Chapter 2- Amnesia

"…I live…?" A man clad in the garb of an ancient time period slowly got to his feet and surveyed the landscape he'd crash landed upon. He appeared to be a middle aged man with a slight beard growing in, the specks of gray within his otherwise night sky black hair helped to add to the older appearance. Although, though he was clearly old, he didn't appear to be the least bit fragile, the gray hair and beard actually made him appear more veteran than anything. Those cold, dark brown eyes of his only served to further add to his militant build… he had the eyes of a hardened killer. But who was he? Going by the fact that he was clad in the armour of medieval royalty, it was clear that he wasn't from this time period at all, even stranger was the fact that this was happening at, more or less, the same time Silas and Reaver were meeting Neptune and the others. How odd… those two looked like soldiers of a distant future, this one looked like a soldier of a long-forgotten past. Were they summoned here by a mysterious force? Were they brought here for a reason? Or was it merely a mistake in Reality? "Why was I brought here…? This… this is not my homeland…" He said to himself as he looked left and right, as though trying to find his bearings. Unfortunately for him, this landscape and plant life was so foreign to him that thinking about it only served to confuse him even more. Suddenly, it was as though he'd had an epiphany, his eyes went wide with a sort of sudden realization. "Could it be…? Is she here? It can't be… but I must search." What could he be talking about…? Was he just muttering to make himself feel less alone or was there some form of meaning behind his words? "Anastasia… if you are here, I promise that I will find you." And with those final words, he set off in the general direction of Lastation.

"Excuse me…?" Silas' words struck Noire as a bit odd and seemed to draw everyone's attention. Even Neptune, who'd previously been laughing her ass off on the floor, had slowly calmed down and turned a confused expression onto the duo of males who crash landed on Noire at two different intervals. "Did you both land head first? How is it that you forgot something as important as to how you got to the point of falling from the sky? I think I'd remember something like that if I ever fell from the sky!"

"Wowzers! The plot thickens! Oh I wonder what plot twist the writers have in mind? Does it involve me? Oh it's just gotta involve me! After all, I'm the mai-" Sorry Neptune, but you're a supporting character at best in this thing. Silas and Reaver have already beaten you to it. Seriously, didn't we go over this last chapter? "What? Not cool! What about all my adoring fans that will read this just for me?" …I doubt anyone would read or watch anything just for one character… "I can think of a couple of anime…" Wow, looks like I got so carried away with breaking the fourth wall that I entirely forgot that this story had a plot to advance! Moving on!

"I couldn't recall anything as I was falling either, what about you Silas?" No matter how far back Reaver reached into his memory pool, the earliest thing he could remember was the wind tearing at his face as he reached terminal velocity.

Silas waited a minute before replying… then two… then three… His memories reached about as far back as Reaver's, only he had the added misfortune of learning what an insect tastes like. "Neither can I… I have a hunch about where we came from because I just get some feeling but, other than that, I'm afraid that my earliest memory is of falling."

Were these guys serious? Could they honestly not even recall a single thing about the world from which they came? "You claim to have a 'hunch' about your world, care to tell us just what this hunch is?" Vert's interest had been thoroughly piqued, two young men that seemed to have no recollection of their world? Her interest hadn't been simply piqued; it had been skewered through completely!

"Well… if we're carrying these weapons around then it was clearly a dangerous world, all I can think of… or maybe remember, if it is indeed a memory, are the sounds off bombs going off." Silas was still trying his absolute hardest to remember just what his past and world were like, but his mind just kept drawing blank after blank after blank.

"Bombs? Oh! Maybe you were playing one of those first-person shoot 'em up games!" Neptune said as she bounced up and down on her heels, looking up at Silas.

'Well isn't she an enthusiastic girl… I wonder if it's even possible for her to take anything seriously.' Reaver thought to himself before letting out a sigh and shrugging slightly. "It's worrisome, but it's not like our memories could spell the end of the world or anything so why don't we at least figure out where we are first?"

"I can agree with that…" Silas said with a nod before sitting down at the base of a large tree. "Why don't we start with the basics? Where are we?"

"You are in Gamindustri, it's a world pretty much run by the four of us, the reason I only say four is because Neptune here is from a different dimension like yourselves, but you guys clearly aren't from that dimension otherwise I'm certain that you would have recognized her signature stupidity." Noire said as she also made herself comfortable on the same log that Blanc was sitting down on.

"Wait, what do you mean you guys run this place?" Reaver asked as he raised his eyebrow. He may not have remembered the world he came from, but he at least remembered what an oligarchy was. Were these girls the rulers of the whole world?

