Hello to you, my awesome readers out there! It's ButterHunter here, back with another chapter to HyperDimension Neptunia, Volume C!
Back to the madness!
Chapter 14: The Goddess is Revealed
After the group rejoined with IF, who seemed to be at least somewhat recollected at that point, they continued their slow slog through the rest of the factory. Despite having destroyed the Enemy Disc, the monsters still seemed much too numerous. Not to mention rather stronger than most, but that was okay due to the group's grinding habits.
(First Law of RPG's: Grind EVERYTHING in sight.)
After another ten minutes, the group was halfway into the factory, with many, many monsters defeated, with who knows how many more ahead.
Cameron seemed rather on guard. Knowing that Ganache trapped them here on purpose, something big must be here. He rounded a corner, arm cannon already out and ready to fire, but saw no monsters. "All clear."
"Finally!" Neptune said, looking rather winded. The rest of the group was no better. "Can we rest for a minute or two? My feet are killing me by now."
"My tootsies hurt too…" Compa added. "Please, can we rest?"
Normally, IF would complain about this, but seeing as how a break would be good for her as well, she allowed it. "Yeah, go ahead. Ten minutes, max."
"Thank you…" Cameron said, instantly slumping against the wall and taking off his shoes. Either he needed to do more walking, or get some shoe pads, or something, because his feet always seemed to be crying out in pain at this point.
The others split up as well, with Compa and Neptune heading over to the other side to talk while they rested, and IF to do a brief bit of scouting around before she'd take a break.
Then, Cameron heard someone sit next to him. Noire.
The two didn't say anything at first, just sort of… accepted each other's presence. It was eerily quiet for a good minute or so.
Then, Noire spoke up.
"It's all my fault."
Cameron looked up, surprised. "What?"
"It's all my fault we got stuck in this place." she said, her forehead resting on her pulled up knees. "I was the one who suggested doing Avenir's work in the first place, and now look where that got us. Trapped in this broken factory, barely keeping the monsters off us, and still we have no idea where the exit is. I… I…"
Noire had started off weak to begin with, but now her voice on the verge of disappearing. Small tear droplets started to form in the pits of her eyes. "I… I'm so sorry… I'm… I'm…"
Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around her tightly, and a voice said, "Hey hey hey… don't cry."
Cameron. He was holding Noire comfortingly, his eyes closed. "It's gonna be okay. Just calm down." he said, patting Noire gently on the back.
Noire was tense for the count of five. Then, she couldn't hold it back anymore. The dam had burst. The tears slowly fell from her eyes, landing on Cameron's shoulder.
Cameron simply patted her back, saying, "Shhh… shhh… it's okay… shh…"
Noire could hardly believe her current situation. She, the powerful goddess of Lastation, was crying onto a human's shoulder while he hugged her. It… it was different. And… it felt… peaceful.
Her sobs gently rang out, only loud enough for Cameron to hear. All Cameron would do was pat her back, and say something comforting. That's all.
Frankly, that's all he really needed to do.
(Gag me. This is way, WAY too sappy to be true, right? Er… right?)
Finally, after a few minutes, Noire was able to stop crying. But she let Cameron hold her for a bit longer, just because… she needed the comfort.
When she did pull away, Cameron asked, "You feel better now?"
Noire nodded, a bit red in the eyes. "Good." he replied, sighing in relief a little bit.
The two didn't say anything for a while. Only just… thought about what to say.
"Hey…" Cameron said, putting his hand on hers. "If… if you want to talk to me about something… anything at all, that's on your mind… just ask me, okay? I'm more than happy to be a listener."
Noire stared at him, not moving save for the occasional small sniffle. Then…
Cameron suddenly was staring at the wall. Noire had rushed forward and tackled the guy into another hug, squeezing him tightly. After a second of surprise, he returned the gesture, not saying anything.
Meanwhile, a bit further away, Neptune was watching this scene unfold very curiously. Noire never seemed to show much emotion with the group before, but now she was being reduced to tears. She couldn't hear what they were saying, and that bothered her slightly. Just what was going on over there…?
