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One of Every Color	By : Croik Category: +M through R > Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Views: 5688 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / Gyakuten Saiban, its
characters and settings, are property of Capcom, and are being used here
without permission.� This fic is rated
NC-17 for adult male/male content and some violent material.� C&C welcome and appreciated.

One of Every Color
Chapter 15
Monday, September
23rd, 2019.� 10:51 a.m.

The air was tense.� It wasn't difficult for Miles to imagine
every person on the edge of his or her seat, watching him expectantly.� Their attention was cold and accusatory, but
he was long since used to that.� He knew
their manner would change quickly enough anyway--the gallery was always that
fickle.

He wondered briefly if anyone
could see how shallow his grin was.�
Surely Phoenix, of all people, would recognize the strain in his
brow.� Usually he was able to cover his
personal feelings on a case very well, but he had the inkling now that his bias
was beginning to show.�

Even if no one noticed, there
was still only one way he could proceed.� It would be over soon.

"Your Honor."� Miles gathered himself up, trying to ignore Phoenix's eyes on him for now.� "I know this may seem a bit unorthodox,
but seeing as this witness' testimony is full of lies, I would like an
opportunity to cross examine her myself."

*****

What?� Phoenix glanced between Miles and Chassie, unable to read
either of them.� He looked to the
judge.� Is he serious?� Why doesn�t he
just present his evidence?

"The
prosecution?"� The Judge blinked,
looking rather confused himself.�
"Cross examine?� Ah, it's
been a while since I've even heard of that!"

"Forgive me for being
old fashioned," Miles replied with a smirk.

The Judge considered, giving Phoenix an opportunity to contemplate his own reaction.� But he couldn't think of any strong enough
reason to prevent Miles from doing whatever he had in mind.� He waited for the Judge to make his own
decision.

"Well, I don't see why
not," the Judge admitted.� "You
may ask your questions, Mr. Edgeworth.�
That is, begin your�cross examination."� He pounded his gavel, seemingly quite amused
by the entire concept.

"Thank you, Your
Honor."� Miles turned his attention
on Chassie, prompting Phoenix to focus.�
"Miss Gander.� You just said
you did notice where your son William
was, when you entered Mr. Hoff's residence�?"

Chassie tilted her chin down
slightly, for a moment looking even more like Urami than usual--as if she might
have picked up the gesture from her.�
"I did."

"I'd like you to tell
the court exactly where he was."

"He was�."� Chassie paused, gauging Miles as if fearful
of being caught in some kind of ambush.�
"�in a cradle," she finished carefully.� "A small bassinette, at the foot of the
bed."

"In other words, the
bedroom--where you and Mr. Hoff fought over who would take him?"

"Yes�."

Miles tilted his head slightly.� "Did you get any alcohol on the
baby?"

Chassie straightened, as did
much of the gallery.� "I beg your
pardon?"

"The baby," Miles
repeated impatiently, as if having to remind her.� Chassie's shoulders inched up in
irritation.� "Did you get any alcohol
on the baby, when you broke the glass bottle and spilled wine all over?"

"Objection!" Phoenix interrupted crossly.�
"I don't know what the Prosecution is trying to imply, but it's
clearly irrelevant.� He's only trying to
bully her."

Miles was quick to defend his
line of questioning.� "Your Honor, I have evidence that some harm might have befallen
the baby William some time before the fire.�
Seeing as Chassie admits to being the last person at the scene before
the arson and related deaths, I have a right to question her."

"Objection!" Phoenix shouted again, pounding his desk.� "That's untrue!� Obviously the last person at the scene would
have been the arsonist, long after
Chassie left!"

"Are you suggesting that
the arsonist took the time to kill a sleeping child, then set the building on
fire?" Miles challenged.

The only reason someone would do that, Phoenix
thought, grinding his teeth, would be to
cover up the fact that they'd killed
the baby, rather than it dying in the fire.�
But even if I thought Urami had
done that, how could I prove it without raising her as a suspect?� I can't possibly ask her to testify.

He didn't have time to
consider--he had to respond to Miles now.�
"I wouldn't presume to know.�
But the fact remains Chassie was not
last at the scene."

"Exactly what kind of
evidence are we talking about?" the Judge inquired.

"This,
Your Honor."� Miles lifted what looked like an autopsy
report, making Phoenix wish he'd paid better attention to Angel when she'd
tried to warn him the day before.�
"According to the original coroner's report, the child's sternum
was broken at the time of autopsy, an injury consistent with excessive CPR."

