Ami's Note (updated 11/2003):

The first time I read this story, when it was orginally submitted to my site in 2000, well, I was blown away. I loved it, it drew me in, and held me on the edge of my seat. It takes a lot for fan-fiction to do that, because lets be honest a lot of people who write fan-fiction do it for self-serving purposes. But this...this story is GOOD. I couldn't leave the computer. I had to sit here until I finished it, and then I could cut it apart and post up the seperate chapters.

Makes me wish I had more hands so I could give this more than two thumbs up!!

Ami-chan

Authors Note:

Well, this demands an explanation, doesn't it? In my ever continuing crusade to read every single damned Sailor Moon fanfic, I've seen some bad ones, and I decided, "Why not simply write my own?" After all, an AP English student should be able to churn out something passable, shouldn't he? Especially compared to some of the hacks I've seen (no names, though). And thus, the fruits of my labor, which lies just a few PgDns away. Some obligatory notes: -I've only seen the DIC interpretation, but I really can't stand it, so I'm using Japanese names, etc. This means, of course, that I'm bound to make some errors, but I hope you will be so kind as to point them out. "Hey! You got the spelling of Juuban wrong, you f*#@ing b$#@%$d!"

-The title: I personally think it's a clever allusion. It may not be that difficult to figure out. But it's probably not the first thing you think of(and if it is, send me some mail: having someone's thought processes parallel mine is frightening!). And for those of you who didn't see the first title, it was "Sailor Moon E." -Feel free to distribute this, as long as it remains intact, in its entirety, and is not used for profit (fat chance of that). -This is my first story (so, you never been with a fanfic before, huh?), so*don't* be nice! Tear into it, rip it apart, nit-pick anything and everything so part two can be that much better. A reply would be nice too. You want an email address? Sure, you bunch of ingrates: lbouyer@geocities.com.

-Yes, I know exactly what senshi translates to, and I purposely mistranslated it in several instances. So there. -Although it may seen like I've used a thesaurus, I never touch the things. Every word here came from my head (and Word6's marvelous spell-checker--it's a miracle Microsoft managed to do something right with it). I'd like to give some gratuitous thanks here. Thanks to Ken Arromdee for his excellent FAQ, which I alt-tabbed to constantly for those little details that, in my opinion, make this fanfic great. To Mark Latus for unknowingly teaching me the lesson that a good fanfic must mix light and dark moments. To Bryan Osborn, who had never heard of Sailor Moon but didn't laugh (aloud) at me when I told him my plans. To my entire lunch table, from keeping me from the dark, murky waters of sanity. To the makers of Sesame Street, who gave me the rudiments of the English language, and the myriad fanfics that gave me a half-dozen words of Japanese. To whoever gave me my insane biological clock that got me up at 6am on a day off to watch my first episode of Sailor Moon. From the first minutes, I was hooked (and short skirts had no small part in that). To the two Georges: Handel and Gershwin, whose music I listened to constantly during the writing of this piece. To Susan Cooper, whose books made fantasy okay in my mind. To the members of the Academy for their...oh, wrong speech.

Finally, everyone's favorite part of a fanfic. Sailor Moon and all associated characters were created and are owned by Naoko Takeuchi and a bunchof other people, of whom I am not. The same goes for the Associated Press, United Press International, Knight-Ridder News Services, Reuters, CNN, CBC, BBC, NHK, ABC, NBC, and CBS. These trademarks, as well as some others, are used without permission. To any corporate bigwigs, I just want you to know that I have no intention of making any money out of this. It's all in good clean, not-for-profit fun. Portions of this work were taken from correspondence from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I am unsure of the copyright status of this correspondence, but no resemblance between those associated with that correspondence and depiction in this work is intended or should be construed. And if you're not a fan of Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy, be warned that I'm this wordy throughout the whole piece. I think it adds to the atmosphere of the piece, but if you were one of those people who threw away Return of the Native after the first two chapters, don't even bother with this one. And now... On to the Prologue