Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.
Sorry about the super short prologue, so to make up for it, here's a normal length chapter.
Nepgear groaned as she woke up from her nap and grimaced at how stiff she was from sleeping at her desk. "Ngh, been working too much lately." Shaking her head, she sighed heavily. "Has it been ten years already?" She ran her hands through her hair, now held in a single long braided ponytail to keep it from getting caught in doors by accident. Her outfit had changed over the years as she had given up wearing white and took to wearing a black sailor dress with leggings that covered her lower body completely.
The last time she saw her sister, the last time anyone had seen her sister, was ten years ago. Well, it wasn't completely accurate, she had seen her sister one time after she left, when she had gotten a video message sent to her, telling her that she loved her, telling Nepgear that she was sorry and telling Nepgear to become the best CPU she could.
"Nepgear," a familiar voice spoke up, "are you okay?" Looking up as Histoire floated into the room, Nepgear gave her a neutral look and nodded. "I was checking on you since you've been working extra hard lately."
"It's fine, Histoire." Nepgear stood up and stretched. "I guess I'm just a little exhausted from doing so much paperwork. I think I'll go do quests early today."
Histoire nodded and sighed as Nepgear walked past her. "Nepgear, you know that you can take a day off if you want to."
"A CPU must always make sure to do what's needed for their citizens, no matter what." Nepgear gave Histoire another blank look. "Is that not what you taught me?"
"Yes, but I..."
"Then it's fine. Work never ends anyway."
After Nepgear left, Histoire sighed and hung her head. "Nepgear, I'm so... So sorry."
She knew it was her fault that Nepgear had turned into what she had. She knew it was her fault that things had ended up the way they were.
"I didn't have a choice. I did what I had to do." Those words rang hollow to her, even now. "If only I had noticed what I was doing to you sooner, Nepgear. If only I had... Taken the time to get to know you... Or let you grieve."
Sighing, Histoire wondered if there was any way to mend the damage that she had done to Nepgear all those years ago.
(-)
As she walked towards the guild, Nepgear noticed the citizens of the city stop, wave and smile at her. Waving back, the most she did was nod at them. In the ten years since she had taken over as the CPU, Planeptune had grown tremendously, far out-pacing the other three nations in every aspect possible.
Yet Nepgear never truly felt like this was her nation. It should have been her sister's nation, not hers. Sure, she knew she was to take over when her sister ended up passing on or stepped down, but that didn't make it any easier on her.
'No point complaining about it.' Nepgear sighed. She knew that Histoire had only done what she did, pushing her to be the best CPU she could be, because Planeptune had been in a real bad position back then. It didn't make it any easier.
Walking into the guild, she walked up to the desk and nodded at the guild clerk, who nodded back at her and pulled out a book. "You're here early, Lady Nepgear."
"I decided to change things up, that's all." Taking the book, she looked through it and mentally sighed at the lack of quests that would need a CPU's attention. "Not a lot here, huh?"
"Just think of it as a sign that our CPU is such a good worker."
Nepgear nodded and selected a few quests that would take her out of town for a few hours. "Thank you for your hard work." She turned and left the guild.
After she left, several guild members and staff all let out a breath as they sighed heavily. "Seriously, how do you..." One of the staff members looked at the clerk who gave Nepgear the quest book.
"That's all I've known her as." The clerk shrugged. "I don't know if she was different in the past or not, but if that's how she is, that's how she is." Sure, the CPU's eyes were cold and she never showed emotion, but she also wasn't one to hold back on praise and thanks when she felt it was appropriate.
Most people agreed that Nepgear was a very kind and lovely person. After all, despite how her eyes were or the lack of outward emotion, she always made sure to do the best for the citizens.
They just wished that her eyes would show that or that she would show emotion. It was a little bit intimidating.
(-)
Back at the Basilicom...
