Author's Notes: Hey everyone, long time no see. Sorry, I got buried under my Summer homework. Anyway, important notes for this chapter are that the ages and birthdays for the characters are completely made up for this story. This is also written in the hypothetical situation that it's an actual game so with the exception of the tutorial screens, whenever a new feature like new attacks, or new extra scenes for the "game" pop up, there will be a small note of it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the latest read.

Stage 1: Destined Encounters

[Goddess Era, Year 21XX]

[Biological Ages of the Goddesses]

Ram & Rom, Age 9

Nepgear, Age 14

Uni, Age 14

Neptune, Age 19

Noire, Age 18

Vert, Age 20

Blanc, Age 20

It was another beautiful day in Celestia, the birds were singing, the sun was ever shining. Then again, it was always a beautiful day on this divine plane. Everything was in complete tranquility. In another moment however, that was no longer going to be the case. Somewhere deep within the Celestian Castle, an alarm clock rung loudly and persistently. Neptune groaned as she rolled over, trying to ignore the noise. This process continued for about half an hour until Neptune finally produced a hammer from what seemed to be hammer space. "Ugh, shuuuuut up! Crackers I hate those things. I wish Histy wouldn't buy 'em." She complained as she rolled back into slumber.

In a matter of minutes, Histoire's voice interrupted her slumber. "Neptune, please wake up. It is time for breakfast." She told her.

In an instant Neptune's eyes flew open and she immediately flew out of bed. "Breakfast? Is it Nepgear's asskickery pancakes?" She cheered. "Please say it is~" She begged with a bubbly voice.

Histoire shook her head. There was nothing wrong with what Neptune had said. It was how she was dressed. Histoire would tell her over and over to sleep with a longer night shirt or a gown for the sake of decency, but of course Neptune was running around in just her striped panties and night shirt. "Neptune, what did I say about-"Histoire never got to finish her attempt at chastising Neptune.

"Bahh, Histy! Those gown thingies are totally uncomfy and long shirts are jus' not my thing!" The young goddess complained.

Histoire was really rethinking raising these girls on Celestia. It's been roughly eighty years since she brought them here, but because of that they haven't aged a day. When it came to their maturity, it definitely showed. As proven by Neptune anyway. "Please hurry to the table. Everyone's been waiting for about ten minutes now." Histoire begged.

Neptune nodded, throwing her large hoodie over her night shirt. "'Kay. I'll shower later I guess. Let's roll out!" The girl cheered.

Histoire gulped. "Neptune, that isn't even a gaming ref-"

"Let's go Histy! Food waits for no one~" Neptune beckoned. She wasn't even bothering to listen to Histoire as she pranced down the corridor.

Histoire giggled. "Fine then, let's go." She replied.

Moments later, they found themselves at the breakfast table. The fact that nearly everyone was glaring at Neptune was a little less than obvious.

Blanc, in an attempt to calm her rage was sucking on a popsicle stick. "Do you have any idea how frickin' annoying it is that you make us wait EVERY morning for breakfast?" She asked icily.

Vert nodded. "Indeed. Not even as a goddess but as a lady Neptune you should make an effort to be prompt." She scolded.

Neptune's face dropped. "Bah, c'mon guys! It's impossible to wake up at this hour. You should try sleeping in a little more. How can a goddess be beautiful without her beauty sleep?" She argued. Looking over to a black haired goddess with twin tails, she gave her her best puppy dog eyes. "C'mon Noire help me out here. They're gonna kill me!" Neptune begged.

Noire ignored her and continued to sip her tea. "Don't involve me in this. It's your fault for being late!" She retorted. Seeing Neptune's bummed face, she added, "J-Just don't do it again. Hurry up and sit down." She sighed as Neptune's face lit up.

"Ah Noire, I knew you'd have my back." She told her cheerily.

Noire felt her face meet her palm. "You have severe discipline problems you know that?" She asked.

"Ah right! Bring on the pancakes!" Neptune cheered, completely ignoring her.

Noire scowled. 'Why you little-'She thought to herself angrily.

Just when it seemed that everyone was about to tear Neptune's head off, the group was interrupted by a girlish cough.

"Sorry for the wait everyone," Nepgear said. "Your food is ready." She announced. She placed a plate of pancakes in front of each goddess. Neptune's had the largest stack, with Vert's coming in second but not even by a mile. Blanc and Noire's plates were easily the most normal. On the second table, Nepgear placed one plate down for herself, one before Uni, one before Ram and one before Rom.

Ram growled. "Nepgear, can't you do anything about that sister of yours? She's always late!" She complained.

"Nepgear's sister is… funny…" Rom added silently.

