Phoenix counted his change again to make sure it was enough for the bus; Maya was holding Pearl's hand who kept nodding off to sleep, while Maya felt like she was fading in and out of a different world. Too many things had happened today, too many for her to comprehend and cope with at the moment. The only sound from any of them was Phoenix's counting.

After Maya left that bathroom, Franziska was already gone. She was told that she had barely left the bathroom before she was out the door, covering her face and her cracking her whip in a brutal frenzy outside before she left into the night.  It wasn't long before everyone started leaving, Phoenix' complaining that they could have offered them a lift home rather than waiting for a bus, although perhaps it wasn't the best of ideas to share a police car with Gumshoe during the night.

The day seemed to be in another time, but the stress it left was very real on the three as they waited, Maya only gave smiles and small nods when Phoenix out of concern asked her about her well being that night, he never dared ask about Franziska.

Despite Spring being only a few weeks away, it was a cold February; Maya ignored it’s harsh windy sting on her face but on her lips still reminded the imagined warmth of a kiss - the only thing that seemed to register at the moment.  

As confusion coupled with fatigue settled in more and more, the bright lights of the bus against the darkness were hardly noticed and she would have missed them if it wasn't for Phoenix's unsure voice calling for her.
The bus was densely populated, but they found enough seats to sit together at the back. A sleeping Pearl rested on Maya's lap, while she fell asleep on Phoenix's shoulder a few moments later.

-

Phoenix gently woke her up, for a few lovely seconds she forgot everything that was on her mind, only to come crashing down rendering thoughtless once again. Picking up Pearl who still slept, she followed Phoenix out of the bus and into his apartment.

Still silent as they entered, Maya quickly rushed to the nearest place to put Pearl down on a spare bed and covered her with the blanket; Phoenix in the other room took off his tie and jacket, looking exhausted.

“..It's only ten...”   The clock did in fact glow with 10:12 on it; the day's stress was clearly taking its toll on Phoenix as he fell into an arm chair looking as if he wouldn't move for some time, Maya stood silently still.

“...Maya, are you okay?” He said after noticing her, she responded with yet another simple nod. He smiled in a hopeful way, he had no idea how she was feeling and would not pretend to, but he would want to help in anyway he could. “Get some sleep; things will look better in the morning…”

She wanted to speak about everything that happened today in one stream of words, but when not even a breath passed her mouth, she nodded again, smiling thankfully then left him, feeling helpless…

It seemed her mind finally gave up, and her body along with it, when she fell face down onto her bed upon entering. From closing the door in her way in she was in darkness, with only a vague light from a street lamp breaking that. Now alone, it seemed the stalemate in her thoughts had finally finished and thoughts started to slip into her mind; her mother, Godot, Mia, Pearl, Phoenix… Franziska... Like an unstoppable slideshow on high-speed, images passed chasing her through different feelings - grief, sadness, relief, and the last one a strange blankness.

She gasped deeply as the scene with Franziska came back; feeling her arms on her, it wasn’t a violent grip like she felt before but a desperate one and for her kiss. While to Maya it seemed to be over quickly, it was a much longer time as if Franziska was releasing everything she had in that gesture.

Maya laughed, it was a shallow beaten laugh completely untypical of her, but it was all too much - her mother's death, almost being killed herself again and Franziska’s actions; it was like the last few days were designed to throw her from one side of the room to the other.

With what strength she had left, she moved herself over onto her side wishing her voices in her head would simply vanish, leaving her once again free and happy. Although she'd never admit, or show much of it to anyone, what had happened in the last 3 years had starting to take its toll. Her sister murdered and Maya being accused of it, her family betrayal, Shelly de Killer and now the death of her mother.

In ways she never told Phoenix she was glad for him and what he did, she would have died long ago if it wasn't for him in some way or another.  She imagined, through the door, him still sitting down looking weary, perhaps already asleep on the chair, but tomorrow would be another day and he'd be straight out searching for clues in a new case. Silently, she thanked her sister once again for bringing them together and her thoughts flew to Mia again, who Maya knew would know what to do in a situation like this: She wouldn't cry, she'd be upset but hiding that underneath a face of admirable bravery as she held her younger sister to tell her that they were in it together, forever.

Franziska's questions about her sister came back to her, she remembered how she was like when she mentioned her own sister, was it possible that it jealously that made her act that way?

Then in a realisation that made her body feel a strange lightness… the taste of Franziska on her lips again reminded her exactly what it meant; Franziska had kissed her.

It wasn't just a normal kiss; it was on the lips – a deep sign of affection reserved only for loved ones.

“What?” She soundlessly made out as she rose from her bed, placing her back on a wall and staring into the darkness expectantly.

She laughed again, and then fell back onto her bed finally crying, it was all too much for one day.

