A/N: The final investigation continues! We have an entire other half of the main location to explore around. Not only that, but other locations will unveil themselves gradually. Enjoy, my readers!

June 6th, 2029

Smokes Manor, entrance hall

2:00 p.m.

On her way to the east wing of the house, Juniper and Sheila ran into none other than the Chief Prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth. The older man had deep furrows in his brow, to Juniper's concern.

"Greetings, Miss Woods. I assume that you are trying to build your defense," Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth said. "I certainly don't envy the situation you're in."

"Um, is there a reason that you're still here, Chief Prosecutor?" Juniper asked nervously. "I don't mean anything bad by it! I was just thinking, a man of your importance would probably have a lot on his plate."

Edgeworth pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "You are not wrong. However, this case has the highest priority right now, for a few reasons. Most of them are classified, however."

Then Edgeworth settled into his legendary glare. "What I can tell you is that it has everything to do with this case's prosecutor. It was never my intention to have Mrs. Newman in charge of this case. This was basically forced on the prosecutor's office."

Juniper could feel herself shrinking into herself, even as she knew the glare wasn't aimed at her. Mr. Edgeworth was still exuding the weight of his profession, and Juniper had a hard time breathing.

"Several times, I've heard about another country being involved," Sheila said, scratching her head. "But why do they tell you what to do?"

"Normally, a foreign country would have no input in how I run my prosecutor's office," Edgeworth said. "However, on the day of the crime, I was contacted by the former queen. She told me that if I had no other prosecutor to take on the case, she would send a trusted prosecutor to help."

Juniper, in the mindset of investigating, noticed an odd point. "It sounds like Mrs. Newman taking over the case could have been avoided if you'd just assigned a prosecutor from your own office."

"That would be the obvious solution. However, the prosecutor's office has continued to be understaffed. At the time this case was first opened, I had no prosecutor available to take on the case," Edgeworth explained. "So the offer from the former queen came at a welcome time. In hindsight, I should have realized that the timing was too good to be true."

"If I have this right, Mrs. Newman must have told you that she was the prosecutor sent for this case," Juniper said, subconsciously tugging at her pigtails. "And you didn't turn her down?"

"She foresaw that this would be the first action I would take. So before I could even suggest it, Mrs. Newman told me something: if I were to boot her off this case without proper cause, then she would inform Amara Sigatar Khura'in." Edgeworth's scowl deepened. "That was when I realized that Mrs. Newman was willing to cause an international incident to get her way."

"What is it about this case that makes her want to be on it so badly?!" Juniper asked incredulously.

"My educated guess is that she wants to investigate the death of her friend and coworker." Edgeworth crossed his arms. "Which is exactly why she should not have been allowed to be on the prosecutor's bench. Her emotions cloud her ability to be impartial, just like her daughter."

The indirect reference to Robin caught Juniper's attention. "Did Robin do something recently?"

"That young lady insists on involving herself in the case, despite being stripped of her badge," Edgeworth said in an annoyed tone. "As I am not the lead prosecutor, I don't have the authority to send her away."

"I think it's a good thing that Robin is here. The more people help in this investigation, the better," Juniper said, compelled by a desire to defend her friend. "I'm sure Robin is working the hardest to find the truth!"

"We can only wait and see if your optimism is going to pan out."

Sheila tugged at Juniper's dress. "Are we going to move onto investigating?"

"Oh right, we should probably get back to that." Under the watchful eye of the Chief Prosecutor, Juniper and Sheila walked into the eastern side of the house.

As they entered the eastern sitting room, the first thing that Juniper lay eyes on was a giant cardboard box on the floor, with one side badly dented. It didn't surprise Juniper to then find Myriam in the sitting room as well.

"There you are, Juniper! Have you seen Robin?" Myriam asked heatedly.

"Not yet, but it sounds like there's something you need to ask her. I could pass along a message to her if you like," Juniper offered.

"I want Robin to sue whoever did this to my precious box, Kahk Kahk!" Myriam furiously pointed at the dented cardboard box.

"I can tell you right now that you can't sue people for damaging a cardboard box," Juniper said dryly. "Robin would tell you the same thing."

"That's because you don't know the full story!" Myriam spun a pen in her fingers. "On the day of the crime, I decided to stay in this east wing when the blackout hit. But I hid in my cardboard box, just in case. During the blackout, someone practically trampled over me while I was in the box!"

