The Sleep of the Just

Title: The Sleep of the Just

Author: Nyarlathotep

Fandom: Ace Attorney

Characters and Pairings: Miles Edgeworth/Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice/Klavier Gavin, Kristoph Gavin, ensemble supporting cast

Rating: G through NC-17 (this chapter: PG)

Warnings for this chapter: Medical equipment, slight angst, one kiss, SCIENCE!

 

Two Weeks From Tuesday

"Wow, I gotta hand it to you Phoenix... You were right on the money with this one..." A shaft of golden sunlight spilled across the computer screen and he glanced up, the hem of a white lab coat brushing his shoulder as the room dimmed; ancient plastic blinds creaking closed. The recording paused and then looped, only this time it played simultaneously with another; two voices superimposed over each other in an odd and chilling stereo chorus. "It's just as if he were really two separate people, even down to something physiological like... this..." She indicated the computer display with a sweep of her hand.



"At first I was ready to call myself a crackpot for even considering it but now I'm glad I did." Rough stubble scratched Phoenix's fingertips when he rubbed his chin in thought, eyes still tracking over the vocal graph, taking in its spikes and dips. Each person's voice was supposed to be like a fingerprint; remaining consistent throughout life even as the voice changed with age. The only thing that could reliably alter the vocal pattern of a person was traumatic injury, to the larynx or the tongue (Neither of which were injuries that Kristoph had sustained...) Just learning to speak with, or without an accent would not be enough to change a vocal imprint.



Yet, when they layered the two recordings, the results were undeniable. Both were incontestably the voice of Kristoph Gavin. This was known fact. One had been made during the sensational State Vs. Kristoph Gavin trial and one had been made just yesterday in Kristoph's quiet, sunlit room at the State Hospital. But it was plain to see when the graphs were compared, that the difference in vocal pattern was distinct.



As of two entirely different people.



"This shouldn't even be possible you know... I mean..." Ema glared at the display for a moment before pressing the stop button and ejecting Phoenix's USB mini hard drive and he thought it seemed odd that she wasn't maniacally shoving snackoos into her mouth. 'Although, she was just with Maya... She probably doesn't have any left...' His pondering was interrupted by hard clap to his shoulder, the younger Skye now hanging over his right arm, grinning. "Hey! Do you mind if I include this case in my Masters Thesis paper?" Phoenix had to chuckle.



"Be my guest, but you should ask the others too..." He furrowed his brow for a moment, frowning. "And Kristoph of course..." He paused, blinking up at Ema. "I- um... do... you want to meet him?"



She paled slightly and straightened up, moving off his arm and back to the blind window, sliding her fingers between the thin panels and spreading them apart to gaze out across the courtyard. When Ema turned back toward him her eyes were covered by her trademark pink glasses. "Can I ask you one thing Phoenix...?" Her face inclined toward the window once again and the attorney just waited, knowing that she would ask whether he'd acquiesced or not. 



"After Kristoph's conviction; how many things did you find, in yours and Mr. Edgeworth's home, which were contaminated with atroquinine?" Ema drew her lips into a thin line as Phoenix narrowed his eyes. Carefully modulating his tone as he bit out his quiet reply.



"You know the answer to that already..."



"Yes I do, but the point of that experiment was to determine if you did..." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, the fingers of her other hand twitching with want for a crinkling cellophane bag. "Phoenix... We've known each other a long time, You and Miles and Apollo and Trucy and Maya and Klavier and me, we're like this twisted little, harmlessly incestuous family-thing and I love you guys, as lame as it sounds when I say it like that... It's just, if I... Hell... Phoenix, can this really be happening? Scientifically, the odds are astronomical... Are you absolutely sure this isn't some kind of trick?" The uncharacteristic pleading expression in her voice and eyes made him soften, slumping to lean against the edge of a cluttered desk.



"I ask myself that question at the start of every day, Ema, and every night I answer it the same. I'm a defense attorney and as such, I must believe in my client's innocence. To still defend someone whom I truly believed to be guilty? Well... I've been forced to do that before and I can't say that I cared much for the experience." Trailing off Phoenix shoved his hands in his pockets and stood, preparing to leave.



