Still don't own the two sets of movies that this is located in... *sighs*

I have worked Bella in, but not until a later chapter. My sincerest apologies, but I feel the need to give more background information on her and build her character before I get going too far in the series.

44: Two Roads

"Welcome to the Anime Convention for New York," Dan smiled as he took her downstairs to the registration desk. "Hi, I'm here to pick up three tickets for Samurai Dan and company."

"One for you, sir," the lady said smiling. "One for Lady Jillian and – this is your new assistant?!"

"We adopted her, she started to drown herself in the ways of the samurai to get rid of all her emotional stress," Dan explained simply. "For one, she wouldn't take no for an answer, and two, we figured this would be the best way to get her started on training since we're her sensei's."

"Okay, if you're sure," the lady said handing him the three tickets and lanyards. "Don't blame me when you get sued."

"I'll scream at them until they're deaf if they try," Sarah snorted. "And let's not forget that unlike most people, I know how and where to get arsenic."

"Oh, god. Well, now I know just why nobody wanted to take you in from your mother's side of your family," Dan said giving her a startled look before shaking his head and leading her towards their hotel room. "Okay, family suite on the top floor, and free con tickets, how much better could this get?"

"Free cosplays," Sarah said calmly as she looked down at herself, out of cosplay for the first time since she'd moved to America six months prior. "Wait, what happened to my little brother? The one my mother had?"

"You have a brother?!" they asked shocked.

"Aw, crap," Dan said face-palming. "We're doomed."

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Sarah's mother's younger brother glared down at the infant that was given a free airplane ride from America when his little sister had died. But what was strange was that his sister's daughter hadn't even been flown in with him. The family could only assume that she was killed alongside her mother, and so they buried an empty casket alongside Saphira's body.

"Sarah," he said looking up into the sky. "I hope you find your angel of music up there."

"Sir?" a woman asked as she looked at him with his nephew, and he looked to find one of his wife's friends from the Opera House. "The child…"

"Is my late sister's only remaining heir," he said coldly. "I won't give him up for the world."

"And-and his sister?"

"As far as any of us know, she's dead as well," he said softly looking up into the sky. "But if she's not, we can only hope that she is happy and safe."

"Something tells me that she's not if her mother is dead," she said dryly. "Would you like for me to go find her in America?"

"No, I don't want a schizophrenic on my hands," he said shaking his head. "Besides, I've got a general idea on where she would have been had she survived the attack, which she clearly didn't since no body was ever found even though her blood was on the kitchen floor."

"And you know this how?" she asked skeptically.

"There was a letter with my sister's body," he lied smoothly as though he were telling the truth. "It explained that my niece's blood was all over the kitchen even though there was no imprint of the body, and there was most definitely no body to be found. But from the way the letter describes the scene, I doubt she'd have survived."

"So you think a pedophile attacked your sister, killed her, and then kidnapped your niece to use as a sexual slave?" the woman asked incredulously.

"Yeah, pretty much, that's all Americans really think about anyways," he said nodding and frowning. "If you don't mind, I'd like to honor my niece's memory since we're at her funeral."

"And your sister's," she said nodding as she stared at the two caskets.

"Yes, hers too," he said nodding, trying to figure out where his brother-in-law had gone wrong with their plans.

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"I'm telling you, I was paid to do this!" Sean yelled angrily at Charlie, who was completely unconvinced at the man's alibi. "I was paid to slip something to my wife, I didn't know it would kill her, honest!"

"Sure you didn't," he said skeptically. "You slipped your wife a little something in food that she was allergic to by using small doses over time. If that doesn't scream out that you've killed her for the insurance money then I don't know what will."

"But, please, you have to believe me!" Sean pled. "I can give you a name!"

"Whose?"

"It-it was her brother, one who lives in France, he heard that my step-daughter was able to see the Opera Ghost, and the managers would pay thousands of Euros for her to be able to control him and eventually lure him out to destroy him!" Sean pled, making it up as he went along. "The managers would pass down what they knew of the phantom down by letters to the next one all the way up until present day and would warn the next ones of how the systems worked with him!"

"If this guy's a phantom, how are we supposed to counter or capture him, hm? Tell me that," Charlie snorted sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest.

"It was like the phantom of the opera, but they believe that someone else is using his title for their own sadistic and greedy means," he pled. "Please, you have to believe me!"

"Sure, I'll believe you when you turn up dead with a broken neck and a noose on," Charlie retorted as he got up and left the room. "Any diagnosis on what killed her?"

"It was an allergen, just as we suspected," a medic confirmed, passing along Carlisle's diagnosis. "She was allergic to teriyaki sauce, peanut oil, and eggs."

"That's one weird combination," Charlie said shaking his head and frowning. "Any ideas how long she'd been taking it?"

"Well, separate over time would only have weakened her immune system, but what killed her that day was the combination of the three without any other foods that day to use as distractions and dissolvent for her immune system."

"Well, I'm glad I have no clue how to cook," Charlie snorted, "Cuts down my probability of poisoning someone."

"Actually, that would increase it," he said sheepishly, and Charlie glared at him.

"Very funny," Charlie said sourly.

Um... review please?