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

Urgh, sleep was so hard to come by the past few days. That's why this chapter is late.

Chapter 23

Standing in Blanc's office, Financier bit her lip as she saw Blanc walk back and forth, muttering to herself. "Lady Blanc, if you do not calm down, you're going to wear the carpets out." When Blanc didn't calm down, she shook her head and looked at Nepgear. "Lady Nepgear, how long until you can contact Lady Neptune and the others?"

"Huh?" Nepgear looked up from where she was working on her phone, which was open with circuits and wires exposed. "Sorry, I'm worried about Rom and Ram."

Financier nodded in understanding and looked back at Blanc, who was still grumbling and walking back and forth. Taking a deep breath, she walked in front of Blanc, who stopped and looked up at her. "Lady Blanc?"

"What?!" Blanc snapped at her only to watch Financier stiffen. "...Sorry." It was easy to forget that it wasn't just Rom and Ram that had been afraid of her when she got mad. Financier and Compa both had moments where they tensed up when she was mad, but she was working on her temper. "Between Rom and Ram and reports coming in of people dying before they could get treatment... ARRRGH!"

The next thing she knew, Financier was pulling her into a hug. "Huh?!"

"Please," the maid smiled at Blanc, "I know how much your people and your sisters mean to you, but you must calm down." Blanc nodded against her chest and Financier rubbed the smaller CPU's back. "We will get through this, but if you let your emotions run wild, it will only cause panic and make a bad situation worse."

Blanc let out a grunt and nodded, slowly relaxing while Financier held her.

Nepgear smiled and worked on her phone. "And done!" She smiled and quickly closed her phone's case. "I had to do adjustments with the circuitry and fine tune the tuning crystal that I had put in so I can call across dimensions and..." She trailed off as she saw the confused looks on Blanc and Financier's faces while she rubbed the back of her head and giggled. "Um... I had to adjust the radio dial, basically." The two nodded and Financier let go of Blanc, who nodded in thanks. "Okay, lemme just contact Neptune and put her up on the screen here and..." The communication screen popped up with Vert and Neptune playing some games on the couch together. "Neptune!"

"WAAAGH!" Neptune screamed and dropped her controller. "Nep Jr.! You startled me!"

"Goodness, Nepgear!" Vert looked spooked and put a hand over her breasts. "What is it? Oh? Is that Blanc from the other world?"

"Yes." Nepgear nodded and Blanc waved at the screen. "But that's not important. Rom and Ram were attacked over here." Both Neptune and Vert gasped in surprise. "And they're in a similar condition as Peashy is."

"You think their Fearicite was taken?" Vert asked and Nepgear nodded. "I see..." Her eyes widened as a horrible thought came to her. "This group first attacked Peashy and took her Fearicite, and now they took Rom and Ram's Fearicite... That means..."

"Both Uni and the other me are in danger." Nepgear pointed out. "I'm going to call Noire to make sure to watch over Uni carefully. Um, you might want to make sure that the other me is safe."

Neptune nodded and Nepgear ended the call. Nepgear pulled up another call screen. "I should call Noire and let her and Uni know so they can prepare for an attack."

"...Do you think it will stop them?" Blanc asked and Nepgear stopped to look at the troubled CPU. "I hate to think this, but, we have no clue who is all in the group of bad guys this time. When the Seven Sages were causing problems, we knew who most of the group was. I was working with them after all." She balled her hands into fists and looked down. "And for all we know, everyone and anyone can be a part of this group and..." Tears filled her eyes and started running down her face.

Images of Ram puking and looking pale. Images of Rom being in pain and not reacting to anything. Images of the twins looking at her in fear. Images of them walking away in a hurry. All of these were running through Blanc's head in a hurry. "Why? Dammit! WHY?!" She screamed, her eyes glowing red in frustration.

The next thing she knew, a pair of arms were wrapped around her from behind and she stiffened.

"Lady Blanc," Financier said softly, "Lady Rom and Lady Ram will be fine. We'll get through this, I promise you."

Blanc suddenly teared up and Nepgear thought it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen. The next thing either of them knew, Blanc had spun around and was hugging Financier back tightly, crying into her chest. "Why? Why? They didn't deserve that!"

Nepgear stood up and quietly left the room so Blanc could vent without being too embarrassed. She had a call to make.

(-)

Meanwhile in Hyperdimension...

After securing both Histoires, Purple Heart turned to Vert, "I need to go," she spoke to Vert, who nodded. The purple-haired CPU sighed softly and gave Vert a sad look. "Vert, I..." She shook her head. "I'll tell you later." Vert had a confused look on her face, but nodded as Purple Heart turned to fly off. "And Vert, sorry I couldn't stay longer."

"No, making sure that Nepgear, either Nepgear, is safe and sound is important." Vert reassured her. "Thank you, though, Neptune." She smiled as the other Goddess nodded and flew off.

