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The Hat-1 launch is preceeded by a flurry of activity around the Cosmos Space Center. Solomon's training, Aura's robots, Mr. Cosmos trying to facilitate everything...
At least Metis's role is just to make sure everyone's doing okay. The psychology of fear is interesting, plus she gets to work on robots.
The most excited person about the launch isn't even Solomon or Mr. Cosmos. It's one of the interns -- a sixteen year old named Clay with dreams of the stars (and a best friend he occasionally drags along). But most of them old enough to know better are aware of the undercurrent of dread running below this mission, the threats of sabotage coming.
It's all they can do to mitigate the damage -- when it happens.
Well.
There's nothing they can do to mitigate anything.
Aura's dead.
Metis has studied grief before, of course. Grief and trauma are part and parcel of psychology, and she knows what there is to know. She knows how the brain reacts to trauma, how the brain reacts to death, the cocktail of chemicals producing the sadness weighing her down.
Aura was murdered in her own lab.
(It could have been Metis instead. It almost was, and some days she thinks that fate would've been better.)
(She loves Aura. She knows that. She has known that. And she also knows Aura was attracted to her -- though whether it was anything besides sexual wasn't certain.)
They're saying it was Simon. Her protégé. Aura's brother. Her loyalties are divided for a moment, but she's always believed in restorative justice.
She is in the gallery when the judge's gavel comes down and the word "Guilty" is declared. The trial is short -- astoundingly so. The state-assigned attorney cannot stop a confession, after all. Simon Blackquill pleaded guilty, and that was all there was to it.
But, well...confessions aren't always true.
She hadn't brought Athena to the trial, didn't want Athena to have to deal with Simon being taken away from her. The two were close -- Simon was one of the few that truly understood how Athena's mind works. But...well...now her child was losing one of her closest friends.
Metis resolves, in this moment, that she will lose no more. She will make sure Athena and Juniper retain their friendship, at the very least.
Every week, she visits Simon. The visit lasts about an hour -- it's not always precise, but it's close enough.
She asks him a single question, every time.
"Did you regret condemming yourself?"
And every time: "No. It is what I deserve for the heinous crime I have committed."
Seven years. Fifty-two weeks a year. Three hundred and sixty-four prison visits.
She never misses a week.
The scars don't fade. She still loves Aura. Though she still works at the Space Center, everything is slightly mixed up. Metis knows more about the robots than anyone else, but she can only do basic maintenance -- they need to hire someone else to head the Robotics Lab. Clay Terran steps in to replace her with a surprising ease.
"I thought you wanted to go to space," she says as she works with him to tweak the emotional responses of Ponco.
"I still do," Clay says, "but...I can acknowledge that some things just...aren't meant to happen. Sometimes life doesn't pan out. And...I know how to do this, at least. I interned here. And you're already familiar with me and have worked with me before. I'm not a foreigner, someone meant to replace Aura."
He understands, in a way that few ever do.
"No one would be a replacement," Metis answers, but it's a bit of a canned line. "Whether it was you or someone else."
Life moves on, as it has a tendency to do. It's left Metis behind.
Plans for HAT-2 have begun. Clay's in training, and he's barely in his first year of college.
Athena's...well, Athena still asks where Simon went, sometimes. Metis isn't one to sugarcoat things, but she also doesn't want to traumatize her child.
Juniper is good for Athena. They are friends because they're both quiet. Juniper teaches Athena about the earth while Athena talks about the mind.
It breaks Metis's heart that Athena is so interested in psychology. If it were up to Metis, no child would follow in her footsteps.
After all, her last protégé is behind bars.
The execution date grows ever closer.
Athena has a new resolve, introduced partially by Juniper. She's thirteen, contemplating high schools, and...presenting a pamphlet to her.
"Themis Legal Academy?" Metis asks.
Athena seems uncomfortable. She pulls her headphones down. "Juniper wants to go there. She wants to be a judge."
"And what do you want to be?" Metis asks, taking the pamphlet.
"I want to be a defense attorney," Athena answers, voice steady and certain.
Oh.
"Honey, it's...Simon doesn't want to be saved."
"Too bad." Teenage stubbornness rears its head. "I'm going to save him. No matter what."
Metis lets Athena apply. Better for her to be a lawyer than a psychologist. Or a prosecutor.
Maybe Athena will learn something new there.
Progress is being made on HAT-2, but it's hard for Metis to come into work some days. The robots remind her a lot of Aura. Some days it's a fond memory; other times it's a throbbing scar.
Athena leaves to study abroad in Europe. Metis thinks it's good for her to meet her grandparents.
But it's a reminder of how much her daughter has truly blossomed.
Athena returns with a sunflower badge pinned on her lapel, a job opportunity, and to the news that the new Chief Prosecutor has gotten approval for Simon to prosecute cases again.
It's strange. An odd case. Metis doesn't know the Chief Prosecutor's motive for it.
When she visits Simon again, she asks a different question.
"Do you know why he's letting you prosecute?"
"He has false faith in my innocence," Simon says, something dangerous flashing in his eyes. Prison has changed him, and so have the years. "Sororicide is a serious crime. I would not do it lightly."
"I've spent years trying to understand," Metis says, and does not expand on her statement.
HAT-2 is equally as disastrous, but they expected that. Fire. Stabbing. Clay's in the hospital -- but he will live.
Metis is, in some ways, grateful that this Center won't be haunted by more ghosts. But she almost resents it -- why didn't Aura get to live?
The universe gives, and it takes away.
Solomon Starbuck's trial for attempted murder is defended by Apollo. Clay's old...friend. The two of them almost remind Metis of her and Aura in all the best & worst ways.
She's a witness, though. She has to testify to what happened during the launch.
The courtroom explodes, and takes Apollo's life.
Juniper is charged with his death. Athena defends her, again -- since the reunion with the case at Themis, they've started getting ground back on their relationship.
In the end, she's found not guilty.
She learns of the retrial for Aura Blackquill’s death from the summons in her mail. It's unexpected.
The date is set for the last possible moment. The day before Simon's execution.
Metis isn't sure what to expect...but it certainly wasn't Athena's confession.
"Wait!" Metis yells. "Allow me to run an analysis."
"Mom?" Athena asks.
"Please. Pass me Widget. I know the Matrix as well as you do -- I helped build it."
The discussion of Aura's murder...is gory. Athena stabbed the hand of an intruder...before trying to take Aura's body apart to find the solution. The image the Matrix generates is...gory.
But the other lawyer -- Phoenix Wright -- helps her figure out the contradictions.
In the end, they find the Phantom in a detective. Clearly, the detective has history with Simon -- but Metis doesn't know it.
"You were protecting her," Metis says, after the trial. "All those years. I knew you were a liar."
"You loved her," Simon responds. "I didn't want you to believe your daughter killed her. Easier to believe I did."
"You...you're part of my family too," Metis says. "If Aura and I had a romantic relationship, you would be my brother by virtue of that connection."
"...I am not the man I once was."
"I'm not the woman I once was. Her death...her death changed me. But I think now that we have justice, we will be able to figure out the rest."
Aura will always be in Metis's heart. But grief is not meant to last forever.