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lozanolawfirm2024 · 5 months

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Navigating Immigration Processes in San Antonio

In the bustling city of San Antonio, which boasts a rich history and diverse population, many individuals and families seek the life-changing opportunity of living permanently in the United States. These people often need guidance through the complex immigration legal framework, making the role of an attorney for immigration San Antonio indispensable.

The Pillars of Family Immigration Law:

A significant component of U.S. immigration is family-focused. An attorney versed in family immigration law can guide you through the intricate processes connected with this sector based on their comprehensive understanding and experience. They can help facilitate petitions for various relevant visas that would enable spouses, fiances/fiancees, children or siblings to legally live in San Antonio.Depending on your relative's current location – within or outside the country – different laws may apply, making an experienced attorney's advice incredibly beneficial. It can help prevent unnecessary bureaucratic delays caused by incorrect filing or misunderstanding of the fundamental procedures that affect any family immigration case.

The Intricacies of Deportation Defense:

Facing deportation can be stressful and translate into severe consequences for involved individuals, including separation from loved ones and uprooting one's established life. In these difficult situations, an attorney specializing in deportation defense becomes instrumental to your cause.

An expert in deportation defense will provide urgent assistance aimed at defending your rights during removal proceedings matter how challenging it might seem initially. They understand the necessary legal defenses that could lead to cancellation of removal orders or adjust the defendant's immigration status. Moreover, they bring invaluable acumen about potential relief options like asylum or deferred action programs available under American immigration laws that could suit specific cases.

Supporting Business Immigration Aspirations:

San Antonio thrives not only culturally but also economically - hence creating a dynamic entrepreneurial spirit fostering both domestic and international growth opportunities. An attorney familiar with business immigration focuses mainly on helping international individuals wishing to invest, start, or transfer their business in San Antonio secure necessary visas.

They assist in clarifying the legalities around multiple visas such as the E1/E2 for traders and investors, or H1B for workers in a specialty occupation. Whether you are a solo entrepreneur venturing on your own or a multinational firm looking to set foot in San Antonio, having an attorney on your side can help navigate business immigration issues smoothly.

In the current geopolitical climate, immigration law continues its evolution. An attorney specialized in immigration based in San Antonio can guide aspiring immigrants through these chances ensuring their rights are protected, whether they are families hoping to unite with loved ones, individuals under threat of deportation or businesses aiming to venture into new markets. Having expert help along this journey can prove invaluable for achieving ambitions of immigrating successfully and contributing fruitfully to the vibrant community that is San Antonio.

Lozano Law Firm

Phone: (210) 899-2290

Email: [email protected]

Address: 5718 University Heights Blvd #104, San Antonio, TX , 78249

#immigration lawyer near me #immigration lawyers near me #immigration attorneys near me #lawyer for immigration near me #attorney for immigration near me

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sternlaw · 6 months

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Immigration Lawyer

STERN Law

1100 Spring St NW #400, Atlanta GA 30309 (404) 990-4112 https://sternlawfirm.us/

At STERN Law, we offer Immigration Lawyer services designed to relentlessly defend your American Dream. The government will try its best to detain or deport those it considers unworthy. But when you decide to stand up and show the world what you’re made of, we fight proudly to secure your permanent place here in the United States.

We change the narrative and fight negative stereotypes.

We see you at eye-level, with respect and without judgment.

We bridge the gaps between us.

We don’t take ""no"" for an answer.

#Immigration Lawyer #Immigration Lawyer Near Me #Immigration Attorney #Criminal Immigration #Immigration Law Firm #Criminal Immigration Lawyer #Criminal Immigration Lawyer Near Me #Criminal And Immigration Lawyer Near Me #Criminal And Immigration Lawyer #Immigration Criminal Attorney

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legalservices-ks · 7 months

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Best Immigration Lawyers In Mississauga, Canada

Immigration lawyers in Mississauga, Ontario, serve as trusted guides for people and families navigating the intricate immigration system. Their specialist, efficiency, and case-specific solutions make them indispensable for those seeking to start new lives in Canada. By understanding them you can make an informed decision and embark on your immigration journey with confidence.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months

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Housing is a labor issue

There's a reason Reagan declared war on unions before he declared war on everything else – environmental protection, health care, consumer rights, financial regulation. Unions are how working people fight for a better world for all of us. They're how everyday people come together to resist oligarchy, extraction and exploitation.

