Author's Note: If you were reading this story for nice and loving Aunt Aura, you may stop reading now.

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October 21st, 2021

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"Simon, I know you didn't kill her! Why do you keep living this lie!"

"I should ask of you, dear sister, why do you still come for me? I took the one you cared for most and sent her flying across the River Styx. Should you not be focusing your energy on celebrating my death sentence?"

"You are my nerdy little brother! You like katanas, calling people by Japanese titles and those stupid animes you'd always watch in the middle of the night with no headphones! You didn't kill her, I know that! Why do you keep claiming you did? Work with me and I can give you your true verdict! We can stop GYAXA's death count from climbing any higher!"

"This is my true verdict, Aura. Calm yourself."

"If that's true, then how did you dissolve from my kind, goofy brother who was the gentlest man alive to a death row inmate?!"

"As Metis was your greatest treasure, Athena is mine."

Athena is mine... Athena is mine... Athena is mine.

That's when it hit her. Simon was innocent as she always knew.

But he was taking the fall for someone else. Someone who had taken truth with them to the other side.

Metis' little princess.

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October 13th, 2022

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The Cykes family had been gone for just over a year when Aura finally pieced it together.

Athena did it. She murdered her mother.

The princess had taken her mother's unwavering love and repaid it with murder.

Her own death was payback.

Simon confessed before Athena died.

He wasn't at the hospital the last few days of her life. He would have known Athena was going to die if he had.

That psychologist mind was the one thing Aura lacked that the rest of her family had. Simon would have heard Athena's brain shutting down if he'd been there before his trial.

A trial cannot be held if the defendant is dead. He would not have confessed if he heard the signs Athena's days were turning to hours, then minutes.

Everything would have been better. Not good, Metis was still gone.

But she'd still have Simon.

A year ago, she would say that it would be better even though Metis and Athena were gone.

But the little princess took her mother's life. She in no way deserved to be missed.

Aura had been in denial a long time, until the evidence against Athena began to pile up.

All the child remembered on her last day was that she was covered in blood, there was her mother's katana through her mother's chest and Simon had entered some time after her.

Aura knew the child was in pain for some time while she and Metis worked to create a device that would at least subside her agony.

Perhaps she just couldn't take one more day of it.

The pain was getting worse, she remembered Simon mentioning in August 2020. The launch was getting closer as well, so there wasn't much time to work on helping Thena. Resources were not easily spared as well. Athena's headaches weren't a government-funded space project, and had to wait.

That was the conclusion Aura reached. Athena killed her mother because the board of directors had all resources devoted to the space launch, leaving none for further robotic development or Athena's condition.

How cruel the world was, that pain could drive an innocent little girl that had never even seen mild violence to murder someone who never had a say.

Weapons were no longer allowed in the center, even for decorative reasons.

A decorative sword had been the murder weapon two years ago.

Aura was allowed a ray gun for emergency charging of robots or emergency shut-off of machinery. The gun was to be holstered at all times unless there was cause for alarm.

She suspected it only spent a max of three hours a day on her hip. She used it on Clonco multiple times every day. The hunk of junk was always needing something.

"Mama Aura!" Clonco wheeled happily into the lab, spinning around and waving a letter in his hands.

Aura let the ray gun loose.

Electricity shot from the robot's joints before his head spun around and he cowered. "Ah, Miss Aura sorry, sorry!"

"What is it, hunk of junk? I'm quite busy!"

"Your petition for Simon's trial has returned!"

It was snatched from his metal claw and torn open. Every time she found anything that could prove what she already knew, she submitted a retrial petition. They had been rejected for two years straight: the first year because there wasn't conclusive proof that Simon lied in his confession, the second year because her new suspect was already deceased. This time, she'd tried a new tactic. She knew how that intolerable, fox-slippery court system was. The likelihood they'd host a retrial only for the overturn of a previous verdict was next to nothing. But she was desperate. Her brother was a dying man. If they wouldn't rehost a trial only because the real killer was dead, then she'd have to stop playing by their rules.

