December 24th, 5:40PM
Wright Talent Agency
It has been a draining year. Discovering a murderer had used his name to give a friend a guilty verdict. Nearly dying, falling off that bridge, and all the heartbreak that followed. Losing his badge in a trial whose truth was still hidden, despite his best efforts. Gaining a daughter, whose life now depended on him, and trying to make sure they both didn't starve, that they had a roof over their heads. Before, Phoenix had believed that 2016 had been the worst year of his life, but in just five months 2019 had surpassed it with room to spare.
Still, Phoenix couldn't pretend it had been all bad. Despite the outcome of his last trial, he was still following up on loose ends whenever he could, though seven months in they were becoming fewer and farther between. They'd also avoided dipping into his emergency savings. Zak's check had cleared, Trucy's magic street corner magic shows had turned a small profit (supervised by Phoenix, of course), and while Phoenix hadn't exactly found a new vocation as of yet, Edgeworth had been paying him out of pocket for consulting work every once and a while. Of course, the biggest positive of the year had to be-
"Daddy, they're gonna be here any minute! The office isn't decorated enough yet!" Trucy Wright, Phoenix's adopted daughter, exclaimed, rushing around the office to and fro trying to add some last Christmas touches from the cardboard box of holiday supplies Phoenix had dug out of a closet at home. There was already garland pinned up all around the walls, a small fake christmas tree weighed down with ornaments a'plenty on the desk, and a Santa hat sitting on top of Charley.
Phoenix couldn't keep a warm smile off of his face. When Trucy had learned of the office tradition that had formed, she threw her eight-year old might into the spirit. She had that same sort of boundless energy he saw in someone else he knew, but even at a young age it was tempered with a better understanding of the world, as well as the love of performance that came with her inherited craft. "Trucy, the office already looks wonderful. You can sit down for a second while we wait." There was no protest, no anger, no sadness. Trucy just kept smiling, put the decorations she'd been holding back in the box, took the box into the back room, and came to sit on the couch with her father. Sometimes, Phoenix marveled at how rare it was for there not to be a smile on Trucy's face, and he wondered how much of it was genuine, if it was for his benefit or her own.
Such thoughts were interrupted a second after she'd sat down with a slow, deliberate knock on the office door. She was up again immediately, running over to the door to let the first guest in. Phoenix rose himself, quickly looking down at his blue suit to make sure he still looked...like a lawyer. Stowing that sour thought aside, trying not to notice the empty hole in his lapel, he watched as Miles Edgeworth entered the office, looking down at Trucy with cautious warmth. "Hello Trucy. Happy Christmas." There was a stilted, slightly distant quality to his words, and Phoenix knew Edgeworth well enough to know the cause. Edgeworth had only met Trucy a handful of times since the adoption, a process he had helped with, and he still hadn't figured out how to treat the small child.
If Trucy noticed his trepidation, she didn't show it. "Merry Christmas, Uncle Miles!" Maybe it was because she'd been taught to see Zak's best friend Valant as an honorary uncle, but whatever the cause Trucy had given all of Phoenix's close friend's familial titles. None had complained, or tried to correct her, though considering Edgeworth was an adopted child himself, with an actual niece through an adopted sibling, he may be more used to the idea than Phoenix was. "Let me show you our decorations." She grabbed the prosecutor by the hand and led him further into the office, Edgeworth and Phoenix locking eyes for a moment, a silent acknowledgement passing between them.
While Edgeworth dutifully listened to Trucy's explanations of the decorations, mixed in with stories about elementary school and her magic acts, Phoenix barely caught a quiet knock at the door and opened it to find Dick Gumshoe, his arms laden with presents. "Think you can give me a hand, pal?" Happy to see his friend again, Phoenix grabbed a few boxes out of his arms and together they took them over to set them on the ground next to the desk. "Gotta say, it's a lot of presents for just you, pal." Then Gumshoe's eyes focused on Edgeworth listening attentively to Trucy, and his eyebrows went up in shock. "Uh, who's the kid?"
