Yuck, this chapter took long due to a lot of problems with all the Corona Virus Activity. Sorry for the delay.
Chapter 35/Interlude 2: Second Chance
In the middle of Planeptune, Big Nepgear was on her way to the center of the city where Rei and her followers were planning their next assault.
Citys had been evacuated due to the continous threat of Anti-CPU Movements and dangerous activities.
"The entire place is evacuated, empty and nothing of importance was left behind. It's time." She summomed forth her Gehaburn and simply waited until her enemy would show herself.
"Look at whos come out and stopped hiding like the little worthless whelp she is! Do you even know what you're up against, you moron?" Rei laughed at her. She towered over Big Nepgear with her form, possessing mighty wings that inspired fear and a face that ignited it even further.
"Haven't you realized how worthless and terrible you are to your people from last time? If you really are a so-called fair and just CPU, then you should just discard your pathetic rule and surrender."
"..."
"Silent? I don't know what I was expecting this time, but I suppose a quick death is better than nothing I guess." Rei raised her staff and aimed at Big Nepgear.
"You act all high and mighty for some ancient CPU, but are you really that powerful to be able to decide that my rule and my actions are no good? I don't think I need to listen to someone who failed in their own time."
"Is that your excuse now? It doesn't take my own failures to make me deny any of this, you are a bad CPU. It wouldn't surprise me if you actually had ulterior motives when you killed the CPUs."
"Was it murder for power?"
"Control?"
"Or are you simply some crazy CPU who did things without reason and sense?" Rei wondered and laughed at her.
"..."
"Silent again? Just how boring of a person are you, I guess she was right when she said that the current CPU was a total pushover." Rei tired of this and fired a large energy blast at her opponent.
"Go to hell, you waste of a CPU." She fired off with a huge sadistic smile on her face.
...
"Y'know, I thought that perhaps of all people you could offer me some knowledge or perspective that could change my mind. But now that I see how you are, I see there is nothing you can show me." Big Nepgear figured as her eyes glew bright purple and drew her Gehaburn, instantly cutting the blast in two and sending off a massive Slash Wave at Rei.
"Pathetic." Rei easily blocked the wave and simply laughed it off as a joke.
"Oh, look at that. You've gotten the blade all bloody, is that your people's blood?" Rei pointed out as there was a red stain was on it.
"Sacrifices had to be made, this will end with you dead!" Big Nepgear charged forward angrily, Rei dodged before she was suddenly grabbed by the neck, feeling a crushing grip on her neck.
"I'm not an idiot, I've learned from my mistakes and this time...I won't show any more hesitation." Big Nepgear told her as she grew a evil grin on her face, looking towards her as Rei's energy started to weaken for unknown reasons.
"It's best to be done with this quickly, now." Big Nepgear told her as she slowly weakened and lessened her energy through an unknown power, slowly sending some of Rei's energy away. Her eyes glew in sinister purple as she saw even more and her power grew.
"Y'know what we have in common? It's that we weren't respected by our citizen and treated as if it's our purpose to be their slave, we are beings that can't live by ourselves without shares and you used the Anti-Crystals to make sure I'm powerless against you." Big Nepgear told her before Rei broke free. "I'm only returning the favor and not showing hesitance this time."
"Hm, for once I hear something true and reasonable coming out of your mouth, but that won't help you!" Rei laughed loudly as she fired multiple blasts and projectiles straight at her, surrounding her in a big colorful inferno.
"I want to know where you even came from or why you are doing this rebellion, but I'm not giving you much of a chance this time, you're my enemy and that means I'll just end you here and now. So this is your last chance, tell me!" She demanded of her, staring at her with a gaze of maleficness and anger before pointing at her with Gehaburn and letting her eyes glow brightly.
"You really are stupid if you think that I'll just tell you everything like I'm some kind of convenient narrator, you are standing up to me alone whereas I have servants and fools working for me and in position, you can slaughter as many as you want, I don't care!" Rei responded as she recovered and got ready to strike, calling up the rest of the Anti-CPU Movement.
