How To Disappear Completely

It all started when Apollo turned ten.

He was on the riverside in Khura'in building a sandcastle with Datz… until he suddenly wasn’t. 

—

The world shifted, his stomach lurched. It felt like he had fallen into the river again, sinking further down 

and down 

and down 

and down

And then it settled and he knew .

—

Apollo was very happy to be allowed to live on the Wright Anything Aircraft.

Apollo and his younger sister Trucy had been adopted by the ship’s captain, Phoenix Wright, when the WAA had crash landed on Apollo’s homeworld. Apollo and Trucy had been the ones to find Phoenix and his first officer, Maya, swearing and trying to fix their little ship after it crashed into their house. Trucy was only a baby at the time and Apollo had been trying his best to look after her after their parents had disappeared a couple of months prior. Luckily the house they grew up in had plenty of supplies for two kids to mostly look after themselves. But a spaceship crashing literally into their house was kind of like a sign from the gods. Phoenix was immediately enamoured with the two and once they’d fixed the ship, the two joined him, Maya, and their engineer Larry on their little ship. 

Three years had passed…and Apollo remembered all of it. The WAA being tracked down by the flagship of the federation and Apollo’s new dad, Phoenix, coming face to face with his childhood best friend, Miles Edgeworth, and the two of them starting a fond rivalry as the WAA kept doing their… barely legal … exploring, and Captain Edgeworth tried to arrest them every few months. Apollo remembered this. But he also remembered his life in Khura’in with Dhurke and Nahyuta. 

He spent two weeks on board after shifting for the first time. Two weeks of space exploration and playing with his little sister in the small hangar of the ship and watching his dad angst over his friendship with Captain Edgeworth…

And then he shifted again.

—

This time he thought he’d been ejected from the airlock. The air was suddenly taken from him, but instead of falling, he was floating.

Further and further away from the ship that housed his little family.

—

And then he was at a table in Khura'in having dinner with Dhurke and Nahyuta. His memories of the last two weeks with this family overlapped with his memories of being in space and he didn’t know what was happening. 

Dhurke worriedly comforted his son as the boy suddenly started howling over his dinner. No matter how Apollo explained it, it didn’t sound real. Everyone thought he’d just had a weird dream. After trying desperately to make anyone believe him, Apollo started thinking that maybe he had dreamed it. 

And then it happened again. 

—

The first few times it was always to his life in space, but once he turned 11 and was moved back to America, he started living another few lives.

There was a world where there were real life superheroes and Apollo’s dad, Dhurke, was a vigilante and the best one of the lot. 

There was another where he had some weird writing on his wrist that he was told was his soulmate’s name. His dads, Phoenix and Miles, had shown him their own and explained how they had met in elementary school and been by each other’s sides since. Apollo didn’t understand it completely, but he was really excited to meet whoever this ‘Klavier Gavin’ was. 

There was one where he was on a pirate ship, one where he was raised by musicians, another by magicians, one where he was really into sports for some reason, one where it was a really, really long time ago and there was real magic. The worlds seemed never ending and he was living all of them simultaneously. 

—

In a couple of years he’d learned to control it. He was able to choose when he shifted and which universe he went to. The problem was that nobody ever believed that this was happening in his main universe. The only person that seemed to believe him was Clay, whom he’d met in a few of the universes at this point and was his best friend in every one. 

A couple of Apollo’s previous foster parents had made him see therapists and psychiatrists (who also never believed him), so by foster family four, Apollo made it his mission to never mention any of his shifting to anyone except Clay. Maybe his foster families would keep him longer. 

—

And then a lawyer called Phoenix Wright was on the news for presenting false evidence in court. 

Apollo’s foster father had left the news on while he made himself coffee in the kitchen, and Apollo had frozen. This wasn’t the first time there’d been a crossover in people from the various universes, but every time before this he’d always met them in his first life before seeing them in another. 

But this time, the man that was his dad in so many of the universes was on TV. It was definitely him, too. The heterochromia and spiky hair was unmistakable. The newscaster went on to explain the case and some of Phoenix Wright’s earlier trials and all Apollo could do was listen in complete and utter shock.

Phoenix was real.

Trucy was real. 

Even Miles Edgeworth was real. 

But worst of all, Klavier Gavin was real. His soulmate in one of the universes, whom he hadn’t even met in any of them yet. And he was the one that just got Phoenix Wright disbarred. 

For the first time since it had all started five years previously, Apollo wished that it would all just go away. Even when things had gotten really, really hard with families, he had been able to escape to a different universe. But now the people that were his escape were here and they were real. 

He didn’t know what to do.

So he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. 

And fell. 

—

“Hey, dad?”

Captain Phoenix Wright yelped in surprise, smashing his head into the bottom of the console of the cockpit. “Cripes kid, give me a warnin’ next time.”

Apollo opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Maya yelling from where she was running a diagnostic in engineering. “Break anything, old man?” 

Phoenix slouched against the console, sighing loudly. “Shut up, Maya!” he shouted back. “Just bumped my head.”

“What! Daddy, are you okay?” Trucy called from the small living quarters. “Do you need first aid?”

“It’s okay, Truce!” Phoenix quickly replied. “Please don’t unpack the kit again, it took me two hours to put it all away last time.”

Trucy popped her head into the cockpit, poking her tongue cheekily out at them both. “Aw but Daddy, how am I meant to be the doctor if I’m not allowed to play with the medical supplies?”

Phoenix levelled her with a strict glare. “You are nine. Maybe you can shadow the doctor next time we dock on Edgeworth’s ship for fuel, okay?”

Trucy squealed in delight. “Okay daddy! I’ll be good, I promise!” And she disappeared back into the living quarters.

Phoenix finally looked back at Apollo, and noticing his worried brow, tapped at the dirty floor next to him. “Come sit down, kid. What’s going on?”

Apollo winced at the state of the floor, but did as he was told. He tried to think of the best way to phrase this. This universe was certainly more accepting of strange phenomena, but this was still unheard of. “Um. Remember how I told you a while ago that this is one of my lives and um I think it’s not my main one?”

