I wasn't particularly happy with this chapter but please feel free to review. I need someone to give me good comments so I knew this chapter was good enough.

Disclaimer: nope! still own nothing ...


Down Once More

"Rose! Rose!" The Doctor shouted as he saw the debris come down on top of her. He pushed his way through the crowd. He knelt down and pulled Rose out of the rubble. Suddenly Raoul ran on stage.

"Is she alright?" he shouted over the noise. The Doctor lifted her into his arms.

"We have to get her back into the TARDIS. Then we will get Christine," the Doctor said. Raoul nodded and he helped carry Rose out to the TARDIS. The Doctor laid her down and covered her. The he walked up to main part of the TARDIS. He stroked it.

"Please look after her. I won't be long," he asked. The TARDIS gave him a reply only he could hear and he smiled. Then he threw off his jacket and he and Raoul raced back to the Opera House. They went backstage. Suddenly they bumped into Madam Giry.

"Where did he take her Madam?" Raoul asked. She grabbed both the Doctor and Raoul's arms. She pulled them along a corridor.

"Come with me messieurs. I will take you to him. But remember … keep your hand at the level of your eyes," she warned them as she led them to Christine's dressing room. Raoul was fuming when he saw a passageway behind Christine's mirror.

"That sick bastard," he said before they headed down the lair. Madam Giry led them so far and stopped.

"This is as far as I dare go," she said. The Doctor and Raoul exchanged glances. Then they nodded.

"Thank you Madam Giry," the Doctor said and they both ran down to the lair. But they didn't get very far when suddenly a trapdoor opened and they both plummeted into water. They came up for breath and noticed that an iron grate was coming down on top of their heads. The Doctor put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He pointed it at the iron grate just as it was about to cut off their air supply and it stopped. Raoul sighed in relief and he went underwater and found the switch to take the grate back up to where it started. Then they climbed out a hatch in the wall and ended up in one of the normal corridors.

"I hope we're not too late," Raoul said.

"You and me both," the Doctor said, thinking about Rose as they ran.

xxxxxx

In the lair, Erik was standing with the engagement ring he tore from Christine's neck in his hand. He had sent Christine away to change as she had been shivering when they entered the lair.

"Why have you brought me here?" he suddenly heard her ask him. He turned to her. She looked beautiful. She had on a wedding dress that he had made for her, hoping that she would become his wife.

"You tore my mask off in front of an entire audience. Did you think I was just going to stand and smile about it?" he spat at her. She looked at her feet, her hands playing with a bit of the material on the dress.

"I just wanted to prove to you that I am not scared of your face as much as everyone else," she shouted back, before turning away from him in anger. He looked down at the ring in his hands.

"This face which earned a mother's fear and loathing,

A mask, my first unfeeling scrap of clothing,

Pity comes too late,

Turn around and face your fate,

And eternity of this before your eyes!"

He had picked the veil off a model of Christine's head and he had placed it on the real Christine. Then he turned her to him and placed the ring in the palm before closing her hand over it. Christine looked at the ring and then up into his disfigured face. She felt him coming closer but she walked away from him, taking the veil from her head. She pulled the canvas sheets off of all the mirrors she could so there was hundreds of reflections of her and Erik.

"You face doesn't scare me. It's the distortion in your soul that does," she said, a few tears escaping her eyes. At her words, his face fell and he turned away from her. Suddenly the sound of splashing water came to his ears.

"My dear, I do believe we have guests," he said. Christine looked to the portcullis to see Raoul and the Doctor there.

"Doctor! Raoul!" she called out, running to the waters edge. Erik stood there watching the two men as they stood behind the portcullis.

"The Vicomte I can understand … but Doctor … to what do I own this pleasure?" he said mockingly. The Doctor grimaced at Erik.

"You may have killed Rose!" he shouted. Christine gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. She turned to Erik.

"Why? Why would you do that? She's my friend," she yelled at him. He ignored her.

"I merely cut the chandelier down. I didn't make her get in the way of it," he said, sounding uncaring. The Doctor swore in Gallifreyan and pulled at the bars and kicked at them. Suddenly all his kicking and hitting subsided when Erik opened the portcullis from a lever on the inside.

"Messieurs … I bid you welcome!" Erik said as he made his way towards them. "Why would I make Christine pay for sins which are your own?" The Doctor and Raoul looked at each other. But as they turned back, Erik threw a rope over them, binding them together. Then he pushed them up against the portcullis and tied them. They were both stuck tight.

"Let Christine go. Please! My fiancée is dying!" the Doctor shouted. But he ignored them. He turned to Christine.

"Start a new life with me,

Buy their freedom with your love,

Refuse me and you send them to their deaths,

This is the choice,

This is the Point of No Return!"

