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Chapter Text

Apollo pulled out his phone as he and Athena made it into the defendant’s lobby. They had arrived with a minute to spare before the trial was set to begin. A part of Apollo was upset that they didn’t have a chance to talk with Klavier before they had to make their way behind the proper bench. However the rest of him was glad to put off finding the words to say to him. All of his attention had to be in finding the truth rather than whatever emotional uncertainty was building in the back of his mind.

Athena kept calling it love, but the word made him flinch. There was no way. If anything it was a strong professional respect and admiration. Love was never part of the equation or at least that was what he kept telling himself. For the thousandth time he shoved the thoughts away. This wasn’t the time. It was never the time.

Taking a calming breath, Apollo closed his eyes and placed both his hands on the bench to ground himself. Right here, right now, all he needed to focus on was proving the truth, and that’s what he would do.

“Here comes Justice.” He smiled to himself as he muttered the phrase under his breath. That’s what he was here for. No matter the situation or defendant, justice was the goal.

Athena snickered next to him, but before he could ask what she was laughing at the judge banged his gavel and called court into session.

“The prosecution is ready.”

The accented voice drew Apollo’s attention to the opposing bench. A woman stood not much taller than he did, but her stance exuded confidence. Apollo shrunk under her gaze.

“The defense is–” scared, was Apollo’s first instinct to respond with, but after an elbow to the ribs from Athena he yelped out, “Ready!”

He rubbed his side and gave Athena a look somewhere between annoyance and thankfulness.

“Mr. Justice, I believe we have discussed before the proper volume level for a courtroom,” the judge chided, shaking his head.

“Ah! Yes, your honor!” Apollo blushed. He was more than used to being told to quiet down, but he couldn’t avoid embarrassment every time it happened, especially when he could see Athena recoiling from the sound.

“If you are done with such foolishness, we have a certain matter to attend to,” the prosecutor cut in, arms crossed as she sent a sharp look to the defense team.

“Oh! Of course, Prosecutor von Karma!” The judge seemed to brace himself as he spoke, giving her his full attention.

Apollo froze internally, as he heard the name. Von Karma. His mind jumped straight to that legendary trial, where Mr. Wright faced off against Manfred von Karma and won in the end with a dangerous bluff. He’d just finished digitizing the files from that case a few days earlier and could probably still recite the details from memory if needed. He had more trouble remembering who the other von Karma was. He recognized the face and could recall the occasional mention of her by Mr. Wright or Chief Prosecutor Miles, but beyond that he was out of his depth.

“You’re opening statement, please,” the judge continued.

“We have a traitor in our midst, today,” she started, pointing a finger at the defendant’s seat, where Prosecutor Gavin sat staring at his hands on his laps, twisting them together. “One of our own has killed a man. It is my job to see to that he faces the consequences, and I will do so perfectly.”

Apollo clenched both his hands into fists on the bench, holding himself back from objecting on behalf of Prosecutor Gavin’s honor. He had to treat this like any other case. Even more than that he had to make sure to be a role model for Athena.

“I see,” the judge nodded. “Call your first witness.”

As they waited for the witness to take the stand, Apollo turned to Athena, “This is your first time standing behind the bench, right?”

“Yeah,” Athena confirmed, hands on her hips and looking more prepared that Apollo felt.

“Alright. We’re going to hear our first testimony. I’m going to need you to keep your ears open for a contradiction. We’re the only thing standing between Prosecutor Gavin and a wrongful conviction.” Apollo tried to force certainty into his voice.

“State your name and occupation.” Prosecutor von Karma's voice brought them back to the present time.

The detective from the crime scene stood behind the witness stand, looking far less confident under the gaze of the prosecutor. His shoulders were pulled up and his arms straight down by his side, looking more like a highschooler giving a book report than a detective at a trial.

“Yes, sir!” he barked. “The name’s Dick Gumshoe, and I’m the head detective in charge of investigating the murder of Jack Offman.”

“And what conclusions have your team come to?” Prosecutor von Karma prompted.

“There is absolutely no doubt that the defendant did it.” Detective Gumshoe’s hand rubbed against the back of his neck before he caught himself and shoved his arm back into its strict posture, glancing over at Prosecutor von Karma.

“Now, Scruffy. Walk us through the crime,” she instructed, leaning over the prosecutor's bench.