Phoenix quirked his eyebrow and nodded.

Apollo swallowed. “I found you. Him. In my main universe. I hadn’t found him before and he needs help.”

“Help?”

Apollo took a little bit of time to explain the situation. They were interrupted by Larry a couple of times as he liaised with Maya down in engineering to fix a few bugs. He made a snarky remark about how Phoenix was slacking off, but on seeing the glare that Phoenix levelled him, laid off them both and went back to his job quietly.

“So… this other me is a disgraced attorney who you think might be innocent?” Phoenix finally said. 

Apollo nodded sadly. “I mean, he’s you, right? Like he has to be innocent. You’re … you’re Phoenix Wright! Even when you’re a pirate, you’re doing it for good reasons.”

Phoenix brought a hand up to his chin thoughtfully, leaving motor oil stains as he went. “Pirate, huh? Like the old earth sea thieves? That sounds like it’d be fun. Anyway, kiddo. While this all sounds absolutely insane, there are weirder things in the universe that we’ve seen in the last week alone. Why don’t you go find out more about this ‘other me’ and meanwhile, why don’t we comm Captain Edgeworth and see if he has any insights, huh? Would that make you feel any better?”

Apollo grinned, relieved to be taken seriously for once. “Yes please, dad. That would help a lot.”

Phoenix groaned as he stumbled to his feet, holding a hand out to Apollo to help him up. “Computer, call the Federation Starship California, authority code DL6.”

A familiar automated voice crackled through the old speakers: “Call routing - routing - connected.” 

On the small overhead screen of the broken down cockpit, a bridge view of the flagship of the Federation appeared. 

“Captain Edgeworth here, to whom am I speaking?”

“Hey Miles, it’s me.”  Phoenix grinned at his childhood best friend. “Got a sec?”

The pixelated screen rebuffed for a second, before a clearer image appeared, showing Captain Edgeworth in all his Federation glory standing in the centre of the bridge. Apollo recognised most of the faces around the bridge from the last time they’d visited to refuel, he could see Doctor Skye and Officers Faraday and Gumshoe trying not to laugh as their Captain tried to maintain some dignity. There was a new pilot too. He had striking blond hair coiling down his shoulder in a braid, and definitely not uniform-standard silver jewellery that must have been big to be visible glittering on the small screen. 

The young pilot was looking right at the screen, a grin slowly growing on his incredibly pretty face. “And who are these handsome men, Herr Captain?”

Apollo could hear Edgeworth sigh. “They’re … friends of ours, Ensign Gavin. This is Captain Wright, and his son, Apollo.” Edgeworth turned back to Phoenix and Apollo, and suddenly Apollo was falling through space and time. “...This is my new pilot, Klavier Gavin.”

—

It had been almost five years since Apollo had lost control of his shifting. Since he’d learned how to choose when and where he wanted to go, the falling sensation had diminished. He no longer felt like he was asphyxiating either. It was much more immediate and more like a step through to the other universes. So to be thrown suddenly back to his main universe without having chosen to, threw Apollo out so much that when he came to, he found that he’d fallen out of bed. 

“...what the hell,” he murmured, desperately trying to immediately shift back. But no luck. No matter how hard Apollo tried, he couldn’t move to any other universe, let alone the one he’d just left. 

He felt something groan next to him, and he sprang away in surprise.

“You okay, ‘Pollo?”

Apollo breathed a sigh of relief. “Clay, oh my god. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Clay chuckled tiredly into his pillow. “No, no it’s fine. That’s why my mattress is on the floor, right, so you have something to fall onto if you fall out of bed.”

“I don’t fall out…” Apollo petered off as Clay shot him a significant look. “Okay, so maybe I fell out of bed. But it wasn’t my fault! I shifted without meaning to.”

Clay grumbled as he realised he wasn’t getting back to sleep anytime soon, but sat up next to Apollo against the bed, hugging his pillow to his chest. “That doesn’t happen though, right? You can control it.”

Apollo nodded and grabbed his own pillow from the bed. “I don’t know what happened. I was on the aircraft talking with my dad and then suddenly it felt like the first time I shifted all over again.”

“Was there something different?” Clay asked.

“What do you mean?”

Clay hummed in thought. “Well when we do experiments at the space centre, we keep everything the same but change one thing to see different results, right? Could there have been like a random element that forced you to shift?”

“A random element…” Apollo racked his brain to try and remember the last few moments before he shifted. “Dad called Captain Edgeworth and there was a new pilot?” Apollo suddenly gasped. “Clay, you're a genius. It was Klavier Gavin.”

“You mean the fucking rockstar ?”

Apollo was so caught up in joining all the dots, he missed what Clay had said for a few seconds. Then: “Wait, rockstar?”

Clay gaped wordless at him as he reached over to grab his phone from its charger, opening up google and doing a quick image search before handing the phone to Apollo. “Klavier Gavin is the lead singer of the Gavinners, ‘Pollo. He’s like the most famous person in the world right now.”

Apollo frowned, confused as he scrolled through the, frankly alarmingly, suggestive photos. “But he’s my soulmate.”

Clay snorted. “Yeah? Yours and everyone else in the world under 25.”

Apollo looked up at Clay, eyes frantic. “No, no, he’s literally my soulmate in one of the universes. His name is tattooed on my wrist by fate or something.”

“He’s a rockstar prosecutor, Apollo.” Clay’s eyes were wide as it all sunk in. “Like he’s super talented and famous and like if you meet him, maybe I’ll meet him?”

Apollo’s face fell. “He’s also the reason Phoenix Wright got disbarred.”

Clay paused in his excited rant. “I don’t know what any of those words mean.”

Apollo sighed, putting his face into his hands. “Klavier Gavin, the rockstar prosecutor, revealed that the defense attorney Phoenix Wright had used falsified evidence in court. And because of that, Phoenix Wright has been disbarred.”

