A/N: Oh, for the love of Darren Lynn Bousman, how long has it been since I last….*checks it* Two months. Ah, that's not as bad as I'd worried.

XxXxX

Charlotte looked around the room. It looked like the photographs of her mother's old dressing room, but thrown into disarray and shadows, cluttered with junk. "This is creepy," Gustave whimpered.

"Master Gustave. You're to come with me," the driver who had brought them to the secluded room of the GeneCo said. The two siblings started towards the door. "Just Master Gustave. You're to stay here until Mr. Destler gives the order, Miss Charlotte."

"You mean… we'll be separated? We've never been apart before!"

"Mr. Destler's orders." The driver pulled aside the mirror at the edge of the room and pushed Gustave through. The mirror slid shut behind her brother, and the driver left, locking the door. Charlotte was completely alone for the first time in her life. Suddenly, the mirror shimmered, and Erik Destler's image appeared in the mirror.

"Charlotte! The past can be dreadful. There are those who kept you in the dark to protect you! You're old enough, I think, though they disagree, to find out the truth, and choose who will be! To get your cure, you'll need to light up that dark place! This GraveRobber here can help you 'dig' the way. But you'll have to earn it! Nobody deserves shit! I gave my kids the world, they repaid me with spit! You'll need to bring illumination to the situation if you want that cure!" The image vanished and the mirror slid open again. Picking up the puffy white skirts, she started down the tunnels.

XxXxX

Gerard was definitely in danger of his head bursting. He'd been hanging upside down for way too long. A tiny figure appeared, holding a candelabrum in trembling hands. "Who-who's there? Stay back…" Gerard croaked.

"Um, do you have our cure?" He knew that voice….

"Kid? Is that you?"

"I'm here to earn our cure," the kid squeaked. Gerard felt his blood boil, which could not be a healthy thing, but he was so damn mad!

"Your cure? Is that what this is about?" Then he smiled. This could actually help him. "Sorry, that fucking Amber cleaned me out, but maybe later… I'll hook you up later. Just help me down!"

"The drug...?" The kid set down the candles, looking around the room.

"Yeah, the drug," grunted Gerard, trying to make another grab for his ankles.

"Yeah?"

"Your cure, it's-"

"The drug?"

"Help me down!" he urged, pointing to his bag. The kid grabbed it and passed it over.

"Help me…"

"I'll score some…" Gerard felt the smooth shaft of his extractor. Perfect. But empty, damn it.

"...shed some…"

"Kid, I'm out!"

"Some…"

"I told you!"

"… Light on…"

"That's the situ—"

"...The situation."

"The situation." The two of them looked at each other, and Gerard felt himself longing for the girl. Charlotte. She would have at least been intelligent about it. And now he had to be hallucinating, because there was no way in hell she would just appear out of nowhere in a wedding dress. Her eyes flickered over the white-draped body nearby.

"How 'bout her? She's right beside you...No, I mean her Zydrate. No, it's like a night-light."

"Yeah...? She's right beside me, so? I'm out of Zydrate. Oh, it's like a night-light…" He stopped interrupting as he understood her meaning, and smiled. "You're beautiful." Charlotte's blush vanished the minute he tried to pass the extractor to the kid. "It's easy."

"You don't mean...?"

"Yeah."

"For him to-?"

"So, easy-"

The kid shook his head. "I don't think…"

"Don't think!"

"...that I could—"

"Just smack it!"

Charlotte considered for a moment. "I guess that she…"

"She won't."

"...won't feel it-"

"You've got to smack it…"

"Into her skull!"

"Inside her skull..." The kid reached for the body, preparing to stick in the extractor when the lights blinked on and Charlotte smacked his hand away.

"Gustave, don't!" Oh, so the kid's name was Gustave.

"Char, it's our cure!"

"Look at her face!" Charlotte urged, pointing at the woman. Any color Gustave had, drained out of his face. "It's...it's her."

"Um, hi? Remember me? The guy whose head could explode at any second?" Gerard asked. Gustave rolled his eyes, headed over to the door and flicking a switch. There was a loud thud, but thankfully no snap as Gerard plummeted to the floor. "Ow! You could've broken my neck!"

"Consider it payback for the lip rape." Charlotte retorted angrily.

"You're wounding my ego, princess."

"Shut up."

"Ah, well, if you two won't, I will." Gerard said, reclaiming his extractor and jamming it into the woman's skull. The Zydrate came out a dull green, rather than glowing blue. "Dammit! Tainted!"

"Tainted?"

"Zydrate only works if the body system doesn't have any outside toxins or residues. There's some kind of poison in your mother's system, it's fucking up the Zydrate." He gathered up his stuff and blew Charlotte a kiss. "Good luck, princess. You'll need it." Without another word, he slipped out the door he'd been dragged through.

XxXxX

Charlotte was fuming. "The nerve! The nerve of that...that… that creep!" Gustave merely sat by their mother's corpse, biting his lip.

"Who would poison her?"

"I don't—" The lights flickered off and Erik's image reappeared on a screen.

