Disclaimer: I don't own POTO or any of its associated characters. The lyrics used in this chapter belong to Sara McLachlin from her song,'Mercy'. I felt this song was most appropriate to the subject matter.

Eric was still pacing back and forth in his music room, fuming over having his life upended when his sulking was disturbed by the sound of a piercing scream from Anglina's bedchamber. In two strides he was across the room, moving with leonine grace. He rushed down he hall and threw open her door to find her huddled against the wall with the sheets twisted up in her fists. Her eyes were wide and wildly rolling, her hair in disarray around her sweat streaked face.

"What is it, what happened? Tell me at once!" He glanced around the room frantic to find the cause of her dramatic outburst.

"It was terrible. I...I think I was dreaming, but I can't be sure." Her eyes glazed over as she spoke and her voice took on a dreamlike quality. "There was a man, somehow I think we were married. He...he..." Her voice broke in anguish. "He was trying to kill me! If you could have seen the hatred in those eyes, those terrible eyes. It was pure unadulterated evil. He hurt me somehow, and I was dying...but then there was a voice offering me a choice...and I heard this singing. It was like a strange angel was singing for me and I knew I needed to follow it's voice. Then you found me here. Oh Eric, It was so REAL!"

By now she was shaking so terribly from fear that her teeth were actually chattering in a staccato rhythm. She looked so pitiful, like a little mouse trying desperately to become so small as to disappear inside itself. The sight of her so beaten, so utterly lost and dehumanized broke through the rest of his defenses. He pulled up a chair alongside the bed and took her hands in his, grazing his lips lightly against her knuckles. Very quietly he began to sing to her, his voice so ethereal that the sound wrapped itself around her, blanketing her in it's richness. Her breathing eased and gradually she relaxed as he sang:

"Mercy-pure and simple

Longing -cold and hollow

With sweet breath you'd come to warm me

But I held on too hard to only a memory

You lie there on swollen ground

Deserted in your heart

Still longing for what yesterday's lost

And for all that tomorrow might bring

The passion lost-taken, stolen

The dreams www had and we shared-shattered, broken

With kind words you'd come to soothe me

But I go blind and filled with fear

Would send you away from me

There is no hope in regretting now

All the pain that we could not see

We both knew what we wanted

And we took it believing it free

And we took it believing it free."

His aching lyrics and mellifluous voice laid bare her heart's secret torment and simultaneously provided succor to her deep emotional scars. This man, whom she barely knew, saw into her soul and understood the vast desolation of her pain. The pain of a love turned brutal, the agony of the ultimate betrayal. In this moment she knew that a bond had been forged between them-linking their souls unconditionally. She wanted him to embrace her, shield her from the past which she kept getting nightmare glimpses of.

"Hold me, Eric, please." she begged.

Eric could not resist her plaintive cry and wrapped Angelina in his arms, murmuring sweet assurances into her hair.

" Rest my dear, I will allow no further harm to come to you". He meant this with all his heart and would surely kill any man who tried to inflict injury upon her. No one else would ever cause her this much pain as long as he drew breath.

They sat thusly for several minutes before the ringing of an alarm bell broke the spell. Eric immediately jumped up sensing danger. The alarm was a device he had implemented to warn him of a breech in the tunnel system as well as to herald the arrival of the Daroga on the days of their specified meetings. Nadir was not due for a fortnight, thus he knew an intruder was in their midst. Eric stalked back to his room to retrieve his pistol and Punjab lasso, his favored weapon of choice.

"Angelina, stay put in the house until I return" he commanded.

"What's wrong? Where are you going with that gun?"

"Someone has tripped my alarm and I mean to see who it is"

" But a gun? Is that really necessary?"

Eric sighed, " I was a wanted man with a hefty price on my head, and there is no shortage of ner'do wells who would gladly kill me for the reward money should I prove to still be alive."

"Then I'm coming with you!" she cried stubbornly.

"Absolutely not! Stay here as I told you. I would not have you endanger yourself!" With that, Eric slipped out the front door and silently made his way through the labyrinth towards the outer sanctum.

Angelina was not about to be left behind when Eric's life may be at stake. She waited until she heard the snick of the front door closing before sneaking out to see which direction he had taken. As an afterthought, she grabbed a silver candlestick from the foyer, testing it's heft for usefulness as a weapon.

