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

Chapter 27

"Um..." Ram looked on the two nervously. "Big sis, who's that? She looks like Chrome."

Chrome Heart let go of the hug and looked at Ram, smiling softly, even with tears still running down her face. "I am Chrome." She rubbed her eyes to stop the tears but found they wouldn't stop.

"Hey! Chromey!" Filyn yelled as she ran out of the large building. "I went to check on the Fearicite chamber and..." She had a confused look on her face. "It wasn't glowing very much."

"If Fearicite works like Sharicite," Chrome Heart looked at her, "then with fewer negative emotions powering it, it should shrink and lose its glow."

"Should we check on it?" Purple Heart suggested.

"Um..." Filyn spoke up, "it fell to the ground and shattered a little bit ago." Both Chrome Heart and Purple Heart snapped their attention to her. "So... Um..."

"...Chrome, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Purple Heart asked.

"I think so, Neptune, but I don't know where I'll be able to find a working camera in this swamp." Chrome Heart smirked at Purple Heart, who laughed at her.

"That would be interesting, but no, I'm thinking..." Suddenly Purple Heart was cut off as everything started to shake. "Aaaand this is what I was worried about." She flew to Rom and Ram, grabbing them and flying to Peashy, who climbed on her back while Chrome Heart grabbed her staff and then Filyn. "Let's get out of here!"

"What's happening?!" Ram yelled in fright as the two CPUs flew back to the ship. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain when we get out of here." Purple Heart replied as she and Chrome Heart zipped through the air.

(-)

Back at the ship...

"Finally!" Linda yelled as she wiped her forehead of sweat. "Got this fucking thing working!"

"Yes, and all you had to do was hit it, take your shirt off and sweat in your bra and panties for the past hour, Chu." Warechu deadpanned while Gust nodded.

"Excuse me for being plain and unsexy." Linda muttered as she grabbed her clothes. "Anyway, that should work now, I'll go see about getting us out of the swamp and..." There was a shaking and Linda fell on her butt while Warechu looked around in confusion. "How come you didn't fall down, rat?" Linda asked as she got up and rubbed her rear end.

"These wings aren't for show, you know." Warechu answered her. "Um, that's not normal." Another shaking happened and Linda grumbled as she quickly put her pants on.

"Ya think!?" Linda yelled as she ran out of the engine room where she saw Gust getting up. "You okay?"

"Gust is fine, no flying butts this time." Gust shook her head as she pushed herself to her feet as another shaking took place. "What's happening?"

"I dunno, I'm going to try and see if we can move though." Linda said as the small group made their way through the sleeping quarters and to the recreational area where IF was on the ground and gripping at her arm while grimacing while Compa was laying on her back with her legs up in the air. "IF! You okay?"

"Fuck!" IF swore and rubbed her arm while removing her coat to look at the injury and sighed. "Okay, skin wasn't broken, but it sure feels bad."

"Probably a deep bruise." Compa said as she rolled to the side. "Linda, go start the ship, Mister Mouse, will you and Gust feel along Iffy's arm and tell me if you feel the area sink in or move around in ways it shouldn't?"

"Sure." The two moved to IF's side and helped her while Linda walked to the cockpit and looked back at IF in worry before sighing and going inside.

As she got in there, Linda threw her shirt onto a chair and got to work starting the ship up. She mentally sighed in relief as it started with no problem. "Now can we get out of the murk and muck?" She asked as she tried to get the ship to fly up, only to find that the ship was shifting but not moving. "FUCK!" She screamed and slammed her hands on the control panel as the ship shook again while the ground rumbled. "What the fuck can I do now?!"

There was a tapping at the window and Linda looked up to see Purple Heart floating there. She got to the window and pushed it open. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you when we get going." Purple Heart explained to her. "Rom, Ram, Filyn and Peashy are on the top right now. Got any rope?"

Linda nodded and jumped down to under the control console and pulled out some rope. "I don't know if you're strong enough to pull this ship out. It's pretty stuck."

Purple Heart smirked at her. "I'm a lot stronger than I look." She said as she took the rope. "Alright, we'll get this hooked up to the rails on top, you get the engines going and try to move."

Linda nodded and went back to getting the ship moving again. "Wait, she didn't mention Chrome."

(-)

Outside...

