Butterfly
by Cyberchao X

Summary: It's amazing how drastically the course of history can be altered with just the slightest difference in a single event. In the world of Ace Attorney, the first quarter of the 21st century was shaped by one single moment.

June 15, 2017
1:21 PM
Kurain Village

"I don't know what to do," the woman currently known as Ini Miney said. "I was just approached the other day by 'my sister's' ex-boss, wanting to channel her spirit so that she could confess to being the one at fault for the medication mix-up that killed 14 patients. He didn't even know my connection to Mimi; he just asked me because I'm a parapsychology student."

"And you don't want your sister's name dragged through the mud any further?"

"It's not that. The truth is…I'm Mimi Miney. The car accident…I was the one who survived, and Ini died, but because I was so badly disfigured…I was able to use it to escape from that horror. Claim that she was Mimi, and I was Ini, and use a picture of her to provide a basis for the facial reconstruction. So not even you could channel the spirit that he'll want you to channel…because I'm still alive."

Misty Fey thought this over. "And the actual confession?"

"I…suppose technically I was the one at fault, but he overworked me. The accident, too, I…he also wants me to swear in writing that the car accident was entirely my own fault. And that I won't do."

"Well, I'm not sure how to handle those issues. But I can help you with faking the channeling so that your ruse isn't revealed."

"You'd do that?"

"I'm nothing if not reasonable. When a spirit medium channels a spirit, they take on the physical appearance of the spirit they're channeling. We'd need to make your hair color match mine, but…the Channeling Chamber is a locked room. If we hide you inside the chamber beforehand, wearing clothes identical to the ones I'd be wearing, we can switch places during the 'channeling' and you yourself could play the role of me channeling your spirit."

"What if he threatens me?"

"Remind him that you're already dead, and that there's nothing he can do to you."

"And if he proves ruthless enough to try attacking anyway, even though it would be 'you' who he'd be hurting rather than me?"

Misty struggled with this one. "You might not have a choice but to sign his confession. That said, a proper portrayal of me would have a concealed weapon of her own…"

June 19, 2017
3:18 PM
Meditation Room

Misty Fey walked out of the Channeling Chamber. "We're going to need a doctor for Mr. Grey," she said simply.

"What happened in there?" asked her sister, Morgan.

"It seems this foolish man had delusions of being able to threaten a woman who was already dead. Seeing as how it was my body that would be harmed if he went through with it, I opted not to restrain the nurse's spirit from defending herself…though I reasserted control over my body when she started to turn murderous." Inside the Channeling Chamber, Mimi Miney and Turner Grey were both unconscious, the former hidden inside the same clothing box that had hidden her prior to the start of the channeling. As Misty had instructed her, Mimi unsheathed the sword hidden inside Misty's staff when Grey threatened her, and cut his shoulder quite deeply, rendering him unable to even properly aim his gun. When Mimi dropped the sword-cane to pick up the gun and shoot him, however, Misty intervened, picking the staff up and bludgeoning her with the blunt end to knock her out. She explained the situation, with only the slight alterations to hide Mimi's involvement, to the police, and since it had been in self-defense, no one was actually killed, and the "damage" had allegedly been done by a dead woman, no criminal charges were filed. Turner Grey nevertheless tried to sue the village and Misty for allowing that to happen, as his muscular damage affected his work as a surgeon, but it was obvious to all lawyers who looked at the case that a trial would result in a victory for the defense and all attempts by his lawyers to work out a deal failed; he was left with nothing more than legal bills.

CCX: Well, there you go. A somewhat agreeable solution to Case 2-2. If you're wondering what happened to the first game, well, the changes in circumstances thus far have already prevented the murders of Mia Fey (because she never started investigating White in the first place), Robert Hammond (because DL-6 never happened), and Bruce Goodman (because Gant's treachery was discovered right away). As for the other two…well, read on and you'll get an idea of what happened.

