Silent Dawn: A New Take on Sailor Moon Classic

[Comartemis]

As most of you probably know, I'm a Saturn fanboy. Hotaru is my favorite character in all of anime, so I guess it's no surprise that I'd come up with this idea sooner or later:

What if Luna had found and awakened Hotaru instead of Usagi?

It's a simple enough divergence. On the morning of episode 1, Usagi wakes up early for once and gets to school on time. As a result, she doesn't run past the group of kids who were abusing Luna when we first saw her. Instead, Hotaru encounters a weak and battered Luna a few blocks away after school and heals her. Luna, her memories being as lousy as they are, recognizes Hotaru as Sailor Saturn, but fails to remember what Saturn is supposed to do when she awakens (besides fighting for love and justice, obviously). Luna confronts Hotaru in her room just like she did with Usagi and alerts her to the presence of dark forces in her house. At this point, the story can go three ways.

1) Hotaru confronts Germatoid and the Witches and defeats them all on her own. Not bloody likely, but it's an option.

2) In a scene pulled out of 'Vengeance and a Half', Hotaru confronts Tomoe and friends, but is unable to harm Germatoid without killing her father. She then makes her escape and is forced to live on the streets for a while. I'll get back to this one, as it's the one I like best.

3) Hotaru acknowledges the presence of evil in her home but also recognizes that she lacks the strength to do anything about it. She proceeds to hide her powers from the Death Busters much more carefully than Usagi hid her 'career' from her parents.

Assuming that we're following option 2: Naru and her mother are saved by Tuxedo Mask while Hotaru and Luna try to make lives for themselves on the street. Mistress Nine has been forced into dormancy by Hotaru's awakening, but because she hasn't been exorcised, Saturn is unable to remember the incantations for Silence Glaive Surprise or Death Reborn Revolution or how to lower the Glaive and silence the Earth, and so is forced to resort to lesser techniques like Saturn Tiara Action (hey, if Moon can do it, anyone can!) and a few others. Luna fares well enough on the streets, but Hotaru grows weaker by the day without sustenance. At this point she's fought a few youma but generally she's just not in the right place at the right time to foil attacks, so Tuxedo Mask becomes the talk of the town rather than Sailor Moon. So we reach another fork in the road when Hotaru's body can't take any more and shuts down in the middle of the sidewalk one evening. Depending on her location when this happens, the story diverges once more:

1) Either Ami or Chisato Mizuno bring her home and give her treatment.

2) Rei or Grandpa Hino discover her passed out on the grounds of the Hikawa Jinja.

3) Makoto brings her home and takes care of her.

4) Or depending on how ironic I want this to get, Haruka and/or Michiru discover her and adopt her a few seasons early, not knowing that she's Saturn.

5) Usagi and Minako seem more likely to call an ambulance than to try to treat her themselves, and Setsuna's not an option for obvious reasons.

Provided with a place to stay that isn't infested by dark forces, Hotaru's life becomes somewhat more normal. Whichever Senshi took care of her is the next in line to awaken and the story begins to follow the storyline of the original season with a few twists:

1) The Death Busters are still looking for Nine and the Witches can be counted on to show up during confrontations between the Senshi and the DK, something the girls obviously aren't ready for yet.

2) Being severely overpowered by the Death Busters, the girls are unintentionally saved on several occasions by the interference of the Dark Kingdom, turning a standard fight into a three-sided brawl with attacks flying every which way. The presence of the Death Busters may or may not attract the attention of Uranus and Neptune, depending on rather they've awakened yet or not.

3) Usagi may or may not ever awaken as Sailor Moon; she might be limited to Princess Serenity.

4) Eventually Hotaru will realize the depths of her power and be horrified by her capabilities. She will then struggle to defeat foes of ever-growing strength without using her full power, sort of like Usagi in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.

5) Healing transformed humans without the Crescent Moon Wand is going to be tricky...

6) Tux and Saturn will inevitably meet and potentially fall in love, but when Mamoru's memories of Serenity return he will be torn between his past and present loves.

