Phoenix's final case in the series.  When Phoenix travels to Hazakura Temple chasing a vision from his past, he finds himself drawn into too many old grudges.  Can he save Maya yet again, along with the mysterious Iris, and settle his score with Godot at the same time?  Maybe with a little help from unlikely sources...

Date:  February 6th through 9th, 2019
Defense Attorney:  Phoenix Wright
Prosecutor:  Godot
Defendant:  Iris
Victim:  Elise Deauxnim
COD:  Stabbed in the back
MW:  A sword concealed in her staff.
Guilty:  Godot
Accomplices (sort of):  Iris and Dahlia Hawthorne

The case opens at Phoenix's office, where Maya and Pearl rave to Phoenix about a magazine article they've discovered.  It talks about different areas of spiritual study, and especially the Hazakura Temple located deep in the mountains.  It's said that just one night at the Monastery can boost a spiritualists power by remarkable levels.  They insist Phoenix join them, but he isn't interested until he catches a glance of one of the nuns pictured in the magazine: she looks just like Dahlia Hawthorne, the woman who framed him for murder years ago.  Determined to investigate for himself, Phoenix joins them.

Day 1

Phoenix and company arrive at Hazakura Temple.  Being that it's the middle of winter it's freezing, and everything is covered in snow.  They meet the head nun, a stout woman ironically named Bikini.  She explains that the "Special Course" training their monastery offers is an overnight prayer exercise while braving the intense cold.  Maya already has a reservation for just that, and Bikini jokes that with as cold as it is, she won't be surprised if Maya dies!

Phoenix asks about the other nun, who he learns is named Iris, but is told she's busy preparing the small Inner Temple for it to be used that night, and she won't be back until evening.  While exploring the rest of the monastery before dinner they meet up with a woman wearing a cloak and carrying a long staff with a violet crystal set into it.  She turns out to be Elise Deauxnim, a famous children's book illustrator, who Pearl is a big fan of.  As they chat she tells the that she seems to have attracted a self-proclaimed apprentice by the name of Laurice Deauxnim.

As Pearl goes off with Elise, Phoenix and Maya continue to the Inner Temple.  In order to get to it, they have to cross the Eagle River via the Dusky Bridge (sound familiar?).  Phoenix is a little afraid of heights but he makes it across fine.  The temple is small, and half of it is taken up by an iron-doored cell set into a mountain cave.  There's also a hanging scroll on the wall depicting Maya's mother, Misty Fey, along with the Kurain Family Crest.  They then meet Iris, the nun who looks like Dahlia.  She and Phoenix both act a little awkward around each other.  Since she's still preparing the temple, Phoenix and Maya return across the bridge, where they run into Elise's "student" Laurice.  It's actually just Larry in a silly outfit.  He explains that he wanted to change as a person, and discovered a love for art through Elise's children's picture books.  His distrust of women has also been healed thanks to the lovely Iris.  He's been trying to get her to model for him (typical Larry).

Everyone meets at the main hall for dinner.  Afterwards, Bikini leaves with Maya to prepare for her training.  Bikini tells Iris to ring the temple bell at 10 pm, to signal for the lanterns to be put out, and then to come to the Inner Temple to check on Maya.  As they leave, Elise invites Pearl to spend the evening with her.  Pearl agrees, and asks Elise to explain a few words to her she can't make out.  Phoenix and Larry, both unused to the cold, head to their rooms.

Just after 9 pm, Phoenix is up looking for a bathroom when he meets Elise.  She's worried because Pearl never came to her room, and she can't find her anywhere.  As she leaves to keep searching, Iris shows up.  Phoenix takes the chance to chat with her some more, and learns she's lived almost her whole life at the monastery, with Bikini looking after her.  Sometimes she goes to town, and she does have a cell phone and knows about computers and such, but she claims she's never been to college (specifically, the school Phoenix and Dahlia attended).  Just before she leaves to go ring the evening bell, she calls Phoenix by name, which he suddenly doesn't remember introducing himself with.  When he asks if he and Iris might have meet some time before, five Psyche Locks show up.  She excuses herself, leaving Phoenix her hood to protect him from evil spirits.

At 11, Phoenix is alerted by a flash a lightning and a scream from the courtyard.  He rushes out and finds Bikini passed out, and beyond that, a murder scene: Elise is dead, stabbed in the back with a Seven Bladed Sword (similar to the statue from case 2).  The only way to call the police is to find Iris or use the public phone at the Dusky Bridge.  Phoenix rushes to the bridge, and finds it set ablaze, having been struck by the lightning.  Larry is staring at it in a panic.

Fearful that the murderer might have fled across the bridge, putting Maya in danger, Phoenix tells Larry to call the police and tries to cross the river.  But the bridge, already worn out and now on fire, collapses beneath his weight.  Phoenix falls into the river below and is swept away.

Day 2

The POV switches to Edgeworth, who receives a call from Larry saying that Phoenix's life is in danger, and he better hurry over.  Since he's in another country, Edgeworth has to charter a jet to make the trip.  He stops first at the hospital to meet Phoenix, who managed not to break any bones but is suffering an awful fever.  Phoenix hands over his Lawyer Badge and the magatama.  Iris has been arrested for murdering Elise, and Phoenix wants him to defend her.  Edgeworth doesn't quite agree just yet, but he heads to the detention center, where Larry is waiting.  Larry begs Edgeworth to listen to Iris's story.

Iris seems familiar to Edgeworth.  She tells him that she rang the bell for lights out at 10 pm, like she always did, and though she was supposed to head to the training grounds she stayed in her room, because she was afraid of something.  She claims she was meditating the time of the murder - two Psyche Locks appear, the first time Edgeworth has ever seen them.  Recalling that Phoenix had seemed strange when talking about Iris, Edgeworth asks if Iris really had met him before now.  She admits to having met Phoenix five years ago, and that she deceived him.  She claims she doesn't want to face him because she feels guilty, but Edgeworth insists that Phoenix will only continue to suffer until he knows the truth.  He tells her his only condition for taking her case is that she tell Phoenix everything.  She agrees, and Edgeworth becomes her defense attorney.