The prosecutor and magician turned to see Gumshoe, and Trucy came up to the newcomer, curious. "Daddy, whose this?" Then, as if she'd just solved a difficult puzzle, she jumped and her eyes widened in recognition. "Wait a minute, aren't you that detective from Daddy's trial? You tried to get my old Daddy locked up! Why'd you do that, mister?" Her face had fallen in that rare glimpse of sadness Phoenix often saw when she talked about about her mysteriously disappeared father, and her accusation was full of curious sadness, not anger.
"This is Detective Dick Gumshoe," Edgeworth jumped in, his authoritative basso taking control of thing before anyone else could dig Gumshoe a deeper hole. "He works with me, and other prosecutors. He testified at your birth father's trial because he had to, for his job. Don't magicians sometimes need to do things for their jobs they don't necessarily like?" Trucy nodded, the gears clearly turning in her little head. "I'm sure the detective didn't mean any ill will towards Zak Gramarye, and you should know that he's one of the most trustworthy people you'll ever meet, something Phoenix can attest to as well."
The words, especially coming from Edgeworth, completely floored Gumshoe, stunning him for a few seconds as his mind processed the greatest compliment he had ever received. Just as he started recovering, looking at Trucy now with a question written all over his face, the door opened again and two people entered, Larry Butz in an ugly Christmas sweater and Maggey Bryde in a Blue Badger shirt and unzipped hoodie, both smiling like crazy, both carrying a present. "Merry Christmas, everybody!" Larry announced as he entered, then his and Maggey's eyes focused on the little girl standing next to Edgeworth, and the Butz asked the question that had been plaguing Gumshoe before the detective could. "Hey, Nick, who's the kid?"
"Alright!" came a voice from the front door, still open, and everyone turned to see Maya and Pearl Fey standing there, holding quite a few presents. "I'm looking for the best little girl in the whole wide world, because she has some presents to open!" Maya spoke the words authoritatively, like a commander in the army ordering her troops, but all the adults could also hear the clear humor in her voice.
The young girl in the red magician's outfit jumped up right away and ran over to the new guests, her face beaming. "That's me, that's me!" Trucy stared in awe at the presents in the medium's hands. "Aunt Maya, are all those gifts more me?!" She followed Maya as she moved to set her presents with the others, and Trucy turned quickly to give Pearl Fey a hug, who received it with surprised, slightly restrained reciprocation. "Merry Christmas, Pearl!" Then she threw her arms around Maya's legs, and said, "Merry Christmas, Aunt Maya!"
Maya looked down at Trucy, smiling from ear to ear, then around the room and saw the confused looks on Gumshoe, Maggey, and Larry's faces, before turning to look at Phoenix with her annoyance evident, cheeks puffed up and eyebrows angled downward. "Nick, did you not tell anyone about Trucy? That's super rude!"
Suddenly blushing from everyone, and yes literally everyone, focusing their attention on him, Phoenix rubbed at the back of his head and stumbled out, "Oh, uh, sorry you guys, I've been kind of busy, it must have slipped my mind." Then he motioned for Trucy to come back over to him, which she did right away, and cleared his throat before saying, "Everyone, this is Trucy Wright, my daughter." Eyebrows were raised, and Phoenix continued, "Trucy, these are some of daddy's friends. You already met Detective Gumshoe, this is Maggey Bryde, whose been my client a few times, and this is Larry Butz, someone I've known since I was your age."
Polite introductions went around, and Maya was just about to suggest opening presents to start with when several people's stomachs began growling, all at once. The spread wasn't as nice as last years, but everyone was able to share a nice amount of food, and as they did so conversations began. Just as Phoenix was finishing making his own plate, Gumshoe grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from everyone else, a serious look on his face. "Why are you suddenly taking care of Zak Gramarye's daughter, pal?"
The question instantly raised Phoenix's hackles, and before he could think it through he whispered harshly, "She's my daughter, detective." After taking a breath to calm down, Phoenix started again. "Trucy didn't have anyone else. She has no known blood relatives, and her 'Uncle Valant' is under suspicion by the police and doesn't seem to want to take care of her anyway. I'm...I'm the reason Zak Gramarye disappeared, all because I couldn't see through that faulty evidence. Taking care of her is the right thing to do, and I care about her." A tense silence followed, with neither wanting to follow that up with anything. Starting to feel uncomfortable, Phoenix tried for something casual. "How's work been going, detective?"