Uni crossed her arms. "Why do we have to wait for her anyway? Geez!" She whined.

Nepgear smiled nervously. "I-I'm sorry guys. Neptune's just a bit of a heavy sleeper." She answered.

Uni almost felt her eye twitching. "A bit?" She repeated incredulously.

Nepgear felt a nervous bead of sweat roll down her cheek. "A-Anyway," She began. "Are you guys excited? We may get to go to the human world today!" She said, hoping to change the subject.

Uni crossed her arms. "It'd be fun. Since we don't age in Celestia, it'd be nice to grow a centimeter or two." She remarked.

Ram smirked. "Yay! I'd get taller!" She cheered.

Rom smiled. "I want to get taller too…" She added softly.

Neptune grinned widely. "That's right! This is so tubular! We get to go to the human world!" She exclaimed.

"Exciting." Noire deadpanned. "If we get clearance today it certainly won't be a leisurely trip." She added.

Vert nodded. "That's right. The last time we were down, we visited Leanbox for a public appearance." She chimed.

"The time before that we visited Lastation, and before then we visited Lowee." Blanc reminded.

Neptune pumped her fist. "Which leaves us with only my land to explore- Planeptune!" She said to the group.

Unbeknownst to the group, Noire was very pleased at the moment. 'Sweet, now I may be able to get some awesome cosplay goods for cheap instead of having to order them on the internep! Maybe I can even find some new manga!' She mentally exclaimed.

"I hear Planeptune has the best gaming technology in the world! Perhaps I can learn a few things to spice up my consoles with~" She mumbled.

Breakfast went on this way for roughly an hour, exchanging banter and eating. When all was said and done, Nepgear and Uni were left to wash the dishes.

"Ugh, this sucks! I wanted to train today. How am I supposed to beat my sister if I'm not training every day?" Uni whined.

Nepgear smiled. "Oh it's not that bad. Since you and I are ahead on our studies, I got Histoire to let us out for our own training time later today." She told her.

Uni shook her head. "Thanks Nepgear, but Noire trains twice a day. She's ahead of her studies too so she usually goes out to the field for a second round." Uni replied.

Nepgear giggled. "But then there are other times when she helps tutor Neptune. If it weren't for Noire I don't know what I'd do with her." Nepgear reminded.

Uni sighed. "I don't know what that's about. Whenever we go to our side of the castle, she's one of the things Noire talks about the most." She explained. "It makes me glad though. If it weren't for Neptune, I think Noire would spend too much time studying and training." Uni added softly.

Nepgear smiled. "You really love Noire don't you Uni?" She asked her.

Uni nodded. "She's the coolest. She can do anything and everything. One day you watch, I'll beat her at something though! For sure!" She replied.

Nepgear giggled. "Oh, by the way Uni,"

"Yeah?"

"That was the last dish." Nepgear told her.

Uni looked; in her hand was the final dish. Nice and dry. Putting it on the dish rack, the two dried their hands and left the kitchen. It was around ten in the morning, so the two decided that they'd go to the training field since they were given some free time by Histoire. When the two got there, they found Noire and surprisingly, Neptune sparring. To be here at this hour, you have to be ahead on your studies. Apparently, Noire had tutored Neptune enough to pass the all of the recent exams and more.

The sisters watched with wonder as Neptune managed to eventually overpower Noire, and finally sent her flying with a magically empowered slash against Noire's blade. Noire landed lightly on her bottom, flinching as she landed.

"Ow…" She muttered quietly.

A moment later, she looked up to see Neptune offering her, her hand. "Looked like a rough landing. You okay pigtails?" Neptune asked bubbly.

Noire blushed before rolling her eyes, giggling. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Neptune." She replied as Neptune helped her up.

Nepgear and Uni looked at each other for a moment, and then back to Noire and Neptune. "For some reason, I suddenly feel like we're intruding." Nepgear said with a nervous laugh.

"Y-Yeah. Maybe we can come back later when they're not around." Uni replied. The two began to walk away, but didn't realize that Noire and Neptune were already aware of their presence.

"Wonder where they're off to? I figured they came here to train." Noire muttered to herself.

Neptune hummed. "Well," She began. Pressing herself up against Noire, she said, "Perhaps they're getting lovey dovey like we are~" She teased.

Noire flushed and flew out of Neptune's arms, sailing at least fifty paces in the opposite direction. "W-W-What are you DOING!" She yelled.

Neptune snickered, then she giggled, then she out right burst into laughter. "Pfft, gahahahahahaha! Noire, I didn't know you were so funny!" She exclaimed through fits of laughter.

