Stage 3. The Forsaken Sanctuary, Part I: Pandora's Box

Neptune, Noire, Vert, and Blanc have officially been wandering around this dungeon for well over an hour. They have been through several rooms, killed several monsters, and finally after several strifes managed to find another staircase, leading further up into a circular like pillar. "It seems as if we have found the focal point of this dungeon." Vert said aloud.

Noire sighed. "Good, this dungeon has already gotten really old for me," she said impatiently.

Blanc shook her head. "The puzzles here are irritating. I'm glad we're almost out," she complained.

Neptune on the other hand, was excited. "Psh, but this has been so much FUN! Look at how much we've leveled up here. Sides, I've been needing the workout," Neptune said merrily. The group glared at her. Half of the traps they fell into were definitely her fault. Neptune had accidentally set off several traps due to her clumsy nature. One of which involved a whole room filled with automatic machine guns. The group had lost almost half of their HP in that room, and had to spend their time healing up because of that little incident. Thank goodness their bodies were bullet proof or that could've ended badly. Finally noticing the glares she was getting, Neptune stupidly asked, "What's up guys? You look kinda mad."

Blanc felt a vein pop. "M-Mad? I'll show you mad you frickin' lunatic!" she yelled, producing her HDD axe.

Panicking, Vert summoned her drill spear and blocked Blanc's rash chop. "Calm down Blanc! We're almost out," she told her.

Blanc shook her head. "We wouldn't even BE in this mess if it weren't for her!" she retorted.

Neptune looked at her incredulously. "Bah! C'mon Blanc you totally wanted to check this place out too! This isn't totally on me," she said. Blanc growled at her, bringing her axe closer. For her own safety, Neptune took a worried step back.

Noire crossed her arms. It's not like everyone wasn't curious themselves. Still, she had to be the voice of reason. "While I will agree that this is totally Neptune's fault," she began, "we should concentrate on getting out of here instead of fighting with each other." she suggested.

While Neptune still didn't agree that this situation was her fault, she was incredibly pleased that someone defended her. "Yeah, what pigtails said! Let's keep going!" she urged.

Eventually after a lot of arguing, the group continued on, hoping for a way out of this nightmare of a dungeon.

Meanwhile, Nepgear and Uni were having their own problems. While the CPUs had taken the staircases leading upward, the candidates took the one leading downward. They were currently in a square room, a large gate blocking their path forward. On the left, there was a set of blue buttons and on the right a set of blue buttons. Next to each button, was a column of designs on the wall. The columns each either had one, two, three, or four of a particular design. The red side had dragons, while the blue side had wolves. "Wonder what we're supposed to do here," Nepgear said aloud.

Uni crossed her arms, eying the patterns. "Let's try stepping on the buttons closest to us. I'll take blue. You take red,'' she suggested.

Nepgear nodded, not having any better ideas. "Okay," she replied.

So, the two stepped on the ones closest to them. The patterns on the wall reflected three dragons on Nepgear's side, and two wolves on Uni's. A loud sound rang out in the area, sounding like the alarm that rang out when someone guessed wrong on a game show.

Nepgear tilted her head. "Funny, wonder what that was?" she asked herself quietly.

Suddenly, hordes of young fenrir materialized around them. Uni's side of the puzzle was glowing! Looking around bewildered, Uni produced her gun from her hammerspace. "Crap. Nepgear get ready!" she yelled.

Nepgear summoned her sword and hastily sliced through one of the approaching fenrir with a girlish shriek. "You don't have to tell me twice!" she yelled back as she attempted to fend off the beasts around her. There were now two on her side of the field, and three on Uni's. It was needless to say but, the girls had their work cut out for them.

On the other end of the dungeon, the older goddesses had found themselves in a strange, circular room. This appeared to be the final room in the upward direction of the dungeon. There was little in the room, but what firstly caught their attention was a treasure chest sitting in the middle of the room. It was a beautiful, black box decorated with gold lining. With how beautiful the box was it almost would have almost been a shame to open it. Neptune eyed the box curiously, barely resisting the urge to poke it. "Whoa, check the bling on this box!" she yelled with excitement. "Who says we open it and take the loot?" she asked goofily.

