By the time the lunch break was over, Phoenix still had not returned. Edgeworth seemed unconcerned and through the short lunch that Aerith had brought to them, he had remained calm and relaxed. He casually sipped the tea she handed him and read over a hard-copy of the trial's events and testimony so far that he had somehow managed to procure from the court reporter.

Rude had arrived and spoken to Cloud briefly before the blond left. Reno asked where he was going but Rude just shook his head and said he didn't know. Loz had joined up with Kadaj and Yazoo and the three spent the entire break staring Reno down. He did his best to ignore them and focus on what Yuffie was carrying on about.

When they finally returned to the courtroom, Reno was getting fidgety and finally whispered loudly, "Where the hell is he?"

"Locating the crucial piece of evidence that will prove you innocent of these charges," returned Miles. The man then frowned slightly. "At least I hope he is."

"You hope?"

"All rise." The bailiff ordered as the jury followed by Judge Walter returned to their seats.

"Now," the not-quite-elderly man began, idly wiping at his brow. "Is the prosecution finally finished with its witnesses?"

"Yes, Your Honor." Alexis appeared to be disinterested about who the defense would be calling up to testify."

Walter placed his attention on Edgeworth and lifted an eyebrow. "Where is Mr. Wright?"

"He… had to step out for a moment." The immaculately dressed former-prosecutor said slowly. "A… personal issue came up."

"The cafeteria lunch disagreed with him too, eh?" It was now noticeable that the judge looked rather uncomfortable.

"Something like that." Miles quickly agreed.

"Normally I avoid eating the food there at any cost," said Walter. "However, my wife is out of town visiting her sister and I certainly can't cook so I had to make do. Probably would have done better to not eat at all…"

He abruptly shook his head. "Ah, well. I'm sure he'll be here shortly. Are you able to proceed without him?"

Miles declined his head. "If that is what the court desires."

"I'd like to get at least one of your witnesses done today."

"Then the defense calls Demyx to the stand." Mile's voice was as even and smooth as ever but as he turned toward the table Reno sat at, the Turk noticed a faint twitch to his eye.

The redhead could tell the attorney was unhappy about this and he leaned back casually in his chair despite his own unease. "So, we boned?"

"Boned?"

"Screwed."

"Oh." Edgeworth fixed his cravat. "So long as Wright hurries with whatever it is he's doing, we should be all right. Hopefully, I'll be able to draw out the questioning."

A dark blond man was stepping into the witness box, looking extremely nervous. He flicked his sea-green eyes at Reno and offered a quick smile before setting his attention on the bailiff. He was sworn in and quickly sat down.

Miles approached him, a mild smile on his face. "Would you please state your name?"

"Well, he just said it… but it's Demyx."

"Thank you, Demyx. Now would you inform the court how you know the defendant?"

"Uh, sure." The young man shifted a little in the chair so that he was angled more toward the jury. "Reno lives next door to me. He lived there before I did but I don't remember how much longer that was."

The silver-grey haired man nodded once. "How would you describe your neighbor?"

"Well, I don't really see him too often because he works a lot and stuff and isn't home much but everything I do he's really laid back and just fun to talk to. He's hung out at my place a few times and that's gone really well."

"So you would say that Mr. Sinclair is a nice guy?"

"Oh, yeah!" Demyx grinned brightly. "He's great. He's a lot of fun and knows lots of interesting things. Heh, I remember this one time he came over and we were watching this spy movie and they were breaking into this place and he was detailing everything they did wrong. It was hilarious!"

Reno groaned and dropped his head into his hand. Now he understood why Rufus and Rude would get so exasperated with him. The old saying was true: nothing is truly irrelevant when it comes to investigation. He just knew that when Alexis' turn came, she was going to tear into Demyx about that one.

"I'm certain it was." Miles said neutrally, not needing to look to see Alexis making notes. He quickly moved the questioning forward. "Did you see Reno on the day of the kidnapping?"

"Yeah, he came home from work as I was leaving to see my friend."

"Do you remember what time that was?"

"Around seven twenty. I was supposed to met Riku at the coffee shop at seven thirty but I was late because I got caught up talking to Reno in the hallway."

"And what were you talking about?"

Demyx pursed his lips for a moment. "Well, I said that he looked really tired and kinda ruffled up, will more so than usual cause he always looks like a bit of a slob. And he said they'd had a rough time at work. I asked if he had just gotten off and he said about an hour ago but he had taken the long way home because he needed to relax a little before heading back out. After I head what happened, I'm not surprised he had taken his time. That was some intense stuff!"

