Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Dragon or any of its characters. The OC in this story is my own creation, and cannot be used without my permission.

Hey guys, long time no see! And as you can see here, it's a brand new chapter of Blue Dragon!

I'm sorry for waiting so long to post another chapter. This fanfiction was just never really a big focus of mine. But once I got back to writing it, I realized that I had a lot of fun actually sitting down and remembering the days when I actually binged Blue Dragon. It almost made me want to watch it all again. I might watch a couple of episodes, just to get a refresher on the world and things like that.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I'm thinking about writing a lot more again!

"I'm so lost, maro!" Marumaro shouted towards the sky. Saber Tooth Tiger appeared next to him.

"You do know that I could just hover above the forest and find our way out, right?"

"No, I can't do that, maro! I have to be strong and do this by myself, maro!"

"You're just being stubborn!"

"No I'm not, maro!"

This argument lasted a long time. It was just Marumaro and Saber Tooth Tiger throwing insults at each other, and pointing out each other's flaws. But after a while, Marumaro ran out of breath, and Saber Tooth Tiger claimed victory.

"I just want to get to Jebral, maro." Marumaro complained. He placed his back against a tree and slid down until he was sitting on the ground. Then he let out a long and whiny sigh.

"I'm going to hover over the forest, then I bet I can see where we are going."

"No, You can't, maro!" But even though Saber Tooth Tiger was essentially part of Marumaro, he could not stop him from doing what he wanted. Saber Tooth Tiger ended up hovering over the forest.

"What do you see, maro?" Saber Tooth Tiger hovered back down, a frown plastered to his face.

"Absolutely nothing." Marumaro started to cry waterfalls.

"We're completely lost and alone, maro!" Or at least they thought that they were. Both of them heard a rustle in the woods, which caught both of their attentions.

"Who's out there, maro?" Marumaro shouted, like he usually does.

"We're ready to attack!" Saber Tooth Tiger added. There was a slight whistling sound. Then Marumaro started to feel a little woozy.

"Wow, look at all of the Saber Tooth Tigers! I didn't know there was five of you, maro…"

"Are you okay? Oi, Marumaro. Marumaro!"

But Marumaro was no longer paying attention to Saber Tooth Tiger. He was too busy eying the slim figure off in the distance. Then, everything went to black.

Shu had issued a search. They needed to find Marumaro. Shu knew him. He could get lost very easily. And even though he has Saber Tooth Tiger, that doesn't really mean that he's able to protect himself all by himself.

"Maybe we're overreacting. Maybe he's just taking his time." Rita said with a hopeful smile. But Shu didn't buy it. He knew Marumaro too well. He turned to everyone, and like he always tended to do, he took the role of leader.

"Alright, we need to split up into groups! Kluke, you come with me,"

"Who made you boss! What if I don't want to come with you?" Kluke complained. This hurt Shu, but he hid it as bet as he could.

"Fine, you can go with Zola then!"

"Fine!"

"Good! Jiro, you're coming with me."

"Right." Jiro didn't complain. After the long travels that they've had together, they've learned to accept each other as friends. Of course, the two still had their silly quarrels every now and then.

"Bouquet, you go with Rita. Keep her safe!"

"Aw, why can't I go with you honey?" Bouquet whined.

"What is with you girls and complaining?" Shu quired aloud. Big mistake.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kluke injected.

"Kluke, we don't have time for this!"

"Argh! C'mon Zola, let's go find stupid Marumaro!" Kluke scoffed, stomping away. Zola looked utterly confused, but did end up following Kluke. Rita smiled and waved her arm forward.

"C'mon, Bouquet! Let's go find Marumaro!" Shu couldn't help but think that she looked so cute doing that. He shook his head. Stop it, you don't even know her…I think.

He looked over at Jiro, who nodded. They were ready to go as well. The three groups all went in their separate directions, off to look for the little Devee, who was always getting into trouble.

Kluke was stomping the whole time. She couldn't believe that Shu would say such things. Even though Zola was walking right next to Kluke, she didn't want to talk about it with her. She couldn't trust her. She wanted to trust her so bad. But she just couldn't. Kluke was trying really hard to keep the tears back. Zola had definitely noticed.

"I'm sorry," Zola said, quietly, but loud enough for Kluke to hear. Kluke suddenly stopped stomping.

"What?"

"I said I'm sorry." Zola said a little louder.

"For what?"

"Everything. I did terrible things in the past. I promise, there will be a time when you can trust me again. I promise."