Edgeworth goes to the crime scene, where he meets Detective Gumshoe, who got himself assigned to the case when he heard Edgeworth was back in town.  He explains that Maya is still trapped in the Inner Temple, and they can't get to her until the Dusky Bridge is fixed (it'll take another day).  He also relates that Bikini, the nun, witnessed the murder and is set to testify.  Godot is supposed to be prosecuting but no one seems to know where he is.

At the front gate, Edgeworth, Gumshoe, and Larry argue for a bit, and when asked where he was at the time of the murder, Larry refuses to tell.  Edgeworth instead questions Bikini, who claims to have witnessed the murder.  She had left Iris at the Inner Temple to look after Maya so she could come back and take a hot bath, but afterwards, she saw Iris in the courtyard, holding the sword plunged in Elise's back.  The story contradicts Iris's account, as she claimed she never went to the Inner Temple that night.  Edgeworth searches the area and finds a crumpled note reading, "Meet me 10 pm tonight if you don't want your secret known."  He takes it as evidence.

Bikini hasn't seen Pearl since the night before, and there's a good chance she's stuck at the Inner Temple with Maya.

Edgeworth examines the crime scene, and Gumshoe "leaks" the autopsy report on Elise.  She died from blood loss after being stabbed in the back, but her body is also covered in bruises, as if she were dropped from a significant height.  Her staff is nearby, but it's missing its violet crystal.  As they investigate, Edgeworth tells Gumshoe that's he's arranged for the trial to be held before a different judge than usual, so he won't be recognized as a prosecutor.  And since Godot still can't be reached to prosecute, he's taken care of that, too.  On their way out of the temple Edgeworth notices a snowmobile by the entrance that seems to have been used recently.  He returns to the detention center to break Iris's Psyche Locks.

Iris admits the threatening letter Edgeworth found was meant for her, but she still won't tell her secret.  She does explain, though, that the letter indicated for her to go a small hut near the Dusky Bridge.  She still insists that she didn't go there, nor the Inner Temple, that night.  Edgeworth can't prove otherwise, so he goes to check out the hut. 

He finds Larry there, who has been staying in the hut as part of his artistic training.  After breaking his Psyche Locks from earlier Larry admits he wrote the letter to Iris.  The "secret" was concerning their passionate relationship (yeah okay, Larry).  When she didn't show he went to bed, but was woken up by a flash of lightning.  The bridge was set on fire, and he "saw something amazing."  A new set of Psyche Locks show up, but this time Edgeworth decides he'll just have to get Larry to talk on the witness stand.

Day 3

Court begins the next day, where it turns out the prosecutor Edgeworth "prepared" is actually Franziska.  She shows up whipping, and almost gets her whip confiscated, but Edgeworth assures the Judge he has no objections.  Bikini is called to the stand as the first witness.

She tells the same story she told Edgeworth the day before, and he objects, arguing that Iris never went to the Inner Temple that night.  Bikini insists she saw Iris there, in her usual outfit, but then Edgeworth presents the hood Iris had given to Phoenix earlier that night.  Iris didn't have her hood after 10 pm, so Bikini could not have seen her wearing it.  The witness' memory is called into question. 

Testimony continues, and counsel argues back and forth about where the murder took place.  Franziska argues Elise was thrown out of her room on the second story, and then stabbed in the courtyard below.  Edgeworth proves this wrong with the autopsy report - the bruising on Elise's body is postmortem.  So Franziska changes her theory to say that Elise was stabbed and then thrown to the courtyard.  There wasn't any blood evidence in her room, because a stabbing wound wouldn't have bled that much until after the sword was removed, leaving the open wound.  Bikini's next testimony contradicts her theory again: Bikini saw Iris removing the sword from the victim, but when the police arrived at the scene, the sword was still in her back.  Questions arise as to the murder weapon itself, as its many prongs make it nearly impossible to stab into a person all the way to the hilt, as Bikini claims it was.  More importantly, there is only blood on the tip of the sword.

Edgeworth argues that some other weapon was originally used to kill the victim.  Bikini speaks up, wondering if maybe Iris threw such a weapon into the river.  There was a set of snowmobile tracks running from the bridge to the front gate of the temple.  She could have taken that and disposed of the weapon in no time.  Edgeworth objects - if that were the case, there would be TWO sets of tracks, from her leaving and coming back.  Franziska suggests that the first set of tracks were erased due to the snow falling that night, but Edgeworth presents a weather report stating it had already stopped snowing before the time of the murder.

The snowmobile is something of a mystery.  Someone must have taken it to the bridge while it was still snowing, and driven it back once the snow had stopped.  But no one saw it leave the temple the first time.  Edgeworth remembers then that Larry was near the bridge at the time, and he may have seen something.  He asks to call Larry to the stand.

When Larry gets to the stand Franziska immediately whips him.  Apparently he was caught sketching her from the audience.  He begins his testimony early on with a contradiction in what time he arrived at the burning bridge that night - there's a fifteen minute gap in his story.  Larry finally admits he was sketching something he witnessed, because the image was so powerful.  Edgeworth has a pretty bad feeling about asking to see this amazing sketch, but he has Larry show the court anyway.  The picture is of Iris, flying over the burning bridge.  Larry insists he really did see Iris fly.  Edgeworth objects to the part of her wearing her hood (of all things), since she had already given it to Phoenix by then.  As proof of his story Larry presents a violet crystal he found by the bridge, but Edgeworth argues Elise's staff also had such a crystal.  Not only that, the crystal has bloodstains on it.