Blanc gave up focusing on her book at this point and barely managed to bite back her anger. She figured that, the sooner that these guys learned the ropes, the sooner she could go home and continue reading her book. "It's not what you think, we rule separately. There are four countries, I rule Lowee, Noire rules Lastation, thunder tits over here rules Leanbox, and those two airheads are of Planeptune, though only Plutia rules it." Though she tried her best to hide it, she couldn't help but allow some of her pent up irritation to seep into her voice.

"So you're the queens of your countries?" Silas felt that he was getting the feel of it, but he still had a few more questions. How could someone who looked so young as Blanc, or was as much of an airhead as Plutia, effectively rule a country?

"What's a queen…? Am I a queen?" Plutia asked as she tilted her head slightly to the right in confusion.

"Unfortunately no… we may like to think of ourselves as queens and, to an extent, we are. However, there are many key differences between us and queens. We are CPU's, Console Patron Units, not only do we rule our countries, we established them! We are unable to age and take advantage of this by spending most of our time playing MMO's and other video games!" Vert explained as a small smile formed on her lips. She was actually enjoying explaining the basics of Gamindustri to these newcomers; she seemed to love flaunting her knowledge to these people…

Noire gave a sigh and shook her head before opening her mouth to correct Vert's mistake. "That's not true! You, Neptune, and Plutia all use your time to shut in and play videogames, but some of us do actual work! Don't listen to this shut-in… what a CPU is really supposed to do is monitor and rule her nation. It's hard work being a CPU, we have to earn the faith of our people. The more faith and followers we have, the more shares we collect."

"Wait what does the stock market have to do with the amount of faith you as a CPU have?" Silas meant it sarcastically, but he knew that he was most likely going to be taken literally. He had figured that it was probably some kind of energy source or whatever but he couldn't help but say at least one smartass remark.

"Huh…? Oh no it's got nothing to do with that! Seriously…" Noire sighed and rolled her eyes. Yep… he was right in his prediction that his sarcastic remark would be taken literally. "Share are energy, it's what give us strength! Think of it as a source of power that we have to work for. Without shares, a CPU and her nation will be pretty weak. Just take a look at Plutia and Neptune, they never work and their nation is the weakest out of all of ours."

"Hey we do to work! Did ya' see how we took down that Dogoo yesterday? We totes magotes work!" Despite the serious look and frown on Neppy's face, the way she said it made it sound like she wasn't taking anything she said seriously.

"So, let me get this straight, CPU's are beings that can't age and have the sole purpose of founding and managing an entire nation? Talk about pressure! Aside from the obvious, are there any perks to being a CPU or is it all work?" Reaver asked as he sat down next to Silas. He was starting to understand, but what exactly made CPU's so different from humans?

Neptune seemed to perk back up upon hearing Reaver's question and began bouncing on her heels again in apparent excitement. "Oh! Let me answer this! We have these super-duper awesome and sexy forms called HDD form! Here! Let me demonstrate!" Neptune raised her hand and suddenly, in a flash of light, she appeared to have changed form into a much more… mature figure. Her hair was longer and darker, her chest was significantly larger, and she overall looked absolutely nothing like she originally did.

Of course, due to the sudden change, both Silas and Reaver did a double-take after she took what she called her 'HDD form'. "W-What the hell...?" Reaver said as his head jerked back out of natural instinct and slammed back into the tree. "Who are you and what have you done with that tiny loli that we were just talking to?"

"I… I think that they're the same person…" Silas didn't exactly have the easiest time believing his own words, but what other explanation was there? He didn't remember much of anything, but he was pretty sure this wasn't normal!

"Ha! Look at their reactions!" Noire said with a laugh before standing up and taking a couple steps forward. "Well I guess that, if we're showing off our HDD forms to you, I might as well join in. Maybe this will answer your questions about what sets us apart from humans!" Noire said as a similar light overtook her and she came out, like Neptune, looking a whole lot different. Her hair went from black to white and her outfit changed. Like Neptune, there was little to connect to the form she held previously.

"I see no harm in this… shall we, washboard?" Vert asked Blanc before taking her own HDD form. Silas and Reaver thought there was a lot of cleavage and boob-age before but now? Yeah, most prostitutes wouldn't even be caught dead wearing that getup! Not only was there so much more exposure, but her hair was now green and her breasts had, if it was even possible, grown larger.

"Shut up tits-for-brains…" Blanc muttered before taking on her own HDD form. Unlike the others, she remained a complete washboard in this for, it was actually kind of disappointing. Silas and Reaver withheld their disappointment as it looked as though she was permanently pissed off in this form! "Happy now bitches? You've seen how we're different from you!"

"I'm… not even going to question the possibility of this…" Silas had given up on making sense of their transformations and just decided to accept what was right in front of his eyes.

"This is what is known as Hard Drive Divinity, HDD for short. In this form, I am known as Black Heart!" Noire/Black Heart said with pride as an arrogant smirk crossed his face. "As you can tell, I both the most powerful and most attractive of all the goddesses in front of you!"

