Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 25
Plutia stopped a few feet from the others, a pleasant smile on her face. "Welcome to Eden, my name is Plutia." She gave them all a short bow. "It's been just sooooo long since I've had anyone around here."
"You're the only person we've seen." Chrome said and narrowed her eyes at Plutia. "...Is it too much to hope that you're not the CPU of Eden?"
"CPU?" Plutia had a confused look on her face as she put her finger on her lips. "Oooooh! Right! Yep yep! I'm CPU Iris Void." She clapped her hands together and hopped around a little bit. "I'm sooo glad that people know who I am."
"Iris..." Ram began as she backed up and fell on her butt, her body trembling in fear.
"Void?" Rom's hands started to crackle. "You're just another monster!"
"Monster?" Plutia pouted at them. "That's so mean! We just met and you're acting like I kicked your puppy, broke your toys and then pooped in your food."
"...Graphic." Neptune muttered and shuddered at the mental images. "Icky! Plutie! No talking about doing that stuff!"
"Plutie?" Plutia blinked and smiled at Neptune. "I like that name. It's cute! What's your name?"
"Me? My name's Neptune."
Plutia jumped and clapped her hands together. "Yay! Imma call you Neppy then." She stopped after a moment and sighed, hanging her head. "I haven't had anyone around in sooo long that I was getting bored!" Plutia pouted and played with her braid.
"You..." Neptune began, unsure what to think about this Plutia. 'So far she's acting like the Plutie I know,' which, considering that she was a Void, was terrifying when one considered Iris Heart. "You wouldn't happen to have a little sister, would you?"
Plutia blinked and tilted her head in confusion. "Little sister..?" She asked, a bit of a vacant look on her face. "Oh! Right! I have a little sister!" Her eyes lit up and a wide smile crossed her face. "Do you want to meet her?" She spun around and started to run back in the direction she came from. "Come on! Come on!"
Chrome trembled as she walked after Plutia. "Iris Void?" She couldn't help but wonder if this was the CPU that had taken Filyn's eye or if this was just the current CPU of Eden.
"Chromey?" Filyn asked her, concern on her face. "What's wrong?"
"...I don't know." Chrome admitted as they followed after her. 'Why does my everything tell me to kill her?' She thought to herself before mentally groaning. 'And why do I feel like that's something Neptune would say?'
(-)
It took the group a mere three minutes to get close to the large building where they saw Plutia standing close to the doors.
"So, um..." Neptune really wanted to get out of the area, the mere thought of Iris Void was making her almost want to wet her panties in fear. "Plutie... Where's...yo...ur..?" Her eyes widened as Plutia pointed up and she looked up slowly, her face becoming more and more pale as she saw someone pinned to the wall.
But the person not only was naked, but they had no hair on their head...
...Nor did they have eyes...
...Or limbs...
...And Neptune couldn't even see skin and then there were the organs dangling from the person's body.
Ram and Filyn both took one look and instantly threw up while Rom turned green and Peashy fell on her butt in fear.
"See?" Plutia smiled at them, a disturbing gleam entering her eyes at that moment. "I have a little sister..." She pouted, "but she kept screaming and crying when I was doing my CPU stuff, so I thought," her pout turned into a broad grin on her face, "that she was just upset that she wasn't part of the fun! So I started by shoving a nail under each of her toe nails! The way she screamed was wonderful." Plutia giggled and put her fingers on her cheeks as a look of pure delight came to her face. "And I couldn't stop, but she wouldn't stop screaming and crying... I then removed her fingernails from the root, but her screaming got worse... Sooooo..." Plutia pulled out a chainsaw from somewhere and had everyone jump back in fright. "I thought I'd teach her what real pain is! And I started by cutting her hands off, but then I cut her legs off, and then I used this to cut into her organs, but I was making a mess," Plutia's voice was filled with some regret, "so I put the saw away and," she put down the chainsaw and pulled out some scalpels and when she started speaking again, her voice got more and more excited, "started to cut away her skin and removed her bones and chopped her organs into itty bitty pieces while she watched!"
As Plutia laughed, Neptune shuddered and fought the urge to throw up. "I preferred Plutie when she was a sadistic rapist!"
"...What kind of friends do you have?!" Chrome asked, unable to hold back her emotions. "Fuck it! You, Void, just transform, because I'm going to murder you for everything you've done!"
