BlackHeart Biohazards

In Justice We Trust (22279 words) by thesavagesabretooth

With Simon Blackquill and Athena Cykes assigned as their psychologists, the Phantom and Fulbright must grapple with their identity, their deeds, their future, and their love for the twisted samurai whom they betrayed.

All the while, Edgeworth and Wright find their relationship tested as they walk the narrow path between pursuing real justice, and the dark age of the law.

–

December 22, 9:00 am

Edgeworth had asked them to come in for a first meeting with the Phantom, and to make certain to arrive separately. Simon would be waiting for Athena to join him in the empty hall past the hospital’s security door. Taka had been left behind for this journey– a bird in the hospital would be too conspicuous. 

Athena walked through the door with her hand at her mouth, chewing her thumbnail thoughtfully with her eyes downcast. 

Widget flashed around her neck, flickering brightly in the empty corridor in a mixture of blue and red…like the lights of a squad car. 

“Cykes-dono,” Simon greeted, professionally. He even bowed.

Athena bowed back, her hair falling in her face as she bounced back up with that big, not-entirely-truthful smile of hers.

“Simon! You feeling pumped up and ready to go?” 

He glanced at Widget. “About as ready as you are. You don’t have a way to turn off that setting, do you?”

“I..I do.” She said as she fumbled with Widget for a moment. The little machine’s face went pitch blank, and Athena’s visible emotions stilled with a sigh as she put on a mask of casual neutrality. “There…is that better?” 

“For our purposes, probably,” Simon sighed. “Much as I’d prefer otherwise.”

“As much as I’d prefer otherwise too.” Athena chuckled. Internally, the lights were still flashing. Fear, anger, sadness, surprise that this was even still happening. That it wasn’t some bad dream.

She could only imagine what the Phantom was like just past that door. “But we do what we have to, right?” 

“We do what we have to,” he agreed. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it for a moment. She could feel the emotions coming off him in waves. Apprehension, anger, curiosity, even hope. But they were dominated by the first two.

As she squeezed his hand in return with a warm smile and a twinge of concern– for the patient, and for themselves, she noted the hope and curiosity in her mental psychological profile… almost as a reflex at this point.

“Let’s go meet our patient.” 

They headed down the empty hall until one of the doors beeped and clicked open for them. Simon pushed his way in first, his apprehension spiking. Impolite or not, he clearly was entering first in case there was danger.

When Athena followed him in, she found an unremarkable hospital room, without windows. There was a patient in the bed, handcuffed to it.

Athena choked down her immediate emotions, and concentrated instead on listening as she walked in with a slight wave of her hand.

“Good morning,” 

“Good morning,” the man in the bed said flatly. Athena picked up a spike of emotion from him, gone before she could identify it. “I didn’t think I’d see either of you.”

“Regrettably, we’ve been appointed your therapy team,” Simon drawled, his tone dripping with bitterness.

Athena closed her eyes for a moment, crossing her arms with a bright and falsified smile. 

“Mr. Edgeworth thinks we’re the best for the job, and I’m not about to tell the Chief Prosecutor no.” Two deep breaths to compose herself, and she opened her eyes again. “I know it’s unusual, but I intend on giving my all to your rehabilitation and treatment. Are you okay with that?” 

“I’m not in a position to question Mr. Edgeworth’s judgment,” he said evenly. He glanced back and forth at the two of them.

It was strange, looking at the man in the bed. He looked an awfully lot like Bobby Fulbright, even with the mask and makeup gone. Different, but the same.

Something sick squirmed in her belly, putting her off the pancakes she’d made to relax Simon and herself just a little while before.

Even with the mask and makeup cone, he looked different but the same to the face that always smiled at them when they arrived at a crime scene. The man who’d share evidence with them with a big grin and a ‘in justice we trust’ the moment they opened up the playful banter.

She wanted to cry, but she held herself in check.

“How are you holding up?” she asked softly, “not only did that sniper shot look nasty, but the trial ended on a rather…intense note…for you.” 

There was another intense pulse of emotion– several all at once– too fast to parse. She’d need widget to see what was going on, or if they were even real. They were smothered almost immediately.

Simon was currently radiating an icy anger as he stood looming behind Athena, letting her take the lead.

“The sniper shot– would it surprise you to know I’ve had worse? But thank you for asking.” Of course, he hadn’t really answered her question.

Behind her, Simon huffed with an irritated noise.

Her fingers toyed with Widget, before she took a seat opposite the phantom, flicking the little machine on with a soft hum.

“You’re welcome. How are you holding up?” she asked again, this time as she sent the AR screen flashing in front of her and booting into its analysis mode. 

“Ah, there’s that little machine again,” the phantom murmured. “Honestly, I’m doing fantastic. Alive is not how I’d expected this to end.”