"Nep-Nep? Hello?" Compa said, waving a hand in front of Nep's face. Neptune snaped back to reality, looking back as Compa asked, "Didn't you hear me? I asked which pudding you wanted while you rest."
"O-oh, uh…" Neptune said, growing hot in the face. She missed a question about pudding? Damn, she must have really been focused on those two…
(*blushes deeply*... I uh… no comment.)
"Th-the banana one, please…" she said softly, trying to return to resting and not looking at those two over there. She couldn't help but feel some twangs of jealousy hit her everytime she glanced over and saw those two talking together…
'Argh… snap out of it Neptune!' she told herself. 'Those two are just having a talk. Yeah… a talk. Noire isn't trying to make a move on him, not in the slightest…'
'Right?'
Some time later…
"Damn it… fucking hell."
Cameron was swearing due to where the group seemed to have ended up. Once IF had gotten back, everyone felt ready to move again, but now, five minutes later, the worst thing that could've happened did.
A split in the road.
"Who builds a factory with two massive hallways right next to each other?!" he complained loudly, trying to see as far down each as he could.
"Don't know, and really don't think we want to know." IF said, studying each path as well. There seemed to only be a few small monsters down each, nothing too terrible.
"Well… what now? Should we just split up?" Compa asked.
IF clearly didn't like that idea. "Normally, I would say yes, but this isn't normal. We're locked in this factory, after all, and have no idea where an exit is."
"Still… it'd take far too long just to search both paths as one party." Cameron reasoned. "If we split, we could search a much larger area that much faster."
"True…" IF said, still not fully convinced.
"I don't like splitting up either, but…" Neptune said. "I think it's the best plan we have at the moment."
The rest of the party, some more reluctant than others, agreed. "Okay, so… who's with who?" Cameron asked.
No one spoke up for five seconds. Then…
"I'll… I'll go with Cameron."
Noire spoke up, for the first time since the group started moving again. Everyone, Cameron included, stared at Noire in surprise.
"W-what?" she asked. "I… I think we should do it alone this time. After all, since Neptune can transform, you, Compa, and IF should go together as a group."
"Not saying that it's totally bonkers loco…" Neptune said, twirling a finger next to her head. "But why do you want to partner with him?"
"I… I have my reasons." Noire said, unable to say that… she wanted to tell Cameron about things. Things she couldn't tell the others. Not yet, at least. Somehow, Cameron just… had a certain charm about him, like you could share anything with him, and he'd understand. Not saying the others weren't like that, but…
The group quiet again for five seconds. IF, Compa, and Neptune looked over at Cameron, who simply shrugged. His eyes said, 'I don't know. Should I?'
Finally, Neptune took a short breath, and said, "I… guess it's fine. You two go together, and I'll stick with Compa and Iffy."
"I'm okay with that, I suppose." Compa said, a little bit unsure of herself.
IF didn't know what to say, so she simply let her actions speak for a bit. Unclipping one of her cell phones, she tossed it to Cameron, and said, "To keep in touch. If you find an exit, or something worthy of note, call me. My number is on there."
Cameron nodded, before stuffing the phone in his pocket and turning to Noire. "You ready?"
Noire nodded. She hid it very well, but you could see that she was very happy that she'd get the chance to be alone with Cameron for a while.
After a few more minutes of prep work, like trading some health packs between groups, both groups headed down their own way, Cameron and Noire going down the path on the right, the others on the left.
Neptune has left the party.
Compa has left the party.
IF has left the party.
(Grr… did you really just say that I left MY party, author?! Are you questioning my role as the main character?!)
(Um, Neptune? This isn't the only time you 'leave' the party. There's a scene coming up that you have to leave in, remember?)
(STILL! Are you really going to question my role as main character?!)
(Who on Earth said I was? I'm simply stating that we are following my own character and Noire for this bit. Let it go.)
(Grrr… I got my eye on you, author… I'm always watching… ALWAYS!)
After they split up, Cameron and Noire walked deeper into the depths of the factory. Thankfully, the monsters seemed a bit more scarce here, so they were able to make up for the lack of other members.
