Chapter 7: The Zero Dimension

It was difficult to say whether it was day or night, both looked exactly the same as the other. That was what happening right at that moment with the thoughts in Neptune's confused mind: thinking about the time of day. Neptune and Nepgear were walking side-by-side together with Lucius just ahead of them, his crossbow in both hands, ready for an ambush to occur. Fortunately for the three of them an ambush did not occur during the duration of their journey south-west to the one eyed man's camp, there they would be able to rest easy and ask any questions they felt they needed to know. The trip itself took a little longer than they initially believed, at least two and a half hours of almost non-stop walking; the two goddesses of Planeptune even had to sit down for some time before they could manage walking again.

As the long walk continued Neptune glanced around her and realised that she and the others were finally leaving the ruined city behind them for good, the vast plains of the untamed wild laid before her and Nepgear, as well as their peculiar, otherworldly guide. The ruined streets and mildly destroyed buildings gave way to green fields and trees that were spread across the plains of the wild, but for some reason that Neptune could not understand it felt like the trees were dying, as if there was some sort of magic that was draining their life force and feeding into something else. What that was the Planeptunian Goddess did not know, nor did she really want to know. Further to the south Neptune could see a mountain range peaking over the small forest that laid before it, the mountain range appeared to be a brown and green colour, but it, too, seemed to be dying for some unknown magical reason. Neptune grimaced at the sight of the environment, and the very land, dying all around her before racing after Nepgear and Lucius.

"Hey, Lucy, Why set up shop outside the city?" Neptune asked, stuffing up Lucius' name.

"Because the city is a war zone, it's filled with all manner of daemons and other monstrosities," Lucius began to explain before turning his gaze directly towards the purple goddess. "Also, my name is Lucius, not Lucy. Seriously, how can you stuff up my name, Neput… Neupt… Nepunu… Dammit, why does your name have to be so difficult?"

Neptune was flabbergasted. She cried out in shock, pretended to weep, but was just merely shocked in general. "What is this?! The first OC in this series of fan fiction novels who cannot even say my name?! This is heresy!" However, she soon lightened up and giggled. "Oh well, just call me Nep, Nep-Nep, Neptuna, whatever rhymes with Nep or something with Nep in it, I don't mind."

The enchanter chuckled, amused with Neptune's childish behaviour. "Heh, alright then. I'll call you Nep and I'll call your younger sister Gear from now own, how's that?" He was given a bright smile and a thumbs up from the Planeptunian Goddesses, clearly they was okay with the nicknames. "Alright then, that's good to know. Oh, we're approaching the end of the city, get prepared for anything."

After the group left the ruined city fully behind them they soon encountered a flat plain filled with a mix of dead and live grass, a few trees huddled together with red, brown and yellow of dark and light coloured hides were tied up as a roof with several walls around the tree trunks; it was a rather odd shelter but it did appear to work from first sight. A dead campfire was near by around a few piles of small, loose rocks, metal rods stuck up from the ground and a metal cooking pot was hanging over the embers of the charcoaled wood, the inside of the pot was empty but it looked as if it had been used regularly, and recently as well. A bucket of water was situated nearby, dirt floated on the top along with a few twigs, there were a few more buckets of water underneath a blanket. A backpack was leaning up against a tree, it was filled with cans of food that Lucius had scavenged. Several logs and smooth rocks were placed around the campfire in a circle.

The campsite did not look homely, but Lucius sighed with relief as he walked up to the dead campfire, he sat down on one of the legs before looking back at the Planeptune sisters and beckoned for them to join him. "Well come on then, you said you wanted a rest." the former general told them as he began to light up the campfire again. "Are you two going to sit down or not? I'm starting to get tired of all this waiting around."

"R-Right, sorry 'bout that," Neptune apologised with a quirky smile. She took a seat near Lucius while Nepgear sat next to her older sister, whom the one eyed man still believed was the younger of the two. As the mixed brown and black haired man removed his helmet and placed it down next to him after lighting up the campfire with a bright flame. The Planeptunian CPU gained his attention by asking a question. "So then, how did you get here? Did some sort of wormhole open up randomly and suck you in?"

Lucius shook his head. "No. Well, sort of, it's complicated. I'll leave out the main story and just tell you how it happened." The one eyed man cleared his thought before explaining how he arrived in the middle of nowhere. "It was a while ago, at least two to three months by my reckoning, when I first arrived here. I wasn't alone mind you, in fact there were three of us who left our original dimension, our home world, although we were separated before we arrived here. The journey through that portal was… astounding. Stars were everywhere, shining brightly from all across time and space; it was definitely beautiful and poetic, considering that the Void was pitch black as the deepest pits of Hell itself."

Nepgear titled her head in confusion as soon as the one eyed man finished talking. "The Void? What's the Void? It sounds kind of ominous."

"That is is," Lucius responded as he pocked a stick in the small, contained fire, moving the old embers around. "The Void, as I was told, is the pieces of space between the dimensions; it's mostly pitch black with nothing in it, but apparently it seems that stars from planets, solar systems and dimensions flicker on and off through the Void. I was also told that nothing could survive living in the Void, although that is up to speculation. It's like a dead place."