The mood matrix registered a sudden and confused pulse of both sadness and happiness, and then went completely dead again.

“It’s more than you deserve, traitor,” Simon growled.

The mood matrix pulsed and went dead a second time.

“The Mood Matrix is like a focus for my abilities.” She said pleasantly, grimacing a little as the emotions went dead. “But life is full of surprises. Even if it’s not what you expected, it’s what is.”

Alive…like mother and Clay aren’t. Life could be full of surprises as it was cruel.She forced the thoughts down again with a smile and continued “But in order to make the best of it, we’re going to need to address quite a bit. I can’t promise it’ll be a gentle process.” 

“Don’t worry, I’ve never expected anyone to be gentle with me.”

Athena felt a surge of anger, but it was coming from Simon again, as he drew a hissing breath.

Her fingers twitched in the air, and the display was briefly disrupted by a flash of red before she closed her eyes and took a steadying breath.

Now was not the time to let the emotions of others override her own. Not with such a dangerous and important job. Not in front of the last person her mother ever saw.

She flexed her fingers and the screen went back to normal. “I’m sorry to hear that, Mr….” she trailed off. “What should I call you? What would you like to be called.” 

The man shifted in his bed and the chains of his handcuffs clinked as he moved. His expression changed, brow furrowing, and smiling awkwardly in consternation.

It was a familiar expression.

The mood matrix blinked on and off, registering happiness, and frustration at the same time, on and off.

“I’m still going by Bobby, actually.” He pressed his hands together in a nervous gesture Athena had seen dozens of times. “I know perhaps that isn’t the most just thing to do, but I’ve kind of gotten attached to it…”

“…..” Athena swallowed thickly “Still Bobby…” her eyes flicked to the dark shadow over her shoulder before they flicked back to the man on the bed. “To some of the mannerisms too, I see…” 

She hesitated before she noted the sudden flickering of emotion in the matrix, dragging it into a small folder off to the side for analysis later. 

She heard another hiss of anger from Simon behind her. “Why bother putting up the act? If you think it will win you sympathy points, you are sadly mistaken.”

“Bobby” hung his head shamefully. 

“That’s really not it… I don’t expect you to understand. I know, I’ve done terrible things, and I– I’m not looking to be forgiven.” The mood matrix pulsed between sorrow and frustration and then suddenly went dead again. The man looked up with a more composed expression. “It’s just that you wouldn’t believe how.. hmm.. sticky Bobby Fulbright has proven to be.”

Athena’s eyes widened in surprise, before she noted the reactions down as well. 

“…Interesting.” She tilted her head “are you saying that the persona of Bobby Fulbright has been…difficult…to drop once you took up the act?” 

“I would say exactly that, yes.” The man nodded. He had a rather frustrated look on his face, but nothing was registering on the matrix.

A rueful nose came from Simon. Athena, meanwhile, took a deep and steadying breath. 

“And how does the idea of pushing it down and not using it make you feel? How does it feel to step ‘away from Bobby Fulbright’?”

“It doesn’t,” he shrugged. Despite this, Athena saw a blip and gone of frustration, and sadness on the matrix.

“I don’t think that’s true, Bobby.” She tapped the mood matrix “…sadness…frustration. I can hear just the glimpses of your emotions, just like during the trial. One of the major steps we’ll be taking is to try and re-tune you to these subtle and disconnected emotions…as well as getting into your past and exactly why you are the way that you are.”

She grit her teeth , feeling her hand shake. The memory of the man flailing about in terror as fear consumed him for the first time in…who knows how long…played through her mind. A bitter part hoped maybe it helped him understand how his victims…living and dead…may have felt.

“…so we can understand one another. So I want you to try and be honest with me so I can gauge your relationship to your emotions..”

“I’m not lying. I don’t have any reason to lie any more,” he said, glancing at both of them. “I suppose if you really need a deeper answer– why not be Bobby Fulbright? It’s not like I have anyone else to be.”

“Rubbish!” Simon snapped. “You think climbing into the skin of a dead man is going to help win you favors?”

“I’m sorry,” “Bobby” murmured. He flinched under Simon’s hard stare and the mood matrix flashed with frustration and sadness again, and then stopped. “Really. It’s the dead man who has climbed into my skin. If I wanted favors I’d do absolutely anything else, believe me.”

Athena winced, and for a moment her face flickered into a mirror of the radiating anger before she clamped down and shivered.

This was a mistake. How could prosecutor Edgeworth ask them to care for a patient when they held such complicated history? 

It wasn’t…unheard of, but…she was finding it hard to regulate both her own, and the emotions around her. But she had to, because nobody could do it but the two of them. Her fingers clenched tight.

“Because you know that acting as Bobby Fulbright isn’t winning you sympathy, especially not when the wounds are fresh.” She spoke up. “But you don’t have much of an identity of your own, is that it? It makes some sense that this one may ‘catch’.” 