“Well, it took place late Saturday evening at a–” Detective Gumshoe paused to clear his throat before mumbling the rest, “a gentleman’s club–”

The crack of a whip cut through the courtroom. Apollo startled and Athena doubled over covering her ears.

“Speak up!” Prosecutor von Karma commanded, still holding the whip out pointing at Detective Gumshoe with it, who seemed relatively unfazed; his posture was more tense but there was no other sign that anything had just happened besides the mark left of the witness stand.

“Yes sir!” Detective Gumshoe gave her a salute before preparing to start over.

“Objection!” Apollo interrupted, glancing at Athena who was starting to recover from the sudden sound out of the corner of his eye. “What was that!? She can’t have that in here, can she?”

“Tsk, tsk,” Prosecutor von Karma shook her head, “Know your place.”

“What?” Apollo recoiled, “That’s–!”

He looked almost desperately between the judge, Athena, and even Detective Gumshoe, hoping for someone to back him up.

Athena looked back at him, almost sympathetically. And whispered, “Don’t you know who that is?”

“Yes?” Apollo’s brow furrowed. “Of course I know who she is!”

“Then you should know that this is kinda her thing. I watched some of her trials in Germany. Just be happy she doesn’t actually whip people anymore,” Athena said, giving him a sad smile

“If the defense would cease their useless chatter, we shall return to the night of the crime,” Prosecutor von Karma said, pulling their attention back to the trial at hand.

“Ah. yes. Detective Gumshoe, please continue to describe the night of the crime,” the judge finally cut in.

“Alrighty.” Detective Gumshoe started again. “Saturday night, the victim, Jack Offman, was murdered in the office of a gentlemen’s club called Teaze.”

“A gentlemen’s club,” the judge nodded, looking almost wistful. “Sounds nice. Probably big fireplaces and poetry reading.”

“That’s not–” Apollo started shaking his head, not sure if he wanted to be the one to say anything

The judge looked around the room taking in the uncertainty of everyone’s faces. “What?”

Shaking her head, Prosecutor von Karma grabbed a pen and paper, scribbling something down before handing it to a bailiff who delivered it to the judge. As he read the note placed in front of him, his face shifted from confusion to understanding before nodding.

“I see,” was all he said on the subject. “Detective Gumshoe, please continue your testimony.”

“Yes, your honor! Please look at these maps.” Detective Gumshoe pulled out a folder from his coat and flipped it open to a top view map of the club and a diagram of the owner's office as well as bringing it up on the screens so the entire court could see what he was referring to.

“You can see the body was found here by the desk,” He moved forward to point at the screen.

“And the cause of death?”

The detached language immediately rubbed Apollo the wrong way. Both of them must have known Prosecutor Gavin, they would have worked together at some point. How was it that they so easily blamed him for the murder? Apollo looked over at him and forced himself to take a breath. He couldn’t get Klavier acquitted if he acted on emotion alone. He needed more information. He had to listen.

“Hit over the head with a blunt object, specifically this...” Detective Gumshoe presented a bag with a moderately sized statue. Apollo recognized it immediately from Dan’s desk. It was a tacky decoration, but Dan had defended “the history of the piece” when asked why he kept it around.

“Ah!” the judge chimed in. “That brings back memories! It’s been almost ten years since I saw a statue like this!”

“It’s the same one that Butz guy used to kill his girlfriend!” Detective Gumshoe grinned, looking far happier than someone ever should when talking about a murder.

Apollo wracked his brain trying to figure out why that name sounded familiar. Butz. Oh! It was one of Mr. Wright’s friends, right? That statute had be used to murder Cindy Stone, but if he remembered correctly, Butz hadn’t been the murderer. Mr. Wright had gotten him acquitted. Apollo wondered what he would say when he learned that the weapon in this case was the same as the one used in his very first case.

The whip cracked through the courtroom again. “Fools! Enough with this foolish foolery! There are important matters to be addressed!”

“Y– Yes sir!” Detective Gumshoe jumped to attention.

“Now. Tell us about the murder,” Prosecutor von Karma commanded

“Right! He was hit over the head from the front once and then again from the back. He died from the second blow. There was a struggle beforehand, but in the end, the defendant fell...”

“Hold it!” Apollo called. “Why do you say that there was a struggle?”

Detective Gumshoe smiled, fully prepared for the question. “Simple, pal. His wrist was broken, and he knocked over a lamp when he was first attacked.”