"I've heard that." Miles paced a few steps. So far, Demyx's testimony really was not helping Reno's case any. It wasn't making it worse, but it definitely wasn't making any progress toward proving the man's innocence. "Did Reno appear to be winded or in any way exerted when you spoke?"

"No," Demyx shook his head. "He was pretty relaxed, just tired."

"There was no indication at all that he had been hurrying or rushing prior to arriving at the apartment complex?"

"Nope."

Well, that should help. While the prosecution had established that there feasibly was enough time for Reno to have committed the kidnapping, he would have had to hurry to do it. "Did you discuss anything else?"

"Not really. Like I said, I was kinda in a hurry to go see Riku. He had called me and said that he was having an emotional conflict over something that he couldn't talk about and he needed a distraction so we were going to hang out at the coffee shop for awhile."

It was completely off subject but Miles was trying to drag out the proceedings so he commented, "I hope your friend was able to figure things out."

"He hasn't yet," sighed Demyx. "Actually, he just seems to be getting worse. He still won't tell me what it is but I'm pretty sure it has to do with his brother."

Reno looked back at the gallery and immediately noticed Kadaj's jaw tighten. All three of the remnants were now staring at Demyx and Reno was positive that they would be cornering him the moment they had the opportunity. The musican was gonna need some protection after this

"Your Honor," Alexis stood. "I'm sorry but what does any of this have to do with the case?"

"She has a point." Judge Walter agreed. He placed his attention on Edgeworth. "Either move on or finish."

Miles nodded, quickly coming up with a few more redundant but relevant questions. He prodded Demyx more about Reno's character, earning a few more odd stories that were thankfully far less incriminating than the first he told. This took up another half-hour and Phoenix still hadn't returned.

Reno slouched in his seat, tuning out the repetitive questioning. He just wanted this whole thing over with. This was getting more ridiculous and he hoped that, if nothing else, some major changes to the legal system of Radiant Garden would be made after this.

Miles took a shallow breath. He had run out of questions and it was clear by the judge's expression that he was getting annoyed. "One last question, Demyx: Has Reno said or done anything to even give the slightest impression that he would intentionally cause anyone else harm?"

"No." Demyx stated firmly. He glanced at Reno with a certain smile. "Reno does what he has to for his job and that's it. Outside of work, he's a completely cool guy who would rather help people than see them suffer."

"Thank you, Demyx." Miles declined his head a touch at him before turning to the judge. "No further questions at this time."

As he returned to his seat, Alexis was up and practically stalking toward Demyx. The dark blond's demeanor changed noticeably and Reno felt his jaw tighten. The woman better not lay into the man too hard or Reno was going to have words with her later. Demyx was a good kid and didn't deserve to be put on the spot by an overly aggressive prosecutor.

"You seem to know the defendant well despite having said you didn't interact with him fairly often."

"Yeah," Demyx agreed. "I'm really good with reading people and I feel I've hung around him enough to have a good feel for him. Most of the people I know that would have reason to think badly of him don't."

"Have the two of you ever talked about what you did before coming to Radiant Garden? Ever speak of your past with each other?"

"No. "The young man bit his lip uncomfortably. "He doesn't like to talk about that and I don't really discuss mine. When we came here, we both saw it as a fresh start."

"Interesting how you can say you have a good feel for him when you know nothing about his life prior to arriving here."

"Objection." Miles stated loudly. "The prosecution has no grounds what-so-ever to be being the witness' judgment and decisions into question."

"Sustained."

Alexis moved on without missing a beat. "You stated earlier that Reno has made comments involving the poor execution of criminal activities in film and television. Has he ever gone into detail as to how they should be performed or does he simply leave it at they are incorrect?"

"Uh, well, usually it's just little things like 'if they did that for real, they would be busted in less than three minutes' or 'that's totally not how you do that, yo'." Demyx shrugged a little. "I never asked for details."

"But he has clearly demonstrated a solid skill, at least technical, in infiltration and theft?"

Sea-green eyes looked worriedly at Reno as Demyx answered. "I guess."

"I have no further questions, Your Honor." Alexis returned to her seat in a rather smug manner.

"Well, then," Walter straightened out his back. "If there are no further quest-"

"Hold it!"

Everyone in the courtroom turned at the sound of the doors banging against the nearest aisles, causing the few people in them, including Yuffie, to jump. Phoenix marched in, face set with determination as he pushed past the short door to the main floor and passed Alexis. He approached the witness box with an odd smile. "I have new evidence and a witness that clears my client completely!"

"You do?" The judge, Alexis, Demyx and Reno all stated at the exact same time. Edgeworth simply smirked and muttered, "It's about time."