"Hm..." She pushed away from the wall and started rifling a wardrobe sized locker in the corner, retrieving several unidentifiable instruments. "Ok, I'll come and meet him. It should be interesting from, at the very least, a socio-scientific angle."



"What, right now? C-can you just take off work like that?" Phoenix glanced around but there was no sound coming from the hall or the office across the way and Ema just shrugged as she made to shoulder her satchel.



"Sure... I'm technically not even in today. I was just here catching up on some stuff for my Thesis. And honestly, I have quite a bit more freedom now that I'm a CSI and no longer directly involved with the criminal affairs department as a detective." She shrugged again and moved past him towards the office door. "We can take my car if you like?"



"Ok, lead the way. I'll just call ahead so security will be expecting us..." Phoenix pulled out his cell and was surprised to see that he had an email from Miles.



-Hearing by Special Jurist Panel, two weeks from Tuesday. We had better be ready. Edgeworth-





One week later...





The small power-saw made a tinny whine and the sensation of its oscillating blade against the fiberglass encasing his arm made Kristoph's fingers twitch nervously, even though he knew the grinding instrument couldn't harm him. It would be very nice to have the cast off though and he resolved that the first thing he would do after it was gone and he was back in his room would be to ply his nurse into allowing him a shower. Soon the buzzing stopped and he was advised not to move while the doctor inserted a spreading tool and squeezed. The cast broke into two neat halves and fell open to reveal his gauze wrapped arm. It looked a bit thin compared to his other one and when the wrapping was removed he found it to be even more impossibly pale than his already pale skin. But he could easily move all his fingers and make a fist as the doctor instructed him to do.



"Is there any pain at all Kristoph?" The doctor held his hand and manipulated his wrist in a variety of directions, pressing back on his fingers and turning his whole arm from side to side.



"Nein, it feels good, danke." The skin did feel a little tender, as if being exposed to this much light was actually burning it a bit and he wanted to pull his sleeve down, but the doctor was not quite finished.



"While we were repairing the fractures we were able to correct some of the damage caused by the preexisting injury. I think you will find increased dexterity and strength." Kristoph noted the doctor's rueful smile. "Although according to your chart that may or may not mean anything to you..." With some further palpation of is wrist and the tendons across the back of his hand, Kristoph's arm was finally released.



"I assure you doktor, I may not remember my injury or the deficiency I experienced but it means everything to me to have the use of my right hand and arm again." Tugging his sleeve down over his thin knobby wrist, Kristoph smiled and extended his restored hand as the Doctor stood. They shook firmly and then Kristoph was given a rubbery squeeze-ball and instructed use it several times a day in order to build the strength in his hand and arm back up. The doctor bid Kristoph good day with a smile and a wave, making him promise to be good and do his physical therapy, as two orderlies arrived to escort him back to his room.



He was a little surprised to see Klavier waiting for him by the security desk and he grinned when his wide eyed expression was copied with brotherly mockery.



"Guten tag mein bruder." He greeted, enfolding the younger man in his arms briefly before stepping back between the white clad orderlies. "It is so wonderful to see you! Shall we go into my 'office'?" Kristoph smiled as Klavier stifled his laugh by coughing into his hand.



"Ja bruder. It's never in good taste to linger around the water cooler..." One of the orderlies signaled the security guard to open the lock. An electronic klaxon sounded for a moment before the door swung inward with a soft click and they ushered the elder Gavin inside, Klavier following behind them with his hands in his pockets.



Kristoph was happy to delay his battle with the nurse for a visit with Klavier. He had nearly gotten used to seeing this older version of his baby brother, noting how similar they had grown to appear; how much like their mother they both looked... Kristoph settled into one of the armchairs that stood before the room's only window and Klavier folded himself into the other one, just looking out at the rooftops through the wire mesh reinforced glass. Indeed as Kristoph took in his brother's handsome face, bathed golden by the fading afternoon sunlight, it seemed to him that the only thing they had inherited from their expatriate father was the Welsh surname.



