There's a story poll on my page. It's about what I'll write after all the short OC stories have been written and uploaded. With that being said, your feedback on that would be greatly appreciated.

[Chapter 10]

After being taken back to where the CPUs were staying, I had been taken to a spare room. I sat quietly in that room, trying to process all that had recently happened.

After Arfoire's assault, Neptune and the other two CPUs had taken Noire and me back to their base of operations.

Now, three days later, I sat on a plain white mattress, letting my body heal while I rested. Silence filled the room while I lay there quietly. Though, I was just waiting for the CPUs to show up and answer all the questions that were on my mind.

"Hikari, are ya in here?"

Hearing Neptune's familiar voice, I sat upright on the bed.

Then Neptune walked into the room, peeking her head in first to see if I was awake. "Oh, you're up! How was your sleep, sheep?"

I offered her a small smile. "It was fine. Is everyone else fine?"

"Oh, you mean Noire?" Neptune asked.

I gave a nod. "Yeah.., How's she doing?"

Neptune just smiled back at me sympathetically. "Noire's fine! She'll be back to her lonely loner self before you know it!"

"I hope so..." My eyes averted to my sheets for a brief moment. "By the way, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be resting like everyone else is?"

"Well, they actually came to see how you were doing," Neptune answered. "Plus, Iffy and Compa are making dinner and I've got nothing better to do."

"O-Okay then..." I nodded towards Neptune. "Are they staying here too?"

"Yup! They're my best friends!" Neptune said. "Compa is pretty nice but bandages you too tight, while Iffy has a lot of phones and tries to be cooler than she is!"

"Is that what you really think of us, Nep?"

"It's rude to talk behind people's backs, Nep-Nep..."

Neptune and I both turned our attention to the door. Standing there were two girls.

One had long pink hair, fair skin, and strawberry pink eyes.

A lot of these people seemed to have a fair skin complexion for some reason. Maybe I had just been living on the poor side of town. Then again, four of them were goddesses...

My attention turned to the other girl, for some reason wearing an oversized blue coat. She had brown hair with a leaf green bow in it, fair complexion and a pair of eyes that matched her bow accessory.

"Hm?" They noticed that I was awake and glanced over at me. "Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

I smiled at the two of them. "Don't worry, I'm fine now. Thanks for your concern though."

"Well, if you didn't already hear from Nep, my name is IF," the girl with the oversized jacket introduced herself. She pointed towards the other girl. I could probably guess what her name was. "That's Compa. It's good to meet you, Hikari."

"Yeah, you too..." These people didn't seem to be bad but I wasn't about to make any big assumptions. In my head, I always kept the thought of Arfoire deceiving me in my head.

IF turned back to Neptune. "Nep, you better not cause any more trouble, especially for Hikari. She and Lady Noire have already been through enough."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!?" Nep shot IF a shocked horrified look. "Don't tell me that you have THAT little faith in me! C'mon! Compa, back me up here!"

Compa just smiled. "Sometimes you can do some pretty bad things, Nep-Nep..."

"No way! Even Compa!" Neptune looked as if her world had just crumbled before her. Her attention then went to me. "Hikari, you have some faith in me, right?!"

I shrugged; I didn't really want to have anything to do with this. "I mean, I guess? You did save Noire and me back there, so I guess..."

"See?!" Neptune spun back to IF and stuck her tongue out at her. "At least somebody knows how awesome of a protagonist I am!"

IF just shook her head and sighed. "Whatever. The other three CPUs should be back soon. Once everything gets explained to Hikari, bring her out to have dinner with us. After all, Compa and I made a lot today because of her..."

Neptune gave a salute. "You can count on me, Private Iffy!"

And like that, Compa and IF both left the room.

Neptune's attention returned to me as she closed the door. "Sorry about that! I didn't mean to put you on the dot or whatever..."

I shook my head. "No, I didn't mind. Anyways, what do you want me to do?"

