155 OBJECTION!

“From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls that are destined to be entwined finally find each other, their streams of light flow together, and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being. And when these two people are connected at both the heart and soul, it doesn’t matter what you do, or who you are or where you live; there are no boundaries or barriers if two people are destined to be together.”

Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey
Kurain Village, Courtyard
June 16, 2026, 4:05 PM

“OBJECTION!”

“Objection!”

“Objection!”

The trademarked exclamation of the ex-defense attorney resounded at a decibel that made all the birds in the neighboring tree branches concurrently take hastened flight, and his clamorous baritone echoed loudly within the ears of the entire stunned congregation.

Simultaneously alongside…two female ones?!

“Who else just shouted OBJECTION?” The hobo cast a perplexed glance about him from his standing position, arm extended and in full-blown, finger-pointing mode, his former challenging expression now changing into one of utter bewilderment as he faced the continuing dazed silence of the masses. “Hello? Anyone?”

“Oh là là! Such raw, masculine virility all w’iz just one word!” Armstrong commenced his nausea-inducing, feverous torso wiggle. “I ‘ave la shivers!”

Phoenix swallowed back his bile at the all-too-memorable sight of the wriggling faux Frenchman and called out again.

“Er, am I going crazy here? Did nobody else just hear that?!”

The wannabe Pink Lady clapped his hands and was barely able to conceal his glee.

“Excusez-moi, monsieur ‘andsome lawyer homme!” Armstrong prattled cheerily. “Non! Moi aussi! I absolument ‘eard it too! Hellooooo … who else yelled Objection?”

“Don’t look at me!” Shrugged Reverend Paesano, shaking his head and stretching out his arms, palms up, in a gesture of complete innocence. “I just finished telling that pushy crone, who’s now giving me stink-eye over there…” he jutted his bushy chin in the affronted Mildred’s direction, “that throwing my voice isn’t among my list of thrasonical attributes!”

“Crone?” Bleated the tendentious village elder, twin coals narrowed into serpentine slits in the holy man’s direction as she clutched her bony, heaving chest. “Well, I never!”

The Reverend ignored her and undauntedly continued.

“I can fanfaronade about doing countless weddings, funerals, baptisms – including Longines’s here –and even painless circumcisions … all that jazz, no problem! But making my voice sound like a woman’s? Not unless I were being castrated, which would be a whole new ballpark entirely! That fella from The Bee Gees though, I don’t know how he did it! I’d blame the tight pants personally…”

“Objection!” A recognizable woman’s voice interrupted abruptly. “Irrelevant, and somewhat inappropriate bloviating, Padre!”

“Hold it!” Phoenix craned his neck over the strepent din of the throng, trying to locate the source. “I know I heard it this time!”

“Objection!” Another unidentified feminine intonation declared, equally as loudly. “No daughter of mine is going to enter this absolute facsimile of a sham of a fax of a marriage if I have anything to do with it!”

Following the direction of the voices, the bride’s bamboozled vision, at last, realized the sources from which they came, and the oversized bouquet in her hands dropped from shock.

“M-Mia? M-mom?” Maya cast a frantic, bemused glance to her right, where her daughter remained standing in her formal gown, still in her own body. “Pearly, you’re still you…”

Her voice trailed off in confusion as she looked back at the smiling figures of Mia and Misty Fey, both beloved and departed, yet somehow standing right before her very eyes in the first row next to Mystic Matilda!

“So then …wh-who’s channeling Sis?” She blinked in astonishment, sure she was somehow hallucinating, yet the beaming forms of her late mother and sister remained. “And … whose body is hosting Mom?”

“I’m being channeled by Iris, Maya,” Mia replied tenderly, her amber orbs glowing with love. “She’s been working very hard with Sister Bikini to tap into her spiritual powers, and just like this morning with her impromptu concert performance, our cousin’s timing couldn’t be any better!”

That was when, for the first time, the Master realized that unlike her usual toffee-colored tresses, which she maintained when being channeled by Pearl, her older sister presently had raven black hair, similar to her own. Also, the legal legend’s body wasn’t on its customary X-rated display in her young cousin’s acolyte attire, for Iris had been wearing her loose-flowing nun’s habit, which although form-fitting on Mia’s robust physique, still covered her with comparative modesty for once!

“Ir –Iris?!” Maya stammered, feeling slightly lightheaded now and swaying slightly on her heels as Pearl hastily placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. “S-Sister Bikini?”

“The good sister is the one channeling me, dear daughter.” Misty Fey spoke up from her standing position in order to be heard and seen by all 400 stupefied guests. “I’d always dreamed of someday seeing my baby girl get married … but not like this!”

“I hereby demand an immediate cease to this garrulousness of impudence and persiflage on this most sacred occasion, which is supposed to be steeped in reverent Fey tradition!” Screamed the sanctimonious Dragon Lady, her left eye beginning to visibly twitch. “This is a wedding, not a circus!”

At this affronting comment, Regent the Tiger, who had been balancing the still tuxedoed Feyt peacefully on his head, let out a thunderous roar, and both Jylan and Desse began vociferously chittering, as though in protest, while Max and Regina hurriedly attempted to quiet them.

Oblivious to the irony of her statement or the mini-commotion she’d caused, Mildred directed an infuriated, wizened index at the bride, her despotic nature rapidly coming into the fray despite her shrouding efforts to appear as a henotic zelatrix.

“I decree an end to these raucous shenanigans! This isn’t some sort of vapid, melodramatic soap opera! Only on such sophomoric drivel would the adulterated heroine be such a feeble-minded, sappy… ninny! Mystic Maya, I implore you! A woman of your esteemed stature should at least attempt to have some level of dignity!”

