Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera (the musical/opera or the book) or any of the music or any of the characters. I do not own Love Never Dies or any of the music or characters from that show. I only own my OC Sylvia.

Foreword: Hello everyone! Sorry for the late update, but I'd like to thank you all for being patient and reviewing! Also, big thanks to Grapejuice101 who helped me out a great deal with this chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter Five

Gustave ran back to Sylvia, who was waiting outside for him. She grinned down at him.

" Are you ready to see Phantasma?" She asked. He gave an enthusiastic nod, and they began to walk around. " How is your mother this morning, if I may ask?" Sylvia inquired.

" She's well. She says she wants to see you later in the day." Gustave informed her. Sylvia smiled and looked down at him again.

" I'd very much like that. So, Gustave, anywhere you'd like to go first?" She inquired. He looked around in thought and pointed in a random direction. She laughed and took him in that direction, keeping pace with him. People had already begun to pile into Phantasma's grounds, and as they walked towards a large merry-go-round, they ran into Gangle. He took his hat off with a flourish and bowed to the two.

" Good morning to you, Miss Sylvia. And may I inquire the name of this young man with you?" He asked with a smile. Sylvia put a hand on Gustave's shoulder.

" This is my nephew, Gustave Daaé. Gustave, this is a friend of mine, he likes to be called Gangle." She introduced.

" I met you last night in the carriage that had no horses." Gustave said as he shook Gangle's hand.

" That you did, young Mister Daaé! Enjoy Phantasma! I hope you have a marvelous time! Everyone always does!" Gangle said with a bright grin. Gangle then practically waltzed off, flipping his hat back onto his head. Gustave smiled at the fairly dramatic exit, and then Sylvia squeezed his shoulder.

" Do you want to go to on the merry-go-round? I know it may seem a bit childish, but it's fun. Personally, I love it!" Sylvia admitted, a grin on her face. Gustave gave a nod of approval and the two began the start of their eventful day.

OOOO

Somewhere around late afternoon, Sylvia and Gustave were sitting on the empty stage, and she was telling him about some of the performers that resided at Phantasma. They'd spent the day speaking with each other mostly as she left the majority of the Phantasma tour for Erik. She asked about Christine and Raoul, and after a few minutes of talking about them, Gustave asked Sylvia about her life, and why she'd been away for so long. That question was hard to answer. She simply came up with answer that was somewhere around 'I was frightened and wanted to be as far as possible from where all of the bad things happened. I was going to tell your mother and father, but time didn't permit it.'

Sylvia began to show him around the backstage area of the theatre when they heard music echoing faintly off the walls in the thin corridor.

" What's that?" Gustave asked. Sylvia listened for a moment, a hand on Gustave's shoulder. What she knew for one thing was that it definitely was not rehearsal music.

" I don't know. Perhaps we should turn back." Sylvia said, getting ready to turn, but with a grin Gustave grabbed her hand.

" We should investigate! Mother told me that you were curious like me, so let's go!" Gustave said excitedly before running off down the hall.

" Gustave!" She called after him, moving to run after him. But after a few steps, a warm hand grab her gently by the shoulder. She turned and saw Erik, who smiled at her.

" If you don't mind, I'll spend some time with our nephew now. I'd love to show him around." Erik said with a smile. She smiled back and placed her hand on his.

" Of course. I've been meaning to spend some time with Meg anyway." She told him, leaning up on her toes to give him a kiss for a moment. " Have fun." She squeezed his hand before walking past him. Erik watched her retreating form before turning to go wait for his nephew.

OOO

Gustave had run into Gangle, Fleck and Squelch, who then offered to take him to 'Mr. Y'. They were leading him through secret passages and corridors that barely anyone knew about.

" Come along and follow us." Sang Gangle, leading the way.

" Come and follow faster." Fleck sang, who stood behind Gustave, a kind hand on his shoulder, her black dress swirling about her legs.

" Come along and follow us." Sang Squelch, turning to look at the boy, smiling at him.

" Come and meet our master! Hurry up and follow us, hurry if you care to! Soon the dark will swallow us, follow if you dare to!" They all sang as they finally descended to a large room with one of the only things there being a large black piano. Gustave walked around, grinning at everything he saw; books, paintings, small statues, and piles and piles of sheet music.

" What is this place?" Gustave sang in question, the grin still on his young face. Erik entered the room holding a candelabra. He walked towards his nephew slowly as not to scare him.

