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Conan peered out from the kitchen window, towards the tree. It'd been nearly four days since Dhee had followed Jeane through the portal, and nothing had been heard from him since.

"You wanna follow?" Rene asked, scrubbing a dish. Mignon was drying plates, and she looked at Conan with large eyes.

"Can we go get Mommy?" She whispered. Conan frowned, turning away.

"I-I don't know." He said quietly. "Mommy told us to stay here."

"A week ago, she told us to stay here." Rene replied, flicking her wet hands into the sink. Grabbing a towel, she hopped down from her step stool. "I think we should go."

"Find Mommy!" Mignon agreed.

"We're just a bunch of kids!" Conan argued. "We'll get killed!"

". . ."

"Sure, fine." Rene brandished the dishtowel at him. "Just abandon her!"

". . ."

"Dhee told me to take care of everyone!" Conan cried. "I can't let anyone get hurt!" Conan paused. "Where's Mignon?"

"She went out back." Rene replied, putting the dishtowel down. "We're going to get Jeane. You can come if you want." The angel gave her wings a shake and started down the stairs.

Conan sighed and reached up for Daisuke, who was sitting on his head. "What do you think?"

With uncharacteric firmness Daisuke replied: "Go after her."

The boy sighed again. "Fine." Grumbling slightly to himself, he clomped down the stairs and stopped by the greenhouse to tell Lilac they were leaving. The flower girl blinked at him once or twice, then went back to grooming her flowers.

The group surronded the tree. Conan reached for both Rene and Mignon's hands. The onion girl shot him a supportive smile. "Everything will be fine." She assured him. Rene gave his hand a firm squeeze.

He took a deep breath and fell towards the tree. An electric feeling ran through his body, making him shake. When it stopped, he gasped and surveyed his surroundings. They were in a large hallway lit by torches. They could hear a loud, female voice ringing. Mignon perked up.

"Mommy!" She breathed, running towards the voice. Rene reached out and grabbed her.

"Wait." She warned, frowning. "Let's look closer, first." Gripping Mignon's hand, she crept down towards the voice.

"That's... Not Jeane." Daisuke said, shuddering and gripping Conan's hair. Indeed, no matter how much the sweet, young voiced sounded like their mother, the words that were said could not have came from her mouth.

"It was so easy to get you here!" Her laugh was nothing like Mom's, Conan thought. It was mean. "All I had to do was wait for your stupid guardian to come back. And catching him was oh so easy. All I had to do was get him to scream a few times, and you came running." It sounded like someone kicked someone else, and a low moan followed. Rene stiffened, knowing who made the moan.

"We're in trouble." She thought, eyes widening. She looked over at Conan and Mignon, biting her lip. I was the one who pushed them to come. "Well." She said out loud, softly. "Shall we go?" Conan, being the largest, held onto both girl's hands and walked though the door.

A strange sight awaited them. Jeane, her eyes narrowed, stared at them. Bob lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood, Pepito was tied up beside him, Dhee was wrapped in chains, halfway into his dragon form, and there was a human sized wooden doll.

It was Jeane who spoke. She spoke slowly, as if choosing her words carefully. "Kill the boy first." She said, extending a finger towards Conan. Mignon screamed something intelligible, and Rene thrust herself in front of the boy. Not a moment too soon, it seemed, because an arrow caught in one of her chains.

"Aren't you a brave little dear?" Jeane asked, hand over her mouth. "Fine. Shoot a will, men."

Now, her plan might have worked, if the doll hadn't lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Jeane's throat. She started to splutter and choke, grasping at the unrelenting wood.

The archers didn't seem to know what to do, because no more arrows rained down upon the trio. "Come on!" Conan hissed, pulling the girls towards Pepito and Dhee. Rene went to work on the chains while Conan and Mignon tugged off the rope. Chains gone, Dhee let out a roar and charged Jeane and the doll. Pepito whimpered and gathered the bady injured fairy in her arms.

"I think we should get out of here." Conan whispered. Bob blinked blearily.

"Why is it that every time I see you, you're getting hurt?" Rene asked gently.

"Shut up." He mananged to force out.

"Well, we've got Bob and Pep, Dhee, Jeane is locked in mortal combat with a doll-"

"No, Jeane is locked in moral combat with herself." Pepito ammended gently.

"Uh, okay. Mignon's here, I'm here, Rene's here, Dai's-" Conan patted his hair, but the tiny boy wasn't there. "Homigod." He breathed.

"He's over there." Mignon said, pointing at Dhee, Jeane, and, uh, Jeane. If Conan looked hard enough, there was a little green dot in Dhee's hair.

"Jeane's going to kill me." He whimpered.

"Archers! Fire!" Jeane screamed.

"Let's make with the running now!" Pepito cried, standing and dashing for the door as fast as possible, considering she was carying about two hundred pounds of dead weight. The three children followed her, and Dhee, Daisuke, and the doll came after them a few moments later. Howling like banshees, the group reached the gate and found themselves in a large pile of arms and legs in the backyard.

"Bob, you alive?" Dhee's voice, heavily muffled, asked from the bottom of the pile.

