The Forgotten Reader: Haha, yeah I wouldn't want to feel that wrath aimed at me. Oh, she does miss her family and friends- it's been sprinkled in throughout older chapters, it's just more or less subtle. She's thinking that there's really nowhere to look but forward considering she can't go home and has to start a new life from scratch- also, she's pretty busy haha. Thanks!

OBSERVER01: Well, that's true, but it seems lying witnesses are just a staple of the Ace Attorney series haha.

Gilgamesh The King of Heroes: That's true haha. Oo, I didn't know we had teams o.o... well, we'll see what happens with the apologies in any case. It might not be what you expect haha.

Lilac Winters21: Well, we shall see! Apologies or no? Dum, dum, dum! Thanks, I'm glad you liked it- I always have fun writing self reflections.

Cocoa . Quack : Thanks so much! I'm glad you like Lyn as a character and the cases. Wow, I'm surprised I'm getting people who ship them haha. I do enjoy writing out their dynamic since it's fun.

Blue Teller: Haha, so we have one vote for the slap XD. Yes, indeed that is the question: how will she resolve all of these problems? We'll find out in this chapter! I'm glad you think it's interesting! Thanks!

skypasser: Wow, thank you so much! I'm glad you like the portrayals of characters I have! I'm working on trying to get chapters out, but the planning takes a bit and I've also started classes again, but I'll try my best haha. Again, thank you for the kind review :)!

BladeXFire: Thank you, glad you enjoy it!

Well, this chapter I've been thinking of how to execute it properly, so it's been taking some time to get completed, but here it is! This one is on the shorter side, but the next one will be longer since it's the final court day! Thank you guys for your continued support of this story! I'm really surprised that it's been liked as much as it has. So thanks for everyone reading, following, faving and reviewing because it's really encouraging to me to keep on writing even the rough patches! Hope you guys enjoy the next bit, because after this is coming to a close!

May 17th, 1:10 PM

Detention Center

Well, I did it. I actually managed to stop sulking in my car long enough to go to the detention center to talk to the newest suspect. Imagine my surprise to determine that I wasn't completely spineless. I waited impatiently for the guards to bring Phoebe in and to begin my prepared speech. I made it up after a long time spent deliberating about what the hell to even say after the shitstorm I brought to court.

The door opened on the other side and one security walked in with Phoebe, who was looking pale. He sat her in the seat and walked out of the room. Now, it was just us. She didn't look at me directly in the face.

I cleared my throat.

"Um, Ms. Mitchell...hello."

She angrily looked up at me.

(Well, at least we're doing it face to face now.)

I sighed. "Listen, I know that got ugly, but to be fair I'm not completely sorry about it. It's my job to find the truth of what happened- not yours. Tampering with evidence and hiding your actions doesn't help you or me figure this stuff out, despite what you think may have happened."

"That said, I'm sorry for...accusing you of not caring about Collin."

Her puffed up cheeks and glare were still present, but she seemed to loosen up a bit.

"But, if you really didn't do this and want to find out who really did, regardless of whether or not it's Rose or whoever, you gotta be straight with me. If you want to get out of here (at least on the charge of murder, though I can't really do anything about your action of impeding an investigation), you have to tell all of the truth even if it's a hard pill to swallow."

Phoebe's anger seemed to collapse, as she dropped the pouty angry face to a more despondent sad one.

"Alright," she began to play with her thread and needle.

"I was planning to go to the club by myself, but Alphonso talked me out of going alone. He wanted to come support me. He knew that this whole situation was hurting me and it was also affecting the filming for the movie too, so we both decided to go to club and get to the bottom of what was going on."

"He told me he would talk to Collin and see what he could get out of him as an explanation, since they were close friends. I would confront Rose in the meantime. I really don't know what he did...and I don't want to think he did anything."

I stroked my chin.

"So did you both enter the club at the same time?"

"...Yes."

"And you didn't see what he was doing?"

"He told me he would wait for Collin in the VIP room. He went there, and well I went to find Rose."

(He has an alibi unaccounted for...this is all suspicious sounding.)

"Why didn't you mention him before?"

