A few weeks later, Katrina found herself on the theater stage wearing a set of clothes certainly beautiful, but not something she would willingly choose if not for the fact that she was willing to keep up this charade a bit longer for Erik's sake.

She was, however, a bit nervous as she moved to the rhythm of the dramatic, chaotic music, for she had clearly seen the police creeping around, thinking they were invisible hiding in the shadows, but the vicomte, obviously, in his confidence in his plan, failed to consider a bit of secrecy a good idea.

He had been worried about Christine when he came to and did not find her at the cemetery, but to their luck he remembered little of what exactly happened at the end of the fight when he was knocked out, so at the end, Christine told him that it was a piece of stone from one of the graves that got loose while they were fighting.

She also told him that it was the Phantom himself who escorted her home and that she was unharmed. She was hoping to quell whatever ill thoughts her potential fiancé harboured towards her teacher, but the young aristocrat was determined to make sure the Phantom would trouble them no more and the managers were more than willing to cooperate as he laid out his bold plan.

Christine was a little less enthusiastic and as for Katrina, she was furious especially after she overheard their talk in the chapel. Here she was trying to be gentle about things, doing her best not to outright strange the infuriating man, while he was not even hiding the fact that he intended to kill his rival, which is also what she told Christine as she went in to console her after Raoul left. "What kind of a husband does he intent to be if he would so readily kill the man you so obviously still care about?"

Christine at the end agreed to at least sing at the stage, not because she was willing to betray anyone, but because she wanted to give her angel a chance to tell her what he wanted in his own way. Katrina assured her that she will keep him safe, and that no one else will die if she could help it.

And so, here they all were, the pieces of a grand game standing ready at their places and Katrina was watching their Don Juan, signor Piangi, a fat, stocky man, who was never too far from where Carlotta was, with keen eyes as there was no other role the Phantom could possibly be going to play.

When he disappeared behind a thick curtain where he was supposed to wait until Christine came on stage, she quietly slipped away and followed him, and as she half expected, she found his body lying on the floor with the Phantom standing proudly over him.

Carefully, the blond-haired woman stepped closer, bending down to check the man's pulse, satisfied when she found his heart was still beating, albeit slowly. She raised her head to look at her friend and nodded her appreciation. "So, you can learn after all." she praised him with a smile. "Very well." she added as Christine's first line sounded from behind the curtain. "Go for it then, and good luck." she spoke, giving him a small bow as she backed away, while he emerged at the stage, ready to make his final plea.

As it slowly became aware that it was not, in fact, Piangi, who was singing so passionately to Christine, looking at her as if there was something else going on between the two of them beside the magnificent, if a bit outrageous performance, Katrina joined the lines of onlookers who watched the exchange, completely transfixed, and there was no wonder, for what was happening before them was no play, but real, raw emotions unfolding in front of their eyes.

As for Katrina, now that she saw the Phantom in full light, she had to say that he was a sight to behold. She was reminded of one of those Spanish toreadors, many years later she would say that he looked very much like Zorro, the masked hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, but at that time, she simply noted how beautiful he looked, all for the woman he tried to impress.

And to her great joy, it seemed to work, as she could feel Christine answering to his passion with her own. She didn't even look at Raoul as she began to sing her part, staring at her partner with heated eyes and then they turned and walked up the winding stairs to join each other once again at the platform above. Finally, Christine walked up to her angel, hesitantly taking his offered hands and he twirled her around to press her tightly to his body, never intending to let her go again.

There was a moment of silence as the final notes of their song faded away and then the Phantom began to whisper to her sweet, gentle words that quickly gained strength as his heart threatened to burst with desperation. There, in front of everyone else, in front of half the city indeed it seemed, he asked for her love, for her acceptance, and with tears in her eyes, Katrina stepped slowly forward to listen closer.

Up on their perch, observed by hundreds of people who waited in breathless anticipation, he stared at Christine, breath hitching in his throat in fear, but then, finally, he looked at her, took her hands in his once again, and said the words: "Christine... I love you." he breathed out, hose three words, that simple admission, the one thing that Christine needed to hear, and Katrina rejoiced, for she could feel the girl's love, her raging emotions as she answered sweetly to her angel, putting a gentle hand on his face:

"Beautiful creature of darkness,

forget the life you have known.

Now at last I'm here to show you

you are not alone..."

The young woman, who finally stood in the arms of the man she loved, smiled then, tears flowing from her eyes freely, before she, forgetting there was a crowd of people watching them, gently took off the Phantom's mask, and then promptly kissed him on the lips.

Down below them, hearing the shocked gasps from the people around her, Katrina took a second to turn around, looking at the balcony where the young vicomte sat, the expression on his face absolutely priceless. And while she normally wasn't so cruel to rub in someone's pain, this time she could not help it as she slowly spoke into the man's mind: "You did not really expect to compete with that, did you?" she said, and revelled in the shocked look he gave her as he saw her staring at him with an amused smile.