Franziska tries to argue the crystal is pointless evidence, and could have been planted at any time.  But since Larry discovered the crystal buried under snow, this proves it had to have been dropped before the murder, and thus adds another twist to the timeline.  If Elise was murdered in her room, how did the crystal covered in blood get to the bridge before then?  Since Bikini only witnessed the murder weapon being drawn out of the victim, it's possible the murder took place somewhere else.

Having proven that more investigation is necessary, court adjourns for the day.

POV switches back to Phoenix, who has just finished reviewing Mia's old case (3-4).  He joins Gumshoe and Edgeworth at the bridge to review the proceedings from that morning.  While Gumshoe helps with the repair of the bridge (Maya and Pearl are still on the other side) Edgeworth heads out to do some investigating on Iris, convinced that he's met her somewhere before (he hasn't realized yet she looks just like Dahlia, from his first case).  Phoenix meanwhile heads back to the Hazakura Temple compound, where he finds Larry getting whipped by Franziska.  She refuses to model for his picture book. 

After some banter Phoenix continues inside to talk to Bikini, but she clams up and throws up some Psyche Locks before he can get anything out of her concerning Elise.

Gumshoe shows up, saying the bridge can be crossed now.  He, Phoenix, and Franziska hurry across and finally find Pearl.  But when they investigate the Inner Temple Maya is nowhere to be seen.  She is still behind the iron barred door, but there's a Psyche Lock on it - an actual lock, which everyone can see.  On the wall, the scroll of Misty Fey has been smeared with gravy.

As they discuss, Godot finally makes an appearance.  He treats Franziska with the same disdain he does everyone.  Godot explains he was absent from court the day before because he isn't interested in facing anyone but Phoenix in court.  More than that, he was visiting his doctor.  Ever since "dying" he needs to check back frequently for treatment.  He even admits that without his visor, he would be completely blind, and still can't see perfectly even when wearing it.  When Franziska asks about his supposed death, Godot turns on Phoenix.  He claims Phoenix knows very well how and when he was murdered.  He continues to say that if Maya really is still trapped behind the Psyche Locked door, it's hard to imagine she'll survive in the sub-freezing cold for much longer.  He adds that if Maya dies, it will be Phoenix's fault for failing to protect her, just as he failed to protect Mia from Redd White over two years ago.

Phoenix can't reply, so discussion shifts to the lock.  They can't disable it by normal means, so Godot says he's arranged for Edgeworth to bring Iris there - as a spiritualist, she will be able to remove the lock.  Meanwhile, Phoenix and Franziska explore a small garden at the side of the temple.  There is a tall stone lantern at the center, and all around the snow has been cleared away.  A small amulet is discovered bearing the Kurain crest, but more importantly, Maya's name is written in blood on the side of the lantern.

On the way back to speak with Bikini, Edgeworth shows up with Iris.  They promise to save Maya as quickly as possible and head back to the scene.  Meanwhile, Phoenix presents the Kurain amulet to Bikini, who admits that Elise Deauxnim was actually none other than Misty Fey, Maya's mother.  Their conversation is cut off by a sudden earthquake.  Fearing the effect it might have on Edgeworth, Phoenix rushes back toward the Inner Temple.  On the way he does find Edgeworth, alone.  Edgeworth admits that when the earthquake hit he passed out briefly (he still hasn't gotten over his fear that first appeared in case 1-4), and Iris escaped.  When they finally make it to the Inner Temple they find Iris once more, but now there are five Psyche Locks over the door in place of the one.

Iris claims the locks appeared mysteriously, and it'll take much longer now.  Edgeworth ducks out (to go cry in a corner somewhere, Phoenix assumes).  When Phoenix tries to talk to Iris about the case she refuses, so Phoenix returns to investigating.  He finds Pearl with Larry, who have both declared themselves as losers.  Pearl is upset because she says she tried to call a spirit and failed, and is now worried that her spiritual powers are completely gone.  She won't say more than that so Phoenix returns to continue his conversation with Bikini.

Bikini explains that Misty showed up about a week ago, in hopes of protecting the Fey family line.  Throughout Kurain's history members of the Branch Family have been jealous of and even outright retaliated against the members of the Main Family, thanks to Kurain's strict rules of succession.  Maya's own aunt, Morgan, was no exception - she is still in prison for her part in Maya's attempted framing a year ago.  Bikini also adds that Morgan was so desperate to best her sister for the sake of her daughters - not just Pearl, but two others!  Morgan had a pair of twins by her first husband, but when Misty was named heir to the Kurain techniques, her husband realized Morgan would never hold any power within the village and left her.  He took with him their two twin daughters.   One of them was Iris, but when he remarried, he left Iris at the monastery, only caring to keep one of them.  This mystery husband was a jewel dealer.  Bikini says she doesn't remember the name of the other twin, but Phoenix is pretty sure he knows who it is.

Phoenix meets back up with Gumshoe, who passes off a partially burnt letter that was discovered at the Inner Temple - it reads like a set of instructions.  They still haven't discovered the real murder weapon, so Gumshoe finally pulls out his trusty metal detector, which leads them to Elise's (Misty's) staff.  They discover the staff is actually a sheath for a hidden katana.

Phoenix returns to Edgeworth, where they discuss the possibility that Iris and Dahlia are actually twin sisters.  But Edgeworth insists that Dahlia can't be involved in this case, because she was just executed a month ago.  "The dead can't be brought back," he insists.  It seems he still doesn't know just what the Fey family can actually do.

Phoenix challenges and breaks Iris's Psyche Locks.  The reason Bikini and Phoenix both saw Iris the night of the murder is because there were two of them!  Someone channeled Dahlia's spirit that night.  Iris admits that she figured as much, but couldn't bring herself to interfere with her sister.  She had already betrayed Dahlia once when she refused to help her steal the jewel from their father, and she didn't want to betray her again.  Franziska then shows up, having overheard, and asks Iris if she knows anything about the case where Dahlia poisoned a lawyer, and then later met up with a student (Phoenix).  Iris says all she knows is that Dahlia said she "hated Phoenix's guts."