She bit her lip. "Well, he told me this whole scandal thing was giving the movie bad press and he didn't want to be spotted there to be accused of doing something he wasn't doing. He asked not to be mentioned."

(Oh, yeah. He needs to be investigated.)

"What is this Alphonso like?"

She looked upward, as she flicked her needle. "Well, I'd say he's pretty dedicated to acting. He's been involved in theater, tv, movies- everything, you name it. He's so intense, he even does his own makeup and costumes."

"What about as a person?"

Phoebe's lips twitched. "I think he's nice most of the time."

"I think there's more to it than that," I responded.

"Well...there have been moments of resentment I've witnessed when he didn't get the roles he wanted. He could be kind of stuck up about it."

"Interesting," I remarked.

"But, he and Collin worked on a bunch of projects together even when they were teenagers. Collin always considered Alphonso his right hand man in all regards."

I shut my eyes thinking. "I see."

"Do you really think he...?" she looked devastated. "There's just no way."

"I don't know, but we need to check everything from all angles. I'm certain after that, we'll get to the bottom of this mess."

"Oh, Collin...why did this happen?"

I stood up from my seat to go, but a thought occurred to me before leaving.

"Can you give me Collin's address?"

"Huh?"

"I think it'd be a good idea to check his place out to see if we can find anything else of use...and while you're at it can you write down Alphonso's too?"

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my notepad and pen and passed it to her under the little pocket area between the barrier. She scribbled them down quickly and slid it back to me.

"Thanks. We'll sort everything out."

"I hope so."

I left the visitors room and was on my way out of the building, when I encountered my enemies. My sort of enemies, anyway. I knew they didn't like what happened at that last juncture in court. And well, I had to regain some form of trust back. Luckily for me, I had an idea of what to do. I would just have to get past Maya, who was coming at me like a bulldozer as Phoenix wasn't quick enough to hold her back.

"Lyn!" huffed Maya looking like she was prepared to give me a piece of her mind. "What was that?! That was mean!"

I sighed.

"Hi Maya. Hello, Mr. Wright."

"Maya, calm down..."

I decided to look up into the ceiling off into space as Maya rambled on yelling at me for my behavior in court for about five minutes.

(I hate when she gets mad...)

"I think you can stop, Maya."

"Hmph." She began to pout. "Lyn wasn't even listening."

"Hey, I'm sorry I made her cry, but liars will always get caught one way or another. When people lie, guess who gets their cases destroyed as a result? Who gets the shitty reputation then? Guess who has the clean up all the shit that happens? Guess who everyone points the finger at? Oh, yeah. Me."

"Ms. Doom..." began Phoenix looking a bit dismayed.

Maya seemed affected, but unwilling to let it go. But whatever, she'd get over it.

"I really don't have time to deal with you guys. But here. If you're looking for something to do after talking to that woman, go to this place," I said ripping out a piece of paper with Alphonso's address on it.

"Huh?" asked Phoenix taking the paper reading it curiously. "Are you helping us?"

"Let's not call it that. I'm just doing it because I don't feel like going over there myself. Don't let it get to your head," I said walking away.

I considered that my way of saying sorry, so they could take it or leave it. While, I was curious about the contents of the Alphonso's home, it was probably better that they look around there instead of me. I'm certain they'd dig up a bunch of dirt on the guy and it's only natural that the defense investigate who would probably be the true criminal, right? I had already noted from the begin that this was yet another losing case for myself. I figured they'd handle it so I'd be off to my next destination to get this monster case over with. I phoned Detective Gumshoe and told him where to meet up to initiate the next step in the investigation.

May 17th, 2:16 PM

Collin's residence

Gumshoe told me that they had this Alphonso character in the police station holding him for questioning, so we'd interrogate him when we were finished looking into Collin's house. And boy was this place one hell of a house.

The exterior was that of an incredible fancy mansion atop a hill, far away from regular society. The inside was huge, so huge you wondered what one person could possibly do with all of that space. There were multiple rooms and at least three stories to cover. It was filled with pretty portraits, statues, movie posters, lavish furnishings- all things kept relatively clean minus the dust now collecting. Despite the numerous objects in the joint, the place was pretty lonely. It was sort of eerie to be standing a dead person's space like this, seeing the remnants of the life that was here only a couple of days ago. It was like being in a museum in a weird way.

