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Chapter Text

The first thing Phoenix ever remembered was being unbearably cold. Too cold to do much more than curl up tightly in a ball and shiver violently. Any tears shed would freeze, even with her face pressed protectively against her arms. The first thing Phoenix knew was being alone and afraid. Any memory of how she got there and any person she may have a connection to simply didn’t exist.

Phoenix didn’t know how long her life was like that. Her little underdeveloped mind was convinced that it would be forever. She had no concept of death to reference, no idea that there could ever be an end at all. Just the sensation of her body freezing in a ruthlessly silent white world.

“Stay awake Phoenix,” A soft warm voice melted through the night's solid ice, a gentle weight settled on her shoulders, and finally the brutal cold began to release its grip on her body. A burning hand met her tearstained cheek, their fingertips were slightly callused but their touch was so so gentle.

“Open your eyes,” a worried plea, not a demand. The frost that froze her eyelashes together splintered into shards as her eyelids parted slightly.

A young man had knelt down in front of her, he had big brown eyes and short ruffled hair, and despite being in the snowy mountains and not dressing particularly appropriately for the weather, he didn’t seem cold at all. He tightly bound her in a dark blanket and started to rub the cold from her weak limbs.

She would forget his words but she remembered how he spoke. He had a funny accent, it would take her years and years to identify what mixture it was. She really liked his voice, it was calm and steady, it made her feel safe. She liked the way his chest rumbled when her head rested against it as he lifted her off of the ground. She would remember being confused when he started to sing, she couldn’t identify any of the words.

They took shelter in a shrine that seemed to be built around the entrance of a cave. A large lantern hung in the center of the room and glowed with a strange blue light, though Phoenix didn’t remember anyone lighting it. It flickered like flame but she couldn’t see its origin.

She fell asleep warm and safe with the knowledge that she wasn’t alone. His thigh had made an excellent makeshift pillow and it was so easy to relax with his fingers absentmindedly combing through her hair.

In the morning, the nice man had disappeared, leaving only the old cloak on her shoulders as proof that he was even there at all. The blue flame glowed orange now and when she peeked outside, no footprints were leading towards the little room, even though it clearly hadn’t snowed since.

She would meet a round woman who lived up there in the snowy mountains and ask her about the man, but she would just laugh and tell her that there was no way anyone alive was up there. That she was lucky to have found the training hall before she froze herself solid. Phoenix would sip her stew and wonder for years and years if she had really been saved by a ghost.

***

Phoenix wandered a familiar path through her most recent neighborhood. Her foster parents wouldn’t let her back into the house until sunset and as usual, she couldn’t find much to do, so she strolled through tall grass of undeveloped land towards the small cluster of trees that held the little touch of nature that she could reach.

Most children her age had plenty of friends to spend the time with, kids from school who just happened to live nearby at the very least but Phoenix was still new to the area. She preferred to indulge in her own imagination anyway. She hummed to fill the silence as she looked for her favorite tree, the one that had branches low enough for her to try to climb.

She was suddenly distracted by the holy grail of forest debris, a perfectly sized, relatively straight, stick. Just lying there on the ground among the gnarled roots and grasses. All thoughts of climbing were abandoned as she grabbed her prize, holding the end between the knots like it was a sword.

Her game of pretend, once consisting of being shipwrecked on an island shifted to make room for her new prop. Perhaps she could be a pirate and her new favorite tree could be her crow's nest, or she could be a great warrior banished from the kingdom in search of a magical treasure.

Phoenix swung her sword recklessly at the nearest tree, which bounced off harmlessly, nearly sending it flying out of her hand. With a huff and renewed grip, she swung again, slicing through the air before hitting the tree with a slightly more satisfying ‘whap’. This time the force made her lose her footing and stumble to the ground. Oh, her foster mom isn’t going to like her coming back covered in dirt…

“You need to widen your stance.” A voice suggested from behind her. She looked around in shock, convinced that she would’ve noticed anyone approaching her. The voice itself was new to her but the accent, a blend she still couldn’t place, was very familiar.

A young man in an odd white suit strolled up to her, his black hair was cropped in stiff straight lines like he had used a knife to cut it in haphazard bunches. His smile was bright and Phoenix could instantly tell that there was something off about him. Not in a bad way, but deep in her soul she felt something weird in the air once he had entered it.

He knelt and held out his gloved hand towards her -who wore gloves in the spring?- She took it a little timidly before he pulled her to her feet. For some reason, she was surprised that he was solid in front of her, did she expect her hand to pass right through his?

“Are you a knight?” She looked up at him in wonder.

“I have trained in the way of the Samurai, little dragon. I was about your age when I began my journey with the blade.”

“Woah, but if you’re a samurai, where’s your helmet?” Her thumb and index finger rested against her chin as she fell into her thinking pose. She missed the way the man’s expression shifted in amusement.

“Modern samurai don’t wear helmets, they make it hard to look around.” He replied simply.

“But… all the samurai on TV have helmets…” Phoenix pouted.

“It isn’t the helmet that makes the samurai, it’s the sword that harbors their soul. So Ryu-chan, would you like to know how to hold a blade?” The man picked up Phoenix’s little stick from where it fell out of her little hands. She took it the moment it was offered to her with a wide smile.

“You bet I do Sensei!” She bowed with a little too much enthusiasm and made herself dizzy for a moment when she whipped her head back up.

She would arrive back at her foster home a little after sunset with a grin that refused to fade. Her tale of her new imaginary friend added to the list of ‘weird things Phoenix talks about’, but she didn’t mind. Even if her foster parents cared enough to wonder why she was talking to a strange man, the neighbor whose backyard she had technically infiltrated would be able to confirm that she had just been talking to herself and swinging a stick around.

Sometimes even Phoenix believed that the man was a figment of her admittedly active imagination, but then she remembered how he picked her up off of the ground, how he handed her the stick, how he gently adjusted her grip on it, and tapped her leg to help her into a more stable stance. In some way, he was real.

Thankfully, that wouldn’t be her last time associating with the dead, not even close.

***

Over time, Phoenix learned to be careful when talking to her ‘imaginary friends’. After her foster siblings made fun of her for talking to herself and locked her out of the house while their parents were out for the night. They whispered about her when she spent her recesses at school sitting under a tree and pretending that someone was there.

Phoenix didn’t think she was crazy, but talking to ghosts made everyone else think that there was something wrong with her, they usually weren’t very nice about bringing it up. Surprising to no one, this distanced her more from her peers. She didn’t really mind much, she liked the Samurai and the cloak boy and being left alone to fill her sketchbook.

Then she got a cold which led to meeting her first friends. She missed PE with her class, got accused of stealing a boy’s lunch money, and for once, felt as though it wasn’t just her against the world. Even against the whole class, even the teacher, there was someone who would stand up for her. No one had ever really done that for her before.

Ever since she met Miles Edgeworth and Larry Butz, she didn’t need the company of ghosts as much. They got harder to see, she had to close her eyes to find their image lighting up the darkness. She could hear them more than see them most days, a gentle hum, friendly arguing that usually ended in laughter, sometimes she could feel a soft hand rubbing her back or brushing through her hair.

The first time she walked home from Miles’ house when she didn’t quite know how to find her way back home, she followed a gray and white cat until she realized it had led her to the foster family's house. She remembered the markings on the feline’s forehead and the red ribbon around its neck before it slunk away behind a neighbor's fence. She couldn’t prove it, but she knew that the Samurai had brought her home.

At one point she was nearly in tears when she lost her signal samurai keychain, she searched every corner of her section of the room, her path to school, and even the lost and found box at the front office. She had nearly given up and resigned herself to confronting her friends about her carelessness when a quiet noise echoed through the silent halls. A mixture of tapping plastic and jingling metal against tile. She had sat against the brick in defeat before the sound caught her attention.

A little white mouse dragged a blue object behind it, with a gasp, Phoenix realized what it was. It leaped into her outstretched hand with her keychain in tow. It had big round ears with spots resembling a flower and a face that somehow looked far too pleased with itself. She thanked it with a smile and knew that she had probably watched too many Disney movies if she forgot to react to a loose mouse like a normal person. If asked to defend herself, she would’ve claimed that the tiny rodent was cute.

Despite their spirits fading from her sight, they were not gone. The cape boy and the Samurai, the mouse and the cat, Ryunosuke and Kazuma, they would make sure she wasn’t left alone.

***

By the time Phoenix got into college, she had long since gotten used to being mildly haunted. The pacing footsteps around her empty dorm and the subtle shifting of objects with no discernible cause were normal. In the darkness, she could almost see the silhouettes of the unaging young men passing by a barely lit window. It had never scared her, sometimes she even forgot it was happening.

The activity was reduced to little indications that they lingered, she rarely spoke to them, and they rarely spoke to her. It was her life, it was normal.

That was, until she came across a certain newspaper article. She swiped it from the outside of her rare morning visit to a local bakery and frantically pedaled to her dorm as fast as she could manage. All she saw was that picture, that middle parted silver hair and smug smile… she didn’t even read the headline before she knew that something was deeply wrong.

Her old friend, whose face she had nearly forgotten, had changed so fundamentally that she was certain that something had to have happened. She felt it so strongly within her chest, an impulsivity that she thought she had left behind in high school with Larry Butz. A sudden need to do… something. She needed to talk to Miles Edgeworth, She needed to face the newly dubbed ‘demon prosecutor’.

Mile’s was different, not completely in a bad way. Phoenix couldn’t help but notice her beauty before realizing that something was so off about her. Beyond long lashes were cold steely eyes and past dark painted lips was something more like a sneer. She was the little boy Phoenix had grown up with, there was no doubt about it, but gone was that belief her father had instilled within her. Wherever it went, whatever had killed that brave little defense attorney, Phoenix would find it.

The air in her room was abuzz as a half-formed plan developed within her mind. She booted up her second-hand monster of a laptop to see what Ivy’s pre-law program was like, the paper from her current art projects fluttered without the presence of a breeze. A pencil spun at a moderate speed only to come to a rest, pointing at a blue mask-shaped keychain.

Phoenix barely picked up her school bag before rushing out the door. It was clear what her ghosts thought about her nearly thoughtless decision. That handful of minutes contained more activity than she had seen from them in months. They were excited.

She hoped her counselor took walk-ins, she had a few classes to add to her schedule.

***

Phoenix closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on the darkness and giving her aching mind a break from staring at her several pound’s worth of study material for the bar exam. The quiet of Fey & Co. was a balm for her headache, she had a feeling that any sound louder than Mia’s pen against her notepad or the click-clacking of her keyboard would send her into a full migraine.

A deep breath in… and out… She had to be missing some tiny detail. She wracked through the shitty filing cabinet in her brain that held all her recently acquired law knowledge that seemed to dissolve into blurry mush as her exhaustion grew. There was probably some weird Latin law word she was forced to memorize that would help her, but she always did better in real-world situations than wordy problems that relied on rereading the same agonizing block of text over and over again.

The sun was setting but both occupants of the office had been too entranced in their work to turn the lights on, relying on the natural light from the windows all day. Though it would probably be only a few minutes until it would be too dark to see the words that were currently tormenting her. She indulged in a few more moments of rest for her eyes, a dangerous gamble, the break from that damn textbook felt too good. The chances of falling asleep at her desk were only getting higher.

Her head started to droop from where it rested heavily atop her fist. Shit, she didn’t even realize how stiff her neck was. She wondered briefly if Mia would mind if she laid on the couch before she had to bike all the way back to Ivy…

Light suddenly bled through her eyelids, making her wince. She managed to squint one of them open, expecting to see Mia at the light switch with an unamused eyebrow raised. But there was no one there. Phoenix groaned quietly, which meant it was probably Kazuma. She could almost see him through her closed eye, his smile was almost too wide to be smug but she knew that look in his eye. She was almost annoyed enough to ignore how tired she was. Almost.

Phoenix straightened in her seat and forced her eyes open with a barely restrained grumble. Ryunosuke would’ve let her sleep… at least for a few minutes. She would wake up after fifteen minutes with a sudden drop in temperature and a different mixture of regrets, but at least while she was asleep she couldn’t notice how badly her head hurt.

“Did you turn on the light?” Mia asked from the room over, ah, there was that raised eyebrow. But it conveyed confusion rather than a silent ‘Can you at least try not to fall asleep on your desk, you’re getting drool on your study guide.’

“Uh, yeah.” Phoenix pretended that she was slightly more awake than she felt.

“Hmmm, I didn’t see you get up,” Ms. Fey muttered to herself before going back to work.

It took entirely too much effort not to glare at the empty space by the light switch, so she did. Just because she was being haunted didn’t mean everyone around her would be as normal about it. Mia was naturally pretty logical but she would probably find an exorcist if her intern's ghosts got too bold. She didn’t love distractions.

Phoenix took one more deep breath before rolling her neck. The day was almost done, Ms. Fey probably wouldn’t make her stay for much longer. Just a few more minutes.

***

Phoenix knew how quickly life could become unstabilized, one day her best friend could be by her side, confidently pulling out complicated words that she was pretty sure neither of them understood, to the next when he had vanished from the face of the planet with no explanation. One day she could be reading through her girlfriend's poems and the next with blood in her teeth and a broken heart, or spending the night in a cell.

She had come here to meet Ms. Fey’s little sister. They had a burger place in mind, one that would make the idea of biking back to her apartment sound like torture and she was really looking forward to everything before that point. Not just because Mia was typically nice enough to foot the bill for these kinds of things.

The sick feeling that settled in her stomach when she noticed all the lights off chased away any thoughts of hunger, even more so when the familiar scent of blood reached her nose.

Well, now she could say that she had met Mia’s sister, just not in the way she had expected.

Phoenix was in shock as she picked the unconscious girl from the ground, her eyes avoided the scene inches away from them. She set the teenager down on the couch they used for clients. She was breathing, her pulse seemed normal, she must’ve just passed out. Phoenix finally forced herself to be drawn towards the window.

“Chief…” Her voice was hollow, just on the edge of a whisper. It was too late, even an idiot would recognize that, just barely too late. There was too much blood to convince herself otherwise. Her dark hair was drenched in it, barely covering the fatal wound. Phoenix’s trembling hand met the side of the other woman’s throat, the last of her hopes were abandoned as she searched for any sign of life. Her skin was still warm, but Phoenix could feel it cooling under her touch.

What if she had gotten here a few minutes early? What if she had biked a little bit faster or… no. She couldn’t let herself think like that. She’d save it for later.

Phoenix was pretty familiar with death, she was comfortable with the knowledge that there was an afterlife, but that didn’t matter much when faced with something that resembled a nightmare after watching a horror movie more than reality. Mia Fey was dead, no, she was killed. She was murdered and there was only one other person in the room, but the thought of that sobbing girl being the one to kill Mia… it felt so wrong.

Phoenix was a criminal defense attorney, she had gone to crime scenes with Mia and visited the morgue to collect an autopsy report or two, she had studied gruesome murder scenes and become desensitized to pictures of dead bodies but it was different when it was Her she was looking at.

“You cannot falter little dragon, all you can give her now is justice,” A voice she hadn’t heard clearly in years resonated in the empty air.

“It’s okay Phoenix, we’ll take care of her,” A different, gentler, familiar voice echoed in her head, and she fought off the wave of grief that threatened to drown her.

Phoenix stood unsteadily as her instincts kicked in. She would rarely get the chance to investigate before the cops arrived at a crime scene, she took a breath of blood-soaked air, and locked away the part of her that just wanted to hold Mia in her arms and cry. She was an attorney, this was her job. This was just the start of another case, and if she knew anything, it was that she couldn’t cry until it was all over.

***

“Ms. Wright? Are you giving up?” The judge asked from his artificial pedestal. Phoenix almost snarled in response. She was on a direct line to being executed for Mia’s murder and all she could feel was righteous rage.

White was going to get away with it all, the man had so much blood on his gaudily decorated hands, though he had cleaned off the bit of her own from the day before. Her cheek throbbed every time she looked at him. She wasn’t one to easily resort to violence but she felt like it would be borderline therapy to remove all of that man's sparkling teeth with a baseball bat.

