A/N: This is my first Phantom fanfiction so please be at least a little kind in your reviews, but constructive criticism is appreciated. I do not own Christine, poor, unhappy Erik, the Persian, the first few paragraphs, or anything else that DOES belong to the magnificent M. Gaston Leroux, in fact, most of the storyline of this chapter belongs to him. At the end, I'll mention some things that I may have meant to be the way that they are. If I mention them, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't. Thank you.
The Scorpion and the Grasshopper sat in front of Christine. The words that finished the explanation of her choice echoed in her mind; "Yes or no! If your answer is no, everybody will be dead and buried!" The words of Raoul's warning would echo after the choice each time; that if she didn't turn the Scorpion, as her love suggested, then the entire Opera would be blown to a million pieces. As these blasted words repeated in her mind, she realized the extent of what Raoul was saying. For his sake, as well as the Persian's, he wanted her to marry the monster. He was willing to live without her… he could go on without her… The tears welled involuntarily in her eyes. Erik, thankfully, was not there. Surely, though, he would be back soon, and she would be out of time. Oh, dear Lord, was there no comfort for her in this moment? Then the Persian asked her where she was, his voice sounded urgent. "By the Scorpion!" the poor girl cried out.
"Don't touch it!" he answered. Christine could almost hear the realization in his voice, there must have been some other horror attached to the Scorpion, something more horrendous than marriage to that… thing! Oh, why was the… THING not back yet? Perhaps she could plead with him, if only he would return!
Once more, the Persian called out, "Don't touch the Scorpion!" and Christine heard Erik returning to them.
"Here he comes!" she yelled. "I hear him! Here he is!"
The Persian tried to reason with the Phantom, but the Phantom only silenced him. Suddenly, the trap-door lover turned on Christine and began further explaining the situation, finishing with "If, in two minutes, mademoiselle, you have not turned the scorpion, I shall turn the grasshopper… and the grasshopper, I tell you, hops jolly high!" A quarter of Paris… not only the four people deep below the ground… not only those enjoying the Opera house… but a quarter of the people enjoying Paris… And, then, Erik interrupted Christine's thoughts; "The two minutes are past… Good-by, mademoiselle. …Hop, grasshopper!"
"Erik!" Chrstine nearly screamed at him, then caught herself and her voice quieted, "do you swear to me, monster, do you swear to me that the scorpion is the one to turn?"
"Yes," answered the Phantom, "to hop at our wedding."
"Ah, you see! You said, to hop!" Christine replied skeptically.
"At our wedding, ingenious child!… The scorpion opens the ball. …But that will do!… You won't have the scorpion? Then I turn the grasshopper!"
It was true, since Raoul was so fine with her marrying this Monster, that Christine had nothing left to live for. Except, perhaps… yes, of course! Even if she had learned the truth of him, he was still her Angel of Music, was he not? So, even in this moment of desperation, she still had something to live for, no?
"Erik!" she interrupted him again, but he yelled back.
"Enough!" The Phantom would hear nothing, and his hand was already on the Grasshopper, but Christine's hand outstretched and beat his in turning the figurine.
"Erik!" she shouted for what seemed the fortieth time, "I have turned the Scorpion!"
She could hear as the Persian stopped his screaming, and the silence seemed to take hours before… a hissing… of… water? Christine audibly sighed in relief.
Erik, however, would not rest until he was sure that Christine could not turn back. He grabbed her left wrist firmly, forcing the ring she had lost onto her finger. He grinned demonically at her and dragged her up to the surface, to a nearby chapel, where Christine did not hesitate in finishing the ceremony. The religious man looked curiously between the couple until the Phantom warned him in an eerily calm voice to "go on, already." Shortly thereafter, the wedding was done and over with, so Erik dragged her back down to the third cellar, to his home. The moment they returned, Christine ran to the torture room, horrified to find it filled to the brim with water, and Raoul and the Persian drowning inside. Her crystal blue eyes widened and she ran to her husband. Taking both of his hands in hers, she looked up at him with horror evident in her shaking body. "I swear it, my Angel, I swear I shall be yours forever, simply lower the water level! My Angel, please, they shan't live if you don't!"
Erik looked down at her, surprised that she had been so affectionate toward him. His hands… they dared to hold hers? Then, after a moment, the words registered within his mind, and his head tilted in confusion at her plea. "But, my love, what do their lives matter?"
"I cannot, in good conscience," she answered, little tears forming in her eyes, "allow gentlemen to die when I could have saved them. Please, my Angel, please!"
