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DISCLAIMER: Naoko Takenuchi owns all rights to Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.
Author's Note – Finally, after more than a decade, I am getting around to uploading my fanfiction work from FF.net to here at AO3. It only seems fitting that I start with what arguably became my biggest and most well-known body of work I ever wrote to date: my Soft Cruelty series. I've changed my penname from my old one to the current one here. Too many personal things were left in Author's Notes. Things that, while I in the intemperate youth of my early 20s did not mind posting or sharing, are no longer fit to be left out in the open.
Timeline - 'Soft Cruelty' takes place in November, 'Soft Cruelty: An Usagi and Michiru Christmas' is set the 24th and 25th of December. 'Soft Cruelty: The Maelstrom Dream' is set in April of the following year, 4 months after SC: Christmas. 'Soft Cruelty: Summer Days' takes place in July, 3 months after SC: Dream. 'Soft Cruelty: Here With Me Now' is set two years after the first 'Soft Cruelty'. 'Soft Cruelty: Side Stories' are short little side stories and drabbles that take place at different moments within the Soft Cruelty AU I inadvertently created.
Shortly after the events of SC: Dream, Minako met Setsuna at the college she was going to. That’s how the other Outers came to know the Inners. In June, after the scouts had known each other for a little over a month, the cats reappeared and unlocked the seal placed upon all of the senshi’s minds after Sailor Moon defeated Galaxia. Since this is a kinda-sorta-but-not-exactly AU fiction, after the battle with Galaxia and the star seeds were returned, Eternal Sailor Moon used the powers of the Silver Crystal to seal the memories of the events away in the minds of her senshi, both Inner and Outer courts. This was so that things could start off fresh. That they may each make their own destinies instead of being forced to follow preset paths.
After having their memories restored (Mamoru gained his as well), the scouts and Mamoru decided that if that future was truly intended to happen, then it would of its own accord without their interference. Michiru and Usagi, Ami and Makoto, Rei and Minako, Haruka and Setsuna all decided to keep things as they were. Michiru and Usagi especially, since neither were willing to give each other up. Despite the initial protests of the lunar cats, Usagi was firm in her resolve and Luna and Artemis eventually relented.
The timeline above should help you understand how in this fanfiction, the Inners and Outers know each other, and how Chibi-usa has appeared. But then again, where Chibi-usa is concerned…don’t judge a book by its cover. :)