Certain Demolitions: Asphyxia of the Soul
Summary: In 1917, Gregory Edgeworth goes off to fight in France and dies in battle, leaving his son Miles behind. After the war, Manfred von Karma adopts Miles and takes him back to Germany. Sidefic to Certain Demolitions.
Rating: T cuz references to battles and death and stuff...though set in a war, this ought to be self-evident.
Genre: Drama/Family
Disclaimer: Now for a horse of a totally different color. See chapter one of Certain Demolitions for all applicable disclaimers.
Dedication: Dedicated with great aplomb and fanfare to AlyCat20. She answered my question in Chapter 18 of Certain Demolitions and things spiraled out of control from there.
December, 1942
America
The house, painted in white and trimmed in brown, is large and lovely. It belongs to the local prosecutor, a man named Miles Edgeworth. It's framed in white, too, since snow started falling earlier in the day.
A car, an Auburn B/T Speedster, pulls into the driveway a moment later. A grey-haired man in a wine-red suit presently covered by a dark overcoat steps out, as does a girl whose black hair cascades down from its tall ponytail. She's wearing a pink coat that covers a pink shirt, and blue slacks.
"I'm sorry about this, Mr. Edgeworth." She said as she followed him to the house.
"Don't apologize, Kay. It's no trouble at all." Edgeworth said as he unlocked the door. She followed him inside.
They went through the wide entry way and into the living room on the right A coffee table, a couch and some chairs, a fine stand with the latest radio design that was produced before the war on it made up the living room. The chairs face a fireplace that, much like the one in Phoenix's house, has become largely obsolete since the house was put on electric heat. Unlike the one at Phoenix's house, this fireplace has a mantle. Beyond that, the living room gives way to the dining room, and in there, to the left if one stood at the table, is the kitchen.
"Do you really think they'll call you when the train gets in?" Kay asked. She had been trying to get back to Pine Ridge, but there's been a hold up with the train that had already left her stranded at the station for two hours before Edgeworth had gotten word that the train was late and went to track her down.
"I expect them too." Edge worth said, unconcerned. "If not, I'm sure Lana and Ema will be glad to have you stay the night."
The items on the mantle catch Kay's eye. First, there's a picture: a young Miles Edgeworth, and an older man. "Who's this?" She asks, pointing at the picture.
Edgeworth pauses and casts a glance over his shoulder. "My father." He said, his tone flat.
There's a badge next to the picture, in its own frame. Kay recognizes it as an award for service in the Great War. "Did your Dad fight in the War?"
"He did." Edgeworth said quietly. "He didn't come back."
Kay looked at the other items on the shelf and realized that she should have known that; there was a banner with a gold star on it on the mantle as well. "Do you know what happened?" Kay asked. She knew several people who had lost a loved one and who had never found out exactly what had happened to them.
"I found out what happened from Raymond Shields, a friend of my father's. This is what he told me happened…"
~xXx~
~xXx~
~xXx~
Somewhere in France, 1917
It wasn't supposed to be this way, Corporal Raymond Shields thought to himself later, after it was over. The site they stopped at was supposed to be safe. None of the Kaiser's Army was supposed to be nearby.
Or maybe their intelligence reports were just plain wrong.
Because then a group of German soldiers had broken into their camp, and the next thing he knew, they were all fighting for their lives.
It happened in an instant. In the heat of battle, Ray found himself looking into the face of a German soldier, a man with grey hair and manic grin on his face. And then Ray found himself looking at the sharp end of an incoming bayonet.
Before he could be skewered, two gunshots rang out and the man stumbled back. Ray turned to see Gregory Edgeworth aim his pistol at another attacking soldier.
There would be time to say 'thank you' later. For now he turned his attention back to the battle.
(-)
As it turns out, Ray is wrong. There is no time to say 'thank you' later.
When the battle is finished, the American unit has surrendered. The German soldiers they tangled with were an elite, highly trained unit.
The grey-haired lunatic that had nearly turned Raymond into a shish-kabob turns out to be the leader of this unit. He survived. Isn't that unfortunate? Ray thinks to himself as, together with the other survivors, he's disarmed.
The German officer's shoulder is a bloody mess, though, and he can see that Gregory's bullets did some damage. He feels better about what's rapidly turning out to be a rotten situation. That German isn't as invincible as he thinks! Ray thinks to himself happily, even as their captors order the Americans to start marching.
Ray sees that Gregory is at the rear of the group and so he begins, very carefully to worm his way back towards the rear to be closer to his friend, and also so that he can say thank you.
