Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Compile Heart and Idea Factory and everyone else who worked on it.

Sorry about the delay, between some games and fics, I got distracted and it took me time to write this. Sorry it's not too long.

Chapter 21

Sighing softly while sitting on an empty crate in an alley, Matz slumped in exhaustion. "What a day."

"You did a good job." Tyger said as he came out of a shadow. Growling softly, he looked out at the people wandering around and snorted before sitting down. "I don't see why we should have sold them any filters. Let them suffer."

"You know it's not fair to them." Matz told Tyger. The tiger snorted in disgust. "Come on, these people aren't the same ones that hurt you." Tyger growled at Matz, who just held their hands up in a defensive manner. "I mean it. Sure, people suck, hopefully the leader can get our new home and we can be free of everything else."

"I trust the leader as much as I trust a CPU." Tyger growled.

"...You trust me." Matz pointed out.

"YOU brought food to me and helped me when I was trapped in the cave." Tyger told Matz before hanging his head down. "You're different from the rest of these worthless creatures." He ignored how Matz nervously rubbed the back of their head while chuckling. "Anyway, looks like they figured out what happened."

"With the well?" Matz asked and nodded. "Well," the androgynous child tapped their chin and looked up at the sky. "I did give people the chance to join our group, passing out information packets and more." Matz wasn't sure how many people would join them. "Want to go hunt some of those flying whales?"

The look and sense of utter eagerness from Tyger was all the answer Matz needed to know and the two left the city as the sun began to set.

"Huh?" Darkness Sister Blue, who had been carrying supplies to and from the hospital along with White Heart, frowned in confusion. "Hey, Blanc..."

"What?" White Heart asked as she had several boxes in her arms. "What is it?"

"Are tigers common around here?"

White Heart snorted at that question. "I haven't seen many around here in a few years, why?"

"No reason. Just wondering." Darkness Sister Blue asked. 'I could have sworn I saw a tiger though. Maybe someone was just wearing something that made them look like a tiger?' She could look into it later, but right now she had other things to do.

(-)

In Lastation...

"Are you done yet?" Acti asked Tence. He sighed when Tence just shrugged and looked at Erika. "The leader hasn't told us to do anything right now, so what are..?"

"I'm heading to Planeptune," Erika said and stood up. There was a look on her face that was... Unsettling. "Let's just say that I have some business to attend to."

Acti sighed heavily. "I don't get it, because there's nothing there for us. Unless..." He trailed off. "Are you heading to the other dimension?"

Erika was still and Acti shook his head. "I only had my fun with Black Heart because she and that redheaded CPU... Guh, what was her name? Did I catch it? Bah..." He couldn't remember the other one because she was one of those CPUs between the two dimensions that didn't have a dedicated nation to themselves and thus their names weren't as well-known. "Anyway, you can't just do what you want, unless you're going after one of the targets."

Erika snarled at that. "I hate this scurrying about, but I guess I'll take care of one of our targets then. Make it easier on the leader to get what he needs. And you two?"

"Our target is here." Tence told Erika. "It would be easier if you were to stay here with us." She just shrugged as Erika crouched and seemingly vanished from sight. "Still, how are we going to get our target?"

Acti smirked at Tence. "We just wait for the right moment, that's all."

Tence rolled her eyes and looked around, smirking. "I wonder... Wouldn't it be just hilarious if I bought a good chunk of the businesses up and forced them to all make changes to their products that people would hate but they couldn't do anything about?"

Acti just rolled his eyes. He knew Tence would do it if given half a chance. "Too bad you don't have enough money to do that then." He fought back the urge to laugh when Tence grumbled in frustration. "So... I'm thinking that the CPUs will contact each other soon and they'll know who I am."

"You want to become bait to draw them out?" Tence asked and Acti smirked at her. "Well, far be it from me to let you get beaten up, you masochist."

Acti twitched in annoyance. "I'm not a masochist, you crazy bitch."

"Just because I'd gladly poison an entire village doesn't mean that I'm crazy." Tence huffed.

"Yes it does." Acti said and the two continued to talk while walking down the streets of Lastation.

(-)

A little while later...

Entering Virtua Forest, Erika panted heavily as she slumped against a rock. She knew that Virtua Forest had nothing but low-level enemies in it and she could take a moment to catch her breath and recover from her run from Lastation to Planeptune. "I can't..." She gasped between breaths, "wait for us to make our move." Straightening up, she looked up and jerked in surprise as someone was walking towards her. "Huh?"

