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

Not even my beta reader has read this chapter. I've kept this one pretty tightly closed up.

Chapter 61

Everyone watched as the C.I.D. suddenly started to erupt in the air as explosions came quickly, uncontrolled and loudly across its body.

When the large airship itself exploded into a fiery ball of destruction, people cheered loudly as the explosion was far enough away that nothing in Lastation would be harmed.

Well, nothing that wasn't hit by falling molten metal and shrapnel that is.

"Where's Noire..?" Uni asked, trembling. "She... She... She's not dead, right?"

Steamax said nothing as he scanned the air. "Lady Uni!" He gasped in amazement. "I see her, it's Lady Noire, but... Oh no!"

"What?" Uni and Neptune asked at the same time.

"She's in her human form and falling," Steamax didn't say anything more as he rushed to the nearest flying vehicle, which happened to be a bike and jumped on before rushing off into the sky.

"Man, it's a good thing that didn't give him any problems, like not starting up, because that would make for a really bad plot twist." Neptune said as she watched Steamax become a dot in the sky.

"Save Noire, Steamax..." Uni muttered softly. "Save her, please?"

(-)

Less than two minutes later...

"Lady Noire!" Steamax called out as he maneuvered his stolen bike into position and caught the falling CPU. "You're... Lady Noire!" He couldn't keep the shock out of his voice as he saw her.

The fact that her clothes were in tatters barely registered as he saw her cracked and burned skin, the blood coming out of her mouth and the look of pure pain on her face.

"Who..." Noire cracked an eye open. "Who's there? My vision's kind of blurry and I'm having a hard time hearing right now." Her voice was soft, sore and dry.

"It's me, Lady Noire, Steamax!" The ninja said as he settled onto the bike and quickly flew down to the ground.

"Stea...max?" Noire asked softly as she raised a trembling hand up to gently touch his face. "I never built you to fly, how are you doing this?"

"Even if you chained me to a mountain, I would find a way to escape and come to your aid when you need me, Lady Noire." Steamax said to her. "Please relax, I will get you to the Basilicom and heal you..."

"Take me to Uni." Noire told him, her voice solid.

"But..." Steamax began before sighing as he realized why she wanted to go to Uni. "I truly am sorry that I wasn't there."

"I won't let you die again because of me." Noire's voice was hoarse as she coughed. Lowering her arm, she shivered softly. "I'm so sorry, Steamax," she whispered and trembled.

"Hang on, Lady Noire, we're almost to where Lady Uni is. Please stay with me."

It took less than a minute to return to where Uni, Neptune, Rom, Ram and Peashy were located, Steamax noted, however, that several others, the one known as Chrome, her sister Filyn, the blonde girl, her rat friend and the blue-haired bunny girl all joined Neptune and formed a loose circle around Steamax as he landed and gently picked Noire up and put her down on the grass.

"NOIRE!" Uni cried out and grabbed her sister's hands. "Noire!" Her eyes started to water up. "You..."

"Not dead yet..." Noire coughed, her voice coming out very pained as she opened her eyes to look at her sister. "Uni..." She slid her hand up to cup Uni's face. "Become a good CPU for Lastation..." Noire shivered as it became harder to breathe. "I... I wanted to spend time together... To play games or just watch a movie." Noire looked at Neptune, "you..."

"Noire?" Neptune asked and knelt down next to the redhead, "what?"

"Take care of Uni..." She felt her eyes closing. "I don't want her to become a Void. Let her become a CPU with a... Heart..."

"Of course!" Neptune smiled at Noire and grabbed her other hand. "I wanted to stop her from becoming a Void anyway."

Noire smiled at that and trembled. "...Steamax... I'm so... So sorry... To leave you alone... Look... After... Uni... For me... And... Uni..." Her eyes closed completely as she took a few more shuddering breaths. "Don't... Hate... Humans... I did... That enough... And... I love you... Little sister."

With one last gasp, Noire sighed and relaxed as her body shut down. The injuries she had taken in the explosion finally took their toll on her body as her body dissolved and a red beam of light erupted upwards into the sky, leaving nothing but the Fearicite Crystal behind.

Noire, the CPU of Lastation, also known as Black Void, the Black Calamity of Lastation and Black Nightmare, was no more.

