Chapter 105
The Trial
Leo was pulled to his feet a second time.
The giant Boss judge stared down at Leo, as did her human counterparts, with a more normal number of eyes. “To begin, are we certain this is the correct individual?”
An elderly man sitting at a table across from Leo stood up. “Yes, we are, your honor. Both through his own admission and multiple eyewitnesses identifying him as Leo Edwards.”
“For this court, could you identify yourself and explain your qualification to make that statement?”
“I'm Erick Stafford, your honor. I represent a large coalition of humans who wish to see Leo Edwards charged and punished for his crimes... er alleged crimes against human and Ascended One alike. I'm, uh, the closest thing our coalition has to a criminal attorney and I've agreed to act as the prosecution.”
“Thank you, Erick.” The Boss judge turned to Leo. “Leo Edwards, you have been accused of three counts of murder in the first degree, of two Ascended Ones and one human child. Conspiracy to commit many more acts of murder. Irresponsible inflammatory hate speech that's resulted in the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands of humans as well as thirty-two Ascended Ones. Agitation to commit genocide of the Ascended Ones. Conspiring with your fellow humans to commit genocide of the Ascended Ones...” The list went on and on. Leo quit listening. “Leo Edwards, do you understand the charges against you, and how do you respond?”
Leo tried to speak into the microphone in front of him, but this resulted in a loud, obnoxious beep.
“Somebody, please fix the microphone,” Damien said from beside him.
Leo tapped the microphone. “Is it working now?” his voice boomed into the amphitheater. “Yes, I understand. I plead guilty to all charges.”
For a second, you could have heard a pin drop.
Damien pushed himself into the air with his tentacles. “Your Honor. I request permission to speak to my client in private.”
“Granted,” the judge responded. “Court will recess for ten minutes.”
***
Soon Leo and Damien were alone in a private room. Damien looked down at Leo with his many eyes. “While there is a lot of evidence against you, there are also many forces and individuals influencing your behavior. For example, I think it's safe to say the aliens bear a great deal of responsibility for what has happened. They set up the situation we're in and have no doubt influenced your behavior. The fact the aliens are no longer around to answer to these accusations makes them an excellent scapegoat.”
Leo laughed. “I see. The aliens made me do it defense.”
“I believe, in this particular situation, that defense might work. Also, you've suffered enough trauma in your previous life that your sanity is very much in doubt. While I admit criminal law is not my specialty, I believe I can muster a suitable defense.”
Leo sighed. “I'm not going to lie to the court, Damien. My pleading innocent would be a waste of time for all parties and will do nothing to affect the outcome. My only regret is not killing more of your kind.”
“I see,” Damien said, not seeming to take offense at Leo's comments. “I will, of course, speak on your behalf, but you should know it's possible you'll get the death penalty.”
“So?” Leo responded.
Leo suspected this was all a game—a diversion for Damien. The Ascended One didn't care about Leo, he just wanted a show.
“Very well,” Damien said with what might have been a sigh. “I tried.”
***
“Your honor, I've conferred with my client. I believe he does understand the charges against him and does not wish to change his plea, nor does he show the slightest regret for his actions.” Damien, like the judge, didn't use a microphone, being able to project his voice to the extent he didn't need one.
“Leo Edwards, as you have pled guilty to all charges, a jury will not be necessary,” the judge boomed. “To assist myself and my two fellow judges in determining your sentencing, we will listen to the testimony of the friends and family of the beings you've hurt. This will aid the court and the world at large to better understand the enormity of your crimes.”
Leo didn't respond. Couldn't they just kill him already?
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
***
“Harold Jenkins was the nicest man you could hope to meet and a close personal friend of mine,” the Ascended One floated over the witness stand. Up on an enormous screen was a picture of a man in an expensive suit standing next to a woman, two children, and a small dog.
“Are we sure Harold Jenkins was the victim?” Damien asked.
“From the investigation and process of elimination, yes, we believe Harold Jenkins was the first Ascended One Leo Edwards ordered killed,” the prosecutor added.
“Harold Jenkins would dress up as Santa every Christmas to hand out presents to his family,” the Ascended One on the witness stand continued. “He was such a kind man he couldn't bring himself to lay off his employees, and he'd have to hire someone else to do it for him. He was a good, god-fearing man, none of that happy-holidays nonsense for him.”
All the Ascended One's tentacles drooped as it started crying through multiple eyes and mouths. Over fifty large eyes dripped tears that rained down, creating a huge puddle on the floor underneath it.