“Dignity?” Misty arched a derisive brow. “Exactly what are you implying here?”

“That degenerate wedding-crasher over there,” the old woman spat hatefully while pointing at the spiky-haired man, who’d remained standing by his seat and out in the aisle, “has promised himself to Sister Iris! How can a woman of the Master’s prestige and ascendancy possibly lower herself to arrogate allegiance with such a low-life meretricious bindlestiff of his caliber?! And snatch him from the arms of her kinswoman nevertheless?!”

Phoenix felt his cheeks burning turning red from shame and anger to be publicly deprecated in such a manner, and before so many strangers! His face flushed even further as he saw the oddly familiar-looking videographer on the premises that he’d spotted earlier, who was still recording every single moment of this humiliating, disparaging debacle! Before he could utter a word in his defense, however, his former mentor beat him to the punch.

Unfortunately, not literally.

“Just shut the hell up, Mildew!” The enkindled Mia’s pretty face twisted into an infuriated snarl. “As usual, you decrepit battle-ax, your miserable, flibbertigibbet self continues spouting off, vociferous feculence, even though you don’t have a goddammed clue what you’re nonsensically yattering about!”

“My name is Mildred, you obscenely, oversized, pneumatic … bimbo! And nay, I refuse to hold my tongue!” The Dragon Lady cunningly switched to playing the euphuistic village elder card. “This auspicious marriage was going to help Kurain prosper and thrive due to the altruistic affluence of Monsieur Beaugosse! But judging by her continued silence and refusal to utter her vows, it seems our Master is keen to desecrate all our recent prosperity and recuperation… and for what?! Naught more than her unabashed, inexplicable lust for this good-for-nothing, disgraced hooligan! This socially outcast pariah that is Phoenix Wright, of ill-reputed, disbarred lawyer acclaim?  Do we allow Mystic Maya and the Forging Attorney to marry, sullying the reputation of Kurain Village forever, or do we stop this once and for all?”

“My fellow elders, this is not your decision to make,” Misty began, her emollient voice quiet but full of power. “This council has not acted properly for many years. When my daughter was named as the new Master, you all abused your supremacy by threatening and harrying her into concurring with your desires for Kurian. Whoever you choose to fall in love with is an important decision that should be yours alone, ergo, Maya’s choice of spouse, arguably, is the greatest decision of her life! As such, I feel you all should abstain from thrusting your biased and antiquated opinions down her throat. It is not the council’s role to control the Master’s personal life, no matter how much certain people wish it were so.”

“Codswallop!” Mildred shrieked, her eyeballs nearly bugging out of her head. “You have been dead and gone for seven years now, Mystic Misty! You know nothing of which you speak! Which malicious miscreant has been feeding you all this lurid bunkum about the ongoings of our village since you departed from this earth?!”

“That would be me!” A third erudite voice rose above the rabble.

Everyone’s heads jerked up in the direction of the sound and saw Matilda rising from her seat, her dark orbs boring holes into the thunderstruck Dragon Lady’s.

“Mystic Matilda?!” Mildred could barely utter the words, she was so dumbfounded at this revelation. “You?! You would betray the village in such an unprecedented, nefarious manner?”

“I have done no such thing!” Matilda retorted sacrosanctly. “I had zero intention, nor did I play the part of Judas in any manner that would affect the well-being of Kurain! The only thing that I did was an attempt to put a stop to your dastardly doings Mystic Mildred, and hence, have no apologies for my actions whatsoever!”

“Whenever did all this occur?!” The Dragon Lady demanded harshly. “Why would you do such a thing?”

“That very day you made it clear you fully planned to pursue the starkly unsuitable match between Mr. Beaugosse and Mystic Maya, I made the conscious decision to immediately seek the assistance of Sister Bikini to advise on how to thwart your devious intentions!” Matilda informed her loftily, her face a mask of acrimony. “It was my co-conspirator’s afflatus to wisely enlist Mystic Misty and Mystic Mia for their advice on how to deal with this appalling charade of a marriage that you attempted to coerce the Master into, under the apocryphal of it being to ameliorate Kurain! The good sister and I have both been keeping them abreast of this despicable situation you have put our village leader into under the ruse of tradition and sacred custom, as well as the maltreatment she has been enduring at the hands of the council all these years!”

“And that’s how we know what’s been going on in this village, you malodorous Zoilean barracuda!”  Mia fumed, glaring viciously at Mildred. “Mom and I – we know everything!”

“For the past year, Mia and I have been holding many a colloquy session with the shrine maiden, Mystic Matilda and Sister Bikini. The latter two alternated who’d channel Mia and me to keep us in the loop about what’s been going on in the village,” Misty confirmed. “Although thus far, neither one of us has been channeled by Sister Iris, since she was still undergoing intense training of her fledgling latent powers up until now.”

“You and Bikini?” Mildred sounded as though she was being strangulated by her magatama chain. “You’re the ones who’ve been in cahoots with the Feys, and training Sister Iris all this time to learn how to channel, just so you could arbitrate the wedding?!”

“How else could Mystic Mia possibly have written that loving message for her little sister, right before I bequeathed it to her two nights ago? It was accompanied by an heirloom jewelry box containing the sentimental bridal ornaments she and her mother intended for Mystic Maya. They’d always desired for her to be bedecked in her inherited regalia for her ceremony, despite the fact that none of us would ever allow it to actually happen!”

Matilda smirked at her rival’s vilifying scowl.

