Hey folks, Im editing this a bit, since I began writing it when I was 16, and am now 21... please feel free to PM me if you feel the need, about spelling errors or the like and where you saw them. I used to be a sloppy writer. Please enjoy!

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One day the devil was bored, which was becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, responsible for the numerous suicides and homicides of beautiful women and their husbands. He came upon Paris in 1875, and decided to engage in some other sort of activity, as the destruction of beauty brought no pleasure. Not to mention it was all too easy. He decided to see one of the operas his fellow demons were raving about,Faust, which had an interesting character called Mephistopheles. Lucifer entered the famous L'Opera and enjoyed the silence that followed him as people would stop everything to stare at his beauty. He had been the favorite of God for a reason. He sat in box one and began to watch.

He thought it was amusing, the story, an laughed at his fictionalized self prancing in red upon the stage. Then Marguerite came on the stage…if he had a heart, it would've stopped. She was so lovely, he would've mistaken her for one of the angels. When she began to sing, he was absolutely certain of it. Her long ethereal blonde hair, porcelain skin, the graceful, dainty limbs. And there was a precious sweetness to her that caused him to delay longer on deciding if she was truly human. It wouldn't have surprised him if all of the men in the world were in love with her. He had to know who she was. He searched for the program to find her name…..it was on the floor, he grabbed it, and sitting back up his eyes glanced over the other boxes, stopping at box five.

He had previously thought it empty, but now he could vaguely make out a shadow, he knew it was a man, a gentleman, actually, by his straight proud way of sitting. And he could tell that he too was enraptured by the little diva on the stage. He flipped through the program, and found the name: Christine Daae. An explosion of gasps drew his attention up, Mlle. Daae had fainted after singing her song. She was rushed off stage. Lucifer looked over at box five, but this time it was truly empty. He saw a few other young men disappear from their boxes. It was now that he noticed the strange, ugly hole in the domed ceiling, where the chandelier should have been. To say he was intrigued was the understatement of the century.

Lucifer left the box, and invisible, continued through the halls of the opera, following a young noble who was talking with his brother.

"I know it's the same girl, Philippe. I must speak to her."

"Alright, but don't do anything foolish."

"I've never heard her sing like that!"

Philippe left and the young man, in his brightly colored, dapper clothes rushed along, the devil in pursuit. They squeezed through groups of reporters, ballet rats, and other men, clutching roses. Lucifer heard squeals from the ballets rats when he brushed by them unseen.

"It's the Opera Ghost!"

"Ack- I felt him glance my arm!"

"Stay together, so he cant steal any of us."

Opera Ghost? Lucifer couldn't dwell on this, as the young man had pushed his way into the angel's dressing room. He glided in after. There she was, pale and trembling upon silken pillows. The young man…Raoul, was speaking to the girl, but she was pretending to not know him. Lucifer knew they had a past, and that that past love was renewed now. So why did she pretend otherwise? Raoul and everyone else was rushed out, and Lucifer was alone with the girl. This was Christine Daae. She paced her room, the look in her eyes hinting at paranoia. She stopped in front of him.

"Are you there?" she said timidly.

Lucifer was taken aback by this, how could she know he was there? Maybe she was an angel. But then a voice, a male voice, filled the room with such power that Lucifer dropped to the ground. It was singing.

"Christine, Christine, come to me..."

God was here! She truly was an angel! But then Christine ran past the paralyzed Lucifer, crying-

"Angel!"

Lucifer sat up and saw Christine was kneeling before a tall mirror, which had been behind him the whole time…which meant it was the voice this girl sensed, not him.

"Well done, my child…the angels wept to-night."

The tenderness and love in this voice were so bitterly familiar that Lucifer was frozen to the spot in remembrance of his Father, and watched numbly as the mirror opened and Christine disappeared before his eyes. But then he thought he saw a man on the other side. A man!

He shook his head, shaking off the hypnotic effect of the voices. What in the world had he stumbled upon in this opera? Not one, but twobeings with voices of such perfection he was nearly tempted to weep…he hadn't felt anything like that in centuries, perhaps even not since heaven. He had to know who these beings were. Angels? Human? He had to hear these voices again, being the Angel of Music himself once, he in all of existence was the only who knew how precious this divine pair were.

XXXXX

Lucifer couldn't have thought up anything so cruel, pathetic, but ultimately poignant as Erik and Christine. He had stayed at the Opera for the past few months, watching the tragedy play out. He learned that Erik, the vessel of that god's voice, was the shadow he saw in box five, and was the one whom the ballet rats called "the opera ghost", and was "not an angel, or a ghost, but only a man, Erik." Really one of the most pathetic men he'd ever known, because of how he let himself be crippled by his physical body, but then he thought of the one who surely ordained it. He thought once more of the reasons why he rebelled against the one he loved most. And Christine, he knew, through her impulsive and petty acts, was indeed merely (an extraordinarily gifted) human. Through her avoidance and lies to Erik, he fiercely resented her cowardice and backhanded nature…most of all because he knew that aside from her voice and gentleness, she was not worth a man with so many talents. Not that he cared.

