Phoenix Wright noted that Mr. Boddie's house was even more dilapidated on the inside than it had seemed outside. The front foyer was filled with a musty haze, and a good half inch of dust covered the wooden floors and everything else inside. Mysteriously closed or partially opened doors lined the hallway, which was intermittently decorated by old and out of date furniture. An ominous grand staircase was visible in the distance.

Despite being forcibly very well acquainted with ghosts, Phoenix was scared. And, to make matters worse, Edgeworth seemed to feel the need to make that extremely clear to everyone.

"Wright. When you stop being afraid of your own shadow, perhaps we can move out of the foyer." Edgeworth had folded his arms across his chest and was glaring at him impatiently.

Franziska had long ago whipped Gumshoe out of the room, and Trucy had pulled Apollo into another room with enthusiasm. Even Kristoph had mysteriously vanished. Ema and Klavier were the only others who still lingered in the doorway.

Hearing that comment, Ema frowned. "Mr. Wright, don't be scared! If you can take on both of these guys in court, you can take on a silly ghost!" She smirked, pointing at Edgeworth and Klavier with her thumbs.

Phoenix laughed weakly. "Even a ghost like Dahlia Hawthorn?"

"This is no time to be caught in the past Wright. Don't you remember why you came here in the first place?" Edgeworth sighed.

"To keep an eye on Trucy and Apo…. Oh no…" Phoenix groaned, realizing that he had already let them get out of his sight.

"Oh yes." The magenta clad prosecutor sighed, guiding Phoenix to a doorway on the ground floor. "They went this way."

"Don't worry, Mr. Phoenix. We'll make sure you're ok." Ema smiled, pulling Klavier along behind them.

"I wonder if Herr Wright is ever ok?" Klavier said in a teasing tone as he followed them into the next room.

The next room was no better than the first. A dusty corridor with no windows greeted them.

"I… can't see." Phoenix said intelligently.

Suddenly, a light illuminated the room, brightening the way ahead of them.

Edgeworth had flipped on his flashlight. He smirked at Phoenix. "Unprepared as usual I see."

Phoenix wanted to make a smart retort to that comment, but found that he had none. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders.

Ema pulled two flashlights from her purse, lighting them and handing one to Klavier. She looked at Phoenix, smiling apologetically. "I'm sorry Mr. Wright, I only carry two flashlights in my purse."

"I have to wonder why you carry any flashlights in your purse, fräulein Skye." Klavier chided, earning him another elbow in the side.

Edgeworth flashed the light at the ground, examining it carefully. "The dust is so thick in this room that we should be able to follow where they went…"

Phoenix could only stumble cautiously after Edgeworth as he moved slowly to the middle of the room and then through a door to the right.

The doorway lead them to a grandiose ballroom. High glass ceilings provided copious pale light from the full moon above. Dusty carpeted floors surrounded a wooden dance floor. Phoenix could swear that he heard someone playing a haunting sounding fiddle in the distance. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Edgeworth asked, arching an eyebrow at Phoenix.

Phoenix shook his head, determinedly willing the wailing sound away. "Nothing. I'm probably just hearing things."

"You probably are." He agreed, shining the light at the floor again. "Now it looks like they went… oh no."

"What?" Phoenix ran to his side, noticing immediately what had caused such dismay.

There were two sets of paired footprints. One led to the left, and another lead straight ahead.

"But… this doesn't make sense," Ema frowned, flipping down her pink shaded glasses and observing the prints carefully. "They both look like Trucy and Apollo's footprints! And only one set of prints led in here… yet here in the middle of the dance floor they clearly diverge."

"A mystery! Didn't I tell you this would be fun?" Klavier grinned.

"A mystery indeed." Edgeworth grumbled, appearing none too pleased. He turned to the others, making a decision for them. "It looks like we will have to split up."

"Split up?" Ema sounded even more distraught than Phoenix felt at the moment.

Phoenix didn't want to split up. He really didn't. "Are you sure we should split up? The Steel Samurai ALWAYS gets ambushed by monsters when he splits up from his friends!"

"Not in season 3, episode 9." Edgeworth quickly corrected him. "Besides, this is a risk we will have to take."

"Right… one of us has to find Trucy and Apollo." Phoenix nodded, then looked to Ema and Klavier. "If you find them, you'll take care of them, right?"

"I doubt Herr Forehead is capable of recognizing a ghost, much less being afraid of one." Klavier sighed, shaking his head.

"What Herr Stupid," Ema said, stomping on Klavier's foot with a smile. "…means is yes. We'll take good care of them."

Klavier winced, but Phoenix smiled, already feeling relieved. He knew that he really shouldn't worry about them, but Trucy and Apollo were his children now. He couldn't help but feel concerned.

"Wright, the more time we spend here, the farther away they will meander," Edgeworth pointed out the obvious.

"That's right, the sooner we split the better," Ema agreed.

"They're your children, Herr Wright." Klavier indicated towards the footprints. "Pick a set of prints and we will take the other."

Phoenix honestly couldn't tell the difference between one set and the other. If they were his kids, he was doing a lousy job of recognizing them. Eventually, he picked the set that ran straight forward and started off down them with determination.

That is, until he realized that he needed a flashlight. "Umm… a little help?"

Edgeworth sighed, walking after Phoenix and shining the light at the floor so that he could follow the prints. "You really are useless, aren't you?"

"Good luck Mr. Wright!" He heard Ema call after them as they plunged through the door.


Despite the recent foot-stomping, Klavier Gavin was having a great night. Ema Skye was always adorable when she was flustered, scared, or angry. This haunted house seemed to bring out all three traits in the girl.

The only issue seemed to be the temporary parole of his older brother, Kristoph, who would likely be vengeful and none too happy with any of them. As much as he wanted to believe that Phoenix Wright was a worrywart, Herr Forehead and the Fraulien probably were in danger.

And for that matter, so were they.

He kept this information to himself, though, as Ema had already begun to flip out over the next room.

"What kind of house has an operating laboratory right next to the ballroom?" Ema frowned, pulling out her bag of snackoos and chewing on them in a cute and thoughtful way that Klavier had come to adore.

To many, he assumed the room would truly be quite terrifying. Rusty autopsy tables were randomly scattered around the room, and dark red stains ran towards a single drain in the middle of the sickly green tiled floor.

Klavier had seen worse at crime scenes. By this point, he knew Ema had too, though the way she was eating her snackoos (just a little faster and with a little more tension than usual) made it obvious that she was still nervous.

The footprints seemed to dance around one of the tables and out through the door across the room. Ema pushed open the cracked door first, stepping through into the darkness.

The floorboards beneath her crunched. As soon as he heard that sound, Klavier dove forward, reaching for her as she fell through the rotten floorboards.

He just barely managed to grasp her hands. In the distance, far below, he heard the crinkling sound of her snackoo bag hitting the floor.

After the initial shock, it seemed Ema finally found her voice. "KLAVIER!! HELP!!"

Klavier grunted, feeling the stabbing pains of the broken floorboards jab at his midsection as he slowly pulled her up. "Trying… fräu…lein Skye…"

He made a mental note to himself that he really should work out more. Either that or Ema should eat less.

After a good struggle, he managed to drag her up far enough that she could swing her legs over the edge and help haul herself up.

They both sat panting on the dirty tiled floor of the operating laboratory. He turned to her and commented, "You really need to stop eating those snackoos."

His heroics were rewarded with a slap in the face.


LateNiteSlacker's Notes:

I finished the next section already. Review now if you want to see it up by tomorrow! :)