A/N: I Apollo-gize in advance for this chapter.

-District Court 3rd Floor Hallway-

Daughter! W-Wright has a daughter?

That couldn't be possible. It was completely, absolutely, definitely impossible. Wright was- what?- all of thirty-four now? And this girl was a teenager! She was practically half Phoenix's age! No. He must have heard wrong. Otherwise would be impossible, illogical, inconceivable.

Ludicrous.

The girl in question was now pouting at Wright. She didn't look chided in the least.

"Aw Daddy, I was just trying to help!"

There it was again. That word.

Phoenix sighed. "Trucy, I told you we were done talking about this." He looked a little deflated. It was just like Wright to be pushed around by a little girl.

Not that little, Miles reminded himself.

It just wasn't possible. Phoenix could not have a teenage daughter. Edgeworth supposed there had been that one girl- well technically two- but even that would have only been... Well not that he thought about it... One of the Hawthorne sisters could have had a child with Phoenix, but still...

How long has Wright known about her? Was he hiding her from me? All that time...

Edgeworth felt a strange feeling welling up in his chest. Anger? Jealousy? Confusion?

…Panic?

"But he didn't answer my question about Mr. Scruffy!" The girl put her hands on her hips defiantly.

"Now see here, I am not scruffy!"

The Detective's comment went ignored.

"Trucy..." Wright was pleading with her now. It would seem that Trucy had a habit of not listening to him.

"So Mr. Edgeworth, what kind of a partner is this partner of yours?"

J-Just what kind of a little girl is this?

Edgeworth couldn't believe he was being interrogated about his love life by a teenager. A teenager that was allegedly Phoenix Wright's daughter.

Lucky for him, Wright stepped in.

"Trucy, Detective Gumshoe just works for Mr. Edgeworth's. It's nothing like that."

"Hey now, we're friends too..."

"Yeah, Mr. Edgeworth would never go for someone like that," Pearl cut in. "Not when he already has a special someone." She was blushing behind her hands.

What on Earth has gotten into these girls!?

-District Court 3rd Floor Hallway-

This conversation was turning into more of a circus by the minute. And Phoenix really hated circuses.

Stupid clown... He'll never understand true talent.

Back to the matter at hand, Phoenix needed to find a way to get things back under control. And fast. Miles looked like he might fall over.

"Okay okay. How about we start over?" Phoenix spoke over several people at once. Pearl and Trucy had been trying to get Miles' attention while Gumshoe was begging the prosecutor to confirm their friendship. Miles shot him a grateful look. He got a few nods from the rest of them.

"Edgeworth, this is Trucy. She's my daughter. Trucy, Edgeworth." Trucy stepped forward, ready to shake his hand.

"MMMMMMM!" Miles really looked like he might collapse now.

Trucy pulled back a little, concerned. "Um... Daddy? I think you may have broken him."

No, that's just Miles. But why is he freaking out?

"Wh..."

"Is he trying to say something?" Pearl leaned forward to hear better, still in the doorway.

"When..."

"Don't strain yourself, sir!" Gumshoe said.

When? When what? Oh, wait!

"Adopted! Trucy is my adopted daughter!" Phoenix amended, holding his hands up in defense.

"Then why didn't you say that in the first place?" If there had been a desk in front of him, Edgeworth would probably be banging it.

"Sorry," Phoenix rubbed the back of his neck. He wondered what had been going through Miles' head. Then again, it was probably better not to ask. "Trucy has been with me for... about eight years now. Ever since the Zak Gramarye trial."

When I lost my badge, Phoenix almost added.

Edgeworth must have read his mind, because he frowned at the name.

"Yep! That's when Daddy disappeared and I got my new Daddy!" Trucy was smiling, but Phoenix hated having to bring up her biological father. He knew it still hurt her.

"You're Gramarye's child?" Edgeworth sounded less surprised by this than he was about Phoenix having a daughter. Was him raising a kid really that hard to believe? Okay, so it may not have been the best time in his life to be taking on that particular responsibility, but what had he been he supposed to do? Abandon her?

"Uh-huh. And I'm a magician, too. Just like Daddy!"

"Hold on a sec, pal," Gumshoe intervened. "Mr. Wright isn't a magician."

"No no, my real Daddy!" She swirled her cape for emphasis.

Gumshoe scratched his head. "Mr. Edgeworth, this kid isn't making sense."

Oh, Gumshoe.

"Detective, she means her... oh never mind." Edgeworth gave up on the poor Detective and redirected his attention to Phoenix. He seemed to have finished absorbing the "hey, I have a kid now" bomb Phoenix had dropped on him. Miles was peering at him from the side, hugging his arms. His expression was all too familiar, and it reminded of Phoenix of the first time he had lost Edgeworth. It was the way he got when he was feeling insecure.