Kluke was speechless. She didn't want Zola to feel bad. But as she thought about it more, more rage started to build up.

"You should be sorry! Do you know how much you hurt Shu? A lot!"

"Funny, you were just mad at him a couple of seconds ago." Zola pointed out. It was true. It was the whole reason she was stomping around instead of walking normally.

"Yeah, well, Shu makes me mad a lot. He's just stupid and dense."

"But he's brave, and not afraid to do what he thinks is right. You should give him a little more credit."

Kluke wanted to be done with this conversation, so she started to walk a little faster. She guessed that Zola got the message, because she didn't bring it back up again.

After a while of walking, they both decided to take a break.

"It feels like we've been walking for a while now, I wonder where we are?"

"I don't know, but I think we deserve a rest, don't you?"

"Yeah, I guess we do." Kluke said, ending that conversation. They both sat up against the same tree, one of them on either side. Kluke was about to doze off, when suddenly she heard a rustling noise.

"Did you hear that?" she asked Zola.

Zola just nodded, looking about to see if she could find the thing that made the noise. After about a minute, they both just assumed it was an animal. Kluke then again tried to sleep, but heard the rustling noise one again. This time she stood up and shouted, "Who's there?"

No answer. Then she heard a small whistling noise. Was someone trying to shoot something at her. She heard the noise once again, and whatever it was, hit her this time. She started to feel a little woozy. Eventually, she got the nap she deserved, but not in the way that she wanted. The last thing she saw was Zola falling to the ground.

Jiro was running. He was ahead of Shu, but only by a little. Shu had gotten a lot better since the last time he had saw him. His speed had definitely increased, and later, he would have to have a battle with him to see if his combat skills were getting better as well. But Jiro didn't want to battle using shadows. He wanted a true hand-to-hand battle.

Although he was happy that he had Minotaur back, he still heavily relied on his own combat skills. It's why he trained so much. And Shu needed to learn how to do so as well.

"Jiro," Shu called, snapping him out of his thoughts, "I think that if we keep going this way, we're just going to hit another town!" Shu pointed out. Jiro thought about the statement for a moment. It was true. He knew these forests very well. And if they kept going in the same direction all of the time, they were going to just find another town. And Shu insists that he's definitely not in a town.

"Fine, then we'll start going this way," Jiro decided, running towards the his left. Shu followed. But something didn't feel right. Jiro looked around. He had been here before. Something changed. He stopped running for a moment. Shu ended up running right past him before slowing himself down.

"Jiro, we don't have time for this!" Shu complained. Jiro had just decided to ignore him. He looked around and noticed that they were standing in a clearing. A clearing that wasn't there before. Someone had been here. There were a few stumps scattered across the place.

Snap. The sound of a twig breaking. Jiro swung around, searching for the culprit. Nothing. It might've just been an animal, but there weren't really any animals in these parts of the woods.

"Jiro!" Shu called again. Although Jiro wanted to investigate more, Marumaro was his friend. He was first. They continued in the new direction that Jiro choose. It was very uneventful for the most part, Jiro and Shu didn't really talk to each other. It was a little weird for Jiro, working with Shu. Ever since the first time that he met Shu, there was always a burning hatred for him. But as time went on, Jiro started to feel as though they were being followed.

"Shu, do you sense it too?" Jiro dare asked.

Shu just gave Jiro a quizzical look. "Sense what?" was his answer. A vein popped out, Jiro was sure of it. In return, he stopped once again. He looked around. There was something odd about the place they were standing in. Were they going in circles? Jiro was fairly certain that this was the same clearing that he had encountered before.

"Shu, we've already been here," Jiro pointed out, just in case Shu didn't recognize it, which was probably the case. Shu looked around. He started to think. Jiro could see the wheels turning in his head.

After a while, Shu finally said, "Really?" Jiro facepalmed. There was no way Shu was this stupid. "'Cause this place looks pretty unfamiliar." Well, he was.

Jiro tried his hardest not to start beating Shu senseless.

Snap. Another twig snapping. Jiro unsheathed the sword on his back.

"Keep your guard up." That was the one thing that Jiro didn't need to say to Shu. He was already in a battle stance. Maybe he wasn't as stupid as Jiro thought.

"Right," Shu said anyway, giving a nod of acknowledgement.

For a while, they just stood there in their battle stance. There was whistling sounds, but Jiro couldn't quite figure out where they were coming from.

"Jiro," Shu said, his voice a little wobbly.

"Shu, don't lose concentration!" Jiro ordered. But it was much too late.

