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

This arc's not over yet. Sorry everyone who was thinking we're jumping straight to Planeptune.

Chapter 60

Grabbing Rom and Ram, Purple Heart smiled at them while Black Void picked up Uni and the force field dissipated. "Good job, both of you." Her smile increased as they hugged her. "I'm so proud of you both. You acted like proper CPUs out there."

"We did?" Rom pulled her head back and smiled as Purple Heart nodded while they descended to the ground. "Ram! We did!"

Ram nodded, smiling at that. "Thank you, big sis."

"No," Purple Heart shook her head, "thank you, both of you. If you two and Uni hadn't been there, I doubt the battle would have gone the way it did."

Not far away, Black Void was carrying Uni down and the younger girl was looking at her nervously. "Um, Noire, was I..?"

"Just stop," Black Void interrupted her, "if you're going to be insecure about your contribution after blowing off the arm of a thirty meter tall giant, then there's nothing that I can do to help your confidence when even I couldn't do that."

Uni's eyes widened and shimmered before she suddenly hugged her sister, who rolled her eyes but shifted her hold so that she was hugging Uni back. 'I'm so sorry that it took me so long to show you this much kindness.'

As they landed on the ground, Purple Heart gasped as she felt her chest throb. "Guh!" She dropped Rom and Ram before falling to her knees and releasing her HDD, returning to her human form. "That... That wasn't good."

"Big sis?" Rom looked at Neptune in worry. "Are you okay?"

"I..." Neptune panted, sweat pouring down her face. "I don't know." For once she wished Kurome would show up and taunt her or something. At least then she'd have a little bit of an idea of what was going on.

When she felt her very being throb again it took everything she had not to throw up right then and there. 'Ugh, this feels really icky.' If she had to try and explain it, the best she could come up with would be that time she ate pudding spiked with eggplant and had an upset stomach for awhile.

"Not surprised you'd be like this." Black Void said as she walked up to Neptune. "You had a bunch of Fearicite energy poured into you and then you had a shard of Fearicite crystal shoved into you. I'm surprised you lasted this long."

Neptune panted and nodded. "I guess that makes sense." She tried smiling, but a pained grimace was what crossed her face instead. "I don't think..."

"NEPTUNA!" Peashy's voice cut off Neptune and she looked up in time to see Peashy flying at her in a flying hug, which she barely caught. "Are you okay?" Peashy asked while hugging Neptune tightly.

Neptune nodded, "just tired, P-Ko. I'll probably need to sleep for a few days and pig out on pudding, but I'll be fine."

"Pudding?" Black Void asked as she reverted back to her human form. "If you're recovering you should probably get some proteins and grains, cheeses as well."

"...But I think pizza would make me sicker." Neptune gave the redhead a confused expression with her eyes screwed shut.

Noire raised an eyebrow. "...Pizza? No, I was thinking maybe some soup and sandwiches. I dunno, what do humans eat when they're sick anyway?"

"I do believe that Lady Noire's idea has merit." Steamax said as he walked up to the group. "Though perhaps a beef stew might be better for regaining energy?"

"...That sounds really good right now." Noire mumbled to herself. "And I'm getting kind of hungry."

"Too bad you won't get the chance to eat." A male voice spoke up as a screen popped up not far from the group. On the screen was Singe, looking at Noire with nothing but hate. "You had to ruin everything, didn't you?"

"So why were you working for Kei?" Noire asked him, "I'm in a mood somewhere between nice and upset, so don't give me any bullshit." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. "After everything else lately, I'm in no mood for bullshit."

"Fine!" Singe yelled and slammed his hands down on the armrest of the chair he was in. "You want to know why I worked with Kei? It's simple. I hate being subservient to anyone. Working with her to help develop weapons for Lastation, the Progbots! The Cybernetic enhancements! The battleships! The C.I.D. itself?!" He grinned at Noire. "It was perfect. I could get into a position and develop weapons to do what I wanted. And for someone who keeps harping on and on about order, you sure are a big hypocrite."

