Ace Attorney: Secrets Beneath Secrets

Turnabout Betrayal, Part 12 (Cotoli)

//August 31, 2028. Morix Law Offices, 1:21 PM//

I looked down at the picture frame in my fingers. It was a picture of me when I was just two years old with my parents. My dad was staring at the camera seriously. His black hair was perfectly slick and his blue eyes stared daggers into the photographer. My mom was next to him. Her brown hair reached her elbows and her eyes of the same color were in a similar state to my dad's. I was standing in front of them, the only one even remotely happy in the photo.

"When this time of the year rolls around," I began, rubbing my eyes with my hoodie sleeve. "I can't help but miss you, Mom."

I stared at the photo and tried to bite back tears. Not only was this the anniversary of my mom's death, but also when my youngest sister started risking her life for reasons even I didn't understand.

Basically, GC-9 made me hate the month of August, as every day would remind me how we were drawing towards the anniversary of the worst day of the year.

I looked up when I heard a knock at my door. "Come in," I called, trying to keep the obvious sorrow in my voice at bay. As far as I can tell, I failed rather clearly.

Chrysalis walked in the room quietly. "H.T. says he knows who the traitor is," she told me.

I nodded. "I'll be out there in a second."

"If you don't want to, you don't have to come out. I'll be perfectly fine with that," Chrysalis said. "I can't have you getting sad in front of everybody."

I nodded with a smile. "Thanks for the concern, but I know that I have to do this."

"You're sure?" Chrysalis asked.

"Yeah. I can't just mope around in our room and hope that our problems will go away," I replied.

"I'm afraid we'll have bigger problems out there, though," Chrysalis frowned.

"I'll be fine," I assured her. "But in case the traitor goes crazy, w-would it be okay if you stood n-next to me?" I felt heat rush through my face. I probably sounded really idiotic like that.

"I'd be fine with that," Chrysalis smiled. I smiled in return and took her hand in mine. We walked out into the main room of the agency.

In the main area, H.T. stood before Niamh, Yuri (who was playing on her phone, headphones on and all), Lily, Averl, and Lucas. Sora was over in the corner away from the others. Chrysalis and I stood next to Sora. She took my other hand and squeezed. "It'll be okay."

I nodded. "Thanks, Sora." I couldn't bring myself to call her 'sis.' I just wasn't used to it quite yet. It would take time.

"We're all here now. Who do you think the traitor is?" Lily asked.

H.T. nodded. "I believe that the traitor, or should I say traitors, are...." He pointed to myself, Chrysalis, and Sora. "Those three!"

"W-what?!" Sora exclaimed. She let go of my hand ran up to H.T. in the blink of an eye. "Listen here, pal-"

"Sora! Calm down!" Chrysalis told her. "This is what he wants us to do."

"Is...is this true?" Niamh questioned, her glare as icy as ever.

"There must be some sort of misunderstanding. H.T., none of us three are the traitor," I said.

"Then why do I have proof of it?" H.T. questioned. He made a grab for Chrysalis' right wrist, which was covering her mouth. H.T. forcefully pulled her out of my grip.

"What's the big idea?!" I yelled, anger coursing through me.

"This is!" H.T. exclaimed. He held Chrysalis' right wrist with one hand and yanked off her wrist piece with the other.

"Hey! Give that back!" Chrysalis shouted, trying to grab her wrist piece from his hand, which H.T. had raised high above his head.

Doing so caused her sweater sleeve to fall, revealing her scar.

"N-no way...." Yuri gasped.

"This girl here is the traitor! She and her siblings all worked together with the Under Cover Assassin!" H.T. announced.

"Wait...." Sora whispered. "We never mentioned being siblings to you!"

Chrysalis ripped her wrist away from H.T.'s grip and jumped up to snatch her wrist piece back as well. "Yeah. None of us ever did," she confirmed, pulling her wrist piece back on.

"I never said a thing to anybody," I agreed, nodding.

A phone bleeped. We all looked to Lily, who was looking at her phone. Her eyes widened. "Woah...! That might just work!"

"What might just work?" Lucas questioned.

Lily glanced around the room frantically. She gasped upon finding what she was looking at. Lily dashed at the table near the couch. She seized a pair of black gloves. On the right hand, the fabric that would normally cover the pointer finger was ripped off. "Does anybody have any fingerprint powder?!" she exclaimed.

Averl nodded and pulled out a small glass of powder from her pocket. She crossed the room and handed the powder to Lily. "Why do you need it?" the purplette asked.

Chrysalis snapped and ran into the back room of the agency. I watched her run off in confusion, but chose not to question it. Maybe what she was plotting would help us find out who the traitor was.

Lily took the lid off of the powder jar and began dabbing the powder on the gloves. She blew it away before realizing something. "Does anybody have a chart of fingerprints for the people at the agency?"

Chrysalis dashed back into the room, paper in hand. "Does something labelled 'Prints of Agency Workers' qualify?" she asked, handing the paper to Lily. So that's what she was grabbing from the back.

Lily nodded. "That's just perfect." She began looking back and forth from the paper to the gloves.

After a few minutes of just watching Lily look over the gloves in heavy and tense silence, Lily faced us. "I know who the traitor is now."

"Who is it?" Niamh questioned.

Lily pointed to H.T. dramatically. "H.T. Annasc! I hereby accuse you of being the traitor at the agency!"

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DUN DUN DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay I'm done.

Nothing really to say here, so....

-Digital