"I'm tired... We should actually rest..." Moaned Lucy. She and the celestial spirits had walked for hours by now, and the sun was beginning to set.

"Shut up, you gripe," Leo hissed out of the corner of his mouth. He walked ahead of Lucy and stuck his foot out, tripping her into a large puddle of brown, sticky mud.

"If you want to rest, then rest in that pool of mud," he said. Lucy lifted her head, and was about to complain, expecting Leo to have a wide grin of satisfaction, but she saw not a single flinch.

"Seems like your face is too grotesque to get covered even by mud completely," he said coldly, looking away.

"Those are mildly harsh verbal punishment."

"Aquarius thinks so, too." Virgo and Aquarius helped lift Lucy out of the thick sludge.

"Don't talk back to the leader of the Zodiac," he snapped.

"Are you all right, err..." Started Virgo. Lucy realised she hadn't given them her name yet. She racked her brains for ideas of substitute names.

"Hime," blurted out Lucy.

"Huh?"

"My name is Hime," said Lucy again.

"Hime? As in princess?"

"Err... Yeah."

"Please excuse us, your majesty," said Virgo, suddenly bowing. Lucy and Aquarius dropped a sweat.

"N-no, my name is Hime, I'm not related to royalty in any way," said Lucy.

"Very well," said Virgo as she stood up. Something dawned to Lucy. Even if the past forms of the current celestial spirits were also the eclipse celestial spirits, then how come Virgo acted so politely?

"Hime's clothes are muddy," pointed out Aquarius. Lucy looked down and saw that her clothes, was obviously muddy, and there wasn't a single part which wasn't.

"I'll deal with it," said Virgo. She clicked her fingers.

"H-huh?"

Lucy's muddy clothes were now replaced with warm, soft clothing. She looked down as she saw that she now wore a long sleeved cheongsam, navy blue like a starless night time sky. She also wore a white bodice with an aurora teal heart like pattern on it. Lucy also wore leggings of the same shade of teal reaching just past her knees, and soft, white suede boots with a golden star shape at each of the heel. Lucy's hair was braided into two even French braids that rested on her shoulders with the end tied with ribbons the same shade of teal as the heart pattern and the leggings.

"Celestial spirit clothing, plain ones, though," said Virgo.

"H-huh? Oh, thanks," said Lucy.

"Hime looks pretty in the celestial spirit clothing," said Aquarius.

"Leo-Kun, doesn't he thinks so, too?" Leo glanced at this stranger named Hime, even though he barely even looked at her before.

"You look alright... For a human," he said after looking away.

"What's up with his attitude?" Muttered Lucy.

Suddenly, Lucy felt as if they were being stared.

As thick, white fog surrounded them, Lucy and the celestial spirits looked cautiously around, forming an outer circle by instinct.

"Tragic..." Whispered a wispy and scratchy voice.

"W-what?" Said Lucy.

Suddenly, the fog collected and spun inside the circle, spinning and spinning like an opaque tornado.

Lucy and the other celestial spirits stepped back, looking at the tornado fog.

The tornado fog slowly grew more and more complex.

Tornado fogs sprouted from the sides like branches from a tree sped up.

The tornado fog then grew more and more solid, and more and more complex and more solid, looking more and more human like by the minute.

"W-what's happening?"

"There's only one explanation for this. I'm certain, it's..."

The fog then turned into something that's not quite a fog, but just not quite a human...

"Feng," finished Virgo as the fog transformed into a man with long, stormy gray hair, and oriental clothing.

"Tragic..." He said.

"W-why tragic-"

Virgo silenced her.

"What do you want, Feng?"

The man named Feng looked up.

"You all may only continue on your tragic journey. If you all can defeat me," he said.

Virgo, Aquarius, Leo and Lucy all got into fighting positions.

Feng stuck out a hand to his side.

"Lance... Twister."

Suddenly, strong wind drilled it's way towards Lucy and the celestial spirits

Virgo stood in between Lucy, Leo and Aquarius.

"Spica Block!" A large wall of earth appeared in front of Virgo, using it as a shield against the side wards twister drill.

Feng clenched his fist before letting go.

As if obeying his hand commands, the earthen wall turned to liquid, allowing the twister lance to pierce through Virgo's shoulder.

"I-it causes physical damage like a blade?! And how did the wall-"

"That's Feng's Magic," said Leo.

"Feng's a bender magic user. Bender magic is a type of magic where the user can make anything either a solid, a liquid or a gas and to bend the thing according to will. However, ouch!" Aquarius's words were cut short when air suddenly concentrated around her arm area and sliced open a large wound.

Lucy's eyes widened.

"Aquarius, are you all right?"

Aquarius looked at her.

"O-of course Aquarius is all right. It's just a cut, and Aquarius's just a celestial spirit. However, Feng's specialty is wind."

While Lucy was by Aquarius, Virgo was dodging every one of Feng's attacks.

However, she mis calculated a jump and fell onto the ground.

"Fury of the Winds."

A stocky tornado formed and rushed towards Virgo.

