#bonus points for finding the puns in Gavin’s subordinates

[britishassistant]

A Fruit of Several Trees

Kristoph Gavin considers many things, once the fugue of rage has died down somewhat.

He is currently being transported to the detention center in the back of a police vehicle. He has been cuffed, but not tightly, as some in the world of law enforcement still recognize that respect paid to him is worth its weight in gold. The attitude of the officer driving the car is more akin to that of a chauffer than a guard.

He is under arrest, pending trial, for the murder of Shadi “Smith”.

He has found himself in this situation thanks to the manipulation of novice Apollo Justice by failed ex-attorney Phoenix Wright.

He never should have allowed this farce to continue to this extent. When Wright asked for representation, he should have insisted that a close friend appealing to Gavin and Co. get not less than Gavin himself, no matter the client’s preferences. Certainly not an impressionable, inexpert, indecisive rookie. Not a young man who could be led by the nose until Wright had enacted this, this mockery of spiteful pettiness.

Kristoph takes a breath.

When the red has receded somewhat from his vision, he considers some other aspects that captured his attention.

He considers the warring guilt and conviction on Justice’s face as Kristoph was led from the courtroom.

He considers the look on Wright’s. That damn smug smirk, as if he were somehow better than Kristoph for getting the court to accept evidence that couldn’t exist. That was—is!—fraudulent.

He considers the way Wright looked at Justice. Conniving, grasping glances, like a dog guarding a piece of meat it wishes to devour alone. Or a castaway who doesn’t want to share the only means of survival.

Wright wants something from the boy, and wants it dearly to boot. Whether it’s merely a patsy who can appear in court in place of the disbarred disgrace, or a more…prurient desire.

Except that does not quite do the situation justice, does it?

Of all the lawyers in Gavin & Co., it was Justice, the newly promoted intern, that Wright asked for. Lacchè and Günstling were the most experienced behind Kristoph himself, although both would throw themselves on the pyre before they ever admitted he was culpable (a fact he planned to take advantage of for his appeal). Ingadozó is talented and easily swayed, though was perhaps too overly cautious for Wright’s goals. But Vichy would gladly have played along with this farce for the chance to oust his employer and rule the roost. Yung was the newest off the bar after Apollo, if all Wright wanted was an inexperienced mouthpiece who’d sing to his tune.

But no. Of all the attorneys Gavin and Co. had to offer, Wright selected the one who’d never even taken a case before and refused all others.

Though it isn’t like Kristoph doesn’t understand the appeal.

Apollo Justice is thorough, hard-working, and earnest.

He is analytical enough that he can pick up on the merest hint of a cue and doesn’t need to be led by the hand to the conclusions it would be best to draw. But he is also eager to please, aware and afraid of his own naïveté, which makes him look to his superior for those cues to begin with.

Terrified of failure. Petrified of abandonment.

He is, in short, as fine a pawn as Kristoph could ever hope for.

But if Wright is determined to use him, then Kristoph must remove him from the board.

It is regrettable, he thinks, that he’s been forced to this point. He has liked working alongside Mr. Justice, molding him into an attorney worthy of Gavin and Co.

He’s even enjoyed their non-work interactions, which is more than he can say for most people.

Morning greetings and evening partings, the occasional shared lunch, a thoughtful if inexpensive card every year for Kristoph’s birthdays, introducing Mr. Justice to some quality alcohol in honor of his twenty-first. Graciously covering for the young man’s hangover the next day, in light of the interesting things he’d told Kristoph about why he’d never partaken of even the weakest substance before he came of age.

Still, while Wright was the one pulling the strings, Justice himself also played a role in forcing Kristoph’s hand. There must be consequences for his actions.

When all is said and done, Apollo Justice only has himself to blame for this.

Kristoph Gavin requests to make a call once he reaches the detention center.

It is a call to an international number, and he is on the line for forty four minutes and thirty six seconds.

Afterwards, he returns to his cell a model detainee, if an unnervingly pleased one.

Phoenix Wright feels like he can finally breathe for the first time in seven years.

His work isn’t done, far from it. While MASON has received the tentative go-aheads and sponsorship from the relevant authorities, there’s still plenty of nitty gritty paperwork to be filed and lower level officials to be convinced that this isn’t out of their purview, not really, in fact it could be a great opportunity for them, whaddya say? Care to take a chance on something new?

Although he needs to take care that “Phoenix Wright the washed up poker player” and “Phoenix Wright the foremost jurist system advocate” don’t get mixed up any more than they already have.

Nick grimaces at the memory of the time he accidentally asked a judge if she would “ante up”. The glare he received was enough to make the arctic feel warm and humid.

So, while he still has some issues to sort through as he gets MASON up and running, he can at least do it without Kristoph Gavin breathing down his neck. Looming large over his and Trucy’s lives. Trying to isolate them and drag them down and waiting for the day either of them was careless enough to let their guard slip—!

Well, look who’s laughing now, Gavin. Look who’s laughing now.

He feels bad for Justice, he does, but Nick hardly even felt the punch in the moment, he was so elated. It was everything he could do not to start singing ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ right there in the defendant lobby.

Of course, Trucy had to get him a pack of frozen peas later when the pain set in, but even with his cheek bruised and swollen, he couldn’t stop grinning.

He’d had to hold himself back from talking about Justice to her. He needs to confirm a few last things first— he may bluff through a lot in life, but this is something he wants to be 100% certain of before getting his daughter’s hopes up.

Regardless, Apollo Justice is going places. Nick would happily go all in on that bet.

He considers his faint reflection in one of the ministry’s windows.

His old dress shirt is a bit tight around the shoulders, and his feet ache slightly from being encased in socks and too-small dress shoes.

It’s nothing like the old silhouette, sharp shoulders in blue. But it’s business enough that people take him seriously. That they take MASON seriously.

And if he has the knit hat his daughter made him poking out of his shoulderbag, pin dangling…well, everyone has eccentricities.

Nick allows himself a rare smile, made blurry by the glass, before he sets off for his next appointment with a spring in his step.

Things are finally going his way, and nothing can bring him—!

His phone begins beeping out the opening bars of the Steel Samurai theme.

Nick grins at the caller ID, good mood brightening further. “Yello?”

“Wright.”

“Edgeworth!” His delight is tempered by concern at his friend’s tone. “What’s up? Everything good with you?”

“I take it you haven’t heard then.” Edgeworth’s tone is somehow sharper than usual. Urgent. “Where are you right now?”

“I’m at the Ministry of Justice.” Nick says slowly, a sense of dread trickling down his spine. “Why? Edgeworth, what’s wrong?”

“The young attorney who helped bring down Kristoph Gavin has a warrant out for his arrest.”

Phoenix Wright stops dead.

“On what grounds?!” His voice is hoarse with volume.

He’d know if someone tried to take Justice in for assault, they’d have contacted him over pressing charges by now, and Nick hasn’t had to do that since Richard Wellington and his fire extinguisher, so that leaves the disastrous possibility that the kid had turned himself in over the representative evidence which he thought was a forgery, which, okay, kudos for having such an unshakable moral compass, but it’d be tricky for Nick to talk their way out of that one, especially with his current reputation—!

“My contact in Interpol tells me the Kingdom of Khura’in is requesting his immediate extradition.” Edgeworth states, voice steady in the way it only gets when everything’s gone to pot. “On the charges of domestic terrorism and treason.”

Phoenix turns on his heel and runs.