Act Two
Before Diego could reply, the darkness around them intensified, swallowing the faint outlines of the office. It slowly faded, revealing a prison cell. Diego glanced around, noticing familiar scratch-marks on the walls, and – he felt a slight pang – an empty perch. He tried to tell himself that they'd rehomed Blackquill's beloved hawk. The hopeful thought was quashed when he remembered that Yogi's parrot hadn't lasted long after the old man passed away.
"Well, I know where we are," he murmured, shooting the angel a smirk. "Care to tell me when?"
"Eight years after your suicide," the angel replied. He reached out and gently tugged Diego backwards as the sound of footsteps echoed down the corridor. The bars were unlocked and a blond young man, carrying a change of prison clothes and underwear, was pushed into the cell.
"Welcome to your new home, Tobaye," one of the guards remarked. "Got the place all to yourself. Enjoy it while it lasts."
The young man stared after the guards as they walked away. After a few minutes he dropped his clothes on the bottom bunk and sat down heavily, wrapping his arms around himself. Diego shook his head as he gazed at him. The man was tall and had some muscle, but he was baby-faced, and his shaggy blond hair and big blue eyes only emphasised his youth.
"He's just a boy." Diego glanced at the angel. "What's he in for?"
"Smuggling," the angel replied dispassionately. He glanced briefly at Diego. "The man he was working for tried to frame him for murder."
Diego cringed. He'd tried to take full responsibility for Misty Fey's murder, insisting to the detectives, Miles Edgeworth and the judge that he'd bullied Iris into covering for him. He owed her that much. But they'd still thrown the book at her. He didn't want to think about what might be happening to her behind bars, especially with the added complications of sharing a face with her demonic sister and a prison with the mother who abandoned her.
"You sure know how to pick 'em, Gabriel," he murmured. He looked back at the man – boy – sitting on the bed.
"What do you suppose will happen to someone that young in here?" the angel asked.
Diego frowned as the cell dissolved to the familiar white tiles of the showers. Tobaye was backed into a corner, frightened baby blue eyes darting back and forth. Furio Tigre stood in front of him. Two or three other prisoners stood behind the Tiger, blocking any escape even if Tobaye managed to get past him.
"You get away from me," Tobaye bit out, but his voice was unsteady, and Diego knew he wasn't going to fight.
"Aww, relax, Wingdings!" Tigre drawled, his tongue lolling obscenely between his teeth. He grabbed Tobaye by the shoulder and spun him around, crushing him against the shower wall. "It won't hoit so much."
Diego turned away, unable to watch.
"You – you didn't need to show me that," he growled, trying to mask the tremble in his voice. "I know what goes on around here." He tried to ignore Tigre's soft grunts and Tobaye's muffled, clenched-teeth whimpers, and shook his head at the angel. "This isn't fair, Gabriel. You can't ask me to hang on just for this kid."
"He needs someone to look out for him," the angel replied sombrely.
"And that someone has to be me?" Diego asked bitterly. "I don't even know what shape I'll be in eight years from now."
The angel winced, but regained his composure. "It's not just what happens to him," he explained. "It's what he's going to do."
Diego eyed the angel warily. "Which is…?"
The showers dissolved away to reveal the blue summer sky and the brown clay of the exercise yard. Tobaye stood toe to toe with an older, more hardened convict while half a dozen nosy prisoners watched. Diego lifted an eyebrow at the other man's outrageously-sized pompadour.
"It your fault I here!" Tobaye shouted. "You – bad fucking cop – say little boy do murder!"
"Back the fuck off, kid," the older man snarled.
"You back –" Tobaye shoved the older man and the two began to scuffle. It wasn't long before the older man got the upper hand and managed to pull off a judo throw, sending Tobaye rolling head over heels through the clay. Something flew out of Tobaye's clothes, catching the light as it sailed through the air and landed a couple of yards away. Diego stepped back instinctively as Tobaye came to rest a few inches from his bare feet.
