OMG CLIFFHANGER.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them.
Chapter 19: The Meetings
Date: December 23th 2027, 9:01 PM
Place: Wright Anything Agency, Office
"Polly?"
If it wasn't for the wind and the traffic surrounding noises from the outside, there would be a complete silence for few seconds when Trucy called the vampire by his real, familiar name. Athena grasped against the detective when she realized with horror the young vampire standing in front of them was indeed one of the two young men they were incessantly searching for many days.
Apollo…
It couldn't be! The two women didn't even recognize him! What caused the sudden physical change in him? What happened to him? He didn't look like their friend at all! Unless…
Wait, his hair. No antennae. But of course, Trucy would recognize him immediately: he was her dear brother, after all. She must have seen him more than thousands times without gel in his hair now soft and loose to the chilling wind… Oh, and there was his weird, magical bracelet on his left wrist, but without any bright light source, it was hard to notice it. No wonder they didn't know it was him on first sight.
So it had come to this: their friend, the loving older brother… Trucy was right.
He was gone. Her nightmare was real.
Soon, few sobs were heard from the little sister's direction. Somehow, this led her newly reborn brother to faintly back away. Watching his sibling crying appeared to have an effect on him; he recognized he was the cause of her pain.
"P-Polly…" Trucy sniffled, trying to keep her voice under control.
Apollo felt ashamed. "… T-Truce…" he lowly stuttered like he was already admitting defeat.
"W-What… happened to you?" Trucy inaudibly asked, whipping another tear from her eyes.
The older brother did not say anything. The disgrace was the only thought engulfing his mind when he looked at his younger sister right now.
"Y-You always did everything to… protect me, just like that fateful day, in that old church," the desperate girl gently let out. "I'm glad you were always here for me, because you are the best b-big b-brother a little s-sister could have… But… look at you now..."
Then Trucy's tone went louder. She was furiously quibbling at him. "Look what happened to you! You're… you're… barely… even h-human anymore!"
Once again, Apollo remained silent, but he still had his distressed eyes on her.
"You don't deserve this fate!" Trucy cried, her fists clenching toward the floor, her tears streaming across her face. She couldn't bear to stare at him anymore.
It was when her brother straightened up, giving her an innocent gaze and a sympathetic smile to ease her soul. Wasn't that what all big brothers must do when their younger siblings were troubled, right? "Trucy, don't worry, I'm fine…" Apollo softly began.
Trucy raised her eyes to him. She couldn't believe it: he was definitely not fine. "F-Fine?" she asked with her dazed voice.
His eyes went to a more frightening nature when his composed smile shifted into a menacing grin, revealing his sharp fangs. "I'm fine, Trucy," Apollo repeated, almost with pride. "Because I enjoy this new life, these new powerful senses, this freedom, this energy!"
"N-No…" the girl murmured, falling on her knees in completed hopelessness, watching her brother sinking deeper into his unnatural insanity.
"And I want you to join your big brother in this fun! Remember how we always did everything together, go anywhere together? We… need to revive these old times together!"
"No! Get away from me!" Trucy finally screamed in a torturing panic. "You're not my brother! You're not Polly!"
A surprised, short pause came from the vampire. Trucy wouldn't dare to abandon her brother, wouldn't she? Taken by the frustration of his sister's denial, Apollo emitted a feral snarl as he jumped toward her. In the flash of the instant, nearly forgotten in the siblings moments, Ema shot several times, but no bullet found their target. Athena screamed in a desperate attempt to call her former friend's attention. Unfortunately all of her cries went deaf to his ears.
It was the end for the only remaining sane Gramarye child.
Was it? Or will another miracle come to her aid, like every other time?
… It happened again…
Suddenly, an angelic silhouette in a long, majestic white dress appeared from the sky, leaping over the fallen young man. They reached for the beast in their arms tightly to which the monster oddly offered no resistance, at all. Perhaps the beauty of the angel appeased his soul, or was it because the unexpected emergence of new mysterious figure coming into his view caused him to give no time for struggle?
No heart pulse came from the angel.
Apollo was out of the way from Trucy who was still collapsed on the ground, struggling to stop her weeps when she had just been saved by the enigmatic newcomer. She looked at her savior who was still holding tight the young man against them. A particular object stood out from the angel.
A golden bracelet was shining under the feeble light on their right wrist, matching her brother's.
When Apollo frantically turned to his captor, his eyes went wide and a small tear sparkled as he murmured:
"M-Mom…?"
