#especially during cross examinations. holy shit it is so fucking annoying

[beauzos]

replaying the original Ace Attorney trilogy since the AJ remaster is coming out in like 10 days. i will not be done by then but i thought it'd be fun to brush up on the series again before giving the AJ trilogy a crack for the first time.

i played the first trial in Apollo Justice 1 but i got so irritated that i couldn't skip text bcs it was an emulation of the original DS version (and because i didn't like the case very much) i never finished the game. look forward to giving it a real shot this time.

[shewhoridesonrainbows]

Words Upon Your Skin - Ch. 3

AO3

Chapter 1 * Chapter 2 * Chapter 3 * Chapter 4

20 Minutes Earlier - Gotham

 Damian wasn’t technically disobeying his father. Batman had told Robin that they couldn’t follow the suspects during the day because their suits were too noticeable in the daylight, nobody said anything about Damian. So, dressed in the most generic get-lost-in-a-crowd he owned, Damian tailed the two men.

 The GCPD had asked for Batman's help to bust up a human trafficking ring that had brought in hundreds of down-on-their-luck girls from other countries. According to the files Gordon gave the team, the men ten paces ahead of Damian were part of the group behind everything. All Damian had to do was follow them long enough to find out any useful information but so far the only thing these two had done was eat at a shitty diner then walk four blocks down the street.

 Looks like this is going to talk a while. The thought had barely crossed his mind when Damian saw the men duck into an alley. Shit. He picked up his pace, he couldn’t lose them now. He slowed just as he reached the corner and stopped to carefully peek around, As soon as he spotted the suspects standing halfway down the alley, having a conversation with a new person, he knew he’d most likely hit the info jackpot. A quick glance around and Damian found the perfect hiding spot. Crouched as low as he could get, Damian dashed to the side of an overflowing dumpster, One of the men turned just as Damian was out of sight. If he was a spiritual person he would’ve thanked whatever God of Luck that was smiling down on him in that moment. He breathed silently and waited for the conversation to continue.

 “So, like I was saying,” one of the men Damian was originally tailing spoke, “the boss wants everyone there by 11 tonight.”

“Damn, I really hate the docks,” another commented, “the salt in the air makes everything feel sticky.”

Damian heard a smack echo against the brick walls.

“Suck it up and stop being a lil’ bitch,” and there was the third. “We’re gonna make bank off of this shipment, I heard there’s a couple French ones this time around.” the first let out a low whistle.

“Where’s the cargo being unloaded this time?” the second asked.

“Jeff lined some pockets to keep the dogs from sniffing around Pier 5.”

“Good going Jeff!”

Yeah, good going Jeff, Damian thought. Too bad I just have to bring Titus. It was time to get out of there, Damian had all the information they needed for a Batfam raid. He had just started backing up when a fourth voice sounded from behind.

“Looky here boys!” A large hand lifted Damian off the ground by his hood. With lightning fast calculations, Damian determined it safer to act as non threatening as possible. “Y’all had yourselves an eavesdropper!”

 Time to lay on the act.

 “L-look I barely heard anything,” he stuttered. “I was just passing through and didn’t want you guys to see me.” 

One of the original two stepped forwards, “C’mon, man,” the one that doesn’t like ocean air, Damian’s mind supplied, softer than the others, “let the kid go. Some Gotham street kid ain’t gonna hurt us none.” The behemoth holding him grunted and started to lower Damian to the ground but as soon as his shoes touched down the voice behind him sounded again.

 “Don’t ya think he looks kinda familiar?” All four men examined Damian’s face a little closer. One of them took out a phone, typed something quickly, then turned it around for everyone to see. And sure enough, there was Damian’s own face staring back at him from the screen. Shit. I’m never going to hear the end of this from those idiots at home. 

 The one with the phone chuckled, “We just bagged ourselves a Wayne!”

Damian had to think of a plan to get away without letting these criminals know that he was any kind of actual threat, so kicking their asses and running wouldn’t work, especially since they knew who he was. His brain was going rapid fire through possibilities as the men around him discussed what they wanted to do, getting increasingly agitated.

 “All I’m saying is that Brucie will pay a pretty penny to get one of his brats back.”

 “And I’m telling you that we don’t want to get that kind of attention.”

“We can’t just let him go though, who knows what he heard!”

“Guys, guys,” the one still holding Damian spoke in a smooth, calm voice, “it’s simple.” Damian felt the man shift a little. He’d barely gotten a look at the syringe in the man’s hand before there was a sharp pinch in his neck. It felt like ice was coursing its way through his veins. The shock of it kicked his instincts into high gear and Damian twisted out of the grip on his hoodie. Whatever was in the syringe was fast acting though because his knees had collapsed beneath him as soon as his weight wasn’t supported by the man.

Damian finally got a good look at the guy that was holding him when the man knelt down and grinned into the teen’s face and started in on the stereotypical villain monologue.

“See, Lil’ Wayne,” he held up the now empty tube in his hand, “this stuff here is what we use on the girls to knock ‘em out. Super quick and causes memory loss.” 

 Damian could already feel himself losing consciousness. Fuck. He had to force focus back on the new bane of his existence.