We decided to check every room to see if we could find anything of interest. There were just too many things bothering me about Collin. It seemed like Phoebe really did care about him. So, why was it that even though she was a recipient on that will, why was it that she didn't get nearly as much as Rose? Perhaps she really was Collin's mistress, despite what she said. Why else would she get so much ? And that other girl in the letter we found, what was her significance?

These thoughts were in my mind as we cleared room by room until we finally hit the most important one - Collin's bedroom. It was huge, but relatively empty. Unsurprisingly, his room was white as hell. Why the hell would anyone be willing to go that far with decorating a color that would be dirtied so easily? I love white, but I spilled a drink all over my white furniture and that was permanently stained. I was super careful when I was wearing my white pants and somehow I ended up with strange dirt patches on them that wouldn't leave. This man would have to have every curtain, carpet, and bed sheets changed every day or just never use the room at all.

"Hey, sir look at that picture! It looks pretty nice."

I left my thoughts for a moment and picked up the picture frame on the night stand next to the bed. It appeared to be a picture of Collin and Phoebe, at the beach smiling standing next to each other.

(Hm, well, it's clear he had feelings. If he didn't this picture wouldn't be sitting upright.)

"Ah! That reminds me I need to get ready for next week!"

"Ready for what?" I asked tongue in cheek. "Seeing someone special, detective?"

He started to blush. "Agh! Never mind, sir. Forget I said anything."

(Bet it's Maggey.)

I didn't see anything more interesting about the photo, so I decided to set it down on the stand where it was. However, as I moved away from it, it fell to the ground.

"Aah!"

"Are you alright, sir?!"

"Yeah, looks like the frame is messed up though."

I reached down and picked everything up. As I did that, something fell out of the back.

"Huh? What's that?" asked Gumshoe.

I took the photo. The thing was it wasn't the photo we saw with Phoebe and Collin. This was a photo of two young children, about four or five years old and some woman, I assumed was their mother considering they were all red heads. I showed it to Gumshoe who examined the picture for a while.

"You know, that looks sorta like Collin," he said scratching his head.

I took the photo and examined it more closely. It was hard to see considering I was used to seeing Collin with raven black hair- but looking at the facial features, it did look a miniature version of Collin. The woman in the picture had a very gentle demeanor as she stood behind the kids. The little girl was almost like an exact copy of the mother.

That's when it hit me.

"That's...that's Rose! The girl here is Rose!"

"Woah, really?!" Gumshoe jumped. "Now, that you mention it..."

"If this is the case, then-"

"Collin and Rose are related!"

(This would explain a lot! Why he'd always visit Rose at the club and why she has so much in the will!)

Gumshoe frowned. "But, there's nothing about Collin and Rose being blood related..."

"Well, looks like we just have to find the connection! There's no way this picture doesn't mean anything."

"Yes, sir! I'll investigate like never before!" he saluted.

"Good, now let's see if we can find anything else."

May 17th, 4:39 PM

Criminal Affairs

We scoured the entire mansion and didn't find anything else that would be useful to the case. Though, I did see a few movie posters with Collin as the lead actor. It seemed he really was growing in popularity. Too bad it had to end so soon.

Because we didn't cover any more ground there, I decided to return to interview Alphonso and to attempt to dig up background information on Collin as it seemed there was a lot we didn't actually know about him. To be honest, I found the research to be more fun than what we were about to do.

Gumshoe and I entered the conference room where Alphonso was being held. This guy, was one I didn't like off the bat, just by looking at him. He looked like a tool. For a guy, he was a bit on the shorter side being only slightly taller than myself at 5'4. This guy was a total hipster; he was wearing the thick rimmed glasses with no lenses, had a little bit of a beard, long blue scarf, tight ass jeans, and Doc Martins. I sighed watching him return to his seat after grabbing a cup of water from the cooler in the room.

"Well, it's about time." Alphonso said snidely in a haughty tone of voice. "I have press conferences to be at, I don't have time to be waiting around here, understand?"

"Sorry, pal, but you're under suspicion. You're not leaving until we're through questioning."

