A/N: Andrea – Aawww, that's so sweet! Get ready for a hug girl, 'cus I gotta hug ya! (hugz Andrea) BTW, I hope I'm not taking the fantasy aspect of the story to an extreme here, but it seemed like a good idea to me.

Disclaimer:I don't own the "Phantom of the Opera" character I've borrowed here (without any intent of returning ;-))

Of Two Minds

Miraculously, Darry wasn't pulled over for speeding in his mad rush to get back to the beach house. He ran clean around the house to the path down to the beach and bolted for the boardwalk. He dropped and slid to the third post from the water's edge on the left side of the boardwalk like a baseball player sliding into home, and immediately began digging furiously in the dry sand with his bare hands. His nails soon scraped the surface of a metal box, which he yanked fiercely out of the ground and opened. Inside was a piece of old parchment with a message on it written in dark red ink in an old-fashioned script:

'To Whom It May Concern

If you've unearthed this box, then you're either a treasure hunter with a metal detector or I told you to find it. If the latter is true, then I am in great danger, for my mind has been invaded. If that is the case, then read carefully. This box contains herbs and drugs that, when blended properly and burned, will give off a cloud of smoke that you, my rescuer, and I must inhale. When this is done, you will slip into a dream-like state and be able to enter my mind on the spiritual plane. Assuming I am not already in such I state, I too will slip into one. From there, I cannot guide you. I can only tell you this: you may trust the man in the white mask.

I'm counting on you,

Antares Joyce Starr

Darry stared at the note for a moment, not understanding. Antares expected him to enter her mind? That wasn't possible! Then again, anything was possible with Antares…putting the note back in the box, Darry snapped the lid shut and took off again for the house. He threw himself into the car and sped back to the hospital, bringing the box to Antares's room.

"Well?" asked Mira earnestly. "What did you find?"

"This," answered Darry, showing her the box. Mira took it and read the note within. When she was finished, she looked at Darry blankly.

"She can't be serious," Mira objected. "This isn't possible!"

"Anything's possible with Ana," replied Darry. "I don't know what she means about a man in a white mask, but I don't care. I trust her." With that, he moved a small table situated between Antares's bed and another unoccupied one right up next to Antares's bed. That done, he moved the other bed up next to the table on the other side. He found another note in the box with instructions for using the herbs and drugs in the box. He mixed them together carefully in a bowl on the table. When he was finished and was sure that he had done everything right, he took out a matchbox from the box and turned to Mira. "I know this is hard to believe, but you have to trust her. I need you to light this stuff with a match after I lie down, and make sure both Ana and I both breathe it in. Please, Mrs. Starr. For Ana."

Mira sighed and nodded. "For Ana," she agreed. Darry lay down on the bed and Mira lit the powdered concoction with a match, fanning the smoke in both directions. Darry leaned over and breathed it in deeply, looking up to make sure Antares was breathing it in too. He made a small moaning sound as the room started to spin and grow hazy. He fell back against the pillows, his whole body sluggish and growing numb. His eyes closed slowly and refused to open again. He could feel himself leaving his body, becoming weightless. Just before he lost all sense of things, he heard Mira whisper, "Save Ana." Then everything just stopped.

When Darry came to himself, he was lying, to his abject surprise, on a grassy hill under an enormous tree. The air was warm, and a light breeze blew. Yellow and black butterflies flitted about the flowers around him. The meadow stretched on forever with nothing beyond it. Darry looked around, confused, wondering where he was. He heard a small sigh and looked up. A little girl of no more than five or six was standing near him. She was rather cute, with light brown hair in braids with pink ribbons, sparkling green eyes, a sweet, smiling mouth, and a little button nose. Her dress was also pink, with white lace, and she wore shiny white shoes with frilly pink socks. She giggled at Darry and he couldn't help but smile.

"Hi," she said shyly.

"Hi," said Darry. The girl smiled.

"Nice weather…isn't it?" she asked.

