In the end, it doesn't even matter.

I put my trust in you.
~In the End: Linkin Park~


There is nowhere else to go.
There is nowhere else to run.

Maya's kidnapped.
Trucy's in the hospital.
Apollo's gone.

And no matter what 'angle' you think about the situation I'm stuck in, there will always be the same conclusion.

All of this was all my fault.

Now I have no choice but to fulfill the task my blackmailer has assigned me. At least I will be able to try and save one person that I care about.

And I don't care if it means giving up my life.
Heck, my life is over. Most of the people I have cared about left me when the news of the forged evidence came around. Now the only people who believed in me have been whisked away from me due to my tormentor trying to get me to do what he wants.

Dying would probably be merciful.


I'm sitting up on my couch right now, unable to sleep. I look over to my clock beside me, only to find that it's only three in the morning. I rub my eyes and groan in disappointment. It's impossible for a father to sleep knowing that he had just shot his beloved little girl.

I think over what has happened, unable to face the truth of it all still.

Am I being cowardly?
Just like back at those dark days after losing my badge?

I guess so.

There is only one difference however.
My shining light has been diminished.

I get up off the couch, knowing that I'll probably just be wasting my time sitting on the bed or trying to get to sleep. I know a feat like that would be merely impossible. I stand at my rather small" bedroom" window (I sleep on the couch in the living room) facing my now silent city. I listen for any life outside, but all there I'm able to hear is a sniper breeze rustling a couple of leaves.

Otherwise, that's it.
There aren't even any crickets or passing cars.
Or any form of life out there.

The entire world was asleep.
Either that or I really have been left alone by the world.

I walk back over to the couch where the manila envelope my blackmailer has given me was hidden underneath the couch. All of the items he had given were still in pristine shape.. other than the gun (well, no, really?). I took out the badge... well, MY badge. How he/she managed to get a hold of it, I still had no clue.

I grasped on to it tightly, remembering the task my blackmailer gave me.
I guess the only thing I really can do is at least accomplish that.

Even if it goes against the morals I've grown up around for as long as I lived.

I threw the badge back into the envelope, sighing in defeat. I then roamed around the home, packing the stuff I needed for the task I would probably be getting to as soon as I was finished. My home was pretty tiny and my pack was pretty light; only a few clothes, food, money, and other various items I just decided to throw into there in case I would find it useful. I made sure to pack my invisible-ink diary as well.

I also wrote a little note for Apollo and left it on the counter. I figured that knowing his attitude and kind heart, he would continue the investigation no matter what the odds are. Just to bring justice to light.

I expected it.
It's why I chose him.

He had the same attitude towards justice I have.
Or rather "had".
These days, 'justice' to me is just a word; an illusion society has created to satisfy their wants and needs.

I guess I really have changed drastically over the course of a couple of days.

After Apollo's fourth case ended, I thought I finally had justice served and that everything will be going its course.

But then this catastrophe happens.

I don't know what to think anymore.

After packing, I placed my bag on the floor went over to Trucy's room, still untouched. It hasn't been a day and I already miss her. Just seeing all of Trucy's random magic equipment and such reminded me of how much pain I caused her, making my form a fist in my hand unconsciously. It took a few seconds to realize I was making a fist and clenching my teeth and so I voluntarily forced myself to relax, only because as soon as I came to the realization that I was doing such a thing, I realized just how painful it really was.

I started to rub my palms afterwards, nail marks all over the place after digging into my skin. The only sound I could really hear was me rubbing my hand.

I'm lonely.

I wanted to hear Trucy's calm breathing like I would normally do if I were to step into her room like this at around four in the morning (it took me about an hour to pack).

(A/N: Of course, it's not like he just walks into his daughter's room regularly so early in the morning... I just figured that this is what it would sound like if Phoenix were to do such a thing).

I sat up on her bed, pushing over to disposed clothes on her bed to the floor. I was too lazy to tidy anything up... cleaning is women's work (even though in the state of living we've been living in lately, there is no such thing as "women's work" anymore).

Next thing I knew, sleep overcame me and I slumped onto her bed, realizing just how lucky Trucy was. While I slept on the old, dust bunny-filled couch with grandma-style floral patterns which gave me a rash almost every night, Trucy was sleeping comfortably in a surprisingly relaxing bed which calmed my nerves. My eyelids dropped like a weight over my eyes. The last thing I heard was a little bump; my bag must have fallen off the table.

Next thing I knew, I was sleeping like a baby, oblivious to the fact that I wasn't alone in the house anymore.

Wait.

I wasn't alone in the house anymore.


