Hello everyone! Thank you for all following me for this long. Twenty-five chapters… wow. Not to mention the eighth chapter posted in ONE DAY! How about that?

Disclaimer: I do not own the Ace Attorney franchise.

Iris woke up a little while after, only to find herself still in Sacred Cavern. Not only that but…

"F-Five trick locks?!" Iris nearly shouted. How was she supposed to get out of this one?

"What was that?" a voice from the inner temple said

"What was what, Ms. Von Karma?"

"Don't ask such foolishly foolish questions like some foolish fool! I'm talking about that voice."

"I heard nothing."

"… Get back to those locks."

"Yes, right away."

Her sister… She knew that last voice was Dahlia. How ironic, five years ago it was Iris pretending to be Dahlia, now Dahlia was pretending to be Iris. She nearly laughed.

A few hours later her sister and Franziska left. Iris didn't know whether to be thankful or not. On one hand her sister was no longer there, on the other hand, her sister would be pretending to be her in court tomorrow. Maybe she could try to release those locks now though…

"I hope Iris is alright…" Phoenix thought. He had just exposed Dahlia in court. Somehow he just knew that Iris wouldn't say those things. The only problem now was getting Iris back. It's hard enough to take care of one trick lock, but five? That was a whole other level. He could only hope that the locks weren't too hard to solve.

Iris had been up all night figuring out the trick locks. By the time she was working on the last one, the police had come.

"Sister Iris?"

They knew. They had to know. They knew who Dahlia was. There was no other explanation. She could now be seen, they knew she was trapped.

"I'm right here." Iris came out of the shadows of the cavern.

"Good, you're all right. We need to take you back to court. How do you unlock these trick lock thingies?"

"I've been working on them myself. I'm on the last one, and I think I've almost…" She heard a click "Got it!" she opened the gate and walked out of the cavern. "What happened in court today, officer?"

"Well, Mr. Wright exposed this sprit named Dahlia and saved the person who summoned her, Ms. Maya Fey."

Iris was shocked "M-Mystic Maya is alive!"

"Yes, although quite weak."

"Oh, thank goodness…" She began to tear up a bit "I'm so happy…"

"That's nice, but we need to get back to the court room now. We don't want to keep them waiting."

"Yes, understood." And they left.

Iris walked up to the witness stand ready to begin the trial. The real trial.

"Now then…" the judge began "I assume you are the real Iris…?"

"…Yes. I was just rescued from the Sacred Cavern." "Kind of…"

"I must say you and your twin sister are indeed identical from what I can see. In any case… It appears that everything has finally been cleared up. Mr. Godot. … What happened to Dahlia Hawthorne?"

"If you ask me, your Honor… …it looks like she went back to the hell she came from." Godot stated

"Hmm… It seems that Misty Fey wasn't the only victim of this crime." The Judge continued "Maya Fey, as well as the young Pearl Fey… …were also victims of this wicked and selfish plan."

"Yes, Your Honor." Phoenix said

"The tragedy of "Medium Valley" has finally come to an end, it seems." The Judge shook his head. "It would be best for everyone if no further attempt was made to channel that spirit again."

"….. Um…. Your Honor?" Phoenix started to ask

"Yes, what is it?"

"About this whole "spirit medium" thing… It's almost weird how comfortable you seem to be with the concept now."

"…. Well, to be frank, my younger brother is quite judgmental… He often criticizes me for not studying hard enough. That's why I made a concerted effort to study up on the Kurain Channeling Technique."

Phoenix had a "You've got to be kidding me!" look on his face.

"…I've seen quite a few things in my many years on the bench." The Judge continued "And in all that time, I've finally learned this one thing. Each case is different, and takes place in its own world, if you will. In order to fully understand that world… …first we have to immerse ourselves in it completely. And that's where… My brother and I used to differ. …At any rate! It's time to pass judgment in the case of Iris of Hazakura Temple."

"OBJECTION!" Godot yelled "…you're a little too fast with that gavel, your honor."

"What is he doing?" Iris thought "Either he really wants me dead, or he wants to be found guilty himself!"

"What do you mean by that, Mr. Godot!?" the judge demanded

"This trial… It isn't over yet. That's what he means"

"Is that… Mia? Is Pearl channeling Mia Fey?"

"W-What?!" Phoenix exclaimed

"Trite…" Godot spoke again "remember what miss evil spirit said in her testimony?"

"Huh? Dahlia's testimony?"

"…just as Dahlia Hawthorne was about to attack Maya… she was stabbed and "killed" by someone." The channeled Mia explained

"Y-Yes… that's right…" The Judge responded

"The person that was ultimately killed was the spirit medium that channeled Dahlia…" Godot continued "…Elise Deauxnim, no, Misty Fey. But… who killed her? We still don't know who did it!"

"T-This is suicide!" Iris thought

"T-This isn't over?!" Phoenix practically yelled

"Unless someone else is found guilty, the accused is still on trial." Godot replied "We can't let her walk until there is evidence that proves her innocence."

"N-No way…"

"But… This court isn't prepared for any further testimony…" The Judge said

"The prosecution is ready to call our final witness!" Godot yelled

"F-Final… witness!?" The Judge looked shocked.