But she didn’t have anything else. With the aid of her childhood friend that she hadn’t seen in fifteen years, her execution was inevitable. Every part of this trial had been impossible, Edgeworth had never been beaten, White had everyone in his pocket, and Phoenix… She had only officially been an attorney for one other case.

She hesitated to admit her defeat, it would be as if her own words were the last thing left to sign her death warrant. It would be like admitting that every moment up to now had been a waste, she would never get to find out what happened to Miles, she would never get the chance to fix it. The moment she opened her mouth would be the moment she was to be sent to death.

All eyes were on her, she would have to confront her loss sooner rather than later. With a slow inhale through her nose, she prepared her noose. At least she had saved Maya from this fate, that had to be worth all her effort to get here.

“Phoenix!” A voice, as clear as day tore through the silence. Not a single other person reacted, not a single other person had to. They hadn’t heard it. It was Mia’s voice.

“You can’t give up now, you have everything you need,” She closed her eyes for a moment, it was as if she was standing right beside her. “The note… It wasn’t just written on scrap paper… it’s the key to exposing the prosecution's lies!”

In the silent room, Phoenix smiled.

“Objection! Why would I give up, when the witness is lying before the court?”

With one inconsistent date, Phoenix proved White's entire testimony false, but it wasn’t enough for Edgeworth, who was all too willing to allow that vile man to slip through the fingers of justice and back to the towering office he lounged in.

Thankfully, Mia had one last gift to give. A whisper in her ear, filled with venom for her to spit out of her own mouth.

“There’s nowhere else to run Mr. White. Killing Mia Fey won’t protect you from the consequences of the knowledge she gathered. No destruction of evidence, no blackmail, no higher power you claim to control can save you now. I’m not scared of you and no one else in this court should be either.”

“Something we’ve had yet to discuss is a motive for the crime. At the same time that Mia was killed, evidence was stolen from a secret compartment in a clock made to look like a statue. This evidence was a list of names of the people Redd White has been blackmailing, some to the point of committing suicide, all to do his bidding. While those papers have in all likelihood been destroyed, the information they contained remains.” Phoenix started to repeat the names Mia presented. Important names, widely recognized names.

A shriek stopped her in her tracks for a moment. It took one last push for the confession to spill out, after all, admitting to one murder was better than revealing the scope of his crimes to the press. If anything, she could rely on him taking the coward's way out, caring about his reputation above all else.

For the second time in her life, Phoenix Wright was pronounced ‘Not Guilty’, and she was once again left with more questions and the intense need to have a good cry.

“Thank the Holy Mother, I was just about to try forcing my way into getting Maya to channel me…” Mia sighed. The cheering from the spectators washed away the Phoenix’s stunned exclamation of ‘What!’

From then on, Phoenix’s ghosts seemed to have made a friend, one that was way more talkative and very helpful during trials. It was a good thing she didn’t mind being haunted.

***

Ever since Maya had learned that Phoenix was ‘spiritually sensitive’, whatever that meant, she had been relentless in trying to get them to ‘train’ together. This seemed to mean getting pushed into a shower at its coldest setting and meditating after lighting a hundred candles. Both of which were activities that Phoenix would rather avoid. She hated the cold and being forced to sit still for more than five minutes. She was not meant to be a spirit medium, she hoped they got a nice murder case before Maya actually found a freezing waterfall.

One time she had even managed to get her to try on Mia’s old medium robes, matching what Maya wore on a daily basis but made for someone taller. Phoenix couldn’t manage it for long before she burst into tears, the cloth still smelled like her, her favorite perfume mixed with a lightly scented laundry detergent. Usually, she only caught a hint of the scent when the chief hugged her or let her borrow a piece of clothing when Phoenix’s clumsy ass ruined what she was wearing.

It was hard just to look at anything she had owned, which was getting harder as half of her belongings were now in her former junior partner's custody, resting in boxes taking up space in her own little apartment.

She had officially transferred into the main office. It looked as if nothing had happened but her eyes kept wandering towards the window, expecting something to be beneath it. There never was. She kept expecting to come in and smell blood, but every time it was nothing but a memory.

At least learning how to meditate had proved useful when her thoughts started to race and her paranoia got the best of her. It forced her to be mindful of the reality around her, which was why she was sat at Mia’s desk focused only on her breathing. It took a toll on her to work every day in the room where someone's life had ended.

A loud thump ripped her away from her practice, it made her jump out of Mia’s chair and whip her head around in case she needed to defend herself. Her worries were eased the moment she spotted what had startled her. One of Mia’s thick law books had fallen off of its shelf. Most would find the occurrence strange, but Phoenix had lived with ghosts that loved to bother her for her entire life.

The heavy volume seemed to be part of a series of books labeled ‘The International History of Law’, a subject she didn’t exactly need to know about when studying to be an attorney, nor one that really interested her much. But that changed when she saw the page it had miraculously opened on.

‘The Life of Naruhodo Ryunosuke and the Introduction of Jury Trials in Japan’, paired with a sepia-toned photograph of a very familiar young man. Why the hell would one of her ghosts be in a book about famous figures in law? She only had to read through a few paragraphs before she burst into laughter. All of her ghosts were former lawyers, no wonder they got so excited when she changed her major.

Well, after twenty-three years it was probably about time she learned a bit about the ghosts that haunted her. It was much more fascinating than solitaire on Mia’s computer was bound to be. Maybe they would have more in common than their careers.

***

Phoenix absentmindedly fidgeted with the tiny evidence bag that Maya had managed to save, the bullet taken right out of the heart of Gregory Edgeworth. The file in her hand was sparse, but perhaps that was for the best. She only had five minutes to get her case ready. There was no crime scene to investigate, no witnesses to interrogate, no miraculous saves from Larry. She would have to figure this out on her own.

Whatever conversation Gumshoe and Edgeworth were having faded into background noise as she laser-focused on the pages in front of her. There was one thing she knew for certain, Miles Edgeworth did not kill her father, dreams did not dictate reality. Nightmares of a traumatic event did not count as admissible evidence, not in the courts, and not to Phoenix. She just had to prove it.

“Nick…What are you doing?” Maya’s voice interrupted her third reread of the evidence list.

“Huh- Oh, I’m getting my case ready,” She replied simply, glancing back at the papers for another moment.

“Your case?” The young medium’s eyes widened.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to prove Miles Edgeworth innocent,” This whole week her voice had wavered, and her nerves often got the better of her but now, her tone was firm and unshakable. This wasn’t just the demon prosecutor she was defending, this was the kid she knew, the one she had written a hundred letters to. That was who Miles thought killed her own father and that was even more ridiculous to imagine than Maya killing her sister.

“What are you talking about, pal! She just admitted to it, she confessed to it! In court!” Gumshoe exclaimed in a panic.

For the first time since the confession, Phoenix looked directly at Edgeworth. Her old friend seemed resigned to her fate, there was a certain sad peacefulness to her expression. Since the defense attorney had first shown up at the detention center she had been begging them not to get involved, to leave her behind so they wouldn’t get caught up in the crossfire, to let her die like she thought she deserved.

One look at those tired gray eyes attempting to hide behind lightly tousled silver bangs reignited her resolve. Blue and brown eyes remained aflame and steady against their steely counterparts, Phoenix was not going to give up on her friend. She didn’t when the little boy disappeared, not when her face was printed and literally demonized in newspapers, not even when she had tried to get her in jail for her mentor's murder. Even when Miles was desperate to drown, Phoenix would fight to keep them afloat.

“I don’t believe in your nightmare,” She remained steadfast within Edgeworths growing shocked gaze.

“What?” Her rival's voice was weak, almost breaking.

“Have you ever tried to prove a client guilty with the contents of a dream? Of course not, they’re unreliable and not in tune with reality. You can’t claim you killed your father when the only evidence you have to prove it is circumstantial and based on a nightmare. In any case, the real fight is just beginning, I’ll prove you’re innocent. Trust me.” Phoenix smiled, she didn’t even have to force it.

Phoenix gripped the plastic-enclosed bullet, the tiny piece of metal at the center of this hurricane. She wondered if she held it tight enough and closed her eyes, she would be able to see the man it killed attending his own murder trial. She wondered if he could see them, two of the kids that played in his backyard and kept matching keychains, she wondered if he wanted to know the truth as much as she did.

She did know one thing, he wouldn’t want his daughter taking the blame. It amused her to spare a brief thought of another dead lawyer joining her behind the bench.

It had been a joke to help her feel less like she was fighting an army all on her own. It wasn’t as funny anymore.

There had to be a second bullet… Miles still didn’t believe her, she had confessed again. They didn’t find the second bullet, they had no proof it was fired that day… In desperation, Phoenix objected.

All the lights in the courthouse flickered. All the doors were closed and yet, she still felt a breeze playing with the hair that had fallen loose from her braid.

‘It must exist’ Mia’s voice echoed her protegee's defiance. ‘The second bullet…’

‘Someone took it’

Phoenix’s eyes widened, that wasn’t Mia. It wasn’t any of her other ghosts either. His voice was low and steady and lacked the European influences that his daughter had developed. She had been a child since she had last heard it but she didn’t doubt who it belonged to for a moment.

Why else would a bullet be missing from the crime scene… it must’ve hit something or someone. Someone took it… the murderer took it with them.

Phoenix’s mouth stumbled through claims, just to keep noise in the air so she could think, she barely paid attention to what she was saying other than it was in response to the judge. Why would the murderer take the bullet…

‘Had to take it’ Mia’s voice returned. ‘Don’t think why the bullet was taken, think why the bullet HAD to be taken’

“What if… the missing bullet hit the murderer? That would take it from the scene,” Phoenix suggested after a few more long moments of verbal flailing. At that point she had just been talking out of her ass, thinking out loud to keep the trial from ending. The resulting silence should’ve been awkward if not for the realization that the situation she presented wasn’t just possible, but perfectly applicable.

One of the bullets broke the glass in the door of the elevator, implying that whatever it hit was outside of the doomed box. Miles’ accidental shot hit someone, but not anyone in the elevator. But who else was there?

It wasn’t Phoenix who made the connection, nor any of her ghosts, unless they just didn’t feel like telling her. It wasn’t the first time even just during this case that she was thanking the goddess of law for Maya Fey, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

There was one man who was present at the courthouse that day, who had just been scorned by the victim of the crime, who took the impossibly rare vacation right after the incident, who conveniently stood opposite her at that very moment.

Her accusation was solidified with the rapid beeps of a metal detector in a room shocked into silence. Her smile only grew when she held up the evidence Maya had saved the day before, the final blow that Von Karma was unable to retaliate against. Phoenix knew the truth and that was truly the most satisfying weapon to use against a man like Von Karma.

With a terrible scream, the case closed. Edgeworth was cut free from the guilt that had haunted her for so many years and Manfred was left a rabid shadow of the man she had spent the last few days being afraid of. There was no more calm control seized by the snap of his fingers, only outraged slamming of his forehead into the wall behind him. So much for the pursuit of perfection, it didn’t seem to do him much good now.

It was over, and she kept smiling. Phoenix caught Miles’ astonished gaze as she was pronounced ‘not guilty’. She hoped she conveyed ‘I told you to trust me’ well enough with just her jagged eyebrows and proud grin. She would have to make sure to convey the message later regardless.

Maybe now things would be different between them, maybe she could work to get her old friend back.

She couldn’t stop herself from hoping.

***

It hadn’t been enough.

Years of studying for one of the hardest fields, countless all-nighters reading until she got a migraine, multiple stunts in the defendant's chair that wouldn’t have happened if she was just a student of the arts, multiple instances where she was threatened or physically attacked, all that fighting amounted to nothing when she saw that damn note.

Somehow… she hadn’t done enough to save Miles Edgeworth. So proud up until the very end, choosing to die rather than simply ask for help. Just like her mentor she just couldn’t handle losing, in that way Phoenix could argue that she had a hand in her friend's demise. Would she have ever been enough?

Edgeworth must’ve not had many other friends if Phoenix was who they called when the note was discovered, or maybe she was the only friend Gumshoe knew how to find. A pang shot through her heart at the thought. Did she really not have anyone to turn to? Were her closest friends a detective whose salary she abused and the Defense Attorney she had reunited with only a few months ago?

Phoenix’s hands shook as she held the note, one word echoing loudly inside her skull over and over until the detective was able to say her name loud enough to catch her attention.

‘Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth Chooses Death’

‘Death’

Death, death, death, she should be used to that word by now. She seemed to attract it like having a sandwich on a beach attracts seagulls. Constantly circling and vaguely threatening with those soulless black eyes waiting for a crumb to drop before swarming. It didn’t matter that there was no body, the word was right there. Miles had never been one to talk in vague metaphor, unless it was to make fun of her in court.

Phoenix’s connection to the dead had been comforting, helpful, sometimes annoying, but she had never really felt the need to strengthen that bond. Now she had someone that she needed to talk to, someone who wouldn’t say a damn thing in life unless it was dragged out of her kicking and screaming.

Unfortunately, Phoenix was just as skilled at asking for help as her rival, but that didn’t stop her from trying something she knew nothing about. She just wasn’t sure how long it would be until she was ready to even tell Maya about what had happened. She would want to know why the lawyer was suddenly so interested in her ‘spiritual power’ and even thinking about having that conversation made her sick to her stomach.

Wearing Mia’s acolyte robes hurt in a way that compounded upon the reason why she wore them. It wasn’t as if she wore them in front of her junior partner ever but in some unexplainable way, they felt like her. It made her loss more fresh, especially without Maya around to channel her.

Phoenix didn’t have any candles to light, sunlight peeked through her blinds no matter how tightly she closed them, and no matter how cold the water was in her shower it never approached the level of a ‘freezing waterfall, especially when it came to water pressure. Still, Phoenix knelt in her living room, after moving her meager coffee table out of the way.

She resisted the urge to rock in place and readjust her hands, she had a single-minded focus that would not let her go unless she was forced to. She just needed to speak to Miles Edgeworth. She pictured the woman's image in her mind, preparing what to say to her, considering if she would call the ghost a coward or just start crying.

Time passed, she refused to acknowledge how much. It could’ve been anywhere from a sluggish fifteen minutes to several hours. She ignored hunger pains and the way her eyes burned when she failed at the whole ‘keeping your mind blank’ part of meditating.

For once the world was still, no matter how tightly she closed her eyes there were no spirits to keep her company. It was only when her back ached relentlessly and her legs had gone numb that she gave up. Just like with Edgeworth, she had failed.

At that moment she was grateful for being alone, she felt no embarrassment letting out the loud wailing that always coupled with her tears as she collapsed with her back against the couch with her trembling bloodless legs bent up in front of her chest. In the end, she couldn’t manage to be completely angry with Miles, just with herself. She could’ve tried harder and she knew she would live to regret it.

She tried again the next day, but for longer, she forgot to eat. She tried again the next week, wasting her water bill on a long cold shower that wouldn’t be cold enough to make a difference, it only served to make her miserable. She bought candles and tried again, she scoured through Mia’s old notes from when she was communicating with the dead to gain insight on Redd White. One of them had to have some information mentioning what the hell she was supposed to do.

Day after day she was left with silence. Maybe she had driven away her spirits just like she had driven everyone else away. Maybe everyone was just waiting for her to get attached before they left her behind too. What could she do, she couldn’t force anyone to stay, even if she desperately needed them to. They shouldn’t have to be trapped with her.

Miles Edgeworth was dead and it didn’t matter that Phoenix could talk to spirits, she had revealed the truth about DL-6 and it wasn’t enough. She had failed in every way that mattered.

It took months to put it all behind her, to distract herself enough with cases and paperwork to stop herself from thinking about it. She tried her best to not think of Miles Edgeworth at all, cringing away if even her name came up. It hurt too much and she was so sick of hurting so much.

Miles Edgeworth was dead, and she didn’t even have the decency to haunt her about it.

***

When Phoenix was given a Magatama like the ones all the Feys wore, she was told it would allow her to see into people's hearts and see their lies. She was not told that it would help her see spirits again, just as strongly as before her age hit double digits.