“Right…” Clay said slowly. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“No!“ Apollo yelled, then shushed himself as he realised the time. “No,” he said again, quieter. “Phoenix Wright is my dad, Clay.”

“I thought your dad was in Khura’in.”

“Dhurke is yeah, and like my real dad died when I was a baby. But in a lot of the universes I get adopted by a man called Phoenix Wright and sometimes his husband Miles Edgeworth. I have a sister named Trucy who was in the trial as well! Her dad disappeared! Literally! I don’t know what’s going on, Clay. If this is my real life, why is it so fucking weird?“

“Hey,” Clay said softly, putting a hand on Apollo’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. You’re fine, right?”

Apollo breathed slowly in and out. “I’m Apollo Justice and I’m fine!”

“That’s the spirit!”

—

For the next few years, Apollo didn’t shift. Not at all. 

He would try, and thought that maybe he was shifting in his dreams, but in the end, he never did. 

So he focused on his studies. He was going to become a defence attorney, like Phoenix Wright, and he was going to figure out what happened. 

Once they’d both graduated high school, Clay and Apollo rented a tiny apartment together and Apollo started to think that maybe his life was actually normal. 

Maybe he’d made it all up. 

Chances were, the universe just gave him dreams from names he’d heard in real life. Maybe it was time for him to just lead his own life. Nothing else. 

Clay stopped asking questions about it too, and instead helped him study for the bar as Apollo helped him study to be an astronaut. 

Both were on the path to successful lives.

Apollo started working for Kristoph Gavin. Whether he felt familiarity towards the man due to his name and appearance wasn’t important. He hadn’t met him before. Apollo also purposely avoided any conversations about family … which worked well for both of them. 

And then Phoenix Wright was accused of the murder of Shadi Smith.

And everything promptly went to shit.

—

After Kristoph Gavin’s arrest Apollo was floundering. 

He was finally in contact with Phoenix and Trucy Wright, but nothing about the way they were was like his dreams where they were related. Phoenix Wright had used him to convict Kristoph, he’d had Trucy manipulate him too. It was nothing like the life that he’d lived in those dreams all those years ago. Which really confirmed to him that really, they must have been dreams. It must have been some wishful thinking from when he’d been sent to America. All those dreams of having a real family. And the names were just ones that he’d heard about on the news probably. That was all it was.

And then…

“I must say I’m used to being inspected by the ladies…but this is the first time I’ve felt this way with a man.”

Instant vertigo.

Apollo was going to faint. 

But how … it wasn’t real. None of this had been real. He’d just made it up.

As he slipped through the universes he heard himself ask: “Mr Gavin?”

—

“Apollo?”

—

“Polly?”

—

“-pollo?”

—

“POLLY!”

—

It was dark.

Wait. No. It was mostly dark. There was a flickering light in front of him.

“Hey Apollo, you alright? You just kinda spaced out there for a second?”

A voice? It sounded like Clay?

He focused on the flickering light until it finally cemented properly in his vision as … a campfire?

Oh.

Then he remembered. 

He was an adventurer. He and his sister had joined a guild to help take out monsters terrorising local villages a few years back. 

He was good with a bow. His sister was an extraordinary wizard. Their dads lived in the nearby kingdom.

That’s right. 

He was out on a hunt. 

They were tracking a troll. He was good at that.

“Polly? Did you not cook the fish well enough?”

Oh that was Trucy. His sister. 

It was all making sense. 

Except it wasn’t. 

They had been dreams? That was what he’d convinced himself. They had to be. Otherwise … otherwise his life really was this insane. 

His … lives?

“Apollo?”

He snapped himself out of it, looking around at the familiar faces. “Sorry, just thinking.”

Trucy giggled. “Don’t hurt yourself.” She flicked her wrist and the fire started morphing. First into dancing dryads which then joined into a wyvern curling around the logs. 

Clay shot Apollo a worried look that he tried to hide behind the stick he was frying his fish on. “You all good, ‘Pollo? You look worried?”

Apollo smiled as reassuringly as possible. “I’m fine, Clay. Just thinking about this troll.”

“You haven’t stressed about trolls before,” Trucy said, immediately changing the fire into a charging troll that made its way towards Apollo before dissipating into a shower of sparks. “In fact, you were the one who said that this mission would be easy.”

Apollo shrugged. “Still helps to be prepared.”

“Prepared for what, O Fearless Forehead?”

Apollo turned his head to see their bard coming back towards their fire from the tents and immediately felt himself falling again.

Shit. Clay had been right all those years ago.

Somehow the centre of all of this…

The catalyst for these shifts…

It was Klavier Gavin. 

—

“Okay team, curtains in ten minutes.”

Apollo raised his eyebrow at Phoenix. “Curtains? Old man, we haven’t used curtains for our gigs in ten years.”

Phoenix huffed. “Okay, okay Mr Teen Superstar, not all of us topped the Billboard charts at fifteen.”

Trucy appeared behind him, fully merched up. She’d also somehow found a flag with his face on it. The teasing was getting a little out of hand. “Yeah Daddy, some of us were six.”

Phoenix whirled around, giving his daughter a disapproving look at the sheer amount of Justices merch she’d managed to fit on her tiny frame. “You, young lady, were not in the band at six.”

“You’re not even in the band now, Trucy!” Apollo pointed out. “You’re literally just here for the free merch.”

Trucy shrugged, a massive grin on her face. “Hey there has to be some perks of my brother being in the biggest band ever.” 

“Nothing to do with your dad being their manager, I see,” Phoenix said. “I can see when I’m not wanted. I'll go and stop your father from firing the poor lighting guy.”

Apollo and Trucy watched their dad as he sauntered up to their papa, who was indeed in the middle of a heated one sided argument with Dick, the lighting technician. 

“Honestly, if they could not cause a scene at every show,” Apollo grumbled. “It makes me seem like a diva.”

“Yeah, that’s Klavier’s job,” Trucy joked.

A small lurch. Okay, interesting. He was still there though. A mere mention of Klavier wasn’t enough to send him spiralling into another universe. He could do this. He was fine.

