I would like to thank my friends for giving me the spark I needed to finally sit down and write this. I am so grateful for all your kindnesses.
The lyrics used in the titles are from Purity Ring's Begin Again, from their album Another Eternity.
I'd also like to thank the Guns N' Roses version of Live and Let Die for inspiring the original idea for this, way back in my sophomore year of college.
Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth had earned a reputation. It wasn't one to be happy with, but secretly, it was one he was proud to bear. He alone was capable of carrying the truest, darkest weight of his profession when no one else was. Why wouldn't a man be at least a little proud of that?
The county detectives had noticed this about Prosecutor Edgeworth by the second year of his appointment. He could accept their most horrific and disturbing cases without so much as a flinch. He could investigate and prosecute them, unwavering, until their brutal, often fatal, end. He was a level apart from the other prosecutors who dispensed their justice as gears in the aging, cumbersome machine of the criminal justice system. Prosecutor Edgeworth made his daily bread on the fates of the living and the dying.
On this particular afternoon, the prosecutor had an appointment for a new case briefing at 11. Right on time, the two detectives knocked on his office door. Most prosecutors would either leave their office door open if they were expecting someone, or open the door themselves.
"Come in," the prosecutor called from his desk. As the team entered, Prosecutor Edgeworth could immediately tell which one was whom upon a first glance. The taller, younger one with black hair had opened the door, and shut it behind him. "Good afternoon, Prosecutor Edgeworth," he greeted. The other man in the pair, an older man with blue eyes and a tanned face, started at the hard-hearted Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney he'd only heard stories about.
Prosecutor Edgeworth smirked, and stood as they approached his desk. "Good morning, Detective Wei," he said, shaking the younger man's hand, "Detective Clark," and shook the older man's hand. Long used to the subtle tricks of detectives, he saw that Detective Clark was trying to take in his office without him noticing.
"How are you finding life on the force, Detective?" asked Edgeworth, letting go of his hand.
"Um, its agreeing with me just fine," said the shorter man, adeptly hiding his surprise. "It's only been-"
"You've been a detective with us for three months, yes," Edgeworth said. "I'm certain Detective Wei has been an exemplary partner, helping you learn the ropes." Detective Wei looked up briefly from setting out their documents, and smiled.
"Yes, he has," Detective Clark answered, the slightest consternation entering his voice.
"Los Angeles must be quite pleasant after a career in D.C.," said Edgeworth. Finished with his set up, Detective Wei indicated that they should sit down.
Detective Clark grunted an affirmative as they took their seats.
"I'll go ahead and start the recording, detectives," Edgeworth said, and pressed the button on an ambient microphone embedded in his desk.
"Thank you, sir," said Detective Wei. "This is case 2015-002137. Present are myself, Detective Cheng Wei, Detective Richard Clark, and Deputy D.A. Miles Edgeworth. Several months ago, the LAPD received a 911 call reporting that the witness had seen a male burning a victim alive."
Edgeworth could feel Detective Clark's eyes on him, but he had no more time to waste on displays of power. "I'm going to stop you for a moment, Detective Wei," he said, raising a hand. "Your choice of words is interesting to me: 'burning another man alive'. What made you say that? Why not 'setting fire to the victim'?"
Detective Wei handed him a copy of the 911 call transcript. "Because those were the words of the witness, both when she called and when she gave her report."
Edgeworth glanced over the transcript and saw that it was indeed true. He also saw some details which made him raise his eyebrows. "'No, there's nothing in his hands'?" he read aloud.
Detective Clark handed him a copy of the police report, which Edgeworth took in his other hand. This he read more thoroughly, and when he was done, looked up. "I sincerely hope this is not a joke, detectives."
Gravely, Detective Wei shook his head. "No. It's not. Here is the photo of the remains the officer referred to." Detective Clark indicated an open folder on the desk, which showed several crime scene photos and laboratory tests confirming the data behind them. Edgeworth set down the reports and picked up the open folder in both hands.
"This is merely a pile of ash," he said shortly, and flipped through the laboratory results. "It should be impossible to achieve that high a temperature outside of cremation."
"You'll find the report confirms they are human remains, and that the window in which the burning occurred matches the time the witness reported," said Detective Clark.
Edgeworth shook his head. "Detective Wei, I respect your work on the force, but I cannot prosecute this. It's a dead end. There is no information to work with."
Detective Wei smiled, and glanced at his partner. "With similar respect, Prosecutor, I haven't finished yet." He teased out a slightly thicker file from the pile. "When Clark and I were assigned to this case, we thought much the same thing. But we discovered identical cases occurring in LA, all taking place every so often, over a period of ten years."
He took the folder and flipped through it. "'Every so often'?"
"Yes," said Detective Clark. "Never a consistent amount of time in between, but rarely less than three months."
"And all over the city?"
"And the county. There are a total of 21 incidents that match."
Edgeworth shut the folder and tossed it back on the desk. "Tell me more."
"The reports of these cases all match the one from several months ago. The report of burning, the male suspect, and the only evidence the pile of human ashes." Detective Clark handed him a three-ring binder. "But while we were investigating other matters, a huge bit of luck dropped in to our laps. A witness heard a commotion in the alley behind his house, and took a video. We were able to get a warrant for the video, and had it analyzed. Here are the stills from that video."
Edgeworth flipped through the pages of relevant stills, which were set in chronological order. The video itself was on a CD in a case inserted in the binder's front pocket. He studied each frame.
The video had been shot from what looked like a second story of a house. Although the timestamp showed it was early in the morning, and the video had been shot through a solar screen which forced the camera in and out of focus, the two figures were reasonably clear in the yellow light of the alley.
The prosecutor followed as one man, wearing all black, approached an older woman. They stared at each other for some moments, and then the man approached. The woman watched him as he slowly, almost unwillingly, raised his left arm to place his hand on top of her head.
Instantly—Edgeworth checked the timestamp, fractions of a second later—a white inferno exploded from where the woman had been standing. It was so bright that the camera's picture blurred into incoherency, then pure white, then reformed to show the man standing alone, hand still outstretched, and a small mound of ash directly below it at his feet.
"Was there any sound?" Edgeworth asked quietly.
"The analysts compared it to a lightning strike or an explosion with a high yield. Although it was most similar to lightning, it wasn't a match either. They had never seen anything like it," said Detective Clark. There was a note of anticipation in his voice. Edgeworth's eyes flickered up to the detectives, and back.
"Was there something important you wanted to tell me?"
"You'll see in the conclusion of the video that we were able to make an 85% identification for this suspect," Detective Wei said.
"Mmm." Edgeworth continued. The man stayed in place, then seemed to clutch his arms, as if he were shivering violently. "Was he injured by this…action at all?"
"Not from what we can gather from the video."
The prosecutor continued on. The man in the video turned away from the witness, then suddenly back, facing him entirely. Detective Clark began to explain, but the prosecutor cut him off with a wave of the other hand. "I'll hear whatever the witness said when I watch the video." He turned the page, and froze.
On the two-page spread was the frame of the video in which the suspect's face was clear, an enlargement of his body, and an enlargement of his face to match the size of the photo of the man's face in the folder Detective Wei smoothly handed over. Edgeworth opened it, and saw a face he thought he would never see again.
"We have reason to believe the suspect is a man named Phoenix Wright," Detective Wei said formally. Miles felt his breath stop in his throat.
He looked back to the stills, and turned the page. There were two frames on the page. In the top one, Wright was there, almost comically shocked. In the next frame, a fraction of a second later, he had disappeared.
"Thank you for your work, detectives," he said, the words coming easier as he said them. "I will take the case."