Chapter 5

"Alright... Since we've pretty much run out of pictures to talk about..." He said as he brought out the journal again. "...Let's read a little more..." Diego flipped the pages.

They looked over Mia's other entries, but the one that struck them the most was the last one.

September 5

Hey Diego! My sister is coming over today. I'm going to give her something to hold on to. A piece of evidence, The Thinker statue. We're going out for dinner tonight along with Phoenix. It would've been so nice if you could join us. Well anyway, I sure hope you'll wake up soon, so that both of us would be together, alive and well. I love you more than anything Diego. Please, don't forget that.

I'll wait forever.

Love, Mia.

"...Sis... September 5... is..." Maya's eyes grew.

"Yup... My death anniversary." Mia said with a straight face.

"...Chief... If only I arrived sooner..." Phoenix sighed and gripped his hair with both hands.

"Or me..." Maya's eyes teared up.

"Stop blaming yourselves guys, what's done is done." Mia smiled at them.

"You can't imagine what it was like when I woke up and found out what happened..." Diego sighed.

"What was it like...?" Maya asked hesitantly.

"When a doctor walked into the room with a cup of coffee, the scent woke me up. My eyes flung open, but I couldn't see anything."

"Wh...where am I? Why... why can't I see anything?" Diego sat-up and blinked again and again, hoping he'd be able to see.

"My goodness! He... He actually woke up! Quick, nurse get the visor." The doctor ordered. A few minutes later, the nurse returned with the gray visor with three red lights on it.

"Here, put this on." The doctor handed it to Diego, who did what he was told.

"What... Is this?" Diego felt the weird contraption on his face.

"It'll let you see. But the downside is, you can't see the color red anymore." The doctor explained.

"Well that sure sucks, since red is my favorite color." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Anyway, what happened doc? Why am I here?" Diego asked.

The doctor told him what happened and Diego let out a very long sigh.

"I let her trick me... How stupid..." He shook his head.

"Oh, that's right, the girl who brought you here visited you every day. She wrote in this journal." He handed the diary to Diego.

Diego read the first half and then asked the doctor, "How long was I out, anyway?"

"Five years..." The doctor told him.

"Whoa..." His eyes widened behind his visor. He kept reading until he saw the last written entry.

"...Why does it stop here?" Diego said, actually quite afraid to ask. Had she gone off with another man, he wondered.

"...I didn't want to be the one to explain..." The doctor sighed. She had another boyfriend, Diego felt so sure.

"Nurse, bring the newspaper from that day please." The doctor sighed. Wait, a newspaper? Why?

The nurse came back and gave Diego the paper. He looked at the picture of a woman with long brown hair and a black office outfit slumped on a wall, lifeless. His pupils shrank, but he wasn't going to believe it. Maybe she was just unconscious, he thought. That is, until he read the headline.

"Defense Attorney Murdered"

The last word kept ringing in his mind. Murdered. Murdered! Someone… Someone had taken her away from him… Forever.

He threw the paper to the floor and screamed. He protested to the fact that she was dead. He wouldn't and couldn't accept it. He threw off the visor and buried his face in his hands. Tears streamed down from his blind eyes. He mumbled her name over and over again, slowly getting louder. He then threw his head back and screamed her name to the heavens.

~*~*~

"That's so sad!" Maya was practically bawling.

Phoenix said nothing as he wiped a few tears from his eyes.

By this point, Mia's arms were wrapped tightly around Diego's muscular body. She let a few tears drip from her eyes and then she looked at Diego, trying to see past his visor and straight into his eyes.

"I'm sorry Diego... I made you so upset... I'm sorry..." Mia hugged him tighter and buried her face into the sleeve of his green shirt.

"It's not your fault, Kitten." He hushed her, stroked her hair with one hand and rubbed her back with the other.

Maya and Phoenix smiled at how cute two people in love could be. They looked at each other, smiled, and suddenly realized what it looked like they were smiling about. They blushed and quickly looked away.

"Alright... I have one more story before I go." Diego said, grinning at Maya and Phoenix with an "I saw that" look, which caused both of them to blush more.

"Which story is that, Diego?" Mia asked, still cuddled beside him.

"The first time I visited your grave." He said.

"Oh Diego..." Mia frowned, not wanting the last story to be a sad one.

"Well, I asked around and I finally found out where you were buried. So, I went there with a bouquet of white roses, since red roses would've been really ironic..." Diego started.

"Mia... If only I had listened to you then... Maybe we wouldn't be like this now. You'd still be here... And I'd still be normal..." Diego was wearing his usual outfit, except his shirt was black, instead of green. He knelt down and placed the flowers beside a framed picture of her, looking as beautiful as ever.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." He repeated again and again, as his breath became shaky and tears started to form in his eyes.

"Please... Give me permission to cry..." He said as he picked up the picture of his dead lover.

"Because, I believe that now... It really is..." He hugged the picture as if it were the real Mia. "...All over."

~*~*~

"I don't know what's sadder anymore! This one or the last one!!!" Maya started bawling again.

Phoenix instinctively put an arm around her to make her stop crying. This of course, made the older couple grin.

"What?" Phoenix mouthed.

They shook their heads and started whispering.

Maya then stopped crying and sat up straight again. "I'm sorry." She smiled.

"It's okay." Mia smiled. At this point, Diego stood up and headed for the door.

"Leaving so soon?" Mia stood up also and walked over to him.

