2. The seed for this fic came from two places. First, from Sailor Moon Expanded, two stories concerning Naru's fate in the SME version of Crystal Tokyo. These wonderful stories are Breaking Point by Mark Latus and The Case of the Missing Senshi by Frank Barr ("Breaking Point" is a prequel to "The Case of the Missing Senshi"). In these stories, Naru is finally driven over the edge by a last tragic encounter with youma, and lives as an outcast in the utopia of Crystal Tokyo. I really like this idea, except that according the the Sailor Moon Expanded shared universe rules, resurrected/revived Dark Kingdom Generals aren't allowed. So I wanted to do my own take on this concept, with Nephrite involved. You'll see a few similarities between these stories and "In the Shadows of Paradise," but they go in very different directions.
The second thing that gave me the idea for this fic is that the whole idea of "cleansing" or "purification" in Crystal Tokyo has always bugged me. Basically, as I understand it, it's brainwashing people into being good. I believe that human free will is sacred, and messing with it is a huge no-no. Plus, being good doesn't count if you don't have any other choice. We know that those who refused cleansing (or purification, as it's referred to in "In the Shadows of Paradise") were banished to the planet Nemesis, but I wanted to explore the beginnings of the practice.

3. Bonus points if you can identify the future Sailor Moon villain in this story, and if you can spot the only intentional acknowledgement I will ever make of the existence of the live-action PGSM.