Disclaimer: I (regretfully) own nothing Phantom. Leroux, Webber, and Kay all own it…lucky stiffs.

AN: At last, Don Juan! I know, I know, it took me long enough, but these things have to be taken in steps. Thanks to all of my reviews for their lovely responses! There will be another chapter or two left before the end of the story, and then I'll have to decide if a sequel is in order. I'm not sure yet. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and please review, if only for Erik's sake!

Chapter 17: Don Juan Triumphant:

Marie never got the chance to warn Erik about Raoul's plan to capture him. This was because, as the opening night of Don Juan grew nearer, she found herself constantly watched from the moment she left her room until it was time for bed. Her protector was usually in the form of either Madame Giry or Raoul, both of whom refused to let her go anywhere without someone to keep an eye on her. Even the managers and Madame Rose in the costume department refused to let her go anywhere unescorted. So, like Christine, Marie was forced under constant supervision in case the Phantom tried to torment Christine through her. Every move she made outside of the shared bedroom she slept in with Christine was watched, and every time she stepped outside of the Populaire, it seemed that Madame Giry feared that she would never see Marie alive ever again. Between the watchful eyes of Raoul, Madame, and the managers, the whole experience was slowly driving the young girl mad. It was a constant annoyance, not being able to sit alone somewhere and read a book, or go to buy a treat for herself from the marketplace on a sunny day.

But the hardest part of being under protection was the fact that Marie was unable to warn Erik about the opening night of his opera. She knew that there was a very real chance that he could be killed if he appeared anywhere inside the theater, and it was something that tore her heart in two. She very much wanted him stopped, but then, Marie did not want to see the man that she loved lying dead with a bullet in him. She wanted so much to warn him, but she could never get to him. Christine never left her side once the two of them were in their shared rooms, and there was always someone trailing behind her whenever she set foot anywhere outside her room.

The secret passages were out of the question as well. In the back of her mind, Marie remembered that if Erik did not want to be found, it would never happen. If he wanted her to visit him, or eventually find her way to his cavern, he'd leave a few ways open so that she stumbled into his home. However, if Erik wanted to be alone, then that was what would occur, and there was no possible way that Marie was going to risk her life by going down there. Even if she managed to survive one of Erik's traps, there was no telling when he would check them for survivors. In the end, all Marie could do was go on with her life the best she could, despite having her footsteps shadowed by a trail of protective friends and family members.

Marie's emotions were not the only ones sky-high leading up to the opening night of Don Juan. Since the very first day, the opera was progressing at a very steady pace, for which she was exceedingly grateful. However, as with Swan Lake, this production was unhindered by any sort of mishaps; nothing was broken, disturbed, or destroyed, and no one was frightened out of their wits by any pranks that usually preceded an opera performance. As expected, many theories and rumors began to circulate.

Some claimed that there was no possible way the Phantom would interfere with the début of his composition, which was why everything was left to turn out the way it did. A few bold cast members said that, if he cared so much about Don Juan Triumphant, the Phantom would appear more often in order to be sure that everything would turn out perfect. Their friends and fellow workers, all of whom anxiously hoped that those daring words would not drift to a certain pair of unseen ears, quickly hushed up those cast members and prayed that things turned out perfectly fine.

Unfortunately, as it tends to do in real life, anything that can go wrong usually will go wrong. Dancers missed steps in their routines, Christine and Pierre would forget their lines, and the crew would accidentally put a prop in the wrong place, completely throwing off the flow of the scene being rehearsed. What was worse was that, whenever something like that happened, people would fly into unexpected bouts of crying, angry fits, or outright panic. The managers would then be beside themselves, trying to calm people down enough to finish whatever section of Don Juan they were rehearsing and to assure everyone that everything was going very well.

Throughout all of the anxiety going on backstage, Marie took everything in stride as best she could. She helped the crew with their props, sewed costumes, and did her best to keep the ballet rats from fainting every time something went wrong while onstage or when they overworked themselves. Marie was also responsible for seeing that Christine ate and slept regularly, keeping her sister from growing ill from worrying about the approaching performance.

With all of her responsibilities, it would appear that Marie Daae had many important things to worry about, things that were all based on the need of caring for others. One would assume that the young woman had no fears of her own, that she was so overwhelmed with those of others that nothing could invade her mind or emotions…and they would be wrong. The one and only thing that lurked in her mind as much as he lurked in real life was the Phantom. These days, Erik was never far from her thoughts, especially when the opening night of his opera was fast approaching. She found herself glancing up at the flies, the top of the auditorium, even to Box 5 to see if he was there, watching.

He never was.

