WARNING:
The FADA (Fanfiction Addiction Detection Agency) has come to the conclusion that this story can be highly addicting. The Author cannot be held responsible for drops in the reader's grades due to new chapters. Large doeses of Requiem can lead to dependence. The Author is not responsible for withdrawal symptoms which can occur when author fails to update speedily enough.
Sorry this took so long coming out but you know how the holidays are. Especially when I have to travel from my home, to my mom's to my dad's...and all that lovely, crappy travelling.
Anyway, here's the chapter now, we're getting close to the end. Mwa ha ha.
Cum vix justus sit securus.: When even the just man is barely safe.
"What was that?" Both men asked with the Baron just a breath behind Erik in his asking. Megan stepped away from Erik, walking towards the Baron but focusing on the gun he held. She was not afraid of it, but of what it could do, if the bullet struck her she would not care. It could not hurt her, for her heart was no longer in her body, but should it strike Erik, she would surely die.
"I love him." She drew close enough to the Baron and reached out her hand, slowly as though the slower she moved the less he would notice she was moving at all. "If I return to the world above with you, and I agree to marry you and do whatever you like for the rest of our lives, will you promise not to hurt him?" Her hand brushed against the gun and a trill went up her spine. Cool metal, soft, how could such a thing harm anyone? It was so small, so pathetic, and yet it could shatter her world, her life, and her heart. She pushed her fingers against it lightly until the muzzle pointed at the ground. "It will be the only thing I ever ask of you I promise." She took another step now and pushed against the Baron. His arm curled about her instinctively. His arms busy he could not harm Erik.
That was all that mattered.
"You may have her mind ensnared but I still get the prize. That's all that matters." The Baron said to Erik over Meg's head.
There was a glint, one that only Erik saw, in the man's eyes. It was a flicker of true cruelty, true evil. Erik was a monster, he would make no pretenses but there was humanity in him, whether he admitted it or no, and that brief flicker frightened him; scared him for Megan's sake. He could not imagine her living the rest of her life with a man like that any longer.
While once he had doomed her to that life without a thought, he could no longer bare to see her never dance again, to be crushed under the heel of a man who saw her as nothing more than a trophy for his mantel, a prize to increase his own social standing.
For reasons he did not care to explore Erik wanted her to have a better life than that. A life with a man who would let her dance, would know why she loved dancing so and would accept that love and that passion for what it was, a part of her. Erik wanted to see her smiling in a happy home with a man she loved. While these thoughts rushed about in Erik's mind, confusing him into silence the Baron turned to the dancer and smiled like the cat who'd caught the songbird.
"I promise I'll leave here and never think of returning." He told her, sweeping her away. One arm around her still dripping shoulders and his cape sent a spray of water as it shook with the sudden movement.
From that point on the world around Megan was nothing more than a blur of colors, a brush of feeling and the vague notion that somewhere very far away her body was still existing and still moving and going on with life. She felt the Baron pull her away and tried to twist in his arm to get one last look at Erik before she left this world of shadows, music, and candle-light forever.
She could smell Erik all around her even though she could not catch a glance of him. She could feel time passing around her but she was no longer an active player in her life; she had fallen away and Erik's scent was all she knew from the time of the Baron pulling her away to the time the door closed behind her at her house. Dust, ink and something herby and unexplainable, even as she left that place behind she knew it's scent would live with her forever in her heart even when she was old and gray and surrounded by children she had to bare for the hateful man who had threatened the only thing she loved.
The door closed behind her with a soft click once the Baron had gotten her home. Even such a soft noise was enough for Madam Giry to know her daughter had returned home and within moments the older woman came into the room silently aside from the soft click of her cane on the floor.
The woman held a small box between her aged hands and was smiling as Megan seemed to return to the waking world slowly, and at first, without any true feeling. Once the realization struck and Megan realized what had transpired since she confessed her love for the Phantom of the Opera, there was only one option open to the young ballerina. Meg fell to her knees sobbing loudly and shaking with sheer exhaustion. Her mother set the box aside for a moment and sat next to her daughter, not touching her even in the slightest. "I will listen when you're ready to talk." She said. Megan cried for what felt like hours and finally looked to her mother through the tears.