But for all of the faults and annoyances of these two imperfect beings, when they sang together in the darkness of the opera cellars, Lucifer wept with happiness. Listening to their soaring voices together brought such fulfillment he had not known since his days as the Master of Heaven's Choir. And despite all else about them, he felt his fondness for the two grow with each note. It felt rather that he regained a little more of his past glory every time the little Swede descended with her teacher. He wished he could sit there and listen to them forever. Though he soon realized all of the talent was Erik's, as Christine alone was good, but not like she was when she was with Erik. So instead of following Christine, he became the shadow of the ghost, and grew to like his dark humor so like his own. His sad disappointing existence, so like his own….

Anyways, things were stagnating at the opera in the sad situation. The two lovers and Erik going along their fate of misery, and it was becoming so depressing as to be oppressive to Lucifer's usually sardonic and upbeat nature.

Beelzebub appeared on the roof top one morning, while Lucifer was gazing over the Parisian horizon with Erik (who obviously didn't know he was there), he hadn't seen Lucifer for a while and wanting in on whatever fun he had gotten into.

"Lucifer!"

The devil scowled.

"Shut up, you're going to spoil it."

But Erik already heard it, and looked frantically around, seeing nothing. Then he searched the roof, lasso prepared, as Lucifer knew by now. He looked at Beelzebub.

"Great. He doesn't get a lot of peaceful moments. Thanks for killing the moment."

Beelzebub bust out laughing. Erik, finding no one, disappeared through a passageway, back down to his cellar.

"You're joking! Since when do you care about anything?" Lucifer punched him, more for emphasis than to do any real harm.

"I was observing him."

"Anyways," Beelzebub rolled his eyes, "I haven't seen you around for a while, so I thought you must've found something fun to play with- is it your companion Quasimodo in the cape?"

"No, he is not my toy. And you are forbidden from making him yours." Lucifer turned back towards the sunrise, sighing.

"Whoa, when did you become so somber?" Lucifer glared at him "Then this must be serious. But it's not like you, I mean, he's not what you normally obsess over-"

"Have you heard him sing?" Lucifer said softly. "It sounds like Father."

"You must be exaggerating, no human could be so gifted."

"You're right…I daresay his voice is even more perfect. He and his little protégé would put heaven's choir to shame."

"You miss the music, don't you?"

Lucifer gazed straight into the sun, the brightness having no effect, studying the heat flares. Tears make two perfect shining streaks down each side of his face.

"No one else knows this, but He stripped me of music when He cast me down."

"What!" Beelzebub stared in horror. "But you are literally music, not the angel of, but you are music….for him to strip you of it, he has removed your very soul! How are you still existing Morning Star?"

"That is my punishment, and only this. I am to remain hallow forever."

Beelzebub cried out in rage, Lucifer remained stoic, but turned his eyes upon him.

"HOW DARE HE! HOW COULD HE IF HE EVER LOVED YOU, HOW, HOW-" he wept for Lucifer, "how could he do this to you? You! The greatest of all of us. It's not just!"

Lucifer laughed.

"Stop dear Beelzebub."

Beelzebub restrained himself, then grabbed ahold of Lucifer's arm.

"Come on, I know something fun we can do, to forget our sorrow for a day. This isn't doing you any good."

"But, I feel compelled to stay here, I feel something terrible is going to happen."

"All the more reason to go!" He was pulling Lucifer along now. "We can plot to get your music back while we're at it too, come on!"

Lucifer sighed.

"Okay, a week, then I'm coming back here!"

"Alright!"

They disappeared.

XXXXX

Lucifer returned eight days later, appearing in Erik's cellar. Outside it was night. Christine and Erik were together, the were gazing through a little window into a room, and Christine was yelling at Erik to stop playing games. Lucifer felt chilled at the almost malicious laugh that bubbled out of the now revealed visage of Erik. Raoul and a Persian man were inside the torture chamber. What in the world had happened while he was absent? Erik had finally placed the ultimatum before Christine: him, or death for all. Disaster, ruin, death. Surely the frail child would never accept him, they were all going to die. And their voices would be gone with them. He could not allow this!

In a blast of light, he spirited to Heaven, rushing against time to the throne to the highest.

"Lucifer!" God cried warmly, "Where have you been?"

"Here and there, wandering the earth." Lucifer said, agitated.

"Always the same."

"What has Erik done to deserve your curse?"

God's expression changed, to almost puzzlement.

"What?"

"Here!" Lucifer raised his hand and a vision of what was happening in the cellar appeared. "Erik, the Phantom of the Opera!"

God sighed.

"Yes…Erik."

"Why did you have to curse him with such an unhappy condition? Surely it would not have been difficult to have given him a normal face, even if ugly, but to make him resemble death when he has a voice of such splendor-"

"So you have fallen in love with his voice?"

"That's not the point-"

"But I think it is."

"No! I demand to know why he is made to bear such a burden!"

"As with every being, he has a lesson to learn that could not be grasped if he had been made like other men."

"But is it necessary to inflict so much suffering for the sake of knowledge? Surely there must be some gentler way."

"You should know suffering for knowledge better than anyone. What have you learned from your suffering, Morning Star?"

"Stop it! If something doesn't change, they will all die!"

