AN: Okay, so I have a question that I would like to ask everyone this time 'round, but I'm not going to ask it until the end.

Ugh. My dad thinks he finally figured out what's wrong with my laptop, so he went to get a new hard-drive for it and hopefully I'll have it back soon. In the meantime, have another disclaimer and chapter.

DISCLAIMER: Well, I COULD say that I own everything, but I don't think that's a very good idea because Erik is threatening to Punjab me if I do. So...I OWN NOTHING (except Miette) AND DENY EVERYTHING!

"What is that thing, anyway?"
"It's called a flashlight."
"But it doesn't flash."
"I didn't come up with the name."
"Who did, then?"
"I dunno, the guy who invented it?"
"And who is that?"
"I have no idea."

If one had been walking in the tunnels beneath the Opera Populaire, one might have heard this exchange being whispered between two girls as they made their way along the hidden corridors. But nobody was in the tunnels, and so nobody did hear it. Nobody, that is, except the two young ladies having the conversation.

"Are we almost there?" Miette asked.
"Not much further," Meg replied.
"But you said that twenty minutes ago and we're still walking."
"My, aren't you impatient. Really, it's only about ten more minutes, fifteen at the most."
"But we've been walking forever and my feet hurt!"
"Here, how about I distract you from it?"
"How do you intend to do that, may I ask?"
"Tell me something about the future."
"Like what?"
"Anything at all!"

Miette sighed heavily and thought for a moment. "The world will end in 2012," she said finally.

"What?"
"December 21st to be exact."
"You can't be serious!"
"Zombies will come out of the sky riding meteors like surfboards and come after us for our nummy braaaaaaiiiiiiiiinzzzzzzz."
"You're just making that up!"

"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too!"

"Meg, please, who's the time traveler here? America will be the first to go, of course, and then Germany...Canada will stay mostly intact, but only because Canadian zombies are polite like regular Canadians, so they won't eat anyone's brains because they don't want to be rude. Oh, and I almost forgot one of the most important parts! All the skeletons in the catacombs will reassemble themselves to become a type of zombie known as Boneys, and then, boy oh boy, is Paris doomed! Boneys will eat anything with a heartbeat, see, and so—Oh, yeah, and then comes the alien invasion. Will Smith be all, 'Welcome to Earth, bitch.' He and Tommy Lee Jones will definitely have their work cut out for them when that part happens."

"Okay, enough, tell me something else."
"Okay, um...let's see...In six years, a man named Charles Zidler will—"

"Sh! Quiet, turn the light off!" Meg said suddenly, and Miette quickly turned her flashlight off. Meg gestured for her to get against the wall, then did so herself and peered around the corner. "Alright," she said, "it doesn't look like he's home. We'll run in, find your thingy, then run back out, got it? On three. One...two...three!"

Both girls darted out of the tunnel and began going around Erik's lair searching for the iPod. Meg's hands were shaking from the fear of Erik coming back and catching them—oh, how mad her mother would be if that happened, for he would surely tell her about it!—in the act, and it also didn't help that she hadn't the faintest idea what this thing even looked like, despite Miette's attempts to describe it to her earlier.

Meanwhile, Miette was busy looking underneath the mess of musical scores and sketches littered all over a table on the opposite side of the room from Meg. Some little part of her mind registered the fact that all the sketches were of one girl, drawn over and over again in perfect detail, which she found slightly odd, but she was too focused on reclaiming her stolen property to really look at any of them very closely or consider what might be driving him to draw this girl so much.

"Can I help you, mademoiselles?"

Both girls nearly jumped out of their skin with surprise, whirling around to find Erik removing his cloak as he stepped out of the boat. For one brief moment, everyone was frozen just staring at each other. Then, Miette lifted her skirts and marched right up to Erik so that the tips of their noses were practically touching. "Where. Is. My. iPod?" she demanded. Erik merely began to laugh as he moved away from her. She put her hands on her hips, eyes narrowing as she tracked his progress across the room.

"Your little music box?" he said, taking his gloves off, and then pointed at something on a table near the organ. "Right there."
Miette's eyes widened in horrified shock as she rushed over, realizing that what he was pointing at was not an iPod, but the remains of an iPod.

"You took it apart?!" she yelled. "Why would you—"
"To find out how it works, of course. Why else would I have done such a thing?"

His eyes moved to Meg, who tensed up. "Please don't tell Maman we were here," she said, "she'll be absolutely furious!"
"Fix this!" Miette said. "Fix it right now, I'm not moving from this spot until you do, and that's final! I want my music back!"

Erik's face darkened. "You want your music, you say? Well, how appropriate. This is, after all, the seat of sweet music's throne. However, judging by the cacophony I found on that little device of yours, you hardly know what music is, Mademoiselle Comtois! What in heaven's name, I ask you, is 'Owl City?!' What kind of name is Nalick?! And what, for the love of all that is holy, is a yamaha?!"

"Okay, first off, Adam Young and Anna Nalick rule, did you even listen to 'Fireflies?' And second, Yamaha's not a what, it's a song title, and it happens to be on the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies, thank you very much. Now, put. It back. Together."

"Miette..."
"Not now, Meg, I'm in the zone."

"And what," Erik said, "if I don't oblige you? What shall you do then, hm?"
"Easy. I'll rip that mask right off your face and throw it into that lake."
"You think you're the first person to rip my mask off? Foolish girl."
"The music and drawings will get wet, too, did I mention that?"

Erik's dark eyes widened and he grabbed Miette roughly by the arms, whirling around and throwing her to the ground. "If you so much as touch those drawings, I swear, you shall meet a fate even worse than that of Joseph Buquet and Ubaldo Piangi!"

"Miette!" Meg cried. "Keep your hand raised to the level of your—"
"Silence, Marguerite!" Erik shouted at her. "Or I shall tell your mother exactly who led Mademoiselle Comtois down here in the first place!"

"Meg, get out of here, run!"
"No, Miette, not without you!"
"I'll be fine, just go!"

"Listen to the girl, Mademoiselle Giry," Erik said. "Get out of here while you can."
"What are you going to do with her?"
"That...is up to what she chooses to do."

Meg hesitated, looking back and forth between the two, then reluctantly turned and fled out the way she and Miette had come in. While Erik's back was turned watching the blonde leave, Miette snatched up a handful of his sketches that were within arm's reach and crawled over to the shore of the lake, plunging the papers underwater and not caring about her dress getting wet in the process.

When he turned and saw what she was doing, Erik became absolutely livid.

Hahahaha, cliffie! XD Okay, quick announcement, then time for my question.

I'm not sure if I'll be updating this again until after my laptop is fixed, so just in case this ends up being the last thing I add to this story for a while, then...please don't come after me with Punjab lassos, because I swear, it's not my fault and my dad is doing everything he can to fix my laptop.

Okay, question time:

I have a POTO/Les Mis X-over that I'd like to post, but I can't come up with a good title. It's an (eventual) Enjonine, and it is starring 'Ponine, Enjy, Erik, and Meg, and it takes place in 1832 (so during the Les Mis timeline), and it starts in April, then stretches into June and the rebellion and everything, and Erik and Enjy are half-brothers in it.

Any ideas for what a good title might be?