December 21, 10:45 am.
No-one had had a visit from the doctor that morning, changing his bandages, checking the wound, administering antibiotics.It had all been very brusque and professional. They had hardly spoken to him. That was fine. He was more than used to that kind of medical treatment from his handlers. If anything, the doctor here was surprisingly gentle and polite.
“Most doctors are pretty nice to their patients,” Fulbright told him, as he considered it after the doctor had left. “This one was honestly pretty rough.”
“Most doctors are nice to people,” No-one countered.
“You’re a person.”
“I’m no-one.”
He was no-one. That was, after all, what he had been told all his life, except when he was pretending to be someone else.
No-one sensed that the spirit of the man he killed was going to counter that too, but their train of thought was cut off when the door opened again.
Their gaze snapped up to the door, and No-one feared the worst.
Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth walked in, and no-one still could not relax.
You don’t really think someone’s here to kill us while posing as the chief prosecutor, do you? Fulbright asked dubiously.
Unlikely. A nurse or janitor would be an easier way to the target. But I very much doubt the chief prosecutor is bringing us good news, Fulbright.
Good point.
They didn’t speak. No-one wrestled down Fulbright’s urge to salute the man.
He’ll think we’re mocking him.
Miles made himself comfortable in the chair across the small room, and tugged the press lines on his slacks straight.
No-one gave a little ground to Fulbright as the silence dragged on.
“Good morning, chief prosecutor, sir,” Bobby said, sitting up straighter in bed. The heavy cuff that restrained him to the bed clinked as he moved.
Edgeworth’s gaze swept over him, cautious and probing.
“Good morning,” Edgeworth said. “Forgive me if I’m not certain how to address you.”
“Of course,” No-one nodded. Fulbright wanted to tell him just to stick with Fulbright.
Edgeworth looked uncomfortable.
“Do you have any kind of name I can use?” he asked.
No-one shrugged.
“I believe documents referred to me as asset-13, but I have always been referred to as ‘you’.” He hesitated for a moment and tried to gauge what the prosecutor’s reaction would be– but before he could finish, Fulbright blurted out, “You can just keep calling me Fulbright, sir, if that’s okay with you.”
Edgeworth’s expression twisted with emotions that No-one couldn’t read, but it made Fulbright feel uncomfortable.
There was a tense, silent moment.
I told you, idiot.
In No-one’s mind’s eye, he saw Fulbright’s ashamed little hand gesture of defeat.
“Tell me you’re not still going to try insisting on the charade that someone else is the phantom spy, and you’re some poor pawn,” Edgeworth drawled finally.
“No, we’re well beyond that,” they admitted.
“Then why Fulbright?” the prosecutor demanded.
“Why not Fulbright?” No-one shrugged. “I’ve been answering to the name for a year, and you never knew any other man who went by it.”
Miles’ brow furrowed. Possibly he was angered by the reminder of the slain detective. Was that something that would make people angry? No-one didn’t know, but he guessed it might be. Or, like he had thought, the prosecutor was feeling mocked.
“I suppose you have me there,” Miles said finally, a thick edge to his voice. “Alright then, ‘Fulbright’, I’m sure that you’re wondering why I’m here.”
It’s a rhetorical question, Fulbright. Just let the man speak.
No-one nodded. Both of them could imagine lots of reasons that he might be there– very few of them positive.
“Yes, sir,” Bobby added.
Miles laced his fingers over his lap.
“We are aware that you are subordinate to some organization or possibly government body who dictates your actions. Suffice it to say that our government, and my office specifically, has been working on tracking down this organization for the greater part of five years.”
They nodded again. That was unsurprising. No-one was certain that there were dozens, if not hundreds of agencies in pursuit of the organization at any time.
Popular guys, your organization, Fulbright drawled.
“I’ll speak plainly,” Miles said, and they noticed his fingers tighten against one another as he spoke. “You are the first agent of this group that we have managed to make contact with, much less capture alive. In light of that we are willing to make certain concessions if you are willing to give information upon, and help us pursue your patrons.”