-

Franziska nearly finished another glass of wine as she sat down gazing out her hotel room window, her thoughts blurred by her sleepless day and the slowly inflicting wine. Tomorrow she would have to get up early to catch her flight back to Germany, but she knew in her current state there was no way she'd be doing that. She finished her glass, automatically and senselessly pouring out another from a near empty bottle – what had started as a sip for comfort turned into another glass, and then another one after until a bottle rolled around her feet.

Her hotel room looked exactly like it did the night she had arrived here: a bed not slept in and a armchair viewing out of a wide window to the glittering night life before, something she wasn't used to when recalling back to the von Karma mansion isolated with acres land before it.

Eye lids heavy, but the body not willing to sleep, she let out a vulnerable, girlish mummer as she drank again, a sign of weakness she could never carry outside her privacy.

For the last year she wanted had to come back at the right time and have the final face off with Phoenix she had promised herself many times, but as the year went on more and more, despite imaging every opponent in court as Phoenix and memories that invoked rage of the worst kind, the reason to come back to America and return to court very quickly became less of a focus completely against her will as that figure rose again and again from her mind.

It was of course, Maya.

The card she had taken from Gumshoe's coat last year found a permanent place in her pocket, always putting it down to remind her of a foe, it was until a realization of the real reason why she kept it made her very scared.  

In her weaker moments she had studied it as being something that represented Maya's most admirable traits; loyalty, her love for a friend, playfulness, and to keep a happy face on everything;  just like today with her mother's death.

How many people knew how faint she felt that day during a court break when she was told her papa had lost his first trial, or how she broke down into tears on the spot when hearing of his confession of murder? The last time she saw him was behind the glass of a detention centre visiting room, where with a voice stiff as his attitude he told her one last time:

“Do not give up the von Karma legacy.”

She felt like a little girl again, the one who just wanted to he held by father in the most loving way - but it would never happen again, Manfred refused any contact with his family at all after, right up until his death.

Manfred had been her light in life; not a light she may have liked to follow at first but the adoration for her father had given her the mindset that this was the right way and without him, it fell to pieces, simply going to court as if she were on strings.

There would be times after court when she would lie on her bed, trying to find a reason to get up the next morning, it would always be her father's last wishes that did it. Her mother would usually pass by her room; she would take a look to her then walk away knowing there was nothing she could do to help her daughter. Franziska was never as close to her mother as she was her father, who had started to mould her into a von Karma from the moment she was born.

She was given purpose once again in the death of Edgeworth – although she knew better that he could take his own life but as a von Karma he was truly dead and her father's last words to her had so much more meaning now: they were no longer the von Karma trio as they were called back in the day, and a reputation based on perfection was losing its honour. That was her call of revenge, to get back at the one who had caused that shame to her father's legacy.

Yet, Maya, at the end of the trial with her mother lost and Godot gone, she kept smiling, if not for herself but her friends; a trait Franziska had come to grudgingly respect, even more so when it was Franziska herself that Maya kept smiling for, through her semi-drunkeness she could remember the burger she had been offered and the happy request of friendship. Maya had not tied herself to a legacy like Franziska had, simply choosing to walk away from the Fey name rather than endure it any longer – an action Franziska herself had wordlessly felt like doing so many times before.

She almost crushed her glass with seething jealously. To walk away and just be happy with her friends was a happy place Franziska could never go to as she struggled with the weight of the von Karma name wherever she went.

That is why she hated Maya. From the day she met her she passed her off as just a silly little girl – the same age as her and had not done anything with her life; even if she wasn't at the happiest, Franziska was still upholding her family's name. However as she observed more of Maya, she came to remember a small eight year old girl running into her family's country house calling for her papa to show him her proudest work – a sandcastle she had built in a sandpit. She was very proud, shaping it to look like the von Karma manor, her father casually flattened it and told her to stop wasting time with silly games, and instead focus on things 'that matter'.

Maya Fey was everything she had wanted to be in her life, a wish suppressed down her mind as far as it would go. She would not live her family's title, but for herself and her friends; instead of working she would goof off and enjoy herself and she was loved by everyone in her circle of friends; that lawyer, that little girl, and her sister.
Franziska was never shown out right love, respect and approval were substitutes for that, and of course she would never admit it until the more she saw of Maya.

Her headed nodded down with weight before she brought it up against a meaningless action to keep awake, another wine glass had been used and she poured the remaining part of the bottle. With another sip, she herself not behind any mental barriers was ready to admit the truth; two tears fell down her face going on the same track made by the earlier ones.

The hatred for Maya, it was merely a disguise for an secret adoration; like the testimonies she had seen in court recently, the lies she told herself that the blushes or suppressed giddiness when thinking of her meant nothing fell apart when the more she enjoyed it and the more she left her guard down to let it influence her more. In that sense, she was a masochist for every time the warm hearted feeling coupled with the light sensation in her stomach, she would have to cause pain to herself to snap out of it but she would do it again shortly.