“Indeed, it’s been the two of us who have the lorthews for Sister Iris all this time.  It was all part of our master plan so that she could learn to channel either the late Master’s sister or mother, for exactly the right moment to put a stop to this train wreck of a wedding! Admittedly, we’ve had our obstacles training the neophyte shrine maiden for a spell, what with her exceptional but random capacities for resurrecting famous deceased persons! It was an uphill battle getting her to channel on command this past year, as she was such a late bloomer with her spiritual powers. Nonetheless, the determined paragon was eager to lend a hand in our strategies to rescue her cousin from this mess. She continued to persevere, and hence, accordingly proved earlier today that when that girl puts her mind to something, as well as her full heart and soul, Sister Iris has enhanced psychic powers worthy of any Fey family member!”

“Ergo, here I am, back from the grave, Mystic Mildred, trying to save my daughter from the fiery pits of Abaddon that you have made not only her life but intended to make her future, as well.” Misty’s dark gaze was unwavering upon the puce-faced spinster, undisguised animus etched on her every feature. “It was no surprise to me whatsoever, being the Morgan supporter you were, that you’d be every bit the scathing bête noire to my poor daughter, which you still were back when I was village leader!”

“How dare you!” The interim pedant clutched her bony chest, which was rapidly rising and falling in rancorous fury. “How dare you have the gall to simply show up here at the most inopportune time and promptly undo all the hard work I’ve been putting in since you left here as a disgrace!”

“My mother was exonerated, so you best shut your festering gob this instant, you vacuous, hatchet-faced hag!” Mia yelled, lunging at the older woman, only to have Edgeworth, who’d stealthily been making his way up the aisle since she and Misty’s eldritch appearance, spring forward and hold her back, but not without some difficulty. “Moreover, I am not a bimbo!”

“Calm yourself, daughter,” Misty interjected smoothly, once again resuming her dulcet tone for her firstborn. “You’re going to give the poor young woman whose body you are borrowing a broken blood vessel, if not a full-blown heart attack! Now, Mystic Mildew, er, Mildred, I did not leave my position only to have my daughters befallen into deprivation because they were forced to inherit the title and all the unnecessary malarkey and corruption that accompanies it! There are unequivocally zero Kurain laws that dictate the leader has to obey the wishes of those around her. Your elder council was only required to run things in my absence until a new Master was selected. One has been in place now for the past seven years. So the time has come for you to either step aside, or you will be removed from your esteemed position of adviser, post-haste! Is that understood?”

“I feel that the council should indeed vote on this matter,” Mildred argued, but without much conviction now. Misty’s words had visibly shaken the haughty woman to the core, even though she remained balefully glaring at both the former Master and Mia. “This is not solely a matter of the Master’s personal life since it affects us all if she’s to be aligning herself with plebian like Mr. Wright, who bears a debased reputation of falsification! It does not reflect well on Kurain Village and may harm the recovery we are currently making, and we’ve only been acting in a manner that would be most beneficial to all of us as a whole.”

“Don’t even think of trying to play that card, you snotty-faced heap of parrot dropping!” The dyspeptic Mia cut in wrathfully, sparks flying out of her eyes. “What Mystic Matilda has been relaying to us was pure verisimilitude and you damn well know it! You guys have just been bullying my poor little sister into agreeing with your self-serving archaic and draconian ways and I am sick and tired of it! You and your ilk make me puke!”

She turned to Maya then, her eyes sparkling with tears of sympathy and remorse.

“I had no idea how horrid they would be to you, and what indescribable acts they would try to force upon you, all for the supposed so-called good of Kurain! I couldn’t possibly have foreseen what a nightmare you’d have to contend with when I took off to become a lawyer, leaving you no choice but to take over the Master position, Maya. My heart weeps for all the suffering you have endured, getting stuck with this position that wasn’t even your initial birthright, and I know you never wanted. Please forgive me for my unwitting part in your sorrows.”

“Sis, don’t be ridiculous!” Maya felt the tears welling up. “There’s nothing to forgive! You were trying to help clear Mom’s good name…”

“It is only because of your former beau here that this goal was achieved,” Misty inserted, smiling warmly at Phoenix, whose cheeks turned pink once more, but this time with bashful pride. “I never had the chance to thank you for that, so I shall do so now. With all my heart, please accept my everlasting gratitude and esteem to you, Mr. Wright, for all you’ve done for me, my family name, and both my daughters.”

“F-For your d-daughters?” The balbutient Mildred feigned indignation at the unjust allegations being flung at her. “Fine, the hobo bum may very well have done one or two eleemosynary acts of gallantry back when he was a lawyer! Be that as it may, I’ll be cogswoggled if I allow these unsubstantiated accusations against me! I would like to remind everybody that ultimately, I didn’t push Mystic Maya into this arranged marriage! She agreed to it, on her own accord!”

“And this was the best you could do for her?” Misty raised an eyebrow, looking disdainfully at Longines, who shrank back slightly. “You weren’t thinking of Maya’s best interests when you picked this…fancy man, Mystic Mildred. You only cared about avarice; his influences and clout and wealth when you made this match! You never even gave her a chance to be with a man that she could ever possibly love, or who could ever love her– through no fault of my daughter’s of course! The main reason this marriage was doomed from the start was that you chose a blatant Nancy as a husband for her, who would undoubtedly only have been happy with my daughter had her name been …Lance or…Gaylord!”

“Zut alors!” Armstrong crossed his arms across and assumed his customary petulant moue. “My name eez neither Lance nor zee equally abominable Gaylord!”