Noire raised an eyebrow. "Because I refused to let you strip people of their free will?"

"Exactly!" Singe yelled at her while throwing his arm to the side. "Your own orders and decrees meant that anyone who wasn't rich, anyone who wasn't living in the upper levels of society would have only three options to live. Work in the factories with a high chance of dying, work for one of the businesses in the slums or become a gang member and risk your anger."

"So?" Noire asked him. "If you had a better solution, I would have loved to have heard it."

"I could have turned all of the dregs of Lastation into loyal cyborg soldiers!" Singe proudly proclaimed. "All of those who are undesirable, who aren't rich or in charge would live as the chosen ones deem it."

"Wow!" Neptune spoke up, "you sound like a bad ruler from a video game who cares more about the ruling the world than his own people." She pointed dramatically at him. "People like you ruin your own nation just so that you can grasp power and control."

"Perhaps," Singe nodded, "but those of us in charge know better than the rest of you what to do."

Noire sighed and rubbed her forehead. "So you're someone who believes in Divine Rights and that you were put in charge by some higher power to lead your lessers, huh?" She pulled her hand down and narrowed her eyes at him. "I tried to be fair and only go after people who were committing obvious crimes, but it seems like I was mistaken. I think I'll come up to the C.I.D. personally and put an end to you."

Singe glared at her before taking a deep breath and chuckling. "Oh no, you don't need to come up here, in fact, Black Void," he sneered at her, "I'll do you a favor and come to you!"

"...I have a feeling, like he's planning something really bad!" Neptune declared as she jumped to her feet and pointed at Singe. "He's already declared himself to be an obvious bad guy! So he's probably got something obviously bad and evil planned!"

"Oh? Bad and evil, like what?" Singe asked as the C.I.D. floated towards them. "This thing has no weapons on it... But then again, I don't suppose I NEED any weapons when this thing can act as a make-shift nuclear bomb."

"WHAT?!" Everyone but Peashy, who didn't really understand what a nuclear bomb was, yelled in shock.

Singe laughed at them. "That's right! I set this thing on a collision course with Lastation! When it crashes into the ground it will explode, taking out most, if not all of Lastation, with it. And all of you worthless CPUs will die along with the very people you're trying to protect!"

"You misunderstand me, Singe," Noire sighed and shook her head, "I hate humans, most of you aren't worth the effort to protect." A black light engulfed her as she transformed back into Black Void, "but I won't let you destroy my nation!"

Singe laughed at her. "And what will you do? You barely have enough power to transform into your Void form! And the C.I.D. can resist everything you've got! You've got nothing!"

Black Void lowered her head, knowing he was right. "Dammit, I..."

"SHUT UP!" Uni yelled, causing Black Void to jerk. "Even if you think it's impossible, we'll find a way to stop this!"

"You'll die trying." Singe countered. "And just what can you do? All the Fearicite was destroyed when the giant was smashed, you're finished!"

Black Void closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she slowly let it out, she felt something at the edge of her senses. "...All of it, you say?"

"Lady Noire?" Steamax asked, his voice laced with worry.

"Just who do you think I am?" Black Void asked as she snapped her eyes open. "I am the Black Calamity of Lastation! If you think it's impossible, then I'll destroy your odds and show you just how wrong you are!"

"And what will you do?" Singe asked, a smug look on his face. "In the next two minutes all of Lastation will be destroyed, what can you do?"

Black Void glared at him with such intensity that Singe lost his smug look and everyone watched as a wet stain formed on his pants. "I told you, I am the Black Calamity of Lastation... JUST WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?!" She let loose a scream as the air itself started to vibrate and shake.

Suddenly there were lines of black and red energy rushing towards Black Void from where Dark Black had been before pooling in front of Black Void, reforming into a Fearicite Crystal.