"Hmph! Suspicion? Do I really look like a suspicious person?" he asked stroking his beard.

(No, you honestly look like a jerk.)

"Let's just get this over with," I began adjusting my glasses. "You answer our questions and you can go back to doing whatever it is you insist is so important, that isn't your friend's murder."

"Hey, I feel a horrible sense of loss, knowing that my dearest compadre is gone! But the show must go on as they say."

"Right. Anyway, Ms. Mitchell told us today that you were present at the Royale on the night of the murder. What were you doing there?"

Suddenly, Alphonso turned all the way around with a strange, somewhat girly and innocent look on his face.

"Aww, don't look at me like that, Ms. prosecutor. I'm a good boy, honest and true!"

(That was bizarre...)

I thought I was seeing anime sparkles in the air.

"I only went because my friend was in need. Phoebe wasn't stable enough to handle everything by her lonesome." Alphonso spun back around to a normal cocky expression. "And besides that, Collin needed a good smack to the face!"

"Woah, there. I thought you guys were friends?"

"Hmph. We may have been friends, but every once in a while, your friends need a wake up call! Not only was he aggravating Phoebe, he was disrupting the shooting of the Silver Samurai!"

"That matches with what Ms. Mitchell said so far," remarked Gumshoe.

"Okay, so you went to find Collin. Did you actually meet with him?"

"Yeah, I saw him, but not for very long," he said pulling up his scarf over his mouth.

"What time? What did you talk about? And how long did you stay?"

"Jesus, stop asking so many questions at once! This isn't 20 questions, you know!"

"Ms. Doom is doing her job, pal!" huffed Gumshoe.

"As I said, answer them and the sooner you go."

"Hmph, you people are too procedural for my tastes. I only like 20 questions for my movies, that you probably never heard of, so why bother mentioning them...anyway, I saw him around twelve midnight and obviously, I told him to stop hanging around with this lady because of what was being said. He wasn't happy about it and told me to get out. So, I left in about ten minutes after showing up in the VIP room, got it?"

"If this is true, why didn't you come to the police? Why'd you tell Phoebe not to mention you were there?"

"Oh, you poor thing. You squares don't know a thing about the industry do you?" he suddenly sparkled. "I'm a star, celebrity, headliner and being spotted in a club like that will do horrors to my image just like it did Collin's. I came to get him out of there to focus on important things. I don't want people believing I go to places like that because I'm as straight edge as they come."

"Um. Okay," I said unsure how to respond to this guy anymore.

"So, to be absolutely clear, you didn't kill Collin?"

"Absolutely not!" he said spinning and going back to his innocent baby face. "I'd never hurt him! We've been friends since high school!"

"Alright, if you didn't do it, who do you think did?"

"Well, it cannot be Phoebe despite what crimes she has committed for her passion, she's not a murderer, I assure you. Rose must be the killer, there is no other way. She probably wanted Collin's money and thus took it from him by force!"

(I don't buy it, but I'll take it for now...Tomorrow everything is going to come out.)

"Okay, you're going to be called in to testify tomorrow in that case. You'll be the prosecution's star witness."

"Oh, so this means I have the lead role?!"

"Uh, yeah, you're starring in the final day of trial tomorrow, so bring your best performance!"

"Excellent! I must prepare!"

"Right, right, we'll leave you to it. See you tomorrow," I said rolling my eyes and getting the hell out of the conference room with Gumshoe following behind me.

"That guy was weird," said Gumshoe wiggling his eyebrows.

"You're telling me," I nodded.

"Do you think he killed Collin?" asked Gumshoe.

"I'm not entirely sure, but he's suspicious being at the crime scene in the estimated time frame of the death. I won't call him out on it now, though. In case he's the guilty party I'm going to have to catch him off guard."

"That's clever, sir!"

"Heh, I know, I know." I smirked.

"So, the next part is to find stuff about Collin's background, right?"

"Indeed. Actually, I want to check something back at the office, so I'm going to leave this up to you. I'm counting on you to find what we need, understood?"

"Yes, sir! I'm on it!"

"Good, report back to me when you've made a discovery." I said about to walk out of the criminal affairs department to my car.

"Um, sir?" Gumshoe asked hesitantly.