It wasn't be possible! No, twelve years ago, the news told them, the police told them, everyone told them. The Gramarye magicians were no more, the entire world thought, and there stood a clear contradiction of the fact, right in this chaotic agency.
Thalassa Gramarye, magician and hunter extraordinaire, alive and well, was holding her fallen son, Apollo Justice, in her arms. Her daughter, Trucy Enigmar, was at loss of words to express the sudden truth that was propelled directly before her eyes.
When the real identity of the new vampire came in, a strange slumber took over Apollo. He serenely kept glancing at his sweet mother after she visibly came back from death to find her little family again. Somehow, just before he vanished into a pleasant dream world, a faint smile appeared on the boy who felt like being a kid again, just like the last time he had met the Gramarye adults. His mother remained the same beautiful, divine young woman he remembered when he was eleven years old, like an ageless angel.
No one dared to move, no one dared to speak. They watched the woman clutching against the sleeping young man like a little child while she softly called him repeatedly by his name.
"Apollo, please forgive me… Apollo… please…"
Slowly but hesitantly, Trucy approached the woman in a sort of shy manner, tilting her head slightly on the side and carefully staring at her. Still scared but confident, Athena made a step forward the magician when she got closer to the dark angel. "Trucy, she's a vampire!" the attorney warned.
However, Trucy ignored her friend and her curiosity won over everything while she came closer to the woman, her mouth wide open with perplexity. The nearer she got, the more she shuddered. "Are you really… our mom?" Trucy whispered to the woman.
The vampire's glance went tranquilly on the girl. The mother was nearly unable to direct her eyes on the magician's piercing blue pupils. "Trucy…" the woman melancholically called. "No mother would forget their own children."
It was really… their mother…
"M-Mom, you're alive… Tell me… Then… t-then… why d-did you a… ah… abandon us?" Trucy's tone trembled as her comment progressed.
As the mother gently placed her unconscious son on the ground, another smaller shadow who looked strangely familiar appeared by the window. When the small light revealed the face of the shadow, Trucy recognized those cute, childish cheeks of the vampire kid who saved her on that fateful day. "Machi?" the young girl called.
"Trucy! You live!" the not-so-young boy called with a wide and reassuring smile upon seeing the girl safe.
Somehow, seeing the vampire boy back gave her a tiny smile, but Trucy was still in a confused state after meeting her mother for the first time since her tender childhood. The sentiment deepened when the truth of seeing her parent reborn as one of them hit her. "Machi, w-what are you doing here with M-Mom?" Trucy asked him, surprised by his presence in this unusual circumstance.
Instead of replying, Machi gave a nod to the woman, letting her answer. Her soft, pure voice was a lullaby to their ears, soothing their mind as she spoke. "Machi… was the one who told me about you and your brother," the mother replied, gently biting her lips. "He recognized the bracelet Apollo was wearing, because I wear the same one. He remembered I once told him about you two, how I missed you and how… I would have liked to see you once again, one day…"
Trucy's eyes were filled with anger. "But why didn't you come back!?" the young teen dejectedly objected.
"I-I couldn't… Trucy dear, please, understand me…" Thalassa desperately tried to protest. "When Machi went back to find your brother and his friend after he brought you to this agency, they already disappeared from the church. He followed them by their scents, but he lost their traces at one point. He came to find me to tell about the possibility of what happened to them, and I… decided to come back and find you…"
"I… did not expect to see my son as a fallen one…"
Crushed by the shame and the dread of seeing her offspring as one of these degenerated creatures, she let herself fall on her knees, her hands leaning against the floor, tears streaming on her cheeks. Watching her mother in such depressing state caused Trucy's anger to lightly fade away like a melting ice on her heart. Her soul gradually warmed up to her sorrow, comforting the mother's misery.
The chaos filled Trucy's mind while she tried to replace all the facts together in her confused thoughts. Everything came so fast. Firstly, it was her brother's distressing fate of becoming an eternal, mindless spawn of hell. Secondly came his insane wish for her to join him in this same twisted doom. Finally, the mother she had thought to be gone from this world since her young age came back from the death as another creature of the night, a kind one, to save her from the same doom.
Just when she was still gathering her thoughts in order, another unexpected clashing sound made its way in the agency, prompting another sudden scream from the two forgotten human women, detective and attorney alike. The swift shadow leapt over the slumbering vampire and quickly grabbed him to return outside like a flashy wind. With a jolt, Trucy and the mother made a step forward the kidnapped sleeping young man, desperately calling his name.
