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

Chapter 41

"What's going on?" Neptune asked as she looked around. Everything around her was dim and she couldn't make out what was going on around her.

"Hello." A familiar voice spoke up and Neptune's eyes widened. "It's been too long since we last spoke."

"HISTY!" Neptune's eyes lit up happily. "Where are you at?"

"Sadly, not near you." Histoire told her.

Neptune had a trembling smile on her face. "I'm doing a good job, right, Histy? I'm being a good CPU, right?"

"...I think you have me confused with someone else." Histoire said to her. "Then again, you are a CPU that is a Heart, not a Void, so... Hmm..."

"Ignoring me?" Neptune asked and she shook her head. "It's okay, I guess I deserve it since I never listen to you much. I guess this is karna getting back at me."

"Karma, and I really am sorry." Histoire's voice was apologetic. "Both for ignoring you and for making you suffer like you have." She sighed as Neptune had a confused look on her face. "The way you've suffered while trying to save the other nations."

"Um, yeah..." Neptune scratched her cheek. "I hope you're not mad at me for not stopping Eden's destruction."

"No. In fact, I'm surprised that the nations that you have freed from the rules of their Voids have survived. Then again, I should be thankful either way."

Neptune sighed and looked down. "...I failed, Histy. Plutie's Sister... I couldn't save her." Her eyes started to well up with tears. "I'm not..."

"Um, Neptune, right?" Histoire asked and Neptune nodded. "Why are you so morose? You seemed so upbeat the last time we talked."

"...I... Hey, Histy... Can CPUs get infected by Fearicite?"

"What?!" Histoire's voice was alarmed. "What's going on since we last talked?!"

"Well... You know..." Neptune rubbed the back of her head. "This and that and now Chrome thinks I might be infected by Fearicite and..."

"Oh dear," Histoire interrupted her, "I didn't know it was possible. Please, draw upon your power, but do not transform, I need to..."

"Like this?" Neptune asked as her body started to glow.

"Yes, like... Oh no." Histoire's voice was full of dread.

"...I'm infected, huh?" Neptune asked as the glow faded. "...Will I be stuck here? Will I..."

"Huh? Oh! No! I'm sorry Neptune, but I cannot spend time with you right now. I have to deal with someone else. But to answer your question, don't let the negative feelings overwhelm you."

"Huh?" Neptune blinked at hearing that. "What do you..?"

"Fearicite is powered by negative feelings. Even a CPU's negative feelings influence the Fearicite. Whatever emotion they were feeling the strongest when they gave into the Fearicite's allure and became a Void is what they will feel the most after transforming."

"Histy?" Neptune asked softly. "What's going to happen? I'm scared."

"Just try to focus on positive emotions. That will slow down the corruption that plagues your body." She told Neptune. "I am in Planeptune. If you manage to get here, come see me and I shall explain the Fearicite, the Voids and why I put this burden on you."

Neptune nodded as she felt Histoire fade from her mind. "...Yeah..." She didn't know what was going to happen.

But what Neptune did know...

...Was that she was slowly being corrupted by the Fearicite that had infected her.

(-)

Cracking an eye open as she smelled some food, Neptune slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Hnn? What time is..?"

"NEPTUNA!" Peashy yelled as she slammed the door open and tackled Neptune to the bed. "Are you okay? Did you have more bad dreams? Can Pea help?"

Neptune blinked a few times as she looked at Peashy, who was sitting on her chest. "..." She suddenly broke out into a giggle and hugged Peashy tightly. "I haven't been tackled like that in months, P-Ko. Thank you." The tackle wasn't hard like her daughter's tackles tended to be, it was more like a flying hug that caught Neptune off guard and caused her to flop onto her back out of reflex.

Peashy, for her part, was glad that her surprise hug had made Neptune happy. It was worth waiting by the door until Neptune had woken up to give her that surprise then.

"I'm fine, P-Ko," Neptune let go of the hug, "I didn't have another bad dream." There was a gurgling sound and Neptune giggled while rubbing the back of her head. "Well, maybe we should get some food?" Peashy nodded and led Neptune out of the room.

(-)

At the Basilicom...

"Kei," Noire spoke up as she looked out her window while the white-haired woman entered the room. "Have you found them yet?"

"Not yet." Kei answered her. "However, Anonydeath is tracking them as we speak. I'm sure that they'll be found before the day is out." Noire nodded at hearing that. "If I may ask. Why are you so obsessed with finding them? I thought you didn't care about your sister."

"I don't." Noire automatically answered Kei. "However, she is the future of Lastation." She turned to look at the white-haired woman. "Nothing lasts forever, not even us CPUs. I merely wish to ensure that things last when I am gone, nothing more."

Kei nodded though she gave Noire a wry grin. "It almost sounds like you care for her in your own way." She held up her hands when Noire's face showed her annoyance at that. "Please, I mean no harm by it. I think it's a good thing that you have someone that you don't hold complete disdain for."

"Whatever," Noire said dismissively. "The fact remains is that those CPUs are in Lastation and they had my sister kidnapped. I do not care if they think they're superior to me, but I won't allow them to think they can do whatever they want without repercussions."

Before Kei could respond, her phone started to ring. "My apologies." She bowed and pulled the phone out before flipping it open to speak. "Yes? Singe? What is it? Project BTH will be done tomorrow you say? Excellent. Thank you. Goodbye."

"Project BTH?" Noire asked with a raised eyebrow and Kei nodded to her.