The older man marched over to where Tobaye was trying to get to his hands and knees. He knelt behind him and fisted his hand in the boy's blond hair.
Tobaye froze. "D-don't!"
" 'Don't' what?" the older man snarled. "Huh?"
Tears were starting down Tobaye's cheeks. The older man shuffled closer to Tobaye, pushing his groin against the boy's rear. Diego wanted to turn away, but the angel was right behind him.
"Aww, what's the matter?" the older man taunted. "Your farts have an echo now? Cry me a fucking river." He hooked his free hand into Tobaye's waistband, sliding it down just a fraction of an inch. It was enough to make the younger man start trembling. "Nobody held a gun to your head, you greedy little shit. Be a man and take your fucking medicine."
He shoved Tobaye's face into the dirt, then stood up and began to walk away. Diego heaved a sigh of relief – for a few seconds he had been certain the older man was going to rape Tobaye right in front of him. Tobaye pushed himself up on his hands, a big dry sob shuddering through his body. He turned his head, eyes fixing on something beyond Diego.
Too late, Diego remembered the shiny object that had flown out of Tobaye's prison stripes.
Tobaye scrambled for the shiv and stumbled after the older man. Diego tried to grab him, but his hands passed through him.
"Kid, don't!"
But there was no way to stop Tobaye from reaching out and grabbing the older man's shoulder, no way to stop him bringing the shiv down on the older man's neck and shoulder over and over and over again. By the time the guards tackled Tobaye away from his victim, it was too late. The older man lay twitching and gurgling in a muddy mixture of clay and his own blood.
"Don't you see?" the angel said. He touched Diego gently on the arm. "You of all people know how quickly revenge turns sour."
Diego jerked out of the angel's grip and turned away from the scene. He did know, all too well, the cold shock of ending someone's life and the hollow feeling that crept in when you realised that murder didn't make your pain go away. But damn it, it wasn't as if he wanted this to happen. Why did he have to stay alive to stop it?
"Maybe a man who tries to pin his crimes on someone else doesn't deserve to live," he murmured bitterly.
The angel shook his head and folded his arms.
"Do you really think this ends with them?" he asked.
The yard dissolved away before Diego could answer, leaving the visiting area in its place. Diego tried to ignore the sudden pang as he looked at his surroundings. He hadn't seen the place in years. Not since the last day Maya had come to visit him.
"There." The angel gestured to the seat nearest to them. A tall woman in her forties with long chestnut hair was sitting on one side of the glass. Tobaye was brought into the room and led to the seat opposite her. Diego blew out a breath and glanced away briefly. Of course – the kid had a mother. A mother whose baby boy had murdered a man. He wondered briefly if his own mother knew that her baby boy was a murderer too.
Diego decided that he was starting to hate the angel.
The woman took a deep breath as she lifted the receiver on her side. Tobaye shifted in his seat and didn't look at her as he did the same.
The conversation was in a language Diego couldn't understand, but he didn't need to. The stilted words and uncomfortable body language said it all. The woman tried several times to smile, but it never reached her eyes. She looked anywhere but at her son. Maya was the same. Every visit, she struggled more and more to keep up a brave face. Every visit, she had less to say to him. From the moment she'd sat down on that last day, Diego had known that she was never coming back.
"You sure know how to twist the knife, Gabriel," he murmured.
The guards came to take Tobaye back to the cell. The woman sat for a few moments in silence, then rose and made her way out of the room.
"Come on," the angel murmured. He started after her, and Diego followed.
"What, no special effects this time?" Diego quipped half-heartedly. The angel ignored him, continuing past oblivious prison staff to the visitors' parking lot. The woman was sitting in her car. As they got closer, Diego saw tears trickling down her face. She had two photographs in her lap. One was of a young, blond boy, and Diego guessed it was Tobaye before he got in trouble. The other made him take a step back. It was of Apollo, Wright's young protégé…who was dead in this timeline. Diego felt his stomach twist. Both her sons were lost.
