The Apology

A/N: Surprise surprise! This is not your typical fanfic, especially not from me! I tend to write Erik/Christine stuff (since I happen to despise "other woman" kinds of stories with a passion and I'm a hopeless romantic and I've always liked Erik best ever since I saw the musical). Well, this phic is anything but Erik/Christine! In fact, it doesn't even involve them! It's one of my own characters—to be precise, it's the mysterious Phantwo J Fou herself making an appearance in a fic for the first time! Expect guest appearances from any Phantom characters and from two other mysterious characters by the names of Ici and Galley (pronounced I-see and Gal-lee, for anyone who might possible say Ici like 'icky' as one of my friends did...). Phantwo, Ici, and Galley are all from a little story called "Chronicles of Immortality," if you must know. Also, Phantwo is both a novel character and me. In this case, she's the novel character as me. Anyway, enough of my babbling. On with the show! =p

Phantwo sighed, grabbing her hat by the door. She knew it was wrong, she really did, and Ici wouldn't be pleased if he knew she was thinking about—it—again. The last time she'd told him about that, he'd been very upset. And this time, it wasn't about suicide. Though the last time they'd talked about that, Ici had been rather upset as well . . . then again, most people would be when their closest friend was thinking about suicide. As if Ici was one to point fingers, though! How many times had he tried it? She'd had to save him from slitting his own throat many a time, and—

That was not the matter at hand. She wasn't thinking about suicide. She was thinking about that confession she had to make, that apology she had to make to all the readers on Fanfiction.net. . . .

She began walking with her head down, staring at the floor with her hat pulled down far. She had only made it halfway there when a pleasant voice beside her made her turn around in surprise.

"Phantwo? Where are you going?"

She sighed, looking over at Erik sadly. "I'm sorry, Erik, but today's the day I have to make my apology."

Erik grimaced. "Oh." Scowling, he turned and waved her off with one dismissive gesture of his left hand. "Fine, then, Miss Traitor.Go make your apology. I'm sure those fools will appreciate it. Does Ici know?"

She shook her head in annoyance. Erik began grinning maliciously. "He doesn't know? And you haven't talked to him about this?"

"Of course not," she muttered. "Ici would try to stop me. You know Ici. I wonder which one of you is more depressed. Anyway—I can't tell him. I have to do this, you know. Ici—well, I don't care what he thinks about this. I have to apologise."

"So if Ici doesn't know," Erik began again, the smile on his face broadening, "then that means—"

"Don't you think about telling him!" Phantwo snapped. "Go teach Christine to sing or something."

"You know, I think I'll do that," Erik replied sarcastically. "And in the meantime—"

Phantwo groaned and pointed a shaking finger at Erik. "As I said, don't you even think about telling Ici. I'll tell him someday. . . ."

Erik shrugged and walked off, leaving Phantwo in her misery. She felt awful. Why had she been hiding this for so long? Why had she been doing this terrible thing for so long? She knew everyone hated it, yet she did it anyway, and she felt terrible thinking about how she had been offending everyone. Ici had once said all he was good for was depressing people; she felt the same way. She'd hurt Ari's feelings, especially with the Phantom ticket conflicts; so what if she didn't want to take a fat marshmallow to see The Phantom of the Opera with her? That didn't mean Ari should be forbidden to go as well! Alas, she'd also hurt her readers' feelings, and she sighed as she began dwelling on this thought again. This apology was absolutely necessary, but it was so hard to make . . . !

Finally she stood before her readers, fans and non-fans alike, all Phantom phans, feeling absolutely terrible. Taking the microphone in her left hand nervously, she glared to them all and began to speak to the expecting crowd.

To you, reader:

I apologise for all the merciless bashings of Raoul that I have made in the past. I'm aware that it's wrong of me to be so mindless and biased in these lashings, and I understand that I may have turned some of you away from me altogether because I have always displayed an anti-Raoul attitude. I hope to make it up to you somehow, to even the bitterness I may have roused, if at all possible. Today I make an apology to anyone who has read anything I have written that offended him or her in the matters of Raoul.

To attempt to justify myself, I will say that Raoul is an easy victim. His faults are much more trivial, much more shallow, and, since they are placed on a supposed vision of perfection already, they are much easier to point out and, therefore, make fun of. Raoul is very easy to bash; Erik takes a little more effort. Laughing about how Erik kills people is difficult, and it is almost certainly not all in good fun; however, calling Raoul a fop and laughing at him deciding he was in love with Christine after hearing her sing again—hopelessly in love and going mad with love just after hearing her sing, without having talked to her in years!—is easy to do and almost definitely all in good fun. I understand, however, that a lot of people may have taken seriously all my mindless Raoul bashing. It was all in good fun, and while I don't approve of Raoul in general and I wholeheartedly prefer Erik to Raoul—deep thinking, melancholy men have always appealed to me for some reason. I suppose opposites attract, and that's about my opposite. I do not mean to offend anyone with my Raoul bashing, nor do I mean to offend or let down anyone with this speech.

I'm sorry for any offence, and I hope everyone understands me a little better now. And yes, I realise Raoul has plenty of redeeming qualities. In my mindlessness I have made it seem like he is completely useless and worthless, and he is not. I can accept that. It is my own preference for Erik that has caused me to lash out against Raoul. I apologise to all Raoul-lovers, and I apologise for any offence I may have caused.

Thank you for your time and understanding.

She put down the microphone and walked away quickly, not wanting to face that crowd for any longer than she had to. In her blind hurrying, she bumped into someone on her way back. Backing up and glancing at the person she had accidentally knocked into, she gasped. "Ici!"

"Phantwo!" Ici exclaimed, looking surprised and gratified at the same time—not with his eyes, of course, not those ever-distant green eyes that never displayed a hint of emotion. "Just who I was looking for. Where have you been? I've been searching for you and Erik said you were—"

"He told you?" Phantwo shrieked. "I'll kill that little—"

"Told me what?" Ici asked in confusion.

Phantwo halted suddenly. "Um, nothing! Never mind! Why do you ask?"

Ici raised an eyebrow.

"Baffling, my dear. You are simply baffling. Now, are you ready to go out to dinner or do I have to drag you kicking and screaming?"

She shrugged. Ici could find out about the apology later. In the meantime, they'd go out to dinner . . . and hope all went well. And if Ici found out—well, he could live with it.

the end

A/N: So, how did everyone like this presentation of my apology? I decided to get Phantwo, Ici, and Erik involved with it just to do it a little better, and without being so preachy. I hope you enjoyed this and I meant every word in Phantwo's apology - after all, this Phantwo is me. And to all Raoul-lovers I've offended, I'm sorry. I hope you forgive me.

Sincerely, Phantwo J Fou