Take the 2019 LA teachers' strike. As Jane McAlevey writes in A Collective Bargain, the LA teachers didn't just win higher pay for their members! They also demanded (and got) an end to immigration sweeps of parents waiting for their kids at the school gate; a guarantee of green space near every public school in the city; and on-site immigration counselors in LA schools:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/23/a-collective-bargain/

Unionization is enjoying an historic renaissance. The Hot Labor Summer transitioned to an Eternal Labor September, and it's still going strong, with UAW president Shawn Fain celebrating his members victory over the Big Three automakers by calling for a 2028 general strike:

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/uaw-general-strike-no-class

The rising labor movement has powerful allies in the Biden Administration. NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is systematically gutting the "union avoidance" playbook. She's banned the use of temp-work app blacklists that force workers to cross picket lines:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

She's changed the penalty for bosses who violate labor law during union drives. It used to be the boss would pay a fine, which was an easy price to pay in exchange for killing your workers' union. Now, the penalty is automatic recognition of the union:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

And while the law doesn't allow Abruzzo to impose a contract on companies that refuse to bargain their unions, she's set to force those companies to honor other employers' union contracts until they agree to a contract with their own workers:

https://onlabor.org/gc-abruzzo-just-asked-the-nlrb-to-overturn-ex-cell-o-heres-why-that-matters/

She's also nuking TRAPs, the deals that force workers to repay their employers for their "training expenses" if they have the audacity to quit and get a better job somewhere else:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

(As with every aspect of the Biden White House, its labor policy is contradictory and self-defeating, with other Biden appointees working to smash worker power, including when Biden broke the railworkers' strike:)

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/18/co-determination/#now-make-me-do-it

A surging labor movement opens up all kinds of possibilities for a better world. Writing for the Law and Political Economy Project, UNITE Here attorney Zoe Tucker makes the case for unions as a way out of America's brutal housing crisis:

https://lpeproject.org/blog/why-unions-should-join-the-housing-fight/

She describes how low-waged LA hotel workers have been pushed out of neighborhoods close to their jobs, with UNITE Here members commuting three hours in each direction, starting their work-days at 3AM in order to clock in on time:

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1669088899769987079

UNITE Here members are striking against 50 hotels in LA and Orange County, and their demands include significant cost-of-living raises. But more money won't give them back the time they give up to those bruising daily commutes. For that, unions need to make housing itself a demand.

As Tucker writes, most workers are tenants and vice-versa. What's more, bad landlords are apt to be bad bosses, too. Stepan Kazaryan, the same guy who owns the strip club whose conditions were so bad that it prompted the creation of Equity Strippers NoHo, the first strippers' union in a generation, is also a shitty landlord whose tenants went on a rent-strike:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/20/the-missing-links/#plunderphonics

So it was only natural that Kazaryan's tenants walked the picket line with the Equity Stripper Noho workers:

https://twitter.com/glendaletenants/status/1733290276599570736?s=46

While scumbag bosses/evil landlords like Kazaryan deal out misery retail, one apartment building at a time, the wholesale destruction of workers' lives comes from private equity giants who are the most prolific source of TRAPs, robo-scabbing apps, illegal union busting, and indefinite contract delays – and these are the very same PE firms that are buying up millions of single-family homes and turning them into slums:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords

Tucker's point is that when a worker clocks out of their bad job, commutes home for three hours, and gets back to their black-mold-saturated, overpriced apartment to find a notice of a new junk fee (like a surcharge for paying your rent in cash, by check, or by direct payment), they're fighting the very same corporations.

