Author's Note: A lot is about to happen in this chapter. WARNING: Violence, gunshot wounds, characters in life-threatening situations, villainous monologuing.

Chapter Twenty-Two: You Make Me Feel, Part Two

October 23, 2029

Miles Edgeworth's Home

"Nick?" called Maya from the kitchen. "Your phone's beeping."

Phoenix, crouched on the bathroom floor with his hand stuck in the toilet, carefully put down the bottle of bleach he'd been wielding, washed his hands, and rejoined her. When he picked up his phone, it lit up with a text message from DICK GUMSHOE.

"Hey, pal," read the text. "I'm out of the hospital! WHOOP. Thx for everything."

I can't believe he actually types out 'WHOOP,' thought Phoenix, smiling to himself for the first time in hours.

"Dick's being discharged," he told Maya, who was now leaning over his shoulder trying to see the message. "Good for him. I hope he can get some rest at home."

"Yes!" Maya grinned with relief. "Wow, that was FAST! I thought it'd take so much longer than that! That nurse had me really worried. Do you think his legs are better? Can we go visit him?"

"No, not yet." Phoenix shook his head. "Give them a chance to settle in. I'm sure the last thing they need right now is company to try and entertain."

Maya shrugged. "Or, maybe they're lonely and want their friends to come over. Not everybody gets moody and reclusive like you when they're feeling down."

"I'm not moody and reclusive," countered Phoenix.

Maya pointed to the bathroom. "You have ben cleaning the toilet for three hours," she reminded him. "Moody? Check. Reclusive? You literally locked yourself in a bathroom."

Phoenix awkwardly cleared his throat. "Right, well…anyway, um, I should probably let Edgeworth know. I mean, in case Dick hasn't texted him already. He'll uh…he'll be thrilled."

"Go for it!" Maya gave Phoenix an encouraging thumbs-up. "I believe in you!"

Thanks, that makes one of us, thought Phoenix, steeling himself as he climbed the stairs to Edgeworth's room.

Taking a deep breath, he raised a fist, and knocked hesitantly on the bedroom door. "H-hey, Miles? I've got some good news. Can we, um, talk?"

There was no answer. Phoenix deflated a little.

"Oh, hey, boss!" Athena emerged from her own room and waved at Phoenix. "I think Mr. Edgeworth went out. I saw his amazing car drive off a few hours ago. Maybe he went grocery shopping?"

"Really? By himself?" Phoenix was alarmed. "I thought we agreed that nobody was going to leave the house by themselves!"

"Yeah, but…everybody thinks that the killer's dead," insisted Athena, shrugging. "And if they kill again, then everyone will know the truth, so…don't you think the murders are probably over? I'm sure Mr. Edgeworth's fine, anyway, he's the scariest thing since Simon Blackquill! He can DEFINITELY take care of himself."

Phoenix frowned. "I…guess that makes sense. Still, it's not like him to-!"

"NICK!" Again, Maya summoned him from the kitchen. "YOUR PHONE. It's beeping again."

Hoping that it was a text from Edgeworth, Phoenix returned quickly to the kitchen. When he got there, Maya smiled apologetically at him and shook her head.

"Sorry!" she said. "Uh, actually it was my phone that was beeping! Oh, hey, it's a text from Mr. Edgeworth!" Maya spent a moment reading the message, and then her face went white. "Oh…oh no."

"What?" Phoenix nearly grabbed the phone out of her hand. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Wordlessly, Maya passed Phoenix the phone. The text was not a message, but a photograph of a piece of paper, with a collage of various letters, apparently cut out of magazines and other documents.

The collage of letters read:

LeT's MAkE a DeAl. StOP sEaRcHinG for PARkeR, oR I KILL tHe PRosEcUtOR.

Phoenix's head swam, and he felt a bit faint.

"It's the murderer!" gaped Maya. "They've got Mr. Edgeworth!"

"What?!" Apollo came running into the room. "Hey what's going on? Who's got Mr. Edgeworth?"

Maya grabbed the phone from Phoenix and shoved at Apollo, who stared at in horror for a moment, then frowned.
"This…this message," he muttered. "It's all cut-out paper, like a ransom note from a bad crime movie, or from a detective novel. You never see these in real life."

"So what? Who cares?" Maya glared at him. "That's not the point!"

