Drawn to the Light
A Phoenix Wright Fanfic
"This must be a bad dream. A very, very bad dream."
Phoenix was standing on top of a mountain, when suddenly the humongous figure of the Judge appeared from above. "Mr. Wright, you are hereby held in contempt for…" Phoenix couldn't have heard the next few words, since the judge had lifted his huge gavel and nearly slammed it on top of Phoenix just before-
"Mr. Nick!! You should be ashamed of yourself!!"-just before he felt the tiny, but strong hands of one Pearl Fey slapping him back and forth across the face. This much was known to Phoenix Wright- never allow yourself to be revealed by the 9 year-old kid, who just found the Sports Illustrated magazine under his pillow. "How dare you betray Mystic Maya like that!!? And not even with real women!!"
Phoenix Wright had just finished a trial of a person guilty of murder he had defended. He was so tired from the trial itself that he didn't bother to go back to his apartment, and just fell asleep on the sofa in his office, the Wright and Co. Law firm. As usual, Pearl was accompanied by her cousin, and Phoenix's loyal assistant, Maya Fey. "Don't worry, Pearly," Maya said softly, "I'm sure Nick didn't do anything with these pictures."
"Sez you!" Pearl shouted, "If I see this thing again I'm gonna tell Mystic Mia about this!"
Phoenix shrugged at the sound of Maya's sister's name, Mia Fey, his deceased mentor and best friend. Well, up until Maya came around anyway.
Phoenix got up from the couch, and suddenly caught a glimpse of Maya's clothes. They were not her usual acolyte's yukata, but something more…regular. And it looked good on her. There were these jeans and the pink tight shirt and the…
Wait, Wright! What the hell are you thinking?! She's your assistant…and you're friend!! Phoenix didn't like the line of thinking he had taken. Seriously, how could he think of Maya this way? This isn't right…is it?
"I...its okay, Pearls," Phoenix said with a little embarrassed tone to his voice, "that was just…er…Mr. Engarde's magazine that was…submitted as evidence!" That sentence indeed caught Pearl off guard, and Phoenix was, for once, satisfied with the bluff that came out of his mouth. Maya giggled and Pearl hung her head between her shoulders, "I'm sorry, Mr. Nick," she said, "I didn't mean to suggest…"
"Its fine, Pearls," Phoenix said happily, "If you hadn't slapped me in my sleep I would've had a huge gavel slamming me instead…"
"Um…did I miss something?" Maya asked, but Phoenix just made her an I'll-tell-you-about-this-later face, so she changed the subject: "say Nick, today is the police's annual prizing ceremony, and detective Gumshoe invited us personally," she took out a little scrap of paper
That was scribbled with ink all over, and showed it to Phoenix. He couldn't actually read it, but the thought of doing something else besides trials, investigations and paperwork looked ideal right now. "Just wait for me 'till I get dressed right," he said, "then we can go."
All this time, there was only one thought stuck to his brains like a needle to a toe, how could I have thought about Maya like this? She's my friend!
-but maybe you want her to be more than just your friend? Asked another voice.
"Hey Nick!" he heard Maya's voice from the entrance to his office, "you stuck there or what?"
"I'll be right there," he said, "just a minute." As he quickly left his thoughts and got dressed.
When he came out of the back room, Maya gave him a cheerful look, and his face turned tomato-red. He caught a glimpse of her eyes, and thoughts came rolling back in his head.
-Look at that serenity in her eyes…said one of them,
-Screw serenity! She's your friend! And what if she doesn't feel about you the same thing anyway? You could lose all of this because of some stupid voice telling you to—at that point Phoenix quieted the other voice down. He forgot one thing though-
"C'mon Nick, we gotta go!" Maya jumped in front of him, "and stop staring at me like this, it's embarrassing…"
Phoenix's face now turned so red, it was in a Bordeaux tone right now. "I'm…I'm sorry Maya," Phoenix said, and quickly changed the subject, "well anyway, we should be going by now."
As it was February, Phoenix quickly realized that an extra layer of clothing or two (or ten) might be helpful, and he rushed back up to get dressed. Maya and Pearl were reluctant to add up clothing, because, according to Maya, "a spirit medium needs to be forged with all of nature's wills. Even in a freezing day like this." The three took Phoenix's car and went to the police station, where the ceremony was held instead of outside the sunshine coliseum, due to weather effects. Driving to the station, Phoenix almost crashed about 3 times, because he was looking at Maya while driving. The noise from the engine of the frozen car didn't make his thoughts about Maya go away, apparently. Suddenly, there was something that almost made him crash a fourth time, when Maya said: "Nick, there's something I have to say, and I'm going to be really honest with you…"
Phoenix decided to watch the road now and ignored distractions, to help prevent some more crashing. What Maya said, however, pulled him back onto thinking about her. And when she said all of a sudden "this coat isn't exactly the best choice right now" he felt as if a huge stone fell down from his heart into his stomach.
I can't believe it, he thought, my thoughts about her made me freaking' delusional. So delusional that I almost thought she's gonna say something…I didn't wanna hear.
