Chapter Two: Reality Bites
Phoenix Wright
District Court
April 19, 2019
Despite his apt use the magatama and that one time he'd inexplicably heard Mia's voice despite Maya not channeling her at the time, Phoenix was well aware he did not possess any actual psychic abilities. That was strictly the department of his girlfriend and the rest of the Fey Clan. He knew that if he had been given the gift of clairvoyance, he never would have thought that kissing Maya goodbye early that morning at the train station, knowing she'd be gone for a fortnight in Japan on a remote mountaintop with little or no way of contacting her, would be the most agonizing thing he would have to endure that day.
Just how wrong could a man possibly be?
The rest of reality took on a surreal irrelevance to his feverishly surging mental processes.
It was the combination of the harried dash to catch the bus to the court in the morning rush hour, coupled with the frenetic knowledge that he was so ill-prepared for this case he'd been guiltily coerced into taking at the eleventh hour, which was the cause of the discombobulated state that was Phoenix Wright that morning. As he stood behind the defense bench as the trial began its opening formalities, the previous night's occurrences came to mind only as a frenzied hyper-reality.
He frantically recalled the events of the night before when he'd met with Gramarye at the detention center. Yes, he remembered now. He'd started feeling confident somewhere along the line. It was because he'd won that poker game. That had been enough to secure his client's confidence that because he'd been able to accomplish that, he would be able to win this case.
He remembered feeling unusually anxious the night before, restlessly tossing and turning before Maya's sweet voice had soothed him to sleep, assuring him that he could do this. He'd allowed himself to believe her. Believe in himself. That against the odds, he could save the helpless Shadi Enigmar, otherwise known as acclaimed magician Zak Gramarye, and his darling little girl from destitution and starvation. Trucy had no other family – it strengthened Phoenix's resolved determination. And he was a proficient lawyer, right? His client's life was counting on him!
The… the evidence was forged?
Phoenix's mind was reeling. This couldn't be happening. It was too otherworldly, too hypnagogic. He felt as if the walls of the courtroom were closing in on him, surging to crush him. He remained frozen in place, unable to think. Unable to move. Unable to breathe.
He was the defense attorney who had no rebuttal for himself against Gavin's witness and was capable of no reaction other than stupefaction as Zak suddenly vanished into thin air, in a real-life illusionist act, as his final curtain call.
The brilliantly harsh hues began to dull, replaced with a steadily greying atmosphere and an intense feeling of nausea. The room appeared to be spinning. He took shallow breaths through his mouth to avoid vomiting right there in the courtroom.
He stood there, still in shock, throughout the proceedings as he wrestled to comprehend the revelation. The experience of finding he had presented forged evidence and its implications were so surreal that Phoenix was still finding it nearly impossible to convince himself that this was all truly happening. That it wasn't all just a terrible nightmare.
Mercifully, things wrapped up for the session relatively swiftly. Although presenting forged evidence was a criminal offense, it was not of the severity to require immediate police detention. The court allowed him to depart, pending future summons.
He had no idea how he managed to drag himself home and fall into an agitated, disturbed slumber, but when he awoke a few hours later, he still half-expected to find his queasiness and throbbing migraine abated, and that the events of the trial hadn't really happened.
Instead, he woke up to the harsh reality of his nausea being replaced by a headache that had merely increased in intensity and that an extraordinary meeting of the Bar Association Review Board would be imminently occurring.
Upon hearing their verdict, all Phoenix could manage to do was blindly stumble out and collapse in a vacant corner, devoid of even the energy to sit up from his sprawled location of the ground. His blurry eyes stared unseeingly at the wall before him, all the while desperately wishing for nothing more than that the Earth would swallow him up, that reality would cease to exist, that somehow none of this was actually true.
He had no idea how long he sat in this pitiful, drooped position, but the telling pain in his limbs jerked him back to rationality, and along with it, the horrible actuality of it all. The knowledge that if he didn't move now, he might never amass the will to do so again, along with last-ditch desperation of denial, shot a surge of adrenaline through his limbs, sending him rocketing to his feet.
Law was my calling – my purpose in life. And a reason to live can never be a reason to die, it is an aspect driven by life so as to live and achieve.
He needed to cling to this one hope. That he could miraculously avert this disaster with the truth.
A plan, a plan, he needed some sort of plan. He had experienced so much strife in his life, countless near-death experiences, and disasters alike. He would just solve this one the same way, via an investigation. Somehow, he would find a way to prove that this wasn't true, that he didn't forge evidence. He would investigate Zak's disappearance and the crime, discover the answers to all of this and deflect this fresh hell his life had now become. But he soon reached the limits of what he could do on that route, as each supposed lead led to another dead end and he was forced to veer course.
Like a chicken with its head cut off, he ran amok in a similar fashion, roaming the streets, desperate to keep doing something, now devoid of direction. He vaguely hoped his feet would carry him away from this asphyxiating nightmare of how every bearing by which he'd set his life had collapsed without provocation. Without warning.
Eventually, a wave of sheer exhaustion overtook him, and he dragged himself back to the office and crumpled on the couch.
When he woke up again, the inescapable bleakness of it all left him incapable of movement. 27 years old – not even 30 yet – and his life, as he knew it, was over. His total existence, his whole reason for being, his entire adult identity had somehow been built around the empowerment tied with being a defense attorney. He couldn't fathom what he was expected to do without it. What was he supposed to do with his life now? Going through the motions seemed pointless – for what purpose, exactly?
His phone rang several times, plummeting into his foggy haze, but Phoenix could find neither the required strength to rise and answer nor the desire to. He could be of no assistance, or even an asset, to his friends anymore. More like a liability. Associating with him would just unfairly tarnish their reputations anyway. And he could hardly expect them to keep supporting him or even to believe him.
After all, this mistake was nobody's fault but his own. Sure, he didn't forge the evidence – but he was stupid enough to present it. He had no one to blame for the situation but himself. Overwhelming guilt at tarnishing Edgeworth's image, at betraying the legacy of Mia and the desired future with Maya was literally too painful to deal with at this time, and he descended again into the trackless paralysis of worthlessness.
Maya.
God help him. She wouldn't want to have anything to do with him when she discovered this. All their hopes, their dreams...all a shattered illusion now. It was over before it had even begun.
He felt numb. Couldn't move. Couldn't speak if his life had depended on it. All that his agonized mind could scream, repeatedly, like a relentless, never-ending treadmill.
I'm nothing now! I'm an abject failure! You've always believed in me but I've let you down! And I'm sorry! Maya, my love, I'm so, so sorry…
September 12, 2021: This story is now being uploaded to be more family-friendly as the previous version was removed for being too steamy and setting off the site smoke alarms, and for having song lyrics. No harm, no foul. Seriously, I'm not worried - who the heck only reads a story for song lyrics and like, TEN chapters of canoodling out of 195? That's grossly underestimating my amazing and loyal readers, wouldn't you agree?
In the meantime, as I go through the painstaking task of ensuring my new version complies with regulations per the admin's advising, in the meantime, the full uncut version of Turnabout Everlasting, and Filling The Void (the other far too sexy for this site previous casualty, which I've started reposting in a less risqué format) can be found on THEJORDANPHOENIX dot com
All 195 chapters are now on my personal site and going forward, I will be posting there first when I write new chapters, so make sure to follow me for the latest updates and direct music video links! (I am still taking reader song requests, BTW) 😄
Mood music from this chapter - full video and lyrics on thejordanphoenix dot com:
Corey Hart – Never Surrender