Then, quickly, she climbed the steps and joined the two lovers. "My apologies for disturbing your most public déclaration d'amour, but we really need to go now." she said hurriedly, as she glanced at the officers who were quickly making their way towards the stage, glancing around to see some have already made it up the stairs. She saw the wheels in Erik's head turning and with an almost growl, she told him: "Get her out of here, I'll take care of these. Go!" she shouted, and he pulled a lever, the floor under them revealing another trap door that sent them falling somewhere down.

At that same moment the policemen started to shoot, and two things happened at once. First, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen as one of the bullets grazed her side, then, she heard a terrifying creak as she saw another bullet hit one of the ropes supporting the chandelier, the rope snapping under the weight and the heavy structure now began to fall down upon the auditorium.

With a cry, Katrina raised her arms and with all her might, she reached towards the chandelier, trying to use her powers to stop it from falling. An older, more powerful draken would be able to stop it from falling by sheer will, but for her it was way too heavy, and the best she could do was to slow it down.

Then, she felt her pain worsen as the wound began to bleed, her small body shaking with effort and after a while, she couldn't hold it anymore and the chandelier crashed down, the burning lamps on it lighting the room and the entire theater on fire. There was utter chaos down there as people ran frantically outside, but all she cared about now was finding her two charges before somebody else did.

She turned, ready to jump down to join them wherever they landed, and there, on the platform right next to the lever, she saw one of the officers, aiming a gun at her again. He must have seen something on her face, for he visibly paled and went to pull the trigger, but she was angry now, and there was no one around whose opinions she cared about.

She jumped, landing on the man before he could even register what happened, his eyes glowing angrily as she took a hold of his head, and then she opened her mouth, baring two pairs of short, very sharp fangs, before she buried them in his neck, tearing a piece of flesh and then ripping a piece of fabric from the man's shirt before she sent the dying body tumbling to the ground. Quickly, she bound the linen around her wound as tightly as she could, and then she pulled the lever and with an excited shout, she plunged into the depths below, the last thing she saw of the theater were the burning flames slowly consuming it.

Meanwhile, the two lovers ran, hand in hand, towards the Phantom's lair, the only place where he felt save. However, their retreat was not a peaceful one as they could both hear the hateful shouts and voices that echoed through the building above. Christine held on to her angel's hand, but soon had to stop him as he was gripping her rather painfully in his agitated state and her legs were getting tired.

"Angel." she called to him hurriedly, and gently placed her small hands on his chest to try and calm him down. He looked at her then, and it occurred to her that he still couldn't quite believe that she was really here with him willingly. There was a gentle smile on his face as he gently touched her cheek with one of his hands, the other stroking her hair softly, and she answered with a smile on her own. "My love, I am here, and I am not going to leave you again, but we must make a plan, they're going to find us here eventually."

"No, they are not." sounded a clear voice from the corridor behind them, as their blond friend strode quickly towards them and Christine had to suppress a gasp at the way she looked. There was a hastily made bandage around the waist, under which she could see a thin trickle of leaking blood, and there were traces of blood on her face as well. When Katrina saw the look she was giving her, she quickly wiped the blood off and tried to fix her dishevelled hair a bit, and then she turned around to face the way they came.

"I would never dream of causing more damage, believe me, but the theater is going to hell anyway, so…" she trailed off as she raised her hands, narrowed her eyes in concentration and in that moment, the corridor in front of her shook and huge chunks of the stone walls and ceiling fell down, until the way back was completely blocked.

They stared at her in shock, and she gave them a grin in return before they continued down the corridor. "Where are we going?" asked Christine as they came to the edge of the lake eventually. "We can't go forward, there are other ways to get there and surely they would have found some by now."

Katrina, however, did not say anything as she pulled a torch from one of the walls and then gestured to the boat that was waiting there. Christine looked a bit sceptical, but Erik took her hand gently and led her on the small vessel, trusting his friend to lead them out safely. Katrina gave him a grateful smile and took the oar into her hand.

To the others' surprise, she did not take the usual road that would lead them to the Phantom's home, but instead headed a different direction, through the dark where the light from the torches and candles no longer shined, lighting a torch to allow them to see, although she herself seemed to be able to see in the dark perfectly. There, she led them to a very small, stone platform sticking out of the wall that looked like another pier, but there was no obvious way to continue from there.

"I found this place shortly after I started exploring down here on my own." the blond said as she turned to her companions and her eyes now took an excited shine as she prepared to tell them a secret. "I'm not sure if you know, but this place is just a small, better-preserved section of a much larger system of catacombs that spreads under most of the city. If one could travel the expanse of the tunnels without getting lost, he could easily get from one place to another undetected without ever getting above ground. Sadly, most of the tunnels are now flooded or sealed, but fortunately for us, this is one corridor that I discovered that is fairly undamaged."

After that, she turned, and looked at the wall behind her, which was covered in white, greying tiles. She lightly pressed one and as she did, there was a click and a whole section of the wall that did not look conspicuous at all suddenly revealed itself as a secret door, opening into a previously unknown corridor that the Phantom, from the look on his face, obviously did not know about.