"Hey, sis, do you..." A young girl's voice was heard as the door to Nepgear's office opened up. "Huh? Sis isn't here?" The girl was rather short, looking to be only twelve to fourteen physically. She had short, spiky light purple hair and her light purple eyes looked around in confusion. "That's odd, did she have to go to the bathroom?" She was wearing clothes that wouldn't be out of place for someone on a basketball team as she had a large white t-shirt with red stripes that covered her from her neck down half-way past her thighs. She had sneakers on her feet that were white with red and black stripes as well as wrist bands that had a stylized "N" on them.
"Ah, Jupiter..." Histoire noticed the current CPU Candidate as she went down the hallway. "Were you looking for Nepgear?"
"Yeah, but sis isn't here, she didn't..." The candidate trailed off, getting a shake from Histoire.
"She didn't leave you alone, she just went out to do some quests early today."
"Oh." Jupiter fought the urge to sigh and looked at the paperwork on Nepgear's desk. "I could do some of that for sis, you think she'd be happy?"
"At the very least she won't be disappointed." Histoire nodded at her. "Just don't work too hard."
Jupiter nodded and grabbed some of the papers and started to look them over. Her sister, even when she left most of it behind, was good enough that there wasn't too much to do. Still, there was enough paperwork here to keep her busy until after lunch. 'Maybe sis will want to play some games when she gets back?' She couldn't remember the last time she had spent time with her sister doing something like that.
Seeing Jupiter get to work on the paperwork left Histoire mentally sighing. Yes, she was glad that the CPU Candidate was willing to work, but deep down she wished that Nepgear would relax and spend time with Jupiter and have fun.
'If only I hadn't been sealed away, I might have been able to stop all of this.' She knew it wasn't completely her fault, she couldn't help being sealed away.
That didn't make things easier on her.
(-)
As she got close to the border of Planeptune and Lastation, Nepgear grimaced as she stepped over a rock. 'Why did I agree to gather materials again?' Looking at the list in her hand, she saw what was being asked and nodded. They were rare items and the monsters in the area were very strong.
At least for the average citizen and most guild workers. For Nepgear, they weren't too terribly powerful. 'This place really is beautiful, isn't it?' She looked at the mountainous area and closed her eyes. The image of when she was younger, and her older sister, popped into her head. The first time she had gotten to leave the Basilicom with her sister, the two had snuck out to an area like this and had a picnic together.
Or had tried to as a bunch of Dogoos had shown up and ruined the whole thing shortly after they had taken the time to eat together.
Nepgear shook her head and tried to shove her emotions down. 'She's gone, Nepgear, stop thinking about the past already.' There was nothing she could do about it. The whole Console War had taken so much from so many. 'At least those three murderers haven't done anything since Neptune died.'
She didn't know why, but she knew that the three had entered into a treaty of sorts with each other. The three called it a peace treaty and had even publically announced they would suspend hostilities with each other and Planeptune.
Nepgear wasn't a fool, she neither liked nor trusted the other nations nor their CPUs. After all, her sister had tried to be friends with them, had told her that she wanted to end the war peacefully. And all that got her was dead.
At the very least, if the other CPUs were willing to forego being aggressive on her nation, she would return the favor. Even if she wanted nothing more than to see the three dead at her feet some days, stoking the flames of war and facing off against three nations was just not smart.
So long as they kept to their nations, she would do the same.
When a loud bang went off not far from her position, she was shaken out of her thoughts and mentally cursed before ducking behind a rock and waited. 'I know that I'm near Lastation's border, is there a sniper nearby?' She rarely came this close to the border, so the other CPUs hiring an assassin to wait for her didn't seem reasonable.
'I'm going to have to double-check my information when I get back, make sure that there's no unseen movements.'
Another shot went off and Nepgear waited for a moment before sighing as she realized it wasn't aimed at her when she didn't hear any bullets hitting the rocks or ground around her. Igniting her beam saber, she slowly made her way towards the shots she had heard.