"...Noire..?" Uni whimpered as she watched the Fearicite Crystal fall to the ground, bouncing with a soft ting. "...Noire?" Her eyes started to water up as she grasped at the space that her sister had been a moment before. "NOIRE!" She cried out to the heavens, tears falling from her eyes as she openly cried. "NO! YOU CAN'T! WAAAAHHH! NOIRE!"

There was a small flash of light and the next thing she knew, a pair of warm arms were wrapped around her and her face was pressed against something soft and warm. Looking up, she saw Purple Heart giving her a sad look. "Go ahead, Uni," Purple Heart said, tears falling out of her eyes as she wrapped her arms around the grieving CPU Candidate, "let out all your pain and sadness."

Uni sniffled once as her eyes teared up again before she buried her face into Purple Heart's chest and crying loudly and shuddering while the CPU rubbed her back and let her cry her heart and soul out.

After waiting several minutes, which allowed Uni's sobs to taper off slowly, Linda spoke up. "I don't get it, why was she like that? I thought that Black Void would be like the other Voids."

Purple Heart tightened her hug on Uni when she felt the younger girl tense up. While rubbing Uni's back and whispering soothing things to her, she spoke up. "Even where I'm from, there are good humans," mental images of IF, Compa, Marvy, CC2, B-Sha and her other human friends popped into her mind as she spoke, "and bad humans," images of Linda from her dimension popped into her head, as did Anonydeath, "good CPUs," images of her CPU friends from her dimension, Yellow Heart, and the other Ultradimension CPUs, plus the candidates all flooded her mind, "and bad CPUs," memories of Rei Ryghts, Kurome and even CFW Magic appeared in her mind at that moment, "and just like them, there are good monsters and bad ones..." She looked down at Uni, who shifted and looked up at her with tears flowing out of her eyes. "And just like all of them... There are bad Voids that do nothing but bring harm to everyone around them..." She smiled at Uni, "and good Voids, who act bad, but do what they can to help others."

"That sounds like Lady Noire," Steamax nodded and jerked softly as Purple Heart looked at him and slowly let go of Uni. "Yes?" He asked as Purple Heart walked up to him.

"...I made a promise, on my life, that I would make sure that Noire would come back alive." She told him. "I failed."

Everyone stared at Purple Heart in shock, though Chrome was the fastest to recover. "You idiot!" She ran forward and grabbed Purple Heart, turning her body. "Don't throw your life away because you're feeling guilty! We still need you!"

"But..."

"You did," Steamax interrupted Purple Heart, "promise to bring her back alive, this is true."

"Steamax!" Uni gasped in horror. "You can't..."

"And you did just that." Steamax interrupted her, causing everyone to gasp and Purple Heart to stare at him in shock, "you promised to bring her home alive from fighting the giant." He then knelt down and bowed to Purple Heart, "for that, I thank you, from the bottom of my programming and for what passes for my heart."

Purple Heart smiled at him. "Thank..." Her eyes widened as her body throbbed painfully. "NNNGH!"

"Neptune?!" Chrome called out as Purple Heart released her HDD and returned to her human form before passing out. "Quickly! We need to get her in the Basilicom!"

"Allow me," Steamax said as he picked Neptune up, "I know where the facilities for healing her will be located and I can move the fastest." Chrome nodded to him and in a flash he was gone.

Chrome looked at where Noire had been and sighed as she saw the Fearicite Crystal still laying there. Every aspect of her being was telling her to destroy it, but seeing Uni crying while kneeling near it, she sighed and found herself unable to do so. 'Not yet, she just lost someone she loved.' Which was a shocker to her, that anyone could love a Void. 'No, stop it, Chrome. Black Void wasn't a Void like the other three were, she was as much of a Heart as Neptune is, she just had to use negative emotions to power herself.' Turning, she looked at Gust. "Do you have a glass beaker and a stopper?" Gust nodded and Chrome motioned towards the Fearicite. "Be a dear and put it in there, will you?"

"What are you going to do with it?" Uni asked as she slowly reached for the Fearicite Crystal and found herself unable to move as several wires wrapped around her arms. "HEY!"

"First of all, don't touch it. Secondly, I don't plan on doing anything to it right now." Uni gave her a confused look as Gust came over and put the Fearicite Crystal into the glass beaker and then put the stopper over it. Chrome released the wires and sighed softly. "I won't take away the last bit of your sister from you." Uni's eyes widened and she trembled softly.