This, neither of them had expected.
“Patrons,” No-one repeated. The word was thick in his mouth. He repeated another one that he liked better. “Concessions. Surely you’ve already got proof that if you put me in prison, rather than execute me, it’s only a matter of time before someone else does the job.”
No-one had tried to explain that to Fulbright last night before they slept. That no matter what, they would have a very narrow timetable in which to make Fulbright’s ‘amends’, whether the state executed them, or the organization did.
“What if I told you that if you cooperate fully, you wouldn’t be going to prison.”
Fulbright sat up, and his chains pulled against the bed.
“You’re kidding. That’s hardly justice–” Bobby declared with surprise. No-one smothered it. “Anyway, you’re lying. You’ll get the information you want out of me and then have me killed.”
The chief prosecutor crossed his arms.
“That may be how your organization works, ‘Fulbright’,” he said sharply, “But not mine. You hold up your end of the bargain, we will hold up ours.”
“I don’t believe you,” No-one said. “But I am listening. Tell me more about this bargain. What you’d want from me, and what I’d get.”
“For your safety, we have already announced the death of the spy who was shot on live television last night,” Miles said. “Cooperate, and that illusion will be maintained. We will facilitate the manufacture of a legal identity for you to live under. You will be monitored discretely for your safety and for ours.”
He can’t be serious. That’s so much leeway to give a convicted killer.
Technically we weren’t convicted. But no matter– that’s just the bait, Fulbright. Let’s hear about the hook.
“And what about my end of the bargain?” No–one asked.
“You will cooperate fully with our investigation. You will give us all the information you have on them, their activities, their movements, and their goals. You may be required to participate in law enforcement action regarding your former employer, and to act in your capacity with your abilities in the name of the US government.”
That was when it suddenly made sense.
While Fulbright was celebrating the idea of a return to law enforcement in any capacity, No–one let out a little chuckle, to show that he understood.
“Now I see. Your government wants to make me their weapon, then.”
“That’s not–”
No-one held up his free hand.
“Put it in any language you like. I’m familiar with language games, Mr. Edgeworth. My point is this. Now that I understand your bargain, I accept. A free meal might be suspected of poison, you understand.”
Miles grimaced.
“It’s no surprise you have such a cynical viewpoint. That will be addressed as well,” the prosecutor said. “Under my authority I will be meeting regularly with a court appointed therapist.”
No-one didn’t have to try not to smirk, but a smirk would probably have been if not appropriate, expected in the circumstances.
His face remained straight.
“I understand, sir.”
The prosecutor paused as if waiting for some other reaction. Then he nodded.
“Good. Good then, very well. So you accept? Officially?”
“As officially as any of this is,” No-one shrugged. “I accept.”
I can’t believe this is happening.
You wanted your chance to ‘make amends’, Fulbright. This is it.
“Good,” Edgeworth stood up. “I’ll make the arrangements. Your first round of questioning will be later today. The doctor tells me that in several days you’ll be ready to leave the hospital. Your identity and a place for you to stay will be ready by then.”
They nodded.
“What’s my new identity going to be?” No-one asked.
Miles paused by the door.
“It hasn’t been determined yet. Would you like to pick a name for yourself?”
“This… is my first opportunity to do so,” he mused. What a surprising turn of events.
“I’ll give you some time to think abo–”
“Halblicht,” they replied. “Robert Halblicht.”
Miles brow furrowed.
“Halbli– half bright?” The prosecutor stared at them.
Bobby smiled, and No-one even let it show on their face.
December 21, 11:11 am
Athena Cykes came into the Wright Anything Agency late that day. They had had a long day yesterday, and she had had a long night, and she was sure no one had expected her there bright and early.