Like a detective novel, thought Phoenix. Something else in this case seemed like it came from a detective novel…what was it? That's right, it was the suicide note written in blood. Come to think of it, everything in this case so far has felt unnecessarily theatrical…or literary. Wait…

"Oh…OH MY GOD," he shouted aloud, as his brain finally made the connection and the penny dropped. "AH! MAYA, APOLLO! I…I know who the murderer is!"

"Wait, you do?" Now it was Athena's turn to come running. "Who's the murderer? Um…and why is everyone looking so panicked?"

"We need to find Lettie Ature, and fast," Phoenix was saying, searching around on the table for his own cellphone. "We have to get Edgeworth out of there. Where do you think she'd be, at her house? No, no, that's…that's too easy. We can't split up and look everywhere, because she's probably armed, it's not safe to go alone. AGH! We need more information! Maya, try texting her back!"

Maya punched a few buttons on the phone, then shrugged helplessly. "There's no one on the other end," she said. "My texts won't go through anymore!"

"Try calling," insisted Phoenix. "Tell her…tell her we won't make a deal until we see proof that Edgeworth's alive. That'll buy us some time."

And, thought Phoenix, I desperately want that proof. Hang in there, Miles, we're coming for you…as soon as we figure out how to get there!

"Mr. Wright!" Athena grabbed him by the arm. "Detective Gumshoe can track him!"

"What?" Phoenix stared. "Why? How?"

"Remember," insisted Athena, "the time that Detective Gumshoe got lost on the way to the courthouse? Mr. Edgeworth had to sync up his phone to Detective Gumshoe's so that Gumshoe could use Mr. Edgeworth's GPS! He told us all about it over dinner that one time, he was super irritated. If their GPS apps are still synced, we can use Detective Gumshoe's phone to find Mr. Edgeworth!"

"Wow," muttered Apollo, impressed. "I'm amazed you remembered that."

Phoenix grabbed his phone and started dialing Gumshoe, while the others looked on, helpless.

"Perhaps," muttered Edgeworth, "you weren't quite cut out for the world of crime fiction. Don't allow it to dismay you too much, it's a notoriously difficult literary field to master. Plotting out the perfect murder grows more and more challenging in light of modern technology, or so I understand."

"Shut up," snapped Lettie Ature, beads of sweat breaking out on her brow as she paced back and forth across the familiar Gatewater hotel room, covering Edgeworth with a rifle that looked like something out of a poorly funded period piece. "You're hardly in a position to complain about my skill as a murderer. If I felt like killing you, I could do it in a moment. You're helpless, and your friends are clueless."

Edgeworth, tied up in a chair with his hands behind his back, had to admit to himself that indeed, he was helpless. His chest throbbed and his head ached, but he was determined not to give his kidnapper the satisfaction of knowing that the panic was starting to set in.

Do you recognize this room?" Lettie made a grand, sweeping gesture to indicate the hotel room. "This is the same room from which Miss April May watched the murder of Phoenix Wright's famous mentor, Mia Fey. I think this is a fitting place for the denouement of the Butz Murder case, don't you? It'll be a magnificent setting for the end of my True Crime opus. I'm thinking of calling it 'Marriage and Murder – The Tragic Case that Began in Love and Ended in Death.'"

That is perhaps the worst title I have ever heard, thought Edgeworth, making a face. I'd better not mention that right now, however. This woman is clearly insane.

"Clever," murmured Edgeworth. "And, once you've killed me and had your denouement, what will you do then? How will you escape detection?"

For a split second, there was a flicker of doubt in Lettie's eyes.

She has no idea, realized Edgeworth. She's 'written' herself into a corner, as it were, and now she's not sure how to back out of it. She's taken things one step too far, and there's no going back. That makes the situation even more dangerous for both of us.

"Neither of us would be in this position if it weren't for that annoying Fey woman," hissed Lettie. "I could have had my perfect murder, my perfect set-up for the most magnificent True Crime novel ever written, an instant bestseller…and you could have had your life. You don't factor into my story. I suppose I can make the twist work, since the murder of the case's lone prosecutor would certainly fit in with the other deaths in the story, but it does feel a little excessive. Four murders and two near-misses…the publishers are going to want me to cut something so that we don't go over length."

"And when you kill me," asked Edgeworth, "what then? Who is to stop Maya from further investigating the death of Mr. Parker once I'm dead and you've no more leverage?"