"Huuuuuh?" Plutia looked at Chrome and narrowed her eyes. "You look... Oh!" Her eyes widened and a delighted smile came to her face. "I remember you!" Chrome jerked in shock. "You were the person who was there when I was born!" She looked at Filyn. "And she was there too."
"Chromey?" Filyn trembled as she felt the air itself start to shake and vibrate. "What is she talking about?"
"You..." Chrome was pale and she trembled as Plutia glowed red before the glow turned black and her body changed. "...You... YOU BITCH!" Chrome screamed as she saw who Plutia really was.
Iris Void chuckled, her voice was deeper and more sensual. "I was quite nice to you when I made you and your little sister leave when I came into the world."
Neptune stared, her face pale. While Iris Void looked almost identical to Iris Heart, other than her blade having a blue edge instead of a red one, her outfit was black with what looked like red blood splattered over it, her wings were black on top but the bottom were red and the hole in her chest above her breasts and the way it pulsated only made it worse.
"Alas, if you wanted to save my sister, you're a few months too late." Iris Void smirked at them. "And with all the ambient hatred and suffering in the air, I'll be able to transform for another hundred years with ease."
"...A few months?" Neptune asked softly, her legs giving out on her. "...I've been here for over six months." She whispered as she sank to her knees. 'Could I have saved her if I wasn't messing around?'
"YOU!" Chrome screamed and spread her arms out as wires formed from her finger tips and ran at Iris Void, raw anger and hate in her eyes. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY PEOPLE!"
"Your people?" Iris Void seemingly disappeared and the next thing Chrome knew, she was kicked in the small of her back and sent flying. When Chrome landed on the ground, Iris Heart appeared above her and stomped on the silver-haired woman's chest. "If they really were your people..." She scoffed at Chrome and stabbed the former CPU in the stomach, getting a scream of pain from her. "You abandoned them to me."
A blast of lightning hit her in the back and she turned to see Rom glaring at her while Ram and Filyn tried to get Neptune to stand back up. "Oh?" Iris Void smirked and pulled her sword out of Chrome's stomach, causing her to scream as the serrated blades caused more damage as they came out. "I think I'll have fun with you!" She rushed at Rom, who stared at her with wide eyes. "Time to..."
"PEA CANNONBALL!" Peashy yelled and Iris Void looked to the side as Peashy came tumbling through the air and hit the CPU in the head, causing her to stagger as Rom blasted her with two more lightning blasts, which only caused her to jerk slightly.
A flash of light later and Purple Heart looked at Iris Void with cold determination. "Leave them, Sadie, your opponent is me." She declared before rushing at the Eden CPU.
Smirking and blocking Purple Heart's sword strike with her weapon, Iris Void chuckled. "Sadie, huh? Boy, you really are a treat, coming up with such..." A look of what could only be described as pure exhilaration appeared on her face. "Cute nicknames for me, Neppy." She licked her lips as the two pulled their weapons away from each other and slammed them against each other several times in rapid succession, twisting, spinning, striking high and blocking before striking low to go for the legs, only to find the blade blocked their counterpart. "You are good!"
Purple Heart pushed Iris Void away as he sword lit up with fire. "Blaze Break!"
Iris Void's sword glowed and crackled with power. "Thunder... STRIKE!"
When their swords clashed against each other, everyone watching had to cover their eyes as the energies erupted into a strong wind that caused the fighting CPUs hair to rapidly dance in the air while fire was blasted back in Purple Heart's face while lightning crashed backwards at Iris Void.
Iris Void was grinning while Purple Heart had a confused, slightly scared look on her face. "Don't you know? We're CPUs both using an elemental attack, of course they'd reflect back at us." Her grin increased as she increased her strength and pushed down on Purple Heart's sword, forcing her to her knees. "Mmm... Neppy, how about you just give up and I promise, when I chop you up, you won't feel any of the pain."
Purple Heart grimaced as she pushed back against Iris Void. 'Was Sadie always this strong?' Letting out a yell, she forced Iris Void off of her and spread her wings to fly into the sky. "Up here!"
Iris Void chuckled and flew up at Purple Heart, their blades clashing against each other as they flew through the air as streaks of light.