" This is my realm, illusion's domain, where music and beauty and artifice reign." Erik sang as Gustave came towards him. He set the candelabra down on the piano, the flames flickering. " One moment, little Vicomte, while I prepare our adventure!"

" May I?" Asked Gustave, gesturing to the ivory keys on the piano. Erik raised an eyebrow.

" Does the young Vicomte play?" Gustave played a few notes.

" Mother had someone teach me. Said it reminded her of the opera house." Gustave explained as he played a few notes of his own invention, a song that came into his head. Erik watched for a moment before smiling. So the boy was unique.

" Come with me, I want to show you something. Follow me! I want to know what you think!" Erik said with a grin, his eyes shining. He took Gustave by the shoulder and quickly led him from where he composed, back to Phantasma. Fleck, Squelch and Gangle all blew out the candles in the room before swiftly disappearing into the dark.

They stood on a balcony that overlooked the entire grounds of Phantasma, which were now drenched in nighttime and light, music echoing around mixing with voices and the distant surf.

" Have you ever yearned to go past the world you think you know?" Erik put his hands on the young boy's shoulders, looking out at the world he'd striven so hard to create. Gustave held the railing as he looked around. " Been enthralled to the call of the beauty underneath?" Gustave stared around in awe at all the lights and sounds that surrounded him. He couldn't believe that a place like this existed! A place so unique and wonderful! " Have you let it draw you in past the place where dreams begin? Felt the full breathless pull of the beauty underneath?" Gustave looked up at the tall man behind him, seeing as the top of his head only reached about mid chest on Erik. There was a grin on Gustave's face that was yet to leave his face.

Erik quickly brought him down to the ground, taking him by the hand to lead him further into Phantasma. A slight amount of mist clung to the ground, swirling like the sea. Gustave was beginning to see thing he never thought would have been possible, things that he knew his parents would have never allowed him to see would he have walked around with them.

" When the dark unfolds its wings do you sense the strangest things? Things no one else would ever guess, things mere words cannot express?" Erik sang in question as he gestured around them.

" Yes!" Gustave told him enthusiastically.

" Do you find yourself beguiled by the dangers and the wild? Do you feed on the need for the beauty underneath?" Lights around them twinkled and glittered. There was a man with a red turban-like wrapping around his forehead, who appeared to be a man able to do sword tricks who walked around almost cat-like with a sly smile on his face, clearly able to enjoy what he did. " Have you felt your senses surge and surrender to the urge and been hooked as you look at the beauty underneath? When you stare behind the night? Can you glimpse its primal might? Might you hunger to possess hunger that you can't repress?" Erik walked him to a group of dancers who moved in perfect sync, but their movements were drastically different. In fact, the movements were so different that they melded together in the perfect way. " Yes!" Gustave said as two dancers lifted him high so he was able to see everything around him. They slowly set him down and he began to slowly pace around, a wondrous look on his face. " It seems so beautiful! So strange, yet beautiful! Everything's just as you said!" Gustave sang to Erik, who was staring at a tall and thin man who slowly rode around on one of the bicycles with a massive wheel in the front with smaller ones on the back. As he began to look around more, Erik let out a smile as he watched him.

" And he's so beautiful." Erik sang to himself. Gustave looked so much like his mother, who had a beauty that no one denied, but that beauty was shared with Sylvia, which he could faintly see in his nephew's face. He was also surprised about how intrigued Gustave was with everything. " Perhaps too beautiful." Gustave couldn't possibly be so interested in all of this, it made no sense with Christine as his mother; the woman who shunned him because of the way he looked. " And yet somehow we both see the very same way!" It just didn't make sense… Gustave looked at a group of young children who both dressed in similar silver outfits with bald heads gently reached out to touch him on the shoulders and back.

Gustave was running around looking at everything he saw, his reflection bouncing off mirrors that were stuck around everywhere. He swiftly turned and ran towards Erik, who knelt to be face-to-face with him. He gently took his nephew's shoulders as Gustave grabbed Erik's forearms.

" Is there music in your head? Have you followed where it led? And be graced with the taste of the beauty underneath? Does it fill your every sense? Is it terribly intense? Tell me you need it too, need the beauty underneath!" Gustave questioned as if he was afraid Erik would say no. He'd felt an interest he'd felt his entire life but never expressed, fearing what his parents would say.

Around them a performer dressed as skeleton riding on skeleton horse but with swapped heads and performers dressed in ghostly attire walked around, their movements completely unique and special every time.

