Chapter 24

[Planeptune]

They didn't waste any time. The Planeptune group woke up and all met up at the Basilicom. IF actually brought Compa with her since she didn't have to work. After all of them ate breakfast, Histy wished them the best of luck as they went on their way.

Compa drove all of them to the nearest stop where Hikan found the other entrance to the caves. Leading the group was Hikan, he walked cautiously and looked around the area, watching for something to attack them and daring anything to get in their way.

A couple inches behind him were Neptune and Nepgear, the CPU and CPU Candidate were at his shoulders talking amongst themselves. Nepgear was a little scared, but also a little excited since this was her first real operation, Neptune was reassuring her that nothing bad was going to happen. Whenever some problem came up, they were always able to deal with it.

Lastly, behind them were Compa and IF. Both of them were talking about how they were doing since they weren't able to get in contact with each other for quite a while. "It's been awhile since all of us were together like this." Compa pointed out and IF nodded.

"Yeah, all of us out on a real mission like this… It's nostalgic really." IF agreed and Neptune looked back at them, she had her arms behind her head as she walked.

"It feels pretty nice. Being together again like this. Reminds me of that time near Leanbox, where we set up the camp." Neptune said, IF smiled.

"I hope it doesn't remind you of that. You were kidnapped remember?" IF mentioned, causing Neptune to drop her arms to her sides.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that." she said as the group laughed, except Hikan. "Hey Hikan, I know you get all serious at times, but relax a little."

Hikan blinked and looked back, "Huh? Sorry, I wasn't listening. What were you talking about?"

"Don't worry about it." IF said and Hikan went back to looking in front of him, "I can't blame him for acting like this. Over the past days he and Kotomi were close and getting closer each day. It makes sense why he's like this."

Nepgear stayed silent as well, Neptune looked over at her younger sister. "What's wrong Nep Jr.?" Nepgear gave a smile.

"It's nothing that bad. Just a little concerned about Hikan." she said as she looked at Hikan, "I've never seen him like this before. Is he alright?"

"He's fine Nepgear, Hikan is usually acting carefree, but when something serious happens. His first response is to act quickly." IF reassured and Nepgear nodded without looking away from him.

"Okay…"

"Here we are." Hikan announced and they all stopped. All around them were trees, some of them were so high and thick that they were obscuring the sunlight. Hikan pointed at a rock formation with boulders and a bunch of other rocks stacked together and in the rocks was an opening with stairs going down. "This is where I got out."

Neptune peered into the stairwell. "You can barely see anything down there." she pointed out and Hikan took two steps into the abyss.

"As I said, stay near each other. Who knows what may happen if we get separated from each other." Hikan advised and held his palm open, a spark of flame ignited in his open palm. "Follow me." he said and the group slowly descended into the abyss.

Darkness soon enveloped them as they walked through the cave, their only source of light was Hikan's flame. "It's way too dark down here." Neptune commented.

"Hikan, how long did it take for you to find your way out?" IF asked, Hikan didn't take his eyes off the path.

"Ten minutes after Kotomi got kidnapped I think. I wasn't thinking straight really." Hikan said and stopped, everyone else stopped as well.

"What is it?" IF asked and Hikan looked around.

"Do you hear that?" he asked and everyone looked around, there was a faint sound around them, it sounded like rocks crumbling.

"Yeah, I hear it. Caves usually sound like this though Hikan." Neptune reassured and Hikan turned.

"No… not like this." he said, and looked at the wall, then gasped. "Shit, run!" he yelled and the group looked at the wall and saw cracks forming, the cracks soon formed faster as the roof started to crumble. The five of them ran as fast as they could. As they were running, holes were shaped in the floor, constricting some of their movements. Compa almost slipped into one of them, but Hikan was able grab her hand and pull her back up before the roof caved in on top of them.

They ran down the path until they heard the noise stop behind them. They were all breathing heavily. "That… hah… was close… hah." Hikan said, Compa and Neptune slid down the side of the wall and sat on the ground.