He could remember so well the faces and voices of their parents. Although he now accepted that they had been dead for years, he still felt as if he could pick up the telephone and enter the rambling series of codes and prefixes and digits he still recalled as though he had only just dialed them yesterday and when the familiar double tone ringing stopped his mother's voice would come through the receiver as clear as it ever had...



A thin sound had begun to grow more insistent in the back of his mind. It sounded like sobbing... like someone trying to quietly cry, more for the relief of emotional release than to gain attention or sympathy. It was agonizing to know that, not only would he never see his parents again, but that they had quite probably gone to their graves believing that he no longer wished to know them... He longed to speak with his therapist, discussing this with Klavier would undoubtedly cause the younger man to feel still more misplaced guilt... Perhaps this was a grieving process for both of them...



"Kris... are you ok?" He jumped, startled as Klavier's hand touched his shoulder which he now realized was shaking. The low sobbing noise stopped suddenly as Kristoph drew in a fast breath, tasting salt at the seam of his lips. Klavier's concerned face was blurred in his teary eyes and he dropped his head instinctively to hide his pained expression even though he knew it was far too late. Klavier would ask until he gave in. That's what he was trained to do.



"I was.. just thinking of Mother and Father..." He spoke through his hands which covered his face, pressing fingertips hard into wet eyes.



"Kris..." He sounded better than Kristoph would have expected and he looked up, wiping his eyes as Klavier smiled, dropping to his knees beside Kristoph's chair. "They don't blame you. They know... what really happened." The set of his jaw and the determined look in his eyes didn't court argument but Kristoph argued anyway.



"How do you know that...? How could you know that Klavier?" He must have looked as stricken as his voice sounded in his own ears because his brother's arms found their way around his shoulders and drew him into a loose embrace over the chair arm. 



"I have many interesting associates, bruder. As it turns out, their talents and abilities are quite varied... You have 'met' only four of them so far." The knowing smirk in his brother's tone rankled and for a moment Kristoph's annoyance flared.



//"I do not know what you mean, Klavier! Are you trying to imply that you have friends who can speak to the dead?"// He lapsed back into German and his scowl didn't fade until Klavier pulled back and looked him straight in the face.



"Ja... I am. Or something like that at any rate..." He got to his feet with a gentle pat to Kristoph's shoulder and returned to his own chair. "It's partially what I came here to discuss." Klavier sounded so calm and sincere that all Kristoph could do was stare, open mouthed and silent.



When it became clear, after a moment that his brother was not going argue any further, Klavier continued, leaning forward to place his elbows on his knees and clasp his hands before him. "Did you ever, in your studies prior to the accident, hear of a case called DL-6? It occured in 2001 before I was born and when you were a child but it is noteworthy because of its unusual nature... and because of who it involved..." When Klavier looked up from his folded hands Kristoph's eyes were far away, his mouth a thin line, down-turned at the corners.



"Mein Gott..." The elder Gavin breathed out slowly after a moment, gathering the front of his powder blue robe in his too thin right hand and shivering.



"I see you remember it, probably from some abstract collegiate exercise, ja?" At his brother's slow nod Klavier smiled softly.



"Mein Gott! Miles Edgeworth! His father was... Gregory... and that Spirit Medium... But.. but they said she was a fraud... Did you... Is she...?"



"Dead I'm afraid... However her youngest daughter... and her niece... They are both... big fans of mine." Klavier laughed then making Kristoph snap his head up sharply. "Listen, my one and only brother... and I will tell you how it all fits together. Trust me, I didn't make the connection at all despite having been acquainted with Maya and Pearl for over two years, embarrassingly enough... But after what I have learned and who I have spoken to. You need to hear this, Kris."



So Kristoph listened and learned of the Feys, of the peculiar abilities some of their women possessed and of their relationship to Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth.