"Very nice," agreed Darry. He looked around again and looked back at the girl. "Where are we?" Again the child giggled.

"We're here, silly," she said.

"Yes, but where is here?" asked Darry. "I was supposed to be helping someone…Ana…"

"Antares?" asked the girl.

"Yes! You know her?" asked Darry earnestly.

The child gave a light little laugh. "I'm Antares. I like to be called 'Ana', though." Darry blinked, baffled, then he understood.

"Oh, you're Antares when she was a little girl," he said.

"Right!" said little Ana, thrilled. "Do you wanna play with me?"

"I'm afraid I can't," said Darry as gently as he could. "You see, big Antares is really sick, and I have to help her. Can you help me find her?"

"Sure can!" piped little Ana, obviously delighted to be able to help. "Just climb the tree and follow the road and you'll find her." Darry looked up the massive tree.

"Thanks a lot," he said to the little girl, ruffling her hair affectionately. Little Ana giggled again and skipped off. Darry found the tree quite easy to climb, with many branches sticking out around the bottom to grab and climb on. But the tree seemed to go up much higher than it looked from the bottom, for Darry found himself climbing a long time. He realized with a shock that the tree was gradually twisting into an iron ladder, which he scrambled up quickly. He reached the top and expected to see Antares, but he didn't. Instead he saw a massive river of lava with rocky projections shooting out of it. Darry's only way to cross was to jump from projection to projection and hope he didn't fall. He turned back to the ladder, only to find it was gone.

'These must be Ana's mental defenses,' he thought gravely. Antares had once told him that her mind was her last sanctuary, and she would allow none to violate it. She had learned to lock her mind from unwanted "visitors". Darry had no choice but to cross if he wanted to help Antares. He climbed up the first projection and tried to judge the distance between it and the next one. It seemed that he could make it, but he was still wary. He walked back slowly 'til he found the edge. Then, with a running start, he leaped at the next projection and landed on it quite easily, much more easily, he thought, than it should have been. He saw that the projections seemed to be moving closer together to give him a safer jumping distance. Antares knew he was there and was trying to grant him access to her mind. With the projections closer, Darry cleared them one after the other quickly and easily. Too easily. He got cocky, thoughtless. He ran from projection to projection without stopping to catch his footing. As a result, he slipped jumping to the last protrusion and missed, falling to the swirling, boiling lava below him. At that point, he did the only rational thing anyone in his predicament could have done.

He screamed bloody murder.

A voice in his mind, a male voice, whispered, "Breathe deep. It's not over yet." Uncertain, but with nothing left to do, Darry stopped yelling and took a deep breath. And not a moment too soon. He never hit the lava. Instead, Darry landed in very cold, dark water. He swam up to the surface and gasped in a gulp of air, looking around for a way out. He was not given that leisure, however. A metallic clang! from above caught his attention. He looked up and saw that a huge metal grate was lowering down over the water and would either crush him or pin him under and drown him. He looked around frantically, and noticed a valve of some sort under the water. Taking in a deep breath, he plunged under and tried to turn it. He tried to turn it to the right, but it wouldn't budge. He grew desperate; he was running out of air and time. Steeling himself, reminding himself why he was doing this, he turned again with all his strength. This time the wheel turned and the grate that had been lowering now started to rise up again. Darry shot to the surface and grabbed hold of the grate, letting it pull him out of the water as he tried to catch his breath. He saw a narrow opening in the wall and swam to it, climbing out of the cold pool. Water dripped from every part of him, but at least he was alive and one step closer to Antares. But where was she? How many more defenses did he have to pass before he found her? Would it be too late by that time? Suddenly he caught sight of a dark, handsome man dressed in old-fashioned dress clothes, a black cloak, and a white mask over half his face. Darry blinked in surprise. This must be the man Antares meant in her note. Who was he, though?

'More important, does he know how to find Ana?' thought Darry. Weakly he started to call out, but the man raised his hand for silence.