He and Klavier had been in the band together for years. So it seemed like as long as he wasn’t actively there, he could spend as much time with Klavier as he wanted. 

Which was sad. All these universes were coming back to him and he only had memories of spending time with Klavier. From what his memories were telling him, they were really close.

“Speaking of,” Apollo said as casually as possible. “Where is he?” Maybe if he avoided direct contact with him he could stay in the universe and start figuring out what the fuck was going on. 

…Well maybe this universe wasn’t the best idea. He was about to share a stage with him. Klavier was the lead guitarist after all. 

“Why? You finally going to stop being a coward and ask him out?”

Apollo blushed against his will. “Shut up. We’re on in five, I was just wanting to know where the band are.”

“Never fear, Mein Forehead! We are here!”

—

He was floating this time.

A little variety was nice.

He could have done without the stomach lurch.

—

“Report!” Captain Edgeworth snapped.

Navigator Faraday pored over the numbers flying in front of her on her screen. “We appear to be passing through an asteroid field. Minimal damage to the exterior, but we need to fly smarter to avoid further damage, Captain.”

Edgeworth sat back on his chair, contemplating. “Ideas, Wright?”

Phoenix grinned. “You know exactly what my plan would be, Miles.”

Apollo rolled his eyes towards his dad. There were way too many times that they’d had to be rescued by Edgeworth himself from where they’d crash landed from doing stunts for fun. He only hoped that now that their crews had combined that they would avoid such shenanigans. 

The Captain glared at his first officer. “ Commander Wright, may I remind you that we are not on a joyride?”

Phoenix laughed. “Naww spoilsport. Guess I won’t be calling Larry to the bridge.” 

“You keep Cadet Butz away from the bridge, Phoenix Wright, and that’s an order.”

Phoenix laughed harder, putting his hands up in surrender. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You literally said in your vows that one of the conditions of our marriage was not letting Larry anywhere near the pilot’s seat and I intend to keep that promise.”

Edgeworth huffed. “Good.” He instead looked towards Apollo. “Any damage to the engines, Lieutenant?”

Apollo stood to attention. “The chief has reported no damage, sir. She does recommend evasive action, however.”

“Of course, how silly of me not to consider that,” Edgeworth said dryly. “Tell Chief Fey that her engine room better be ready.”

“Aye, sir,” Apollo replied, tapping out the message to Maya, only for Maya to call the bridge immediately. 

“Miles,” she said in greeting, immediately making Edgeworth frown at her casualness. “Send me Apollo, I need his help down here. He and I have gotten an engine through Nick and Larry’s wild rides enough times.”

“Very well,” Edgeworth sighed. “You might as well grab your bunkmate while you’re at it, Lieutenant,” he added to Apollo. “We’re going to need our best pilot.”

Apollo smiled, signing off his monitor and heading to the lifts. “Very well, Sir.”

“Good luck, Kiddo!” Phoenix yelled at his back. “See you for dinner.”

Apollo gritted his teeth as the rest of the bridge crew giggled. “Yes, thanks for that, Dad.”

The doors of the lift opened, and instead of being empty, there stood Lieutenant Gavin, star pilot.

Apollo cursed under his breath, immediately prepared for what was going to happen next. 

“Oh hello, Lieutenant Forehead,” Klavier grinned as Apollo’s world lurched. “Are you ready to rock and roll?”

—

And he was back.

Well, he thought he was. His apartment looked the same as ever, and he could hear Clay’s cat scratching at his post by the door. 

Memories of the previous few months flooded into his mind. 

…Few months?

It had only been an hour or so, right? So why did he remember the whole Wocky Kitaki trial? Lamiroir? The Gavinners? Even nights of getting Eldoon’s with Trucy and Mr Wright. He had created a whole new life…and wasn’t even there to experience it.

Everything he’d done and said…it was him…but it wasn’t him. He wasn’t actively there. Even if the memories tried to trick him into believing that.

He and Klavier had met properly. They were…well they were kind of friends. Apollo had even reached out to him after everything that had happened to keep in contact…you know since Klavier had found out that he had been betrayed by his own brother and best friend.

It was October already. Last time Apollo was in this universe was June. 

Not to mention that there were now things that he knew for sure coming back to this universe. 

Phoenix Wright was innocent. 

Chances were, Miles Edgeworth helped him. Apollo had to do a quick google to check where he was, and it seemed that Edgeworth lived in Germany part time, and travelled Europe doing research on Jurist systems the rest of the time.

And now that Phoenix Wright’s name was cleared, maybe Miles Edgeworth would come back. There was no way that they wouldn’t. They could build their family. 

Speaking of which.

Trucy.

Whether adopted, or half siblings, Apollo knew that there was some connection there. He’d have to approach Phoenix. There was no way that the cryptic asshole hadn’t figured something out. It wasn’t like it would be the first time he’d lied to Apollo anyway. 

And  in the end, all that mattered was figuring out why the fuck he couldn’t see or talk to Klavier Gavin without spiraling through time and space.

There had to be some reason.

He and Klavier were close, in every universe. It seemed that it was all this elaborate scheme to never let them truly hang out and talk to one another, not actively at least.

For the first time, Apollo wondered whether Klavier experienced the same thing. Maybe it was happening to both of them.

The comfort that Apollo felt at this was short lived, as he remembered that even if Klavier was being flung through the multiverse, that Apollo couldn’t ever talk to him about it. 

It was a nightmare. 

And he would fix it goddamn it. 

Klavier Gavin was his fucking soulmate. He had to be. But why would the universe put them through something so stupid? 

Then the door to the apartment opened. 

“Apollo? You home?”

Apollo heaved a sigh of relief. Thank god. “Yeah, Clay I’m on the couch.”

Clay poked his head into the lounge. “Hey buddy, rough day?”

Apollo opened his mouth to answer, to say anything. But instead of anything useful coming out he heard himself sob.

Oh god. He hated being a crier.

Clay dropped his bag at the door, and rushed to his side, immediately gathering him into his arms. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. What’s going on, AJ?”

