Erik was extremely worried about Ella. It had been a week since rehearsals resumed, but her voice still wasn't right. She was perfect technically, but still hadn't been able to achieve the emotion that she had before everything started. He was trying to coax it back by singing with her after rehearsal and at night, but it just wasn't working.

Unfortunately her voice was probably the least of their problems. Ella was spending every single night with him, refusing to sleep in her own bed. Well, when she did actually sleep. She would wake up screaming two or three times a night. Her nightmares were about Archer usually, but sometimes they were flashbacks with her father. No matter what the nightmares were, it still meant that Ella was only getting an hour or two of sleep every night.

Watching the rehearsal, Erik realized Ella looked like she was barely on her feet. Despite Ella's insistence that she could handle this, it was obviously becoming too much for her and no one was doing anything. He couldn't let this go on any longer. He wouldn't.

He quickly dashed across the catwalks where he found the chief scene-shifter. Like his predecessor Joseph Buquet, this man was a drunk, which meant majority of the time he was barely coherent enough to do his job. Luckily for Erik, for once it played out in his favor. The man was so preoccupied with his bottle that he didn't notice the Phantom sneak up right behind him and drop the scenery on the stage below.

The second it fell, chaos erupted on stage. Erik vanished into the shadows, leaving only a very confused, very drunk scene-shifter behind to take the blame. He had timed it so that nothing had been below the falling scene except for several important props on the stage, most of which had been crushed. The stage was littered with debris from his 'accident', rendering it useless until the wreckage was gone, which meant hours of cleanup for the stage crew.

"What the devil is going on up there?" Firmin boomed. "What happened?"

"Somebody get this mess cleaned up!" Andre added. "The rest of you get out of here, there's nothing that can be done for now."

Firmin pulled a flask out of his coat pocket and took a long drink. "Andre, this place is going to be the death of me. First she runs off, now this. I don't know how much more we can take of this nonsense."

Taking advantage of the turmoil, Erik made his way to where Ella was. She had a hand pressed against her temple, and she was shaking. Just as he reached her, her legs gave out and she fell into his waiting arms. He scooped her up and disappeared into the nearest passageway just as Archer appeared, searching for Ella as well.

"Why did you do that Erik?" Ella murmured. "I told you I could handle it."

"No, you can't Ella," he replied. "I was foolish to let you go to rehearsal. You haven't been sleeping. You were and are in no condition to be on that stage." Erik began carrying her towards the lair. "You have yet to recover from being kidnapped. Allowing you to go to rehearsal so soon was a mistake, especially since we have yet to do anything about Archer."

"Erik, I'm fine," Ella insisted.

"You're worrying yourself sick," Erik responded just as stubbornly. "Your body cannot cope with the stress you're going through. You need time to process everything that's happened to you in the past two weeks. You haven't allowed it to sink in, which is taking its toll on you."

By the time they had reached his home, Ella was asleep in his arms. Erik placed her in bed, allowing her to sleep undisturbed, at least until the nightmares began. He sat at her side, humming a soft melody, trying to keep her sleep as peaceful as he could for as long as he could. God knows she needed it.

"Miss Giry!"

She whirled around at her name. When she spotted him, she nodded in acknowledgement. "Monsieur Dubois. What can I do for you?"

"Where's Ella?" Archer asked. "Where did she go?"

"Ella's over there, just around the corner."

"No she's not," he snapped. "I followed her that way and she disappeared into thin air. It's not possible. Where is she?"

Meg shrugged. "That's the last place I saw her. Sorry, but I haven't seen her since."

"You have to know!" he shouted, grabbing her shoulders tightly. "She trusts you with everything! You have to know where Ella is! You have to help me find her!"

"Let me go," Meg ordered, trying and failing to pull out of his grip. "I don't know where she went. There's a reason she left you. She's terrified of you!"

"She's in danger!" Archer snapped. "But nobody but me is willing to see it!"

"You're mad!"

"Tell me where she is!" he yelled, shaking her.

"If you don't let me go right now, I'll scream," she hissed. "I'll scream so loud the entire opera house will hear me. I'll tell them you tried to force yourself on me. Then we'll see how much money it takes to bribe the police."

Reluctantly he released her. "This isn't over mademoiselle. I will find Ella, and I will save her."

"How is she?" Antoinette asked the moment she arrived.

Erik gestured towards the bed. "She fell asleep on the way here. So far she's stayed that way, but I'm afraid the nightmares will be kicking in soon." He sat heavily at his desk with a sigh. "God I want to kill Dubois. Can't he see what he's doing to her?"

"Maybe he can't," she replied. "He's so focused on getting her back that he doesn't see it. You should know."

He glared at her. "Antoinette, do you know why I let Christine and that fo-…Raoul go?"

"You never said explicitly but I figured it was because you finally accepted that she loved another and would never be happy with you."

"Not quite," he admitted. "That night, I looked in her eyes. What I saw in them was what made me let her go. When I looked in Christine's eyes I saw cracks; she was on the verge of shattering emotionally. I had pushed her to the edge of insanity and had I taken one more step, I would have sent her over that edge. I couldn't do that to her, so I let her leave."

"So you have a conscience. I knew that somewhere you did."

Erik looked over to where Ella lay sleeping. "I was able to stop myself at the last minute, but Archer, he's just sprinting towards the edge of that cliff, and he's on the verge of catapulting off and dragging Ella down with him. She had that same look that Christine did. Antoinette, if I don't stop him, I'm afraid he will literally drive Ella mad."

"She's stronger than she looks," Antoinette reminded him. "After all, she did survive years of abuse from her father."

"And you remember how frightened of everyone she was afterwards," Erik countered. "All the progress she's made is disappearing. She's retreating back into her shell. Besides you, me, and Meg, she'll only talk to people when she's on stage, and even then, she looks scared to death. I don't think she ever recovered from her father, and Archer is only adding to her pain."

"So what are you going to do?" she asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to have to kill him."