Nepgear appeared to be a little shaken by the vivid description, but Neptune had wide eyes which were filled with wonder and excitement. "Whoa, that kinda sounds like how me, Nep Jr, P-ko Plutie and Angie saw it when we were sent hurdling here thanks to that magical console."

Lucius raised an eyebrow at what the purple goddess had said. "What strange names for people. Who are they? Friends of yours or something?"

Neptune nodded. "That they are. They're CPUs just like me and my little sister, although out of the three of them only Plutie runs a nations; it's a parallel version of the nation me an Nep Jr run." She giggled after seeing Lucius pull a confused expression. "Confused about CPUs? Well, CPU stands for Console Patron Unit; it's a gaming or a computer reference. Essentially, we are goddesses, born from people's faith and powered by it, or something like that anyway. We can also transform into sexier versions of ourselves thanks to the power of faith, making us stronger, faster, altering our personalities, and generally making perverts drool, although I'd prefer if they didn't do that last part."

Lucius chuckled as he got off the log and began to rummage through his backpack. "As I already told you, seeing is believing. You may claim that you, your sister and these friends of yours are goddesses who can transform into a different form, but I need proof before I can believe it."

The purple goddess stuck her tongue out playfully before breaking out into a cheerful smile. "Aw, you're such a party pooper. Do you even have any friends?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Only two friends though, well, maybe three if you include him, that crazy dimension travelling man." The former general cleaned out the cooking pot before throwing in some fresh water, when it began to boil he tipped in some cans that he opened previously, emptying the meaty and vegetable contents into the pot. That was when Lucius noticed that the Planpetune sisters were still watching him. "Huh? Oh, sorry. I guess an explanation would be of use, right? My friends are known as Juvia Red-Axe, the Imperial Battlemage of the Empire, and Emperor Uriel Caesar, the Ice Emperor and ruler of the Imperial Empire."

"Ooooh, fancy names and titles. Awesome," Neptune said, were eyes filled with wonder. Even Nepgear was intrigued with the names and titles that Lucius had informed them about. The purple goddess then rubbed her chin thoughtfully, one of the names rang a bell in her mind. Then it clicked. "Hey, I've heard of Uriel before. Been a while since I heard that name."

Lucius stared at the two sisters with shock. "You what? Are you saying that the two of you have heard about Uriel before?" When they nodded the one eyed man's expression turned from shocked to excited. "Who told you two about him? Tell me! I need to know!"

"Um, Wraith did. Should he not have told us about Uriel?" Nepgear replied cautiously, unsure why he was getting so worked up about it. But very soon, when the CPU Candidate noticed the excited and surprised look on his face, she knew that Lucius was not unhappy about the news, instead he appeared to be rather pleased to hear the news.

"No, no it's alright. I'm actually surprised to hear that Wraith told you two about Emperor Uriel," Lucius chuckled. "Although I am rather surprised to hear that you both know about Wraith. Where is he? When was the last time you saw him? I need to see him!"

The purple goddess of fourth wall breaking was initially surprised with the sudden questioning, but she weathered through it and merely shrugged her shoulders before speaking. "Nah, sorry there, mate," Neptune apologised with an apologetic smile. "To be honest, me and a few of my friends have been looking for him for the past year, but we've been unable to locate him. Why do you need to find him anyway?"

"Answers," was Lucius' response. The one eyed man went silent as he began to stir the mildly cooked food in the pot with a wooden spoon, clanking the wooden object against the brim of the cooking pot. He looked back at the Nep sisters to see them staring at the pot, the one eyed commander chuckled at the sight. "Sorry, should have asked if you two were hungry. Anyway, how do you two know about Wraith? What was he doing?"

As Neptune was about to explain to Lucius how she, her younger sister and their friends knew Wraith the Ancient God of Time, the ominous sounds of rumbling crackled from above them violently, the dark purple cracks in the sky were thundering noises at the world below. The dimension was slowly dying around the group, and it was making it that fact obvious. Neptune and Nepgear glanced upwards towards the broken sky to see the dark purple and dark blue cracks above them start to expand ever so slightly, the broken sky rumbled again to the sounds of daemonic roaring that echoed through the trees and the city, filling the air with fear. The CPU Candidate of Planeptune glanced around swiftly, her eyes wide with fear, as if she was expecting a daemon or two to appear out of nowhere and attack them without remorse. Lucius glanced over at Nepgear and gave her a caring smile, at least he tried to make it look like a caring smile, while sticking his right thumb up.

"Hey, don't worry about those bastards, no daemons come over here. They always end up with a crossbow bolt between their bloodthirsty eyes before they even get near the camp," Lucius told the Candidate of Planeptune. "You shouldn't worry about them getting here, I'll make sure they're dead before those daemons even get near the camp. Anyway, back to what I was asking beforehand, how do you know Wraith and what was he doing?"

As Nepgear felt some pain in her stomach and her head, the elder sister spoke up to answer the question. "Well, it's kinda complicated, in a way," Neptune began to explain. "You see, Wraith came hurdling into our dimension at some random time that not even we know about, but he did have a purpose of sorts. He was looking after a… friend from afar while helping us against the Dark Captains, who had come from a different dimension to do some weird necromantic thing or something to bring back a Dark Lord they worshipped into our dimension; I don't know if they were successful though. They were taken care of though, by that I mean they're dead, but that was when Wraith went missing."

