Come! Come, My Children! Read and delve deeper into the Darkness!

[Especially since everyone is kept at home now]

I had to take a break from writing to focus on my job because of this COVID-19 outbreak. It's truly sad what's happening inside the walls of a hospital and nobody is talking about it. No one can talk about it actually. Patient confidentiality and we could face serious repercussions on revealing the truth… Gathering evidence and showing it to the public could also put us into some serious trouble.

Plus I'm also sad as hell that my 3DS died so I can't play my Ace Attorney games or Tomodachi Life where I have the Ace Attorney cast paired up with all my OTPs! :'(

All I can really say to the world is: Everyone, remember, keep a safe distance, be hygienic and don't spread that virus around! As the doctor I am working with once said, "just pretend everyone has ebola."


It seems that the horror show has not yet ended. The show must go on, but it wasn't a play Edgeworth desired to see. When awakened from the nightmare, it continues its sequence to the next phase where the false hope of escape lies, wakeness. As the sleep paralysis creeps into the foundation of being, it has yet to meet with the demon. Each one sat down, except the one already standing, diffident on what else could this case upchuck.

"How could it get any worse?!" Gumshoe interjected, unsure if he could take any more nightmare fuel.

"In our search for Dr. Clema-" She stopped midway, "well technically, she's not a doctor anymore. Her licenses were revoked, but whatever. We had to dig deeply in where she might have gone."

Toss passed the torch onto Franziska, "Ms. von Karma has investigated suspicious activity regarding Dr. Clematis's financial accounts."

"Thank you, Dr. Thana Toss." Franziska delved into her own evidence that was humbly carried by Dr. Toss. Able to show the findings she had unraveled during her search between the times of escape and the present of her current suspect. Her file, begging to their luck, did not have anything harrowingly close to Dr. Toss's findings.

"After her escape, bank accounts and certain assets under Dr. Maritza Clematis were tampered." Her hand twirled in a minute bask, ushering her brother to take a peek of her well gathered evidence.

Edgeworth pursed his lips, unwilling to cave into his sister's scheme. He professionally drew, with no spite added, the printed schematics and logs of locations, times, and dates of the accused's records.

"We believed for a time, she left the country. Monitoring outside activity, international accounts were altered. Money was transferred to different accounts and then disappeared without a trace. Many proxy accounts were also emptied and closed with several stocks and business exchanges anonymously."

"How much are we talking about?" Ema asked with a less than anticipated curiosity.

"The total sum was tallied to be several millions in currency. We're not exactly sure, it could be more if we had a crude estimate. The accounts were drained, wiped clean, and closed." She confessed, albeit a level below upset, recognizing full well that she should have been capable of getting a true threshold of what was truly absconded by her skills of investigation. It began to seep in with heavy distaste, but an ironic sense of duty that their target is at a mastery level close to Franziska's own. It would be a heavy challenge, but no devoted, prideful von Karma has stepped away from one.

"A little here. A little there and given to Rita Miller," their dandy man spoke in praise.

Skimming the info, the catalogue of numbers stretched in various areas of the globe. Some transactions were in the European world and some locations closer than he'd like - right in his city, in the very district he was meant to protect. It felt like a hidden infection, ready to take him down from the inside out before he could be informed of its presence, ushering his defeat like a zugzwang hitherto offering a fight. His sister even had the audacity to have a miniature map stringing the locations together to square in a possible link and pinpoint a location. It appears that her ambition has yet to die with such detail placed into her work - to strive for perfection.

"Recently, a very expensive WOD stock that was under her name somehow swiped away recently from an unknown buyer. We traced it to an outside source in Sweden. We questioned the accountant and said that it was bought via a private group that is located somewhere in the city. We believe she may be involved and is back in the country under our very noses."

"A WOD stock is no small share…" Edgeworth mulled over. He could barely scrape at the smidgen of one small piece of the monopolized pie in the heart of NY. No help or good deed went unpunished when it came down to his share from the von Karma treasury. Manfred himself could possibly get a reasonable hand in the golden pot after decades of interest.