Apollo tried to catch his breath between desperate sobs. “It’s all real, Clay.”

Clay rubbed his back soothingly. “What’s all real?”

“The stories I used to tell you of the different lives I led.” Apollo paused to hiccup. “In space, as a singer, even one that was like the world’s weirdest Dungeons and Dragons game. It’s all real.”

Clay’s arms froze. “What makes you say that?”

Apollo gulped a breath, tears finally slowing down. “Because I haven’t been here for the last few months.”

“What?” Clay pulled away, looking at Apollo with disbelief. “Yes you have, I’ve seen you nearly every day.”

“I mean, I was here,” Apollo tried desperately to explain. “But I wasn’t here. I have all the memories of being here, but I also have all the memories of being in a bunch of other places, living a bunch of different lives.”

Clay huffed. “Wow. Okay. I remember talking to you about this when we were teenagers, and I kinda hoped it was real. You seemed really into it, and no offence, Apollo, I love you, but you weren’t the most creative kid.”

“No I agree,” Apollo said. “So you believe me?”

Clay shrugged after a second of thought. “Yeah, why not. What’s the plan?”

Apollo frowned. “Well I need to find a way to talk to Klavier Gavin.”

—

It was touch and go for a couple of weeks.

They tried emails, phone calls and even letters but every time Apollo tried to have a conversation with Klavier, he was whisked away into another universe whenever Klavier got the message. 

At least he knew how to get back.

The universe seemed to have allowed him some semblance of control again. He could control where and when he went again. The only time he had no control was when Klavier Gavin was involved. 

He talked to Commander Phoenix Wright about it again when he went back into space, finally continuing the conversation he’d tried to have with him all those years ago. It took a few times as it was really hard for him to avoid Klavier when he was his bunkmate. But Phoenix was patient and took his concerns to the Captain, who in turn approached Apollo to discuss it and figure out what was going on. There were a few other members on board who were specialists in quantum anomalies, so they were taking the science route to figure it out.

He also talked to Trucy, the wizard, the next time he joined in on a monster hunt. Maybe magic was the way. She immediately teleported both of them to her old wizarding academy where she called a meeting with the professor of chronomancy and a plane shifting expert. Apollo was lost for the whole conversation, having never had magic come to him naturally, but was thankful to have so many minds involved.

There wasn’t a lot he could do in his rockstar life, not to mention every time he tried to go to that universe, Klavier was always in the room with him. It seemed that he and Klavier were best friends in most of these universes, and when he didn’t have Klavier, he had Clay. Or he had both.

None of the universes had them romantically, or sexually involved though. Even though in every single one, it seemed like only a matter of time.

Even in the universe where Klavier was explicitly his soulmate, they hadn’t met. Apollo had talked to his dads about the whole problem, in case it stemmed specifically from that universe, but both were just as confused as he was. At least his papa had some connections to soulmate experts that could help them out. The fact that Klavier Gavin was still a rockstar superstar in that universe certainly didn’t help.  

It seemed like the multiverse was well and truly against them.

Time to try something else. 

—

“Oh hey Apollo, just in time. A friend of mine has stopped by and I think you two would get along.”

Mr Wright winked at him in the way he only usually did when he was his actual father, which flustered Apollo, only to fluster him further when he turned to where Phoenix was gesturing to see Miles Edgeworth himself perched daintily on the thoroughly filthy agency couch. 

“Oh hey, Mr Edgeworth,” Apollo said, as casually as possible, before remembering that he wasn’t meant to be familiar with this universe’s Miles Edgeworth. 

Edgeworth raised a curious eyebrow at him. “Ah so you’ve heard of me.”

Apollo blushed. “Well I followed your trials when I was studying, and clearly you were Mr Wright’s contact in Europe for the jurist system.”

Phoenix and Miles exchanged surprised looks. Apollo patted himself on the back for managing to catch them off guard. 

“You would be correct,” Edgeworth said finally. “I’m unsure how you figured that out, however. We thought we were being discreet.”

Apollo shrugged. He was starting to realize that in all the universes, there was no use beating around the bush with these two. They were always the same. “You were always close, right? And you’ve known each other since you were kids.” He readied himself to drop the bombshell he’d only really put together because of his experience with other Miles Edgeworths. “I assume you’re back in LA to take the Chief Prosecutor spot?”

Phoenix nearly tripped on his way to the couch, eyes large. Edgeworth twitched, but Apollo could tell how shocked he truly was. 

“Okay,” Phoenix said. “How the hell did you put that one together? He hasn’t even told his staff.”

Apollo readied himself for the final push, this was what he’d been waiting for, right? The two of them putting their minds together to help him figure this out. And if Edgeworth was now Klavier’s boss, that could help even more. But first, he needed to really prove that there was something crazy going on. 

Apollo took a deep breath. “The same way I know that you two are dating and that Trucy is my sister.”

This time Edgeworth failed completely at hiding his shock, he practically leapt to his feet, striding with purpose towards Apollo, Phoenix was too surprised to say anything, eyes as large as saucers. 

“Wright said you were perceptive, but this is something else,” Edgeworth said, eying him the same way Apollo had seen him investigate crime scenes, or space anomalies. “What do you want? Are you trying to bring us down? After working so hard to clear Wright’s name?”

Apollo crossed his arms defensively, but couldn’t help the grin at truly getting one on them. “Oh no, I am absolutely on your side, I promise. I am just dealing with a slight problem involving Klavier Gavin and would really like both your help.”

Phoenix finally turned to him from where he’d sprawled backwards on the couch. “Who are you?” He flicked the magatama into view, making sure that Apollo could see it. 

Apollo simply smiled, giving him a slight shrug. “I’m who I’ve always been, Mr Wright. I’m Apollo Justice, attorney at law. That’s all.”

“ Five locks, Miles,” Phoenix muttered to Edgeworth who hadn’t taken his eyes off of Apollo since this started. 

“Five, huh?” Apollo replied instead. “Okay, let’s break this down. At least with the magatama you’ll know I’m not lying.”