******************************



Nodding at his cluttered desk in the too bright glare of the computer screen, Phoenix rubbed his tired eyes, flipping again through the comparative voice analysis.



The findings had sent Klavier running off to Kurain earlier that week. By necessity he'd finally been told everything, after the revelation of the Magatama it seemed unfair to still hold him in the dark when they really were all on the same side in this one, literally as well as figuratively. The last Phoenix had heard from him, the news had been mixed. Klavier had spoken with his mother through Pearl and told her what had become of her eldest... He'd learned little of any use but it had eased his mind considerably to inform his departed mother of Kristoph's illness and recovery and Phoenix reasoned that peace of mind for the brothers was important too...



The office was a disaster area, he wasn't going to lie to himself, Miles hadn't been in recently to hassle him about clutter, being busy at the law library and collating their case references and Apollo had gone with Klavier, ostensibly to recruit Maya to testify although it was clear to anyone with sensory organs that he simply didn't want to leave Klavier's side, or abandon him to Kurain's practical joking masters and odd traditions, (still more or less upheld, even in the long absence of Morgan.)



Phoenix rubbed his forehead, digging his thumb and fingers in at the temples and resting his cheek against the knuckles of one hand, he sagged at his desk. How long had it been since he'd slept? The case notes swirled around in his mind when he closed his eyes, taunting him with darkened images of things he might have missed. Evidence was only as good as the people looking it over and if he was wrong about anything... Phoenix had suffered too long at the hands of the man he was now preparing to free, he had to be sure!



Blindly he felt for the Magatama... Why was it so dark all of a sudden? Why was the mist so thick?



Then Kristoph was there in front of him, in the cell he'd occupied during the trial, his eyes again concealed by the bright glint off his glasses, flaxen hair long and twisted to the side, heavy chains and black locks all around him.



And that smile - those eyes... Triumph and disdain... Ego and Mania.



The monster's lips were moving, but much too slowly to be emitting the sounds that which, when they filtered into his cringing ears were incongruously soft, like a gentle breeze... nothing like the hell-storm of mockery and hatred he'd braced for.



"Phoenix......"



His head felt funny, like it was flattened on one side and on that same side, his face was damp and cold.



"Mmhmmm...?" He managed, brightly. Blinking his eyes slowly open Phoenix squinted, trying to resolve why the world was so puzzlingly sideways, the darkness of the dream quickly fading from his memory.



"Phoenix, wake up please." Miles' face came into view, not quite as sideways as the rest of everything else but with the fringe of his bangs hanging at an odd angle. The force with which Phoenix then snapped upright caused the man to step quickly back with a curse. Phoenix grinned sheepishly as Miles tossed a glare his way while adjusting the glasses perched crookedly on his nose. "I say, that was a bit much..." The gray haired attorney grumbled.



"Miles? Ah, sorry... uh...?" Phoenix looked around blearily, attempting to find a way to stall for more time in which to properly wake up before he said anything stupid. Failing that he pressed on. "Did I fall asleep at the office?" Scratching the back of his head nervously and glancing down at his drool stained case file, he fruitlessly wiped at it with his sleeve.



"Are you seriously asking me that question?" The look on Miles face was the very picture of incredulity.



"Er... No... Not really..." Phoenix's shoulders slumped and he sighed, looking miserable. Miles let out a small huff and crossed the room, taking out his handkerchief as he approached. Phoenix stood, seemingly unsure of what to expect even after so many years but Miles just stepped in close, gently drawing the silken square of cloth across the dark haired attorney's still moist cheek, patting it dry. The hand which held it continued on to cup the side of his head and tilt it slightly as warm lips brushed his for the briefest moment before following the path the handkerchief had taken. Phoenix leaned forward involuntarily, inhaling his partner's expensive aftershave as the man whispered into his flushed ear, only just audible over his now hammering pulse.



"Come home now, please. I've missed you this evening."



With that, the black silk square was tucked away and the man was out the door with a flourish of well-tailored burgundy wool and with Phoenix Wright close on his fine, polished heels.





-TBC!-