"As you can see, little brother," she pointed in a mock, eyelashes tickling her cheeks when she swirled an index finger about before jabbing it near the papery ankle of JA. "With most certainty, the pattern had no correlation, but this noticeable purchase has led us here."

She sat back in her seat smug with finding this elusive tief. "She's back and we believe she may be under a different persona."

"It's always stuff closest to home that hits you the hardest," their third-party smirked.

"So someone has gotta find her, bag her and tag her." Gumshoe added, hoping he would not be personally involved.

"Don't you think if it was that simple we wouldn't have needed your help?" Toss deadpanned deader and graver than usual. "It goes much deeper."

"Dr. Thana Toss, I believe you are to enlighten them now." Franziska offered, morbidly curious on what undisclosed details Toss had hurriedly brought her back with extreme haste, but most importantly to their posse of new and required help.

"Okay…" She said, a bit shaken. Ema frowned to see her mentor unstill. "I had this hypothesis based on what our escapee left behind and the reports from her victims."

Toss brought out a second binder. The contents they could see from the side were definitely of many photos, wrapped in protective film. Edgeworth could perceive this one was a little slimmer than the other ones. He made a beeline to pick it up himself.

"Thanks, Chief, figured I'd have to carry it over to you myself," The last bit added mockingly.

"I can retrieve things on my own…" He added. 'Not everything was given to me on a silver platter!'

The Chief medical examiner was strong about her words, but convincing his rather objective audience was the tricky part for her argument. It took herself some convincing as well. "Dr. Clematis had this fascination. An obsession, especially with the occult."

Edgeworth scoffed, an immediate reaction anticipated from the Chief Coroner. Hearing it for himself made it all the more laughable, especially sourced from a minimifidian. "A person of science is obsessed with the supernatural?"

"I don't believe in ghosts and ghouls, but out of respect for those believers, let's just say for the time being they are real." Toss reconnected drably. "This doctor had a keen interest, specifically on the Fey clan."

'Dr. Toss did mention something about that clan earlier.' Ema piqued, prideful knowing that her mentor filled her in a little more earlier than the fellow Chief.

"You speak of the mystics in Medium Valley?" Edgeworth wanted to clarify if the occult in question was the familiar village of a certain someone he knew was related.

"That's the one. This particular cult, so far that I've gathered, has this foresight on communicating with the dead or the souls of the deceased, so to speak. I don't know about that because once you die, you die."

"That's some mighty words from you, Duchess. Death doesn't always mean the end."

"I don't know. I kind of do it for a living." She stated mortantly to the man in the hat. "But aside from my professional opinion…"

She brushed off her unwanted guest, unwilling to bend him over and kick him out. He'd find some hedonistic way to bring his nuisance right back in.

"These cultists, especially the higher ups and the direct bloodline, believe they are blessed with this uncanny ability to manipulate their body to resemble something close to the spirit once they've 'summoned it'." She approached with quotation. "I think it's just smoke and mirrors."

"Franziska, do you not believe the Fey clan could change their bodies to fit the spirit?" Edgeworth asked with a hidden smug, "if I recall, rather unorthodox to gather evidence, but you've actually caught a photo of such an instance of conjuration during Wright's visiting hours for Ms. Fey years ago."

"Unorthodox or not, the evidence was still credible." She retorted, willing to play his game. "I may or may not believe in the entirety of the supernatural aspects, little brother. But I do believe that the Fey clan have some will to shift their bodies in certain aspects."

"Anyway…" Thana figured she'd move on to maintain her coequal investigator's opinion. "This metamorphosis is temporary as they hold onto this spirit they believe they had contacted and speak on behalf of it. They manage to manipulate quite a great amount of the spirit's persona. They can mimic their musculature, their bone structure, their voice and even certain body marks like tattoos or maybe moles. The medium emulates memories and recollections that the spirit may have done before to convince the person who wanted to channel this spirit. They need a photo and a name to bring about their client's desired ghost, which I think they get their little research beforehand done, but that's not the important part."

