I know it's been almost 3 years since I worked on this story, but now I'm back to bring it to its rightful end, as promised.
I apologize for the wait! I have been so busy with college. But now I have found some spare time to finally work on this!
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my story up to now. I will do my best not to let you down, dear reader.
Oh, and do not try any of the following procedures at home unless supervised by an expert or professional. ;)
-drops of jelly
Standard Disclaimer Applies
Short Recap:
Franziska von Karma has been working on the VICTORIA case, the arrest and trial of its five core members: Blithe, Montgomery, Suede, Judis, and Florence.
Florence, whose trial was held last March 23 had an unexpected ending when he escaped the Justice Office and got on a plane to England soon after.
von Karma immediately gave chase when she was able to locate him. She informed her colleague Miles Edgeworth that she was going to her hometown in Germany to prevent unnecessary hassle, and to act as an alibi for her absence.
A day after, Miles Edgeworth had found out the plane she boarded was not headed to Germany but to England and it had crash landed, leaving her and another passenger missing.
He went to England to search for her and found her in Hampshire living in a small house but suffering from acute amnesia. He stayed long enough to help her recover her memories and find out what really happened. There, he had found out about the VICTORIA case, and did some investigations himself, about the plane crash von Karma was in, and was also trying to find out the wherabouts of Florence who was said to also be on that plane.
His latest discovery was that the assistant pilot of the Titanium Liner, Captain Konfu Shing had remarkably matching characteristics with the missing convict, Florence. He is due to meet with the suspect at the park at 1500 hours, April 4.
NINE
"Good morning 'maam. Would you like some breakfast? We have three available menus- the American, the Continental, or the Oriental." A flight attendant pushing a breakfast cart interrupts a young woman lawyer reading her newspaper on the stock exchange market section to offer her a meal.
"I'd like to have the Continental, please." The young woman pleasantly answers and receives the packed meal from the flight attendant, and starts to open the foil covering the meal.
As she chews each bite she puts into her mouth, she scans the cabin she was staying in from time to time. She seemed to be looking for someone.
That is, when she found Miles Edgeworth, with a bandaged leg, and a parachute pack on his lap. He was seated across her, staring at her intently.
"Miles Edgeworth, I thought I told you I was leaving and apparently not returning. Why are you here when I clearly made it seem that I needed to be away from you? And what on earth happened to that leg?" she gave him an icy glare.
"Franziska, why am I here?" he asks her back with a cold stare.
"I just asked you a question, and that is not answering it. Why deflect it back to me, fool?" she retorted.
"I must be here for a reason." He responded.
"A reason? Why would you be here? I am in the middle of doing something important." She said.
"What are you here for then, Franziska?" he asked.
"I'm… looking for someone… I need to find him. If I don't find him, a lot of people will die…" she searches herself for the answer.
"That's right. You need to find him before someone dies." Miles nodded.
"But, I think I already found him. I just need to trap him. That's why I'm here." She said.
"Franziska, why am I here?" he asked once again.
"I don't understand why you're in here too. You're supposed to be working." She answered.
"I am here for a reason." He said, pointing to his bandaged leg.
"Why? What are you supposed to be? What is your role in here? Are you alright? That leg looks bad." she asks.
"I am what happened." He merely answers.
-English Guesthouse, Stockbridge, Hampshire-
April 4 9:00 AM
Franziska woke up gasping for air, clutching a flanelle blanket wrapped around her. She was lying down on the couch.
"Miles Edgeworth…?" she called.
Not a moment long, he peeked in from his study.
"Franziska? I see you're awake." He comes in the living room, with an unharmed leg.
"What happened to me?" she asked.
"You fell asleep while Ema and I were discussing the evidence." He answered.
"No, I mean, why were you in the plane?" she asked.
"What plane? You mean your plane recently?" he asked.
"Yes. I was eating breakfast and you were seated across me."
"I was never on that plane, how else would I even be able to find you?"
"You're right, that was foolish." She massaged her temple gently with her fingers.
"Did you have a bad dream?" he asked.
