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

Man, real life is a pain in the ass. Sorry for the delay on this one.

Chapter 68

"What do you mean?" The bigger Neptune asked as her smaller self started to breathe deeply, as though she was having a panic attack. "My smaller self is freaking out here and she looks like she's going to kill someone."

"Of course I'll explain." The smaller Histoire said with a sorrowful look on her face. "This happened three hours ago..."

"Because of course it did." Neptune muttered darkly.

Everyone gave her a concerned look before the smaller Histoire continued with her story.

*Flash*

Looking up from her desk, Histoire blinked in surprise as she saw someone walk into the room wearing a light colored full-body suit. "Hello?" She asked with uncertainty in her voice as the person was wearing a motorcycle helmet with a dark visor over the face.

"Hello, Histoire. It's been a long time." A male voice spoke through the helmet before the person reached up and undid the clasps on the helmet, allowing him to take it off. Dark blue hair which was starting to fade was revealed, along with amber eyes. "I hope you don't mind the surprise visit."

"King Sobar?!" Histoire announced in shock. "I haven't seen you in centuries. Quite frankly, I'm surprised you're still alive."

Sobar chuckled at her. "Blame the advanced medicine Neptune and the others brought down to the under-cities, I won't be dying of old age for at least a couple more centuries yet."

"When did you grow a beard?" Histoire asked in confusion. It wasn't a large beard, but it did cover his chin and cheeks.

"Only a couple of decades ago." Sobar said as he ran a hand through it while undoing his body suit, revealing that he was wearing casual clothing under his suit.

"Not in your royal outfit?" Histoire asked and Sobar chuckled. "I take it that we missed something important in the past couple of centuries?"

"I've retired, Histoire." Sobar informed her. "One of my grandchildren took over the throne. Her father is the royal advisor and I have no more need to be there. I'm sure that the kingdom will be fine." He sighed softly and sat down on a nearby chair. "I figured that since I have no more need to be a ruler that I could move he..." Sobar trailed off at Histoire's uncertain look. "What's wrong?"

"If you're looking for Neptune..." Histoire shook her head. "Awhile ago, when I just so happened to be scanning dimensional space, a portal to her home world opened up in a space that I could access. She jumped at the chance to leave."

"...I see." Sobar sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping. "I should have figured as much, she often talked in her sleep about returning to her home reality. ...How did Ouya and Stadia take it? Or did she take them with her?"

"You missed a lot." Histoire said to the retired king. "When Neptune and the others stopped returning to your realm, it was because Neptune had to seal those two away to protect the girls, the world and the CPUs."

Sobar bit his lip lightly and his eyes shifted from side to side. "...That's why she looked so tired and sad when she told me that she could never return, that it was too dangerous." Histoire nodded and Sobar growled. "Dammit, I knew something was wrong, I should have forced my eldest to take the throne and come here to help her through her problems, but I thought she would only be gone for a couple of decades."

"I wish you had." Histoire told him with a somber look on her face. "After what happened with those cultists, everyone was messed up. Neptune sealed Plutia and Peashy into their human forms and practically became Purple Heart at all times, she was so sad and depressed for years. None of the others could help. The next time I saw Vert, she had shorter hair, Noire had lost an eye and Blanc was drowning her sorrows in soda for a few decades." She nodded at his look of understanding. "Yes, it was hard on all of them. And Neptune, I fear, felt that she was alone. Had you been there to talk to her and help her vent, she might have recovered."

"Cultists?" Sobar asked curiously.

Histoire nodded and opened her mouth when the doors to her office opened and her expression turned dark as two Angels, both with deep blue hair in long, single braids, walked in. "And what do you two want? I was going to contact Neptune and the others in three hours to come back with the payment."

"Hmm?" The one with green eyes looked at Sobar in confusion as she ignored Histoire. "He looks familiar."

"Isn't that King Sobar?" The one with pink eyes pointed out, causing her partner to have a look of recognition on her face.

"Oh right, one of the ones who turned the so-called..."

"Green!" The other one gave her partner a dirty look. "It's not the Goddess's fault that they became Mole Sluts and..." She trailed off upon seeing Sobar and Histoire's annoyed looks and cleared her throat. "Well, you can't deny it."