Chapter Eight: The Dead Beginning

"I'm an idiot! I've got to be crazy!" I kept telling myself. "Why the hell am I STILL going through this? What will I do if I get caught?" I stroked my gelled antennae down, only to allow them to fling back up like how they usually do. I always did like the feeling my hair gave me when it went back up. The movement relaxed me; the little vibrations running through my head and calming me.

Anyways, back to the topic.

If he caught me doing this, I would be screwed.
I swear, this is like illegal trespassing.

I've only been to their home once, dropping Trucy off because her dad was late (turns out that he had fallen asleep studying for that bar exam... that was just three days ago). I still remembered where he kept the spare key because Trucy showed me, knowing that I probably would forget its location in about a month.

But like I said before, it was only three days ago since she showed me.

I dug my hand into the poorly grown tomato plant and found the key. I proceeded to unlock the door (quietly), but then I heard movement.

I looked into the window.

Phoenix Wright was waking up.
I didn't even bother making a sarcastic joke in my head as he stood up off the couch.

What was Mr. Wright doing waking up at like three in the morning?
This just screwed up my plans by quite a bit.

I hid down below the window, watching his every move. I watched as he removed something shiny from a manila envelope and clutched onto it. It was rather small and er.. yellow.

That's when I recognised it.

"Is that... an attorney's badge?" I gasped. I flinched at the volume of my voice, but it's clear that he didn't hear it through the silence of the night.

Speaking of silence, it was oddly quiet tonight.
I swear there is usually something making a sound at least.

One hour later...

Oh geez, this is taking so long! I've been crouching for an hour now while he was away packing. I had to get up, only to crouch down again because my legs fell asleep.

Finally, Mr. Wright gets around to leaving the living room and going into what I remember being Trucy's room. I was just about to step in and unlock the door when suddenly, I hear footsteps around me.

I wasn't alone.


I turned around quickly.
And a shadow loomed over me.

Or at least it turned out like that, but it was dark... I couldn't see very well.

"Step aside." the figure demanded.

I glanced back into the building behind me. Mr. Wright was still in Trucy's bedroom, though I'm not sure what he's doing in there. Judging from the shadow's figure, I can tell that he's a man, though that's just about it.

The man in front of me has me trapped.
The other man behind me doesn't even know I'm here.

Next thing I knew, I felt a large blow to my head and I was knocked over. I would've fallen to the ground with a thud, but the man made sure that there would be no sound for a while, so he caught me and gently placed me to the ground. He swiped the key from my hand.

"Thanks for giving me the key." he said. He carefully unlocked the door and stepped inside. I recovered from the blow a couple of seconds later and followed suit.

Though I'm not sure what I'll do then.

I saw the man rummaging through Mr. Wright's personal files in search of something. Finally, he finds it and was about to leave if it weren't for me giving him a hard blow to the side of his head.

He stumbled to the side and clutched to his head. "What was that for?" he groaned.

I smirked a bit.
Then I realized something.

If this man in front of me were a real bad guy who wanted to harm Mr. Wright, why the hell did he just respond to that blow like a prissy? He should've fought back like I was expecting.

I let down my guard after coming to this conclusion:
He doesn't really want to 'harm' Mr. Wright physically.

Though I'm not sure what that file in his hand contained.

"Why do you need that file?" I asked sharply. "Why did you plan on breaking in to Mr. Wright's home?"

"I think I should ask you the same thing." was his immediate response.

"I asked you first!"

"Respect you elders!"

And after that really gay argument, I proceeded to knock this guy out, but he countered me and next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a thud, him landing on me.

I heard a groan from Trucy's bedroom and the both of us flinched in fear that Phoenix heard and would step outside wondering what was up. We held our breath waiting, but as soon as I figured that he wouldn't be coming out, I punched the guy in the face.

"How dare you-"

And next thing I knew, I was kicked in the stomach and knocked to the ground like a rag doll. I was then stomped on, breathless, then kicked around until I no longer had any energy to fight back.

For a prissy, this guy was pretty strong.

I could tell that the man was smirking to me, both of us knowing who the victor was. He was going to escape with the file and I was already teetering over the edge of unconsciousness, knowing that by the time I woke up, Mr. Wright would probably be bombarding me with questions as to what I was doing in his house covered in bruises and messing up his already messy house.

"Nice try, Justice." the man whispered to me.
He then went to the door.

But he didn't escape.

I heard a click.

"I knew I left my bag on the floor." another voice said casually.

And in my head, I was beaming.
Phoenix Wright had come to save the day.

"Ah, Wright, it's been a while, hasn't it?" the man turned to face the spiky-haired ex-lawyer pointing a gun at his head.