"That dream… This isn't finished yet. We have no decisive evidence against our suspect. I think I might have seen something, I might have had some evidence in me." She explains.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I suffered from amnesia, my remote and recent memories are intact. But the memories before the accident are a bit hazy. I only remember being on that plane, looking for Florence, then I remember locking the doors to the pilot's cockpit, I remember thinking, 'I have to do something or we're all going to die'. I remember going back to my seat then…"
Miles' eyebrows narrowed in deep thought.
"Nothing. I don't remember what happened. Then I remember in my dream, you were there." She looked straight into his eyes.
"What was I doing in your dream?" he asked.
"You were wounded in your right leg. You said that… you were what happened." She shook her head, clearly indicating it all didn't make sense at all.
"I was… wounded?" he tried to think it through. Who would be wounded in that plane? Of course, the victim. Then he thought of what could be in Franziska's missing memory. That would surely explain the whereabouts of the victim's body.
"I have to remember what had happened Miles Edgeworth. I feel as if I'm missing a person in the story. I feel that I need to find someone, and not just Florence. There's another person who needs me. I feel as if I owe that person something and I have to look for that person fast." She racks her brains for any clues.
"And we need to find the victim of the struggle in the plane. It would either be Gino Vegas, the other missing person, or Captain Zachary Kiegel, the other pilot." He said.
"If Captain Kiegel was the victim, why are Captain Shing's clothes the bloodied one, and with Captain Kiegel's blood?" Franziska asked.
Ema walks in.
"Mr. Edgeworth, I have more findings about that. I did more tests on the bloodied clothes. They belonged to Captain Zachary Kiegel, not Captain Konfu Shing." She gave him a DNA test report.
"I tested his clothes for traces of DNA. And I saw traces of tearing at the site of the name label on the uniform. Apparently the killer had torn off the names on their uniforms and switched it, and sewed it back on with yellow thread." She sighed at the stupidity of the thought.
"I think it was an attempt to make us all think that Shing was the victim, and the reason why he called me was because he thinks we have that current line of thought." Edgeworth concluded.
"So, it means that Shing switched the names on their clothes and hid them purposely under the wheel in the cockpit?" Ema asked.
"No… both their clothes were covered with blood…." Franziska muttered.
"Do you remember anything Franziska?" Miles turned to her.
"I don't understand but I have this feeling that, both their clothes were covered in blood." She said.
"Are you having a hard time recalling things?" Ema sat down next to her.
"Yes. I can remember everything else, but this incident is still unclear to me." Franziska answers.
"There's a way we can help you. We get inside your brain." Ema smirks, as if she knew something they all didn't and clearly that was true.
"Get inside her brain?" Miles didn't know what to think.
"Hypnosis. We could help her recall what happened by reenacting her plane ride, and Ms. Faraday left her Little Thief with you didn't she?" Ema suggested.
"You think that will really work?" he asked, shocked, never really thinking a feat like that could actually be an option.
"Don't worry, it's a safe procedure. I learned it in college. I just never thought I'd really be able to use it in a real situation." She reassured him.
"I'm… impressed. Will you allow her to perform an exercise on you Franziska?" he turned to her.
"If it can help me remember, and if it can solve this case, then yes." She nodded.
"Alright. I'll make the preparations." Ema walked back to the study to get some of her things.
-English Guesthouse, Stockbridge, Hampshire-
April 4 9:30 AM
Ema lead Franziska and Miles into the study. It was dim in the room since Ema had closed the blinds. Three chairs were set up in the middle of the room, one for the hypnotist, one for the patient across the hypnotist, and one for the spectator, placed away from both of them.
"Please take your seat across me, Ms. von Karma." Ema gestured to the chair across her.
"Are you nervous?" Ema smiled, asking Franziska who was sighing.
"A little. I have never tried any of this before. It seemed odd and foolish." She shook her head.
"Relax. We're both here for you." Ema squeezed her hand, reassuring her.
"Alright, I'm ready." Franziska nodded.
Ema turned on a special round-shaped lamp at her side. It began to flash a gentle red light in s specific rhythm.
"Now, Ms. von Karma, I want you to look at the light." Ema directed her.
Franziska turned her head and eyes to look at the lamp.
