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She shifted uncomfortably, debating upon the pros and cons of telling the pointy-haired defense attorney the truth, or a much safer lie. Her hand unconsciously tugged a lock of hair, a sure sign of her inner debate.
Apollo didn't need to use his bracelet to see this, already well acquainted with the detective's nervous habits. He straightened up, steeling himself to continue pushing her. He felt like he was in court again, instead of seated at Tres Bien, picking at overpriced imitation food. The man gave a deep sigh, and continued his questioning.
"Ema, I'm not an idiot--" He ignored the snort that issued from the woman and continued. "--That witness had been completely coherent and sure of what he had seen. Yet when he went to testify, he was babbling like a fool."
"Not everybody testifies well. Especially when they're lying." Ema replied calmly, busy trying to turn her mashed potatoes into the Blue Badger.
"I guess not everybody has your skills." He muttered darkly, though loud enough for his companion to hear.
He was rewarded with an irate glare. He was right, of course. Ema lied as easily as breathing, and Klavier often employed these skills in court. Well, he used to. She had been used less and less of late, having the job deferred to other detectives, or even simply forgoing a detective altogether. Apollo was fairly sure this was illegal, but if Klavier wished it, it would happen. That had been the reason the defense attorney thought that Ema could be talked to. The less involvement with Klavier, the better.
"And here I thought you just wanted a nice dinner and chat." The brunette mused idly, carefully arranging her garnish to form the hat for the Blue Badger.
Apollo gave another sigh, shaking his head. Obviously he would have to push Ema harder to force her to take this conversation seriously.
"The witnesses are being drugged."
There was a long pause as Ema stared at her mutilated dinner, her expression blank.
Of course it had come to this. Was Apollo teaming up with Klavier against her? Everybody and their mother knew that Ema was the local drug dealer around these parts, one of the best and cheapest, with a good reputation for quality. And as long as she didn't force her supplies on anyone, or sold it to the little ones, nobody had ever cared. Recently, Klavier had starting pitching hissy fits about it, and now this pip-squeak had hopped on the bandwagon.
After a few moments of thought, a course of action came to mind.
"He'll kill you."
"...Ms. Skye!?"
"Keep out of it, Justice. For your own good."
There was silence as Apollo stared at Ema, deciphering her words.
"Ms. Skye, is Mr. Gavin...?"
The woman leaned in closer to him, her eyes glittering dangerously, sweeping around the otherwise empty restaurant, as though she feared spies lurking in every corner. It gave further proof to Apollo's growing realization of a separation of good will between Ema and Klavier, as she had once been considered to be one of his confidents.
"Use your head, Justice. Has any other presecutor had drugged witnesses? And it's damn obvious to boot, and yet nobody but you seems to care. Think, you're supposed to be a lawyer.”
There was silence, only broken by the sound of a spoon clicking gently against plate as peas were gently rolled to form the ends of the hat and eyes.
Finally a questioning, worried voice.
“He’s…been…?”
“Stay out of it. It’s none of your concern.”
Why couldn’t he leave it alone? Surely if he was under the impression that Klavier was in charge of the drugging, he’d leave it alone. Even Apollo, fancying himself a god of justice, couldn’t touch Klavier, who claimed the court room as his own domain, to rule as he saw fit.
“Are you kidding me?”
Ema glanced up, frowning in confusion as Apollo sprang into a standing position, looming over her, his eyes full of determination. Stupid idiot.
“He’s drugging witnesses so innocent people can go to jail! It’s not right, I have to—“
“SHUT UP.”
Now Ema had risen as well, her eyes blazing with anger of her own. “God, how naïve are you? Justice, you’re not some 10-year-old kid any more! That means that you need to stop day dreaming and pull your head out of the clouds. Do you really think you, a rookie defense attorney with almost no political clout could possibly extend your reach to even brush the dust off of his jacket?
“I understand that you have this freakish urge to ‘fix’ things. But the more you stick your neck out, the more target the executioner has. Life is no fairy tale, you aren’t going to get a princess, you’re not going to live happily ever after, and the justice system will be how it is, because that’s how the people who can change it want it. If you don’t stop being a wishy-washy p***y, you’ll get killed. I’m not talking figuratively. I’m talking being cornered in a dark alleyway by a couple of guys with knives.
“Get this fairy tale out of your head, Justice, because if you don’t, you won’t live to regret it.”
Having said her part, she sat down, determinedly sprinkling pepper to add more coloring to the mashed potatoes.
Apollo looked down at her thoughtfully, before sadly shaking his head.
“Ema, haven’t you ever thought that there might be a chance of making things better? Maybe if everybody who was sick of this corrupt and messed up justice system banded together, we could fix it. Have you ever thought that maybe it’s not normal for the courts to be this…messed up? For, oh, I don’t know, people to be judged by whether they actually are guilty or not, not if they can bribe enough to get off. Maybe for the jails to be filled with the guilty, not the unlucky who got in the way of the court system?
“Just because I’m an adult doesn’t mean that I have to give up on fixing this place.”
There was a small pause.
“I’m going to talk to Klavier.”
“Absolutely not.” Her response was without hesitation. “He’ll kill you as soon as look at you.”
“Ema…” He sighed. “I’m sorry that you have gotten so used to life being like this. I know that it can be better though. I promise I’m going to change it.” He gave her a small smile. “For everyone, even when they’re as hard as you are. But first, I’ve got to talk to Klavier.”
Ema stared at him for a long time. It was very uncomfortable for the lawyer, but he waited for her to speak, feeling as though she were judging his words like he’d been speaking in court, weighing out what he had said to see what her ruling would be.
“You’re a hopeless idiot, Apollo Justice.”
Failure.
“But if you want to survive to see that for yourself, you’d better take this.”
She reached into her pack and pulled out her gun, sliding it over to him quietly.
“Ema…”
“Be careful.”
Ema watched him walk away, tucking the gun into his vest like an amateur. She hoped he’d figure out a better way to hide it before he met with Klavier, or else he’d be dead before he even got to try to paint his fairy tale for the prosecutor.
She hated him.
He was so fresh, so naïve to the whole idea of this justice system and what it was. Did he really think that he could change it? How dare he bring his idealistic ramblings of fairness and guilt and innocence and everything else that the ******** up of court had never had.
Ema had learned long ago about the court system. Seeing her own sister killed, and the man was never even looked sideways at, although everybody knew that he did it. Accusing the Chief of Police of murder? Nobody even dared.
Of course, she had managed to make it work out for her in the end. After an entirely enjoyable night watching Gant die from the slowest poison Ema could produce, she calmly put the bottle in his hand and called it a suicide. By then, everybody could’ve cared less if she had shot him in the middle of the day. Too much blackmail, too much stowing hatred. She even thought she heard someone say that they wished they’d been there to see it.
Of course her heart had hardened. It was necessary for mere survival, the barest of necessities. You got it just from simply living, or you’d go insane.
And that stupid spikey-haired loser just thought he could waltz in and fix everything? Tell her that he could make everything better? He needed to get off of his imaginary white stallion, because this was an unslayable dragon, and there wouldn’t be any princess waiting for him.
Perhaps it’d do him good to have Klavier shake him up a bit. That’s probably all he’d do, right? Drag Apollo’s mind out of the clouds, a little less gently than she had tried.
Sighing and ignoring the growing worry blooming in her, she instead admired the Blue Badger, staring up at her like a grinning reminder of what would never be.
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