Noire flushed with anger and embarrassment. "G-Geez Neptune! Cut it out!"

Trying to calm her laughter, Neptune waved a hand at Noire. "Sorry, sorry," she said to her. Suddenly, an image came to her mind. It was one of Noire wearing a blue swim suit, a very nice one at that. But something wasn't right: it was inside out. Her laughter stopped cold. Their conversation just now was very similar to how Neptune reacted when she saw the swimsuit inside out. "Hey, Noire?" She began uneasily.

Noire raised an eyebrow. It was unusual for Neptune to ever sound unsure of herself. "What's up?" She asked worriedly.

"Have you ever…" Neptune began.

"Yes?" Noire urged.

"Worn a swimsuit in front of me, inside out at that?" She asked loudly.

Noire fell over, looking around quickly to see if anyone heard or saw that and glared at Neptune. "And just why would I ever do that?" Noire yelled at her.

Neptune stepped back. "I-I dunno. For some reason I got the mental image of it and I wondered if maybe it was a memory or something. You know like how sometimes in RPGs those can be visions of the past, the future or a totally different scenario! Like the guy with the golden eye under his eyepa-"

"Neptune! You pervert!" Noire yelled a multi-colored ball of magic shining in her hand. "Celestial Flare!" She yelled. As she did so, a burst of seemingly rainbow colored fire roaring out of her hand to strike Neptune.

Neptune screamed as she was scorched by the fire. Thankfully, in Celestia you can't take as much damage as you would in the human world so she escaped relatively unharmed. "I-I see you finally got your Celestian skill down." Neptune said nervously.

It was a compliment, but Noire was simply too annoying with Neptune at the moment to accept. "I'm not talking to you right now!" She retorted. Meanwhile, her mind was a mess. There was too much information running in there at once! 'Neptune has a swimsuit fetish? Why was she picturing me? And why was I wearing it inside out? Oh my gosh what was she thinking?' While lost in thought, Noire didn't notice Neptune tapping her shoulder. When she finally noticed, she wasn't pleased with the invasion of her personal space. "Neptune! What did I just-"

Noire stopped when she noticed that Neptune was giving her, her famous puppy dog eyes.

"I'm sowwy Noire! Please forgive me~" Neptune begged.

Noire flushed. 'S-So cute!' Noire mentally cheered. She crossed her arms and looked away, trying to ignore how cute Neptune was at the moment. "O-Okay but I better not catch you thinking up weird stuff like that again!" Noire said bashfully.

Neptune smiled. "You got it! Hey, wanna have another go at it, no one's watching~" Neptune asked teasingly.

Noire sighed. "Please stop saying things that can be taken in completely different contexts." She begged.

[Extra Event Acquired: Combine?]

[Noire obtained Celestial Flare]

[Neptune obtained Celestial Quake]

[Blanc obtained Celestial Bifrost]

[Vert obtained Celestial Storm]

Later that morning, Blanc and Vert were in the middle of a sparring session. It had been officially settled that the group would be leaving for Planeptune today. So, the two figured they should get some practice in since Neptune and Noire slipped out and got an extra hour in on them. Their powers were only partially refined, so the group has since been training on Celestia for many, many years. To this day, Blanc is the only one who can access the fabled Hard Drive Divinity or HDD and properly use its power for an extended period of time. Vert is capable of it and can last almost as long as Blanc can while Noire is just barely capable of holding the transformation for an hour, and while Neptune has yet to acquire her transformation at all, only capable of partially summon its powers.

Blanc's axe met with Vert's drill spear as the two did combat in the air. Vert huffed as the strain of using her HDD finally began to wear her down. Blanc chuckled cruelly as she swung her axe with all of her might, slightly increasing its size as she did so. "What's a matter thunder tits? Gonna overheat again? Don't tell me I'm gonna have to have Histoire come and cool you down again!" She spat mockingly.

Vert growled as she thrust her spear upwards at Blanc. Blanc however blocked with her axe, safely halting any damage. "C-Curse you! You flat little brat!" She yelled as she angrily tried to slice her way through Blanc's guard. Even after moments of slicing her methods seemed to be completely useless as Blanc merely shook off her blows.

Blanc snickered at her, cheekily waving her axe at her. She breathed heavily however, slowly leveling her axe afterwards. They were both slowly reaching their limits. "T-Time. Any longer and we'll both run out of power." Blanc advised.

Vert shrugged her shoulders, floating to the ground with Blanc as they resumed their human forms. "I agree, any longer and I would have overheated." She agreed.

Blanc looked at her watch. "You've made a new record: you can hold it for about an hour and fifty minutes. A little longer and you can match my record of two hours and fifteen minutes." She told the other girl quietly.

