Saffir appeared in an alley next to a pub in Chicago and gasped, leaning heavily against the wall.  The teleport had taken more out of him that he had thought it would, and his miscalculation irked him heavily.  He would have blamed Minako's cat for it, but he had more than compensated for the animal's presence – not to mention the white cat would have objected, and then gone into detail as to why Saffir was wrong. He and Artemis didn't get along very well.  He waited several minutes, until he was certain he could walk without staggering, and made his way into the pub – MacAnnelly's, that was the name.  It'd been years, but it was hard to forget the best food he'd had in his life.

And this time, he had money to pay for his meal.

He ordered a beer and a steak sandwich and retreated to a corner to consider his next move.  He'd already decided to ask Dresden for help.  He just wasn't certain how the other man would react to him – or even if he would be recognised.  He sighed and rubbed the golden talisman around his wrist.  Minako-chan, he thought, almost sadly, where are you?  Artemis had been convinced to remain outside with the promise of steak for himself, and from the look he'd given the former heir-Prince, Saffir rather felt he'd better make sure it was a whole one, lest he face the Wrath of Cat.

Once he'd finished his beer, he had a plan of action.  Smiling slightly, he vacated the pub after depositing his trash in the proper receptacle, and went to make his plan known to Artemis as the cat fed on the steak sandwich he'd brought out with him.  Artemis glared at him when he was done.  "So, essentially, you'll have this 'wizard' try and track Minako-chan?" he demanded.  "And what happens if he cannot, Orimoto-san?"

Saffir had long since grown used to the mocking tone the cat put on the honorific when speaking to or about him.  Perhaps it was only fair, since neither Artemis nor Minako knew the truth as to his true identity.  "Then we are well and truly screwed, Artemis-san," he replied mildly.  Unsurprisingly, the cat disliked this answer, but was forced to agree that Harry Dresden was the best chance they had.  He scarfed down the rest of the sandwich and leapt to Saffir's shoulder, draping himself over it rather than walk the streets of Chicago.

Lazy beast.

With his passenger aboard, Saffir set out for Dresden's office.  On foot, it took awhile, but he preferred walking to taking a taxi, and Artemis seemed to agree, as he didn't suggest they flag one down.  Finally, they had reached their destination, and Saffir knocked on the door.

 

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden looked up from the newspaper he was reading when he heard the knock. It had been a fairly slow day, but somehow, this seemed to be a very portentous knock. Part of Harry's brain dismissed this as a silly thought, as it was just a knock, but the other half had been Harry Dresden's brain for too long not to know better.

Stretching a bit, Harry hopped out of his chair and answered the door. He looked over the man standing before him. It took him a moment to register it, but different as the boy - man? - looked, there are certain features that tend to stick out in one's memory, and one of those is naturally blue hair.

"Saffir?!"

Saffir smirked and opened his mouth to answer, but the cat on his shoulder howled before he could say a word.

"NANI!?"

 

...Oops.  And now we see the flaw in your master plan, Saffir Blackmoon.  He glanced down at Artemis.  "Surprise?" he suggested.  The cat all but flew off his shoulder, turning to hiss at him. 

"Teme...," he growled; Saffir rolled his eyes and decided to ignore him. 

"Hello again, Dresden-san."  His accent was now Japanese, not Germanic.

Harry's mind was abuzz with questions, all of them fighting to get out at the same time. "How did...why do you look so...did that cat just talk?!"

Artemis was yelling at Saffir in Japanese; the blue-haired man continued to ignore him to answer Harry.  "Yes, he did.  His name is Artemis.  Don't worry, he isn't saying anything useful right now.  You just gave him something of a nasty shock."  Saffir seemed calm and self-assured, even more so than he'd been when Harry had first met him.  He also seemed... older than his visible age.

One answer down, many more to go. "What happened to you? It's been...what, about four months, give or take? You look like you've aged a decade! ...and you got a tan."

Saffir paused to look at his hand, and to snap something at the white cat in Japanese, then answered Harry.  "It's... a long story.  I've changed more than you realise, Dresden.  Let's just say that time-travel can be... complicated.  As is death."  He winced.  "But that isn't why I'm here."