"Huh? Oh..." She realized what I was asking her and took a second to think. "Well, until Vert, Blanc and Noire get here, I don't know... I guess we could chat or something? They'll be here soon if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not worried about that," I answered. "I'm just not sure as to what I'm supposed to be doing while we wait for them."

"Then your friendly neighborhood Nep can fix your problems!" Neptune formed a wide grin. "Wait here! I got the cure for boredom!"

"A-Ah..." She dashed out of the room before I could say anything. I laid my head back down onto my mattress. "I wonder what she went to go get..."

*Knock! Knock!*

A few minutes later, I heard a knock at the door.

It was Neptune. "Hikari, can you open this door? My hands are kinda, uh, full..."

"Yeah, I'm coming," answering her request, I made my way over to the door and pulled it open. With Neptune was a large plastic bag in her hands. It seemed pretty heavy. "Neptune, what's with the bag?"

"I already told you that I would cure your boredom, remember?" Neptune asked me. "So, I've got a whole bag filled with pudding for us to share!"

"Pudding, eh?" My eyes slowly moved down to the large bag of pudding she held in her two hands. "Don't you think that's a bit overkill, Neptune?"

"Of course not!" Neptune shook her head quickly. "Plus, we're not going to be the only two eating it. Vert, Noire and Blanc will also be eating some too!"

"But we're going to have dinner soon," I added.

"We'll save some for later!" With those words, Neptune pushed her way back into the room and sat on my bed with the bag of pudding. "Let's just eat one or two for now!"

I could only sigh. "You really want to eat this pudding, don't you?"

"Of course!" For some reason, Neptune's eyes began to sparkle and I was pretty sure I saw stars in them. "Pudding is the magical food that gives all of the divines their powers! Without it, we would be living in a dark time..."

"…" I couldn't find any more words to say. "You really like pudding, don't you?"

"I love pudding!" She shouted suddenly. "If I could, I would marry pudding and have pudding kids and eat them all!"

"…" What the hell was she even saying? "Yeah, I'll hope that never happens then..."

"Here," I caught the cup of pudding that Neptune tossed at me. "No use in wasting it! We gotta eat it while it's still nice and cold!"

"I guess you're right..." I peeled the seal off the top and unfolded the plastic spoon. "By the way, how did this place end up being your base?"

"It's Chian's place!" Neptune said.

Chian? "Who's that?"

"She's this person that made a lightsaber and is a really awesome person!" At least she sounded normal... "Iffy, Compa and I helped her out a while back ago and she decided to let us stay here!"

"I see..." I gave a nod. "Wait, then why are you back here then? You mentioned that you helped her a while back, so why come back?"

"That's cause we need to recruit Noire into our party!" Neptune wore a big grin while saying it. "Y'know, like in most games where you eventually get those overpowered party members with those weapons that can kill anyone in one hit?"

"I guess..." Why was she saying everything as if it were a video game? "Well, how'd that go?"

Neptune's shoulders slumped. "Well, we came here to save her from her loneliness. But then she was all like, 'I wanna help Lastation' and then dragged us into helping her with the machine showcase thing."

"So is that why you're here at Chian's place?" I tried finishing her explanation.

"Yup," Neptune finished the last of her pudding cup. "But then you turned into the Terminator and destroyed quite a bit of Lastation. We all know how that turned out..."

"I'm sorry about that..." I apologized. Then, something caught my attention as I stared at the floor. "Wait, Neptune... How many cups of pudding have you already eaten?"

"Hm?" Neptune had just finished yet another cup and threw it into a large pile beside the bed. "I don't know... Maybe ten, I think?"

"…" There was no way that pile could be ten cups! It had to be at least 45! "Neptune, that's way more than ten! How did you eat so much in such a short amount of time!?"

Neptune shrugged. "This is how much I normally eat."

"…" I could only stare at the piles of empty pudding cups piled high beside the bed. "I don't know whether to be amazed or horrified..."

"I see you've found out about Neptune's personality..."

The two of us turned our heads to the door. Standing there was Green, White, and Black Heart all in the normal, human forms.

