When Nephrite walked into the living room of Rei's quarters at the Hikawa Shrine, he saw that all the Senshi were there, except for Setsuna. They weren't in their Senshi forms, but looked ready to transform at the first sign of trouble. Chiba Mamoru was there, already in his guise as Tuxedo Mask, along with another young man with long, shaggy brown hair and a whiskery chin. Nephrite remembered him as Kumada Yuuichirou, Rei's boyfriend, temple doormat, sometime musician, and skilled martial-arts fighter. The eight women and two men looked suspiciously at the former Dark Kingdom Lords as they entered the room. Nephrite definitely got the feeling that if Jadeite, Kunzite, or Zoisite were do anything remotely threatening, their hosts would attack first and ask questions later. For that matter, he wasn't all that certain that he was trusted any more than they were.

Rei indicated some mats on the floor. After removing their shoes, the four Lords sat down on the mats, staring across the room at their assembled former enemies. At least, Nephrite hoped they were former enemies.

There was a long, hostile silence. Finally, Usagi spoke to Nephrite. "Okay, Nephrite, start talking. And this had better be good."

Despite himself, Nephrite smiled a little, remembering the other time Usagi had said those words to him.

"You remember?" she asked.

"Yes, very well. I remember when I was here three years ago, and all four of us remember the Silver Millennium," Nephrite replied. The other Lords nodded, seeming content to let him do the talking for now.

"Good," Usagi said. "So, tell me what's going on."

"That's what we want to know," Nephrite said. "As far as we know, we were dead--we were trapped in a dark place, like a net or a snare. I was there alone, then Zoisite came, followed by Kunzite and finally Jadeite. He must have died after the fall of the Dark Kingdom, when the magic that was keeping him alive inside the crystal was destroyed. We were all there, then all of a sudden we were falling, it seemed like, then we all woke up on the floor of my mansion with no idea what freed us or how we came back to life or why."

"Well, obviously, if you haven't figured it out by now, it's a surprise to us, too," Usagi said.

"And not a very pleasant surprise either," Rei added.

"Rei-chan, you know Nephrite's all right. He won't try anything."

"Maybe not, but I don't trust the other three."

"I'll vouch for them," Nephrite said. "We don't mean you any harm, and we're prepared to be allies again instead of enemies." As before, the other three Lords nodded their agreement with his words. "But you don't know how or why we've come back?"

"We don't have a clue," Usagi said.

"That doesn't mean much, when Usagi says she doesn't have a clue," Rei put in. Usagi stuck her tongue out at the black-haired girl. "So I'll say it. We don't have a clue."

"It wasn't you who brought us back, somehow."

The Senshi all shook their heads. "No."

"It looks like we'll just have to wait and see what happens, then," Nephrite said.

"I just hope we aren't in for any unpleasant surprises," Jadeite said. "Like Beryl coming back too." He shuddered, a haunted look in his eyes.

"You think that would be a bad thing?" Makoto demanded.

"We went with Beryl voluntarily... Somewhat voluntarily." Kunzite now spoke for the first time. "She made promises we finally couldn't resist, but she lied about what she expected of us in return. Serving her is not an experience any of us would care to repeat."

"We did things in her service that we... that we regret," Zoisite added. He glanced downwards, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Kunzite rested a hand on his shoulder.

"In that case," Tuxedo Mask said, "I suppose we can call a truce." He resumed his normal appearance as Chiba Mamoru.

"I'm glad that's settled," Usagi said.

After a short, uncomfortable silence, Nephrite asked, hesitantly, "How is Naru?"

There was another tense silence, during which the Senshi exchanged glances that made Nephrite suddenly wish he hadn't asked. "I don't know," Usagi finally said. "No one knows where she is."

"What?" Nephrite demanded.

"She had an argument with her mom a few weeks after you left, and moved out. She didn't tell anyone where she was going, and no one has heard anything from her since then."

Nephrite felt like something cold had hit him in the stomach. Naru missing... Anything could have happened to her. She could be dead, and he would never know.

Usagi took her purse and opened it. "All I can tell you about her is that I got this in the mail about a year ago. The envelope was postmarked 'Tokyo,' so she could still be somewhere in the city." There was a curiously sad, gentle look on her face as she held something out towards Nephrite, a small card or piece of paper. He reached and took it from her.

