Thank you to Firem78910 for favoriting my story. This chapter is dedicated to you.


Saturday, June 5th, 1999

Leo almost couldn't believe his eyes. If he hadn't heard Sheffield's incantation, he wouldn't have believed it.

He was really in 1999. The year when he turned ten years old.

It wouldn't be another seven years until he'd take that one fateful airline flight, when he flew over central Asia on his way back to his home country. He still remembered the date: March 29th, 2006. The day of the Solar Eclipse.

He still lived in France at this age. It was strange – seeing a place he only recognized from his distant memories.

His parents had sold the house not long after he left primary school. It still held that smell that he remembered with a visceral vividness. Not quite roses, and yet not quite morning dew. He loved his old home.

But no matter the comforts of his childhood, Leo could not enjoy them.

His mind was stuck in an endless replay of the events that had happened just before. (Or nine years later?)

Charlotte… he couldn't bear to think of the repercussions. Everything they had worked for… all of it, gone. Erased as if it had never happened. Because it hadn't yet.

What a nightmare.

But what could he do?

Running to his mom's computer and buy stocks, was his first thought. Either that or play StarCraft.

He slouched back down onto his mattress. What the hell was he going to do?

He was stuck in 1999 with his old life. Seven years from his new life.

Closing his eyes for a bit, he relaxed his muscles and let his body rest for just a few more hours…


When he awoke, he smelled the sweet, delicious aroma of lost bread. His absolute favorite. But it smelled familiar… too familiar. Not at all like Charlotte's cooking. No… more like his mother's…

And then Leo blinked the sleepy out of his eyes and slapped himself upright the head.

He wasn't in Gallia anymore. Damn it, he almost forgot.

Nothing like the present, he supposed. Jumping out of bed, he reunited with his mother, whom he had not seen in nearly two years.


Monday, June 7th, 1999

Right, time to get my crap together, Leo thought as he cracked his fingers in front of a school computer. Windows 98… yeah, he could figure it out. Getting my bearings back in 1999 won't be easy, but if I play my cards right, then maybe I can turn this whole situation into something better.

Leo had spent the entire weekend thinking. The year was 1999. That couldn't have been a coincidence. It was early June. The Solar Eclipse this year had its full totality just north of France, and it was happening on August 11th. Everything was too convenient. The time to prepare… everything?

And even more: If time matched up the exact same across dimensions, then he could even change some of the past… Some of the things that people regretted, just would never have happened, with his newfound opportunity.

Was that ethical? If you changed the world that shaped a person, would that person even be the same being as them when the world had not been changed? Leo wasn't sure, but he recognized the irony. He was so preoccupied with whether or not he could that he didn't stop to think if he should.

So where to start?

First of all: He was ten. Even when he was seventeen, he only had the money for an airline flight thanks to his parents' wallets. Those weren't cheap. That being said, he could theoretically pull it off now, due it being before 9/11. Airport security might not be as diligent in checking his luggage for weaponry or technology.

But even if he chose that route, he'd still need a way to get that weaponry and technology.

So as he sat in the uncomfortable chair, facing a computer in the school's computer lab, he went with the next best option: Become a god.

At least by 1999's standards.

Say, here's a riddle for you: What has access to the next seven years of digital security vulnerabilities and knowledge of which websites are the most susceptible, not to mention the most resourceful for quick cash grabs of… oh, I don't know, let's say… three million dollars?

Answer: Me.


As I said in last chapter's author's note, this is the second book in a trilogy. I think that posting it in this order might lead to a more interesting story than a linear posting would.

Now, all of that being said, I also think that I have a severe motivation problem. I've had half of tLoM's next chapter written, alongside less than an eighth of its full plot done. I said it would be fifteen chapters or so, but I was wrong. I'm guessing it'll be in the sixties, maybe more. I've also had a lot of plans that I've started writing and haven't posted, purely because I didn't want to start another tangle of webs that I'll never finish. This story, however, has its own special method of forcing me to finish writing it:

Favorite goals.

By doing this, I'm hoping… no, praying, that I'll be more obligated to finish the next chapter.

So thank you all again for reading, following, and favoriting. I hope that this story continues.

Also, let me know in reviews if I should be doing follows/reviews instead of favorites.

Favorites Goal for next chapter: 2.

Chapter 2: Hacker? But I Barely Know Her!