Chapter Text
Midnight found Phoenix Wright still at the Wright & Co. offices, lazily tapping at the keyboard's tall plastic keys, staring blankly at the case files scrolling by on the glass computer monitor. Silver moonlight, full and merciless, stabbed through the cloudless night, chased away only by the golden glow of Phoenix's desk lamp.
It had been a long night preparing for this next case, the odds were stacked against the Defence more than usual this time. It would take everything Phoenix had to win this one and he was determined to stay up all night if he could emerge victorious. He could sleep after that.
Maybe the fog of restless nights was why Phoenix didn't notice the woman in red sitting atop the windowsill, her long, white hair like a bolt of pitiless moonlight. Between two delicate fingertips, she balanced a long cigarette holder like an old-fashioned movie star.
"Hello, Mr. Wright. I see you are a night owl as well."
Phoenix leapt up from his seat, the chair clattering to the ground behind him.
"Who are you? What- how did you get in here?"
The woman took one languorous drag from the cigarette and blew a stream of silver smoke in his direction.
"You are asking the wrong question, Mr. Wright. You are asking who I am and not what I've done."
He waved away the cloud of smoke, willing himself not to cough.
"Fine. What have you done?"
"Did you know that when a person experiences true, euphoric love for the first time, the body creates a completely unique blend of chemicals and hormones that it never will at any other time?"
"Wh-why are you telling me this?"
Another long, slow, unhurried drag of the cigarette. Another noxious, listless cloud of smoke.
"Because that rapturous concoction is the one and only antidote for the poison settling in Mr. Edgeworth's veins right now. Your love alone can save him."
Phoenix's heart dropped into his stomach like a stone, pulse pounding like a sounding bell.
"Wh-what?"
"You have three hours until the poison takes hold and the death of Miles Edgeworth is simply a headline in tomorrow's paper."
"Wait- why are you doing this?"
"Maybe, just maybe, if you succeed, you can try and catch me and bring me to whatever you may call 'justice'. Farewell."
Before he could race towards her, she had already leapt out the window and was gone.
Phoenix's breath was ragged in his lungs, his heart a timpani of terror. A moment passed before he remembered his moments were now precious and few.
"Miles!"
He raced out the door, shouting the man's name into the night.
"MILES!"