Chapter 10: A Second Chance

Quick Author's Note: So, this is a short chapter I decided to write on a whim. I wrote it during break time while in class (so I could focus on my main stuff after class), and finished it fairly quickly. This is a flashback to Mercury's story after Neptune left, and is basically the origins of Smolgear. I hope you enjoy it.

Okay, there is supposed to be an image here, but on Fanfic, I can't place images or links. You can see the image in this point of the text on the other sites I post this story (DeviantArt, Wattpad, and Archive Of Our Own), otherwise, you can the image itself on DeviantArt, titled "Hyperdimension OCs, Mercury and Little Nepgear" by author Cobalt-Gemini.

Six years ago, shortly after Ultra Neptune's unannounced departure from the Ultradimension...

Mercury was incredibly worried. Her daughter, Neptune, had been missing for a couple of weeks. It had gotten to the point where she needed help to find her.

She sat inside the Basilicom waiting room, hoping to speak to her goddess, CPU Iris Heart. After asking around for days, this was the only hope she had left.

Eventually, a tiny book fairy, whom Merci knew to be Histoire, came out. "Miss Mercury, you are ready to be seen now."

"Thank you," the worried mother replied as she got up. She had to admit, it was nerve-racking. She had never met a goddess before, in person or otherwise.

On top of that, she never really saw Iris Heart in her true form. Usually, whenever she saw the goddess during an announcement or such, she was in human form. Though... she always seemed a little tired, so maybe she was laid back.

Entering the goddess's room, Merci found herself face-to-face with the young CPU. She looked up from a doll she was crafting. "Hello," the CPU greeted in a joyful, yet sleepy tone.

"H-hello, Lady Iris Heart," Merci greeted back.

"Huh? Oh... call me Plutia, okay?"

"R-right, Lady Plutia," Merci replied nervously.

"So... did you want something?" Plutia asked.

"Um... you see, Lady Plutia, I'm looking for my daughter. Her name is Neptune, and-"

"...Nep... tune?" Plutia interjected slowly. "You're Neppy's mama?"

"Yes...! You know her?"

"Yep, I sure do!"

"Oh, thank goodness! I've been looking all over for her!" Merci exclaimed.

"Well... she went back home a while ago," Plutia told her.

Merci was confused by that statement. Home? Neptune wasn't home. She was sure of that. Why would she be looking for her missing daughter if she was home?

"I... I don't understand... she's not back home. I haven't seen her," Merci responded.

"Hm... she isn't. Maybe she went on a trip or something."

"I... okay..." Merci was not happy with that answer. "So, you don't know where she is at the moment?"

"Nope!"

"Alright... um, I was hoping you could search for her. I've looked all over the place, and I can't find her."

"Next time I see her, I'll let you know...!" Plutia told her.

Merci left the Basilicom... not feeling any better. Her goddess's words left her confused, and she was no closer to finding her daughter. She was starting to feel that she'll never find her.

And unfortunately, neither of them knew that they were talking about two different Neptunes, one from this world, and one from another. Furthermore, Plutia forgot about her meeting with Merci by the time she next saw the Neptune she knew, so this remained unexplained for some time.

Later that night, after finally hitting a breaking point, Mercury found herself in a local bar, drinking the night away.

She was crying, and ordering drink after drink. The bartender was a little concerned, but she had seen this kind of thing before with other drunkards, and knew better than to get involved. At least not until they started getting violent.

Eventually, a concerned fellow came up to Merci to check on her. She thought he looked handsome, but she was too buzzed to properly get any details. "Hello there..." She said in a slur.

"Hey, you feeling alright?" the fellow asked.

"Just... peachy! How'bout yerself..."

"Just dandy. It's just... you've been drinking your sorrows away for a couple hours now, and I just felt that maybe someone should ask what's going on?"

"Oh... you know... I had someone I loved, more than anything... and she disappeared... I don't think she's coming back... and... and..." the tears started to flow harder.

"I... see. So you feel alone right now."

"So alone!" Merci admitted in her drunken slur, while sobbing.

"If you don't mind, could I stay with you tonight? I'll make sure you get some safely, give you some company."

"Oh... I'd love the company of a man... hahaha... a handsome guy like you, to sleep with... ha..." Merci slumped back a bit as she chuckled.

"Woah, that's not what I meant! I mean, I'm down for it, but you don't seem to be in the right state of mind to be making these kinds of choices. Plus, we just met."

"Oh, yer not the first guy I slept with... even when I was sober..."

The guy just smiled. Whether he liked it or not, this was going to be an interesting night.