Unions who defend their workers' right to shelter do every tenant a service. A coalition of LA unions succeeded in passing Measure ULA, which uses a surcharge on real estate transactions over $5m to fund "the largest municipal housing program in the country":

https://unitedtohousela.com/app/uploads/2022/05/LA_City_Affordable_Housing_Petition_H.pdf

LA unions are fighting for rules to limit Airbnbs and other platforms that transform the city's rental stock into illegal, unlicensed hotels:

https://upgo.lab.mcgill.ca/publication/strs-in-los-angeles-2022/Wachsmuth_LA_2022.pdf

And the hotel workers organized under UNITE Here are fighting their own employers: the hoteliers who are aggressively buying up residences, evicting their long-term tenants, tearing down the building and putting up a luxury hotel. They got LA council to pass a law requiring hotels to build new housing to replace any residences they displace:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-11-28/airbnb-operators-would-need-police-permit-in-l-a-under-proposed-law

UNITE Here is bargaining for a per-room hotel surcharge to fund housing specifically for hotel workers, so the people who change the sheets and clean the toilets don't have to waste six hours a day commuting to do so.

Labor unions and tenant unions have a long history of collaboration in the USA. NYC's first housing coop was midwifed by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1927. The Penn South coop was created by the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. The 1949 Federal Housing Act passed after American unions pushed hard for it:

http://www.peterdreier.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Labors-Love-Lost.pdf

It goes both ways. Strong unions can create sound housing – and precarious housing makes unions weaker. Remember during the Hollywood writers' strike, when an anonymous studio ghoul told the press the plans was to "allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses?"

Vienna has the most successful housing in any major city in the world. It's the city where people of every income and background live in comfort without being rent-burdened and without worry about eviction, mold, or leaks. That's the legacy of Red Vienna, the Austrian period of Social Democratic Workers' Party rule and built vast tracts of high-quality public housing. The system was so robust that it rebounded after World War II and continues to this day:

https://www.politico.eu/article/vienna-social-housing-architecture-austria-stigma/

Today, the rest of the world is mired in a terrible housing crisis. It's not merely that the rent's too damned high (though it is) – housing precarity is driving dangerous political instability:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

Turning the human necessity of shelter into a market commodity is a failure. The economic orthodoxy that insists that public housing, rent control, and high-density zoning will lead to less housing has failed. rent control works:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset

Leaving housing to the market only produces losers. If you have the bad luck to invest everything you have into a home in a city that contracts, you're wiped out. If you have the bad luck into invest everything into a home in a "superstar city" where prices go up, you also lose, because your city becomes uninhabitable and your children can't afford to live there:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/27/lethal-dysfunction/#yimby

A strong labor movement is the best chance we have for breaking the housing deadlock. And housing is just for starters. Labor is the key to opening every frozen-in-place dysfunction. Take care work: the aging, increasingly chronically ill American population is being tortured and murdered by private equity hospices, long-term care facilities and health services that have been rolled up by the same private equity firms that destroyed work and housing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

In her interview with Capital & Main's Jessica Goodheart, National Domestic Workers Alliance president Ai-jen Poo describes how making things better for care workers will make things better for everyone:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-12-13-labor-leader-ai-jen-poo-interview/

Care work is a "triple dignity investment": first, it makes life better for the worker (most often a woman of color), then, it allows family members of people who need care to move into higher paid work; and of course, it makes life better for people who need care: "It delivers human potential and agency. It delivers a future workforce. It delivers quality of life."

