A/N-Just trying something new. I've decided that if I am going to write something it should be now that I am on break and have the time. Hope everyone enjoys.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I do not own anything from the Phantom of the Opera or Buffy The Vampire Slayer despite popular belief.

Summary- Another story about Buffy jumping into the portal that doesn't kill her season 5 and she awakes in a new world. This time she wakes up in 1889 and finds her a

new home residing in the Opera Garnier. There she meets the famous phantom. Can Buffy show him compassion and maybe even love or are the two just too different?

Background info-For the sake of this story no the story has not been made into a musical and is indeed an alternate world. This is set after Christine has run off with Raoul

and the opera house has been repaired from the fire and is back in business with the phantom still hiding out underneath it all.

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Chapter 1- The Gift

"Are you guys having a fight? 'Cuz, you know, fighting's not cool."

"'Cause it's always got to be blood."

"Tell me to kill my sister."

"Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting her."

"This is how many apocalypses for us now?"

"Doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, I'm done with it. I'm quitting."

"Remember: The ritual starts, we all die; and I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn."

"Dawn, listen to me. Listen: I love you. I will always love you. This is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles I... tell Giles I figured it out, and I'm o.k. Give my love to my

friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live...

for me."

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Green eyes flew open and up came the body of what should be a corpse. Buffy brought a hand to her head moaning in pain as she ran it over a bump on her head.

She blinked a few times and shook her head slightly in an attempt to clear it from the fog that seemed to have invaded her mind. She had to think...'The apocalypse...'

"Dawn!" She stood abruptly on shaky legs and glanced around rubbing at her bleared vision. " I have to save..." The sentence was left unsaid as memories flooded her

mind. '...Be brave. Live... for me' Her breathing became ragged as she stumbled towards the closest hard surface around and let her tired aching body slide down it. Her

eyes began to water and she then began to look around at her surroundings. She seemed to be in a dank alleyway the pavement was wet with what she assumed was rain

and she could see light being emitted from outside the alleyway but she had little desire to go looking around at the present moment. She leaned back into the brick wall

and let her head fall back a batch of warm tears left wet streaks down her now sickly pale skin. Her body shook with a silent sob and a few moments later it began

shaking with laughter. She clutched her stomach as she hysterically laughed and new tears from that made way down her face. 'Dawn and all my friends are safe. We beat

it. Now the real question is...How safe am I? '

" Hullo there pretty lady. "

' Exactly what I thought.'

Buffy's head snapped in the direction of the voice and stood up with the support of the wall when her eyes focused on a trio of men blocking her way out of the alley. They

all seemed strangely short and burly with longer hair pulled back in a small pony tail, one man had a blue bow and she chuckled slightly at the vision of a man with a bow

in his hair. The man seemed to notice it was he she was chuckling at and snarled taking a step forward. She proceeded to take one back, she was not afraid of them but

did not desire to fight and put more strain on her already aching body. They seemed to grin at this,

" Now lady, it is only polite to say hullo back. " The man in the middle said with a toothy grin allowing Buffy a show of his crooked yellow teeth. She backed up until her

back was pressed into the back wall of the alley.

" Hi. " She sneered. They let out hearty laughs at this and took a few more steps toward the blonde Slayer.

" Aw, come now lady. Is that all you have to say? " The man proceeded to ask letting his eyes rake down her body. She was still wearing her clothing from the battle and

the white color was grimy now with dirt and blood and some skin could be seen from the holes but very little. She looked up and smiled at her luck.