"Miss Scuttlebutt, how was someone supposed to see you when it was dark?" Sheila asked curiously. "And why were you hiding?"

"That's not important! What's important is that someone has to pay for what they did to my beautiful box!" Myriam cried out.

Crumpled Cardboard Box added to the Court Record

"Someone stepped on you, Myriam?" Juniper's mind focused on another detail. If Myriam's testimony is true, that means someone passed through this sitting room during this blackout.

"Now you're getting it, sss sss sss," Myriam said, pleased. "If you can find the person that almost broke my face, then Robin can stick it to them in court!"

"I'll definitely look into it, Myriam." It didn't seem like there was anything else to the sitting room, so Juniper decided to move onto the next investigation point. The sitting room led into a hallway, with two doors on the left and two doors to the right.

The first door on the left was locked. The first door on the right lead into the bedroom where Robin was currently looking around. The walls of the room were painted a pleasant light green, while the floor had soft beige carpet. The bed had simple white sheets, while next to it was a nightstand.

This nightstand is what revealed the room's owner, because it had a framed picture of Constance Courte, with her arm around Bailey in her bailiff uniform.

"This photo was taken shortly after Bailey became a bailiff. Professor Courte had been so proud of her," Robin said, sadness in her eyes. "I was too, because she had worked so hard for this."

"Hello, Robin." Normally, Juniper would be overjoyed to see one of her closest friends. But this case had brought up many questions about Robin, and Juniper couldn't leave it be. "We need to talk."

Noticing the serious tone, Robin stood up straight, looking at Juniper.

"You told me most of the story behind your trip to Khura'in. But there is one more question about it. Who were you hiding from so desperately?"

Robin's hand went to her bracelet on her other arm. "The reason I didn't tell you before is because that's the one question I can't answer! I don't want to risk them overhearing!"

"You're saying it's someone in this manor right now?" When Robin answered this with a frantic nod, Juniper could feel her head spinning. What does that mean? Is there someone dangerous that's hiding from the police?

"Is it because you're a bad person, you… you…!" Sheila smacked a small fist against Robin's gut. It didn't hurt, but it did direct her attention to the younger girl.

"You're still angry at me, aren't you? I suppose I can't blame you," Robin said. "But if it means anything, I'm never prosecuting again."

It took a moment for Juniper to process what Robin was saying. "But I'm sure we could get your badge back!"

"I think I don't want my badge back," Robin said, without any indication she was lying. "I've been reprimanded for not doing my job, and I've been hated for doing my job. I'm done with all of it!"

"But you've worked for so long to join the legal system, with me and Hugh. I don't want you to throw all that away!" Juniper pleaded.

Sheila had been taken aback by Robin's declaration. Now, she had a curious look on her face. "Why were you a prosecutor, Miss Prosecutor?"

"Because my parents wanted me to be one, so they poured a lot of money into putting me through Themis Legal Academy," Robin said, putting her hands up to her mouth. "But now that I've been stripped of my badge, it occurred to me that I don't have to go back!"

"Then what are you going to do?" Juniper asked.

"After all the time I spent in the legal system, I don't think I want to leave it completely. So I was thinking, maybe I could become a defense attorney!" A smile spread across Robin's face. "I could work with you and Hugh in the same office!"

"Wow, does that mean that you're going to be a good person instead? I'm glad for you," Sheila said, despite not knowing much about what she was saying.

Yet, Juniper now had a mental image taking up her imagination. Of being able to work with Robin as fellow defense attorneys, of sharing the small office with Hugh and Robin, a new life of being able to keep all her friends together.

"That sounds really nice, Robin," Juniper said softly. "Then perhaps as a new defense attorney, you could help me prove Bailey's innocence."

"I've been wanting that the entire time!" Robin pointed at the nightstand. "I suspect there might be something in there, but I was warned not to touch too much."

"Oh, I have permission from Bailey to search her room!" Juniper opened the drawer on the nightstand, and found that inside was a key ring with keys. "Oh, these must be Bailey's. They'll be good for getting around this house."

"I did poke around more, and it doesn't seem like there's anything else here," Robin continued. "So do you want to go somewhere else?"

"I think for right now, we'll see what Bailey's keys can unlock." Leaving the room, Juniper immediately tried the keys on the locked door. On the other side, there turned out to be a storage closet.

"Is this really all there was to it? That's lame," Sheila said, pouting in disappointment. "Why did they even lock it?"

