“We are here today for arraignment in the matter of The People of the United States v. Caleb Michael Holder. Attorneys, please step forward and identify yourselves for the record.”

“U.S. Attorney Whitney Pleasant,” stated the lawyer on the other side, an older black woman that I’d had the displeasure of going up against a few times in the past. Not because she was an abrasive person, but because she had most of a decade’s experience on me, and had gotten me chasing my own tail on more than one occasion — metaphorically, anyway.

“Naomi Ziegler, counsel for the defense.” I neglected to include my firm’s name for the simple fact that I was acting in a pro bono capacity, not on behalf of my firm. If I’d named myself as an attorney with Bierman Viskie & Schotz, then the firm as a whole would also be responsible for the country’s new dumbest terrorist.

And I was not going to let mandatory assignments like this drag down our firm’s win/loss record. Not when I was angling for a promotion to partner in the next year or so.

“Very well.” Chief Judge Phineas Farley looked up from the notes in front of him, locking eyes with the idiot standing next to me. “Mr. Holder, you are being charged with terrorism, which currently encompasses the following: two counts of first-degree murder; three counts of the murder of a law enforcement officer; thirty-two counts of assault with the intent to kill; seventeen counts of intentional disfigurement of another; thirteen counts of arson; eighteen counts of destruction of government property. How do you plead?”

Caleb had grown steadily paler as the Chief Judge rattled off the list of his crimes, and had I not touched a foxfire-wreathed finger to the young man’s hands, there was a very real chance he might have used his powers unconsciously. I’d seen it with Moonshot defendants before, so I knew to be ready for it — I just wish I didn’t have to.

The young man looked at me, maybe for guidance. I just frowned at him and flicked one ear before turning back to the judge, refusing to take this burden from him. Ordinarily I would speak for my client, but in a situation like this one, it was better he say it for himself.

And so it was that Caleb Holder took a deep breath, and said his last words as a free man.

“G-guilty, sir.”

“I see.” Chief Judge Farley turned to me. “I assume you impressed upon your client what his guilty plea means in this instance, counselor?”

“Yes, your Honor,” I said.

It had taken most of an hour to impress upon Mr. Holder that yes, he was genuinely choosing between whether he lived or died — and that realistically, the options weren’t all that much different. As it stood, his life was over. He had killed five people, and another dozen might die from their injuries before tomorrow, all while aping the country’s most infamous recent attack on a public space. There was no defense in the world that would help him here. The only difference would be whether he wanted to let the entire country spend a couple of weeks vilifying him before he suffered an ignominious death, or just accept his sentence and hopefully fade from memory while he whiled away the rest of his days in a cell.

“Very well,” the judge said. “The court accepts your guilty plea. As there are still some evolving circumstances, sentencing will wait one to two weeks, until the most at-risk victim’s conditions become clear. You will be remanded into custody pending sentencing.”

Two bailiffs came up to the defense table, though one would have been forgiven for thinking they were firefighters, given their equipment. Both of them wore heavy fire-retardant gear, and while one held handcuffs in thickly gloved hands, the other wielded a fire extinguisher at the ready. I gave my client one last hard look before pulling my hand away from his and extinguishing the foxfire. Thankfully for all of us, he didn’t try to fight. He was in deep enough shit as it was, and his guilty plea was all that kept the death penalty off the table.

If he went and attacked the bailiffs, then the lethal injection would go right back on the menu.

Once the bailiffs had removed Caleb Holder from the courtroom, Chief Judge Farley cleared his throat and looked my way.

“Ms. Ziegler, thank you for the favor you have shown this Court, and for your haste in this matter,” he said. “I will instruct my secretary to reach out to you prior to scheduling sentencing in this matter. We’ll make sure it works with your schedule.”

“Much appreciated, your Honor,” I said with a thankful nod. “And, um… if there is nothing else for the moment, could the court please adjourn? I just stepped off of a flight from Europe two hours ago, and desperately want to go to sleep.”

“… I see.” The Chief Judge’s eyes drifted towards the back of the courtroom. “I suppose that explains why there is a quadruped in my courtroom. Very well, court is adjourned.” The gavel came down, but the Chief Judge made no move to stand. “Before you leave, Ms. Ziegler. While I hope this situation does not repeat, if it does, would you please leave your pet outside next time?”