It was as if they had never died at all, at least until she looked close enough and saw how their forms faded in varying degrees down their legs, or until she noticed how they followed a certain person around or seemed reluctant to speak as they knew they wouldn’t be heard.

The world was so much more populated when the spirits that haunted it were visible, at least while she took to nervously gripping the smooth stone in her pocket. When she let go to focus on interviewing a witness or to do paperwork without distractions, the ghosts disappeared, and the world got emptier.

Mia tended to hang around Maya more, though she wasn’t against hijacking either her sisters or her little cousin's bodies to help with a case. Especially since it was hard for Phoenix to hold the magatama and frantically sort through evidence and stacks of files at the same time. She also had to have a free hand to point with, which was very important in her line of work.

Seeing Ryunosuke and Kazuma for the first time in years had been nice but the former kept trying to bring up the name of a person Phoenix really didn’t want to think about. The first time she dropped the magatama when the conversation started to steer itself in that direction had been an accident, every following time, it had been intentional.

Even with the magatama, her rival refused to return, at this point, Phoenix wouldn’t know what to do if she did. She refused to think about it, it was easier that way. But it did nothing to prepare her for when it actually happened.

Phoenix was barely keeping it together, the only reason she hadn’t completely fallen apart was because of the little girl tucked against her side, refusing to be left alone, even during a murder investigation. Phoenix obliged, not because she wanted the kid in the middle of everything, but if she was honest, she was afraid to let Pearl out of her sight like she had done with Maya.

The tiny girl found her way into Phoenix’s arms several times during the long investigations, whether that be due to her exhaustion or because she needed to cling to the only person she had left. She never complained, even as her arms ached badly enough to tremble, though that also could be from the caffeine she used to supplement the sleepless night when Maya wasn’t by her side.

Phoenix had only just put down the little spirit medium to talk to Gumshoe when she heard a voice she had tried to forget. Her head whipped around and locked onto the one ghost she had sworn never wanted to see her again.

Miles Edgeworth looked so solid, so close to being alive and for a moment, she forgot how to breathe. The flood of indescribable emotions took over her body so thoroughly that she couldn’t hear what the prosecutors were talking about. She could only stare and hold onto Pearl's hand a little too tightly.

Franziska had left with Gumshoe in tow and Phoenix made a vital realization. Miles had been speaking to her sister, a living person with no spiritual connection, and Phoenix was not holding the magatama. All evidence pointed towards one conclusion.

Edgeworth was alive.

Edgeworth made her think she was dead through a criminally short suicide note and felt no need to contact her for a full year. Maya was kidnapped by an assassin and being used as blackmail against Phoenix and Miles Edgeworth just waltzed in with a teasing comment towards her sister and a painfully familiar smirk on her lips.

Phoenix moved before her mind caught up with her actions. She just had to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating, that she wasn’t just desperate to grab onto any slim thread of hope.

A tentative hand met the formerly dead prosecutor's cheek, it was met with warmth and widening gray eyes. Phoenix ignored how the backs of her eyes burned at the confirmation.

“I thought you were dead,” She broke the silence with a whisper, “I-I never wanted to see you again,” Her voice broke even through the snarl her mouth had formed.

“Not the warm welcome I expected from someone I haven’t seen in a year,” Edgeworth deadpanned, and while she didn’t flinch away from Phoenix’s touch or slap her hand away, she didn’t lean into it either. The defense attorney backed away cautiously, even though she desperately wanted to stay within Edgeworth's orbit.

Phoenix’s teeth clenched to keep a cruel remark behind them. It was so much easier to be angry, it was so much steadier than the terror that followed her ever since that damn transceiver was placed in her hand. She felt less breakable when her rage was at the forefront of her mind. She made no effort to hide it.

“Your hatred for me is quite unhealthy, not to mention one-sided. I do hope you will be able to put it aside, for your own sake if nothing else. I can help you with this case as I am not the assigned prosecutor. We can only find the truth if we work together.” Her voice was so steady while it took every last bit of effort Phoenix had not to lash out. She wasn’t sure if she could rely on her usual self-control in this situation.

Phoenix took a deep breath, the criminal affairs department was the stupidest place to get into a physical altercation, and while she was not known for making the most intelligent decisions, she was smart enough not to get an assault charge, even if it would be so cathartic.

“What do you have for me?” She asked more steadily than she felt. A firmness in her voice that was just as cold as it was low, forced beyond an exhausted whisper by the fury that helped her ignore her fear.

What mattered was getting Maya back safe, then, if she wasn’t completely emotionally wrung out, she could still let Miles know exactly how much she had fucked up.

One problem at a time.

Chapter Text

It took until they reached the training hall that Phoenix was able to pinpoint exactly what bothered her about Hazakura Temple. Beyond the unyielding cold and the nauseatingly tall rickety bridge and the nun that looked so much like… Her, there was an unwelcome familiarity that followed her through the mountain.

She had followed Maya to the little building beyond the garden when it hit her. The echo of bitter cold only softened by a warm voice, she looked up at the lantern that lit the room, expecting its flame to be blue. The room had changed, of course it had, it had been more than twenty years, but Phoenix was sure it was the same place. She was used to the feeling of being sure of something without much proof to back it up.

Phoenix had a rough time keeping up with Maya’s cheerful rambling, her feet still felt unsteady from crossing that rickety goddamn bridge and it didn’t help knowing they were heading right toward the woman that looked almost identical to the ex-girlfriend that had nearly killed her. She couldn’t help but squeeze her lips together to feel the scars that cut through her lips.

Her blood ran as cold as eagle river when she caught sight of the nun she had faced her fears to find. She looked so much like Dahlia, she sounded like her too… They both stared at each other in terrible silence until Maya noticed that something was up. Even after experiencing that nightmare of a bridge that shook with the howling winds and creaked at every step, this filled her with more terror. This woman, this almost-Dahlia who clearly recognized her, that’s what really scared her. That reaction alone proved that this wasn’t just some bizarre coincidence.

Sister Iris left and Phoenix gave up on ignoring how her heart thundered through her ears. Normally Maya’s teasing was good enough to at least distract her, but this time she could barely hear it. She physically cringed when her reaction was perceived as being… interested in the nun, as if just seeing her hadn’t felt like all her organs had turned to cold stone.

Eventually, she tore herself away from her thoughts when Maya recognized the symbol of the Fey family on a hanging scroll depicting her mother. Phoenix didn’t think the sick feeling would leave her for a while though.

***

Phoenix was given a single respite from the uncomfortable situation that she had been mildly persuaded but ultimately chose to get into of her own free will. It came as a shock to her and Maya but that moment of relief came from a very familiar face. The Butz, now dubbed Laurice Deauxnim, had undergone quite the transformation since they had last met.

Laury had done some introspection and where that had ended up was a little shocking but ultimately kind of funny to Phoenix. What were the odds of their entire childhood trio turning out to be women? She seemed happier this way, taking the name of her mentor in the art of illustrating and writing children's books, but in the end, she was still the same. She still had the hots for someone out of her league, though this time it wasn’t some supermodel but a nun who Phoenix was pretty sure wasn’t supposed to enter into any kind of romantic relationship.

At first, Laury thought she was laughing at her, but that misconception was quickly corrected with a hug and a promise this changed nothing about their friendship as she still didn’t forgive her for stealing Miles’ money nineteen years ago. She never would, she kind of hated that it snowballed into where she was now. If her friend hadn’t stolen that money, she probably wouldn’t be a lawyer and that was so weird to think about.

She would rather think about that than anything else at the moment though.

***

Dinner was a little awkward, Phoenix avoided looking at Iris while Laury did the exact opposite and seemed absolutely enchanted by her. At least that meant she could focus on Maya and Pearl and occasionally, Elise and Bikini instead.

It was easier than she thought to slip into her usual dynamic with Maya, to tease her with a small smile and act overly offended when she retaliated. As usual, her assistant was all too good at distracting her from her own mind, she even forgot that her feet were so fucking cold even though she was wearing her good wool socks.

“I just think it’s funny that I’m the one that went to art school and she’s the one that's the apprentice to an illustrator. Do you wanna know what she majored in? Aviation, she wanted to fly a plane because she thought that meant she could be surrounded by pretty flight attendants before she realized that she did not want to know what all those numbers meant so she dropped out.” Phoenix laughed,

“What do you mean you went to art school? You judge the he-uh crap out of every single piece of art we come across!” Maya corrected herself with a nervous smile.

“That’s because lawyers and the fools who decorate the courthouse have horrible taste. Nothing against Mia but I cannot believe she actually liked modern art, and now I have to keep it in the office because I’d feel too bad throwing it in the garbage where it belongs.” Phoenix took a bite of potato and dramatically waved her empty fork as if to explain her frustration.

“You’re just saying that because you can’t afford to replace it with anything, I know! We could put my Maximilian Galactica posters there! He was our client so it totally makes sense to have him in the office!” Maya grinned manically as Phoenix’s eyes widened in horror.

“That is not appropriate for our line of work, that man shows too much skin, we would not be taken seriously at all… or I guess any more seriously than we already are.” Phoenix made a face that made Maya start to cackle.

“What about a steel samurai poster? We can even frame it to look more professional!” Maya suggested the moment she caught her breath.

“I don’t get how samurai media hasn’t been tainted for you, I have nothing against Will Powers but I’m somehow less likely to get into any of those shows now…”

“Hey! I’m not the one who carries an old samurai keychain out in the open! You put that thing on your briefcase that you take to court!” The medium accused with a confident point of her finger, and for some reason, Phoenix’s cheeks turned pink and for the first time that day, it wasn’t because of the cold.

“T-That’s different,” She deflected, though Maya wasn’t deterred.

Neither of them noticed the fond gaze of a stranger, the woman who’d had to watch her children grow from the shadows, who had to forgo attending her daughter’s funeral. Her contact with them started and ended at the legal news section of the papers.

The missing master kept her attention focused mostly on her little niece, the channeling prodigy who her sister would kill for in order to replace her within the family. The wide-eyed girl had no malice in her body, she was just a tool to obtain any power for her imprisoned mother, naively following the path carved out for her with no real knowledge of what she would be forced to do to get to where Morgan wanted her to be.

Misty’s eyes kept wandering to look at her daughter, her self-implemented exile was due to end soon, her heart had ached every moment away, exponentially growing until some days it was unbearable. Maya had grown so much, but her bright spirit remained untempered. She wasn’t surprised when her little girl didn’t recognize her, but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel any less like a stab to the heart.

Today she was laughing as she tried to steal bites of food from Mia’s protege, who seemed so used to her daughter's quirks that she felt no need to fight back with more than a glare. Side by side they looked like siblings, with their black hair and round eyes, the way they playfully argued and when Maya was getting ready to head to the training hall, Ms. Wright sent a concerned comment her way, watching her leave the main temple with a little furrow in her jagged brow.

Today, the letter that Pearl struggled to read bothered her. Maybe tomorrow, when Maya was recovering from her training, Misty could reveal the truth. She didn’t think she had it in her to hide anymore.

When Misty sent one last look to the lawyer chatting with her apprentice, and for a moment, she saw Mia. That moment ended but the feeling didn’t fade. She felt an energy from the young woman, she may not be a Fey but Misty could feel something odd about Phoenix Wright. Tomorrow she would have to ask about it.

***

Phoenix regretted not completely bundling up on her run to the bathroom now that her destination had changed. Trekking up to Dusky Bridge in thin pajama pants and Iris’ hood made sure even her sudden adrenaline rush and racing heartbeat wouldn’t be enough to warm her up within the cold darkness.

The wind picked up as she scrambled closer to the canyon alongside a haunting orange glow. Her pace doubled when she realized that the bridge was on fire, the sound hitting her even before she had gotten near enough to see it.

She only had time to make the connection within her brain that Maya was on the other side and the likelihood that the murderer was there too was too high to ignore. No one had seen Pearl, and if anything had happened, she would go to Maya. She's been worrying about her cousin since they explained what the special spiritual training was.

“Nick! What are you doing up here!” Laury yelled over the roar of the flames, causing Phoenix to let out a scream at an almost embarrassing pitch.

“Shit! Larry- Fuck, I mean Laury, I need you to call the police, there’s been a murder a the temple!” Phoenix pleaded as she made her choice. Her old friend seemed to hear the seriousness in her voice as her eyes widened. Laury looked at Phoenix and at the burning bridge and back to Phoenix with a new panic because she knew her elementary school friend a little too well.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to-”

“I don’t have a choice! The murderer could be on the other side, I have to make sure Maya is safe!” Phoenix gripped the hood across her shoulders, her fear of losing her little sister completely outweighed her crippling phobia of heights. It took more effort to keep herself from sprinting across the chasm than it would be to run away.

“Call the cops man! I’ve got to go- get out of my way!” She brushed past her and onto the crumbling bridge. She barely heard Laury’s scream behind her, the sudden change from frigid air to stinging smoke was only an afterthought as the flames licked her legs and clung to the cloth of her pants.

Phoenix didn’t have the presence of mind to guide her steps between the shredded wooden planks or to even try to pat out the fire climbing up her legs and singing her hood. She withstood the pain knowing only that she had to get to the other side, there was no time to waste knowing that any moment could be Maya’s last.

She hadn’t even made it halfway across before her boot shattered through one of the burning boards and sent her stumbling forward. She would’ve been able to catch herself if the bridge had not been so fragile, this time instead of losing her footing, Phoenix fell right through.

Every second she was plummeting was filled with her terrified scream, echoing along the walls of the canyon until with a sudden crash, it was silent again.

Eagle River was mind-numbingly cold, her impact sent a violent shock through her body that forced her to gasp in some of the icy water. The sudden cold made it impossible to move, sending strikes of lighting through where she had already been badly burned. It was too much to even form thoughts, all she could do as she sunk further and further down was accept her failure.

The current should’ve swept her away into rocky rapids by now, if the fall wouldn’t kill her the river had other ways of finishing the job. But the water was so still, even as Phoenix’s muscles jerked from the onslaught of sensation, it only moved to swallow her deeper.

The fuzzy glow from the burning bridge faded into the darkness, leaving her in pitch-black water until an odd green light caught the attention of what little mind she had left. Her magatama… it floated out of her pocket and bathed her in a ghostly aura.

On instinct, she grabbed for it, it took a couple of tries but eventually, her hand curled around the stone, in that moment something within her burst open. A blast of warmth that chased away the paralyzing ice from her bones and the thick fog from her mind. She fought how her lungs spasmed as they begged for air.

‘Rise Phoenix, you cannot die here,’ A voice echoed clearly through her mind as her feet met the rocky floor, with the last of her energy, she kicked off and swam up, even as her vision faded and her chest screamed.

The water made it impossible to tell how close she was to breaching it, it felt like miles. She couldn’t make it, the pain was too much, her body was too weak, the river was too deep. She reached one desperate hand upwards, even though there would be nothing for her to grasp.

Thankfully, something grabbed her.

A hand breached through the glassy water and pulled her upwards, the moment she gasped her first breath, the chaos of the river caught up to her. She could only cough and attempt to protect her head as her body was thrown against the rocks. She clawed at the stones to anchor herself in place for a single moment but they slipped from her hold the moment she caught them.

Something snapped as the water tried to crush her against the jagged stone, her back slammed into another boulder and she knew if the ice and adrenaline wasn’t numbing her she would be wasting her breath on screaming in agony.

She didn’t know how far she had been taken until she was finally able to stop her descent through the mountain. She wheezed through every breath as she crawled to the shore. Her limbs shaking as she finally reached the untouched snow. It was there that it finally became too much, it was a relief when her body gave out, the magatama still clutched in her frozen hand.

***

Phoenix was pretty sure she was in hell, she didn’t believe in it, but she couldn’t think of any other explanation for why she woke up feeling like she was on fire. Sharp burning pain arched up her legs and torso, her shoulders ached, intensifying with every beat of her heart. She felt tight ropes around her body, some even binding her arm to her chest. She was burning from the inside out and she hadn’t even opened her eyes yet.

A whimper escaped her lips within moments of her regaining consciousness. A voice called her name but the pain blinded her to anything outside of it. The voice was soft and then demanding directed away from her. Whoever was outside of her bubble of torture was angry but not at her. They argued with someone else but she couldn’t quite pick out the words.