To both Neptune and Nepgear's surprise they saw Lucius' expression turn sour when he heard about the Dark Captains, it then soon hit the two goddesses that the one eyed man knew the Dark Captains; he was from their dimension. "Did you know them well?" Nepgear asked, soon afterwards she regretted asking that question. Lucius grimaced grimly and gripped the end of his tunic tightly, sighing depressingly as he stared at the cooking pot. "S-Sorry for asking, I'm guessing it's kind of personal and sensitive."

Lucius shook his head and his right hand dismissively. "No, it's alright, I just never had to talk to people I barely know about my life." The former general rubbed a hand through his scruffy hair and sighed. "Well, all I can tell you about them is probably the same things you already heard back from where you two are from, but you should know that despite being dead there is still much to fear, for those four have the power of the Dark Lord Agandur within them, their life force is one with him. If they are truly dead then there is not much to fear, but I have a feeling that the Dark Lord is still out there somewhere, whether in your dimension or somewhere else, but if you two manage to get back to your home then I suggest you keep a watchful from then onwards. Sometimes the dead have trouble staying still."

Before Neptune could question Lucius further about what he meant both she and the one eyed man heard Nepgear groan in pain as she rubbed her head, a headache had taken old in her mind, and it did not look good from what the purple goddess and the crossbow wielding man could see. The CPU Candidate rubbed her temples roughly and grunted as she moved her head slightly. "Urgh… I don't feel so good," she murmured with a tired tone.

The purple goddess stared worryingly at her younger sister; she appeared to have been concerned at first, but then came the teasing. "Are you tired, Nep Jr? You look worn-out, guess it was from all the work that Histy made you do back home. We don't need another Noire in our ranks, having two overworking goddesses is more than enough."

Lucius sighed as he reached underneath his armour and grabbed a small flask of fresh water, he handed it over to Nepgear, who took it with a mildly confused look. "There's some fresh water in there, it's perfectly safe for consumption," the enchanter informed the lilac haired Candidate. "Drink it slowly and get some rest, no doubt you are suffering from fatigue due to working too much and side effects from travelling between dimensions. There is a bedroll inside the makeshift tent that you can use; I salvaged it from the nearby ruins around a month ago and surprisingly in good shape. Just get some rest and you will be fine by tomorrow."

The Candidate nodded weakly as she got off the log and made her way to the bedroll for some rest, once she had crawled into it her older sister, Neptune, looked back at the one eyed man and chuckled. "You're too kind to be a general, not to mention you look too young to be one as well. Just how old are you, and why all the kindness? Not that I'm against it mind you."

Lucius sighed and shook his head, this time out of amusement. "You are right, Nep, I am rather young to be a general and too kind for a roughened up soldier. If you are wondering how old I am, I happen to be twenty-six years of age." The surprised expression upon Neptune's face made the young former general chuckle in amusement once more. "Yeah, I thought you would look like that once I told you. I am rather young for a general, or a former general to be exact, right? Well, my emperor is a little younger than me, around twenty-three I think."

"Fancy," Neptune said as she stretched her arms out, sighing with relief as she slouched forward again, scratching her back like a lazy person in the morning would. Not long afterwards her expression soured and sadness appeared all over her face. "I know… knew… an emperor back from where I'm from, he was a sweet person before… actually, I rather not talk about that. Bad memories and all that."

The enchanter nodded his head sympathetically. "I understand, Nep, truly I do. There is just some things that we do not want to talk about, especially to people who are basically strangers, to an extent. Maybe one day you'll talk about it though, maybe." The young general continued to stir the contents of the cooking pot, the mood had grown dim between him and Neptune, much to his dissatisfaction. Lucius did want to know more about this emperor that the purple goddess was referring to, but she seemed a bit touchy about the subject, as if something had happened that was giving her grief. The one eyed man returned his attention towards Neptune and gave her a cheerful smile. "Hey, cheer up, Nep, let me see that cheeky and cheerful grin on your face again. We may have met under strange circumstances but I do find you to be quiet interesting, in a way; plus you have already cheered up my dreadful day. Chin up, look good, and stay happy. Got it?"

Neptune gazed at the one eyed man with wonder, not long afterwards she burst out into a fit of laughter, confusing Lucius as she fell off the log and rolled around on the ground. After a minute or two of laughing the purple goddess wiped the tears away from her face, sat on her knees and smirked at Lucius. "My my, aren't you the smooth talker? I bet you were a fan of the ladies back home for all those types of words, weren't you?"

This time it was Lucius' turn to laugh. He shook his head and sighed, an amused look on his face. "No, I was never a ladies man like that, had no time for relationships. Although, there was that one time… actually, I'd rather not talk about it, bad memories you see. Heh, guess there are some things that we just don't want to discuss. Talk about similarities there."

Neptune giggled, smiling at the one eyed man. "Yeah, guess we got something in common, me ol' pirate."

"Don't you dare associate me with those raiders!" Lucius yelled furiously as he stood up, his left hand upon the hilt of his sheathed sword, his eye glaring viciously at the purple goddess. Soon afterwards he sighed depressingly, but kept the glaring look in his eyes as he stared at Neptune. "Look, from no on do not call me a pirate, understood? I've killed too many of those bastards to be considered one of them."

