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This whole situation was stressful enough, with Athena having to go through and re-experience the memories she’s repressed.
Though, she prefers the memories to thinking she murdered her mom. Even if they do hurt, badly. The whole process of uncovering them is painful, but she thinks it’s worth it. Finding the true murderer of her mom is very much worth it, and it’s worth it to save Simon. She would take the pain a thousand times for all of this.
Athena is filled with relief when she’s declared innocent of her mother’s murder. She’s innocent, she didn’t kill her mom. Simon had been wrong, she now understands everything. She’s never been so thankful to Phoenix.
The relief is quickly replaced with confusion when Apollo suddenly objects and indicts her of Clay Terran’s murder. It’s a shock, being accused of murder again, especially of Apollo’s best friend’s murder. This time she at least knows she’s innocent, that’s probably what’s keeping her heart beat steady. It still hurts a lot when Apollo says the words. That Apollo thinks that of her, but something stops her from getting mad.
Apollo had been acting odd this whole time, and she assumed it was due to grief, but she could tell there was something more, especially when he left the WAA. She could hear it in his voice as he told them he was leaving. It wasn’t just sadness, but the other emotion is something she has a hard time picking out.
It started when he put on that jacket, but more accurately it started when they investigated. Athena now realizes her mistake with trying to hide her connection with the space center. She just- nevermind, it doesn’t really matter.
She never would've guessed he suspected her of murdering his best friend of all things. Now a lot of things make sense, his actions and his emotions. She can now figure out that emotion, Suspicion. It’s not one she hears a lot.
Thankfully Phoenix swiftly goes to defend her once again, the whole thing seems to be going as smoothly as this could be going, with Apollo having accused her and all. She doesn’t know how to feel about the anger in his voice, but she does get it. She especially gets the confusion, as she feels it herself.
It’s hard to completely get mad at someone when you can hear the hurt in their voice, all the complicated emotions in their voice. It’s something she’s always had, especially as she got better at picking out and interpreting emotions, identifying what they are and what they mean. Learning how to get a true understanding of someone, or as close to one as possible.
She could sense that Apollo is very conflicted, with his discord being all over the place. It’s very clear to her that he’s hurting a lot but is trying to cover it by seeming to be in control of the situation and confident in his assertions. There's very loud doubt in his voice, but there's a saying with the benefit of the doubt.
It’s a good act, but that’s all it is.
She isn’t sure what to make of it, but she trusts Phoenix. She knows she didn’t murder Clay despite any of said evidence, so she knows Phoenix will prove said innocence. It’s what he does best after all, as has been proven again and again. She’s more worried about Apollo than herself at the moment.
There's an odd moment when Phoenix questions what her motive could have possibly been. It’s a good question, she doesn’t have a motive, she didn’t even know Clay before Apollo talked about him. She doesn’t have any history of violence, that’s something that was just partly proven.
Apollo says something vague about how Phoenix has had killers that have motives that they couldn’t ever possibly imagine. Despite her thinking that’s an odd response, Phoenix backs down from that point. Doesn’t bring motive back up. She feels there's a context that’s between Apollo and Phoenix on that. A mutual continued avoidance of that topic.
Then, Apollo does something that wouldn’t really seem out of place in the situation, at least to her.
He crosses his arms and says, “Evidence is everything in court.” A smug smirk planted on his face, a mask if Athen’s ever seen one. In that moment Phoenix’s discord suddenly shoots up, seemingly trying to not react to whatever caused the spike in his emotions.
She almost has to consciously not react, like he probably does. It’s not pleasant.
This confuses Athena, what caused that spike in discord? It seemed to calm down after a moment but it was loud and stood out like a sore thumb. Usually discord comes from lying, but not always. Usually it comes from talking, but here it seems it’s the opposite. She can almost feel Phoenix bite his tongue.
The trial moves on, Phoenix proves her innocence and finds the real killer, just like she knew he would. She’s just glad it’s over. That Apollo can properly mourn his friend, with justice being served. That he no longer has to hold that suspicion that was clearly eating him up.
She tries to support Apollo best she can, making sure he knows she's there for him anytime and keeping in touch with him, now that she’s made sure to get his phone number. He has a lot of guilt about the whole accusing her of murder thing, but Athena keeps assuring him that she understands why he did it and that she would never hold any resentment towards him.
It’s hard to be mad when Athena can hear how sincere Apollo is. That’s something she’s learned to appreciate, Apollo is almost always sincere. It’s something not a lot of people are. It’s a rare trait that not even she really has.
That moment of discord continues to stick out in her mind, she keeps coming back to it despite everything that has happened. She’s never really seen Phoenix’s discord spike up like that, it was from something seemingly random and was very loud. The discord concerned her a lot, due to its odd nature.
She usually only really hears discord when someone’s talking, when the emotion they're trying to display in their words doesn’t line up with their actual emotions. The fact she could hear such loud discord in his very breaths meant it was something that very much bothered him but he was trying to appear unaffected. At least that’s what she thinks, it doesn’t happen a lot, but she has a lot of data to fall back on.