"Are you sure this will work?" Chrome Heart asked as the two worked to get the rope attached to various parts on the top of the ship.

"I hope so." Purple Heart said while the CPU Candidates worked on making sure that the rope was tight in spots with Rom and Ram reinforcing it with magic and Peashy pulling the knots tight while Filyn helped her.

"Well, let's get this going," Chrome Heart said as she took one last look at her nation. "...You know, I wonder why the other nations didn't start to fall apart right away."

"They were still thriving." Purple Heart told her, "had they been almost dead and the Fearicite shattered on its own, things would have been different." Chrome Heart gave her a look and she shrugged. "I'm not certain, but I think Histy once told me about that. I'll have to ask her."

Chrome Heart nodded as they got the ropes finished and the two CPUs grabbed them and pulled hard to get the airship out of the murk and muck. As the ship started to shift and move, the two let out a yell while Rom and Ram reinforced the ropes so they wouldn't break. "Dammit, it's not moving!"

"I don't suppose you have any sort of wind spells or techniques?" Purple Heart asked, not feeling any sort of give. "Dammit, there's got to be a way."

"Big sis!" Ram yelled out, her eyes wide. "The ropes are breaking!"

Chrome Heart growled as her body started to glow a silver color. "I might be a loser CPU, but, please! World! I know you hate me, but just this once will you let me do what I need to do to save everyone?!"

"Wait!" Purple Heart's eyes widened as she saw what Chrome Heart was doing. "That's dangerous! You're burning up your shares!"

"If it gets us out of here..." Chrome Heart smiled at Purple Heart softly. "If I don't make it, make sure to take care of Filyn for me."

"Chrome!" Purple Heart yelled as Chrome Heart's body glowed so brightly that it was painful to look at. A burst of light erupted from Chrome and pushed Purple Heart away and back to the ship while the swamp was forced away from the airship, freeing it and allowing it to rise into the air.

As she felt her transformation wear off, Chrome looked at the swamp that was Eden and saw it rapidly start to deteriorate. "...Rest in peace everyone." She sighed and closed her eyes, preparing to fall to her death.

Which might have worked better had Rom and Ram not used their magic to make the rope wrap around her body and pull her back onto the airship and out of danger.

"Dang it, Chromey!" Filyn hugged Chrome, who was looking surprised, hard. "Don't scare me so much."

"Yeah," Chrome smiled softly and hugged her back. "I'm sorry."

Purple Heart smiled as she let her transformation end, glad to be out of there.

After a few moments, the group walked over to the guard rail and watched as the country of Eden, Chrome and Filyn's home country, shook and sank into the ocean, as if it had never been there to begin with.

"...We have a lot to talk about." Chrome said softly.

(-)

A few minutes later...

"Well, at least my arm is only bruised..." IF began as she looked at the others while moving her arm around. "That's good."

"Good." Linda said as she slid up to IF and put an arm around her. "I'd hate to have to fix your arm if the flesh tore up again."

"That wasn't fun." IF admitted, remembering the stitches that had to be applied to her body the last time that her flesh tore apart. She then looked at Neptune and Chrome. "So, Chrome, what's the big announcement you need to make?"

Chrome sighed softly and looked at Neptune, who nodded to her. "I don't know where to start..."

"How about the fact that you're really my big sister and a CPU?" Filyn asked, causing Gust, Linda, Warechu, Compa and IF to stare at her in shock.

"...Chrome's a CPU?" IF asked as she was the first to recover her shock. "...She's a Void?"

Chrome shook her head. "You misunderstand, IF. I'm not a Void, but rather, my real name? It's Chrome Heart. I am..." She sighed and shook her head. "The former CPU of the land mass we landed on."

"Chromey was the CPU of a swamp?" Compa asked, confused. "But if Chromey was a CPU, then..."

"Filyn is former the CPU Candidate of Eden." Chrome continued. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Sorry she says." Linda groused, getting some looks from the others. "Yeah, sorry, you're probably sorry that you could have done something about the Voids but you were just sitting out at the outpost and doing nothing while everyone in the world suffered, weren't you?"

"Linda!" Compa gasped and pointed her left hook at the green-haired girl. "Apologize to Chromey, she doesn't..."

