First of all: This is not a nice story.

The entire Body and Soul series is intended for mature audiences, who can handle sex and violence if the plot requires it, but the first story, The Body Snatcher, is brutal even by my standards, folks. I once described it as a 7 on the Darqstar-Laersyn violence scale, where X-S stories are a 0 and Devil's Due is a 10. :-) If that means anything to you, you should know what to expect. If it doesn't-- well, this story contains scenes of rape, torture and violence in the first chapter of the first story in the series. After the first chapter I don't think anything nearly so bad is going to come along, but the whole series deals with "mature themes", and there is very likely going to be at least one scene of consensual sex somewhere down the road, probably in one of the later stories, as the plot calls for it. Possibly more. There are themes in this series which will probably offend some people, and which I cannot reveal in the disclaimer because it would give away the plot twist that occurs about 2,000 words into the first story. But when you get there, you will probably be able to tell if the issues the series is likely to deal with will bother you, at which point you can bail.

I used to think that once I got to chapter two, I'd do a "what has gone before" synopsis of chapter one, so that people who really couldn't handle the level of violence in chapter one could still read the story. But I've come to the conclusion that this is the greedy, reader-hungry side of me talking, not the artistically ethical side. If I've done my job right, chapter one doesn't just deliver a plot, it builds an emotional state that makes the characterization in chapter two believable, and a synopsis couldn't convey that without being as horrifying as the actual work. So reluctantly I must say that if you don't think you can handle chapter one, you should pass on all of The Body Snatcher. There may be other stories in the Body and Soul arc which are more accessible with the use of synopses.

This is not a work of erotica. I wish to make that absolutely clear. It is a serious exploration of serious issues-- identity and transformation, resistance in captivity, recovery from torture-- which, due to the nature of the villain and the things that occur, is going to have to deal realistically with sex, as well as other things. None of the stories in this series will be erotica. However, right now I'm blanket-rating all of them NC-17, as I don't know where the plot or character development may require sex. This is the only warning you get. I am not going to put individual disclaimers on any piece, as it may ruin suspense. If you were reading this in a bookstore, you wouldn't even get this much warning.

Second of all: This story is about Magneto, which should surprise absolutely no one who's familiar with my work. :-) The X-Men have a fairly significant role in the second chapter, and somewhere down the road in later stories in the series I expect the Acolytes to turn up, and we're likely to have guest shots from Peter David's X-Factor, some random New Mutants, the Scarlet Witch, Spiderman, and others. But the main character of the story is Magneto. If Magneto bores you, this is probably not the story for you. If you like Magneto, but what you like about him is that he's really powerful and he kicks ass, this is probably not the story for you, as I am going to make a serious mess of the poor guy's life.

Thirdly, and I probably shouldn't have to say it but: these characters are fictional. They are not avatars of Alara Rogers. Do not assume that I agree with anyone who expresses an opinion in the story. Particularly do not assume that I necessarily agree with Magneto. I love the guy and all, but he's a 60-something male Old World European atheist Jew who turned to a life of mutant terrorism. I am a 30-something female liberal American agnostic lapsed Catholic who lives on the Internet. He's going to end up expressing a number of opinions that, if I were there in the story with him, I would argue with him about, and I will not necessarily have other characters contradict him because it may or may not be in character for them. (For instance, I do not share Magneto's largely derogatory opinions of Americans in general and Philadelphia in particular. If I didn't like Philly just fine I would never have lived there.) Absolutely none of the characters are supposed to be me, or have any relationship to me aside from the usual writerly drawing-off-my-life-to-flesh-people-out.

Fourthly: All the characters you recognize belong to Marvel Comics. Chances are that if you don't recognize someone, the character was created by me. No profit is to be made off this story, nor are any copyrights to be infringed.

Fifthly, timing and continuity notes. This story starts sort of around the same time as UXM #290/XM #8, and promptly splits off into an alternate universe where numerous things won't happen. This includes retcons. Erik Lehnsherr is Magneto's real name in this story, though none of the X-Men actually know that yet. The effect on X-continuity caused by this series will start very small and then snowball. Do not waste my time by pointing out to me that Erik Lehnsherr has been retconned into being a false identity, because I don't care. I'm ignoring all retcons that suck.

And lastly, I'd like to thank assorted people who were resources in this project:

Indigo, for lighting a fire under my butt (I didn't get around to finishing the first chapter, after two years of working on it, until she prodded me);

Rivka Jacobs, for invaluable information on the Holocaust and its repercussions, and brainstorming about Magneto in general;

Chris Delaney, for the brainstorming session that started it all (no, Magneto is not going to take over Canada :-)), and for helpful Acolyte info and discussion of plotlines involving the Acolytes;

Kaylee, Falstaff and David Amaya for police procedural help;

Mercutio, for brainstorming and helping me avoid stupid mistakes;

and the beta reading crew: Amanda Sichter, Breanna B MacLeod, Chris Campbell, James, Dr. Benway, J. B. McDonald, Pyrephox 18, Erik Larson, and Carrie Wright, who were very helpful in getting this thing into shape.

For chapter 3 I'd like to thank Andraste and Sherman Taylor, the only two betas who actually got back to me.

Any errors or problems that remain are my responsibility alone. In particular, while Rivka and Chris offered invaluable information and brainstorming assistance, Chris never beta-read it and Rivka hasn't read it at all, and no one but me is responsible for its content.

Let me know if there is anyone whose browser cannot see the links above, which are in a table. I tested it on Lynx, and it comes out quite accessible, just in non-tabular format. I seem to recall being on a browser once that couldn't see tables at all, though. If you are on such a browser, let me know.