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

Sarah let Erik break the hug at long last, and found that his eyes were red and very bloodshot from crying so much. He smiled weakly and shivered as she ran her fingers across the side of his face that his mask normally covered.

"I must go," he said at last as he left the closet. "Thank you for your help… It- It meant a lot to me…"

"You are most welcome, and are welcome to it whenever you wish," she said followed him. "You will always be welcome in my life."

Time passed, and things were going exactly according as the two phantoms had planned them. They'd even managed to find the two respective graves that they were to go haunt. Sarah had been particularly amused by the fact that she was playing the part of the phantom at her own grave to her mother. She had a simple grave, but it was still in a crypt, a crypt filled with people that she had killed. It had been set up as a shrine for the ones who died because of unknown causes and because of the phantom, but she was determined to leave the town before someone figured out her true existence.

"I want to go to Paris," she sighed wistfully to Erik as she waited. "Even if only just once to see your home."

"It is long since destroyed," he said sorrowfully. "It is more than a thousand years later, I'm sure they destroyed it."

"Then I will find where it once was," she said gently. "I shall find it, and I shall find your secret passages to go to you somehow."

"Thank you, and be careful," Erik murmured as they heard their respective targets come closer.

"I know," she smiled insanely. "I shall be sure to look like a madwoman when I show myself to them."

"Listen, they come," he whispered smirking.

"Where the hell is that freak phantom?!" they heard, and she gasped.

"No," she whispered cringing back. "Not them…"

"Who?"

"Those I've killed," she whispered with tears in her eyes. "They're recreating the mob that attacked you, but it's too soon…"

"What is it?" he asked confused before turning to glare over his shoulder at the now-entering mob, covered in the scars that defined how they died. Some were covered in blood, others were blue from suffocation, and there were even some with bruises from where they had been hung. Erik and Sarah's eyes widened as they saw another group join the ones that she had killed, these the ones he had killed.

They both lurched as a sudden gust of wind wrapped around them, with them as the eye of the storm. If screams could have been possible, Sarah would have, but the air was being rushed out of her lungs faster than she could take it in.

"Home," she heard Erik say softly. "Home, cursed home."

"What do you mean?" she asked as she finally regained her voice.

"When I was a boy and came down here, a few spirits visited me," he said softly. "I didn't know who they were at first, but now I'm beginning to understand who they are. I just wish I knew what they wanted…"

"All those people," she shivered. "I'm glad the gypsy was there, though. He got what he deserved for what he did to you."

"After all this time, you never cease to amaze me," Erik smiled softly. "But some of those I don't remember… I don't recall killing Pianji…"

"He, uh, disobeys your orders and makes you mad," Sarah said warily. "Sorry, that's all I can reveal. Erik, parting is such sweet sorrow, but I-I think it best that we separate until it is time to sing our songs to our respective eras."

"Does the Opera Populaire exist in your time?"

"It's demolished, and people eventually rebuilt it modeled after the movie, but yeah, I think so," she said frowning. "Why?"

"Just curious," he smiled before frowning. "What of my catacombs?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I'll have to take a trip to France to see."

"Good-bye, my love," he said sorrowfully. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

"Deny thy father, and refuse thy name," she begged with tears in her eyes. "And, uh… you know, I never did get to memorize Romeo and Juliet…"

"I didn't get to put it on yet," he admitted. "A fact we can both work on, yes?"

"Deal," she smiled forcibly refraining from kissing him on the cheek. "And-and Erik?"

"Yes?"

"If-If there ever comes a time when I have to leave-!"

"NO!" he yelled desperately, his eyes wild and terrified. "NO, NO YOU CAN'T! I WON'T LET YOU!"

"I'm sorry," she said with tears in her eyes. "But someday I've got to go back into society, like you did with Coney Island and-and the theme park, Erik. I know it hurts, and I'll try to come back as long and often as I can, but… but people are going to think I'm crazy and put me on medicine, or in a crazy house if I spend too much time here!"

"You can't," he said with tears in his eyes. "You promised!"

"I know, and I promise that I will come back here until it's time for me to mingle back into society! But for now I think we need to keep our cover and hide separately until time to finish setting up our respective traps! I still have to find a way to lure my brothers down into my lair without setting the school on fire, damn it!" she cried out desperately.

"You promised," he said with tears in his eyes. "YOU PROMISED ME, DAMN IT! YOU PROMISED YOU WEREN'T LIKE THE OTHERS!"

"and I'm not like the others, I'll come back and visit you, I promise!" she pled desperately with tears in her eyes. "I'll prove it to you, I promise, just please trust me when I tell you that I'm only doing this because you're my closest friend! I can't watch you with all of this stress going on, and I'm trying to sort out all of my own stress anyways! Please, I'll be back as soon as this oversized scandal in my time blows over and is revealed for what it really is, ugly truth and all, I promise!"

"You have to swear that you'll come back," he said with tears entering his eyes. "Even if it's long after my time."

"I promise, I'll come back into your lair once the whole scandal is done," she nodded. "I promise I'll continue your path until I can't anymore."

"And Coney Island?"

"Even Coney Island, but your lair's first on my list," she promised, holding her first two fingers out to him.

He looked at it skeptically before backing away carefully.

"It's the signs of a promise, like wrapping your pinkie fingers around each other for a pinky promise, only this one is a lot stronger," she explained, and he hesitantly stepped forwards and returned the gesture.

"You promise?"

"I promise," she said nodding. "You will always be in my heart."

And she faded from his world, not seeing the small temper tantrum that he channeled into the angry letters for Don Juan Triumphant being in-the-making.

i Title by Rolling Stones