Psychic Aggression {Ace Attorney and Pokemon Wattys 2016} (Complete)

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December 1st, 9:05 am
Grand Saffron Hotel

Inside the hotel that Edgeworth knew ever so well, there wasn't a single light. The eerie atmosphere of darkness coated all of the inside of the building, which to his surprise, was not coated in dust like it usually was. Swan's desk lay still in the back, not a person operating it. The inside was cold, closed off.  Not a thing moved from its still position, nor would they. The hotel seemed to be caught in a certain time loop that it could not fix itself from. It seemed almost marcid.

Swan swept up to the door unnoticed, the buttoned height of her trench coat disguising her body from the world. Her face was stroked by the expanse of red hair covering all the way from the right side of her forehead to her left jaw. She opened the door, humbled with her back bent as she squatted down. Welcoming him in, she turned away as he entered the building, shutting the door behind her.

"Are you alright?" was the first thing Edgeworth asked.

Swan whispered, "I'll survive, like I always have."

The hotel was meticulous despite the fact the heating was no longer on. The awe he felt reminded him of all that time ago when he was eavesdropping on Wright and Swan as they spoke. He looked at the ginger in black, she was standing there, lost. A sinking feeling hit his stomach as he led her to the sofa. Her sleeves brushed up for the smallest moment, revealing the blinding paleness of her skin as she sat down. It was then that her eyes widened and she pulled the fabric to the very base of her palm beyond her wrist.

"Angel, are you alright? I can leave if need be," he offered.

She said, "Please don't call me by that."

"Absolutely," Edgeworth said. "I'll leave you be if it's too difficult. I'm sure I can find another place to sleep."

"Sit down!" she snapped.

He obliged, taking small steps to the couch where he sat down, crossing his legs and laying out his hands in his lap. She breathed deeply in, her chest rising in a painful manner. Her stance opened, and Edgeworth noticed as she became physically less guarded. Taking a moment to steady her breath he watched as she picked at her coat. Then she looked up, her eyes meeting his own.

Swan said, "I'm sorry for snapping. I just needed to find a moment to get some control, especially after what he did to me."
To his surprise, she rolled her curls back behind her ear, revealing the maleficent scar down her face. The wound was a hideous, grotesque line that strung from the middle of her forehead, through her eye which was no doubt forever blinded, and all the way down to the rough edge of her jaw. Lacerations extending like webs from the main cut were jagged, like lightning bolts and spiderwebs, and extended in miniscule lines from their parent wound.

She unbuttoned her coat, and Edgeworth gazed at her for the first time in plain clothing. However, he did not pay attention to that. Instead he looked at the crisscrossed lines stretching up and down her arms and legs. More horrid slits reddened her arms from the army of stitches that danced up and down her limbs. The familiar marks of the serrated knife lined her body. A traitor's marks. It was in that moment that he understood.

"Was it...?" he said, breathless as he examined the scars.

She nodded. "It was him, indeed."

"Shouldn't you be in the hospital?" Edgeworth asked.

She stood up and began to button her coat again. "I can't afford it. Not if I want to keep the hotel open."

The bottom of her coat slashed as she went for the door. He stood up from her couch as she turned around. At the counter she picked up a black object. Staring for a few moments he understood what it was when she took an elastic band and stung it over her face. An eye patch. He clenched his teeth as he watched her.