"How arrogant… I am known as Green Heart and, as you might be able to tell, none shall ever match me in terms of bust size!" Silas and Reaver simultaneously recognized the irony and hypocrisy jammed into that one sentence… but whatever. They were too focused on digesting all the information they were receiving to give something as minor as that much thought. Who knew that Vert's breasts could get even bigger…?

"Shut your mouth you walking cleavage before I sew it shut! I'm White Heart and you assholes better not forget it!" A most ironic name for someone with such a short temper… at least that's what Reaver thought as she cracked her knuckles. The figure that had once been Blanc had such a heated gaze that it could melt steel…

The figure that had been Neptune cleared her throat and walked in between both White and Green Heart before they started strangling one another… again. "Please contain your hatred for one another for now… Anyways, while I am in this form I am called Purple Heart."

Apparently Plutia had dozed off in the middle of the dialogue and woke up to see everyone else in their HDD forms. "Oh~! Can I transform too?" Plutia asked as she slowly got up to her feet.

In a split second, fear and desperation filled the other CPU's eyes and they all shouted the same thing at the exact same time: "NO!"

"Awwwww… ok…" Plutia pouted before folding her arms and plopping back down on the log that she had been napping on. "I'm gonna take another nap…" She said before falling asleep again on the log.

"Why'd you stop her? I thought that you wanted to show us just how you guys were so different from us?" Silas said as he stood up and swung his eight and a half foot beautiful, yet advanced, Glaive over his shoulder and slowly walked over towards the girls.

"Trust me… you don't want to see Plutia's HDD… it's… scary." Noire seemed to shudder as she thought about the first time she'd ever witnessed that horrible sight… she even still had nightmares about it. The tone she held in her voice made her point crystal clear.

Though Silas and Reaver didn't really know how scary it really was, they decided it was better to be safe than sorry and didn't pry any more. "Well… either way this is very interesting, who knew people such as yourselves existed? Anyways, we should probably get going… if we're going to be living in this realm then we ought to learn our way around." Reaver said with a nod as he stood up and motioned for Silas to follow him away from the sight.

For a few seconds, nobody really objected to them leaving, but then Neptune/Purple Heart spoke up. "Hold on… are you guys any good at fighting? If so, I think we could strike a deal."

As Silas took his weapon off his shoulder and looked it over, something seemed to click deep within his mind… he instinctually recognized the weapon and how to use it. It seemed as though not all of his memories were lost. "Yeah… I know how to use this thing well enough. I'm sort of surprised that I remember, but yeah, I can fight." He gave a nod as he continued to look down at the highly mechanized Glaive, as he looked down on it, a phrase that could be the weapons name popped into his head. 'Beowulf? Is that its name?'

"Same with me, it doesn't seem like I've forgotten how to shoot and swordfight!" Reaver said as he patted his equally advanced blade on the pommel. Like Silas, the name of his weapon seemed to flow through his head as well… 'Minerva… how the hell am I able to remember this but not everything else?'

"Now that is rather interesting… I suppose we can help you out if you agree to help us out." Neptune/Purple Heart said as she carefully examined the weapon that Silas held in his hands. She'd never seen anything like it… it seemed like it had so many functions in that one weapon! She was impressed by the machine gun function at the end, but it seemed like the spear had a couple other capabilities that she was unable to identify.

"Neptune is this smart? Is part of your human forms stupidity leaking out? Sure they have interesting looking weapons, but if they don't know how to use them then they'll only slow us down." Noire/Black Heart said as she raised her eyebrow skeptically. She felt a strange energy coming from the two and she wasn't sure what to make of it…

"If they can't fight then we'll know right away." Vert/Green Heart said with a smile as she sat back down and crossed her legs. "If they don't turn out to be competent, then at least I can take that beautiful spear from his body! I'm sure that my darling sister would love to take apart that piece of technology!"

'At it again…' Neptune/Purple Heart thought as she rolled her eyes before exiting her HDD form. "So what do you say? Wanna help us kick some serious butt?"

"First I want to know what we're getting ourselves into if we agree!" Reaver was a little surprised at the sudden personality shift, although he wasn't as shocked as he was when she first took her alternate form.

"That's easy peasy! We kick all kinds of monster butt! C'mon guys, help us out and you can hang with us and stay with us!" Neptune said as she plopped down on the grass and looked up at the two of them with sparkling eyes. She seemed… awfully energetic about this…

Vert exited her HDD form and gave a slight chuckle. "I can never get over just how different your personalities are… Anyways, the more the merrier, will you help us?"

'Doesn't seem like we have many viable options here… We don't have any money to afford a place to stay and these girls are offering us a roof over our heads, how can we refuse?' Silas thought before turning to Reaver who gave him a slight nod, confirming that he was in agreement with his line of thought. "We accept." They both said at the exact same time.