Phoenix fought him at every step.� "We're talking about a baby that was
only a few months old.� Any kind of debris
could have injured it."

"But the baby was not
discovered under any debris," Miles retorted, wagging his finger at
him.� "It was found in the burned
out remains of the very bassinette Miss Gander has just mentioned."

It was?� Phoenix glanced down quickly to his evidence, sliding the
police report to the top.� There was only
a brief mention.� Edgeworth didn't present any evidence on the three of them in the last trial,
because he was trying to prove Chassie killed the couple next door.� Is there more in those autopsies I don't know
about?

The Judge banged his gavel as
soon as the voices of the crowd began to swell.�
"Witness, would you like to amend your testimony?"

Chassie was staring straight
ahead, her eyes fixed on some point below the Judge's seat.� "No," she answered quietly.

"Then you have no
explanation?" Miles prompted, his voice mocking.� "As to who might have harmed, then tried
to save, then burned your own son?"

"It was not me,"
Chassie insisted shakily.

"Oh?� Then do you admit that's what happened?"

Phoenix pounded on his desk.�
You're going too far, Edgeworth!� "Hold it!� You're putting words in the defendant's
mouth!"

Miles waved a hand
disdainfully.� "It's a fair enough
question.� She and Mr. Hoff fought--quite
heatedly--in that very room.� We know the
baby was somehow injured.� You can't
discount the possibility that the events were connected."

"A court of law is not based
on possibility, Edgeworth."

"It was not me,"
Chassie murmured again, her hands shaking against the witness stand.

"Then who was it?"
Miles demanded before Phoenix could object again.�
"Admit it--you killed
your own son!"

"It wasn't me!"
Chassie cried, her voice growing suddenly shrill as her control failed.� "It was her--it was that backstabbing whore!"

Phoenix's heart skipped a beat.� He opened his mouth, trying to stop her
before she could continue.� If she implicates Urami here--

"That monster Ann Arky killed my son!"

What?� Phoenix stared, dumbfounded, barely noticing the commotion
that quickly spread behind and around him.�
He looked to Miles as the Judge fought for silence--again, the
prosecutor remained steadfast.� He knew?�
Phoenix could only watch with his mouth open.� What
the hell is going on?

"Witness!" the
Judge exclaimed, blinking in surprise.� "What
is the meaning of this?"

"It was her!"
Chassie wailed, her shoulders hunched as she leaned
forward against the wooden stand.� She
was trembling all over.� "That
Ann--William was my son!� She had no right to him!"

Miles, having seemingly
expected her breakdown all along, quickly pounced on the opportunity to extract
more testimony from her.� "Miss Arky
intervened when you were arguing with Mr. Hoff, didn't she?"

I don't know what he's getting at, but I have to stop
him!�
"O-Objection!� There's no basis
for--"

"She tried to take my
baby," Chassie went on despite Phoenix's attempt.�
"That coward!� She tried to
take him, and I tried to stop her.� But
while we fought�."� Chassie shook
her head almost violently.� "She�she
knocked the cradle over�!� And William�."

Phoenix's own hands shook against the Defense Bench as he
listened to Chassie's bizarre and unexpected testimony.� She has
always been lying to me, some voice at the back of his mind echoed.� Urami
kept the clinic report secret because she knew the clinic had records on the
baby.� A closer look at the baby, and
this is what happens�.� Phoenix gulped.� Urami really didn't kill the baby.� But she did set that fire for a reason.�

�To cover something up�.

"So the cradle was
knocked over," Miles was saying, drawing Phoenix back to his senses.�
"With the baby still inside.�
And it suffocated that way, underneath?"

Chassie quivered and turned
her head away.� "�Yes."

"And you tried to
resuscitate him."

"Yes�."

"Was this before or
after you hit Mr. Hoff with the wine bottle?"

"I�." Chasse
faltered.� Her eyes darted back and
forth, in a way that Phoenix was all too familiar with--she was trying to come up
with a lie.� The realization hit Phoenix like a fist in his gut.� "I don't remember�."

Miles tilted his chin
up.� He had shed his bravado from
earlier, by now looking as cold and professional as Phoenix had ever seen him.�
"Then how about this.� Did
you try to resuscitate William before or after you killed the ones who stole
him from you?"