Phoenix returns to Pearl, showing her the half burnt letter.  The last part reads, "at 10 pm, call the spirit."  Phoenix deduces that Pearl was meant to summon Dahlia that night, under her mother's orders.  Pearl admits she didn't really understand who Dahlia was or why her mother wanted her to be summoned (she doesn't know Dahlia is actually her half sister).  Every month she visits her mother in prison, and on the last visit Morgan instructed her to find the letter, which she had hidden at Fey Manor.  Pearl did find it, but it looked like someone had opened the letter before her.  Still, she tried to follow the instructions, but when the 10 pm bell rang, she was unable to summon Dahlia.  Either Pearl has lost her powers, or someone managed to summon Dahlia ahead of her.

Pearl also admits that she was the one that smeared Misty's scroll with gravy.  Remember on the first day, when she asked Elise about some words she couldn't read?  In Morgan's letter she told Pearl to "gravely roast the head of Kurain in the fires of hades", but Pearl misread "gravely" as "gravy", and in her confusion ruined the scroll with the pot roast and gravy they'd eaten for dinner.

Godot shows up again, and gives Phoenix another round of, "It's your fault Mia and Maya are both dead."  But Phoenix believes strongly that Maya is still all right.  All he can do is continue with the case until she's rescued.

Day 4

At court, Edgeworth tells Phoenix that Iris is meeting with the new prosecutor of the case, Godot.  Bikini has taken over the undoing of the Psyche Locks, but it will still take several hours.  As court resumes, the normal Judge has returned to the bench (his younger brother is sick with a cold).  Iris herself is called to the stand first, where she suddenly confesses to having helped cover up the facts surrounding Elise's murder - she did not kill her, but she did try to disturb the scene and hide the body, in order to protect the real murderer, Maya Fey!

In her testimony, Iris claims that she saw Elise attacking Maya at the temple garden, first with her blunt staff and then a small knife.  But Maya managed to take the knife from her and retaliated, killing her in self defense.  Phoenix objects - it doesn't make sense that Elise would opt for a knife when her staff itself hid a katana, and more importantly, why would Misty attack her own daughter?

Godot presents the knife as evidence that he just happened to discover at the scene, which has unidentified bloodstains on it.  He argues that Elise didn't recognize Maya, since the courtyard was dark that evening.  The proof of this is the lantern, which has not been lit for several days.  When the Judge notices and asks about the bloody lettering on the lantern, Godot again has no idea what he's talking about.  Something clicks in Phoenix's head - first Maggey's apron (3-3), and now this.  Godot simply can't see certain things.

Iris continues, saying that as part of Hazakura, a family related to the Kurain, she felt a responsibility to protect Maya.  She dragged the body out of the temple and across the bridge to the snowmobile, driving it back to the main compound where it was discovered.  But Phoenix objects, saying that by the time the murder occurred, the bridge was already on fire.  But this doesn't change the fact that the body did make it back to the compound, so how did she do it?

This is where the case really gets fabulous.  Phoenix presents Larry's drawing, and through some creative bluffing argues that the picture is actually upside down.  Iris didn't fly over the bridge - she swung a body underneath it, using the broken suspension lines, like the pendulum on a clock.  He adds the crystal Larry found at the bridge as evidence - it must have fallen off Elise's staff when she reached the other side, and also explains the bruises on her dead body.  No seriously, she swung a dead body across a ravine.

Iris claims not to know anything about this, and she doesn't seem to be lying.  Phoenix argues that can't be - someone had to have caught the body on the other side of the river, to take the body on the snowmobile back to the compound.  Since Iris was the only person with a snowmobile key, she had to have been on that side of the bridge.  So who fastened and tossed the body in the first place?  It could only be the "other Iris" at the scene that night - Dahlia.  The same Dahlia who is now on the witness stand, trying to frame Maya for murder!

Phoenix presents the half burned letter of instruction.  That night, someone summoned the spirit of Dahlia, which explains why Phoenix and Bikini were both able to see "Iris" that night.  But the police did arrest the real Iris, so she must have switched places with her sister at some point.  The only opportunity she had to do this was during the brief minutes when Iris was alone, just after she escaped Edgeworth's custody (due to the earthquake).  By the time Phoenix caught up with her at the Inner Temple, she and Dahlia had already switched.  The witness ices over and admits it - she is Dahlia.  There's no reason to hide anymore, now that she's already dead.

Dahlia admits that she met her mother Morgan in prison, and together they plotted to kill Maya and set up Iris for it - all to make Pearl the new heir to the Fey Family.  Morgan didn't care that their plan required Dahlia to be executed first, which she was, just a month ago.  Dahlia intended for Pearl to summon her, so she could kill Maya with Bikini as a witness.  Things didn't turn out exactly that way, but in the end Maya killed Misty, so the result is basically the same.  Not that Dahlia cares anything about who succeeds the Fey clan, she points out.  She was only getting her revenge on her enemy, Mia, through Mia's sister.

That night, when Dahlia was summoned, she found a staff next to her, which she took with her to confront Maya.  She attacked Maya with a knife she got from a storage room, but doesn't clearly remember the encounter.  She remembers being stabbed, and that she wrote Maya's name on the lantern in blood, but after that she has no memory, until waking up trapped behind the Inner Temple's iron door.  She hid in there, waiting for a chance to get out and confirm Maya was dead.  But instead, Iris showed up (just after the earthquake).  As soon as Iris undid the Psyche Lock Dahlia switched places with her and escaped, throwing up five locks of her own.  She then pretended to be Iris, and soon learned that it had been Elise, not Pearl, that summoned her that night.  Not only that, she managed to get Maya to kill her own mother.  And now, since Maya couldn't be found in the Inner Temple or anywhere else, she must have been overcome with guilt and thrown herself into the Eagle River.  The main family's bloodline is cut forever.