 “Side effects include headaches and heat flashes. And you won’t remember the last 30 minutes.” He stood and took a step backwards. “Nice meeting you. Wish we could’ve chatted longer.”

The men laughed and started walking away, Damian glaring at their backs until his vision started to darken.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he lost the ability to stay sitting up. This was going to be for nothing. I have to find a way to remember. Then an idea struck. He used the last of his strength to get the pen out of his hoodie’s pocket and shove a sleeve away from his wrist, exposing just enough skin for a short message. He was only able to jot down the basics; When, where, and that they needed a canine sense of smell. 

 With the last ‘S’ written Damian succumbed to the drug.

 ***

It was the ringing from his phone that finally brought Damian back into the waking world. He groaned at sat up, rubbing his aching temples. What the hell happened?

 The phone in his pocket went off again, the sound making his headache even worse. He answered without even looking at the caller ID.

“Yes?”

 “Where the hell are you and why haven’t you answered us before now?” his father’s voice came from the speaker. He examined his surroundings. Dirty dumpster in the middle of some alley. 

“I’m not completely sure,” he admitted, “it appears I was drugged.”

 “You were-” his father started. Damian could tell his father was trying to calm himself down so he waited patiently. “Just turn on your locator and one of your brothers will pick you up.”

“I hope it’s Grayson,” Damian said as he pushed the special button on his phone “I don’t want to hear Todd’s comments until this migraine is gone.” He stood and started walking towards the street.

“Did you at least find anything useful?” his father sighed. With the phone still pressed against his ear Damian checked himself over for any kind of notepad or scrap of paper. He was about to tell Bruce that it had been for nothing when he noticed the edge of ink on his wrist. He held the phone between his ear and shoulder then tugged his jacket sleeve to expose the sloppily written message.

“Yes, father,” Damian said with a smirk. “We’ll be needed at Pier 5, 11 o’clock tonight. We should bring Titus to help find the girls.”

“I’m not happy with you,” Bruce started, “but this might have saved them. I’ll see you back at the cave.” The call ended with a click.

Damian pocketed his phone and waited.

 He glanced back down at his wrist and caught a glimpse of another message further down his arm. A quick tug revealed more writing but this was different. Instead of the ink on the surface of his skin, this seemed to be coming from within...and in French.

 “ ‘I’m happy to finally talk to you’,” he translated out loud, “ “I hope we can talk more after this. I’m not going to ask why you had not written before now but just know that I’ll be here for you if you ever need someone to talk to.’ “

 Holy shit, I have a soulmate.

To say Damian was stunned would’ve been an understatement. He silently cursed his habit of wearing long sleeves. He could have known about his soulmate’s existence ages ago but anything they might have wrote him before went ignored because of the stupid barrier of fabric.

 Wait, why am I upset? I never needed someone. 

 The roar of a motorcycle approaching snapped Damian out of his downward spiral. And just his luck, Jason Todd was the driver. He yanked his sleeve all the way down and stepped out to meet his most annoying brother.

 Todd pulled to a stop right in front of Damian and tossed him a helmet. “Heard you got into some trouble, Demon Spawn,” he laughed as Damian caught the sleek protective gear. “C’mon, B is waiting.”

 Damian grumbled as he slid the helmet over his head, there was too much to do tonight for him to think about his surprise soulmate. Of course the afternoon that he was drugged then discovered that he had a soulmate was the afternoon that Todd got to him first. Although, Todd was the only one of them without a soulmate, so maybe Damian could ask him what he would do if he suddenly found out he had one.

As he climbed on the back of the bike, Damian formulated a plan. Todd revved the engine then abruptly took off towards home. 

Damian would never admit to having to “work up the courage” in any way, he just mentally prepared himself to ask Todd this question: “What would you do if you suddenly found out you had a soulmate?” The comms in the helmets made his voice crystal clear so there was no way of taking it back and accusing Todd of mishearing him. This was it. 

Years of experience on the backs of bikes kept Todd from swerving in surprise, but the wheel did stutter for a second. 

“Are you asking for curiosity’s sake or is there a reason behind this?”

“You are not to tell the others,” Damian hissed. “Not until I finish planning what to do.” Todd nodded his agreement to Damian’s terms. 

“At some point before I fell unconscious, I was able to get some useful information on the human trafficking operation. The suspects must have told me that the drug they’d given me causes memory loss because I wrote the info on my wrist.” Damian paused as they turned a corner. “When I woke up I had more writing on my arm. Not in my handwriting and nothing like I would ever write myself.”

“How’ve you gone this long without knowing you had a soulmate?” Damian sneered at the question.

“You were with the League,” Todd’s shoulders tensed, “you know as well as I do how they view soulmates.”

“Yeah,” Todd grunted, “useless except as pawns to use against them.” Damian nodded.

“By the time most people get to the League, they’ve already proven not to have a soulmate. I’m the only person to have been born into the League that didn’t reach the part of my training where I would’ve hunted down my soulmate.”

They were both silent for a second, then Todd asked, “What would you have done when you found them?”

 Damian was silent a moment longer.

 “I would’ve killed them.”

NEXT