"This one will clear up the whole mystery…" Godot continued "The mystery of "Who killed Misty Fey"!"

"Hmmm…. Indeed."

"….. Is it really alright… Mr. Prosecutor?" Spirit Mia asked

"….Of course it's alright…. Madame Attorney."

"Very well then…" The Judge said "Who is this final witness?"

"Ha…! Isn't it obvious?" Godot replied "There's one person who saw the whole event and will put the final dagger in this case."

"S-Someone who saw the murder take place?"

"…The very person who saw her mother killed in front of her own eyes."

"Y-You mean… Maya!?" Phoenix stuttered "…You can't! She can't testify after what she's just been through!"

Godot shook his head "We need to find the truth. The prosecution calls Maya Fey to the witness stand!"

"Very well." The Judge said "But first we'll take a quick recess. …We'll have to wait for Ms. Fey to recover before summoning her. Once we receive the doctor's permission, we will proceed with the trial!"

"…Hey, Trite. I've got something to say to you, so listen up."

"What is it?"

"I don't think much of you as a lawyer. It's always the same with you. …You somehow manage to just squeak by without even a faint understanding of the case. Some beautiful woman always seems to come dashing in at the last minute to save you."

"Y-You've got some nerve!"

"…But that's not going to happen this time. This time… You're going to have to do this by yourself."

"…!"

The Judge slammed his gavel "That's enough! This court is now in recess!"

And so it was.

"I'm truly sorry about everything." Iris tearfully apologized to Phoenix. "You were working so hard to defend me… But I was missing all day, and we didn't even have a chance to talk…" She looked down. "…I wanted to at least be in the defendant's box today to root you on."

"W-Well, it wasn't your fault. You were locked up this whole time…" Phoenix responded "There's something more important than that, though. I have to ask you… Why did you help your sister out as much as you did?"

"Huh…?" That was an unexpected question. Of all the things to ask her, he chose that.

"If you had tried to get help at the Sacred Cavern yesterday… …you wouldn't have spent an entire day locked up in there."

"Did I do that to help her? I didn't really have a chance to go to anyone at all. I can answer him though, even if I am not talking about now. Why did I help her out before all this? That is the question I will answer." "My sister… I felt sorry for her. She was abandoned by our mother and never got any love from our father either."

"Yes, but… it was the same for you too, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but at least I had Sister Bikini, who was like a mother to me. If only Dahlia had come with me to Hazakura Temple… I always… I always loved her… Dahlia was always so smart, so strong… She never complained about a thing. That's why I… That's why I promised to help her."

"Are you talking about the fake kidnapping case 11 years ago?"

"…Yes. I-I wanted to be useful to her in some way. B-But as usual… I was too cowardly… At the last minute, I ran away. Because of that… Dahlia's half-sister, Valerie ended up…" She paused "But… things didn't end there, of course. Some people suspected that my sister was involved in the murder."

"Some people…? You must mean…"

"Yes, two defense lawyers. Mia Fey… and Diego Armando. After poisoning Mr. Armando, who was getting too close to learning the truth… … Dahlia even tried to kill the person who had unknowingly hid the poison for her. You."

"…Iris. There's one more thing that I have to ask you."

"Yes, what is it?"

"On the night of the murder… …the person that cleaned up the corpse of the victim, Elise Deauxnim… Was it… Was it really you?"

"… Yes… It was me… That night, after I rang the lights out bell… I went back to my room. At around 10:30, I received a call on my cell phone."

"There's a problem… Come to the Inner Temple right away."

"I… I got on the snowmobile and headed for the Inner Temple." Iris continued "But…"

"The path to the Inner Temple was cut off… Right?"

"Exactly."

"We can't just leave the body here…Alright, let's do this as you said…"

"It was me… I was the one that received her body. The murder weapon had been left in her body so she wouldn't bleed too much. The staff that Mystic Elise always had…"

"I knew it… So the actual murder weapon was the staff."

"…Yes, that's right." "I hope he doesn't hate me…" "I brought the body back to Hazakura Temple on the snowmobile."

"But why… Why did you alter the body?"

"…I didn't want anyone to know that the staff was the murder weapon. I didn't want to leave anything that would lead back to Misty Fey… So I dressed her in a robe and stabbed her with the Shichishito… I wiped the blood off the staff's blade and left it next to her on the ground."

"…Iris. Just tell me one last thing. Tell me the name of the person who called your cell phone. The real killer."

"… I'm sorry, Mr. Wright… I can't do it… I can't say who did it."

"I…I see…"

"Defendant!" the bailiff called

"…Y-Yes…"

"The Judge is calling you! He wants to see you in his chambers. He has some questions about Dahlia Hawthorne."

"Alright. …Well then… I'll see you later… There's something I want to tell you later." "My promise to Mr. Edgeworth."

"Oh, um… OK…" Phoenix looked confused and Iris left.

When I wrote this chapter, I noticed I had to go back and re-write a whole segment in the story. I will always have a bit of resentment for chapter 25! Stupid Rubik….