“Ms. Von Karma..?” cried a wide-eye clerk who was surprised to see Franziska sitting in her limo, not having moved yet with a huge grin on her face.

It was driving her crazy, she tried everything to take her mind off Maya but everything in a laughable irony seemed to remind her about why she was doing this in the first place – if she met a new woman in court, her named was always Maya or something similar, when opening a paper there would always be something about Spirit Channelling there, or sisters, or when she was going to sleep..

The attack in the bathroom, as Franziska saw it; she wanted to cause as much confusion to Maya as she did to Franziska, but another obvious reason to finally give in, just to spare her sanity.

It had been done, and there was no way Franziska would go to Germany for some time.

-

Having forgotten to close the curtains in her exhaustion, the sunlight hit Maya's face pretty early in the morning causing a random dream to trail off that involved her, Mia and Phoenix eating burgers in a bar before literally chasing a criminal downtown; she'd usually have a silly dream and was thankful at least that part of her mind hadn't given up. The sleep hadn't been kind to Maya and she felt no matter how long she slept it would always be an hour too short.

She pulled herself out of bed, stretching her arms with a blank mind that filtered out anything else expect the pleasant smell of the morning. It wasn't long until she realised the sound of Phoenix and Pearl in the other room,  Pearl talking about a sneak peek she had of 'Mystic Maya on Mr Nick's shoulder” and Phoenix trying to fumble it off as always, she felt happier knowing what no matter happened yesterday, at least these two were still here.

“Hey guys!”  She cheerfully sang, Phoenix looking both happy and relieved he didn't have to talk about Pearl's favourite subject.

“Maya!”

“Mystic Maya!”

Phoenix looked on awkwardly as she sat down to eat the eggs and bacon he had made, what could he say to her now? That cheery smile on her face as she took a bite, it had to be another attempt to remain calm, but he worried inside her there was more damage.

“…Nick? I know I'm pretty to look at, but can you say something!”

He realised that Pearl and Maya had been joking about the latest incarnation of the Steel Samurai as he stood staring, wondering what to say next, hastily he carried on eating.

“So any cases today Nick?”  She asked that seemed more of an attempt to bring Phoenix into the conversation rather than a question of interest.

“Well, I did get a call a bit earlier, but I don't know if we want to take another case at the moment.”

“Don't be silly!” Maya clapped her hands, Pearl looking brightly up to her, “We're fighting bad guys and freeing the innocent, we can't take a break like that!”

“Mystic Maya's right!” Pearl's tone carried the same call for justice as her cousin's, “You two have to protect the world!”

“To the Crime scene, to the court room, to the pro-” She stopped abruptly, eyes gazing an invisible object then she continued. ”...ecutors.”

Images of Payne, Edgeworth, Godot flashed into her mind, freezing at Franziska, her elegant status and her proud speech morphing into the crying, shattered woman in the bathroom. Phoenix and Pearl started into Maya as she seemed frozen in time before pulling up herself together.

“..Yeah…” she said softly, feeling floaty, she bit her bottom lip then stood up from the table, quickly searching for a reason to leave.

“I'm...full Nick.” It was lame, but it was only what she could think of, Phoenix nodded taking it that Maya needed some time after yesterday, “I'll be back soon, I've got to do something.”

Pearl looked on confused when she left; Phoenix gave her a pat on the back and insisted she needed some time alone.

Spread out on her bed again and thoughts about Franziska banging her head, she went through the actions one by one in her mind. She was angry, sharp and jealous but why would Franziska kiss her? Was it perhaps in the name of nastiness, Franziska finding a new weapon other than a whip to hurt Maya. Perhaps it was a Kiss of Death that maybe German people did to their enemies, her hatred of her pushing her that far. After briefly considering if she may die, she pushed that idea off as too silly.

She was crying, surprisingly for Franziska she though, surely that would have been too much of a sign of weakness when she never let go of her 'in-control' perfect image. Out of hopelessness, she wondered over a though she never would - What if Franziska actually had a crush on her? She put the clues together – wanting to get away, hiding something and that kiss that wasn't a weapon but a gesture of affection?  She had nothing against that, but the thought of Franziska von Karma loving her seemed a shock enough to absorb all her emotions into a void in her body.

She rolled her head and it was then she saw the a small white letter with her name pinned up the wall, wasting no time to pick it up, Maya saw that it was in the handwriting she adored.

Maya,

There is only one person now who can clear things up for you. You should know who she is.

Always watching you,  

Mia


Noticing there were ink blots on her hand, she smiled broadly then placed the letter gently down.  What she'd have to do next would be hard, but her faith in her sister gave her that courage to start, she had helped her once again.