"Is this what a full power CPU can do?" Rom asked, awe in her voice as she saw the shock-waves from the attacks and the way that they had picked up speed to the point that they were seemingly disappearing and reappearing near each other.
"Chromey!" Filyn ran over to her sister and helped her to sit up. "Are you okay?"
Chrome panted and clutched her stomach. "I'll live." She looked up at the fight as it escalated and could feel her eyes starting to burn. 'Dammit, even now... I'm so useless.' She hung her head. 'Why? Why am I so weak? Why can't I..?'
"Chrome..."
Chrome stiffened, her eyes going wide with shock. "That voice..."
"Chromey?" Filyn looked at her sister in confusion as Chrome painfully got to her feet and looked at the building. "Chromey?"
"Come, Chrome."
Chrome didn't acknowledge Filyn as she staggered towards the building. Opening the door, she ignored the shock-waves and thunderous booms going on outside. When she entered the building, her eyes started to burn some more as she saw phantom images of people going on about their business as they sought an audience with her.
*Flash*
"Hey! Chrome!" Her elder sister smirked at her. "You're getting a bit lazy, you haven't been doing any work for the past week."
Chrome rolled her eyes. "You're a retired CPU, Silver Heart, let me do things my way, will ya?" She grinned at Silver Heart, "besides, don't you have a big adventure today?"
"Yeah," Silver Heart pulled Chrome into a hug, "just take it easy, will ya? I won't be around forever to help you when you need advice."
"Thanks sister." Chrome smiled.
"Hey!" An adventurer yelled as the two sisters broke their hug off, "Silver! Let's go! I don't care if you're a former CPU or not, if you don't hurry up, we're leaving you behind."
Silver's eyes went white and blank at that. "Dang it, Charlie! Fine! I'm on my way!" She ran off, waving at Chrome the entire time.
*End Flash*
"...That was the last time I saw you, Silver." Chrome whispered softly and noted that even though some of the desks had gotten worn down and rotted, others were still in relatively good condition. She frowned in confusion as she saw what looked like the outline of a person in the room pointing towards the back room. "What the hell?" She asked and walked over to the desks, kicking them hard enough to cause them to break apart, before walking past and to the back room, followed by Filyn.
"There's something that feels warm here." Filyn whispered, getting a nod from Chrome. "Eeek!" Filyn yelped as she saw what looked like a white squiggly creature in the air.
"That..." Chrome trailed off as she looked around the room. It was large and circular with the walls looking worn out and the floor looking like it needed some small repairs and the ceiling looked decent enough, but there was nothing else. "I..."
Both Chrome and Filyn were quiet as more and more white squiggly creatures seemed to float through the air. "...Wait a second, wasn't there a false wall in here?" Chrome asked and walked forward and looked at the walls. "Let's see, there has to be..."
"Chromey?" Filyn began, trepidation in her voice, "you said that Iris Void... She hurt your people. But that would mean..."
Chrome sighed and lowered her head. "...Filyn," there was a rumbling from outside the building, but Chrome ignored it. "...Many years ago, there was a beautiful country that existed." Filyn nodded, listening with rapt attention, "compared to the other countries around it, it probably wasn't much, but the people in the country loved it and their CPU. No matter what challenges occurred, things were never to hard for the people. In time, due to the isolation each nation had towards each other, the people grew used to the peaceful, slow times."
Filyn nodded, though there was a nagging in the back of her head that she knew this story. "What happened next?"
Chrome sighed softly. "The CPU of Eden was happy, but a bit lonely. Even if the people loved her, she could never really be close with them." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "For you see, years prior, her elder sister had stepped down as the CPU of the nation after she had gained the ability to transform, allowing the CPU to take over. While the elder sister had stayed around, with her stepping down as the CPU, she lost her HDD power."
"...How?" Filyn asked, confused and Chrome smiled and opened her eyes to look at Filyn.
"When the current CPU's younger sister gains the ability to transform, the previous CPU can stay as the CPU for a little while longer. But typically when a CPU Candidate gains the ability to transform, it means that the faith people have in the current CPU is not strong enough anymore and she undergoes a ritual so that she does not draw upon the Sharicite crystal anymore. In the process, she loses access to her HDD form."
Filyn nodded at hearing that. "It kind of sounds like what the Voids do."