I didn’t immediately answer, even as my ears pulled low in annoyance. Instead, I reached for the connection between myself and Gorou, letting him feel my intentions, and felt a pulse of affirmation in response.

“With all due respect, your Honor.” On my signal, Gorou disappeared from the courtroom gallery in a flash of blue flame. An azure flash heralded his reappearance at counsel’s table, drawing a hiss of surprise and wide eyes from the Chief Judge as the silver fox let all four of his tails fan out behind him. “This pet is older, wiser, and more learned than everyone else in this courtroom, combined and doubled. He comes and goes as he pleases, and only ever listens to me out of courtesy. You couldn’t keep him out of the courtroom if you tried.”

“On the other hand, I listen to you out of courtesy,” Gorou said in Japanese, which immediately had my ears lying flat and shoulders slumping in dismay. Of course, of course he would have to start talking in the middle of the courtroom. “I mean, you are my many times great-granddaughter, technically speaking, so it is only right that I indulge you.”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and resisted the urge to thwack the fox on his snout.

“Gorou, thank you for not breaking their brains even more by saying that in English, but you could’ve stopped at the foxfire.”

“And where would the fun in that be?”

“I can’t take you anywhere, can I?” I groused, then swapped back to English to address the court. “My apologies, your Honor. If there is nothing else, though?”

“… ah.” Chief Judge Farley had no real response. Neither did anyone else in the courtroom, apparently. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, grabbed my purse, scooped up Gorou, and flickered to the back of the courtroom in my own flash of foxfire.

The fox hopped out of my arms the moment we exited the courtroom, then leapt right back up to my shoulders instead and nosed at my ear as I exited the courthouse. Thankfully for me, the same black SUV that had driven me here was still right there in the loading zone, and a quick knock on the window was all it took to get the FMB agent to unlock the door for me.

“Okay, all done in there,” I said as I got into the SUV, settled into my seat, and relaxed. God, I was tired. “They gave you permission to drive me home, yeah? I’d like to go home, please.”

“U-um, actually, ma’am?”

My ears twitched, and I frowned in disapproval. Gorou let out a frustrated grumble of his own, not that he really had reason to, what with managing to sleep for the whole flight…

“Let me guess, I need to call a taxi?” I grumbled, pulling out my phone. “Ugh, fine, I’ll just—”

“T-the NMR called while you were inside!” the agent rushed out, stopping me in my tracks. “They said the Staff Judge Advocate w-wanted to see you, ASAP?”

It took an effort of extreme self-control not to say or do something I would regret later. I was… okay, I won’t lie. I was tempted to yell at the FMB agent, grab my stuff, and just leave her to explain to both her superiors and the NMR why I wasn’t presenting myself to one of the few people with authority over me on request. I was so very, very tempted.

But I just… I was so tired right now. I’d just gone and helped the government sentence someone too much like myself to a soulless hell for the rest of his days, and that was after being up absurdly early on European time to handle all the extra hassles I needed to deal with when traveling. It may have only been four in the afternoon, but my body thought it was nine o’clock at night, and I’d been up since three in the morning — or 10pm yesterday, by my current time zone.

I wanted to sleep. And clearly I wasn’t going to get to yet.

“… fuck it,” I grumbled, reaching behind me to pull off my hair tie so I could lay my head against the seat back comfortably. “Just wake me up when we get there.”

“Um, w-would you mind if I put on the radio?” the agent driving me asked.

“So long as the speakers don’t hurt my ears, sure, whatever.”

She turned on the radio, and started to drive.

I made her turn the radio back off maybe two minutes later. The government did not pay enough to get even middling quality sound systems, dear lord, my poor ears…

Thankfully for everybody involved, my entrance to DC’s Joint Forces Headquarters went unimpeded by the rank and file guarding the place, unlike the last few times I’d been here. The grunt that brought me to SJA Barnes’ office also didn’t bother taking me on a convoluted journey in and out of elevators, hallways, and secure areas, so within two minutes of entering the building, I was already knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

I took the invitation and entered, sparing only the slightest glance at the office itself before focusing on its occupant, pinning my ears down low, and crossing my arms in frustration.

