Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Compile Heart and Idea Factory and everyone else who worked on it.
Working eight days straight between two jobs sucks.
No, I'm fine, just worn out is all.
Chapter 24
Sitting in her office, Noire nodded as she listened to what was going on in Lowee. "I see..." Part of her wanted to brag about how the current bad guys knew better than to try and sneak into Lastation to try the same stuff, but she had a more pressing issue on her mind. "How are the twins?"
"According to Histoire," Nepgear told her over the communication line, "if this is like what happened with Peashy, then they should recover in a couple of days. But I'm worried about Uni, if this happened to Peashy, Rom and Ram, then Uni and other Me are both at risk and..." There was a beeping sound and both Nepgear and Noire blinked as Neptune appeared on the screen. "Neptune? What's wrong?"
"Oh! Nepgear! And Noire! Good. Just want you to know that we don't need to worry about the bad guys getting Maidgear's Fearicite anymore."
"They already have it, don't they?" Noire deadpanned with a flat expression on her face. When Neptune sighed and nodded, Noire raised an eyebrow. "The fact that you aren't even trying to deny it means this is pretty serious, huh?"
"Of course it is!" Neptune gave Noire a disgruntled look. "Look, Noire, they disguised themselves as a member of the Basilicom staff and that's how they got close."
"And Blanc said that the one that attacked Ram was a tiger." Nepgear pointed out.
Noire bit her lip and bit back a retort that would have started a fight and instead chuckled softly. "Then it's a good thing I grounded her, huh?"
"What?" Both Nepgear and Neptune said at the same time, both having shocked expressions on their faces.
"...I didn't mean to say that part out loud." Noire said, her face turning red with embarrassment. Ignoring the giggling that came from Neptune and the nervous laughter that came from Nepgear, she sighed and explained that Uni had been getting too overzealous with dealing with people who were committing minor infractions and it was causing strife with her people. "I did talk to her afterwords to understand her better, so I know why she was like that, but it was still disconcerting to me that she harbors such dislike of humans."
"Is that because you used to be one?" Neptune asked, giggling at the annoyed look Noire gave her. "Sorry, couldn't help it."
Leaning back in her chair, Noire sighed and looked up as Uni walked into the room. "Hey, Uni."
The smaller girl looked somewhat confused as she brought some papers into the office. "I have some papers that the staff needed you to look over. Is there something you needed?"
"No," Noire shook her head and waved Uni over to the desk. "Nepgear and Neptune are on the line if you wanted to say hello."
"Oh!" Uni smiled and walked over to the desk and waved at the sisters. "Neptune! How are you?"
"I'm fine." Neptune smiled at her. "There's some really crazy stuff going on around here. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if dogoos tried to sneak onto Noire's resort again."
Uni looked at Noire and Noire shook her head. "Not me! The other Noire!"
"Oh." Uni nodded, that made sense. "Anyway, we have reports of some vandals damaging the playground at the park, graffiti in the alleys and people complaining about road construction."
"Nothing I can do about that last one." Noire told her. "Anyway, Uni..." She looked at the other girl before nodding. "I know that you can handle this information."
"What?" Uni asked and put down the papers on Noire's desk.
"Recently Peashy, Rom, Ram and Nepgear were all attacked." Noire pointed out and Uni's eyes widened in shock. "All four of them had their Fearicite essences removed."
Uni narrowed her eyes and looked at Neptune and Nepgear before looking back at Noire. "Are you going to lock me away for awhile to keep me from falling into their hands?" Noire gave her a confused look and Uni sighed. "Sorry, just... Humans are doing this, aren't they?" She asked while looking at Neptune and Nepgear.
"At least one of them is a tiger." Nepgear pointed out and Uni gave her a weird look. "Don't ask me." She shrugged helplessly. "Uni, just... Just be careful. Everyone else was caught already."
"I will, thanks." Uni nodded at Nepgear. "What do you know about this group?"
"Beyond a tiger, a couple of people that attacked Nepgear and people attacking CPU Candidates, nothing." Neptune pointed out. "And I don't know if any of them are from your Lastation, so don't go around like a Goddess of War because of it."
"But..!" Uni protested and blinked as Noire grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Noire?"
"Humans can be petty and mean," Noire began, "but most of them are good people deep down."