“I suppose it does,” he said, in that measured tone. “As I was telling my interrogators last night, this was my longest assignment by far.”

“Enough time for the persona to stick.” She noted it down with a shaky breath “Do your assignments not usually last that long, then? What about in your time between them…what are you like then?” 

The mood matrix registered a strong ping of fear and infusion for a moment, and then it shrank down to almost nothing.

“Bobby” smiled a wide, apologetic and familiar smile, and he held up his hands.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Cykes,” he said, sounding just like he always had. “I don’t know if I have a good answer for that. Uh, ‘obedient’ might be the best answer.”

“’Obedient’,” Simon sneered. “Hah! Wipe that disgusting look off your face Fo-phantom imposter. Athena– we ought to regroup with the chief prosecutor. This is going nowhere.”

Simon’s anger was forefront in Athena’s perception, but she could also hear what it was covering up. Confusion and alarm.

She couldn’t help but feel them too, her heart pounding in her chest as she bit her lip and typed a few more notes in Widget’s interface.

“I don’t know about that, Simon. We…It’s going to be slow going, but I’m starting to see some patterns.”

She tried not to look in Bobby’s eyes. The way he bounced back and forth between that quiet and muted stare, and the familiar goofball was difficult to watch. She vowed to herself that she’d clamp down upon it and force herself to manage meeting his eyes in future sessions.

“That being said, if you think it’s time to regroup, we should regroup…but I think this is the fruitful first of many sessions.” 

“No no, by all means, if you think you’re getting somewhere, don’t let me stop you. But my patience is being severely tested.”

There was a thump of sadness on the monitor, and “Bobby” looked like he wanted to say something, and then he looked down at the sheets.

“What a lot of trouble… this all is.”

Athena sighed.

“It certainly is, Bobby…this whole thing’s a bit crazy isn’t it?” She traced a shape on her screen before she looked up at him. “you registered a strong note of sadness for a moment. Would you like to talk about it?” 

The mood matrix went crazy again all of a sudden, pinging through several different registered emotions, then going dead, then pinging again, as had happened at the trial.

“I’d say he’s feeling conflicted about that,” Simon drawled. “Or trying to make us think he is.”

Athena’s eyes flicked over the display, and she focused her hearing as her brow furrowed. 

“I could tell when the emotions were fake if I pushed myself enough…..see the patterns throughout and make a judgment. I…” It was really loud. She set her jaw and tried to push forward “How about you tell me what’s on your mind now, Bobby.” 

“Bobby” rang his hands together, and continued to look at the bed, as the emotions on the mood matrix flickered on and off.

“You’re not going to believe me. And if I say what I’m thinking it’ll make everyone in the room upset. It might be more just if I ‘just’ kept my mouth shut…”

“Hahaha…” She weakly laughed. “…I’m your court appointed therapist. We both are. There can’t be any secrets between us as we work to heal your heart, Mr. Fulbright…I only ask because it can serve as a possible avenue for us to pursue…not to hurt you, or anyone in the room.” 

He sighed, and swallowed, and took a deep breath. Athena expected the emotions on the screen to go dead. Instead, they did the opposite.

They read two clear, steady emotions, frustration, and sadness.

“Just like old times,” he laughed weakly, and gave a left handed salute. “I try to hide something and end up telling you anyway, huh, Ms. Cykes. You asked how I was feeling, right? Because your machine picked up sadness?”

Athena nodded with a little salute of her own with her gloved fingers.

“What can I say, Bobby…I’ve got a knack for it. Don’t worry. I won’t pull the damsel routine on you for information, this time.” She opened up a digital notepad. Mm hmm…It picked up a fairly strong ping of sadness. I wanted to pursue that.” 

“Alright.” He shuddered again, and pressed his hands together nervously. “And remember, I don’t expect you to believe me. But… I’m feeling sorry. Sorry that any of this happened. Sorry that I killed that poor astronaut boy. Sorry that I lost everyone’s trust in me. Sorry that I can’t just wake up on Monday morning and come into the office like usual….”

As he spoke, the mood matrix picked up the ping of frustration growing stronger as the sadness remained steady.

Behind her, Athena heard Simon shifting from foot to foot. It couldn’t be more obvious how angry he was, but he seemed conflicted too.

“I’m sorry about that too.” Athena murmured, her own emotions pinging all over inside her heart. “I don’t know if I can believe you yet , Bobby. Not fully…. But I can see your sadness…steady and heavily present. I can see that you might very well feel sorry…or something similar. It’s something I’d like to keep an eye on. But I also see frustration. Tell me about that.” 