"Come quickly." said Katrina as she could hear the voices from the theater getting a lot louder. It seemed the Phantom's lair was found after all. She waited for her companions to get in before she closed the corridor behind herself and followed them. It was then when Christine, feeling safe enough to calm down, looked at her friend in worry when she saw her sway slightly and lean against the wall. "Are you alright?" she asked, and Katrina nodded, though it was visible it took her some effort. "Yes." she said with a smile. "Just tired. Don't worry about me, I heal quickly."

She then looked at the two as Erik came to stand next to Christine and put a hand around her protectively. "Thank you." he suddenly said as he looked at Katrina, his face displaying all the gratitude he felt. "I do not know what brought you to the opera, but I am certainly glad that you came. This would never have been possible without you." he continued as Christine gently grasped his hand with hers and Katrina smiled brightly as she saw it, for this was her triumph as well, her victory too, however small it was.

"Well I would love to say that you would do well without me," she spoke, her voice gaining strength as she straightened up again. "but we both know you are much too thick-headed and impatient to manage, so yes, I agree." she said, chuckling slightly as the man before her looked down slightly in shame. Then, she put a kind hand on his shoulder. "But we will never know now, for I have made this happen, so there's no need to dwell on it. Now come, we still have to get back above ground."

She led them through a damp, narrow corridor that lightly stank of mould, which Katrina explained was because it got flooded slightly when the water in the lake went higher, but otherwise it did not look so worse for wear as the other sections Katrina described to them along the way. Christine was amazed at the thought that there was another world under the theater, under the very city she lived in that she didn't know about. Then, after a while, they emerged up on the street, somewhere near the river, but Christine couldn't be sure as it was quite dark outside. She was slightly frightened for a minute, until Erik came behind her and she felt his comforting presence.

"Alright, here we are." said Katrina as she looked around carefully. In the distance, she could hear shouting and whistling and saw groups of firefighters heading towards the scene to save the enormous building they left behind. She doubted it would have much success. Instead, she turned to her two companions.

"Alright, my friends, this is where we part ways. I'm afraid there's little of the opera that would be left after tonight, so I recommend that you leave. In fact, leave the city altogether, there are so many wonderful places you could explore now together and… oh…" she exclaimed as she remembered something and reached into her dress, pulling out the white mask. "You left this on the stage, so I grabbed it." she said, and waited as Erik gently took it from her hands and placed it on his face, visibly relieved.

"Yes, well, as I was saying, get out there, you know, you waited enough time hiding here, I think. You can go and see London, Prague or maybe Venice… in fact do go to Venice, February is just around the corner and you'll fit right in." she said playfully as she looked at her friend and his mask, and then Christine stepped forward and hugged her. "Thank you." she said quietly. "Thank you for everything, for bringing us together." her voice was full of emotion. "Are you leaving now?" she asked and Katrina nodded her head, the expression on her face rueful.

"Yes, I am. I have been here longer than I originally wanted and there are plenty of other people out there that need my help, many adventures to be a part of. But I assure you, Christine," she said as she raised her eyes to the Phantom as well. "I will never forget either of you, and if you ever need me again, I shall never be too far away."

And with that, she lightly stepped closer to Erik, rose on her toes a bit, and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, whispering a last message into his ear as she gave him a final smile. "Stay out of trouble." Smiling mischievously, she listened as he chuckled, and she whistled shortly and out of the darkness came her dark horse, neighing with excitement. She mounted her steed with haste, before she, for the last time, turned to look at them: "Oh and before I go, as much as I'm fond of the name Katrina, my true name is Kaelen, just so you know."

She did not wait for their answer as she spurred the horse forward and disappeared into the night. They stood there for a minute, staring at the spot where she was just a minute ago, thinking what a strange, but wonderful creature has been send to their aid. And then, with loving eyes fixed on him, Christine approached her angel, and they kissed for a minute, expressing the joy of their love and their freedom, before they too vanished into the world out there, never to be seen in Paris again.

...

The Opera Populaire, Paris, March 1917

Back in the bright future, Kaelen, a.k.a. Katrina, slowly emerged from the theater long after everyone else did, the world outside sinking slowly into the night as the light faded from the horizon. It made her sad sometimes that she has never actually seen either one of her friends again, but her heart told her that they were happy somewhere out there, whatever they were doing, perhaps even with a family of their own that she might meet one day instead.

She stood there, on the steps of the opera house where she spent such a tumultuous, but joyful time, looking out at the city before her. Suddenly, she heard a sound, a gentle cawing as she spotted several crows looking for some food near the entrance. The sight of them brought a smile to her face, as she realized that while some things might change, some will instead leave a legacy that will always remind you of the past. And as she stared at the wonderful, night-time world around her, a song suddenly came to her mind that simply needed to be heard and she began to sing softly, a gentle melody she remembered from so long ago:

"Softly, gently, night unfurls its splendour,

grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender.

Turn your face away, from the garish light of day,

let the dark embrace you soul and you may find,

how beautiful's the music of the night."