I just loved this whole story; your sensitive writing, your description of all the places, the tension, the action, the hints to ALW and Leroux, but all above your caring for the characters. I cried a lot reading it, because you found absolutely the right words at the right time (saying this as a not native english speaking person it may point out how deeply your words touched my soul because I just forgot while reading, that it wasnt my mother-tongue...) thank you thank you so much!

Not to sound melodramatic but uhm... it really doesn't feel like erik is worthy of Christine's love and affection, and definitely not her trust. he's done nothing to make up for any of his selfish behavior or the numerous hurts he's caused her (that includes his silly little pretending to be dead stunt) and yet she's become such an impossibly kind and strong and magnanimous person that she somehow finds it in herself to forgive him for everything. she's developed a strength of character that Erik could never hope to match, she's grown far beyond and above him and has quite frankly left him in the dust. she's the superior person by far and she deserves a better man than Erik has shown himself to be, a man who's strong and mature and trustworthy. Erik isn't any of those things yet. maybe in the future he will begin to measure up to her but for now he's not even close to being her equal.

Oofff, what an emotional roller coaster this has been. I'm not exaggerating when I say this story had me lying awake at night, unable to stop thinking about it. Frankly I'm not even sure what the ending has me feeling more of: euphoria at Christine and Erik finally getting their happy ending, or pure unbridled rage at Erik's godawful behavior. This has been hands down the most up-his-own-ass, in-love-with-his-own-self-pity, infuriatingly self-sabotaging, NARCISSISTIC version of Erik I've come across in 15 years of being a phan. A few times this story honestly had me on the edge of rooting against him — and that's a nearly impossible task to achieve since he's my all time favorite character and I'm tremendously biased in his favor. I still can't tell whether I'd prefer to hug or slap him. To say he's his own worst enemy would be the understatement of the century. I mean, HOLY CRAP, this absolute MORON is just so determined to be miserable that even when he had everything he ever wanted he still couldn't get out of his own way, and he somehow found a way to almost irreversibly implode not only his own life but also the life of the woman he loves. Christine followed him around the world and showed him more kindness and understanding than he gave her any reason to; she CHOSE him of her own volition and explicitly told him so. And how does he repay her? By trying to force her to marry him? By once again disregarding everything she tells him except what he wants to hear, by robbing her of her decision to choose him, by leaving her absolutely miserable by dropping off the face of the Earth and letting her think he died? All this time he spent with her, of her demanding to be heard, and still he DOES NOT listen to her. At the end of the final lair sequence, she outright tells him to take her with him, that she wants to find him once everything has settled down, and he just IGNORES her. Just straight-up refuses to absorb a single word out of her mouth. He might as well have stuck his fingers in his ears and started yelling, "Lalalalala I can't hear you! I'm not listening!"

"Letting her go" is his attempt at doing the right thing, at redemption, at making a sacrifice, and yet even when he genuinely tries to be selfless he somehow still manages to act in an altogether solipsistic and selfish manner; when he takes himself out of Christine's life against her express wishes, when he chooses to ignore the fact that she wants him because that goes against the made-up reality in his own head, he is preoccupied above all else with his own awfulness; he is putting his feelings of self-loathing and the certainty that he is unlovable before Christine's right to choose her own fate. He's so myopic and self-obsessed, so blinded by his own self-hatred, that he is unable to see what's staring him right in the face: that Christine can and does want him and that all he needs to do to finally be happy is get out of his own damn way; that by punishing himself for his wrongdoings he is punishing her as well, that he is causing her even more misery than he already has. It doesn't even occur to him that his death might cause her pain because he's too busy castigating himself over how awful and unlovable he thinks he is to pay attention to any evidence on the contrary.

And then, to top it all off, if Nadir hadn't intervened Erik would have continued to inadvertently let Christine suffer by letting her think he's dead, secure in the knowledge that she couldn't possibly want him, wallowing in his own misery because that's what he does best, while simultaneously patting himself on the back about the "great sacrifice" he made for Christine's sake — all of it without ever bothering to get her opinion on the matter.

What piece of work this man is. Christine will need the patience of a saint to spend the rest of her life with him.

Knowing everything we do about Erik his claim of the whole world hating him on sight comes across as more whiny than anything else. Compared to Leroux's living corpse the musical deformity is underwhelming to begin with and in a modern day fic it becomes pretty unbelievable that it would have given Erik enough hardship to force him into becoming a hermit. And this particular Erik has untold amounts of money which could surely have bought him the best plastic surgery on the planet - and it isn't like he's missing a nose so really, how hard could it be to make him look normal? There really doesn't seem to be a good reason for him to live the way he does - he might have not even tried to live like a normal man. Either he's gone through life imagining rejection where there was none, or he secretly quite enjoys feeling like an outcast because it gives him a justification for behaving the way he does. If he's not part of society then he doesn't need to stick to society's pesky rules. If Christine can't possibly ever accept him because of his face then he can't approach her as a normal man would; instead he has to lie and manipulate and abduct her, drag her across half the globe and blackmail her into being with him by threatening her fiance's life. It's the only way for him! That's how I imagine his thought process going. With every version of Erik there's always an element of his isolation being partly caused by his own actions; but this particular Erik's loneliness seems to be entirely self-inflicted.