An eternity later, and the pain in her limbs finally started to fade. A cool gentle hand met her cheek, a soft thumb grazing across her skin in a gesture that was immediately grounding. Her eyes fluttered open to meet whoever gave her such instant relief.

“I thought you were dead,” Miles Edgeworth muttered without allowing her hand to retreat from her rival's face. She looked less put together than she ever had, not when she was in jail for a murder she didn’t commit, not when they pulled all-nighters to investigate Engard, there were shadows under her eyes and a certain messiness about her that exposed her feelings where her face and words would not.

“’m sorry,” Phoenix whispered, her voice was rough from screaming and coughing before not being used at all, “I had to try…” She trailed off, digging through her foggy memory, trying to find out why she was there in a hospital, why she felt like she should be running somewhere.

“Hold that thought,” Edgeworth pulled away, Phoenix couldn’t hold back a pout. The prosecutor returned to her restricted line of vision with a little plastic cup of water. Phoenix tried to reach for it when she realized just how stuck she was. Bound by bandages and blankets from her neck down with the thin feeling of the hospital gown beneath it all. Only the weight of her blue blazer draped loosely across her shoulders felt familiar.

Once her throat was rehydrated and she got to enjoy the cold of it fighting the heat from her body she spoke again.

“They’re on the other side,” She uttered, “Maya was training on the other side and the murderer would have escaped that way, I had to make sure she was safe,” With the pain subsiding the panic had plenty of room to return, the increasing rate of beeping from the heart monitor was evidence of that, “Pearls is missing, she had to have been over there too… Please tell me they found her? What happened?”

“Pearl Fey has yet to be located, I think you’re right that she’s on the other side of that bridge, the search parties would’ve found her if it were otherwise. A nun at the temple was arrested for the murder, Iris-”

“She didn’t do it,” Phoenix interrupted, a fraction of the fire she held in court met her eyes, dampened by her illness.

“How do you know?” Edgeworth sighed.

“I never do, but my gut feeling is right more often than not. Heh, Wright…” she managed a slightly loopy smile, “I think… no, I’m sure that she knows me, somehow. There’s something personal going on and I need to find the truth, but I don’t think they’re going to let me out yet. I wish I could- wait… Miles?” Her gaze landed on her friend after it wandered around the room with her rapidly disappearing train of thought. Her rival raised an eyebrow as Phoenix forced her body into a sitting position.

“Can you hand me that?” Phoenix motioned her head towards the nightstand which held her glowing green magatama as she struggled out of her cocoon of blankets, only stopping once her arms were free, though she whimpered and winced the whole time. The arm that wasn’t bound to her chest pulled her suit jacket from her shoulders, reaching for one of the most important things that she owned.

“Wright… What are you doing?” Edgeworth held the magatama out to her but her disbelieving glare was enough evidence to Phoenix that she was catching on to her intentions.

“I trust you, Miles,” Phoenix unpinned her attorney's badge from her jacket with the help of the hand slung across her chest, using it as an anchor for the pins back. “I need to know the truth, and I know you can find it.”

“Have you forgotten? I’m a prosecutor! I can’t just take your place-”

“Oh yeah you can, the courts all fell for a middle-aged man with a cardboard badge pretending to be me, I’m sure you’ll be fine. You know how to be a defense attorney, you’ve known since we were kids. I just… I can’t do this on my own. I can’t do anything right now. Please, I can’t-”

“I’ll do it.” Edgeworth interrupted her desperate pleading. “I’m pretty sure that if I don’t, you will break out of this hospital to do it yourself and then you would actually be dead so, I suppose you’ve given me no choice.” The woman raised her eyebrow and while her face didn’t reveal it, her voice had a certain teasing quality that Phoenix was very familiar with.

“You joke but that was my plan B,” Phoenix dropped her prized possession into her rival's hand.

“What am I supposed to do with that?” Edgeworth asked when she noticed Phoenix didn’t take the magatama from her.

“Oh, that’s for you. It will let you see when people are hiding something from you. It’ll make your investigation more fun, or more annoying. Just try not to be wrong too much because it hurts when you fuck up,” Phoenix yawned, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, you’re smart.”

“I shouldn’t have made them increase your painkillers…” Edgeworth muttered to herself, “I will contact you with any important developments in the case, do try to rest though,” Edgeworth stood as Phoenix rested her eyes, the worry mostly left her chest. Miles was so smart and more good than she gave herself credit for, there was no one she would trust more to take her place.

Edgeworth left and Phoenix tried to sleep, the beeping of the monitors made it harder than it should with all the pain relievers being pumped through her system. She had done what she could, she knew she couldn’t do much more than send Edgeworth in her stead but she still felt so useless.

At some point, she must’ve drifted off because the next thing she knew, she was waking up to the feeling of cool fingers combing through her mess of sweaty hair. She wondered if this was what the core of the earth felt like, heavy and so molten hot that the only thing keeping her from melting was the numbing pressure that squeezed her into the vague shape of a human.

Phoenix’s fever boiled out any coherent thoughts she could’ve formed, she was too exhausted to wonder who was by her side, though for some reason, it was familiar and comforting. She would swear that she heard voices talking to her but she couldn’t quite decipher what they were saying. That moment of coherence with Edgeworth had been short and fleeting, she was lucky to have managed it at all.

It took many more hours of slow half-sleep before she could crack open her crusty eyes. The window in her room had dimmed dramatically since she had last noticed it. She had a fresh cool pack on her forehead and while she was still very feverish, she didn’t feel like she was changing states of matter anymore. Unfortunately, her painkillers also seemed to be wearing off as her back and shoulders ached badly enough to make her clench her teeth.

It took a minute of carefully controlled breathing to notice that she wasn’t alone in the room. This wasn’t unusual, though Mia tended to spend more time with Maya, and her own ghosts didn’t spend every second haunting her, it was normal for the vague presence of the spirits to follow her into every room she entered.

What was unusual was that she could see them clearly, she could hear them clearly, and that was not something she could do without the magatama within her grasp. The magatama that she knew was in someone else's possession many miles away.

“Ha! She lives! I was led to believe that you were trying to join us in the afterlife!” Kazuma was smiling though her vision of him was so clear she could see the tension around his eyes, betraying his worry.

“Ugh, how dare you even joke about that…” Ryunosuke muttered, “I know it isn’t always your fault but I would really appreciate it if you tried to avoid fatal incidents from now on…”

“Near-fatal, I haven’t actually died yet.” Phoenix smiled, their presence was soothing, the constant anxiety that followed her waking life since she saw that face in Pearl’s magazine seemed to be more manageable with her ancestors around.

“Not for lack of trying I would imagine,” Ryunosuke huffed, “You missed Mia by the way,”

“What?! Did she say if Maya was okay?” Phoenix sat up with a start, ignoring how it sent a pulse of pain through her back and shoulders and a wave of vertigo through her head that made her grip her hospital bed with her free hand.

“She’s alive, but Mia didn’t tell us much. She just said that you would need to revisit some of her cases to help with this one.” Kazuma sighed, probably thinking the same thing as Phoenix which was something along the lines of ‘can she be less vague and cryptic for once? There’s no way she doesn’t know most of what is going on…’

“I think I know what she’s talking about…” Phoenix said grimly. It was why she agreed to come up to that icy hellscape in the first place. It was in her nature to be confrontational, she kept forgetting to hesitate to shove evidence in the faces of dangerous people who tended to retaliate, and that extended to the demons of her past. Even when she was terrified out of her mind, she couldn’t stop herself from sprinting toward whatever scared her so much, she just couldn’t let a mystery rest. Especially one that had affected her as much as Dahlia had.

She sighed when she spotted her old clunky laptop set on her nightstand, once again she was, unfortunately, indebted to Laury for saving the day. It was a shock that her friend had the foresight to bring her most important belongings to her bedside.

“Well, I guess we better get to work.” She braced herself for the pain she knew would suddenly be exacerbated by drastic movement, and she reached for her laptop. At least she wouldn’t be useless anymore.

***

“Wright… Are you sure you’re well enough to be doing this?” Edgeworth hesitated to return her attorney's badge as its owner rolled her eyes.

“Actually, my fever has gone down quite a bit. I’m only at a hundred and two now.” Phoenix pulled out a convincing grin, which was interrupted by a coughing fit that lasted long enough to dismiss her point of being well enough to get back to her job.

“Always the stubbornest of women…” Edgeworth teased with a barely-there smile.

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from,” She huffed breathlessly, taking a moment to allow her oxygen levels to normalize. She glared at the change of clothes that she had brought to Hazakura Temple that Laury brought up to the hospital.

Her shoulders ached just thinking about the struggle it was going to be to thread her arms through the sleeves and button it up with only the use of one arm. She had tried to reach her free hand behind her head enough to anxiously scratch her neck and had decided quite quickly that she wasn’t going to do that until her bruises healed up.

Damn, she hadn’t been able to even brush through her hair since she had taken the plunge into the killer rapids, she could not appear in court without her thick mane of black hair tamed. Typically she liked to weave it into a tight french braid, using a little gel to make all the edges look extra sharp. The look was professional but also unique. She had seen it post-eagle river in the bathroom mirror and nearly winced at the mess it had become. Just another thing she would have to deal with before she left the hospital.

“Do you… need help?” Miles’ voice shot through her train of thought, her cheeks noticeably tinted pink.

“Yeah,” Phoenix sighed, clearly defeated, “Yeah, I think I do.”

Which was how Phoenix found herself having a bit of a crisis, and not even the kind she was used to. No, this crisis was about 18 years in the making, starting as ‘baby’s first crush’ into the beast it was after all this time. Because even after everything Edgeworth has put her through, she was still completely hopeless when it came to her.

It started with a brush running through her hair, interrupted by a firm hand that kept the tugging from reaching her tender scalp, extra sensitive due to her illness. The slight graze of manicured nails made her shiver just as much as her fever had. Oh dear, she was not going to survive this.

“You’re fortunate that ‘falling through a bridge into a raging river’ is a good excuse for this travesty,” Edgeworth’s snide words being softened by how gentle her hands were.

“What do you mean? It looks like this every time I wake up,” Phoenix almost succeeded in keeping her voice even as Miles’ fingertips combed through the hair at her temple. She was pretty sure that wasn’t necessary and at this point, the prosecutor was just doing it to torture her. At least she could blame the flush of her face on her fever.

“Good lord…” The other woman audibly rolled her eyes.

Phoenix’s only distraction was the transcript of the day's court proceedings that she unfortunately had to miss. She would’ve loved witnessing Miles attempting to cross-examine Laury. That was all she envied though, everything else about the trial seemed extremely nervewracking, though that was typical for her cases.

“I seem to recall your preference for tying your hair up, is that something you want?” Miles’ voice interupted her mental creation of a to-do list of things to investigate.

“Normally I would, but I don’t think it’ll help my headache,” just the slight pulling of the brush had made her wince several times, regardless of the care Miles took. “Though I kind of want to cash in on that offer later, I bet with Franziska as a sister you were forced to learn a decent variety of complicated hairstyles.”

“You wouldn’t be wrong, though Franziska took her title of older sister very seriously so it was mostly me on the receiving end of her hair experiments. Culturally it is popular for German women to be adorned in braids, at least in traditional settings, so I did end up learning my fair share. Perhaps if you are ever in need of something elaborate I could be of some use.” Miles threaded her fingers through Phoenix’s hair one last time, checking for any final snags, though it made the defense attorney's mind go blank for a moment.

“Hmmm, now I’m wishing I got invited to more fancy parties…” Phoenix spoke after a moment too long of silence.

“Nevertheless, your hair looks nice down,” Miles stated like it was a fact, clearly ignoring how her scalp was sweaty from the fever and how it had last been washed with river water. The way it had naturally dried pressed up against a pillow gave it a curl wilder than the slight wave made by the memory of a full day bound in a tight braid.

“Let’s get you dressed,” The woman lightly patted Phoenix’s back as she turned to the bag of clothes Laury brought up. Oh… Phoenix had forgotten about that part. She was still in her thin hospital gown, though thankfully a nurse who had rewrapped her burns that morning had also made sure she wasn’t completely nude beneath the tissue paper that covered her.

Thankfully she was disconnected from the heart monitor because she did not need to make it any more clear how she felt about the other woman in the room.

She rationalized it in her mind, Edgeworth would be overly impersonal about it, like the nurse had, she probably wouldn’t even linger on the exposed state of her body. It would be fine, statistically, she was more likely to be exclusively interested in men. Actually, that was a stretch, she didn’t seem to care when men were interested in her, not that Phoenix had noticed. It seemed more reasonable to assume that the prosecutor wasn’t interested in anyone like that at all.

It may be against her nature to disregard any sense of hope, but this was simply not something she could allow herself to be optimistic about. She may be reckless with her body but she couldn’t be so reckless with her heart anymore.

At first, Phoenix was right, Edgeworth analyzed her sling before helping her remove it, instructing her to keep her arm as still as possible until they were able to put it back on. Her voice was commanding and unaffected by such unnecessary feelings like sapphic yearning. That was until the gown fell from her injured shoulders.

Phoenix was sure she wasn’t the most alluring sight, especially with bandages wrapped around her limbs and colorful bruises making sure that there was no expanse of tanned skin left undamaged.

Still, Edgeworth’s gaze seemed resolutely drawn to her collarbone, dipping lower as the hospital gown fell away. Phoenix could feel the way her friend's eyes followed every newly revealed inch of skin, a slight chill slowly falling to the ground, hesitating a moment at her hips before tearing themselves away to focus on scrunching up the sleeve of her dress shirt.

Phoenix coughed to fill the silence, also because she breathed in too deeply and her lungs were rather disagreeable to that action.

Miles stepped back into her space, this time with a pleasant blush dusting along her cheeks and Phoenix was forced to consider that her rival could potentially be attracted to women in some sense. The evidence seemed to suggest that, but she refused to think about it further, unfortunately, her mind wasn’t on board with that decision because she definitely thought about it anyway.

Edgeworth guided the sleeve around her rigidly bent arm and helped the other one slide through. She was sure the prosecutor could feel the heat radiating from her skin. Her hands met above her chest, slowly starting to fasten the buttons. Her focus was on the job she had been given but Phoenix got to relish their faces being so close together, if she hadn’t fulfilled her weekly recklessness quota on that bridge, she would’ve been unable to control the urge to lean forward those last few inches. Thankfully, she was able to restrain herself.

After her sling was strapped back into place, getting dressed got a lot easier. Her range of motion with her working arm extended to the point that she could put on her own slacks with little help, the belt was impossible though. But that got Miles’ hands on her waist so she was able to ignore how powerless this entire situation made her feel.

Phoenix’s iconic blue jacket was draped across her shoulders, the solution they came to after a quiet discussion over how to keep the sling comfortable but not so she would freeze up in the mountains. She abandoned her tie after Miles admitted that she didn’t know how to tie one, it wouldn’t have been worth the effort anyway.

As a finishing touch, Miles returned her attorney’s badge to its rightful place on the breast of her jacket.

“Thanks, Miles, for all of it, I’ll handle things from here.” Phoenix let a smile far softer than intended to slip out. Her heart was still pounding from their proximity, which wasn’t helping her headache but she tried not to mind.

“Please never ask me to do it again, especially the identity fraud part,” Edgeworth averted her eyes, hiding behind silvery bangs.

“So the rest of it was repeatable?” Phoenix smiled devilishly before her brain could catch up with the disaster she was making for herself.

“Shut up, we need to check you out of this place, I’m sure you’re anxious to get back to the scene of the crime.” She deflected with her familiar cold glare. Phoenix only had just enough self-preservation instincts to keep her mouth closed for once. It wasn’t like the prosecutor was wrong, if she spent a single minute more in this sterile room she would start pacing like a zoo animal.

“More than you know, buddy. Especially the anxious part.” Phoenix sighed, last she knew, Mia said Maya was alive, but a lot could change in sixteen hours. “You’re driving me right?” She asked as they finally exited the prison she had been kept in, starting down the empty halls.

“I’m not going to abandon you now,” Miles replied resolutely.