"Yes." The flat-spiked haired man grinned. He spun on his heel to face Demyx. From his jacket pocket, he pulled out a framed picture and held it before the witness. "Can you identify the two young men in this photograph for the court?"

"Yeah," Demyx seemed a little confused by the question. "Those are my friends Riku and Axel."

"And what color is Axel's hair?"

"Red." Understanding slowly lit up Demyx's eyes. Reno sat up and leaned forward with sudden interest. There were a few photographs on Demyx's bookshelves and now that he thought about it there had been a redhead on one of them…

"Red." Phoenix agreed. "The exact same shade as Reno Sinclair's."

He whirled toward the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present Defense Evidence One!"

"Excuse me," Alexis interrupted in irritation. "I've heard of this Axel person and he's been dead for several years. This in no way clears the defendant-"

"Ah, but he isn't dead!" Phoenix's grin somehow got brighter. "He's very much alive and I have witness testimony that he's the one who absconded with Jenova's head!"

"Stop calling Mother that!" Kadaj shouted.

"Axel's alive?!" Demyx jumped up. "I knew it! I knew he'd be back!"

"Order!" Judge Walter pounded his gavel a few times. Once everyone settled down, he gave Phoenix a hard look. "You better have something solid here, son."

"I do," assured the black haired man. "First, Demyx, you are excused."

"You don't get to do that." Walter growled. He glanced at the blond. "You're dismissed."

Demyx clearly wanted to stay to hear what was going on but he was escorted out by the bailiff and didn't get a choice in the matter. Reno had a feeling he was going to be racing out once fully cleared and back in the gallery in under five minutes. He knew that Demyx had been hoping for a long time that one of his old friends would show up.

However that meant very little to him at the moment. He placed all of his attention on Phoenix and wondered just what the hell he had found that would concretely clear him. Unless he got Axel himself to come in and say he was the one who stole the head but that seemed extremely unlikely. No one in their right mind would do that, especially with the freak brothers present.

"Now, Mr. Wright." The judge laced his fingers together before him on the bench. "Let's hear this."

"Wait a minute!" Alexis stood and glared at Phoenix. "You can't just barge in here with some mysterious witness without giving me time to prepare for it!"

"You didn't give us notice when you called Mr. Sinclair to the stand." Miles noted softly.

"That was different. He's already involved in the case. Whoever this person is that Phoenix magically found has not once been present in any of the proceedings nor even mentioned before now!"

"I understand but, "Phoenix turned and looked pleadingly at Judge Walter, "I assure you, this witness will seal the case and he's taking an enormous risk just by coming forward. In fact, I was hoping you'd be willing to hear him in private."

Walter pursed his lips. He thought something over for several minutes before taking a breath. "All right, here's what we'll do. Bailiff, bring this witness of the defense to my chamber. I'll interview them and if I feel they should take the stand then they will."

"Thank you, Your Honor!" Phoenix bowed happily. He stuck his tongue out at Alexis as she huffed and headed for Reno and Edgeworth as the bailiff came toward him. The lawyer grinned at his client as he passed him. "Let me point him out to the bailiff and I'll be back."

"You better start fucking explaining all of this, yo."

"I will!" Phoenix called over his shoulder.

Reno watched him a moment then faced Edgeworth. "Is it always like this with him?"

"Yes." The dark-silver haired man confirmed. "Nerve-wracking, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

Judge Walter stood with a barely concealed sigh. "All right, there's a fifteen minute recess while I screen the witness."

He left through the side door and the jury filed out their door. The gallery was not allowed out until the bailiff returned and let them go. They were really trying to keep this new witness' identity secret.

"Any idea who Phoenix found?" Yuffie asked as she again rushed over to the rail behind the defense table.

"It doesn't matter." Kadaj snarled out, looking rather murderously at them. "Mother will be returned and someone will pay for taking her."

"It's highly unlikely that whoever is found guilty will have the chance to actually serve time." Yazoo stated quietly.

"Yeah." Loz seconded.

"Oh, give it a rest." Yuffie made a face at them. "Yunno, shouldn't you guys be, oh I don't know, looking for her instead of sitting around and watching this?"

"Mother wants us here." Kadaj informed her. "She wants us to see that justice is done. When it is, she will be returned to us."

"Uh huh." Yuffie turned back to Reno and Edgeworth and twirled her finger beside her head mouthing crazy.

"Yep." Reno stood and stretched. "So where did Spike go?"

"No idea but I saw him pulling out his phone to make a call as he left."

Shrugging, Reno glanced at Miles. "Can I get a smoke?"

"That should be all right."

