Author's note:

I hope you're all staying safe and healthy out there. I know it's a scary time. It's been years since I've finished A Brand New World, and I haven't really don't any big fics since. Life had just got so busy.

But like a lot of people, I've just found myself with a lot of time on my hands for the forseeable future. I decided I'm going to use some of that time to rewrite this fic. I feel like I'm a much better writer now than when I had originally posted. I still love this fic. I don't know why I decided to put Hotaru and Kohaku together but they created one of my favorite character dynamics that I have ever written and I want to return to working with them, but a sequel didn't seem right. I realised there were some possibilities that I could have explored that I didn't. Some of the character's actions aren't consistant with their personalities. And I had orignally planned for the ending to be entirely different, but pulled the punches at the last minute.

Now seems like as good of a time as any to try something a little different. I'm posting the prologue in this story so that anyone still subscribed to this story will get the notification. If you like what you see and want more, the fic's name is Fireflies Falling Through Time.

Enjoy

"Saturn, watch out!"

Hotaru Tomoe managed to dodge out of the way just as an enormous claw crashed down where she had been standing moments before.

Hotaru's papa appeared beside her.

"Are you hurt?" Haruka asked. Hotaru put her hand over an injury to her side from the creature's claws skimming her. She forced healing energy into the wound; knitting the flesh back together at an extreme speed.

"I'm fine." Hotaru replied.

Hotaru and her parents, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna had been fighting for the greater part of two hours against these giant beasts. They had heard rumors about monsters running rampant in the south of Japan and they immediately booked a vacation to investigate.

They hadn't been expecting what they had found. Creatures the size of elephants, with far too many arms, had risen up out of the sea just east of Nagasaki. So far they had managed to kill two of them. But the last one wasn't going down easily.

"You're low on energy." shouted Haruka. "Fall back. Stay by Pluto. Neptune and I can finish him off."

Hotaru nodded. She dodged the creature's arm, which was the size of a tree trunk, and retreated to a distance away where Setsuna feighed in and out of the fighting. Setsuna glanced at her daughter, though only briefly so as to not miss any of the creature's movements.

"You've been overdoing it." Setsuna said.

Hotaru wiped her nose with the back of her hand, there was a smear of blood on the white fabric of her glove. As Sailor Saturn, Hotaru had access to an incredible amount of power, but her power was extremely volatile. The more she used it, the less predictable it became.

"I'm fine." Hotaru lied.

Before Setsuna could respond, the ground gave way underneath them. A fourth creature erupted from the cliff face.

"SATURN!" Setsuna screamed.

Hotaru was thrown from the cliffside. Setsuna's weapon had been knocked out of her hand and was falling as well. The jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliff were quickly rushing up to meet them. Panicking, Hotaru sent her energy off indescrimitaly, trying to latch onto something solid. Instead, it pulled Setsuna's falling weapon to her. As Hotaru plummeted downwards, the garnet orb at the top of the staff pulsed and glowed. Crimson energy enveloped her. Time slowed down, or at least, the momentum of the fall did.

A small crack appeared on the surface of the gem. Then another one. And a third. The combination of Saturn's destructive power and Pluto's time energy being channeled through the same weapon was too much strain. Cracks were appearing faster and faster until…

The orb shattered with a brilliant flash of light.

The power of the explosion sent Hotaru flying backwards. Her head made contact with something solid and the world went black.