This is one fanfiction I always come back to ever couple years for a reread and to my ABSOLUTE delight.. THERES A NEW CHAPTER! You’re amazing. Thank you for this beautiful story, it’s one of my all time favorites. The growth and the absolute love for these characters is nothing short of breathtaking and the way you managed to make them flow so seamlessly in a real world setting.. it’s just phenomenal. Thank you!

Crying… sobbing… phew, made it through this!

This was one of the first fics in the fandom I ever read, back in 2008. I haven't checked in on it for the past few years, but went to see POTO in Sydney on Tuesday and decided to revisit my old faves. Thank you so much for this unexpected delight.

After all of the phics I read, I can't believe I glossed over this one! This was SO good that I ended up binging it in one night and then re-read the whole thing several times over later on. I loved it so much. Thank you for writing such a fun and gripping story. The whole billionaire, whiplash-neck-breaking-speed-action-ness of it all was thrilling and so, so fun to read. Thank you for sharing your writing! I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled if you decide to write any new stories

Man, Erik's so hot in this chapter it's shocking Christine isn't just throwing herself at him the first chance she's got.

Difficult yo follow this lifestyle of cties, mafia people, computers, phones hooking up here and there, jets, trains, weird curtained autos?never fresh air, touring all these places, or hardly eating. Why is this theory of skinny people so important. I hate their lifestyle. So cold and boring. Its all seems about high rollers, mafia fighting. No pets. Eric always liked animals. Just a super jet set, fasf fast lane Erik and Christine. Hardly romantic or tender.

My god, the YEARNING...it's so perfect.

From both of them, but especially Erik. It's everything I want in a Phantom AU. Thank you for this perfection. And especially this lovely epilogue. I needed them to have this blissful coming together so desperately.

I zadmire all your intelligent readers, but do far this story is boring to me
It's not the phantom I know and love. He's a computer genius and I cannot so far get into this phic. Do they ever go outside and be somewhat human? This is overwhelming me and cold. Just tech and air ports
Very little life and warmth.

I love this story, I had to binge read the story all in one day. It made me feel so much, So much love and heartbreak . I'm thankful I didn't have to wait for the whole story. I don't know how you were able to make me so much but if love i

Hi! I started reading FanFics back around 2006/2007 when it seems like new stories/updates were at it's height. I was in high school then an it's fun to look back and think of all the stories I read, wondering what life as an "adult" would be like. When I went to college and started my career, I had a lot less time on my hands and completely stopped reading FanFiction. When COVID gave me back the gift of time and a moment to slow down, I logged back into this site after years. I was really saddened to see that not many new stories had been created or regularly updated in the past 5 years or so. Even as I have grown so much over the past 15 years (omg I can't believe it has been 15 years!), re-reading some of my old favorites and finding new treasures like this one has been just as inspiring, engaging and consuming as it was for me when I was in high school.

To be totally honest, I have read this story 3 times over the past 5 days. All I can say is I am so glad you rediscovered your muse and the time to come back and finish this story. There are so many amazing stories that I came back to after all these years to see abandoned and it's heartbreaking. I can see why Volee is one of the stories with the most engagement for POTO. I loved your characterization of Erik and Christine, I think they translated beautifully into the unique modern day setting you created for them. After reading the story I honestly thought this should be a screenplay so when I read that was one of your career goals I knew I was spot on. I hope to see more of this story in the future, whether it's as a book or on the big screen.

One thing I would have loved to see was the proposal where Christine finally says yes to Erik. It was such a pleasure to read the epilogue and see how far they both had come. I loved to see them finally coming together after everything they had been through, experiencing the happiness we all knew they would have together and ultimately starting their new lives as one. I know all of this was understandably overwhelming for Erik but I wondered what a scene would have looked like where maybe Christine brought it up. Erik had asked so many times, what a turn of events it would be for Christine to be the one to finally tell him she was ready for everything and in his mind he would really know for sure this was it. Maybe she would be the one to propose or maybe she would ask him to ask again. But I'm just a fan, you would know best how it should go. Just curious if a final proposal ever crossed your mind and what you think that might look like for Erik and Christine. I'm not going to lie, the hopeless hopeless romantic in me would have even loved to see a baby in their future. I'll just use this as a plug to beg for the sequel everyone is dying for :)

Thank you again for this wonderful treasure.

I started re-reading them and I noticed the changes to the first two chapters. Originally Erik drugs Christine; but that has been eliminated now. I wonder if you felt it a better plot detail modification because it makes one less obstacle for Christine to eventually overcome when she has to forgive Erik. It’s just one less deception and over stepping of boundaries for her to look past.