Thanks to you, I am saddled with unnecessary… feelings.

Unease… and uncertainty.

Back then Phoenix had thought that by defeating von Karma and bringing light to Edgeworth's past he had somehow saved his friend. He believed that he had shown Miles that he didn't need to be the Demon Prosecutor anymore; made him believe he could start a new life.

That had been a joke.

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death.

It hadn't been a very funny one.

When Miles had come back after that, Phoenix had been beside himself. How dare he show his face again after that. Phoenix had yelled at him, refused him, gotten angry.

Now here was Miles, wearing the same lost expression, looking for some kind of forgiveness. But this time there was no yelling, no anger. Maybe I'm just tired of yelling, he reasoned. After all, it's not like Miles ever listened. Otherwise they wouldn't be in this situation.

Miles… What must you think of me? I was pretty washed up for a while there and I have a daughter now, but I'm still here. And you're still there. If things keep going this way I… I don't know what I'll do. We can't keep meeting like this, but we're going to if you stick around as Head Prosecutor. That's the way it's going to be. Off-chance encounters. On opposite sides. And you… you're glaring again.

Phoenix gulped.

"Wright, if you don't mind, I think we should-"

"Mr. Wright! I'm sorry I'm late!"

The whole group turned to see a very red-faced Apollo careening towards them.

Oh, no. Here comes Justice...

-District Courtroom 3rd Floor Lobby-

"Polly!"

A short, scrawny man in a red suit came running up to the group, clutching a file in his hand and waving it over his head. He passed Gumshoe and Edgeworth and skidded to a halt in front of Phoenix.

"Mister... Wright..." He panted, bending over to rest his hand on his knees and catch his breath. If it weren't for the attorney's badge on his collar, Edgeworth would have mistaken him for a kid. If anyone was ever in sore need of a growth spurt...

"Hey Apollo, didn't think you were going to make it," Wright greeted, smirking down at the younger man. It was almost as if he were enjoying his pain.

No, that can't be right. Though Wright did sometimes enjoy pressing witnesses a little too much...

"Are you okay?" Pearl asked, the only one from Wright's group who looked the least bit concerned for their tardy ally.

"I'm... fine..." The man wheezed.

You certainly don't look fine!

Apollo straightened up after a moment of heavy breathing, shoving the file toward Phoenix. "HERE'S THE FILE YOU ASKED FOR!"

Why is he shouting!?

Detective Gumshoe jumped. "There's no need to yell, pal!"

"S-Sorry!"

"Those are just Polly's Chords of Steel!" Trucy explained.

Chords of what now? Wright, just what kind of a law office are you running?

Wright didn't take the file from Apollo, so the younger man lowered his offering. "Why so late Apollo? I thought Justice never rested?"

"A-Ah," the man apparently named 'Apollo' rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "The tire on my bike blew and I missed the bus so..."

"Polly!" Trucy gasped. "You ran all the way here?"

"Ye-yeah..." The young attorney slumped after admitting his fate. He looked so wretched that Edgeworth felt kind of bad for him. Well, he would have, if he hadn't been distracted by Phoenix's chuckling.

He... he really had missed that sound.

"Mr. Wright..." Apollo sagged even further under his mentor's obvious amusement. Edgeworth got the feeling that Apollo usually found himself at the wrong end of jokes.

Apollo glanced around for some help. It was then that he noticed Edgeworth and Gumshoe.

"H-he-hey!"

Phoenix followed the young man's frantic pointing. "Oh, right. Apollo, meet Detective Gumshoe and-"

"Y-you're Miles Edgeworth!" the man was shouting again.

"Yes I-"

"The Chief Prosecutor!"

"That is also-"

"Phoenix Wright's court rival!"

Is this kid going just going to yell information I already know?

"I was, yes." Miles managed to finish that time. Apollo was still pointing at him, the color of his face starting to match his suit.

"Wow..."

Miles didn't know what to say to that.

"You lost a lot."

"Urk!"

B-Blunt!

Phoenix was laughing again, though. It was strange how the tension of their reunion had faded into almost companionable normalcy. It was almost like they were meeting for a trial eight years ago, when everything had been easy between them. Nothing forced or painful. Well, there had still been pain, but less of it for certain.

Edgeworth recalled some of his reunions with Wright hadn't gone so smoothly.

Did you leave because you had lost your "perfect win record"...? To think your motivation for prosecuting trials was so selfish... It'd have been better for everyone if you never came back from the dead, Edgeworth!

