious matter… What was all that back there, Athena?"

"What was what?"

"Detective Fulbright snapped something about compliance at you, and almost detained you until you took off your jacket. It wouldn't have anything to do with those bands on your arm, would it?"

She sighed an aggressively long sigh, but not the longest sigh they'd hear that year. "Take a look. Nothing's stopping you. It's right in front of your face."

"O-okayy…"

She wanted to run away from him, far away. At least until he'd forgotten about all this. The cuffs couldn't be destroyed unless she'd want to join her uncle in prison. Then after serving time for destroying evidence of a court order, she still wouldn't be free, just in a different type of prison.

The top cuff glimmered more than the lower one, perhaps because it was closer to her shoulder, which made it easier to read.

Athena Cykes

Legal Psychopath

Do Not Approach

Order Issued by District Court

The breath caught in his throat, strangling him. He looked up at her as if she'd give him back his breath, but she just softly glanced into his eyes with hot tears rolling down her face.

The second clasp was much less frightening.

Hyperacusis - PTSD

ICE Unknown

"I-ICE?"

"I-C-E. In case of emergency… I don't have an emergency contact should I just drop unconscious… not like it would do much good with that giant 'Do Not Approach,' would it?"

"S-So you're really…"

"Insane? …Yeah, so says the court. I heard about Kristoph, and thought you would hate me if you found out… It was selfish and I'm sorry and you have every reason to hate me."

"We can deal with this later. Right now we have something more important to deal with."

She was right. He was seething . "S-So, uh… you said everything was just like the script?" Why couldn't she get rid of these tears? Ugh, she hated herself for this.

"Exactly." He pressed his finger to his forehead like usual, but his eyes still burned onto her identifier. "But without the script or any props, it's kind of hard to explain."

"Perhaps I can help with that… Herr Forehead."

"P-Prosecutor Gavin!" Apollo's eyes were finally off her, but she too was distracted. Her jacket still lay at her feet. "What are you doing here?"

"You two seem to know each other… is anyone going to introduce me?"

"Why I do believe we have a fresh face here. Greetings, Fraulein . I am Klavier Gavin. Some know me as a prosecutor, but I'm most famous for my former rock band. We were quite popular you know, but regrettably, the band went kaput."

Her and Mr. Gavin yapped about his band. She asked for his autograph, and he was willing to give her one as a prosecutor, but not as a musician.

"She's a lively one, eh, Herr Forehead? Didn't know she was your type."

W-What?

"She's the newest member of Wright Anything Agency, that's all." His voice was rough, she expected from his undeniable betrayal, but she heard something else?

Something more like he'd been caught? Was that a faint blush under his cheekbones?

No, she was imagining things. It was her adrenaline from the near detainment. "Nice to meet you! I'm Athena Cykes!"

"A pleasure to meet you too, Athena Cykes. Now that the intros are out of the way… I'm sure you have some questions for me, ja , Herr Forehead?"

It was nice that Prosecutor Gavin distracted Apollo, a friendly, not psychopathic face to bring the side of him she'd rather see back out.

He was a prosecutor. He had to have noticed. Unless he was waiting for a weak spot to badger her back, he had a respectable amount of tact.

Gavin was a former student of Courte's. Hearing how highly he talked of her, and his biting sadness at her untimely death, it was all too much under her current pressure.

"Athena? Are you tearing up?" He smiled a little. "Though I can't blame you."

She enjoyed that brief smile, a respite from what was to come later.

She heard Gavin mention it to Apollo, and he snipped at her for almost the whole day afterwards. Junie… took it even worse.

She was a living, breathing example of the Dark Age of the Law. A psychopath living in society, acting as a defense attorney with only two cold metal bands on her arm to stop her, with her uncle the convicted murderer standing across from her as the prosecution. She was a disgrace to what Junie was fighting for; a representation of the darkness that grasped Themis Legal.

She told the boss what had happened before he could even note that she had revealed her condemnation. He talked with Apollo privately.

Professor Means took her differently as well… but he seemed almost amused? Like she was some grand progression in the legal world? His interest bothered her much more than Apollo's anger or Juniper's disgust.

Gavin seemed very interested in her as well, but not seemingly for the reason everyone else was. His eyes weren't on her arm, but the space between her and her red partner. That strange discord from Apollo earlier… was it really there, and picked up by the prosecutor? And why would he be interested?

The boss instructed them to talk it out at the Agency, so there they were with her sitting on one side of the sofa and him all the way on the other.

"My old mentor wasn't the only reason you didn't tell me." He swirled his bracelet on his wrist. "So what was it?"

"Shame… fear…"

"Fear?"

"It's a psychology concept, or more accurately two. One states that a person tends to view themselves how others do, and another says that a person will subconsciously do anything to prove themselves right, even if their view is negative. For instance, if someone refuses to study for an exam because they believe they're stupid and will fail anyway, and they end up failing the exam, they have proven that notion correct. Even if someone else originally convinced them to believe that, once they believed it, they'll do anything to prove it."

"Wow… I guess that's how manipulation works, huh?"

"It's the same principle, yes... I'm sorry he did that to you. It wasn't right."

"Kristoph Gavin? That was a while ago…"

"Still… I know how long those kinds of scars last." She clicked her nails on her lower cuff.

"Is that part of the reason you were declared…?"

"Yeah. Between the sensitive hearing and that horror… they couldn't understand me. And it didn't help that I was in the hospital for a TBI at the time either."

"TBI?"

She smiled softly. It was his turn to know everything, and his time to decide. "Traumatic brain injury. It's never going to heal. It's going to keep getting worse. Eventually, it will kill me."

"T-Then…then why…"

"Does this say 'Legal Psychopath, Do Not Approach?' Because they refused to understand. Plus, part of my ability to regulate emotion is gone. That's why I go haywire sometimes, especially if I'm angry. They have a right to be afraid, it is truly impossible to guarantee I'll be able to control myself at any given time."

He slid closer, much closer. "Wow… uh… for how few tells you had… you had a lot."

"Yeah… hey, Apollo?"

"Yeah, Athena."

"You can trust me, you know that right? Some of my emotions are broken, but my logic's all intact."

She could have sworn the discord ran out of him like a waterfall. "Yeah, I've seen that much."

She chuckled a little, looking gently into his eyes with a soft smile. There was that blush again, she was sure of it this time.

Unfortunately for her, a famous prosecutor was sure of it too.

Apollo had nearly set him aflame a year before, and he'd decided it was high time for some payback. The attorney had provided the ignitor yet again, but he was going to spark it this time.

"Ah, Herr Forehead, didn't know she was your type." He repeated again, fully aware of its mention earlier.

"She's just the newest member of the agency, Gavin. Leave her be."

While Herr Forehead was in the trial, struggling against the convict, he formulated his plan with a little help from a small magician. After all, what was living in this legal world without a little guilty love? He knew of serving thirteen years hard time for it, of course. It was high time Apollo served his sentence, for he was very clearly guilty.