The Tragic Life and Death of Matt Engarde

Matt Engarde might be a very bad person to you, but he's one of my favorite bad guys in the whole AA series. Sure, he killed his rival, betrayed his paid assassin and got the murder he kind of deserved, but do you ever wonder why he ended up like that? I do. I did. And that's how this whole concept came to be, in ten minutes.

Matt Engarde—the one who got his rival, Juan Corrida, assassinated, and even betrayed the assassin willing to help him with his malice. A lot is enclosed about his past, but it wasn't enough for me. So, here it is.

Disclaimer: Capcom owns the Ace Attorney series—I just write about it.

Original Fan Fiction by: Michelle V.

One. The Only Person There

There were three of them—two were big and bulky guys, and the other was a scrawny, almost feminine boy. The scrawny one was laid flat on the floor, bleeding from his mouth and nose. The two big guys stood over him and spat.

"That's what you deserve, queer," one said. He kicked dirt into the skinny boy's eyes. The boy coughed and tried to rub the dirt out of his eyes, but it only made it worse.

"Scream like a girl," the other teased, "do things that fags do! Just make us laugh before we smash your face in." He laughed loudly, before a teacher approached them.

"Matthew, what's wrong?" she called. She started to walk over, and the boys ran away. "Hey!" the teacher called. But, as she saw the terrible condition the boy was in, she rushed to his side.

"Oh, God…" she muttered, "Matthew! What happened?" She tried helping him sit up, until the boy named Matthew let out a glass-shattering shriek.

"M-my ribs…!" he cried, cringing and leaning forward, "I-I think they're broken…" He laid back down on the floor on his side and tears stormed down his face. He held his stomach to try and stop himself from what he felt as vomit coming up.

The teacher quickly got up and covered her mouth. "Just hold on, alright, Matthew? I'll call an ambulance." She quickly ran away, and all the other students standing in the yard just stared at him. None of them bothered to help him; they knew that if they helped the bullies' prey, they would have to face the bullies themselves. So, all they did was watch as Matthew cried and shook from the excruciating pain.

"They got him again," a student murmured.

The other murmured back, "Yeah, they think he's gay, but I heard he's not."

"Poor kid," another said aloud. "What grade is he in? He's only a freshman, huh?"

Although they felt severe pity for him, they just walked by, and Matthew watched them. He watched as they all laughed and didn't care at all for his condition. Soon, his eyesight dimmed, and he closed his heavy eyes.

As Matthew finally came to, his eyelids sluggishly came open. He saw white all around him. He lifted his head a little, and saw a cheap television bolted to the wall and a curtain surrounding the comfortable bed he was in.

Am I, Matthew thought, in the hospital?

He looked to his left, and saw some flowers and a few presents next to his bed. Most were from family, but some were probably from some people at school who really felt bad for him. He tried to get up, but couldn't; it seemed his ribs were still a bit broken. Tears started to flow into his eyes, but he quickly rubbed them away and decided to lie back down. He let out a sigh, which also hurt, and a doctor walked into his room and went to his bed.

"Matthew Engarde, is it?" he said, examining his clipboard. He lifted some papers, and then looked back at Matthew.

Matthew nodded, and decided to ask him a question. "Do you know where my parents are?" He looked around to see if they were anywhere in the room where he couldn't see them.

The doctor sighed, and replied, "I'm sorry, Matthew, but… your mother apparently broke down due to your situation and your father is busy attending to her…" He again examined his clipboard to avoid Matthew's depressed look.

There was silence for a while, until Matthew decided to speak again. "Do you know when they'll be back?" He looked at the doctor, hoping for a good answer.

Instead, the doctor scratched his head, and said back, "I'm not sure… but I will tell the nurse to inform them that you finally woke up."

Matthew tried to smile, but he couldn't bring himself to. This shocked him, and he tried to feel the edges of his mouth to feel if there was anything out of the ordinary there. But, there was nothing there. He just couldn't smile. He lowered his hands slowly, and he suddenly felt like all the energy had drained out of him. He thought, I'm just tired, and decided to sleep off the fatigue.

But, the doctor called him once again. "Matthew, before you go back to sleep, you'll need to take your pain medication. It will help with your broken ribs…" he trailed off, and started to ask him a question: "How did you break your ribs at school?"

Matthew tried to laugh and say, "It's a long story", but he couldn't laugh either. Instead, he monotonously replied, "It's a long story."

The doctor paused, looked at his clipboard again, and looked at Matthew again. "That's a story you'll have to explain later; I have other patients waiting. Now, if you'll excuse me…" the doctor said as he quickly walked away from Matthew's room.

He lied back down, and tried to close his eyes to sleep, but… he couldn't sleep. He sighed in a melancholy tone, and decided to look at what kinds of presents he got while he was recuperating.

