Epilogue
Author's note:
Thank you all for reading my story! If you opened this final chapter, but have not finished reading the whole story... spoiler alert! Close this and return to your bookmark.
I am grateful to all my dedicated readers! I know that you have waited patiently for weeks and weeks in a row, until I came up with new episodes... Please send your reviews and opinions, I would love to hear your thoughts!
I know I still have some typos and grammar inaccuracies. I tried to correct as many as I could find, please be patient with me!
I also have some artwork posted under ArtsyJesseBlue on Deviantart. I am still working on those and will probably work on them for a while. Painting and drawing takes so much more time.
I'll try to explain, briefly, how I came up with the plot line of my fanfic story:
First of all, I can't deny my affection for the Jesse-April pair. The Saber Rider original series started on a strong note: the first episodes featured Jesse Blue and his crush on April. From that point on, it was impossible for me to pair April with anyone else other than Jesse. No matter what other boys were presented around her, she was, in my mind, predestined to be with Jesse. I watched these episodes as a kid and I always remained loyal to my opinion that she does love him, after all. To my surprise, some of my best friends back then were supporting my opinion too. We ended up forming a sort of a silent Jesse Blue fan group, that extended into our adulthood.
The idea of Jesse being infected with a rogue Outrider virus came out of my own medical training. Yes, there are certain infections that can change your cortex neurotransmissions and alter your judgement...
Plus, the virus that turned Jesse almost into an Outrider would also better explain how he survived the big explosion at the end of episode 52 of the original series. Otherwise, how would a human be able to survive and go back to the Outrider dimension, as Commander Eagle suggested in the last minute of the episode? The original Japanese anime shows clearly how Perios (Jesse) vanishes into flames and dies.
The rest of the story was just a natural flow of imagination from there on. Honestly, I didn't plan or structure the whole story, from beginning to end. I just started it, and let my ideas emerge, as I wrote along. My main worry was that I might stumble into my own plots and not be able to disentangle. If you find any mistakes and inaccuracies, please let me know!
I tried to tie all the loose ends, during and towards the end of the story. I added a few new characters, to better support the narrative.
I thought April needed to have a talk with Fireball, after their breakup, so they "untangled" their complicated feelings in an intimate dialogue in episode 65, "The Fishing Net".
Jesse also needed to make peace with all his foes. All along the episodes, I watched him transition from a pure, 100% villain, into a "normal" Jesse, as he was supposed to be. I tried to build up a tension between him and April, a tension that culminates with their first kiss. I tried to keep his personality intact, but spinning it into a positive direction. He is still a cool guy, mysterious, charming and a little sarcastic, from time to time. And a wicked good karate fighter!
The relationships between Jesse and Colt, and Jesse and Fireball were also gradual. At some point, I exaggerated a little bit the hot-headed personalities of Colt and Fireball, just to keep up the tension between them and Jesse.
Finding Captain Hikari, Fireball's father, was one of my favorite story features and I liked using it as a leverage for Jesse's own escape from the Outrider dimension. Later on, trading Hikari with April seemed like the obvious thing to do. I wanted to complete another piece of the puzzle: Fireball's missing father. Similarly, Colt and Jesse found their parents. I wanted to bring an optimistic outlook to the story.
Prince Roland is an interesting character, and I think he had a lot of loose ends that needed some fixing. He deserved a royal treatment, after all. Right? :)
The idea of discovering Earth, placing it in a space and time relative to the whole story, came while I was writing. I never even thought I would come to this length with my story, but I really enjoyed adding this part. I think it made even more sense in casting light on the origins of Outriders and Humans, as described by old Erkanos (or Arkanos) in one of the original episodes.
As you remember, the original series starts with Saber Rider somewhere either inside a castle or out in a gazebo, recounting the story of the Star Sheriffs. From time to time, during the episodes, they bring back that scene, reminding everyone that Saber Rider is the story-teller. I ended my fanfic in the same manner: he is surrounded by a lot of children (Who's children might they be...? We only wonder...) and they are all listening to him with keen attention.
I kept the story in the same realm as the original one: a story with a morale about fighting the evil, making and keeping peace, friendship, love. The anime series was addressed to children and teenagers, so I tried to write it in the same spirit in which I watched it back in the days. A spirit in which... well... simply making April and Jesse, or Saber Rider and Sincia have an eye contact would stir up a little butterfly tornado in that little kid, watching the cartoon show.