Noire eyed the box, thoroughly impressed with its overall appearance. Sadly, its beauty is exactly what deterred her. "Neptune, it would be dangerous to open something blatantly left out in the open like this," she warned.

Looking around, Blanc noticed a strange portrait on the wall. "Hey," she said quietly, "look at this," she muttered. Barely hearing her, the group turned to their right and noticed a large mural-like piece of artwork on the wall. Beneath it was a long wall of text, with a book sitting on a pedestal in front of it.

Looking at the mural, they noted a woman with long hair done in double braids, her hair white as snow and eyes shining gold. Her body was perhaps aged at her prime and a tad older, but certainly no younger. They also noted that the woman on the mural held a glistening white and gold sword. On the blade itself was a cross of sorts with four points held together by a magenta ring. The four points in question were in their respective colors: purple, black, green, and white if one were to look at them in clockwise order. Gazing upon it for a moment, Noire felt a strange pang in her chest. 'This woman looks so familiar,' Noire thought to herself quietly. 'Well, the hair and the eyes were a little different I think, but I swear this person resembles someone. Why can't I remember?' she asked herself confusedly.

Neptune was the most captivated by the piece of art. For some reason, this piece of artwork resonated with her. It left her awed by its splendor. "Well, she's definitely a looker," she joked.

"Leave it to you Neptune to call such a beautiful piece of artwork a 'looker,'" Vert complained.

"Honestly, you have no discipline at all Neptune," Noire whined.

"…Terrible," Blanc muttered with an exasperated tone.

Neptune looked at them incredulously, gaping at their words. "Wh-Whaddya mean guys? That's not fair to gang up on me and all," she replied. Looking back at the mural, Neptune said, "Still, doesn't this woman look familiar to you guys? Maybe she's like our mom or somethin'," she theorized.

Vert felt her palm collide with her face. "Neptune, CPU are made, not born," she reminded.

"Yeah, yeah, but it would still be kinda cool," Neptune argued. "Just think, maybe we were all separated at birth and we're actually sisters or somethin'!"she suggested enthusiastically.

Blanc shivered. "My blood crawls at the very thought of being related to an idiot like you," she muttered angrily.

Noire shook her head, "I'll pass on that notion," she said.

"As will I," Vert chimed.

Neptune sighed. 'Geesh, I just can't win today,' she thought to herself disappointedly. Then, her eyes finally wandered to the book. "Hey," she said, "let's go take a peek at the book!" she said cheerily.

Vert shook her head. "Absolutely not! Knowing an optional dungeon like this it contains spoilers poorly disguised as foreshadowing for the rest of the story!" she retorted.

Neptune shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. "Party pooper," she whined. "Whatever. You wanna look with me Noire? Blanc?" she offered.

Blanc shook her head. She was not going to budge on the matter, and Neptune could see that.

Noire on the other hand, took several uneasy steps toward Neptune and eventually stood beside her. Neptune cooed and threw her arms around Noire, embracing her a tad more suggestively than she had meant to as she said, "Ohh I knew I could count on you pigtails!"

Noire blushed and immediately started to pry Neptune off of her person. "W-Whatever!" she yelled, "Let's just look in the book and see what it says," she told her.

As Vert watched alongside Blanc, Noire and Neptune curiously opened the book to find several pages worth of writing. Indeed, this book must have been over thousands of pages long! "It's a long read. Seems more like Histy's kinda book," Neptune muttered.

Noire began to read some of the pages aloud, "Woe to the great goddess, separated into five by the dark one. Celestia is the place that transcends all of time and space, and it is here that we write in hopes of leaving this message to the chosen ones of the next generation: become one once more. Only then will you truly end the darkness known as Arfoire," it read.

They were all silent. No one really knew what to make of the page. "Arfoire? What's that?" Neptune asked.

Noire sighed. "That's the Deity of Sin Neptune," she reminded.

Neptune nodded. "Oh right, so that means she's probably the final boss of this game huh?" she asked.