"Come," he said in a very beautiful voice with a strong tinge of sadness to it. "Follow me." Darry nodded and followed after him. Unfortunately, he was weakened a bit from his little "adventures" in getting this far, and couldn't keep up. He lost his mysterious guide after the fourth or fifth turn. However, he wondered if he had actually lost him, because he heard something coming from around the next turn: Antares's voice. She was moaning, crying out in pain and fear. Teeth clenched in fury, renewed strength flowing through him, Darry made his way around the turn, looking ahead to see what was going on.

Antares lay on the ground, battered and weak, her arm out to fend the Creeper off, a look of extreme worry on her face. She had obviously been battling the Creeper long and hard; both were covered with bruises, cuts, and other marks. But Antares's strength was only human, and it was failing. She pushed herself to her feet, only to be struck down again by the Creeper. Darry's hands clenched in fury, and one of the closed around something heavy and he heard the sound of metal on stone. He looked down and saw that he was now holding a powerful-looking sword with black roses etched into the blade. That strange male voice, which he recognized now as the masked man's voice, said to him, "This is Antares's faerie tale. You are her hero, and the hero must have his sword."

"Right," said Darry confidently to himself. "I promised I'd save her." Readying the sword in his hand, though he wasn't sure how exactly to wield it, he came into the light. The Creeper had just raised his hand to strike Antares again, but Darry struck first, slicing the Creeper's hand clean off. The monster howled in pain and rage, turning on Darry furiously. When he saw that it was Darry, however, he laughed cruelly.

"So your hero has come to save you again, Antares," he sneered. "Can't you do anything for yourself?"

"Don't talk to her," snarled Darry. The Creeper laughed again.

"Oho! It seems the hero has developed a backbone as of late!" the monster cackled gleefully. "You'll find, however, that I am more formidable than you in your selfish egotism have allowed yourself to think. I have been feeding of Antares's soul energy for twenty-three days, and I continue to feed from her as long as she lives. I am stronger than I ever was. And you, young fool, will die now." He lunged at Darry, but Darry dodged away and slashed the beast furiously. The Creeper roared in pain and rage, turning and lunging again.

"You'll find that I, too, am stronger than you've allowed yourself to think!" said Darry triumphantly. Antares, he saw, was on her feet and watching them, leaning against the wall for support. She looked badly beaten. The Creeper must have done it in an effort to break her mind open to him. Well, Darry wasn't going to let that happen. He slashed, he stabbed, he struck again and again, but still the Creeper came. Suddenly Darry remembered Antares's oath of retribution:

"I'm going to destroy it. I will dismember it, burn its pieces to ashes, and bury them across the continent and see if it can live and terrorize that way."

'It can't!' thought Darry excitedly. With renewed ambition, he slashed first at the monster's legs to make it fall, and then sliced off its head. The body fell to the ground, arms flailing, searching for its lost head. Antares gave a small cry, but didn't move. Darry wasn't finished yet, however. He hacked off the Creeper's arms, then its legs, then chopped it into pieces with his sword, a roar growing in his throat and working its way up into his mouth and out his lips, growing louder and louder with each stroke, until he suddenly fell back, the sword dropping out of his hand. He fell into Antares's arms and they both sank to the floor, exhausted. The evil-smelling dungeon they were in twisted and morphed around them, leaving them in a magnificent bedroom fit for a medieval princess. The two were sitting on the huge, soft bed together, and both looked around.

"What…what happened?" asked Darry thickly. "Are we dead?"

"No, we're not," replied Antares sleepily, smiling a little. "This is my mind at peace. This is where I go when I meditate. This is truly a good place, and I welcome you to it." She looked at Darry and smiled. "Thank you, Darry. You've saved me. See, even now I am healing." She held her arms out so Darry could see that yes, her wounds were mending already. "But I am weary, as are we both. It takes an incredible amount of energy and concentration to join minds like this, and it's more than doubly hard if there's a battle being fought in one. We both need to rest. Yes, it's all thanks to you, my champion." Darry smiled and kissed her on the lips.