" When it lifts its voice and sings, don't you feel amazing things?" Both sang together, Erik standing so they could both look around at the performers. " Things you know you can't confess, things you thirst for nonetheless!"

Erik released Gustave's shoulders and the boy began to wander around again, staring at everything he saw. He saw a man who looked like he had a third eye on his fore head, his earlobes stretched out to hang by his shoulders, his arms and chest tattooed in beautiful colors and patterns. He wore long wooden necklaces around his neck that rested gently on his bare chest.

" It's all so beautiful…" Gustave sang quietly.

" Can it be?" Erik sang to himself as he followed at a distance.

There was a person whose fingernails were grown out to extreme lengths and almost looked like claws. There was a woman on a swing who was small in stature and wore fake wings that made her look like a pixy.

" Do you see what I see?" Both sang at the same time, glancing at each other carefully.

" Heavenly!" Gustave sang with a grin.

" To him it's beautiful! My world is… beautiful!" Erik sang with joy, a smile making its way to his lips as he stared around at his world. Could it be that Gustave was actually had very different way of thinking than his mother and father?

" How can this be what it seems?" Gustave sang in question, looking at an elderly man with a feathered hat that appeared to have more than just two arms.

" All of my most secret dreams somehow set free!" Both sang, Erik standing beside Gustave. Both suddenly turned and walked off in different directions, heads reeling.

" You can feel it?" Erik asked.

" Yes!"

" Come closer!"

" Yes!" Gustave ran over to Erik, taking his hand.

" You have no fear of the beauty underneath! You can face it!"

" Yes!"

" You can take it!" Erik sang, taking Gustave around again, stopping in front of another resident of Phantasma.

" Yes!"

" You see through to the beauty underneath! To the splendor!" Erik sang as they both looked at a person who appeared to be a mermaid or merman with long white-blond hair.

" To the splendor!" Gustave echoed in wonder before Erik pulled him away again.

" And the glory!"

" And the glory!" He echoed again.

" To the truth of the beauty underneath!"

" The beauty underneath!"

" You'll accept it?"

" Yes!" Gustave assured him, excitement still thick in his voice. Erik felt his heart rate pick up. Maybe he wouldn't react like his mother… maybe he could show him… He could. He had to.

" Let me show you the beauty underneath! To the splendor!"

" To the splendor!"

" And the glory!" Erik sang pulling him off to the side.

" And the glory!" He echoed again.

" To the truth of the beauty underneath!"

" The beauty underneath!" Gustave sang with joy.

" You'll accept it?" Erik questioned, kneeling in front of Gustave, taking him by the shoulders. This was it…

" Yes!"

" You'll embrace it?"

" Yes!" Gustave sang as Erik released his shoulders. Erik lifted his hands and slowly placed them on the edge of his mask and wig.

" Let me show you the beauty under-" He pulled them off, leaving his true face exposed to Gustave. The boy's eyes widened and he opened his mouth… and he let out a horrified scream. He pushed Erik to the ground, who had a stunned look on his face, before running off as fast as he could. Erik stared after him, tears prickling in his eyes. Ten years ago, ten years ago, his mother did the exact same thing. Left him in the dark, unmasked and in pain. He let searing hot tears roll down his face as he let himself crumple to the ground, body being racked with sobs.

Sylvia and Meg, who had spent the rest of the day together had been walking arm in arm around the brightly lit paths when they heard a loud scream. Sylvia's immediate thought was to take off running towards where it came from, which is what she did. She could hear Meg calling after her and could only guess that Meg was following her. When she rounded a few corners she spotted Gustave who looked like he didn't know where to go, and she could spot a dark form hunched on the ground shaking a few feet away, and immediately knew it was Erik, and immediately knew what happened.

" Gustave! Gustave! Gustave, it's alright! It's me!" Sylvia called out and Gustave immediately rushed to Sylvia, burying his face in her chest, arms tightening around her waist. He was shaking and crying.

" It's horrible! Horrible!" Gustave sobbed as Sylvia smoothed out Gustave's dark brown hair, rubbing his back. She closed her eyes, face twisting in sadness.

" Shh… don't be frightened, Gustave! It's alright!" Sylvia said comfortingly, kneeling down to gently take his face in her hands. She wiped tears from his cheeks, looking at him sadly.