"Is that so? If that's the case, then you're terrible at realizing whats happening here." She told her and chuckled as Rei received a message.
...
"Um...Rei-darling, we seem to have a bit of a problem." Anonydeath responded to her through a device.
"Spit it out."
"It appears that you aren't...anywhere in Gamindustri...like at all, where exactly are you?"
"What are you talking about? I am right here in Planeptune, I literally stand in the center like we strategized and agreed on! What are you, a dimwit?!" Rei yelled to him.
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you're not at the center. All that's there is a huge crater that I suppose is your doing." Anonydeath responded. "Also, the rebels we sent to dispose of the CPU and other cities seem to have been killed..."
"See, I have told you that you've not realized what is actually happening." Big Nepgear declared as the surrounding slowly changed into a shadowy and dark area, one very familiar to her.
"This is your chance, use it wisely." A voice whispered to Big Nepgear as she readied herself.
"I do not condone your terror and madness for any longer, so you can just go to hell! Although...I think that's too good for you." Big Nepgear yelled out and charged forward, transforming in an instant and slashing against Rei at full force. She instantly pulled her wings forward, but the Gehaburn easily tore through them and stabbed into her stomach.
"You worthless little runt! I'll rib you apart piece for piece by myself for that!" Rei charged forward with intention to kill, but she felt a painful surge throughout her body.
"(What the? My power...it feels like I'm losing it...)"
"How does it feel to be at the receiving end this time?" Big Nepgear told her as she easily dodged her attacks and continously brutally pummeled her, all while remaining cruel and deadset on killing her.
"Histoire, what is happening?! What is going on here in Planeptune?" Mina asked of Histoire as she saw this from the cameras, the entirety of Rei's forces, all of the Rebels on the ground in blood.
"I don't know! I had no idea that Nepgear would do this and I don't know why she would?! She tasked me with getting ready the evacuation, but I didn't expect this!" Histoire panickly responded, not knowing what is happening.
"You better have a damn good answer for this because what happens right now is the exact opposite of what she wanted to accomplish and what would have been needed!" Mina worried, this would have been bad if it was the citizen striking back, but this was more akin to a massacre.
"Lady Histoire, we have bad news! It appears that the area within which Lady Nepgear and the ancient CPU are fighting has been sealed off from the outside and made inexcessible! They do not even appear to be in Gamindistri!" A worker entered the room and informed them.
"WHAT?!"
"Histoire, you better have a really good explanation for what is going on here. We will have a lot to talk once this is over, whether it's on you or on Nepgear." Mina told her as she grew suspicous by what was happening.
"We are heading to Planeptune. NOW."
"Go to hell!" Rei chased after Big Nepgear and kept hitting her with her scepter and wings like a madwoman, acting like a crazed beast seeking to murder and destroy, relentlessly attacking her.
"Take your advice for yourself." She dodged as quick as she could and tried countering with her sword, but Rei blocked every strike with her wings and went out of range every time to avoid the lethal blows.
"You damn CPU, why won't you die already!?" Rei yelled at her as she fired after Big Nepgear with powerful blasts and projectiles instead.
"How about you bite the dust first, you fiend? Ice Coffin!" She yelled out and instantly froze Rei's wings to prevent her from dodging anymore.
"Damn it, why won't you die!?" She kept yelling as she started firing energy and attacking relentlessly without mercy, pushing Big Nepgear back and leaving her with a number of bruises and cuts.
"Oh, Rei. Do you really think this would work this time?" She easily endured the attacks and grabbed Rei by the neck, heavily tightening her grip in an instant.
"You kept tellling me how much of a failure I am as a CPU, but let me tell you that I don't care whether I am a just ruler or a cruel dictator. All I care for is the nations being safe, that is my only real intention even if a meek one." Big Nepgear declared before she lifted her Gehaburn and slowly had it come closer, cherishing every little amount of fear and despair her opponent felt.
"How ironic that I see you fearing me now, even though it was the opposite a short time ago."