"Regardless of what you call them in your private time or the reasons behind it," Histoire said as she gave them a smoldering look, "you are mere Angels, and not even high ranking ones at that. They are Goddesses. I kindly request that you never call them that again."

For some reason, Histoire's tiny body seemed to take up the whole room and both Angels nodded at her.

"Good." Histoire said with an annoyed huff.

The four remained where they were with an awkward tension filling the air before Green cleared her throat. "Ah, well, we still need our Share payment."

"Again, I was going to call the CPUs in three hours and have them come back." Histoire told them with an annoyed look on her face. "I swear, the only thing Angels seem to care about is money and Shares."

"Take that back!" Green protested and looked at her partner. "Pink, can you believe her?"

Pink shook her head helplessly while raising her arms up. "Well, what can you expect? It's not like we've been on good terms with the so-called Goddesses here."

Sobar sighed as he could literally feel anger rising from both Histoire and the two Angels as they glared at each other. "Histoire, please, they're just brats who are trying to get a rise out of you." He then turned to look at the Angels. "Do not call the CPUs "so-called Goddesses" again. Even if you don't think they're real Goddesses, they very much are."

"What kind of Goddess marries a mortal?" Green asked, causing Sobar to look at her in surprise. "Oh please, we've done our research. How do you think we know about you and Purple Heart?"

"Let me ask you, why do you keep antagonizing Purple Heart and the other CPUs?" Sobar asked the Angels. "Surely you can see that doing so only causes problems between Celestia and Gamindustri?" He gave them a disappointed look. "I've heard more than enough complaints about you over the years."

Green growled at Sobar before Pink grinned. "I just got an idea, Green." Everyone looked at her in confusion. "I know how to guarantee that Purple Heart will return." Pink smiled as she held up her right hand and extended her index finger as it glowed. The next thing Sobar knew, he was wrapped in binds and fell to the floor.

"What are you doing?!" Histoire yelled as she floated up and got between the Angels and Sobar, holding her hands out to the side. "This is a violation of the agreement!"

Pink smirked and leaned in. "The agreement is between the CPUs and Celestia, last I checked, neither you nor the Mole King is part of that."

"And yet if I try to defend a citizen of this world, you'll use that as a way to punish Neptune and the others." Histoire said with an angry expression on her face.

"Bingo!" Pink smiled as she snapped her fingers and Histoire found herself bound and crashing to the floor. "Don't worry, Histy, your binds will dissipate in three minutes."

"Don't call me Histy." Histoire grumbled from where she was laying face-down on the ground. "I swear, Angels, if you hurt him, there's nothing that I or anyone will be able to do to stop Purple Heart from declaring war on Celestia."

"Oh, we know." Green said as she and Pink picked up Sobar and walked to the door. "Just get Purple Heart back and we'll let him go."

Histoire just muttered to herself as she waited for the three minutes to pass and the binds to disappear. "I am seriously fed up with these..." She started saying words in languages that most people wouldn't understand, becoming more and more agitated as she spoke to herself.

"Lady Histoire..." A staff member said as he walked in. "Are you..."

"...with a thrice dammed gruoalt!" Histoire yelled into the air in frustration. "Phew... That..." She trailed off as she saw the staff member, who was staring at her in shock. "Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you."

"...I didn't know you knew my people's language." The staff member, who had deep blue skin, bright pink eyes and horn-like hair, chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "That was some impressive swearing, but you flubbed the pronunciation of gruoalt. It's actually pronounced Gru'lout."

"Either way..." Histoire dusted herself off. "I apologize for saying such things in front of you." She knew that what she said was a real bad insult to the person in front of her and he would have been justified in actually attacking her over it. "But I need to contact CPU Purple Heart."

"Of course." The man nodded to her and turned to leave. "And, Lady Histoire," he said as he got to the door and looked over his shoulder at her, "just so long as you don't say those things on my home planet, no one will get mad at you."

"I really need to watch my temper." Histoire muttered before she went to work to call across the dimensions to get a hold of Neptune.