"Hm?"

"Are you going to apologize for...you know, what happened earlier?"

I cringed. I had vented to Gumshoe and told him what I had done to Edgeworth in the hallway. He felt bad as he respected both Edgeworth and myself. I honestly didn't want to see Edgeworth for the rest of the day. I was too scared to bring myself to look at him. I couldn't imagine what he was thinking about me now. I just couldn't do it.

"I'm not sure."

"I know Mr. Edgeworth can come off as harsh, but he's only like that because he wants everyone to do their best."

I hung my head down in shame, looking at the floor.

(That's what makes this so hard. He has such high standards for everything and everyone.)

I didn't want to let him down, but it's not like I'm perfect. I couldn't be him as much as I looked up to him. All of this was difficult to handle and I didn't understand why he thought I could deal with it. Perhaps, he thought I was better than what I was.

I sighed to myself. "I'll see what happens. For now, it's probably best I don't see him. I'm going to go now, so happy investigating."

He nodded and I left feeling a bit down.

May 17th, 6:57 PM

Prosecutor's office, Room 404

I sat at my desk staring at the ceiling. I was taking a break from leafing through those files on that secretary in New York. This time I was truly determined to find something that could link her to the crime. I was even reading every little minute detail, page for page. It was slowly killing me on the inside, but I would be damned if nothing became of this search.

I stayed in my room the entire time. I didn't think of leaving it once out of a fear that I may encounter Edgeworth. When I thought about it- it was a stupid fear to have. There would be no real reason for him to come all the way down to the fourth floor- that is unless he wanted to confront me about my behavior for today, but I knew he wouldn't. Of course, I'd see the error of my ways and end up apologizing. That's normally how it went, but it's not like I really wanted to. Couldn't I do something right for once?

I shook my head and decided to end my break and continue going through those papers again. After skimming useless information for another fifteen minutes, I found something interesting. It was a notice from Locks of Love, a place where people donate their hair to kids with cancer. If this woman was in the habit of donating her to this place, then it's possible she donated it or sold it to stores as well...and if this was the case, those hairs would be from a wig!

(Oh my God! I did it! It wasn't a ghost lady after all!)

I jumped out of my seat and did a happy dance for a short celebration. All I had to do was attempt to find a place where she might have sold hair- but even if I didn't find that, I still had the link that shows that she donated hair, putting me in a good spot. However, that left me with another question: If those hair strands were from a wig, who was masquerading as Rose?

I scoffed. I had my suspicions already, so who was I fooling? I would have to send Gumshoe on one more errand before I considered this investigation over and done with to check something the defense probably didn't notice.

With the thought of Gumshoe lingering in my mind, I received a phone call.

(Speak of the devil.)

I reached into my pocket, pulling out my trusty phone and answered it.

"What's the word?"

"Ms. Doom, sir! You'll never believe what I found!" he said excitedly. "I tracked the family history down! The family in that picture is the Lennon family. The father had died of an illness leaving the mother and two kids. Unfortunately, the mother was killed in a car accident, and with no other living relatives, Collin and his sister got put through the foster care system. His sister's name was Catalina- or in other words Rose! They ended up getting separated and adopted by different families."

"Great work, detective! So, they were siblings...wow. I'm guessing Collin managed to track her down and that's why she was doted on by him. It was love, but not the romantic type."

"It seems like it, Ms. Doom, sir! He had to care about Rose. But it's odd how he hid everything. It's not known information, and it seemed like he worked hard to hide that part of his past from the public eye. This stuff wasn't easy to find..."

"Huh, you're right that is curious. Perhaps, I could understand not telling the world, but not even Phoebe knew this. And it seems like Rose might not know either."

"Yeah..."

"Oh, did you find anything about an Angie?"

"Sorry, sir. Couldn't find anything about that name."

"Tsk. Well, that's okay, I guess. You found the most important part in at any rate." I clicked my tongue. "I need you to do one more thing for me."

"Yes, sir!"

"While, I gave the defense the green light to investigate Alphonso's place earlier, I think they might have missed some things. Tomorrow morning before trial, I want you to go there and look for receipts."

"Receipts?"