"I told you there were spoilers in there," Vert grumbled.

"She's a stubborn one," Blanc muttered.

Neptune crossed her arms, "But there were five protagonists in that story, so we're one short!" she said loudly.

"I highly doubt this refers to us Neptune," Blanc muttered.

"There are few people with access to Celestia. If it wasn't directed at the current CPU, then who was this written for?" Vert asked the group curiously. Of course, no one really had an answer.

That was when Neptune came up with a theory. "See guys, this totally goes with what I said! We're all probably part of some awesome super goddess and we all combine to form our true self with which we'll fight Arfy in a huge, epic battle for the world!" she theorized heartily.

Noire shook her head. "No, no, no, that can't be right. If that were the case, we're one short," she reminded.

"That just means we have to look for her and unlock her for the party," Neptune countered.

Vert crossed her arms and leaned against a pillar. "Neptune, there are only four landmasses. I highly doubt we'll be finding a fifth CPU. If there were one, what color would she be?" she asked.

"Red obviously," Neptune replied matter-of-factly, "red's usually part of the center piece for the giant robot fusion thingy!" she explained.

Blanc held her head with frustration. "This is giving me a headache, let's just get out of here," she mumbled angrily.

Vert sighed. "That is an excellent idea Blanc, but do you see any ways out of here?" she asked.

"I bet there's a teleportation thingy in the box," Neptune theorized.

"Yeah, but with our luck the boss monster's in there too," Noire added.

"And you said I was breaking the fourth wall," Neptune teased.

Noire flushed, "A-Anyway, who's gonna open the box and see what's inside?" she asked.

Everyone looked at each other, and eventually all of the gazes fell unto Neptune. Feeling the intense stare of her fellow CPU she immediately backed away from them. "U-Uh let's be rational about this now!" she begged, "If it weren't for me we wouldn't have gone on this epic adventure and leveled up so much so-"

"So you should open the box," Blanc interjected, "because this is definitely all your fault," she said.

"Couldn't have said it any better myself," Vert said.

Noire said nothing, leaving Neptune to shakily stroll up to the box. "Well, here goes nothing!" she said. She couldn't have known. None of them could have known at the time, but what they were about to do would bring about irrevocable change to their lives.

While that was going on, Nepgear and Uni had finally managed to defeat all of the monsters in the large panel room they were in earlier. Eventually, they discovered that the combination was in order from the least number of monster pictures to the greatest on their respective sides. Having gotten past that room, they made their way into a large hallway beneath the tower. Uni assumed that they were actually underground. "This hallway is really creepy," Nepgear complained.

Where they were now was a large corridor-like hallway with greying marble on either side. They were in a dark, gloomy tunnel and the nerve-wracking lack of an end to the darkness was finally starting to get on Nepgear's nerves. "What's a matter? You scared Nepgear?" Uni teased.

Nepgear, not understanding Uni's words to be insults clung to the shorter girl. She threw her arms around her and clumsily fell over, causing them both to fall flat onto their bottoms. Nepgear was still on top of Uni, who in the darkness was blushing madly. "Wh-What are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"I'm scared!" Nepgear cried, "I can hear a weird voice in the hallway and it's really freaking me out! Can't you hear it?" she explained hysterically.

Uni raised an eyebrow and carefully stood up with Nepgear. "You can hear something?" Uni asked steadily.

Nepgear sniffled, wiping a tear from her eye. "I can hear a voice in the walls of this tunnel. It gets louder as we go along this path. It keeps saying, 'release me,'" she told her. "Uni I'm scared!" she cried.

Uni rolled her eyes and patted the crybaby girl's head. "It's okay. I dunno how, but we'll find a way outta here, and if some creep shows up I'll blast him!" she told her, hoping to calm the girl's nerves.

Nepgear's features brightened considerably as her embrace tightened around the girl. "Oh thank you so much Uni! I love you!" she exclaimed.