He had to be careful that the Germans didn't notice and think he was trying to escape, so it was slow going. Ray was so focused on what he was doing that by the time he got to the end of the tattered band of prisoners, Gregory was gone.
Ray realized this and paused. Had Gregory managed to escape? Sometimes prisoners managed to escape on their way to the POW camps. Gregory might have managed it. He smiled a little. If anyone could manage it, Greg would…
It's the sound of gunshots that tells him that he's wrong. Raymond darted in the direction that the gunshots had come from, ignoring the threats and shouted German orders hurled at him.
He finds, off the road in a copse of trees, the grey-haired officer from earlier, standing over the still body of Gregory Edgeworth.
"You bastard!" Ray shouted, swinging a fist out at the officer. He had forgotten that the man had a gun, had forgotten everything except that his best friend was dead at the hands of a lunatic after the American had surrendered, and the thought What am I going to tell Miles?
The two German soldiers who have followed Ray grab him and pull him away. The officer has his gun pointed at Ray, but doesn't shoot once he realizes that the foot soldiers have things under control.
The soldiers dragging Ray away say something to the officer, but Ray can't follow their conversation. He does hear the name they give the man, though, "Captain von Karma."
Ray pulls free in a sudden movement, and drops down next to the body of his friend. He can hear the outraged German cries behind him, but he ignores them again, pulling a folding photograph out of Gregory's breast pocket. There's a bullet hole through it.
One of the soldiers clubbed Ray on the back of the head with a rifle butt, and the American fell forward, over the body of his friend.
The picture fell out of his hand at the same time, and the German officer, Manfred von Karma, picked it up and opened it. In it he can see the American he's just shot, holding the hand of a little boy, a son, to guess based on appearance. They stand in front of a house. Von Karma turns the picture over. On the back is an address. The bullet from his gun has left a pair of dual holes in the sky over the pair, and the picture is bloodstained. He makes it a point to remember the address, and then drops the picture back down to the ground.
The American stirred and let out a groan. "Get him back to the unit!" Von Karma ordered. The soldiers saluted and grabbed Ray, dragging him away, but as they did he reached out and grabbed the picture.
~xXx~
~xXx~
~xXx~
Kay looked aghast. "But, he just, shot your dad? I thought the Third Geneva Convention prevented things like that!"
"That wasn't even convened until 1929," Edgeworth pointed out. He had begun making tea during the story. The kettle on the stove was whistling; he took it off the burner and started measuring tea leaves into the strainer. "I'm not sure it would have worked."
Kay's voice was very small as she asked her next question. "What happened after your dad died?"
"I was living with my Aunt during the war while my father was away." Edgeworth said without looking up from what he was doing. "I kept living with her when we got the news my father was missing in action. I think she always hoped he would come back." I was a child. But I knew better. I knew from the way the soldier who came to the door said what he did was that the only reason they didn't say Father was dead was because they hadn't found his body. They never did. "But the war ended, and the prisoners of war were freed, and my father never came back."
"Ray set about trying to find me, but after the war he was a bitter man, and the first thing he thought to do was track down von Karma. When his first efforts didn't work out, he came back to America to find me and tell me what had happened. But Manfred von Karma had been busy in the meantime…"
~xXx~
~xXx~
~xXx~
America
Several Years After the End of the War
If Louise Edgeworth had been paying more attention in the proceeding weeks, she would have noticed that she was being followed. But she was deeply preoccupied during that period, waiting for a report from her doctor and trying to keep Miles from finding out that she was very sick.
Today, while he was at school, she had gone back to the doctor, only to hear the news she had been dreading: she had cancer.
How am I going to tell Miles? Who will I find to take care of him? The little sidewalk café was painted a charming shade of pink and looked like someone had plucked it up from Paris and dropped it down in America, but Louise didn't see this, didn't notice it. She stared at the rapidly cooling tea in the delicate china cup on the table in front of her. Her reflection in it showed tears that after a moment escaped and started trailing down her cheeks. She buried her face in her hands. What will I tell Miles?
"Madame," A cultured man with a heavy German accent said, and she looked up to see a grey-haired man, wearing an elaborately decorated coat and cravat holding a handkerchief out to her. "Are you alright?"
"I-I will be," She said as she took the handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. "Thank you."
"Do you mind if I have a seat?" He asked, but was already taking a seat as he said it. "I cannot bear to see a woman in trouble. What is the matter? Perhaps something can be done about it."
She gave him a sad smile. "Nothing can be done about it, Mr. -?"
"Manfred von Karma."
"I'm Louise Edgeworth," She replied. She didn't notice the man's smile get larger. "And no one can help me."