"Hah… hah… that's enough… I'm done already…" Neptune complained.

"Too much running… had to run… hah… so fast…" Compa whimpered as Hikan, IF, and Nepgear still stood on their feet.

"Dammit. I had a feeling it was something, but now… it's official." Hikan muttered as he looked back at the blocked exit, Nepgear looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"There's something up with these caves, they're… changing. I know it sounds crazy, but it's the only thing I can think of." Hikan said.

"No way, a cave doesn't just change on it's own." IF argued.

"I was watching behind us this whole time and saw no-one, if anyone was following us. They would've been crushed by the roof." Hikan retorted and looked in front of them. "This cave isn't a normal cave, there has to be some reason why our enemy used this place… but I can't find out why."

Nepgear looked back at their blocked exit, "We're going to be down here for a while… aren't we?"

Neptune stood up and gave a sister a thumbs-up, "Don't worry Nepgear! We'll be fine!" she said and Nepgear nodded. Hikan looked at the two out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah!" Nepgear agreed and Hikan looked back in front of them.

"We should get going, we've got a lot of walking ahead of us." Hikan said as everyone nodded and started walking again.

[Lastation]

Noire and Uni were standing in front of the stairwell, staring down into it. "Hikan said that the path was blocked, did he mean inside already?" Noire asked and took one step into it.

"I guess so…" Uni said and looked at her sister, Uni was a little worried since it's only her and Noire going down into the caves but, at the same time, she wasn't since it WAS her and Noire going down there. She and her sister have been doing a bunch of quests together. She thinks this as the same but she can't help it. "Hey, Noire?"

"Hm? What is it Uni?" Noire turned back and looked at her sister, Uni was about to ask her if she really did like Hikan, but she restrained herself.

"N-Nevermind, it passed over." Uni quickly thought up.

"Are you alright Uni? You seemed like you were deep in thought." Noire asked but Uni shook her head.

"It's nothing, don't worry." she said and smiled.

"Okay, but you can ask me anything. Alright?" Noire replied and started to walk down the stairs, Uni didn't know if she could ask that question, but now wasn't the time. She needed to focus on her mission.

The Lastation sisters walked down the stairs, once all the way down was when they could see the path that was blocked off, they looked down the opposite direction. "So that's the only way to go huh?" Noire commented and then Uni nodded. "That's where we found Nishihara… Is there more down that path?"

"Hopefully." Uni agreed and they started to walk down the corridor, but they heard rocks crumbling. "You hear that right…?"

"Yeah, I hear it." Noire replied and the ground started shaking, knocking the two Lastation sisters off their balance.

"What's going on?!" Uni shouted as they both hugged the wall. They looked back and saw the torches start to disappear.

"No!" Noire shouted and tried her best to get back to the torches, she reached out and was able to grab one of them. Just before they all disappeared, she pulled her arm back so it didn't get caught in a new wall that appeared.

The shaking stopped and Uni ran towards Noire, who stood with her hand on the wall, "Noire, what happened? Where did our exit go?" Uni asked and Noire looked back at her younger sister.

"I… I don't know Uni." Noire said, "But… I was able to at least get us some more light."

"I hope Hikan's right about there being more entrances in here." Uni said and looked behind her, Noire nodded in agreement as she took the lead and they both walked through cave.

As they were walking, Noire was staring at the wall, "Wait…"

"What is it Noire?"

"The walls are changing, look." Noire said and pointed at the wall. Uni looked closer and saw the design of the wall. It looked just like what a cave wall would look like, but the design was changing, soon the design was made of swirls.

"What is going on? What's up with these caves?" Uni said and Noire looked forward.

"I don't know, I never thought that something like this would be down here." Noire replied and kept walking, Uni followed close behind while looking behind them. She wasn't liking this one bit, the way the walls were changing and blocking their escapes. It's like this cave is being controlled she thought. "Uni. Be careful."

"Huh?"

