I woke up to the sound of heavy rain.
The night was still hanging over the city.
I turned to check the clock. '4:30'
... It's time.
All the preparations...
Done now.
We would be able to defeat the person who threatens my world... previous world...

I turned back towards Nepgear.
I used a few seconds just to look at her.
She was really affectionate towards me, although she barely knew me.
A smile crept up my face and I kissed her cheek.
"Morning, Nepgear." She yawned sleepily and looked at me.
"Good morning, Deniz." "We need to get ready." "I know..."
She was looking kind of sad that moment. Not liking to see her like this, I pulled her into a hug.
"What is it, Gear?"
"What if... what if don't return... *fail*..."
While I could understand, why she was worried, it was nothing she should worry about.
"Listen, would Histoire ever send yo-" I stopped mid-sentence realizing she had already put the CPUs in danger.
They were gone for 3 years and almost died. Why did they even leave the decision making to Histy? She's *horrible* at that!

"...yeah, she might... *sigh* But... we're together. We can do this... And I have a feeling Diana has an ace up her sleeve." "Sorry... I just don't..."
"You apologize too much as well. This is nothing to apologize about: You're worried. Just don't let it get to you."
She gave me a warm smile and finally returned my hug.
"It feels like I've known you a very long time..." She nuzzled into my shoulder.

I didn't exactly want to break this moment, so Uni decided to. Yup, Uni barged into the room without knocking.
The only light source came from the hallways.
Uni looked at us and her jaw dropped. She stood there a few seconds and just stared...
"Uni... Would you mind... well... not starring at us?" I requested.
"W-When did *this* happen? Wh-What did you-?" Uni stammered.
I let (finally?) go of Nepgear and sat up. She also did.
"Oh great! Obviously the guy is at fault." I spoke sarcastically, facepalming after my commentary.
"Y-you know, Uni... I... kind approached him..." Nepgear shyly said, not facing Uni.

"You know what? This is gonna escalate at some point. So let's not continue 'til that happens and get ready."
I quickly interrupted anything they were gonna say.
"R-right... that was what I came here originally... Does Neptune know?"
"She does, and I can still feel it."

"So... Breakfast is almost ready... let's not waste anymore time..."
And with that, Uni left the room.

'4:46'
"If I am correct, the time should currently match ours in the other dimension." Histoire was in the process of establishing a portal.
It wouldn't take long, yet she told us everything we would need to pay attention to, and told us the checklist of stuff we should have.

"And... done! I could gather that... actually, I couldn't gather anything. It's like... he doesn't exist... Please be careful!"
"W-we'll be..." Nepgear stuttered.
"We will. And we're ready!" Uni added.
"Why do even need to go with this dummy!" Ram objected.
"...we kind of offered to..." Rom explained. Ram looked like she was mentally facepalming.
"I have never felt this ready to beat somebody. And no promises!" Diana was pretty much radiating her excitement.
"I'll make sure they're okay. And we'll come back as the victors." I finished off.

"Very well then. Good luck."
And... through the portal.

The Sahara... the last place on earth you would wanna be...
Yet, we were here.

"You call *this* a desert?!" Uni shouted out, shivering from the cold.
"It's night-time." I was deadpanned. "Besides, we all have warm-clothing."
Because it seemed like a good idea, now that I mentioned it, I put on my warm, green hoodie.
The others put on theirs as well, the colors representative of their nations.

"Where do we have to go?" Uni questioned.
"Histoire said it was north a few hundred meters..." I said as I pulled my phone for the compass app.
"We need to go... in this direction..." I lead the way.

And we walked and walked...

"Uh... guys... Why didn't we fly?" Diana suddenly questioned, already having walked about 200 meters.
"Actually... We should transform now, else they would notice our transformation when we did so closer to their base." I replied.
"Are you sure?" Nepgear asked, a hint of doubt in her voice.
"They can probably track us either way, what gives." Uni said enthusiastically.
So we all activated HDD.
Diana's outfit was a shade of red... crimson red.
"Let's keep close to the ground. We will be harder to spot."
The others nodded.

There it was. The base of whoever was behind this. It was just barely visible above the surface.
Rom and Ram rushed forward, and aware of what they had to do, we didn't stop them, and instead hid behind a sand hill.
When they were noticed and attacked, we darted out from our hiding and silently made our way towards the building.

Seemingly undetected, we were now inside.
"Except Diana suddenly learned an invisibility spell, we *will* be detected at some point if we're not careful. So be careful." I looked hopeful to Diana, who just shook her head.
"I will be, you bet." Uni said. "O-of course..." Nepgear seemed to space out.
"Nepgear, you have time to dream about the future once we're done here." I snickered.
"Ah-ah... yes..."