" N-no! It's horrible!" Gustave sobbed again, hugging his aunt tightly. Sylvia held him for a long moment, looking up at Meg, who watched in mild confusion. Sylvia gently pulled away from him, wiping more tears from his cheeks.

" Sweetheart, I want you to go with Miss Giry back to your room and she'll wait with you till your parents come back, okay? Meg, would you mind?" Sylvia asked. Meg nodded and took Gustave's trembling hand as she began to lead him away.

Sylvia quickly rushed over to where her husband was crumpled on the ground. She quickly dropped to her knees beside him, gently moving his mask and wig out of the way, dirt sticking to the skirts of her dress. She gently and slowly put her hands on Erik's shoulders, pulling him up. His suit was caked in dusk and his face was stained with tears. Sylvia looked at him sadly, and she pulled him to her, kissing the top of his head as he rested his face on her chest, still shaking. He was in shock, everything slowly sinking in, barely feeling Sylvia gently rubbing his back and brushing hair from his face.

Then it sunk in suddenly and sharply like a swift and painful kick to the stomach. He quickly pulled away from Sylvia, standing up in a fury.

" I should have known!" He shouted. " I should have known he would be no different than his mother! That he would just deny me because I was different!" Sylvia stood as well, shaking her head, grabbing his hands in hers.

" Erik, he's only a boy! He was just overwhelmed by everything he'd seen, he didn't mean it!" Sylvia tried to tell him as his breathing became ragged. His hands suddenly left hers in a rage, his jaw clenching.

" No! He was fully accepting of everything else in Phantasma! But me? No! He's just like Christine! Running off! Taking one look at me face and screaming! Not accepting me and probably refusing to love me in any way. He'll strive to make my life miserable by making me be alone… Running away just like Christine ten years ago, leaving me alone to rot in loneliness!" Erik spat, face beginning to turn red, fists clenching.

" But that's the difference between then and now! Now you're not alone." Sylvia told him firmly. He looked over at his wife to see her blue eyes staring at him with a strength he hadn't seen in a long while. She came over and grabbed his face in her hands; like she had ten years ago when she was trying to convince him he wasn't hideous. " You have me. You've always had me and you always will. Always remember that. Christine was silly for not seeing how handsome and amazing you are. And remember, as I said, Gustave is just a boy. He didn't know any better. Give him time. And if he accepted all here at Phantasma, then he'll accept you. He just needs time, Erik." Sylvia gently brushed off the dirt from his sleeve and looked up at him. He stared down at her and took her shoulders. He pulled her against his chest, pressing his cheek to the top of her head, eyes squeezing shut.

She wrapped her arms around him, rubbing his back soothingly. She let him hold her as he calmed himself, and she looked up at him after a moment.

" I love you, so much." She whispered. He smiled down at her a bit.

" I love you too… I don't know what I'd be without you…" He muttered quietly. " I'd be so broken and so alone…"

" You don't have to worry about that, ever." Sylvia told him, bending over and picking up the mask and wig. She gave them back to him and he slowly pulled them on.

Sylvia wrapped an arm around his back as his arm wrapped around her shoulders. The two slowly walked down the path, exhausted from the day. Sylvia leaned into Erik's side a bit, her head feeling light and her stomach twisting in a way that made her feel nauseous. She shut her eyes in discomfort for a moment before trying to shake the feeling. It had to be from the stress of the last few minutes, right? It just had to be stress and being tired in general, because she'd been getting odd attacks of nausea quite a bit recently, but she'd been brushing it off. It's just stress. Erik squeezed his wife's shoulder and looked down at her.

" Are you alright, Sylvia?" He asked concerned.

" Yes! Yes, of course, I'm just tired, that's all. It's been a long day." She assured him, patting his back. He sighed.

" Indeed it has."

Afterword: There you have it! =D The Beauty Underneath chapter! It's dedicated to that basically XD It was fun yet very difficult to write! Hope you all enjoyed it! And again special thanks to grapejuice101 for helping me out LOADS with this chapter! Thanks so much!

Okay! More thanks to come! =D Thank you to all my reviewers! Thanks to: grapejuice101, AmberRedRose, skittlesgirl99, Gamerlady123, Xxnikkigirl123xX, PhantomFan01, and a guest reviewer. Thanks so much for reviewing! Reviews make me motivated! And also thanks to anyone who has added this story to their favorites or added it to their story alert. All of you guys are THE BEST! =D

Please, please review to make me happy and let me know what you thought! Thanks again! You're ever-appreciative author,

~Mary