Miss Aura Blackquill,

We have reviewed your case for the retrial of Homicide Incident UR-1.

However, we find your case lacking in enough evidence to suggest an overrule of the current verdict. While some evidence may suggest an accomplice to the current convict, the case cannot be retried on the suspicion of their guilt due to the suspect's being deceased. If evidence were to point to the deceased suspect's guilt as acting without the aid of the current convict, the case could be considered. Otherwise, the case is considered closed without further argument.

The Japanifornia Prosecution Office hereby rejects your case for the retrial of UR-1.

Condolences,

Miles Edgeworth, Chief Prosecution Officer

Condemn them! They admit facts of the case have changed, but still refuse a retrial? Prosecutors and their desire only for a guilty verdict! If he were still around, he could help her present the evidence in a way that would force the case to reopen.

But he's been banned from the courtroom for three years now. Seemingly gone off grid as well. A quick search through the court library states he appeared in Family Court just a few months after his conviction, but that is the last record anywhere.

She tried the next best attorney. Gavin wouldn't even meet.

No other attorney had the win record near these two men, especially when it came to difficult cases. She was left as her own advocate.

Simon's connections to the Prosecution Office didn't help. The prosecutors were afraid for their jobs, and wouldn't answer if they heard her on the line. The attorneys didn't want another prosecutor added back to the office roster. Legal experts and journalists wouldn't touch either of the Dark Law cases. Judges started yelling and, well, judging. The only individual within the legal realm who had even sat through a lunch with her was no longer practicing law, but performing in Europe.

A few knocks were heard on her door. "Miss Aura? May I come in."

"Come in, Terran."

A young man with a newly-printed staff badge, a GYAXA visor and a mop of shiny, black hair stepped in carefully with a stack of papers; technical jargon and documentation all over them. "The techs are requesting some stabilizers for the engine, special coolant tanks and an entirely new AI system for the rocket launch in 2027. You know, anti-HAT-1 gear. They need to know whether the Spaceship Engineer Committee needs to reconvene."

"Of course. Put them on the little black shelf by the Ponco Series Interface. The big computer with the three screens." Waving dismissively in the general direction of the interface, she did not look away from the rejected petition and her brows furrowed deeper.

"Another rejected petition, Miss Aura? You seem out of it."

"Yes, Terran. They acknowledge that there is evidence proving someone else was involved in the murder, but refuse to retry."

Terran waited until the reams were settled before responding. "Can you put a name on the new suspect?"

"Yes." She hissed a little on the 's'.

Clay figured she didn't want to talk about it. The person she believed destroyed the lives of everyone in her family wasn't going to stand in court any time soon. "I'll leave you to your robots then. I'll see you soon, Clonco. Tell Ponco I said I."

He was halfway out the door before she looked up. "Terran, wait. How much do you know about what happened?"

"I know Doctor Cykes and her daughter died, stabbing and a hemorrhage respectively, and Mister Simon was convicted of it. Apparently now I also know there was another person involved."