Even so, they only were able to last about ten minutes before they needed another break, due to tiredness. It's not easy to just lose three members of your team and quickly adapt to it.
"Hah… hah…" Cameron panted, leaning against the wall. "How much longer… is this freaking… hallway?"
Noire couldn't answer, she was too busy catching her breath as well. They both sat down on the ground, the light of a far away window shining down on them.
Finally catching his breath, Cameron managed to turn to Noire, who also looked mostly recovered by now. "How much longer do you think this place is?"
"No clue…" Noire said, trying to look down so that she could see any sort of ending. No dice. "I had no idea factories could be made this big…"
"Well, now you know." Cameron said, rolling his eyes.
They stayed quiet for a bit longer, before Cameron asked something he'd been meaning to ask since the group split.
"Noire? If it's okay to ask… why did you want to partner with me?" he asked gently. He didn't know a lot about Noire, but one thing was certain: asking the wrong questions might easily set her off.
Noire looked down at her hands. She sighed. She was afraid he would ask that.
"You don't have to answer, of course." Cameron quickly said, holding his hands up defensively. "I… I just was wondering why you…"
"..." Noire looked directly at him, not saying anything, just… staring.
Fortunately, he got the message and stopped talking. Now Noire looked… a bit more relaxed. She took a small breath in…
And said, "I… I wanted to talk to you about… who I am."
Meanwhile, forty miles away from Lastation…
"Die!"
With the loud slicing sound of a sword, the last two monsters disappeared, leaving the normal monster drops and credits, and per usual. The wielder of the sword was none other than Johnanthan Haywood, in the middle of the forest. He seemed more tired than before, due to lots of fighting, perhaps?
In any case, he started wondering aloud to himself. "Well… that was a thing. I can't believe those monsters all came out of nowhere like that…"
He went over to the edge of the clearing he was in and sat on a log nearby, wiping his forehead with a cloth towel. "Well… the area's safe now, so I'd better wait." he spoke quietly to himself.
He waited. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Slowly but surely, he was getting impatient. He checked the email again, then again, just to make sure he wasn't in the wrong area.
To: Mr. Johnathan Haywood.
Subject: None
I have an important message to give to Mr. Haywood. When possible, meet me in THELAD SANCTUARY, in the first clearing, at 11 o'clock sharp.
For Mr. Haywood's eyes only. Bring no other party members.
Sincerely,
Anonymous.
'Well… this isn't the first time I've gotten messages like that. Hell, most people don't even included something like Anonymous at the end.' Haywood thought, wondering who 'Anonymous' was. Most of his 'contacts' rarely gave him their names, for 'confidentiality reasons', but that was okay to him. The less names to remember, the better.
But still… something didn't feel right. Like, how this new contact asked him to get there solo. And something else too. That subject line… or rather, the lack thereof. Most contacts just put some bogus headline there, like 'Recent Hair Appointment', or something along those lines. Never did they leave it blank…
'And… this clearing… the first clearing it says…' he thought, rereading the email. He just finished clearing out what looked like a literal sea of monsters, all packed into this tiny little space. 'My contacts would never lead me somewhere that infested with monsters…'
He'd been thinking for so long, another three minutes had passed. "Eh… maybe I'll go walk for a bit. I think this place has a great view of the Land not far from the entrance here…" he said to himself.
He exited the sanctuary and found the spot, where he could see Lastation and all of its glor-
Wait. Was that… black smoke coming from there? Black smoke is something seen often from the factories and such, but not like that! It's like…
"A fire." he said to himself. "Or something worse."
And then… a loud mechanical crash rang out, loud enough to hear from this distance, and a small building seemed to collapse right before Haywood's very eyes.
He was shocked stiff for maybe ten seconds. Then he grabbed his pistol. "No one fucks with MY home!" he yelled angrily, before dashing down the path to get into the city. Whoever this contact was, he could wait.
Thirteen minutes earlier, with Cameron and Noire…
"About… who you are?" Cameron asked.
"Y-yeah… I… I um…" Noire said, looking off to the side shyly. "I just feel that… you should know who I am, and… I wanted to talk about… things, since we're… here."