"Be careful!" A young girl's voice was heard. "To the right!"
"R-right!" Another young girl's voice was heard as the sounds of battle raged on.
Taking a risk, Nepgear popped her head over the ridge and looked down into the small valley. She had expected to see an army, or at least a dozen people fighting.
What she saw was simply three girls, two of them looked like twins, though one had long hair and their outfits were matching gray dresses with staves in their hands, each one casting various magic attacks, and the other one had black hair done up in twin half-pigtails, looked a few years older, had a black dress on, a rifle in her arms, which was the sound of the firing that she had heard before.
Idly Nepgear wondered if they were from the other nations, after all, this was pretty close to the border and it wouldn't surprise her if they had been trying to sneak in and gather information. Who would suspect three young girls as spies after all?
Still, seeing them fight the large group of horsebirds and tulips, she wondered if she should help them. Sighing as she imagined her dead sister giving her a disappointed look, she got up and slid down into the valley.
Uni, the girl with black hair, grimaced as a tulip monster got too close and headbutted her again. "Guh!"
"Look out!" One of the twins, Rom, yelled as she blasted the creature with an ice spell.
"Dang it!" The other twin, Ram, yelled in frustration as she cast an explosion spell. "We should have tried to get a front-line fighter to join us on this quest!"
Not too far away, her twin nodded. "Uh huh." Rom had a determined look on her face. "But we don't."
"ROM!" Ram suddenly screamed as a horsebird flew, fluttered, ran, no one was really sure how to describe how those things moved, over to her sister and was coming down.
Uni let out a curse and was about to activate her HDD to wipe out all these monsters when the horsebird suddenly let out a pained scream and disappeared in a mess of pixels and light. "What the?" She gawked as a girl with long pink hair, two d-clips, one black and one white, were in her hair, she was wearing a black sailor dress and had leggings that covered her very long legs. Her eyes, however, made Uni pause.
They didn't show any emotion at all.
"Would you three care for some assistance?" The newcomer asked.
"If you can fight, please help." Uni called to her as she shot another horsebird. There were a bunch of tulips gathering together and before she could even react to them, a wave of energy shot through them, defeating all of them.
"That won't be a problem then."
"Wow, so cool!" Rom gasped in delight. "Ram, did you see?"
"Yeah, but we have to..." Another wave went past Ram, slicing through a few horsebirds that had been trying to sneak up on her from behind.
"Thanks for the assist." Uni said to the newcomer as she finished charging her attack up. "Now... Ex Multi Blaster!" A black beam of energy rushed out and mowed down the last of the monsters in the area.
The three all sighed and fell to their butts in relief.
"Not bad." The newcomer said as she looked at them. "What brought you three out this far?"
"We were taking a quest on to do some monster hunting." Uni said, blushing softly. "But the monsters escaped and we chased them out here and..."
"The big meanies called in high level friends!" The long haired twin pouted.
"I see. Yes, that would happen right here, wouldn't it?" The pink-haired girl looked up at the mountains. "I think there was a den of some really high powered monsters in this area awhile ago." She looked back at them. "You three were lucky they were just horsebirds and tulips, I've heard there were some really strong Shampuru and Kupokitties in this area." Not to mention some of the other creatures, such as the rumor of some high-tier super bosses that hid out in the caves in the area. 'That reminds me, I'm going to need to have some scouts check out the caves near the border and make sure that there isn't anything like VIRUS or Delphinus in the area.' The last thing she wanted was one of those two running around unchecked.
"If that was the case, we'd be okay!" Ram boasted at her.
The newcomer raised an eyebrow. "I see. Oh, where are my manners? My name is Nepgear."
"I'm Uni." The dark haired girl bowed her head to Nepgear. "This is Rom," she gestured towards the short haired brunette, "and this is Ram."
"Hello, Miss Nepgear."