"I'll…ah, AHA, I've got it! You'll go missing." Lettie was nodding to herself, biting down hard on her lip, her eyes wild, her hair frayed and sticking out on all sides. "That's how we'll do it. You'll go missing suddenly, never to return…but Maya Fey and her friends will wait, afraid to further investigate the murder in case, just in case, I've still got you in my clutches. Hoping that you'll return alive, they'll hold their breaths and keep their promise to me…oh, yes, that's lovely, that's delicious pathos. If only we could add that the story, but of course it doesn't fit. The publishers, you know, and besides…I'm not the villain in this story. No, no, we'll have to leave that last part out, the part about you never coming home…but oh, what a shame. What a brilliant final chapter it would be, leaving the readers devastated, with their hearts broken, unable to forget." She sighed wistfully. "Ah, well."

Edgeworth's phone, sitting on top of the table near the window, kept buzzing as someone, probably Maya or perhaps Phoenix, tried over and over again to call him. Lettie simply ignored it, apparently too lost in her own literary fantasy to pay any attention to practical things in the real world.

"Perhaps," she plotted aloud, "perhaps my next book will be an interview with the dead, both from this case and …yes, I could include the souls of murder victims from all across the country, or even the world. I'm not sure why it's never occurred to me before, but what a riveting emotional journey that would be for the reader."

"Then, you are also able to summon the spirits of the dead?" asked Edgeworth, stalling desperately for time. "Fascinating. Where did you learn such a skill?"

"In the village of Khurain," replied Lettie, rolling her eyes. "I went there to study them for a book about spirit channeling, which turned out to be a flop. It barely sold, and reviewers insisted that it was 'ludicrous' to believe in ghosts, and that I'd clearly 'lost my mind.' At least one good thing came out of it. I am very, very well versed in all the rites and practices. I'm quite good, and I'll put it to much better use than most of those boring village bumpkins."

And that's how she must have learned that Maya was trying to get in touch with Mr. Parker, realized Edgeworth. Perhaps he told her, or perhaps she even found Maya somewhere in the Twilight Realm. It was then that she realized she could still be caught, even after Parker's death. That's where her plan began to unravel, I assume.

Lettie straightened up and pointed the rifle squarely at Edgeworth's head. All her uncertainty had vanished, now, and she looked much more confident, much more certain, if still quite a bit crazed.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, that's exactly how we'll do it. Everything is going to work out just fine. And now, Mr. Edgeworth, it's time for you, as we discussed, to disappear."

Lettie cocked the rifle. Edgeworth's heart pounded frantically in his chest, and the pain was unbelievably acute. He felt like screaming, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out. The vice around his heart squeezed and squeezed, crushing the life and the breath right out of him. He doubled over in agony.

There was the sound of horrible crash as the door to the hotel room was torn quite literally off of its hinges, and Detective Gumshoe, wheelchair and all, came barreling through the space where the door had been. Phoenix, Maya, Athena, and Apollo all came rushing in after him, with Maggey Gumshoe bringing up the rear, lingering by her husband's side, helping him to brush the door debris off of himself and his chair.

"Miles!" Phoenix rushed to Edgeworth's side. "Miles, are you all right? Oh thank god."

Lettie cursed rapidly under her breath, then shook her head, her eyes bright and shining with full-blown desperation, now. She leveled the gun at Edgeworth, then at Phoenix.

"Nick! Mr. Edgeworth! NO!" Maya launched herself at Lettie, landing somewhere between Phoenix and the barrel of the gun. A shot rang out, and Maya screamed as a bullet ripped through her right shoulder. She collapsed in a heap at Phoenix's side.

"Maya…MAYA!" Phoenix crawled to her, grabbed her, held her in his arms and began frantically trying to stop the bleeding. "Maya, hang on! Stay with me!"

Again, Lettie raised her gun, pointing it this time directly at Edgeworth's chest.

This time, however, when the explosion of the gunshot filled the air, it was Lettie Ature who fell, moaning, to the ground. The gun dropped out of her hands to clatter harmlessly beside her, and blood poured out of the bullet wound in her leg as she shuddered and eventually lay still.

For a moment, the room was completely silent. With the last of his strength, Edgeworth looked up at Detective Gumshoe, who was still shaking a little bit, having just fired the shot that had ended Lettie R. Ature's reign of terror. His hand went limp and he, too, dropped his gun. Maggey put her arms around him.

Then, finally, the pain in Edgeworth's chest was too much for him. He gasped, tried to reach out for Phoenix, and felt his breathing catch and stop. The world swam and went black, as the sound of Maya's sobbing slowly faded away.