The Judge struck with the gavel again. The courtroom was quieted down, but Apollo could practically feel his heartbeat in his ears. Even so, he tried to take stock of the situation. Phoenix Wright was back in the defendant's chair. He had stayed a little longer than usual in the lobby with Kristoph, and so Klaire had to step outside the courtroom to retrieve them.

What had happened next was remarkable. Kristoph Gavin had actually tripped on his way to the witness stand. Klaire had gone to her brother's side immediately and helped him up from the floor, but until then it would have been unthinkable to Apollo to picture his mentor ever losing his stature, let alone balance. And he instantly felt worse about the whole situation.

Once he was at the stand, Kristoph smoothed out the fresh wrinkles in his suit, adjusted his glasses, and stared at the prosecutor's bench. Gray was still there, and Franziska was at his side. No one had dared to ask her to leave.

"As I was saying, Mr. Gavin," Franziska began. "You managed to get to the restaurant before anybody else could, and in advance of the day my husband, Mr. Drew Misham, and I were planning a buyout. What am I to make of that?"

Kristoph let his glasses shine. "I am not the one on trial here, Ms. von Karma. I do not know what you hope to accomplish here."

"Please provide your testimony."

That was not Franziska. Kristoph looked to the defense's stand and then to Apollo. The younger man swallowed hard.

"Please tell them what you know, Mr. Gavin. It's the only way to move things along."

The mentor huffed.

"It is true. I made a special arrangement with the restaurant owner to stay inside the restaurant that night and surprise the trio the next day. The kitchen and a game room are below the main floor, and I was eager for a new campout experience, as it were. But I got the phone call from Mr. Wright, and I went upstairs to find Mr. Misham dead with a blow on his head."

"See?" Apollo tried to compose himself, paused, and started up again. "Even if the restaurant owner himself doesn't go along with that statement, there's no physical, solid evidence to get in the way!" He felt shaky saying such a thing, but he had no choice but to counter the obvious rebuttal.

"Is that so?" Franziska tittered. "At any rate, I am surprised that you would know about the kitchen, Mr. Gavin."

"What?"

"If anyone were to check out the restaurant, they would find that there is not a door connecting the kitchen and the game room. There's simply a hatch for each room, and a small pulley to bring food up from the ground floor."

What a wacky design, Apollo groaned internally.

The Judge, for his part, simply sat flummoxed.

"In fact," Franziska continued. "The autopsy only presents the blow to the head as a cause of death. What if it were...something else that contributed to Mr. Misham's untimely fall?"

Poison?

No, it couldn't be...

"Boy!" Apollo flinched. Franziska pointed straight at him. "Were you given something a bit ago?"

Dumbly, Apollo pulled the green vial with the grey cap out of his packet. Upon seeing it, Kristoph's face turned red, then white.

"If you please, boy, open it."

Silently, Apollo obeyed.

"There's...it looks like a few pellets of something inside..."

"Exactly." Franziska put her hands on her hips. "That vial was recovered from the scene of the crime before the police arrived." She jerked a finger to the side. "My husband will testify that he was the one who did it."

And then Phoenix Wright stood up from the chair and smirked. "I'd be happy too!"

Suddenly, Klaire pointed. "Wait! I know that vial! Mr. Wright said he got it from his daughter when she came running to him in the lobby a bit ago! I took it, but he said it was medicine.." She stopped short. Phoenix smirked, and took a few steps from the defendant's seat. And then Gray himself nodded from his spot at Franziska's side.

Apollo was frozen. What was going on here?

Kristoph flung a finger forward. "That vial is a fake!"

Apollo flinched, despite himself. "What do you mean, Mr. Gavin?"

"I know that's not the real vial! Look in it and you'll see! There's still some pellets left inside! That can't be the real one! I..." He stopped suddenly, realizing that all eyes were back on him.

"It's true." He shrugged lazily. "I asked Trucy to wait for me outside the courtroom. I knew there would be a recess at some point. At when that moment came, she would slip me the vial." He turned toward Kristoph and wagged a finger. But he didn't stop there. He walked straight over to the witness stand, reached over to the fuming defense attorney, and ripped something from his pocket. It was another green vial. Phoenix gave it a shake. Even from far away, one could sense that there were no pellets to make sound.

"Never really one for sudden moves, were you, Kristoph? One fly in the soup's enough to throw you off your guard, I've known you long enough. And I also knew you wouldn't grab it off me, just like that. No, you were counting on our friend the bailiff to take if off me, so you could take it off her. And wouldn't you know it, that was what I was counting on, too."

"You...you..." Kristoph snarled. "This is a setup! The court won't stand for this! You've rigged this whole scheme to make sure I was holding the short straw!"

"True enough." Phoenix returned. "But there is no reason you would take it upon yourself to gamble at straws at all...unless, of course, you had something to do with what happened in the restaurant. Unless you had something to do with the death of Mr. Drew Misham."

Kristoph stood still for a moment. Then the glasses fell off his sweating face. He slammed both fists upon the stand, lifted his face to the ceiling, and howled at the top of his lungs.

-A multi-chapter story; Chapter 5; story idea by CRed1988 and writing by Jerviss.