The two sisters came across a slightly bigger room. The ceiling was a couple feet higher and the walls made the place look like a circle. Giant holes surrounded the area and the only way out was on the other side of the holes on the ground.

"This shouldn't be too hard." Noire said as a flash of light enveloped her and lit up the room, Noire then stood as Black Heart once the light died down. "Give me your hands Uni."

Noire picked up her little sister, being careful not to drop her and their green torch, she flew over the holes towards the open door, then they landed and Noire looked back at the holes, "Something had to of made those…" she guessed and handed the torch to Uni. "Hold this."

Her sword appeared in her hands and she carefully advanced towards one of the holes in the ground. She looked down into it and saw nothing but darkness, she gave a sigh of relief.

"Noire! Behind you!" Uni shouted and Noire quickly turned around, she dodged a great swords blade as it dropped down from behind. She flew back towards Uni and turned back to whatever was holding the blade.

In front of them was just a pair of armor holding onto a giant blade. It was able to easily hold it in one hand. It's armor was made out of steel with cracks in the armor, it had to be at least ten feet tall. Easily towering over Uni and Noire. But it had no head.

"How did that thing sneak up on us!" Noire shouted.

"It just appeared out of the shadows with its weapon raised. It made no sound at all."

The pair of armor turned back to the Lastation sisters, "We can't fight that thing in these conditions, I can barely see it even now." Noire said and looked back at Uni. "Run."

The sisters backed out into the other entrance as the suit of armor sat there staring at the exit, it was too big to follow after. When the sisters realized they weren't being followed, they stopped. Noire reverted back to her normal form and looked behind them, "Good thing it was too big. I think we're safe now." she said and looked over at Uni, "Thank you Uni, if you weren't there to warn me, I could have been in serious trouble."

Uni blushed at what Noire said, she was able to help Noire and, in return, she was grateful. Uni smiled and nodded, "Yeah, your welcome Noire." she said and Noire took the torch back and looked ahead.

"Now then, let's see where-" As Noire was talking, the ground started shaking again. Causing both girls to fall back towards the wall. The shaking was even bigger then last time.

"Not again!" Uni shouted and Noire reached her hand out to Uni.

"Uni! Take my hand!" she yelled and Uni reached for it but, when they were fingertips away, the ground cracked open under Uni and gave way. Uni started to fall with her hand out, "UNI!"

Noire dropped the torch and dove down for Uni, grabbing her hand with both of hers. Uni came to an abrupt stop and hit the wall. "Noire!" Uni yelled and Noire tried to pull her up.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on!" Noire repeated trying to pull her sister up. Her mind was racing, she should of known that they weren't safe at all in this cave. They had to keep moving, or else this would of happened.

Uni kicked on the wall, trying to assist in some way to help Noire in pulling her up, but the Noire had no edges that could act as a step. Uni looked up at Noire and saw tears welling up in her eyes. But Uni also saw rocks above them cracking, any second they would fall… right on top of them.

"Noire, let me go." Uni said and Noire's eyes widened.

"What?! Are you crazy?" Noire shouted, "We don't know how far this hole falls down. You could die!"

"Noire, I'll be fine." Uni continued trying to persuade her sister. Tears were now falling down her eyes. "Let me go, hurry!"

Noire bit her bottom lip and stared into her sisters eyes. Noire realized the look in her eyes, she wasn't staring at her, she was staring above them. "You better be okay!" Noire shouted and loosened her grip on Uni's hands, then let go. Uni fell down into the black abyss and Noire grabbed the torch and ran out of the way. The rocks fell down and covered up the hole, the shaking stopped and Noire looked back at where the hole was, "Uni…" she muttered her sisters name and ran back to the rocks, they were too heavy to move… Noire's fists tightened as she stared where her sister had fallen.

Again, she thought, she saved me again. Noire's legs gave out from under her as she fell to the ground and landed on her knees. She closed her eyes tight to hold back the tears, but it didn't work.

"Uni…" Noire muttered again as she opened her eyes again and stared at the fallen rocks once more...