It's past midnight when she wakes. And it isn't a slow awakening, it's sudden, her eyes opening in an instant, her body alert. Outside the wind rustles through the trees and Hotaru sits up, silky black hair brushing against her cheeks as she looks around the room. There's something important, a reason to why she's awake when the world's so silent.

Slipping out of bed she doesn't hear the floorboard creak as she steps to her window, glancing at the moon. A flicker of purple catches her eyes and she turns, straightening up. A woman stands before her, grey eyes soft but hardened, black hair a little longer than Hotaru's. And while the face is older, with mature lines Hotaru knows it. How could she not.

It's her face.

The woman beckons her closer and she steps forward, eyes on the slim silver braclet in the woman's grasp. Her hand rises and the woman lets go and the light metal falls into her hand and suddenly Hotaru knows. She awakens.

Saturn awakens.

Close by, in an apartment Meioh Setsuna stirs from her work, her body tensing before she slumps. For all the time she can see, she could not prevent this. In another, Kaioh Michiru studies a slim mirror, Tenoh Haruka's chin on her shoulder. They both feel a new power flicker into being, their breaths held when it doesn't die straight away.

And in a palace, Mercury studies and icy blade, making a decision.

But in a small room Saturn awakens, a destiny unfolds.

A beginning is created.