"There are so many stars!" Shu said.

"Shu? What are you talking about, it's not even sunset yet. Sh…..uuuuu." Jiro didn't know why, but he felt the need to drop his sword and take a nice nap.

Rita felt so awkward. Bouquet had been so confused during the explanation. Maybe Rita should've waited to show her the pendant. Deep down inside, she knew that no one would remember her. But she had just hoped. She had hoped for a little spark in everyone. Something that would've made them say, "Oh, it's Rita!", or, "Oh, Rita's back!" But to no such avail.

"So…" Rita started, trying to make conversation, "How's your relationship with Shu?"

Bouquet almost stopped in her tracks, making her trip over herself. Rita helped her back up to her feet.

"Well, you know, it's going…"

"Going…?"

"Terribly!" Bouquet admitted loudly.

"Aw, that's terrible, what's going on?"

"He always tries to avoid me when he can. He never wants to take bath with me. He never wants to even hug me! I think he likes Kluke more than me." Rita sighed. Shu always chose the wrong girl. She could just feel it. She knew that Bouquet and Shu were meant to be.

"It never made any sense to me. He always seemed to prioritize Kluke and me. But I know that he should have been going for you the whole time. I know it!"

Bouquet nodded. But then her eyes widened. "Wait...what?" Rita stopped and looked at her.

"You know that you heard every word that I said," Rita answered. Bouquet looked toward the ground.

"I still don't understand," she said, "if we knew you at one point, how come we don't remember you? And yet, we still remember Zola…"

Rita shook her head. "I don't know. And I don't know why I'm here. Why Zola brought me back to you."

Bouquet was ready to cry again. She was such a baby. She stopped in her tracks. Rita had stopped in front of her. Bouquet outstretched her arms and pulled Rita into a hug. Rita's eyes started to well up.

"Bouquet…"

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

Rita wrapped her arms around Bouquet. "It's…it's ok…it's not your fault…I don't think"

There was a rustling sound nearby. Rita pushed Bouquet away. "What's wrong?" she asked. She didn't hear anything. Rita's eyes darted around the forest.

"DUCK!" She yelled, pushed Bouquet to the ground. Something flew right over their heads. A dart maybe? Bouquet still hadn't heard or seen anything.

"Owee…what was that for?!" She yelled. Rita got up. She grabbed Bouquet's hand and started to run in a direction. Which direction? She had no idea. But it was away from whatever was attacking them. While running, they happened to run into some sort of campsite. There were two thick pillars on either side. Tied to the left pole was Zola and Kluke, and tied to the other one was Shu and Jiro.

In the middle of the camp was a big campfire, and roasting on a stick was the little yellow deevee, Marumaro.

"Guys!" Rita shout-whispered. She ran over to Shu and Jiro's pillar, and Bouquet ran over to Kluke and Zola. They both started to work on untying their friends. Bouquet glanced over at Marumaro, who was slowly getting roasted.

"Shouldn't we help Marumaro first?" she asked. Rita obviously didn't hear. She was snapping her fingers in front of Jiro and Shu's faces.

"Hellooo, are you dead?" She started to shake Jiro. "HEY, JIRO, WAKE UP!"

"That's not going to help!" Bouquet shouted. She had just finished untying Kluke and Zola. She dragged them, and lay them on the ground, then she went over to help Marumaro. "We need to hurry, who knows when the things that live here will come back."

But it was much too late. A tribe of scaly and slimy lizard people were standing in shock at the entrance of their camp. One of them dropped the sack they were carrying.

Another ran right up to Rita and stomped on her foot. She grabbed it and started pouncing around in pain. "OW!" A vain started to pop out of her head. "Hey, that was not necessary!" She stomped on the creature's foot, who practically copied what Rita did. It ran back to the group.

One of the weird lizard creatures with a feather head piece and a giant stick that it held as a staff stepped up. It was probably their leader. Rita put her hands on her hips. "Sorry, but we're here to take these people away. We kinda need them." She said.

The lizard lifted his stick up and went to hit Rita. But she grabbed the stick easily. She lifted the stick, causing the lizard to wiggle around, holding on for his dear life. "Oh, so you want to do this the hard way. She spun around, causing the lizard leader to fly off of his stick staff into the distance. The other lizards did not take this lightly. They started to merge with each other.