Nobody paid attention, as all onlookers’ observations were upon the steely-eyed Misty Fey, whose never-straying, icy stare could have frozen a less reptilian nemesis cold in their tracks, and at Mildred Latrine, who was flapping and floundering like a fish out of water.

“Regardless of what your perception is of his sexual orientation – I still did not hold a gun to Mystic Maya’s head to agree to these nuptials! Incidentally, Longines is not a pouf, he is simply a tad effeminate! After all, he is French, ah … a hairdresser industrialist and, er … European!” The old bag insisted desperately. “Men of this modern-day age have since wholly embraced their sensitive sides and distinctive, unorthodox appearance! They are simply secure enough in their masculinity to brave their own desired, occasionally flamboyant fashion sense, I’ll have you know! There is zero hard-core proof that this man was unwilling to marry Mystic Maya and sire her with an heir!”

“With a turkey baster maybe!” Mia sniggered contemptuously, causing Longines to cower in arrears of Armstrong. “Or possibly if he had enough drinks in him to float the Titanic, and was incessantly fantasizing about Hugh Jackman!”

“Excuse me, Miss Thang, but I prefer Johnny Depp!” Longines sassed huffily behind Armstrong’s back, before realizing what he’d said and turning crimson as Misty, Mia, Maya, and Phoenix all turned to gape at him in disbelief. The mortified billionaire again slunk behind the muscular chef and buried his blond head against his best man’s shoulder. “OMG, that busty broad is just so brutal!”

“Mnh-hmmm, way harsh in throwing that shade!” Armstrong agreed sympathetically, reaching over his shoulder and taking his employer’s hand in his own. “Girlfriend is just such a major meanie!”

“As I was saying!” Mildred raged, as if they all hadn’t just borne witness to the groom as he’d come riding out of the closet on a pink Harley with glittery, rainbow tassels. “Longines’s sexual preferences aside, Mystic Maya willingly agreed to this marriage when that traitorous philanderer over there unceremoniously dumped her for Sister Iris and broke her heart! That was the only reason this wedding was about to happen in the first place!”

“Objection!” Mia bellowed, directing her courtroom finger at the loathsome woman. “Here and now, I’m going to halt that baseless conjecture, before it becomes full-blown perjury, right in its tracks, once and for all!”

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak as well, but Mia held up her hand, effectively stopping him, so he obligingly shut his mouth and let her proceed. In the greatest crusade of his life, where his entire life’s happiness was at stake in the battle for Maya’s heart, he appeared to have not one, but two defense attorneys who had his back! Moreover, they were guaranteed to be even better Ace Attorneys at defending his good name than he had ever been!

After all, was there anyone who did more damage to his own cause than Phoenix Wright himself, whenever he opened his mouth anywhere or anytime outside of the courtroom?! It would be amazing to actually be on the receiving end of such champion defending, and from such a formidable tag team literally sent from the heavens! He was suddenly grateful for the taped footage they would have of this whole episode and belatedly realized the videographer was none other than the meddling busboy from that Mexican restaurant, Jesse, who was murmuring his own rendition of events into his microphone the entire time, as though re-counting for an audience.

“It’s me, Jesse Ventura, flying my first major gig solo at Jess/Desserts Productions because my boss Divine Desserts took off to cover some Hilton/ Kardashian engagement party! This here is the most sizzling scoop of the century! It’s the celebrity wedding between the Master of Kurain, Maya Fey, and Longines Beaugosse, hair heir extraordinaire!”

The busboy turned waiter turned cameraman continued narrating into his headset microphone.

“I’ve got the insider view on the hottest star-studded love triangle ever since Brangelina! The mystically reincarnated Whitney Houston concert and circus performances have long since halted, but the main spectacle is still ongoing! The Runaway Bride hath returned! Now her sister and mother have somehow been resurrected from the Twilight Realm, and are going to plead their case for the bride’s erstwhile lover, former Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright, who crashed the wedding with his signature Objection just moments ago! Stay tuned folks…this is more dramatic than Shakespeare theatre!”

“Yeah, about that issue regarding Sister Iris…” Mia smiled smugly at the aghast elder as she flicked her hair out of her eyes. “Your evidence against Phoenix in that regard has been deemed inadmissible! Therefore… the judge has declared it … Overruled!”

“Wh-What? What? What?” Mildred stammered. “What the devil is going here?!”

“I have the note intended for my sister, supposed to be received after she was married to Longines, which should have been sent two nights ago when Phoenix got hit by that car,” the legal legend announced, cocking a knowing half-smile as she waved the sheet of paper in the air like a flag and began to read. “Listen up, Maya. If this doesn’t melt you into a puddle of goo, then I swear you’ve got ice water instead of blood pumping in those veins!”

Phoenix shouldn’t have been startled that his billets-doux was now in Mia’s hand, seeing as how he had given it to Iris only moments ago. However, he’d never dreamed the words intended for his former lover’s eyes, exposing his bared heart and soul, would ever be read aloud, and in front of hundreds of strangers!

Feeling self-conscious and vulnerable, his downcast gaze never strayed from the ground as he anxiously listened to his ineffable emotions pour out from his old boss’s lips, chancing just one quick glimpse up at the altar to gauge Maya’s reaction, noticing his ex-girlfriend had tilted her head to the side, a curious and mystified expression on her visage as she listened intently.

“My love. I know I have no right to call you that anymore, but that’s what you’ve never ceased being to me, so forgive me just this once for overstepping my boundaries and addressing a now-married woman with my old over-familiarity. It’s what I’ve always called you before and although time has since made us strangers, it’s what you shall remain as in my heart.”