Phoenix gasped.

"No way. D-"

The man hushed him. "You're not going to blow my cover in front of Justice, are you?"

The two men glanced over at me, all bruised up and about to fall into unconsciousness.

I smiled back.

"How goes it, Mr. Wright?" I replied softly with a corny smile on my face. "Don't worry about me... I'm just swell. I'm... fine."

And I don't remember anything after that because everything went black.


"Apollo..."

"Apollo."

"Apollo!"

"Gah!" I gasped awake and coughed out the water that was suddenly poured upon my head. I looked up only to find Mr. Wright's concerned face staring down at me along with the other man I haven't seen before. Though the light above us wasn't on, the lighting in the room was just fine, meaning that the light was coming from the window.

Meaning that it was daytime.

Oh crap.
It's daytime.

I immediately went to begging-for-forgiveness mode, crying out "I'm sorry!" and almost grovelling at Mr. Wright's feet, but he stopped me half-way.

"It's fine Apollo. I was kind of expecting you to come and continue your investigation anyways." Mr. Wright sighed. "I just wasn't expecting it to be so early... I thought you would want to rest a bit first after just losing your job."

I blushed a bit at the comment. It's true that I was caught off guard after what happened. I mean, after all of the random tragedies I've been through, I suddenly lost my job as a defense attorney working for the 'Wright Anything Agency' on top of it all. The only thing is, I figured that I should be depressed, but for some reason, my body just wouldn't stay and be depressed.

In fact, it was the rush of adrenaline in my body after what happened that kept me awake and brought me to the conclusion that I should dig deeper into Mr. Wright's life (even though that's pretty er... awkward).

And it's that rush of adrenaline that gave me the energy I needed to go on the night of my loss of job and Trucy's 'accident' and investigate when Mr. Wright least expected it.

Though it's clear that my 'plan' didn't work.

Clearly.

Now here I was, on the ground, water all over my face and such, surrounded by the owner of the house I was trying to sneak into and the guy who beat the crap out of me a few.. hours ago?

Actually, what time is it?

I looked to the clock.
10:34 AM.

Wow I was asleep for a while.

"What do you mean you were expecting it, Mr. Wright?" I asked. I found that rather surprising that he somehow knew what I would do.

"Well, I figured that doing something like that would be in your nature, so that was my prediction, but like I said, I had expected you to stay at home all depressed and such for a while... then leave." was his response.

"Oh yeah Justice, I apologize for my behaviour last night." the other man beside Mr. Wright said calmly to me. I just realized that he was there and was about to attack him again for revenge or something.

But instead, I just sat up and wiped my sleeve over my face in an attempt to dry off any remaining water on my face.

Yeah, that was a fail.

"Wh-who are you?" I asked.

"Oh, I can't tell you that." the man replied.

"Why not?"

"Well, because you can't know my identity."

"But last night... it seemed that Mr. Wright knew who you were!"

Mr. Wright spoke up. "We know each other through our past." he said.

But that STILL left me in the dark.
Fine, if that's how you want it, don't tell me.

"Wait, so how do you know my name?" I asked the man.

"Er... Wright and I talk."

But it was clear that an answer like that wasn't satisfactory enough for both myself and Phoenix.

"But I haven't seen you since-"

"Not now." the man cut him off.


I got off the floor and stood up so I could look at both of the men eye to eye (kind of.. they were a bit taller than I was). By the looks of it, both Mr. Wright and the new man were about the same age and sure did show the same respect they showed each other.

Though I wish they would show me some of that respect.

I start rubbing my back, feeling bad for it considering that now it was covered in bruises the night before. Seeing me do this made the other man cringe in guilt, then caused him to close his eyes so he wouldn't have to see it.

It's clear that this guy wasn't exactly bad guy material.

So what was he doing breaking into Mr. Wright's house?

My eyes immediately fell onto the file in the other man's hand. For some reason, he needed that file so desperately that he needed to break into Mr. Wright's house. He needed to beat me to a pulp to keep me quiet to.

So what was in that file?

And seriously! Who is this guy?

"Umm.. what were you doing so early in the morning breaking into Mr. Wright's house?" I asked. I was genuinely curious and I figured that maybe it would give me some leads in my own investigation. However, the man was busy looking around the room and IGNORING me to even care about my question.

He glances at the clock.

"Looks like I have to go. I'm late." the man sighed. He went over to leave, but Phoenix stopped him again.

"Drop the file first on your way out." Mr. Wright demanded with a casual, yet sharp voice. His eyes went from relaxed to a glare, then back to their casual position. "I don't want you reading into my personal files."