Yet, Thalassa could clearly see the shadow and she trailed after them as they jumped on the other building roof. Seeing the distress on the mother, little Machi followed behind. The three other girls simply stayed in the agency room, dumbfounded when all the vampires disappeared from their sight.
Trucy fell on her knees again, crying.
Everything went so fast, indeed.
The scene that welcomed Thalassa left her speechless.
Right over there, on the building roof, stood another of her kind, a peculiarly familiar young man carefully checking on her slumbering son. The man bore a worried expression while eyeing the sleeping one, trying to wake him up in a panicked, desperate way. Nevertheless he couldn't, of course: unbeknownst to the young man, the vampire mother was unwillingly controlling the sleeping condition of her child. What a way to prevent him from causing more hazards…
Like a lightning bolt that struck on her back, Thalassa immediately recognized him. She couldn't budge from her spot anymore.
"E-Eros!?" the woman called, her eyes wide open.
The other young man finally turned his eyes to her and when he realized who the one calling for him was, he froze. "Thalassa…!" Eros's feeble, trembling voice called back, glaring at the woman he used to call his wife. Yet, instead of the joy Thalassa had expected to see from her old husband, she was welcomed by a rather sad and chaotic tone from him. "So… you too are… part of us… You're… controlling little Pollo, I see…"
Soon, however, his confusion shifted to an unusual rage when a low growl emanated from his mouth along his furrowed brows appearing on his still apprehensive face. He pulled the sleeping one closer to him like a kid refusing to give up his favorite plushie.
"Eros!" Thalassa cried again, slowly backing away from him with a sorrowful tone. "What happened? I thought you… died!"
The anger was slightly fading away from the young man, but it came back when he answered. "I didn't…"
Thalassa's expression crumbled to absolute grief when she could feel the great darkness in him. The Eros she remembered in her teen ages was an innocent, passionate father and husband. That one standing before her was a mere spawn led by madness and hunger. "You have succumbed to your… darkness," Thalassa expressed with low sobs.
Her sad comment caused a sudden loud roar from the wrathful husband. "Darkness? You think this is darkness?" Eros spitted out, his shaking fist nearly ready to hit anything that'd come close to him. "How's our way of living the 'darkness' when all we do is survive? All predators have preys, and we're no exception!"
"Eros…"
Eros ignored her. "Have you seen what humans are doing to this mother Earth? Look at all the animal species that have disappeared because of them! And we, 'creatures of darkness', get rid of few humans, for our own survival!"
"Tell me, Thalassa, how's that we are the 'darkness', and they are the 'light'?"
The icy tone of her old husband caused her to shiver from all sides. There was no way she'd be able to reason him when he had already been lost by the changes of having been reborn. However, her attention shifted back to the one clutched against him. She felt her soul collapsing with pity; their dear firstborn's expression looked so peaceful. It felt exactly like when her tender, newly born baby son slept in her husband's arms, twenty-three long years ago. "Eros, please…" Thalassa softly started. "Don't… do this to our son… Don't do this to Apollo…"
Yet, it was clearly already too late for Apollo.
Of course, Eros was not listening. Stubborn like a mule, he just raged on. "I've never got to enjoy my time as a father. You disappeared with him, leaving me behind, thinking I was dead. The thought of coming back to check what happened to your loving husband never came to you, Thal? Maybe it would have been much better for me if I let that vampire devour me until the end, after all!"
"That way, I would have never learned about your desertion of your two children."
Thalassa froze.
"I couldn't find you anymore, and I wanted… to see Apollo grow up, become a successful kid, hear him call me Daddy. You had all those years with him, and now it's my turn!"
In a way, Eros was childishly right. Thalassa did abandon him. She never came back to their old home, back in their time in Borginia, to check if her husband survived or not. However, whenever she reminded herself of his painful scream after obeying her lover as she ran away from the place, clutching their baby son against her chest… There was no way he could… have survived that vampire attack.
And if he did survive the creature's bite, then only one destiny awaited him: the darkness of the everlasting night.
Exactly what happened to him, in the end.
She was only able to mutter: "Eros darling…" which only deepened the rage in the young man's soul. He let out another piercing snarl at her.
