Chapter Text
"OBJECTION!"
The steady shout of the defense attorney echoed throughout the courtroom as he started nitpicking every little detail of the witness's testimony. Edgeworth stayed silent, too focused on observing 'Phoenix'. How can this creature, this thing... act like the Wright he knew so casually? The way he presses the witnesses, the way he points out all the contradictions in the testimony... It's as if it had done this before. But there's a glimmer in 'Phoenix's' eyes, some hint of excitement mixed with nervousness, like a first-time attorney.
"Well, I have memories of standing in court and defending my clients," 'Phoenix' explained after the trial was over, standing next to Edgeworth outside the courtroom. "And I remember what it was like, I remember how to do it. But it's like... I'm truly doing it and knowing what it feels like to defend someone for the first time."
Edgeworth understood what the creature meant, even if it took him a while to understand. How could this thing act like Phoenix, like he didn't just steal his entire identity? It baffled him.
Edgeworth had a million questions in his mind, but right now he only had one to ask. He looked back at 'Phoenix', startling the other man with his stone-cold gaze, as if he had never seen it before.
"Did you... kill him?" Edgeworth asked. He knew it was a stupid question to ask, especially when Phoenix had run across a burning bridge and fallen into the Eagle River when that happened. But Wright was an idiot who'd get into dangerous situations and somehow comes out on top with just a scratch, so why... why did he have to die then?
'Phoenix's' eyes quickly widened as he shook his head. "No- no! I swear I didn't," he quickly tried to explain. "He was already dying when I found him-"
"So you do remember." Edgeworth interrupted, glaring daggers into the other. Last time he asked about what happened, 'Phoenix' claimed to have no memory of the incident.
"No- I really don't know what happened!" 'Phoenix' quickly denied. Of course, it made Edgeworth feel more suspicious towards the other man. But then again... there's not much reason for this pale imitation of Phoenix to lie. Maybe he is telling the truth.
If that's the case then... how disappointing.
"You said he was already dying when you found him?" Edgeworth asked, narrowing his eyes. He wanted to know everything that happened, even if it might be painful. He already cried at night after realising Phoenix Wright had died; it'll break him even more to know the specifics. His job is to find the truth, no matter how painful it may be. Those words that he's used over and over to describe his job, his character, his goal in life — now nothing but the words of a hypocrite following along the machinations of a man who once was. It made him sick, thinking about both the dead man and his own death, deep inside.
"...Yes." 'Phoenix' nodded. It's not like he wanted to recall that moment either. The moment another life was taken from this world.
The creature could still remember seeing Phoenix dying slowly when he fell into that river. the way the water rushed into the attorney's lungs, the way he gasped for air as the current tried to pull him under. For any human, it was a torturing sight to ever bear witness to.
For the non-humans, it was a sign of hope.
Washed up on the riverbank, Phoenix laid, his lower body still in the water and his upper body on dry, rocky land. It was clear the man was dying, no doubt about it. Eagle River is notoriously known for the fact that those who fall into it's fast-flowing waters are never found again.
The thing doesn't recall hearing much sounds from the dying man. Then again, when you're on the brink, there's not much sounds to be made. Wright had extended a trembling hand to the sky, when the creature crept closer. His lips moved, speaking words that trembled so much, it was almost impossible to decipher.
"Keep... him.. comp... ny.. pla..."
Words that resembled pleading, in a way. And the creature took it as a sign, as consent to take over the body of the one legendary attorney Phoenix Wright. It didn't think twice to posess the dying vessel — anything to get out, to experience the life of a human. Even at the cost of a soul. Everything was slow and yet fast at the same time.
It went dark for a while.
Then, life.
'Phoenix' reminisced the moment as if it was his own death, when he was the intruder that interrupted it. Miles was silent, thinking about everything. Waiting for the truth that might never come.
"...Wright is really, truly dead, isn't he?"
Edgeworth's voice cut through the silence with a question that weighed heavy on his conscious. He can't ignore it any longer, no matter how much it pains him to even think of the matter. It's the first step to the truth he must so agonizingly face — that Phoenix Wright is, without a doubt, dead and gone.
Wright stared back at Miles. "Yeah," he answered, moving a hand to his chest, pressing about the middle of it, more closer towards the right. "This body can still talk, move, be warm and even have a pulse," he described human functions as if it were significant, the take of a creature that has never felt such things before.
"And you didn't...?" Edgeworth trailed off, the question hanging over both their heads.
"N-No! I swear, he was already drawing his last breath when I came across him," 'Wright' kept insisting. He may be an abomination, a mystery, but he is not a murderer. At least, he doesn't think he is. "There's no doubt about that. Please, believe me."
"All I could recall is living near the rivers for as long as I can remember, merely existing without ever feeling a thing, as if I was just a... machine."
Edgeworth wasn't sure what to feel about that. Some sort of sorry feeling started to emerge in himself — something akin to pity. God, it just reminded him more of the Wright he knew, always defending those who can't afford it. It was admirable. It was saddening to think of.
Now, standing before him is a stranger wearing the face of that man. A surface-level copy that, as much as Miles didn't want to see, involves the inclusion of a creature that goes beyond human understanding. A creature that is not actually Phoenix Wright.
It is not actually Phoenix Wright.
"Do you like me?"
That question left Edgeworth's lips before he could even process it. A question that he had longed to ask the real Phoenix Wright, but never could out of some semblance of pride or perhaps the feeling of embarrassment, of dreading the wrong answer.
The creature was stunned. "Huh? What do you...?" 'Wright' trampled over his own words, taken aback by the question that he had never expected to hear from Miles Edgeworth. He paused.
"...I like you." He answered, his words sincere, but his face eerie, as if showing a glimpse of the true horrors that lay underneath human meat and skin. "I like you a lot."
Edgeworth wasn't sure why those words weren't as assuring as he has always imagined it to be. The fact that this is not the real Phoenix Wright is a part of the reason, yes, but mainly... it was because he had never heard such a thing come out of the real Wright's lips before. Such words that he had never said, that he could even consider blasphemy, had he not remembered this creature and his ability to copy Phoenix's personality, to recall every single memory the man has.
He didn't want Phoenix Wright to be gone.
But then again, he is still here, in a way.
"Then... don't you ever do something as stupid as that again," Edgeworth spoke, tone cold, almost scolding in a way. The continuous acts of danger that Wright would always somehow get into, it worried Edgeworth when the man was still alive. It would even worry him more if this creature would do the same. He can't lose the one he loves to another stupid act of bravery. Even if the one he loves is, in soul, gone.