"Ewww, gross!" Bouquet said, disgusted with the way they were merging. She looked around, assessing the situation. They probably could've taken on a bunch of little gross lizard things, but one big one, she wasn't so sure. Rita seemed like she knew what she was doing when fighting one, but a bigger one would be harder to fight. And Bouquet certainly couldn't fight it, Hippo and herself weren't exactly fighters.

Rita started to glow purple. "Bouquet, stay back, and protect our friends." Bouquet was shocked. Rita's shadow started to wiggle around. It couldn't possibly be!

A horse shape formed in the ground. A shadow, one just like Shu, Kluke, Jiro, herself, and Marumaro had. Out of the ground, a white horse figure with muscled arms and wings wrapped around itself rose from Rita's shadow. "Pegasus!"

The horses wings spread open. Angelic feathers gently floated to the ground. "It's been a long time, Rita. Where have you been?" Pegasus's voice was almost angelic. Her white mane fell nicely to her left side.

"It's a long story. But right now I need your help." Rita pointed at the giant gross lizard creature. Pegasus smirked.

"With pleasure" Pegasus reared her fist back, then threw it at the slimy lizard giant. It toppled back, but it didn't seem too phased. Pegasus kept throwing punches at it.

Bouquet's eyes were about to pop out of her head. She couldn't believe what was happening. Rita, a girl she had only met a couple hours ago, was fighting a giant monster to protect complete strangers. Bouquet herself would do the same for anyone of course, but the way Rita acted towards everyone. It felt…familiar…

Rita pointed towards the lizard menacingly and said, "If you dare touch any of my friends, I will not hesitate to destroy you!" she said. "Pegasus, Galloping Punch!"

"Galloping Punch!" Pegasus repeated. She smashed her fists together, and a purple curved shape appeared on her knuckles, almost like a horseshoe, and she started to punch the lizard many, many times, all at the speed of light. Just in that one attack, the lizard creature had taken quite a beating.

Bouquet was surrounded by knocked-out friends. She had no idea what to do. She wanted to help, but she certainly wasn't a fighter. She couldn't do anything. But Rita could.

The lizard like creature quickly grabs ahold of Pegasus' wrists, stopping her from her attack. "You seem to be quite the charmer." Pegasus couldn't help but comment. Rita rolls her eyes. She throws her arms back, Pegasus doing the same. Pegasus lifts her bulky arms into the air, throwing the lizard creature up into the air. Rita jumps onto Pegasus' back, and the two fly up to the creature. Pegasus flies above the lizard and thrusts her fist into its gut, sending it crashing down to the ground.

Bouquet lifts her arms up to guard herself from the oncoming dust and rubble that flew at her. Rita lands on the ground in front of Jiro and Shu. She huddled them close to her body, so she could shield them from the crash as well. Bouquet felt it would be best if she did the same with Zola and Kluke.

Once the dust cleared, all that was left of the giant lizard creature was a bunch of smaller lizards. Still slimy, and still extremely gross. Bouquet glances over to Rita, who seemed to be checking on Jiro in particular.

"Jiro! Jiro, you okay?!" She began to violently shake him once more. "JIRO WAKE UP!"

"T-that's not going to help!" Bouquet scolded.

Pegasus was large enough to carry everyone back to town. She was silent, but her majestic ways left Bouquet in awe. Rita seemed more concerned with her comrades rather than explaining things to Bouquet. And that was fair.

When arriving back at her home, Bouquet goes to the door in complete silence. Rita stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. "You've been really quiet, Bouquet."

Bouquet turns her head to Rita. She opens her mouth to say something, but decides against it. She pushes the door open and steps inside her house. She couldn't see Rita's expression, but she knew she wouldn't like it.

She motions for Rita to come inside of her home. Rita steps inside, and Pegasus squeezes through the doorway, still carrying everyone. Rita points to the couch, and Pegasus sets them down carefully where Rita had pointed to.

Once on the couch, Pegasus bows to the two girls, bending her arm over her chest. "It's been a pleasure meeting you once more, Bouquet. However, I must take my leave now." Before Bouquet could say anything about it, Pegasus disappears back into Rita's shadow. Bouquet glances over to Rita, who stared back at her worriedly, her hand on her hip. Bouquet looks away. "I think…I want to take a bath…"

Before Rita could answer, Bouquet runs upstairs to take a well deserved bath.

So that was the chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed. Please feel free to Rate and Review, as I would much appreciate the criticism. As I've already said before, I plan on making a comeback to this fanfiction, writing a lot more of it. I don't know how long it will be, but I hope it'll turn out to be really amazing. I hope you enjoyed the read!

Thank you!

~OfferJoy