"So guests won't steal anything inside, I guess." Juniper consulted the house blueprints Detective Skye had given her. "There's supposed to be a breaker in this hallway, but I can't seem to find it."

"Oh, I think I can help with that!" Sheila studied the walls of the hallway. Between the storage closet and another door, she pointed at a space in the wall. "Here it is!"

Robin inspected the area that Sheila was pointing at. "Oh, she's right! There's a panel here that's very hard to see, but it's there." Robin pried her fingers into the panel, and opened it.

Juniper saw that there was indeed a breaker there. "Should we call Detective Skye to investigate this?"

"Yeah, bring the pretty detective lady here at once! She really needs to see this!" Sheila pointed at the breaker. "Because someone tried to destroy this!"

Juniper and Robin shared confused looks, and Sheila puffed out her cheeks. "Look carefully at those wires, next to the switch. They were patched up, and in a really sloppy manner!"

Looking more closely, Juniper could see what the younger girl met- the power wires had some sort of tape keeping them together. Robin was already on her phone, dialing up Ema's number.

The detective herself arrived not long after, studying the open breaker box. "Give me a few minutes. It never hurts to pursue every possibility."

As Ema went about her work, Juniper couldn't help but feel anxious. I'm not sure what we're about to find. But if it's related to the blackout on the day of the crime…

"What do you know, Miss Winters was right. This breaker was sabotaged," Ema said in a serious tone. "Robin, you may not be a prosecutor anymore. But I'd still like to share this information with you and Juniper."

Ema cleared her throat. "The initial results is that at some point, someone doused the wires with acid. They wouldn't cause the blackout right away, but it would happen after a while."

"In other words, you're saying the culprit needed the blackout to happen at a certain time!" Robin exclaimed.

"Exactly, and we wouldn't have found this out without this smart girl." Ema affectionately patted Sheila's head, and the younger girl giggled.

Manor's Breaker added to the Court Record

"Detective Skye, you told me that you'd investigate more freely once you had an officer watching the scene," Juniper said. "If you do, does that mean you'll investigate with us?"

"Not quite, I do have other places I need to be. But I do have a few tidbits of information to share." Ema consulted her phone. "Prosecutor Newman and her husband are in the kitchen that's in this wing of the manor. If you want to talk with them, you'd better be ready for it."

Juniper could feel her throat drying out. The trial against Mrs. Newman was only a few hours ago. I can still hear her voice ringing in my head.

"Of course, if you are concerned about Prosecutor Newman being in charge of this case, you should feel reassured," Ema continued. "Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth is investigating all possibilities to have her removed."

"There's a major problem there!" Robin shouted. "The reason my mother ended up in charge of the case is that there were no other prosecutors! So what happens after she's removed?"

Ema turned her face away, sulking. "Yeah, that is a problem. The office has very few prosecutors, and they are all working on cases. Except the glimmerous fop, weirdly enough."

Juniper raised an eyebrow at this. "I did notice that Prosecutor Gavin was moving around freely, but why is that weird?"

"As the only prosecutor not working on a case, he was asked by the Chief Prosecutor to take over this one." Ema's face settled in a furious glare. "But he turned it down! Didn't even give a reason why!"

"That is weird! In the time I've known Klavier, he's always serious about work," Robin said. "So he must have had a good reason to not approach this case!"

"Hey, don't look at me. It's not like that glimmerous fop ever tells me anything," Ema muttered. "And I'm not dealing with him unless I have to."

"Hugh and Prosecutor Gavin told me that they'd get in touch with us, when they finished with their investigation," Juniper pointed out. "We could always ask them what they found."

"Then do you want to talk with my parents?" Robin pointed to the door in the hallway that led to the manor's kitchen. "Because until something changes, my mother is in charge of this case. She probably has all the most important information!"

So far, I haven't found much evidence that could help prove Bailey's innocence. It's true, Mrs. Newman probably found new clues in her own investigation. But…

Juniper recalled how Mrs. Newman had mercilessly torn through her defense, during this morning's trial. She felt short of breath, and her eyesight was starting to dim-

Robin put her arms around Juniper, hugging her from the back. "I'll be there with you, Juniper! Whatever my parents will say, I'll be there so we can face them together!"

A warmth spread across Juniper's body. You're always so good at knowing when I need help, Robin. If you're really going to be a defense attorney from now on, I would welcome this more often.

To be continued

A/N: New clues have been given, so I'd like to know how everyone thinks it all connects. Of course, this investigation is far from over, and there are even more people to question. See you next time! Please review.