"She..." Uni sniffled and looked up as Chrome knelt down next to her and smiled softly.

"She was a true CPU, just rough around the edges." Chrome pulled Uni into a soft hug. "Deep down, she still cared about something and that's why she's a true CPU. It's our jobs to protect the people of our lands, which is what she did. You should be proud of her."

"I am." Uni whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "I'll always be proud of her."

Chrome smiled softly and stood up while offering Uni a hand up. "Come on, we need to go make sure that Neptune is okay."

Taking the hand, Uni nodded in thanks as she got to her feet. "...Who... Who is she?"

Chrome was about to answer that when another person spoke up. "Big sis Neptune is the best." Rom said, causing Uni to look at her. "She saved me and Ram when we needed her. She saved Peashy. She tried to save you and your sister." The short-haired girl looked down sadly. "I... I don't like Voids, but your sister wasn't a bad person."

Uni took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "...We can talk more later, we need to check on your sister." Rom nodded at that, worried about Neptune and also hoping that Uni would be okay after everything was all said and done.

(-)

As he burst into the medical room that was only sporadically used, Steamax placed Neptune onto one of the med beds and quickly booted up the system to scan and look Neptune over. "Curses, I only have a basic idea of what these systems are for."

"Really, Steamboy," a voice caused the ninja to stiffen and spin around as the air distorted, revealing a familiar pink armor, "trying to do something beyond your programming?"

"You!" Steamax spun and took a stance. "You caused harm to the CPU Candidates! It was because of that..."

"Yes, I know," Anonydeath nodded at him, "as of right now, however, I'm your best bet to save that CPU's life." He tilted to the side to see Neptune's face grow paler with each moment while her breathing got more and more shallow. "It looks to me that she won't last too much longer."

"And I should trust you, why?" The ninja asked as he detached his ninja star.

"You shouldn't," Anonydeath told him bluntly, "but unless you want her to die or something worse, you need me to work on her."

Steamax stared at him for nearly a minute before he nodded and reattached his ninja star. "Be warned, I'm watching you."

"Of course," Anonydeath said as he held his hands up. "If you'll excuse me." He said as he floated over to where Neptune was and started to work the scanners and other devices to see what he could do to help her.

Several minutes later, there was a loud scream and Anonydeath turned to see Uni glaring at him with her guns pointed at him. "Oh yeah, you wouldn't be happy to see me, would you?"

"What are you doing to her?" Uni snarled while everyone behind her looked at Anonydeath with varying degrees of distrust and anger.

"Get away from big sis Neptune!" Both Rom and Ram yelled at him while magic started to fill the air.

Sighing dramatically, Anonydeath shook his head. "Sure, go ahead, take away the one person who can help you right now. I'm sure that watching your beloved big sister suffer right now is what you want." He held up a hand, "and before you ask why you should trust me," he shrugged and looked back at Neptune and the scans before nodding, "well, she'll be okay for a little while. Do you want to know why you have no choice but to trust me?" Turning to look back at the group, he scratched his chin. "Actually, it would be best if there were fewer people here. I don't like being interrupted." He sighed when he saw none of them were moving. "Alright, I guess since no one will move," he moved into a sitting position and most everyone was surprised when he sat on the air. "Anti-gravity seats are the most comfortable, I find."

"...You sound familiar." Compa spoke up, "why do you..."

"AH! The cutie that I made new arms for!" Anonydeath waved at her happily. "How are your arms working out for you?"

"AH!" Compa's eyes widened and she pointed at him, her fingers shaking. "You're that nice, handsome weirdo that gave me my arms!"

"Weirdo?" Anonydeath asked, his voice sounding sulky and whiny. "That's so mean! Anyway!" He huffed, ignoring any further comments from Compa and spoke to the others. "So, while you were all captured, being poked, prodded and experimented on," he mentally sighed at the looks of anger from the CPU Candidates and the older CPU and continued to speak, "I was gathering data on CPUs. It's quite interesting, considering that you," he pointed at Chrome, "you," he pointed at Filyn, "and her," he jerked a thumb at Neptune, "are not Voids, but some other type of CPU, Hearts, I believe that one calls herself?"

"Yes." Chrome told him. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I'm getting to it, sheesh," he huffed in annoyance, "well, that specific part was just allowing you to know that I have data that's pertinent to this situation. Now, there's some actual information you should know that concerns Kei, Gernia G. and myself."

