Apollo rubbed his forearm, his fingers occasionally brushing against the bracelet. Who would have thought something like this would have come through for him so suddenly, after carrying it all his life? Could he use it as effectively as he could before? It was time to find out.

Here comes Justice!

Apollo pushed against the lobby door as confidently as he could. Gumshoe was missing, but Vera was still huddled in her spot in the defendant's chair. Edgeworth and Kay stood together at the prosecutor's stand. Apollo walked briskly. He did not look up, but he could still feel the other attorney's eyes burning into his back.

As Apollo shuffled behind the defense's stand, The Judge struck down with his gavel.

"Court will resume for the trial of Ms. Vera Misham."

"Um...Your Honor...", Apollo's eyes flittered to the witness stand. "Ms. Meele is not..."

The door opened again, and a bailiff appeared to escort Meele. The woman was walking quickly, but her face seemed more sallow. When she went behind the stand again, she put both palms on it, as if for support.

"Witness?' The Judge blinked. He had noticed it, too. "Are you able to-" His lips closed when he saw her raise her hand and wave it.

"Your Honor," Kay spoke up, "I gave her an impromptu checkup outside." She held up a small piece of paper. "The diagnosis is here."

Edgeworth blinked. "You have equipment set up in this very courthouse?"

Kay snapped her fingers. "I do my best to be prepared, Mr. Edgeworth. And..."

"There's no use," Meele grunted. "I can explain." Her voice cracked. "I have been poisoned. Diluted atroquinine."

The court went silent. It was the Judge who finally worked up the nerve to speak up. "When did..."

"Some days ago."

Apollo blinked, his mouth going dry. "But is it really okay for you to be here..."

Meele's eyes turned dark. "Why? What's the point of going to the hospital, when that lawyer over there can find a way to spin me into somehow being involved in this whole mess while I'm gone?"

Apollo tapped his floor self-consciously. "So...um, er, your testimony..."

"It stands. I had nothing to do with the murder of Shadi Enigmar, and I have no idea why he had the girl over there with him."

Apollo could not help but shudder. The sensation had come back to him, all so suddenly. The bracelet had seemed to grow several degrees colder.

Meele's hand had clenched into a fist. It was the tic he found himself looking for.

"Then why were you so resistant to the court finding out about your...condition?"

Meele closed her eyes. "It was the Red Carnation ring. Mr. Enigmar was one of them, if you must know. He was on the run for murder, so who better to carry certain goods for them? And Vera's father, Mr. Drew Misham? I can't prove anything, but I can't think of any reason Enigmar would have gone after his daughter, except that she might have had something the ring absolutely had to take care of."

The court was struck silent again; even Edgeworth looked to be at a loss for words.

Apollo took several deep breaths. A truck locked from the outside, and both the defendant and the victim inside. The knife? the stamp? Both on the occupier's side of the space, too.

He had to take a gamble. He cleared his throat, then walked out in front of the stand.

"You had nothing to do with the stabbing of Mr. Shadi Enigmar?"

Meele scoffed. "I already told you."

"Nothing to do with Vera's abduction?"

"Of course not."

Apollo grit his teeth. "And you did not leave the secret message for the Red Carnation, saying that anything Vera had would be ransomed?"

Edgeworth was going to chide Justice on his stupidity for trying to use imaginary evidence in court. Kay was going to look at him skeptically. The Judge was going to scratch his head wearily.

But before any of the trio could do these things, it was Meele who slammed her fist on the stand.

"NO!" She shouted. "Absolutely not!" Her eyes darted frantically, scanning the gallery, as if there were unfriendly ears lurking. "There was not any kind of message in the truck!" She breathed heavily, then froze.

Apollo shook his head. "You said yourself that the truck was locked, and that you couldn't open it from the outside. So how is it that you are so worried about the inside?"

Meele did not say anything at first. She began to turn, with the motion of someone with a load of bricks across their shoulders. She looked at Kay, and gave her best impression of a wry smile.

"And I guess that hunk of junk you had back there wasn't really a medical machine. You did not know for sure I was poisoned with atroquinine."

Kay shrugged, abruptly looking ashamed, grim, and resigned all at once. "The Red Carnation ring has a lot of dealings with that particular product." She fidgeted. "A shot in the dark on my part, but not a bad one. Wouldn't you agree?"

Cammy Meele was admitted to the Hotti Clinic not an hour after the trial ended. It became clear that she had been press-ganged into helping carry out one more job for the Red Carnation gang, with her compliance being ensured with a fatal injection of the diluted altroquinine. Her reward for the completed job would have been the antidote.

But as the doctors explained, she had already been prepping the plan with Enigmar for two days. The antidote was only effective for the first twelve hours after the initial poisoning.

Cammy Meele wrote out her last statement at the urging of the police for the complete exoneration of Vera Misham. She fell asleep with the knowledge that the full report would be published the next day, and did not wake up again.

-A multi-chapter story; Chapter 12; story idea by CRed1988 and writing by Jerviss.