Hey guys! I know that it has been a couple of days since I have last updated and I am terribly sorry for keeping you waiting, it seems that I have been having a bad case of writer's block :(

Well anyway, I have recently watched the Phantom of the Opera again which made it easier for me to want to write another chapter for this story again and all these lovely reviews push me to update often! I love all the people that review/favorite/follow/read this story!

Your obedient servant,

PhantomsAngel1870

Chapter 17: Preparing For Battle

Christine sat in the back of the carriage holding Raoul's sword that she had taken from him. She knew that she had to disarm him so as she told him to stop chasing after her she took it and hid it in the folds of her cloak while she spoke to him. Christine hated to do it, but she knew that she held some amount of power over Raoul is she spoke a certain way, but in the end it was worth it—she and Erik were able to escape without fear of him attacking them.

The journey back to the opera house seemed shorter than it did to come to the cemetery and so it surprised Christine to see that they had already arrived while she was still in mid thoughts about the surprise visit from Raoul at her father's grave site. She was confused about how he knew where they were going. The only person they told their whereabouts to was the older stable manager and she had grown up going to the stables and talking to the man, so she couldn't believe that he would have told Raoul willingly. Then there was the problem about Raoul's vow she heard as Erik was rushing them out of the cemetery: Now let it be war upon you both. If Raoul was ready for war she needed to tell Erik and they would have to figure out how to go about doing this discreetly.

Christine found her mind wandering off to thoughts of the morning's events and then drifted to thoughts of her Erik. What is he thinking right now? I hope to God he can be reasonable about today and we can sit down and have a long thoughtful conversation without doing anything too rash. I never wanted any of this to happen to us, but it seems that Raoul is unwilling to let me go—what did I ever do to make him think that I loved him and wanted to be part of his aristocratic lifestyle? I have never stated so, so why would he all of a sudden want me? Wait, is this a competition between the two brothers subconsciously? I don't see why Raoul would not know about Erik, or at least some mysterious older brother that he had stopped seeing anymore, and have a feeling of being the underdog. Compared to Erik, Raoul will never be as good as him. I love Erik so much, I just want to live a calm and unnerving life. But I know with Erik it will always be exciting and I will never grow bored like I would if I were to marry Raoul. Erik cares about my feelings while Raoul cares about having something to flaunt in other men's faces to show them that they are not as superior as him. That's it! If he had the prima donna of the Opera Populaire he would be the envy of all of Paris. I would have never thought that Raoul was worried about his looks just as, if not more than, Erik.

It took her a while to notice that Erik had been trying to get her attention for he had been calling her name constantly for five minutes to no prevail. The next thing he tried to do was shake his hand in front of her eyes to get them to refocus on reality, but when that didn't work he slightly grabbed her shoulders and gently shook her until she blinked a couple of times and paid attention to Erik once more. This brought a smile to his face as he watched her cheeks turn a little pink at the embarrassment of allowing her thoughts to trail once again. Erik let himself look over at Christine once more before proceeding with his thoughts.

"Now Christine, we know that the Vicomte DeChagny will not be happy at all about seeing us together at your father's grave this morning. In fact if I had heard him correctly he called war upon the both of us," Erik looked over at Christine to make sure that she understood what he was saying and if she too knew about his brother's declaration. With a slight nod of Christine's head Erik continued on.

"I have a feeling that Raoul will want to see you today, it is just a bad feeling, but a feeling nonetheless. Therefore, that means if and when he calls on you I want you to be as distant as possible. Use all the proper titles that are meant to be given to a Vicomte and patron of the Opera Populaire, but do not give him any leeway to think that you are trying to reforge any romantic attachment you two once possessed when you were younger," Erik saw Christine eyes grow wide in astonishment.

He had no doubt that she was surprised that he knew a little more of her past than she had told him about and he got frustrated with himself instantly for allowing the words to slip out of his mouth before he could filter his thoughts.

"That is a story for another time my dear," Erik quickly resolved the issue before it became unbearable. Today, right now, they had to talk about the upcoming battle between the entireties of Paris versus Erik. He had no clue as to how he will able to fight this war but he knew that he would never go down without a fight.

It was up to him and him alone to make sure that Christine was safe and out of danger from Raoul. Erik knew he would rather die than to think or watch Christine marry herself away to the real monster in the DeChagny family—sometimes it was the soul that determined the monster and not just outward appearances, this was something that Erik was just now beginning to understand with the help of his Christine he was finally able to find the light and trust in humanity once more.

Christine sat there nervously considering what Erik was telling her. In all honesty she hated Raoul now, she had always seen him as slightly annoying and on the verge of obsessed with herself but now she couldn't bear to think about him, let alone look at him and hold a civil conversation like nothing had happened to them at the Opera Populaire—it was almost impossible to ask of her! She clamped her head into her hands and tried to hold back the tears, she needed to stay strong in this situation. She can cry later. But when she felt Erik's arms wrap around her she let her walls break down and she allowed herself to cry as he held her warmly against his chest with his cloak wrapped around her. Never once did he stop her, but instead he spoke words of love and comfort trying to help her release all the built up tension. To Christine it felt like hours until she had stopped crying but when she glanced over to the cloak in Erik's kitchen she saw that it had only been twenty minutes.