Cameron wasn't sure how to react to this. Noire, the hard-headed tsundere, opening up to a man? Impossible! Unimaginable! Unthinkable!
"I… I guess if you want to talk, then…" Cameron said, leaning against the wall. "We are taking a break. Talk away."
Noire looked visibly relieved. "Thank you…"
They stayed quiet for a minute or so, until Cameron remembered something.
"I… I kinda have wondered… why did you stay with us?" he asked. "What's… you know, your reason for staying?"
Noire thought for a second. She knew that telling him straight up about her goddesshood would probably not go over well with him. So… how should she tell him?
"W-well…" she started. "I… I wasn't sure myself, but… once I learned that you guys were trying to help Lastation… I wanted to help make things right."
"So you knew about Avenir long ago?" Cameron questioned.
Noire shook her head. "No… actually, only… a few days ago did I find out about them surprisingly…"
Cameron raised an eyebrow. "Wait, I thought you grew up here. How did you only just recently…"
"I hadn't been in the Land for a while." Noire said, which was very true. She'd been up in Celestia, fighting the other goddesses, when Avenir took over. "But once I knew something wasn't right in my home… I had to do something. Right?"
Cameron nodded. "Yeah, I'd probably fight for my home if something threatened it."
"Exactly." Noire agreed. "Really, though, I've been helping Lastation for… as long as I can remember. I… I love Lastation. I don't want to see it fall."
Noire grew quiet. Bad thoughts started creeping into her mind. The entire city, suddenly wiped off the map, with Avenir the cause of it… she shuddered to think of it.
Cameron, meanwhile, was thinking hard about this. He'd been trying his best to figure out who Noire really was ever since they met. This conversation seemed to be getting him very close to finding that out.
Nothing about the conversation on Noire's part seemed false, that much he could tell. But… somehow, he got the impression he wasn't getting the whole story.
There just seemed to be one missing detail, one tiny, tiny thought that kept everything from falling into place. What was it…?
"A-anyway…" Noire said, shaking off her fear. Cameron snapped back to reality, realizing just how far into his thoughts he went as well. Fortunately, Noire didn't notice. "I… I will do anything, anything at all, to keep this nation on its feet… and away from enemies that will destroy it. I… do all that I can."
"Wow… sounds like you work too hard sometimes." Cameron commented.
Noire laughed weakly. "Well… I only do everything in this Land, so laziness can't be tolerated, right?"
She kept talking a bit more, but Cameron suddenly stopped listening.
'I only do everything in this Land.'
For some reason, that one phrase stuck in his mind. Now, he could easily tell by the joking tone in her voice that it was meant to be taken as a joke.
Key work there: 'meant'.
(Aaaaand Noire has now slipped up.)
Cameron suddenly realized: what if she was speaking in the literal sense? And she really did do everything for this Land? Because… only one person would truly be able to say that.
'Despises the Basilicom due to Avenir…'
'Always tenses up around Neptune's jokes about her transforming…'
'Wants the very best for Lastation, her home…'
'That can only mean…'
The answer was so blatantly obvious now. How had he not seen it before? Was that the work of the plot, or just his overall character? Maybe both?
(Likely plot. Or… maybe both, actually. Who knows?)
He involuntarily started shaking. Noire noticed that, and the glassy look his eyes held. "C-Cameron? Hello?" she asked, waving a hand.
"I…" he said softly.
"I… what?" Noire asked.
"I figured it out."
"What out?" Noire was confused.
"You're… you're not just a normal person. You're the one we wanted in the first place." Cameron said, hands shaking slightly. "You're Lady Black Heart."
The area was dead quiet for the count of ten. The two people present stared at each other, eyes wide.
Noire was in shock. 'He… he figured it out? H-how?! W-was… was I too obvious? Wh-when did he piece it together…?' she thought rapidly to herself.
Finally, Noire tried, and partly failed, to push away her shock. "W-w-what? M-me? The g-goddess? Piff, g-get real."
Cameron didn't buy it for a second. "Don't try to do that now, of all times. That's what you wanted to tell me, huh? You're the goddess, tagging along with us."