“Hm. That seems like quite the indication of the struggle,” the judge agreed.

“Could the wrist have been a preexisting injury?” Apollo pushed further.

“No, you see, Mr. Offman suffered a knee injury during one of his dances Thursday evening due to a...” Detective Gumshoe shuffled his papers around to show a document, “an ‘improper dismount’ and had a full physical Saturday afternoon. All the rest of him was still in perfect condition at that time.”

Of course Apollo knew about the injury. It was the thing that dragged him into the club last Friday and set everything else in motion. For good measure, he examined the medical report. It matched with everything he read in the papers he found at the crime and indeed stated that Jack had no issues, besides a sprain in his knee.

“So there was a struggle, what next?” Prosecutor von Karma asked.

“We got a call at 11:58 on the dot–”

“Hold it!” Apollo interrupted again, “And by ‘we’ you mean the officers at the police station?”

Detective Gumshoe’s face screwed up in irritation before he responded “Yeah, pal! Who else would I be talking about?”

“We’ve barely begun and the defense is grasping at straws,” Prosecutor von Karma said. From across the courtroom, Apollo could see her shaking her head.

He took a breath and continued, “So who was it that called?”

“If you would stop interrupting me, I’d tell you!” the detective grumbled.

“Scruffy, continue!”

“The call came from the owner of the club. The body was in his office anyway,” he explained with easily renewed enthusiasm. “The first officers arrived on the scene at 12:01 a.m. to meet with the owner.”

“That’s really fast,” Athena said to herself, and Apollo couldn’t help but agree.

“Hold it! You arrived at the scene of the crime in three minutes?” he asked

“Two minutes and 23 seconds actually! Fastest response time in the district.” Detective Gumshoe lifted his chin with pride, “It’s how we get our guy!”

Apollo opened his mouth, trying to think of a further line of questioning and found himself stuck.

“Very impressive,” the judge nodded.

“Now, tell us about the arrest of Prosecutor Gavin,” Prosecutor von Karma prompted.

Apollo steeled himself for the next part of the testimony. He wrote down all of the details he had learned. There was still so much about the case that he didn’t know, but the only option was to continue forward and figure it out as he went.

“See here, as soon as we arrived on the scene, we met with the owner in his office, while the rest of the club was shutting down,” Detective Gumshoe began. “He was quite shaken at the time, having just witnessed a murder before his very eyes.”

“Hold it! The owner saw the murder happen?” Apollo leaned forward, hands braced on the bench.

“Of course he did! It happened in his office,” Detective Gumshoe huffed back

“Why do you keep asking for clarification like that?” Athena asked Apollo

“Cross-Examination 101, Athena, press every detail that you can. Witnesses rarely tell you everything on their own, and you never know when they’ll give you the clues you need.”

Athene wasn’t completely convinced but nodded anyway,

Apollo turned back to Detective Gumshoe. “And he told you that it was Prosecutor Gavin who murdered the victim?”

“So impatient, Mr. Justice,” Prosecutor von Karma accented each syllable as she addressed him. “I’m certain Detective Gumshoe was getting to that.”

“Yeah, pal!”

“Please, tell us what the witness said.”

“All he could talk about was ‘the blondie’ who barged into his office.”

“Hold it! This "blondie" is definitely Prosecutor Gavin?” Apollo asked

“Definitely.”

“There were certainly other blonde patrons at the club that night, how are you so certain it was him?”

“We had other evidence,” Detective Gumshoe answered simply. “Photographs, to be specific.”

“Photographs!?” Apollo jolted.

“Yes, Mr. Justice,” Prosecutor von Karma enunciated every syllable as she addressed him, “There are cameras positioned around the club to keep an eye on any patrons that might be cause for concern. Each one is marked on the map. None of the footage is saved, but there is security watching them at all times to save the faces of anyone or anything suspicious.The prosecution would like to present these photographs of the defendant to the court.”

She laid out two pictures in front of her. The first showed a man entering the office wearing a grey pullover sweatshirt with the hood up. A few blond strands visible. Apollo bit back an objection as to proof that the person was Prosecutor Gavin as he looked at the second picture. Prosecutor Gavin was staring directly at the camera, his eyes widened with obvious panic and his mouth parted slightly. The hood was down and his hair fell from a messy bun into his face.

