It was foolish to come here. Franziska thought, her hands unconsciously fidgeting with her whip as she sat impatiently and anxiously for her name to be called.
She found it a little disconcerting that her whip would offer her no protection or intimidation for where she was going, but she put those thoughts out of her mind for the time being. No matter how much her stomach turned in anticipation of this visit, this was something she had little choice in. After all, this was the man that raised her and made her who she was.
She found her lip curling a little in disgust at that realization.
And what a person I was turning out to be…professionally impeccable with an intrinsically flawed moral compass. Who knows how many innocent people I could have sent to their deaths?
Before she could have any more guilty thoughts along that line, a voice caught her attention, "Miss von Karma…you may see him now."
Giving the prison guard a hard look, she quickly coiled up her whip and followed him inside the visiting area. There, behind a thick pane of glass, was one of the last men that she wanted to see.
"Sit, Franziska. We have much to talk about." Manfred von Karma said, fixing her with a stern glare that brought back less than pleasant memories of her childhood.
Franziska looked at the floor and took a seat as was asked of her. Even now, at the age of twenty one, she was hard pressed to disobey a direct order form her father.
The moment she sat, von Karma continued to speak in a harsh tone, "I have heard of your numerous losses against Mr. Phoenix Wright, among other lowly defense attorneys. What have you to say to this?"
Franziska just barely resisted the urge to flinch at this question, her hand gripping tight to her whip.
Not looking up, she replied quietly but evenly, "I do not consider it a loss if the true perpetrator of the crime is caught and charged."
"True perpetrator?" von Karma repeated in a clearly mocking tone, and added a cold laugh, "The job of a prosecutor is to find the defendant guilty. In a perfect trial with perfect witnesses. Any defendant or defense attorney with the misfortune of facing us is doomed to that guilty verdict. This is the only truth you need be concerned with."
Usually not one to show any kind of defiance, this comment from her father caused her to raise her eyes to meet his with an intense look. This caused the look on his face to change from just a plain scolding look to a contemptuous snarl.
"I expected so much more from you, Franziska. No doubt both of those fools, Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright, have been filling your head with all of this nonsense about the 'truth.'"
Franziska's tone turned unusually harsh when compared to the relatively docile tone she usually used with her father, "Sending people who have not committed a crime to prison is a serious folly that I do not wish commit again, Papa. And if it took such fools as Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright to show me that, then so be it."
Von Karma's face showed his obvious shock at Franziska's words before it quickly turned expressionless and he adopted the quiet, dangerous tone he always used when he was very angry, "This is unforgivable, Franziska. With these foolish thoughts, you have irrevocably damaged your perfect trial record, and really what else can be done regarding this? You know perfectly well that it is a prosecutor's duty to have an impeccable record, and you used to understand that this record must be kept at all costs."
Franziska said nothing, just fixing her father with a glare. She'd learned the hard way just how many people's lives get ruined that way, and she was certain there was no way she could go back to being the prosecutor she used to be in good conscience. Von Karma took her glare and silence as an agreement to what he said, and he continued to speak.
"I see no other option now but to get you married to a suitable man so you may have children that can be taught the proper way to uphold the von Karma family name."
Franziska's eyes widened just slightly. How did her father even think that she would allow him to choose someone for her to marry, especially after all that had happened, and how she had changed?
"I will do no such thing, Papa." she said forcefully in a bout of defiance.
He is in prison. He can do nothing to me now. Franziska assured herself, just barely suppressing the shudder that was about to course through her at the outraged look that had sprung onto her father's face.
"Though you may have lost sight of what it means to be a perfect prosecutor, I have not. This is the only way you may recompense for your failures, as there is no hope for your career now."
Suddenly words were flying out of her mouth, and she knew the thick glass wall separating the two of them had something to do with the sudden barrage, "I do not want a career that is remotely like yours, Papa. Perhaps I never did. All my life, I had just strived to please you and live up to your name, not knowing what I was doing or what exactly I was turning into. I'm so glad I finally found the truth."
A sense of liberation suddenly blossomed inside of her as she said the things she had wanted to say to her father for years, and she pushed the last few words out of her mouth before her father had a chance to speak.
"If what I was turning into is what it means to be a true von Karma, I want no part in it."
Abruptly she stood up from her chair.
"This meeting is over." she said with a sense of finality, throwing one last glare over her shoulder before she left her father staring after her in a furious kind of shock.
* * *