Erik had seen Christine cry many times as she grew up in the opera house, and tonight made no exception. He did what any loving man would do and he knew that he needed to hold her and speak gently to her because that is all one could in this case. So he held her and gently rubbed her back as he heard her sobs turn into whimpers and finally small hiccups until she released all the emotions that she had kept away for the past month. Even Erik knew that it was not healthy to hold back such humane emotions—if they weren't released the person could swell up like a balloon (metaphorically) and just pop, and that was something that he never wanted Christine to ever do.

So as he heard her hiccups finally go away he tilted her head up and looked at her lovingly in her eyes before kissing her forehead. He looked around as he saw they had seated themselves on top of his chaise lounge and looked behind him as saw his small library he owned. As he peered closer at the small printed titles along the spines of each of his books he picked up "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. He knew that it was only six years old but he had been able to snag a first edition copy and he kept it well taken care of. In normal circumstances he would never allow anyone else to touch such a great piece of literature, however, he fully trusted Christine and he believed that she was in need of something as silly yet mystical to pull her out of reality if not but a few minutes. After he pulled it back to himself he looked it over and then finally placed it in Christine's hands while he watched her inspect the novel.

"Alice is a wonderful story to read. It's quite amusing and I am sure that you would enjoy such a novel since you are one of the silliest girls I know," Erik said with a grand amount of humor dripping from his lips. To his great pleasure Christine rewarded him with a small smile gracing her mouth and her doe like brown eyes looked up to him as she blushed slightly.

"Monsieur, I do not know whether to be offended by your statement or not. Many girls would not like to be called silly but as you well know I am not like many girls, so therefore I shall have to take your cloak and not give it back because of your silly behavior towards me." Christine said as she placed the book down that Erik had just given her and took his cloak before he had the chance. In the blink of an eye Christine was running out of the room while she attached the clothing around her neck as she laughed.

Erik was confounded for a few minutes. He never believed that his Christine's old spirit bound back into her after having such an emotional breakdown not five minutes beforehand. But he was not complaining, oh no. He much preferred a silly, flirtatious Christine to the Christine that seems always depressed with no color to her cheeks and no confidence about herself. So without any further ado Erik chased after the little vixen that had taken his cloak—nobody steals from the Phantom of the Opera and gets away with it!

He ran into the main room to try to capture her and when he reached the area that connected to the lake he was surprised to not find her anywhere. He stood there and stopped and what he was doing to listen for her. He closed his eyes and when he lost the use of sight his hearing was increased. There was a dripping in his lake, his heartbeat was louder, he heard his own breathing, a little mouse scampered across the floor twenty feet away from him and the ballet was practicing their jumps above him with the managers ranting about the "absurdity of Don Juan". Erik become frustrated with not being able to hear Christine when he heard something shuffle in his room.

He darted immediately into the darkness of his room, although the blackness of it did not deter him—many years of being in the darkness made him unsusceptible to the handicap of being blind in the dark—and he searched everywhere for Christine. He looked through the dark red sheets of his four poster bed but her body was not to be found there. He then searched into his closet and pushed away all his clothes to find his little vixen, but yet she was not there. Finally he was just about to give up—for the first time in his entire existence—to appease Christine and so he could see her smile once again. But just as he opened his mouth he saw his cape on the floor in front of his bathroom and he smiled as he realized that she was in his bathroom.

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Christine ran out of the library room almost immediately as she had taken his cloak. She wanted to laugh so hard as she looked at Erik's face as she was leaving and for once she allowed herself this little indulgence, she laughed until it hurt too much to continue on. As she reached the main area she needed to decide on a place to hide because she knew that Erik would be there soon trying to regain ownership of his cloak once again. She might just be the only one brave, or stupid, enough to steal from the Phantom of the Opera.

At first she looked through the kitchen to see if she would fit in any of the cabinets that were offered to her but to her disappointment she was simply too big to fit into any of the storage cabinets, even if she was to remove all of the contents in time for Erik to reach the room. With a small giggle she ran from the kitchen into the hallway. As she peeked into each room she decided upon Erik's personal room because she figured it would be the last place that he would consider her running into as refuge from their chase. But as she ran towards his closet she accidentally tripped upon dress and tore it significantly from the weight of her body pulling on the dress with her foot caught on top of the hem.

Without thinking she threw down the cape and cursed softly as she saw the tear that reached up to her thigh. She looked towards the bathroom and closed the door as she walked in. Erik always keeps spare clothing in here, maybe there is a small dress for me to change into—Erik is full of surprises maybe he will keep a dress in here for me. I hope so. Christine preceded to remove the ruined dress with a small sadness. It was one of her favorites that Erik had designed and built just for her and it was awful that she had been the one to destroy it. She just hoped that Erik would be able to make the dark blue dress beautiful once again.

