I didn't even think this would happen. I didn't even think this would even become an option.
Well... it did.
Fate likes to dance her horrible little fingers around our lives and throw us into circumstances where not even the mightiest can be prepared for her taunt. She has taken me, of course. She has chosen me. Oh this, I have no doubt.
She's about to throw me into the throes of another man's mercy. I wonder still... is this better? Was this better than my past life? My past life... as defense attorney. Was it just her sick and devious way molding me into a person who once defended those who were innocent? To this day, I wonder; bluffing and finding contradictions. Were they innocent? Did they really commit the act? Or did I just merely pass the curse onto another? Accused of a crime that was known to be the second born of the original unpardonable sin.
...Murder...
She was never silent for a long time. Offering me whispers and hushes of her power. The time chief passed. When I met Maya. The times my childhood best friend, Edgeworth, was accused of murder. The times where Maya was in danger. The moment I met someone who was resurrected from a sleep like death. The day I befriended Kristoph. The moment when that forgery came into play. On that fateful day...
However, one of those circumstances, gave me quite the opportunity. When mentioned at first, of course I denied it as quick as a flash. Not even bothering for a second thought or even imagining of ever bringing the opportunity back. But… from everything that has happened, and the betrayals I feel in my heart, deep down, buried in the depths and abysses of my subconsciousness, manage to give rise to this idea once more. A rare pearl in an oyster? Or just a simple broken half shell of a clam found on the beach that I managed to stumble upon on a measly walk into my own mind?
She was breaking me. Crumbling my faith on people and showing me the true and ever staining darkness within their hearts. That darkness…
Or…
Was she making me stronger? Harder? More durable and resilient to the emotions of others and perhaps myself? To protect me?
Empathy.
Something that is practically shunned from society, and taken advantage of from those who are unwittingly giving it away with open arms like I did, despite the hypocritical muckrakers who callout and embrace it publicly on social media or meaningless public speeches, while in the hidden background they kick dirt in the eyes of the needy.
She almost ripped the flesh of my eyelids right off my face, trying her hardest to scream at me and warn me time and time again to be warned. But I didn't listen to her. When the people who bestowed my… precious item… are the same ones who took it away...
...My attorney badge...
They took it away. I used to love that badge. That pendant that was on my blue lapel. Proudly shining and illuminating the profession I once was. Everyone knew that shiny golden pendant. Every witness, prosecutor, detective, and even my own client. I would show it to them. Heck! I even polished it, every week.
A symbol of justice! The symbol of a warrior who fought to throw those who refused to give up their life of crime into the hands of justice or simply prison? Or to believe in my client and erase the shadows of doubt that everyone: prosecutor, judge, and spectators bestowed upon them.
That was then. This… This is now...
This opportunity… I mentioned. Has come to my attention. From the man that I look at now. I met him several years ago… Correction… I never actually met him, until now at least. Maybe I did, but was oblivious to it at some point in time. He took someone special away from me. He called her an item. At the time, she meant something more than just a simple inanimate object incapable of conscious. She was Maya. A spirit medium in training. This cold man, in which I refer to as 'man' lightly, gave me a chance to see fit that I, too, may become something like him. Like I said… I brushed it off. My main concern for Maya was at the top of all my priorities. Her safety was the sanctity of my sanity and consciousness.
Several years and sob stories later, I meet him. Crazy right? Me… The forging attorney himself. Went to talk to a cold hearted well trained and stealthy assassin, Shelly De Killer. Then again, society wouldn't see us all that different. The only difference may be our tactics on the way others may see us fit in sending off lives; either by murder or behind bars.
It was, despite odds, quite easy at first, accidental in all honesty. After his incident with the president's assassination of Zheng Fa, he stood low for quite some time. He did not display any signs of reluctance, despite our last debriefing pointing fingers at him. A client requesting a meeting with no victim afterwards. Just a nice chat. A gentleman no doubt.
In the worst of my times, I met the man I didn't think would ever meet. Yet there he was talking to me.