Gumshoe's smile felt a little shallow, but that same sense of optimism he often seemed to radiate was still there. "It's different without you and Maya around, pal. I've been working a lot with that Klavier Gavin guy, but I still get to work with Mr. Edgeworth on a good day. There is this newer defence attorney though, I've been cross-examined by him a few times in court, and you won't believe this: he's Klavier Gavin's brother!"
"Kristoph," Phoenix said, nodding. "I've met him. Actually, he was the only member of the Bar Association to vote against taking my badge away, we've talked a little, here and there. He seems like a good attorney, and a pretty nice guy." While he didn't say it out loud, Kristoph had seemed a little distant, but that might have just been his way, and on the whole Phoenix had been grateful for the fact that someone still believed in him out there.
The detective scratched at an ear, thinking. "He definitely does things different from you, that's for sure, pal. Cool as a cucumber, really prepared, doesn't do a lot of shouting…" Then Gumshoe let out a sigh. "If I'm being honest, I really missed seeing you on the defence bench, pal. It's just not the same." The words made Phoenix's still-fresh wound throb in pain, but it did good to hear he wasn't forgotten by his friends. Maybe dependable was the best way to describe Gumshoe, after all.
Meanwhile, Maya sat next to her cousin on the couch, the older medium having devoured her plate of food immediately before turning to look at Pearl, who was nibbling on a piece of carrot, most of her food barely touched. "Pearl, what's been going on with you lately?" Maya asked her quietly. "You barely talk to me anymore."
For a moment, the girl still looked at her food, it didn't seem like she was going to answer. Then, in a small voice, she responded. "Mystic Maya...why are you being nice to me?" Tears started welling up in her eyes, before breaking and falling down her cheeks. "I...my mother...my sisters...we've done nothing but hurt you, Mystic Maya. You almost died, Mystic Misty died, and it was my fault."
Her words hit Maya like a sock in the gut, confirming fears Maya had felt brewing ever since the case at the Hazakura Temple. Maya had always feared that this would happen when Pearl learned the full truth about Aunt Morgan, but she'd never dreamed how terrible the reality would be. "Pearl, please don't blame yourself for what happened. Aunt Morgan and Dahlia Hawthorne are the ones who did all of that, not you. You're a kid whose mom asked her for help, and...I think Nick and I are partially responsible for it too. We never really told you what your mom had done, why she'd been sent to prison, because we thought we were helping you. But that wasn't the right thing to do. We need to be honest, because when we weren't, your mom was able to use you to try and kill me. So go ahead, ask me anything." This had been a long time coming, and Maya was on some level kind of grateful that Pearl had been the one to bring it up, so she didn't have to.
The tears were starting to slow down, and Pearl drew closer to her cousin, mind arace at things she could suddenly ask. "Mystic Maya...what did my mother do? Why was she sent to prison?"
Maya cringed internally. Why did her cousin have to ask the hardest question first? Taking a deep breath, Maya explained, "The thing is, Pearl, your mom hated my mom, and because of that she hates me and my sis too. She's older than my mom, and was supposed to be the next Master, but because her spiritual abilities weren't as good, it went to my mom instead. Dahlia and Iris were abandoned because they didn't have any spiritual powers, and in her mind you existed so you could become the next Master, like she wanted to be."
Looking down at the floor, Pearl was forced to face truths she had been avoiding for a long time. Mother had always treated Mystic Maya so respectfully, but sometimes she said things when Mystic Maya wasn't around that sounded mean. Thinking through what Maya had told her, Pearl asked, "But, that's impossible Mystic Maya. There's no way I could become the Master, I'm a member of the Branch Family."
"That's why Aunt Morgan was sent to prison," Maya said, wincing. "She planned to murder someone, working with Mimi Miney, and she did it so she could pin the crime on me. Once I was arrested for the crime, there wouldn't be anyone left in the Main Family. You'd be the closest relative left, and with your spiritual powers...you would have been granted the position, without question."
