It was such a nice morning the next day when, bright and early, Katrina rose from her sleep, going through the slowly waking theater as she often did when she was in a good mood. This time though, she stumbled upon a scene in the hallway, overhearing a most heated conversation between the two managers. Apparently, Christine has not yet come back from her yesterday's rendezvous with the Phantom and to make matters worse, they both received a letter from said spectre informing them of his new demands.

A minute later, a distraught vicomte de Chagny arrived, with a letter of his own that instructed him not to look for Christine which he thought was a cruel joke from the other two men. Lastly, a very angry Carlotta Guidicelli burst through the door with another letter informing her that she wasn't to perform in the Phantom's opera house any longer in favour of Christine, who was to be the main singing voice from now on, of which she loudly accused the vicomte, thinking he was playing favourites with her young rival.

Their ceaseless arguing has been an amusing affair for a while, until madame Giry arrived with her daughter, announcing that Christine has, in fact, returned and was resting in her room while also giving them another sealed envelope. As mr. Firmin took the letter from the woman's hand and read the contents, in which the Phantom expressed his displeasure at his orders being ignored and lined out his instructions for the next production, out loud, Katrina approached cautiously, pretending that she had just walked in on the scene.

"Hmm…" she hummed thoughtfully as she listened to the demands and quite clearly voiced threats, shaking her head at the man's gall. Still, it wouldn't be her if she didn't try to defuse the situation as she raised her voice and spoke:

"The Phantom surely is a bold one,

but you know it as I do,

that the man in the mask

has the grandest task.

Always has he helped the opera prosper,

so please mister, just do as he asked of you."

She spoke in a clear, but respectful voice as she looked at mr. Firmin, before she glanced around at everyone else. "I know I haven't been here for a long time, but all instructions we received from him till now have always been to the opera's benefit, besides, as you know, the rumours about him alone have been great at bringing in the masses. If he thinks Christine is the best for the job, why don't you simply do as he says? He means no disrespect."

"No disrespect?" cried Carlotta in outrage, her voice rising with every syllable as she glanced down at her from the heights of her own egoism. "No disrespect, she says. The man insults my singing and attempts to have me replaced with this… this little canarino. You little goose, I will not stand for such audacity!"

Katrina narrowed her eyes and was about to reply, when madame Giry stepped forward and said: "She does have a point though, monsieurs. The Opera Ghost is a genius and his insights have proven to us beneficial many times before. It would be best to take him seriously."

She said this in her usual, quiet voice, but there was a warning hidden behind her words and in the way her eyes pierced the two managers. They both looked a bit stunned and Katrina watched as mr. Firmin gulped nervously, but in that moment, Carlotta let out a distraught wail and both men jumped to her side. "Signora, donna nostra, those women's opinions mean nothing, you know the public needs you, we need you…" they began with their grovelling and Katrina tuned them out as she stormed away.

And so, as the production of the next opera, Il Muto, a lovely comedy piece about a king's cheating wife, came to its first showing, the main role was given, despite the Phantom's wishes, to Carlotta. Katrina was nervous as to what his reaction was going to be, as she sensed his proud nature, but she was hoping for the best as she took her place on the stage, carefully watching for any trouble.

It took him about half of the first song to make his presence known, as his voice suddenly rang through the quiet hall. "Did I not instruct that Box Five was to be kept empty?" he suddenly boomed from somewhere above and immediately, all eyes turned to search for him, while Katrina glanced to the box right above the stage that was usually empty, but now the young vicomte sat there, looking all shocked as he clearly did not expect anything to happen. Katrina scoffed at this and returned her eyes to the current happenings.

She was worried that her friend might take things a bit too far, but her fears turned out to be unfounded at first, when all that really happened was for Carlotta to suddenly lose her voice completely, croaking like a toad on stage in front of everybody, which Katrina suspected had something to do with the tonic she used to refresh her voice. The humiliated singer quickly left the stage, while the managers hurriedly announced that Christine will be playing the main role after all, and all would have been well, if it wasn't for the stupidity of one man.

To fill in the sudden pause in the performance, the ballet dancers were called and while Katrina was twirling and dancing around the stage along with them, she suddenly saw a flash of movement up on the walkways. There was a man running along the walkways and he looked scared. Seeing this, she quickly climbed a ladder to get up there and from her slightly higher perch she saw the Phantom chasing after the poor fool, who she recognised as Joseph Bouquet, a despicable pig of a man who worked as one of the stagehands, ogling their female performers while also being a general pain in the Phantom's backside with his constant mockery and his searching eyes.

She suspected the man was hoping to be the one to bring the Phantom to justice, but now it seemed to her that he must have finally annoyed him one too many times. She, however, understood that she could not allow the man to die. So as quickly as she could, she criss-crossed through the ropes and hanging catwalks to lightly land between the two men as the Phantom brandished a piece of rope in the shape of a noose, ready to send the man to his final judgement.

As Bouquet turned to see what was going on, she whirled around and quickly elbowed him in the middle of his face, putting her knee in the same area as he screamed, doubling over in pain. He fell down, unconscious, lucky not to have fallen from the narrow wooden space among the spectators beneath them, who started to panic when they heard the man's screams. Katrina turned back to the Phantom, eyeing the rope in his hands. "Oh, you stupid, stupid man." she said angrily, but before she could continue her tirade, she saw Christine running somewhere up the backstage with the vicomte in tow, and wordlessly she followed after them.

She ended up on the roof of the theatre, hiding behind one of the statues before anyone could see her, knowing that the man who came behind her was doing the same. She stared at Christine and saw exactly what she was worried might happen. The young woman was confused and scared, for even though this day did not end in anyone's death, she still witnessed the Phantom's violent side and it made her doubt her angel and his heart. Katrina could not look at her friend now, for she knew what pain she would see now as they listened to the young woman's frightened words. Only when she heard him quietly whisper Christine's name did she look at him, wordlessly expressing her sympathy.

