Lowee Forest, 6:45am

The sisters had set up camp about a mile from the facility. It'd gotten dark fast, and the forests of Lowee aren't the safest place to be in the dark. Night came, as did sleep, and eventually morning returned to the world. The rising sun gently peeking into the Lastation duo's tent roused them both, and within 10 minutes they were up and out.

Lowee was quite some distance away: Twenty miles, on foot. Sure, Uni could have easily transformed and flew them there, but the twin Orange Hearts were keeping an eye on any CPU energy signals. The kind generated by going HDD. As a result, their only choice was to hike it on foot. Not helping matters was the location of the facility: Situated in a jungle denser than Peashy and so far from civilization that you could call it Neogaf, the facility was pretty much invisible.

It had another problem, however. Sure, it was nigh impossible for intruders to get in, but that went both ways.

"So... I've been meaning to ask, but how exactly did Leanbox manage to avoid being enveloped by the Orange Hearts almost immediately?" Noire asked, breaking the silence of the sisters' slow plodding walk through the forest.

Uni tilted her head, thinking for a moment.
"Well, there were a number of factors. The biggest one was the fact that the nation's military was still fanatically loyal to Vert, even in death. Planeptunian forces went to Leanbox hoping for an easy kill."
Uni paused, and smirked a little.
"They got one. Leanbox forces tore them to pieces. The northern coast of the Leanbox continent was renamed "The Red Sea" because of how many people died there. But that wasn't the sole factor. After your fight with Kurome, she was weakened. Wouldn't show it to anyone, but her refusal to go HDD and just curbstomp Leanbox made it obvious. And then, there was the Black Sunday-"
"Black Sunday?" Interjected Noire.
"Calm down, Solid Snake. Yeah, the Black Sunday. About a year to the day after you vanished, there was a long Solar Eclipse. Nobody knows what happened, but when it passed, an entire district of Planeptune had been shredded. Like a giant wild animal just tore through it. You can find the pictures on some shady internet sites; They're not pretty. After all that happened, Rei was accepted as their CPU and things resumed to normality." Uni finished her sentence with a sigh, having not expected to speak so much so early.

Noire extended her hand and stopped Uni from moving. Something had changed in the air, something awful. Something... Familiar.

Suddenly, a clapping sound.
"I'm impressed, Black Heart. I really am." That sultry, deep, mocking voice could only come from one person... "Iris Heart, in case you've forgotten me. Figured I'd come pay a visit to the grand reawakening of a dear old friend." Iris strolled towards the two, but they backed up almost immediately.
Her removed arm had been replaced with a black and purple cybernetic, one that seamlessly fit into her outfit. "You." Noire growled, hate boiling within her. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip you to pieces right now."
Iris chuckled. "Because you can't. Can you even transform, Black Heart?"

She had a point. Noire was far, FAR too weakened to do ANYTHING. Transforming in this state would probably kill her, and the lack of shares would do her no favours either.

Iris raised her hands. "You can relax, though." she said, with a hint of mockery. "I'm not really here. Just a shadow."

Before Noire could respond, Iris faded away, smirking all the while.
"Well that was... puzzling" Said Noire through her teeth
"Troubling, more like. We should keep moving." Uni tapped Noire on the shoulder and motioned to move.

Uni had changed a lot in the intervening years. Gone was the childish naivety and blistering lack of self confidence, both having been replaced with a world-weary sense of pragmatism and a self-determination that had all but washed away her previous insecurities. It almost reminded her of Soeni: Their steel-hearted and militaristic mother that, for all her long years of life, barely interacted with the two.

But Noire had forgotten all about Soeni, suppressed the memory until it couldn't even whisper in her mind. Why now, of all times, is the memory returning to her? Soeni was a fantastic leader, but not the best mother. Under her thousands of years of ruling, she raised Lastation from an international footnote to one of the world's strongest nations. Force was her strongpoint; When she was alive, she was regarded as the greatest military commander who ever lived, and even today generals from every nation keep copies of her self-published book, "The Art of War", in their desks. Even in times of peace, her determination and forceful personality meant she was a diplomatic powerhouse, and Lastation still benefits from numerous treaties that were signed when Soeni was alive, despite the fact the other 3 CPUs that were alive at that time have long since passed.

If only that attention, planning and care was given to her daughters. Noire vividly recalled many moments where she was scooted out of rooms by Kei because "Mother's working, dear". Even when Soeni did pay attention to her, it was only brief.

"Mommy's working, sweetie, go play with Uni."
"I can't play right now, darling, I have a meeting."
"I have to work late tonight, dear, Kei will make dinner."

It was always the same. Yet, Noire remembered one instance that stood out. It was about 120 years after Noire had been born, and in human terms the equivalent would be a 12 year old. Soeni was entering into the end of her lifespan: Goddesses can live for an extraordinary amount of time (Rei Ryghts, the apparent oldest CPU, is 10290 years old), but even they succumb to age. Noire was playing with Neptune, Nepgear and Uni in the Lastation Basilicom, and Nepgear had tripped on the stairs, hurting her knee quite severely. Noire rushed to find someone to help, but as it was summer, nobody was around. So Noire decided to bother Soeni in her office and to her surprise, Soeni came along. They took Nepgear to the living room and bandaged her up. Noire expected Soeni to up and leave, but instead she offered to... play with them, and so she did. Their afternoon was spent in a playpark, not too far from the Basilicom. Indeed, Soeni playing was such a surprise that all of the other CPUs at the time were shocked. Umbriel, Neptune and Nepgear's mother, even flew over at Mach 10 to see if she was alright, which humoured Soeni.

What didn't humour Soeni was the other two CPUs coming along. She drew her blade then and there, but to her surprise, they detransformed instantly. They, too, though she was behaving out of character.
"I-I'm not out of character! I can have fun!"
Suddenly it all makes sense. Regardless, the reason this was such a big thing was because Leanbox and Lowee's CPU were at war with Lastation, yet they still flew over out of a strange sense of worry. That day was the first "peaceful" interaction in many hundreds of years: The wars were called off, the CPUs and their children slept over at Lastation, and the world rejoiced. Sadly, Soeni didn't live to see it. 20 years later, Soeni went to sleep and didn't wake.

It all seemed so distant to Noire, and it technically was; It was about a thousand years ago, but CPUs are supposed to have incredibly good memories. To feel the passage of time is a bad omen.

"Noire... are you crying?" said Uni, worry in her voice
Huh? she thought, unaware of the tear that had escaped her eye.
"Not crying, just..." she sighed "Thinking back to that one night with mom, when all the CPUs made peace because Soeni pushed us down a swing a few times."
"Heh... different world, it feels like." There was a hint of resentment in Uni's voice. "Either way, it's only about 3 miles to Lowee. You've been quiet, you know."
"Yeah... lost in thought, I guess. Hey, do you think Kurome knows where the sword is?" Noire asked, shyly.
"I hope not. We haven't transformed yet, and I didn't transform on the journey to the facility, or our journey to Lowee, so we should be fine." Uni replied, with an inkling of hesitation. "In any case, Lowee is close. We won't be going in the front doors, obviously. An agent is going to meet us at a decommissioned mine and lead us in."

Noire nodded, and the two continued their long stroll to Lowee. Eventually, they broke out of the colossal forest, and the Land of White Serenity was visible to them. The two stopped to take in the view, before descending a steep hill that almost seemed to go below the city. The hill led to a rickety trench, which had clearly been long abandoned and appeared to stretch on for ages. But their feet did not fail them, and they made it to the entrance of the mine.

Out of the blackness stepped a blue-clad figure in a beret.

"Hey there, I'm C-Sha. I'll be your tour guide."