For a while, Pearl just thought. She'd wanted so badly to believe in her mother, to believe she had Mystic Maya's best interests at heart. But there had always been doubt, and over time it grew and grew. Looking at everything that had happened, Pearl looked back up at Maya, her eyes brimming with tears once more. "Mystic Maya, am I going to be a bad person too?" Mystic Maya looked hurt and confused, so Pearl continued. "My mother and sister did so many bad things, and they both tried to hurt you. What if I become a bad person? What if I try to hurt you too?"
Unable to stop herself any longer, Maya started crying as well, leaning down to place a kiss on the top of Pearl's head as she hugged her tighter. She could point out that Iris, her other sister, was by all accounts an incredibly wonderful, good person. But that still put her life in the hands of others. Instead, Maya whispered to her cousin, "Pearl, you could choose who you get to be. Your mother, Dahlia, just because you're related to them doesn't mean they get to choose who you are. You can be like them, or you can be like me and Iris, or you can be something else entirely. It's your choice." Freedom of choice was never something the village of Kurain had fostered in its youth, especially within the Fey family, but it was at that moment that Maya knew that once she was the Master, that was going to change.
Elsewhere in the office, Miles Edgeworth had just left the small bathroom and found himself facing Trucy Wright, who was looking up at him with wide, curious eyes. "Uncle Miles, what's your job?" Vocations were oddly central to the world of Trucy Wright, though considering her own induction into the illusionary arts at such a young age, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise.
Edgeworth found himself mildly offended that the young girl, despite having met several times, had never taken the time to learn much about him. "I'm a prosecutor," he told her in his rich baritone, the words clipped in a way that might have hurt the feelings of an ordinary child.
This was not an ordinary child. Her curiosity unsatisfied, she asked, "What does a prosecutor do?"
The girl's ignorance hit Edgeworth in his ego. As a child, he's immersed himself in the legal world as soon as he could. Then again, he realized, that was because his own father was an attorney. Trucy's father had been a magician, she had been raised in that world. Taking this as a chance to impart knowledge to the next generation, Edgeworth smiled and explained. "A prosecutor is a kind of attorney. We work with the government, with the police, to incarcerate criminals and protect the common good. Your father is, erm, was a defense attorney, so he worked to protect those accused of crimes from prosecutors."
For the first time since Edgeworth had met the girl, Trucy's mouth turned down into a frown. "My other Daddy got arrested though. Would you have tried to incarcerate him, just like the man who took Daddy's badge?" Trucy said the word 'incarcerate' like she didn't know what the word meant but did know that it wasn't a good thing at all.
"Hrmm," Edgeworth murmured, his mind going immediately to the years before he'd met Wright. Back then, his answer would have been simple, like his morality had been: yes, he would have worked to convict Zak Gramarye, and he would have done almost anything to ensure the verdict he desired. But Edgeworth was still working to push past who he had been, and chose to focus his answer to the girl on the man he now was, the man he strived to be. "That depends on if he did the crime, Trucy. I believe an attorney's duty is to find the truth, above all other things. I do look at things from the perspective of a prosecutor, I am inclined to doubt rather than trust, but I want to work with defense attorneys, with detectives, and with judges to discover what really happened, whatever the fallout from that may be."
Trucy's frown was gone, but now she looked conflicted. "But...what if what happened was really, really bad?" She looked down, her face now turned away from Edgeworth's gaze. "Maybe not knowing is better. Because...what if stuff like that's like a magic trick? People say they want to know how it's done, but they don't. Knowing just makes it worse."
Though wrapped in a magical analogy, Edgeworth had heard this argument before. He'd even told it to himself. For how long? Twenty years? Kneeling down, so he could look Trucy, eye to eye, Edgeworth told her the truth. "When I was around your age, I too had experienced things that few other children had. My past is filled with darkness and uncomfortable truths. For most of my life, I hid from them. But when you try to turn away from the truth, you envelope yourself in lies. They may be comforting lies, but at some point the weight will become too much, and you'll realize that things would have been much easier if you'd turned to see what was there from the beginning: the truth." It would be a difficult journey, but as Edgeworth and Trucy continued to look at each other, he saw the strength inside her, and knew she could manage what lay ahead.
"I don't think we've met before!" Maggey Byrde said to Larry, but standing by the food. "I'm heard a lot about you, from Mr. Wright, and Maya, and Detective Gumshoe too!" She wasn't about to tell him that only Maya had anything nice to say about Larry, but Maggey was an eternal optimist, and she hadn't seen anything yet that would confirm Mr. Wright's summation that he was a 'complete loser'.
It was hard for Maggey to take her eyes away from Larry's bright green sweater that looked like it was sewn by a blind person, and she could only vaguely tell the embroidery was supposed to represent an unopened present. Still, once her eyes traveled upwards enough to look at Larry's goatee'd face, she was surprised to see him frowning. "Yeah, well, don't let what they hurt your opinion of me too much. I've been trying to turn my life around, and stuff…"
A pang of pain went through Maggey. Sure, he hadn't been exactly wrong, but the fact he'd instantly jumped to his friends talking bad about him, it didn't feel right to her. She let out a weary, tired chuckle and nodded. "I know all about that. I'm the most unlucky person I've ever met. I've worked seven jobs in the last six years, but I just can't get anything to stick. The one place that will always accept me back...well, there's a lot of pain there, and I don't want to work there again if I can avoid it."
Larry closed his eyes and nodded, sagely. "I see, I see. Trust me, I've been there, dude. Aside from an awful dating life, my financial situation has never been what anyone would call 'stable'. Seems like my entire life, I was never able to do anything right." Maggey's eyes lit up. Was he going through the same stuff she had been? Had she found a fellow traveler down the unlucky path? "See, what I did was last year, I decided stuff had to change. I was tired of not liking who I was, so I read some self-help books and broke the cycle."
To say that Maggey was spellbound by what Larry was saying would be an understatement. Her attention rapt, she drew in closer. "So what did you do, though?" If there was some way to escape the misery she'd been trapped in, Maggey would do almost anything.
"The thing is, I had to break my habits. It was always the same: chase after some girl way out of my league, do some job I hated to try and provide for her, and then lose both after I messed things up. The first step was putting romance aside, though that's been hard to do. I'm trying, though. More important than that, the real thing you need to do, is to do what you want to do. Throw out whatever's been stopping you, whatever's been causing you to settle with the way things are. I've always felt directionless, but it wasn't until a few years ago that someone pointed out I was pretty good at art, and after reading more into it I started working on it. Now, I'm close to finishing my first children's book, and for the first time in my life I'm feeling good about something I've done, about something I made." For the first time in a long time, Larry looked wise to an outsider. It was an odd look on him.
Maggey rubbed an arm, tension flooding her body. "Yeah, but, I don't really…" She let out a sigh. No job had ever really called to her the way being a police officer had. But after everything with Dustin...Maggey doubted she'd ever be able to return. "I found a job I really loved, once, but I can't do it again. I don't...have anything else." The words hurt to say, an admission that made her feel smaller, weaker, than she had since the day she'd been convicted of murder.
With a somber nod, Larry took that in. "What worked for me, won't necessarily work for you, dude. Just think about whatever it is in your life that you would love to do, but feel like you can't. Then, just throw away the can't and do it. It seems impossible, but once you decide to do it, it's actually pretty easy peasy, lemon squeezy." Maggey thought on the advice, grateful and surprised by how the conversation had gone.
It soon came time to open presents, and by far the star of the show was young Trucy Wright, who had gotten a new necklace from her father, enough casual clothes to last her a year and several Steel Samurai toys from Maya, and an investment portfolio from Edgeworth. "It's for her college fund. I won't say how much has been invested, but by the time she's ready for university, she should have a respectable sum to add to whatever financial aid she can get." Of course, Phoenix had to laugh to himself, Edgeworth would get her something so boring but practical. Despite that, Trucy seemed really touched by the gift, and gave her 'uncle' a big hug, after squeezing the life out of her Aunt Maya for her presents.
Larry had gotten Phoenix an early, work-in-progress copy of his first kid's book, which was weird considering he hadn't known that Phoenix had a young daughter. From Maggey, a handmade card, and from Detective Gumshoe a scrapbook of the cases they'd worked together. Phoenix did his best not to cry over it. Then Phoenix started opening the gifts from those who'd sent them, and he still could hardly believe it. Will Powers, Lana Skye, Max Galactica, Ron deLite, and Iris had all sent him presents. Nearly every client he'd ever taken a case for had sent him a gift to help with his quality of life and a card expressive their belief in his innocence, their well wishes in this tough time. A blender, gift cards, school textbooks for kids, and even a children's magic kit. (Which Phoenix was absolutely sure Trucy didn't need, but the thought was nice.)
By the time he'd finished them, he realized numbly that he'd been crying for a few minutes, Trucy hugging his side in comfort. Blinking them away, Phoenix smiled down at her and said, "Trucy, can you go get everyone else's gifts?" With a smile, she ran into the other room and quickly returned, passing out small wrapped parcels to each guest, who one by one looked at the items in their laps with confusion. Rubbing the back of his head, Phoenix said, "They aren't much, but we still splurged a little-"
Phoenix wasn't even able to finish his sentence, because before he could every single one of his guests started talking at the same time, their mass confusion overwhelming any ability for comprehension. Once they realized what was going on, everyone stopped and looked at Edgeworth. Realizing he'd been silently elected as their representative, he fixed Phoenix with an icy stare and said plainly. "We are not accepting these." His answer lit a fire in Phoenix, but his look hardened, silencing whatever protest Phoenix was about to give. "You have never been in the best financial situation, Phoenix, but you've lost your job and now you have to support your child. Even with the consulting work, and whatever money Trucy is able to raise with her magic, you are going to need to conserve money wherever possible and stretch out what you can. You are going to return these gifts for a refund, and whatever you can't return, you will keep and use. This is not up for debate."
One by one, they handed the gifts back to him, unopened. It was a hard pill for him to swallow, but Phoenix took a deep breath. Edgeworth was right. This was the responsible thing to do. "...next year, I'll do cards, okay?" Everyone seemed mollified by that, except for Edgeworth, whose stare returned, making Phoenix cringe. "Homemade! Homemade!"
The party continued for a little while after that, but once it started getting late enough that Phoenix had to take Trucy home to get to sleep, he ushered everyone out. It had been a good night, and he hoped to continue the tradition in the years to come. It gave his life some semblance of stability, not to mention the suggestion of a social life. As everyone walked out of the building, Maggey pulled Gumshoe aside, away from everyone else. "What's going on, Maggey?" the detective asked, confused.
The young woman had done a lot of thinking over the course of the evening. She wanted more than anything else to move on with her life, to change things. And when she was forced to think about the one thing she knew she wanted, but felt was impossible, Maggey knew she had to act on it immediately. It was time to cast aside her doubts, her fears, and just do it already. "Detective, I'm not blind, you know that, right?" Her questions seemed to catch him out of nowhere, and she continued while he was stunned. "It took me a while, but I've noticed that, well, that you like me, sir."
Gumshoe felt immediately like his world was crashing down around him. He'd been fearing this for years: she'd finally figured out how he felt, and now she was going to let him down gently. He braced himself as she looked sad and continued. "It's hard, after Dustin...we had been so serious, and it ended so terribly. I haven't dated since then, and you...you trained me, sir. You're almost a decade older than I am, and I really like the camaraderie we've built together. If things ended badly, losing that...it would hurt, a lot."
It was confusing the detective greatly that, so far, she hadn't actually said how she felt about him. Then, to his surprise, she started smiling at him, a warmth radiating from her that he hadn't seen in a long time. "Someone told me earlier tonight that if I want my life to get better, I need to think about what I want, and toss aside the things stopping me. So, what I'm trying to say is…" Maggey took a deep breath and then said, quite quickly, "Detective,willyougoonadatewithmethisweekendorwheneveryouhavetimeoff?"
After deciphering they speedy delivery, Gumshoe's brain almost shut off. This...couldn't be real, could it? Once he realized she was staring at him now, waiting, blushing, he coughed and said, "Well, yeah, pal, that sounds great." They both knew this was going to be a risk, but they were both ready to take it, relieved that one had finally asked the other.
Less than an hour later, after tucking Trucy into her small bed, Phoenix walked over to his one, both still living in his one bedroom apartment. Finally ready to get some sleep, it hit him out of nowhere that, for the first time in four years, he hadn't received a statue from Frank Sahwit. He'd never cared for the gifts at all, but their sudden absence weighed heavily on him as he tried to fall asleep. Things were going to be okay. They had to.