After weeks of shooting glances everywhere, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in his fine eveningwear or otherwise, Marie finally gave up. Instead of watching rehearsals, she focused all of her free time and efforts on making the costumes, all which were much more complicated than ever before. In time, over two weeks would go by without her attending a single rehearsal, and for that, she was glad to avoid it and anything having to do with Erik.

Now, three days before the full dress rehearsals, Marie found herself alone in her shared room with Christine, her mind a mixed jumble of thoughts. As always, her mind's eye was filled with images of Erik's numerous forms: him in his green robe, him standing on the flies in his opera attire, him attending the Masquerade in the Red Death costume, and his relaxing, composing form in white shirt and black pants, boots, and without his mask. How a man could be so positively dark and seductive in simply a white shirt and black pants was beyond her, but Erik did it.

Groaning, Marie buried her head, face down, in her pillow. 'And what will he wear to the opening production of his opera?' she wondered, her thoughts going through a thousand different things Erik could do on that night in three days' time. 'Will I even attend?'

Ah, that was her main concern. Should she attend the opening night of Don Juan, or to stay safely in her room, where she would not have Raoul watching her every move as he tried to protect both her and Christine from the "Phantom's wrath"? For the past several months, Marie had tried to keep her mind off of this thought by spending all of her time running around and trying to sooth everyone's nerves. From the ballet rats to Raoul, Marie had tried to focus on everyone's problems except hers.

'And now the time has come for me to think about me.'

She bit her lip. Did she really want to see Erik's masterpiece? Well, she had always known that he was a genius and would one day show his music to the world. She had never doubted his ability to write a full opera of his own some day, and had often told him of her faith in him and his musical abilities. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined him writing an opera that was wholly focused on Christine and his love for her!

Tears slid down her cheeks. 'I can't go,' she thought, taking a deep breath and letting it out into the pillow. 'What woman in her right mind would go to an opera that was written for the sole purpose of wooing her younger sister?'

No, she should not go. Attending would make her previous months of avoidance of the rehearsals utterly pointless. True, she had watched in the beginning, but that was before she began imagining Erik being the one onstage instead of Pierre. She began seeing Erik as Don Juan, glancing at Christine with hypnotic glances and moving in seductive ways to gain the attention of the woman he wanted. It was then that she fully realized the full meaning behind the piece, and her mind took it one step further, almost feeling the passion that Erik was creating for Christine through his music.

After two days of having her imagination run wild, Marie began locking herself in the costume room, trying not to cry onto the expensive costumes she worked on. She did her best to think about anything except the image of Erik and Christine onstage together, singing to one another and involving the powerful, enthralling music to display the Phantom's lust for a particular woman.

'I won't go,' she decided, getting up to dry her tears.

After washing her face and brushing her hair, Marie sat in front of the vanity mirror and thought a bit more on the matter. This would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Erik's work publicly performed. Could she give up this one chance to see the work of a true musical genius and artist?

'No, I can't refuse such a chance,' she thought with a sigh. 'I must go, if only to show my support for Erik's work.'

That decided, Marie stood up and made her way down to the kitchens for something to eat.


A person just walking into the Opera House could feel the anxiety of the cast and crew on the opening night of Don Juan Triumphant. New attendees of the Populaire claimed that it was just nerves that were experienced before every performance, but everyone else knew their fear came from putting on the work of the Phantom of the Opera.

Backstage, girls nervously glanced over their shoulders as they changed into their costumes, applied their makeup, and took their places on and off stage. Stagehands kept a trained eye on each and every rope, whether it was connected to something or merely lay unused on the ground. The actors were somewhat grateful for the Vicompt providing security, but they knew that, should the Phantom want to appear, he most definitely would, regardless of the armed guards standing at every door. But throughout it all, Marie remained calm and collected as she helped to sooth the nerves of the ballerinas and chorus girls. She gladly gave out hugs, kisses, kind words, or gentle touches on the arm to keep them from panicking.

Christine she handled just as delicately, though with much more care. The young soprano was far more frightened than any of the others, since it was her that the Phantom was primarily focused on. Above all else, Christine feared that the Ghost would take her away from her beloved sister and future husband, and both Marie and Raoul had done their best to sooth her fears. Tonight, guards were positioned at the doors of the diva's room, and when no one had been looking, Marie (using a technique Erik had taught her) had made sure to lock the mirror that led to the secret passageways so that Erik could not sneak in and kidnap Christine. With the performance happening that night, Marie had made sure her sister had eaten, rested, and drank enough water to keep from fainting onstage during the performance. In most cases, Marie had pushed Christine into doing many of these things against her will, hoping to keep her from falling ill due to her fright.

But now the moment had come. The performers and crew were all ready backstage, though many were pale from their frightful imaginings of what could happen that night. The audience members were also nervous, but only a little; most of the opera patrons believed that the whole "Phantom phenomenon" was something cooked up by the managers to sell more tickets. Whatever happened tonight might just prove those people wrong.


