Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

"W-why?" Purple Sister coughed as she looked at her assailant. "Why are you..." She groaned as she could no longer speak while she grabbed at the wrists of the person choking her.

"Because I despise you." Was the answer.

"Neptune..." Purple Sister could feel her grip on the wrists loosening up as she was getting choked to death. "Why?"

The eyes of Purple Heart looked at her coldly as the symbols that made up her irises were red instead of their normal white. "You always tell me what to do, Nepgear. People always say that you're the better CPU, that they can't wait for me to step down, that it would be best if I wasn't here." She sneered. "If only they could see you now, coughing, writhing and unable to do anything." A smirk came to her face as she saw her sister start to go limp. "Yes, that's it, just perish by my hands. Don't worry though... Histoire will join you soon enough."

"No..." Purple Sister had tears coming out of her eyes as she felt her strength fade away.

"Yes..." Purple Heart grinned. "Goodbye, Nepgear, we shall never meet again."

"Nep..." Purple Sister closed her eyes as the life was squeezed out of her.

"Yes, that's what you get..." Purple Heart sneered and stood up. "Now, for everyone else..."

(-)

"NO!" Neptune screamed as she bolted upright, her eyes wide while she panted and patted herself down. "Okay, no... I didn't..." She was laying on a couch in her office. Getting off the couch, she noticed that she was covered in a blanket and she threw that off before running out of the office.

(-)

A few minutes later, she found herself in the room she shared with Nepgear and sighed in relief as she saw her sister sleeping on the top bunk. "Thank goodness."

"Ngh..." Nepgear groaned as she sat up. "Neptune?" She asked and rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing up?"

"Nothing." Neptune smiled at her sister. "Why don't you get back to sleep, Nep Jr.?"

"Okay." Nepgear smiled and flopped back on her bed, instantly passing out and going to sleep.

Neptune smiled at her and walked out of the room, still remembering her dream. 'If not for Big Me...' She didn't want to think about it, it was really bad how that could have turned out.

(-)

Hours later...

Histoire yawned and floated into Neptune's office, preparing to see a bunch of paperwork that would need to be done. When she got there and saw that there was no paperwork on the desk, she blinked in surprise. "That's a surprise, did Nepgear do the work?" While that was nice, it was bad in the sense that Neptune would use it as a means to get out of doing work again.

Sighing, Histoire shook her head. 'Stop it, you know that Neptune does a good job.' She might have wished that Neptune would put more effort into her job, but Planeptune wasn't doing too badly over-all.

"Good morning, Histoire." Nepgear yawned as she shuffled past Histoire while still dressed in her pajamas and rubbing her eyes. "What's..." She trailed off as she looked into the office. "Um... Wow, you completed all the paperwork quickly today."

Histoire looked at her sharply. "Wait! You mean to tell me that you didn't do all the paperwork?" Nepgear shook her head. "...Did Neptune?"

"Maybe she threw it out?" Nepgear wondered and the two made their way to the front desk of the Basilicom, only to stare at the amount of papers that were in the "completed" stack and the staff members who were busy trying to get everything filed away properly. "Um, excuse me."

"Ah! Lady Nepgear." One of the staff members smiled at her. "Tell your sister that we're grateful that she did the paperwork, but we'd appreciate it if she didn't bring us three months of backlog to file all at once."

Histoire and Nepgear looked at each other in confusion.

'Since when does Neptune do this much?' They asked themselves in confusion.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Neptune was laying on the ground panting hard as she finished off the last monster of her quest. "That... Was kind of hard. I should have gotten Iffy to help me." She pulled up her status screen and grimaced. "Then again, she's probably sleeping right now, huh?" The sun was just starting to come up and Neptune saw the time on the corner before she closed her eyes. "Just a quick nap. I'm tired..." It didn't take her long to fall asleep.

(-)

"You know, Nepsy..." Kurome smiled as she looked at Neptune in the pod of Purple Dark. "I really feel a bond with you." Neptune didn't answer and Kurome just kept smiling. "It's fine that you aren't answering me. But when you come out of there I'm sure that you'll understand me quite a bit. After all..." Her smile increased. "Your bitter feelings are real, aren't they?"

(-)

Neptune gasped and her eyes snapped open. "No... You're wrong... I love Nepgear! I love Histy! I love Big Me!"

"Do you?" Kurome's voice echoed in her ears. "Or do you think you love them because that's all you know?"

Neptune covered her ears. "Shut up! Just because I felt bad things towards Nepgear doesn't mean anything!"

"Are you sure?" Kurome's voice whispered into her ears. "Didn't she take your role as the main character? Didn't she take over your nation? Doesn't everyone think she's better than you?"

"You're dead! You're not real!" Neptune yelled, getting a chuckle from Kurome.

"You're right. I'm just a figment of your mind. Perhaps I'm your guilt talking, Nepsy? Who knows? But we both know the truth..."

Neptune stared as she saw Kurome, or rather, a transparent version of her standing in front of her. "What?"

"That deep down, you loathe your sister. That's why you allowed her to suffer so much. Unlike Noiresy, Blansy or Vertsy... Those three never hated those around them. But you..."

"SHUUUUT UP!" Neptune yelled. "Just because I have some bad thoughts doesn't mean a darn thing!"