"I-I'm sorry if I hit a nerve, I didn't mean to offend you or anything," Neptune quickly apologised as she got back onto her log and sat directly in front of Lucius, who had now calmed down enough to sit back down and observe both the purple goddess and the food that he was cooking. Neptune, now intrigued with Lucius' one eye predicament, wondered how he lost it. "So, um, how'd you lose that left eye of yours? S-Sorry if you're sensitive about it, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

The orange eyed man chuckled, clearly he was not sensitive about the lose of his eye. "It's fine, Neppy, I can talk about it if you want." The one eyed man then got himself comfortable on his log while staring at Neptune. "I lost my eye during the Great War, the war where me, Uriel, Wraith, Juvia and the Imperial Empire fought against Agandur the Dark Lord, his Dark Captains and the dominion they had forged for themselves. During one of the battles against Lothar the Bloodthirsty I was having a personal duel with that barbarian meat sack, that was when I lost my left eye to him. Lothar slashed a knife down the side of my face and rendered my left eye useless. Heh, at least it gave me a cool nickname: Lucius 'Cyclops' Amulius. Juvia, one of my childhood friends, was the one to call me that."

"Ooooh, that is pretty cool," Neptune said, beaming with wonder. Their conversation was interrupted by the pained groans of Nepgear, who had trouble getting to sleep due to the headache. The purple goddess looked over towards her younger sister with a troubled expression. "Do you really think she's going to be okay, Lucy?"

Lucius, doing his best to keep stirring the food in the pot around as well as ignoring the nickname he had been given, nodded to allay Neptune's fears. "Don't worry about it, I'm no doctor but I know she'll be up and about tomorrow with boundless energy. Anyway, the food is getting ready, time to eat. We'll be venturing into the city tomorrow to scavenge for more supplies as well as to look for your friends. Who knows, maybe with your help I might be able to locate Emperor Uriel's position for the first time since I got here." He then glanced at the purple goddess with a serious look in his eye. "Although, from what I saw earlier, you need to learn how to be a better fighter, what you were doing against those daemons was at an amateur level."

Neptune stuck her tongue out at the one eyed young general before pouting at him. "I can fight well with a sword thank you very much! I only had a wooden katana to defend myself with, that's all there is to it. Besides, in my HDD form, Hard Drive Divinity if you didn't know, I am far better than anyone at swordplay, my dear one eyed friend" As she berated the former general the purple goddess may have looked well with a teasing expression, but she was starting to get a small headache, a side effect from dimension travelling.

"Yeah yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. Just shut up and eat your fill," Lucius responded as he handed Neptune a bowl of meat and vegetable stew; it did not look too appetising but it did taste good and was rather nutritious. Lucius smirked as he watched Neptune scoff down her meal energetically once she discovered that it tasted good. It was then that an idea popped into his head, although it was not the best. "I have an idea: if you can find a way to prove that you and your sister are indeed goddesses then I'll do whatever you want for a day. Deal?"

Neptune stared at him as if he was a madman, then she laughed loudly at the bet the one eyed commander had laid out before her. "You sure you wanna make that bet? If so then I'll find a way, then you'll definitely regret making a gamble like that, Lucy."

The mixed brown black haired man chuckled, yet he was somewhat worried about the young-looking, lilac haired woman's tenacity. However, Lucius merely laughed it off as he began to get used to Neptune calling him by a girl name whilst eating dinner, or afternoon tea depending on who was asked. Heh, she's probably one of the most childish person I have ever encountered, and that isn't a bad thing at all. She's… weird to say the least, but entertaining. This is definitely one of the most strangest ways I have ever made a friend, but it isn't the worst way to go around it. Let's hope that we find our missing friends; it has been too long since I've seen Emperor Uriel, and I need to find Wraith so I can get some answers. I hope Nep and Gear can find a way back to their dimension, and who knows, maybe I might join them; there's nothing in this wasteland that is going to make me live here forever.

Angel groaned with a masochistic sigh as he rubbed his head whilst leaning up against a ruined wall, the hard bricks torn down from the war that rage within the wasteland of a city. The young man had a minor migraine in his head due to the side effects of dimension travelling; it was not the first time he had received it, in fact the first time Angel had received this type of headache was when he was first transported back to Gamindistri by the portal Wraith created in Brian's room back on Earth. As the sadistic god continued to groan masochistically he remembered his time on Earth. It was truly an odd time in his life, although it was hard to remember certain aspects of it, especially since Wraith – who was practically his adopted father – had tampered with the young man's memory to make him forget the God of Time. Despite the tampering of his memory, Angel did not fully mind it at all, instead he saw it as just another weird thing that the tall man with the welsh accent did.

Heh, Wraith was always a strange guy, wasn't he? I wonder if he's on this hell hole? He probably is, knowing that Welshman. If Wraith is around here somewhere then he's probably right in the middle of this shit. Angel thought as he began to get back onto his feet, the headache slowly starting to numb away, much to the disappointment of his masochistic side. Soon afterwards he heard the sounds of cute groaning come from his left, the young man looked down to see Plutia on the ground amidst rubble, her head was up against a brick while her body was curled up in an attempt to make herself comfortable. She was sleeping on the cracked pavement, her body moved about slightly as she breathed in and out, low yet cute sighs and groans escaped her mouth. Whether she was having a good dream was unknown to the young man, but soon enough Plutia's expression became pleasant, and cute to Angel's mind.