"Is this all…real?" he asked.

"It is and it isn't," Antares answered, smiling brighter than before. "It depends on what you mean by 'real'. This isn't a fantasy or a daydream, but it isn't happening outside of me. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yes," said Darry. "I do."

"Then lie down with me and sleep," said Antares, sliding under the silken sheets and velvet comforters of the bed. Darry did likewise, sighing at the delicious comfort he found himself surrounded by. "You're too far away," whispered Antares.

"I'm right here," replied Darry sleepily. "I'm not leaving you."

"Hold me," said Antares softly. "Let us become one, you and I, together. I love you, Darry." Darry smiled and held her close, but not too tightly, nestling his face in her hair.

"I love you, my Starr," he whispered. He closed his eyes, only for an instant, it seemed. He opened them again when he felt himself moving. The man in the white mask was carrying him.

"Don't be afraid of me, Darius," he said gently. "Antares told you to trust me."

"I know," said Darry. He looked around. "Where is she? Where are you taking me?"

"She is resting still," said the man. "She lost much strength in the fight, and will need to rest for a while. And I'm taking you back."

"Back-?" echoed Darry, uncomprehending.

"Back to your body," explained the man.

"Can't I stay with her just a little longer?" asked Darry, though he knew he could not.

"I truly wish you could," said the man, smiling a little sadly. "But you've stayed almost too long already. You'll still be with her, though." Darry looked unconvinced, but he didn't argue.

"Who are you?" he asked, trying to make the question sound polite.

"I am Antares's subconscious. Her imaginary friend, as it were," replied the masked man. "My name is Erik."

"Nice to meet you," said Darry, more for the sake of being polite and avoiding an awkward silence.

"Under the circumstances, likewise," replied Erik. "Now, you need to rest. I will care for Antares, and she will answer your questions later. You've been through a lot tonight."

"Yeah," said Darry softly. "I was afraid I wouldn't be able to completely destroy the Creeper, but-"

"Not the Creeper, dear boy, you! The effort involved nearly killed you."

"What?"

"You love Antares so much that that love built up inside you and fueled your already formidable strength. Your power elevated to an almost uncontainable level and nearly overwhelmed you. Now rest." Erik laid Darry down in a bed he could not see and smiled gently at him. "I like you, Darius. You make my Antares very happy. I've never seen her so happy before. Take good care of her."

"I will," said Darry softly, starting to drift off. "I promise I will."

When Darry woke, Antares was just waking as well. She turned her head, not even trying to lift it, and smiled at Darry, who smiled back. Several hours had passed since Darry first entered Antares's mind, and the herbal powder was now nothing but ashes.

"My hero," said Antares softly. "You saved me."

"No," said Darry simply. "I love you. That's what saved you." Antares's smile widened just a little.

"You'll have to tell me all about it," she said softly. "But later. For now-" she leaned up as much as she could and said, "Nurse? Could you please move our beds closer together?" the nurse who was in the room nodded with a smile and pushed the beds right next to each other, taking down the upper gates so the two could move closer. Mira came up on Antares's other side and smiled at them.

"Darry, you are a hero," she said. "I don't know what you did, but you saved my little girl. Everyone's on their way here to see you two, but you two get some sleep. You need it, and you deserve it." both children smiled up at her.

"I love you Mom," said Antares. Mira smiled and kissed her daughter's cheek. Then she went around and kissed Darry's.

"Sleep tight, both of you," she said gently and turned and sat in a chair a ways away.

"You're too far away," Antares whispered. Darry smiled and slipped his hand in Antares's.

"I'm right here," he replied. "I'm not leaving you." Antares smiled back and squeezed his hand lovingly. Exhausted, but happy, the lovers fell sound asleep.

A/N: IT'S NOT OVER YET! Don't you worry, I'm not done with these two!