"Woohoo! Two more party members!" Neptune said as she somehow managed to get instantly up from her seated position and began jumping with joy. Seriously… what was this girl on? "Hmmmm… oh! I know! Why don't you guys stay at Lady Lonely Hearts place?"

"I-I am not lonely…!" Noire said as she exited HDD and turned a glare onto Neptune. "I have plenty of friends! It's not like I want anyone else to stay at my Basilicom or anything!"

'Yep, he was spot on with her description…' Reaver thought in response to Noire's protests.

"You guys should learn that, when noire says 'no', she really means 'yes'!" Neptune said, completely ignoring Noire's rampant protests to both Silas and Reaver staying at her Basilicom. "You are totally going to get along!"

Seeing that Neptune kept talking over her and that her protests weren't getting her anywhere, she finally just gave up and rolled her eyes. "Fine! Stay at my place, but you'd better earn your keep or I'm kicking you both out!" Ah the tsun of the tsundere… Silas was sure looking forward to this… someone with as much tsun as Noire would be quite fun to mess with, that much was for certain.

"Ha! No problems here, we'll do the cleaning; we'll even keep your room tidy for you!" Reaver said as he let loose an internal sigh of relief, with the protesting he thought that they'd never get a place to stay…

"N-Not my room…! You can clean everything else, just not my room!" Noire said as her eyes went wide. What? What was the matter with that?

"What is this place…?" The man clad in armour said to himself in a tone of shock and awe as he looked over a city with architecture the likes of which he'd never seen. Everything looked so slick… it was absolutely nothing like what he was accustomed to. "Not even a wall? Just… just what world have I set foot into…?" He asked himself before shaking his head and slowly allowing his eyes to fall closed. "…It matters not… if I am here, then surely fate has decided to reunite me with Anastasia, I must find her…" And with that, he descended down the hill and towards the large city known as Lastation.

Me: Ladies and gentlemen! I apologize dearly for the late update, holidays have kept me busy… But now I have returned with the second chapter for Fire and Ice! Ah I'll tell you… correcting these chapters brings back memories, believe me when I say that I've written way more than just the two chapters I have up currently.

Noire: I don't think anyone cares so long as they get to read it. Just… try and update a little more frequently. You're so eager to show off the plot of this fanfiction and you can't even get up two chapters in a reasonable amount of time? You'd better fix this…

Me: Yeah yeah I know… I can't wait for the plot to actually get underway, the beginning is always boring to work on.

Silas: Oh! Which one of these spoilers should I give back to the audience…?

Me: Y-You…! I had Neptune guarding that! How the hell did you manage to get it?

Silas: She's passed out in a pudding coma, that's what you get for making that her payment…

-suddenly… a black cloaked figure appears before all of us-

Totally-Not-A-Bad-Guy: Greetings to you all…

Blanc: …Who's this freak?

I-Swear-I'm-Not-A-Villain: I go by many names… I am the one nobody knows, yet I am the one everyone sees. The eyes of the people gaze over me as though I do not exist, yet I am always there, watching. The one who whispers into the ear of the writer, planting seeds and evil thoughts all throughout their mind… I am… the co-writer.

Noire: C-Co-writer…? First this fanfiction has an opening and now it even has a co-writer? Just what's going on here? Why wasn't I informed about any of this?

See-I-Told-You-I-Wasn't-A-Bad-Guy: I bid thee all farewell… -fades away-

Reaver: Well that's going to require some explaining!

Blanc: Aren't we forgetting about that question? You'd better answer it before you forget and this whole post-segment becomes meaningless…

Me: Oh yeah, forgot about that, thanks Blanc. We have a question from a guest reviewer named, and I quote: "FlyingRatrod"… I'm not even going to ask where that name came from, you know what? I'm just going to call you Mr. F.

Reaver: He's asking if you're names is really 'placeholder'…

Everyone: …You did not…

Me: …Goddammit of all the mistakes I could've made it had to be to leave in the placeholders! Shit! No, my name is not placeholder! That was from back when I couldn't decide on a name for this account and I was writing the first post-chapter segment. I put that in as a placeholder and forgot to replace it! I feel so stupid right now! To answer your second and third question, this segment is primarily for questions, and I will update at my own pace (whatever that entails).

Blanc: Pfft… an amateurs mistake. A professional writer such as myself would never do such a thing.

Silas: Blanc, your writing is awful.

Noire: U-Ummm, end this segment now!

Blanc: Oh that is it! You did not just say that! –engages her HDD mode- Any last word before I grind you to dust?

Noire: Hurry up and end this!

Me: O-Ok…! Sheesh! Ummmm, well, this did not end as I planned, but I hope you all enjoyed the second chapter. Trust me, more will follow so keep an eye out! This is Fragarach97 (not placeholder) and I'll see you all next chapter!