"Oh!" Nepgear perked up. "That's right! Uni! I finished that gun for your HDD form." Uni looked at her, smiling as Nepgear nodded. "I have it in my inventory, actually. I've been meaning to come and give it to you, but I kept forgetting. I'll come down to Lastation and give it to you today."
"Wait, you're in this world?" Uni asked, confused and Nepgear nodded. "Huh, I thought you'd be busy." She shrugged and nodded. "But that sounds good. I'll see you when you get here."
"Okay." Nepgear smiled.
"Anyway, I gotta watch over a couple of drunks and make sure that Maidgear recovers right." Neptune waved at the screen and turned it off.
"What the goodness?!" Nepgear asked, her eyes white and blank. "Ah, I guess something weird happened back home. So I'll head to Lastation and see you there, okay?" Uni nodded and the screen turned off.
"So..." Uni looked at Noire. "Am I still grounded?" She resisted the urge to giggle at the dirty look Noire gave her.
"As of right now, I don't know..." Noire said and stood up. The CPU walked away from her desk with her arms crossed over her chest. "To be honest, there's too much we don't know. Like how many there are and why they're going after the Fearicite."
"Probably to build some sort of war machine to take over the world." Uni grumbled darkly as she narrowed her eyes while memories of what Kei and the others who worked for her did. She missed how Noire turned to look at her in concern as her mind flashed back to that time. "I won't..." Memories of Gernia G. flashed through her head. "I won't..." Being forced to fight her sister. "I won't let them..." Memories of watching her sister fly up to stop a falling battleship and die in her arms went through her mind. "They don't deserve..."
"UNI!" A voice cut through Uni's darkening thoughts and she gasped as she felt two strong hands grabbing her arms. Blinking a few times, she came face-to-face with Black Heart. "Uni, calm down!"
"...N...Noire?" Uni asked softly, gasping as Black Heart nodded. "Noire!" She buried her face against Black Heart's chest. "I'm sorry! I just..."
"Shhh..." Black Heart patted Uni's back. "It's okay, I understand. The people of your world did something horrible to you." Uni nodded against Black Heart's chest. "We don't even know who these people are, they might be from this world or from Neptune's world." Nodding again, Uni pulled away from Black Heart and blushed while looking away.
"S-sorry." Uni muttered.
Black Heart smirked softly. "Now I see why Plutia and Neptune liked to tease me into such a reaction all the time." It was pretty cute to see such a reaction. She mentally sighed at the fact that neither of her friends had any romantic interest in her, but at least they didn't end up in a bad breakup situation and were still friends. "Anyway," she transformed back into Noire and extended a hand to Uni. "Do you want to go get some lunch together?"
Uni blinked in confusion. "But I'm still grounded, aren't I?"
"I do believe that I said you could leave if I was with you." Noire answered her and Uni smiled, her eyes seemingly lighting up. "I know a nice place we can go hang out for lunch. We'll give Nepgear a call when we get there so she can bring you your new gun."
Uni nodded and the two left the office.
(-)
In Hyperdimension...
"So that's it then?" Matz asked the Leader, who nodded while Tyger sat beside Matz. "We just wait for word from Lastation?"
The Leader chuckled and looked at the two orbs as they glowed and pulsated with power. "This will take a few days, a couple of weeks at most." The leader was about to say more but stopped upon seeing the look of concern on Matz's face. "...Are you worried about the CPU Candidates of Lowee?" Matz nodded. "They should recover, from what I understand they draw upon Shares now, so they should be fine. Had they lost their Fearicite without a replacement source, they would likely die."
Matz still looked troubled and the leader patted Matz on the back. "Relax, Matz, but if you're worried, wait a few days and check on them in Lowee."
"...Will they remember me?" Matz asked and the leader shrugged.
"I have no clue." The leader told Matz and turned to walk away. "Meanwhile, I need your help with a certain project right now." Matz was confused but followed after the Leader and Tyger as a door opened up in front of the leader. After they got through the door, Matz blinked and looked around, recognizing that they were back at the base. "So..." Matz trailed off and saw a new face sitting on a couch and reading a book. "You are..?" The girl was really pretty, but Matz felt like the face was familiar for some reason.
"This is 5pb.," the leader explained as 5pb. put the book down and stood up. "She's a famous idol, though I suspect that things are really difficult for her right now."
"Well, beyond a few things out of my control, yeah." 5pb. nodded at the leader. "And who's this cute girl?"
