This time youma's target was a local cinema. The girls lured the monster to the building's roof while avoiding any injury to the visitors. By the time the Shitennou had joined the three girls, all immediate buildings have been evacuated as well. With them being in a more open and close to people place, they decided to apply the same strategy as the day before and were soon doing some damage to the youma while Sailor Mercury, with the help of Zoisite, looked for its weak spot. She soon found it to be the bat-like monsters right leg.

Sailor Jupiter quickly shot lighting through the leg and the monster screamed in pain, the sound waves breaking the nearest windowpanes and forcing the solders to cover their ears to avoid the painful noise. In the moment they were protecting themselves, the monster launched an attack on Sailor Jupiter finding her to be the culprit of its pain. The youmas claws were swinging down on her with all its force but Nephrite, seeing the danger, with a quick run pushed her out of the way, the inertia allowing him to almost escape as well. His actions were not fast enough and the monster caught his person, leaving a long gash along his left side and leaving Jupiter with a slight cut on her right side. With a few rolls away from the youma, they were lying on the roof face to face, lightly panting from the experience, while the other Shitennou quickly finished the youma with precise slashes to its vulnerable leg.

Jupiter could see the pain the tear was causing the man currently above her, with him supporting his weight on his elbows she could only imagine what the strain on his muscles around the gash must add to the pain, and her own cut was left in the back of her mind, worry turned towards her saviour. "Neph.." she whispered for only him to hear and she was taken aback by the look of surprise and hope that he was directing at her.

At that moment, despite the chaos that was around them just a few seconds ago, she understood why the hope was soon replaced with dismay. The Shitennou never told them who of the Sailor Senshi where their lovers in the past. The girls never knew the pairings. And now, Jupiter knew that the man who had just saved her was hoping she was remembering the past they had shared. She, or rather her past Sailor Jupiter, was his lover. Despite not having the shared feelings with the memories, he must have been longing for the kinship with another. With her.

Lightning shot through her cut and she screamed in pain. But the pain was not coming from the cut but rather from the assault of images invading her mind. Her instincts told her that the memories she long wished to have were surfacing. Was it this bad for Venus as well? She looked down at her cut and saw tiny lightning bolts healing her wound, jumping and stitching. She swallowed the pain of memories coming back caused and focused on changing the course of lightning to heal the man's wound. She put her hand next to Nephrites wound and willed her sparks to stop at least the blood loss. He was after all more injured than her.

The others, including Nephrite, were looking at the girl – her jaw clenched and sparks dancing around them but not hurting. Sailor Mercury whispered to herself, "I didn't know we could help healing others. Is she maybe..?!" She walked towards the pair and quickly did a scan. Her suspicions were confirmed, Jupiter's power ratings were spiking in a manner that almost was identical to the one they experienced with Sailor Venus. She had to stop Jupiter before she overtaxed herself and detransformed, Nephrite was fine, he only needed stitches now. She looked at Mars for help.

Sailor Mars had a feeling about the truth on current events (rolling her eyes at the involuntary pun) but the look from Mercury, full of worry, made her act. She crouched next to her friend, placed her hand on her shoulder and leaned to whisper in her ear, careful not to let Nephrite overhear her, "if you don't stop, you may expose us. And you still have that meeting later, you wouldn't want to miss that, would you?" Mars hoped that Jupiter may be too occupied not to realise that she might pass out and miss her plans for the near future, but it did stop her and Jupiter's hand now clutched her aching head and not the Shitennou's wound.

"I think we will be leaving now," she managed to say through clenched teeth.

Jadeite had an opinion of his own that was delivered with a slight smirk "but you two look so comfortable," and got smacked on the head by the person next to him which happened to be Sailor Mercury, and everyone were so shocked at the short girls unusual action that they decided to rather stay quiet and let the girls leave.

The four Shitennou watched as Sailor Mars helped Sailor Jupiter get on her feet and with a soft apology from the short bluenette the girls took off. When Zoisite was certain the girls were far enough, he decided to repeat the action of Sailor Mercury, causing Nephrite and Kunzite snicker at Jadeite's expression that was very similar to a pouting child. Zoisite sighed, "we should really work on your bedside manner."

Nephrite turned to lay on his back and with a laugh supplied his share to the conversation, "I bet Sailor Mars would have burned your clothes off." Jadeites reply was a whisper, "she actually once did it." At what all the men started to laugh, ignoring the reminder that their memories were sometimes a curse of loneliness if the relationships of their 'past' interfered with their future.