Then, as she looked back at the pair before them, she saw the vicomte approach Christine, suddenly looking all nervous and cautious as he touched her arm, trying to bring her attention back to him, the emotions that she felt from him told her clearly what was about to happen and she realized she could not let it continue lest someone on this roof would get hurt even more. So, as quietly as she could, she snuck up back to the door.

...

"Christine!" rang the clear voice of her friend, as Christine startled from her reverie, barely noticing that Raoul was gently touching her as she turned to Katrina, who just walked through the door to the roof. "There you are." she said relieved and walked over to her. "I was searching for you, madame Giry sent me to see where you've run off too. The show's going to continue in a minute."

"Katrina." said Christine, as her friend hurriedly put an arm around her shoulders and began leading her back inside, leaving the vicomte standing outside, his words frozen on his tongue. "What happened? Is mr. Bouquet…?" she paused, not daring to finish the sentence.

"Oh, he's fine," said Katrina rather dismissively. "Probably banged himself on the head or something. They found him unconscious on one of the catwalks, but he'll live."

"And the… the Phantom?" asked Christine cautiously, causing Katrina to look at her. "He's gone." she said flatly, searching her face for a minute. "I guess it was a bit too much excitement even for him."

...

Later that evening, as Christine and the rest of the cast, who once again celebrated a great success, finished their show and everyone retired for the night to rest and reflect, Katrina once again snuck down below to look for the Phantom, but this time she was not hiding her presence as she strode into his lair with quick, short steps. She found him sitting there, once again at his organ, but this time, he was just sitting there and staring at the keys when she found him.

"You know, monsieur, I was quite impressed by you up to this point, so much that I was willing to call you a dragon, as my people often do when they meet someone they come to respect, and I would gladly compare you to such a noble beast, if only you weren't so stupid!" she began, her anger not stemming from the fact that she almost saw him murder a man, but because he was possibly destroying his own chance at happiness by being so reckless.

He did not look up when she spoke, and so she continued: "Is your reputation as the Phantom so important to you that you would rather risk losing Christine to keep it?" she pressed on as she came closer, shaking her head with an exasperated sigh. "My friend, I know we are in a theatre, but you need to ease off on the drama. And I'm not telling you not to kill if that is what you do, and gods know I understand why, but I thought you would have enough sense not to do it right in front of her." she said as she finally stopped.

"If her heart is what you want," she said then. "you might want to be a little more considerate of it." she finished, and then, just as it appeared, her anger suddenly evaporated as he finally looked at her and she saw the look on his face. She could see he was weeping before she barged into his home so rudely, his mask, for now, lying discarded on the piano keys next to him, both of his eyes red from crying, and she immediately regretted her outburst as she gently lowered herself to one knee in front of him.

"What happened?" she asked gently, realising that there was something she didn't know about. He shook his head, but she patiently waited and after a while, he spoke. "I brought her here the other and I… I let my guard down and she… she took off my mask." he said simply and she took a deep breath, understanding perfectly. There was no need to ask how she reacted; it was written plainly on his face. "You told me what I look like doesn't matter, but she fears me now… she can't even bear to look at me again."

Katrina shook her head at the poor man and at the strange contrast that was his personality. He could present himself as such a distinguished gentleman, and yet, in the darkness beneath the theater his loathing for himself and all the people that ever hurt him or could hurt him came off of him so freely it was almost frightening to her. Yet she could clearly sense, deep down, there wasn't any true evil inside him, he wasn't a monster, only a man, who was damaged by the cruel world.

"What I said was true," she began gently, but firmly as she put her small hand onto his shaking ones. "and if she cannot see it, then she isn't worth your pain. But I am sure what you say is not true, she just needs time to process everything, but more importantly…" she paused for a bit to put an emphasis on her next words. "She is a kind soul, and it is not your face, but your violent ways that are scaring her off. Right now, she needs to see that what she saw in you was not entirely a lie and you need to give her time to realise that. So," she said as she stood up, her tone much lighter than before. "If you want my advice, step back for a while, leave these people to their peace. I shall take this matter into my own hands."

"But how?" he asked, turning to her. "What can you do?"

"Many things." she answered with a small smile. "I am, after all, a woman, I think I can plead your cause better than you can at this moment." she smiled and then fixed him with a stern, knowing look. "I can read you like an open book so listen to my words. Give it a few months and don't do anything stupid while I work. I do not know what will happen, but jealousy is not a companion you should listen to." With that, her voice softened again as she looked at him, determined to give him some hope.

"Oh angel, please, just let me help you,

I shall stay close and guarding.

Please, you just trust me, I'm here for you,

and here I will stay guiding."

With those words, she lovered herself down again to place her arms around him, holding him in a gentle embrace as she breathed in his scent, sensing his storming emotions, anger and sadness still warring with each other, but above all else, an emotion so pure it could not be silenced, strong enough that it warmed her heart and soul just being this close to him, and she sighed and spoke again:

"Plenty of shadows within you,

so much they dread in me stir,

but there's still light shining from you

it's your love for her.

...

Angel of music, don't despair now,

it really does not suit you.

My dearest friend, rely on me now,

I shall bring your love back to you."

She squeezed him gently, her last words to him spoken in clear voice full of determination and reassurance, and when she felt his spirits perk up a little bit finally, she felt confident enough to leave him on his own as she stood back up, looked around to make sure there was nothing he might need in the foreseeable future, and then she walked away, knowing she was going to be very busy in the next few weeks.