"I am in love with the Phantom of the Opera and my life is over. I shall marry the Baron after all and never dance again." She managed first, and once those words fell between mother and daughter the whole story spilled from her lips. Every lie she told every smile she hid, all down to the moment when she admitted her love to Erik and the Baron. They rushed out like water freed from a dam suddenly. Through the whole narrative her mother merely watched Megan as she spoke, relating a tale of happiness the girl had never known and pain she could not describe.
Madame Giry was silent for a long while after her daughter finished and reached for the box she had set aside. She removed the fancy lid and folded back the thin sheets of paper to reveal a pair of bright red shoes just as nice as the pink pair Erik had given her a lifetime ago. "These make more sense to say the least." She explained. Then she looked at Megan. Neither read the note but it said that she—Megan—had extraordinary talent and could certainly get nowhere on but one pair of slippers.
"I cannot say that I approve of your choice to love a monster like him, but if you love him as truly as I can tell you do, maybe he is not the monster I take him to be. You have seen a side of him not even Christine could find." She leaned back against the front door that Megan had never left. "I think you can do better than either of them, the Baron or the Phantom, but for all the greatness you could achieve in your life I do want you to be happy above all else no matter what I've said or how I've acted in the past and if The—Erik would make you happy than I wish you all the best with him."
"But Maman I can never go back there, I have to marry the Baron, it was the only way to save him." Meg lamented. You could hear her heart breaking every time she opened her mouth. Madame Giry looked startled and taken aback all at once. It seemed as though that was the last thing the mother expected to hear from her child.
"Megan!" She gasped. "You are both alive. As long as you two live you have a chance at happiness." Madam Giry sighed heavily. "We will think. Erik is a brilliant man and if he accepts your heart which you have given so willingly I am sure he will not allow you to marry someone else. And if he does not accept your heart what else would you do with your life but save his?" Megan still cried for her lost chances and lost heart long into the night. Through it all, even though she knew Megan was better than either of the two men in her life, Madam Giry comforted her daughter as best she knew how.
On the other side of town the Baron was handling his rather surprising engagement rather differently. It was not as surprising to him, for he had always been certain she would say "yes" eventually.
He sat in his hotel room drinking a glass of glittering brandy in front of a roaring fire and next to him sat his most loyal companion and business partner. They had worked together for as long as he could remember. He had of course shared with this man the story of what had happened far beneath the Opera House, sharing every bit down to Megan agreeing to marry him if he agreed not to hurt that deformed monster which had stolen her mind and heart. Neither of which mattered since he had won her body, the only thing anyone could see anyway.
"Well we cannot have your wife in love with another. That just wouldn't do." Maurice said after the Baron was done. It was a simple sentence, and a simple thought, both of which were to be expected from a simple, direct man like Maurice. Direct and simple though he may be he was ruthless and when he set his mind to something he accomplished it well, with vigor and soon after having decided to do it.
"What do you expect me to do about it, I made a promise and I do not just go back on my promise." The Baron seemed offended that Maurice would suggest such a despicable thing. He was supposed to know the Baron best of all.
However, his initial hurt aside, the Baron did have faith that it had been said for a reason and Maurice had a plan. That was why they worked well together; Maurice could see things, plots and plans, which the Baron simply could not.
"You promised that you would not go down there. If I were to stumble down there, down the path that little dancer girl showed you, and just happened to capture him, we could allow France herself to kill him. Precious Little Meg could not blame you for something so obviously not your fault. You cannot have control over what other people do, and with him safely behind bars and set for execution you would not need to worry about where her heart lies.
"For her heart would lie with a dead beast and she would have only you to turn to, no one but you, I think those odds good enough for the public and their whispers." Maurice winked in the roguish way that had him surrounded by ladies and the Baron slowly began to understand. He agreed heartily that this was the only option left to them and grew excited over the idea that he would win after all.
He would get all of Megan Giry that remained and he would get to see that beast lose that ugly Death's Head of his. He didn't think that Megan would have let that man touch her, no matter how often she said she cared for him, but still it would be entertaining to watch the man suffer the guillotine. Maybe the Baron would even be so lucky that the day they killed the Phantom the blade would be dull.