7) I'm also toying with the idea of making the Silence Glaive a Nanoha-style intelligent device capable of projecting an image of itself--this would be the source of the so-called 'Original Saturn'--and of assisting Hotaru to control her powers.

How does it sound? Any suggestions on where this sucker's plot should go?

[mondu_the_fat]

Luna confronts Hotaru in her room just like she did with Usagi and alerts her to the presence of dark forces in her house. At this point, the story can go three ways.

My suggestion would be for Luna to miss meeting with Usagi, then Luna meeting Hotaru not at the beginning of the season but a weeks weeks later when Beryl is startng to make an appearance in Tokyo (Tuxedo Mask would have to be working overtime). This would at make Luna a bit more desperate to wake up Saturn, which she knows as Saturn.

forced to resort to lesser techniques like Saturn Tiara Action

Bleh

Hotaru grows weaker by the day without sustenance.

If Hotaru were to strike out on her own, I'd imagine Luna being capable of coming up with something to feed her.

4) Eventually Hotaru will realize the depths of her power and be horrified by her capabilities. She will then struggle to defeat foes of ever-growing strength without using her full power, sort of like Usagi in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.

5) Healing transformed humans without the Crescent Moon Wand is going to be tricky...

Depending upon how serious/angsty the fic will be, you can forego this and have Saturn just "silence" them.

6) Tux and Saturn will inevitably meet and potentially fall in love, but when Mamoru's memories of Serenity return he will be torn between his past and present loves.

Unless you want to paint Mamoru as even more of a pedophile than he already is, I suggest not. Making them have an brother-sister relationship sounds more logical and less stomach churning.

And you'd have to do something about Minako and Artemis. Even if Sailor Moon were never awakened, Sailor V had already been active at that time and would have been in the thick of the action against Beryl. She and Mamoru might even have fought together, and since Tuxedo Mask's memory is pretty spotty, too, he might mistake minako for Serenity. Pluto's inaction would have to be explained away somehow, and all the outers may need an new "origin" as well.

You'd have to do something about mistress 9, too. Hotaru began as a character that had to be saved from the antagonist; making her the lead would mean crippling her from the start, in addition to the other disadvantages she would be facing (lack of support from the other senshi, age, health).


I like the idea, but a bit difficult to pull off because flubbing Saturn's character would incur the wrath of the fanboys (ncluding me). I'd imagine most of the character development would be from being little-miss-death-star being required to limit her powers to save humans on an individual basis.

[WG_Writer]

I love the idea, but I am a fanboy of the cross this forum is built on so I had to invision Ranma being harassed by a desperate Luna about being Sailor Saturn...

But back to your thought, I can not speak on how original of a take it is since I haven't read any pure SM fics knowingly. but it sounds good.

[Zwzn]

Sound interesting, but why have 9 go doormant? Why not make it so 9 is just a voice in the back of Hotaru's mind or can only use the mouth. Another idea is The possessed professor could let slip something about his plan that 9 does not like.

For weaker attacks why not have Hotaru just blast things like before the end of season three.

I don't think the Death Buster where in general more powerful then the Dark Kingdom.

At ther time of season 3 the School the Tomoes owned was on it's fourth year, and the Death Busters had controled it the all along. Season 1 takes place one year before season three.

At the time of the Accident Hotaru had been 9, and an unnone number of years had gone by before the school opened.


Hotaru could be the same age as Usagi in theory in the anime.

4) Or depending on how ironic I want this to get, Haruka and/or Michiru discover her and adopt her a few seasons early, not knowing that she's Saturn.

U&N would likely know who Hotaru was. They at least a year before season 3 knew who the Tomoes where. They also would therefor know about the "strange" things going on at the school.

[Comartemis]

Unless you want to paint Mamoru as even more of a pedophile than he already is, I suggest not. Making them have an brother-sister relationship sounds more logical and less stomach churning.

Hotaru could be the same age as Usagi.