While in a state of breathless rapture, Maya remained rooted on the spot as she heard her sister’s mellifluous voice orating Phoenix’s heartfelt prose.

“In my journal, I do my best to write to you every day. It keeps you close to me. God, I miss you so. You plague my mind every waking hour of my life. I wish I’d never met you. No – I don’t mean that! What good would my life be without my precious memories of you to make me smile?”

The letter read like epeolatry, the libretti leaping out at the bride’s ears, as though actually coming to life.

“I keep wondering if you’re happy. I want you to be. I want you to have a glorious life. That’s why I couldn’t say the things I knew you wanted to hear the very last time we were together. I was afraid if I did, you’d wait for me for years. I knew you wanted me to say I loved you. Not saying that to you was the only unselfish thing I did in the six years of bliss we were together, and I now I regret even that. I love you, Maya Fey. Christ, I love you so much. I’d give up all my life to have one year with you. Six months. Three. Anything. You stole my heart from nearly the very start, my love. But you gave me your heart, too. You never had to tell me; I know you did – I could see it in your eyes every time you looked at me…”

The text being read aloud held a vice-like grip on Maya’s mind, its poignant reality began to distort her own, challenging the previous agonized facts of her existence, bringing her into a newly transported, oscillating realm where even her sense of self was up for grabs.

“…Being a good wife to him …. that’s exactly what you should do. It’s what you must do. I want you to do that, Maya. That’s such a lousy lie. What I really want is to see you again, to hold you in my arms, to make love to you over and over again until I’ve filled you so completely that there’s no room left inside of you for anyone but me, ever. I never thought of physical intimacy as ‘making love’ until you. You never knew that, but it’s true. The time has finally come for you to know the truth about why I had to end things with you that fateful night last March. Remembering the pain and the tears in your eyes, sometimes I still break down, knowing that I was the cause. It kills me now just as much as it did then. The day I made you walk away; you took away the very heart of me…”

Maya’s entire state of being was entirely engrossed, absorbed, almost in a trance as Mia went on reading the poetic verses which flooded her senses.

“…I knew you would fight to try to stay with me, even if it meant risking your own life. I couldn’t allow such a thing. At your mother’s funeral, I promised Mia that I would protect you with my dying breath, and it’s a promise that I had to keep. Which is why I begged Iris to lie on my behalf that I was leaving you for her. Please don’t be angry with your cousin for her unwilling hand in this deception, Maya. It was gutting her all this time, knowing how much you and Pearls must’ve hated her when all the noble Iris did was sacrifice the only family she had left, in order to save the life of her cousin. Now we can come clean with the truth, with Gavin safely behind bars where he belongs, and you about to embark on the brighter future you deserve…”

Hearing the aching, long sought-for truth after so long, the Master felt the first stirring of tears pricking at her eyelids, knowing she was about to break down any moment now.

“If there had been any other way to do things, and if I could turn back time and change them, I would. But there was no other way. I chose to have you be alive and hating me than die for loving me. I wish I had time to write you a better letter or that I’d kept one of the others I’ve written so I could send that instead. They were all much more coherent than this one. I won’t send another letter to you, so don’t watch out for one. Letters will make me just hope and dream, and if I don’t stop doing that, I will die of wanting you.”

If we hear not just with our ears, but with our hearts, we can care and not scare. Maya felt the wall of defenses around her own heart rapidly crumbling down. With the truth, at last, we can heal and bring ointment to invisible wounds in the hope they can be reduced to scars and fade in time.

“There was never anybody else Maya Fey. It was you, and only you. It’s always been you. There isn’t one person in the world that I want more than I want you. You have a place in my heart no one else could ever have. I remember the entire time we were together, thinking “I pray our love is sempiternal. I hope we last forever. But if we don’t, this is how I want you to remember me…”

Phoenix’s words of love slowly began to mend the shattered remains of her heart back together, bit by bit, filling her with an inner glowing light of soothing tranquility, unlike anything she had ever known.

“I want you to remember me holding you curled up against my body, listening to the sound of your heartbeat, and tracing maps across your skin. Remember me laughing at your jokes, even the really out-there ones like the one about stepladders vs. ladders and your insistence that I needed to stop judging things based on narrow-minded cultural assumptions. Remember us laughing hysterically for absolutely no reason at all, and remember me wiping your tears because I unwittingly made you so sad, neither of us thought you’d recover. Remember me brave, that time I held your hand in the hospital when I thought I was going to lose you; remember me scared and gentle and delicate and breakable – only for you though, only for you. Remember me happy, and all the ridiculous ways I tried to get your attention before you knew how much I loved you.”

 In her mind’s eye, all the visions Maya now recalled seeing with Phoenix’s magatama slowly began to be linked together like a puzzle, piece by piece. She felt herself being transported to that other level of spiritual reality, where both their souls were fused as one, and she was with him again, and all the voices within were aligned, so that the only voice she heard now was his.

“Remember the way I was too stubborn to talk to you and how absolutely insane it drove the both of us. Remember all the firsts and how they were so delightful, we went back for seconds and thirds and fourths. Remember the songs you couldn’t stop listening to and the childish dreams you allowed yourself about the future. If it’s any consolation, I allowed myself to have them too. If it comes to it, I don’t want you to remember the ending. Remember the beginning. Remember the first time you knew.”

Maya’s vision began to blur as the liquid pools began to form. Phoenix had not only loved her but better than that, he chose her, day after day.  Choice: that was the thing. He’d selflessly chosen a life of willing solitude and suffering if it’d ensured her safety.