"Will you be able to get to your date in this condition?" Zoisite asked Nephrite as he helped him get up. Nephrite looked as his mostly healed injury and with a shrug replied, "I will just have to go easy and hope that she won't found out and start asking questions making me to lie. And it's not really a date." He looked at Kunzite hoping the man would not be against of Nathan still going, but the man just smiled at him already detransformed, and without a further word he turned and motioned for them to leave as well.


The girls arrived at the Temple without speaking and once safely within the ground detransformed. Lita examined her wound and finding it to be now just a scratch visibly relaxed. Rei looked at Ami and with a smirk said, "you know, I had the urge to burn Jadeite's pants, but I think your smack on the head might have been a better choice. It keeps the guys on their toes – thinking we are unpredictable." Ami rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and decided to stay quiet. Lita being Lita, decided to tease, "I wonder what Zoisite now thinks of the always calm Sailor Mercury, going around and slapping people heads."

"Litaaa! You know how embarrassed I am!? I don't even know why I did that, it just happened." Ami almost whimpered.

"It's probably just stress catching up." Rei supplied, "With what we are going through, it's no wonder you are acting out. But be careful, the next thing you know might be spanking a certain someone with a blond ponytail." She ended with a smirk and watched as Lita laughed aloud, and Ami decided that it would be best to not take it seriously and smiled at the tease.

"Are you girls having fun without me?" asked a voice and the girls turned to see a smiling Mina coming their way. "Before you start, I'm fine. No headache. I'm heading to the apartment and tomorrow we will have to find Serena and have a serious talk."

"I think I am getting back my memories, at least it started to happen, but now I don't feel any pain." Lita hurried to say, while answering the question that she could see Ami and Rei were very anxious to ask. "And believe it or not, but I am feeling very good at the moment."

"It will come in time," Mina only smiled, leaving an impression of wisdom that unsettled and eased the girls at the same time.

She hugged each of the girls, hushing their inquiries she felt are coming. "Lita, may I suggest to practice with pole like weapon? It might help with the memories. Rei, you might do well with a bow and arrow, while Ami might want to try out the small gymnastics balls – just to feel the shape and so." With the girls nods, Mina turned and left the Temple grounds heading towards Kennet's apartment, smiling to herself at the white lie about her destination.

"Before I start playing with… round objects – not a word Lita, not a word –," Ami emphasised pointing a finger at the already smirking Lita, who most certainly already had a list of innuendos to use, "I will try to sneak into the laboratory and use their microscopes for the crystal shards." Ami left, knowing the premises soon will close, leaving her alone and without distractions. Even if it meant breaking and entering.

After telling their goodbyes, Rei went to dress in the traditional priestess garbs and resolved to sit by the Great fire in hopes of another vision, or even her own set of memories. While Lita hurried to change clothes for her sparring with Nathan.


Following Mina's advice, Lita was now warming up with one of the poles in the training rooms, feeling the wooden piece to be oddly familiar and even comforting. She thought back on the fight with the youma earlier and tried to think of the headache and the images invading her mind that she could not recall anymore. She was so engrossed in the process that, with a harsh swing to the left, she almost hit Nathan. It was only his own wooden sword blocking the hit that avoided him getting hit on the injured side. In hindsight, he was grateful in thinking to take a weapon from the array of selection on the wall near the entrance, before approaching the skilful women in front of him.

"Ohh, sorry. I didn't notice you coming in." She apologised, lowering her choice of weapon.

"Well, Jack showed me where to go and when I saw your moves I decided to watch for a bit, so in your defence, I didn't even tell you I was here." He smiled at her and Lita could feel a smile blossoming on her lips as well.

"Jack?"

"Yes, we came together as he had some unfinished chores." Nathan explained. Lita just let her smile to fall into a knowing smirk.

"Should we continue?" Lita took a few steps back and assumed a defence position, prompting Nathan to be the one on offence. He beamed at her, and raising the wooden sword, went to deliver the first blow, starting their first sparring match, all the while making Lita wonder at his choice of weapon.

When they decided to take a few minute break, Lita wiped the perspiration from her forehead, wiping any wet strands of her hair from her face. She offered a bottle of water to Nathan and watched, while drinking her own, how Nathan was less influenced by their sparring than she was, and certainly sweating less than her. Damn, she had wished he would take off his shirt. Although its light blue colour and snug fit left little to imagination how lean and muscular the man in front of her really was.

