Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Ace attorney, the rights to the franchise belong to Capcom and not me.

The price of perception.

The airplane ride was filled with anxiety as Phoenix watched the world whirl by.

Normally he was afraid of heights but he did like gazing out into the window to look at the clouds passing by. They were puffy and white and the sky was as blue as the ocean on a sunny day, it was so relaxing that he couldn't help but lean his head against the plane window as he observed with a tired and calm gaze. He almost wished to doze off to sleep peacefully but he couldn't because he had too many thoughts already rushing through his mind and it was too much of a headache.

The skies were calm and peaceful.

But he couldn't focus on the lovely view for long.

All he could think about was Apollo and how the chat between them was going to become, he knew it was going to be awkward but he knew it needed to be had. It was going to be difficult but it needed to be done. He felt a tremor course down his spinal cord at the mere thought and he couldn't hold back a sigh of soft frustration. He couldn't help but wonder why Apollo could not just try and rely on those to help him?

He could have sought out Nahuyta or maybe even Rayfa to assist.

It could be a huge pain sometimes.

But, at the same time, nobody could really blame Apollo since he had gone through so much after losing his mentor two years ago, losing his best friend around a year ago and his adopted father earlier the next year...and now was possibly facing the frightening prospect of going totally blind.

It was frightening, especially since Apollo relied more on his sight than anyone else —yet Thalassa did say to him that his perceive ability may actually be the only thing ineffective by this, however, he didn't think that still having that would be as useful as having actual eyesight.

Apollo needed his eyesight to not only help him see the truth but everything else.

It would probably seriously effect his mental health, too.

Phoenix was abruptly yanked away from his thoughts when he heard a familiar computerised jingle before the voice announcer thing spoke up, giving a piece of generic information to the passengers onboard.

"We will be arriving in the kingdom of Khura'in shortly..."

Phoenix sat up, peeling his head away from the side window. He could feel dread begin to settle in the pit of his stomach as the implications of what was about to happen started to sink in. He was about to confront Apollo and Phoenix could get his former student to get his eyes checked or die trying...okay, he'd rather not die but still.

(Okay, that's enough thinking. It's confrontation time...)

It didn't take long for Phoenix to deport from the plane as he stepped off.

He started to navigate himself over towards the bazaar, the first time he had arrived at Khura'in he had a bit of trouble finding his way but he was a bit more experienced now and he knew his way around better then he did before. He wandered through the area, expertly weaving through multiple people, who didn't even seem to recognise him as one of the people whom freed them from the tyrant Queen Ga'ran's rule.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a familiar figure stood in the crowd.

It was, unexpectedly, the person who he had to see.

It was Apollo.

"Hap'piraki, Mr. Wright!" He exclaimed, his loud voice cracking beneath pressure.

Phoenix ran up to meet his former student, a smile on his face, but his smile faltered when he saw the state the young man was in. He could feel his heart and stomach twist with a mix of both shock and guilt and he was sure that his eyes widened, but subtlety so Apollo probably didn't see it.

The spiky-fringed attorney in red looked awful.

Apollo looked like a zombie, to put it bluntly.

He had dark circles surrounding his eyes, his hair was messier than normal (even his horns of hair were sticking out more), his complexion was as white as snow, he was pale, stubble was growing on his chin and around his mouth, his posture was sunken, and he looked as though he hadn't gotten a good nights sleep in a straight fortnight. He also had bits of dirt, grime and other rubbish covering his clothes as if he hasn't washed his outfit properly and just let anything stick to it.

Probably didn't even have the time to wash his clothes properly...

Phoenix felt his heart pour out with sympathy for poor Polly, perhaps he could lend him some assistance while he was staying as well as hopefully finding out the problem was exactly. He may have had an idea what it was but he was still clinging on to a small hope that it could be something else a bit less serious.

"Hey, Apollo! You look...tired." he fumbled for a good word to use since he didn't wish to make things awkward.

Apollo flashed a forced, albeit tired, smile at the spiky-haired lawyer.

"Yeah, I've been busy. Really, really busy."

The two attorneys-at-law walked in silence, casually strolling towards the Justice law offices.