Vert smiled. "I've finally caught up to you it seems you cheeky little brat." Vert teased.

Blanc growled. "You haven't gotten there yet. You still have twenty five minutes to work your way up to." Blanc reminded.

Vert giggled. "Whatever. Let's go meet with the others. It's almost time to depart." Vert offered.

Blanc nodded to her. "Yes, let's go." She replied.

The two ventured through the many corridors before finding themselves in one of the many rooms in the castle. It had a round table, where the others sat with Histoire. For once, Neptune had managed to get somewhere on time but that's probably because Histoire threatened her that if she were late to the appearance for her own land that she'd tell Nepgear to not make pancakes for three whole years.

Histoire noted their worn appearances and asked, "Are you two tired? We can post pone the appearance for another hour." She told them.

Vert shook her head. "Oh, we're fine." She told the little fairy.

Blanc nodded. "Let's just get this over with. I wanna go back to reading my book after this." She answered.

Histoire nodded to them before smiling at the rest of the table. "Is everyone ready to leave?" She asked one more time.

Everyone nodded. "Yup!" They all answered. The group began to glow with the rest of the room and suddenly in a bright flash of light they were inside a giant orb of light. They exited the castle and were soon floating down from the castle in the heavens towards the floating continents a little lower in the sky. Their destination: Planeptune. It took them no longer than five minutes to arrive, standing on the balcony of the Planeptune Basilicom which seemed to stand above all of Planeptune. Beneath them they heard cheering, pretty enthusiastic cheering actually.

Neptune stood there for a moment, with Nepgear before grabbing her sister's left arm. She grinned at her. "Let's go sis! Our adoring public awaits!" She cheered.

Nepgear smiled at her and nodded. "Y-Yes, let's go!" She replied, following her sister's lead as they made their way to the front of the group. They waved as they looked over their people.

Neptune relished in the moment, but a strange feeling kept eating at her. 'It's weird. It's the first time I've been here and yet, I feel like I've always been here. Maybe I have amnesia! Wait, I think that's already happened to me once. My head feels strange." She thought to herself confusedly. The confusion only heightened when she laid eyes on two particular individuals in the crowd: a girl with brown hair and a green bow, and another with pink hair in a beige sweater. When they realized that Neptune was staring, they waved. Her headache only grew worse. 'Wait a sec, I know those two!' She thought to herself. A moment passed her by, a moment perhaps in a long forgotten time. She closed her eyes, and stopped waving at the crowd.

Everything went silent. Even Nepgear turned to look at her sister. The look on her face was unusual. Rather than confident and cheery, it was confused and lost. "Uh, hi everyone! It's me Neptune! You're favorite CPU and my darling sister Nepgear! Don't touch her though boys or you'll be answering to me~" She said to the crowd with her usually bubbly voice, her face beaming. The crowd resumed their cheers.

Nepgear on the other hand was not convinced. 'What's with sis? It's unlike her to freeze up in front of a crowd.' She thought to herself curiously. Looking back to the crowd, she too laid eyes on the brown haired girl, and the pink haired girl. Nepgear stared at them long and hard before she gripped her shirt for a moment. 'It's strange. I swear I've met those two before.' Looking at them for a little longer, she fought the strangest urge to cry. 'Why is it so painful to look at them?' She asked herself. 'When I was little, if I thought someone looked familiar, though I swore I had never met them once in my life, I'd feel this way. It felt like they'd slip away and I'd never see them again. I wonder why they look familiar to me.' Nepgear had little time to ponder on it. The crowd was awaiting her word. Finally, she waved to them with a nervous smile. "H-Hello everyone! I'm Nepgear, your CPU candidate! I-I'll work hard!" She said loudly.

Once again the crowd was roaring, and the two sisters were finally allowed to step out of the spotlight and retreat back inside the basilicom where the rest of the gang awaited them. "Well?" Noire asked.

"How'd it go?" Uni urged.

Nepgear giggled. "We both sorta froze up on stage but I think we left a good first impression." She answered.

Neptune made a victory sign. "We were totally awesome!" She boasted.

Histoire smiled at them. "Well then, shall we return home?" She asked the group.

They all nodded to her and without another word they all returned home. As they ascended towards Celestia, Neptune still could not get it out of her mind. She had a question constantly floating in her sub-consciousness. 'Why were those people so familiar to me?'

Author's Notes: I apologize for the late release. A lot came up. This story will be updated bi-monthly from here on in. I thank everyone for their patience and I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. The extra scenes will appear in omakes chapters which will be released as separate chapters after every three chapters.

Next Time – Stage 2: The Grim Omen