As she finishes, Godot receives a phone call - the Inner Temple has been fully opened, and only Iris was discovered.  There's still no sign of Maya anywhere.  Phoenix is devastated.  But with some prodding from Godot he realizes that it's impossible for someone to jump into the Eagle River from it's bank, because of the rocks extending far into the current - you would have to jump from the center of the Dusky bridge to hit water.  Maya didn't kill herself.  In fact, she must be in the courtroom.  Phoenix tells Dahlia that she's made another mistake - not realizing that it is Maya herself channeling Dahlia at this very moment.  After nearly being killed by Dahlia, Maya protected herself in the only way possible - by becoming Dahlia!

Mia appears then, having been channeled by Pearl.  She explains that Maya was knocked unconscious during the struggle with Dahlia/Misty in the courtyard, and when she woke up she was inside the temple.  She immediately wrote down what had happened and summoned Mia for advice.  Though Mia wasn't entirely certain of the details, she advised Maya to lock herself in (the Psyche Lock on the door was Maya's all along) and summon Dahlia, so that Dahlia would be trapped, unable to be summoned by anyone else, until help arrived.  In this way she was able to escape Dahlia's plan.

Mia delivers some spectacular trash talk to Dahlia, full of "You will never be able to beat me," and in rage Dahlia finally exits Maya's body, fading back into the afterlife.  Maya, exhausted, collapses on the stand.

The Judge, who has miraculously followed along, is about to declare Iris innocent.   Godot objects.  He argues that however evil Dahlia was, her testimony that Maya killed Elise still hasn't been disproved.  They still have no idea exactly who killed Elise.  In order to allow Maya some time to recover before testifying a recess is called.

Phoenix meets with Iris (the real one this time) in the lobby.  She admits that she still loved her sister, and always felt bad for her: Dahlia never got any love from either of her parents, never had anyone care for her the way Iris had Bikini.  She says Dahlia was a strong woman who never complained while she made her own way in the world.  Even if she did awful deeds, Iris could never abandon her completely.  So when she got a call on her cell phone the night of the murder, she rushed to the bridge, and was there to receive and help disguise Misty's body.  Phoenix asks who it was that called her, but she won't say.

The real criminal had to have been at the Inner Temple - someone who was also trapped there before the police repaired Dusky bridge.  Phoenix thinks he knows who it is.

Back in court, the small knife Godot presented earlier is brought up again.  An investigation showed the blood on the knife is not that of the victim, and is still unidentified.  Maya takes the stand.  She testifies that while preparing for her training she visited the garden at the Inner Temple, and was struck in the back of the head.  Disoriented, she staggered away.  She couldn't see who it was, but she did see a man beyond her attacker, and called for help.  Soon afterwards she blacked out.  When Phoenix presses her about the man, she tries to take it back, as if trying to cover for him.  But Phoenix doesn't let up.  With the lanterns in the garden out that night, how could she see someone in the dark like that?  Phoenix has an idea, and asks for the court lights to be put out.  In the dark, Godot can still clearly be seen, lit up from the light from his visor.

Maya butts in again, clearly trying to swing the guilt from Godot.  She says that when she woke up, she returned to the scene, but by then the lights were on and all the snow in the area had been shoveled out.  She had the feeling that maybe someone had altered the scene in order to protect her from being blamed.

Phoenix objects.  If that were the case, anyone trying to protect Maya clearly should have tried to erase her name written in blood on the lantern - unless, of course, he couldn't see it.  The court is reminded how Godot didn't know about the blood when it was first brought up, or the ketchup stain on Maggey's apron before that: Godot can't see the color red.  Phoenix argues that it was Godot who cleaned up the scene.  He had to remove all the snow in the area because he knew he wouldn't be able to tell if all the blood had been removed, just by looking.  But he didn't count on the bloody letters.

Yet again Maya tries to cover for Godot.  She insists Godot didn't show up at the Inner Temple until after the police fixed the bridge, where he found Pearl and cheered her up (aww, Godot likes kids).  But as Godot elaborates, he screws up, and describes the Misty Fey scroll on the wall of the temple.  Phoenix objects - by the time the police fixed that bridge, Pearl had already smeared the scroll with gravy.  If Godot didn't visit the temple until after, there's no way he could have known it was Misty under all that sauce.

Phoenix again presents Morgan's letter.  Pearl did say that someone had opened the letter before she did.  Phoenix speculates that Godot, with his jurisdiction as prosecutor, listened in on Morgan's visitation with Pearl, where she told Pearl about the hidden letter.  He found it before Pearl and learned of the murder plan - that's why he was at the Inner Temple the night of the murder.  He went to protect Maya, the younger sister of his former lover, Mia.

The truth is finally revealed: Godot was once Diego Armando, lawyer at the Grossberg & Co. Law Firms.  While trying to get information on Dahlia six years ago, she poisoned his coffee.  He "died", and was reborn as Godot (it was the smell of coffee that woke him from his coma, five years later).  But by then Mia had already been killed by Redd White (1-2).  He blamed Phoenix entirely for not being able to protect her.  And when he learned about the murder of Dr. Grey at Kurain a year later (2-2) he was convinced Morgan would try again to harm Maya.  He dedicated himself to keeping an eye on her.

As soon as Godot learned about Morgan's plot he contacted Iris and Misty Fey (the government, having sustained long ties with the Kurain spiritualists, still had their eye on her, and he was able to discover her whereabouts through his sway as a prosecutor).  But their plan to prevent the murder went haywire when Pearl vanished.  Misty was afraid that Pearl would summon Dahlia, and to protect her she summoned Dahlia herself.  Godot, meanwhile, hid himself at the temple, to protect Maya if the worst case happened.