"What about hand to hand?" She asked, taking a further sip of the water. Lita started to think what other activities could two sweaty bodies do, and choked on the water. Nathan was by her side in a short stride and patted her back. She blushed at her thoughts and also felt a bit worried, the images that had flashed in her mind were peculiar – starting from an unknown setting and ending with the view from the floor to ceiling length window. She was sure that instead of Moon she had a view of the Earth out of her bedroom window. Lita shook her head, dismissing the odd scenes.

"I'm fine, just excited, it's all." She told Nathan calmly, and after putting aside the towels and her water bottles, they returned to the centre of the room, her feet slightly dimpling the mattresses below and raised her hands in front of her, positioned her feet to have a lower centre of gravity, giving her more room to hold her balance, and prompted Nathan to be one on offensive.

When few minutes into their new workout regime, Lita noticed that Nathan was favouring his left side and Lita decided to take her return hits more on his right side. They kept the pace and she could only wonder how fluently they were responding to each other's movements, their fighting more like a dance. The touches sometimes electrically sensual. Or in some cases the looks he was sending her way, Lita was sure they were full with an almost carnal notion, something that in few instances unsettled her in so far to nearly make her loose her stance. If it continued like this, she was sure they would be ending on the floor with much more intimate dance moves.

She noticed an improvement in Nathan's movements, and added a bit more strength into her defences and Nathan allowed her to be on the offensive now. Lita continued her jabs, and kicks, building her move she intended to make at his left side, thinking it to be his weakness. Pushing the exciting feelings of near lust to the back of her mind. If he wished, they could talk romance after they were done for the day.

When an opening presented to her to land a kick to his left side, Lita did not hesitate and when her shin hit his left side, she was surprised to find Nathan on his knees clutching her attacking leg and at the same time his other arm raised to block any incoming punches. She saw his jaw flex as in pain.

"Are you okay?" She asked after stepping away from him and, looking at his side, saw a few red spots on his t-shirt, before he put a hand on his side. Nathan stood up and Lita's curiosity not wanting to stop made her push his hand away and pull up the shirt, exposing a long gash with stiches. A wound that wouldn't have bled if she hadn't made that move.

"It's nothing, just an accident." Nathan told her, but something in his voice made Lita look up, to look into his eyes. And there she saw his pleading not to ask any questions. She stood there, head turned upwards and a thought of how well suited his height was for her. Being the taller of her friends, she was not used to look up.

She looked back at the wound, "we should clean that up and put on some butterfly bandages." Lita told quietly while, on instinct, her hand reached out and ghosted over his wound. A lonely spark came from the wound and Lita inhaled sharply, her hand stopped, still hovering over the wound, and she whispered to herself, all the while, loud enough for Nathan to hear, "It looked like one of my sparks."

Nathan tensed. He was sure Lita could see and feel his whole body going rigid. And she still didn't move. His only thoughts concentrating on her whisper 'my spark'. The Shitennou knew that the possibility of meeting their soulmates in civilian forms was extremely rare, but then again, he knew how the fate could work. They had met the Senshi. And he was reunited with Sailor Jupiter, even if she had no past memories. What would be the odds that he already knew Jupiter's civilian form? Nathan only had to do one thing to test his theory, based on the knowledge his memories provided.

He slowly gripped her hovering hand and in one swift motion pressed it down on his wound. If his memories were correct, and he had never known them to lie before, Sailor Jupiter reacts, albeit mostly involuntary, to every wound she had healed when the injury had been treated in the past few hours. "Wha-…" Lita didn't have the chance to finish her question, not even the first word, when sparks flew from both Nathan's wound and her hand.

It took Lita only one set of inhale and exhale to fully understand what the scene before her implicated and she dared to look up at the man, who she now knew was none other than Nephrite. His next action was one you could expect of a man who had just realised the treasure that was in front of him. To pull the girl closer and kiss soundly on the lips.

The kiss was sweet and short, but not lacking passion. When it ended, Lita moved her palm away from the wound, revealing it to be fully healed. She looked at him in wonder and with her lips starting to form a smile, she fainted. Nathan was glad to be already holding her form, otherwise his Senshi would have been on the floor before he could have caught her numb body, his reaction at her fainting was that as of an unexpected surprise.


AN: I'm sorry for not being one that posts any updates regularly. I appreciate every follow and favor I receive in my inbox and will continue to finish this story, at the moment I have the rough outlines for the last 5 chapters, but then again this and the previous chapter started out as one chapter, so we'll see how this goes in the end.

All mistakes all my own, as I don't have a beta (as honestly, I don't know how you get one?!), and as you might have noticed, English is not my mother tongue. Which also might explain, partially, why I am so slow on updates. I am also currently very much into JAFF, ahhh the sins FFnet draws us in... ^.^