"Then why do you still have nightmares over what I made you do to your sister?" Kurome asked, chuckling as Neptune stared at her. "Don't worry, I'm not really here, like I said, I'm just a figment of your mind. Part of your guilt at worst. If you don't believe me, go talk to Me, I'm sure that she'll tell you that I'm not there."

"...Not a bad idea." Neptune said and transformed before flying off.

(-)

Several minutes later...

"Hey, Nepsy!" Uzume smiled as Purple Heart landed near her and transformed back into her human form. "Gearsy was looking for you earlier."

"Um, hey, Uzume..." Neptune began. "If Kurome was back, you'd know, wouldn't you?"

"Hmm?" Uzume blinked at the question. "Well, yeah. After merging with her, I should be able to sense her if she was around. At least I THINK I would be able to... Why? Did she put part of herself into you or something?"

"...Maybe?" Neptune answered and blinked as Uzume transformed into Orange Heart. "Uh..."

"Just wait, Nepsy. Uzume will make sure that you don't have any icky bad stuff in you." Orange Heart said and zipped around Neptune a few times, tapping her and focusing her powers. "Hmm... Uzume doesn't feel the bad me in you at all. Is Nepsy having bad dreams or something?"

Neptune sighed and nodded, sitting down and looking absolutely miserable. "...Remember when Kurome made me try to kill Nep Jr.?"

"Nepsy..." Orange Heart looked at her in worry. "But you know that Gearsy and the others don't blame you. You were under the other Me's mind control."

Neptune pulled her knees up and shook her head before burying it against her knees. "No... Everything I said... I really meant. The others... They had those thoughts put into them. Mine were there and she pulled them out and..." Neptune trembled heavily. "I enjoyed it. I enjoyed hurting Nep Jr. and I..." The next thing she knew, Orange Heart was hugging her and pressing Neptune against her chest.

"It's okay, Nepsy. We all have bad thoughts about people around us from time to time." Orange Heart, in her high-pitched voice, told Neptune. "I hated everyone in Planeptune and tried to kill them."

"But that was Kurome." Neptune pointed out.

"Kurome and Uzume are the same person." Orange Heart pointed out. "But you love Gearsy and Histy, don't you?" Neptune nodded against Orange Heart's chest. "Why do you still feel guilty?"

Neptune was silent and rested her head against Orange Heart's chest. "...Uzume... I... It's not just that... There was a lot of things that I've done to Nep Jr. that were just mean... And everyone's right..." Neptune slumped and sighed. "I'm not qualified to be Nepgear's big sister or Planeptune's CPU."

"NO!" A voice that wasn't Orange Heart's suddenly yelled out and Neptune blinked as she felt a body hugging her from behind. "You stupid big sister who makes me worry!" Nepgear yelled as she hugged Neptune tightly. "Why? I forgave you for what happened three years ago! I forgave you for what Kurome did to you! Why do you still say bad things about yourself?"

Neptune trembled. "Nepgear... I am such a bad..."

"NO!" Orange Heart yelled and hugged Neptune tightly. "Nepsy's not a bad CPU! Nepsy's not a bad big sister! Nepsy might be a little selfish and a little lazy, but Nepsy is a good person and Nepsy shouldn't be talking like this!"

"Uzume's right." Nepgear said to Neptune. "Please! Stop feeling that way."

"...But I really did mean it when I was..." Neptune stopped as she felt Nepgear trembling. "Nepgear?"

"Even when you were mean to me... Even when you were doing bad things, you never stopped caring about me." Nepgear said softly. "You even used the trophies in Victory to apologize to me after all." Nepgear smiled at Neptune. "And I'm sorry... For not sticking up for you more when people say such bad things about you."

Neptune smiled at Nepgear and hugged her. "Nepgear, I'm sorry about everything. I just... I just felt really bad about almost killing you."

"It's okay... I'm alright, so that's all that matters." Nepgear smiled as the three broke off from the hug. "By the way, Neptune... Why did you do all that paperwork?"

"...I couldn't sleep." Neptune rubbed the back of her head. "If you don't mind, Imma go get some more sleep. I'm really tired."

Both Nepgear and Orange Heart nodded and watched as Neptune walked off.

Transforming back into her human form, Uzume looked at Nepgear. "Hey, Gearsy, you think Nepsy will be okay?"

"...I hope so." Nepgear said softly.

(-)

"So you had your talk to her, huh?" Kurome said as she walked up to Neptune, who was glaring at her. "What? I already told you, I'm just a figment of your mind. I didn't put anything into you."

"...So why are you here?"

Kurome shrugged as she started to fade away. "To annoy you, I guess. Just take care of her, will ya? You never know what will happen in the future."

"Yeah, I will." Neptune nodded and sighed as she drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

She wouldn't wake up for two days.

At least she was fully refreshed when she woke up.

So the basic idea was "Neptune feels super deep regrets about nearly killing Nepgear in VII when brainwashed by Kurome" and her guilty conscious takes the form of Kurome. Everything else just flowed from that.

So.. There's actually a Neptunia fic I wrote before I wrote Shadows of the Heart. I didn't finish it because it was following canon too closely, but I did write quite a bit on it. I'm not completely sure what to do with it. It's rife with errors that I only know now that I've had more time to enjoy the series.