Apollo chanced a look at Prosecutor Gavin who was pointedly not looking at the screen, preferring to focus on messing with his bangs. His chest tightened at the sight.

“These photographs were taken when the defendant entered and left the office,” Detective Gumshoe added.

“Objection!” Apollo pointed to the camera that was marked to be inside Dan’s office. “You have images from outside of the office, but what about this camera!”

“Tsk tsk,” Prosecutor von Karma shook her head with a cocky smile that left Apollo immediately on edge. “That camera does not work, if it did, we would be showing you the moment the defendant struck the victim.”

“So, there were three people in the room at the time of the murder: the defendant, the victim, and the owner,” the Judge recapped. “It sounds like we should talk to this Dan Singer, then.”

“Indeed. He is prepared to take the stand and testify,” Prosecutor von Karma said.

“Bring forward the next witness.”

Apollo took the moment to address Athena. “Alright, this gets real here. The detective’s testimony is just a warmup compared to whatever is coming next. Witnesses are never easy on us.”

“Howdy, m’sweets.” Dan’s voice had every eye on the courtroom directed towards him, and his entire look made sure no one’s gaze left. A deep blue blazer sat over a white shirt that would have looked almost reasonable if it weren’t for the bright orange, pants and sunglasses he wore. Dark curls hung into his face, as he stared out across the courtroom

“Mr. Singer, was it? You are the owner of the club, correct?” the judge asked.

“Yesserri!” He dragged the word out with a wide grin. “E’rything I got is in Teaze.”

“Very interesting.” The judge looked thoughtful for a moment, “Have you considered poetry reading nights?”

“Dancing to poetry? Hm...hm? Oh!” Dan’s face brightened as he looked him. “You might be onto something yer honor!”

“Ah! Of–”

“Enough!” Prosecutor von Karma snapped her whip against the judges stand. “If you have forgotten, we are here for a reason. Witness! Your testimony.”

“Yes, Ms. Prosecuta! I’ll tell ya exactly what happened!” Dan spoke with such a wide grin.

“It’s hard to believe he witnessed a murder,” Athena commented

He’s always like that Apollo responded in his head, while verbally he agreed, “Definitely, but don’t get distracted by his enthusiasm.”

“Boy, did we have quite the show on Saturday!” he started “I was just sitting in my office, doing my thing...”

“What was ‘your thing’ that you were doing?” Apollo asked.

“I’s– “ Dan started.

“Objection! Irrelevance! What the witness was doing is not the concern of this trial,” Prosecutor von Karma shook her head.

“Sustained, please keep your questions to relevant information,” the judge agreed.

“Of course, your honor.” Apollo deflated slightly, trying to think if there was something else to ask

After a pause, Prosecutor von Karma asked, “Would the defense like to stall further?”

“Yes! Er, not stall, but another question,” Apollo stumbled over his words.

“What would you like to ask about, Mr. Justice,” the judge conceded.

“The time. What time was this?”

For the first time, Dan looked towards the defenses bench. His face shifted as he met Apollo’s eyes. A glint of familiarity somewhere below the surface caused his entire body to tense. He was almost certain Dan wouldn’t recognize him. They had barely met each other face to face since Artemis had begun working at the club, but the fear was still there.

The moment past and Dan responded, “It was a bit before midnight. Rubes was prepping for her big show.”

“How long before midnight?”

“I dunno that! Before midnight!”

“That is enough of that!” Prosecutor von Karma cut off the conversation, “Continue with your testimony”

“Well I was sitting there,” Dan picked up where he had left off, “and THWACK! My door flies open and that blond boy barges in screaming at me.”

“What did he say?” Apollo asked.

“I’m gettin’ there!” Dan yelled, “You’re in such a hurry! Calm down.”

Prosecutor von Karma shook her head, “Mr. Justice, let the witness speak”

“Yes, your honor.” Apollo shook his head, there wasn’t anything good to press, but there was so little he knew.

“So, as I was sayin’, he’s all like ‘where is he’ and I ask ‘im. I ask ‘im ‘who?’ cause I’m a reasonable man and he’s looking for Art’mis!” Dan threw his arms in the air, as if it was the most unbelievable thing he could be say.

“Hold it!” Apollo called, trying to seem as genuine as possible while asking what was certainly on everyone’s mind. “Who is Artemis?”

“He’s one of the boys! Small fella, but damn if he can’t move like the best! Fan favorite, that boy. Doesn’t take advantage of what he’s got.”