" No actually." She replied to him smiling right back. They seemed to pause at this and the three exchanged glances. The man who had done all the talking raised his

eyebrows at the blonde,

" And what might it be you yearn to say to us lady?" He asked licking his dry and cracked lips bringing a slight grimace to Buffy's face. She closed her eyes and shook her

head trying to get the picture of him attacking another girl unable to protect herself from him out of her mind. She smiled again at them,

" Bye." She turned and jumped catching the ledge of the alley wall and pulling herself up with very small struggle. She sat on the ledge and waved in mock comradery as

she let herself fall and land on the opposite side of the wall. She looked around the busy street and her eyes landed upon a gorgeous looking building, she only glanced at

the sign and barely registered that it was not a hotel but an opera house as she crossed the street and discretely entered the building. She stopped in her tracks and was

not able to suppress the small gasp that escaped her lips. The inside was just as grand as the outside had been. Everything seemed to be gold, the floor, the grand

staircase, the statues of partially nude women. Velvet draping contrasted beautifully with everything and Buffy stood there for a few moments with her mouth agape.

Finally she took a step forward,

" Meg dear your balance seemed a bit off today. " An older woman scolded to a young blonde who wore ballet slippers and had a neat bow tied in to the back of her pale

long blonde hair. She had a soft face and looked down ashamed of herself from what the older woman had said,

" I know mama, it was just...Did you not notice that box 5 was not empty at todays rehearsal?" The pair had stopped walking and now faced one another. Buffy was hiding

in the shadows her back pressed firmly into the wall. The older woman in reply to what her daughter had said sighed deeply,

" It would seem he is back, he is probably curious as to what has become of his opera house, I assume he has been hiding out in his home until things calmed down." The

woman told her daughter fondly stroking her daughters blonde locks.

"And now he's back. You do not think he plans a repeat of the disaster? It would be dreadful if he were to burn it back down after all the work we had to do to build it back

up." Meg asked looking her mother worriedly in her eyes.

" I doubt it dear. I think he would like nothing more than to forget of his misfortunes and to go back to being the opera houses phantom. " She replied rubbing her daughters

back in a calming gesture. Buffy's forehead wrinkled, 'Phantom?' She snuggled more into her corner and bit back a gasp of shock as the wall gave in and opened revealing

what she assumed was a secret passageway.

" What was that? " She heard the young girl Meg ask.

" Uh oh. " She muttered she quickly entered the room despite her better judgement and closed the wall. She could hear the quick footsteps from outside the wall. She

backed away and looked around her, it seemed the passageway led to yet another grand staircase. It seemed more dank though and as she stepped to the side of the

stairs and looked down the spiral staircase she groaned when seeing that the way down was a long ways.

"Erik?" She heard a voice ask softly. She turned quickly to see the older woman had found the passageway and now held a torch and looked around the great staircase.

Their eyes met and after a moments silence Buffy did the first thing that came to her. She ran. She ran down the stairs and ignored the cries coming from the woman,

" Madame! Wait, not that way! "

Buffy continued her sprint. After a good 5 minutes or so she slowed to a stop. She was slightly out of breath, she blamed it on her weak state. She rolled her shoulder

grimacing at the soreness of her arm from pounding Glory. She once again looked over the ledge of the stairs and groaned realizing she still wasn't even close enough to

see the bottom yet. She took another step forward,

" Ah!" She exclaimed as the floor suddenly gave in. She landed on what looked like a glass surface but as she went through and felt the cold take a grasp at her she

realized it was water. She looked up,

"Trapdoor. That never means anything good." She muttered and right after saying so the ceiling with what she now saw had spikes on them began to descend towards her.

She frantically began looking around swishing the water as she did so.

" Not good. Not good!" She looked back up and then proceeded to take a big breath. She swam down into the cold water kicking her feet and frantically looking for the

answer to help get her out. Her hair got in her way and acted almost as a shield. She swam back to the top quickly and took another deep gulp of air. The metal ceiling

was close now and swam back under, it took her nearly a minute before she found the wheel and began working on turning it. When she had finally finished that she felt her

eyelids beginning to get heavy and as she went to swim back up her lungs could take no more and before she met the surface she breathed in a nice amount of water and

suddenly darkness overwhelmed her.

A/N-A cliff hanger, oh my! I have never had a beta but I probably need one. It would definately be nice. Well I hope you enjoyed what I have written thus far. The next chapter we get some phantom, if you like this story and want me to continue it a review might be nice encouragement. If you think I should stop now before I butcher it, let me know.