Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to Firing Rockets on Dragons, Panzer718, and 9081. Thank you so much for your reviews, your input has really meant a lot to me! And also thanks to nighteh, sinnerchrno, Ellie72127, and the name of a rose for either listing Six Years Later as a favorite story, or putting it on alert! Panzer718: I am sorry, please don't kill me! Saya is not in this chapter because, as you can see, this chapter takes place in 2007. But I promise that Saya will be in this story... a lot. Trust me, I am far from finished!

Chapter 4

"The final forming of a person's character lies in his own hands."
- Anne Frank

2007

Nathan Mahler sighed as he walked into his home in France. He closed the door and threw his keys on a table by the front door. He walked back towards the kitchen in search of his favorite red wine. After the past couple of days he had had, he desperately needed a glass.

He selected an unopened bottle of Grand Vin de Château Latour from his wine cabinet and set it on the counter. He began humming to himself as he grabbed one of his biggest wine glasses and pulled out a wine key from a drawer. He opened the wine bottle, set the cork on the counter, and poured just enough wine into the glass for it to equal a sip. He gave it three quick swirls, stuck his nose into the glass, and sniffed.

"Perfect," Nathan said, a big smile lighting up his face. He then proceeded to pour himself a full glass. He took the glass and walked to the window facing his backyard so he could look out at the garden.

He took a long sip from his glass and shook his head. He still couldn't believe that Diva was dead. Karl, Amshel, Solomon, and James were all dead, too.

Oh, James! His handsome James. He had always been a bit too serious for his taste, but Nathan had never cared because he had been so incredibly cute!

But aside from his sadness at Diva's passing, he had rather enjoyed the whole experience, in its entirety, of being Diva's chevalier. What wonderful entertainment! It had had all the elements of a noteworthy drama: love, war, death, tragedy, betrayal... And such a marvelous script! The right corner of his mouth curled upwards.

Yes, he had set the stage quite nicely. Especially for his "death" at the very end. Quite a dramatic finish, if he did say so himself! It was the perfect way to symbolize the fact that he was no longer Diva's chevalier.

But now what was he going to do? Re-open the Metropolitan Opera House? Or should he move on to a new endeavor? The thought reminded him of an earlier conversation he had had with Solomon.

"Would you like to quit being a producer at the opera house and become a museum curator?"

"Well, I'll give it a thought... in about a hundred years."

It certainly was something to think about. And much sooner than he had originally planned!

Nathan sighed. Poor Solomon. All he had wanted was to live with Saya. For her to become his bride. Well, it made sense. She was rightfully his bride, after all!

He shook his head. If only Solomon had made it, he might have been able to make his dream a reality. After all, Saya was still alive!

Poor, poor Solomon.

Nathan took another sip of wine and headed towards the basement. He wanted to check if there were any "leftover parts" from experiments with the Schiff or the Corpse Corps. If there were, he would have to dispose of them.

He had no desire to have any more association with the Cinq Flèches Group. He had never cared much about their stupid experiments anyway. The only thing that had mattered to him was Diva.

Nathan switched on the light and headed downstairs. He had better change the locks to the house, too. He didn't want any unwelcome guests. After all, he knew some of Amshel's henchmen had keys for the house. But it was his house now.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and headed to the right. He passed through the automatic sliding doors and flipped on the light. He looked to the right and then looked to the left at the tall glass cylinder containers.

It felt as if time was slowing down as Nathan's wine glass slowly slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor. He could hear the echoes of the shattering glass ringing in his head and felt his body give a tiny jerk in surprise as he stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened in disbelief as he began to walk towards the container that had held James after that night on Christina Island when he had lost most of his limbs. He felt as if he was in some kind of trance.

No, this couldn't be real. It had to be a dream. Just had to be. He rubbed at his eyes and opened them again. But he was still there.

"Solomon?" Nathan whispered.

Almost as if he had heard him, Solomon's eyes flew open and he stared at Nathan.

Nathan rushed over and pressed the button to drain the cylinder. Once it was completely empty, he opened the hatch to let Solomon out.

"Solomon! How? How is this possible?" Nathan surveyed Solomon carefully. Not because he was completely naked, but because he did not understand how all of his limbs seemed to be intact.

Solomon smiled at Nathan. "Would you mind getting me some clothes first? Then I promise to answer any questions that you may have."

Nathan smiled back. "Alright, whatever! If you were James, I might have said no... but-" Nathan shrugged and sighed as he began to walk upstairs.

"You know, Solomon," he said, "I believe that one of your old white suits is still here!"

As soon as Solomon was dressed, they sat down at a table in the kitchen.

"Actually, Nathan, I have some questions I would like to ask you first. Where are Amshel and Diva? And, more importantly, where is Saya?"

Nathan looked at him curiously. "You mean you don't know?" He paused. "Amshel and Diva are dead. Killed by Saya and her chevalier, Haji. It happened the night of Diva's concert at the Metropolitan Opera House."

Solomon looked a little sad for a moment. "Brother is dead?" he asked. But then he gave a wide smile and said softly, "But Saya….. if she and Haji killed both Diva and Amshel, that must mean she is still alive!"