"I… I…" Noire started, before giving up. Even if she really wanted to keep up that lie, she couldn't. "Y… you're right… I am… Lady Black Heart…"
Again, dead silence filled the room. Cameron was in total shock. 'I… I don't believe it… I'm sitting next to the goddess!
"Why… why didn't you just tell us?" he asked quietly.
"I…" Noire started. "I… didn't think it would be wise."
Cameron stayed quiet. Noire felt beyond guilty. Now the one person who she thought she could trust suddenly didn't trust her back, she just knew it. What good could possibly come to her now, knowing that this lie she'd been trying to hide had just-
"You know what?" Cameron suddenly said, looking directly at her. Noire flinched a little bit, but looked right back at him.
"I… in my honest opinion…" he started, getting his thoughts together. "I don't think it really matters to me."
The silence that followed was deafening. Noire was… confused. "W-what?"
"I don't think it matters that you're the goddess." Cameron said. "I know who you really are, Noire, and that a hard worker who only wishes the best for the ones she cares about. Frankly… that's all I need to know. It doesn't matter to me if you are the goddess of the Land or just some random girl off the street. You stood by us, when most wouldn't. You took action, when others stood down. And because of that… being a goddess doesn't honestly make a difference in my mind."
Noire was completely thrown off guard. Here she thought that Cameron would only see her as a liar, only to find that… he really didn't care about it. What he did care about… was that she was helping a good cause.
"Y-you… you don't care? That… I've just been…" Noire started.
"Yeah, I realize that you lied to us, and I'm not happy about that." Cameron said quickly. "But… I guess I do kind of understand why you did."
He stood up, and held his hand out to Noire. "Now come on. Let's find our way out of this place."
Noire paused for a second or two before taking his hand and getting back to her feet. She… she suddenly felt… relaxed. She had been so stressed not telling anyone about her true colors, but now that she had… it was as if a huge weight were lifted from her shoulders.
"But promise me something." Cameron suddenly said, turning to her once more. "Promise me… that you will never lie to us with something like this ever again. Please."
Noire paused for the briefest moment before nodding. "Of course."
"Alright." Cameron said, visibly relieved. "Now let's find our way out of this dump."
He turned around, and took about 1.5 steps forward before suddenly, his borrowed cell phone rang.
"Hey. It's me." IF said through the tiny speaker. "I think we found our way out of here."
(Iffy Ex Machina.)
Two minutes later…
After the call, Cameron and Noire proceeded to run down the hallway, hoping that this would work.
Sure enough, just like IF said, there was a door at the very end of the hall. With bated breath, Cameron opened it, and, half trying to be badass, half ready if any monsters were there, rolled through it and came to a knee with arm cannon ready to fire.
"Nice stealth roll." a grinning Neptune said. "But work on opening the door more quietly."
Then all Cameron could see was purple. Neptune apparently tackled him in a hug, so happy to see he was still unharmed. Oh, and Noire too.
After breaking out of Neptune's grip, now he saw what IF had meant: next to the rejoined party was a massive map, that seemed to show all the factory bit by bit. Some of it was faded, but he could clearly make out the place the group had split at, as well as what appeared to be an emergency exit only around the next corner. Just what they needed.
Neptune rejoined the party!
Compa rejoined the party!
IF rejoined the party!
Of course, life couldn't be that easy. Apparently Neptune, Compa, and IF's path had quite a lot of monsters, which was hard for them to deal with at times, but at least they were still kicking.
"Iffy, are we there yet? My legs are like jelly…" Neptune moaned.
"My feet hurt too…" Compa said sadly.
IF simply groaned. "This again? You girls really need to exercise or something."
"Exercise? Well, I play games, so is pushing buttons exercise?" Neptune joked.
Cameron sighed longingly. "Oh, if only it were Neptune. If only it were."
IF shook her head. "Stop being stupid and try to be more active like Noire."
But when she turned to look at Noire, she wasn't next to her like she thought. Rather, she was actually further ahead, crouched down looking at something. "Hey, everyone. Can you come here for a bit?"
"That's unusual for Noire to be calling for us. I wonder what's up." Neptune commented.