Phoenix sat up properly, and held up the magatama again. “Okay, Apollo. Who are you? Really?”

Apollo grimaced, he always hated this bit. “I am Apollo Justice. I just have the accumulated knowledge of multiple universes. I need your help.”

Edgeworth flicked his eyes backwards to Phoenix, who was losing colour in his cheeks. “Lock break?” he asked. 

Phoenix just nodded numbly. “Two,” he softly replied. 

Edgeworth turned back to Apollo. “Continue,” he ordered. 

“Uh sure,” Apollo said. “You’re…uh…taking this better than you usually do.”

Edgeworth twitched again. “That’s because I know if you are lying, and so far, despite my contrary personal beliefs on how the universe operates, you are, apparently, telling the truth.”

“Okay, so it all started when I turned ten,” Apollo said, “I was playing in a sandpit when I suddenly felt myself falling…”

—

In the end Mr Wright and Edgeworth took the whole situation much better than they had in most of the universes, for which Apollo was thankful. 

While he was so familiar with the two of them, it was clear that they were unsure of how to treat him. 

Phoenix finally confirmed what Apollo had said, that Trucy was his half sister, and meekly added that Lamiroir was their mother. Apollo didn’t have time to really think about what that all meant, and really just needed their help to figure out what was happening with Klavier. He would be able to sort that all out later. 

One thing at a time. 

Edgeworth was all business, suggesting various methods of communication with Klavier that Apollo could try, most of which he’d already attempted, but he was glad that Edgeworth was in problem solving mode. 

Finally after a couple of hours of brainstorming, Mr Wright turned his thinking around. 

“Why have you never run into Kristoph?” 

Apollo froze in his typing of the excel spreadsheet he and Edgeworth had created to record the universes and people whom Apollo was close to. He tried to wrack his brain. 

Kristoph Gavin, Klavier’s older brother, and the person who Apollo knew first in this universe. 

Surely he was in the other universes?

But what were the chances of his never running into him? Or Klavier not even mentioning him? 

Where the fuck was Kristoph Gavin?

Apollo silently turned to Mr Wright, mouth agape. 

This was never about him, or Klavier Gavin. Not really. 

It was about Kristoph. 

He had a prison to visit. 

—

Apollo had only visited Kristoph in prison once. He had rather hoped he’d never have to go again. But Mr Wright had been … well … right. It did seem like Kristoph was at the centre of this somehow.

Edgeworth led the way, as the only one of them with any sort of pull legally. Apollo was still relatively unknown by most of law enforcement, and anyone sane wouldn’t allow a Phoenix Wright in sandals and a beanie anywhere near a criminal.

But Mr Edgeworth was Mr Edgeworth and got them in with no problem, and only a vaguely confused look shot at the rest of them as they walked past the guard. 

“Oh I wasn’t expecting you back,” Kristoph said in greeting, eyeing Mr Wright with glee. “And I see you’ve brought some friends.”

“Mr Gavin,” Apollo said coldly. 

“Mr Justice,” Kristoph replied cordially back, a flash of amusement in his eyes behind his glasses. “And I see Prosecutor Edgeworth has returned to the country. It is an honour to meet you.” Kristoph bowed mockingly, which Edgeworth returned much more gracefully, and without an air of irony. He was good .

“It’s Chief Prosecutor, actually,” he corrected, a smirk already in place for when Kristoph’s own stuttered. 

He did not disappoint. “Chief prosecutor, huh?” he asked, turning his back to them so he could perch in his chair. “What brings you to my humble cell, your majesty?” His smile was back, but the confidence he’d had when they’d walked in had vanished. 

Apollo fingered nervously at his bracelet. This was it.

“What have you done to Klavier?”

Kristoph’s eyes left Edgeworth’s in an instant and snapped to look at Apollo who was standing behind the other two. “Klavier? I’ve done nothing to him. He’s my brother, Justice. Anything I do for him is for his own good.”

Mr Wright slipped his eyes to Apollo’s, hand in his pocket and clearly around the magatama. Apollo didn’t need his confirmation to know that Kristoph had been lying. His bracelet was tighter than ever.

Apollo’s confidence rose, as he realised that really, he had the upper hand here. He knew things that Kristoph did not. “You genuinely believe that anything you do is for his own good, but you absolutely have done something to him. What is it?”

Kristoph coughed on a laugh, bringing a teacup up to his mouth and taking his time to drink slowly from it. “You know that he’s been alive for nearly 25 years, Justice. I’ve done many things. Is there anything specifically you are referring to?”

“A lock broke,” Mr Wright muttered into Apollo’s ear. “A pretty nasty one remains though. Tread carefully.”

Apollo nodded, pacing in front of the cell’s bars as he considered his next course of action. “Did you know that I’m from the kingdom of Khura’in, Mr Gavin?” he asked finally. He didn’t wait for Kristoph to reply, but knew that Kristoph most certainly had not known that. Only a handful of people did after all. “In Khura’in there are magics that go beyond human understanding, and even beyond death.”

Kristoph eyed him darkly. “Where are you going with this, Justice? I thought you were a man of science and fact.”

“I believe that personal experience can outweigh what most science believes as true,” Apollo replied, still pacing back and forward, back and forward. “And I think that you know that, too. There are unexplainable things in this world, and not just the magic tricks that the Gramaryes can do, but things beyond that.” He stopped, and made deliberate eye contact with Kristoph. “Do you believe in the multiverse, Kristoph Gavin?”

And for a moment the world froze. Apollo held his breath. Had he come too close? Did Kristoph have the ability to force him to shift at will? 

And then the world kick started again, and Kristoph simply grinned. “Ah,” he said. “Now that was a very long time ago.”

“What was?” Apollo asked desperately. “What did you do?”

Kristoph tutted at him. “Now, now, don’t rush me. Let me remember.” He placed a hand thoughtfully on his chin. “Strange that you would bring this up all these years later. It didn’t work, after all.”

“What didn’t work?”