Now only clad in her corset, stockings, and heels Christine walked towards the linen closet that always held some clothes for Erik and opened it to find no dress for her. With a blush that would put the color red to shame Christine did not know what she was going to do now. But what she did know was that she had better find something to cover her quickly before Erik managed to find her once again and see her in her indecent state before they were even married. Courting did not give each other a right to see things that were only meant to be seen on one's wedding night. That was a right only held for husbands and wives.

Christine looked back into the closet once more and heard Erik's bedroom door open. She felt her heartbeat race uncontrollably and blindly reach for an article of clothing from the linen closet. Without thinking she pulled it over her body and tried to put herself into a nonchalant position as she sat on the side of the bathtub that encompassed most of the room in the bathroom just in time for Erik to come bursting through the door to find his prey.

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As Erik looked upon Christine wearing only his shirt and her under garments Erik could not help but thoroughly look at her body. He growled with a smile upon his face as he strode up to his prey and picked her up in his arms to take her back into her bedroom. There was only one thought on his mind right now and that was to take her completely—to hell with not being married.

As he carried her to her bedroom and laid her down on her bed he was about to attack her when he heard someone walking into the main room by the lake through one of his trap doors. He shot his head up and looked towards the door when he heard Christine begin to talk to him.

"Erik is there something wrong?" He heard her whisper the question filled with concern and longing. Without looking at her he felt one of her hands snake its way up his arm and he shivered involuntarily. He wanted nothing more than to finish what they had started but he looked down at her and kissed her forehead before explaining to her.

"I'm sorry my love, someone just walked in. But whoever it is is a safe person because they used one of my secret entrances. I must go see which one of the couple people it could be, for now there are several dresses that are in your closet that you could change into. I'm sure you would like to be included on the conversation if I am correct?" Erik watched as Christine fervently nodded her head and saw her jump out of bed to immediately look for an appropriate gown to wear in front of the visitor. Erik in the meanwhile went back into the main room to welcome whoever entered.

As he walked into the sitting area that he held off to the side Erik saw the familiar dark green dressed woman sitting on the small couch. Erik took the armchair and looked amusingly at his sister across from him. She in turn scowled back at her younger brother before beginning the talk that would most likely ensue an argument with Christine being the only one able to control Erik's temper after the chips fall.

"Erik I don't know where, how, or why, but the Vicomte is beyond furious and demands that we need the police attending your opera as well. He is constantly talking about using them to finally end the charade of the Phantom of the Opera and now the girls are not listening to my warnings as much anymore. I fear that the Vicomte DeChagny is undermining your authority over the opera hose and with you not having shown yourself in a while now it seems that people are not concerned about your wrath anymore. You need to do something quickly, including bringing Christine up to the surface once more. I am sure that she has studied her part and knows it better than any of the actors but she still needs to practice with the other people involved in the opera. People are beginning to talk and the Vicomte is eager to speak to Christine about a personal matter," Antoinette struggled to get everything out in one breath, but was relieved when she managed to muster it all in under three breaths. She carefully judged each words weight as she spoke them to Erik and watched his reaction to each one she had said. She knew that he loathed the Vicomte and the fact that he wants a private audience does not help anyone, including Christine and her reputation.

As Erik listened to Antoinette talk about what was happening above him his smile slowly turned into an angered glare towards the woman in front of him. He was not exactly angry with her per say but he was angered with the ignorance of the actors that were playing the roles of his opera. They should know that just because they don't hear him doesn't mean that he can't hear them. Since when does he need to make his presence known to place hear into people? But if he must do this, he will make sure that the people do not forget where their place is once more and cause him to do another drastic thing like he did at the masquerade or "Il Muto".

"Very well Antoinette, if it will appease your troubled mind I will make another appearance during a practice to help you with those ballet rats. But for now we have more urgent matters to discuss about the Vicomte." Erik heard Christine walking in and saw that there was no more seating available and stood up to offer his seat for her. Christine bowed her head slightly in a silent gesture of appreciation and took the proffered seating before Erik continued on with his rant.

"Two days ago Christine and I found it to be a very appropriate time to pay a visit to Gustave's grave," Erik saw a small amount of shock plaster across Antoinette's face before he continued on with his thoughts. "Yes, Christine knows about my past now and my extended friendship with you and Gustave. Now, as we were paying our respects to Gustave Daae it seemed apparent that the fop had followed us in one of his oh so valiant attempts to sway Christine's decision and get her to leave me for him. However, she refused the offer and so the boy and I fought. I am sure that without Christine there to be the stubborn little girl she is I would probably be harmed. However, we both left unharmed and now DeChagny has declared war on the two of us. I have a feeling that he will bring all the police forces possible to the showcase of my opera in order to get them to try and capture me. However, I have a plan for the police and I know that it would be vital to tell the both of you all about it now…"

The two sitting women watched as their brother and lover spoke to them about his plan, both of them knowing that this could be completely successful or go entirely wrong with one little slip.

I wonder what the plan is! Who all likes the extra fluff that i threw in there just to appease my Erik/Christine lovers out there (and myself!) Is there anything that you want to see happen that wasn't shown in the movie? If so, review it under this chapter and i will try my best to throw it into this story so I can make all y'all's dreams come true like mine are with this story!