The only thing is, instead of obeying Phoenix, the man grabbed the handle slowly, then sprinted out the door, catching us by surprise.

"Not a chance, Wright!" the man screamed behind him as he ran to his hidden parked car nearby.

Phoenix and I scrambled after him, Phoenix having his gun at hand.

"Dammit! Come back here!" Mr. Wright screamed at the other man. The only thing is, we were running at the same speed, so we weren't gaining any distance to him and because of his three second lead, the man got to his car first.

And started it up.

And drove off.

But that's when Mr. Wright shot the tires out, causing the man to skid to a halt, scramble out, and sprint away like a madman.

Turns out that whatever was in the file was a ton more important that I thought.

I continued to sprint after him, but Mr. Wright had other plans.

"What are you doing?" I shouted back at him.

"Getting an antique!" he shouted back. "Keep chasing him! I'll be right behind you!"

And so I did just that.

And the next thing I knew, from Mr. Wright's backyard shrub, he burst out through his well-tended plants on a bike. It wasn't too rusty, but some paint has been scratched off and judging by its design, it looks as though it's about ten years old.

With gritted teeth, Mr. Wright peddled his hardest up the uphill road and caught up to me pretty quickly.

"Where did that bike come from?" I asked as I sprinted (thank goodness I was a guy on the track back at high school). "And how did you get so quick on it?"

"Long story short, I'm stuck peddling like that when I'm late for a case, now run!"

And so he peddled ahead of me and sprinted through a shortcut he pointed out to me.

We were going to cut him off.

As I ran through a separate path, I could hear Mr. Wright's bike squeaking non-stop. He sure was putting his bike to the ultimate test. "Get back here-!" he shouted. I was too far away to hear the name he called out to the person, but judging from the faint panting suddenly becoming quicker between intervals, the other guy sure was forcing himself to get as far away from Mr. Wright as soon as he could.

I saw how this was a short-cut. Mr. Wright's street ended up curving into an arch at some point and I just went straight through, meaning that I should be able to get ahead of the other person soon. Mr. Wright was just making sure that the other man would continue down the curved street and not divert to some other road by pressing him on. All three of us know how hard it is to technically turn while running you harder-than-hardest, so that would take time and would probably cost the man we were chasing his 'lead'.

Next thing I knew, I burst onto the main road once more and from there, the man with the file and Mr. Wright on his ten-year-old bike were right there.

"Justice! Get him!" Mr. Wright screamed at me with a satisfactory smile on his face. It was clear that he was pretty proud that his plan had almost worked.

To be honest, considering our age and our lifestyles these days, we all knew that our bodies oculd take so much. After stopping to take a look and assess the situation, my body lost its momentum and all of the energy I lost with that mad dash was taken out on me all at once at the moment. All I could do was walk in the man-we-were-chasing's way.

"Ahh! No!" the man screamed.

And he ran right into me.

Actually, if he 'ran right into me' we both would've fallen to the ground with a thud.
He actually charged at me, knocking to the side and allowing him free access to the remainder of the road towards a main street.

With MANY passing cars.

(In other words, this was his chance to ESCAPE. You know, if the guy can get through the cars zooming left and right while his 'side' is on red light... and if he waited for the traffic light to run green, we'd probably catch up to him, apprehend him, and take back whatever was in that file.)

"Stop right there!" Mr. Wright screamed as he zipped right past me on his bike, not even helping me get up. I got up on my own anyways, dusting off the random gravel on my clothes, then running after as though I would make a difference.

The man by the road hesitated a bit and slowed down, but he still ran to the road.

And what happened next was just... epic.

The man suddenly bolted through the cars.
The cars tried to avoid him (key word being TRIED).
In the end, the man left a trail of devastation as the cars that tried to avert him crashed into other cars, causing a chain reaction.
We chased right after him through the path, hot on his trail, while the victim drivers started cussing at the man (and us even though we did NOTHING).
And then suddenly, the man trumps us by boarding a bus last minute and getting away from us.

However, a sheet of paper fluttered out of the file and landed right on my face.

And so the man we were chasing was lucky enough not to die after running through a street with cars that could possibly kill you.

But by the way Mr. Wright grabbed the sheet off my face and smiled as he read it said that we have recovered a crucial piece of paper that seems to be enough to make sure that the other person wouldn't be able to complete whatever puzzle he was attempting to complete with that file.


In the end, Mr. Wright and myself walked back to his place, but he sure did try to lose me by pedalling faster than I could walk. We were both insanely tired from that epic fail chase scene and needed some rest, considering that we didn't get any sleep at all last night.