The first present and largest gift he got was from his parents. The tag on the present said, "Matthew, rest assured, we'll be there when you wake up!" Matthew tried to chuckle at the irony, but he couldn't, so he just ripped open the present and found a Steel Samurai fan set. "Steel… Samurai…?" he muttered. He had never heard of it. It must be something new again, Matthew sighed. They always know what's going to be popular ahead of time.

Tossing the set aside, he went on to read all the assorted cards that were spread all over the stand next to his bed. They all pretty much said the same thing: "Get well soon, Matthew, and see you at school". Matthew scoffed. "They don't even want me at school," he said, and he pulled out all the money they had taped into the cards and hid the wad under his pillow.

He quickly put the cards aside and went on to the next gift. "Matthew, we're all waiting for you to open your eyes here, kiddo! From, the Engardes" was what the tag said. The present was from all of his cousins, so he anticipated that it would be a nice present. He pulled the tape off the top of the bag and took out all the extra papers used to bury the present they had for him. In it were not clothes, shoes, nor books. Instead, the bag contained a little check which was for exactly $1,440. In the memo, the words "Buy Matthew a pet!" were written. This was the first thing to bring a smile to his face, if only for a very short time. He hid the check under his pillow and proceeded to put all the rubbish into the biggest bag, when he spotted one last, little present.

I wonder who this is from, he thought as he reached for the plain little bag. There was no tag the gift bag at all, so he reluctantly opened the bag to find a CD. On the CD, there was a letter. It wrote,

Matthew Engarde,

You probably don't know me, since we've never talked, but I just really thought it was stupid of those guys to bully you. We all know they're gay, but they're just too afraid to admit it. So, I decided that I needed to give you an apology gift, and I'll see you at school—we have all our classes together, anyway. I hope you like the gift. Get better soon, too; it's not good to miss classes.

Sincerely,

Juan Corrida

Matthew didn't say anything, but instead, examined the CD closely. The band was well-known, and the music they played seemed very close to his genre preference. He read the letter over and over again, and they started to cry—there was someone out there who didn't think of him as an outsider.

Suddenly, there was a gentle knock on his door. He waited for another patient to respond, but discovered he was the only patient inhabiting the room. "C-come in…" he timidly called. He started to think. Who would visit me? It can't be Mom and Dad…

The footsteps of the visitor were soft and from behind the curtain came a boy from Matthew's school. "Hey," the boy greeted, looking at the CD in Matthew's hand and Matthew's tear-stained face. "Um, do you not like the CD? I could return it, if you want…"

Matthew just stared at the boy. He did not say anything; he was trying to figure out just who this boy was.

The boy waved a hand. "Hey, um…" he said nervously, "if you don't know who I am, it's on the CD case. I'm Juan." He walked over to the side of Matthew's bed. "It's nice to meet you." He smiled a little.

Matthew still didn't respond, but started to cry, covering his face with his skinny hands. The tears wouldn't stop flowing, and it hindered Matthew from speaking properly.

"Whoa," Juan said, "it's either you talk, or you cry. You can't do both, or I won't understand you, Matthew." He chuckled, trying to lighten Matthew up.

"J-just call me Matt," he replied through the cries and hiccups.

"Matt?" Juan repeated, his eyes widening. "You want me to call you Matt?"

Matt nodded. "I-I like it better than Matthew." He clenched the CD in his hands. "A-and thank you for the CD," he continued, "You really didn't have to get me anything…"

Juan laughed. "It's not problem dude, we're friends now!"

"… Friends?" Matt stared at Juan with a dumbfounded look.

Juan smirked. "Yup, and this friend of yours has been visiting this hospital every single day to wait for you to wake up." He looked up, and started to mutter something to himself.

Matt spoke up, and asked, "W-what's wrong?"

"Two and a half months." Juan bluntly replied.

"W-what…?" Matt didn't understand Juan's reply.

"Oh," Juan said, looking at Matt again. "Two and a half months. That's how long you've been out of school."

Matt's jaw dropped.

"Oh, and those two guys who broke your ribs? They're expelled, so you don't have to worry about them." Juan shifted from one foot to the other. "So…"

"Thank you…" Matt said quietly.

"Excuse me?" Juan asked. "What did you say?"

"I said… thank you." Matt smiled just a little, and his energy seemed to be coming back to him, if only a little. "Thanks for being the first and only one here." As he looked down, he started to doze off.

"Oh, yeah," Juan said, "you should probably get your sleep. The pain must be hellish, after all." He laughed. "Well, see you at school, Matt." He walked out the door, leaving Matt in silence.

Matt grabbed his painkillers—the pain in his ribs was coming back—and he swallowed them and chugged his bottle of water. He lied down and started to close his eyes. And as he slept, he started to cry. But, they weren't all sorrowful tears; there were some tears of joy, as well.

Hey there! Here's one of the new stories I'm working on.

It's about Matt Engarde, obviously. I'm currently obsessed with him :]

So anyway, please review!