"What's with you today, Nick?" she asked, quite calmly, "You're acting very strange today…"
"Maybe I slapped him too hard," Pearl suggested, and the quickly apologized: "ooh, I'm so sorry Mystic Maya…"
"It's not that, Pearls," he quickly replied, "it's just that…there's something I have to tell you, Maya…"
"Well, if that's what makes you act like this," she answered, "then let it out, what is it?"
"Well…I…"
"WHOA! TAKE IT EASY PAL!!" Phoenix heard detective Gumshoe's screams, as he was just about to run over him with the car, and braked violently. Maya and Pearl got out of the car, laughing their guts out, and Phoenix managed to slip a little pathetic "sorry" to the already injured Gumshoe, who had a few bandages from crashing into a phone booth two days earlier. "It's okay, pal!" he said, and grinned widely of some odd reason, "I appreciate you guys comin' here today, pal! If you're looking for the ceremony, it's in the conference hall, right down the building. I'll be there in a minute."
The three strolled down the impressive hall of the police station, looking for the conference room. When they finally found it and went inside, detective Gumshoe arrived, panting heavily from running in the halls. The room itself looked like it's bigger than the entire station, and there were a lot of faces that Phoenix, Maya and Pearl recognized. There sat the notorious prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, and next to him the even more notorious prosecutor, Franziska Von Karma. Maya located Lotta Hart the photographer in the back row, and prosecutor Winston Payne sitting and grinning, somewhat scarily. "Nice of you to drop by, Wright," Phoenix heard Edgeworth's voice, "It has been a terrible week, but this ceremony is all the more uplifting, don't you agree?"
Phoenix had never seen Edgeworth in such an uplifted mood, and just said: "yeah…I guess it really is a break from all of last week's events." He didn't manage to say anything more, because the person in charge of the ceremony had requested everyone to sit down in order to begin.
The ceremony itself was the most boring prizing ceremony Phoenix has ever seen. Apparently, Maya thought the same, since about an hour into the prizes, he found her head on his shoulder, right after she fell asleep. Get some sleep, Maya, he thought, you don't miss that much anyway.
As the ceremony was coming to a close, Phoenix almost fell asleep himself, when everyone in the room heard a loud BANG, and the lights suddenly went off, as if because of a power breakdown. Maya suddenly awoke. "Nick, what's going on?" she asked.
"Probably just a lightning strike." He calmed her down, "nothing serious, I hope."
"Think again, Wright," Edgeworth turned to him, "this place just lost any communications outside the building, and the automatic doors are sealed and won't open."
"But can't they unlock them? With security keys and all that?" Phoenix asked, and Maya could trace a tone of panic in his voice. "I'm afraid not," Edgeworth replied, "someone has already overrode all the security keys to the exits. Including the security exits. Apparently it's someone from the inside."
That was exactly when Phoenix realized something was missing, "wait, where's Pearls?!" he shouted, and Maya started looking frantically for her little cousin, in all the chaos that ensued right after the power went off. Phoenix followed her, and they wound up in the hall looking for Pearl.
They kept on looking, when Maya spotted a door slightly open at the end of the hallway. She went there to look for Pearl, and Phoenix went after her. "Maya! This door is supposed to be closed! Don't go in there!" he shouted, but Maya, desperately looking for her cousin, didn't care to hear him. She went through the door, and Phoenix, who couldn't leave her to her fate, went after her.
They both went into the room, which was a small room, not over the size of Phoenix's office, which was relatively small. They didn't find Pearl, but instead, they had a totally different surprise coming. "Okay, no Pearls here," Phoenix said, "we better walk out of here." But as Maya went to open the door, she came to one conclusion. "N…Nick? I think we're locked in here."
"We're trapped here!! Let us out!!" Maya screamed with desperation. It didn't seem to attract anyone's attention, since she screamed like that for about 20 minutes. "Calm down, Maya," Phoenix said, "screaming like that won't get us anywhere, especially with a door that thick. I suggest we start looking for a way out."
"There is no way out!!" she screamed. "Help!! Somebody get us outta here!!"
That's when both of them started to feel something. "Hey, are you a bit cold?" Maya asked, and Phoenix nodded in agreement. They both noticed a thermometer in the room, and according to that, the temperature was rapidly decreasing. "C'mon!" Phoenix shouted, "We gotta find a way outta here before we freeze to death!" they searched for another 10 minutes for an exit, and when they finally stopped searching, they heard a voice from the other side of the door. "Yo, somebody there?!" they heard Gumshoe's voice, out of all the havoc that was caused. "Gumshoe, it's us! Maya and Nick!" Maya screamed hopelessly. "Take it easy, pal!" he shouted back, "help is on the way, but cracking the door might take a good 20 minutes!"
"We don't have 20 minutes!" Phoenix said to Maya, "the temperature might drop below zero and then we'll freeze!"