Because he’d loved her that much.

“In case you ever foolishly forget: I am never not thinking of you. Although I haven’t set eyes on you since the day we parted, I’ve seen that breathtaking face of yours in all the newspapers since your engagement. It’s been a bittersweet experience for me, to have something tangible to show how you’ve grown even more heartbreakingly beautiful since I saw you last.  But even if I hadn’t seen those photos, that visage will haunt my dreams for the rest of the days of my life. Your face is my heart, Maya Fey, and the love of you is my soul.”

The happiness slowly coursing within, like a warm glow seeping through her, and was infectious. It started as a tingle in her fingers and toes, much like the feelings of stress, misery, confusion, and anxiety that had been manifesting and multiplying leading up to the wedding, but now, instead of tumultuous, it was tingly. She felt it pass through her like a warm ocean wave, washing away the agony and heartache of the past year, leaving her cleansed and refreshed internally. As the wave faded, she savored the memory of its gentle touch. The feeling was a blissful evocation of times she and Phoenix had spent together, simply talking, laughing, and making silly jokes. It had been the best time of her life, and she’d cherished every minute.

“I love you, Maya Fey. I loved you that final night I was forced to bid you farewell in Kurain. I love you now, I will love you until I die, and if there’s a life after that, I’ll love you then. Forever yours, faithfully, Nick.”

As Mia finished reading the letter, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. She paid no mind to the sniffles and quiet sobs from the wedding guests – male and females alike! – and tactfully pretended not to notice the comical honking sound Gumshoe emitted from the back as he raucously blew his nose.

“Take that!” She flashed Mildred a smarmy grin.  “There is no man on earth who’s better for Maya than Phoenix Wright, because no other man will ever love her the way he does, and always will! Well, Dragon Lady? What do you have to say for yourself now?!”

“I – um, we all thought…” The harpy stuttered uncomfortably, her eye now in full-twitch mode. Unlike everyone else present, while she appeared nowhere near moved by the letter, Mildred now certainly looked as though she’d be violently ill at the heaping dose of humble pie she’d just been served! “What else could we have possibly believed, all things considered…?”

“It’s like I told you, you chthonian wyvern!” Mia goaded with a laugh. “As is tradition, you knew not of what you spoke, so you should have taken my advice and shut that ever-flapping trap of yours! Everything you thought you knew about this kind and noble-hearted man standing here, the very one you’ve been slandering all this time – hell, what everyone, even myself up until today believed!– was nothing but falsities, Mildew. All lies. Phoenix was never in love with Iris, although perhaps a decade ago he convinced himself that he was, even though he thought she was her homicidal maniac of a twin sister! As you heard from that letter, he only lied and told Maya that to protect her life because he didn’t want to put her in danger of that murderous bastard, Kristoph Gavin, who had made a threat against her!”

The buxom beauty flashed a shit-eating grin, first at the gobsmacked expression on the detestable Elder’s mug, then at the happily relieved countenances of her sister and Phoenix, gleeful to finally have that obstacle cleared at last.

“My protégé has another letter, Maya, but I shall allow Pearly to explain everything to you later about how you were never the actual kid in question that you overheard him speaking of earlier,” Mia winked at the sheepish Pearl, who hid her red face behind her bouquet. “But more importantly, in case you’re wondering, baby sister, it was just your lousy luck that the one day you went to confront Iris to see if Phoenix’s claim was true, it just so happened, much like how he strategically planned on the night he broke up with you, to be the one time you didn’t have your magatama on, so you had no way to determine our cousin was lying about the two of them being together.”

“I knew Iris was hiding something,” Pearl confessed, her cheeks flaming. “I went to see her shortly after Mr. Nick split up with Mystic Maya, and I could see all her psyche-locks. Gosh, I feel so awful! I need to tell her how sorry I am! All she ever did was try to protect Mystic Maya, and I was so mean to her!”

“It’s alright, dear girl,” Matilda said gently. “You can tell her later. But just so you know, she understood why you felt that way, and never held any ill-will towards you. Iris really does care for you, Mystic Pearl, and would like to try to be your big sister … if you’ll let her.”

“I’d like that very much,” Pearl sniffled and nodded, then looked into Maya’s eyes pleadingly. “Even back then, I knew something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t prove it, so I left it alone. It was also the reason I never confronted Mr. Nick about it, either, and didn’t try to slap some sense into him!”

The teen shot an impish grin at Phoenix, who gave her a thankful one right back before she turned back her apologetic mien to the bride. “It’s also why I couldn’t tell you, Mystic Maya. You were so sad and broken up about Mr. Nick, I wouldn’t have wanted to get your hopes up without any sort of proof. I’m so sorry.”

“Why is everyone apologizing to me?” Maya was half laughing, half crying. “I’ve been so miserable because of all these lies, deceptions, and half-truths which made me feel like I was being buried alive all this time! But now, thanks to Mom and Sis and Mystic Ami only knows who else, this been the most liberating, happy day ever!”

“I believe you have a longer list of earth angels to thank for today than you may think, Maya, Mia grinned exultantly and crossed her arms over her chest. “Amongst that list of those to be grateful to are the wonderful women whose bodies are hosting Mom and me right now. We couldn’t have brought all this to light without their help.”

“The truth will always set you free, dear daughter.” Misty’s eyes shone with love as she gazed upon her youngest child. “You’ve grown into such a fine and beautiful young woman, even in that garish monstrosity of a dress, which I’m sure you had no say in choosing!”