"Seriously? You fall asleep after travelling between dimensions just like that?" Angel asked the petite, sleeping goddess, knowing he would not get a proper response. The purple eyed god chuckled as he knelt down next to Plutia and shook her slightly, failing to wake her up. Angel chuckled once more as he began to carefully pick the sleeping CPU up and give her a piggyback ride, all while being careful not to wake her up. I'd prefer it if Plutia would walk herself around, but she's just too adorable to wake up at the moment. Besides, I don't mind giving her a piggyback ride for now, it's been a while since I gave her one anyway.

As Plutia snuggled her head up against the left side of Angel's head, the wolf-like CPU of Gamindustri gazed at his surroundings while he walked down the ruined street to goddess knows where, nothing made any sense to him. Everything around him was in a ruined state, from the road to the walls of buildings and to even the vehicles that dotted the area, everything was destroyed and in tatters. When Angel looked upwards he saw the broken dark purple sky and the cracks that were spread all over the place, the wolf god whistled loudly as he stared at the dying sky with wonder, his questions only increasing. Suddenly he realised that there was someone missing, and it was not either Neptune or Nepgear. "Oh shit, where's Peashy?" he asked himself worryingly, his gaze swiftly turning left to right, up and down and behind him. "Peashy? Peashy?! Where are you?! Ah crap, look like Plutia is going to punish me once she finds out. Hmm… actually, I don't think that's a bad idea, not bad at all. Still, I need to find Peashy before the situation gets out of hand, even though it's far beyond that. Where the hell are we anyway?"

Angel's thoughts were soon disturbed by a thundering daemonic roar that echoed all around him, although from what the young man could tell the roar was coming from the south, and it was not too far away so whoever or whatever was out there happened to be nearby down a few streets away. "What the fuck was that?" Angel asked himself, his gaze was now directed towards the southern ruins. "Wonder if it's dangerous? Oh, who am I kidding? Of course it is."

The daemonic roar was enough to awake Plutia from her peaceful slumber, she groaned audibly before yawning into Angel's left ear, yet he did not seem to mind it, to him the yawn that the small goddess on his back emitted was attractive. She opened her eyes and slowly look at her surroundings before realising that she had her arms hanging down Angel's shoulders, her legs on either side of the young man's hips, her head up against his and the sadistic god's arms were holding her up against his back. When Plutia spoke her words were sluggish. "Huh? Where are we?" she asked slowly with a tired tone. "Last I remember was falling asleep next to you under a beautiful sky after getting sucked into some sort of portal. The sky was dark purple with purple and dark blue cracks, although everything was kinda ruined everywhere around us. Was that just a dream?"

Angel shook his head. "No, that wasn't a dream. Take another look around you, Plutia, I think you'll find that we really did travel to another dimension."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, you're right," Plutia mumbled as she gazed around her once again, this time with a much longer attention span and better memory. Then she asked the question that Angel dreaded and secretly wanted to hear for the supposed punishment his masochistic side wanted. "Hey, Angie, where's Peashy? I thought she was with us, along with Neppy and Neppy Jr. What happened?"

Angel shrugged, he had no honest idea as to what happened, although he did have a theory. "I'm not completely sure, but I'm think that we separated once we arrived in this hellish place, so I do not know where Peashy, Neptune or Nepgear could be. Do you think they'll be fine once we catch up with them? If we catch up with them."

Plutia hummed thoughtfully to herself, being rather deep in thought, surprisingly. Soon, after a minute or two of thinking to herself, Plutia spoke. "Hmm… well, I think Neppy and Neppy Jr will be fine, it's just Peashy I'm worried about the most. She might be a CPU of a nation that no longer exists, but she is still just a child, and she isn't the best with taking care of herself."

"She doesn't know how to take care of herself that well? Is that why Peashy always like hanging around people, especially me, you and Neptune? She just, I don't know, looks up to us or something?" Angel asked with curiosity. The young man had known Peashy for around a year now, but there were certain things about her that he did not know nor could understand, not to mention that he did not know her past aside from the Eden Crisis. When Plutia nodded in response to Angel's questions, the young man sighed. "So I guess that's the reason why Peashy views me as an older brother to her."

Plutia nodded again, this time smiling brightly. "That's right, Angie. And I must say, you've put o na good impression to her as an older brother for the past year; she really looks up to you and has been more cheerful ever since she thought of you as a big brother."

"Hmph. I'm not that much of a big brother figure, in fact I barely pass as eligible material for any brother-like figure. Well, at least I'm far better off than what happened to the brother-sister-like relationship between Brian, Rom and Ram; those two Candidates are still sorrowful," Angel said absent-mindedly as he turned down a corner, continuing to hold Plutia up behind his back. "Hey, Plutia, why is Peashy so clingy? I can understand that she's practically a child, and forever will remain a child, but she's more clingy than anyone else that I've seen in Gamindustri thus far. Why is that?"