*End Flashback*

Neptune twitched in anger. "Those stupid..." She started grumbling and saying things in a language that Histoire and her bigger self had never heard before.

"And that's what I was saying!" Mini-Histoire said in agreement. "Please, Neptune, you and the others have to come back and make the Share payment. You know that they won't do anything to Sobar or the others..."

"They have the others?!" Neptune screeched in shock. "Hold on! I'll get the rest!" She turned and ran out of the room.

After her smaller self left, Neptune looked at the other Histoire in confusion. "I thought they just took small me's husband."

The smaller Histoire blushed and looked down. "I, um... I misspoke, I was so upset that I naturally assumed that they have the other Mole Kings as well."

Both Histoire and Neptune sighed and hung their head.

"Sheesh, I'm not even twenty years old and I feel like I have a clearer head than the CPUs." Neptune muttered in annoyance.

"Moron, that's because you're not emotionally attached." Croire's voice came from inside Neptune's pocket. "If someone stripped Uzume naked, tied her up and threatened to do bad things to her unless you showed up, you would rush there without thinking."

"...Well, yeah," Neptune said with a confused look as she pulled her Nep-Note out of her pocket. "Uzume's a friend, why wouldn't I try to save her?" She giggled softly. "Though, knowing Uzume, she was probably running around in the nude before getting captured somehow."

"Sometimes I wonder if you're a big tease because you're devious or if you're a big tease because you're an idiot." Croire grumbled from inside the notebook.

"...What?" Neptune asked as she looked at the notebook in surprise.

"If I may," the smaller Histoire spoke up, "seeing a Neptune with an adult body is a rarity."

Neptune laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "The Miss Busty of your world thought I was Tiny Me and almost did lewd things to me. She's a good kisser though." She blushed hard as she thought about what happened that one time. "I'm lucky to still be a virgin right now!"

Mini-Histoire sweat-dropped heavily. "Why am I not surprised Vert would try to seduce a busty version of Neptune?" She shook her head. "Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if all the CPUs might try to seduce you."

"Well, I doubt the scary CPU would." Neptune chuckled nervously. "She was pretty pissed at Tiny Me when she finally transformed."

"Which I completely understand." Histoire said and shook her head before giving her other self a disappointed look. "How could you let her feel like she was all alone?"

"I didn't try to." The smaller Histoire said with a sad look on her face. "I wanted to help them. I tried so hard, but what can I do? Everything was falling apart around me and I tried so hard! I tried, dang it! I tried so much to pull Neptune out of her depression! To help Plutia out! I wanted to help Noire, Vert and Blanc too! But they didn't come over that much."

"...I apologize." Histoire told her other self. "I can only imagine how hard it was for you." The smaller Histoire nodded. "I..." She trailed off as the doors to the office opened up and Neptune, Vert, Blanc and Noire all stormed into her office, all with similar looks of anger on their faces while Ouya, Stadia, Plutia and Peashy were right behind them. Behind them were Uzume, Uni, Rom, Ram and Nepgear, all of whom were looking concerned. "That was fast."

"Our husbands are in danger." Blanc said, her voice leaving no room for arguments.

"Ah!" Mini-Histoire spoke up, her eyes white and blank. "I mis-spoke! I have no evidence that they went after your husbands as well."

"It doesn't matter." Vert told her. "If they took Sobar, there's no telling when they'll go after our husbands as well."

Uni bit her lip lightly and realized that this would be the last time she would see her other sister. "Um, so... This is goodbye then?"

Noire sighed and looked back at her, nodding. "Yeah. I don't want you to suffer like we have. Just stay here, okay?"

Uni nodded, before running up and hugging Noire. "I'll be good, you take care, okay?"

Uzume watched as Rom and Ram ran up to Blanc and hugged her with Nepgear giving Ouya, Stadia, Peashy and Plutia all hugs. "Nepsy, what are you going to do?"

Neptune closed her eyes. "I'm going to deal with those Angels, after that, I don't know, but I can't just let them get away with what they want."

"I want to help." Rom said softly.

Blanc smiled at her and ruffled her hair. "You're a good girl, but I don't want those bitches coming after you."