The former Kurain Master chuckled and shook her head ruefully at Mildred’s affronted sniff before directing her prideful gaze at Maya.

“It brings joy to my heart to see that all the sacrifices I’ve made have all been worthwhile. I am so proud of you, baby girl. I know you have been, and will continue to be, a wonderful Master. An even better one now, without all these heavy chains and restrictions weighing you down.”

As she finished speaking, Misty stared pointedly at Mildred, who cringed and cowered away like a bug pinned to the wall. The fight had truly vanished from her now that she’d been bested, and all of her manipulations and attempts at dominance had been blown out of the water.

“Since that evil man who tried to frame you has been incarcerated, I know it’s only a matter of time before you can prove your innocence with regards to the forgery and clear your name in that matter as well, my dear protégé,” the elder Fey sibling predicted with a winsome smile at her old employee. “But in the meantime, now that Mom and I have laid out all the groundwork for you, I do believe there are some words my baby sister needs to hear from you. So without further ado, the stage is all yours now, Phoenix!”

With that, Mia and Misty both gave the former King of the Turnabout a thumbs up and nodded encouragingly.

Maya finally turned her eyes fully towards the spiky-haired man who had stolen her heart a decade ago and regarded him with all the unreserved love and elation in her heart.

“Phoenix Wright.” Her mocha orbs shone with barely suppressed tears. “I do believe the floor is finally open for the people to hear the grounds of your objection?”

“I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.” Phoenix’s determined eyes never left hers as he strode purposefully up to the middle of the aisle and gazed beseechingly at the bride. “I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. I’m a changed man now because of you, Maya Fey! I have abandoned my stubbornness and foolery and therefore free myself from everything that has been pressing down on me. So I am no longer ashamed to face you.”

“Great fires of Hades!” Mildred shrieked in disgust, staring daggers at the pianist. “What the hell are you doing now, spiky boy?! Even if you have the soul of a poet, you still have the pockets of a pauper and a sullied reputation that still isn’t worth mentioning, for Pete’s sake! Didn’t you get hospitalized?! Why can’t you just die already?!”

Phoenix flat-out disregarded the wretched old biddy and continued striding up the altar towards Maya.

“These past seven years, we’ve been driving ourselves mad, wondering ‘where does it all lead? ‘What will become of us?’ These were our young questions, and the young answers are now revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves. And I know now what I should have known then. There will always be us.”

Unable to hold back the floodgates any longer, the pent-up tears of relief and joy were now streaming down Maya’s cheeks.

“The friendship I have had in my heart for you over time has ripened into a deeper feeling, a feeling more beautiful, purer, and more sacred. Dare I name it? Alas, it is love that makes me so bold!” Phoenix blurted out, rushing forward while the courage and adrenaline were still in him. “What I went through, happened. Who I was, existed. I needed my past and I needed my mistakes to get me where I am now. It has made me a better man, loving you … it has made me wiser, forthright, and brighter.”

Maya never tore her gaze away from her former lover’s handsome, earnest face, the unmasked ardency in those sapphire orbs nearly taking her breath away as he ascended on her, for only in those eyes of love could she find infinity.

“I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them, so I suppressed my longings and tried to settle for less so that theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I truly am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything that would fulfill my greatest heart’s desire better than you. We were written in the stars, my love, all that separated us, was time, the time it took to read the map which was placed within our hearts, to find our way back to one another.”

“Mystic Ami, give me strength!” Swooned Mildred, dramatically falling onto a nearby acolyte’s shoulder while holding a hand to her head and glowering hatefully at the DILF. “Die, you damned barbed head! Just die!”

“I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any man has ever loved a woman, but a half-hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm!”

Phoenix moved with further determination up to the aisle so he could see Maya’s beautiful, glistening twin jewels. A couple of acolytes tried to block his path, but were quickly pulled aside and out of his path by Edgeworth and Gumshoe.

“I sought for love, but love ran away from me. I sought my soul, but my soul I couldn’t see. Then I sought you, and I found all three. Maya, you pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings aren’t gone forever! I offer myself to you again with a heart that is now, even more, your own than when you broke it, back on that fateful night, when I forced you to turn away from me a year ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have seemed, weak and foolish I have been, but never inconstant!”

Phoenix continued desperately until he was no more than a yard in front of Maya, chest heaving, his visage an earnest mask of love and hope.

“Let our story begin from this moment on! Maya Uma Fey, love of my life, woman of my dreams … will you take me, Phoenix Gryphon Wright, to be your husband?”

“I will!” Maya shouted, yanking off her cumbersome tiara and veil and tossing them to the ground as she lifted her skirts in preparation for launch.

“Ha! There it is! You all heard it!” Mildred crowed triumphantly, recovering from her sudden attack of the vapors. “Reverend Paesano, you heard the bride! She said I will!”

The flummoxed minister gawked at her and put out his arms in helpless surrender. “But to who?!”

“I – I’m sorry Longines.” Maya turned one last tormented glance back at her silent fiancé. “I simply can’t go on living a lie… any more than you should be.”

With that, she ran and all but leaped into Phoenix’s waiting arms, laughing breathlessly as he spun her around and around. He bent back her head across his arm and kissed her, softly at first, and then with a swift gradation of intensity that made her cling to him as the only solid thing in a dizzy swaying world. His insistent mouth was parting her shaking lips, sending wild tremors along her nerves, evoking from her sensations she had never known she was capable of feeling.