A lot of coffee and a morning jog had done it’s wonders in waking her up–and as comfortable as the previous night had been despite the rocky day, she still needed the perk to reach her usual and expected level of pep as she threw open the doors.
“Good morning, Wright Anything Agency! Athena Cykes is READY to go!” she crowed as she bounded in…it was important to establish. Yesterday had been a long, difficult day, but Athena Cykes was FINE..and she had to make sure they all knew it.
Apollo peeked out from the bathroom with a smile on his face. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and he was in only his suit vest again. But Athena noticed the blue jacket in place of the red one on the couch.
“Morning, Athena!” He greeted her. He did a little salute– sponge in hand. “We weren’t sure if you were going to be in this morning. Phoenix stepped out for a bit, but he said he wouldn’t be too long.”
“Of course I’m gonna be here! What would you guys do without me, right?” She put her hands on her hips before she tilted her head “…are you cleaning the toilet again?”
Apollo sighed, and his hair drooped over his face.
“Technically I’m cleaning the sink right now. Then I’m gonna clean the toilet. Trucy said I owe her. But I think really she’s cashing in your chips– so let me know if you want me to clean something else.”
Athena tapped her chin thoughtfully before she said.
“…clean your hands. I’ll order us breakfast delivery.” She grinned. “Trucy can keep using you as a workhorse later, I’m wondering how you’re holding up.”
Apollo smiled. “Aw, Athena…. thanks. Hah, I’ll wash my hands and then we can talk.”
He vanished into the bathroom again, and Athena heard the sound of running water.
While he did, Athena picked up the phone and dialed a local diner joint, humming as she went over the menu in her head.
Her eyes lingered on the blue jacket draped over the back of the couch, and all the memories that came with it.
Soon enough, Apollo was out of the bathroom, clean hands and all, and breakfast– though it was really more like lunch– was spread out on the table where the usual mess was.
“I’m glad we’re eating so late,” Apollo said. “I didn’t think I was ever going to be hungry again after all the sushi Edgeworth bought us last night.”
“Speak for yourself!” Athena laughed as she nibbled at a steamed bun. “I had a midnight snack with Simon last night.”
“You’re kidding!” he laughed. “Well, I mean you earned all the snacks you can eat, but wow. I’m impressed.”
“It’s ‘cause I burn off calories really, really fast.” Athena winked at him “on account of all the exercise. If you went on morning runs with me, you’d be able to snack as much as I do too!”
She laughed “…but the sushi WAS good…and I think we really earned it, Apollo.”
“I do too,” he nodded. “You’re probably getting sick of me apologizing– but I’ll do it one last time, okay? I’m sorry for not trusting you.”
Athena nibbled her bun with a nod of her head.
“I forgive you, Apollo…I really, really do.” She smiled at him after swallowing “…It was a bad situation. I know I looked really bad…for a while I was even convinced I’d done it. But it all turned out okay in the end, and I think maybe our trust’s stronger for it.”
“I hope so,” he nodded. “I know I trust you– but I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t trust me. But I’m glad you do.”
She closed her eyes, smiling
“Without a doubt, Apollo. Heck, without you working with Aura to get that retrial, we woulda never found the truth.” She pointed her finger at him. “…you had a part of that, right? The whole thing had the air of one of Trucy’s magic acts.”
Apollo grimaced, and looked around the office, as if he was worried that Phoenix would suddenly appear.
“I won’t bother to ask how you knew that,” he grumbled halfway through a bun. “Just don’t tell the boss, please? LIke. Ever.”
“I can read people’s emotions pretty easy,” Athena sipped her coffee. “…and I’ve had a lot of experience reading Miss Aura’s. Back when she liked me. I started picking things up during the trial, and from the little things people said here and there.”
She put her hand over her heart “by Justitia’s name though, I won’t say a word to the boss. It’s our secret to the grave.”
Apollo was breathing a sigh of relief when the door opened, and Phoenix Wright walked in.
“Hey, guys! Aw, don’t tell me you were having breakfast without me!”