"Oh!" The person, who Erika recognized as Nepgear, looked at her in surprise. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a bit tired since I was running for awhile now." Erika answered, gasping for air. She ignored how Nepgear gasped in surprise. "No, nothing's wrong, I'm just getting some exercise."

Nepgear gave her a look of confusion. "I guess, but why run all the way out here?"

Erika shrugged and walked past Nepgear. "Why not? You're out here, aren't you?" She stopped just as she stepped past Nepgear. "But why is Planeptune's CPU Candidate out here?" She looked at Nepgear with a sharp look. "Then again, you disappeared for a few years, didn't you?"

"You're from here, huh?" Nepgear asked and sighed softly. "I guess we didn't explain it properly, but Neptune and I, we were never from this world originally. We went back to our Planeptune."

Erika merely shook her head. "Do you know what happened to the girls that disappeared while you were helping run Planeptune?"

Nepgear frowned softly in confusion. "What girls?"

"A bunch of girls went missing in Planeptune ages ago." Erika told her. "Eventually they stopped, but only when Eden became a nation." The blue-haired woman narrowed her eyes and Nepgear realized that they were a dull green in color. "Do you know what happened to the missing girls?"

Nepgear shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't." She knew that the girls had somehow been returned to normal as Neptune and Plutia both told her what Noire had told them, but Noire, Neptune and Plutia all agreed that since most of the girls couldn't remember anything from before they were turned into monsters that it was best for everyone involved that they were allowed to live their lives in peace.

Erika gave her a disappointed look, but nodded and walked off.

"Wait!" Nepgear called out and Erika stopped. "Can I ask why you want to know?" When Erika said nothing and ran off, Nepgear was left looking at where Erika had been in confusion. "Why did she ask about those girls?" While it was known that there were lots of girls missing, not many people knew all the details involved.

Sighing softly, Nepgear knew it wasn't pleasant, but she had to head to Lowee and meet with MAGES. In a flash of light she had transformed and was flying off towards Lowee.

(-)

In Hyperdimension...

After stumbling around to find the portal, Erika popped into the Hyperdimension with a soft sigh. "Lovely, I wander into someone who I don't want to see..." She shook her head and ran for the exit of Virtua Forest. Pulling out a phone, she quickly dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up. "Hey, it's me. Yeah, I'm back on this side. We'll see how long, but it shouldn't take too long." Putting the phone away, she bit her lip. "Shouldn't take too long... Now how can I pull this off?" She shrugged and would figure it out later. "After all, I'm nothing if not versatile."

(-)

Back in Ultradimension...

Flying into Lowee, Purple Sister wasn't surprised to see the people walking around looking scared. Landing near a tree, she transformed back into her human form and walked around, asking people if they knew where MAGES. was at. It didn't take long for someone to point her in the right direction.

As Nepgear got close to the city square, she saw MAGES. directing some medical workers. "MAGES.?" Nepgear called out and the blue-haired mage turned to her and smiled.

"Ah! Planeptune's CPU Candidate number one." MAGES. smiled at Nepgear. "How are your sisters doing?" Her smile slowly faded as she saw Nepgear's upset look. "What's wrong?"

"I have bad news about Cave." Nepgear told her and MAGES. had a horrible feeling run through her body. Nepgear fidgeted and clasped her hands in front of her. "She and I went to meet with a former CPU named Rei Ryghts and we also met two women and ended up getting into a fight. During the conflict..." Her eyes watered up as she remembered what happened. "C-Cave d-died... A...And it's my fault!"

"...What?" MAGES. asked, her voice soft and her pupils tiny as she felt her blood turn to ice. "W-what do you mean?"

"C-Cave pushed me out of the way of an attack..." Nepgear sniffled and trembled. "And her heart was removed from her body and replaced by a rock. Sh-she died right away."

"W-who?" MAGES. asked, her voice was quiet and tight.

"H...Her name was Ubi." Nepgear told her.

"I see..." MAGES. said softly and balled her hands into fists. She screwed her eyes shut tightly as she trembled and uncontrolled tears came rushing out between her eyes. "C-Cave..." She whispered. "I..."

The next thing she knew, Nepgear was hugging her, apologizing for letting Cave die. MAGES. didn't even bother pushing her away or hiding, she hugged Nepgear back and started crying silently. Quite frankly, she didn't care who knew she was crying, the closest person that she had to family was dead.

She'd deal with the person who killed Cave later, right now, she needed to grieve.

To be continued...

Well, this stinks. Lousy downer ending.