Which is why I thought having her hook up with Tux was a viable idea.

forced to resort to lesser techniques like Saturn Tiara Action

Bleh

Well I can't have her whipping around attacks like the White Noise I've been using in spamville; she could vaporize Jadeite shields and all in one shot with that sucker.

Depending upon how serious/angsty the fic will be, you can forego this and have Saturn just "silence" them.

I don't want this to be a really dark fic, but I guess I could make that work without producing potentially lethal dosages of angst...

You'd have to do something about mistress 9, too.

Such as having Nine hit her with crippling pains at inoppourtune times, causing her to get smacked around more?

lack of support from the other senshi

Why wouldn't the other senshi support her? (Outers aside)

age

She's right around Usagi's age, isn't she? And even if she was a bit younger, V got her start a year earlier than Usagi and look how well she handled things.

[P.H. Wise]

Keep in mind, Saturn is heavy artillery. She's definitely not the one to call in for things that involve finesse. Saturn is ideal if you have an alien armada you want to destroy, but really crappy if you actually care about the city you're fighting in. So for Luna to call her into action, things need either be really desperate, or Saturn will need to be really really careful, or else you'll end up with situations where, sure, she killed the monster (and with no problem), but she also destroyed a city block.

[Tovath]

5) Healing transformed humans without the Crescent Moon Wand is going to be tricky...

Here's an idea and you are welcome to ignore it if you don't like it. We don't know anything about Hotaru's mom except that she married a scientist and we know Hotaru can heal people. So Hotaru's mother could have been from a powerful magical line. As you have Rei be the one to find Hotaru then she could get training in the powers she got from her mother. Those powers could heal a transformed human or possiblely get rid of processioning sprirts, which would give 9 a good reason to mess things up before Hotaru finds out how to get rid of her.

[Comartemis]

Here's an idea and you are welcome to ignore it if you don't like it. We don't know anything about Hotaru's mom except that she married a scientist and we know Hotaru can heal people. So Hotaru's mother could have been from a powerful magical line. As you have Rei be the one to find Hotaru then she could get training in the powers she got from her mother. Those powers could heal a transformed human or possiblely get rid of processioning sprirts, which would give 9 a good reason to mess things up before Hotaru finds out how to get rid of her.

Excellent suggestion, Tovath. I'll give it some serious thought.

Keep in mind, Saturn is heavy artillery.

Not when she can't remember the words to use Silence Glaive Surprise and Death Reborn Revolution she's not. Powered down like that, she's more in line with Moon's power levels. At some point the bonds come off and she remembers the attacks, *then* things get dicey.

[Heaven's Deamon]

Something else to consider, Why does Hotaru have to go Saturn right at the beggining? There are supposed to be instances of her displaying power without transforming, could you use this and make the scouts see her as "A Girl with Magic, but not a Magical Girl" for awhile until something happens that DOES awaken her as Saturn.

An example for a chain of events that could lead to this:

When Hotaru leaves for school the day she finds Luna, she mentions that she plans to go to the park for awhile after school, or something along those lines, meaning that she wouldn't be home for awhile after school lets out. when she finds Luna, she heals the kitty, then decides to take the kitty home for a snack, and maybe see if she could keep the kitty. This causes her to overhear something she shouldn't have which is what causes her to run away so she can eventually be found by one of the Inner Senshi as in your storyline. During the time on the streets or after meeting the Inner Senshi who takes care of her she demonstrates some magic ability (blasting a monster maybe, and of course her own healing ability) that Luna sees. So while with the senshi they try to teach her to bring out her magic and use it willingly, but never think to see if she could be a Senshi herself.

((One of the reasons I'm suggesting this is a scene that popped into my head, After the senshi have started showing up the Generals notice a girl (Hotaru) who always seems to be around when the senshi show up and seems to know the senshi, so a general tries to go after Hotaru when she's by herself. Hotaru lets out an extra strong blast at the monster that attacks her and the symbol of Saturn shines on her brow where only the general is around to see it. The general goes white and reports back to Beryl that they should leave the girl alone so they don't wake Saturn by accident, causing the Youma and generals in future encounters to go out of their way to avoid Hotaru))

[P.H. Wise]

Not when she can't remember the words to use Silence Glaive Surprise and Death Reborn Revolution she's not. Powered down like that, she's more in line with Moon's power levels. At some point the bonds come off and she remembers the attacks, *then* things get dicey.