"This will have to do, there's nothing else for it" she mused as she crept along the tunnel making certain to keep close to the walls and just out of sight. Her leg ached and the stitches pulled against her efforts to keep up with Eric's swift progress. More than once she came dangerously close to stepping in one of his many traps-sometimes fate is kind to the ignorant. She stopped short and had to stifle a scream as she heard a man cry out in the dark:

"Eric! Go back, it's it's a trap! He means to kill you! He threatened to kill the Giry's if I didn't bring him to you. Please forgive me!"

There was a fleshy thump followed by a groan and she could just make out the outline of a body as it slumped to the ground. Terrified, she pressed her back to the wall and inched her way along it's dank expanse hiding in the shadows until she had circled around behind Eric. She could now see and a strange man pointing a gun at his head.

"Vicomte, to what do I owe this honor? " His voice cold and dripping with sarcasm as he raised his own gun towards Raoul. "Your quarrel is with me. I suggest you leave the Giry's and Nadir out of it, old friend."

" You filthy beast! How dare you continue to breathe life, you disgusting aberration! How is it that a monster such as yourself is allowed to exist when Christine is but a rotting corps under the ground. I should have finished you all this years ago in the cemetery, but no, I granted you mercy for her sake. Well, now she is dead and there is nothing to stop me from sending you to the same fate! She still cared for you, did you know that? After all that you did, she still longed for her Angel. Pah! Now at least you may be together in death."

Eric's stoic facade faltered and his gun hand began to tremble as the realization of Christine's death began to sink in. Angelina saw Eric's resolve crumbling and took the opportunity to pounce on Raoul's back, pummeling him with the candlestick. She cried in fury born of so many years living in fear. Her desperation and wrath poured forth like black venom leaking from a scabrous infected tumor. Over and over she beat at him with a vengeance heretofore unknown to her. Raoul, taken by surprise , fired his gun blindly while launching himself backwards against the tunnel wall in an attempt to scrape his attacker off his back. The bullet went wide and penetrated Eric's right shoulder causing him to drop his pistol. Raoul had managed to peel Angelina off his back and threw her roughly to the ground. He now stood over her one foot pinning her to the tunnel floor and in his madness trying to decide whether or not to shoot her or knock her brains loose.

Deftly, with his remaining good hand, Eric managed to free the lasso from his trouser pocket and whip it out at Raoul's head. The lasso made it's mark, and he pulled tightly until the Vicomte's choked and ragged gasps ceased, his body jerking and falling to the ground.

Angelina ran to Eric alarmed by the blossoming red wetness on his white shirt, her own leg dripping blood as the struggle with Raoul had caused the stitches to pull free. She ripped a strip of cloth from the hem of her shift, wadded it up and pressed it against Eric's bullet wound. His face was a study of conflicting emotions. Anger, fear, and grief battled for dominance in his riveting gaze.

"Why did you follow me?" he growled. " Did I not order you to stay behind and wait? Do you realize you could have been killed, you stupid, reckless fool!"

"How dare you chastise me! I came because I care for you and I couldn't stand by and do nothing , you arrogant bastard!"

A small smirk formed at the edges of his mouth. She was very attractive when furious, and the brash way she stood up to him amused him. He swallowed his pride and spoke up gently " Would you help me get Nadir back to the house? I'm afraid I only have the use of one arm at the moment."

Together they bent over the body of the unconscious Nadir. He was breathing thankfully, but it would take a while before he came around. They each took hold of one side of him, draping his arms over their shoulders, Eric on his left so that he could support him with his un-injured side. The journey back home was long and arduous with Eric carefully picking his way around the myriad of traps. They were both exhausted by the time they finally made it back and had settled Nadir onto the divan with a cold compress. A large, angry lump which was steadily rising on the top of his head.

Eric collapsed into his bed weakened from blood loss and the long trek through the tunnels. Angelina came to him and slipped his soaked shirt off and began to examine his wound. The bullet had entered two inches below the clavicle and had lodged there. She made haste to search the house for the materials she would need to treat him. She returned in minutes with a bottle of whiskey, a hunting knife, boric acid, a sheet which she could tear strips from for bandaging, catgut suture, a sewing needle and a small vial of laudanum. Not exactly medicine in it's highest form, but it would have to do. She lit two large candles and brought them to rest on the mantle close by. Expertly, she heated the blade of the knife in the candle flames in an attempt to sterilize it. Next she poured whisky over the blade and into the gaping hole in Eric's shoulder. The latter action eliciting an outburst of cursing from her patient.