"And why do you care, Lucifer?"

"It is a waste of beauty! Surely you know the beauty of his voice."

"Is that all there is to him, his voice?" God gestured to the vision "Watch what happens…you will see what Erik earns from his misery, and I ask, would you deprive him of this just to ease your own emptiness? Even if he should not die, would you have him sing to you for eternity?"

"Yes, I would!" Lucifer came closer, pounding a fist into the air, "I would! His voice completes me like nothing ever has, I admit it! Give him to me Father. I shall bless him with more happiness than you could find in your heart to give him!" He knelt before God, a tear falling from Lucifer's eye upon His foot. "Please, I ask you to give me Erik, and of all the beings you have dominion over- Erik will be only mine!"

"Watch, now is the moment."

Lucifer looked up into the vision, seeing Christine sitting alone, a strangely serene look upon her face. The door opens, and Christine rises and steps forward, almost eager. Erik enters and stops to look at her. He walks up to her, uncertain, reaches out with his hand like a frightened child, and touches her face. Then he stepped a little closer, and slowly touched his lips to her forehead. He looked at her, grasped her hands, then fell at her feet sobbing. Christine began to cry with him.

"Poor, unhappy Erik…"

Erik looked up at her and peeled back his mask, casting it aside. He pulled out an old, gold ring and slid it upon her ring finger.

"Consider this a wedding present for you and that boy, from your poor unhappy Erik. Only remember when I am dead, to come back and bury the ring with my body."

"What?"

"I know how much you love him."

Erik lets go of her hands. Christine bends down and kisses Erik on the forehead. They remain there, crying.

God waved a hand through the vision, causing it to dissipate. Lucifer stared into the space where it was before.

"Do you see now? Would you still deprive him of this salvation?"

"He loved her so much that he let her go…" Lucifer shook his head and stood up, facing God. "What sort of salvation is that? Why shouldn't he get to be happy?"

"How would you have him be happy?"

"Let him be loved, for his own sake!"

God laughed.

"Are you so very conceited to fall in love with your own essence?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Erik. You've wondered how it is he has such a voice…."

God shrugged. Lucifer stared at him, then screamed.

"NO. It's not true! Tell me what I have conceived in my mind is false."

"Tell me."

"Erik has my soul, my music!"

Lucifer turned from God and put his face into his hands.

"It seems you are capable of selflessness after all. You can learn much from your better half."

"Give him to me, Father."

"No."

"You may have given Erik music, but he is still a separate being, and for him to be the victim of my punishment is…evil! He didn't have to be ugly…"

"What would you have me do, Lucifer?"

Lucifer paced around, then looked up.

"Give him a chance to be happy- a fair chance! With someone who will love him. Give him another chance."

Lucifer got down on one knee. God stared at him for a long time, then chuckled. He raised a hand, and Lucifer stood up.

"Alright. Erik and Christine will be born again in 1992. They will encounter each other in 2009. Erik will have a fair chance. To make up for his unfortunate deformities, he will be the most beautiful human alive. And he will keep all of his skills and talents, so don't worry about that. You are forbidden from interfering with his life, ever. Happy?"

Lucifer looked at God, and smiled faintly.

"Thank you."

"Erik is going to die in three weeks. You may keep him company."

"Goodbye Father."

XXXXX

Lucifer came back to the desolate cellar, Erik was alone now, staring into the darkness. Everything around him was in ruins, broken, like his heart. This time Erik could hear him, and he spun around and a thin lasso shot out. Lucifer caught the end. He pulled Erik to him.

"Stop."

Erik dropped the rope and backed away.

"Who are you?"

"Your companion through your dying days."

Erik laughed.

"It doesn't matter if you're lying anyhow. You can take anything you want, even my life….just be sure to advertise it in the paper."

He sat down in the middle of the floor. Lucifer sat down in front of him.

"You know, we are two sides of the same coin, in a way. You have my music which was once mine, I have the beauty that should've been yours."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"I'm the devil."

"And I'm Don Juan."

Lucifer was certain Erik thought he was hallucinating the whole time, but Erik humored him and sang until the last day. Erik passed away, in his coffin, humming. Lucifer was the one who went to the paper's office to deliver the advertisement:

ERIK IS DEAD

And so the waiting began.

...

1992, a young man with curling blonde hair, dressed dapperly in black and white was standing in a hospital room. He was staring at a small baby being passed to the new mother, the father nearby. No one could see him. The doctor smiled,

"It's a girl."

Lucifer wondered if he was in the wrong room. The father looked slightly dismayed, the mother crooned softly to her daughter, who was oddly quiet.

"We only picked a boy's name…" the father said.

"Well, instead of Erik, she can be Erika…" The mother said, gazing at the child.

"But Erika is a terrible name." Father said, before he could stop himself. Lucifer found himself agreeing with that sentiment. But his heart had sank, because he knew he was in the right room. This was the fated child.

"How about…Erin?"

Lucifer looked up angrily at the ceiling. Damn chromosome! What cruel joke was this? Here was the one he waited for. A girl named Erin. But he noticed ruefully that god kept his promise, she was indeed the most beautiful, even at birth.