His golden eyes seemed to fill with regret as he walked over to the casket and turned the Scorpion, the water emptying from the Torture Chamber. Then, he walked over to the secret door, unlocked it, and dragged the two unconscious bodies from the damp chamber. Christine turned from them and left the room. How the Phantom healed the two poor men was not important to her. As she left, however, he left her with a few dark words; "Don't touch the boy!" Christine did not intend to touch the man who she felt had betrayed her. She did, however, allow him one glance. A quick, short look, filled with love, wonder, horror, and hatred. How he could live on without Christine, how he could allow her to marry another, that was what had pushed her emotions to where she thought they could never be. She began to feel disdain for the boy.
After a while, after Erik had taken the Persian back up to the surface, and Raoul was… elsewhere (Erik hadn't allowed her to know his exact location), the Phantom returned to Christine. The monster, who usually looked so intimidating and confident (unless, of course, he was groveling before her) looked childishly timid. The girl stood and looked at him, a small, sweet smile on her face. As he walked over to her, Christine put out her forehead just a tad. She held back a tiny laugh as his surprise spread over his face. Gently, ever so lightly, he placed his cold hands on her shoulders. She firmly held back a shudder at his touch, which only seemed to make him more emotional. Hesitantly, he moved his lips to her forehead. And Christine did not move. She did not pull back. She did not… die! The Phantom was moved to tears, and collapsed to his knees before his wife… his living wife. His lips kissed her dainty feet; his tears moistened her skirt hem. As her own tears drenched her cheeks, Christine knelt with the man. She held both of his hands in her own and cooed, "Poor, unhappy Erik."
The tears that seemed to rattle his entire body stopped immediately. The realization came to him quickly; he couldn't make her stay.
"Promise me," he breathed, then found a more audible voice. "Promise me that, when I've died, you'll come back… and bury me with my ring…"
"C-come back?" Christine asked, surprised. "W-why would I leave?"
"Because, my love, I'm letting you go," he removed his hands from hers and stood erect, then took a few steps back. "You don't love me. You think of me as nothing more than a dog… a dog ready to die for you. So... you can go. Marry the boy whenever you like... but please bring me back my ring once I'm dead. Your dearest love… he's in the Communists' Dungeon. Retrieve him, and leave me. I'll soon fall into a blissful, eternal slum-"
Christine had been shocked into silence, unable to interrupt him until then. "No! You are much more than a dog to me!" She stood and quickly closed the distance between them, caressing sweetly the edge of his mask. "You're my-my Angel of Music! Please, my Angel, do not fall into this so-called blissful, and eternal slumber! I…" her voice grew silent, almost hesitant before she finished, "I want to stay…"
Erik looked at Christine with more surprise than one could think possible to see on a masked face. He took both of her hands in his and brought them up to his lips, kissing both of them at once. Again, Christine didn't shudder, pull away, or die. "But… I don't understand," he replied, keeping his hands near his mouth, "why do you not want to return to the boy you so obviously love dearly?"
"Because… he doesn't love me like he should," she replied, sadly. "The man I love should not be able to live on without me while I marry another! So, there's nothing left for me except my Angel of Music." The Phantom smiled at her, as tears of uncontrollable joy flooded his eyes. "My Angel, though, could you return him to the surface? He needs to find someone he can love…"
Erik grimaced, but as his yellow eyes met her azure ones, he couldn't refuse her. He sighed and left to rescue the boy. He grabbed the boy and carried him over his back, going back through his home to prove to his living wife that he was, in fact, taking the boy back to the surface.
A few days later, Christine was walking near the lake, humming Mozart quietly to herself, when she realized a letter by the door. At first, only one thought occurred to her; 'Who dropped off mail to the Phantom?' But as she paid more attention to the curious envelope, she recognized the handwriting of the Comte de Chagny.
A/N: I know most of this chapter is straight from the book, but it's very important that this chapter be here, so you can understand how Erik and Christine got together, and how the rest of the events can be possible after M. Leroux's. Yes, I purposely changed a lot of it. Mostly, this chapter shows what I think Christine should have been thinking once Raoul told her to marry poor, unhappy Erik. That selfish, greasy-haired, bourgeois brat was just fine with his love marrying someone else? Oh, yes, he loves her so much. Please don't PM me to argue with this. We're all entitled to our own opinions, and if you don't like my thinking style then you don't have to keep reading :D Otherwise, if you intend to keep reading and you notice a discontinuity with the epilogue (primarily what happened to the characters other than Raoul, Christine, and Erik), please let me know. Thanks, and enjoy!