The failure to fund care work is a massive driver of inequality. America's sole federal public provision for care is Medicaid, which only kicks in after a family it totally impoverished. Funding care with tax increases polls high with both Democrats and Republicans, making it good politics:

https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/4/7/voters-support-investing-in-the-care-economy

Congress stripped many of the care provisions from Build Back Better, missing a chance for an "unprecedented, transformational investment in care." But the administrative agencies picked up where Congress failed, following a detailed executive order that identifies existing, previously unused powers to improve care in America. The EO "expands access to care, supports family caregivers and improves wages and conditions for the workforce":

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/04/18/executive-order-on-increasing-access-to-high-quality-care-and-supporting-caregivers/

States are also filling the void. Washington just created a long-term care benefit:

https://apnews.com/article/washington-long-term-care-tax-disability-cb54b04b025223dbdba7199db1d254e4

New Mexicans passed a ballot initiative that establishes permanent funding for child care:

https://www.cwla.org/new-mexico-votes-for-child-care/

New York care workers won a $3/hour across the board raise:

https://inequality.org/great-divide/new-york-budget-fair-pay-home-care/

The fight is being led by women of color, and they're kicking ass – and they're doing it through their unions. Worker power is the foundation that we build a better world upon, and it's surging.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/13/i-want-a-roof-over-my-head/#and-bread-on-the-table

#pluralistic #labor #hot labor summer #eternal labor september #jane mcalevey #los angeles #weaponized shelter #housing #airbnb #equity strip noho #tenants unions #red vienna #jennifer abruzzo #nlrb #the rent's too damned high

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immigrationlwyer · 2 years

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#attorney immigration near me #immigration law firm in Austin

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greatwyrmgold · 4 months

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So, apparently there's been a standoff between the Texas National Guard and US Border Patrol for the past couple of weeks, a physical manifestation of political conflicts between President Biden and Governor Abbot that has disrupted local life and caused multiple deaths.

Shelby Park is a park in Eagle Pass, the town in question. It's a pretty significant component of civic life, hosting events that the town's residents enjoy (and the town's government uses to fund its activities).

Unfortunately, it's next to the Rio Grande, so Texas had the park surrounded with concertina wire (razor wire coils that can be expanded to quickly set up a "fence"). Needless to say, that's going to disrupt local activities. The Eagle Pass residents are not exactly happy about this state of affairs.

Things got worse when migrants started drowning in the river. Border Patrol wanted to access a boat ramp in Shelby Park so they could rescue migrants before they drowned, but the Texas National Guard wouldn't let Border Patrol in under any circumstances. Four people were alive in the river when the Border Patrol showed up; two were rescued by Mexican authorities, but the others drowned. They didn't have to.

I'm not going to argue that someone who fails to save a kid from getting hit by a bus should be held responsible for that kid's death. But if they instead stop a third party from saving the kid? Yeah, that's their fault. Saying that Texas caused the (preventable) deaths of those migrants seems pretty straightforward to me.

(Complicating matters are three other people who drowned about an hour before US Border Patrol was informed that people were drowning in the river. These three deaths are often reported as being connected to this dispute, possibly because talking about a mom and two kids who drowned is more evocative than talking about...I don't know anything about the other two dead guys, because hardly anyone reported anything except their deaths.)

Anyways, the Biden administration sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that federal agents should be given free access to the park. Texas claims it's still open to the public, even though they're only allowing access for media personnel, golfers at the golf course within, and "a memorial".

Texas plans to ignore that sternly-worded letter. The attorney general defends the state's decision by saying that the feds weren't properly enforcing US immigration law, which apparently gives them the authority to...further impede Border Patrol activities...? He also invoked the state's right to self-defense, which is already absurd when we're talking about the general "threat" of people crossing borders, but becomes even sillier in the specific case of blocking Border Patrol from saving four people from drowning.

Biden told Abbot to remove the razor wire. Abbot ordered more razor wire. The Supreme Court agrees with Biden (despite being primarily composed of Republicans). Twenty-five Republican state governors side with Abbot.

Several sources describe the physical standoff between the Texas and Federal forces unprecedented. I'm not sure that's true, or at least not true in the way that's implied; remember the Little Rock Nine? But it's definitely unusual, and if Republican figureheads keep rallying their bases by insisting that “The feds are staging a civil war," it could grow into something worse.

But hopefully it doesn't. It's an ongoing story, and Abbot has two more days to decide whether he wants to pick a fight with the federal government.