It was a studio photograph of a little boy, older than an infant but not quite a child. His tousled auburn hair and blue eyes made his paternity very clear. Nephrite's suddenly-numb fingers almost dropped the picture. He was barely aware of Jadeite, Zoisite, and Kunzite leaning over to see what he was holding, and of Jadeite's steadying hand pressing on his shoulder. He turned the photo over. On the back, in Naru's handwriting, it said, "Osaka Akeno, 16 months."

He finally found his voice. "That's what the fight with her mother was about." He had been so stupid. Young and stupid. He had always sort of understood that the maids and ladies-in-waiting he bedded had mysterious ways of dealing with the possibility of pregnancy, and it had never occurred to him to worry about it with Naru. Stupid. Naru, I'm so sorry.

"Mrs. Osaka basically said she didn't want to have to support Naru's baby," Usagi explained. "And that was when Naru left. When she didn't come home after a week or so, I went to Mrs. Osaka and told her the whole story, about the Senshi and the Dark Kingdom and you dying and coming forward in time and everything. I guess she believed me--especially after I transformed in front of her--because she said it was as good an explanation as any other for Naru's behavior. We put some personal ads in the papers and stuff like that, but Mrs. Osaka was too afraid that Naru would reject her. She wanted us to wait until Naru decided she wanted to be found. So far, she hasn't."

"Tokyo's a big place," Ami said. "If someone doesn't want to be found, it could be impossible to find them. Assuming she is in Tokyo."

Nephrite turned the picture over again and stared at his son. It could be that Naru was hiding from more than her mother. She could be hiding from painful memories, from loneliness, from any hint of her past. He wondered if she would want him to find her.

"We'll help you look for them, Nephrite," Jadeite said.

"I don't know if I should. Maybe it would be better if I left her alone... It seems like all I do is cause trouble for her," Nephrite said softly.

Usagi's cell phone rang from inside her purse. She made an annoyed face, but picked up the phone and answered it. "Hello... hello? Naru? What--?"

Nephrite looked sharply at Usagi. She put her forefinger to her lips, silencing him. "Naru, are you crying? What's wrong? I can't understand you... Oh, oh Naru..."

Please don't let anything have happened to the child, Nephrite thought. Please let my son be all right.

"Listen, Naru," Usagi said into the phone, speaking slowly and clearly. "Tell me where you are, and I'll send someone over to get you... It's okay, girlfriend. Why do you think I kept the same number for three years?" She fished a pen and slip of paper out of her purse. "...Look, it's okay. Don't worry. Just tell me where you are..." She scribbled on the paper. "Mm-hmm, okay, got it." Usagi held out the piece of paper to Nephrite, who grabbed it from her and ran out the door. Behind her he heard Usagi reassuring Naru, "You stay right there, someone's coming over right now to get you. It'll be okay."

The cross-streets that Usagi had written down were on the far side of the city, in an area of run-down apartment buildings interspersed with newer industrial parks. As Nephrite raced the Ferrari through the rain, he prayed that Naru would stay where she was instead of disappearing back into the vast city.

* * * * * * * *

What have I done? Naru thought, hanging up the phone. She had only meant to ask for some advice, not to be rescued. She wondered who was coming for her. Probably Mamoru; Naru had seen the wedding announcement in the newspaper in the factory lunchroom a few months ago. Lucky Usagi, who had kept from screwing up her life and now had her fairy-tale marriage to her handsome prince. Naru wanted to run away instead of facing her best friend with her spectacular failure, but she looked at Akeno, who was standing with his arms wrapped tightly around her leg, shaking and sniffling with his frightened sobs. This wasn't about her pride, Naru scolded herself. This was about making sure her child would have someplace to sleep tonight besides on a sidewalk in the rain.

She was the one who had messed up, she was the one who had failed, and Akeno shouldn't have to pay the price for that. For the first time, Naru thought that maybe she should have given him up for adoption after all. She wondered if it was too late; most people who adopted wanted newborns, but while she was in the hospital after her appendix burst, she had heard two of the nurses talking about someone's sister-in-law adopting a three-year-old. Maybe she could find someone who would want Akeno almost as much as she did.