"Spica Block!"

Leaning against the ground, Virgo summoned earth to act like a shield against the wind.

Feng clenched his fist and let go, making Virgo's earthen wall to collapse.

However, Virgo used her earth magic to continuously shape the earthen wall.

The earthen wall slowly began to collapse as Feng's magic strengthened.

Virgo looked at Leo.

"Leo! Use Regulus! Feng can't bend energy!"

Leo looked at her.

He got into his position for casting Regulus.

"O-oh Regulus. Grant me y-your s-strength," he said feebly, no confidence in his words.

Only a tiny spark appeared on his fist.

"Energy..." Thought Lucy.

"That's it!" She said as she grabbed her whip.

"Fleuve d'etoile-"

She paused.

So did the celestial spirits and Feng.

The whip now flowed blue water the equivalent of a fast water fall.

"D-damn! Why can't it stop?!"

"Tragic."

Aquarius paused.

"Oh. I see," she started.

"Huh?"

"The whip. It looks as if water is flowing out. The water's actually ethernano. It must be because there's too much ethernano in the air!" Stated Aquarius.

"What?! But then what about Feng?!"

"Don't worry. Aquarius will deal with it," said Aquarius as she pulled out her golden water gun.

"Bubble Shot!" Orbs of water charged at Feng like a machine gun.

Feng looked at the orbs of water.

He then stuck out his left hand, making the ferocious orbs melt down their shape and just land onto the ground.

"Now's my chance," thought Virgo.

"Spica Charge!" All the Earthen matter around her charged at Feng.

Feng looked up and used his free hand to turn the earthen matter to air.

"Yes! He's cornered!" Said Lucy.

Feng looked around.

Then he disappeared.

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

"What?"

Virgo and Aquarius calmed down their spells.

"Where... Did he go?" Said Lucy quietly.

There was suddenly a yelp.

Lucy looked to her right, where Aquarius was.

She was gone.

"Over here..." Said Feng.

They looked forward.

Feng's hand was the only thing keeping Aquarius off the ground.

"That bastard!"

"So surrender, and I'll let her go," he said.

"Dammit..."

"We need to surrender," said Leo.

"What?!"

"Aquarius is an air spirit. She needs air," said Virgo as Aquarius squirmed from the lack of oxygen.

"So choose. Surrender tragically and I'll let her go, or- Gah!" Feng's words were stopped when Aquarius bit into his bony wrist, resulting him to let her go.

Aquarius fell down onto her knees and panted from the dizziness of lacked oxygen.

"Now's my chance! Spica Charge!" Earthen debris charged from above Feng, forcing Feng to lie down onto the forest ground.

When the debris cleared, Feng was gone.

"Where did he go?!" Said Lucy.

Virgo looked around.

She closed her eyes and concentrated.

Virgo opened her eyes.

She side kicked a tree trunk.

Just before her foot touched the trunk, Feng appeared between the space of Virgo's foot and the tree trunk, resulting in Virgo's foot trapping Feng against the tree trunk by his neck.

Virgo glared at Feng harshly.

Then Feng melted into thick mist before the mist disappeared.

Virgo closed her eyes, concentrating on any of Feng's magical energy.

"He's gone," she said.

Lucy let out a sigh of relief.

Then she looked at Leo.

"How come you just watched?" She protested.

"Well, so what? It's not like a human would care," he answered, annoyed while glancing at the other direction.

"No, but, unlike you, I was at least trying to help!"

"Yes. By apparently making that whip or something flow out a lot of ethernano."

"And all you did was to ignite a spark!"

"At least it was a magical ability!"

Lucy froze.

He?

Claiming to help just by casting that tiny spark 'Regulus'?!

It's not even close to what the Loke from her timeline is capable of!

And all he did was to watch from the sidelines!

The 'leader' of the Zodiac?!

He also suggested to surrender!

In fact, he's more like a-

"Oh. God. You. Big. COWARD!" Yelled Lucy as she punched him out of furious anger.

Leo went back a couple of inches.

"Loke, listen! One of your nakama almost, well, got harmed, and at that time, all you did was to suggest to surrender!"

"Hime-"

"And you didn't even lift a single finger!"

Ignored.

Lucy felt angrier.

He's not even taking this seriously?!

"In fact, what kind of leader are you if you can't even defend your own nakama?!" She screamed.

Leo looked at her, with a strange mix of surprise, being offended,

and...

fear...?

Lucy paused.

Why did he...?

"Wait... I... I... I didn't..."

Leo realised.

Then he looked away.

"Not like you cared."

Lucy's eye twitched.

She took a deep breath.

"Let's camp here for the night."


OK. Maybe this is crappy.

And I want to apologise how long it took to write this.

Because you see, despite the fact that I said the story's pre typed, this chapter wasn't.

So... Yeah. Heh heh heh.

(F**K YOU WRITER'S BLOCK.)

So... Hopefully, the wait for the next chapter won't be too long, because I already got most of the story for next chapter thought out.

Question Time!

Littlest1: Well... perfection is in the eye of the beholder.