September 6, 2017
8:47 PM
Criminal Affairs Department

"You're naming Officer Byrde as your suspect?" Mia Fey asked.

"…The evidence is pretty damning."

Mia looked at the evidence. "The evidence is pretty telling, alright—telling that this is a frame-up. That's not how Officer Byrde spells her first name, and besides that, Officer Prince is—was left-handed. I suggest looking into your witness a bit closer; we might have another Sahwit on our hands."

"Um, yes, he says he saw it."

"No, not 'saw it'; Sahwit. Frank Sahwit. You don't remember the Cindy Stone case last year? We use it as a cautionary tale about jumping to conclusions based on anonymous tips. To summarize, Sahwit was a simple thief who went door-to-door 'selling newspapers' in order to case houses. He saw a man, Larry Butz, leaving the home of his girlfriend, Stone, and entered to loot the house. While he was there, Stone returned home, and Sahwit picked up the nearest heavy object—" her hand inevitably went to the statue-clock on her own desk, "—and bashed her over the head with it, killing her. Then he called in a tip trying to implicate Butz. Sahwit was such a bad liar that Raymond Shields managed to get Butz a not guilty verdict with just four pieces of evidence and without pressing a single statement. It's actually pretty comical, but it's also tragic because we can't rely on the defense attorneys to fix our mistakes. What if it had been Manfred von Karma instead of Winston Payne prosecuting that case? Von Karma would've no doubt caught the first contradiction, that the time that Sahwit claimed to have seen the murder at was actually 3 hours before the murder, and told him to leave the time out of his testimony. Butz would've been quickly convicted. …So look into this 'Richard Wellington' fellow a bit more closely."

"Yes, ma'am."

Angel Starr smirked at her partner. "I can't help but notice that you touched your clock when you mentioned the murder. How did you end up with a murder weapon decorating your desk, anyway?"

"The murder weapon from that case is still in evidence, naturally, Angel. Larry Butz made precisely two of these clocks; the one he gave to Cindy Stone, which Frank Sahwit used to bludgeon her to death, and the one that he kept until he suddenly needed to pay off a legal bill he couldn't afford. He gave Miles the clock instead, but Miles thought it was tacky."

"I thought you said Shields did that case."

"He did, because Miles didn't want to. But it was Miles whom Larry went to for help, them being childhood friends."

"Heh. It sounds like you're getting close with Miles Edgeworth. I have to admit, I wouldn't have even thought to try to land a boyfriend among the ranks of defense attorneys."

"It's not like that, Angel. Although there's certainly one defense attorney who has made a few comments…a flirt by the name of Diego Armando. I'm not interested, though. Besides, I prefer tea. …But back on topic, I'll admit that I find Miles Edgeworth to be a kindred soul, interested in finding the truth and putting the real criminal to justice. But a lot of that info I found out through other channels. My first encounter with Miles was at my cousin Dahlia's trial; he took on the case as a favor to another childhood friend, Phoenix Wright, who had been dating my cousin Iris."

"Had been? They split up?"

"Just the opposite. They're engaged. So Phoenix will be marrying into the Fey clan soon, probably sometime next year."

"I don't suppose you'd regift them that clock."

"Hey, I like the clock. It's got character."

"It feels like you're just tempting fate, having that thing on your desk."

September 7, 2017
10:40 AM
Criminal Affairs Department

"It's no good. We can't make enough of a case to charge Wellington. There's no apparent motive, nor has he said anything incriminating."

"…I've got an idea. I don't like it, but I think we can make this work." Mia Fey dialed a number. "Lana? There's going to be a case coming in, the murder of one of our officers."

"You want me to make sure von Karma tries it?" Lana asked.

"Just the opposite. The evidence against the current suspect is extremely suspicious and seems to point to a frame-up, and I'm thinking it's a repeat of the Stone case, but we can't prove anything. I was hoping you could assign Payne to this case and we'll catch the real culprit on the witness stand."