“What he’s got?” the judge asked, and Apollo crossed his arms over his chest, trying to conceal his reaction to whatever was coming next.

“His moves! His ass! Kid’s got an ass you’d bounce a quarter off!” Dan acted out the words as he described them. “He could be a headliner, but won’t work the good nights, got some other shit or whatever.”

A blush certainly covered Apollo’s entire face as he watched his boss talk about him to a room of strangers. He tried to remember that none of them knew that this was him as he contemplated his response.

“And what does this ... Artemis have to do with Prosecutor Gavin?” He tried to direct the conversation away from his butt.

“I ain’t got the damndest, but that who he’d been coming in for.” Dan shook his head, something akin to disappointment on his features. “Tobes knows. Good soul was worried for me when he saw blondie run out.”

Apollo’s stomach dropped as Dan mentioned Toby. Of anyone in the club he was the most likely to recognize him.

“What do you do next?”

“I tell ‘im he ain’t there, but he freaks! Start a’waving his arms around and getting louder!” Dan jumped up, and banged his hands on the table, his voice reflecting what he was describing Prosecutor Gavin to be.

“This man’s emotions are all over the place,” Athena muttered.

“How are you deciphering emotion from any of this?” Apollo shook his head, even when he was lying, he had trouble understanding exactly what he was lying about. He had too many ticks and embellishments in his storytelling that most days it gave Apollo a headache.

“I can hear his heart.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ve always been able to do it. I can hear what someone is feeling. I have Widgit here to help show it to other people. I’ll show you sometime.”

“Then Jacky–” Dan continued, not noticing the conversation going on at the defenses bench, “poor ol’ Jackel walks in and he hits ‘im! Chases ‘im down and BAM! Hit’s ‘im again!”

“Hold it! How long after the victim entered the room did you say this happened?”

“Immediately! Blondie saw ‘im and freaked! Grabbed my treasured thinker– Oh! It’s terrible, terrible to think about!” Dan pressed his face into his hands in distress.

It didn’t seem right, but Apollo couldn’t pin point anything in particular wrong either, “He’s got to be lying about something, doesn’t he? There’s no way.”

“His emotions are way off, Apollo,” Athena sighed, toying with widget again. “He’s perfectly calm.”

“Calm?!” Apollo yelled, immediately lowering his voice as he got strange looks from the gallery, before pointing at the witness stand and continuing, “You’re telling me that he is calm right now?”

“Well, outside he isn’t, but his heart is perfectly content. There is more going on here than we know, and that is exactly what this guy wants.”

“Are you prepared to admit defeat?” Prosecutor von Karma grinned.

“It does seem like this is a fairly straightforward case,” the judge agreed.

“No! I have one more question for the witness!” Apollo claimed, without any substance behind it.

“Alright, what would you like to ask?” the judge prompted him. “I would warn you against wasting the court's time, however.”

Apollo frowned and took a deep breath. Of course he only had one shot. Of course everyone thought Prosecutor Gavin was guilty. He had to make this count or he might fail Prosecutor Gavin before he had a chance to prove what was really happening.

“You say Prosecutor Gavin ‘freaked,’ what exactly did he do?”

“What I said! Freaked! Flipped! Jacky walked in and suddenly he was on the ground!”

“Objection! Why are we still listening to this charade of justice. The defense has no argument, just wild questioning with no basis”

“No!” Apollo began.

“Then what, might I ask, are you proposing?”

“Dan Singer! You didn’t actually witness the moment of the crime? Did you? You say he was hit as soon as he entered the room, except his body was found in the far corner of the room. What really happened!” Apollo called, pointing an accusatory finger at Dan.

“What!?” Dan jumped back from the stand, his hands covering his face, “I saw it! I saw it all!”

“Than tell us exactly what happened!” Apollo slammed his hands on the bench in front of him.

“I–” Dan deflated on the stand, his shoulders drooped, as he stared at his hands. “It happened so fast”

“Tell us what you saw! Not what you think happened, only what you saw with your own eyes!”

“I did see ’t!” He jumped to his own defense. “Saw it all!”

“If you saw it all! Why didn’t you do anything?” Apollo pushed further.

Dan’s face twisted into something new, and his voice lowered as he stared at Apollo, “I messed up, ‘kay? I didn’t see it all, but I saw blondey hit him!”