Plutia yawned – not due to boredom but instead because of how tired she was – before answering in a stern tone, the smile on her face had disappeared and was replaced with a serious look. "I haven't told you about Peashy's past because it's a little sad, well for me at least, not to mention that it is filled with gaps and is kind of confusing, but since she sees you as family then you should hear it." The CPU of Ultra Planeptune cleared her throat before explaining Peashy's past to the young man. "Peashy was an orphan for most of her life, she did not know who her parents were and she still doesn't know, neither do I or mini Histy for that matter. She grew up in an orphanage alongside Iffy and Compa, the parallel version from my dimension. Afterwards it is difficult to say since Peashy has forgotten what happened, but all that we know is that she ate a CPU Memory at some point and managed to get herself transported to your dimension – the Hyperdimension."

"So what's the sad part? The part where Peashy was an orphan? That isn't totally sad, you know," Angel responded, grunting as he straightened his back, causing Plutia to jiggle up a bit. "Sorry. Anyway, about Peashy's trip to the Hyperdimension, how was she able to do that? Was there some sort of inactive portal lying around, or was it because of something else?"

The small goddess shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, Angie, wish I did though. Hey, you don't think Wraith had anything to do with it, do you?"

This time it was Angel who shrugged. "No idea, although Wraith has been known to get himself involved with all manner of small and petty things throughout history; such is the trouble with time travel through the Ancient method of dimension jumping." Angel sighed and shook his head in amusement, his adoptive father's antics, no matter how important or crazy they were, always had something to do with the Hyperdimension. The young man noticed the troubled look on Plutia's face and sighed in response to it. "Don't worry about it, Plutia, I'm sure Peashy will be fine. She is the strongest CPU that I've encountered, even stronger than Neptune and Blanc put together, so I'm sure she can handle herself until we find her. Don't worry, I'll take good care of Peashy once we find her."

The short, sleepy goddess giggled uncontrollably at Angel, she could barely contain her amusement towards the young man. Eventually, when she calmed down, Plutia addressed Angel in an amused tone. "I thought you didn't like the idea of being an older brother figure to Peashy. Why the sudden change?"

The young man chuckled, shrugging his shoulders as he did so. "Guess I must've had a change of heart. Besides, it's not that I don't like being an older brother to Peashy, it's just that I don't know how to be one is all."

"You're doing a fine job at it, even though you aren't actually doing much at all. Just being there for Peashy, listening to what she has to say, playing games with her and generally paying her some attention is enough," Plutia responded with a bright yet tired smile, her arms gently wrapping themselves around the young man's neck. "Just keep doing what you do, and everything will be fine between you and your 'little sister'."

"Heh, if you say so, Plutia," Angel said with a smirk on his face, resulting in the CPU of Ultra Planeptune to kiss him on the left cheek. The young man blushed slightly before he regained his composure. "As much as I don't mind the affection you give me, at least give me some sort of warning beforehand. Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to ask someone this, but do CPUs even have last names? I thought Peashy would have had some sort of last name, in fact I don't think even IF and Compa have any as well. Why is that?"

"I don't know, maybe we never needed last names in the first place, or maybe they aren't important. Do you have a last name, Angie?" Plutia asked, curious to know the answer.

Angel nodded as she and the goddess on his back passed a ruined hotel, the walls torn down, the ceiling had collapsed and its contents were sprawled across the area for all to see. The young man stepped over a small pile of bricks and continued on his merry way to goddess knows where – he did not know where he was walking to, but the sadistic wolf god know he had to start somewhere if he wanted to find Peashy. At any rate, Angel did want to tell Plutia his last name; despite being a couple for over a year there were some things about them that neither of them knew. "Sure, I'll tell you my last name, Plutia. My last name is Heller. Angel Heller. That last name caused me to to have the nickname 'Hell's Angel' back at school."

Plutia giggled as she snuggled her head up against the young man, her hair covering the left side of his face as the Goddess of Ultra Planeptune showed her affection towards her lover. "I think that nickname suits you well, considering your personality quirks."

"Quirks? What quirks, my little sadomasochistic CPU girlfriend?" Angel asked with a smirk on his face. "Besides, I think it suits you as well, especially when you transform."

"But you like it when I transform, don't you? I know you do, you always drool whenever I turn into my HDD form," Plutia said with a cheeky smile, her arms around Angel tightened ever so slightly. Soon afterwards the sounds of daemonic roaring were heard again, this time it was closer than before, and louder as well. Plutia raised her head and stared to the south where the thundering roars were coming from, at least she assumed it was the south at least, it was hard to tell with how the sky appeared. "Angie, we aren't alone."

"I know. If you want to help fight whatever is approaching, then feel free do to so, but either way I'm going to have to put you back on the ground for now," Angel informed his lover, much to her disappointment.

As soon as Plutia was back on her feet both she and Angel saw what was making the noises, and it shocked them. It was a daemon that the young sadist had only seen in computer games back on Earth, but there was something unnatural about it, it was as if death itself surrounded it. The daemon reminded Angel of a Minotaur from Greek mythology, but instead it was less hairy and more scaly. The daemon stood at around twelve feet with scarred red scales covering its entire body, its head was large and bull-like with two horn sticking out of either side, hoofed feet were connected to thick legs that had visible and deep scars running all over them, the arms were bulky with hands that had three thick fingers, a two-handed battleaxe was held in its hands. It took one look at Angel and Plutia with its daemonic red eyes, snarled viciously and charged, the loincloth around the daemon's waist fluttered around involuntarily.