"Sorry for interrupting," Green Heart apologized. "Do you mind if we come in?"

"Stop trying to be so formal, Vert!" Neptune said, waving for them to come in. "Get your butt and big rack in here!"

With those strange words, the three CPUs entered the room and sat down on the floor, right in front of us. Though, they did make sure to put distance between them and Neptune's giant pudding stack.

Green Heart cleared her throat as all eyes turned to me. "First, allow us to introduce ourselves. My name is Vert, I'm the CPU of Leanbox, Green Heart."

Vert then nodded towards White Heart who sat there quietly. "Blanc, it's your turn."

White Heart wore an emotionless expression on her face. She even answered in a monotone voice. "My name is Blanc, CPU of Lowee, White Heart. Good to meet you."

Vert's gaze landed on Black Heart, though I already knew her name. "Noire, you're last."

"S-Shut up, I know!" She pouted before letting out a heavy sigh. Her eyes met mine. "My name is Noire, CPU of Lastation, Black Heart. We've already met though, but you probably didn't know that I was the CPU of this nation..."

I gave a nod. "Yeah, it surprised me when I found out."

Vert had long, flowing blonde hair with dark blue eyes, fair skin and wore some type of dress. Though, the most noteworthy feature was the size of her breasts.

Blanc was the opposite of Vert. Short and petite with short brown hair and dark blue eyes like Vert.

Then there was Noire, who I had already met. Her appearance hadn't changed at all.

"Neptune, aren't you going to introduce yourself too?" Vert asked.

"Huh!?" Neptune had been busy stuffing her face with pudding. Quickly, she swallowed it. "Why? I've already introduced myself to her once before! Plus, she knows I'm a CPU and stuff, so why do I have to be all formal and stuff?"

"Didn't you mention not remembering anything when we beat you and knocked you off Celestia?"

"Oh, yeah..." Neptune's face drew a blank. "I guess you're right..."

"Well," Neptune cleared her throat. "My name is Neptune, the protagonist of protagonists! I'm the CPU of Planeptune, Purple Heart! Actually, I had also lost my memories of being a CPU too... How was that?"

"That was actually pretty good, considering how you normally are," Blanc muttered.

"Well, now you know who we all are," Vert said. She looked over at Noire. "Now, would you like to say anything, Noire?"

"…" Noire gave a quiet nod, looking over at me. "Hikari, I'm sorry about all the trouble that I caused you... In the end, Arfoire, not only ruined Lastation's reputation, she managed to copy my powers."

I shook my head. "I don't think so. Because of you, I know the truth and who I'll be seeking revenge against. So, thank you."

"… R-Really?" Noire stared at me with disbelief. "You're not mad at me?"

I shook my head. "Quite the opposite, actually. I should be the one saying sorry for causing all the chaos in your nation."

"So, you don't hate me, right?" Noire asked. "I'm your friend?"

I smiled. "Yeah, friends."

"Woah, Noire actually managed to get a friend..." Neptune muttered, letting out a low whistle.

"Well, Hikari, we were discussing something earlier and wanted to propose you with an offer," Vert suddenly spoke up.

My attention turned to her. "What kind of offer?"

"Simply put, we'd like for you to join us in taking down Arfoire," Vert said.

"…"

I had been deceived.

I had been tricked.

I had been alone.

I had grown vengeful.

I had separated myself from others.

But, here I was, sitting with the four CPUs of Gamindustri.

And they were still offering me an option, despite what I had done.

Now I had to decide what I really cared about...

A/N:

So, I'm taking the ACT tomorrow and am probably going to go to bed after uploading this.

That being said, I'll start doing double uploads next week, starting on Wednesday. That means more chapters for you all that read these! This brings me to my last point: after the three short OC stories have all been uploaded, the poll will finally be closed down.

That poll has been up for probably half a year at this point, maybe even longer, and I feel like I've compiled the results needed.

Anyways, I'll discuss all of this at a later date.

For now, thanks for reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!