Her brain barely registered anything of their surroundings as his other hand came up to grab the back of her neck, but once his lips were on hers, everything else faded away, and she melted against him, every square inch of her body dissolving into his. Her fingers gripped his hair, pulling him closer. Her veins throbbed and her blood raced as she clutched at his shoulders, a swimming giddiness overtaking her, and she kissed him with everything she had in her.

As the kiss deepened, they held each other tighter, so she didn’t know if the pounding heartbeat she felt was hers or his. She gasped and drew his breath, tasted him on her lips and her tongue. He caressed her, then his fingers were buried in her hair, loosening her updo braid. She wound her arms around his neck, and pulled him to her, deepening their kiss. He couldn’t be closer. Or close enough. Phoenix stroked her arms, his hands trailed down her sides to her hips and lingered there before cupping her face, his exquisite lips never leaving hers. They kissed until her knees trembled and she became light-headed. It was wonderful. It was intoxicating. And it was intense to the point that her mind was reeling out of control as they kissed as they had never kissed afore. Never before had Phoenix kissed her like he would treasure and memorize her lips forever, and she never wanted the moment to end.

When they at last parted, they stared at each other in dazed silence, as though neither of them could quite grasp what just happened, the feel of the kiss still lingering like a stamp on her lips. She put a hand to her heart to calm the thudding sensation.

He looked at her, bashfully, and said, “Wow,” and then she laughed and said “you kiss by the book,” and pulled him back toward her.

They were about to be lost in another searing, mindless embrace when they suddenly heard a scattering of whistled applause behind them, and the two lovers turned towards their impromptu audience, embarrassed at the unsubtle reminder that they were not alone.

Luke, who was standing beside Edgeworth, was still enthusiastically clapping. The slightly more distinguished prosecutor had his arms folded over his chest but shot his best friend a surreptitious wink and discreet thumbs up. Mia, Misty, Maggey, and Pearl were all enthusiastically applauding and cheering, and Gumshoe had two fingers in his mouth as he let out one final festive whistle.

“Get a room, you two!” Pearl laughed, although her previously clapping hands were now clasping her cheeks in delight, the gesture making her nosegay fall to the ground, entirely forgotten and mercifully, no longer required, then throwing her arms around Luke in an elated, celebratory hug.

“Well, on that note, I’m going to take my leave now,” Misty announced then, smiling adoringly at her daughter one final time. “My work here is done, and my baby girl is no longer going to be strong-armed into a marriage with a man who is more of a woman than she is! I am over the moon that she’s now with her true soul mate, a life partner who’ll be able to ensure there are grandchildren!”

She tittered softly, pointedly ignoring the simultaneous blush on both Phoenix and Maya’s faces at that statement.

“Master Maya Fey, I must bid you farewell for now. Never forget that I’m forever watching over you. And always remember just how much I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.” Maya swallowed back the lump in her throat as Misty Fey’s form disappeared, leaving a smiling, but somewhat exhausted Sister Bikini behind in her wake.

“I’m also going to go now, too, since you two crazy kids have made up, Maya,” Mia informed them, blowing her sister a kiss. “Today was Iris’s first time channeling me, and she’s been doing this most of the day, so I can’t leave her too drained. Make sure you let her know what a big help she was. And always remember that I love you and Phoenix very much. I’m so happy that I made the right decision when I left you in his capable care. Next time I visit, it’ll probably be on you, Pearly,” she added with a playful wink. “I’m glad now that you’re 16, your robes fit me just a wee bit better!”

“We love you too, Mia,” Phoenix and Maya chorused while Pearl grinned broadly and waved goodbye as Mia’s form drifted away, leaving a slightly dazed but otherwise unharmed Iris seated there in her stead.

“This is all so beautiful!” Longines wiped at his eyes with a lacy hanky that Armstrong handed him. He blew his nose loudly, making a loud trumpeting sound that made poor, still stupefied, and only semi-coherent Iris jump slightly. “I don’t even care that this wedding set me back five million dollars and I got left at the altar!”

“Oy! Hello there! Remember me?!” The minister hollered in exasperation, even though his lips were twitching to hide a smile of relief as well. In spite of everything, he was relieved to not have been forced to perform a marriage ceremony that could only have ended in a bitter divorce before the ink on the license had even completely dried if not immediate annulment due to lack of marital consummation! “Is there anybody getting married here today?!”

“Um….” Phoenix looked at Maya, and Maya looked at Phoenix, both thinking the exact same thoughts.

Technically they knew they could get married right there and then. Maya was already in the dress. Phoenix was in a suit.

But it would have been all wrong. Save for Luke, Edgeworth, and the Gumshoes, all these guests were friends and associates of Longines, not theirs. Layton wasn’t there, nor Apollo … and mostly, Trucy wasn’t there, which would have been inexcusable. Plus, there was the pesky little fact that he also didn’t even have a ring handy…

“I’ve been here since morning!” Revered Paesano exclaimed. “I’ve had this wedding called off not once now, but twice!  Regardless of whether or not there’s a wedding to perform, I’d like to inform you that I am still owed my fee and I get paid by the hour! I’d like to still earn my pay somehow, though. Is there nobody here that wants to get married?!”

“Marry me! You know that I love you, and I am sick of living a lie!” Armstrong put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest in vexation. “We can be legal life mates and I wouldn’t have to be your secret mistress since you’re now you’re a free bird! Marry me, Longines Diandre Crispin Beaugosse the Third! Right here, right now!”

Before the jilted groom could answer, a loud cry could be heard across the field.

“No, marry me!”

The entire congregation turned their heads to see the source of this newest unexpected proposal. There was a 400-person simultaneous jaw-drop when they laid their sights on who it was – because none of them could have seen that one coming in million years!