Turning the page, she loomed over her notes once more.

"What Dr. Clematis was transfixed on was the idea of transformation. It's in one of the journal entries in the binder. Go ahead, Edge, you can read it." She swayed her hand, ushering the chief prosecutor to flip through some of the pages. He narrowed his eyes pilloried, analyzing certain underlined and highlighted entries on the film registered as evidence. The parchment, though hardly legible, did speak of the mutations of body and spirit.

"She believed there was a transcension of the physical body and spirit. Linking them together, would create a newer and improved being - beyond that of the normal human and their weak 'mortal' limitations."

Edgeworth read over the vast inscriptions quickly, but tumbled and ricketed slowly as he journeyed forward. The tone and madness devoted into the pages were staining and spiteful in the condition mankind has supposedly brought itself - to the brink of chaos and its own demise. The only way to offer salvation to such limited beings was to transform them and ascend beyond flesh and to become more. To rise from their ashes - a rebirth.

"Notable examples of these 'ascended beings' were scrawled on the floor and walls in one of her solitary cells."

Edgeworth took her pause as a queue to turn over to the corresponding page. Numerous photos and a few cutouts from the original pages. These creatures were crude and surreal. It was almost a literal evolution as he kept inspecting the illustrations. In the beginning, they were cloudy and smoky. The outlines were premature and indefinite like a ghost or mirage. Upon the next page, these weird creatures would become tangible and solid. They had four limbs like a person, but bent and hind. The progression continued into grotesque monstrosities. They had claws at the end of their fingers and gaping pincer like teeth with a slithering tongue between them. Their bodies were shrouded in what looked like a sort of mist of fuzz, but the flesh underneath was the same colour of darkness. The eyes were white or at least he surmised from no visible pupil.

"She would refer to these things as her 'Children' or 'Offspring' according to the varied reports of some faculty and caretaking staff of the prison." Her lips slanted. "A face only a mother could love…"

Edgeworth wrenched his steely greys away thankfully by Toss's words before he drowned in the writings and creations of the unhinged. "She has even offered some individuals to partake in becoming one of them. As you can tell, many were quite reluctant to give her the chance to be under the knife."

The prison was meant to keep the loathsome and brutal of society within the walls of cement and steel. Turns out, it was the other way around for guards and prisoners alike for Gull. The cruel and unusual punishment amended the true purpose of prison. Solitary annexed some considerable measures of safety until a poor soul had to enter this doctor's chamber and she would be seeing them soon.

"I predicted that such a need of maternal care and desperation even for these monstrosities may stem from an underlying condition she suffered," Dr. Toss interjected. "She is nulliparous."

"Nulli-what?" The lumpy detective tripped on his own syllables.

"Nulliparous," Toss inserted more clearly. The word seemed to bounce right off his square head.

"Aren't you married?" The man in the back pushed impatiently.

"Yes!" Gumshoe chimed proud.

"And you have somehow managed to bring forth two kids into this world with the help of your wife?" Spite dripped from his maw.

"Yes." Gumshoe reluctantly answered in a mope, unsure how this dandy man became tempered.

"Yet, you don't know what that means?" The scorn in his voice could melt precious metals. "You had the tools, but not the brain to follow up."

Their dandy guest's foot kicked off the wall he leaned against, arms folded disappointed when his presence reached the opposite end of Dr. Toss's side of the meeting table.

"Your wife is multigravida." Their dandy man snapped, "meaning she's been pregnant more than once."

"Yes. I don't see how that means the parous." Gumshoe winced once more when the contempt simmered from the corners of Chesh's hat.

"Then you're a joke of a detective. You should work more with the head on your shoulders…"

"Nulliparous means a woman who has never been pregnant, whether it'd be by choice or some other condition." Franziska offered some sympathy, loosening the tension the detective inadvertently curled himself into.