“I know, you’re stuck with me from now on.”

“Until I get Franziska to look after you, you’ve proven that you need someone to keep you from getting yourself nearly killed.”

“Please tell me that’s just a threat…”

“...”

“If she kills me, I’m going to haunt you, and not in a fun way. I’m gonna break your steel samurai doll and make a mess of all your important papers,” Phoenix pouted and made a point to ignore the spirits in the lobby that looked between the two of them expectantly.

“I don’t believe in ghosts, Wright,”

“I have a feeling you’re going to change your mind pretty soon. This is not the kind of case you can be a skeptic with. I guess that’s what happens when the Fey’s are involved. At least it’s interesting.” Phoenix shrugged with one side.

Miles clearly didn’t believe her, Phoenix almost found it funny.

***

“What took you so long, I thought even you would get here faster Ms.Trite,” What relief Phoenix had felt when they had found Pearl was instantly replaced with the anxious resignation she typically felt when she was forced to interact with her most recent rival prosecutor.

“Prosecutor Godot! I didn’t know you were here,” Phoenix jumped a little at the abrupt entrance of the deep rumbling voice. Franziska had narrowed her eyes at the newcomer before muttering their shared profession to herself with a judgemental tone.

“This was supposed to be your case right? I’d heard you’d gone missing,” The defense attorney raised an eyebrow.

“Ha… I’d heard similar things about you,” Godot sauntered into the training hall with a smirk.

“I was in the hospital.” Phoenix deadpanned.

“Pathetic,” Godot huffed, “I had more important matters to deal with, the importance of which you have no hope of understanding.” It took a monumental amount of effort to restrain the twitch building around Phoenix’s eye.

“Quiet!” Franziska snapped in unison with her whip, “I believe I have the measure of you! You are the worst kind of prosecutor! What could be more important than a trial?”

“Who’s the wild mare, Trite?” Godot barely spared Franziska a glace, though it was hard to tell behind that bulky mask.

“Someone has to do your job, this is Prosecutor Von Karma,” Though their relationship wasn’t close and could only recently be described as ‘cordial’, she was still determined to show respect to her counterpart, especially with how she knew Godot would look down on the young woman.

“Ha… I guess I owe you one then, but you can go now, princess. It’s time to hand the reigns to the big kids,” Godot made a shooing motion towards the german prosecutor.

“Just who do you think you are?! This case is my-” Franziska snarled and gripped her curled whip between her hands.

“Hey Filly, know your role and shut your mouth. I can’t stand women like you. I’m only going to say this once, Lady Von Whippingberg, Go. Home.” Godot thundered. It was easy to forget how young Franziska was, how small she was, but now as the older prosecutor towered over her, it was hard to see her as anything other than the barely adult that she was.

“Back off daft punk, that’s hardly an appropriate way to treat your coworker. Especially one with a success rate far above your zero.” Phoenix pushed the man's shoulder so he would back away from his prey.

“Always the knight in shining armor,” Godot’s focus shifted and his voice took on a dangerous quality that immediately made Phoenix defensive. “It’s a shame that it will never be enough.”

“What?” Phoenix flinched back.

“You still don’t get it, do you? You don’t realize that you’ve set in motion something you’ll never be able to undo.” Godot grumbled.

“What are you talking about?” She was used to Godot being vague and overly verbose but she did not have the patience for it today. They guy wasn’t exactly Shakespeare.

“I’ll spell it out for you, Trite, This side of the bridge has been searched, and yet there is still no sign of the alcolyte you abandoned here.”

“What? That’s impossible! Maya was training here that night, there’s nowhere else she could be!” Phoenix exclaimed as the panic that had been simmering within her grew to a boil.

“I won’t say it again, the chances of her being here are nil. Excluding, of course, one very unique place.” The prosecutor explained slowly, his expression hardening at Phoenix’s look of confusion, “The sacred cavern. The entrance of which we are standing at right now. You must be aware that the cave beneath us often reaches below-freezing temperatures, if she’s found in there, it’s unlikely that she will be found alive.”

“N-No!” Her voice echoed within the small space.

“Which means, Trite, you sent Maya Fey to her death!” The accusation froze Phoenix in place, but slowly a whisper of logic entered her skull.

“She’s still alive, she has to be,” Phoenix growled. If Maya were dead yet, she would know. Hopefully.

“Think rationally, once again a woman dies because of you,” Godot took a step forward and twirled a lazy finger through a chunk of her hair that sat in front of her shoulder.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, it’s only been two years after all.” His voice lowered, soft and filled with acid. “She died, because of you.” Every word was sharp and deliberate, sending a pang of shock like a blow as she realized who he was talking about.

“I didn’t kill Mia, I got her killer behind bars, I did everything that I could-”

“That’s a lie. You didn’t do nearly enough. If you did, she’d still be here. You were with her at the time. You and no one else. It was your responsibility, you should have protected her! Instead, you take her job and her office and replace her name with your own. You robbed her of her life in every way you could, and now… you’ve let her sister suffer the same fate.”

“No…” Her voice was reduced to a whisper, they were her sisters, the living family she never thought she would have, but maybe that was the problem. Her family was filled with nothing but ghosts, no matter how many burning bridges she ran across, she would never have been able to get there in time to save them. A sob built in her throat but she was resolute in not letting Godot see her break. It’s not over, she couldn’t cry until it’s over.

“Soon we will open her tomb. We can only hope justice will be served.” Godot turned his head to the lock on the gate that separated the training hall from the sacred cavern.

For now, all they could do was wait, though time was not something that they had. Phoenix feared the moment Maya would be added to the army of ghosts she had haunting her. Her eyes flickered to every source of movement in the corner of her eye, gripping the magatama even if she didn’t need it to see the spirits at the moment.

Godot was the first to leave, though it wasn’t as if he wouldn’t fit in one last jab.

“You’d better start praying. You’d better pray that friend of yours brings the accused here soon.” the prosecutor grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and jerked her towards him, “You better get one thing straight, Trite, you will never be her.” He left her stumbling as he let her go, leaving without a single word more. Her inhale turned out to be more like a shaking gasp, a precursor to tears she wasn’t sure she would be able to stop.

“You should choose your friends more carefully, Phoenix Wright.” Franziska folded her arms in frustration.

“What part of that interaction made you think that he’s my friend?” Phoenix forced her tone to be light. Her voice was rough from unshed tears and repetitive bouts of violent coughing.

“He has a nickname for you.”

“He just likes making sure I know that he doesn’t respect me. Which is a little funny, he’s won as many trials against me as you have.” The snap of the whip was expected, the pain was a good distraction. Thankfully she must not look pathetic enough for Franziska to show her much mercy. That had to count for something.

***

Dahlia fumed at the witness stand, her porcelain mask shattered into a million little shards. Mia’s presence at her side, the knowledge that Maya was safe, was enough to break through the fear that had made it difficult to breathe. Phoenix had tried to bury everything about the woman on the stand deep in her heart, dispelling any thought of her from her mind and drowning it in legal studies. Still, sweet Dollie returned in her nightmares, calling her pathetic and stupid, making sure she was aware that a man would be alive if it wasn’t for her just following one simple demand.

The edge of her mouth twitched, the familiar pull of the scars on her lips felt more than just a reminder of her own naivety. They were a monument to her resilience, to her specific brand of brave stupidity and stupid bravery, on display for the woman she made them for to see her smile through.

For the first time in half of a decade, Phoenix wasn’t scared of her. Her veneer of delicate beauty was torn through to reveal the monster who would kill a girl just to get back at her dead sister. There was no going back now, and two defense attorneys were perfectly willing to relish that fact.

“Why not just admit it Ms. Hawthorne, your little plan was nothing but a big failure,” Phoenix spoke in a voice very nearly free of vindictiveness, sugary sweet despite bitterly uttered words through bared teeth.

“Yes, another failure to add to add to the pile of shame wouldn’t you say?” Mia’s tone lacked the lightness that Phoenix injected to the point of almost sounding satirical.

“Wh-What? What do you mean by another!” Dahlia snarled, her scorching eyes meeting the duo with a snap.

“Think about it, Dahlia,” Phoenix started with an air of eternal patience, like she was facing a child with too many questions, “Remember all your past crimes? Not a single one of them was a success. All of them ended in failure.”

“What?! How dare you!” The murderer roared with a slam of her hands against the witness stand.

“Eleven years ago, your first crime, you got your hands on that diamond, but in the end, the truth was exposed.” Mia smiled.

“Shut up! That wasn’t my fault! It was that stupid oaf of a prisoner and that weakling of a policewoman, they deserved their fates!” Her shriek echoed through the stunned courtroom.

“And then one year after the truth came out, you tried to kill me.” Phoenix straightened her back and grinned with a swirling gesture from her hand not strapped to her torso. “Obviously, that one ended up in failure too. You were caught for the alternate murder you committed in my stead and won yourself the death penalty. It really is just one stupid move after another with you.”

“You- wipe that smug happy-go-lucky smile off your face!” Phoenix only smiled wider, few were close enough to spot the fierce glint in the attorney’s eye.

“And now this! You fucked up again!” Phoenix laughed a laugh of pure astonished joy. “You let Maya escape, even though she was right in front of you! You really can’t do anything right, can you?”

There was no response for a moment. The whole room was deadly quiet, even the judge seemed at a loss for words.

Then the lights flickered.

The growl started out imperceptively low, more of a vibration that rumbled throughout the entire room. One could mistake it for an earthquake, by the way Edgeworth’s delicately made-up eyes widened and her back became frozen stiff in her seat in the gallery, the effect was similar enough. The sound grew louder, animalistic in a way that resembled no animal on the planet. Deeper than the ocean, its volume and ire growing exponentially with every passing moment.

“MIA… MIA FEY-” The voice that passed from Dahlia’s lips couldn’t have been hers, it filled the room like it dwelled within its inhabitant's own minds and screamed. Her true voice was in there somewhere, a duet where her shrieking was nothing more than a whisper to the creature she had turned into. “MIA FEY! YOU BITCH!! I WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL MAYA FEY, IT IS MY WILL, I AM MORE THAN SOME PITIFUL SOUL WHOSE INFLUENCE FADES WITH THEIR LIFE!!”

Phoenix gasped as the demon's voice reverberated through her skull, but she stood steady, unable to take her eyes off of the thing that replaced the human at the witness stand. Its eyes were flooded with darkness and twisted in unrecognizable fury. Its skin was so bloodless that should could be mistaken for a corpse. There was a hollow look to her features that was noticeable in the blinking lights.

“YOU TOOK IT FROM ME MIA!! YOU TOOK MY RIGHTEOUS VENGENCE, THEY ALL DESERVED IT! YOUR GULLIBLE TRUSTING PLAYTHING, JUST AS DEAD AS I AM, IT’S YOUR FAULT YOU MEDDLESOME CUNT. IT WAS ALL MINE, I HAD IT ALL-” Its growling outburst gained speed, sounding less and less like it was being spoken entirely in English.

“THAT PATHETIC LOVESICK IDIOT, I HAD HER IN THE PALM OF MY HAND, IT’S YOUR FAULT SHE STANDS BEFORE ME BREATHING THE AIR OF THE LIVING, HOW DARE YOU PEER INTO MY EYES AS IF YOU NEVER DIED AT ALL, HAVE YOU ACCEPTED YOUR DEATH YET COUSIN OR WILL YOU PUPPET MY BASTARD SISTER LIKE I PUPPET YOURS!!’

“I think you understand now,” Mia’s voice passed through the earsplitting screaming of the demon, “You will never defeat me, Dahlia Hawthorne. Never in life, certainly not in death, not somewhere in between the two. As long as I’m around, there is no fate for you that isn’t filled with failure.”

“NO!! NO-NO I’M STRONGER- NONONONO- YOU’RE NOTHING!” The creature buried its clawed hands through hair that flew in a wild breeze with no logical origin.

“Do you remember before? When you said we can’t punish you… because you’re already dead?” Phoenix addressed the demon with as much strength as she could muster.

“WHAT OF IT YOU BRAINLESS WRETCH!”

“You said, ‘Even when the body dies, the spirit, the ego, lives on forever.’ Right?”

“Wise words from our dear cousin, and that is exactly the punishment you’ll never be able to escape from. For the rest of eternity, you’ll have to remain as Dahlia Hawthorne. A miserable, pathetic, weak creature who can never succeed in anything. And for you, there is no escape from that, no hope for freedom. Since the moment you were executed, the narrow bridge that once stretched out in front of you has burnt to a crisp!” Mia smiled that confident one that Phoenix was always trying to replicate.

“NO-YOU’RE WRONG-YOU’RE LYING!! IT CAN’T BE- HOW- COULD- I- LOSE- TO- THE LIKES- OF YOU!” The creature gripped the wood of the witness stand, forcing out audible snapping as the material gave way under its hold.

“It doesn’t even matter! I don’t care if you win or lose anymore,” Phoenix yelled through the demon's noise. “Let go Dahlia! Leave Maya’s body!” she held the magatama Edgeworth had helped her tie around her neck before the trial. It glowed white through the flesh of her palm, only disrupted by the bones in its way.

The demon let out a high-pitched scream and in that moment, the room was plunged into darkness. The only lights left were the scarlet slits from Godot’s mask and the ghostly green from Phoenix’s magatama.

“NO… I CAN’T GO- I DON’T WANT TO GO- NO NO NO I’M NOT READY TO GO!!” The demon screeched one last time before its blood-red form was launched from Maya’s body, white eyes floated in the dark room and settled on them, more specifically, on Mia. “YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS-”

The vague silhouette of Dahlia Hawthorne used her final moments and shot herself at the channeled woman still being hosted in the body of little Pearl Fey.

“No!” Phoenix shoved her mentor away just as the spirit met the defense bench. Its focus shifted to the injured attorney with a snap and without any warning, its hands found Phoenix’s face. Long clawlike nails bit into her jaw with two thumbs targetting the jagged scars on either side of her mouth. Could she still be considered a ghost if she felt so real?

“YOU’RE OVERDUE FEENIE, ONE LAST BODY TO ADD TO THE REST, IT WILL HURT HER JUST AS MUCH AS IF I KILLED HER OWN SISTER, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER EYES, DIE DAMN YOU-” Her voice was familiar again, at least beyond the heavy veil of frantic unhinged rambling.

“What makes you think you can do it this time?” Phoenix growled, her one hand reaching for the specter’s throat in an attempt to keep her away. She felt her blood flowing free from her reopened wounds, entering her mouth only enough to taste. “You can’t kill anyone anymore sweetheart,”

Phoenix’s grip on Dahlia’s neck tightened and the spirit slammed her living counterpart into the wall that separated them from the gallery. The impact on her heavily bruised back like a lightning strike that left her gasping for breath before she bellowed in outrage.

“GO BACK TO HELL DOLLIE!”

The demon howled as the hand around her throat burst her into dead blue flame, it spread rapidly through the spirit’s form until all that was left was a chunk that licked at her suddenly empty hand. In a flash, that was gone too. Phoenix’s outstretched hand formed a fist to hide how it trembled.

The lights flickered on.

Phoenix wheezed through each shaking breath, a tentative hand reaching her mouth as blood dripped down her chin. Her head instinctively jerked upward to shift the hair that had fallen wildly in her face from the struggle, away from her eyes.

She took a tissue from the box on the bench among the documents and assorted pieces of evidence. She pressed it against her lips and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Fuck… her back hurt even more now. She missed how even Mia was staring at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read.

“Your honor?” Phoenix looked at the terrified old man who sat high above the rest of the court. “The defense would like to request a brief recess.”

The gavel knocked against its block.

“Sustained.” The judge uttered after a loud swallow. He forgot to mention when they were to reconvene.

***

Phoenix stewed alone in the defendant's lobby after denying the offer for medical attention. The trial couldn’t continue until the real Iris got there and even worse, she wasn’t allowed to see Maya since her collapse in the courtroom. Mia, still being channeled by Pearl, managed to get in but Prosecutor Godot had physically blocked her from seeing the girl she nearly died for.