"I agree with Linda," IF interrupted Compa and gave Chrome a dirty look, "if you were a CPU that's not a Void, how come you didn't do a damn thing about White Void?" Tears welled up in IF's eyes as she thought about Marvelous, Cyberconnect2 and Falcom. "Why didn't you save them?!"

"I couldn't transform." Chrome told her calmly, having expected this, "what good would it have done if I had challenged White Void openly? I did once and had trouble walking afterwords. It took me a decade to heal from that injury, IF."

"Lucky you!" IF snapped at her. "You get to heal from your injuries!" She whipped off her jacket and pulled off her shirt, revealing a bare, but badly burned, scarred and discolored upper body. "Me? I have to live with this as a reminder for the rest of my life. I have to remember my friends who died. And all you did was hide out and do nothing for years!" She then pointed at Neptune, who jerked in surprise, "if not for Nep, you'd still be hiding and running, wouldn't you?!"

Looking at the topless, burned girl, Chrome said nothing. There wasn't anything she could say to the accusation.

"...I thought so." IF muttered as she put her shirt back on. "While the people of this world suffered and died, you hid away. You were the only one who could have done anything."

"And what should Chromey have done?" Filyn asked, standing up and glaring at IF. "Fight? And then die because she couldn't transform?!" She grabbed her eyepatch and ripped it off. "In case you forgot, IF!" Her hollow eye socket seemed to glow. Even though there was a filling in the socket to protect what was behind it, the sight was still unsettling, "I'm the CPU Candidate of Eden and look what happened to me!"

IF glared at Filyn before turning her glare back at Chrome, who looked at her sadly. "Well?!"

"If I had died fighting the CPUs, IF," Chrome began softly, "what good would it have done?"

"Hey!" Neptune spoke up and stood in front of Chrome while frowning sadly at IF. "Iffy, come on. You're being a real downer."

"Shut up! This doesn't concern you!" IF snapped at Neptune, who looked at her in shock. "I'm really grateful to you, Nep. I am, but right now I want to know why Chrome did NOTHING while the world suffered and..."

"STOP IT!"

IF turned to look at Rom, who was glaring at her. "Hey, now..."

"NO!" Rom's face became covered in shadow as her eyes started to glow red. "Stop blaming Chrome! You didn't do anything when you were healthy, did you? Did you or your friends try to stop Blanc when she was tormenting everyone?" She shook as memories of those days when Blanc would torment them came rushing back. "No one tried to help me or Ram... No one but Compa and she lost her arms because of us!" Tears started to fall out of her eyes. "When Blanc was beating me up, you didn't do anything! Big Sis Neptune did! I almost transformed into a Void! Big Sis was only kind to me and Ram!"

"You didn't trust us." Ram continued with a troubled look on her face. "You didn't even trust Big Sis Neptune. If you knew Chrome was a CPU..."

"Pea knows," Peashy continued, "Pea knows that you're a big dummy."

"Enough," Chrome said to them, "IF, if you want to leave, to hate me for not telling you the truth for years, that's fine. But let me ask you, didn't it seem odd that I never aged? I've known you for years now. I've shown no signs of aging. Besides, if I told you I was a CPU, what good would it have done?"

"I... I..." IF trembled, anger evident in her features.

"I couldn't prove I was a CPU," Chrome said softly, "and no one at the outpost trusted or liked CPUs. So what would you have had me do, IF?"

IF said nothing as she stood up and walked off, her eyes covered in shadow. Linda followed after her.

Chrome sighed heavily. "...Gust? Compa? Warechu?"

Warechu shrugged at her. "You protected us, you stopped White Void. You can't change what happened, but you're stopping it now, right?"

"That's right." Compa smiled at Chrome. "You're fixing the bad things, right, Chromey?"

"...I'm trying." Chrome sighed softly.

"Um," Ram spoke up softly, "can you go HDD again?" She looked confused when Chrome shook her head. "Why not?"

"Because I don't have a supply of Shares to power me anymore." Chrome told her. "Even with what I had, I was running out even before I did that Share Burst to get us out the swamp. And that was all the Shares I had left, so I'm out of power again."

"OH!" Neptune's eyes lit up. "That reminds me." She dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "Need to make a phone call!" She scampered out of the room.

"So..." Chrome looked at the others, "any other questions?"

(-)

"What do you want?" IF asked as she laid on her stomach on her bed.