"I can't die here, after all this I can't die here! Not after I finally got so close to revenge, so close after all this time! Why didn't she come...?" Rei squealed and yelled, relentlessly beating and striking at her with despair in her eyes.
"This is the end."
Rei felt only a single painful embrace before all life immediately vanished and her body was left lifeless in an instant, her eyes slowly faded to gray as her soul was ansorbed by the Gehaburn and her body started withering.
"She's dead now, so what is next?" Big Nepgear asked. In front of her as a mysterious figure spawned from her shadow and took form before her, slowly forming and takng form.
"Patience is a common tool to achieve success, take your time and see what you can do. Gehaburn has been replenished with new energy now, hasn't it?" Kurome responded and advised the CPU, talking in a calm demeanour. "Your dear friends are coming soon, so I'll be taking my leave. Choose what to do here by yourself, the CPU has been slain and her power secured, so there is no threat."
The shadowy domain they resided in and Kurome slowly faded and the surface of Gamindustri reemerged and showed itself while they completely disappeared.
"Inflicting death upon others, releasing my pent-up aggression towards them...it's so very satisfying." Big Nepgear thought to herself as she felt immnese pleasure inside of her from it. "(No, I can't let myself by driven by that.)"
"Nepgear, what is going on here?" A voice called out to her and made her turn around.
Histoire, Kei and Mina stood before her, completely pale and shocked at what they saw. They lokked heavily distraught and scared from what they had witnessed, on their way seeing dozens of corpses and blood splattered.
"Why are there corpses everywhere and what happened to the ancient CPU? We need answers!" Kei asked of her with shock in her voice.
"It was simply a necessary sacrifice for the safety of Gamindustri, they were ruining our shares and proved non-beneficial to our cause. I send them to their death alongside the ancient CPU to make proper space for Gamindustri, proper space for our home that they didn't deserve." Big Nepgear declared, restraining her own desire to tell the truth.
"So I killed them."
"You killed them?! Do you have any idea what a CPU shouldn't do?! As CPU, you shouldn't go around and kill your own people!" Mina yelled at her.
"Who the hell says that CPUs have to follow every dumb rule you dictate and not have the abillity to do this? I'm just doing what I am supposed to do first and foremost." Big Nepgear told them as she stepped forward and stared into their eyes, deeply staring them down.
"When everything fails me, I have no other choice then to bring more sacrifices to achieve victory. Don't you remember what needed to be done, don't you remember what I did? We agreed to never do it again, assuming it wasn't needed." She responded and simply starting leaving.
"Make sure you put that into your heads."
Ever since that day, Big Nepgear had changed the laws of the worlds and her rule and behaviour performed a turn. From the once trying and meek ruler, from this day she became a cruel tyrant.
Years later...
"How are the reports of today?"
Nepgear was sitting at her work table, observing Gamindustri's state and current well-being while developing new tech.
"It seems your shares have yet again dropped by 1% despite your best efforts, the criminal rate had remained low as usual and the citizen's despair is still as high as usual. Nothing significant has happened today." Histoire responded to her through her N-Gear.
"Goddamnit, why can't these dumb people learn that the fact they are still alive is all thanks to me?" Nepgear thought to herself as she grew angry.
"Nepgear, you can't keep this going. You've endured for so long, and now you're barely like anything you used to be, I don't even recognize you."
"Isn't this better? Isn't it better if I am someone who is no longer afraid to kill or sacrifice?" Nepgear laughed back at her with a grimicing smile on her face.
"Neptune and the others wouldn't be very proud of what you're doing."
"Good...
"...because I don't want them to be proud of me, why should I care about that in the first place? I am the one that keeps Gamindustri alive."
Nepgear thought to herself, as Histoire turned off and left her to wail in silence once more. Another person emerged from the shadows, crawling out of it like a lurker.
"My, my, you have changed so much as of now. If I didn't know you, then I wouldn't even have recognized you." Kurome responded as she once again seeped out of Nepgear's shadow, observing her progress and watching along as she sees the world change.
"You can leave too, I didn't try calling you."