"Children, you've made it. You're close enough to taste it. Your cure is waiting, there is but one thing pending." A Repo Man's face flashed onto the screen. "Help us catch him, This former GeneCo trainee, who's lost his mind completely, and managed to escape me! You saw him in the graveyard. It seems this fiend has set his teeth on you, so be on guard, he's coming. We'll use you as bait to lure the snake out of his hole, and I am sorry, children, for that, but this is your defining moment. Will you let yourselves be trapped, or will you use the trap to trap him? Bring me Repo Man and you will get your cure." The video fizzled out and the children were alone.

"Take off your dress," Gustave said firmly.

"WHAT?"

"Char, I've got a plan. Trust me."

XxXxX

"AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! GENECO PROUDLY PRESENTS BLIND MEG!"

The crowd erupted Meg took a deep breath. "Are you ready, Christine? One last time." The stagehand began to lower her down, but Meg didn't 'sing.' She merely let her eyes project. Time to give credit where it was due. Everyone gasped as Christine "Tanto tempo fa, un uccello fatale di nome Chromaggia. Incrociò in volo la freccia di un arciere, lungo le coste di lava! Per anni, pensando di essere, inseguita, scappò dalla freccia…. Chromaggia, Chromaggia, perché non affronti il pericolo? La freccia era legata all'ala, e lei volava per liberarsene, tirando la freccia, altri son ferriti per mia colpa, mia colpa…" Everyone was completely silent as the hologram of the late star of the GeneCo Opera sang once again. Meg added a few of her signature dance steps as the music reached its climax, choosing to reject the harness. Christine shimmered to life.

"Giú! Verso la bocca del diavolo! La sua freccia, i miei occhi. Chromaggia, come take these eyes... !" Meg closed them for a moment and then sang with her own voice. "I would rather be blind!" She raised what she'd hidden: two long silver talons on her index fingers. Without hesitating, she plunged them into her sockets.

XxXxX

Erik felt his blood boil. HOW DARE SHE? How dare that little blonde whelp defy him like this? Without a second thought, he cut the chain holding up the grand crystal chandelier, and watched calmly as it plummeted down and crushed her. Audience members shrieked and tried to get up, but he had it under control. "Stay tuned, folks! You don't want to move, folks, 'cause there's more excitement coming! As an encore, GeneCo will cure two very sick and needy children! They've been caged up, like they're monsters, by an overbearing father! But tonight, we're going to set him right! And for all your viewing pleasure!"

XxXxX

"Here's hoping this works…." Charlotte muttered, pulling their mother's white robe tightly across her body.

"It will," Gustave said, firmly gripping the shovel in his hand. "Stay hidden."

"Yessir." Charlotte ducked back behind their mother's body, gripping the knife they'd found, a precaution in case the Repo Man came in her direction. Minutes felt like hours, but she finally heard the thump and clatter from behind her. She sprang up, placing one of her bare feet on his chest. "Gustave, get his mask!"

The ten year old made a mad scramble and yanked off the mask. Charlotte's knife slipped from her hands and clattered to the ground. Her father was staring up at her in equal shock and horror. "Didn't I tell you not to go out? Didn't I?" he asked weakly.

"You did… You did…" Charlotte whimpered, backing away. Her father… a Repo Man… a murderer… That was why…

XxXxX

"Didn't I say the world was cruel? Didn't I?" Raoul grasped at every straw he could. But he couldn't see a way out. The children knew now.

"You did… You did…" Gustave's tone was more of disgust than regret.

Then tell me how this happened, what I did wrong, tell me why… Can we just go home, guys, and forget this dreadful night?"

"Didn't you say that you were different? Didn't you?" demanded Charlotte, picking up the helmet as though it were a piece of sewage.

"I am. I am!" He put all his conviction into it, because it was true. He'd never wanted this, never!

"Say you aren't that person! Say it!" She was begging, giving him one last chance for redemption….but he had to give her the truth.

"I am! I am!"

"Then tell us how to act, Dad, what to say, Dad! Tell me why all you've ever told us, every word is a lie!" A projector sparked to life, an image of Meg lying onstage. Her face was bloody, her eyes gone… and an enormous crystal chandelier crushing her body. Charlotte whirled on him, eyes blazing furiously. "Didn't you say that you'd protect us? Didn't you?"

"I tried! I tried!"

"Is that how you'd help us? Is it?" Gustave yelled, jabbing a finger at the picture of Meg.

"I tried! I tried!"

"Don't help us anymore, dad! You are dead, dad, in my eyes! Someone has replaced you! Dad, I hate you! Go and die!" Without another word, Charlotte shoved him aside, and strode out of the room, clinging to Gustave's hand. Raoul was left alone with the body of the woman who'd left him utterly lost for ten years.

"Didn't I build a house, a home, didn't I? Didn't I raise them all alone, didn't I? Then Erik took them from me, stole my children! He's to blame! Have I failed them, Christine?" He caught sight of one last gleaming vial of serum in his bag. Without hesitation, he seized it, and jammed it into his wrist. "Then let the father die! And let the monster rise!"

A/N: Better let that tide y'all over, gottit?