"Bear with me, and for God's sake hold still. I have to get the bullet out and I'd rather not nick an artery."

She placed the tip of the knife into the wound and deftly pried the bullet from his flesh, causing new freshets of blood to spill forth. She cut strips from the sheet and folded them into squares which she pressed against the wound to stanch the bleeding. Next, she sprinkled the hole generously with boric acid and carefully sewed the edges of the wound together. Throughout her ministrations Eric lay stoically, watching her with wonder.

" Here, take some of this" her tone brooked no argument as she held the narcotic to his lips and he drank greedily. She then took a swig herself before bending to the task of replacing her own stitches. Spent from the evenings activity she cleaned up her tools and turned to leave, intent on retiring to her room. Eric's hand snaked out and grabbed her around the wrist.

" Please stay for a while...if you will." he whispered.

She debated for a moment, torn by the implications of what had occurred over the course of the last few hours. Frankly, she was a bit nauseated by the realization that they both possessed a propensity towards violence under extreme circumstances.

"I will stay for a bit, but realize that eventually you owe me an explanation, Eric."

He let his breath out in a deep sigh of resignation. "Yes, I suppose I do after all that has happened. The man in my living room is Nadir, my oldest friend and business partner. The man who's life I took is Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny. He is my oldest enemy. Years ago I fell in love with a young girl who lived in the opera house above us. Her name was Christine Daee and I was her tutor. Unable to show my detestable face, I came to her under the guise of the Angel of Music. Whenever I came to her it was behind the protection of a two way mirror in her dressing room. I was completely and utterly obsessed with her voice and beauty. Finally I got the courage to show myself to her, but she unmasked me and was repulsed and terrified by what she saw. In the mean time our dear Vicomte, who had known her since childhood, returned to claim her as his own. They became lovers and he convinced her to betray me and publicly unmask me during the performance of my opera, Don Juan Triumphant. I avoided capture by cutting the chandelier loose, grabbing hold of Christine and dropping through a trap door to these cellars. The Vicomte found us and in my crazed, jealous state, I captured him with my lasso and threatened to kill him if Christine didn't marry me. At that point Christine came to me, took pity on me, and reluctantly kissed me. I saw what a sacrifice she had made, and I came to my senses and let them go. I came to the realization of how much she loved her precious little boy, and that she cared for me more as a parental figure. They married shortly after and moved back to her homeland. Today is the first I've heard of her since she left, and it grieves me terribly to hear of her untimely death. Apparently, her death was the cause of the Vicomte 's descent into madness which in turn led him to seek me out to finish me off as well.

She sat in stunned silence through this narrative, her eyes riveted to his wan face. The look of sorrow in his eyes moved her to tears.

"Eric, I'm so sorry. You've lost her twice now."

"She was never really mine to lose the first time. It took me several year to realize that truth, but the sadness that I feel at her passing is no less profound."

Tentatively, Anglina sat down on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around Eric, cradling his head against her bosom. He stiffened in response to the foreign gesture, but as she stroked his hair and brushed her lips against his forehead he slowly began to melt into her embrace. He clung to her as an odd mixture of sadness and lust overtook him. Slowly he raised his head to gaze into Angelina's eyes. She placed her hands on the back of his head and drew his face close to hers, kissing him tenderly on the lips. A low moan escaped Eric's throat as he deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue. At last, he pulled back and looked questioningy into her eyes-a looked that begged to find acceptance, and he slowly lifted his mask. She responded in turn by trailing a kiss down his ravaged cheek and nose ending once more at his lips, consuming his mouth with a passion so heated that it took his breath away.

"You don't find me hideous? " He breathed incredulously.

"I find you overbearing and infuriating at times, but I certainly do NOT find you hideous." she smirked wickedly. "Unfortunately, you are in no condition to pursue this tract any further lest I cause you more injury, my dear." She sighed as she began to rise from the bed.

He reached out again, grasping her forearm and pulled her back down beside him. "Would ypu consent to sleep here tonight next to me" he purred, "Providing I promise to behave like a gentleman, of course?"

"I'm not so sure I trust myself Eric"

"Rest assured my lady, your honor will be preserved this evening. Tomorrow, on the other hand, ...is a different story."

Angelina curled up against his side laying her head on his lightly muscled chest and sighed in contentment. His heart beat pounded in response to her closeness. Thank goodness for the laudanum or he would never be able to keep his promise, he thought to himself