It was the least that monster deserved for trying to steal away his rightful bride. Megan was property of the Baron, though she said "no" many times it was always well-known that she would eventually accept his offer. There was nothing else for her to do with her miserable life; after all she was just a little dancer-girl. Nothing more. All she could hope to be was a dancer taking care of her mother until he came along and offered to make her a Baroness.
Megan did not need to suffer and he regretted that she would have to sit beside him, but as a Baron he would get a seat of honor watching the beast die and Megan would have to stay at his side. However he was sure that watching the creature die would help free Megan's mind from whatever spell that phantom had cast on her.
Maurice set to work greasing the correct wheels to have the Phantom executed as soon as possible that night and that morning the Baron set to work having a dress commissioned for Megan to wear to the execution, which would of course be the talk of Paris since the devil had destroyed the chandelier.
Pink and white were the rage this spring so he chose those colors before he even began to work on the dress. Should she be his wife she had to be at the height of fashion now, and he could easily afford to give her that much.
Any wife of his deserved the best he could offer.
Okay because while writing this I cocked my head to the side and said, "Oh come on there weren't people still getting publicly guillotined in france even then." I will post this for your enjoyment. The last public use of the guillotine in france was on September 10th 1977 and yes that's the right year.
Anyway thought you'd like to know.
Alexis: Yeah I know I took way too long with this chapter but I was distracted by the Holidays. Exams were actually fun, most of my classes didn't give exams so I only had two and one didn't count unless you did really well and wanted it as extra credit. Whoop.
Pleading-Eyes: wow! I am...I dunno there really are no words to explain how happy I am that you thought my description of the Ratcatcher was that good. I know I liked it but I'm the one who wrote it. I'm also sad that that's about all the time he'll get. Maybe he'll make a little cameo in the next chapter or two but that's it. Still I am glad that you liked it so very much. (you can compliment me like that as often as you like) I am still grinning madly.
As to liking how she confessed I'm super excited you liked it. I was actually stuck for almost a week with no writing getting done because I couldn't decide how to get her to confess. I knew most of what I wanted to happen, but I just wasn't sure if I had the right plan for her confession. So when I finally did it I was worried no one would like it, but it fit well with what will follow.
Almost-Funny: Hey someone picked up on that! That was actually my plan from the start. The idea that this time around someone would agree to marry in order to save Erik. So he could see how Raoul felt watching Christine promise herself to Erik so long ago. SOOOO glad you liked it.
Andrea: I'm glad you like it so much. If you haven't guessed yet one of my favorite things to hear is people telling me to write faster. I've left so many similar reviews on writers I think to be better than myself that when people tell me the same it fills me with the warm fuzzies.
Wandering Child24: Well I guess this chapter sort of acted as an answer to your question. I really wish I could promise other chapters will come quicker but I'm not sure. I do try, and I do know what will happen, but the shiney videogames and movies I got for Christmas I'm easily distracted. Blame my parents.
Quixotic-Feline: I really like the idea you had that the Baron does, to some degree, care for Meg, and don't let this chapter make you think otherwise. I think you're right. I think that he does care for her, but he's so blinded by the way everyone acts and the idea that a wife is just another pawn, another shiney bauble to show wealth confuses him and makes him focus on things other than the emotions he feels for Meg. Of course I still think he's an asshole and he's still going to do things that make you want to Keel-haul him but...I do agree that under different conditions he could care for Megan truly.
And to really mess wuth your mind, in Leroux's version, he did mention that Megan married the Baron...mwa ha ha.
Forensic-Photogapher711: You've been waiting? I've been DYING to make her confess. For the last few months my desk has been surrounded by notes "Don't rush it!" And in my notebook where I've been recording all my ideas for this story? On every page it mimics that same line. I am so desperate to just see them get together already. But I know that if I did that too quickly I wouldn't be the only one disappointed.
Rising twilight, phicaddictedpiratephantomprsnya, Lily, Kaledena, Agibale009, thank you all for your kind words and support while writing this chapter, and all my chapters, I honestly couldn't do it without you.