Maya resumes her testimony of that night, albeit very reluctantly (she can't bring herself to incriminate a man who risked his life to save hers).  She recalls that she saw the red lights, but then blood splattered over her.  Dahlia turned to retaliate, and the lights suddenly went out as a man screamed.  Just after that Maya fell unconscious.  Phoenix argues that if Dahlia had already been stabbed by Elise's staff at that point (the real murder weapon) Dahlia must have retaliated with the small knife Godot discovered.  That knife has unidentified blood on it, after all.  She must have nicked the real killer.

Maya objects this time.  She points out that if Godot had been struck with a knife, they would see a wound on him somewhere.  He was trapped at the temple just like she was, and couldn't have changed clothes to hide it.  But there is a hint in Maya's testimony that proves who it was.  As Godot taunts Phoenix to prove it, he catches a glance of Mia's image behind Phoenix.  Phoenix delivers his final objection: the wound is hidden beneath Godot's visor - that is why Maya saw the lights disappear when Dahlia attacked!

Godot's visor explodes (not really, just animation wise) as he is defeated.  He confesses to his hatred of Phoenix.  Not only did Phoenix unknowingly help Dahlia cover up his own murder, but Phoenix also failed to protect his lover, Mia.  He took up being a prosecutor in order to get his revenge on Phoenix.  But more than that...  (Since I did it in 2-4, I'll transcribe some of his final speech here - thanks to Ryan for getting me the English version):

Godot: I was the one that failed to protect Mia... ...Me and no one else. I tried to avert my eyes from the truth... to escape from the harshness of reality. I just couldn't face Mia's death head on, so I ran! I hid behind a mask. I threw away my true name. I couldn't even deal with being a defense attorney anymore, so I quit.

Phoenix: But, but! You saved Maya!

Godot: Yeah. That was my plan... Up until just now, anyway.

Maya: Wh-what do you mean?

Godot: *drinks* Are you listening, Maya? If I had really wanted to save you... ...then there's one person that I should have gone and talked to right away.

Maya: Wh-who do you mean? Are you talking about Nick?

Godot: But I didn't do it... I tried to get the help of Iris and your mother... I closed my eyes to the most important man involved. Do you know why? The real reason?

Maya: No... Why?

Godot: I suppose... I wasn't really interested in saving you at all.

Maya: Huh?

Godot: I think I was just trying to salvage what's left of my own broken soul... I was trying to make up for the fact that I couldn't save Mia. Nothing more. That's why I let you walk right into a situation that I knew was dangerous. Forgive me...

Phoenix: Y-You're wrong! You put you life on the line to save Maya!

Godot: *shakes his head* Was it really for Maya's sake...? Even I'm not really sure.

Judge: Wh-What do you mean by that...?

Godot: That night, in the darkness of the garden, when I saw her silhouette...a part of me must have known it... That it wasn't really Dahlia Hawthorne that was standing there in front of me.

Maya: ...!

Godot: It could have been Misty Fey... Or even that little girl [Pearl]. But still, I picked up that blade as though I were in a dream! I'm not sure exactly what was going on in my mind at that point... Was I really motivated by a pure desire to protect Maya Fey? Or was it something else...? Was it hatred for a woman who had stolen everything from me 6 years earlier...? Could it have been simply a desire for revenge? And now, I don't know anything anymore! I did learn something today, however. I finally realized that I was the arrogant one. I was just... chasing an illusion, a fantasy. The stupid fantasy of defeating you in the courtroom...

Phoenix: ...

Godot: You were the one who taught me that. You never ran away from Mia's death. Instead, you picked up where she left off, as a true defender of the people. In that one moment... I understood everything!

Phoenix: Mr. Godot...

Godot: *shakes his head* If you don't mind... I hope you'll remember... My name is... Diego Armando.

Maya: M-Mr. Armando! I believe in you! I know you were trying to save me!

Godot: *blood seeps out from under his visor* Hmm... Thanks.

Phoenix: Y-Your wound...! It's bleeding!

Godot: ...Ha! Did you forget already? In my world, the color red doesn't exist.

Phoenix: ...!

Godot: These must be... my tears.

Judge: Tears...?

Godot: Ever since I woke up from my coma... ...I think I've been waiting for this very moment.

Maya: M-Mr. Armando...

Godot: You'd do well to remember this, Maya. The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over.

Iris is then brought to the stand.  The Judge reminds her that she did help tamper with evidence, and will be punished.  She says she's fully prepared for that, but before the verdict is handed down, there is one last thing she wants to say, to Phoenix:

Iris: I want to... I want to apologize to you.

Phoenix: Apologize? To me? For what?

Iris: For the case six years ago, of course.

Judge: I just remembered... Weren't you poisoned by your own lover?

Phoenix: ...Not exactly, but yeah, something like that. Even now... 6 years later, I can hardly believe it. She was going to do it... She was planning to kill me...

Iris: ......It's not all that surprising. The two of you... You hardly knew each other.

Phoenix: Huh...? What do you mean?

Iris: You and my sister... You only met twice.

Phoenix: ......Huh. W-We only met t-twice?

Iris: The first time you met was on that fateful day... The day she poisoned Mr. Armando in the cafeteria of this very courtroom. The next time you met her was... six months later. You met her again on the day that she stole your cold medicine... and Doug Swallows was killed.

Phoenix: N-N-No way! It just... It can't be true! I mean, during our whole relationship, we were...

Iris: ......For those six months... ...the girl that you thought was Dahlia Hawthorne... She wasn't actually my sister.

Phoenix: (Huh? It wasn't Dahlia...?)

Iris: I hope one day you can forgive me... Feenie.

Phoenix: You... Y-Y-You mean...?

Iris: That's right... I lied to you... for six months.

Judge: B-But why...!? Why would you do such a thing?

Iris: Ever since she gave you the bottle that day... my sister was trying to get it back as soon as she possibly could. Because of the police investigation and their surveillance... she couldn't move about freely.

Phoenix: So that's why you...?

Iris: My sister... From the beginning, she was prepared for the worst.