Uni, unprepared for the rather blunt statement was left completely speechless. Her face began to burn with her countenance red as a tomato. "I-I uh, um, w-what are you saying?" she finally yelled, forcing herself out of Nepgear's grip. "L-Let's just go," she said to the lilac-haired girl.

Nepgear nodded, following Uni closely from behind. "O-Okay Uni. Sorry, I said something weird," Nepgear said apologetically.

Uni shook her head, trying to dismiss the barrage of thoughts that were tainting her mind. "I-It's fine. Don't apologize…" Uni said to her, "It felt sorta good to hear," she muttered.

Nepgear completely missed the exact wording, but she knew that Uni had said something after, "don't apologize." She wanted to know. "What did you say Uni?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing," Uni replied, "Let's keeping going. I think I can see a light up ahead," she told her. Sure enough, they did come across a light. They soon found themselves in a beautiful, white chamber. In the center of the room was a stack of platforms, eventually in the center of the third being a pedestal with a sword lodged within it. The blade was a beautiful white, the hilt gold and blue. It just caught their attention and stunned them. They approached it; making their way to the platform when suddenly, Nepgear felt a burning sensation in her abdomen, keeling over from the pain.

"Ack- agh! It hurts!" Nepgear exclaimed as she writhed in pain. On the ground she felt her body twist in ways it shouldn't as she tried to cope with the pain.

Alarmed by Nepgear's sudden pain-spasm Uni immediately kneeled to her side. "What's wrong Nepgear? You ok?" she asked frantically.

Nepgear couldn't say anything through the pain, screaming and writhing as the room filled with an eerie, crimson light.

"You should have never come here, foolish CPU candidate," a voice told them darkly.

Through her screaming, Nepgear let out one final gasp as she fell unconscious. The room's light suddenly focused towards the sword, catching Uni's attention as she watched the beautiful blade twist into a dark blade with a crossguard seemingly made out of magenta vines. "Nepgear!" she yelled, trying to rouse her. Nothing. Her body was pale, cold, lifeless. Uni shook her head, unwilling to believe what she was seeing. "Nepgear! C'mon this isn't the time to take a nap! NEPGEAR!" she yelled frantically. Unfortunately for Uni, Nepgear was currently off on a journey, a journey down memory lane…

Back in the final room of the upper levels where the CPU stood, Neptune slowly opened the black chest. Inside of it was a small, blackish-purple crystal with a power button symbol on it. Interested in it, Neptune immediately took it out of its container and began to examine the object with intense interest. "Go figure, we came here for a small key item," she muttered, pocketing the item. Not too long after, she felt a strange sensation in her body. "Kuh, agh!" she yelled in pain. Not too long after, she was on the ground, a strange steam erupting from her body.

Noire immediately ran to her, kneeling beside her. "You ok?" she asked frantically.

Vert immediately moved Noire out of her way to kneel beside Neptune. She began to cast heal, but nothing was happening. "Perhaps she overheated," she suggested.

Neptune coughed, curling into a ball before finally managing to stand half-way up. "S-Something's going on with my body! I-I feel all weird and stuff!" she yelled fearfully.

Not sure of what to do, the CPU could only watch in horror as Neptune attempted to fend off the steam and ease the pain that was coursing through her body. Eventually, a large pillar of light erupted from her body. What emerged from it was not Neptune, but a woman who was the spitting image of the woman in the portrait. The only differences were her purple hair, and her glistening, blue eyes.

The three CPU stared at their comrade, completely unsure of what they had just witnessed. All that they could come up with was that this new form must be Neptune's HDD.

The three were speechless with the exception of Blanc who had only two words to say the moment, "Holy shit."

[Neptune Acquired HDD: Purple Heart]

[Truth Fragment Obtained: The Silver Goddess]

[Extra Event Obtained: Passing the Time]

[Neptune Obtained: Celestial Breaker]

[Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert have Obtained: Guardian Force]

Next Time: Stage 4. The Forsaken Sanctuary, Part II: Awakening

Author's Notes:

I live again! Forgive the absence everyone, I got buried under my homework and am updating far later than I had anticipated. I will attempt to pump out more chapters in advance before school starts back up again. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter.