Chapter 13: The Return

"It's been three damn days and no one has seen this guy," grumbled Blanc.

"Patience, Blanc, patience. That is how we will find him," said Vert in a soothing voice.

"Could he have gone to another nation?" asked Noire.

"Why would he leave Planeptune now? He still hasn't had any pudding yet!" exclaimed Neptune.

The four Goddesses were standing on the balcony of the Planpetune Basilicom, all four of them had been searching the nation for Brian, spending three days in total to look for him, yet there had been no sign of him.

"This is getting repetitive and annoying," sighed Blanc. "I say we stop looking for him."

"What?! We can't stop now!" shouted Neptune.

"Neptune, it's been three days and there is still no sign of him. I would say that he is in another nation or he's dead," said Noire.

As the three of them argued over the situation Vert was looking over the city, trying to piece together any clues that they had come across. Blanc attempted to do that the day before but gave up after several hours and started to read her book. The only clues that they had was the message back at the hospital, plus a camera shot of Brian walking down a street before turning towards an alleyway. They had looked there but found nothing.

"I'm afraid that I can't solve anything with the little amount of clues that we have, so I'm inclined to end the search, for the moment at least" explained Vert.

Standing by the doorway that led to the balcony stood the Candidates, they too had been part of the search and they had also been unable to find anything regarding the disappearance. Out of the four Uni was the most agitated about it, mainly because she reasoned that he had left because he wanted to and doesn't want anything to do with the CPUs. Nepgear was the most worried though, she had searched all over the city, checking every street and alleyway yet never found anything.

"Why are we even bothering with this search any more?" asked Uni, her tone of voice becoming agitated. "It's obvious that he doesn't want anything to do with us."

"That may not be the case, maybe he's still looking for answers," Nepgear retorted.

"So he didn't want to play with us, is that what you're saying?" asked Ram.

"He doesn't want to play with us?" asked Rom.

"Erm … I guess so," replied Uni.

Over by the couch was Histoire, IF and Compa. IF had been running intelligence with the Guild in order to find Brian, but failed to come up with a lot of information, just images of him walking the streets. Compa had helped IF in the search but too failed to uncover any new information. Histoire had been talking with the other Oracles for any leads, but they haven't been successful in doing so, instead she continued to study the Prophecy in order to understand it better. IF began pacing around the room.

"Iffy, are you ok?" asked Compa.

"I'm still waiting for any new information that the Guild has regarding Blue, but they haven't been calling me at all," replied IF.

Histoire sighed. "This isn't good, I was supposed to keep an eye on him, he has something to do with the Prophecy whether he knows it or not."

"If we find him I'm gonna give him a punch to the face," grumbled IF.

"Maybe you will," said Compa when one of IF's phones began to make a ringing sound. IF grabbed the phone and listened to the person speaking from the other side.

"Yeah … uh-huh … interesting … yep, I'm on my way." IF put the phone away and walked up to the Candidates and the other CPUs, who had formed into one big group out on the balcony.

"Hey, I got some interesting information from the Guild, apparently a few hunters went into Virtua Forest and came across what appears to have been a large fight, it might be a lead. I'm going to check it out with Compa."

Vert nodded. "You two can go looking on the ground while a few of us look from the air, with luck we may find something else in Virtua Forest."

"I won't be going, I can wait here for you to return but I won't be searching in the forest," said Blanc coldly.

"Very well then, but you can at least have one last check over the city?" asked Noire. "Take your sisters with you as well."

"I suppose I can do that."

"Let's go and find us a lad in trouble!" shouted Neptune as she transformed.

Noire sighed before transforming into Black Heart. She now wore a black swimsuit with the top of the breast and stomach area cut out while it connects around her neck. Her eyes became a glowing light blue with a power symbol in them and her hair became a mix of white and silver. She activated her wings and flew into the air, followed by Neptune.

Nepgear and Uni then transformed into Purple Sister and Black Sister and flew into the air with their older sisters. Uni had a one piece black swimsuit with matching gloves and leggings. Her hair became the same colour as Black Sister but instead it was worn in curled ringlets/drills while her bangs spike outward. Her eyes were a bluish green colour with the power symbol visible in them. Strangely her bust size decreased instead of increasing.

Vert was the next to transform into Green Heart, swiftly followed by Blanc into White Heart and finally Rom and Ram into White Sisters. Vert wore a white bikini styled suit with small black and green pieces, this was the most revealing of all the HDD outfits and made it hard to hide her breasts. Her hair became a foamy green and was put up in a ponytail while her eyes had become a light purple with a power symbol.

Blanc, now White Heart, wore a white and light blue swimsuit with sleeves and gloves, her hair became blue and had grown longer as parts of it came up to her back neck, she also had a cowlick, yet despite her transformation her breast size was stil rather small. Her eyes had become pinkish red with the power symbols as well. Rom and Ram had similar outfit designs but instead of it being white with blue lining it had red linin. Rom had blue hair while Ram had red hair, both were similar to White Heart's hair style.

"Let's get this over and done with already," grumbled White Heart.

The others nodded and they flew into the air towards Virtua Forest as Purple Heart carried Compa while Nepgear carried IF while White Heart and the White Sisters flew over the city. Histoire waved them goodbye before leaving the room and began to float her way down the corridor towards her office.

-Somewhere in the city-

Wraith leaned against a metal pipe in the alleyway that led to his home, he kept his head down so he didn't attract any attention from the people on the streets. He looked down the alleyway and saw Brian sitting on the ground against the wall, he was breathing in and out quickly and a few fingers began to twitch. Wraith sighed at the sight before him.

I may have pushed him a bit too far in the training, a pity that he didn't learn that specific technique but I believe – no, I know that he will learn it in the not so distant future. Hmm?

He turned his attention to Brian once more and noticed that Brian had passed out from exhaustion, his breathing had quickened in pace and a red patch had appeared on his shirt, when Wraith bend down and took a look he recognised it as blood.

Ok, I did push him too hard during the training session, now his wounds have reopened. I think I might have some sort of aid around me somewhere.

He reached through whatever pockets he had left for a minute before finding an almost used up roll of bandages. He quickly pulled up Brian's shirt and applied the bandages around his chest while applying pressure to the wound. Once done he pulled Brian's shirt back down, picked him up and placed him over his right shoulder.

"Hang in there, Brian," mumbled Wraith. "We're heading back to the Basilicom."

Wraith then ran and jumped, catching a hold on the metal pipe before swiftly climbing it and landed on top of the roof, quickly looking to make sure no one was watching he sprinted forward, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. As he ran and jumped a blue ghostly energy seemed to escape from his back and legs, which sightly engulfed him, this only made him faster.

He was careful not to get Brian injured even further than he already was, yet he did not cease his quick pace as he jumped from building to building, climbing walls and pipes before he got near the centre of the city, then he saw the Basilicom tower further ahead. When he glanced at Brian he saw a trickle of blood flow from the corner of his mouth.

"Damn it, I have to be quicker," Wraith muttered to himself.

Suddenly a shadow came over him and he noticed that a part of the shadow was moving swiftly, he then quickly realised what was coming towards him; a giant axe. With speed that would make a cheetah look slow he moved his left arm around and caught the axe, his arm slightly glowing with the blue energy mixed with a bit of red as he grabbed the axe.

"There's no need for that, Lady White Heart," said Wraith.

He looked up above him and stared at White Heart, who was looking furious. "Tch, how the hell did you catch my axe?!"

"Simple, you were too slow."

White Heart was becoming even more angry than before, this could be seen by the look in her eyes, even Wraith shuddered at the sight. "Um, I have to go now, see ya later alligator," he said as he threw the axe back at White Heart before sprinting towards another rooftop.

"Hey! Wait there damn it!" shouted White Heart as she caught her axe.

He stopped as he jumped on top of a roof and looked back at White Heart. "What do you want now? If you're going to ask about Blue then save it, I'm heading for the Basilicom."

"Just shut up already! How the hell do you even know me and why do you have Blue?" asked White Heart, her tone becoming increasingly pissed.

"To answer your first question, I did my research. As for your second question, I'm taking him back to the Basilicom for treatment, his wounds have started to reopen," replied Wraith.

Just then the two of them heard someone calling out to White Heart. "Hey, big sis, we didn't find anyth… what the heck?" It was Ram/White Sister who had called out to her, she was flying in the air and followed by Rom/White Sister.

"Hey Rom and Ram, I've found him, and someone else as well," responded White Heart.

"Hey, that's Blue!" shouted Ram.

"Uh-huh, that's him," said Rom.

"You're all wasting my time here," said Wraith in a pissed voice. "Just leave me be, Blue's going to bleed to death at this rate."

White Heart glared at Wraith while Rom and Ram looked frightened at the sight of Wraith. "Promise you will explain what happened once we reach the Basilicom?" White Heart asked Wraith. "If you don't then I'll beat you up!"

"Yeah yeah, alright then," promised Wraith, who then sprinted across the roof and jumped onto the ground in a matter of seconds, then he ran towards the Basilicom, but what interested White Heart as she swiftly followed him was how he appeared to be slightly engulfed in a blue and red energy, the blue on the right side of his body while the red was on his left. Whatever it was it happened to make him faster, almost as fast a CPU with processor units she reasoned.

When they reached the Basilicom Wraith didn't slow down, instead he did something remarkable; he began to climb the wall while balancing Brian with his right arm.

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" yelled White Heart. "You could get him killed as well as yourself!"

"No I won't, I've had centuries to practice my climbing skill," replied Wraith.

It took many minutes before he reached the balcony but he got there in one piece, as had Brian. White Heart and her two younger sisters were waiting on top of the balcony and were looking at Wraith, they here stunned at what he had managed to do.

"That was cool!" exclaimed Ram. "I want to learn how to climb tall buildings!"

"Me … too," said Rom nervously.

The two of them returned back to their human form, followed by White Heart with a sigh. "Anyway, you promised to answer my questions once we returned here. Now spit out answers," Blanc said coldly.

"I think it would be best to wait for the other CPUs to return before I answer your questions," replied Wraith.

"Hmph, fine then. Rom, Ram, contact the others to get back here, I'm going to find Histoire and tell her the news."

Rom and Ram nodded while Blanc left the balcony and entered inside to find Histoire, Wraith was left holding Brian as he entered inside the Basilicom and into the large room around him, he found a couch and placed Brian on it. He began to think to himself as he sighed.

Now we wait. Still, it's interesting to meet the CPUs, I'm sure I know what type of questions they will ask. But my meeting with Histoire will be … troublesome, to say the least. I can't reveal too much information to her.

True, you don't want to reveal anything too spicy to her now, do you?

Huh? Oh come on, seriously? Why are you talking to me in my mind right now of all times?

Because we're one. Did you forget what happened over a thousand years ago?

To hell with you, just remain quiet.

Oh really? We haven't had a conversation for over a hundred years you know, so it would be good for us to have a real discussion.

I'll say no to that, you don't seem to remember what happened last time. I went on a rampage and almost destroyed a part of a city.

And that is what you get if you use our power, you knew what you were getting into.

Grr, shut up already. I had little choice at that time, besides, I did what needed to be done so the others could survive.

They surely missed you, but now you're back to where it all began. So, when are you going to tell the boy about the truth?

Only when needed, but not now. Sometime in the future will do.

Very well then, I won't pressure you further about it. You know where I am if you need me.

You're stuck in my mind so there is little for you to go anyway, but I won't be needing to talk to you again. Understand?

Whatever you say, just remember that I am still here in your mind, and I'm not the only one in it.

The session in Wraith's mind finally came to an end. He stumbled around as he suffered a major headache as soon as the talking was over, he grunted as he sat on a chair while rubbing his forehead.

"Damn that crazy woman, I thought she was sealed away," grumbled Wraith. "Well, I suppose she isn't the most craziest being that I know."