"There's more," the angel said coldly. Diego turned to face him as the parking lot began to dissolve around them.
"Let a man catch his breath, amigo," Diego pleaded.
"No time for that," the angel replied. Diego looked around. They were standing in a lavish, upscale apartment. Guitars and gold records decorated the purple walls, along with…
Diego stepped closer to a large framed photograph of a rock band, hanging on the wall. Right near the middle of the group was the man Tobaye had killed, toting a guitar. A man with long blond hair had his arm slung around his shoulders.
The rattle of the front door made Diego turn back around. Whoever was outside was struggling with the lock. At last it opened, and the blond man from the photograph stumbled inside. He leaned heavily on the door for a few seconds, then clumsily pushed it shut. He weaved past Diego and the angel, tossing a newspaper onto the end table on the way. A photograph of the dead man took up most of the front page. The headline read "CRESCEND.O.A – ACCOMPLICE BITES BACK". Diego looked up in time to see the angel following the blond man further into the apartment.
Diego heaved a sigh. There was nothing good down that hallway. But he didn't have a choice.
The blond stumbled into a bedroom, steadying himself by holding onto the dresser. There was another, smaller photograph of the blond and the dead man – Crescend – on top of it. The blond picked it up and traced Crescend's face with a finger. He put it down carefully, then tugged open the top drawer. He drew out a police service revolver and stared at it for a few seconds.
Diego suddenly felt sick. He tried to turn away, and the angel grabbed his arm hard enough to hurt.
"I get it, Gabriel," Diego hissed. "I can fill in the blanks."
"No," the angel said sternly. "This time you watch."
The blond contemplated the gun for a few more drunken seconds. Then he put the barrel in his mouth.
Diego wrenched free of the angel's grip, turning on his heel just before the shot, the wet splatch of blood and brains, and the dull thud of the body hitting the floor. He stormed towards the door of the apartment, and swore when his hand passed through the knob. Well, he was a ghost here. Diego took a deep breath and walked straight through the door.
His face twitched into a grimace when he found himself outside. Diego started down the darkened street, ignoring the angel's footsteps on the sidewalk behind him. The blond's suicide had rattled him. Mr. Rockstar had cared a great deal for Crescend, even though he was a murderer. Crescend's crime hadn't pushed the blond over the edge – his death had. Diego couldn't help wondering what Mia thought of him now.
"Diego!"
Diego halted, swallowed his urge to punch the angel, and slowly turned to face him.
"We aren't finished," the angel said angrily.
"No, we are finished," Diego snapped. "I'm done with this, Gabriel. Take me home."
The angel shook his head. "Not until you understand the difference your life makes –"
"My life," Diego interrupted. He barked out a brief, bitter laugh. "You keep saying that, Gabriel." He shook his head. "Look, I feel sorry for Tobaye. I feel sorry for his mother. I feel sorry for Mr. Rockstar in the apartment back there – I know how it feels to want to turn it all off. But where's the kid's responsibility in this? Why don't you go talk to him? Tell him not to pull the stupid stunt that lands him in the slammer?"
The angel looked flustered. "It – it doesn't work like that."
"Ha…!" Diego's fingers twitched. A cup of coffee would hit the spot right about now. "You're not really helping your case here, Gabriel."
The angel adjusted his glasses. "My case?"
"I don't believe you, Gabriel," Diego explained. He gestured to the street around them. "I don't believe this." He stepped closer, and the angel leaned away as Diego invaded his personal space. "I think you're my own ego." He smirked. "Who else would tell me I'm so damn important that total strangers are going to die if I'm not here to save them?"
"So that's your objection?" the angel countered. "Why should you care about strangers?"
When Gabriel put it like that, it stung. Diego backed up a little. "I didn't say that."
"No no, Mr. Prosecutor, don't backpedal," the angel replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's a valid point." The dark streets began to dissolve around them. "Very well. I'll show you someone you do care about."