Upon reaching her, IF asked, "Kept you waiting there. What's up?"
Noire pointed at the wall she was looking at. "This on the wall… isn't this the disc you showed me…?"
IF looked concerned. "You've got to be kidding… two in the same location?"
"That would help explain the extreme monster infestation here…" Cameron said grimly.
"So that means there's more around?!" Neptune said in surprise. Everyone thought she was going on about the monsters, but her next sentence was, "Planeptune had one and Lastation has two. That's not fair!"
"That's a good thing Neptune." Cameron sighed, rolling his eyes at Nep's childish complaint.
"No wonder the monsters don't go away…" Compa said worriedly.
"Well, no use leaving this as is." IF said, prying the disc off the wall. "Let's break it."
"Oh, oh, oh! Wait, Iffy!" Neptune interrupted. "If we're going to break it, can I do it?"
When given a questioning look, Neptune bashfully said, "I always wanted to break a disc, but I don't want to do that to my music CDs. But if it's this, then I can have fun breaking it."
"This isn't supposed to be 'fun,' you know." IF said angrily.
"Yeah, but all work and no play makes Nep a dull girl." Nep replied. "So, c'mon, I can have fun breaking it, right?"
IF sighed, closing her eyes. "...sometimes I have to doubt your actions…"
"You should've known what you were getting yourself into when you joined our party IF." Cameron said, rolling his eyes again.
And of course, due to the pointless exposition, the disc in IF's hand suddenly started shining again. "Quit with the talking and just break it! Something may come out again!" Noire yelled.
Too late. Neptune said, "Um, well, there's a face-looking thingy coming out…"
"Why are you so relaxed like that?!" Noire shouted.
"You're… praising me, right?" Nep asked. "Everyone does say I'm a bit soft upstairs."
"No, that wasn't praise Neptune!" Cameron said, voicing Noire's thoughts.
IF was already at the ready with her blades. "Nep, transform! Let's just get rid of the monster and disc!"
"Roger!" Nep said, and in an instant, she was transformed and ready to fight.
"Listen to me, Iffy…" Nep said.
"What's the matter?" IF asked.
"I'll take care of the monsters, so break the disc before more come out." Neptune said, hefting her sword.
"Wait, I thought you said YOU wanted to break it!" IF said, confused and angry.
"The transformation cooled me down a bit. I don't care about it anymore." Nep explained.
"Can you be any more random?!" IF asked angrily.
Compa was simply standing besides Cameron, smiling. "Nep-Nep is so fun, even after she transforms."
"This is just painful to watch…" Noire said, shaking her head.
Thankfully, the monster was charging ahead, ready to fight. The group quickly got prepared for a good fight…
Several minutes later…
(Argh! Why do you keep skipping the fights?!)
(Because if I wrote out every single fight in the story, we would never get anywhere. Plus, after a while the fights just kinda start blending together, you know?)
(Whatever… just give us something!)
(Chill out Neptune. I'm already working on it… next chapter.)
"This is the end!"
With one final strike, Neptune managed to make the whole robot monster blow up, ending the fight. She seemed rather smug about it. "Looks like it was merely a grunt that should've come in numbers."
"Yay, Nep-Nep!" Compa cheered. "You were really cool!"
Neptune called off her transformation, and became regular Nep-Nep again. "Well, nothing that I can't handle, you know?"
"Okay, let's break the disc already." IF said, starting to walk over to the disc.
"WAIT!" Nep called out. "I thought I said that I wanted to break it. No fair!"
"You just told me to break it a while ago." IF said.
"Well, but that's me transformed. Different persona, right?"
"Not this again…"
"So now that I'm my old self again, I want to break the disc!"
Suddenly, a loud snapping noise brought those two back to reality. They looked over to see Noire dropping the snapped disc back on the ground. "I broke it. No way I want to fight more of those again."
Neptune looked upset. "Wh-what's with that look on your face?" Noire asked defensively.
"Wow, Noire. Way to break the disc and the mood there." Neptune said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, that was… not cool." IF agreed.
Noire started sweating. "What?! I'm in the wrong now?! You girls are the ones who were arguing!"