Miles' grip on his arms tightened at the unwelcome memory. Leaving Phoenix had been what he had needed to do back then to... to find himself. To find answers. But even afterwards he left again. Back to Germany. Away from Phoenix. Eventually he would come back, when Phoenix was in trouble. When his savior needed him.

It's been one year since I left that country... I thought I wouldn't have to see him again for a while... Sounds like it won't be a pretty reunion... As if I expected anything to change.

That time, Miles had thought Phoenix was dying. He had to go to him. This time... Miles hadn't come back. Phoenix could have been dying. Alone. Unemployed. Yet here he was: not angry, not hurt, but laughing. It was...

Miles looked up to find Phoenix's laughter directed toward him. He turned away again.

Too much.

"Yeah. I guess we were rivals, huh, Edgeworth?" His question forced Miles to glimpse at him again. Phoenix was giving him a soft smile. Miles stood, frozen by it. Phoenix never smiled like that before. His smiles were broad, toothy grins that lit up his whole face. Even his smirks were as big and quirky as his eyebrows. But this smile was tentative and small. Miles finally met Phoenix's eyes.

They were sad. Miles couldn't believe it. Phoenix was smiling at him with the saddest eyes Miles had ever seen.

He choked.

Phoenix's sad smile became a frown and he turned back to Apollo.

"We were kind of like you and that Klavier kid," and just as quickly as it has happened, Phoenix was back to smirking down at his short protégé.

Klavier… Why is that name familiar? Edgeworth wondered.

"Oh Klavier!" Trucy jumped in enthusiastically. "Pearly, you'll love him. Polly can get us tickets to his concert!"

"Concert?" Pearl asked, interested in the conversation now. Edgeworth had felt her stare burning holes at him for the last few minutes.

"Yeah! He's a rockstar!" Trucy explained.

Edgeworth suddenly remembered the young prosecutor from the office. As if he could forget someone so… glittery.

Oh yes, him. Standards in lawyers have certainly gone down but if Wright thinks he's going somewhere…

"A rockstar?" Pearl said dreamily, blushing behind her hands and obviously embarking on some wild fantasy.

"Uh-huh, and a total prince..." Trucy was looking far-off too, now.

"Can we please not talk about that guy?" Apollo interrupted, rubbing a hand over his hair that Edgeworth was just noticing to be actually quite intimidating.

How much hair gel does he use!? Are those supposed to be horns...? And what is with that gawky bracelet?

"So Mr. Nick, how are you and Mr. Edgeworth like Mr. Apollo and Mr. Klavier?" Pearl asked, coming back to the real world.

"Well," Phoenix started.

"Is it because you all have taboo love? Are you star-crossed lovers? That's so romantic!" Pearl's eyes were practically sparkling now.

"M-Mr. Wright!" Apollo shouted.

"No, no, no," Wright continued quickly. Apollo was coloring again. He didn't seem like he fared well under pressure.

Edgeworth risked peeking at Phoenix again, anxious to here why on Earth he would compare the two of them to this incompetent duo.

All that glitter…

"It's because we worked as a team fighting for justice rather than as defense attorney and prosecutor," Phoenix glanced at Edgeworth again as he said this. "The truth is what matters in any case, no matter who is guilty." Miles held his gaze, captured again.

This time Edgeworth expected accusing eyes. Eyes blaming him, marking his as the Demon Prosecutor. But Phoenix's eyes were fiery with a different light. He looked distant, the passion in his words coming from some memory.

Dee Vasquez. Redd White. Damon Gant. Matt Engarde. Diego Armando.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

Not all of them had been evil, but they had committed inexcusable crimes. Together, he and Wright had brought them to justice against impossible odds.

Manfred von Karma.

Guilty.

Saved.

Emotions now boiled inside Edgeworth under Phoenix's gaze. Phoenix had saved him. Phoenix had taught him. Phoenix had loved him. Him. The guilty man. The Demon Prosecutor.

Phoenix...

"That is," Phoenix continued, breaking contact with Edgeworth, misty eyes suddenly clearing and snapping back to his protégé, "unless you aren't telling us something, Apollo?"

"OBJECTION!" Apollo screeched, his whole face turning red.

You ruined the moment, Wright.

A/N: This story was supposed to be three chapters. Looks like that's not happening.

For the record, the eye-color thing came out to be a tie so I'm just going to try to avoid it. But if I do it will probably be brown, seeing is that is what we are getting in the Dual Destinies cutscenes. Might as well get used to it.

Also, raise your hand if you hate Moe the Clown.