Sources below the cut.

#news #us politics #texas politics #border security #immigration

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cimalawgroup · 1 month

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Don't Bark Up the Wrong Tree! Our Attorneys Are Here to Help

Don't bark up the wrong tree! Turn to Cima Law Group for expert legal assistance. Our attorneys are here to help you navigate any legal challenges with precision and care. Trust our team to advocate fiercely for your rights and provide the support you need to achieve a favorable outcome.

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dimartinolaw · 4 months

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Maximizing Property Investment: Real Estate Management and Operations Tips

Owning an investment property can be a lucrative path to financial freedom, but it’s not just about purchasing the right brick-and-mortar asset. Real estate management and operations hold the key to unlocking the full potential of your investment, transforming passive income into a thriving enterprise. So, grab your metaphorical toolbox and delve into these practical tips to elevate your real estate game:

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beardedmrbean · 9 months

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A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday ruled -- again -- that the federal government's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is illegal, but he refrained from taking action to remove protections for the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants shielded under DACA.

The program, which began in 2012 under the Obama administration, currently covers around 600,000 young adults, commonly referred to as "Dreamers," who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.

Under the program, those people have been protected from deportation and granted work authorization for the past 11 years.

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen, who issued the latest ruling, previously found DACA unlawful in 2021, leading to a protracted appeals process.

"The Court, as it did before, hereby stays the effective date of the vacatur as to all DACA recipients who received their initial DACA status prior to July 16, 2021. The defendants may continue to administer the program as to those individuals, and that administration may include processing and granting DACA renewal applications for those individuals," Hanen wrote on Wednesday.

His decision continues the limbo under which DACA has operated for two years: Current recipients can seek to renew their protections but new applicants are barred from applying.MORE: DACA recipients leaving US, disheartened by legal limbo

An appellate court in 2022 had ordered Hanen to review the program again in light of the Biden administration's efforts to now codify the policy in administrative law, an issue which had been the basis of Hanen's original decision.

The program was first launched in 2012 via a Department of Homeland Security memo under President Barack Obama and has been the subject of near-constant legal battles and political lobbying since.

At a hearing at the beginning of June, a coalition of the largely Republican-led states who are challenging the program claimed the Biden administration's administrative changes were not substantive and DACA remains unlawful.

The states, led by Texas, also argued that DACA recipients are an economic liability.

Hanen had sided with the nine states in 2021, agreeing with "the hardship that the continued operation of DACA has inflicted on them."

"The court clearly saw that this program is against the law through and through," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement after Hanen's 2021 ruling. "This lawsuit was about the rule of law – not the reasoning behind any immigration policy. The district court recognized that only Congress has the authority to write immigration laws, and the president is not free to disregard those duly-enacted laws as he sees fit."

But lawyers representing DACA recipients have argued that the states failed to show proof of injury and were not accounting for the economic contributions the hundreds of thousands of "Dreamers" have made after being able to enter the workforce, become homeowners and integrate into society.

Lawyers for the immigrants also argued the program is an example of executive discretion that any president can make, in line with past administrations.

Under President Donald Trump, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempted to terminate DACA in 2017, declaring the program to be unconstitutional. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the Trump administration failed to properly end the program.

Esther Jeon, 28, was first brought to the U.S. from Korea when she was 3 years old and has been protected under DACA since she was a high school senior.

“The loss of DACA would not just mean the loss of work authorization and protection from deportation, but would be the loss of these values we should hold as county,” Jeon told ABC News. “It’s helped me to remember that there are still 10 or more million other undocumented people who have never had DACA and have found a way to be resilient and continue to live in the United States.”

Attorneys for MALDEF, one of the co-litigators in the case representing DACA recipients including Jeon, told reporters in late May that they expect Hanen’s ruling to be appealed and that the case may end up for review by the Supreme Court.

After the news broke, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas released a statement commenting on the decision, saying he was "deeply disappointed by the ruling and uniquely qualified to say that DHS believes DACA is lawful and Constitutional."

