"She's grown."

Minako heard the proud murmur just behind her left ear and turned from the sight of Psyche playing with the rocks she found. It was gray all around them, dark gray and silver, and Psyche skipped with the sticky sluggish movements known only in dreams. Her hair was long and light, blown about her as she twirled and hopped, smiling, not noticing the tall stranger her mother embraced.
"And getting more beautiful every day, my love," Minako replied.
The man sighed his satisfaction and watched the child play. Minako was used to this -- standing silently with him as he held her and watched their daughter frolicking. But, oddly, he broke this silence.
"Her sixth birthday is coming up."
"Yes," Minako drew back a little. He'd never observed any of Psyche's birthdays before. "I suppose so."
"I want to do something for her." His eyes were opaque with mysterious emotions and Minako could not decipher him.
"I'm sure she would like that," she said carefully.
"Good." He kissed her golden head and they continued to watch the little tow-haired girl play.

"Psyche!" The yell rang out through the castle halls and servants flung themselves out of the way as a platinum-blonde bundle raced and giggled past them, followed by a severely irritated old woman. "Get back here and put your shoes on!" As if her words were not convincing enough, she waved two white satin kid slippers in one hand.

She followed the little girl into a royal sitting chamber where several men and women were talking. Psyche ran and threw herself into a dark-haired woman's lap, curling up as the lady wrapped her arms calmly about her. From her safe haven on the woman's crimson gown, she peered out and giggled at her nurse. The old woman looked a bit intimidated by the people in the room and very winded.
"Please sit and catch your breath." General Nephrite, in his simple brown silks, pulled a chair over for the old woman, who gratefully took it.
"Psyche," the woman holding her said, looking down into bright blue eyes and flushed cheeks, "go put your shoes on."
Psyche pouted beautifully. "But Auntie Rei!" The woman gave her a stern look and she slipped grudgingly off of her lap and trudged to the poor old nurse, so that she didn't see the shared smiles behind her.
Plopping down on the floor, she yanked her shoes on, having to get her nurse's help with the laces. She was still in a grump when her father came in and gave her a sharp, reprimanding look.
"You're going to get your dress dirty," he told her and she hopped right up. It was a new dress, all in filmy white, that her godmother, Serenity, had gotten her for her birthday.
Opening her eyes guilelessly, she smiled as a child who knows she is in trouble might smile, and threw herself at the tall man. "Daddy! I'm sorry, Daddy, I love you!" His stern expression melted and he picked her up, giving her a piggy back ride to the other side of the room.
"Wrapped around her little finger," Makoto commented, watching them with a curious smile. Kunzite tried to throw her a disgusted look, but it didn't work very well with Psyche still hanging around his neck.
"When do I get my cake, Daddy?" Psyche asked as she was deposited on a chair.
"Later," he smiled at her and they rubbed noses. Makoto raised one eyebrow and smiled at the other two women, her point made.
"Kunzite, can I see you for a second?" a blonde woman poked her head in the doorway.
"Mommy!" the little girl flew out of the chair and leapt at her mother.
"Whoa! Watch it, baby," the woman laughed and set the little girl down. "Go with your nurse and have her fix your hair up for tonight, okay? Mommy has some things to do."
"Okay, Mommy," Psyche grinned and gave her mother a loud kiss.
"She's so cute," Makoto commented as the nurse shuffled out.
"The nurse or the girl?" Jadeite asked. Makoto only rolled her eyes at him.
"She has Kunzite completely whipped," Rei said.
"Oh, leave him alone," Minako laughed. "He can't help being crazy about cute blondes. He married one, after all."
Kunzite tried to ignore all of this.
"We need help with the streamers and we'll be done. Come on," she grabbed his hand and dragged him away. He didn't protest, but he grimaced. The last few minutes had been the only reprieve he'd had all day from helping get ready for Psyche's sixth birthday party. Makoto had already made the cake and was exhausted from her efforts. Ami had printed up all of the invitations and helped Minako wrap all of Psyche's presents, since Minako was curiously inept at manipulating wrapping paper. Rei had ordered the servants about with the games and activities, and Serenity had spent the entire morning decorating for the party with Minako and Kunzite.

The room was gold and silver, sparkling. Ever since Psyche had been born and Serenity named the godmother, the woman had doted unendingly on the child. And ever since Serenity had discovered she was with child, Endymion had doted on her endlessly.