"Mmmph." The fairy grunted.

"That's encouraging. Pep?"

Her voice was pained. "I think... Your elbow's in my stomach." She said, heaving. Dhee apparently corrected that, because she sighed.

"Co?"

"Here." Conan said, reaching for his glasses.

"Rene?"

"I think my chain busted Mignon in the mouth."

"It did." The onion girl was near tears.

"Daisuke?"

"Mmminyrrhrrr!" A tiny, very muffled voice said. Dhee reached in his hair, untangled the relequiant, and brought him up for air.

"Jeane?"

Silence.

"Jeanie, love?"

"ITHOUGHTITOLDALLOFYOUNOTTOFOLLOWME!" She howled, forcing her way to the top of the pile. Conan stared at her, wide eyed. Not because of her rage, but because one of her arms was made out of wood. As her chest heaved with angry breathing, the arm slowly turned back into flesh.

". . . Dhee followed you first." Mignon said, meekly. "An' there weren't any adult's no more. We were worried."

"Yeah, yeah." She growled. "I think we all need to get inside, get checked over, and get to bed." Jeane gently helped Pep prop up her brother and move him into the house.

"There's a lot about that I didn't understand." Conan said, taking Daisuke from Dhee.

"Why?" The little man asked, smoothing his hair down. But Mignon gasped, stars in her eyes.

"If you love something enough, it'll be real!" She squealed, chasing after her mother.

Well, it has taken more time than it should have, but little Mignon has finally grown into... uh... bigger little Mingon! Right. Anyway, now her blond hair seems to have become overly curly, and ties up into pigtails. Complete in a leotard and ballet shoes, she looks just about ready to dance onto the stage and sing her heart out!

July 21st

Well, Mignon had her first ballet lesson today. I think she liked it, but you never really know with her. If I tell her no, she'll just go off and ask Dhee. All she has to say is "Daddy" and he'll do just about anything. He bought her a cell phone, for Christsake. At least I can get ahold of her now, since I'm not getting up to take her to the HQ.

Unfortunatly, for all her talent and charm, she's nearly illeterate, and her writing is worse than mine. So, I guess I can't foster her journal off on her yet. I really need to sit down and teach her. Reading is so important.

Recent Playdates

Rage

It was usually a good thing when Mignon went silent. That usually ment she was asleep or otherwise occupied.

Mignon was occupied, all right. She was staring out the window at Bob and Pep, who were loading up Bob's car. They were leaving, moving away. Because of Jeane.

"Stupid." She growled, resting her forehead on the window. She blinked away the tears in her eyes and scowled. Jeane wouldn't make her cry again.

Why did it have to be Pep that left? She was the only cool adult in the house. Dhee was too easily manipulated, Jeane was bitchy as hell, and Bob was grouchy.

But Pep, she was great. Pretty, nice, smart, and she could play instruments. But then Stupid Jeane had to get into a fight with Bob and yell at him to get out. And he was driving away.

"They'll be back after we remoddle the house to give them enough room." Jeane said, laying her hand on Mignon's shoulder. She shrugged it off.

"Leave me alone." Her tone was flat. Jeane replaced the hand.

"Don't use that tone with me." She warned. Mignon turned her head and glared at the woman.

"Shut up, stupid!" The words came out forcefully, having been kept in for too long. Jeane's grip on her shoulder tightened considerabally.

"Excuse me?" She asked, tone icy.

"You heard me. You're stupid. You made Bob and Pito leave. I hate you." Jeane's hand moved from Mignon's shoulder to her ear.

"I won't have you talking to me like that." Jeane said firmly, giving her ear a yank. Mignon squealed and punched at her.

"Leave me alone, b***h!" She squealed, using what was probably Kilah's favorate word. That got her a smack in the mouth.

"You do not say that in this house!" Her mother snapped. Mignon retaliated in the best way she knew, to punch. Unfortuantly, the only area on her mother open to punching was her stomach.

The next thing Mignon knew, she was staring eye-to-eye with her Mother, dangling from Jeane's arm by her throat. Jeane marched to the girl's room and tossed the girl onto her bed.

"Grounded untill further notice." She snapped, slamming the door.

"Fine, b***h! I'll stay in here and tear everything up!" Mignon screamed, throwing a shoe at the door. Every curse she had learned streamed out of her mouth untill she was exhausted. Mignon flopped down onto her bed and bawled into her pillow.

Life wasn't fair.

Recent Playdates

Day out

Blonde curls bounced cheerfully as the girl they were attached to skipped up the mall halls. Her mother, one hand resting on her large stomach, followed about ten feet behind her.

"Come on, slow poke!" Mignon cried, slowing her skipping slightly. Jeane scowled and muttered threats under her breath. She didn't even attempt to quicken her pace. Her feet could only take so much abuse.

"Remember, pick something up for Dai while we're out. His birthday's soon." Jeane managed to call after the happy little girl. Mignon rolled her eyes and sighed. Parents allways had to bring up unimportant things.

"Fine, whatever." Mignon hurried ahead towards one clothing store. Jeane followed, now about twenty feet behind.