Harry simply gave the man an even look. "For the sake of my sanity, I won't ask. Come on in. Your...pet can come too."

The cat turned a blue glare onto Harry.  "I am not," he briskly informed Harry, "that person's pet."

"Just go inside," Saffir growled at it.  "The faster we do this, the faster we can get Minako back," he added in Japanese.  Artemis in turn tossed his head and preceded Saffir into the office, leaping onto Harry's desk and sitting down as though he belonged.

The wizard led the wayward time-traveller into his office and sat down, ignoring the cat. "So what can I do for you?" he asked.

"A friend of mine – Artemis' ward – has gone missing," Saffir explained.  "Neither of us can find any trace of her, and my tracking skills... are not what they once were.  I was hoping you'd be able to help us."  His left hand idly rubbed a golden bracelet on his right wrist as he spoke.

Harry spared the cat a brief look. "Artemis'....never mind. So you're looking to hire yourself a wizard?"

Saffir nodded.  "Minako-cha... –san," he corrected himself at the cat's baleful glare, "is very able to take care of herself.  Both of us think that whatever took her is magical in nature."

Harry nodded. "As much as I hate to ask, I presume you can pay? A wizard has to eat, y'know."

"I can this time," the shorter man replied.  "What are your rates?"

"Fifty an hour, plus expenses. At least part of it up-front if possible."

Saffir nodded, reaching into his back pocket and plucking a wallet from it.  He passed two hundred dollars to Harry and explained, "That's all I have on me at the moment; there's more in my bank account."

The wizard nodded and pocketed the wad of bills. "That will do. I presume you have something I could use to track your friend? Hair or something?"

A wry smile crossed Saffir's face, and he removed the golden bracelet from his wrist.  "Funny you should mention hair."  Artemis hissed at that, and Saffir merely said mildly, "She watched me make this.  I seem to recall you being there, Artemis-san."

Harry's gaze went to the bracelet, and he gestured for Saffir to go on.

"I don't know if Minako ever guessed why I asked her for this," he told Harry, "but I figured that it'd be handy to have a way to track her if something bad happened."  He passed it to the wizard, who could see that the bracelet was made of several strands of blonde hair, braided and twisted so that it would wrap around Saffir's wrist several times.  It was long hair.

Harry remarked as such to Saffir. "She must spend a fortune on conditioner. Alright, I'll need some things that are back at my lab. I was getting ready to close up anyway. You're free to come with me. Need a ride?"

"If his majesty will deign to remain in my presence," the blue-haired man replied, looking calmly at Artemis.

The cat growled at him.  "If you do anything that hurts Mina—"

"We already had that talk, Artemis," Saffir said.  "And I am no longer your enemy.  I haven't been for fifteen years."

"What do you m- no, don't want to know. Follow me."

With that, he led the man and his cat down to the Beetle.

Saffir noticed that Artemis preferred to dirty his paws rather than hitch a ride on him now that he knew the truth, and sighed.  It was even more imperative now that Minako not find out who he was... but now her guardian knew.  And would surely tell her.

A deep, gnawing fear settled into his gut.  Would she reject him when she knew the truth?

 

~*~

 

Jaspis Darkstar realised something was wrong the minute he got home from work and heard little Topaz wailing at the top of his infant's lungs.  Trying the door and finding it spelled shut, he snarled a word and broke the spell, shouldering his way in.

The apartment was a mess, the walls blackened and dented, a window shattered, the television so much junk.  From his crib in the room he shared with his mother, Topaz continued to wail his displeasure, forcing the one-time scholar-warrior to take care of the infant rather than panic.  He couldn't sense his sister at all.

Once the child was calmed, Jaspis undid the protections on his own door and walked in, sorting through his belongings until he found Lapis Lazuli's bloodstone.  With a snap of his fingers, he cast a circle of protection on the apartment, then focused on the bloodstone and cast his mind out for his sister's – and ran smartly against a smooth psychic barrier.  Snarling, he forced against it, and the spell reacted, blowing him back and into his bookcase, breaking it and showering the unfortunate Nemesian with novels and research material.