"Put those over there," Serenity pointed a servant. "No, no, twist them like this," she took the streamers and showed him, then tried to get up on the stool to hang them when he wouldn't get them high enough, but Endymion grabbed her and swung her down, giving her a short lecture about the delicacy of her condition. Serenity rolled her eyes, but allowed him to hang the streamers.
"Charming, aren't they?" Minako murmured as she scattered daisies on the tables. She smiled at the white and gold flowers.
"Yes," Kunzite hugged her from behind.
"Now they're too high!"
Minako glanced at her husband and they stifled their laughter.
Soon, Serenity was tired and Endymion was insisting that she go take a nap before the party. Minako agreed with him and let all of the servants go as well, leaving her and Kunzite alone to finish. She righted a daisy and felt hands slip to her waist, rubbing gently. Minako froze and flushed.
"You do know we're alone right now," Kunzite's warm breath hit her ear.
She turned her head. "You do know that door doesn't lock," she replied -- the irony of his spontaneity and her prudence not lost on her. It was usually the other way around.
"Ours does." He pulled lightly on her, toward the tall doors and their room.
"Minako." The couple stopped and turned, and Kunzite found himself looking down the length of a gleaming sword. The man on the other end had eyes as golden as Minako's head and short, faintly curling hair as pale as Kunzite's own. He looked . . . familiar, somehow. Kunzite tightened his grip on his wife. "Come here, Minako."
Kunzite drew a sharp, angry breath, but Minako was breaking from his hold and going to the other man. "Mina-chan," he hissed, careful of the sword point hovering in front of his neck. "Get out of here."
"Why?"
He chanced a look at her, surprised by her voice. The word had been low, breathless, sultry. And as he stared at her, she looked at the new man, her eyes dark with something she had only displayed when they were alone in their room. "Mina-chan?" he asked in the voice of a disoriented little boy. He was asking for an explanation, for her to reassure him, but she kept moving toward that other man, and then she was slipping her hands behind the man's head and she was kissing him. . . .
The sword-point fell as the man kissed her back, but Kunzite could not move anyway. When the couple parted, the stranger looked down into Minako's eyes and touched her cheek, just like Kunzite had done so many times.
Kunzite felt white-hot rage sweep through him on a wave of possessiveness. That was his wife, his cheek that . . . that bastard was touching, kissing. "Get away from her," Kunzite growled, but neither paid any attention to him.
"Go get our daughter," the man murmured to Minako and she nodded, moving away and toward the door. Kunzite tried to grab at her, but the look she threw him was so cold and disgusted that his hand dropped immediately.
Soon, Minako was back, carrying Psyche toward the stranger. Kunzite moved to stop her, but found that sword at his throat again.
"Surely you wouldn't deprive me the right of seeing my child," the man said, and Kunzite glared at him, some pit in his stomach threatening to swallow him.
"She's mine and you know it," he growled, the pit throwing up disturbing thoughts of how Psyche could have gotten her hair from this man. Everything else was her mother: her eyes and her skin and her grace. Kunzite was dark, but this man was as golden as Minako – who was handing Psyche to the stranger and looking decidedly happy.
Psyche, though, did not. She seemed uncertain and looked at Kunzite with frightened blue eyes. "Daddy?"
Free from his odd paralysis, he saw Minako reaching for the man's proffered hand and grabbed her, yanking her back away from the sword and the man, who flickered out before Kunzite could do anything else – taking Psyche with him.
Minako went limp and Kunzite caught her, watching in confusion as her eyes opened and she blinked at him. She looked . . . as if she had just woken up.
"Kunzite?" He pulled her close and held her for a moment before calling a servant. Still holding his confused wife as if she might too be taken from him any moment, he ordered the young man to fetch the Sailor Senshi.
"What's wrong?" they asked as soon as they arrived.
"Psyche's gone," he said simply, not looking at anyone, and told them what happened. When he was finished, Minako had her head in her hands and the others looked ravaged – and furious.
"I'll do a fire reading." Mars whirled around and left as Mercury pulled out her hand-held computer and examined the area where the stranger had been.
"Minako," Jupiter knelt by the couple. "Did you know that man?"
Minako raised her head and her eyes were red, her skin blotchy, and her lips pale. "I don't remember what happened. I don't remember any of it." Her voice broke and she paused to regain her composure.
"It's okay," Jupiter soothed, putting a hand on Minako's head, and stood back up.
"Is this what he looked like?" Mercury asked Kunzite, showing him an image on her computer screen. He looked at the golden eyes and pale hair and nodded. Mercury showed the image to Minako. "Do you recognize this man?"