"Yes, it's a project that Singe has been working on. When completed it will help bring in a new order to Lastation." Kei smiled at Noire. "By your leave."

"Very well." Noire nodded as Kei left her alone. "...What the hell is Project BTH?" Try as she might, she couldn't figure out what that kind of project was. "Was it something I approved?"

Try as she might, she couldn't recall anything like that getting approved.

Noire narrowed her eyes. "When this is over, I'm going to have to look into the board members and see what they're planning." She wondered why all this stuff had to be happening at the same time right now.

"Lousy humans." Noire muttered to herself. It was their hatred, resentment and fear of her big sister that brought her into the world. It was that same emotions towards her that brought her younger sister into the world. Despite this, the humans would trick, betray and manipulate those around them in an attempt to get a little bit ahead in life. "Pathetic."

Glowering at the city below, Noire felt her face twitching in annoyance.

"In the end, none of this really matters, huh?" Noire asked herself softly.

(-)

At the Lastation Hospital...

"Miss Compa! Miss Linda!" The nurse called out as she walked out of the emergency room. She smiled as the two stood up and walked over to her. "We have good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Linda asked the nurse.

"It seems that recently your friend took a rather nasty blow to her arm that, due to the weakness of her skin from the severe burns she suffered when she was younger, ruptured parts of her dermis and subcutaneous layer of skin which extended down into the muscles in her arm and deeper." The nurse said and Compa nodded, a serious look on her face while Linda looked on confused. "The bad news is that the area that was injured was starting to tear itself apart, hence why she was in so much pain. We had to put a mask on her face so that she could breathe in some pain numbing medicine."

Compa nodded as she heard that. "I assume that the good news is that you can fix this?"

The nurse nodded at her. "Indeed, we hooked up a microfiber bandage to the afflicted area and she's been injected with a mild nanite solution that will mend the ruptured areas and she'll be fine in a few hours." She smiled when both of them sighed in relief. "However," both Compa and Linda looked at her nervously, "there's no guarantee that this won't happen again and as she gets older this is only going to get worse."

Linda grimaced, she knew that, but she wasn't going to put IF in some sort of home for people. She knew that would destroy her. "What should..."

"There is an option." The nurse said, looking a little nervous. "It could repair the damage to her skin. It won't do anything about the burn scars or the discoloration on her skin, but it might be able to fix the underlying issues that Miss IF is having."

"What's the catch?" Linda asked her.

"...Well..." The nurse fidgeted slightly. "The procedure's a bit experimental, but the success rate is quite high. However, it's quite... Expensive." She sighed at the looks she got from them, "believe me, I don't like it either. There's another problem as well." Both Compa and Linda tilted their heads in confusion. "Due to the fact that this is a rather... Pricey procedure, payment is due... Up front before anything can be done." She held up her hands at their looks of disbelief. "Chairman Azna=Leb's orders. While we treat everyone for things so they don't just drop dead, we can't do procedures like this without payment up front."

"...I don't know if we have enough." Linda muttered softly. "Is there anything that can be done?"

"Well," the nurse leaned in and lowered her voice, "you can set up a payment schedule to pay it off in chunks before the procedure. There's also taking out credit loans, but that'll cost you even more in the long run."

"But, she needs this!" Linda protested and was stopped as Compa gave her shoulder a squeeze. The reason she stopped was because Compa's squeeze was so hard that it nearly made her shoulder pop out of socket by accident.

"Is Iffy okay to see?" Compa asked, "or is she loopy from the pain killers?"

"She's coherent, but..." The nurse shook her head. "Well, she's not in a bad way, it's just..." She had an embarrassed look on her face. "She's in the middle of being cleaned up. She kind of lost control of some of her bodily functions when she was sleeping."

"...Oh." Compa nodded, understanding instantly. "I've had to clean my fair share of patients before." Linda grimaced as she understood what Compa was implying.

"You're a nurse?" The nurse stared at Compa's arms. "With those..?"

"I'm a doctor, actually." Compa smiled at her. "I'm from Lowee and I had this happen after I became a doctor."

"I see." The nurse nodded at her. "Well, I'm glad that you understand. Please wait another fifteen minutes for them to finish cleaning up the mess."

"Of course." Compa nodded and she and Linda went back to their seats and sat down. "Poor Iffy, it's got to be embarrassing if she knows what's going on."

Linda wasn't thinking of that. She was thinking about how IF not having severely damaged skin. The discoloration and scars were just superficial and IF probably wouldn't care about those if she could get her body back to normal health.

"You're thinking how much you're going to miss rubbing Iffy's naked body down, aren't you?" Compa teased Linda, who turned bright red at that. "It's okay. It'll be nice to not have to worry about stuff like that again."

Linda nodded and smiled softly. "Yeah..."

"Besides," Compa smiled at Linda, "now you and Iffy can cuddle all night without worrying if you'll overheat her body and dry her skin out." She giggled as Linda's blush became atomic.

Deep down, Compa was happy for Linda and IF. If the doctors could help IF out, even if it was expensive, then it would be worth it.

Besides, if worse came to worse, Compa could always try to work for the Lastation hospital and pay off the bill that way.

At least she hoped they'd let her do that.

To be continued...

...This arc is the longest one of the story (so far) and man, it's been so much fun to write.

BTW, just so we're clear. Neptune wasn't sure, before, that she was infected by Fearicite, but now she's certain that she's infected by it.