The brown haired sadist grinned wickedly as he held out his right hand, it shone brightly for a few seconds before Angel's new Ancient enchanted, two-handed longsword, the unknown enchantment on the Ancient longsword hummed quietly as the young man stood in a defensive position with Plutia just behind him, his daemonic enemy raced forward with his head lowered and its axe raised. "This is going to be good. Come and get some you ugly piece of shit!" Angel bellowed as he swung his new sword upward while his opponent swung its battleaxe downwards. The two weapons clashed together in a fury, sending sparks and magical energy flying everywhere as both fighters began to fight to the death.

It was a most unusual sight for anyone to see, if there were any actual humans wandering around to see it, which there were not – except for one or two who were not locals. Amidst the ruins of a city at war there was a strange sight to see. In the ruins of what was once a home sat Peashy, the small child of a goddess was sitting on a mildly broken green chair in what had once been a kitchen, she was staring at a tall, black hooded and coated man with flaring bright blue, red and dark purple eyes. The tall man was leaning up against the cracked wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his multicoloured eyes were fixated upon the small CPU near him, who in turn was looking up at him as well. It felt rather awkward for the tall man to be with Peashy, he had no real idea how to take care of her despite raising Angel Heller since he was a baby.

The awkward silence between Wraith and Peashy was soon broken by the yellow goddess, who showed no real sign of concern for herself despite being in a hellish landscape. "Where's Plutie and Angie?" she asked, her gaze firmly directed at the tall, Welsh accented man. As Peashy continued to question Wraith her tone became wimpier while her expression soured. "Why aren't they here? Also, where's Neptuna and Nep Jr? Why aren't they also here?"

Wraith sighed depressingly and rubbed his temples, he was feeling annoyed at the moment due to the constant questioning that was now under way. This is just annoying, terrible and utterly annoying. Wraith thought as Peashy continued to question him, her tone of voice becoming more annoyed and sometimes even sad. And here I though raising Angel was a challenge, considering how he could be at times. But this… this is just beyond what I had expected of children. Hold on, is Peashy even a child? Damn, just what I needed to know: I don't know how old she is or if she really is a child. Well, guessing from what I'm witnessing I suppose she is a child not only physically but also mentally as well. This is going to be a rough time until I can find others, if they are nearby that is.

"C'mon, Wraithy, tell me where Angie, Neptuna and the rest are!" Peashy continued, pouting more and more with a dissatisfied look. "Aren't you going to tell me where they are? Don't you know anything?"

"Enough with the childish arrogance and demands, Peashy. You are a CPU for crying out loud, so start acting like one!" Wraith replied back with a harsh tone, his eyes and entire body lit up like a light as his multiple kinds of Share Energy flared up all over him out of frustration. Soon afterwards the tall, dimension travelling man calmed down and sighed once more as he noticed Peashy's frightened expression. "Sorry about that, Peashy, truly I am. Guess I am starting to lose control over the seals in my mind…"

"Wh-What seals? A-Are you feeling alright, Wraithy?" Peashy asked nervously, her fear of Wraith's anger had not yet gone away.

Wraith nodded weakly before rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine, or at least I will be fine. Don't worry about me, Peashy, instead you should be worrying about yourself and how you are going to take care until your friends arrive, if they find this place that is."

"But doesn't that mean you have to look after me 'till Angie, Plutie or Neptuna get here and find me?" Peashy asked, pouting as she did so. The yellow goddess crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the tall man for a reason that the tall man did not about, nor did he care about it.

"I'm the Ancient God of Time, not a babysitter. Wait until the others have been located, if you are telling the truth," Wraith said as he got off the wall and made his way into another part of the ruined house, most likely what used to be the living room. As the tall man gazed at his handiwork, which basically involved wooden and steel plated walls that covered the holes in the roof, walls and anywhere else, he heard a rumbling sound that came from Peashy's stomach. The dimension traveller raised an eyebrow at the young child goddess. "What's wrong with you now?"

"I'm hungry. Feed me," Peashy demanded as she rubbed her stomach.

"Sorry but I don't have any food or water for you, and I am telling you the truth, Peashy. I never had any need to carry supplies like food and water for consumption, never needed it for a long, long, long time," Wraith replied with an uncaring tone, which made Peashy confused. The tall man noticed the odd look in her expression and chuckled. "Confused? So was Uriel, Lucius and Juvia when I told them. You see, I am what most people in different dimensions would call a lich."

The yellow goddess tilted her head and continued to stare at Wraith with a confused look. "A lich? What's a lich? Is it like food? Is it tasty?"

This time Wraith laughed. The tall, Welsh accented man leaned up against a steel plated wall and shook his head in amusement. After calming down slightly Wraith held his left hand over where his heart was as a bright blue light appeared, as the light disappeared Peashy noticed that Wraith was holding a Share Crystal in his left hand, it was glowing brightly yet appeared it to have red and dark purple energy flowing through it. "No, no that isn't what a lich is. A lich is an undead person who keeps the energy of their life force inside some sort of magical object, like what I have done with this fragment of a Sharicite. Don't ask how I became a lich, that is something I never want to talk about," Wraith explained as the piece of Sharicite disappeared back inside his heart in a flash.

