The first thing Tripitaka was aware of was the sound of water.

She looked up at the ceiling of rock above her head before turning in a circle to observe her surroundings. The cave she was standing in was large, with a large waterfall cascading down in front of the wide entrance. The water acted like a curtain, though Tripitaka was able to catch a glimpse of the outside world. From what little she could see, she guessed she was somewhere on the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers.

"Monkey, this is… You know we can't do this."

Tripitaka turned towards the familiar voice. Monkey and Cada were sat on a rock towards the back of the cave, facing one another. Their close proximity to one another was enough of an indication that the two Gods were more than just friends.

It had never even occurred to her until now that Monkey may have been in love once. She'd certainly never read anything that hinted at it.

Monkey smirked and moved in closer, his nose brushing against hers. "The Monkey King can do whatever he wants."

"But I'm a War Maiden!" Cada hissed, as if she was afraid of being overheard.

A War Maiden. That explained why she was wearing men's clothes, Tripitaka realised. The Scholar had taught her about the War Maidens of Jade Mountain; Goddesses who were trained in warfare, but had sworn an oath to remain virgins for as long as they bore swords. If they broke that oath, they would be disgracefully discharged.

Perhaps that was why she was never mentioned. She and Monkey couldn't be together.

"Then stop being one," said Monkey.

Cada shook her head. "In case you forgot, the reason I became a War Maiden in the first place was because Jin wanted to marry me, and this was the only way I could get out of the Higher Gods arranging the match without my say so. Even now, Jin just keeps… staring at me. I'd kick his butt if I was allowed to."

"Can I kick it for you?"

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the smile that broke through her annoyance. "My point is, if I left the War Maidens, he'd snatch me up faster than I can snap my fingers." She did just that for emphasis.

Monkey scoffed. "Like you would let him. Besides, I can just challenge him for your hand."

"The Master wouldn't allow it. You know that. Jin is a higher-ranking God than you."

He took her hands in his and squeezed them gently. "Then this is the only way we can be together. In secret."

Cada sighed. "Monkey…"

Before she could continue, Monkey swooped in and stole a kiss. The Goddess didn't fight him, and responded in kind.

Tripitaka couldn't tear her eyes away, no matter how much she wanted to. Though she hadn't meant to, she was intruding on a private moment between two lovers, and just being there felt wrong. She couldn't understand why she was being shown this. What were these memories trying to tell her?

And why did her lips feel warm? Like she was the one being kissed?

She was pulled from her thoughts when Cada pushed Monkey away. "Seriously, do you know how much trouble we'll get into if we're caught?"

"I can't believe you just said that to me," said Monkey, with a look that screamed 'do you even know who I am?'

Before Cada could make any more arguments, Monkey kissed her again. Her entire body relaxed, and Tripitaka knew that the Goddess had given up on arguing. It was clear that her love for Monkey had overridden her sense of duty.

Monkey started kissing down Cada's neck as the pair laid themselves down on the rock, with on top of her. Realising what was about to happen, Tripitaka screwed her eyes shut and willed herself away.

When she opened her eyes again, she was lying under a starry sky in the middle of the forest with her friends around her. She sat upright and looked around at the familiar camp they had set up hours ago; the fire had shrunk, and both Pigsy and Sandy were fast asleep.

Monkey was sat close by, wide awake and leaning against his staff. Upon sensing her wake, he turned towards her. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah." Tripitaka nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Is it nearly sunrise?"

"Soon." Monkey nodded to the east, where the first rays of light were starting to peak over the horizon and block out the light of the stars. "You should get some more sleep."

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep again now," she said. It was possible she might be able to drift off again for another hour or two, but she didn't want to get caught up in another memory, or vision, or whatever it was she was seeing.

She sighed. Would it be a good idea to tell Monkey about what she was seeing? On the one hand, the fact that he'd never mentioned Cada before probably meant he didn't want to talk about her. She didn't want to bring up any potentially painful memories before he was ready to discuss them.

But on the other hand, it still felt wrong that she was intruding on his personal life without his permission. Tripitaka knew she'd already seen way more than Monkey probably wanted her to, and keeping him in the dark about it felt even worse. He deserved to know that she knew.

Making her decision, she picked herself up and walked over to Monkey, taking a seat beside him. He smiled at her, and for a moment she almost changed her mind. She was certain that when she told him what she'd seen, that smile would vanish. But she reminded herself that this wasn't fair for him, so pushed herself for go for it. She just needed to figure out how to tell him.

"Do you remember when you got trapped in your own mind, and I had to get you out?" she asked. He nodded in acknowledgement and frowned, clearly wondering where she was going with this line of conversation. "Well… I think I might still be connected to you somehow. I don't know how or why, and it only started happening recently so I don't know why it waited for so long to start happening…"

"Tripitaka." He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Start from the beginning."

She nodded and took in a deep breath. "I'm seeing your memories. I've only seen two so far; the first one was on the night of the fire, the second one just now."

"What did you see?"

The girl braced herself and said, "Cada."

Monkey instantly tensed up. He removed his hand from her shoulder and turned away, staring dead ahead. "Oh."

"I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose," Tripitaka told him. "I don't even know why I'm seeing these memories, since they're not even mine."

"You're entering Memory Space," said Monkey. "A state of being where all memories are stored. Gods can enter it at will. Some demons with magic capability can too, like the Shaman. And I've heard of great human sages achieving the ability, as well."

Tripitaka shook her head. "I'm not a sage."

"But you're a great human. Same thing." He said it as if it was a fact of life, like the sky being blue. "Stop acting like you want people to be angry with you. I'm not mad, because this isn't your fault."

Her whole body relaxed, and she realised she hadn't even noticed how she'd been holding her breath, waiting for him to explode or dismiss her as unimportant. "It still felt like I was intruding on something… special."

"She was," said Monkey. "But I don't wanna talk about it. Probably best you watch things play out yourself."

Knowing that was all he was going to say on the matter, Tripitaka chose to sit quietly beside him and watch the sun rise above the trees.