So here she was, if her body wasn’t so exhausted and aching she would’ve been pacing, instead she tapped her foot against the floor at an anxious speed. Finally, some movement caught her eye, Phoenix’s tensed muscles relaxed at the sight of two clear figures emerging from the hallway.

“Is she-” Phoenix focused on the shorter ghost.

“She’s fine, physically at least. Probably tired from channeling for so long but she’s unharmed.” Ryunosuke sat down next to his descendant.

“We have another problem,” Kazuma scowled, “the prosecutor convinced her to be summoned as a witness once the real defendant has arrived.” He was usually the one quickest to anger but consistently steady in serious situations, he was usually so level-headed when tragedy struck. This time he seemed uneasy, even though they could argue that they had gotten past the worst of it, she had never seen him affected like this.

“It isn’t right, she witnessed a woman die in front of her and now she knows it was her mother, and he just expects her to take the stand- god, she’s been channeling this whole time, it’s been only hours since the incident for her.” The samurai paced across the lobby with a hand resting on the hilt of his saber.

“She’s been through a lot, we’ll get through it. Would it make you feel better if I let you bother Prosecutor Godot for a while? You can make a mess of his trial paperwork,” Phoenix suggested as she took in the new information. For some reason, Maya was cooperating with the prosecutor who had proved time and time again that he hated the defense attorney she worked under. There had to be a reason for that, but it was difficult to come up with one.

“Tempting, but I doubt it will help anything. As much as I hate to admit it, all we can do is make it through this trial. You can find the final truth, little dragon.” Kazuma stilled his restless pacing and folded his arms.

“You’ll be there for her when this is all over, it’s the best you can do,” Ryunosuke promised though his mouth was bent into a frown. He had never been very skilled at hiding his true emotions.

“Glad to see we’re all optimistic…” Phoenix muttered before an approaching voice stopped her thoughts in their tracks, muted by doors and walls, but at a timbre she could recognize from miles away.

“I shouldn’t have to remind you that I was the acting attorney for this case and it is perfectly lawful, not to mention, common sense, that I would be allowed to confer with the current council. I may have words for your supervisor after this, but that depends on how quickly you make yourself scarce.” Edgeworth passed through a door and glared at the bailiff who was caught in her ire.

“Hey Miles, just curious, do you believe in ghosts now?” Phoenix managed a sweet grin at her rival, ignoring how it pulled at her reopened wounds.

“That is nothing to joke about, that was… a terrifying spectacle,” The prosecutor managed, looking over the other attorney with an uncharacteristic worry in her brow that had been making an appearance a lot more frequently lately. Maybe she just needed to get into mortal danger more often to get Edgeworth to look at her with such intensity.

“I won’t argue with you there, I’m surprised I didn’t faint,” Phoenix half-joked, it wouldn’t have been the first time she could’ve fallen unconscious in a highly stressful situation. If asked, she wouldn’t lie and say she hadn’t felt pretty light-headed when Dahlia’s spirit targeted Mia.

“Are you alright?” Edgeworth’s voice was firm, she suspected that Phoenix would lie and pretend to be fine, and sure, that was the defense attorney’s first instinct.

“It’s not over yet Miles, ask me again after Iris is declared Not Guilty,” She couldn’t focus on her feelings now, there was still a trial to get through. She just had to keep it together a little longer.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Phoenix Wright!” Franziska entered the lobby holding a mildly distressed Iris by the arm. “I demand to know what is going on!”

“Uh, do you want the long version or the short version?” Phoenix stumbled away from Miles, she hadn’t realized they had gotten so close.

“Fool! Answer me!” Franziska snapped her whip against the ground in her fury.

“Do you remember our first case together? You saw Maya channel Mia in the detention center, right? You got the court to recognize the fact the spirit channeling changes the appearance of the medium involved,”

“Of course I do! My memory is perfect!”

“Well, since the earthquake yesterday, the Iris we’ve been talking to has been Maya channeling Iris’ twin sister Dahlia, long story short, I think we made history with Japanifornia’s first courtroom exorcism,” She said, as if that was completely normal to say. To her it was, she had never known normal when it came to the spiritual world.

“Wait, who performed the spirit severing technique? It couldn’t be Pearl, she’s far too young,” Iris’ eyes widened.

“No, she was channeling Mia, still is probably,” Phoenix tilted her head in confusion, there had been no ceremony to the way they got the demon from her host, she figured that an official technique would at least require some fancy words in a language she didn’t speak, maybe some hand gestures or a spiritual artifact coming into play.

“Can another spirit really do that? I’ve never heard of something like that happening before,” She looked at Phoenix with a strange curiosity in her gaze.

“I don’t know, Mia’s always been a rather powerful spirit,” Phoenix dismissed flippantly before realizing that she was treading rather close to a line she hadn’t crossed since she was a small child. There were no strict rules against it, but she had learned over the years that she was the odd one and the reveal of her ability was more likely to get her a diagnosis than any sort of understanding. She hadn’t even fully told Maya the extent of her connection to the dead.

“If anything, it seemed like a team effort,” Edgeworth looked at her like she was a particularly puzzling piece of evidence, she tried not to squirm under the intensity of it. Miles had seen what had happened, everyone had seen how Dahlia had manifested outside of Maya’s body, at least Phoenix assumed that was the case based on the reactions of everyone left in the courtroom.

“Funny joke Edgeworth, it doesn’t take a genius to see that I’m no spirit medium. If I could channel anyone, I’d let Mia do all my trials for me,” Phoenix laughed with a forced strain along its edges.

“How American of you to boast of your laziness, Phoenix Wright.” Franziska sneered, she was the only one who wasn’t looking at the magatama at her neck as if it meant something new now.

“Defendant!” A bailiff entered the lobby, generic and fully uniformed, Phoenix would never be able to tell if she had ever met him or not. “The Judge wants to see you in his chambers, he has questions about Dahlia Hawthorne.”

Iris nodded to them once before following the man out without complaint. At least that meant one less pair of eyes scrutinizing her.

“Are you… bleeding?” Franziska accused with a silk-covered point of her finger.

“Shit-” Phoenix hissed as her palm met her lips again.

“Do you not own lip balm?” The woman let out a baffled scoff.

“It’s not that, this case has been all about reopening old wounds, literally,” Phoenix muttered, she had just washed off the blood from Dahlia’s talons. Her scars were fresh again and she had forgotten what a nightmare it was to speak afterward.

Wordlessly, Edgeworth reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a pristine white handkerchief, she held it out with two elegant fingers. It took a staring contest, that Phoenix almost immediately lost, to get her to take it and promptly stain it a vibrant red.

“Thanks…” Her voice was muffled by the cloth, and for some reason, it became rather difficult to meet her rival’s eyes.

“...Phoenix,” a new voice entered the space, the defense lobby was rarely this popular, only minutes ago Phoenix had been swallowed in the silence.

“Mia,” the defense attorney acknowledged her mentor.

“It’s time.”

***

It was over, long after Phoenix nearly screamed from the rage of knowing just how much it felt like every damn person involved in this case was lying to her constantly. It drove her up the wall knowing that Maya probably got her distinct lack of self-preservation instincts from her. She was hell-bent on lying and Phoenix wasn’t going to let her get away with it.

Finally, the man on the opposite side of the courtroom bled, proving that there had been a wound behind his mask. He accepted how Phoenix weaved together the sequence of events, and how he only hated her because she was so much like Mia, replacing her like she had never existed at all.

Normally Phoenix wouldn’t accept a drink from someone like Godot, but she needed the caffeine and to her dismay, the coffee tasted pretty good too. She just wished it was hotter. The mug had felt like a truce between them, like an understanding had finally been reached. One last piece of his bullshit poetry she couldn’t quite decipher before he was led away in handcuffs.

The truth was out, all of it. She had never dated Dahlia and was finally validated for that persistent feeling that the woman who tried to poison her was not the one that she knew, but that led to even more confusing feelings. Iris never planned to tell her the truth, choosing to hide away in a temple in hopes that they’d never meet again. After years of thinking that she must’ve done something to get Dollie to hate her like she did, of being convinced that the one person who could’ve loved her manipulated months and months of a relationship only to kill her when it was convenient.

God what a nightmare, no wonder she repressed it.

“NICK!” Maya crashed into Phoenix’s poor bruised body with an audible thump which would’ve sent her flying if she were a lesser woman. Her free arm immediately curled around the girl's shoulders and she couldn’t help but squeeze with all her might because finally… FINALLY it was over. She would have plenty of time to spiral over the unearthed facts later.

“Oh Maya,” Phoenix rested her cheek against the top of the girl's head and squeezed her eyes shut as it finally hit her how terrified she had been, starting with the photo in a magazine. She had been so afraid for long enough that she assumed that it was just going to be a part of her from now on, but with Maya safe in the best embrace she could manage, the feeling faded.

“Are you okay? It got a little intense in there, I got a little intense in there,” The attorney muttered, with the foundation of fear that had forced her onward this whole time crumbling to the ground, she was left exhausted and sore. The terror that drove her across that bridge and kept her awake without medication to force her to sleep, that she had drawn so much frenzied energy from, was just gone. If she didn’t have someone who had arguably been through a whole lot worse relying on her to keep standing, she probably would’ve passed out then and there.

“I’ll be alright, I should’ve known better than to lie to you, it’s like seeing through them is your job or something,” Maya’s voice was muffled from where she pressed herself against Phoenix’s blazer, resting limply across her shoulders.

“Still, I’m sorry. I know it wasn’t easy for you up there,” Phoenix fought the burning in her throat that preceded tears, she wasn’t a pretty crier. Hopefully, she could hold off a little longer.

“It’s okay, it’s over now,” Maya curled within Phoenix’s embrace impossibly tighter, physically aware of how the older woman’s breath shook when she inhaled.

“That doesn’t mean you can just start bawling in the middle of the courthouse,” Mia wrapped an arm around her little sisters, smiling when she managed to sneak up on both of them at once.

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Phoenix huffed out a laugh as she rested her head on her mentor's shoulder, unfortunately, she would be restricted to half hugs for a few more weeks so that was the best she could do. She noted it would’ve been easier when she was alive, Pearl's clunky sandals weren’t as tall as the heel of her normal loafers, but she still had a few inches on the other two.

“Hey, I think we’ve earned it,” Maya partially unwrapped herself from Phoenix’s torso to turn their normal two-person hug into a group hug.

“I concur, sorry chief but you’ve been outvoted.” Phoenix’s voice wobbled, finally after repeating the phrase in her head since the final slam of the gavel, she believed it. It was over. No more secret plots, no more lies, Maya was living and breathing and as close to okay as was to be expected and Mia had her arms around them, and she only got sentimental like this when it was really truly over.

Finally, Phoenix lost control of the sobs that had built up in her chest for days. Teardrops managed to find Maya’s fully freed hair and Pearl's light pink medium robes.

It was over.

Chapter Text

Phoenix didn’t know why she had agreed to this, well, she did, but she was pretty sure that she wasn’t ready for it. It had only been a few weeks, only enough time to recover from her cold and for her bruises to darken and fade mostly. She didn’t need her sling anymore, though her range of motion was still limited and movements like putting on jackets and tying up her hair still made her shoulders ache but at least she could do it on her own again.

It was too soon, but she had a feeling that was the point. It was a follow-up to the failure that the first time ended up being. The three of them had gone up to those mountains for a reason, well, her reason had been different than Maya and Pearl’s reason. This time it was the same, not necessarily by her own choice.

Phoenix hadn’t spared a look at the hastily folded pile of fabric since she had given up on searching for a ghost that never really existed. She had abandoned it back in one of Mia’s boxes and refused to look at it until now.

She sighed wistfully at her own closet for a moment, she was pretty sure Sister Bikini would be pissed if she tried to sneak leggings under the medium robes she inherited from Mia. She was not looking forward to the weather up there.

She handled each layer of the kimono with more reverence than the last time, savoring the feeling of the cloth between her fingertips. Like every time before then, it was like there was grief woven into the fabric, for the woman who originally owned it and the woman Phoenix had climbed through that heartache to find. Now the knowledge of the fallen mother of the owner of the robe haunted it too.

Wrapping each layer around her torso felt more and more like she was trying to become someone else, but somehow, it also felt like she was embracing something she had long forgotten and it was embracing her back. Unfamiliar but welcoming anyway.

Mia’s robes were much longer than Maya’s, nearly reaching her ankles and almost completely covering her tanned legs in white drapery. The outermost layer of purple had slightly longer sleeves, its hue more closely resembling indigo than the shade she was used to seeing on Maya.

She struggled a bit with the wide wrap around her waist, she tried to imitate the large bow she had seen on Maya and Pearls but eventually gave up and just knotted it tight enough to keep it in place.

“Untie it, that looks ridiculous.” Mia’s voice disrupted the silence of the room.

“I’m surprised you’re not tired of guiding me through things,” Phoenix sighed as she loosened the knot enough to untie it.

“Cut yourself some slack, you didn’t grow up in these clothes.” Mia attempted to grab the sash but her hands passed through it, sending a vague rippling of wind across the fabric instead. She sighed and instructed Phoenix’s movements, imitating the whole thing with her hands like she was relying on muscle memory above anything else.

“Mia…” Phoenix started several moments after the bow had been tied, “Do you… do you think I’m replacing you?”

“What do you mean?” The ghost tilted her head.

“Godot mentioned something while we were investigating and it got me thinking. He said that I would never be you, but I didn’t realize that’s what I was trying to be. I took in your sister, even though I haven’t done a very good job keeping her safe, I took your office and renamed it after myself, I’m even wearing your clothes now. There are a bunch of cases that you were working on that I just… took all the credit for.” Phoenix avoided her mentor's thoughtful gaze, instead fixating on the soft green glow of her own magatama turned into a plain necklace with a simple cord, undecorated by any big round beads. It sat limply on the edge of her lazily made bed, only centimeters away from tumbling off.

“Phoenix, I left behind a lot of empty space. I don’t think you should feel guilty for filling in some of it. I had to fill the hole my mother left in Maya when she disappeared, but that didn’t make me our mother. I can only be grateful that you were there to finish what I started, to be there for my sister when I couldn’t be. You weren’t taking anything from me, you were… fulfilling the legacy that was left for you. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Sometimes I feel like everyone wants me to be you, it’s hard to know if I’m living up to their expectations or disappointing them when I’m way more stupidly impulsive than you ever were. We’re almost the same age now and I don’t feel nearly as wise.”

“Do you want to know a secret?” Phoenix’s eyes finally met Mia’s again, “I’ve never felt wise, and I think you don’t give yourself nearly enough credit. Sometimes you say things and I can tell that you studied Shakespeare before going into law.” This startled a disbelieving laugh out of Phoenix.

“No way,”

“Yes, way! I can always count on you to have a strangely insightful monologue at the ready,” Mia insisted, “I really don’t think there’s anything left for me to teach you. You’ve done what I haven’t been able to do, you’ve done what a whole lot of people haven’t been able to do. Even if you mess up, I can always rely on you to be stubborn enough to find your way back to your feet,”

“That does help when I exclusively pick uphill battles…” Phoenix tried to ignore how close Mia’s words were starting to sound like a goodbye as the spirit in question drifted towards the magatama. Her fingers didn’t pass through the relic, there was probably some explanation for that but Phoenix would not be the one to know it.

“I’m proud of you Phoenix,” Mia threaded her protege's head through the loop of the necklace, with the ceremony of an olympic metal. A quick look in the mirror revealed a woman indistinguishable from that of the Fey clan. It suited her, to her surprise.

“Now hurry and finish getting packed, I have a bet with Mr. Asogi over who will get hypothermia first!” Mia patted her shoulder as she groaned, once again remembering what she had been convinced to participate in.

She really did hate the cold.

***

The journey back to Hazakura temple was long and a little awkward, Phoenix wasn’t used to looking so out of place. It wasn’t like she gathered a lot of attention but she could feel every slightly lingering stare, was this how Maya and Pearls felt all the time? There was a reason she stuck with a normal suit and tie, even though her signature shade of blue was a little saturated it was incredibly tame compared to every single person she ended up associating with.