His statement continued: “The ruling preserves the stay, which means current DACA recipients will not lose their protection from removal. But this ruling does undermine the security and stability of more than half a million Dreamers who have contributed to our communities. The United States is the only home they have ever known. Congress has failed to act, and now Dreamers face an uncertain future, waiting to receive the permanent protection they deserve.

"Consistent with the ruling, USCIS will continue to process DACA renewals, and DHS will continue to advocate on behalf of DACA recipients every day, in the courts and through our actions. We stand ready to work with Congress on an enduring solution for our Dreamers," his statement concluded.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also shared a statement noting the White House was also "deeply disappointed."

The statement continued: "As we have long maintained, we disagree with the District Court’s conclusion that DACA is unlawful, and will continue to defend this critical policy from legal challenges. While we do so, consistent with the court’s order, DHS will continue to process renewals for current DACA recipients and DHS may continue to accept DACA applications.

"We are committed to protecting all the Dreamers who have throughout their lives enriched our communities and our country, and we continue to call on Congress to provide permanent protection to the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers in the United States," the statement concluded.

#nunyas news

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sunset-peril · 2 years

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Lullay, Space Princess - Epilogue - Those Words Were A Lie

~~~~

April 17th, 2027

Time: ???

~~~~

"Hello, Blackquill. Your services are requested at the Office. You are encouraged to oblige."

"And why would I do that? Has he forgotten, I am to walk the final mile this December, just in time to make the ferry across the River Styx. Oh, how I do hope he doesn't make me miss my boat. Someone is waiting on the other side for me."

"About that, Blackquill. If you accept, your Prosecutor's license will be reinstated until your death. And I have a feeling you may want to accept."

"And just why is that, Skye-dono?"

"It's about the assigned defense attorneys. The chief prosecutor believes that someone who waits for your boat isn't on the other side after all..."

~~~~

April 17th, 2027

Time: 4:30pm

~~~~

Athena. Athena...

The chief thinks she's been alive all this time?

He clutched the court roster with his trembling left hand, the worn page of Athena's death certificate behind it.

Defense Co-Council - Dr. Athena Cykes, attorney at law

Legal Name of Deceased - Athena Venus Cykes

Summary of Co-Council - Immigrant from the States of the European Union, on work visa while immigration processes.

Manner of Death - Brain death related to traumatic injury; resuscitation failed

Notable Information - Some dead zones in the emotional lobe of her brain. Under observation. Age eighteen.

Age at Death - Eleven

Court Warning: Must always have co-council in case of seizure or stroke at the bench. Brain death advancing near life-regulating lobes. Seizures extremely likely, especially when stressed.

"S-she...-she had a seizure after being removed from your trial..."

Was it her? Could it be her? Aura was there when Athena died, Aura heard her stop breathing as all the light went out in her mind.

Solomon watched as they failed to bring her back.

Yuri got her death certificate from the hospital.

Could it all be wrong? Was his niece still alive? In the European States?

He'd required this meeting as a one condition before accepting his reinstated badge. But what if it wasn't her? What if it was some European doppelganger who had gone through the exact same trauma as his fallen niece, but survived? Someone else who just happened to be named Athena Cykes?

"Protector Blackquill, Doctor Cykes is here now."

He clutched Athena's death certificate to his chest one more time, soaking it in before he learned, in a few mere moments, whether it was true or not.

"Let her in."

"He's ready for you, Doctor Cykes."

"Thank you, Detective. But please, Miss Cykes is just fine. Doctor Cykes was my mother, God rest her soul."

That voice... He looked up at her.

Breath stopped, and he couldn't fight himself for new air.

Hip length hair, a beautiful and familiar orange, pulled back in a sideways ponytail that concealed everything above and behind her left ear. Bright blue, sparkling eyes full of hope...

Widget?! Metis' experimental holographic AI?!

What was Metis' AI doing around her neck?