"I want you to focus on it, and synchronize your breathing with it." Ema said in a neutral tone.
Miles watched them in a sense of wonder. Ema seemed in very much control, he felt as if he was about to fall into the hypnosis as well.
Ema waited for a minute, assuring that Franziska's breathing has been synchronized with the light's rhythm, and that enough amount of concentration and focus has been acquired.
"Okay, please shut your eyes and forget everything around you. Forget that Mr. Edgeworth and I are here, but just follow my voice, do you understand Ms. von Karma?" Ema instructed.
"Okay." She responded and shut her eyes.
Total darkness- that was what it was. Then everything began to vanish around her- the sights, the sounds, all but Ema's voice remained. She felt as if she were floating in darkness, in a pool of nobody knows what.
"On the count of three, I want you to open your eyes, alright?" Ema said.
Franziska nodded. While she counted very slowly, Miles turned on The Little Thief with the input Ema had prepared- a replica of the plane's interior.
"Two… Three!"
Franziska opened her eyes to see herself seated in her chair in the first class cabin. She saw the flight attendant wheeling her breakfast cart, and saw a businessman across her reading the newspaper for the stock exchange market section.
"I remember this place. I'm in the airplane again. I remember checking my planner just before breakfast, and the one reading the newspaper wasn't me unlike in my dream… It was the other missing person, Mr. Gino Vegas." Franziska looked around the plane, surprised no one could hear her when she tried to call them to ask questions.
"Why won't anyone answer me?" she asked the air.
"They won't answer you Ms. von Karma. Just keep going. See what you can find there." Ema said.
"Is she really in the plane?" Miles approached a stunned looking Franziska and looked into her eyes.
"The suggestion worked. She's in the plane right now." Ema explained.
"That's amazing. Will something go wrong? Like, could she die in that state if something like a bombing or murder happens in her visions?" he asked.
"We're going to avoid anything traumatic as much as possible. I'll pull her out when the going gets tough, Mr. Edgeworth." She winked.
"That's some kind of course you took in college." He smirked, shaking his head, and took his seat, crossing his arms over him.
"I see a handheld audio transmitter clipped to my cravat. It sends a feed. It seems to be a man's voice…" she paused for a long time.
"Ms. von Karma? Are you still with us?" Ema asked.
"Franziska?" Miles asked her.
"This man's voice… He was assisting me in Florence's capture… It's Captain Zachary Kiegel!" she gasped.
Captain Zachary Kiegel was in truth a special agent assigned to the air force and offered to aid Ms. von Karma in her investigation. He was a tall man of Mediterranean descent, an athletic, sinewy build as expected of a soldier, tanned skin, with dark wavy hair cut neatly short, deep-set captivating grey eyes, and a thin stubble on his chin.
"That confirms that Kiegel couldn't be the criminal. It's Shing after all." Miles nods.
-bang!-
"That's the gunshot!" Franziska's hands began to shake.
"If there was a gunshot, how come no one but you heard it?" Ema asked.
"The cockpit walls are heavily soundproof. To hear anything from there, you have to be in there. I only heard it because of the audio transmitter." Franziska explained.
"I have to get to him! I didn't think Florence would be in the cockpit unless he really was Captain Konfu Shing!" she got up and briskly walked towards the cockpit when a man seized both her arms. The man was wise enough to seize her in the small hallway to the cockpit, where there were no civilians.
"Let go of me! You foo-" the man placed a handkerchief with a sedative on it to knock her out.
"What's happening there Ms. von Karma?" Ema asked.
"I remember the man who drugged me. It was Mr. Gino Vegas." She said.
"Was that it then?" Miles asked.
"No, I only pretended to be sedated, but I still got some of the drug. I waited until he was vulnerable, and kicked him down as hard as I could. I used my whip to hit him unconscious and tie him up, and then I ran as fast as I could towards the cockpit. I haven't heard anything but cries of pain since that gunshot." Franziska narrated as the images flash to her head.
"When I got to the cockpit, I saw Shing was lying unconscious on the floor, and I see Kiegel writhing in pain over a gunshot to his right leg. So that's what my dream meant… Why Miles Edgeworth's leg was wrapped in a bandage as if it was wounded."