We quickly got to a crossing.
"Is anybody around the corner?" I asked Diana.
"Nope." She replied casually.
"Diana can look around corners?!" Uni asked distrusting.
"I heard somebody over there!" It voiced from somewhere. "At it!" "Roger." "How did anybody get in?"
"Now there are four. Thanks." Diana and I facepalmed simultaneously, while Uni hung her head and quietly groaned.

...

That wasn't a difficult fight... but...
"Well... that felt horrible." I stated with disgust as I stabbed the last of the four guards.
"To be fair, I'm not... comfortable with this as well." Nepgear said.
"They *are* our enemies..." Diana added dully.
"We still need to get going. And quick! They probably know about now and will hunt us down." Uni took the initiative and dashed onward.
"Whoa! Wait for us!"

The few guards that came our way, although armed, were quickly 'disposed' of by Uni.
'Disposing people'... Thinking about it, it sounds... unworthy? They're not trash, are they?
Anyways, her reflexes would make her shoot down everybody before they even had the chance to turn our direction.
In the end, we left a trail of dead bodies...
... I needed to get down from that. We did the right thing, we were saving the world. Right?... Right?

"Mmm... This door looks different..." Uni said.
We had stopped in front of a... fancy door. Well, fancy compared to the rest of the pure steel doors.
"Well, I suppose somebody important is behind there." She put her rifle at the door's lock, a quiet metallic 'clunk' resonating.
Before she could shoot, the door was opened and a red crystal hit her square in the face.
Uni was knocked over and her HDD was shattered...

After a moment of shock, Nepgear spoke up. "It's... an Anti-Crystal..."
"Oh, my. You're fast, genius."
A male with a black robe, hood over his eyes, stepped from the shadows of the room.
Diana picked up the Anti-Crystal and destroyed it, the contact of it didn't seem to affect her HDD at all.
"Now that's taken care of..." Diana began and turned towards the guy in the robe "...who are you?"

"That's not important, you may only call me the Puppet Master."
"...W-Why? You don't have any puppets." Diana questioned.
"Then call me Explode... I don't care..." Explode replied.
"Well then, Explode, what is your plan?" "Oh, my plan... Don't you see? Destroy dimensions!"
Uni slowly stood back up. "W-what happened... Who..."
She stood unsteadily, so Nepgear helped her. "He says we could call him Explode."

...

I just looked at them for a second before realization hit me.
I quickly turned back at the villain, sword raised...
He just stood there, bored, checking his fingernails.
"Uh... you not gonna attack us... I mean, we're clearly here to stop you... and it'd be the perfect moment to strike." I questioned his (non-existent) actions.
"Dude, I'm not a douche. I am respectful. And there would be no fun in that."
"Let me guess, you want a duel. 1 on 1. For glory. The winner takes it all, the loser dies."
"Correct! Honor is everything for me!" Well, I guess even the worst people can be honorable.
"So who wants to fight? I am eager!" Explode requested.

"I do." Diana began "I will do whatever is necessary to stop you."
That's surprising, but I wasn't gonna stop her... She was more... than capable...
I motioned for Nepgear and Uni to move back slightly.

"I am not just an 'ordinary' CPU, you see." Diana said threateningly, a red aura slowly building up around her.
"I would be more than capable to do what you do." She stretched out her right arm, the aura concentrating in her hand and taking the shape of a spear.
"But if I can't release all of that power..." Diana took a step forward.
"...or it would consume me. Histoire told me. I will not allow that to happen." She took yet another step forward.
"But I won't allow you to destroy this world either." She extended her wings and floated.
"You wanted a duel. I'll give you a duel. But you won't win, I will. By the goddesses of Gamindustri."

With those words she dashed at Explode, her spear in front of her.
Unimpressed by her words, he unsheathed a tomahawk and easily reflected her attack.
"So many empty words, so weak." He spoke as he lunged at Diana who dodged his attack by a short dash sideways, her left hand extending.
"Lunar Flare!" A barrage of bright red, glowing projectiles shot from her hand towards Explode.
He didn't need more than just a hand-movement to cancel her projectiles, dropping them to the ground.
"Boring. You're boring. You're weak. And I will decimate you! SHADOW-FLAME!"

He raised both his hands slowly and while doing so a dark purple glowing line appeared on the ground.
Once this was established, sharp spear-like objects shot out of the ground at the line, inching closer to Diana steadily.
But... she was like paralyzed, she would dodge...
No...

Throwing pride out of the imaginary window, I quickly tackled Diana out of the way of the attack.
Just in time, too... But...

I took the attack, impaled a couple times, my HP dropped to zero.

The spears faded away, the attack was complete.
"I...I'm sorry, Nepgear..." I muttered.
Before my eyes shut, I could see Diana extruding the same red aura once more, but way more heavily.
Then I could hear quiet sobbing...

You can do it.
You... can...
You... will...
Don't... waste... th-