"Come on, Sweet Pea." She picked up Akeno and walked out of the phone booth to the corner where she had told Usagi she would be waiting. They took shelter under an awning. Naru nestled her son close to her, trying to keep him warm. How could she think of giving up her child? She loved him so desperately, and he was all she had of Nephrite. But she couldn't take care of him. That was very clear. He should have a preschool where the teachers were kind and the room was bright and sunny and there were plenty of fun toys and activities. He should have a real bed to sleep in, and warm clothes, and decent food, and a father, and a mother who wasn't constantly on edge from worrying. He deserved so much more than she could ever give him. Naru started to cry again. She slid down the wall to the sidewalk, holding Akeno close, and sobbing. "I'm so sorry, baby, I'm so sorry..." She wondered if anyone else could love the little boy the way she did, but clearly love wasn't enough. It was all she could offer him, but it wasn't nearly enough.

* * * * * * * *

Nephrite pulled the Ferrari alongside the curb near the intersection and slammed on the brakes. He crossed the street to the corner where the phone booth was and looked up and down the sidewalk for Naru. Finally he spotted a shadow huddled on the sidewalk under an awning, and ran towards it. It was Naru, sitting on the sidewalk. Her right forearm was encased in a heavy cast. She held a child cradled close against her chest, her face buried in his thick hair. Both she and the child were crying. They were soaking wet from the rain. Nephrite crouched down in front of them and gently touched Naru's face. "Naru-chan," he said.

She looked up abruptly. Her tear-reddened eyes, wide with shock, met his.

"It's all right, now, Naru-chan. I'm here now."

She started trembling hard, and clutched the child closer against her. The boy reacted by squirming in her arms to get a look at him.

"I've come to take you home, Naru-chan." He spoke softly, soothingly, as one would to a frightened animal that might suddenly flee or turn dangerous. "Come with me."

"Nephrite?" she finally asked, her voice hoarse from tears and barely audible.

"Yes, it's me. It's all right, now."

"But... how did you... you're back again?"

"Yes. It doesn't matter how. I'm here, and I want to help you and our son. Will you come with me?"

She didn't answer, but she also didn't resist as he took the little boy from her. Holding his son in one arm, Nephrite took Naru's good hand with his free hand and helped her up. "Mama!" the child wailed, reaching for Naru.

She looked at the boy. "It's all right, Akeno-kun." Her voice was very soft and even, as though she were in shock. Which she probably was, Nephrite reflected. He would still have to tread carefully. "It's all right. That's your papa."

"Papa?" Akeno asked, still hiccupping slightly from his sobbing.

"Yes, Akeno-kun," Nephrite said as, leading Naru by the hand, he began walking back to his car. "I'm your papa." The words sounded unreal as he said them.

He buckled Akeno into one of the small jump seats in the back of the car, then helped Naru into the passenger seat and went around to the driver's side. Unlike earlier, when he had raced through the streets to find Naru and his child, he now drove with exquisite carefulness.

Finally, as they neared the Hikawa Shrine, Nephrite sensed that perhaps Naru had relaxed enough to be able to talk to him. She was still staring silently out the side window, but the set of her shoulders was less tense. "I'm so sorry, Naru. I never thought, when we... spent that night together, what might happen."

"I was thinking of giving him up for adoption," she said quietly. "I don't want to, I love him so much, but I just can't take care of him."

"You don't have to give him up, Naru. I'm here now."

She stared out the window and didn't say anything.

"What happened?" Nephrite asked after a short silence. "Why were you out there on the sidewalk in the rain?"

"Are you taking me to where Usagi is?"

"Yes."

"I'll tell you when we get there. Usagi will want to know, too, and I don't want to have to keep telling it. Okay?"

"Okay." He reached over and patted her knee. She flinched slightly at the touch, but didn't pull away.

"Mama," Akeno's small voice said from behind the front seats.

"What is it, Sweet Pea?" There was suddenly more life in Naru's voice than there had been when she was talking to Nephrite.

"Mama, I in a car."

"I know, Akeno-kun. You're in a car. You're in Papa's car."

"Papa's car."

Naru faced forward, leaning her head back against the seat's headrest. New tears trickled down her face, but she seemed to be smiling. "He's always wanted to ride in a car. This is his first time in a car, Nephrite. Even when I first brought him home from the hospital, we rode the bus." She covered her face with her good hand and started crying again.

Nephrite glanced into the back, where Akeno was. His son was sitting up straight, looking around, his eyes wide and shining with the reflected lights of the city street. Nephrite smiled to himself as he turned his attention back to the traffic.