"So… no food then?" Peashy asked again after several minutes of silence, causing Wraith to chuckle again out of amusement. When the tall god shook his head the yellow goddess pouted audibly. "Find something, I'm hungry!"

Wraith groaned as his annoyance towards Peashy began to settle back into him. I swear, Angel was never as much of a pain as this girl is right now. Wraith thought as he rubbed his temples, frustration began to return to him as Peashy continued to demand food. That was when the two of them heard the thundering roar coming from the south-east. Wraith gazed at the direction of the daemonic roar as he walked over to what was once the front entrance of the house, but he could only see ruined houses, the cracked sky and the torn apart road that splintered all over the place, even into the air. "Daemons. Whatever type of daemon that made that noise is close, too close for comfort in fact," Wraith mumbled. He turned around to see Peashy standing behind him. "Want to see what's out there? Who knows, maybe we'll find your missing friends out there."

"Can we?" Peashy asked, her eyes wide and full of hope, plus she did want to see the daemon for herself.

Wraith chuckled. "Sure thing, just keep up with me and stay close at all times. Now then, let's get moving"

The adventure through the ruins of the unknown city went rather smoothly, which was surprising given what was going on throughout the place. In the end, Wraith had to carry Peashy on his back, much to his annoyance, while they searched through the ruins in the attempt to find the daemon and anyone else who had arrived in the dying dimension. To both of their disappointment neither found any daemon, but as they were preparing to return to Wraith's base they heard the sounds of steel clashing, daemonic roaring, furious yelling and crumbling ruins. Wraith, who was standing with Peashy atop the flat roof of what was once a clothing store, looked down in the distance to see Angel, holding his bloodied Ancient two-handed longsword in both hands, slicing off the leg of a bull-like daemon. The daemon cried out in pain as it fell to the ground while the sadistic wolf-like CPU lopped of its other leg before he continuously stabbed his blade into the daemon's back, a sadistic grin forming across his face. Plutia was standing nearby, watching the scene unfold before her without much shock at all.

"Well, I guess we've found Angel, Plutia and the daemon who was roaring before," Wraith sighed as Peashy climbed onto his back once more. "Hold on tight, Peashy, we're going to go down there and pay a little visit to this 'big brother' of yours."

"What do you mean by- WHA?!" Peashy was about to ask before Wraith jumped off the roof of the building and landed on the ground, sending small ripples of shock waves around him as he stood there.

After Angel cut the daemon's head off he looked over towards the newcomers to see Wraith standing tall with Peashy looking over his head, once the sadistic man saw them he could not help but grin at the two of them together as he laid his sword down. "Heh, I didn't know you liked hanging around children, Wraith," Angel greeted the God of Time after having not seen him for over a year.

"Shut up, you mangy piece of fish bait," Wraith replied back in kind, grinning underneath the black scarf that covered the lower half of his face. Despite his insult towards Angel the young man knew that it was just one of the common ways his adoptive father would greet someone, sometimes at least.

Peashy, who was more than excited to see Angel and Plutia again, leapt off Wraith's back and straight into Angel's arms, the young man had not been expecting that to happen and thus fell to the ground with the yellow goddess on top of him with her arms tightly around his neck. As Angel did his best, which in the end was to become futile, to keep the overly happy Peashy under control, Plutia walked up to Wraith and smiled at him. "Hello there, Wraithy. It's been a while since we've seen you."

"I know. I heard that it's been over a year since you lot have seen me. For me it has been a few months at best, at least two to three by my reckoning, so the Massacre of Haruno Village is still fresh on my mind," Wraith explained solemnly, soon afterwards his gaze went up to the strange sky above them as he sighed.

"Hey, I know we're just happy to see each other again, but I have to ask a very serious question here. Where the hell are we?" Angel asked as he managed to get back onto his feet with Peashy on his back, her arms wrapped around his neck while her legs were hanging down his arms, which were holding her up.

Wraith chuckled, but it was not in a normal, amused way, instead it sounded more wicked an unnatural."Now wouldn't you lot like to know? Very well then. This is the middle of nowhere, the lost world, the dying dimension, the place where no human could live, the place where never ending war takes place." The tall man then turned his back towards Angel, Plutia and Peashy as he stared up at the sky, thunder broke out and dark purple lightning erupted all around the city. "Welcome, my friends, to the Zero Dimension."

A/N: I finally managed to get this done, and none too late. I am so sorry for the long update, longer than usual anyway, but I have been busy as of late, mainly university work, gaming, reading, sleeping and a few health check ups. Overall I'm okay, not great but I'm alright; actually I've been feeling like shit for the last few days and staying up late is not helping me. I haven't put everything I wanted into this chapter but it still is pretty informative. I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out, mainly because I'm suffering Writer's Block whenever I think about the next chapter's events; I have two in mind but I cannot think much about it. Instead I will work on Subject 13: Mars until I can create a new, flowing chapter for Age of War. Regardless, thank you all for waiting patiently to read this, if you have any suggestions please do inform me and do your best to have a good day.

Also, thank you angeldoesmc for the last name to your OC. Have a good day if you can.