Staff Judge Advocate Megan Barnes was a relatively small woman, standing an inch shorter than my own five-foot-four, with brilliantly red hair, bright blue eyes, and the first traces of frown lines pulling at her cheeks. There was a little bit less gray in her hair than the last time I saw her, but it didn’t look like she’d been getting her roots touched up, so it was entirely possible that she was under less stress now that she’d had a year and change to settle into the role. And indeed, the rest of her office spoke to that settling in — small tchotchkes and pictures adorned both her desk and bookshelves, with framed photographs, newspaper articles, and commendations hung on the walls. Beyond that, though, the actual decor was different, warmer and more welcoming than the brutalist aesthetic her predecessor had favored.

I didn’t really care how ‘warm and welcoming’ the office felt, however. I wanted to be at home. I wanted to change into pajamas, order a pizza, and cuddle up on the sofa with Gorou until I fell asleep, woke up with a crick in my neck, and brought us up to my bed to finish sleeping through the night.

Instead, I was stuck talking to my fucking sister-in-law.

“Oh, wow, you’re here already.” Megan blinked, and turned fully away from her computer monitor. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until next week, Naomi.”

My eye twitched, and my tail lashed behind me in frustration.

“Don’t lie to me, Megan,” I growled. She leaned back in her chair, eyes wide. “I got out of court, where I got dragged to right after getting off a plane from Europe, and got told that you want to see me ASAP. That is not ‘next week’, that is ‘get your ass down here, now, or else’. So here I am!” I spread my arms with an angry laugh. “An hour and a half of rush hour traffic to get here for whatever was so damn important! So what is it? What’s so important that it couldn’t wait for me to go home, or take a shower, or eat something, or sleep in my own fucking bed first!?”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“That’s not —” Megan cut herself off and swallowed, standing from her desk as she did. “Naomi, are you okay?”

“What do you think?” I scoffed, waving down at myself. “Look at me! I’m wearing rumpled, wrinkled, non-matching suit separates because I had to change in the back of a goddamn Fumbler SUV! Which grabbed me within five minutes of getting off the plane! And I know you’ve seen the bullshit I have to deal with when flying, so I’ve been awake since ten o’clock last night East Coast time and had an awful night’s sleep because I never sleep well when traveling, and then of course I had to go to court while looking like an utter ragamuffin, and then got told I needed to come see you right now, so I do, but then you ask why I’m here when I don’t want to be and it’s because you demanded and I don’t want to be here right now Megan, I’m tired and hungry and I just want to go home!”

I sniffled at the end, a wet heat in my eyes making me blink as Megan came out from behind her desk to give me a hug. I squeaked in surprise, briefly going stiff before relaxing into it ever so slightly. For as small as she was, she had one hell of a grip, and that reassuring grip and pressure really helped me get my temper back under control.

“Better?” she asked as she pulled out of the hug and guided me over to a chair.

“A-a bit,” I admitted, sniffling again. My sister-in-law pressed a tissue into my hand, which I used to dab at my eyes and dry the tears.

“Good,” she said. “Now, as I was going to say before you lost your temper at me — rightfully so, but I’m still going to give you some shit about it.”

“Of course,” I mumbled. “Not apologizing.”

“Didn’t expect you to,” she fired right back. “Anyways — what I was trying to say is, the message I asked my secretary to send you did not say ‘ASAP’. The way I phrased it was, ‘at your earliest convenience, emphasis on convenience.’”

“Well I didn’t get anything from her—”

“Him,” Megan corrected, then faltered. “… which, I suppose, proves what you’re trying to say. Who told you that I wanted to see you ASAP?”

“The Fumbler they had driving the SUV,” I answered, shifting my tail into my lap so I could comfort myself with the feel of the fur. Stroking the fur on my own tail wasn’t as good or calming as having someone else brush it for me, or even brushing out Gorou’s tails, but hey, foxgirls make do. Or maybe ‘a foxgirl makes do’, since I was the only one, far as I knew.

“No text message?” Megan pressed. “Email? Voicemail? Phone alert from the umpteen dozen ways the government has to let people know about things?”

“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “None of the above.”

“… excuse me one moment.” Megan walked around her desk, tapped an extension into her phone, and waited. It picked up halfway through the first ring.

“Ma’am?”

“My office,” she said, her tone brooking no argument. “Now.” She picked up the handset to take the phone off speaker, and slammed it down hard into its cradle. Then she closed her eyes, raised one hand, and visibly began counting down: five, four, three, two—

There was a knock on the door to her office.

“Stay here,” she said. “And don’t listen in. Or do. I’m not your boss.”