Several months had passed since that encounter, and Mercury had since begun dating again. Unfortunately, it wasn't going so well for her. She was still an emotional wreck, and only maintained a boyfriend for about a week at best. And these relationships were mostly sleeping around. However, once she lost a boyfriend, she'd just get a new one the next few days.

The tenants of her apartment building started to become very worried about her. As good as their landlady was, this kind of reckless behavior was very concerning to them. One of them, Linda, even approached her about it.

"You need help."

"I'm fine, Linda, just worry about yourself, okay," Merci replied.

"You're not fine. I'm sorry your daughter's gone, but sleeping around with random guys isn't going to help."

"I appreciate your concern, but I'll figure it out myself, okay."

As you can see, it didn't go well.

One day, however, something changed. Merci was waking up one morning, when she suddenly felt sick. After puking her guts out in the toilet, she took an off-day to get better.

But she didn't get better. The sickness lasted for the next couple of days. Eventually, she asked Linda to take her to the hospital.

After several check-ups, trying to figure out what was wrong, the doctor offered her one last test.

"Is that...?" Merci asked.

"Yes, it is. I just want to confirm that my suspicion on what is wrong with you is in fact, true."

Mercury nodded, and left for the bathroom.

Once she returned, she showed the results of what the doctor gave her: a positive pregnancy test.

"Congratulations, miss Mercury," the doctor replied.

Mercury, however, was silent for a moment.

"Is everything alright? Is this not something you want?"

"...I ...I just lost someone important to me recently. I've been feeling alone, and I've felt I was a failure as a mother." The air was heavy with that statement... up until Merci smiled. "I just never thought I'd get a second chance."

The doctor chuckled. "Well, best not to waste it then."

"I won't!"

Following that revelation, Mercury began to focus on taking care of herself. It was a relief to her tenants that she had stopped sleeping around, so she could take care of the unborn child growing in her belly.

Though Linda was a bit concerned that Merci didn't know who the father was. She got even more concerned that Merci didn't care to find out. But to Merci, it didn't matter. After what happened with her ex-husband, she was completely fine with handling her child on her own.

Months passed, and soon it was time to give birth. After the agonizing labor of her second child, she was finally able to hold her newborn daughter in her arms.

"Oh my, aren't you just so precious," Merci said softly, as the little baby squirmed in her arms. A mother given a second chance, she cooed over her new child. "I bet you'll be quite the looker when you get older. You'll get all the boys. Or girls... I suppose you're too young to be thinking about that though."

The newborn made a low whine, as she squirmed even more.

"Oh, if only Neptune could see you now..." then Mercury thought of something. "I should give you a name to remember her by. I wonder... Hm... how about... Nepgear."

The newly-dubbed Nepgear finally quieted down, as she slowly fell asleep.

"I won't mess up this time, I promise. I'll make sure you get all the love you need, Nepgear, so that you'll grow into a wonderful woman someday."

Years had passed since Nepgear's birth. She had just turned three, and was learning to walk and talk.

Mercury was making lunch for her and her daughter, when the little girl waddled in.

"Mama," she called out.

"Oh, hey there," Merci replied. She leaned down, and picked up her daughter, holding her in one arm while finishing the meal.

"Food!" the little girl exclaimed.

"Yes, yes it is. It'll be done soon."

"Was'at?" Nepgear said, pointing at something on the counter.

"That's a toaster, sweetie," Merci explained to the young girl.

Nepgear just stared in fascination, taking in the details of the metal box.

"Well, I have to put you down now, so I can finish this. Come back in a few minutes, alright?"

Nepgear nodded, and dashed into the living room. There, she found another box, this one a toolbox.

Merci usually didn't have to use them much, as she had people hired for maintenance in the building, but she kept a toolbox around just in case.

It was sitting on a side table, so Nepgear climbed onto the couch next to it to check it out. And Merci forgot to lock it, so the little purplette was able to flip it open.

She found a screwdriver, and credit where credit is due, she was a smart kid for her age. Through shape association, she noticed the little cross on the tip of the tool... looked similar to parts of the toaster. She just had to look closer!

Returning to the kitchen, Nepgear found that her mother wasn't around. Since her mom wasn't around, she needed another way up onto the counter.

Nepgear pulled a kitchen chair over, climbed up, and dragged the toaster to the ground.

Merci had stepped aside for a moment to answer the door, when she heard a crashing sound in the kitchen. Excusing herself for a moment, she ran in to find Nepgear have pulled the toaster on the ground, next to a chair, trying to mess with it.

"Oh, sweetie, why'd you have to go do that?" she asked. The little girl looked up to her with her childish innocence.

Merci bent to inspect the damage, and was surprised to find that Nepgear, having somehow found a screwdriver, was managing to properly get a screw out.