At the start of the train ride, she took out a book she had no plans on reading and a notepad she knew would see plenty of use. To an outsider, she would look like she was studying for something, but in reality, it was how she conversed with her ghosts in public spaces. She pretended to read as they spoke to her and she responded by scribbling out a reply and returning to her text while they read it.

The system was pretty new, and so was the nearly constant presence of her ghosts. Ever since her Eagle River baptism, she heard them clearly and most of the time, saw them clearly. Even before with the magatama, it was hard to have a full conversation and even harder to exchange any words in public. It was the closest she had been with her ghosts since she was a child and it was hard not to just forget that she was in a populated train and speak to them like they were fellow passengers.

It was entirely too easy for the dead duo to fill the hours of travel with stories of their own escapades, Phoenix was thankful she had plenty of experience with complicated cases with so many moving pieces and piles of evidence so she could keep up with their memories of being lawyers a century ago. It made her appreciate DNA analyzing technology and other modern investigative tools.

It also made her envious of the existence of jury trials that would alleviate the agony of dealing with the same judge, who always seemed to enjoy the sound of the prosecution's voice much more than hers.

She didn’t have to look around the Hazakurain train station for very long before she spotted the shades of violet and magenta lingering on a bench looking bored out of their minds, which meant she got to see the moment her own robes caught their eye. She did forget to tell them, which was awfully convenient in her case.

Maya’s eyes widened comically as she shook poor little Pearl's shoulders to grab her attention. Her hair loops bounced around for a moment before she also saw Phoenix. The small medium jumped out of her seat and skipped towards the smiling attorney without much preamble. The girl's arms circled around her waist before she could conjure the words to greet them.

“I’m happy to see you too,” she snorted and pressed an instinctual kiss to the girl's scalp.

“I guess you won’t look so out of place this time,” Maya grinned as she examined the robes.

“Is that your way of saying that I can pull it off? I’ll take that as a compliment.” She gave her favorite nuisance a quick squeeze with one arm so she wouldn’t have to fully let go of Pearl.

“It’s a little weird seeing you in anything other than that blue suit but it looks good. Those were Mia’s right?” It wasn’t really a question, she knew the answer.

“Yeah, I figured that even if I might not enjoy the spiritual training itself, I may as well take it seriously anyway. I still gotta dress the part, huh?” Phoenix shrugged, she had lost all interest in dresses and skirts ever since her main source of transportation became her bike, it would take a while to get used to the limited range of motion and the feeling of her legs brushing together. This whole situation was out of her comfort zone in ways she hadn’t quite anticipated.

“Now we all match!” Pearl smiled as she finally let go of the attorney to clap her hands together in an awfully familiar gesture of excitement.

“Be careful Nick, you’re well on your way to becoming one of us!” Maya said it like it was a threat, as if it wasn’t immediately visible on Phoenix’s face how her heart warmed at those words. She knew better than most the drama that came with being a Fey, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She could handle the murder accusations, it was her job after all.

“How tragic. What’s the next step? Putting Christmas tree ornaments in my hair?” Pheonix snorted with a teasing yank on one of Maya’s large beads before she led them out of the station. Thankfully it was only a nearly reasonable hike to the temple, any other hints of civilization being in the complete opposite direction.

Pavement faded into gravel, which turned to hardened snow, hardly touched by tourists. Though it was nearing spring, the mountains were still cold enough to make her miss her eternally warm apartment. It had clearly snowed since their fateful visit a few weeks ago, the sudden influx of tire tracks and footprints erased like they were never there at all.

Conversation ebbed and flowed, returning every time Maya needed to remind herself that Sister Bikini had promised them curry upon their arrival and that the cold walk would be worth it in the end, or when Phoenix would stumble on her geta and Maya took the opportunity to laugh at her about it. By the time they reached the temple, Phoenix could say with certainty that she really missed her cheap, well-worn, and most importantly, toe-covering loafers.

Approaching the temple gave her deja vu, though this time Phoenix wasn’t consumed by a years-old fear that had drawn her there under the guise of being the Fey’s adult supervision. Though she wasn’t confronting the possibility of seeing a majorly toxic ex again for the first time in five years, there was still a strange sense of foreboding that only got stronger as their destination got closer.

Sister Bikini welcomed them in with open arms and more importantly, a warm hearth and the promise of a warm meal. Unlike before, the temple was quite popular with spirits, mainly the past Fey women, Phoenix assumed from the familiar purple robes. Even Mia’s ghost manifested in the indigo kimono the alive attorney was currently borrowing. It was still odd to her that she could blend in with the family of mystics.

Dinner passed filled with idle chatter, Sister Bikini explained that while the case had put the temple back in the spotlight, without Iris she didn’t have enough help to keep up with the moderate demand. She lamented on the bygone days when women uninterested in getting married to men would become nuns, it really wasn’t a popular occupation anymore. Phoenix inwardly wondered if that would’ve been her path if she hadn’t been surrendered to foster care.

For a long while the topic of the recent tragedy was avoided, until, as she had become increasingly fondly used to, Maya barreled through any more polite hesitation.

“You know Nick, I was thinking about the trial and I’ve been wondering about something.” The girl idly leaned on her loosely closed palm, “How did you know Dahlia’s spirit stuck around? After she left my body I mean,”

“What do you mean?” Phoenix took a sip of bitter tea but relished in the heat it leaked into her hands, “I saw her.”

“You… saw her?” Maya repeated with disbelieving narrowed eyes.

“Yeah? Wait, what did you see?” Phoenix set down her cup as she realized that the gig was up, she knew she should’ve said something about it for a while now but wasn’t it cruel? To have more of a connection to the ghost of Maya’s sister than the girl herself did? To have the privilege to hear her voice and see her face without Maya being any the wiser? Mia was more dead to Maya than she was to Phoenix and while Phoenix was used to it, how would Maya feel? Her nerves writhed within her gut and she suddenly regretted having a second serving of curry.

“I remember you pushing Mia away and getting thrown into the wall. The lights were flickering but there was definitely no one there.” Her expression dared Phoenix to try to lie and maybe the attorney had been a little… cagey about personal information in the past but she was planning on telling Maya the truth, especially after her impromptu frozen river plunge.

“I honestly thought everyone had seen it but… I guess not.” Phoenix sighed. “I did see her. In fact, ever since… that night, I’ve been able to see them all. I used to kind of see them with the help of the magatama you gave me but now they’re all around, as clear as day.”

“By them you mean… spirits?” Maya’s eyes widened.

“Yep. I can tell you that this room is full of Fey’s, I only recognize two of them though. I think you can guess who.” Phoenix absentmindedly tugged on the sleeve of her kimono as she looked around. Some of the ghosts were uninterested in the conversations of the living but Mia and Misty were not among them.

“It’s how I knew you were alive, I was pretty sure if you had frozen to death in that cave, nothing would’ve stopped you from haunting the hell out of me. You would’ve, I don’t know, wolf whistled every time I got close to Edgeworth knowing that I would be the only one that could hear you.” Phoenix smiled a little.

“Well well well, you say we have a ghostly Fey family reunion?” Sister Bikini asked, “I think we should postpone your training session tonight, it seems like the kind of night fit for a seance.” The small woman nodded gravely.

“I was never that good at seances, those were Mia’s thing…” Maya pressed her lips together tightly.

“The barrier between us and the spirits is like tissue paper in this mountain, you know this. I have a feeling it will be a piece of cake!” The small nun nodded resolutely, “If the spirits are already gathered our path forward is clear! Oh, what an eventful evening!”

“Hopefully not too eventful,” Phoenix muttered to herself, “How different is this going to be compared to a cheesy horror movie?”

“Well, there is no danger of possession or loss of consciousness for the medium, but it does empower spirits to become visible and could potentially allow them to interact with the world of the living. Do you think any of the spirits present now could be hostile Ms. Wright?”

Phoenix looked around, there was no sign of Dahlia, and Morgan was still going to be institutionalized for a while before her execution. There were dozens of other women floating around the room who she had no idea about. One of the women seemed important and she was vaguely familiar but Phoenix couldn’t quite place her.

“I don’t think so, but I don’t know enough about the people here to be able to tell. They all seem peaceful, I’m sure Mia or Misty would’ve let me know if anyone in here was dangerous. I doubt they’d want any harm to come to the future master.” Phoenix confirmed.

“Ho ho ho, It’s settled then! Now, I’ll need your help to get everything set up Mystic Phoenix, I think Iris put the good candles on the high shelf… you should enjoy the warmth while you have it!” Sister Bikini laughed jovially as Phoenix reacted to the foreign title given to her with a jerk of her eyebrows.

She wasn’t enthused about leaving Maya and Pearl on their own again, but at least they were on the right side of the bridge this time.

***

Phoenix released a tensely held breath as her feet met solid ground again. She had been so careful to make sure her geta didn’t fall awkwardly in any gaps in the hastily made bridge that she had forgotten to speak a word for several minutes. Kazuma had followed behind his descendant and the nun while Ryunosuke muttered something about it being rather silly for his fear of heights to apply even after he had died.

They hadn’t even reached the training hall before Sister Bikini spoke up.

“It was you, wasn’t it? The child I found here.” Bikini’s shoes cracked through previously unbroken snow, “The timing lines up, you’re in your late twenties, aren’t you? Even at a temple for mediums, we don’t come across many who can see the spirits themselves.”

Phoenix nearly froze in place but she managed to keep walking. Her earliest memories were more than hazy but the odd feeling of familiarity this place gave her and her deeply ingrained hatred of the cold lined up with the conclusion.

“My foster parents at the time told me that I had been found up in the mountains, but I grew up in LA. I only had the clothes on my back and a very old-fashioned cloak. No one would believe me if I told them who had given it to me. They liked to make up stories about how I ended up there that weren’t sad, but I don’t think anyone really knew the truth.”

“I’ve always had a theory, though it isn’t very pleasant.” Bikini sighed grimly, “There are only a few reasons someone would come all the way up here.”

“No one lives up here, especially if they don’t want to.” Phoenix spared a sideways glance at the barebones bridge they were leaving behind. She had been lucky, not everyone survives the fall. Not everyone has someone to fish them out of the rough freezing waters. Not everyone has someone searching for them to emerge from the depths.

The way to the training hall returned to being silent.

***

Phoenix had never been in the inner temple, she never saw the prison that held Dahlia in the body of Maya. The first thing she noticed was the sound of water, the cavern was too dark to notice anything else. Was it this dark while Maya was locked in?

One by one, Sister Bikini and Phoenix lit the lanterns around the outer rim, the cave was much bigger than she had assumed. Multiple small waterfalls poured in from the ceiling into the pools of dark water that surrounded an imperfect island of shining stone in the center. Alcoves were carved into the walls holding an array of objects that all had a strong ancient aura around them. Magatamas, ceremonial jewelry, statues, Phoenix was certain there she spotted miscellaneous bones among the sacred relics.

“Is that…” A ghost gasped as he spotted a particular item.

“Karuma.” the samurai approched a sheithed blade, a katana. One with crisp white bindings across the grip and shining bronze decorating its guard and pommel. Its scabbard was black and wrapped in a broad red band.

“Karuma?” Phoenix’s voice echoed within the cave differently than the ghosts did. She approached her ancestors.

“The pride of the Asogi Clan. Passed down my bloodline until it was lost after my time.” Kazuma reached out to touch the familiar blade but his fingers passed right through it.

“You were inseparable from it, until I had to carry it.” Ryunosuke nodded, “Do you think she’ll miss it if we-”

“Did something catch your eye, Ms. Wright?” The nun brought her lantern over to the lawyer and set it in an empty hole in the cave wall. “Oh, that blade! I’m afraid I don’t know much about that, It feels like it just appeared here one day! What was that you said about it?”

“Karuma, that’s it’s name. It was passed down through the Asogi clan, until the Asogi clan turned into the Naruhodo clan, and the Naruhodo clan turned into the Wrights, or I guess, the Wright.” Phoenix’s gaze was transfixed on the katana. Suddenly there was something physical from the past that she could never touch.

She had once read about how Kazuma had to get special permission to bring his sword across the oceans and into the courtroom but she never imagined that she’d ever see the object for herself. She felt a magnetism towards it though she couldn’t explain the significance as to why.

“Do you expect me to give you this sacred artifact? I don’t know if it belongs to you.” Bikini folded her arms.

Kazuma whispered in Phoenix’s ear.

“I haven’t touched it, unsheath it. The tip is broken off. How would I know that if I have never been in this room until now, unless I knew this blade.” She drew the blade and sure enough, the very tip was missing.

“I have had it for- oh goodness I must’ve come across it around the same time as I found you! Perhaps you weren’t the only thing left behind here. Hmmm I don’t want to make a habit of giving away spiritual relics…” The nun hummed.

“Please-” Ryunosuke interupted, forgetting that she wouldn’t hear him.

“Please, it’s… I don’t have anything from my family. This isn’t just a sword, it’s part of my history. It’s my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather and all the fathers before him. It’s important to him, it’s really important to me.” Words tumbled inelegantly from her lips as she realized the magnitude of this discovery.

Her family had always been made up of ghosts, intangible and impossible to prove to anyone else that they were even there. She had clung to the rare sounds of voices and pictures in law history books because that was literally all she had of them. Even now that she could see and hear them regularly, she still couldn’t quite touch them. They were almost physical but only enough to tease her imagination.

But Karuma was real, it couldn’t slip through her fingers like mist. It was an anchor and she hadn’t realized until then, but she has needed one of those for a long time.

“I see… I suppose it’s too tall to use as a walking stick anyway. You can take it with you after the seance. It’s the least I can do after all you’ve done for our family. I don’t know what a lawyer would want with a sword though…” Bikini acquiesced while Phoenix sighed in relief.

“Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.” She admitted.

“See, no theft required.” Kazuma smiled at his partner.

“Ugh, It would have been a good backup plan.” Ryunosuke argued, “Goodness it’s been sitting in a damp cave for decades, I hope it’s not damaged…”

“Damn, if there’s rust I’m going after that woman…” Kazuma winced. “The first thing we do when we get decent lighting is making sure my baby is okay.”

“I guess I’m not the favorite grandchild anymore…” Phoenix muttered under her breath, quiet enough that the nun who had gone back to setting up mats on the central stone slab wouldn’t hear.

Kazuma laughed heartily, it almost echoed, she wondered if Bikini could’ve heard it if she strained her ears hard enough.

…

“Just tell us when it becomes too much, no trying to tough it out until you pass out.” Phoenix patted a pouting Pearl on her back.

“I can do it! I’m not leaving Mistic Maya again Ms. Nick!” She folded her arms and puffed out her cheeks agressively and Pheonix mostly just thought it was cute.

“I believe in you, but both me and Maya have already had our cold tolerance tested recently and Sister Bikini lives up here every day, plus, you’re smaller than we are and your body isn’t as good at keeping you warm. So, if you get all tired and lightheaded or start to feel weird, you have to say something. The waterfalls here aren’t like the ones back home.” She explained as they reentered the dim cavern.

“She’s right Pearly! I would be pretty sad if you turned into a popsicle down here!” Maya added from ahead of them. Pearl reluctantly nodded.

“Okay… I won’t turn into a popsicle.” The little girl promised in a very serious tone.

Honestly, she wouldn’t have let them do this entire thing if Bikini hadn’t assured them that they were prepared to treat hypothermia. She had been doing this kind of thing for decades, it would be fair to assume she didn’t regularly let people freeze to death. The inner temple had dry blankets and emergency supplies and she was even told that the nun had been a great help before paramedics could make their way up the mountain to treat Phoenix after her own incident.

It was going to be fine, spirit mediums did this kind of thing all the time.

At least, that’s what she told herself as her nerves started to act up, she had never liked the cold, it brought with it a level of fear she couldn’t quite grasp the origin of, all she knew was that it made it hard to speak and hard to breathe and hard to think. She wasn’t one for bailing though, if Pearl wasn’t scared, what right did Phoenix have? There was almost an entire Maya of age difference between them and Phoenix was not going to be outdone by a nine-year-old.

