A/N: This idea was actually conceived as a joke when my friend and I watched Phantom together then discovered the "Operetta" character from "Monster High". He was horrified that they messed with Phantom at all and we started talking about how inaccurate everything was, so I jokingly made up a short head canon about Operetta's origins that explained how Operetta could exist in the POTO world. Later I realized that my head canon was pretty good (also a bit cheesy) and decided to expand my ideas into a full crossover fan fiction, hence this which you are about to read! I honestly don't know how many people will read this or if anyone will discover it at all, but if you're reading this right now, I really hope you enjoy it. Much research and Phantom watching was put into this! :)
Erik knelt on the ground and gently placed a rose on the grave of his son, Gustave. He stood and brushed the dirt off of his knees. Gustave was buried next to his mother, the beautiful Christine Daaé.
Erik stood here in front of the only two people he had ever truly loved in his miserable existence. He lost his precious son a year ago today. He had only been a father to him for three years, and he was already gone. Shortly after his mother's untimely death and coming to live with his father whom he had only just met, Gustave acquired polio. He got over the disease but it left him in poor health; he died at the unripe age of thirteen.
Standing in front of his loved ones' graves, Erik began to weep. Due to his horrendous face, he never thought he would have a woman who could love him, much less one that would bear his child.
In one swift motion, Erik turned around and headed back to his opera house, his cloak billowing behind him.
Erik returned to his home underneath the Manhattan Opera House. It wasn't quite as elaborate and exquisite as his previous home under the Opera Pouplaire, but it was sufficient. It at least had an organ to play when he got bored. There was no subterranean lake either, unfortunately, but it did get a bit damp sometimes, being underground and all.
After the death of his son, Erik rarely surfaced to the opera house above. He hadn't seen a single opera or show for a year. They only reminded him of Christine and caused him more grief.
He reluctantly decided it was finally time for him to let go of them and put his mind at peace. He grabbed the only mirror that he owned, a small handheld one that belonged to Christine, and looked at himself. Mask in place, good half of his face clean and shaved, hair slicked back as usual. The fire that used to be in his eyes was dulled, though.
Sighing, he set the mirror down on his dresser. Erik hated looking at himself; it just reminded him of the true monster he used to be. In honor of Christine and Gustave, he tried to be a better man. He hadn't even murdered a single person at this opera house. But seeing his face in the mirror reminded him of all the terrible things he'd done. "Perhaps if I hadn't been so monstrous, Christine could have loved me at first and she'd still be alive today..." he thought. He sighed another great sigh.
Erik then left his chambers to surface for the first time in seemingly forever. "So the Phantom of the Opera returns..." he thought to himself with a small smile.