Marie winced as she prepared herself for the evening. She did not have to attend the performance, but she didn't want to miss it, either. The entire opera may have been written for Christine, but if its source was Erik's genius mind, then it might be worth all of the heartache and pain to see it come to life for the first (and likely last) time. Besides, if she watched the performance, Marie knew she would be showing how proud she was of Erik and of how happy she was that he had finally gotten a piece of his work shown to the public eye.

Dabbing a tiny bit of perfume she had secretly snatched from Meg's room, Marie surveyed herself in the mirror. She did not want to dress above her station in life, so she wore a simple red and black dress that Madame Giry and Meg had given her for Christmas that year. A red silk choker with black braiding was around her neck, and her hair was pulled up into an elegant chignon, a few curls hanging gracefully down her neck and at her temples. Altogether, Marie thought she looked quite nice for the evening. Nodding in approval, she quickly ran out the door to watch the performance.

Slipping past the employees of the Populaire, Marie found a niche in the wall from which to watch the opera. Raoul had invited her to stay with him in Box 5, but she did not want to sit in something that belonged to Erik; it would only make her more upset than she already was about the whole situation involving his love for Christine, and cause her to focus on the capture plot that was to be exacted on this night by the police, the managers, and Raoul. No, Box 5 was not where she wanted to be tonight.

Instead, Marie found herself a decent place to observe everything, next to the audience. There was a secret door that led to the depths of the Populaire, a door that only Erik and Marie knew about. Years ago, Erik had shown her the hidden place where he could watch either an opera or spy on other people without being seen. After he had shown her this secret, the two had spent much time spying on people and joking about them as they watched people at their most embarrassing moments. Tonight, Marie would watch Don Juan in its full glory from Erik's own secret space.

'It's a pity that I had to lie to Christine and Raoul about my not attending,' she thought as the last member of the audience slid into their seat. 'But it was the only way.'

Last night, Marie had announced to her sister that she could not be part of the scheme to catch the Phantom. Of course, she could not tell them that she loved the man they wanted to imprison, so she had to do something she hated: she lied. Claiming that it was too dangerous and frightening for her, Marie refused to attend the performance and would instead stay in the safety of her room for the evening. Since everyone else would be watching to see if the Phantom would appear, Marie knew that there would not be anyone to come and look for her.

'So now I get to stand here and watch a performance from behind a wall,' she thought to herself, very much wishing that she had brought a chair to sit on and be more comfortable. 'Oh, well.'

Leaning carefully against the hidden doorframe, Marie focused her eyes on the stage.


Tonight was the night, the one that would change his life forever. For the memorable event, Erik had certainly dressed for the part. The outfit had been a bit more expensive than usual, but the extra money would be well worth it, if only to see the look on her face when he appeared. Placing his mask on his face, the Phantom drew himself up to his full height and raced above to see how things progressed.

Upon reaching the Opera House, Erik sped through the building, looking for his quarry. One last quick glance told him the information that he needed to know.

'Perfect. She's right where I need her to be.' Quickly, Erik adjusted his cape so that it would not make any noise and draw attention.

'Now let my Opera begin!'


Marie watched the first half of the performance with a blushing face, her hands pressed against red cheeks that were flushed from embarrassment. Though she was familiar with the goings-on between men and women, and had seen many seductions going on backstage between ballerinas and stagehands, Don Juan took those to whole new heights!

'I think I need a fan to use during the second half,' she thought as the curtain went down for intermission.

Racing through the secret passageways back to her old room, Marie snuck through the hidden doorway and went to her vanity, opening drawers in search of the accessory she needed. Finding a red fan with black designs that went well with her dress, she tucked it into a pocket in her gown and ran for the door, hoping to make it back before the second half.

She had just returned to her place when the curtain rose. Drawing in a deep breath, Marie watched as Christine stepped onto the stage.

No thoughts within her head but thoughts of joy! No dreams within her heart but dreams of love!

Marie sighed. This was the best part, the one that held the greatest, most seductive song of the entire opera. 'The one song that I wish Erik would sing to me,' she thought as she watched Christine kneel onstage.

Suddenly, a gloved hand clamped over her mouth and around her waist. She froze. The touch was familiar, one that she had engraved into her memory after having felt it several times before.

'Erik?'

It was her last coherent thought before a gag was slipped around her head and into her mouth, a silky length of rope suddenly weaving itself around her wrists. Firm hands whirled her around before grabbing her and throwing her over a muscular shoulder.


Marie would not be pleased with him for this treatment, but it was necessary. He had to get her down to the lair before it was too late, or his plan would fail. It could not fail…not tonight. Not if he could help it.


AN: (cue evil laughter from author) Review!