Kristoph’s eyes darkened. “He’s a household name and a successful prosecutor. What’s more, he has you in his life. It didn’t work. ”

Apollo’s legs stumbled, and he felt Mr Wright grab him to steady him. 

Edgeworth took the initiative and stepped forward. “What was it you attempted to do, then?” he asked coolly. “What didn’t work?”

Kristoph smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. “When he was twelve, Klavier decided that he was going to be a rockstar. As his legal guardian, I forbade him, and instructed him to go back to his learning to become a lawyer. It was never about his happiness, it was about what was right.”

Apollo recovered from his shock and moved forward again, this time grabbing the bars themselves to try to get closer. “What did you do?” 

“I did nothing,” Kristoph said casually, getting up from his seat with grace. “Klavier, on the other hand, ran away.” He moved closer to the edge of the cell, coming up so he was face to face with Apollo. “My little brother, Justice. He ran away from me.” 

Apollo held his breath, waiting. 

Kristoph eyed him curiously, a glint of something cruel flashing in his glasses’ lens. “When I found him the next day he was busking on a beach at the coast. Someone was curious as to why such a small child was allowed out by himself and called the police, who in turn called me when they recognised the last name ‘Gavin’.” He stepped forward again so he was towering into Apollo’s personal space. Apollo refused to cower or stand down, instead remaining exactly where he was, eyes resolute. 

“What happened when you found him?” he asked.

Kristoph tilted his head. “What do you think? What do you think I did to my little brother who had disobeyed me directly, stolen cash from me to buy a guitar and a bus fare, and run away to pursue music when all I had done was provide for him?”

At the tense silence, Kristoph simply sighed. “Clearly none of you know true discipline,” he said. 

Edgeworth bristled in Apollo’s peripheral but said nothing. Mr Wright had the same determined look on his face that he got in court, but was graciously letting Apollo take the lead.

“Beating him wouldn’t do this,” Apollo said, the words stuck in his throat. “Nor would grounding him.”

Kristoph laughed. “While he got both those things, I had to dig deeper to truly keep him in my control. I was his guardian. He had to do what I said. And when that failed … well … It simply came down to a curse.”

No one said a word. 

“A … curse?” Edgeworth finally broke the tense silence.

“Yes. I did some reading, and, well,” at this he eyed Apollo again, “you would know about the royal family in Khura’in and their abilities. You spoke of magic before.”

Apollo nodded stiffly, unsure of exactly where this was going. The royal family didn’t go around cursing people, to his knowledge. 

“They’re not the only people with such powers, their descendants around the globe have their own abilities, after all. The Fey family being one of the more well known branches,” he sent Mr Wright a smirk at that, but Phoenix didn’t respond, his eyes still steadily boring into Kristoph.

“So I found another branch family that specialised in curses,” Kristoph said. “I had to use connections in Zheng Fa, but in the end, I got a little curse to lay upon my brother. He had disobeyed me after all.”

Apollo was losing his patience. He knew there was magic, he could believe in a curse. But Kristoph still wouldn’t just tell them what he had actually done. “What did the curse do?” he finally snapped. “Stop weaving stories and just tell us so we can fix it!”

Kristoph took his time to answer, straightening out his suit sleeves and tie to really rile Apollo up. Apollo was seething and every second Kristoph was taking to answer was sending him closer and closer to the edge of…something.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. “Take a deep breath, kiddo,” he heard Phoenix say calmly. “You lose control here, and you don’t get answers.” 

Another hand on his other shoulder. “You’ve come so close to fixing it all,” Edgeworth said. “You’ve nearly done it.”

For a moment the world flickered around Apollo. The Miles and Phoenix on either side were lawyers, no they were pirates, no they were space explorers, no they were his dads…

They kept flickering in and out, and Apollo’s eyes widened as he realised that the whole world was changing around him, not just them. He was literally switching between the universes like a film reel, but he didn’t feel like he was falling or drowning. He just felt like himself.

He turned back to Kristoph.

The bars of the jail cell came and went, but there was Kristoph. And just the one, the same Kristoph whom they had been speaking to all this time. Just as Phoenix had figured out. 

Kristoph just looked at Apollo, not seeing the world around him changing. “You want to know the curse?”

Apollo nodded, feeling energy build within him at every changing world. He was accumulating every version of himself, and instead of feeling overwhelmed, he was feeling … free. “Tell me.”

Kristoph grinned, thinking that he’d won. “Klavier Gavin will never be happy,” he finally said. “In any life, any universe. That’s it. That’s the curse.”

Apollo lost control for a second, feeling himself fall through a world, before he was brought back by the steadying hands on his shoulders. “Klavier Gavin will never be happy?” he screamed, the winds of the changing multiverse drowning out his own voice. “That is the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard.”

Kristoph was starting to fade in front of him, so Apollo desperately grasped at the bars in front of him that appeared every few seconds. It was no use as the bars also faded in and out of time. 

“How do I fix it, Kristoph? What do I do?”

Like the Cheshire cat, Kristoph’s smile was the last thing to go. “Talk to Klavier.”

And he was gone. 

—

Apollo knew he was screaming into the empty space where Kristoph was, but all he could hear was the wind whistling around him. 

Talk to Klavier? That’s what he’d been trying to do this whole goddamn time. He had come so close to fixing everything. But Kristoph was gone, and Apollo didn’t know how to find him.

He stared hopelessly into the growing nebulae around him that were the changing universes, wishing like anything to have some clarity, just something to hold onto that would lead him to the solution.

The hands on his shoulder vanished.

He turned in shock, terrified for a moment that he had lost Phoenix and Miles too.

“I get it now,” Mr Wright, no, Dad, no pirate captain Wright, no … Phoenix said, “you’ve lived like this your whole life? All these worlds swirling around in your head?”

Apollo nodded, a tear slipping down his cheek, turning to sand and disappearing into the void below. “I’m so many people, dad. I don’t know what to do. I can’t talk to him.”

The ever-evolving Edgeworth took a step to stand next to his partner, in every universe it seemed. “There are few things that are certain, Apollo,” he said. “But the universe seems to be telling you what those specific things are.”