When he regained consciousness, Topaz was crying again.  Jaspis growled, changed his nephew's diaper, and almost wailed himself when the howling didn't stop.  He tried everything he could think of, and at last resorted to dipping his finger into his bourbon store and letting Topaz suck on it.  Fortunately for the man's sanity, Topaz fell into a pitiful, whimpering sleep.

With that done, Jaspis lunged for the phone and called the police, grateful that he'd gotten the extension for Special Investigations several weeks beforehand.

Someone picked up immediately, and a brisk female voice Jaspis recognized came on. "Special Investigations. Sergeant Murphy speaking."

"Hello, Sergeant," he said, his voice wearier than he liked.  Why was calming a single child as tiring as a battle?  Or maybe it was his headache that fatigued him.  "It's Jaspis Darkstar."

There was a pause, and then she sighed, sharply. "What do you want?" she asked, flatly.

"My little sister's been kidnapped," he replied, not surprised by her tone.  They hadn't parted on the best of terms.  "I believe the person who took her has a fairly decent grasp of magic – not only did they put a shield over the apartment that prevented people from entering, they've got her behind some sort of barrier so that I can't track her."

"When and where?" she asked, her voice sharpening with interest. "I'll call out the troops."

"Probably within the past three hours, and at our apartment building."  He gave her the address.  "Topaz – her son – was hungry and distinctly unhappy, but not so much as to indicate a greater period of time."

"Right. Stay there and don't touch anything." She hung up abruptly.

Jaspis stared at the phone in his hand, then sighed, hung up and picked his way carefully through the mess to Topaz's crib.  Cradling the baby in his arms, he moved again to his room, wincing as he saw the damage his attempt to scry had caused.  He'd not be trying that again any time soon.

In due course, the police arrived, searched the room with commendable briskness and questioned Jaspis. It seemed as if at least the one who questioned him had little interest in his answer, considering the case closed.

It took every scrap of control Jaspis had to keep from unleashing his growing anger on the policemen and women.  They seemed to think Lapis Lazuli had left, vandalising the apartment in the process, never mind that all the keys save his were on their hooks and that the door had been locked – or so he had told them.  That barrier he had broken to get inside had not been one of his sister's.

Eventually they left, giving him some pitying looks. Only Murphy remained behind, her hands on her hips, staring thoughtfully at the door. When the rest were gone, she pivoted on her heel to look him square in the face and asked, "All right, what didn't you tell them?"

"The door wasn't locked," he admitted.  "There was a magical barrier around the door to prevent entry, one I had to break in order to get in.  It didn't have the feel of Lapis' protections.  And when I attempted to track her..."  He winced.  "I came across a psychic barrier, one that pushed back at me when I pushed at it."  He gestured, and his door swung open to reveal the broken bookcase.  "Pushed me right into a wall."

She hissed through her teeth when she saw the bookcase, but didn't move towards it. "Go to the hospital if there's a problem. Did you call Dresden?"

"Not yet," he replied.  "I figured it would be best to get the police in and out first."

"Intelligent of you. Don't call him, I'll do it." She took another look around. "And don't mention him unless I say you can. I may not be able to bring him in officially."

"As you wish, Sergeant," he said softly, looking down at his young nephew and hoping it would hide his worried expression from her.

She didn't miss it, but fortunately she interpreted it incorrectly. "Do you want someone to look after the boy?" she asked, quietly. "I know of some very good day-care centres and nannies if you need help."

"He's only two months," he said softly.  "Can they legally take a child so young?"

Murphy paused and pursed her lips. "Not the day-care centres, but the nannies can. At least one of them specializes in children under two years old."

He took a deep breath.  "It would probably be a good idea.  I just – I don't want to risk more people than I have to.  If someone took Lapis, someone might thing to take her son as well."

"My thought as well." She offered a small smile. "Just so you know, I got these numbers from my brothers and sister, not the police. They're not associated with my office at all.

"Thank you, sergeant," he said, and meant it.  Even with Lapis missing, he would still have to work, and Topaz would have to be looked after.

Murphy shrugged. "He's still a baby and he still needs looking after," she said, unconsciously echoing his own thoughts. "I'll let you know when or if I need Harry to have a look at the scene."

"All right."  He wondered if she would be so helpful if she knew how he longed to find his sister's kidnapper, to drain them of all their energy and then take his sword to them.  Probably not. Fortunately she did not know, and she couldn't pick it off his face, busy as she was writing several names and numbers down.

Jaspis controlled himself with some quick breathing exercises he'd stolen from Saffir, thanked her again for the numbers and watched her leave.  He didn't like this at all.

 

~*~

 

Whoever it was that had kidnapped her had been smart, Aino Minako decided sulkily.  She was being held in an iron cell, having been stripped of her henshin wand and communications watch.  What's more, outside the cell was a circle laid in silver, with runes of some sort etched around it.  Somebody wasn't taking any chances that she might escape.

The senshi of love wasn't certain how long she'd been imprisoned when a man in black fatigues dragged in a struggling young woman with long blue hair.  The woman was bound with strange manacles on her wrists; rope held her arms to her sides.  A word of command from the man yanked Minako to the far corner of her cell by the band that had been forced onto her wrist, ensuring she could not escape.

While the newcomer yelled in a language Minako didn't know, her captor removed one of the manacles, and shoved the young woman into the cell before striding quickly away.  As he shut the door, the force holding Minako back was cut off.

Minako scowled at the retreating man's back before turning her attention to her fellow captive.  The hair was odd, if only because the only other people she had seen with blue hair were fellow senshi.  And some enemies.  And perfectly normal people who dyed their hair.  Whatever.  Not a common colour, and something about the colour made her think more of Ami than a dye job.  Of course, hearing someone spout off something vaguely Germanic was new, too.  Not just people who were aware of magic, then, but people set on making an international incident, too, the blonde thought dryly of her captors

(Somewhere, she knew, Artemis was having an absolute fit.)

Rubbing her sore wrist as much as she could, Minako got up and walked over to her fellow captive.  "Are you all right?" she asked in English, crouching down so one knee rested on the floor.  The other woman didn't look to be a threat physically, and with the circles and the iron magic wasn't going to be a worry, but experience (and Haruka) had taught her you never approached anyone without caution.

The woman shook her head, rubbing her throat – apparently, she had been screaming for some time – and looked up at Minako.  "My baby," she whispered.  "They took me away from him."  She rubbed at a gash on her forehead, moving blue bangs aside and revealing that what Minako had initially taken to be a bruise on her forehead was in fact a black star.

The sympathy (and protective anger) that immediately sprung upon hearing the woman had lost her child froze and shattered upon seeing that mark.  That black star had been the cause of so much death and pain when she was younger.  In one way or another, it caused the deaths of all the Outers, and the near-deaths of the Inners, and nearly destroyed the world.

Pale blue eyes that had been cautiously warm froze to ice before thawing to careful neutrality, all in the space of space of a few seconds.  Inwardly, she was hissing in fury that despite everything, something of Pharaoh Ninety's had somehow survived.  Or, had returned.  That last part was the only thing keeping her from simply snapping the woman's neck.  Wouldn't do the others any good to prematurely kill a source of information.

"What happened?" she asked softly, concern in her voice.

The younger woman's own blue eyes had narrowed in response to the sudden ice in Minako's, but she didn't seem too surprised by the reaction to her mark.  "I'm still not entirely certain.  I'd put Topaz down for a nap when two men broke into my apartment.  I fought back, but...," she flinched, then continued, "I've never been much of a fighter, and using magic tires me these days.  They overpowered me, knocked me out.  When I came to, I was on my way here.  There was no sign of my son anywhere; I pray to Nyx they didn't realise he was there."

Minako ignored how the other woman narrowed her eyes, more focused on the name (for future reference; who names their kids after stones?) and the accent.  Transplant to America.  Not shy about mentioning the using of magic either, though considering their surroundings, being able to do that sort of thing was pretty obvious.  

"So your son wasn't with you when they captured you?"  Either he was presumably with family, or the kid was old enough to walk on his own.