"And don't you dare calling me 'darling' ever again!" he furiously roared, his teeth gritting such Thalassa could hear the tiny gnashing sound from his mouth. "Not after you married another man, and that Shadi jerk above everyone else!"
While giving a cold glare to the woman he used to love in his younger days, the young father held the sleeping son on his shoulders and turned his back away from the crying mother, leaving an emotionless "Good bye, Thalassa."
And he jumped away with the still son, disappearing in the darkness once again. They were gone.
Somehow, Thalassa could not follow him since she drowned herself into overwhelming sobs.
Machi had watched the entire thing from afar and frowned. He wished he could help her in some manner, but what could he do? Thalassa's son and Trucy's brother was already lost, and there was no way to make him come back into a life of sanity. Regretfully, he wished he had never told her about the young man's bracelet, because it was for that very reason Thalassa was sad now.
Date: December 23th 2027, 9:01 PM
Place: Terran Family's Home, Entrance
Phoenix was glad the Terran family's home was not that far from the agency, his own home, and he loved the walking exercise. On the way to his not so far destination, he hoped, even slightly, to find one single hint that could tell about his protégés' whereabouts, but of course, he found none. He sighed at the thought and he gave away a silly lonely smile.
After all, the two kids were alive for sure.
On the two third way of the road, Phoenix realized he hadn't called the astronaut's father at all of his visit. He rushed a hand inside a pocket for his old trustworthy cellphone. He gave the man a call, but there was no answer from the other side of the line. Well, that type of no response happened often, especially when the father had been assaulted by calls and journalists from everywhere since his son disappeared from sight. If anything, a grand event of multi-millions had been cancelled from Clay's absence, and the government might not be really pleased about this.
The Terran's residence was quite a grand house. Mr. Terran had been working as an engineer for a multinational plane building company, which was apparently one of the reasons for Clay's interest of space. No wonder the father was able to afford a nice home in this quiet, rich district of the city, with many tall leaves and palm trees surrounding the place.
When Phoenix arrived to his destination, there was something off about the place. The entrance door was left wide opened, and of course, no one was here to welcome him. No one should leave their door opened like that, especially at night when vampires were lurking around. When he proceeded to go through the entrance unarmed, he noticed the unusual mess that was spreading all around the interior, with broken pots, glasses and even moved furniture. Was there someone who broke into their house?
"Mr. Terran?" the lawyer and hunter called the man, but he still got no reply. The eerie silence of the place was definitely not a good sign. He took his phone again and dialed the father's number once more.
Strangely enough, he could hear the ringtone playing somewhere from the floor above.
Phoenix carefully climbed the stairs, still leaving his phone calling the other device, and followed the sound of the ringtone. The horror hit him soon when he could smell an oddly familiar scent: blood. And the louder the ringtone music was heard, the smellier the blood scent hit his nostrils.
Then he heard few slow and heavy breaths. Were they from Mr. Terran?
The hunter rushed to the master bedroom which appeared to be the father's room. To his surprise and terror, the only thing that welcomed him was the inert corpse of the poor father in question. A pistol was close to his body and a clear view of the side of his head offered itself, his interior flesh exposed by a single bullet. The man's lifeless orbits were still wide open and traces of nearly dried tears were visible on his now colder cheeks.
From the look of it, Mr. Terran shot himself…
Where did the breathing sounds come from, then? He had not heard any gunshot, so what appeared to be a sad suicide act must have happened about a dozen minutes ago. From the look of it, the man's body was still warm.
The fright froze his veins when he wandered his curious glance around the room. He noticed another young man, sitting on the bed, crouching with his head on his knees, miserably sobbing alone while looking nowhere in particular. His messy, raven colored hair seemed to have lost their vivacity. With a surprised jump, Phoenix recognized him immediately.
Finally, he found one of them, at last.
"Clay!" Phoenix worriedly called the crying boy.
Upon drawing his attention on the newcomer in the room, Clay sadly looked up to his friend's mentor, glaring at the man in a miserable, innocent way. "Mr. Wright…?" the gloomy young man murmured.
When the boy finally reacted, Phoenix made a careful step forward him. Somehow, the boy's presence in this house was too abnormal to be true. After all, Clay had been lost for more than a week and was suddenly found back inside his very home. With his dead father at his feet, something definitely wasn't ringing well to him. "Clay! You're alive!" the lawyer called again, somewhat happy to see him, until he turned his concern back to the deceased older man. "What happened? You didn't do this, didn't you?"