"In this case, she would have a very difficult time conceiving…" Dr. Toss continued. "Sometimes, it is not well on a woman's psyche to not bear children on her own. In most extreme cases, it causes the woman to become infatuated and attached to anything that may resemble a newborn or child. However, in solitary lock-up for twenty four hours in the dark, there's not much to behold as an infant. I surmised that she conjured these beings as a coping mechanism and object of attaching maternally. This may be a reason why these creatures are almost nonlinear and dark in colour."

"Some people can just drop another into the world without a care, some, not so easily and it's those that tend to be the most suitable," Chesh grumbled.

"Yeah… sure… except this one lands on the margin's margin." Toss edited the addend.

"There's no need to point out such a thing so openly, Duchess." Chesh sassed. "There are banks for that."

"What? What's wrong with you?" Her brows nearly bent into each other. "I'm not having bread in the oven any time soon."

"And like that, you have done the world a great service." He congratulated with a loud singular clap, turning on his heel to return to his perch.

"Stay in your corner." She directed a little more than peeved. "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted… It sticks out as a possibility to fuel this obsession."

Edgeworth had heard many outlandish ideas throughout the decade and a half of working in law, but this has taken the proverbial cake. "This obsession as you call it, what do you believe she planned on going with this idea?"

"The Fey clan does this metaphorical transformation to convey the spirit. This doctor, however, has taken this idea literally." Toss's voice remained uncracked.

"But there is a hole in that argument, Dr. Toss." Edgeworth spoke, "only those of the Fey clan could summon a spirit and take their form."

"And also only the females can. If you'd let me finish, then I'd gladly explain." She quickly shut his attempt at a retort, watching as he swallowed it. "She was working on a project she kept secretly even away from her closest peers. Her greatest work was in genetic manipulation."

Ema could tell that her mentor was going to go travel into a deep topic. She had a small habit of getting a good breath in that the many bodies she had collected and performed autopsies over the years could not. Every word and pieced hypothesis would not drip until then.

"Dr. Clematis liked to work with certain tamable vectors. She worked side by side with some CDC operatives to create some vaccinations for the following year with the assistance of Australian data. She made a batch of flu vaccinations several years ago at one point. To put it in simpler words - she is very good at what she does."

"That's pretty nifty." Ema couldn't help, but enjoy the science, feeling it to be the only light in this dark case.

"I fail to see where all of this is going." Edgeworth didn't enjoy torturing the bush that was currently being beaten to the bark. "This obsession, the science aspect of it, and the occult?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but I am more than a hundred percent confident on it." The Chief Examiner decided to throw it all out there for Edgeworth's sake. "I believe that she may be actually planning on creating some biological disease or some form of mutagen that may cause drastic changes if it is introduced into the populace."

There was a long silence that stretched across the board room and into the ether. A pin drop could be heard along with the repetitive clatters it would make until it would finally stop vibrating and ceased.

"Do you know how crazy you sound right now?" Cheshire griped darkly.

"For once, I'm not taking offense because I didn't believe myself at the time," Dr. Toss interjected, "with the required evidence, she could land on Interpol's top suspects - intent with biological threats and terroristic plot."

Ema felt the blood drain from her face. Her palms grew sweaty and prickly like she held the brunt of a cactus. The examination Dr. Toss did on her and Mrs. Gumshoe couldn't possibly have any correlation to her hypothesis. Could it? She remembered the frantic search and uncharacteristic concern etched from her senior officer roving, pondering upon anything suspicious. It couldn't be possible that this biological attack had anything to do with the man, no! Absolutely not! Thing. Monster! Could have anything to do with the same criminal Dr. Toss and Franziska had been hunting for? She begged to any higher power it did not. It would only prove the ugly inevitable truth.

"Where is your evidence?" Edgeworth couldn't help, but agree with their associate's rudimentary comment.