Neptune looked up as Pudding walked into the room. "Pudding, you stay here and look after Nepgear, okay?" The Prinny nodded before saluting Neptune.

"Um, you know..." Uzume tried to speak up, but was interrupted as Noire walked up to the bigger Neptune and nodded to her. "Noiresy, wait..."

"Don't try to stop me, Uzume." Noire told her before giving her a small smile. "It was nice to meet one of Neptune's ancestors. You're really cool."

Uzume found herself blushing softly before she coughed. "Heh heh heh, yeah, so are you. You're all cool. But there's something I need to tell you..."

"It can wait." Blanc told her and looked at the bigger Neptune. "Can you take all of us?"

"No." Croire said as the bigger Neptune pulled the notebook out of her pocket. "I can take the CPUs and this idiot with me along with those two brats, but anyone else? Not while I'm in this book."

"I was trying to tell you..." Uzume sighed as a portal opened next to the bigger Neptune. "Nepsy! You take care, okay?"

"Of course." Neptune smiled as she, Noire, Vert, Blanc, Plutia, Peashy, Ouya, Stadia and the bigger Neptune all went through the portal and it closed behind them.

The others stood there quietly looking at where the portal had been even as Histoire ended the call to her other self.

"...Good luck, sis." Nepgear whispered softly. "I wish she had waited, we could have come up with a solution to this problem."

"I want to help them." Rom said as she shivered.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Ram stomped her foot. "What if those Angels do something like the graveyard thing again?"

"I doubt that they have that problem over there." Histoire tried to assure Ram. "But I'm sure that Neptune and the others will be..." She trailed off as she turned pale. "That's right, Neptune cut her stats in half to accelerate her healing."

"Then they really need our help!" Ram yelped. "We should have gone with."

"About that..." Uzume tried to speak up but was interrupted again.

"And how can we help them?!" Uni yelled at Ram. "Unless you can help Nepgear get her super robot finished so it can rip apart dimensions, there's no way to get there!"

"Unisy, I'm trying to..." Uzume sighed as she was interrupted again.

"Aww," Nepgear smiled and blushed, "thank you for the compliment, Uni."

"That wasn't a compliment, you crazy sis-con." Uni grumbled in annoyance.

"But didn't you tell me that you didn't like how K-Sha was taking Noire away from you?" Nepgear asked before she, Uni and everyone had to cover their ears as a high-pitched whistling sound was heard. "OWWIES!"

As the sound ended, Uzume pulled her pinkies out of her mouth and smiled at the CPU Candidates. "Now if you four are done IGNORING me, I was TRYING to tell you that I can open a portal to the world that Nepsy and the others went."

"YOU CAN?!" Nepgear, Uni, Rom, Ram and Histoire all yelled in surprise.

Uzume nodded and smirked as she raised up her right arm at the elbow, her palm open to the ceiling as a black aura surrounded her. "Did you all forget? Crosy gave me the powers of Tari. Well, Kurome, but I'm Kurome and Uzume, anyway..." She chuckled as a black portal opened where the purple portal had been a moment prior. "On top of that, I can undo that annoying seal that was placed on both dimensions so we can leave and come back when needed."

"Alright!" Ram cheered happily. "Let's go!"

"Right!" Nepgear nodded as she, Uni, Rom and Uzume went through the portal. "You're coming too, Uzume?"

"Hey, I owe Nepsy too much." Uzume told her. "Besides, I want to see what kind of world she helped build."

"Good luck." Histoire said as she watched them leave through the portal. "I wish I could help them."

"You can though, Lady Histoire, dood!" Pudding said and Histoire looked at the Prinny in surprise. "In fact, we can help Master Neptune out right here."

"...How?" Histoire asked.

"Trust me, Master Neptune won't be happy with what I'm going to ask you to do, but it will work better in the long run, dood." Pudding told her.

"If it's to help them and it's within my power, I'll do it." Histoire told Pudding, who nodded in agreement.

A Gru'lout is a cross between a mountain lion, a goat and a brown bear. I'm sure that someone was wondering what it was.

And Mini-Histy was basically calling the Angels a very bad slur word that should get forcibly fornicated by a Gru'lout.