"Surely not!" Manfred said, sounding suitably shocked. "Why, whatever's wrong, there must be something that can be done."
She sighed. "Nothing can be done about cancer." The word hung over them like a dark cloud. She buried her face in her hands again, overwhelmed. "What am I going to tell Miles?"
"You have a son?" Von Karma asked. He knew that she did not have any child, that she was raising Gregory's son, Miles, but he didn't want her to know that he knew.
"My nephew. His father went missing in the war. Oh, what am I going to do?" She asked.
The question is half-rhetorical, but Manfred has an answer. "Madame, I think I can help you. I'll adopt your nephew."
"What?" Louise looked shocked at the suggestion.
"My wife and I have been looking into adoption for some time now." This is a bald-faced lie; Miles' adoption is the final straw that makes Frau von Karma separate from her husband. They never officially divorce, but she takes their eldest daughter and moves to London, and they live separate lives from then on. Louise doesn't know this, and Frau von Karma will know nothing about her husband's plans until he returns from America. "I can adopt your nephew and take him back to Germany with me! Why, he'd be well provided for, and we have some of the finest schools in Europe. We would love to find a little boy to join our family."
Louise considered it. If she found no one to take Miles in, he would end up going to an orphanage. She had no family left now, and her hope that Gregory would come back grew fainter every day. "Why don't you come over this afternoon and meet my nephew."
~xXx~
~xXx~
~xXx~
"So…he adopted you?" Kay asked. They were both sitting at the table with cups of tea now.
Edgeworth took a sip of his hot tea before he replied, "Yes. I was adopted, and that's why I'm a dual citizen of both America and Germany."
"How did you end up coming back?"
"Raymond Shields' first attempt to find Manfred von Karma didn't work out very well. But his second attempt did. The beginning of the end of my time in Germany came the day he knocked on the front door of the von Karma home."
[TO BE CONTINUED]
[A/N:] I really wanted to write this one as (yet another) sidefic to Certain Demolitions, but writing it was a nightmare. Uwah! I started it back in November I there are at least two tries that I know of that I ended up scrapping up entirely. To be fair, it probably took so long because meanwhile, work on Certain Demolitions proper went on. Ugh. I don't know when the next chapter will be up. I feel like this is super bad timing 'cause I'm in the climax of C.D. right now, and there's a lot of falling action after the climax that has to be dealt with. Ngoooh!
My goal is that this will be a two-parter. (Place your bets now!) Uh...actual relevant notes. My first two tries were scrapped because I realized that having Edgeworth tell the story to the Wright family and Skye sisters was too big an audience and I'm sure that Lana would know all this stuff about Edgeworth anyway since they're dating in the background of C.D. and Phoenix probably knows the gist of the story too. So in the end I settled on a framing device where Kay would hear the story from Edgeworth.
Blue and Gold Star Flags are used to symbolize if a person has a family member in the military. These came into use in World War I. Edgeworth has a gold star banner because his father was killed. Before Gregory Edgeworth died, it would have a blue star on the banner. The Geneva Convention I did not research in great detail because I'm still reading about WWII and I didn't feel like taking a break to go look into WWI. But the Geneva Conventions weren't held until 1929 per Wikipedia, so that was after the War. Though to be fair, if it had been convened in 1900, I sincerely doubt it would have had any effect on von Karma's actions anyway. I don't know what the rules of warfare would have been in WWI, but von Karma's actions still strike me as beyond the pale. Of course, given who it is shooting disarmed prisoners here...
And yes, this is where the AU Chapter 3 of Fantasia comes back into play. When Edgeworth said about POW camps not being any safer was a grain of truth in an AU; Asphyxia was in-progress when Chapter 3 was getting written. I took some details from Asphyxia and put them into that chapter.
If it seems like Edgeworth's Aunt is maybe not thinking things through all the way, she probably isn't. She was just given what amounts to a death sentence by her doctor, so von Karma caught her while she was on an emotional roller coaster, and child services and vetting of adoptive parents were pretty much non-existent back then. Adoption laws in general were a mess, and what von Karma is offering her at least sounds better to her than the idea of Miles going to an orphanage. Certainly, von Karma's making it sound to her like he's going to give Miles a good life. Treatments for cancer during this time period were starting to resemble what we would understand as modern treatments, drugs and radiation, but a lot of this medicine was still in it's infancy and according to at least one article I read, didn't become common until after World War II, much like the flu vaccine.
I think that's everything. As always, if you have questions, drop a review or a PM and I'll see if I can answer them.
Please review!