“He's nervous,” Athena mumbled to Apollo who nodded

“Explain that then! Why didn’t you see everything, and what did you see?” Apollo’s eyes bored into the witness. It still felt wrong to be cross examining his boss, but Dan had always been a bit of a wildcard since they day he hired “Artemis.” He wanted to believe he was a good guy, but the truth would trump any hope he had.

The judged eyes flicked between Apollo and the witness before making his decision. “I believe we have enough reason for one more testimony. Mr. Singer, please tell us exactly in detail about witnessing the murder.”

“I ain’t proud of this, but I ran away! Right through the door in my office! Scarey man, that one is.” Dan glanced around the room, tapping his fingers on the witness stand. While Apollo could see the tension in his body, but it was impossible to tell exactly what was causing it.

“And by, ‘that one’ you are referring to the defendant?” Apollo clarified, trying to figure out what exactly was setting Dan on edge.

“Sure am! You’d a been scared too if you saw ‘im!”

“That’s weird,” Athena said, rubbing behind her ear, “His heart holds no sense of fear. At least not when talking about Prosecutor Gavin.”

“He’s scared of something, but he’s lying about what,” Apollo confirmed with her before returning his attention to the witness, “So you were scared, but where did you run to?”

“The hall, behind my office! I thought he was gonna attack me!”

“If you were so certain he was dangerous, why didn’t you call the cops sooner?” Apollo asked. A sick feeling came over him every time he even implies that Prosecutor Gavin might have been the culprit. His mind rejected the idea.

“I was gonna! I swear I was! But I didn’t have m’phone!”

“Objection! If we look at the map, the hallway mentioned leads directly to the security room. Phone or not. Why didn’t you go there?”

A look that was almost a pout crossed Dan’s face as he sassed out a response, “Ain’t hindsight twenty-twenty, kid?”

“What does that mean?” Apollo asked, wishing for even one straight answer.

“I didn't think about it!” Dan spat out before composing himself again, “I ran, but ‘fore I could do anything I saw ‘m. That man attacked my Jacky.”

“Hold it!” Apollo called. “If you were in the hallway, how did you see into the room?”

“The door wasn't all closed. I could see everything!”

“Let me get this straight.” Apollo read off the notes he had been taking, “You ran away because you were scared of the defendant, looked into the room from the hallway, and then watched the victim get murdered?”

Dan nodded and added, “That’s exactly it! He didn’t back down, even when Jacky begged ‘im to stop!”

“And at this moment, you did nothing?”

“I couldn’t! I woulda done something!”

As Dan spoke Apollo’s bracelet reacted. There was nothing more than a slight pinch, but it was there. “Hold it! Repeat that.”

“Repeat what?” Dan asked

“Your statement.”

“Objection!” Prosecutor von Karma interjected pointing at Apollo with her whip, “This is a foolish waste of time!”

“Objection! The witness is hiding something, and I will prove it!” Apollo slammed his hands on the table. This might be his only chance to turn the trial in his favor.

“You may continue, Mr Justice,” The judge conceded, “But! If this yields nothing, I will be forced to penalize you.”

Apollo nodded before turning back to the witness, “What exactly couldn’t you do?”

“Anything! I couldn’t stop it–”

Time slowed around Apollo as he focused in on what Dan was saying. Something was not genuine and he needed to figure out what it was. There was no margin of error.

“Everything happened so fast!”

Apollo scanned his whole body, looking for any sort of tell. Dan had a habit of moving his body wildly as he spoke and it was difficult to determine which shift was the one he was looking for.

“I wanted to!”

As Dan’s hands rested down, to rest on the stand, Apollo saw it: his middle finger twitched against the wood, his knuckles whitening under the pressure.

“Gotcha!” Apollo called as he pointed.

Dan recoiled, “What?”

“You can’t help tensing your hands when you lie.” Apollo crossed his arms with a smirk. “So, please tell the court why exactly you didn’t want to help the victim.”

“I did! I wanted to! I couldn’t!” Bracing himself on the stand, Dan jumped up and down. Apollo could still see the twitch as he denied it.

“Stop lying!” Apollo shook his head, making use of his chords of steel to hold the attention of the entire court as he stared down the witness.

Right as Dan’s lips parted as if he was going to answer, that whip cracked through the courtroom, “Enough with this foolish notion of intent! I will not allow you to badger my witness any longer.”