'This sounds about as crazy as some arguments a certain person I know likes to pull out in court. With the exception that his assumptions come out correct at most points…'

"You think I would stand up here and humiliate myself if I didn't have something to back it up?" The Chief examiner sounded disappointed, "I've been in this game longer than all of you."

The Chief Prosecutor would have scoffed out of pure reaction, but it inhaled itself before leaving his nostrils. The mention of attainable evidence to reinforce such a claim is beyond frightening.

"You're informing me that you have actual evidence to back up your hypothesis." He stated more than questioned.

Dr. Toss shook her head, "let me illuminate you in this situation, Miles Edgeworth… I am called in personally when things go wrong… and things have indeed gone wrong…"

"To know your enemy, you have to become the enemy… You followed that to heart," Cheshire intoned highly.

"Okay, where's the punchline…?"

"Because you sound insane."

"For once in my lifetime I would have to agree with you." The taste was foul and dreadful inside her lips.

'So would I…,' Edgeworth inwardly mulled.

"Ew… My mouth is all bland all of a sudden…" She smacked her gums with disgust. "Uck, definitely the last time I'm agreeing with you."

"Remember that flavour… it might come back to bite you again." His smirk contorted nefariously.

"Wait until you get a taste of this…" She scorned impatiently. "During my investigation with Franziska, I was notified about a mysterious unidentified body found recently, but they weren't sure how to recognize it fully. The biohazard remediator and I had to check for ourselves what it was. I've never seen anything like this…"

Ema wondered if any of the others felt the gravity of the situation. Edgeworth managed to keep most of his composure intact. The specificity of his small imperfections leaking out was simply the honesty to unbelievability of the situation. A mad scientist, the occult fascination and the possibility of creating a biological agent that could wreak havoc on the city by just one deranged criminal was beyond ridiculous. If Ema's mentor had told her a week prior, especially before greeting a questionably inhuman man days prior to the events of today, Ema would have thought years of speaking and dealing with the dead and the aftermath of killers would have taken a drastic toll on Dr. Toss's mind. Edgeworth's ambitious half-sister appeared to have held most of her professionalism between the midst of visibly outwitting her brother, too. And the shaky detective, Gumshoe, was rather well behaved as well.

"Wow, Detective, you've been awfully quiet…" Ema's whisper became a breath. "Gumshoe?"

Her view veered to wear her helper in solving crime was supposed to be sitting. A few spikes of black tuft stuck out from the corner of the table like charred desert weeds. Incoherent mumblings and half sobs softly wailed underneath the worktop. It led Ema to peer to the underside. Thumb wedged deeply in his mouth like a pacifier, Gumshoe cradled with watery eyes with his knees tucked as far as they could to his chest.

She was conflicted between yelling at him to get a grip on himself or join in his pity party. Internally, she could sympathize with the detective because she felt the very same trepidation, except her dignity and professionalism prevented her from embarrassing situations outside of the courtroom. It really gave her the craving to enjoy a bag or two of those snackoos she had thrown impulsively into her bag. Curse her nervous and stress eating habit. The encore rumbling inside her cheeks would attract the worst attention in the worst of times. His eyes shot wide when he was spotted like a deer in headlights. Ema offered her hand to quickly get him up on his butt and to the seat before anyone could guess what they were doing underneath the examiner's evidence table.

"No… you should leave him there. It shows his true nature," Cheshire coaxed. "A sniveling excuse of the law."

Ema narrowed her eyes at their uninvited guest as she lifted the lumpy detective back in his seat. His wide smirk demonstrated no remorse or empathy, but amusement for their anxiety. How can he not be worried about what's going on? The chance of something actually being created in the city?!

Ema yanked Gumshoe's hand back, an audible pop and small whimper escaped his trembling lips. She could think on the analytical side of this stranger's attendance of this case. He's cold and brutal to which was worthwhile in a case as special as this. However, he was too cynical for her liking for an operative on the field.