Chassie's eyes went wide, and
as she stared vacantly down they glistened with tears.� "I�."� She lowered her head, hiding again beneath
her thick locks of hair.� "I didn't
kill anyone."

Say something.� Damn
it, Phoenix, say
something!� The defense attorney shook himself.� "Objection!"� How he could manage to speak so forcefully
when his stomach was twisting into knots, he had no idea, but he was
grateful.� "Even if Chassie admits
the baby died in such a way, it was still only an accident!� You can't prove whose fault it was!"

"I don't have to,"
Miles replied smoothly.� "If the
child died as a result of a crime Miss Gander was already in the act of
committing--namely, murder--the law can still hold her responsible for the
death.� Thus, three counts of murder."

"Yes, that's true,"
the Judge confirmed.� "Though, which
murders are you referring to?"

Miles's hand slammed down on
his desk in another impressive clap of sound.�
"I am referring to the murders of Jack Hoff and Ann Arky, which
were committed before the fire was
started!"

By now Phoenix was starting to feel faint.� She
killed them, that traitorous voice continued to run about his skull.� Edgeworth
was right.� She's guilty.� No�can
I accept that?� I promised I'd set her
free!

Phoenix's hands came down, the both of them creating a
greater impact than Miles' one.�
"You still haven't shown any proof!" he hollered.� "Proof that my client committed any murder!"

"The proof is the
contradiction in her own testimony," Miles said firmly.� "First she claimed Ann Arky had nothing
to do with her fight with Mr. Hoff--she was only an observer.� But now we learn Ann did interfere, enough that a young child was killed because of
it.� The question is,
why did Miss Arky feel compelled to
reach for the baby?"

"I�."� Chassie struggled to regain some kind of
composure.� "It was after I hit
Jackie with the bottle," she related hoarsely.� Her face remained hidden, but it sounded as
if she were crying.� "She was
afraid."

"Don�t you find that
strange?" Miles continued.� "As
Miss Gander has pointed out herself she is a frail woman, and she claims Mr.
Hoff suffered no great injury from her attack.�
He was well enough to eject her from the building.� So then why was Miss Arky fearful enough that
she would try to flee with a delicate child?"

"She was a coward,"
Chassie hissed.� "And a
kidnapper!"

Miles' hand moved to his
papers, sliding one to the top of the pile.�
Phoenix couldn't be sure, as he himself was already
distraught, but he thought he saw something in the prosecutor's face resembling
regret.� He was about to present his
final evidence.� Phoenix's lips parted, but he couldn't make them work.� Despite how far his desperation and tenacity
had taken him, and how difficult his struggle had been, he needed more than
anything to see what it was Miles had left to reveal.

I still want to know the truth.

"You're certain,
then," Miles asked Chassie one last time.�
"You did not harm Miss Arky?"

Chassie shook her head again,
her voice coming out as a thin, grating murmur.�
"I didn't kill anyone."

Miles's eyes thinned, and he
took a deep breath.� "As the court
is aware," he declared, "blood evidence does not fade over time.� It can become harder to see, but even a stain
that is a few years old can be detected, and positively identified."

The Judge blinked.� "You have such blood evidence to
present?"

"I do."� Miles lifted his report, giving it a sharp
flap just before the bailiff came to take it from him.� "If you recall, this last Friday the
defense presented a photograph of Chassie Gander making a call from the phone
booth just outside Mr. Hoff's residence.�
By now any fingerprint evidence is long since gone, but the defendant
herself has admitted to using that booth the night of the incident."

"Yes, that's true,"
the Judge said, following along.

"Miss Gander also
testified that she hit Mr. Hoff with a bottle.�
She suffered lacerations to her hands, and no doubt Mr. Hoff sustained
at least some kind of injury as well.� When
Miss Gander made her call that night, the blood from her hands seeped into the
thin metal crevices in the phone's cord.�
However."� Miles' voice
lifted slightly.� "We were able to
identify DNA from three different
people from the blood we collected from the booth."

"Three different
people�" Phoenix repeated weakly.

"Chassie Gander, Jack
Hoff, and Ann Arky."

Chassie shook, and her
fingers clenched--in a startling display of strength, her grip spread thin
cracks along the polished wood she'd been clinging to all along.� "They took my son," she hissed.