Apollo nearly choked on his bun.
Athena nearly choked on her own, but instead choked it down with a series of coughs and a muffled. “HEY BOSS!”
Phoenix strolled over and grabbed a bun from the dwindling collection, shoving it into his mouth.
“Boss tax,” he declared, sitting down heavily on the sofa.
By that time, Apollo, coughing and hacking, had mostly recovered his breath.
“Hey, Mr. Wright,” he croaked out. “Welcome back.”
Athena flashed him a big smile “did you have an early morning job? Or were you getting breakfast without us?”
“I had a meeting with Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth,” Phoenix said with a grin. Athena could tell it was a little bit forced “Over coffee, mostly. When you’re free, Athena, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
Apollo cocked his head, but didn’t interrupt.
“M…me?” Athena’s smile grew a little strained as she tilted her head to the side “is it about yesterday’s case, boss? Some uh…leftover paperwork? I’m free whenever.”
“Basically that exactly,” he nodded. He finished his bun. “Come on, we’ll go into my office proper.”
Athena looked at Apollo with an apologetic shrug before she smiled.
“I’ll catch up with you in a bit, Apollo.” With a salute, she wiped her hands off and moved to follow Phoenix.
Phoenix looked back over his shoulder. “Oh hey, Apollo– could you check on Trucy and see if she wants any breakfast? I’m always worried when she gets too quiet.”
Apollo laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Alright, sir, you got it.”
Phoenix closed the door to the small, paperwork filled office behind Athena as she came in. The room was by no means grand– mostly there was only the room for the desk, a couple of chair, and a single bookcase with knick knacks and a few old case mementos.
Athena gave them a look before she settled into one of the chairs, wondering quietly if something from this last case would wind up inside that bookcase one day.
“So boss… I’m not fired, right?” She joked to lighten the mood.
“What? No!” he shook his head, and after the shock left his voice he repeated. “I promise you’re not fired or anything like that.”
“Whew!” She wiped her hand over her forehead before settling down. Widget shifted from anxious to happy on her necklace as she folded her arms. “Then you must have a job for me, right?”
“I do.” Wright nodded, and despite his attempt to keep smiling, Athena could feel the waves of apprehension and frustration coming off of him. “It’s a very important one. Straight from the Chief Prosecutor himself. But you’re not going to like it.”
Athena’s brow furrowed as she tried to keep the emotions from overwhelming her own.
“…I..I’m not? What kind of job does the Chief Prosecutor want from me? Something that’ll take me out of town?”
Phoenix sighed. He leaned forward, and laced his fingers on the surface of the desk.
“Athena…” he said slowly. “Brace yourself, alright? I can’t exaggerate how much Miles is trusting you with this. I don’t like it, but… he is. So even if you say no to this– and you can say no– you can’t breathe a word about it to anyone. And you can’t yell when I explain it to you. Apollo and Trucy can’t know about it right now, or maybe ever.”
An emotion was rising in Phoenix, but it wasn’t the apprehension. It was the anger.
Widget flickered, displaying the sympathetic anger radiating off him as she took several stilling breaths and placed a hand over her mouth with a nod.
“I won’t say a word, boss…but you’re kind of scaring me here. What’s so bad that we can’t tell Apollo and Trucy?”
“It’s about yesterday’s case,” her boss said. She watched him take a breath and try to steady himself. “The Chief Prosecutor wants to pursue a case against whatever person or organization ordered and bankrolled the crime that led to your mother’s death.”
Athena felt a sick twist in her stomach, quietly regretting having ordered breakfast as the anxiety washed over her and turned to nausea.
“He…He wants to prosecute the people behind the HAT-1 and 2 crimes? The people who were after the moon rock?” The image of her mother flashed in her mind, but she closed her eyes tight to force it out. “How?”
Wright sighed.
