Author's long (overdue) note:

Okay, okay, sorry if the title mislead you! But it's been far too long hasn't it? Well, just letting you all know I'm very much alive and well, and admittedly, after almost dropping the story for good (don't ask why) I've decided to resurrect this story from the brink and give it the ending it (and more importantly all the loyal readers) deserve.

So before I get into it I have no real excuse why I've abandoned this story for so long, it just kind of happened. I tried writing many other stories but to little or no success, so I kinda just got burnt out and took a rather long (long long long...) hiatus from writing in general. None the less I'm looking at getting back into it, so what better way to start then dust off this old gem and finish what a story that should have been years ago? Right? Yeah, so let's do this!

... Only it wasn't as easy as I had originally anticipated. So to preface the situation a little for you all: There I was, sitting at my computer staring at Chapter 54 after realising people are still reviewing the story (can hardly believe it, thank you people) and it was that that inspired me to finish what I started. So I had written a few hundred words forever ago when I was still releasing chapters, and I realised something: I've forgotten so much about the story I don't really know how to adequately end it. Keep in mind it'd be simple to simply slap a lazy ending on it and call it a day, however I want to give this the ending it deserved. Now I still remember the basic idea for the ending I had planned, but as I browsed through the chapter (and then the previous, the one before that) I realised I'd forgotten so much that I couldn't possibly do a proper ending, tying up all the loose ends and what have you. I've forgotten many of the characters (like what I did with Shana... duh) and earlier plot points I had intended to weave in as the story came to a close. So then I realised I'd have to do something first, before I could even think about ending the story: I'd have to re-familiarise myself with it.

And the best way to do that? Read it from scratch. And that's exactly what I did, until it came to my attention how rather poorly (by my standards now, many years on mind you) it was written. Not a bad effort perhaps for a first attempt at a story, but I could barely read the first chapter without pulling out my hair from all the errors and lack of strong direction. So a second idea came to me: I'm going to completely re-edit and revise all the chapters. As of now I've re-uploaded the first three (major improvements to say the least) and will continue to do so as I reach the latest chapter released. This will take a while, however I am dedicated to the cause, will do this as fast as I can, and promise you that I will have the last few chapters released by the end of it. And good ones they should be, I have biiig plans~

In any event in the mean time if you wish to re-familiarise (or are just plain bored) I urge you to re-read the chapters I re-upload. No, I won't be making any major plot changes or anything to change the natural direction of the story, after all it will follow the same original path, so it won't impact the finale if that's all you're waiting for (if that's the case I understand, it's long overdue), but it will be written with clearer prose, with more description as well as much more insight into the early events of the story along with clearing up any errors/mistakes that have been left in there (hopefully without creating new ones... -_-) Basically, my goal by the end of this is to have a much more polished, balanced story as a whole.

For those of you still with me, still holding out patiently for new chapters, I thank you. I have some reviews I haven't responded to, breaking my rule of always responding to a reviewer (I hadn't realised I had any, only when I checked my old e-mail account recently did this come to my attention, poor justification I know but there it is, I wasn't just flat out ignoring you) so I shall reply to those unanswered as soon as I can.

For now I'll leave it as that. It's three am in the morning (it takes a surprisingly long amount of time to revise and re-edit a chapter O.O they have also been lengthened substantially) and I have many more chapters to fix in front of me, so I'll get some sleep and hop to it with the spare time I can gather tomorrow. Hope anyone who reads this is well, I look forward to any still patient (or silly, depending on how you look at it) enough to hold out hope long enough. I will make sure you are all well rewarded.

Michael.