“Like you, and, dad, and Trucy,” Apollo listed, desperation growing as the worlds moved faster and faster. “And Ema and Clay and Maya and Larry and everyone else that’s ever meant something to us.”

Edgeworth nodded. “That’s right. We’re all here, no matter what. Even,” at this he grimaced slightly, “Larry.”

Phoenix laughed. “The universal constant of the Butz, I hope he never realises.”

“But what do I do?” Apollo asked, ignoring his dads ribbing their oldest friend. “You now know me in all universes, like I’ve known you. And you know Klavier too. I’ve been reaching out since I was ten years old and have only memories of my time with him. How do I fix it?”

Phoenix smiled softly, his eyes crinkling in their corners. “Maybe it's time to let him come to you.”

–

Across the universes Klavier Gavin was having a bad day, like every day that went before. No matter where and who he was, something always went wrong somewhere along the way. He had good moments, but when he looked at the course of his lives … he was never truly happy and he could never figure out why.

And then, one day, months after Kristoph was put away and the Gavinners officially broke up, when the days were bleeding into each other and Klavier thought that maybe this monotony was to be his life … he heard a voice. 

He’d been feeling off all day. The sort of off that usually came with a hangover, but Klavier hadn’t had anything to drink at all the night before. He was slightly dizzy and finding it harder and harder to focus on his work. 

And then, a voice. 

“Tell me!”

Klavier started. It was Apollo. He could place that voice anywhere. He stood up from his desk, moving to the centre of the room to listen closely. Then another voice, also familiar, but bone-chillingly so answered:

“Klavier Gavin will never be happy,” Klavier heard his brother say. “In any life, any universe. That’s it. That’s the curse.”

Klavier froze. 

Klavier Gavin will never be happy? 

What were they talking about? And why could Klavier hear them? Kristoph was in prison. 

Their voices continued to echo around him, growing louder and louder and starting to overlap until Klavier couldn’t discern anything that was being said, only that it was being said loudly. 

He tried covering his ears, eyes screwing shut in pain as he began to fall to his knees…

And then the universes collided.

—

It felt like he was falling for hours. The darkness around him occasionally lit up in sparks like stars, but for the most part it was dark as he fell. A true abyss. 

It was calming, though, a simple calm to a rather tumultuous life. 

The problem was, as he started to think about his life, he got jumbled. He was a prosecutor right? A rockstar prosecutor? Then why was he also a pilot? And a bard? And a pirate? And a superhero? Why did he have the name Apollo Justice written in cursive on his wrist that lit up like starlight as he remembered its existence?

What was the curse that he heard Kristoph and Apollo talking about? Why was he suddenly remembering lives that he never lived? 

Why was the centre of them all … Apollo Justice?

—

Klavier!

—

-avier?

—

Klav?

—

Klavier?

—

Klavier!

—

The first thing he noticed was a white light glowing behind his eyelids. It took a second to pry them open, but when he did, he realised that the bright light was all around him. 

It was nicer than the darkness he fell through, but he was still very confused, and still very alone.

He sat up slowly, and looked around. 

It wasn’t a void, it was a white room. And when his eyes cleared from the shock of the sudden brightness, he realised there were curtains…black curtains?

White room, black curtains? In the silence around him he heard a sudden horn, and had to cover his ears. A horn? It sounded like a train.

Klavier frowned, hands still over his ears as a melody entered his head. White room. Black curtains. At the station.

Cream lyrics? At a time like this? He was clearly dead and the universe was making a cruel joke at his expense. A hell where he lived out sixties song lyrics.

He finally got to his feet, hoping it was safe to take his hands off of his ears. As the ringing finally dissipated, a different sound echoed around him. 

Footsteps.

Maybe it was Eric Clapton coming to tell him that he was dead and in hell. That would be about right in the grand scheme of Klavier’s life. 

But when he turned…it was…

“...Apollo?” 

Klavier moved towards the figure, sure it was Apollo but also … not sure. His form was morphing through all the versions that Klavier now knew of him. All the lives that the two of them hadn’t been able to lead together.

“Are we dead?” he finally asked. “Because it’s been a bit of a crazy day.”

Apollo’s smile moved like a wave coming into shore as his being shifted. “Not that I know of.”

“Then why are we here?”

Apollo looked around them, at the constantly changing worlds that he was seeing, and finally at the empty room that Klavier himself was imagining himself in. “Because you’re finally free, Klavier.”

And while those words meant nothing to Klavier in the moment, the universe apparently disagreed as suddenly he was falling again, the worlds in his memories slipping by like billboards on a highway. The only thing that remained constant was Apollo, who, while changing, was still, and most importantly, there.

Apollo reached forward as they fell, grasping Klavier’s hands in his own. “None of this will make any sense to you, but we’ve broken the curse, Klavier. You can be happy again.” As he spoke, his tears fell away and above them, rivers in the changing lights. 

Klavier thought about his lives. He thought about how no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t be happy, and about Apollo himself. How they never seemed to be able to make it work in any universe despite Klavier loving him in every single one.

“No,” Klavier finally said, his own tears falling up and away as they fell together. “It makes perfect sense.”

—

It all started when Apollo turned ten.

He was on the riverside in Khura'in building a sandcastle with Datz… until he suddenly wasn’t. 

—

The world shifted, his stomach lurched. It felt like he had fallen into the river again, sinking further down 

and down 

and down 

and down

And then it settled and he knew .

—

Wait. Scratch that. 

—

It really began when Apollo was twenty four. 

He broke a curse that had tormented him for fourteen years.

Memories of all his other lives faded naturally in time, as he was finally able to live the one life he really wanted to live.

And as he landed at People Park, where they had really first met, Klavier’s hands still in his own, he realised that this really was the beginning. 

Klavier was smiling at him, his being solidified once more, and as Apollo looked down, he noticed that his own had done the same. 

“Come on, Herr Forehead,” Klavier said. “I believe we have some catching up to do.”