(-)

Zipping through the air as fast as she could, Purple Heart grimaced as she thought about what was going on. "People can steal Fearicite essence from CPU Candidates... What about me?" She had become a Void after all, even if it was just for a short period of time. "Unless they don't know." For a moment, she entertained that thought before dismissing it. "That's right, evil me was live-streaming the whole thing across Planeptune, everyone from there knows I turned into a Void."

Even now, with the Fearicite long gone, Purple Heart knew that she still had some of the taint on her soul. The fact that her left eye glowed from time to time was proof of that.

The biggest question was why would anyone want that power for themselves. Purple Heart thought to the Gold Third and how they had gained CPU-like powers and even her own friends in the other world and how they had become CPUs despite being born human. "It's possible that they want to become a CPU themselves, but why Fearicite?" It didn't make sense to her.

If these people had tried to take Nepgear's CPU power when she was weakened instead of trying to kill her, Purple Heart could have understood somewhat. "So what's going on?"

"Neptune..." One of the Histoires, Purple Heart wasn't sure which one, spoke up. "I understand your frustration, but if you let it get to you, you'll fall for common story tropes and the bad guys will get what they want."

"...Histy," Purple Heart spoke up while her hair flapped around while flying forward. "The bad guys always get what they want, the best we can do is delay it. Every time there's been a major crisis, the bad guys are always a step ahead until the end game."

"Are you just going to accept it?" Histoire asked Purple Heart.

"...I don't know." Purple Heart sighed as she saw her Basilicom in the distance. "Almost home. Please, please be okay, Nepgear."

She knew that Rei and Uzume would be more than enough to handle anything that could be thrown at them. 'So why do I have a bad feeling?'

Even though it had only been an hour in-between when Nepgear left and when she had contacted Neptune again, something in the back of Purple Heart's mind was screaming at her that something bad had happened at home. "Dammit!" She formed a sigil under her feet and launched herself forward, repeating it over and over again to build up speed until she was traveling so fast that she was leaving sonic booms in her wake.

When she got to the top of the Basilicom, she opened the door to the living room and looked around. "...Why is it so quiet?" And with the lights off, she couldn't see much, even with her enhanced vision. Quickly locating the light switch, she turned the lights on and gasped in surprise and horror.

The room was a complete mess! The couch was torn up, pillows and cushions everywhere, the television was smashed and in the center of the room was Rei, who was laying on her face with her clothes torn in various places, and Uzume, who was on her back with her dress shirt unbuttoned and her bare breasts exposed to anyone who walked into the room. "Uzume!" Purple Heart flew over to her friend and grabbed her to help her sit up. "What happened?"

"Hee hee..." Uzume giggled and cracked an eye open. "Thersh a whole lots o Nepsys now, hee hee..." Her voice was slurred and her face was red. "Youshe here for Gearsy too?"

"...Too?" Purple Heart asked and Uzume nodded.

"Y...Yeah! Staff member had, hic, some food fer all of ush..." Uzume grinned and giggled loudly. "Some rea...aaaaaalllly good root, hic, beer in there too!"

Purple Heart winced. Carbonated drinks of any type, even carbonated water, was enough to make a CPU drunk easily. "Uzume! You shouldn't have soda."

"Don't tell, hic, me wha..." Uzume's head bobbed from side to side. "Gearsy, was, hee hee, havin' fun... She, hic, was screamin' a bit ago."

"DAMMIT!" Purple Heart dropped Uzume and flew to Maidgear's room, breaking into the room and staring in horror as Maidgear was pale, sweaty and gripping at her chest while panting. "Nepgear!" She flew over to her sister and grabbed her hands. "I'm here for you." When Maidgear whimpered in pain, Purple Heart hastily reached into her inventory and pulled out the two Histoire tomes and opened them up. "Histy!"

After shaking her head, Histoire gasped as she saw the state the Maidgear was in. Floating over, she put her hands on Maidgear and quickly scanned her, as did Blind Histoire when she got close. They both sighed as they quickly came to the same conclusion, that what happened to Peashy also happened to Nepgear. "Neptune," Histoire looked at Purple Heart, "it's okay. What happened to Peashy happened to Nepgear as well."

"But... How?" Purple Heart asked before the answer came to her instantly. Her left eye glowed brightly as she spun around. "U-ZU-ME!"

Both Histoires went instantly stiff when they heard Purple Heart yell like that. "Neptune!" Histoire flew after Purple Heart. "Calm down! It's likely that whomever attacked Nepgear got Uzume and Rei to drink soda and that's why they ended up drunk!"

As Histoire got to the living room, she sighed as she realized that Purple Heart hadn't heard a word she said and was currently shaking Uzume. "NEPTUNE!" She yelled, causing Purple Heart to stop shaking Uzume and look at her. "Put Uzume down before she throws up, return to your human form and listen to what I'm going to tell you!" Histoire gave her CPU a stern look with her arms crossed over her chest.

Purple Heart nodded and put Uzume down, who just fell on her butt, her bared breasts still bouncing around. "Owwies! Hee hee, Nepsy's into rough stuff!" The redhead gave Neptune a lewd look. "That's fine! I like gettin', hic, rough with people too."