"I suppose killing your elder sister while she draws upon the Fearicite would almost count," Chrome said as she walked over to the walls and felt along them for something. "Well, the CPU who ruled these lands, she was happy for her people, but sad because her sister had died on an adventure a few years before." Filyn nodded. "Then, one day, the Sharicite started to glow and pulse with power unlike anything that the CPU had ever seen." Chrome smiled as her fingers found a false panel on the wall. "Still here, huh?" She pushed it to the side, revealing a screen with the outline of a palm on it. "Well, the CPU was shocked when the power of the Sharicite revealed that a little sister was born into the world. A cute girl with long, red hair done up in twin pigtails."
"...Chromey..?" Filyn began as Chrome pulled off her glove and put her hand on the screen. "That sounds like..."
"Sadly, the good times were not to be." Chrome continued as the screen scanned her hand before beeping.
"Welcome, CPU Chrome Heart."
Chrome blinked while Filyn stared at her in shock. "Well, that's..." Chrome began.
"Chromey? You... You're a CPU?!" Filyn yelled in shock as the a nearby wall shifted and slid, tons of dust moving out of the way.
"I'm the former CPU of Eden, yes." Chrome answered her and turned to look at Filyn, "and you're my CPU Candidate. Sixty years ago, you were born into this world and less than two months after you were born, the world became corrupted by Fearicite."
Filyn had a terrified look on her face. "But... That means..."
Chrome sighed softly and hung her head. "Iris Void was born from the Fearicite. She came into this world and without the Sharicite, I couldn't transform, she batted me away with ease and tore your eye out."
Filyn gasped, her pupil shrinking as memories started to flood her mind.
*Flash*
"Chromey?" Filyn asked in fear as she felt the warm Sharicite start to twist and cool. "What's going on..?"
"I..." Chrome didn't answer as the Sharicite fell to the ground, shattering into pieces. "That's... Never happened before."
Filyn shivered, the air itself turning frigid to her. "Chromey, what's this icky cold air?"
"I..." Chrome stopped as the glow of the room turned red and condensed into a new crystal, one that was upside down and pulsating black and red. "What is... FILYN! NO!" She grabbed Filyn and pulled her back. "Don't..."
"My my..." A new voice spoke up and Chrome and Filyn turned to see what had to be a CPU in the room with them, though this one had a hole in her chest. "I think," she grinned at the two of them. "That you're in the way."
*End Flash*
Filyn trembled and fell to her knees. "...All this time... The monster that took my eye... Was here?!"
Chrome sighed softly. "Filyn, I..."
"Chromey..." Filyn looked at her, her eye watering up, "why? Why did this happen? ...Why didn't you fight?"
Chrome had a crestfallen look on her face. "...I couldn't transform, I couldn't fight. So I took you and fled, like a loser, like a coward. I took you and abandoned my people." Without saying anything more, she walked into the room that had been hidden off and found that it was still in really good condition. "After sixty years, this place was never..." Chrome trailed off as she saw what was in the center of the small, circular room. "It... It can't be."
"Chromey?" Filyn looked at the object in the center of the room. "Ooooh! Pretty!"
The object was a staff. The top of it was an orb that looked to be made of platinum. The area holding the orb looked like a Dragon's mouth that was made out of gold and silver with one eye that was a ruby and another eye that was a sapphire. The serpentine body of the Dragon curled around a metal handle.
"After all this time..." Chrome walked forward, trembling as she touched the staff, her eyes watering up. "I thought I lost this."
"Now what kind of big sister would I be if I let my little sister lose her weapon?"
Chrome stumbled back in shock and Filyn stared as a nearly transparent woman, a little shorter than Chrome, with short, white hair and silver eyes walked forward and smiled at them. "Chrome, Filyn, welcome home." Her body was mostly transparent and it was hard to make out any other details about her.
"...Silver... Heart... Big... Sister..?" Chrome stared in shock.
Silver Heart just smiled at her kindly.
To be continued...
I admit, I couldn't figure out what to do for Iris Void's design, but considering that Iris Heart had Neptune wondering if she was a villain the first time Neptune saw her, I thought it would work (that and there's no Chaos version of Iris Heart).
If you're unable to picture the grin Plutia had on her face, just go look up a yandere slasher smile.
I guess Neptune wasn't wrong, they really did find a Force Ghost.