"What?" Uni asked, barely holding herself back from pulling her rifle out and blasting Anonydeath's head off. "What connection do you have to those two monsters?!"

Anonydeath sighed and shook his head. "Well, I won't deny that Gernia G. was a monster, even back when she wasn't as bad as she got, she was still pretty bad."

"What do you mean?" Chrome asked, confusion in her voice and on her face.

"Well, see, Kei wasn't the only slave that Noire freed." Anonydeath told them as he pointed to himself. "Kei was like a little sister to me while we were slaves." He held up his hands and shook his head. "Please, I know that she went off the deep end, but she was a cute kid when we were small. In the aftermath I lost track of her and I fell into Gernia G.'s hands. She's actually the reason I was able to learn cybernetics and power armors."

"What?" Chrome spoke up, "you're going to tell us that Gernia G. was actually very kind or something in the past?"

"Huh?" Anonydeath tilted his head in confusion. "Oh! No. She was always someone who would gladly peel the skin on your stomach away just to see how your organs worked in real time while commenting over how she hated waiting for coffee to cook properly." Turning to look at the screen, he sighed and looked back at the group. "But there was a sense to her, back then, that she'd only do something like that if it was needed, if it would advance science and medicine. She single-handedly advanced medicine and science in Lastation by over a century, you see."

"Impressive," Chrome said, her voice bored, "can you get to the point?"

Anonydeath sighed and nodded, "well, while I was working for Gernia G., suddenly Kei pops up into the lab and I couldn't believe it was her. She was a sweet kid, someone who was timid, eager to please and shy. In fact, she genuinely was grateful for being freed by Noire at the time. However, when I saw her again, she was assertive, dominant and kind of scary. I don't know what changed at first. I know now it's because she took control of rival gangs and became a leader among them. It toughened her up. Sadly, somewhere along the way, she lost herself."

"And so she recruited Gernia G. and you to undermine my sister and take over Lastation?" Uni asked, snarling at Anonydeath, who nodded to her. "HOW DARE YOU!?"

"I was only in it to find out just what the hell was going on." Anonydeath told her. "Gernia G. worked for Kei until your sister declared her a criminal and then she disappeared for awhile. The next time I saw her, and I found her only a few months after she disappeared, she had changed." He shook his head. "She became so crazy that... Oh!" Anonydeath made a fist with his left hand and slapped it into his open right hand. "That reminds me, Uni-dear, you may want to have a scan of yourself done. You don't know what Gernia G. put into you."

"I'll take care of that," Steamax told them, getting a nod from Uni. "Continue with your story. Why did you undermine Lady Noire?"

Anonydeath sighed heavily. "I wasn't trying to, directly, undermine her. I was trying to find out why Kei had become the way she did. Even knowing her backstory, there were just details that didn't add up. Why was she so obsessed with the Fearicite and why did she consider Noire to be a failure? Heck, she often called Noire an idiot when she wasn't around." He shook his head and sighed before looking back at Neptune's status screen. "It's almost like... It's almost like something was possessing her, but I can't prove anything."

"Possessing her..?" Chrome muttered softly as her pupils shrank. "...If it could corrupt Neptune... And Kei did use it to... FUCK!" Chrome suddenly screamed, causing everyone to jerk and Anonydeath to fall out of the air and to the ground with a painful thud.

"Owwies! Hey! Sister! Warn me the next time you scream like that." Anonydeath grumbled as he stood up. "My metal frame is solid as heck, but I bruise easily."

"Kei was able to reform the Fearicite after she shattered it," Chrome spoke softly as the big picture started to come together, "she also modified it so that anyone could use it..." Chrome's face paled as she realized the implications of what was going on. "The Fearicite possessed Kei and manipulated her into doing the things she did." She didn't know if that was true or not, since her brain was seemingly working on overtime, but if it was then... "If that thing can influence people into behaving like actual Voids, then it can potentially influence anyone..." Her face went stark white at the prospect. "...No one is safe."

"...FUCK!" The fact that those words came out of Compa's mouth caused more than a few people to jerk in surprise.

To be continued...

So, in case anyone forgot, when a CPU that's in a stage higher than their normal HDD form uses that form's exclusive EXE attack, they burn up all the energy they have and return to their human forms.

Noire in her human form, being consumed by a nuclear-class explosion point-blank, you think she'd survive that?