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In Justice We Trust (72401 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.
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December 24th, 8:00 pm
14 hours of travel time, and jet lag, and a day that was swiftly moving toward its 24th hour of wakefulness clouded Simon’s mind and made the whole proceedings feel like some kind of waking dream.
He was glad that Athena was going to stay the night– he couldn’t bear to have been in the room alone with Halblicht– with Bobby. Not now. Not with all of the confused things going through his mind. He was deeply torn, part of him wanting to embrace and accept the return of the man he’d spent his year with– the other part now even more deeply wounded and skeptical that things could ever be alright again.
Just because Bobby was real– in some strange and twisted way, as a part of the Phantom’s mind– didn’t mean that Simon had it in him to forgive him. Did it?
He took deep breaths, in and out, trying both to calm himself and to focus on what was important as he listened to Athena get into the weeds with Halblicht.
Athena was looking bad, despite her ever present smile. The dark circles under her eyes spoke to her exhaustion as she tapped away at the screen.
“I’d like to loop back to your…training, if that’s okay.”
Bobby ran his fingers through his hair, and nodded. “I’m not surprised. I’ll try to help Robert answer where I can.”
“Thanks Bobby. I know it can’t be easy…unpacking trauma never is…you saw how messy it was for me during the trial, yeah? I understand.”
She was quiet for a moment before she snapped out enough to ask her first question “He wasn’t given a name, and in court he spoke about how he’d ‘discarded’ his identity…that he was an abyss. I want you to elaborate on that…”
“Left them behind,” Bobby murmured, rubbing his arm thoughtfully. “He said that he left them behind. It wasn’t really something he had a choice in, whether he wants me to tell you that or not. He’s not even sure if he ever had an identity to begin with.”
“The people who ran the organization…correct me if I’m wrong, but…given they didn’t give him a name it’s safe to assume they were trying to tell him since as long as he could remember that he didn’t have a personality? Emotions…any of that?”
“Yes,” Bobby nodded, twisting his hands in his lap. “They punished him for expressing any kind of emotion aside from blind obedience. They… miss Athena… they beat those children for giving one another nicknames.”
Athena’s mouth drew a hard line, and Simon could see a flicker of something behind her tired eyes.
Maybe it was rage. Or maybe he was projecting his own feelings on her. The idea that anyone could be so monstrous made him sick.
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