Nathan nodded. "Yes, she is. But I think the bigger question is, how are you?"

Solomon smiled and tilted his head to the side. "And I can see that you are quite thrilled by that fact."

"Oh, Solomon. Don't be ridiculous. Of course I am, but you must understand, I am rather confused by the fact that you are still alive. Amshel called me and told me that he had found you in an alley in New York... completely crystallized. He told me that you saved Saya from James, but in the process got nicked on your left shoulder by her sword. Her sword that was dripping with her blood." Nathan sighed. "Oh and what a wonderful drama it must have been! I am quite sorry to have missed it! So... care to explain why Amshel lied to me? And why I found you in that glass cylinder downstairs?"

Solomon looked down at his glass of wine with that small smile that always seemed to be plastered to his face.

"Brother said that, did he?" Solomon looked back up at Nathan, his expression never wavering. "I cannot tell you why he lied to you. All I can tell you is what I know..."

"Solomon Goldsmith. What a sorry state you are in."

Solomon started sliding towards the ground, but Amshel caught him before he fell. Solomon's left arm began to crystallize. Amshel stared straight ahead, his face expressionless but for the small hint of sadness in his eyes. He closed his eyes and ripped off Solomon's left arm before the rest of his body crystallized as well.

Solomon felt faint. He could feel himself sliding in and out of consciousness. "Why, brother?" he asked weakly. "Why would you save me? I tried to kill you!"

Amshel looked down at Solomon. "That's just it. You are my little brother. My real little brother." Amshel then looked away. "The last of the Goldsmiths, other than myself. I hope I don't come to regret this decision, but I just can't allow myself to let you die like this. You will be taken back to France where your arm will be restored."

"No, brother! I saw what happened to James. You... 'restored' his body as well, did you not? His artificial limbs completely crystallized... not from Saya's sword, but because he had the 'thorn.' I do not wish for that to happen to me. Just kill me now and get it over with," Solomon finished weakly.

Amshel shook his head. "You've got it all wrong, brother. If you'll remember, I told Diva that James was going to be alright, despite the loss of almost all of his limbs. I never would have said such a thing to her if it weren't true. But Diva saw James with his new body and was quite displeased. She said that she no longer wanted him. So rather than replace his limbs with that of the Corpse Corps like I had originally planned, I replaced his limbs with that of the Schiff. Obviously the difference being that the Schiff will eventually get the 'thorn,' while the Corpse Corps do not."

"Brother... you are indeed... a cruel person..." Solomon mumbled, as his head started to loll to the side.

Amshel frowned. Solomon had passed out.

"If I was really so cruel, do you really think I would be saving your sorry life?" He shook his head as he took out his cell phone and dialed.

"I need you to come pick up Solomon."

Nathan still looked baffled after Solomon's story.

"I still can't believe it! And I'm finding it harder to believe that Amshel actually saved you!"

Solomon stared at his left arm for a minute. He turned it to the left, then to the right, and flexed his fingers. "Yes. In a way, I still find it rather odd as well. I understand that I was the only chevalier that was part of his family before we formed our current family with Diva. I truly am his little brother. But I also do not believe he really considered Saya killing Diva to be a possibility. He probably figured that Diva would eventually kill Saya, leaving him to take care of Haji. With Saya gone, I'm sure he figured he would no longer have to worry about me 'straying from my path.'"

"Well I guess that does make sense. So what do you plan to do now? Saya won't wake up for another thirty years! And you are no longer the CEO of Cinq Flèches."

Solomon looked thoughtful. "To be honest, I'm not really sure." He paused. "One of my dreams…. was to see the world." He looked down. "But I don't want to do it without Saya," he said softly.

Nathan sighed. "Oh, Solomon. I never would have guessed you were such a romantic!"

Solomon looked back at Nathan and smiled. "I wouldn't have either."

Solomon shook his head. "Thirty years is a long time. I suppose I could try to take hold of Cinq Flèches if Amshel is no longer with us. If nothing else, it would be something to do."

He cocked his head to the side and closed his eyes in delight. "Just imagine the look on Van's face if I were to succeed!" He opened his eyes again to meet Nathan's. "I think that alone could make it worthwhile."

Nathan nodded in agreement. "While I do agree that that could be an interesting endeavor, I think that you should probably hold off for now."

"Hold off? Whatever for?"

"Cinq Flèches is under heavy investigation right now, as is Mr. Argeno. I'd recommend that you sit back and wait a while before you make any moves. But it might be fun to spy on them in the meantime! We could keep tabs on them and figure out when to make our move. They don't even know that we are alive, which gives us quite an advantage!" Nathan clapped his hands. "Oh, this is going to be fun!"

Solomon laughed. "What do you mean, 'we?' Why, Nathan... I never knew you had any real interest in Cinq Flèches!"

Nathan waved his hand airily. "Oh I don't, really. Never have. But it just so happens that I now have a lot of free time on my hands and it sounds like this could be fun!"

Solomon smiled. "Yes. I believe you are right."