"The defendant, Chassie
Gander, had suitable motive," Miles addressed the court.� "She came that night to retrieve her
son, but a struggle ensued.� The child's
cradle was overturned, and he suffocated beneath it.� And in her anger, Chassie killed them both,
before replacing the baby in the cradle and retreating to let a friend clean up the mess for
her."

Phoenix started, watching Miles anxiously in case he was
about to present some kind of evidence against Urami as well, but he seemed to
be finished.� He looked to Chassie.� I don't
believe this�.

Chassie lifted her head,
revealing a tear-streaked countenance twisted with anger and panic.� Phoenix was shocked at the sight of it, after how composed
she had been up until that point.� Her
gaze swung to the seats behind Phoenix to focus on something in the gallery.� "They deserved it�" she whispered.

"Chassie�."� Phoenix braced his hands against the desk, uncertain if he
would be able to stand on his own otherwise.�
"Did�did you really do this�?"

Chassie's eyes thinned, and she looked away from a face in the crowd who
could have only been Urami.� Slowly her
expression melted into one of merely pain.�
"Mr. Wright�."� Fresh
tears spilled over her cheeks.� "I'm
so sorry."

"Miss Gander,"
Miles interrupted.� His voice was the only
sound in courtroom.� "Did you stab
them with the broken wine bottle?"

She flinched, beginning to
shake again as her fingers clenched.� Her
fingernails broke against the podium.�
"I cut her throat," Chassie confessed eerily.� "From behind.� The blood was all over my hands�."

"And Mr. Hoff?"

"I�didn't kill
Jackie."

"Witness," the
Judge prodded, "you've already just confessed to murdering Miss Arky.� Not admitting to killing Mr. Hoff will not
ease your sentence."

"I didn't kill
him!" Chassie hollered, her voice cracking.� "I stabbed him--I did.� In his lying eyes!"� She laughed shrilly, making Phoenix's knees weaken.�
"And he--the fool--he ran right into the wall.� I knocked him unconscious and left him
there."

Chassie's raving was cut off
by a thick sob, and she shook herself until she was able to continue.� "I left him to burn in the fire--to burn
in Hell!� He deserved it for taking my
baby from me!"

The uproar from the crowd was
suddenly deafening, as if Chassie's surrender had
unleashed the responses they'd been trying to contain.� All around, people declared their shock to
each other as she continued to weep, her knees buckling but her hands still
tightly gripping the podium.� When the
bailiff approached to try and remove her from the stand she let out a
shriek.� "It was my son!" she raged
madly, refusing to be touched.�
"They killed my son!� It
wasn't my fault--it wasn't me!"�
Splinters from the wood dug into her grasping fingers and drew
blood.� "She made me kill her!� I hate
them--I hate her!"

Through the commotion Phoenix stood transfixed, shocked into silence and beyond
reason.� Everything was a blur.� He watched without really seeing as Chassie
was finally pried from the podium by three officers, crying and senseless.� He didn't try to make out any of the words
flying back and forth among the thundering audience.� Whatever he was supposed to have felt didn't
reach him.�

"Your Honor," Miles
spoke from some great distance.�
"The Prosecution rests."

The gallery quieted only long
enough to hear what the Judge had to say.�
"The Defendant has confessed," he told the court, he himself
shocked by the proceedings.� "To�two
counts of murder, and one accidental death�?�
One murder and two felony murders?� Three counts of murder?� I'm not sure what to make of this
outcome."

"The Prosecution is
satisfied with two counts of murder.� It
won't affect the sentence already imposed on her."

"And the arsonist?"

Phoenix's mind sharpened back into focus with those words,
and he lifted his head to stare at Miles across the courtroom.� Please,
don't say any more, he thought desperately, praying Miles would interpret
his meaning well enough.� There's no telling what Urami might do now,
let alone if you--

Miles watched him, his face
an unreadable mask.� He turned again to
the Judge.� "I'm sorry, Your Honor,
but we have no leads as to who might have set the fire that killed Mr. Hoff and
his neighbors."

"I see.� Then this case will remain�half
solved?"� The Judge stroked his
beard thoughtfully and looked at Phoenix.� "If the
Defense has no remaining objections, I will declare my verdict."

Phoenix lowered his head.�
It's over.� I've lost.�
"No objections, Your Honor," he murmured.

"Very
well."� The Judge brought down his gavel with a loud
clang.

"This court finds the defendant,
Chassie Gander, guilty."
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