Linda crawled into bed with IF and pulled her into a hug. "You're not wrong." She whispered to IF, who was trembling. "But maybe you were too harsh on Chrome?" She chuckled as she felt the confusion coming from IF. "I admit, I shouldn't have said that, but I think I was just surprised and upset that she was a CPU this whole time."

"Why?" IF suddenly rolled over and hugged Linda, shaking. "Why didn't she fight?"

Linda didn't answer and held her close. "I don't know." Linda knew that IF was a rough and tumble girl who didn't want pity.

But she was also someone who lost her closest friends to a fire that White Void had been responsible for and Linda knew that IF never forgave herself for surviving while none of her friends had.

Linda just held her friend and let her cry and vent. After all, IF had listened to her bitch and gripe about a ton of things in life after all. 'And besides...' Linda's thoughts trailed off as she rubbed IF's back gently. 'I won't let anyone hurt you again.'

(-)

In another part of the ship, Neptune found a quiet spot and dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up.

After thirty seconds, there was an answer on the other end. "Hello?"

"Histy!" Neptune's eyes lit up happily.

"Neptune," Histoire's voice was full of relief. "I am glad to hear from you. Are you okay?"

"I think so... I didn't get hurt this last time at least." Neptune giggled and rubbed the back of her head.

"...Neptune, what's going on? You got hurt? What's going on?"

"Um, well..." Neptune wasn't sure how much she should tell Histoire and decided against telling her the full story for now. "This and that, been in fights against bad CPUs."

"Oh dear. You mean like how Rei and Uzume's other self were?"

"Uh huh." Neptune nodded at the question. "Hey, Histy, I wanna say something before I forget."

"What is it?"

"I'm really sorry." Neptune replied, a sullen look coming across her face, "for being a really bad CPU."

"Neptune, you..."

"Enough of that," Neptune rubbed her eyes, feeling tears forming for some reason, "hey, Histy... If, say, someone were to break a Sharicite crystal, what would happen?"

"Break it?" Histoire asked in confusion. "Well... Hmm, assuming that the amount of shares were decently strong, let's say somewhere between where Leanbox and Lowee are most of the time, then the Share energy would cover the nation and give the nation's oracle enough time to repair and replace the Sharicite. However, it's unlikely the CPU would survive such an event. You and Nepgear, due to your events in the Ultradimension, are likely an exception due to the CPU Memory that the two of you absorbed."

Neptune nodded as she listened in. "Okay, I get that, but what if the nation was doing really bad and the Sharicite crystal fell down and shattered on its own?"

"...Neptune, if that were to happen, the CPU would have had to have driven everyone in the nation off or killed them." Histoire replied to her. "If, for example, the Sharicite got that weak that it would fall down and shatter on its own, then the nation would have to be in a really bad condition and would sink into oblivion rapidly."

"...I see," Neptune said softly, "no wonder you were always..."

"Yes, and if you're curious about this, I hope you're..." Histoire stopped and sighed. "I'm sorry, I imagine things are hard for you."

"...Histy, tell Nepgear I'm really sorry." Neptune said softly.

"...Neptune? What's wrong? I've never heard you sound so defeated before."

There was a beep on the phone as it hung up and Neptune sighed as she put it down. "...I'm such a bad sister."

"No you're not!" Neptune snapped her head up and stared at Peashy, who was staring at her hard. "Neptuna is an awesome big sister!" She ran up and hugged Neptune tightly. "No being sad! Because then Pea will get sad and then Rom and Ram will get sad and then..."

Neptune smiled softly as she patted Peashy's back. 'Iffy said the same thing to me when you were taken from me in Plutie's world.'

A moment later, Chrome appeared in front of her, frowning softly. "Uh... Chromey? What's wrong?"

"...Neptune," Chrome began, unsure how to bring this up, before sighing and going for broke. "I'm worried about you." Neptune gave her a confused look and Chrome let out another soft sigh. "I'm worried that you're getting too stressed out due to you fighting those CPUs that look like your friends and with how close you've gotten to the Fearicite, not once but twice now... And with how you've been behaving lately... I'm worried that you've been infected by the Fearicite and it's starting to affect and influence you."

Neptune and Peashy both stared at her, wide-eyed in shock.

To be continued...

Ah nerts!

Now I know that some of you figured out this plot point already, but I couldn't respond to your reviews without spoiling this.