"How rude, I only came to help you. I figured you'd need a refresher to cheer you up or at least give you some variety because the way your life goes now, is pretty simple and straight forward." Kurome told her.
"I didn't call for you, I don't need your help." Nepgear told her as she left into her own room to take her time as she moved forward, she noticed her own reflection and looked at herself.
"A lot has changed since then, but times change after all. This is simply what happens when sacrifices must be given to fix everything that went wrong." She thought about, remembering how dire the times had been, how hard it was to kill her former friends, but now she simply saw it as needs to reach a peaceful Gamindustri.
"You've lost your precious smile, Nep Jr."
Nepgear's compasure faded as she heard that voice and turned around.
"We thought that you could handle this by yourself, but seeing this. It's very sad to see what is happening."
All of them, all of the very friends she killed were standing there. Looking at her with disappointment or sadness in their eyes, but Nepgear knew that they weren't truly here.
"Shut up!" Nepgear yelled out and tried to have them disappear, but the voices stayed.
"I want you to smile again one day." Neptune and the others vanished in an instant, Nepgear was simply left with fear and anxiety of what she just witnessed.
"I...don't need anyone, I can do this by myself..."
Time passes...
"This is going nowhere, Nepgear has absolutely lost it now!" Mina smashed her fist against the table and yelled out in anger.
"This behaviour is to be pointed out, she's become a total maniac. As of last week, she mercilessly killed three criminals and hospitalized dozens of innocents for the sake of what she sees as justice!"
"All of her so-called efforts are ineffective, she ruined the things she did and made everything worse."
"This is not going well anymore, for some time this method of ruling wasn't perfect and really Nepgear refused to drop this way of ruling off. She only cared about keeping it peaceful, not caring about what comes after."
"You can't keep going like this, you're not even yourself anymore. If you keep going, you'll simply break yourself beyond recognition." Kurome remarked as she looked at Nepgear's torn and broken body and soul, she had dozens of injuries and was deprived of any happiness, onyl shambling with a crazed look on her face.
"Who is saying this!? Don't pick a fight with me, I'll kill you!" Nepgear yelled as she swung her Gehaburn at random, overcome with paranoia and uncertainty that made her uncontrollable.
"How miserable, you've been twisted beyond relief. I am afraid I can no longer help you, in your state you are twisted and broken, no use as a CPU." Kurome told her as she left, but despite her statement she had a small smile on her face as she left.
"I'm the only CPU...I'm the last, I'm the only one who can keep Gamindustri safe. I'm the only one who can end this world!" Nepgear remarked as her eyes grew purple and started having a chaotic and distorted look, after all of this she wasn't ok with herself anymore.
"Gamindustri! Gamindustri! Gamindustri!" She yelled out as she started bashing her head against the wall and cried like a maniac, not even being fully in control anymore.
"I can't take it...I feel like I'm tearing..."
Blood was slowly dripping off her messy face as she was losing it, growing more erratic, panicked and looking inhuman.
"I just wanna die...I don't want to bear this burden anymore!" Nepgear thought to herself as she grabbed the Gehaburn and targeted it towards her own chest, having no control over herself anymore.
"The world, everything my friends and family left me with, I want it all gone! And if I do this, then I can end this pain!" Nepgear yelled out as she pulled the sword and in one fell swoop...
...it stopped.
Midway through, Big Nepgear had stopped the Gehaburn from digging any deeper, having almost pierced her own heart and narrowly avoided it.
"Don't do it, Nepgear. I beg of you, drop the sword and look at me." Big Nepgear dropped the sword out of her hands before she looked up, only to see no one, but listen to the voice that soothed her.
"Is this really you? And if it is, is this who you want to be?"
Nepgear looked down on the Gehaburn, seeing a reflection of herself within it's edge. Her eyes red from insanity and despair, her arms and legs pummeled and damaged from battles and self-mutilation. And now, a small stricken wound inside her chest that had blood spilling out of it and slowly colored purple, taking a unnatural coloration and had a corrupted look.
