The source of my strength

Arc 2 Finale part 1

A/N: Orion Fowl here with the Turnabout Shadow Grand Finale! A grand finale so big, it had to be split into two parts. Enjoy this fruit of over a month's work! Its time for femslash!

Chapter 10, part one: The depths of true desperation.

December 22, 2030

Location: Newman-Woods Residence

Time: 9:15 a.m.

The Shadow incident. All I wanted was to just reach graduation with Juniper and our mutual friends, and suddenly I'm fighting an anonymous enemy that's bent on destroying me.

The vandalism trial was when I finally got a chance to face off against the culprit behind everything. But that trial really didn't start all that well. Heh heh heh. So after Hugh came under suspicion as the Shadow, Judge Courtney ended up having to call for a 15-minute recess after the crowd became too rowdy to manage.

So I met up with everyone else in the defendant lobby so that we could plan out our next move....

February 11, 10:10 a.m.

District Court - Defendant lobby No. 3

The air was tense as Robin and Hugh stared at each other, with everyone else crowding around them.

"Just what is going on here, Hugh?" Robin asked, wanting to hear from her friend how much he knew of the situation personally.

"How should I know? This is the first I've heard of my locker being the one that was vandalized." Hugh said, looking as unhappy as Robin felt.

The two were unhappy at the situation at large rather than with each other. After the events of last October they all learned that their was a time and place for doubt, but it was never a good time whenever it happened.

"The more important question here is why Hugh's locker was the one that got a hammer taken to it?" Athena asked.

"Well, I think we can all agree that there's no chance that Hugh is actually the Shadow," Juniper said, always the first to give the benefit of the doubt. "So in that case, why would the real culprit make it look like it was Hugh?"

It didn't take too long for everyone to reach a conclusion, and Robin found herself breaking out into a cold sweat.

"This is just like before," she said slowly. "We finally get a solid lead on the Shadow's identity and I'm arrested before we can do anything with it. Now we have Logan at the stand, and it turns out the crime scene is arranged so that I go down and it takes Hugh down with me."

"Yet we have evidence that says that only a janitor should have had the kind of access needed to pull off this crime," Juniper said. "And Logan's a janitor. Does that mean....?"

"That Logan set up the whole thing?" was the unspoken part of the question. But it seemed like Juniper wasn't ready to make the accusation.

Hugh turned to Athena, who was deep in thought. "Did our gamble of having Robin lead her own defense pay off? Did you learn anything new about Logan?"

"Actually, I did." Athena answered in a notably hesitant manner. "Whenever Logan talked directly to Robin, I noticed a lot of anger in his tone that he tried to hide."

"So are you and Robin going in go for the kill after the recess ends?" Myriam asked.

Athena shook her head before Robin could say anything. "I need a testimony I can run through the Mood Matrix before I can decide something like that. If at all, I'd like to get these charges off of Robin and Hugh first so we can investigate Logan at our leisure."