"…I take it you didn't take the witness's statement yourself."

"I'm a sergeant now. I can't go answering every little call."

"A police officer was murdered. That's hardly 'little'."

"I know, I know. Can you do it?"

"…I don't like that you're basically asking me to set one of my prosecutors up for failure."

"Believe me, I don't like this, either. I became a detective because I didn't want to see anyone else accused of crimes they didn't commit. And yet, this will be the third time in roughly a year."

"Assuming that it is a frame-up. Don't get too bent out of shape; sometimes criminals do a really good job of framing others. If this evidence is as suspicious as you say it is, though, von Karma probably wouldn't even take the case. He puts such pride in his unbeaten streak that he'll turn down a case that he thinks there's even the slightest chance he'll lose."

"I thought that prideful old man didn't think there was a case that he could lose."

"…How certain are you that the tipster is the true culprit?"

"…What are you thinking?"

"That if there's any holes in the case, Manfred von Karma could plug them. After all, if a defense attorney could prove your suspect guilty as a witness, then certainly von Karma could do so when he's actually been charged."

"That…would save time. Let me just go interrogate Maggey."

She came back a few minutes later. "I think we're good. The picture seems clear now—and better yet, it seems like murder isn't this guy's first crime. We found a cell phone at the scene, and many of the numbers in its memory could be connected to known members of a group of con artists. Officer Byrde stated that she had found a lost cell phone that day and had received a call from its owner, and had scheduled a meeting to return it; she mentioned her name during the call, which explains how he knew her name but not its unusual spelling. She confirmed that the cell phone we found at the scene was this cell phone. Since Officer Prince was in uniform, Wellington likely panicked when he saw him, thinking that his connection to the con artist group had been discovered."

"You're going to have to continue to hold Officer Byrde, you know. If you let her go, you'll never get a chance to try her if it turns out she is the guilty party."

"…Okay, then. But I'll let her know that it's just procedure and that she's no longer under any real suspicion."

"And I'll assign von Karma to make sure it sticks."

12:00 PM
Prosecutors' Office

"So you're actually moving on to a new suspect before even trying the first one you arrested? The police department is growing soft."

"That heartlessness could get you in trouble some day, Manfred. The police were obviously too quick to make an arrest; a closer examination of the evidence showed obvious signs of a frame job."

"Do tell."

Lana showed him the picture of the writing in the sand. "Using little more than this evidence and a supposed eyewitness testimony, Officer Maggey Byrde was arrested for the murder of Officer Dustin Prince. However, two things stand out as fishy about this piece of evidence. The first is that it was a well-known fact within the department that Officers Byrde and Prince were dating, and as such, he would know that Maggey spells her first name 'M-A-G-G-E-Y'; this writing was most likely done by someone who had heard the name spoken but never seen it written before."

"Hmph. A logical conclusion, as the spelling in this picture is the 'normal' spelling of the name. And the second?"

"The picture shows Officer Prince writing her name with his right hand, and tiny scratches on his right index figure corroborate that it had been used to write the name in the sand. Officer Prince is left-handed."

"So the police now believe that Officer Byrde was framed. They're still holding her just in case, right?"

Lana nodded. "Of course. They need to keep her around, since she'd be the major witness in the case against Wellington."

"Based on what you've told me…this 'Wellington' fellow was unfamiliar with both his victim and the person he was framing. What angle will I be taking?"

"Officer Byrde will testify to that. She is going to state on the record that on the day of the murder, she found a lost cell phone, and that she received a call from its owner, looking for it, and had arranged to return it at the time and place that Prince was murdered. Furthermore, she told the owner her name during that conversation. The police department ran the numbers stored in the phone's memory and found that many of them corresponded to known members of a group of con artists. As you can see from this photo of the crime…when Officer Prince met his girlfriend, he had just gotten off from work and was still in uniform."