She walked out of the office, closing the door behind her. Once it clicked shut, a sphere of azure fire flashed into existence, disappearing to reveal that Gorou had been paying attention to my emotional state and simply could not help himself when he felt my temper tantrum suddenly shift to eager curiosity. We locked eyes for a moment, and after I pointed at the door, we both trained our ears intently on whatever lay beyond.

“SJA Barnes, ma’am—”

“SHUT! UP!” My eyes went wide at that opener, and I traded shocked looks with Gorou. “DROP AND GIVE THEM TO ME, SOLDIER!”

The clatter of a body hastily hitting the floor was swiftly followed by the heavy breathing of physical exertion.

“When I give you an order, I expect it to be followed to the GODDAMN LETTER!” Megan screamed, voice loud enough that the door did absolutely nothing to muffle her. “My orders were crystal FUCKING clear, soldier! So I don’t know how the actual FUCK you managed to change a polite request to instead be me ordering around a STRATEGIC FUCKING ASSET!”

“M-ma’am… I’m sorry… I… thought—”

“You thought!? You THOUGHT!?” Megan interrupted the trooper, who was already having a hard enough time getting the words out between push-ups. “You expect me to believe you had a single solitary thought in your head when you were FUCKING my orders harder than you ever managed to fuck your boyfriend, soldier!? Because right now, it looks to me like the closest thing you’ve ever had to a thought between your ears was the shit that landed on your forehead after your mother pushed you out! Now you are going to stay out here and keep doing push-ups while I try to defuse the SHITSHOW your rank idiocy saddled me with, and if you’re not still going when I come out, your life will be HELL for the next MONTH!”

The door to Megan’s office opened, shocking both Gorou and me out of the near-trance that we’d both fallen into listening to the SJA go, and she slammed the door behind her hard enough to shake a few of the various bits and bobs she had in the office.

“Haaaah…” Megan sighed, closing her eyes as she massaged her throat with one hand. “Sorry you had to hear that, it’s been a while since—”

Megan cut off whatever she was going to say when her eyes opened and she caught sight of the four-tailed fox sitting on the other chair in front of her desk. She raised a hand and pointed at Gorou, then turned to look me in the eye.

“The fox wasn’t here earlier,” she said.

“He comes and goes as he pleases,” I said with a shrug. “Didn’t know you were a drill sergeant.”

“You didn’t look up my service record after meeting me?” Megan asked, amusement in her voice as she went back behind her desk. She very pointedly refused to look at Gorou, even as the fox let all four of his tails sway behind him in a manner that I knew was more than a little hypnotic.

“… um,” I responded. Quite eloquent, truly.

“Eh,” she waved me off. “Anyways, um. Damn it,” she cursed. “Wasn’t expecting you to be here so soon, don’t have anything ready for you… shit. Alright. You know how you got dragged to court today?”

“I’m already not liking where this is going,” I said, even as I nodded in response to her question.

“Yeah, well, I don’t either,” Megan said, massaging the bridge of her nose with both hands. “Okay. Unbelievable as it sounds, the District Court has three more Moonshot criminal cases before it. One of them has yet to be assigned, but I have it on good authority that it’s being tossed your way.”

“Okay, one more case,” I murmured. “That’s not too bad—”

“And if it were just that, I wouldn’t have wanted to meet with you,” Megan interrupted. “The other two were assigned to Henry Wassenberg, but are probably getting tossed at you too.”

“What?” I asked, my ears tilting to the side in confusion. “But Wassenberg has been in the game for thirty years

; why would the court be taking the cases away from him?”

“Mm, probably because he died last week.”

“… oh. Um. Let me guess: cirrhosis?”

“That obvious, huh?”

“Yup,” I murmured. “Didn’t even know the guy, but… well, he had a reputation.”

Henry Wassenberg was… correction, had been one of the big, big names in the Moonshot civil rights scene. He was responsible for some major advances, particularly with regards to how Moonshot incarceration was handled. He played a big part in getting the enhanced sentence and penalty provisions of the ECLIPSE Act removed, but his biggest accomplishment was guaranteeing that Moonshot actually got offered bail in the first place.

He was also well-known for his taste in rare and expensive red wine, so… suffice to say it wasn’t much of a surprise that the drinking finally caught up with him.

“And the court wants to give me both of those cases too?”