“Brace yourself, Athena,” Phoenix said slowly, and gently. There was a sharp edge in his voice anyway. “He wants to cut a deal with the Phantom for information.”
Widget flashed red, and her jaw set tightly as anger clearly wrote itself upon her face.
“He…He wants to make a deal with the man who killed my mother? Clay?? Like…Like what? A plea bargain?”
“Something like that,” he nodded. “Except thanks to the nature of the whole thing, it has to be a secret. They’re releasing a statement that he died in the hospital, and if he doesn’t agree to the deal, he’ll be executed. It’s all very…. draconian for my taste.”
There was a heavy edge of bitterness in Phoenix’s voice as he explained it to her.
“That…” Athena felt herself shaking, Widget flashing several colors and emotions before settling on a swirling darkness. “That doesn’t sound like he has much of a choice at all. Is…is that really something that should happen at the end of the dark age of the law, boss? Killing a man in the eyes of the public, or for real depending on…”
She trailed off “…is he going to go free if he accepts?”
“For lack of a better word,” Phoenix said, darkly. “Edgeworth says he’ll be monitored by the government. And he also wants his own team on him. Specifically– Athena, you can say no to this– he wants you to be his therapist.”
Athena was about to counter that it wasn’t fair that he should go free while Aura was locked away for trying to save her brother…when she stopped dead.
Her hands covered her mouth as she stopped herself from exclaiming in surprise.
“….He…he wants me to be the Phantom’s therapist?”
“Yeah.” Phoenix’s voice was thick with turmoil. “He said with the way you handled him in court last night, you might be the only person who has any chance of working with him. And he can trust you not to be manipulated.”
Athena’s fingers wound tightly together as she lowered them from her lips..her expression fell blank, as it often did when she was younger.
Blank and neutral as Widget flashed surprise and fear.
“I..I see.” she murmured, the weight of a phantom knife heavy in her hands and the heat of a phantom’s blood lingering in memory on her fingers.
Phoenix reached across the table and offered her his hand.
“Hey, Athena, it’s okay. You don’t have to do it, I promise.”
She jolted out of her thoughts to stare at him for a moment uncomprehending before she took his hand.
“I..I know but..” she started to say.
“Take your time.” Phoenix squeezed her hand reassuringly.
Athena’s fingers were tight and cold against his. The Phantom of 7 Years Ago. The nameless spy who took her mother from her, sent Simon away to death row, broke Aura’s heart and turned her to desperate ends, killed Clay Terran and pinned the blame for the whole affair on her in the second worst day of her life…
The Phantom who convinced her, for a short time, that she was a monster capable of ‘disassembling her mother’.
But she remembered the fear during the trial. The intense backwash of fear from the Phantom that lit up every one of her emotional centers even during the onslaught of false emotions during their brief therapy session.
And she remembered the sniper shot, shuddering at the memory of the sound.
Mr. Edgeworth was going to offer the Phantom a deal. That much was going to happen no matter what. He needed a therapist, and she’d been recommended because she’d already started on making a breakthrough.
If she didn’t, then who would Edgeworth tap to provide therapy in her stead? And not only that…she could tell. The Phantom had emotions, just unique ones…and she was absolutely sure during the trial that there was more to it than met the eye.
The Phantom could need her help.
Her fingers tightened again and she realized the sensation of hot trace of tears down her cheeks. She’d started crying.
“I’ll do it.” She said in a hoarse murmur “I’ll do it. The Phantom can’t manipulate me, he’s…he’s right about that. And if he’s going to go even a little free, I need to be sure that I won’t regret it.”
“Only if you’re sure,” Phoenix repeated, squeezing her hand again. “And secret or not, you’re not going to be alone, if you do.”
Athena swallowed thickly.
“I’m positive. It’s a therapist’s job to help those in need…and I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the job…except one person.” Simon. She looked up at Phoenix with the brightest smile she could force “So you can count on me, sir…”
She was just glad she wouldn’t have to face the Phantom alone.