AN: Sorry for the confusion, but I really don't know how to explain the last chapter other than how I wrote it. I hope you liked the outcome of the identity of the voices anyway, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. Thanks for reviewing!
CHAPTER 31
"Wait, so how did Miranda know about this?" Gerry asked. A maskless man with an extraordinarily disgusting wig stepped forward with a creepy grin.
"Oh, that. See, what happened was—"
"Shut up, Deriko, you shouldn't even be here," snapped the Ken Hill phantom.
"No one cares about you either…" muttered Deriko.
"Only because Webber ripped me off!"
"Hey! Andrew is a genius!" whined Tim Martin Gleason Erik.
"Er…have you SEEN the sequel?"
Lerik clutched his heart and hissed, "DON'T EVEN SPEAK OF THAT MONSTROSITY!"
"We were speaking of it in a negative light, calm down."
"Erik does not wish to hear about it at all."
"We should invite the Love Never Dies phantom here," said the Phantom of the Paradise in his Darth Vader-esque voice. Lerik's golden eyes seemed to ignite with rage.
"We shall NOT!"
Once again, the phantoms proceeded to have a quiet squabble. A random Siamese cat appeared and jumped in Kay Erik's arms, just before he was going to attempt to explain. He instantly started cooing at the creature adoringly and forgot about everything else going on. So another masked man came forth—this one being the Claude Raines version.
"You were asking about Miranda, weren't you? See, We needed someone to speed up the process, but we couldn't very well just pop up in your dimension ourselves. So we contacted Miranda to do it for us," he said.
"And she was…okay with this?" Emmy asked with a raised brow.
"You'd be surprised by her extracurricular activities," snickered the pompous David Staller phantom.
No one pushed further with this subject.
"Why are we here now, though?" Christine inquired timidly. At present, she was leaning on Gerry again.
"Because of brother Erik's confession, of course!" cackled Lerik.
"Confession?" Gerry and Christine asked simultaneously as Emmy's eyes widened and Gerik cringed, not wanting more attention directed towards himself.
"It was quite romantic," sighed Charles Dance Erik wistfully.
All eyes were on Gerik immediately.
"What confession?" Gerry finally asked his masked twin, who stared back at him blankly.
"None of your business."
"It is our business!" Christine cried. Gerik's eyes flitted back to hers, then looked around the room again, exceedingly uncomfortable with all this pressure. He stayed silent.
Kay Erik, remembering there were others in the room aside from Ayesha, sighed and decided to take the spotlight, looking at Christine as he continued to pet his precious feline. "He revealed that he loves both Emmy and yourself but knows that he will find himself happier and do more good if he is allowed to be with Emmy, as she does not fear or despise him, and in Gerry's body, he will be treated as an ordinary man…well, an extraordinary man, in this case."
Mixed feelings concerning this weren't limited to Gerik, Christine, Emmy, and Gerry. The other Eriks seemed to have varied opinions about this as well—which they voiced immediately, of course.
"I could never stop loving Christine, even if it was a woman with the same voice and body who was playing her role…"
"Please, you can't honestly say you would deny a clone of Christine who actually wanted you."
"Who said anything about me wanting him?" Emmy snapped defensively. All Erik eyes flashed towards hers, then at poor Gerik, who was gaping at her in hurt shock.
"W-What?"
She shook her head and quickly tried to explain herself but ended up confusing everyone else even more, as she was mumbling something along the lines of, "No, it's not that I don't want you, I just erm, was asking how do they know that I…I mean…I don't even know…"
"Huh?"
"Wha..?"
Inwardly cursing herself for being so ridiculously awkward, Emmy flushed with embarrassment and looked away.
Gerry sighed impatiently and urged her on, "Go on, tell us! Do you want to be with the guy or not?"
"I…" she swallowed, glancing at all of the eyes, trying to decipher who all would hate her if she told the truth. Christine—who was hard to look at in the eye anyway, since it was like looking at a possessed reflection in a mirror—looked sad yet hopeful at the same time, Gerry seemed mostly just curious to know, and pretty much all of the Eriks seemed to be silently pleading that she would say yes. Erik himself—'her' Erik, that is—was the most hopeful of all. Looking at him with a faint smile, she nodded.
There was a collective joyous sigh. But before anyone could even have it sink in that Erik actually had someone to love him, someone blurted out, "But what about Christine and the actor?"
"Yes, Christine, is he better than the Vicomte?" asked Kerik daringly, crossing his arms. Ayesha, now slinking around his feet, even seemed to shoot Christine a contemptuous look.
"I sure hope she thinks so. If she can't love our brother Erik, a man who sympathizes with our character is still better than that mere boy," mentioned the Michael Crawford phantom to Robert Englund Erik, or Rerik, who snorted.
"He doesn't know how to even function in our society!"
"Neither do we," pointed out Charles Dance Erik.
"We understand it, Derik, we just can't live in normal society," said Merik calmly.
"I'm sure Lerik would beg to differ," Rerik snickered. Lucky for him, the original Opera Ghost failed to hear him.
"I find Monsieur Butler to be much more similar to Chagny than to any of us," said a man in a dirty mask who had not spoken before—Professor Petrie from the Herbert Lom movie.
"How?" Gerry demanded at hearing his name. Petrie cleared his throat and turned to him.
"No offense, sir, but you are rather gifted financially and with physical attractiveness."
"…How could I take offense to that?"
"Because it makes you like HIM!" hissed Kerik, slapping his masked forehead in annoyance. Gerry shrugged.
"Maybe. But I didn't have wealth handed to me. If I felt like I identified more with Raoul, I wouldn't have tried out for the role of the Phantom."
The other Eriks decided Gerry had an excellent point and said no more on that particular subject.
"But how do you feel about her?" asked Derik, glancing at Christine, who then looked up at Gerry with the most irresistibly innocent expression.
He just paused to look everyone in the eye, making sure he had their attention, before saying, "You know, I think this speaks for itself", grabbing Christine, and planting a bold kiss on her lips.
Everyone gasped—some in simple shock, some in joy, some in distain. Emmy lightheartedly laughed. Rerik gave a sarcastic applause. Gerik just gaped, unsure how to feel about this. And some Erik towards the back fainted.
Breaking the kiss and glancing at everyone with a smug grin (including Christine, who was blushing furiously), Gerry said, "Hope that clears everything up."