Prologue: Without You

Three months... That was a long time. But that didn't matter to Neptune. Nothing would stop her. She would find her, no matter what.

"Okay, I'm heading out, Histy!" the short, purple-and-spikey-haired girl called out. Neptune had on her favorite white and purple hoodie dress, white and blue striped socks, and purple and white shoes, and her white D-pad clips were in her hair, showing off the purple eyes. With everything ready to go, the Goddess of Planeptune was ready to head out.

...Well, she would've, had Histoire not called out, "Actually, Neptune, could you please come here. We need to talk to you."

Neptune groaned. They were burning daylight! She needed to meet IF and Compa-

Neptune's train of thought came to a stop when she saw who was in the living room with Histoire.

Noire, the Goddess of Lastation, with her long black twin-tailed hair, in her fancy, black, maid / gothic-lolita style dress with frilly white skirt and blue ribbon on the back, detached sleeves, and thigh-high boots, her red eyes looking away when she saw Neptune come in.

Blanc, Goddess of Lowee, a short, petite girl with blue eyes, a white cap on her short brown hair, loose white coat over her white mini-dress, white ribbon over her right ankle, and blue and white sandals.

And finally, Vert, Goddess of Leanbox, a tall, busty blonde with dark blue eyes in a dress with a green top exposing her cleavage through a transparent cloth connected to a white and green collar, and a white skirt, along with green and white boots.

"Hey, guys, watcha doing here?" Neptune asked. "Wait, you're here to help out again, aren't you!?"

"No, Neptune-" Vert started, before Neptune interrupted.

"'No!?' Why? Come on, I could use your help!"

"Neptune, I'm sorry, but it's time to stop," Blanc retorted. "It's been too long, and-"

"It's never too long!" Neptune countered.

"Neptune... we're... we're worried about you," Noire said.

"Worried about me?" Neptune replied. "But... don't you know how I feel? How worried I am? You know I can't stop looking..."

"Neptune," Histoire, the tome who recorded Gamindustri's history and Neptune's Oracle, flew up to her, a small fairy-like being sitting on the tome she was, in a purple dress with detached sleeves, white knee socks and white shoes, and white nurse-like cap with purple ribbons holding her blonde hair in pigtails, her blue eyes full of deep sadness. "I don't want to say this, but it's time to give up..."

"No... I can't do that..."

"Neptune, it's been three months. We've found no leads, no clues," Vert explained. "At this point, we're not going to find her..."

"So, that's it," Neptune replied, "you're all just going to give up!? Nepgear's still out there! I know it!"

"Neptune... we don't want to do this, but... we don't think there is a chance we'll ever find her," Noire told her, her voice shaky.

"B-but, Histy, you said you could sense her, right?" Neptune asked.

"I- I did say I could sense her presence in this dimension... but not anymore," Histoire explained.

"You're... you're not saying..."

"Honestly, I don't know. I would have lost her presence if she got trapped in another dimension, but then I could've tracked her down, and attempted to make contact with her. If... she died, all of her Share energy would've immediately dispersed, but I would've sensed that. But... her energy, her presence... just slowly faded away. I can't explain it."

"The point is, she's gone, Neptune..." Noire continued. "We don't want to give up, but..."

"It's becoming an obsession," Blanc finished.

Neptune began to tear up. "But... what if it was-"

"Neptune, we understand this is hard to take in. We don't want anybody to be going through what you are. But there is nothing we can do," Vert interjected.

"But- but- but-" Neptune finally broke down sobbing. "I was s-supposed to be her big sister. But I wasn't... I wasn't there for her."

The goddesses and tome watched as Neptune fell to the ground crying. It was heartbreaking to watch.

"She's gone, isn't she? She's really gone."

"Neptune..." Noire started, trying to be comforting.

"GO AWAY!" Neptune yelled. "I want to be alone!" Then she ran to her room.

"...It's probably for the best if we leave Neptune alone for now," Histoire said. "She'll hopefully calm down soon."

"Maybe," Vert said, "but it just hit her that her sister is gone. I don't know if she'll ever get over this."

"She'll probably come around to bug us sooner or later," Blanc said. "Knowing her, she'll want to be with her friends, eventually. Especially now."

"Hopefully, but for now..." Histoire stared off to where Neptune had left, "you should go home. Let her grieve for now."

Blanc and Vert nodded, before heading to the balcony, transforming, and flying off. Noire, however, stayed behind.

"Noire?" Histoire asked.

"She'll be okay, right?" Noire responded. "I mean, losing her sister is not good, but she'll be able to move on at some point, right?"

"...I don't know," Histoire admitted. "I don't think... Neptune's ever lost someone before. She's saved Uzume, and Peashy, and so many others... but when she finally loses someone, it happens to her own sister? It's too cruel."

"So, what do you think going to happen now?"

"Only time will tell..."

Alone in her room, Neptune sobbed into her pillow.

"I'm an awful sister... I couldn't protect you... What... what am I going to do without you... Nepgear?"

Author's Note: So, here we go, new story! Now, seeing as this is the prologue, and only introduces the background to the plot, I'll wait to talk about how I came up with this story for Chapter 1.

I will say this, in regards to my story plans... I hinted before that I was planning two new Hyperdimension stories, and that they were in the planning phases. This... is not one of those stories. To be completely honest, I got... a little bored with one of them as I was planning it out. Don't get me wrong, I still really want to write it, but after coming up with this idea for a story, and really wanting to write it as well, I decided to put that first story on the back burner for now.

As for the other story I was planning... that one is getting delayed as well, but for a different reason. If you don't already know, my current Hyperdimension story, other than this new one, "Ultradimension: Big Nep and Smolgear", was a co-written story by me and my friend... until recently. She got bored with the project, and I didn't want to force her to keep writing, so I'm taking that story on a solo project now, with my friend falling back to a proofreader's role.

But this means that the Smolgear story is now one of my main projects, and with so many stories to write, I don't want to push it too far. I'll still be able to start that second story soon... but it'll be a couple months.

And by the way, I have no planning done how this story. I mean, thought up the entire plot in my head, but I haven't put it down on paper, and outlined it. To be honest, I think doing that is holding me back, and I want to write more by what comes in my head. I don't want to forget my plots, which is part of the reason I outline my stories, but I spent too much time trying to write out down every basic plot point and coming up with detailed character bios for OCs. While I'll probably still look into making a profile for the OC that this story focuses on, I think I'm going to hold back on outlining for now, and only write down what the basic stuff if I need to save it for later.

Also... HAPPY AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH! If you don't know, I indeed am autistic, so now you are aware!