"Looks like you crossed the Despair Event Horizon a bit too far, but we can fix this problem." Kurome appeared before her once more and held her closely, hiding a twisted and shadowy smile behind a seemingly caring and friendly face.
"Assuming you want it fixed, are you willing to try again or have you given up on your sanity?" She carefully asked her, taking advantage of her lack of sanity at the moment.
"...both."
"Well, that wound you gave yourself has scarred you forever...you'll know what that means soon enough. Hopefully you will be grateful and be ready for this second chance I offered to you." Kurome told her as she walked over to Big Nepgear and put her hands over her eyes, slowly closing them and blinding her as she let her power play.
"When you wake up, this will all be over."
"Nepgear? Nepgear, wake up!"
She slowly opened her eyes, only to see Histoire and IF standing in front of her. Looking at her in a different way than before, worried and concerned, no faces of anger or hate towards her anymore.
"What...where am I?"
"You suddenly fell asleep in your room, are you okay?"
"Yes...I just need some time for myself. Please." Big Nepgear told them as she left into her own room and realized that nobody knew of her bad actions anymore. All deaths, all misdoings, all mistakes were seemingly revoked in the blink of an eye.
"This is a second chance, use it correctly." Kurome whispered to her as she felt a corruptive presence looming over her, a familiar parka was placed onto her shoulders and she looked at herself, noticing a crack-like scar over her chest area. A darkened crystal-like scar over the area where her heart would be.
"A second chance, eh?" Big Nepgear figured before she wiped the confusion off her face and focused.
"I know what to do right this time...and I know what to do."
"And starting from then on, I had adapted this less friendly, but non-mad behaviour." Big Nepgear explained to everyone, remembering and going through all her pained memories.
"So now you know the full story, it's not very happy and light as you can see. As it turned out, piercing myself with the Gehaburn did more than just pain me. It took that part of me that wanted all to die or held me back and devoured it, dealing it deeply inside of the sword." Big Nepgear remarked to them and pointed at the area. "Kurome had released it from the Gehaburn and returned it to me, undoing the scar and releasing the darkness back into my heart."
Everyone was merely left in silence as they finished listening and stood there.
"I feel so sorry for you, you really had it tough." Neptune told her in worrysome tone.
"Maybe, but you all got through tougher things not by yourself, but by helping each other and that's something I had started abandoning when I thought I can't allow myself to try something anymore. In all honesty, we barely had time for this in the first place."
"You had what one could consider a short period of insanity, but I don't understand why Kurome was helping you. What does she hope to gain from this?" Uzume still asked, wondering about why. She couldn't compreehend her other self's thought process.
"I have no idea, her motives are an absolute mystery to me. Just as much as this sword, they both seem to have plans and wills to fufill by themselves." Big Nepgear figured, having her full mind and being fully confident in her choices.
"What happened in the past can't be done, but we can do our best to fix this problem and end this threat once and for all!" Uni declared in an attempt to cheer her up.
"Listen, we came here and we followed you here to help you. It's not because I'm a CPU or because I am a CPU, it's because I want to help you. I want to help people that need help and you are exactly such a person." Neptune remarked before she pulled Big Nepgear into an embrace, trying to help her and soothen her.
"You're not the only one who will face Kurome. We are all coming for her."
"She's right. Even if you failed now, we can fix it and try our best to change everything for the better. From here on out, things can't get worse anymore."
"That's really optimistic...let's do this!" Big Nepgear yelled out as she got ready.
"That's cute, you think that you stand a chance?" A voice echoed across the dimension, causing great fear in everyone's hearts as they turned around to see who said that and saw the dreadful mighty individual that opposed them standing.
Before them the dimension twisted and turned as it formed a singular path with their enemy standing at the other end.
"Kurome...Leader, and...them."
Behind her stood a number of people, girls that were very familiar to her, more familiar to them than to anyone else.
"Neptune, Noire, Blanc, Vert, Uni, Rom and Ram."
Can't be a Conquest Fanfiction without Nepgear having issues.