"I cannot explain something like this in detail without you actually seeing it. This is an immediate personal matter. It's why I brought you down to my domain." Her files were collected as she rounded the table. Eyes were transfixed on her with unwanted anticipation. "I've found something that has no right to exist in this world."

As soon as she finished rounding about, she headed towards the exit, turning completely at the table. "I can only let volunteers who join this case to the very end to see this. No more games after this point. No backing out. Now is time to speak or forever hold your peace."

The terms and conditions were to blindingly enter into the unknown and to remain trapped within. There was a long pause once more between Edgeworth and the detectives. Franziska was submerged deeply into this case, her visage offering no resistance to the concealed like tempered crystal ice. They were given the chance to back out from the risky dangers of this minacious ordeal. A merciful severing for the help she had sought for. Ema could marvel how Gumshoe has yet to scream his objections immediately after being found in a fetal position. She was surprised by her own conduct with just getting a sample of what has yet to come. Perhaps her mind is coming to terms and her upheaval delayed just like her scream when she was viciously greeted by the man in the bird mask.

Deep down, the forensic investigator was assured Edgeworth had no option to leave such a threat lumbering in the city to be ignored. He was Chief prosecutor of the district. It was his sworn duty to be obligated in the protection of JA. Such a title carries a heavy burden. It was one notable admiration she had for the Chief, despite having found her testimony of her attacker threatening and near killer to be dismissed as fiction. Such a responsibility was not obligated to Ema, giving her the liberty to go scott free from the perilous situation again.

But was that truly the case?

This person effortlessly glided into her own place of work. It was meant to be a relatively safe haven from outsiders. Elaborate experiments and managing forensics was her utmost love in the world besides her snackoos and family. That day was violated and stripped the illusion of freedom. The mirage of safety was ripped from the bones of security. Ema remembered the shaking detective driving her home that very night, afraid to greet her visitor again alone. She was unable to shed off the image that burned and tattooed itself inside of her head from the spiked tongue inches from her face. It relapsed over into night terrors, leaving both conscious and the subconscious vulnerable and bear.

Whether it'd be by a crazed doctor hellbent on giving the city she lived in a dose of a pathogen or a mysterious birdman that would most likely return his promise for informing the Chief prosecutor on her findings, Ema knew she was screwed.

'This isn't fair! I just wanted to be a forensic investigator! Not be in this wild goose chase!'

"I guess everyone is joining in." Toss broke the tension.

"You have no quarrel with me." Edgeworth fortified.

"Well done, little brother. I was worried you would have been too busy for such a case." Franziska sarcastically applauded.

"I will not have a possible threat like this go unnoticed, Franziska." He placed his hand on the table firmly.

Gumshoe was ready to lift a wiggling finger until Toss turned, "good. We don't have much time either. Let's go."

He moped in his seat, lifting his weight in an arch as the detective and investigator reluctantly followed suit. Toss walked towards the door, half blocked by the dandy man.

"Move it. And don't follow us."

"You forget, I am shackled," Cheshire's voice smokey and low. Edgeworth surmised his lingering gaze pierced behind the hat. Aware of their guest's information and limitation was the Chief prosecutor's strict instructions. The bewilderment of Franziska and Dr. Toss's contempt towards him began vanishing upon the realization he had inadvertently attached them to this ball and chain. "I have not yet received my orders to release my constraints. I must wait until my target has been rendered silent…"

"You mean incarcerated…?" Toss rose a brow.

"...Whatever doesn't keep you up at night." He sugar coated, side stepping away from their escape.

Paying no heed to the blight, Toss opened the meeting room door and headed to their destination. Ema gulped twice. Once for the unwritten contract of joining this case and the second for the lingering gaze of warning that loomed over as she passed both him and the threshold. Deep down in her gut, she really didn't want to be binded to this task, with the threat ahead and the one behind her.


Thank you for continuing to read my work. I do appreciate it.