"I-I'm sorry, Verna..."

Verna heard of a story going around. A story that Nepgear and her sister were going around with a sword and killing her friends. Naturally, Verna didn't believe such a thing, but both her sister and Miss Chika had confirmed it. They had finished in Lowee, and they were coming to Leanbox to kill them.

Verna's head couldn't wrap around such a thing, but Vert had told her they could grieve later. Now, they had to fight for their lives. Her sister had promised they would win, at a great price of course. Vert had said they would mourn over the friends they lost, and defeat a great evil, the Deity Of Sin, together.

But they didn't win. Despite their efforts, the Leanbox sisters had lost. It was because the Planeptune sisters were stealing their Shares, which made them weaker than usual. When Verna thought it couldn't get any worse, Nepgear killed her sister with a cursed sword. Verna was by her side in her final moments, and at the very next moment, she had vanished, leaving the younger sister standing in the spot where Vert just was.

Her big sister wasn't there anymore, Vert was no longer with her.

Verna looked up at Nepgear, who had a look of anguish on her face. Next to her was Neptune, looking equally as miserable. Behind her were her Maker friends, but Verna spotted Cave in particular. She looked... agonized. She looked away as soon as the little Candidate looked at her, but Verna could tell she was crying.

"W-Why...?" One word was all Verna could utter. What had possessed her friend, if Verna could even call her that now, to do these horrible things? Why was she killing the CPUs?

"To defeat a common enemy, Verna. I-I'm so sorry, but... I had to..."

It then hit Verna like a maelstrom. Miss Noire, Miss Blanc, Uni, Rom, Ram... they were all forever dead. Her sister was dead, Verna had failed to protect her sister.

She broke her promise, and now she was gonna die next, by the hands of one of her former friends.

"I-I... I...!" Verna broke down. "W-WAAAAAAAAH!" She began sobbing uncontrollably. "S-Sis..., R-Rom..., R-Ram... W-Waaaaaaah!"

"V-Verna...!" Nepgear tried to reach out to Verna, but the little girl only backed away from her. She didn't want to be comforted by the very person who killed Vert, the person she loved the most.

"Verna..." A pair of hands wrapped around the young girl, and she was pulled in for a hug. It took a moment for Verna to realize that Cave was hugging her. "Please..., don't cry..."

"B-But..." Verna leaned into Cave's embrace, sobbing. "S-Sis..., R-Rom and Ram..."

"I know..." Cave hugged her tighter. She was crying as well. "I'm so sorry..."

Verna didn't feel any better, but she felt comfortable in Cave's arms. She knew what was coming, Verna could feel Nepgear's presence from behind her, and she knew that her death was inevitable.

How did it come to this? Verna had no idea.

"I-I'm so sorry, Verna..." Nepgear raised the sword. Verna was still in Cave's tight embrace.

At least, Verna would be reunited with her sister. The little girl took comfort in that. She started crying again.

"Close your eyes..." Cave whispered.

Verna shut her eyes.

A swing, and then-

"AH!"

Verna woke up with a start, tears pouring down her face as she breathed quickly and heavily. She was sweating a storm as she looked around.

She wasn't dead. She was in her room. In the dark. It hadn't bothered her before, but after what happened less than a few seconds ago, Verna couldn't help but start wailing.

"WAAAAAAAAH!"

It took less than 10 seconds for a worried Vert to come bursting through the door. Never mind that it was three in the morning.

"V-Verna! What's wrong!?" Vert was at her side in an instant, and the little girl jumped into her arms.

"S-Sis! Waaaaaaah!" Verna hugged Vert close, crying up a river.

"Verna...?" Vert, of course, had no idea what was going on. The only conclusion she could come to was that Verna had a bad dream of sorts, but the tiny Candidate was crying very hard. "Verna, what's wrong?"

"S-Sis... hic S-Sis..." Verna soaked a part of Vert's nightgown with how much she cried. "Y-You... hic Y-You're n-not..."

"I'm not what? Please, tell me Verna..." Vert was ready to comfort her little sister however she could, cradling her like a baby.

"sniffle Y-You're n-not... d-dead..." Verna choked out, feeling a lump in her throat.

"... Eh?"

"Dearest, what's going on?" A tired Chika came walking in at that moment, wearing black alluring nightwear of her own, along with undone, disheveled green hair. She had quite literally just woken up. "I heard loud crying..."

"Verna seems to have had a nightmare, Chika..." said Vert as she comforted Verna, who was still sniffling.

Chika sat down on Verna's bed, looking concerned. She was really tired, for sure, but she actually cared about Verna now. "What kind of nightmare did she have, Vert?"

"I'm not sure. She's far too upset to speak of it right now..." The sniffling was starting to calm down some, but Verna was nowhere near ready to talk about her nightmare yet.

Chika had taken to comforting Verna as well, gently petting the back of her head.

"sniffle..." Verna was gradually starting to feel better. Her sister was alive and well, which meant that everyone else was alive as well. It was all just a horrible dream, and the only way this could be made better is if Cave was here comforting her as well, but that was just Verna being selfish.

"Are you feeling better, Verna?" asked the older sister.

"Y-Yeah..." Verna wiped her eyes, still sniffling a little.

"Can you tell us what your nightmare was about?" asked Chika.

Verna nodded meekly. She went over the brief but scary dream, how Vert died, how she was gonna die, how Nepgear of all people were killing them... it made Verna want to cry even more from how horrible it was.

The older women were completely rigid by the time Verna finished her tale, blank looks in their eyes. They hadn't expected this. At all. Now they had a sniffling Verna, unaware of what the traumatic nightmare actually was.

"W-What was it, s-sis?" asked Verna. She looked up at her sister, who relaxed her posture. "I-It was scary..."

"I know..." Vert closed her eyes, having a look of exasperation. "It is something we all wish could be forgotten, but haters keep bringing it up..." She smiled a little.

"Especially Nepgear haters..." said Chika.

"W-Why?" Verna was confused by their choice of words.

"All I shall say that what you dreamt about was a bad ending for everyone..." Vert hugged Verna close. "For everyone..."

Verna sniffled, not really understanding what her sister meant, but knew it was a very touchy subject depending on how her sister and Miss Chika were acting.

"And whatever you do, don't talk to Nepgear about it. She just got out of therapy a few weeks ago." Chika advised.

"O-Okay..."

There was a few minutes of silence after that, which was used for Verna to get herself back together. She finally stopped sniffling, though she still held Vert close.

"I-I promised to protect s-sis, b-but that dream..."

Verna stopped that thought at once. She tried to convince herself it was just a dream, her sister was cradling her right now after all, but the nightmare was scarily real. It made Verna shake just thinking about it.

Her sister would never die like that. Verna wouldn't allow it.

"S-Sis..., can you sleep in here tonight?'

"Of course."

The Leanbox sisters slept together that night, with Verna wrapped in Vert's comforting embrace. Chika slept in Verna's room as well, since Vert was in there, and snuggled against the older sister. Vert warned her not to do anything too mature.

For the rest of the night, Verna slept free of nightmares, but three words would keep endlessly repeating in her mind.

I'm sorry, Verna...