"Good," the redhead sighed out gratefully. He stepped out from the table and left the main floor followed closely by Yuffie. Rude and Cid met up with them in the back near the doors and the three walked into the lobby together. As Cid handed Reno one of his cigarettes, the Turk caught sight of three people waiting near the judge's office door. "What are Zack and Leon doing here?"

"What?" Yuffie and Cid looked over. Cloud, Zack and Leon were indeed gathered outside the judge's chamber door. All three seemed to be anxious.

Before they could say anything, Phoenix had joined them and clasped Reno's shoulder. "Well, if Judge Walter believes our witness, you'll be home free in less than half an hour."

"Believes, huh?" The cigarette rested unlit on Reno's lower lip as he glanced at Rude. "Do I want to know what's going on?

"Not really. It's very…convoluted, even for this group."

The redhead nudged his head toward the three across the way. "Those three have anything to do with it?"

"In-directly." Phoenix frowned for the first time since returning from his mission. "They're acting as guards should there be any trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Where is he?" Kadaj shouted as he barreled past the few people hovering around the doorway. Yazoo and Loz were right behind him. They stomped toward Cloud, who stepped forward with Zack and Leon taking flanking positions. "Where's Brother?"

"Calm down, Kadaj." Cloud spoke softly but with an edge. "If you want to stand a chance of seeing your mother again, let us handle this."

"So you do have her." Yazoo calmly stated.

"No." Zack shook his head. "But now we know what happened to her."

Reno, Phoenix, Yuffie and Cid had all come over now and most of the others in the lobby were watching the scene with intense interest. Even Edgeworth and Alexis had come out to see what the commotion was about. It appeared everyone wanted to know what was about to unfold.

"Tell us where she is." Kadaj growled lowly, glare fixed on Cloud.

"We don't know."

"Then tell us what you do know." The shortest of the silver-haired trio snarled. "Or if you'd rather, we'll go ask Brother ourselves."

The three made for the judge's door and Cloud, Zack and Leon all blocked their path. A tense silence fell over the scene as both sets of three silently dared the other one to do something. The stand-off stretched out into minutes before Kadaj very abruptly chuckled. "I guess we're all about to find out."

"What are they talking about?" Phoenix murmured in Reno's ear and the Turk had to fight to not reflexively punch him. He despised when people did that to him.

The people still near the courtroom doors looked back into the room. A few began drifting back in and Miles caught Phoenix's attention. "The jury is coming back."

Kadaj purposely brushed up against Cloud as he turned to return to the room along with everyone else. The blond made an angry noise to which Kadaj laughed at. The lead remnant shot an evil look at Reno as he passed him. Reno made a lunge at him but Rude held him back with a hand on his shoulder.

"You're close to getting out of this. Don't blow it now."

"Yeah, I'll believe that when it happens." Reno mumbled. "With my luck, the judge'll decide this all some kind of twisted prank and we'll all be thrown in the joint."

"Likely." Zack grinned as he passed the two Turks. "The jail won't know what to do with us."

They all filed into the courtroom, the bailiff motioning for Cloud and Leon to come forward. The two men did so, expressions tight. The three spoke briefly and the law officer pointed for them to go back into the judge's chambers.

"Is that a good thing?" Reno muttered, not expecting an answer. He, Phoenix and Edgeworth continued on to the main floor and took their places at the table. Alexis was already waiting at hers, looking a bit nervous for the first time since the beginning of the trial.

The judge's door cracked open again when the bailiff began telling everyone to rise, Judge Walter emerged and cut him off. "We're way past that now. Everyone just sit so we can end this."

The late middle-aged man looked worn and overwhelmed as he sat at his bench. Huffing a breath, he shook his head as if trying to clear it. "I just heard the most… amazing story. It was so unbelievable it has to be true.

"Given light of the new information I have received, I declare this trial over and all charges against Reno Sinclair dismissed."

"Yes!" Phoenix shouted, along with Yuffie. Alexis was unhappy and clearly confused as to what had made the judge come to this decision.

Reno slumped back into his chair, feeling an odd mix of relief and apprehension. He was glad this was finally over but had the bad feeling things were really just starting. There was still the mystery of who really did take Jenova's head and where it was now.

"What?" Kadaj shrieked, standing up with rage in his eyes. He was followed by Yazoo and Loz. Zack immediately moved to intercept any attempt they made to leave their aisle. "Where's MOTHER?"

While everyone's attention was on Kadaj, who was clearly prepared to call on some powerful magic to take down the building, the chamber door opened again. From it stepped out first Cloud, then a silver-haired man younger than Kadaj, followed by Leon and Demyx. The silver-haired one moved ahead of the other three, his expressive aqua eyes fearful but steady.