He heard the air drop from her lungs as she locked eyes with him. Her eyes widened in fear.

That's when he lost control of himself. He lunged forward and took her in his grasp, pulling at the hair concealing where his niece had a scar.

"Protector Blackquill! What are you doing?! Unhand the defense now!" Detective Skye dropped a back of something that seemed to be called 'Snackoos' and whipped out a taser.

He didn't relent. He found exactly what he was looking for, exactly the wound that had been on his niece's head at 10am on October 8th, 2020.

She had Athena's scar.

She smelled like Athena.

She felt like Athena.

She curled up in his arms like Athena.

"U-uncle Simon...?"

She was Athena.

Athena was alive!

"Athena!" He clutched her tighter and tears burned out. He sniffled, then sorted once, then collapsed to the ground with her in his arms and sobbed. It was her, it was her, it's her. "Oh, Thena! Thena, it's you!"

She brushed her hands across his soaked checks, then frowned a little in concern. "Your heart is screaming, Simon. Are you okay?"

Those words broke his last strands of restraint, he squeezed her even closer and covered her forehead and temples in kisses.

"Simon, Simon! Uncle Simon!"

Her cries made him settle a little, and she instantly began wiping herself off with the deepest blush on her face. "Uncle Simon, what's wrong? You're unhinged."

He leaned his head a little closer, stopping once their heads were barely touching. "You've been dead, Thena... I've missed you so much." The tears started again and he handed Athena's death certificate to her.

She nearly toppled backward, and he braced her back just in case. "I'm dead?!"

"They gave this to Aura at 2:40-ish the day I was convicted. I thought you were dead... Aura said you had a hemorrhage on the stand and they couldn't bring you back..."

"Oh, Simon..." She leaned into his chest and held on. He observed just how she had changed. Biceps rippled through her suit, he felt her strength. The yellow bow in her hair was now blue, her moon necklace replaced by her mother's pocket AI. Yet, somehow, she was the same Athena; only stronger.

Skye gulped audibly, "Iiiii'm going to assume you to know each other?"

"This is my beloved niece, my greatest treasure. I called this meeting to make sure it was really her..."

"My uncle, Simon. Everything I have left."

"So the chief was right. She wasn't waiting for you on the other side."

"I don't want you to go. But you don't belong in this prison with me. You belong out in the world, free and happy. I assume your co-council is going to want you back sooner rather than later as well."

"Apollo and the boss could probably use me. I just got to the country, so I should probably make a good first impression."

"I want to hear everything later, but now we have work to do. Our story is not yet done."

She gave a gentle kiss to his forehead, brushing his graying hair back. "Of course... I love you, Uncle Simon."

After she left, he had one smug little goal to achieve. He trekked off to Solitary Cell 13, where a former defense attorney that had once rubbed salt in his wounds waited for the same fate as Simon. "Hey, Gavin. Come and talk like a man, instead of painting your pretty little nails."

"How crass, Blackquill. Have you no manners? I can't believe you and my brother will be working together. But what does your black little heart desire, hmm? Something of me, it seems."

"Just come over here, Gavin."

The drill-haired former lawyer had barely gotten within arm's reach when an objection nearly went up his nose. "Now what is the point of this, Blackquill? Looking to go out with one final bang, assault of a fellow murderer?"

"Not in the slightest, scumbag of lawyers. Just a little remark about seven years ago-" Simon shoved the court roster up into Gavin's face; so close the latter did not even need his glasses.

Murder of an Alderman

Homicide Case Incident DD-2

Defendant - Mr. Damian Tenma

Victim - Mr. Rex Kyubi

Prosecution Officer - Mr. Simon Blackquill

Lead Defense Attorney - Mr. Apollo Justice, attorney at law (Wright Anything Agency)

Defense Co-Council - Dr. Athena Cykes, attorney at law (Wright Anything Agency)

"You have always been wrong about my niece. And know she's risen to the rank of your escaped little manipulation project gone wrong.

Who's laughing now, Gavin?"

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