In that case, all she would have access to is, what, Silence Wall and the Silence Glaive itself?

[Comartemis]

Something else to consider, Why does Hotaru have to go Saturn right at the beggining?

Because I want to write a story where Saturn gets to kick some ass on a regular basis. Almost all of the fanfiction I've read treats her as a wallflower largely, I imagine, because of her status as a superweapon. I like your ideas, Daemon, but it doesn't fit in with the kind of story I want this to be; Saturn/Hotaru's time to shine.

In that case, all she would have access to is, what, Silence Wall and the Silence Glaive itself?

Of course not; given the chance to develop her as a character and as a senshi, she would be provided with more attacks, probably just one or two, and a lot of unnamed applications of destructive power (erasing the pavement beneath an enemy's feet for instance) if I go with the idea of having the Glaive be an Intelligent Device. She might also learn to use "reverse healing", drawing life energy stolen from a youma into herself using her healing powers.

[bissek]

Here's another thing that links in to Tovath's suggestion. In the manga, Hotaru owned a pendant (which she inherited from her mother) called the Tioron Crystal that the Death Busters converted into a power source for some of their schemes.

Crystals are often used as tools to amplify, focus, store and/or channel magical energy in various fantasy works. The existence of the Gold and Silver Crystals in SM shows that the SM universe follows that idea at least somewhat. If Hotaru's mother came from a magical bloodline, then the Tioron Crystal could be some kind of focus stone. I wouldn't make it an amplifier type, but making it so that it could focus power for precision work or channel power so that multiple Senshi could combine their attacks would be interesting.

The sum of canon information about Hotaru's mother is this: 1: Her name was Keiko. 2: She died in a fire at the age of 32. Hotaru was 8 at the time. 3: She was the previous owner of the Tioron Crystal. 4: For some unspecified reason, the Tomoe family didn't keep many pictures of her around after her death. There could be some deeper reason for this, or it could be that they weren't much into photography and as such didn't have many pictures to begin with. The reference I use doesn't say.

[Heaven's Deamon]

As far as ways to use her power without nuking the city go, best thing I can think of is more or less a combination of the Ragna Blade from Slayers and the first time Kuwabara use his spirit sword during the Genkai tourny in Yu Yu Hakusho. Basicly Hotaru channels her power into and around the Glaive causing a blade of energy to extend from it. Or you could go with something like the special technique of Ichigo's Zangetsu from Bleach, a swipe with the blade that lets out a thin arc of energy cutting through all in it's path, and possibly leaving a VERY "canyon" to show where it went......

[Comartemis]

As far as ways to use her power without nuking the city go, best thing I can think of is more or less a combination of the Ragna Blade from Slayers and the first time Kuwabara use his spirit sword during the Genkai tourny in Yu Yu Hakusho. Basicly Hotaru channels her power into and around the Glaive causing a blade of energy to extend from it. Or you could go with something like the special technique of Ichigo's Zangetsu from Bleach, a swipe with the blade that lets out a thin arc of energy cutting through all in it's path, and possibly leaving a VERY "canyon" to show where it went......

O.
M.
G.

Saturn + Tensa Zangetsu. Best combo I've ever heard of. *Starts drooling, imagining the sheer pwnage*

Yeah, something like Getsuga Tensho would work wonderfully, and I like the Ragna Blade idea too.

[bissek]

Having an energy blade project from a magic polearm is a little redundant. Now, if she could make the Glaive pierce dimensional barriers, like the Ragna Blade or Kuwabara's later Rei Ken, that would be impressive.

It would also have limited utility, since the need to create breaches in dimensional barriers or attack creatures who can phase between dimensions can't turn up too often without seeming contrived.