Watching a High-Level Boss cry had to be the most disturbing thing Leo had ever seen, and that included a lot.
“Harold was such a nice man,” it sobbed. “He wasn't hurting anyone, and this human, Leo Edwards, killed him in cold blood. We have videos of Leo stomping all over my friend's body. He was proud of killing my friend. Proud!” All of its tentacles pointed at Leo. “You're a monster! A monster!”
“We realize this is an emotional time for you, sir, but we need you to calm down,” the senior judge said. “We will now show the mentioned videos, though I will warn the audience they're not a pleasant sight.”
Two other Ascended Ones, security? pulled the witness away.
Three hours later, all the videos of Leo walking on Harold Jenkins's corpse had been displayed on the screen—several times. The next witness was called.
The next witness was a human, a young man who sat up straight on the witness stand, a violet wristband revealing him as an implant wearer. “Me and my mates encountered this Ascended One. The Ascended One seemed pretty out of it, and because of what Leo said about them on the dark web, we tried to kill it. We didn't think we had a choice in the matter, so we attacked it. There were twenty of us. It retaliated and killed ten of my friends. Then two more Ascended Ones showed up, and the rest of us thought we were dead. But the two Ascended Ones restrained the first one and even helped us treat our wounds. They told us they wanted to work with humans to fix our broken world and apologized for their fellow's behavior, but pointed out that their fellow only retaliated after we'd tried to kill him.”
The man looked balefully at Leo. “We attacked the Ascended One because that person,” he pointed at Leo, “that crazy wanker told us that the Ascended Ones were monsters who were going to kill and eat everyone. That crazy wanker asshole got my mates killed!”
“As both a judge and an Ascended One,” the senior judge said, “I wish to apologize for humans hurt by our kind while we were in the process of ascending. From personal experience, I can say ascending is a time-consuming and traumatic event. Something Leo was well aware of.”
“This is not good,” Damien said quietly from beside Leo.
Leo didn't respond.
A new witness spoke in a language Leo didn't recognize. The young man also had a violet wristband.
“Umi Abari says he and his fellows had been trying to survive in a refugee camp and life was very hard for them when the Change happened,” the court-appointed translator said.
The witness continued speaking in his native language.
“When an Ascended One came to us with food and supplies, we drove it away. The Professor had sent us a translated Leo Edward's recording, telling us these Ascended Ones are monsters that come to eat everyone. It took days before we realized they were honestly there to help, and not to kill and eat everyone. During that time, many in the refugee camp died of hunger and sickness who might have been saved.”
After a short recess for lunch, the testimonies continued. It seemed Leo's warnings had affected hundreds of people, human and Boss alike, and not in a positive way.
The dinner the guards brought him that night was so unappetizing he didn't eat. It would seem he'd become very unpopular, and sadly, there was little he could do about it.
A thought gave Leo chills. What if the aliens sent him back in time, knowing he'd inadvertently help the Bosses do better this time around?
The next day was more of the same.
Even Liam testified. “I've known Leo for a few weeks and from the beginning he told us that if we didn't kill all the High-Level Bosses, that is the Ascended Ones,” he motioned towards the Bosses surrounding him. “If we didn't exterminate you, the human race was going to die. Though neither Ascended One we encountered showed any aggression towards us, Leo told us we had to kill them, and if we didn't kill them, we were all dead. On the first day of the Change, we lost two buses filled with refugees, mostly children, because Leo convinced us that killing the Boss we now know as Harold Jenkins was more important. During our battle with the second Ascended One, Leo ordered his friend to kill a six-year-old boy and showed not the slightest regret, as he believed the boy's death was necessary. I'm so sorry, guys. I'm sorry. We did what we thought was right, because of what he told us.” Liam pointed at Leo.
Had they lost two busloads of children on the first day of the Change because of him? Could the defenders have waited and rescued all their people before taking out the Boss? Leo honestly didn't know.
The crowd started booing Leo. Someone started a chant. “Death to Leo! Death to Leo! Death to Leo!”
Damien patted Leo on the back with a tentacle. “If it's any consolation, I still like you.”
It wasn't.
The testimonies went on for a week. A week of everyone imaginable, testifying about how terrible Leo was and how he'd messed up their lives. At times, Leo wondered if he could have been wrong about the Bosses, but then he thought about the fifty years of hell he'd lived through and knew he was not. The crowd was eating out of the Bosses... tentacles? How did that phrase work? Regardless, the Bosses had the humans completely fooled, and Leo had no idea what to do about it.
Then the trial came to an end.