"Well..." Neptune muttered softly, "that's convenient." She wasn't sure why the Fearicite did this, but right now, she wasn't going to complain. "Hmm, it's a good thing that Chromey killed Vert, Blanc and Plutie then..." She could only imagine how bad it would have been in Leanbox if Vert had forced her Fearicite Crystal to reform.

The mental image of being tentacled and force-bred with those vile creatures instantly popped into her head. "Eww..."

Black Void ignored Neptune and looked at the Fearicite Crystal. "So you'll give me another chance, huh?" She reached out and took the Fearicite Crystal into her hands as she was bathed with a red light. "Fine. Then let's smash our enemies one last time."

When the light faded, Black Nightmare stood there in all her glory. Smirking at the group, she let loose a howl and leaped into the air, zipping towards the C.I.D. at high speeds.

"Good luck." Uni, Steamax and Neptune all said at the same time while Peashy, Rom and Ram watched on.

(-)

As she raced through the air towards the C.I.D., Black Nightmare closed her eyes as the words of her elder sister came back to her.

"Noire, you're too soft-hearted." Sapphire Void's words rang through her mind. "You have too much kindness and compassion in you to become a Void. And even if you did, you'd never obtain your nightmare form."

"But I did, sister." Black Nightmare whispered softly. "And I did it my way." For a brief moment, she thought she saw her long-dead sister's face smiling proudly at her.

It didn't take her long to get above the skyscrapers as the C.I.D. got closer. "I'll stop you, here and now, Singe. And after I'm done with you I'll hunt down Mr. Badd and Anonydeath and rend them both from reality!" Focusing her power, she glowed brightly and zipped straight towards the bridge of the C.I.D., flying right at the main window and into the ship, smirking as she saw Singe's terrified face while he threw up his hands and screamed in fear as her clawed hands ripped through the space where his chest, spine and head were a moment ago.

Standing on the bridge of the C.I.D., Black Nightmare nodded. "This is pretty nice." She looked around for the main controls of the C.I.D. and sighed as she saw that her entrance onto the bridge of the ship had not only destroyed the main console, but several other consoles and the main chair that Singe had been sitting on had several more switches and buttons that had been shattered. "Well, fuck." Turning, Black Nightmare bent over so that her hands were on the ground, as was her feet, her butt high in the air as she ran forward on all fours. "Guess I'll need to go destroy the main reactor so this thing doesn't explode on the ground then."

As she ran, her face slowly turned more and more red. "Why do I feel like there's a bunch of perverts staring at my bare ass as I'm running right now?"

It didn't take her long to smash through a few doors and floors to get to the reactor and grimace as there was an actual energy field around the thing, preventing her from getting too close. "Man, you really thought of everything huh?" Black Nightmare muttered, though she wasn't surprised. After all, Singe had been behind most of the weapons manufacturing in Lastation.

Swaying side to side as she stood to her full height, Black Nightmare closed her eyes and took a deep breath as sirens went off, warning her about the approaching self-destruct and that she had to leave or be destroyed in the explosion. "Uni... Steamax... If I don't make it out of this," she whispered to herself before shaking her head, "no!" Her eyes started to glow as she held up a hand and a black bubble formed around her outstretched palm while energy tendrils spun and unraveled, revealing a black energy blade. "I WILL get out of this."

Red energy formed around the blade as the air crackled. "No matter what..." She held her sword high in the sky with both hands. "I WILL WIN!"

"Thirty seconds until self-destruct."

Black Nightmare let out a scream as she slashed down with all her might, all of reality seemingly being cut at that same moment. "Let me show you my Nightmare EXE move! Kei! Singe! Watch from the grave as I finish this!" Her eyes glowed brightly as she cut down. "RENDING BLADE!"

The attack cut through the barriers and into the reactor, causing a chain reaction that caused it to explode and engulf everything in the room, including Noire, who merely chuckled as she was engulfed in the explosion.

To be continued...

Noire, why do you have the Ragna Blade from Slayers as your Nightmare form EXE attack?