It was when Clay's sobs turned into uncontrollable shivers. "… I… I can't…" he whispered with a rather wretched tone.
Phoenix was definitely worried about the boy. Why would his loving father, the one who fell into a deep despair when he was unsure of his son's whereabouts, took away his own life upon seeing his only family back? Surely, Clay couldn't have done this, couldn't he? There was no way he'd murder anyone; not Klavier, not his partner Daryan, and certainly not his beloved father!
"Of course, you can't do this!" Phoenix exclaimed in a concerned, sympathetic way. "It's your father! Who-"
"No… I can't… I can't!" Clay interrupted. His words were becoming unsteady and loud to the point he reached a certain morbid irrationality. There was definitely something devious about him.
"Clay?" Phoenix called the boy, and this time, his instincts told him his gun might be needed, just in case… "What's the matter? What's happening with you?"
Suddenly, Clay bounced on the bed, nearly landing like a wild predator, his mouth hanging and watering with a ferocious hunger. Revealing his brutish fangs, he loudly murmured to himself: "I… can't… stop myself…" He leapt on the corpse of his old man and started chewing and licking directly on the bloodied wound on the side of the head, savoring in the most delectable manner the blood that was still flowing like a pure stream.
Somehow, Phoenix was unable to react to this terrifying sight. He had been used to see evil vampires doing their deeds, but never had he seen a closer acquaintance doing such barbaric, feral act.
The hunter tried to regain the absolute control of himself, trying to keep his gun steady in his hands. "No, Clay… You… you fell…" he delivered these frightened words.
However, Clay childishly ignored Phoenix's words. After his hunger had been quickly quenched, he gently lifted up his head, directing his sight to the ceiling, practically speaking like a mad psychotic child. This actually petrified the hunter. "I… I wanted my dad… to join us, but… but he didn't want to… So he took his pistol and shot himself…"
Wait a second. To join us?
Did Clay mean… he was not alone in this? Wasn't he the only one who had been reborn into one of these… creatures of the night?
That meant… Apollo too…
Finally, Phoenix managed to take control of himself once again and he skillfully pointed his small gun at the fallen boy. "Don't move!" he shouted at the vampire.
When the gun went into Clay's sight, the boy clenched his teeth and furrowed his brows with a loud growl escaping his mouth, ready to defend himself against his friend's former mentor. But Phoenix was a fast hunter.
He shot before Clay could even jump.
To his relief, Phoenix did not use his regular gun, but the one Ema had lent him.
Clay precipitously backed away, watching the small dart stuck deep in his left leg. He ferociously took it away and made a step forward Phoenix with another vicious snarl. However, as soon as his first step was made, his legs were quickly failing him and the rest of his body followed in a matter of seconds. Clay fell flat on the floor, just in front of Phoenix. In a last desperate attempt to reach for the hunter, the boy's trembling hand lowly raised itself but fell back like a dull rock.
At least Ema's little gun worked like charm. The vampire couldn't do anything against her science.
Yet, Phoenix was unable to feel victorious over this, especially when he stared at the young man on the floor. The poor kid was slowly breathing like a sickled child, his eyes still squinting, struggling to keep them wide.
Even if the pitied feeling toward the boy was close to its peak, Phoenix didn't take any chance and he used his handcuffs to attach Clay's hands from behind. Looking at the weakened former astronaut who used to be full of life in this state nearly crushed the hunter's spirits, but he had to remain strong and formal. Emotions won't bring Clay back to his human life, anyway.
"Where's Apollo?" Phoenix asked his new prisoner.
Upon hearing the question, a sarcastic, dark smirk formed on the exhausted vampire's mouth, and once again, these chilling fangs sullied of disgusting blood revealed themselves. "N… No idea…" Clay simply responded, but Phoenix knew it was an obvious lie.
So that was it. Clay and probably Apollo too have become vampires during their disappearance. Who could have done this to the boys? Only the fiercest vampires would think of bringing more human beings on their sides. Most importantly, the first thing Clay had thought after being reborn was to bring his own father to the dark side with him, to complete his family. If that was the case, then there was a fat chance Apollo went for someone similar, and his only family was his little sister, Trucy.
After putting a type of muzzled mask on Clay to avoid being accidentally bitten by the newly fallen one, Phoenix quickly dialed Athena's cellphone number.
Author's note: Yes, I am completely aware that the scene with Thalassa and Eros could very well be in a cheesy soap opera.