Disclaimer: The Ace Attorney series and all characters and events therein belong to Capcom.

Welcome to Five Stages of Turnabout, the second installment of the Justice trilogy. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend that you read the first installment, A Turnabout Gone Wrong, first.

Five Stages of Turnabout will be a compilation of fifteen short stories, each regarding of a different character as they reflect upon times spent with Apollo and move on with their lives. Timelines will vary (before and after the funeral), and so will locations; both will be specified at the start of each chapter.

This story contains references to death and mature themes (albeit not mature enough to warrant an M rating). You have been warned.

I hope you will enjoy Five Stages of Turnabout.

Chapter One: The Brother She Never Had (Trucy Wright)

Time: A month after the funeral

Location: Apollo's grave

She felt guilty for not having come to visit him sooner. But she had her reasons.

Ever since... it... had happened, she had immersed herself in her schoolwork and magic shows. Anything to keep her mind off what had happened. Anything that could help suppress the horrible memories, if only ever so slightly. But of course, she had known that at some point she was going to have to confront the reality of what had happened.

Blinking back a few stubborn tears, the young magician took a deep breath and knelt down at the white marble gravestone.

"Hey, Polly..." she whispered, more to herself than to anything else. Every word seemed like a tremendous effort.

"How are you? I hope you're not giving Mr. Terran a hard time, wherever you are. Don't worry about me, I'm keeping the agency in good order. Although it's not exactly the same without you, now is it..."

A thought struck her. "Did you see your funeral? I wish you could have. It was beautiful. Mr. Gavin even sang." Then, on a softer note: "Of course, I wish this whole thing had never happened. That you were still here. With me and Daddy and Thena, cracking cases and getting justice for the innocent as we always did. Like we still have to do. Although we have to do it without you now."

She took another deep breath to combat the tears threatening to spill. "I... I really miss you, Polly. We all do. But... I don't know how to explain it. You were different from the others. Of course, Daddy is Daddy and I love him to bits, and Athena is a really good friend, but... I don't know. It felt like we just connected. Like you were my long lost brother or something."

Trucy smiled sadly. "Remember that first time I showed you Mr. Hat? When I had to use him to get a recess because we were up a creek without a paddle on Wocky's case? I know I didn't show it then, but I was really moved because you were so worried for me." She chuckled slightly. "Although I wish you could have been more cooperative with being my assistant for my magic shows. I mean, you were always so jittery during the knife throwing act."

She sighed to herself before straightening up, brushing some snow off her cape. "Well, I have to go. I have a magic show coming up in an hour. I wish I had an assistant who wasn't Wesley Stickler, but he was the only one who replied to my ads. And I bet he only wants to see my panties anyway." She smiled, imagining Apollo cringing at her choice of words. Which he probably would have.

"You be good now, okay? And say hi to Mr. Terran for me." She swallowed. "Bye, Pollo."

With one last tear rolling down her cheek, Trucy Wright turned and walked away from her (unbeknownst to her) older brother.