Minako frowned and stared. "He looks like Jezibiah, but . . ." she gasped and went white.
"What? What is it, Minako?" Jupiter was back down by her in an instant.
She spoke faintly, still staring. "It's Ace."
Jupiter frowned. None of them had ever seen Ace before. "I thought he was dead."
"No," she replied, "he escaped before anyone could catch him. I thought he was dead. . . . They said he jumped off the high rocks by the palace and was washed away by the sea." She moaned and put her face in her hands. "He's not and it's my fault because now he has Psyche, he has my baby. . . ." She was rocking back and forth and Kunzite pulled her closer to himself, holding her tightly, securely.
"It'll be okay, Mina-chan, we'll get her back. I promise. The girls are working on it and I'm going to help and we'll get Psyche back soon."
Minako pushed from him a bit and stopped rocking. "You're not doing anything without me," she told him, stubborn.
Kunzite frowned. "Minako, I'm not going to worry about you, too. You'll stay here."
"Actually," Rei's voice came from the doorway, her dark eyes holding knowledge and secrets, "we can't get to him without her. She'll have to help us."
Kunzite shook his head, but Minako shushed him.
In only minutes, they were surrounded by candles and the curtains were drawn. Servants were informing the Prince and Princess, but they were not to be involved in the proceedings. Minako lay in the middle of the triangle her three friends made and Kunzite was outside of it, holding her hand. Minako met his eyes, before the chants of her friends washed through her and she fell into a deep slumber.
The soft, smooth floor of Minako's dream rose up before the Senshi, black and shining like glass. A soft, midnight backdrop lifted one single star to shine down upon the figures that the Senshi approached.
"I'll come back for you soon," the man was saying as the three women came up behind them. They would have hidden, but there was nowhere to hide on the wide, smooth surface.
"Why can't I go with you now?" the woman asked, her golden hair glinting in the faint starlight as her pale face turned up to the man's. Mercury pulled out her mini-computer and ran a scan on the pair.
The man hesitated and the woman glanced over his shoulder. His attention was drawn to the three Senshi, his face wrinkled into a scowl and he growled low in his throat, putting Minako behind him.
"Let our friend go and give back Psyche," Jupiter demanded, green eyes hard as ice chips. Her fists were clenched and she stood proud and strong, Mars close at her elbow, supporting her. When it came to children, Jupiter had the protective instincts of a mother bear.
The man laughed, tipping back his pale head. "No," he told them, then turned to Minako and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and walked away, sitting down where she was almost completely obscured by the gloom. "Now, let's talk like civil people." The man glanced about and smiled at them. "Why should I not have my wife and child?"
"Because you're evil," Jupiter snapped. "And they're not yours."
The man's smile widened and his eyes glinted. "How do you know? How do you know that Psyche isn't mine?"
Jupiter's sneer faltered as she took in his pale hair and golden eyes. The only thing Psyche seemed to have gotten from Kunzite was her hair . . . and this man had the same coloring. It could be . . . Jupiter shook herself and shushed her thoughts. This wasn't the time for doubts.
"If she is yours, you would be able to settle the matter honorably, in sunlight, instead of sneaking about the shadows like this," Mars put in.
"Perhaps I was just nervous," he smiled.
"Perhaps you're just a lying ass."
The man's eyes widened and he stared at Mars. Mercury took the moment to whisper something to Jupiter, and the tall woman nodded, the pair starting a spell.
"Supreme. . . ."
"Mercury. . . ."
"THUNDER!"
"BUBBLES!"
As Jupiter's lightning cut toward Ace and Mercury's bubbles clouded the area, Mercury dashed forward and Jupiter followed, grabbing Mars. In moments, they were surrounding Minako, grabbing onto her and pulling her away. The woman screamed, not seeming to recognize them, and struggled against them, her hair flying.
"Let go!"
"Will you cut it – OOMPH," Mars grunted, doubling over as Minako knocked the wind out of her.
"Let her go!" a man cried, fury lacing his voice, and Ace broke through the mist to claw at their hands, pushing them away from his beloved. "Get away–" His voice cut off abruptly and the women were sucked and shoved back into their own bodies in the ballroom.
Kunzite was immediately by Minako's side. "What happened?"
The blonde pushed herself up and looked around, dazed. "Um," she commented.
"It went fine," Rei told him, eyes narrowed in thought. Mercury was typing diligently away on her computer.
"I have a fix," she announced shortly thereafter.
Minako sighed and fell back, closing her eyes. "I'm sick of this," she moaned, tears squeezing out of her eyes, "and I want my baby!" She started crying and Kunzite held her, rocked her.
The other senshi looked at each other and got up in mute agreement, leaving the couple alone in a large room full of silver and gold decorations.