"But I figure that bandages weren't the ones used to apply pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. I bet Kiegel took off his own shirt and wrapped it around his leg." Miles deduced.
"You're right. I see him wrapping it around the wound." Franziska walks towards Kiegel who doesn't see her of course.
Then she sees her own self run inside and trying to frantically assist Kiegel in stopping the bleeding, making sure Shing isn't waking up soon.
"Did you check the names on their uniforms Franziska?" Ema asked.
"During that time I was too panicked to look, but then,…" she watched as the Franziska in her vision crawled to Shing and took his pilot shirt off and reinforced it on Kiegel's gunshot wound. It was the only cloth that was absorbent enough around.
"That explains how you thought both clothes were soaked in blood." Ema smiled.
Kiegel removed his blood-soaked shirt and placed it in a bag. He instructed Franziska to hide it under the controls. Realizing their current situation, they can't be free to go anywhere and the evidence has to be kept safe. He did not know his nameplate had been switched with Shing's.
Franziska did as she was told, then called for a small plane to bring in replacement pilots and to act as their rescue team. She assisted the injured Kiegel onto the pilot's seat. He turned on the PA system and told the passengers they would be experiencing some minor turbulence. He was going to bring the plane to an acceptable altitude so that the small plane could reach them.
Franziska and Kiegel prepared their parachutes. Kiegel had already worn his securely and Franziska was still having a hard time working hers.
That explains the parachute she saw on Edgeworth's lap in her dream.
"Haha, I'll help you with that, Miss von Karma." He chuckled. Despite his wounded state, he still gave out a charming smile.
Franziska blushed at his handsome face and perfectly white teeth.
"Ehem." Miles Edgeworth clears his throat, asking Ema on what's happening.
When Franziska was about to put on her parachute pack, Shing regained consciousness. Before he could grab a hold of his gun, Franziska kicked it away, and in a split second she opened the door of the cockpit towards the open violet sky.
"The other plane's out there. Go ahead without me." She grabbed Kiegel by the collar and pushed him out of the plane. In the state he's in, it's more dangerous to stay in a room with a criminal than floating with a parachute until a small plane catches him.
She was going to stay to collect and secure the evidence.
"You stayed on the plane and didn't go with Kiegel? Do you know how dangerous what you did was?" Miles spoke in anger.
"I had to secure the evidence and the convict. I had to be there when the police would come!" she argued.
"Ms. von Karma, are you still okay? Your respiratory rate is climbing. We have to stop." Ema warned her.
"Not yet! I have to see this until the end! I have to remember!" Franziska protested.
Franziska took a spare whip and whipped Shing back unconscious. She was scared and her hands were shaking. She was on the verge of tears. She found his gun and placed it in the bag as well, careful to preserve the fingerprints.
She went back to her seat in the first class cabin to put her audio transmitter in her handbag. They were one of the most important pieces of evidence. When she was about to return to the cockpit, she collapsed. She had inhaled a substantial amount of the sedative to make her weaker and less than alert. She wasn't able to hold it and gave in to unconsciousness at that moment.
"Why did the plane crash, Franziska? I'm sure Captain Kiegel put the plane on an acceptable height and control, and didn't you call for replacement pilots?" Miles asked.
"Shing was alone in the cockpit, and he was unconscious. If he regained consciousness he could have locked all the doors toward the sky and not receive the reinforcement pilots. He was decided on killing all the passengers in that plane along with the evidence, himself, and me!" That's when it had dawned upon Franziska.
"And the gun… I'm sure he was able to find it… And he took it!" she started to pant.
"Franziska you have to stop this now." Miles ordered.
"Franziska close your eyes. On the count of three, open them." Ema instructed.
Franziska shut her eyes. Edgeworth turned off the Little Thief, and Ema opened the blinds.
"…two, three!"
Franziska slowly opened her eyes to find herself back in the study with Ema and Miles.
And she fainted right after.
To be continued…
O-o-O-o-O
Thank you so much for reading!
I'd very much appreciate a review.
And I'll be able to write the next chapter soon, hopefully this month during our sports festival. :P
Have a happy, healthy life!
-drops of jelly