“They were dangerous Moonshot,” Megan affirmed. “I don’t like it, and I tried to get them to spread the load a bit, but you know how little the civilian courts like JAGs like me. So if they’re gonna be bitches about it, I figure I’ll offer what help I can. You need records, just ask; you need to talk to my people, I’ll shift schedules around.”

“That…” I trailed off, giving myself a moment to think over how I wanted to respond. “I, thank you, Megan. I appreciate that, really.”

“But this could’ve been an email?” She huffed. “I wish. It’s bullshit, but I can’t put my open and willing cooperation with a known thorn in the NMR’s side in writing. Gotta keep that off the record. Politics.”

“Of course,” I murmured, ears falling flat in dismay. “And that’s why this wasn’t supposed to be urgent.”

“Right in one. Though, ah, since I have you here?” Megan ventured.

“Hm?” My ears perked up, and I lowered one back down in question.

“It’s just…” Megan trailed off briefly, hesitation plain to see on her face. “Naomi, I’ve known about you for a fair while, and have been acquainted with you professionally for a bit over a year now, but I don’t like that I’ve still not had the chance to get to know you. As a person. As a family member. And yes,” she continued, holding up a hand to stop me from interrupting. “I know that Eli doesn’t consider you family anymore, considering his reaction to… um.” She faltered, clearly unsure how to address the elephant in the room.

“The whole instant sex change, just add superpowers, limited-edition fox flavor?” I asked, to which Gorou chuffed in amusement.

“… yes,” Megan admitted. She fidgeted a bit, spinning the wedding ring around her finger. It was quite the contrast with the booming, confident anger of a drill sergeant that I’d heard just a few minutes earlier. “Um. That. A-and while I love my husband, that doesn’t mean I agree with him on things like this. And while he’s likely too stubborn to ever change his mind, I don’t need to let his baggage make my decisions for me. So yes. He may not consider you his sister anymore, but I still consider you my sister-in-law, and, well. I want to get to know you better. As more than just an occasional colleague, or an adversary, or as the subject of classified materials. If you’ll let me.”

I stared at Megan for a moment, trying to process what I was hearing. There was something else to it, beyond just what she’d said, but I wasn’t altogether certain. My gaze slid over to Gorou, who just returned the vulpine equivalent of a shrug, and a feeling of trust and assurance deep in my soul.

You know what?… why the hell not.

“… how about brunch?” I offered. “This Saturday, at eleven?”

“Yes, certainly!” Megan exclaimed, though the excitement in her expression dimmed a moment later. “A-are you sure? I mean, there’s the jet lag, and just—”

“I’ll be fine after a few days,” I grumbled, waving it off. “Bottomless mimosas are on you, though.”

“Least I can do after today,” she agreed. “Alright, I’ll get that in my calendar, also make sure you get the info for those cases once they’re officially assigned… oh! Real quick?”

“Hm?”

“That disappearing act thing you can do?” Megan pointed at the door. “Do that instead of leaving the normal way.”

The two of us shared an evil, evil grin, punctuated by Gorou’s foxy cackling. Moments later, Gorou hopped into my arms, wrapped his tails around me, and spirited us away in a flash of foxfire.

We reappeared in a flash of azure flame right next to the car outside the building, drawing a surprised shriek from the FMB agent who’d been tasked with ferrying us around.

“All done,” I said as I hopped into the backseat and fastened my seatbelt, then tried to make myself comfortable. These seatbacks weren’t made with tails in mind. “Home, please.”

“R-right away, ma’am!”

No other interruptions, thank goodness. Just traffic, now.

“I’m surprised that you accepted the invitation.”

“Mm?” I tilted one ear towards Gorou. A quick glance at our erstwhile driver showed that she was intrigued, but clearly couldn’t understand us when we spoke Japanese, so there was no worry about eavesdropping. “How come?”

“The initial hostility between the two of you,” he explained. “I still remember feeling your anger after that first meeting.”

“I’ll be honest, I’m surprised too. But, well, she made a good case for herself. And I want to know what changed her mind about me.”

“Mm,” Gorou hummed in agreement, padding over to lay his head on my lap. I reached down to scratch behind his ears, and was rewarded for my efforts with an adorable little happy whimper. Relieved that Gorou would probably just sit tight at this point, I closed my eyes, leaned my head against the seatback, and relaxed.

I couldn’t wait to get home, and enjoy three simple things.

A hot shower, pizza delivery, and sleep.