She shook her head.  "He was in my room, in his crib.  The fight didn't progress past the living room."  Her gaze turned distant.  "Jaspis is going to have a fit..."

Jaspis, she repeated to herself.  "Your husband?"

"My brother.  My husband died several months ago."

"I'm sorry," the blonde woman said softly. 

Obviously, this woman was above the daimon of old.  Perhaps she was something akin to the Witches 5?  The senshi made a note to speak to Hotaru about it, and ask what else her father might have been doing while possessed by Germatoid.

The woman shrugged.  "War has cost.  I've put it behind me."  Her eyes then met Minako's squarely.  "And what of you, princess of Venus?  You recognise my mark somehow, which I find strange, given that the Darkstar clan was all but wiped out before the Prince's foolhardy attack."

Minako frowned.  Normally a subtle veil existed that protected her identity in civilian form, though that could have been cancelled out by the wards protecting this cell.  Except for the fact that this woman knew with confidence Minako's other title. 

And... Darkstar clan?  She didn't recognize the name, and would have puzzled over it had not the other woman continued on.  Prince?  The only enemy who carried that kind of title was—

Demando.

She didn't bother to hide the chill to her eyes.  Pharaoh Ninety was bad enough.  Demando literally threatened Earth's future.  It didn't matter the Prince died about fifteen years ago.  He would still exist a thousand years in the future.  Studying the blue-haired woman intently, Minako considered the spoken words.  Foolhardy attack, and said with contempt.  Interesting.

"You're from the future," she stated coldly, sitting back to put some space between them.  Setsuna, we're going to have a talk when I get out of this.  "Why.  To lay the groundwork for what will come?"

The woman shook her head.  "No.  I to escape the fate that was certain to befall myself and my unborn child and my brother to help us.  Nemesis is a harsh world, Princess Venus.  My clan rebelled against the ruling clan, and lost.  Sailor Pluto allowed us passage to a safe place on our word that we would cause no trouble for the people of this world."

Mentioning Pluto gave Minako pause.  The woman was lethally territorial when it came to trespassing her domain.  That the green-haired senshi allowed passage...  Pluto had her reasons and generally good ones.  Whether or not she shared them was a different story.  Still, Minako needed more answers, if nothing else for her own peace of mind.  And to withstand any blow-ups from certain pyro brunettes and/or butch blondes.

"Two questions.  The first: you aren't involved with an entity by the name of Pharaoh Ninety, are you?"

The woman looked confused at this.  "Who?" she asked, frowning.

...Well, that answered that.  Minako knew fake puzzlement.  The woman's was genuine.

"Second question: would this ruling family be the Black Moon clan?"  For clarification is never a bad thing.

"Yes," the woman said quietly.  "Demando, the Prince; Saffir, the Heir-Prince; Esmeraude, the Witch; Rubeus, the General."  There was a curious tone to her voice when she spoke of Saffir, mixed sorrow and fondness.

Minako tilted her head a little at how Saffir's name was said.  Intuition wondered if the two had been involved.  Not that it mattered beyond the fact the whole lot of them were dead.  As one famous British blonde once said, 'curiouser and curiouser.'

"I see," she said with equal quietness.  She rose to her feet.  "No one outside the soldiers know who I am.  I prefer to keep it that way.  You will call me Minako, and I will call you...?"

"Lapis Lazuli, or just Lapis."  The younger woman also rose, and tentatively offered her a hand.  "Minako – you have my word that my brother and I will cause no trouble to you and yours.  All we want is to be left alone."

Minako glanced at the proffered hand a moment too long before taking it.  "Then take my advice and don't come to Japan."  

She dropped the other woman's hand before going over to the bars to study the cell's lock.  Nothing out of the ordinary, just a simple lock.  Pity the bastards had managed to catch her unawares in her home.  Habit from her Sailor V days had her carrying at least something she could use to pick locks if she needed to get in or out of a place.  Not so much in the flimsy nightie she currently had on.  Damn.

"Minako..."

The senshi turned to see Lapis Lazuli smiling slightly, offering her hand again.

This time, it held hairpins.   Minako's answering smile was cold and predatory.