“Objection!” Athena called from Apollo’s side, “The defendant is lying!”

Dan managed to get a word in this time and said, "I ain't no lyin' liar miss missy!"

The judge shook his head ignoring the witness' outburst, “Overruled, unless you have proof, I must penalize you.”

Apollo sighed. This was hopeless. He let his eyes wander over to Prosecutor Gavin, waiting for whatever fate that the judge would impose upon him with his ruling, and his heart sunk. Just a few hours earlier, he had seen a glimmer of hope cross his face, but looking at him sitting in the defendant's chair with blank features and an empty stare weighed on Apollo’s heart.

He knew that Dan was lying and had proof enough for himself, yet nothing to show the court. He couldn’t let Prosecutor Gavin down. He’d already taken too many things from Prosecutor Gavin over the years: his brother, his best friend, his band. No matter how much he denied it, Apollo knew that Klavier’s life had gotten significantly worse since the two of them had met, and if he failed now, Klavier will have lost his freedom.

“Come on, Apollo.” Athena bumped Apollo to get his attention. “We can’t give up yet!”

“Yeah. All we have to do is figure out what really happened with half the facts. Easy.”

“No joking, Apollo. You’re the one who told me to keep my eyes and ears open. You have to focus too!” Athena said, putting her hands on her hips, “We know Prosecutor Gavin’s innocent, so there has to be something in this trial that’ll prove it.”

“You’re right,” Apollo nodded as he turned to her and forced a smile onto his face, remembering the advice Mr. Wright had given him. “Thanks.”

“Mr. Singer,” Prosecutor von Karma’s voice brought them back to focusing on the trial. “Please, finish your testimony so we can end foolishness”

“Yessir!”

“After you witnessed the murder, what did you do?”

“I panicked! I jumped back when he hit ’im and the door closed on me!” All the nervousness in his body seemed to fade away as he continued with his story. “I was locked in the hallway!”

“Hold it! You were locked in the hallway?”

“Course I was! The doors in m’office are locked from the outside! There’re lotta crazies coming by”

“Objection! If both of your doors are locked, how did the defendant and the victim get in without you letting them?”

“‘cause I was expecting Jacky!”

“So you were expecting the victim in your office that night?”

“Ain’t that what I just said?”

“Yes, but–” Apollo wasn’t sure what to do with that information, but he noted it anyway in case it came up later on. “Alright”

Prosecutor von Karma shook her head, “If the defense would cease with the pointless remarks, shall we let our witness continue.

“Yes, Mr. Singer. Go on,” the judge agreed.

“I had t’go to the security room to get a key, and that’s when Tobes found me. He’s all worried about what he saw. Says blondie’s a bad egg.” Dan stretched out the last two words for emphasis.

“Hold it! A ‘bad egg’?” Apollo asked

“He ain’t a good person! He’d been harassing my poor Arty just the night ‘fore!” Dan brushed an imaginary tear from his eye.

Apollo willed his body not to panic as adrenaline flowed through his veins. Of course he’d recognize Prosecutor Gavin. They’d fought the night before the murder, but it wasn’t harassment. He tried to recall the details of of his conversation with Toby after that disaster of a dance. He was fairly certain he had told him that there was nothing to worry about, but Toby was always the protective type. Should he have said something more? Something better? Had Apollo looked so messed up that Toby had just decided the worst.

Hie heart sped up. What exactly did Toby think had happened in that room? His hand curled into a fist and vision wavered as he tried to keep in control of his own thoughts and emotions. Was this really all his fault? Everything seemed to come back to Artemis. If it weren’t for him, Klavier would have had a perfectly nice night and weekend. He would be spending the day prosecuting actual criminals instead of sitting in the defendant's chair.

He could hear Athena’s voice calling his name from his side, but it sounded so far away. Maybe even Klavier said something. He needed to focus. Count to ten. Breathe deep. Ground himself. Anything. He couldn’t panic there and then. Klavier needed him.

“I’m fine,” he tried to croak out, aware of the entire room’s eyes on him. He stared down at his hands when he felt a tear roll down from his cheek to his skin. The air got thinner around him. He could hear the judge bang his gavel and call a recess, but his body was locked in place. He couldn’t fail here. He couldn’t break down. He tried to object, but no sound came out.

When was the last time he had taken a full breath?

Before he could figure out the answer to that, the world went black, and his legs crumpled beneath him.