"Uzume Tennouboshi!" Histoire yelled and Uzume stiffened and looked at her. "Sober up right this instant so that I can ask you questions, young lady!"

"Hic, yesh?" Uzume asked and wobbled slightly. "What is it, hic, Hishy?"

Histoire sighed and fought off the headache that was forming. "What happened?"

"So, like, Uzu, hic, me and Reizy were totally playing fun games and then, hee hee," Uzume's voice had gone up a few octaves as her real personality crept through her intoxication. "One of the staff members... Must've been new, never saw them before, brought some food, like..." Uzume tapped her chin. "Some pizza, Dorithos chips and drinks! She gave Reizy and Uzume this, hee hee, really neat metal glass with a top on it."

"Which was probably the soda that got them drunk." Histoire summarized and sighed at the way Uzume nodded at her. "And the mess?"

"Pillow fight!" Uzume cheered. "Reizy's so much fun when she cuts loose! Even when she, hee hee, starts going "maggot" all the time."

Neptune grimaced. "Darn it! How could you?! You knew that bad guys were moving and..."

"NEPTUNE!" Histoire yelled at Neptune. She ignored the way Neptune gawked at her in shock and gave her a stern look. "Regardless of what happened, the fact is that the enemy got their hands on Nepgear's Fearicite essence, just like they did with Peashy, Rom and Ram."

"But..." Neptune tried to protest and Histoire held up a hand.

"Getting mad at Uzume and Rei for thinking that a member of the Basilicom was giving them something to eat and drink is hardly productive." She gave Neptune a knowing look. "And you know that there isn't a single CPU that wouldn't have fallen for the same thing. We have to trust our staff members." Histoire sighed softly at Neptune's crestfallen look. "Right now, Neptune, getting upset won't help anyone. Let's just make sure that Nepgear is made as comfortable as possible and figure out what to do from here."

Neptune nodded at what Histoire said before letting out a soft laugh. "There's one CPU that wouldn't have fallen for it, but that's because she didn't trust anyone." In some ways, she really did miss the redheaded Noire. 'I wonder how she would have gotten along with the other loners.'

And she wondered just how much Uni was missing her big sister.

Histoire smiled as Neptune went to get some water for Nepgear. She turned and blinked as she saw Blind Histoire smiling softly. "...What?"

"And you wonder why Neptune thinks of you as a mother." Blind Histoire chuckled softly, knowing that her other self was probably rolling her eyes. "So what should we do with the two drunkards?"

Histoire felt a rather... Nasty grin come to her. "As soon as they sober up and start complaining about a hangover... I think that they'll enjoy some... *Very* loud music while they clean up the mess they made."

Blind Histoire giggled mischievously. "Oh my. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're a natural-born sadist."

Histoire huffed while crossing her arms. "When you basically have to mother every CPU in Planeptune's history, you have time to think up appropriate punishments when they're naughty girls."

Blind Histoire just giggled.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Erika, holding a glowing black orb, looked around the vast expanse. "So... Are you SURE we're still in Planeptune?"

"Yes." The leader nodded while Matz and Tyger stood behind Erika. "This tower shall do what we need." The leader pointed to a raised platform. "Place the orb there." Pulling out a golden crystal, the leader chuckled.

Erika shrugged and walked over to the center of the platform they were on and put the orb on the raised platform. "And now..?"

The leader walked over to the platform, held up the golden crystal and watched as it started to glow before putting it down next to the orb and everyone watched as the black glow from the orb engulfed both crystals.

"I don't get it, boss." Matz said to the leader. "What's the point of all of this?"

"These towers altered the destiny of Gamindustri in the past." The leader informed Matz. "They shall do so again. Only this time, they're preventing the arrival of potential Voids." The leader sighed at the confused looks on Erika, Matz and Tyger's faces. "The CPU Candidates that I'm having you all target, each of them was born from negative emotions and energy. There's a chance that they could be overwhelmed by it when they become fully realized CPUs in the near future." The leader made a fist and continued to talk. "As much as we desire freedom to live without the rule of a CPU, I do not wish that this world be destroyed nor do I wish to see what would happen should Voids take over. I've talked to enough people from Gamworld to know what life was like under the various Voids there."

"Just one target left then." Erika said and the Leader nodded before pulling out another orb and handing it to her. "Huh?"

"Beth is heading to the other world, you will join her." The leader told her. "Between you two, Acti and Tence, you should be able to get the final CPU Candidate's Fearicite essence."

"I'm sure that by now they know we're targeting them." Erika said and the Leader nodded.

"Indeed, but we still have an advantage, they have no clue how many of us there are..." The leader chuckled softly. "And we have one more advantage that Beth brings to the table." Erika looked confused but the leader refused to say anything more. "Go. Matz! Tyger! We will head to Lowee next."

"Right." The two nodded as a door opened and they followed the leader through it.

To be continued...

Well, that was clever planning.