Aura huffed.

"You are just determined to drag this out, aren't you, Mr. Wright? We have our day in court, our evidence, our lawyers, and you come barging in to throw a wrench in this sorry story."

"To be honest, Mr. Wright, I must agree." The captive judge shook his head. "You speak of this 'phantom' as if he's someone you can drag in here to divert suspicion against Mr. Clay Terran and Ms. Athena Cykes."

"Shut up, old man." Aura shook her head. "You obviously don't have your phantom with you, so I guess it's safe to assume that you're just trying to foil me. Well, I have a newsflash for you. Things were going just fine before you came."

"No, they weren't." Apollo witnessed Phoenix's eyes go into a state he had never seen them go into before; flinty.

"You can tell yourself you are doing this for the sake of justice, for the sake of your brother, for the sake of Mrs. Metis Cykes. But I don't believe a word of that." Phoenix took a step forward.

"But the truth is, you won't accept any outcome that doesn't somehow involve Ms. Cykes looking forward to prison or worse. You want to see her burn because you personally want to. Not because of the facts, and certainly not because of justice."

"Why, you-"

"Ms. Cykes!" Phoenix raised his hand. "I need you to testify about the day seven years ago. I fully acknowledge how painful the incident was for you. But for your sake and the sake of Mr. Terran, please tell us everything about the death of your mother."

Athena stood where she was, fiddling her fingers. At length, she stepped to the witness stand. Apollo locked eyes with her as Blackquill stewed in his rage.

"Please proceed."

Athena nodded very slowly.

"It...I guess it goes without saying that the day started off normal. We had breakfast, we had some tests, and my mom needed some time alone with the Hope capsule. Mm told me that it had a moon rock inside, and that it was going to be launched into space again." Athena dared to let her eyes drift to the opposite side of the room. "Mr. Blackquill was visiting the center that day. We met in the lobby, and he gave me some papers. When I said Mom was busy, he asked me to take the papers to her. So I went, and...and..."

A tremor shook the young woman's body.

"A man in a mask was standing over my mother. He stabbed her. I couldn't really...believe she could already be dead. I shouted out for her, and the man turned towards me.

Athena lowered her head.

"To be honest, I had no idea if I could do anything against that man. The only weapon around was that knife laying in the toolkit nearby. I don't know what exactly I was thinking or feeling then, but I rushed, and I grabbed the knife, and I struck out as hard as I could. I got him, once, on the hand. He used his other hand to hit me in the face, and I blacked out. By the time I woke up again, the police where everywhere, and they had...taken Mom away."

Apollo stroked his chin. "And then Mr. Blackquill was indicted and convicted for the crime?"

"Yes."

Blackquill folded his arms.

"Hold on a second!" Detective Fulbright spoke up. "Where is this supposed to lead?" He looked suspiciously at Phoenix. "Mr. Wright, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to pull off that lawyerly trick of accusing someone else."

There was a brief stunned silence in the room.

Aura sighed. "Sorry to rain on your pity party, princess, but I really hope you aren't going to rope my brother into taking the fall for something else. Wasn't it enough for you to ruin his life once already? Mr. Lawyer," she addressed Phoenix. "You ought to know that Simon can't just go and do whatever he wants, even with his provisional work furlough. And even if he could escape, you seriously think he'd risk his freedom over a moon rock?"

Apollo gasped. It was back; the sensation was an echo of his bracelet's overdue reaction. The defense attorney once again focused on Blackquill's clenched fist.

He had no idea what would happen next, but his premonition was that the tragedy of the space center would be put to rest, and he would fulfill his promise to free Clay Terran.

-A multi-chapter story; Chapter 53; story idea by CRed1988 and writing by Jerviss.