"Girl?" Matz asked, confused and looked around. "What cute girl?"
"Uh... Boy?" 5pb. tried again and Matz looked a bit uncomfortable.
"Let's leave it at that." Tyger grumbled, causing 5pb. to jerk in surprise. "What? Never saw a talking animal before?"
"No, I know a mouse that talks." 5pb. pointed out. "I just wasn't expecting a talking tiger." She looked embarrassed and rubbed the back of her head. "I..." 5pb. looked at the leader. "I'm still confused by things and I don't know what to do."
"Perhaps Matz can be of some help to you." The leader said and pushed Matz forward. "I found this one in the wilderness after all." Turning, the leader walked off. "I need to talk to Ubi."
"So..." 5pb. looked at Matz after the leader left. "...I feel like I'm..."
"Totally lost, scared, frustrated and don't know what to do with your life?" Matz finished and the idol nodded, looking ashamed. "Yeah," Matz put their arms over the back of their head. "I feel the same way some times. Tyger and I were stuck in a cave-in when the leader found us." Matz grinned nervously as 5pb. looked on in surprise. "Well, the day before it was storming really bad and we took shelter in a cave and then the ground got really loose from the water and a bunch of rocks fell in front of the entrance and we were trapped."
"And the leader got you out of there?" 5pb. asked in confusion. "So it sounds like he's your hero."
"Well, it was an accident." Matz giggled at 5pb.'s expression. "See, the Leader and Erika were fighting an Ancient Dragon and the thing crashed into the rocks and knocked a few loose. I called out for help and Erika turned the rocks into a door so we could walk out. The leader told us to join them and we'd never have to worry about being trapped in caves again."
"I see..." 5pb. nodded. "It's not that, I feel like the CPUs betrayed all of us when they went along with Lady Neptune's plan to relocate everyone. Now so many people are hurting and it's a strain on resources and..."
"That's why the leader's working to make things better!" Matz proclaimed and 5pb. looked at Matz in confusion. "The leader wants us all to live freely and create a nation for those who are unhappy with the CPUs!"
"But that would hurt the CPUs and they do so much for us..." 5pb. said, though her voice was soft and uncertain.
"Including ruining the lands by bringing in a bunch of new people?" Tyger asked and 5pb. gulped, unable to argue against that. "Besides, we've been helping the people as well."
"We have?" Matz asked in confusion and Tyger nodded.
"The Fearicite essences from the CPU Candidates." Tyger told them and Matz nodded, looking back at 5pb.
"Yeah! See, the CPU Candidates that came from the other world were born from evil energy and we've been removing that." 5pb. frowned and Matz gave her a smile. "I honestly don't like the way we've been doing it, but the CPU Candidates will be fine, but it'll stop them from becoming evil CPUs in the future. No one deserves that. Besides, if the leader works out things right, we'll never have to worry about this stuff ever again."
"...I hope you're right." 5pb. said. "I just can't give up my friendship or belief with Lady Vert. She did so much for me, how is it right that I abandon her?"
"She abandoned you first." Matz told her and 5pb. looked at Matz in shock. "She agreed to allow all of these people in and you're troubled by it. You're not troubled by what she did. You're troubled because you feel betrayed, right?"
"I..." 5pb. stopped and felt like she was sinking into herself while looking down. 'Is that it? Do I really feel betrayed?' She thought to herself.
Seeing the troubled look on the idol's face, Matz gave her a gentle smile. "Think of it like this, you still care about her." 5pb. looked at Matz in confusion. "You wouldn't feel so betrayed otherwise."
"...Should I go back to her?"
"Trust isn't something that should be freely given." Tyger told her. "It has to be earned. Tell me, do you think she's earned your trust back?"
"...No." 5pb. said and sat on the couch, looking miserable. "I... What should I do?"
"Join us." Matz said and 5pb. looked at Matz. "Join us and help us create a place that this won't happen again, where everything can be better. And if we succeed, then things will be better for the CPUs as well."
"I..." 5pb. bit her lip and nodded. "I think... I think it's... It's probably for the best." Tears slid down her face. 'I'm sorry, Lady Vert, but I don't know what to do right now. I really am sorry. They're offering me help and maybe they're right?'
To be continued...
Uh oh, looks like 5pb. was convinced to join now.