Of course, by the time Jeane caught up, Mignon had begged one of the cosmetic ladies to apply just a touch of makeup to her face. Jeane scowled down at the girl.

"What are you doing?"

"Being good and staying out of your hair." The onion girl blinked up. The two stared at each other for about a minute.

"Right. I'll be in the food court." Jeane waddled out. Mignon beamed and let the lady put more lip gloss on her.

After about ten minutes of getting dolled up, Mignon strolled down towards the food court. When she was about twenty feet away from the destination, she stopped rather quickly. There was something in her way that delighted her to no end. A jewlery cart. Not only that, but it offered ear peircing. She tapped her chin once or twice, trying to figure out how to make this all work. Jeane had refused to allow her to get her ears peirced.

"Hi, Lady!" Mignon said to the woman in charge, smiling brightly. "I'm here to get my ears peirced!"

"I'm sorry, sweetie. You need to have a parent's permission."

"I do!" Mignon pointed at Jeane, who was sipping a soda. "See, that's my Mommy! She's kinda fat now, 'cause there's a baby in her tummy. She doesn't like to move. Plus," She made her eyes as wide as possible, "Mommy said that if she saw me bleed and if I cried, it would just break her heart!"

Jeane had spotted the girl. Mignon waved big, smiling. Frowning slightly, Jeane waved back. Mignon turned towards the lady.

"She's so worried about me. She's the best Mommy, ever!" The woman frowned, but scooped Mignon up onto the chair. She picked out a pair of gold studs and winced only slightly when they peirced her ears. She paid the lady and slid over to where Jeane rested.

Her reaction was as expected.

"Daaaaaddy!"

Dhee cringed slightly and peered over his shoulder. Mignon stood there, eyes wide and bright. "Hello, sweetie. What do you want now?"

Her eyes widened even more. "Oh, Daddy, do I need to want something? I just wanted to tell you that I love you!" She hugged his tail and smiled up at him.

"That's wonderfull, darling." He reached over and ruffled her hair. "I love you too."

"Of course you do. I'm beautiful." She snugged closer to him and smiled up. "But do you know what would make you love me even more?"

"If you would stop spending my gold?"

"No, silly!" Mignon gigged and dimpled at him. "I went to ballet class the other day, and Muffy had on this totally awesome dress! It was blue, with sparkles, and it was just so pretty..." She sighed, but her eyes turned hard quickly. "And she just looked at me, like she was all that. So, I want a dress that is prettier than hers. Now."

The two stared at each other for a moment. Dhee quickly caved. "All right, baby. Where do you want to go?"

She sighed, happily. "This is why I love you. You know me so well!"

* * *

"Well, I like this one, but this one is pretty too.... And I do need a new leotard... Pink suits me well, don't you think?" Mignon said, peering over her shoulder at herself in the mirror. She posed, hands on her hips, and smiled at her reflection. "What do you think, Daddy?"

"You look good." He replied. Mignon smiled happily. He was well trained.

"I think... This one!" She picked out a pink dress with a poofy pink skirt, covered in gauzy material and pearls. "This'll show that stupid buck-toothed brat." A rather smug look stole across her features as she posed. "I want the pink leotard, too. And the ruffle." Mignon though that 'tutu' sounded stupid. Therefore, they were known as 'ruffles'.

"Fine." Dhee agreed, scooping the clothes up. He walked up to the counter, a slightly unfocused look on his face. It was the easiest way to block out Mignon's self-absorbed chatter. The dress was boxed and the two set out from the store, Mignon still chattering.

"Oh!" She cried, suddenly. Dhee grimaced. "Look, Daddy!" Her hand tugged on the sleeve of his tunic as she pointed. It was one of those glitter batons, in the window of a toy store. "I like it. It's shiny, and pink. It would go well with my dress, and I could be a Fairy Princess!"

Dhee handed her his money pouch. "Just go get it."

A big grin. "I love you."

***

Muffy was laughing in the center of their ballet class when Margret, her best friend, went quiet and pointed over her shoulder. She looked at the door to spot Mignon, dressed in a poofy pink gown. With her curly blonde hair cascading down her back, she looked like Rapunzel, or Cinderella. The oddly eared girl smirked over at Muffy.

"Hello, dear!" She called with a wave, sashaying over. "How do you like my dress?"

It was beautiful. She looked like a princess. Muffy said the only thing she could.

"It looks horrible on you, with your unatural skin tone. You'd look better in black, Ugly." The rest of her friends laughed as Mignon's face went blank. Muffy turned around to giggle with them. Once again, Margret was silent, staring at Mignon with a horified look on her face.

The look on the onion girl's face was awful. Her ears were pulled down, her eyes were gleaming with malice. The shiny pink baton rested at her side for only a minute before she swung it, like a baseball bat, at Muffy's knee. The girl squealed as the metal end cut into the back of her knee, spraying blood on Mignon's pretty dress. She glared down at Muffy, then smirked.

"Don't you ever call me ugly again, b***h." She rested the baton on her shoulder and smiled happily, even when the other parents swirled around her.