By the time we got back to Mr. Wright's place, we both just slumped onto his couch drenched in sweat.

"Well you know what, though that chase ended in almost complete failure, we at least managed to recover an important document and get some good exercise!" I said in a sarcastically cheery voice. Mr. Wright groaned in response and sighed.

"Thanks Apollo." Mr. Wright sighed. I looked at him with a confused look on my face.

"Thanks? For what?"

"For going along with everything, even though right now I should kick you out of my house."

"Oh."

Mr. Wright got up and grabbed a bottle of grape juice. He offered some to me, but I didn't accept it (I was more of a fan of actual red wine myself). He drank right from the bottle and gulped it down.

"You know Apollo... though I still don't think I should let you in on what you're looking for, I think you deserve some form of reward. I will let you investigate my house as soon as I leave. Investigate all you'd like."

A smile formed on my face. "Really?"

Phoenix nodded in response. He then got up with his bottle of grape juice, grabbed the bag on the floor, and left the house. "Make sure to lock up as soon as you're done." he called back behind him.

And he was gone.
Allowing me to have the privacy I needed to investigate.

One hour later...

It took me an hour to realize what just happened.

There was no way Mr. Wright would let me find something of importance.
It was just a way to trick me.
It was just a way to escape!
Right under my nose!

I found nothing in my investigation that proved of any value. To be honest, the only thing I did find was what I found an hour later... a letter meant for me.

It was in Mr. Wright's writing and though it was legible, it was pretty messy and rushed. On the front, it had my name on it, not a letter out of place. I opened it and read it out loud in the empty building.

Apollo,

By the time you find this, I should be out of the city (at least) and you will have broken into my house and started investigating. I knew that you would do something like that from the start, so no need to worry.

Anyways, I'm sorry to say, but I needed to leave as soon as I can. If you remember the phone call I was on when Trucy was shot, I was talking to an important person and I need to do something for him to make all of our lives better.

Because of this, I have to leave, so all I'm asking is that you take care of Trucy for now because I don't think I will be available to pick her up and take care of her. I will leave constant updates on what is happening, though you should know that there will be no way of tracing me, so don't even bother trying.

Whatever happens to me, I'm sorry I had to dump this on you, especially after the completion of your fourth case. Please forgive me and thank you for being such a great apprentice. I hope that in the end, you will have the guts to go to some new law office and get a better job than what I have been providing you lately. Thank you for taking care of Trucy and I promise that in the end, I will explain everything to you.

~Phoenix Wright~

"Damn you Wright!" I screamed at the top of my lungs up to the ceiling, my Finger of Death pointing at the unsightly lightbulb on the ceiling. "How long do you think you will be away? And how do you expect me to be able to take care of Trucy if I'm unemployed?"

I was absolutely furious! My fist and teeth were clenched and I was so tempted to punch the wall, but this was still not my house and harming someone else's property went against any principles that stuck with me in that moment of utter anger. Instead, all I did was force myself to eat a banana on the counter which calmed me down.

After I managed to get my heart rate to what I thought to be normal, I shoved the letter into my pocket. I need to examine it a bit more before dismissing it for good. I then left the Wright home, locking the door behind me. I was pretty angry that I let him escape right in front of me, not remembering just how clever a man like Phoenix Wright was. Everything I needed to help finish this puzzle was in that duffle bag he was carrying with him.

So now all I can do is live and take care of Trucy as soon as the hospital releases her.

But for now, I'm stuck waiting.

This is probably my fifth case.
Great.

Each case brings a new beginning.
But right now, the beginning of this particular case brought on a sense of emptiness.

I'm lost.
I'm have no leads.
I'm nowhere.

I'm at a dead end already.

This is a dead beginning.


A/N: STOP MOCKING ME! If you knew me well enough, you would know that my personality was never capable enough to make any epic fight/chase scenes!

"Meh! Respect you elders! =P"

Anyways, it's pretty clear that judging from the length, it's obvious that I had a good inspiration.
And that this was an important chapter.

And though the first one is OBVIOUSLY...
wrong.

And the second one is OBVIOUSLY...
right.

This really is only the beginning!
(Wow, this is gonna be one LONG story...)

So you better get ready because summer vacation is coming and I'm ready to finish this story at high gear (maybe an update every other day? =3)!

And the most important question of the day is:
Who the heck was that weird guy stealing the file?

And as soon as you figure EXACTLY who he is, this story will come to a whole new different perspective.

But of course, NONE of you know... only I do (for once)!
So guess all you like, but I'm pretty sure none of you will get it right.

For you know, it could be an OC! ;)
Good luck!