“Frustration. Yes that makes sense Ms. Cykes. Um, to be really honest I’m having a lot of trouble telling you these things at all, because the other part of me that isn’t Bobby Fulbright thinks it’s a really bad idea, and I think h– I’m kind of embarrassed about the whole situation. I’d rather not say anything and let you keep on believing that I’m a heartless bastard. So that’s probably the frustration. Because I haven’t stopped talking. And that’s frustrating.”

“This is nonsense,” Simon muttered.

Athena blinked slowly, her brow furrowing as she tilted her head to the side. “I..I see.”

She typed something on her screen, then dismissed it into the folder with a wave of her hand. A document simply titled ‘personality rift? Metaphorical? DID?’

“So you’re embarrassed about the whole thing, and there’s a part of you that isn’t Bobby Fulbright…and that part of you, that part of you thinks telling us is a bad idea?” her fingers tapped at the screen again. “I thank you for pushing past that, Bobby. It’s important that you tell us these things, especially in this much detail…sorry for the undue frustration, but we’re going to need you to keep talking.” 

All of the emotion on the chart suddenly snapped off.

“And to think,” the man in the bed said, “Just a minute ago you were ready to end the session. Can we do that please? I’m tired.”

Athena felt her jaw tighten, and a white hot frustration rolled through her as she took a deep breath.

“….If you insist,” she said slowly “…but I think we’re getting somewhere. I’ll be going over my notes for next session…but I’m hoping that between then and now you think about this…and how important it is that we establish a rapport, okay?” 

“I’ll cooperate with whatever you think is best, to the best of my abilities,” he replied, stiffly.

Athena tensed her fingers against the imaginary screen, before she waved her hand and dismissed it.

“I appreciate your cooperation,” she said with a thin smile. “…we need to get to a place where we can talk openly and casually with one another to really make progress. But I think that’ll take time on both ends…so for now…mutual cooperation is more than appreciated.” 

“Thank you for your consideration,” he said. 

As they packed up and began to head out of the room, he spoke again and it was in that familiar tone of voice.

“Ms. Cykes… Prosecutor Blackquill… be well,” he murmured. “And I’m sorry again.”

Athena winced, rubbing her fingers over Widget’s emotional display. 

“Thank you, Bobby.” She managed with her big and bright ‘defense attorney’s smile’.
“You be as well as you can, too, alright?”

Behind her fingers, Widget flashed blue, yellow, and red, the light shining through the flesh of her narrow fingers. 

December 22, 10:45 am

Simon and Athena didn’t speak on their way out of the hospital. They didn’t speak until they were in Simon’s rented car and driving down the highway in lazy LA traffic. Simon wasn’t sure where he was driving to.

He wasn’t sure he should be behind the wheel right now either.

“Well,” he said. “What did you think of all that.”

He had no idea what emotions Athena might be picking up from him. Hell, he had no idea what emotions he was even feeling.

Athena was quiet another moment more, her hand still shadowing Widget’s face.

“It was…an eventful first session.” Her voice was tentative, almost completely unsure. “I think the emotions I picked…some of them anyway, were genuine enough. But I have to go through my notes and the recordings later to really analyze them..” 

“Fancy that,” Simon drawled. “Who do you think he was trying to fool more– us or himself?”

Athena bit her lip. 

“….I don’t know that yet. I don’t see what he thinks he can gain from trying to fool us…especially since he knows neither of us are going to fall for the act. I think…” She trailed off before she spoke up, her hand touching his arm as if to steady him “I think there’s a lot we need to dig into, and it’s a shame he shut himself down before we made more progress.” 

“I suppose it is a shame. But is it a surprise? Not to me, anyway.” Simon focused on the road. He needed time to think. He was sure that his mood wasn’t helping Athena’s. “Should I drop you off at the Agency? There are some things that I need to get done today. And Taka needs to be fed.”

“What sort of things?” Athena asked with a hesitant smile “I have to go through the notes I took, and probably check in with Mr. Wright, but…”

Widget chirped up “don’t wanna be alone?”

She grimaced and smothered the machine behind her fingers. “…if you’d like company, or someone there for you, I’m happy to put it off!!!” 

“You’re kind to offer, Athena,” he murmured. “I think I need to be alone for a little while. How about I pick you up later and we can run the rest of my errands together then. Or get dinner or something.”

“Al-alright.” She squeezed his arm with a bright smile. “I’ll get those errands done at the Agency…then maybe pick me up when you’re ready. I don’t mind running errands, and I’m always down for dinner.” 

He glanced at her with a smile, though he was sure she could see the turmoil behind it.

“I’m looking forward to it, Athena,” he said. And that was true. “As soon as I’m more fun to be around.”

He chuckled as if he were joking, but he was completely serious.

She laughed with him, even if he saw the downturn of her eyebrows and the exhaustion in her smile. 

“Alright. I’ll do my best to pep up too. Then we’ll paint the town red, alright? You promised to buy me a practice sword.” 

“So I did. Let’s make that one of the errands we do together.”