Manfred nodded. "He saw a policeman talking to the woman who had found his phone and thought he'd been exposed. He panicked, murdered him, and framed her. Is that the theory the police are now working with?"

"It is. You can make it stick, I take it?"

"But of course. As for whatever cop made the hasty arrest of Officer Byrde…he or she should get a hefty pay cut."

CCX: Well, that…wasn't originally the direction I was going to take it, but that's the beauty of not always writing the chapters in one sitting. I'll skip the actual trial since that means having to decide on a defense lawyer to take the loss. Also, we've got more to cover in this chapter.

March 10, 2018
4:47 PM
Edgeworth Law Offices

"So I just received an invitation to be one of Will Powers' guests at this year's Hero of Heroes Grand Prix, and to bring along up to two guests. I told him that it really wasn't necessary, but he insisted on continuing to thank me for defending him last year."

"Well, it's not really something we'd be interested in," his father said. "Maybe Phoenix and Larry?"

"No, it's not really their thing either, I don't think. Not to mention I really don't want to bring Larry anywhere that fancy."

"What about that detective you've been getting close to?" Raymond suggested.

Miles stiffened. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do!" Raymond teased him. "You've collaborated on an awful lot of cases, and you gave her that clock Larry gave you to thank us for defending him."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she's given it to someone else," Miles said. "It's tacky. Anyway, my relationship with Sergeant Fey is purely professional; this doesn't seem like something she'd be interested in, either; and she was the one who arrested Powers in the first place!"

"It can't hurt to ask, right?"

"…I'm not asking her to this event."

March 20, 2018
2:00 PM
Kurain Village

"I can't believe you got us tickets to the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix! VIP tickets, even!" Maya Fey was overjoyed.

"I'm surprised Miles asked me. I know he got tickets from Mr. Powers as thanks for defending him on his murder charge last year, but I was the arresting officer in that case! I can't imagine he'd be happy to see me." Maya went quiet. "Hey, don't be like that. Miles proved Mr. Powers innocent, after all. And the evidence really did point to him."

"Y-yeah…still, I'm jealous that you got to meet the actor who plays the Steel Samurai and the Purple Prince."

"Well, you'll get to meet him tonight. Just…don't be too alarmed by his real appearance. There's a reason all of his roles require him to be in costume."

"What's Mr. Edgeworth like?" Maya asked.

"He's…very determined to find the truth. Even if it means his client gets a guilty verdict. He's quite brilliant, and he puts on a veneer of cool at all times…but he's actually surprisingly easy to fluster." Mia giggled. "I felt kind of bad for him during the Powers case, actually. There was this one witness, an elderly security guard at Global Studios, that was flirting with him like crazy. I've never seen him lose his composure like that."

"Is he your special someone?" asked another, smaller voice.

Mia blushed. "N-no, Pearly, he's not my 'special someone'! …But even so, you'll get to meet him in June. He's been friends with Mr. Wright since they were about your age, so he'll definitely be at Iris's wedding."

"Ah…Mr. Nick is so cool!" Thoughts of the romance between her half-sister and Phoenix Wright were enough to get the girl to drop the idea of shipping her cousin with Miles Edgeworth.

Maya laughed. "Poor Pearly. She's so consumed with the idea of a storybook romance. …But still, Mr. Edgeworth sounds even cooler than Mr. Wright. He kind of sounds like the Purple Prince."

"…Truth be told? It was during the investigation into Jack Hammer's death that Sal Manella was inspired to create the Purple Prince. Miles is the 'real Purple Prince', in a manner of speaking; he inspired the character."

"Really?! THAT IS SO COOL!"

CCX: And now you've got a pretty good idea of everything that happened during the timeframe of the first game. Since Maya wasn't around to inspire the Pink Princess, that character doesn't exist in this universe, but was instead replaced by the Purple Prince, who is, well…very much like Edgeworth in demeanor.

As for what happens next? Well, that is a matter for another chapter…or 3 or 4. This is Cyberchao X, signing off.