"Oh, you're going to be a handful, aren't you?" Merci said with an exasperated smile. But then she said softly, "but you sure do have potential for when you're older."

Merci picked her little girl, and held her close. "I love you, Nepgear. Don't ever forget that."

"Okay, mama," the little girl said, resting on her mother's chest. "Soft pillows."

Merci laughed. "Yes, they sure are." She then found that Nepgear had fallen asleep. "Sweet dreams, my little girl."

Author's Note:So, quick reminder, in the main story (if you can call it that), Nepgear is five, so this chapter ends about two years before Neptune returns.

So yeah, if you remember from the first few chapters of the story (specifically Chapter 2), Merci didn't actually know who little Nepgear's father was, and Umio noted that the Ultra Neptune and Nepgear were actually half-sisters, since they have different fathers.

Yes, this was always how I planned on writing Mercury, even back when this was still a co-written story. Sure she is a great mother, probably a good landlady (I get to that in a bit), but... she's not really responsible with men. At least she not dating now.

But really, she was feeling lonely, so cut her some slack. It's really Neptune at fault here. In Adult Neptune's official backstory, it really does seem like Neptune just... up and left the dimension! Without informing anyone. I mean, officially, it isn't even mentioned if Ultra Neptune has parents. Any parents you'd see, like Mercury, are OCs. Heck, some stories I've read assume Adult Nep is an orphan. I obviously didn't go in that direction (someone had to give birth to Smolgear, after all), but that's how it is.

But... I guess it's in Neptune's character to challenge authority by doing... whatever. I mean, think about the main, Hyperdimension Neptune and Histoire's dynamic. Plus, when you think about it, how could we be sure that Ultra Nepgear would've been born if Neptune didn't do what she did. Doesn't change the fact she abandoned her mother, but still, something to consider...

Actually, on the subject of the Ultra Nepsister's fathers, when I mentioned Neptune's father, he was just planned to be a non-character. Just a part of the backstory, and not planned to actually appear. But when I was asking for story ideas, someone mentioned that I should explore Neptune's dad more. Well, I actually thought about it, and now I'm planning to add him in later... but way later. Remember, it was mentioned he was in Leanbox, and in the order of visiting the other nations, it'll be a while before we get there. Our characters still haven't even begun to explore the other nations, and it'll be a bit before that happens. But it will be interesting, especially when you consider Vert being in the mix, with how she might (well... probably will) react to Smolgear, and what Adult Neptune thinks of her in concerns to her Hyperdimension counterpart. And I still need to make his character.

The point of bringing this up now, is that I'm not extending this to Nepgear's birth father. It's already clear that Mercury does not know who her father is, and does not care to find out. And after so much time passing in-universe... it would just seem strange for the characters to decide to explore it now. And Neptune and Uzume clearly aren't bothered by this, either, so it's not worth it to me. Yeah, the plot might be interesting if I did that, but it's not something I care to do.

So, circling back to Mercury's job... I honestly keep forgetting that she owns the building. And really, I should not be, because I could probably do a lot with the other tenants as characters for stories. Also, that brings up Linda.

So... I just wanted to make a quick random character I didn't need to describe, so I tried thinking of the most generic name I could, and Linda came to mind. ...It's probably because I'm a member of the Undertale community, and there's a generic OC that was once popular, made to be just that worst. But yes, it did take me a few minutes to realize... hang on, there's a Linda in the Hyperdimension series already. You might know her as Underling, since everyone in Re;Birth 2 seems to believe that underlings don't deserve respect enough to use their name (I don't agree, even if they're a villain, if there going to be a regular character, I want to know who I'm dealing with).

But it got me thinking, and well... here's the thing. Linda / Underling only appeared in one game (and the anime), so that means there's only an official Linda in the Hyperdimension. We know nothing about an Ultradimension Linda. Sure, Warechu got an Ultradimension counterpart (he's been in every mainline game since his debut, not counting the remake of the original game), but they're pretty much the same, aside from rank, really. But an Ultra Linda? There's something to play with.

Sure, I stuck with the non-described character thing, when I usually do describe mainstay or important characters, but I'll probably describe her when I probably introduce her to the story. Again, I need to develop the character. I mean, what's different about this Linda from the other one? Is this Linda a good character, or is she doing something shady in the background? Stuff like that.

Finally, I hope you liked the actual image of Mercury I finally drew... if you're not on Fanfic. I can't insert images or links on that site, which is annoying. But I'm happy to have finally finished an image of the OC. Be sure to look at "Hyperdimension OCs, Mercury and Little Nepgear" on my DeviantArt, Cobalt-Gemini.