"Uni... Rom... Ram..." Nepgear said each name slowly before softly sighing. 'To think that the CPU Candidates of Lowee and Lastation were here. I'm going to have a headache and I don't want to deal with this.' Unlike what she had done with Jupiter, both White and Black Heart had publically announced their sisters to the world. Nepgear had kept Jupiter a closely guarded secret that only Histoire and a few other members of the Basilicom knew about.
Partially it was because she didn't think that Jupiter was ready for the exposure of being announced publically, and partially because she didn't want her enemies, especially the other CPUs, to attack her by killing her sister off.
Again.
Part of her wanted to kill these three, to have White and Black Heart know what it was like to feel the pain of losing their sister. 'That won't work, would it?' It wouldn't bring her sister back, it would only cause problems with the other nations and frankly Nepgear didn't want to deal with them any longer than she had to. "I see... I'd ask why you three are in Planeptune, but it seems like you didn't come here intentionally."
"Eh?!" The three yelped in shock, their eyes white and blank.
"We're in Planeptune?" Uni asked, getting a nod from Nepgear. "Well, we didn't..."
"I know." Nepgear resisted the urge to rub her forehead in annoyance. "If you three turn around and leave right now, I won't have you three arrested for attempted invasion."
"Huh?" Uni blinked in surprise. "But that's a bit extreme, isn't it?"
"Not at all. Planeptune and the other nations do not have cordial relations." Nepgear countered. It was pretty well-known that the CPU of Planeptune hadn't entered into the treaty with the other nations and was fairly isolated from the rest of the world as well. "However, it looks like you three didn't come here intentionally." Sighing as they nodded. "I'll escort you three to the border. That way no one will ask questions if they see you."
The group started to march to the border and Nepgear had her hand on her beam saber, which was still ignited, much to the three CPU Candidates chagrin.
"You know, it won't take us long to get the border." Uni said as they walked down the slope. "I get it, you're a good Planeptune citizen and all that and you're concerned about us, but we'll get home and..."
"All things considered, you three should be thankful that I'm not arresting the three of you, locking you up, interrogating you and then demanding reparations from your nations to return you." Nepgear said curtly, sighing as the three spun and glared at her. "I don't want to deal with the hassle that would come from dealing with such a situation, that's all."
"Oh yeah?!" Ram glared at her and pointed. "And who are you to say stuff like that, you big meanie? My sister's the CPU of Lowee so maybe you should..."
A flash of light and numbers surrounded Nepgear and the three gulped as the light cleared away to reveal Nepgear in a skin-tight light black outfit with pink and purple lines on the sides, four white wings on her back, though the edges were tinged with red, her legs and arms were covered in black and purple gauntlets and a gunblade was held in her right hand. "CPU Lilac Heart." Her voice was unchanged and her purple eyes had changed to blue and there was a power symbol in them, showing that she was a true CPU, however, like her normal form, those eyes showed no emotion. "Now, I'm asking you kindly, to please leave my country and not come back."
"Wait a moment!" Uni yelled, causing Lilac Heart to raise an eyebrow at her. "If you're the CPU of Planeptune... Why don't you join the other nations in the treaty? I mean, it's been ten years since the war ended, so why are you..." She trailed off as she saw Lilac Heart show actual emotion for the first time since she met her.
However, the hardening of her eyes didn't make Uni feel good.
"I would suggest that you three leave now, one more word out of any of you and I will resort to force."
When the three scrambled off, Lilac Heart watched them run over the border before sighing, turning and flying off. 'I hate this day.' She still had some items to find still!
So, the truth is, I wrote this on a whim, I was talking to a friend of mine and I started writing small snippets out before I realized that I wanted to write the whole fic out. So if some parts seem to copy what I've said before, that's why. I had to write the rest of the fic around the snippets I wrote previously.
As for Jupiter, I blame megaswifter for his awesome fic "Omegadimension Neptunia: The Next Generation". I'm only using the name as everything else was mine.
So, yeah, the story's going differently than what was written in "Change the World".