"I don't wanna die!" Maya shouted. She collapsed as the temperature kept falling down and started crying. Phoenix broke down when he saw her crying like that. She was freezing, and so helpless. He took her close to his lap, right before she lost consciousness and wrapped her with all of his coats, sweaters and whatnot, until he was wearing only his plain lawyer suit. Maya suddenly felt warmer. She lifted her head and looked at Phoenix, and very quietly said: "Don't give me all of your clothes; you'll freeze much faster than me."
"I'll do whatever I can if that means I can protect you." He said back. He lost the feeling in his legs, and his teeth started chattering, but all of that was nothing compared to watching Maya suffer from the cold.
"Thank you, Nick," she whispered, "for everything, thank you. Every other person I know wouldn't have done the same for me."
"You're my best friend, Maya," he said, "If I can't protect you I have no one to take care of. You mean the world to me." After saying that he felt her grip to his waist tightening. He could see she was grateful for everything he did for her. But they both were in a very delicate situation for anyone of them to say any more. The temperature had finally reached below zero, and as the security guards were smashing through the door, Maya said one more thing. "Phoenix," she started, "you remember when we were in the car on the way, and I said I have something important to tell you?"
"Y…yes…"he chattered through his teeth, "W…what was it?"
"I needed to tell you this some time ago, Nick…" she whispered, "after I was returned by de Killer back safely, the one person I wanted to see the most was you…because I love you Nick…I love you so much…" she said and fell asleep.
"No…Maya!" he shouted at her desperately, "stay awake!! You have to stay awake!! Please wake up!!"
As the guards broke the door down, before Phoenix lost consciousness, he fell onto the floor with Maya. They lied collapsed in each other's arms, and Phoenix was still whispering "stay awake…please…"
Stay awake. My sweet Maya, stay awake…
He was walking in a tunnel, dark and long, trying to get drawn into the light at the end.
That's when he woke up.
Phoenix woke up at the hospital, with a fluid transfer tube plugged into his right arm. Where's Maya? Is she okay? What happened there? His thoughts came rolling in because of the event earlier. As a matter of fact, he didn't even know what day it was. But there was only one thing that tangled in his mind. When detective Gumshoe walked in and gave his usual "G'morning, pal!" there was only one issue on Phoenix Wright's mind.
"Is Maya okay?" he asked, quite nervously.
"Ahhh…don'tcha worry about her, pal," Gumshoe answered, "we took you both outta there, and she just needed to get warm a bit and woke up." He declared with a smile on his face. "You, on the other hand," he said after that, "you suffered some minor frostbites 'cause you were there with just a suit on, so you'll have to stay here for testing today, but I'm sure they oughta let you out t'morrow, pal. As for the little girl, we found 'er in the control room down at the precinct. She was messin' there with everything."
Phoenix was happy to hear that both Maya and Pearl are fine, but he couldn't push against what Maya had told him back in that room. She said…she loves me? Was that real, or was I dreaming because of that cold? And…if she does, what do I say to her?
These thoughts carried with him further until visiting hours came, and Gumshoe came again, this time bringing with him Maya and Pearl. The moment Maya's and Phoenix's eyes crossed each other, she ran to him, hugging him until he was breathless. "Mr. Nick!" he heard pearl shout, "Mr. Nick, are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine, Pearls." He said, "It was nothing serious, apparently just a few frostbites." He could see Maya's eyes sparkling with tears, and he just smiled at her, promising that everything will be fine. "Pearly, could you be with detective Gumshoe for ten seconds outside?" she asked, and Pearl said: "alright, Mystic Maya…just tell me when you want me back in."
The room was now silent, and no one was in, other than the two of them. Phoenix and Maya.
Maya took the opportunity, even though it wasn't called for, and kissed him. Their first kiss as more than best friends. As she moved away she whispered: "I was so worried about you. I kept crying yesterday, just hoping you were fine. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't survived this." She said, with apparent sorrow in her voice. Phoenix hugged her, and as they shared each other warmth, Maya said: "I'll understand if you don't feel the same about me. That's just a little girl's dream, I guess."
"Maya…" He said simply, taking a little distance to look her in the eyes. "When I said back there you mean the world to me, I meant it, Maya…I love you, and I can't stop thinking about you."
He took the opportunity to kiss her again, and this time with all the more meaning to it. The only thing that took them apart was Pearl, secretly looking through the door. When Phoenix spotted the little Fey eavesdropping from the other side, he signaled Maya and they both turned to look at her, somewhat intimidating.
"What?" she turned away and crossed her hands, "I already knew you two were lovey-dovey." She declared, and Maya laughed quietly.
The nurse in charge of Phoenix allowed Maya to sleep next to him that night, and the next day he was already out, with some bandages and a medicine for the frostbites. It didn't occur to Phoenix and Maya that they had a surprise waiting for them at the office.
They arrived at 6 p.m. the office was filled with red lights, and the desk that was filled with paperwork was replaced with a table, nicely set for two, with a candle in the middle. The fresh couple looked at each other, and they both realized who was standing behind that. "Pearl" they said together.
That night they went to sleep together. There were no dead ends, no below-zero temperature, no life threatening assassins. Just the two of them, together, like they always wanted.