It didn't take long until Phoenix started to notice that the younger 24-year-old was showing those strange behaviours and it was exactly what Nahyuta had described —Apollo was squinting his eyes hard at anything he was reading and would even occasionally rub his knuckles over his eyeballs to try and clear his vision, blink multiple times constantly, he was even grumbling with frustration from time-to-time.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Wright?" Apollo asked, still rather shocked.

Phoenix replied in a serious tone, "Nahyuta called me about a little problem you seem to have." and he then pointed to his own eyes for silent emphasis before continuing, "He knows you almost as much as I do."

Apollo scoffed and rolled his eyes, sounding a tad miffed all of a sudden.

"Well, as I always say, I'm fine-!"

The spiky-fringed lawyer was cut off when he promptly walked smack straight into a wooden pillar.

Apollo let out a muffled yelp in pain as his face made contact with the hard wood and he couldn't help but feel the frustration build, the attorney in red also could feel as multiple eyes set on him...especially the pair of eyes belonging to his former boss.

Phoenix blinked in a concerned yet disbelieving manner.

That pillar was right in front of him and he honestly couldn't even try to avoid that?

If his former student was trying to convince him that he was doing alright then he was doing a job so bad that he could have said that "aliens were invading" and he would tell in a nanosecond that he was totally fibbing. The ironic thing with Apollo Justice was that, even though he was good at spotting lies with his special ability, he was awfulat telling them...

"You sure could've fooled me." The attorney with the black spiky hair commented dryly.

Apollo just peeled himself away from the pillar and reached his hands out to feel the large pole of wood that he just bashed into. He rubbed his forehead tenderly, wincing a bit in pain since it was his overexposed forehead that took the brunt of the impact. It left a slight bruise in the middle of his head.

He could practically feel the worried eyes his boss was giving him.

"Ummm, Apollo? Maybe I should..." He went to put his hand on Apollo's shoulder, hoping to grip it so he could use it to literally steer his ex-student in the right direction of his law office. He didn't want to keep watching the young man bump into things and he wanted to avoid him getting hurt. However, as if sensing his hand, Apollo jerked away in refusal as he just walked on ahead.

He grumpily muttered something about "Not needing any help".

Phoenix also noticed the odd way Apollo carried himself, the way he would take rather cautious and tentative steps as though he were afraid of being blindsided...

This was truly worrying.

The last time Phoenix saw Apollo behave like this was just after Clay Terran's death and he really didn't like this dark, brooding attitude Apollo was displaying. It could be because he was tired, like he said, but Phoenix knew full well that Apollo usually pushed people away and acted moody when he was trying to sort something out alone.

It took ten more minutes of weaving and twisting through the crowd of people in the bazaar until they arrived at Justice law offices and Phoenix had to admit that he was impressed.

It was a small building, probably the same one that Dhurke Sahdmadhi had used back before he had become an international fugitive, and it looked a bit rundown yet the sign out front had Khura'inese calligraphy written upon it with an emerald green Chinese-style dragon in the background, the English translation of "Justice law offices" was written above the foreign version.

The two marched inside.

It looked similar to the underground hideout but it had mahogany wooden walls and flooring, it had a Japanese-themed aesthetic. There were sliding paper doors and a large coffee table in the middle of the room that had a small and humble shrine of Dhurke that had a Nahmanda lain in front of the photo frame of the man. In the back of the room was a desk that Apollo had clearly claimed as his own and it looked just as messy as his own desk, not much different. The room had a nice fresh scent that made Phoenix feel as though his lungs had been cleansed.

It all looked impressive and Phoenix verbalised this.

"Wow. It looks good, Apollo."

Apollo grinned at the compliment.

"Thanks, Mr. Wright."

The two stepped inside and Phoenix warily eyed his former student as he slowly stumbled across the room, not even caring as he came scarily close to bumping into more things.

The blue clad attorney-at-law narrowed his eyes since he knew that the lawyer in red was going to be stubborn like this and he was determined to get Apollo to open up to him and then try and convince him to get him the medical assistance he desperately needs.

And he was going to die trying.

A/N: This is the first part of Apollo and Phoenix's confrontation. This is going to be a two parter chapter and we'll need to see how Phoenix can break through Polly's barriers and get him some help. I hope you guys like it.

Don't forget to review and fave, everybody.

-Chloemcg