I have no personal attachments to any of the Earth sites described in my story. As a matter of fact, my hometown and my current address are nowhere near any of the aforementioned places. I purely enjoyed roaming around the globe, finding beautiful, interesting sites. Earth is truly a jewel in the Universe.
Likewise, I have no affiliation to CERN, MIT, NASA or any other institution I might have mentioned here. I just found them to be the most progressive places on Earth that I could think of, and which would be closer to the spirit of science-fiction.
I'm sorry if some of you might be disappointed about what destiny I decided to spin Earth into. I never thought of such a dramatic story line, but in the context of telling the history of some lost space travelers, namely the Outriders and the Humans of the New Frontier, it only made sense to me that they were fugitives from a corrupted world. In a way, it also draws a major exclamation point about things that could happen, IF humanity went the wrong path.
I do not own SRATSS, it is the property of WEP and Studio Pierrot. I only enjoyed writing a possible follow-up story for some fanatic kids within us.
Both my story and my visual artwork related to Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs are non-profit and do not attempt to substitute for the original work. I do not sell any of these creations.
Under the copyright fair use act, none of these aforementioned works can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.
Again, thanks for reading my story! Don't forget to write a review, please!
"Head'em up, mov'em out! Power stride and ready to ride!"
Wait, what?
"Richard, slow down, I'm coming!" a blue-haired little girl cried out, panting and running up a green hill.
"Sabrina, hurry up, my dad is coming home soon. He mustn't know we went so far away from home," a blonde boy was waving at her.
"Aaargh!" Sabrina screamed in panic.
"What? What's wrong?" Richard stopped.
"A huge spider on my dress! Yuck, get it off of me, please Richard, I'm scared!" she yelled.
The boy rushed down the hill, anxious to help her out quickly. But he stumbled and came down rolling like a ball, wiping everything in his way.
"Aaaaahh!" Sabrina started shouting even louder, as Richard stormed into her and they both rolled down the hill. They stopped at the bottom of the hill, next to the roots of an old tall tree.
"Eeeewww!" Sabrina moaned. Then she twitched in fear: "Where's the spider? The spider, did it go away?"
"I think the spider got too dizzy and decided to leave," Richard laughed.
"Don't be silly, it might still be on my dress... What if it went underneath...? Ughhh..." Sabrina stood up and started sobbing and wiping her red dress in nervousness.
"Let me see, turn around..." Richard started looking at her dress carefully. "Not on your back... He leaned down to look at her legs..."
"Stop it, don't touch my legs, I'm ticklish!" she giggled.
"I found it, I found the spider... Stay still..."
"Aaaaaahhh!" she screamed in panic. "Whe... where is it?"
"Under your lace, hold still...Got it! Look, it's a grass spider, it's not dangerous!" and he opened his palm in front of her face.
"Eew, get it out of my sight!" she screamed in horror. She took a step back and stumbled on a root. "Whooow..." she moaned while she tried to keep her balance. One of her hands clutched his shirt during her fall and he went face down over her. The poor spider flew out of his hand and disappeared up on the tree's bark.
"Ummm..." he looked at her and held his breath. She was blinking in a perplexed look. Then she closed her eyes and let him... kiss her.
Meanwhile, Saber Rider and Sincia were riding Steed around their domain, showing April and Jesse the surroundings.
"Aaaaargh!" a girl's voice echoed across the hills.
"That's Sabrina!" April recognized her daughter's voice right away. "Quickly, Jesse, turn Nova around!"
"Eeeew!" another scream came from behind the hill.
"What on Earth are you kids doing here?" Saber Rider, Sincia, Jesse and April showed up from behind the big tree.
"Wait, What?" Saber Rider made a dumbstruck face. Yes, his son was on top of April's daughter, kissing her...
Richard and Sabrina winced in surprise.
"Dad, what are you doing here?"
"What are YOU doing here?" Saber Rider turned the table.
"He... rescued me from a big spider!" Sabrina tried to save the appearances.
"Oh, I see... A big spider..." Jesse winked at Saber Rider. "If you were not so far from the castle, you wouldn't get spiders on your skirt!"
"Sorry, dad..." Sabrina blushed and looked down.
"Come, let's go home, climb up on Steed!" Saber Rider descended the horse and put both kids up on the saddle. April was rolling her eyes in a dazed amusement.