Phoenix: P-Prepared for the worst?

Iris: She thought that you might discover the truth. That's why she was always ready to deal with you at a moment's notice...

Phoenix: (You mean she was ready to kill me, don't you...?)

Iris: She already had so much to answer for, I didn't want any more sins on her soul. I begged her not to do it, and she agreed to give me a chance.

Phoenix: And that's why... you came to me? You came to get the bottle pendant back from me in her place?

Iris: But I couldn't get you to give it back... I failed at something even as simple as that. Six months passed and I still couldn't get it back from you. Finally, my sister couldn't wait any longer. She didn't consult me about her plans for you that day. ...It was the first time that had ever happened.

Phoenix: That was a bit strange, wasn't it? Up until that day, you two were partners in crime, and she would confer with you...

Iris: I think... she must have noticed.

Phoenix: ...? Noticed what?

Iris: My feelings for you. If I had found out that she planned to kill you... ...I would have done whatever was neccesary to stop her. Even if it meant her life... or mine.

Phoenix: I-Iris...!

Iris: After spending half a year by your side... My feelings for you... They changed.

Phoenix: ...... I have something to say to you, too.

Iris: Y-Yes?

Phoenix: You really are the person I always thought you were. Even after Dahlia Hawthorne was found guilty... I still believed in you.

Iris: ...... Thank you.

Back to Godot!  Sipping his coffee, he says this is the best coffee he's ever had.  He asks if Phoenix agrees with him (pronouncing his name correctly, for once).  Phoenix, also drinking, agrees.  The judge hands down a not guilty verdict to Iris.

Out in the lobby, Mia congratulates Phoenix on a case not even she could have won.  Phoenix frets for a while over not being able to save Diego as well, but Mia assures him that the verdict is the only way Phoenix could have saved him.  She tells Phoenix she has nothing more to teach him.  Then Maya appears, followed by Edgeworth and Franziska, whom Phoenix thank for their help.  Larry appears as well, still begging Franziska to model for his picture book.  Gumshoe shows up too and insists they have a party.  Everyone is amazed that Maya is so cheerful, despite having just lost her mother.

Phoenix figures that Maya is being strong for Pearl's sake, who, by the way, has gone missing.  Phoenix tells everyone to go on ahead to the party while he and Maya return to Hazakura Temple to find Pearl.  Bikini directs them to the Inner Temple, where Pearl is busy cleaning the Misty Fey scroll.  Poor Pearl feels responsible for Misty's death.  But Maya assures Pearl that she's all right.  Because of everyone's help she managed to survive, and will continue to grow stronger.  Her mother looked out for her up until the very end, and that's what matters most.

And so ends the final case of Phoenix's trilogy.

Morgan's husband, who had only married her in the first place intending to hold some sway within the village, decided to leave her after this (the Fey spiritualists had close connections to the government, and he had hoped to play off those connections himself).  He took Dahlia and Iris and left the village.  But when he remarried, his new wife already had an older daughter, Valerie.  Mr. Hawthorne decided he didn't need Iris, and left her at the Hazakura Temple, where she was raised by Bikini.

Dahlia grew up hating her family.  When she was fourteen, she meet Terry Fawles, who fell in love with her.  She plotted with him and her step sister Valerie to steal an expensive diamond ore from her father.  She chose the Dusky bridge for their scheme so that Iris would be able to help them, but Iris lost her nerve and never showed.  By the end of that incident, Dahlia leapt into the Eagle River and lost her diamond.  Her sister discovered her downstream and nursed her back to health.  Terry was blamed for her "murder" and sent to prison.

Five years later, Dahlia would return, posing as Melissa Foster.  Fearing that Valerie was about to relate the truth of Dahlia's "murder" to the public, Dahlia killed her.  This case was tried by rookie lawyer Mia Fey, with help from Mia's coworker, Diego Armando.  It ended abruptly when Terry killed himself, and Dahlia was allowed to run free. (For more on this case, read 3-4)

After this, Diego wasn't able to stand the thought of Dahlia escaping judgment.  He sat her down at the courthouse cafeteria to try and get some information out of her.  But Dahlia slipped poison into his coffee when he wasn't looking, and he "died" soon after drinking it (she had gotten the poison by coercing it out of her boyfriend at the time, Doug, who was a chemist).  Dahlia hid the poison from the police by handing the vial off to the first person she could, who just happened to be young student Phoenix Wright.  It worked, but then Dahlia realized she would have to get it back from Phoenix as soon as the police had stopped suspecting her, and she plotted to kill him.  When Iris heard of this, she begged her sister to wait.  Iris went to Phoenix instead, pretending to be Dahlia so that she could get the vial back from him.  But by then Phoenix was determined to think of the gift as a love token, and Iris didn't have the heart to steal it back.  As she spent more time with him, the two of them fell in love.

Dahlia grew impatient.  When she realized that Iris had fallen in love with Phoenix she plotted to kill him behind Iris's back.  She poisoned his cold medicine, but she didn't expect Phoenix to get in a fight with her ex-boyfriend Doug.  In the events that followed, she murdered Doug and placed the blame on Phoenix.  But in the trial Mia Fey appeared again, determined to get revenge on Dahlia for having murdered Diego.  She proved Phoenix innocent and had Dahlia convicted, which put her on death row. (For more, read 3-1).

Meanwhile, Diego hadn't actually died.  Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, he was revived, though damage to his nervous system from the poison kept him in a coma.

Also, by now Morgan had remarried, and had another daughter, Pearl.  Her second husband didn't stick around any longer than her first had, but Pearl's spiritual powers were very strong.  Morgan plotted to have her daughter Pearl succeed the Fey family in place of Misty's daughter, Maya.