Thanks to mom’s research on her ability. She puts the thought behind her, not really wanting to think of her at the moment. She can do that later.
Post-Trial Paperwork is always a headache, especially with how ‘legal or not?’ The whole thing was. The whole trial probably could be argued didn’t count, but no one is arguing that, thankfully. She couldn’t handle having to do that over again.
Athena doesn’t really mind paperwork that much, but it does get boring. Phoenix hates paperwork and avoids it if possible, but will get the job done if need be. Apollo on the other hand actively enjoys doing paperwork, which is something both Phoenix and Athena don’t really understand. She doesn’t think she will ever understand that part of Apollo.
She’s pretty sure Apollo is the only one that likes the law for the law. Both Athena and Phoenix dreaded the more technical aspects of it while Apollo seemed to think of that type of stuff as more of a puzzle than work. She doesn’t ask why he became a lawyer because she’s sure the answer will be something that bores her.
She got through law school out of pure determination and many late nights of studying. She also was always good at cutting corners, which is what she needed to do to get a chance to save Simon, to defend him.
In the end she wasn’t even really the one to do it, that went to his sister. Athena doesn’t dwell on it, Simon is free, that’s all that really matters.
She's found she likes defending despite everything. Which she could probably say about all of them, If they didn’t like defending they wouldn’t be here.
Apollo is the one that does most of the paperwork, always mumbling something about how if he doesn’t do it it will most likely sit undone or get mixed up, but she always hears some level of conflicting satisfaction when he says it, but there's no discord.
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Phoenix and Athena are alone in the office at the moment, since Phoenix told Apollo to get some rest at home. She also agreed and pushed for it since Apollo had both mental and physical scars he needed to recover from, the whole thing was especially stressful for him. It’s a miracle he hasn’t passed out again, or maybe it’s a testament to how stubborn Apollo is. That’s another trait she admires, but it can also be worrying. Like it is now. She can tell how much Apollo needs a bed and to sleep.
Phoenix had asked the same thing of Athena, but she insisted on helping with the paperwork. She didn’t have any physical wounds she needed to tend to, and she didn’t lose anyone recently. She knows that Phoenix hates paperwork, and she doesn’t want to leave Phoenix alone.
She also wanted to get the chance to talk to him about what happened during the trial, especially that moment when his discord seemed to go through the roof, despite not saying anything, despite not lying. It was worrying and meant that something had weighed on him that he should’ve reacted too. That kind of thing isn’t really healthy.
She tries to bring it up as naturally as possible. Natural isn’t really something she’s good at, but she tries in her usual way. Which is hopefully natural enough for Phoenix.
“Boss?” Athena says to get his attention, his eyes snapping up from his paperwork. He places a paper down on the desk.
“Yes?” He replies quickly, most likely curious about why she decided to break the silence.
“So I wanted to ask you about something I noticed during that trial that concerned me.” Athena says, her tone steady. She’s been rehearsing it in her head for a bit now, so of course her voice is steady.
“What makes you say that?” Phoenix says, voice laced with confusion and his own form of concern. She takes a deep breath before continuing to explain what’s been bothering her.
“When you were cross-examining Apollo, there was a part in which your discord suddenly went up.” Athena says and Phoenix looks even more confused. She continues on, hoping she can maybe help with whatever caused it, since it’s something that clearly bothered him.
“I can not for the life of me figure out why, it was when Apollo said something about evidence..?” She immediately notices Phoenix’s discord spike again at the mention of evidence. It’s not as much as during the trial, but it’s still very noticeable. His eyes dart to the side. Once again theirs discord within the silence, not the words.
“It just reminded me of someone for a second there." Phoenix says vaguely, Athena can hear clear discord as he talks, not quite lying, but definitely not saying the whole truth. She’s seen that a lot with people. That at least is pretty common, the words concern her anyways, the emotion in the word especially.
"Really? Who?" She tilts her head, mostly just confused at the emotions in his voice. She’ll have a hard time fully interpret them without her mood matrix. It’s a lot of really complex emotions. It’s not the first time she’s had to resist pulling it out while concerned for someone, it’s not the time for that.
"Nobody who matters anymore." That makes her even more concerned, what could that even mean? Athena’s brows furrow with confusion. She goes to press Phoenix, wanting to get more information. It’s a statement with a lot of anger in it, which surprises her. Resentment and reassurance mixed in a cocktail.
"C'mon, Boss, who-“ She begins to say before her boss cuts her off. "...Leave it alone, Athena." He says sternly and it’s clear he does not want to have this conversation. Athena concedes with a sigh, and decides to switch topics to something else. She puts a pin on the conversation, just like that moment of discord. They're both confusing and leave her with so many questions.
The whole thing makes her brain buzz with concern and intrigue, who exactly was Phoenix referring to that he got reminded of? It was decidedly someone not good, if his emotions and reactions are anything to go by. She has a feeling they are, that this is something, she just needs to find and connect the puzzle pieces.