"Yeah, the guards are expecting me back in my cell before 6." He put his hands in his pockets and smirked.

"Oh, right... I almost forgot that you were still in jail..." Mia sighed.

"Not for long." He said.

"Huh?" Maya looked at him, puzzled.

"They're letting Iris go today. Also..." He paused.

"They're carrying out my sentence today too." He said.

"Wh... What was your sentence anyway...?" Phoenix asked reluctantly.

"I'm getting the death sentence. They're gonna hang me in awhile." He looked at them and smiled.

'That's what the hesitation earlier was about...' Phoenix recalled what happened earlier (see chapter 1).

"How can you be smiling at a time like this?!" Maya exclaimed.

"It's because that means... I'll finally be with you again." He looked at Mia and took one of her hands.

"But..." Maya was about to protest. After all, she felt responsible for what was about to happen.

"It's alright. It's not your fault, no matter what anyone says." Mia reassured her sister.

"You can tell Edgeworth or von Karma if you want. I'll expect both of you there later as well." Diego told Phoenix.

"Wait, so why did they allow you to go here?" Phoenix asked.

"It was my last request. They were asking me what I wanted, and then Mia called. So, they allowed me."

He opened the door and looked at Mia. "I'll see you soon." He smiled. Not a coy smile like his usual one, but a sincere, and sweet smiled. And with that, he left.

"Guess I should get going too." Mia said. She hugged both of them, and she left. Pearl was wearing overly sized Mia clothes so Maya brought her to the bathroom and helped her change back into her regular clothes.

While Pearl changed, Phoenix decided to call up Edgeworth and tell him about what was going to happen. He also told Edgeworth to tell Franziska about the situation.

~Later, outside the execution room~

Phoenix, Maya, Iris, Miles and Franziska were all wearing black. There was a large window outside the room, so they could watch from outside. It wasn't the most pleasant idea though, that's for sure.

Diego, along with two executioners, approached the small group.

He was wearing his usual outfit, except he was wearing his old red shirt.

Diego was drinking his last cup of coffee when he got to where the group stood.

"Well, thanks for coming." He grinned.

None of them could force a smile. Not even Maya.

Diego finished the last of the coffee and handed the mug to Maya.

"Keep this for me, will you?" He said. She took the mug and turned it around. There was a small painting of a kitten and the letters M I A painted on them. Maya gasped and looked up at Diego who was still smiling.

"Mr. Armando... What can I say...? It... was a pleasure having you at the prosecutors' office..." Franziska forced out any word that she could think of.

"You truly are a very interesting person." Miles tried to smile.

"Hmm...Thanks." He said.

"Mr. Armando... If only I stopped her before... I..." Iris started to cry.

"No, don't blame yourself." He told her. "It's not your fault that she turned out like that." He reassured her.

"...Okay..." She said as she put her fist against her lips.

"Mr. Armando..." Maya stepped forward and hugged him. "It's too bad you didn't have time to get married. You would've been the best brother-in-law ever." She said as a tear rolled down her cheek. She let him go and smiled. "Could you hug my sister for me?" She smiled and he nodded.

"Mr. Armando... You... were definitely one of my toughest opponents ever." Was all Phoenix could say.

"So were you." He chuckled.

"Mr. Armando, you've got 1 minute." The executioner informed him.

"Alright, thanks." He replied.

"Everyone... Thanks for everything." He smiled at all of them.

He then took of his visor which revealed his gray, sightless eyes, and gave his source of sight to Phoenix.

"And thank you. Phoenix Wright." He said. The second time he ever called him by his real name.

The executioners led him inside since now he couldn't see. They helped him up a small step-ladder and put the rope around his neck. He then nodded, and they pushed the step-ladder away.

Diego struggled for a brief moment then tried to relax so it wouldn't hurt as much. His hands were clenched into fists but other than that, he just hung there, slightly swinging around.

After some time, he started losing color from his face. His eyes started to close and blood started trickling down from the edge of his mouth.

A few more minutes passed and his eyes closed completely. His hands unclenched and hung lifelessly at his sides. He was gone.

Franziska gripped Edgeworth's sleeve and he pat her back to relax her.

Iris and Maya both started to cry on either of Phoenix's sleeves.

Phoenix looked down at the visor and then at the lifeless body. Something caught his attention and his gasp made everyone look into the window once more.

There was a girl inside the room, next to the body. She had long brown hair, and a black suit. But instead of legs coming out from under her skirt, it was a wispy spirit.

She reached for Diego's hand and tugged on it. But instead of his hand, she got the hand of his spirit. She pulled it out slowly and when he was completely out of his body, they embraced each other. Diego had black hair again, like how he was before the poisoning.

They looked outside the window and bowed slightly. Diego took her hand and they flew up through the ceiling. Then they were gone.

~Up in Heaven~

"Now, we can be together." Mia smiled.

Diego hugged Mia and sighed.

"I love you Mia. I will always love you forever. I promise." He smiled.

"And now, this forever will really last." She hugged him back.

They looked into each other's eyes and smiled. Slowly, they closed the distance in between them and shared the best kiss they ever had.

~The End~

A/N: I was listening to PW music while writing this and you can't imagine how many times the music matched the scene perfectly. xD (Like dramatic scenes where "Forgotten Legend" plays or mega Miego moments where "Turnabout Sisters Ballade" played. xDD)

WELLLL. I hope you people enjoyed my story. I'mma make a Phoenix x Iris one next. Look out for it! :D