The Ties That Bind

Chapter Two: Love is a Battlefield

LAX Airport, Departures Gate – March 23, 9:00 PM

"So you're running away," Miles said dully, with a trace of bitterness. He couldn't believe she'd been about to leave the country just like that, as soon as the Matt Engarde case had been wrapped up, creeping away like a thief in the night.

Miles had honestly thought he'd meant more to her than that. Had that moment between them at the hospital meant nothing to her at all? He could have sworn he'd seen tears of varying emotions in her exquisite eyes when he'd bravely made his confession of how he felt about her now, and she'd whispered that she was tired and needed to sleep, but had pulled him close and brushed her lips against his with a feather-like touch before laying back on her pillow and drowsily closing her eyes, her tiny hand still holding his. He'd left quietly soon after, but had been sure that as soon as things died down and the trial was over, they would pick up where things had left off. That she would tell him that he wasn't the only one who felt this way. Had it really only been all been in his mind?

She wouldn't have even given him the courtesy of a proper goodbye and would have left back to Germany without a second glance if he'd not chased her down with that tracking device she'd planted on Detective Gumshoe which had somehow wound up in her luggage! Good Lord, the woman was maddening! Now he wondered if their tender moment had been a figment of his own imagination, stemmed from years of desire.

"Shut up! You have no idea what it's like being Manfred Von Karma's daughter, Miles Edgeworth," Franziska's voice was cold.

"Franziska..."

"You don't understand a thing! You can't possibly understand what it means to be Manfred Von Karma's daughter! So many expectations from everyone around me...expectations I must fulfill! I'm expected to win no matter what. And failure? Such a thing is not an option for me!" She put a hand on her hip and eyed him with her normal stoic expression. "My father was a genius. There's no doubt about that! But...But me... I'm no genius. I've always known that. But I... I had to be one. I had to. I'm expected to win no matter what. And failure is not an option."

"You may not be a genius like your father," Miles protested, wanting to smack some sense into her and wishing she would stop being so hard on herself. "But...You are a prosecutor. You have been and always will be."

"No I'm not. Not anymore." Her glacial eyes betrayed no emotion. "I've even thrown my whip away."

"Speaking of that," Miles grinned, presenting her with her discarded prized possession. "Wright gave me this to hold onto." That ever intuitive attorney. Wright, you knew something like this would happen, didn't you?

"I'm going to say this again," he went on. "We prosecutors do not fight for personal honor or pride. I hope you will think deeply... about what you should be striking down with that whip." Other than my ego, my sanity...my heart.

"You haven't changed a bit." Her eyes began to flash fire. "You've always left me alone and walked on ahead without me! Miles Edgeworth... I've always hated you!" Because when you walked out, you left me behind! I felt like you didn't care about me at all! Like I was just some bratty kid you didn't give a damn about! How could you have just left me alone with that monster that we called father? I looked up to you! I worshipped you! I...I loved you!

Miles stared at her, too dumbfounded by the unprovoked attack to speak.

"And then... Finally, my chance to take my revenge on you arrived. If I could win against that man... If I could make Phoenix Wright bow down in defeat... Then this "girl" you left behind would have risen higher than you! That was supposed to be my revenge!" I've always had to keep on trying twice as hard to prove I was as good as you. I wanted irrefutable substantial evidence to show you that I'm no longer a little girl, and that I was your equal, somehow. So then maybe you would see me as an adult and now you would care. As your sibling I hated you because of this insane rivalry my father played the catalyst in. But as a woman, how I felt about you as a man was a different story. It still is. And it scares the hell out of me. Which is why I just can't stay!