"Well, yeah, but…" IF said.
"Still, that wasn't very cool, Noire. Maybe that's why you don't have any friends." Neptune added.
"I-I have a lot of friends!" Noire said in a not very convincing way. "Okay! I'm S-O-R-R-Y. There. Satisfied?!"
While those two bickered back and forth, Cameron and the other two watched them from a safe distance. "Oh, Iffy, you're so horrible." Compa said, smiling nonetheless.
"Heh, to be honest, I kind of enjoy seeing them argue, so I just went with the flow." IF admitted.
"Wow, that's cold." Cameron joked, watching those two with a shaking head and a smile. "Come on. Let's break them up and get going. The exit is right there!"
A minute or so later, and finally the group managed to get outside. Finally.
"Yay! We're outside!" Nep said joyfully.
"Being under the warm sun feels so good." Compa said happily, basking in the warm glow.
"Perfect for taking a nap!" Neptune said, looking ready to lie down on the dirt just to nap.
"Yes, it would be nice to relax under the sun." Compa agreed.
IF wasn't listening to them, however. She was thinking to herself.
"What's the matter? You've been quiet." Noire asked curiously.
"I was wondering what Ganache was trying to accomplish." IF said.
"You mean about trapping us in there?" Cameron asked.
"Yeah. Was it really to get rid of us?" IF wondered. "With the Enemy Discs there, maybe there was another motive…"
"Another motive…" Noire said quietly.
'It seems like he knew who I was, so it was probably meant for me… I really have to apologize to everyone later for getting them involved…' she thought to herself.
Neptune didn't seemed to care too much about the motive. "Oh, Iffy, you're such a worrywart. You're thinking too much." she said. "We came out in one piece, so all is good! Let's just go back to Chian."
"Chian…" Cameron said suddenly. "Oh no. Chian!"
"What do you mean?" Compa asked.
"Don't you remember what Ganache said when he trapped us?" he said, his face starting to pale.
~Flashback~
"I already know you are assisting Chian of Passe. I assume you were trying to get information on our exhibit plans, no?" Ganache said, his voice rich with triumph.
"I-Iffy! They knew all along!" Neptune said fearfully.
"I can't believe they knew about this…" IF said softly.
"We would win, regardless, but I'm the careful type, you know." Ganache said. "Well, I don't have much time, so I need to go now. Farewell."
~End Flashback~
"He knew we were helping Chian." Cameron said. "That means she has to be the next target!"
"What?!" Noire said, shocked.
"Well then, we need to get back to her, pronto!" Neptune said angrily, getting back to her feet.
Noire was seeting. "What's he thinking, targeting civilians just for the Expo?!" she yelled, furious. "Now I'm really mad! I won't let Ganache or Avenir get away with this!"
"Woah, woah, woah! Now Noire is REALLY mad!" Neptune commented, worried.
"Noire… you're scaring me…" Compa said timidly.
"You girls! Stop with the jibber-jabber! Let's hurry and save Chian!"
"Y-yes…!" Both Neptune and Compa said, rather scared of Noire's fury.
The group quickly rushed towards Lastation's center, hoping that Chian was okay.
What they were to find…
What they were to find.
Welp… I think that's a good place to end this chapter.
(Oh, come on! It was just getting good!)
Sorry Neptune. This chapter's been overdue for over a month now. I needed to get something out, and this seemed like a decent place to leave off.
(Awww… okay… but you better include a fight next time!)
Oh, of course I will. But uh… there's something else we need to talk about. Something… important.
*The author leads Neptune away to another room. You can barely hear their voices.
So… should we include... 'that'?
(... I… don't know… I mean… it happened, but…)
Well… let's think about it for a few days. Then make a call. Because… you know how hard it is for me to type… 'those'.
(Yeah…)
*Neptune stays in the other room, while the author comes back out.
Sorry about that. Had to talk to her for a second.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I know it took a bit longer to get out, but I hope it was worth the wait!
I hopefully shouldn't have many more setbacks like that for a while. We'll have to see, huh?
As always, if you guys have any questions for me, PM me and I'll try to answer them for you. Until next time guys, stay awesome.