Several years later, Phoenix became a lawyer in Mia's law firm.  Soon afterwards, she was murdered by Redd White. (1-2)

A year after that, during a routine channeling at Kurain Village, a client was murdered, and Maya was placed under suspicion.  This was actually a plot by Morgan to have Maya incarcerated, opening the way for her daughter Pearl to take over.  But Phoenix took the case, and proved Maya's innocence.  Morgan's involvement was exposed, and she was sent to prison. (2-2)

A few months after this, Diego was revived out of his coma by the smell of freshly brewed coffee.  He learned at once that his enemy, Dahlia, was already in prison awaiting execution, and more than that, Mia had been murdered.  As he investigated Phoenix's involvement in all those cases, he came to hate him, and swore vengeance.  With his new white hair and visor he planned to enter the prosecutor's office, so that he could face Phoenix on the battleground they were each most familiar with.  He challenged Phoenix over the cases of DeLite and Byrde (3-2 and 3-3).

In prison, Morgan met with her daughter Dahlia.  They each plotted to get their revenge on the Fey family in their own way.  A month before 3-5, Dahlia was executed. 

Before her capture by the police, Morgan had written a letter to Pearl, detailing a plot she'd conjured to get Maya out of the way.  During one of her visitations with her youngest daughter, Morgan told Pearl to find this letter and follow its instructions.  Pearl agreed, unaware that Godot was listening in.

Godot hurried to Kurain, and discovered the letter before Pearl.  He read its contents, but left it where he found it.  The plot Morgan described included the Hazakura Temple.  At the stroke of 10 pm, Pearl was to summon Dahlia Hawthorne.  Dahlia would then find Maya and kill her, hopefully with a witness.  Since Dahlia looked exactly like her sister, Iris would be blamed for the murder.  They would have revenge against all those that had betrayed them.

Godot used his connections in the prosecutor's office to hunt down Misty Fey, whom he told about the murder plot.  He also went to Iris with the same information, and got her cell phone number.  Misty Fey appeared at Hazakura Temple as her alter ego, Elise Deauxnim, so that she could help prevent the murder.  She had prepared a katana hidden in her staff for the occasion.  The night that Pearl was meant to summon Dahlia, Godot snuck to the Inner Temple to wait.  If Misty was unsuccessful in preventing Pearl's summoning, he would be there to protect Maya.

Iris was meant to participate as well, but earlier in the day she received a threatening letter, telling her to come to the Dusky Bridge, or else her secret would be revealed.  Fearful that Phoenix would find out about how she had deceived him years ago, she stayed in her room.

Maya went to the temple with Bikini to prepare for her training.  At the same time, Pearl snuck across the bridge as well, hoping to check up on Maya (she was worried about her being alone in the cold).  Just as 10 was approaching, Misty still couldn't find Pearl, and feared the plan was about to go through.  Not wanting Pearl to be involved, she summoned Dahlia herself so that Pearl wouldn't be able to.

Dahlia didn't realize who had summoned her.  She took up Misty's staff (not realizing there was a sword hidden inside) and plucked a knife out of a storage room.  She crossed Dusky Bridge, where she ran into Bikini.  Bikini, thinking it to be Iris, asked her to stay behind to look after Maya, and then returned to the temple to take a bath.  As soon as she'd left, Dahlia attacked Maya in the temple garden.  She struck Maya with the staff to disorient her, then tossed it away to instead try to finish her off with the knife.

Godot interfered.  Taking up Misty's staff, he uncovered the hidden katana.  When faced with the image of Dahlia, the woman who had murdered him, he lost his senses and stabbed her in the back in a fit of rage.  Dahlia reeled, attacking him with the knife.  She managed to knock his visor off and cut him across the face, just before collapsing.  With her last ounce of strength, Dahlia wrote Maya's name on the garden lantern in blood.  Misty Fey died, cutting off the channeling.

Realizing what he had done, Godot doctored the scene.  He replaced his visor and took Maya back to the Inner temple.  He then called Iris's cell phone and told her to bring the snowmobile to the bridge.  She did so, but when she arrived at the bridge, it had already been struck by lightning was unfit to cross.  As Godot arrived at the other side with the body, he realized there was no way to dispose of it (the nature of the river's banks prevented him from simply tossing it in the water).  So he used a broken line off the bridge itself, tied Misty to it (still impaled by the staff) and swung her across the chasm.  Iris managed to catch her on the other side, not without bruising her, and in the process a crystal was knocked off Misty's staff.  Iris then loaded the body on the snowmobile, drove it back to the courtyard, and removed the staff.  Bikini witnessed the removal of the katana, but passed out from shock.  Iris then stabbed the body with the Seven Blade Sword (to alter the wound, so the murder weapon wouldn't be identified) and returned to her room to wait.

Godot, meanwhile, went back to the garden.  He lit the lanterns and cleaned up the scene as best he could.  He removed all the snow in the area in case it was stained with blood (he couldn't see the red, so he had to be thorough).  But he didn't notice the letters on the lantern.  He then hid himself to wait for the police.

Meanwhile, Maya woke up inside the temple.  She went to the garden to see what had happened and found it empty.  So she wrote a note of what had happened and summoned Mia, to get advice from her.  Mia didn't understand all of what had happened, but she must have realized it was Dahlia.  She told Maya to lock herself behind the temple's iron doors, and summon Dahlia so that no one else would be able to - Dahlia on the loose is a very bad idea.  Maya did so, using a Psyche Lock on the door to keep Dahlia safely inside.

When Dahlia woke inside the cave, she had no idea who had summoned her.  She assumed it was Pearl, who was finally successful.  She waited, as Godot waited elsewhere, for the police to arrive.

(As an added note, there is one question I see asked a lot about this case, even on Japanese sites - why didn't Godot just hide Morgan's letter?  Since he found it before Pearl, he could have easily destroyed it and prevented the entire case.  The only explanation I can think of is contained in Godot's finishing speech at the end of the case: he wanted Maya to be in danger, so that he would be able to save her, as a way of making up for having failed to protect Mia.)