Sister Bikini closed the way behind them and put out the lantern she carried. Phoenix had been given a vague overview of what the seance entailed, thankfully her role was more of a passive participant and she didn’t have to memorize any prayers in a language she didn’t speak. All the japanese she had learned from being kinda raised by native japanese ghosts had faded into obscurity before she had reached junior high.

Maya grabbed her wrist and dragged her to one of the spouts of ice water that fell from the mountain above them. Even the light spray from that sent chills down her spine. Even if she wasn’t going to run away she was at least going to make a bit of a show that she wasn’t enjoying this part of the experience.

“Remember, the sooner you get cold and wet, the sooner you’ll be able to get warm and dry again! We’ll be back on the beach tomorrow!” Always the optimist, Maya promptly shoved Phoenix directly into the glassy sheet of liquid ice. The shock of the sudden drop in temperature stole the breath from her lungs in a wheezing gasp and she froze rigidly in place.

Panic burst in her chest and she squeezed her eyes shut to focus on her breathing. For an impossibly long moment, she was drowning again, sinking to the bottom of a watery grave with no ability to even move her limbs to swim back up. There was a crack of something inside her, just like a few weeks ago. She grabbed at the magatama at her neck, it was warm. The terror faded enough for her to move her face forward and out of the waterfall. She wiped the water from her eyes and brushed the obsidian strands of hair from where it had fallen in front of her face.

“Fine, let's get this party started.” She grumbled through clenched teeth. She blinked her eyes open to Sister Bikini leading Pearl to the smallest waterspout and Maya looking a little sheepish. Phoenix tried to glare hard enough to keep her from saying something like ‘Whoopsies!’ For once, she succeeded and Maya found her own waterfall to drench herself in.

Phoenix shakily knelt in place, the few inches of glacial water covering most of her legs, she knew it wouldn’t be long before they went numb. The violent chill forced her to focus on her breathing and not much else, it was probably why acolytes trained like this. It was easy for her mind to be empty when all thoughts froze before they could form.

The temperature was impossible to get used to, she missed when she thought the Pacific felt cold, at least when she was on the beach her body adjusted to it, and there was ruthless sun to warm her up.

All she could do was breathe through it. In and out, over and over again. Trying not to shiver as the robes clung to her skin. She lost herself to it, time passed by sluggish and slippery and she wouldn’t be able to even guess how much had passed before she was interupted. It could’ve been anywhere from thirty seconds to a half hour as far as she could tell.

“Get out of there Ms. Nick, I don’t want you to become a popsicle either,” Pearl whispered. Little shivering hands pulled on the strip of hair that she couldn’t fit into her bun. Phoenix’s eyes snapped open with a startled gasp. She leaned as far away from the waterfall as she could before shakily getting to her feet. Pearl tried to give her the roughly woven blanket that she had been given but Phoenix refused it easily.

And getting out was so much worse, there was barely a whisper of a breeze in the cavern but it still stung against her bare wet skin. She was pretty sure it was a bad thing if she went numb so she should be thankful that she could still feel things, personally, she would rather just get hypothermia at this point. She clenched her teeth as she left the water and sat on the mat next to Maya, with Pearl between her cousin and Sister Bikini.

Not a word was spoken, at this point it didn’t seem right. For the first time, it actually felt like a real ceremony, Phoenix had never really had to be involved in one. The air was different around them, Maya had on her serious face. Phoenix couldn’t decide whether to be nervous or not since she had already lived past the part of this whole thing she dreaded since their return to the temple was arranged. Around the central island, in the dim candlelight, the room was filled with ghosts, standing quietly in the water. Ryunosuke and Kazuma stood to themselves by where their sword rested. Suddenly with an audience Phoenix decided that she was nervous after all.

Maya’s hand was predictably ice cold when they joined hands in the largest circle they could make with four people. Sister Bikini’s was warm, at least someone wouldn’t wake up sick the next day, maybe she got a pass since had to spend every moment almost freezing to death. She was probably immune to it, unless her back was acting up.

The medium took a deep breath and closed her eyes, Phoenix followed along immidiately. Through the darkness of her vision she could still see the spirits through her mind's eye, like when she had first lost sight of them when she was young, or when she used the magatama on a witness and could somehow see right through them and their lies. It was a pressure on her skull, promising to ache if she strained too hard to use it for too long.

“We call upon the spirits who are attempting to reach us, our blood silenced by the veil of death. If you wish to speak in the plain of the living, please step into the circle.” Maya’s voice resonated within the cavern, followed by a prayer in Japanese in a much softer voice.

One of the ghosts approached them, bright and new, barely fading, even Mia who had only been clinging to the physical world for a few years was floating on nearly opaque legs, disappearing around her knees.

The spirit knelt before them, facing Maya. When Phoenix peeked her eyes open, she realized why. Mistic Misty Fey gazed at her daughter, unimaginably sorrowful, she reached for Maya’s face, but hesitated just inches away. The ring of warm orange flame that reflected along smooth rock and water had been replaced with a strangely still ghostly blue, casting the whole chamber in an unnatural cool light.

“I had hoped we could meet again under better circumstances… I’m so sorry, my dear girl,” Misty’s restraint broke as her hand met Maya’s cheek, gently cradling her jaw. At the sight of her assistant’s eyes visibly welling up, Phoenix averted her eyes. It felt a little invasive for her to be so close, it would feel intrusive even if she was on the other side of dusky bridge.

Phoenix tried her best not to eavesdrop on the conversation happening right in front of her, all she could do was squeeze Maya’s hand when her tears turned into sobs, unable to let go and embrace her mother without breaking the circle.

Misty apologized for not being there for her daughter, not when she was growing up, when her sister left, when her sister died, even after that she stayed away, afraid that the master’s own sister would retaliate in her return. It didn’t occur to her that Morgan would target Maya anyway. She just wanted to keep her daughter safe, the fallout of the DL-6 trial being so disastrous that she felt there was no other way to protect her young children from the consequences of her failure.

Maya was upset, of course she was, but she needed the closure. She needed to hear that her mother regretted leaving her and that she loved her and tried her best to keep up with her life through Phoenix’s absurd trials that managed to find their way published in the news.

Finally, Maya got to hear that her mother was so proud of her, her strength and resilience, her cleverness and compassion, her dedication to their family, and her willingness to take care of Pearl even though her aunt tried her best to instill a rivalry between them. Regardless of the distance between them, Misty had always loved her, it was too late to rebuild the relationship they never got to have, but her absence had already broken it beyond repair. At the time it had felt like the best option, but now she could only regret all that lost time they could never get back.

Phoenix blinked the moisture from her eyes as discreetly as she could as Maya squeezed her hand so hard that it hurt. She kind of hated that she had to wait to do more than squeeze back in a silent show of solidarity.

“Pearl, I need you to promise me something,” Misty stood and turned to her niece who stared at her with wide intense eyes.

“Yes, Mistic Misty?”

“I need you to remember that you and Maya are a team, I think it’s about time for our interfamilial bloodshed to end, and I know you two will be able to do it. You are cousins, you are sisters, and you are both powerful Fey women. You are not alone, you cannot fight over power when you’re both so essential to our legacy. Can you do that for me? You are stronger together, but I think you know that already.” Misty combed a careful hand through Pearl's soft brown bangs.

“I-I promise!” The little medium nodded with her characteristic sincerity. Misty smiled fondly and seemed satisfied with her niece's answer. Phoenix’s mouth twitched for a very similar reason.

“Ms. Wright?” Phoenix startled, not anticipating to be addressed at all. To be honest, she had expected to mostly be a quiet spectator since the tradition of everything was so new to her. She didn’t want to accidentally do something or say something she didn’t know she shouldn’t.

“Uh, hi?” She answered eloquently. Thankfully Misty didn’t seem to take any offense from it.

“I just wanted to thank you, you’ve protected my daughter more than I ever could, you weren’t born into this family but without you, we would’ve destroyed ourselves with our own infighting.” Maya’s mother smiled gently while all Phoenix wanted to do was object. It was due to Maya’s association with her that she got kidnapped, that she got close enough to Von Karma to electrocute her, but in all fairness, she couldn’t blame herself for all the trouble Maya got into. Which was probably why she didn’t open her mouth to argue, as was typically her job to do.

“In retrospect, I would thank my other niece, without her spontaneous decision to involve you in her crime, you would’ve likely never have joined our clan, and that would’ve been quite a shame.” Misty continued.

“Wait, join your clan?” Phoenix’s eyebrows raised, did that mean what she thought it meant?

“Welcome to the family Phoenix, we’ll be very lucky to have you.” The spirit patted her shoulder with a glint of amusement in her dark eyes before turning back to her daughter. “I’m afraid I’ll have to cut this short, I’m not the only passing soul who wanted to speak with you.” Misty crouched down and pressed her lips against her daughter's hairline, whispering a final goodbye too silently for Phoenix to catch.

In an instant, Misty faded from living sight, though the wispy figure of her spirit approached her other daughter, who had waited patiently in one of the freezing pools. Phoenix’s heart clenched, though it hadn’t been stated outright, she had her suspicions about why Mia would want to speak to them like this. Not through Pearl's body or any other indirect, easier way she could send a message. The little part of her riddled with severe separation anxiety wanted to beg for it not to be the case but as usual, she used her tried and true method of compacting that feeling down into a dense cube of ‘shit she doesn’t want to deal with right now or ever’ to get through the next few minutes.

Mia entered the circle. She sat down comfortably on crossed legs, where her mother had been poised and entirely focused on Maya, Mia angled herself casually facing both her younger sister and her (former) subordinate. If there had been any overlap between her death and Phoenix’s friendship with Maya, she could imagine them sitting like this after a long night of working on a stressful case. Minus the freezing water and general esoteric aesthetic of the cave.

“So… I think this has been a long time coming,” Mia started, always direct and unafraid to confront the elephant in the room. “I was never meant to linger for as long as I have.”

“Sis…” Maya’s eyes widened.

“I knew after that trial that you would both be okay, I had actually planned on leaving then but I was convinced to stick around for this,” The spirit smiled just like her mother had, already at peace with her decision. “But to be honest, I didn’t think I was ready then.”

“Many spirits stick around because they have unfinished business. I built my life around finding our mother, resolving the case that sent her into hiding, and later getting justice against my estranged cousin for putting my partner into a coma. I mostly stuck around because I needed to make sure that you two would be okay without me. You banded together and solved my murder, you solved DL-6, you freed Lana from Gant, you proved that you’d do everything you could to keep Maya safe, you faced Diego and Dahlia and I really couldn’t be more proud.”

“I know I haven’t always been the best sister,” She turned to Maya, “I thought I could leave you behind with Aunt Morgan, you were always more invested in our family’s gifts than I have been, I thought it would help to take away any chance of recreating the infighting that we’re known for. I can say after everything my greatest regret is leaving you behind. I’m so sorry,” Mia’s hand reached out to where Phoenix and Maya’s hands were tightly holding each other and rested her own on top.

“So you’re going to leave me behind again anyway?” Maya sighed.

“I stuck around for as long as I could, even spirit mediums have to allow the dead to die.”

“Then why…” Phoenix muttered partially to herself as her eyes found the figures of her ancestors across the room.

“They came back for you, that’s all that matters.” Which was as reliably vague as Mia tended to be, meaning it was probably a mystery she already had all the answers to and was just waiting for Phoenix to piece together or she was full of shit and had no clue why Phoenix’s ancestors clung to her for so long. It was always hard to tell which was more likely to be true.

“I get it, you’re moving on,” Maya spoke up, “but you wouldn’t gather everyone for a big seance like this for that, does this happen every time the current master dies?”

“I could’ve used Pearl to say goodbye, sure, it would’ve been a whole lot more simple. The master of Kurain is dead, but we’ve been acting like she’s been dead for a while. You’ve been on track to become the master for a long time. Even if your training isn’t complete, you are the master now. Our ancestors tend to watch the transition,” Mia hesitated for a moment.

“Also, we gather when we welcome a new member into the family. The last time I participated in a seance like this was when little Pearl was born.” Mia turned to the girl whose wide brown eyes hadn’t strayed from the spirit since she had appeared before them. “I don’t personally remember when we did this for someone who wasn’t a baby though.” Her smile turned a little more humorous and the cold must’ve really been getting to her brain because Phoenix finally realized that she was the only living person in the cave that wasn’t a Fey by blood.

Family had been a subject that Phoenix had learned how to avoid talking about, when the only person to visit her at the hospital after eating glass was her lawyer and a friend she had clung to since elementary school, when there was no one watching in the gallery of the courtroom, she already knew how to direct a conversation away from what was clearly missing. From the moment she turned eighteen, she was on her own, apart from the ghosts who tried to make her feel less alone. Which didn’t really work, because she couldn’t really see them.

Phoenix had given up the idea of being adopted before she had reached double digits. No one wanted a kid who was more annoying than cute, who was too big to be picked up and dressed up. She had given up on being welcomed into a family since she was old enough to know what one was. She had still tried to be helpful and likable but it was never enough.

She didn’t have a family, she barely had friends, but since the moment she was chosen as Dahlia’s plaything, she had been intrinsically linked to the Fey’s. One by one they took her by the hand and passed her off to each other and that was just as close as she ever got to being a part of something since her friends bought each other matching keychains.

“So Phoenix, what do you think?” If she didn’t know better, she would say that Mia was fully at ease with her proposal, but she knew just how good her mentor was at feigning confidence.

“I-I don’t know what to say…I’m really honored, I’m not changing the name of the firm again though.” Phoenix deflected, as she tended to do when strong emotions were involved.

“I wouldn’t either if I were you, Wright is too good for wordplay.” Mia laughed, “Even if you aren’t one for deticating your life to spiritual communication techniques, you’re part of the family. You’ve wiggled your way in somehow and you can’t complain when we refuse to let you go.” Mia’s smile felt more real now.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I do have a knack for getting in places I’m not supposed to.” Her own smile stuttered, the moment was bittersweet, Mia was moving on, she had to, but god did it feel good to be wanted and accepted into a family. She wanted to cry and laugh and plead for more time. She didn’t do any of those. They had been on borrowed time already.

“I’m so, so proud of you both. Take care of each other, okay?” Mia’s hand left its place resting on her sisters’. She hugged them as best she could without breaking the circle and she felt so solid and alive that it hurt. “I’m sorry My, I’ll always be with you, I promise.” She muttered in her youngest sister's ear.

“I don’t want you to go…” Maya whispered with tears in her eyes. Phoenix’s heart clenched.

“You’re going to be okay, I know that now.” Mia leaned her head on top of Maya’s before letting go.

The warmth of Mia’s hands faded as her body disappeared into the air, her touch lingered for far longer and the memory of it seared itself into Phoenix’s mind. In a moment, Mia was gone. Completely and totally, nothing more than a weighted feeling that had settled on her shoulders.

For the second time in three years, Mia had died.

Maya roughly finished the ceremony, saying words she couldn’t quite catch in the return wave of grief she thought she had left behind years ago. The chain of clasped hands broke and Phoenix was suddenly reminded about how cold the world was, somehow she was able to forget about it.

“Well, it’s about time we warmed up. We wouldn’t want anyone getting a cold, would we?” Sister Bikini prompted, already bundling Pearl up in her abandoned blanket with practiced skill. Phoenix tucked Maya into her side for a moment before she remembered that she still had something she needed to take with her.

Karuma felt strangely familiar in her hands, it felt like a legacy she didn’t know she was carrying from the moment she started to consider law school. Somehow she had found her way back here, to the place she was found, to the people who had found her.

If her brain wasn’t so frosted over she would have something poetic to say about that.

Hours later she would be covered in blankets in front of a fire, with her arms around her sisters who slumbered in the well-earned warmth, tucked in tightly against each other. She will be sore from being stuck in the position for so long but she wouldn’t dare move for the rest of the night. Emptied mugs would lay abandoned at their feet, and so far, none of them had shown symptoms of hypothermia or frostbite. Perhaps whatever higher power there might be had chosen to show them mercy after the last month.

A jarring noise would break the peaceful silence and she would have to frantically answer her phone before the jingle woke anyone up. She would smile when she heard the exhausted voice on the other end of the line after she forgot to check the caller ID.

“Wright, you will not believe the week I have had.”