"Yeah, receipts relating to hair places or places for buying wigs and costumes. Since he's coming in as a witness, I'm certain he'll be in the courthouse bright an early for his performance. So, during that time, I need you to look around."

"Understood, sir."

"Thank you, detective. I'll see you in court."

I hung up and put the phone back in my pocket. It may not have been much, but this information was finally clearing up some of the strange mysteries we couldn't figure out before. I was certain it would all come together tomorrow in court. Phoenix Wright would show everyone how it was done indefinitely. And finally I could leave this mess of a case behind me for good. I was to a point where I wanted him to obliterate me so I could just go home and forget about everything. Yet, I know this case won't be over for me entirely since I'd have to prosecute the next actually guilty person we'd find tomorrow. I really wondered if I'd ever prosecute the right person from the start at some point. Getting it wrong was something I didn't like in general, but the consequences were more annoying if you fucked up. At least with the defense, they could still fuck up and they didn't have to do a second part.

It was time to pack up soon to get some rest and to come up with the battle plan for tomorrow. Even though I had a feeling I knew what would happen- at the same time I didn't know what would happen. I knew that Alphonso was guilty, but how we'd make it to that point- I honestly had no idea. Phoenix was too unpredictable. We'd get the not guilty I know, but what madness was transpire to get that far? At least it was just one more day. Just one day more and then I'd be scot free.

Profiles:

Maya Fey: Age 19. It looks like we're good friends based on what I know.

Miles Edgeworth: Age 26. My mentor? Likes giving me lectures. It seems we're on good terms.

Detective Gumshoe: Age 33. Lead detective on this case. Looks like we both got the bad end of the stick this time.

Larry Butz: Age 25. Janitor. This guy is a trip, true to his nickname.

Raymond Shields: Age 35. The sassy defense attorney I've faced in court.

Judge: Age ?. Old timer judge. No one know his real name.

Mia Fey: Deceased. I guess my guide or inspiration to keep surviving this place, until that very fatal day.

Collin Card: Age 27. Victim. Was the lead in the next Silver Samurai movie.

Rose: Age 24. Suspect. Popular dancer at the Royale Hotel.

Phoenix Wright: Age 26. The man I'm supposed to be saving. My rival in court for the next case. Somebody save me.

Texxxas: Age 28. A jealous dancer. The main witness.

Phoebe Mitchell: Age 26. Collin's girlfriend. Suspicious of Collin and Rose's relationship.

Lola Parker: Age 22. Yet another baffling dancer at the Royale.

Alphonso Lamberton: Age 26. A stuck up actor who as at the Royale the night of the crime.

Evidence:

Prosecutor's badge: With this, I can prove I'm a prosecutor. Dunno why we don't wear them on our lapels like defense attorneys though.

Magatama: Magical sacred charm that should allow me to communicate with Mia.

Autopsy Report: Time of death between 12:00 AM to 12:30 AM. Cause of death 1 inch puncture wound to the throat. Other puncture wounds and bruising on face, arms, and legs damaging, but non fatal. Death was not immediate.

Stilettos: The heels are covered in blood. Used to kill the victim. Has footprints that don't belong to Rose on the inside.

Scarf: Luxurious red scarf belonging to Rose. Found wrapped around the victim's neck at the crime scene.

Mysterious letter: Addressed to an Angie discussing some type of deal perhaps?

Letter to Rose: About the bag she uses. Sounds very affectionate.

Bloody locker: Rose's locker is covered in specks and traces of blood belonging to the victim at the bottom.

Crime Scene Photos: Pictures of the crime scene taken after the discovery of the body.

Bloody button: Silver button covered in blood. Doesn't belong to suspect or victim. Where'd it come from?

Red hair: Strands of hair belonging to Mackenzie Macmillon, a deceased secretary from New York. Why were her strands found at the scene?

Loose Stripper Pole: Pole that Rose uses, that unhinged itself...

Tabloid Article: Article discussing Collin's numerous rendezvous with Rose.

Collin's Will: Rose is listed as being a recipient of $90,000 in it.

Old photo: Depicts family of red heads suspected of being Collin and Rose.

Movie Posters: Shows Collin as the star in quite a few movies.