"Sephiroth has her."

Kadaj fixed his attention on the youth, along with everyone else. "Little Brother Riku. I should have known you were part of this."

"No, I'm not." Riku countered. "I found out about everything after the fact."

"Would someone please explain all of this?" Alexis asked loudly in frustration.

"I think that's your cue, son." Judge Walter nodded toward Riku.

Riku focused his attention on the Remnants. "Sephiroth took Jenova away from you because he decided you were unable to properly care for her."

"He… he took her away?" Loz sniffled.

"Yes, he decided to give you one last test. Instead of simply collecting her himself, he got Axel to take her. If you were able to prevent him from taking her then he would let you hold onto her. Obviously, you failed miserably."

"How do you know all of this?" Demyx asked softly beside him. "You told everyone that you don't really talk to Sephiroth."

"I don't but that doesn't mean I don't see him on occasion." Riku bit his lip. "I was out there the day before the kidnapping and Sephiroth's cell phone rang. I glanced at the display was surprised to see it said Axel. I figured it had to be someone else but it nagged at me so I copied the number.

"The day of the incident, I saw Axel sneaking around in town. I talked to him for a few minutes, asked what he was doing and he only said he was doing a little job for my brother and I'd have to ask him about it. The whole thing gave me a bad feeling and I wanted to ask Sephiroth but… I just couldn't at that point.

"It was a few days later that I found out about the arrest and I pieced together what must have happened. I went to Sephiroth about it and he wouldn't confirm or deny it but Axel showed up and I knew I was right. Sephiroth realized this and told me to keep quiet about it. He wanted to see how things would unfold and if Kadaj, Yazoo or Loz would figure out where Jenova was and try to reclaim her."

Kadaj's expression had gone blank. "Big Brother took her from us?"

"Yes."

"And he has her now?"

Riku was reluctant to answer. "Yes."

Kadaj turned on his heel. The other two wordlessly followed.

Cloud broke away from the others near the bench. "I'll make sure they don't cause any trouble in town."

"I'm coming, too." Zack jogged after him. Rude glanced at them as they passed and after a quick glance at Reno, he also followed Cloud.

"Well, my job is done," Phoenix began cleaning up his papers. Edgeworth had already done so and patiently waited for his partner to finish.

"Don't you guys have a ton of questions?" Yuffie asked. "I mean, I'm still kinda lost."

"It's simple." Miles fixed his a bit of hair that had fallen. "This Sephiroth decided that the triplets were improper custodians of Jenova's head and presented them with a chance to prove otherwise. He had this Axel person abduct the head, proving that they were in fact incompetent and he is in current possession of the entity."

"Meaning Reno had nothing to do with it." Phoenix concluded, picking up his briefcase. "Case closed, we got the charges against our client dropped and now, we wait for the check."

Reno snorted. "Send the bill to Leon. He's the one who hired you."

"Your welcome." The sable-haired man stately flatly, placing a hand on Riku's shoulder. Demyx was on the boy's other side and they both seemed to be trying to reassure him that he did the right thing.

Riku looked over at Reno, worrying his lip. "I'm sorry you had to go through this, Reno. If I had just come forward…"

Reno waved the apology off. "Forget it, kid. I get it. I wouldn't want to be the one exposing General Psycho's grand plans either."

Riku didn't look a whole lot better but he nodded.

Phoenix turned to Reno and held out his hand. "It's been an interesting case, Reno. Don't take this badly but I hope to never have to defend you again."

"Hey," Reno didn't shake his hand but he cuffed the defense attorney's arm. "The feeling's mutual, yo."

Phoenix nodded to the general room and headed for the gallery area. Edgeworth repeated the gesture and followed after. Near the doors out, Phoenix muttered loudly. "That was the most insane case I've ever dealt with."

"More insane than Maya's hamburger guy?"

"Yes. Though I think she was pretending to channel him as an excuse to keep going to the hamburger shop…"

"Well, if I'm not needed any more either," Reno undid the top three buttons of his shirt and ruffled up his hair. "I'm outta here, yo."

"Where you headed to?" Demyx asked as he, Riku and Leon left the bench and crossed the main floor.

"I'm going back to the bar." The red-haired Turk took the lead as everyone filed out. "Hopefully I still have a chance with that blonde."

-END-

Okay, it's finally finished! Hopefully that wasn't too lame or predicatable. Again, I have to thank Tifa for helping put the plot together. I think I executed it pretty darn well. There's a few minor continuity issues I'll be going back to fix. Please let me know what you think. Thanks so much for reading!