"Let me tell you. You are on staff now, you deserve to know of Cosmos Space Center's darkest secret."

~~~~

"You believe that it was Doctor Cykes' daughter who committed the crime?"

"Like I said, Athena was in terrible pain the last few months of her life. Inhuman suffering often brings out the worst in even the gentlest of souls."

"Wouldn't Doctor Cykes have done something to soothe her daughter?"

"She could not. Supplies were completely restricted until the launch of HAT-1. She tried to get painkillers for her daughter, but doctors of medicine wouldn't understand how Athena was hurting and wouldn't give a prescription. Pediatric over-the-counters weren't strong enough to even dull the edge. What the child probably needed was morphine, but without a prescription she couldn't have it."

"Morphine?! She wasn't just in pain, she was in agony!"

"That's why she never left the fourth floor the last few months of her life. It was a good day if she left her room. Robotics lab, psyche lab, her family's apartment there on the floor; they were the only places she went." Aura snorted a sigh. "Just before the supplies were restricted, Metis got me to develop a pair of radio headphones that would interfere with signals coming into Athena's ears. Her pain worsened severely around the time I finished, and she refused to wear them, which progressed whatever was wrong severely. She died, as you know, on October 13th from brain hemorrhaging, just about three months later."

"But her death wasn't caused by whatever was hurting her, it was the skull puncture wound she got on the 7th, correct?"

"That's what her paperwork says. But it's also likely that whatever was wrong before was killing her and the wound finished off any chance she had at fighting. If that's so, she held on for a long time. I believe she was overcome with pain, and with the belief that the headphones Metis ordered were the cause, killed her mother. She may have even known she was dying. Maybe she wanted to take Metis with her because she was scared of death. I don't know, Athena is dead. All I know is Athena killed her, not Simon."

Clay's body ran colder and colder as it processed a little girl, driven mad by chronic head pain, stabbing her mother to death. It disgusted him to the core, but he retained his stomach for the time being. It almost disturbed him more that Aura discussed it so casually. This was matricide! Caused partially by some degree of medical malpractice! "D-Does anyone else know your theory of events?"

"All of the higher staff. Everyone who knew Metis well when she died. Yuri, Solomon, the technicians. You are the last one."

"Your brother doesn't know? It could save him!"

"Simon won't hear of it!" She tilted her head away as if he had suddenly turned into fermenting roadkill right in front of him. "Athena is his angel, he won't hear of any bad words about Athena. He believes Athena's head problems and Metis' death were separate. The only events he believes are related are the deaths of the two. He won't even let me breathe a sound of the possibility that Athena killed Metis because of a misunderstanding of her chronic head condition. He just pounds the Detention Center window and snarls 'Athena is gone. Don't you dare deface her name. She didn't take her mother's life, but had hers taken as well.' If he knew I was sharing what the evidence was suggesting he probably would be guilty of a murder, mine!"

'I never knew your brother and little Athena were so close."

"She may have called me Mama Aura, why I don't know when she loved my nerdy brother so much more, but Simon was the only person she ever wanted to be around aside from her mother. If she wasn't obeying the staff, all it took was a word from Simon and she'd be rolling over for him." She leaned closer to Clay. "Now I've heard your little friend with the horns... he's studying law?"

"Planning to. Apollo wants to be a defense attorney, but he hasn't started yet. He has to be eighteen since he's orphaned. Why?"

"No attorney will take this case from me because the obvious suspect is dead, even though Simon is very alive. But if you could convince your friend... this system of ours can't be trusted, but we need someone on the inside to take it down."

"I don't know if Apollo would accept. He didn't know Athena, he just came to her funeral to comfort me. There's also a chance he won't get his badge in time, and even then he'll just be a rookie lawyer. Definitely not someone like Wright or Gavin."

"Believe me, Wright was my preferred choice. But he's disbarred, so not much he can do. Gavin refused instantly."

"I don't think Apollo would want to discuss a real case until he's actually in college and has a chance at getting his badge. But I'd be willing to help you with your side."

"Oh, I'd love that Terran! You and me working together to expose the truth behind the princess' last days. Together we'll take down the sun and moon of the legal world, as Metis would have described."

After Clay bid his true farewell and returned to wherever he came from, Aura returned to the interface and picked up her photo of Metis, tracing the lines gently. "I'm sorry it all went so wrong, Metis... but the princess can't hold her grasp from the other side for much longer. The honor of GYAXA will be restored, Simon will be set free. I and the robots, along with Mr. Terran will fight for the truth of your final days; by whatever means necessary. The time is soon, Metis, I must be ready, for my brother, and for you."

She turned to both her robots: Clonco, who had heard the whole story, and Ponco, who he had transferred all the data to over the interface; smirking finally with a victory she'd been fighting for since October 7th, 2020. "You both know?"

Yes, Miss Aura! Our data sharing server is without fail! Ponco clapped her robotic pincers together. For Mommy Metis!

"Good. We will prove without a doubt that, not only is Simon innocent beyond a doubt, but that Metis' princess was the one who spilled her blood. This, is what Mama has decreed."