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Phoenix had taken the motive seriously, which perhaps makes this worse. He’d insisted that everyone be in, at the very least, pairs when outside. Apollo’s angry at him, and had been avoiding him for the last few weeks, but even he’d agreed to it, regardless of how it meant having to be around each other. Phoenix, Athena, and Apollo go to the courtroom and office together. Miles, Franziska, and Klavier keep an eye on each other at the prosecutor’s building. Ema and Gumshoe stick together.
But they can’t always be in groups, an unfortunate reality that Phoenix becomes very aware of when he walks into his apartment and something hits him in the head. Hard.
Phoenix collapses to the ground, head throbbing in pain and blood dripping into his eyes. He hears the door close behind him and the sound of footsteps. He groans, trying to push himself up when a voice causes him to freeze.
“It has been a while, hasn’t it, Wright?”
Of all the fucking people-
Phoenix looks up, blinking rapidly to clear the blurriness (and blood) from his eyes. Not that he needs to, the voice and blurry outline of the blue suit and blonde hair make it abundantly clear who it is.
“Kristoph.”
Kristoph smiles, that same wolf smile that Phoenix has never trusted. How is he even here? He’d been given a life sentence - he wouldn’t have been let out, certainly not without Phoenix or Miles hearing about it. Had he broken out of jail?
“Oh, don’t look at me that way, Wright. I haven’t done anything.” And though Phoenix doesn’t know it, Kristoph is speaking the truth. He hadn’t been the one to stage his prison break or attack Phoenix. He hadn’t even been the one to actively break into his apartment.
Movement to the side draws Phoenix’s attention away from Kristoph. There’s another person in the apartment, mask covering their face and a metal baseball bat in their hand. That… definitely explains why his head hurts so much and why he can’t focus on anyone.
Phoenix scowls, looking back at Kristoph. He forces himself up to his feet, though he wobbles, nearly losing his balance. Kristoph and the masked person don’t seem to care. He’s not much of a threat, he doesn’t think he’d even be able to make it across the room to punch Kristoph like he wants to, but he’s not staying on the floor. “What do you want, Kristoph?”
Kristoph’s smile twists into a smirk, light seeming to glint off his glasses. “I’m sure you can figure that one out.” He can, but Kristoph loves the sound of his own voice. “I don’t lose, Wright.”
“So this is because you’re a sore loser?”
One day, Phoenix Wright will learn to think before speaking.
Kristoph flicks his hand, a signal to the other person in the apartment, who slams the bat into Phoenix. He topples back to the ground, biting back a cry. It takes him longer this time to even push himself onto his hands and knees.
He grits his teeth as Kristoph laughs, forcing himself to lift his head and look up at him, despite how hard that is. They make eye contact, and then Kristoph steps back, patting something.
“Smile for the camera, Wright.”
…
Camera…?
Phoenix looks at the camera, realization dawning on him slowly before he sucks in a deep breath, feeling like he’s been hit again.
Camera. The motive.
Is Trucy seeing this…? Oh god, no.
Kristoph steps towards him, smiling, full of teeth and barely constrained hatred. “You may have thought you had won, Wright, but as I said, I don’t lose.” He gestures to the masked person and once again the bat comes down on Phoenix. And again, and again, and again.
In the end, Phoenix is left on the floor, bloody and bruised and unable to move without lightning strikes of pain coursing through him. He’s barely even aware of Kristoph flicking the camera off, or the sound of footsteps and the door opening.
“Oh, Wright? Tell my brother I said hello, would you?”
The door closes.
Phoenix doesn’t know how long he lays there, drifting in and out of consciousness. He hears something - the door opening again? did Kristoph come back? - but he can’t move. There’s a hand on his shoulder, and someone looking at him.
“Phoenix? Phoenix?!”
Oh, Miles.
Phoenix tries to say something, perhaps reassurance, or a warning about Kristoph. Instead, all he manages to get out is ‘Trucy.’ Miles is yelling, panicking, he thinks, but nothing makes sense.
He attempts to smile at his husband but he’s so tired… He closes his eyes, finally falling unconscious.