Mercury Blue and Fire Goddess Raye Well, I guess this is where we're supposed to put the obligatory Author's Notes, eh? Well, all right. But unlike the rest of this fic, this will not be a team effort. I, Mercury Blue, will be your sole guide for this bit. This story has been in the works for the better part of five years, and what was once intended to be nothing more than a short meditative friendship fic has now become a dramatic soap opera, with more twists than a Rocky Mountain highway. We have written, edited, revised, deleted, re-written (and revised some more) this story more times then either of us can remember, and now, finally, here is the (hopefully) finished product. Before you go on to read, however, there are some things I feel I need to explain. First off, I should make it clear to you that this story is based on the North American Sailor Moon dub. This is because, quite simply, for a long time (back when we first started this piece of work), it was the only form of the series that either the Fire Goddess or I had access to. Because of this we are more familiar, and feel more comfortable with using dub names and personalities. In addition to this, I feel I must add that this story was started long before Cloverway dubbed both the third and fourth Sailor Moon seasons. Because of that, it was based strictly on the Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R seasons, with no references to either Sailor Moon S, or Sailor Moon Super S. Our reasons for this are nsimply that, despite the fact we'd researched the final three seasons of Sailor Moon thoroughly, we still didn't feel comfortable enough with the characters (at that time) to incorporate them into our fanfiction. Therefore, this story is sort of an Alternate Timeline fic, taking place about five years after the last Sailor Moon R episode. Darien is about twenty-six, Chad about twenty-two, and the girls about nineteen. In this story, the Senshi know a little about their future, and that Rini is the daughter of Darien and Serena, but they don't know of Uranus, Neptune, or Saturn. That said, I want to move onto another topic. That is, the parts of the story that we changed to fit our own needs. In this story, there are various inconsistences between it and the Dub, or it and actual Japanese society. I would like to explain them now, so that as you read, you aren't thinking to yourself, 'That's wrong- why did they do that?'. One of the first things you may notice is the changing of the 'Cherry Hill Temple' to the 'Cherry Hill Shrine'. That's simply out of respect to the Shinto religion, as they don't have temples (That's Buddhism), they have shrines. I know that 'Cherry Hill Temple' may be more... acoustically pleasing... but, nonetheless, I've decided to stick with calling it what it should be. A shrine. Another thing you may notice is the... general mucking up of the Japanese school system that goes on in this story. That's... rather simply explained. You see, in Japan, students have two one-month vacations at different points in the year. But in this story, I've changed that. I've given them two months of vacation all at once, and placed that vacation in the fall/winter. This is simply for the sake of the story, so please don't be offended by our lack of accuracy. In this story, a school year goes like this: January to mid-October is school. Mid-October to November is when they take their finals. And finally, November to the beginning of January is vacation. Understand? Lastly, or rather, the last inaccuracy I will mention, is the general westernization of Japanese society in this fic. I have two reasons for this. One is that, as I mentioned, this story is based on the Dub, and dub Japan is very westernized indeed. Second is that, well... we're Canadian. We're familiar with a Canadian lifestyle, and therefore, meaning to or not, we tend to have our characters act in many ways as they would should they be Canadian. We've tried to incorporate as much Japanese culture into this story as we could, but again, keep in mind this fic is dub-based, and written by Canadians. It will naturally have a western feel to it. Our purpose in writing is simple. In addition to the fact that we both *love* to do it, we have a theory. Our theory is simply that if one were to see the future, as the Senshi did, and found out what's destined to happen for them, one of two things would probably happen. They would probably either a) grow very cocky, thinking that nothing they do is going to prevent that future from happening, or b)desperately seek to purposely alter the future and prevent that future from happening, be it consciously or otherwise. Now, suppose that Darien, knowing that the future he's been trying to establish for himself will never happen, grows a little desolate. Suppose that knowing who he will be with forever changes who he is drastically. I mean, there he is, living his normal life when, suddenly, he finds out that not only this girl that he's been making fun of is his soulmate from a previous lifetime, but she's also destined to be his future wife! Suddenly, all those plans he's made for himself are thrown out the window. Perhaps, yes, he would have fallen in love with and married Serena in the future. But now, he doesn't even have a choice. He is simply told one day, 'This is how it is going to be for you'. So, suppose now that he decides that's not how he wants it to be, and walks away from it all, just so that he can maybe have some sort of say as to how his life goes. Now also suppose that the Senshi, realizing that in the future they live lonely, unmarried lives with no children, try a little harder to meet someone, and fall in love, in order to prevent exposure to that loneliness. Throw into that mixture the assumption that no matter what Darien does, Serena will always forgive him, because she knows what the future holds as well as he does. Combine these factors, and you wind up with a bunch of feuding, relationship-hungry people who can barely live with one another, and a mass of relationships that were never meant to be. Are you following? In this story, Serena is never revealed to the reader. She is mentioned, but that is it. Our purpose in doing that is to show that the other senshi are people, with their own lives and goals, and that, while they may have their own perceptions and attributes that don't revolve around the Moon Princess, in the end, as is their fate, everything eventually goes back to her. The very last thing I feel I should mention (as you are probably wanting to get on with the story) is, that characters may come across as very... out of character. The reason for this is simple. Picture yourself now. Think of every thing you know to be true, every idea you hold close. Now imagine that changed. Imagine those ideas and beliefs turned to dust, shattered when the realization hits that *they are wrong*. The dreams you held as a child forever diminished when you find out that they will never come true. Would that not scar you? Would you not seek to prevent, if not consciously, then sub- consciously, such a future from happening? Would you not *change*? Think about that for a bit.