Christine began to cry then looked at Raoul and the Doctor. The Doctor's tears had started to fall as he thought about Rose, lying in the TARDIS maybe on her last breaths of life. Erik noticed Christine put the ring on her finger.

"Christine … please forgive us … we did it all for you and all for nothing," Raoul sobbed. Christine looked at Erik. He went to the shore and picked up a noose. Christine noticed this and she gasped.

"Erik no …" she cried. But Erik didn't go for Raoul He put the noose around the Doctor's neck. Christine covered her eyes with her hands.

"Erik … don't do this," she said, moving forward a little so that she was in the water. Erik moved away from the Doctor, pulling on the rope. He smiled in satisfaction as he heard the Doctor gag. Christine couldn't bear this.

"Angel of Music,

You deceived me,

I gave you my mind blindly!"

"You try my patience. Make your choice," he said, pulling the rope in his hand again, the Doctor choking.

"I'm sorry Raoul," she mouthed to Raoul. Raoul knew she had made her choice. She walked into the water and went up to Erik. She put her lips against his and kissed him passionately. The minute their lips touched, Erik dropped the rope in his hands and his hands snaked round her waist. Christine's hand went to his chest, feeling the skin of his chest beneath her hand made her gasp into his mouth. He suddenly pulled away and she saw the unshed tears and love in his eyes. She smiled and leaned in for another kiss. He opened her mouth to her and she felt his tongue brush against hers. Then she remembered Raoul and the Doctor were still there. She pulled away and looked into his blue eyes again. This time, he started to sob. He let go of Christine and he headed to the shore.

"Take her, forget me forget all of this," Erik said, stumbling towards the shore, eyes red from crying. Christine looked at him in wonder but didn't object. She walked towards the two men and she took the rope off the Doctor's neck. She saw the raw skin of his neck because of rope burns. She ran her fingers over it before untying them completely. Raoul rubbed the rope burns on his wrists before taking Christine by the arm.

"We must leave," he said. Christine looked at Erik climbing the staircase to his bedroom.

"Go now. GO NOW AND LEAVE ME!" he yelled. Christine turned to Raoul.

"Raoul … I can't leave him. I … love him," she said. Raoul dropped her hand. The Doctor scratched his ear as he always did when he was in an uncomfortable situation.

"I love you Raoul but only as a childhood friend," she said. She hugged him. He did the natural thing to hug her back.

"Have a good life Christine," Raoul said and left the lair. The Doctor suddenly remembered Rose.

"Christine … I've got to get to Rose," he said. Christine nodded.

"I'll come with you. But wait a minute," she said. She headed up the staircase to the Phantom's bedroom. The Doctor followed ever so slowly. He heard singing.

"… Hide your face so the world will never find you! Christine I love you!" he said to her. Christine knelt down beside him.

"I love you too my angel," she said, leaving Erik awestruck. "I want to stay with you. Be by your side forever." She leaned down and captured his lips in a tender kiss. She then pulled away and handed him his white mask and wig. He put them on. They walked out of the bedroom together to where the Doctor was waiting.

"Doctor … I really want to apologize …" Erik began but the Doctor held up his hand to silence him.

"We can do apologies later … I think we have company," he said, pointing to torchlight which was getting closer.

"There's another way out," Erik said, who had started to walk to another side of the lair. Christine took the Doctor's hand and pulled him with her, following Erik to another passageway up to the surface. This passage led out from behind Madam Giry's mirror in her ballet dormitory. The Doctor grabbed Christine's hand.

"Rose!" he yelled and he ran as fast as his legs would carry him to the TARDIS. Christine and Erik followed. The three entered and the Doctor gasped at the sight in front of him. Rose was lying on the chair, still unconscious by the looks of it but now she was surrounded by a bright light, which seemed to be glowing brighter. The Doctor felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Doctor what's happening to her?" Christine asked him. The Doctor turned to her. They walked closer; Erik was looking around as he had never seen anything like the TARDIS in his life. The Doctor kneeled next to her. Erik suddenly felt guilty as he looked down on this girl. He hadn't meant to hurt her. Suddenly they all jumped back when Rose's back arched and her mouth opened in a silent scream as the light got to his brightest and the heat radiating off her was terrible. The Doctor suddenly knew what was happening as he saw some of her features change. Her hair grew longer, longer than Christine's but it was poker straight but still blonde, her eyes flew open and they were now a piercing blue colour. Her height seemed to change and she seemed to be a little more tanned. Suddenly the light around her went out and her body went back to it's lying down position on the chair. The Doctor moved closer.

"Rose?" the Doctor said, waiting for the woman he loved to awaken.


Love ? Hate? Please tell me. I love all my readers very much and I have appreciated each and every single review! xxx