I own nothing! I don't own The Phantom of the Opera or any of the Characters therein!

Sarah yawned and curled up in her sleeping bag to force herself to go to sleep. but right as she was about to be asleep, she heard the unmistakable sounds of feet shuffling towards her room, and someone attempting to pick the lock.

"I don't think this is a good idea, Sean," the girl said fearfully. Sarah scowled as she recalled the tiny girl who had almost been raped by the very boy she was with. He was clearly the abusive type. "Maybe we should go back… the last ones who tried were killed and left in the dumpsters."

"Do you want me to repeat what I tried?" he snarled, and she whimpered. "If you don't obey me, I will, and so help me no god-damned phantom is going to stop me!"

"and you won't be living long if you get into the lair," she said fearfully before he rammed her against the wall.

"You're an idiot if you think you can get away from me," he said as he pulled the classroom door closed behind them. "From what I know, the phantom doesn't work between six in the morning and four in the afternoon. That's a ten hour window to give me what I need to do to you."

"Help!" she screamed, and the door was unlocked by a teacher.

"HEY!" he yelled, and Sarah smirked in triumph as the boy jerked back in shock and horror. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"He was threatening me! he tried to rape me!" she screamed pointing at him. "He's abusive! I've been forced to be his girlfriend all school year!"

"Nice job, kid," Sarah murmured lying back down. "I can finally get some sleep…"

Sarah listened to the young boy get carted away by the school resource officers – who usually had their hands full cleaning up her messes – and settled back as the teacher sent the girl into her domain. She froze as she listened to the girl walk in, and glared as the door closed behind her.

"Um…" the girl whispered, and Sarah narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Use the other door," Sarah grumbled rolling back over.

"You're… alive?" she whispered, and Sarah glared over her shoulder.

"What part of 'get out' do you not understand?" she growled, and the girl left.

"Thank you for saving me," she said quietly just before leaving and closing the door silently behind her.

"Ah, some peace and quiet," Sarah sighed quietly nestling into her blankets. "If only it would last."

… (Meanwhile, with Erik)…

"This is horrible," Erik muttered pacing angrily in his main room. "So close, and yet so far…"

"What are you talking about?" he heard someone ask, and he looked up to find none other than Madame Giry. "Is this about the girl that copies you?"

"Somewhat," he said still pacing angrily. "She has not returned to our time, and we cannot go to theirs without great effort."

"Why does it matter?" Madame Giry asked curiously, and he glared over at her.

"She has talent, raw talent, and can also very easily act as a doppelganger for me," he said pacing angrily while making plans. "Should things become difficult, I shall need one, and she is the best fit for the mold, so to speak."

"How are you sure she is the one fit for the mold?"

"Her wardrobe mirrors mine exactly, she has killed as many people in seven years as I have in fifteen, and she is able to sing both baritone and opera," he listed easily. "And she knows things about the future that we can't even begin to fathom."

"Name one thing," she said crossing her arms.

"In nineteen-forty-five, two Atomic bombs will be dropped on Japan, and more than two hundred thousand people will die as a result," he said calmly, and she staggered backwards in shock. "And that is only one of the weapons of war that she has taught to me. there is also Mustard Gas – which I have had the privilege of using myself on one dire occasion – that causes intense vomiting to those who inhale it, even to the point of literally vomiting and coughing up their insides."

"Oh, sweet mercy," she said covering her mouth, clenching her jaw, and staggering over to the edge of the lake. "How could you…?"

"I had to throw one at her enemies to help her escape," he said shuddering slightly. "She only explained what the bomb was after I was able to get her back to her classroom – or, lair, as she likes to call it. the very thought of it is revolting, even to me."

"Please tell me they don't invent that in our lifetime," she pled.

"No, it is in the nineteen thirties that they invent it, and also outlaw it a few years later at the end of the war it was used in," he said smirking gladly. "Thank goodness."

"what war?"

"We won't be alive for it," Erik dismissed simply with a wave of his hand. "And I'm quite glad since it will kill more than ten billion people before it is over."

"Ten billion?"

"Yes, ten billion," he sighed scratching the back of his head. "It's a long story, but most of the casualties were in Europe. Another war of a greater magnitude comes around about twenty years later, when Germany decided to get back what they supposedly lost."

"Erik… what will happen to us? What becomes of the Opera Populaire?"

"I don't know," he said softly. "I didn't ask about that. I didn't want to upset her."

"Your very presence terrified people in our time, how is hers different?"

"She knows what lies underneath, I think," he said softly while somewhat ignoring her. "But even though she has read and memorized our story, and even the musical that was based off of it, she does not ask to see."

"What is a musical?"

"It is a new genre that stems from opera, one that America will invent," he explained smiling softly. "We – Christine, Vicomte, and I, have one based off of our story."

"You talk about our new patron as if his very existence is an abomination," she noticed. "He is, in a sense, the one who pays you."

"Be quiet," he says sourly. "I know that. but how… how are things going to play from tonight?"

She looked at him confused as he pondered what to do from that moment on with his life, wondering how someone so kind, gentle, and loving as Sarah had been hurt so badly and turned into a monster like himself, and why anyone would want to hurt her before she had done so.

I'm stuck on the third installment in the Tiranti Series, so any plot bunnies are accepted!

Review, please!