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

I changed the cover image for the fic. Artwork is by Shiena. Thank you so much.

Chapter 63

As consciousness slowly came back to her, Neptune opened her eyes and found that she was really comfortable. "What time..?"

"It's really early." A soft voice made her jerk and she rolled her body slightly and found herself blushing as she realized the position she was in. "Welcome back." Chrome smiled down at her.

"Um..." Neptune had an embarrassed look on her face. "How did I end up getting a lap pillow from you?" She had to admit, Chrome's thighs felt really comfortable and... "Wait, are you not wearing pants?"

"I sleep in my underwear." Chrome told her. "You were looking uncomfortable with that pillow, so I moved a bed in here, put it next to yours and put your head on my lap. You calmed down and fell into a deep sleep."

"Oh, um... Thank you." Neptune smiled at her and blinked as she realized she felt Chrome's hand running through her hair. "Um... Chromey?"

"Just helping you relax." Chrome told her. "How are you feeling?"

"A bit better. Sore everywhere..." Neptune closed her eyes and rolled over, pressing her face against Chrome's legs. "...Chrome... I'm scared."

Chrome rubbed Neptune's back. "We put one of those power suppressor collars around your neck." Neptune nodded and trembled. "I promise you, Neptune, you won't become a Void." Neptune shifted and Chrome could feel her sobbing softly into her legs. "Neptune, it's..."

"I failed to save someone who wasn't a bad person, Chrome." Neptune whimpered. "I keep failing. I failed to save Plutie's sister. I failed to save Noire. And the bad guys brainwashed all our sisters because I couldn't keep fighting and now I'm turning into a Void and..."

Neptune found herself lifted up and her face pressed into Chrome's chest while the elder CPU hugged her softly, whispering to her softly while letting her softly cry.

"You're wrong, Neptune." Chrome said to her while letting her cry. "You haven't failed. You saved Rom and Ram, you stopped White Void, you saved Peashy, you stopped Green Void and you stopped Iris Void."

"But what about..?" Neptune lifted her tear-streaked face to look at Chrome. "What if I get to Planeptune and there's a Nepgear there that's being abused? Or worse, what if she's already a Void?"

"You can't get bogged down by "what if" and "if only", Neptune." Chrome had a somber look on her face. "That path leads to doubt, depression and feelings of suicide."

"...Chrome?" Neptune blinked a few times as Chrome shifted and hugged her again. "Chrome?"

"Don't fall down the path I did, Neptune." Chrome told her while trembling. "If I hadn't gone down that path, maybe the world would be better off." She felt Neptune hug her back. "Please..." Chrome whispered to her. "You're too important to everyone... Don't give into the Fearicite."

Neptune hiccuped once before crying again, this time Chrome felt herself following along.

'How odd,' Chrome thought while smiling and feeling her eyes burning, 'I thought I cried all my tears away years ago.' And yet, holding Neptune, she couldn't help but cry for the CPU. 'I wish I could go HDD freely.' While Steamax had said he'd get her staff back for her, she really needed to regain her HDD form.

'Not for me or my dead people,' her revenge was over and she no longer needed it for that. Chrome focused on the mess of light purple hair with red and black stripes in it that she was hugging and nodded. 'If I could go HDD one more time, I want to go HDD for her. She's giving her all for us, we need to give back to her.'

(-)

The next morning...

Groaning as she woke up, Uni looked around her room and rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them. "What time is it?" She asked and sat up, finding that it was just after six in the morning. "Well, I guess I was exhausted." She frowned in confusion. "I wonder why Noire let me..." Her eyes widened as memories from the previous day came flooding back. "That..." She trembled and pulled her knees up to her face. "That's right... Noire... Noire's gone." She softly sobbed into her legs, feeling the pain of losing her big sister all over again. "Why?" She asked, her voice hoarse as her tears came rushing out of her eyes again.

It was almost ten minutes later when the door to her room opened up. "I don't think... OH! You're awake!"

Uni lifted her head and blinked a few times to get the tears to break up so she could see clearly. "Who?" It wasn't working, so she rubbed her eyes out with her hands.

When she pulled her hands down, she saw the person had moved next to her bed. "I'm Neptune." She smiled at Uni. "CPU of Planeptune and the main character of this story." She giggled at Uni's confused look. "Don't worry about it."

"You were..." Uni gave her a confused look and finally noticed the collar around her neck. "Wait, that collar, isn't that..."

"Ah!" Neptune giggled and ran a finger over it. "Yeah, it restricts the Fearicite energy in me, at least that's what Chrome told me. Mind if I sit next to you?" Uni shook her head and Neptune smiled and plopped onto bed next to her. "Thanks. Anyway, Chrome told me that Anonydeath was going to work on a modified one."

"...You trust him?" Uni asked, her voice soft as she looked down. "It's because of him that..." She stopped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Neptune giving her a sad smile.

"He's a bit of a meanie." Neptune admitted to her. "The other version of him brainwashed my daughter and forced us to fight for ten years."

"Other version?" Uni asked, confusion in her voice. "What's that about?"

Neptune shifted so that her knees were pulled up against her chest and she turned her head so she could rest it against her knees. "Well, it's like how jelly and jam are very similar, but one's more jiggly and the other one is made up of stuff? Kind of like that." She giggled at Uni's confused look and sighed. "I'm a CPU from Gamindustri."

"...Gamindustri?" Uni asked as Neptune sat up and straightened her legs out. "So what's that... Another world?" Neptune nodded and Uni rubbed her head. "I thought that stuff was all science fiction."

Neptune giggled at her. "I know! It felt so weird to me too at first."

"So why are you here?" Uni asked and jerked as Neptune reached in and gently rubbed the tears out of her eyes.

"I want to help you." Neptune said gently. "I mean, when I helped P-Ko, Rom and Ram, they were in a really bad place." She pulled her hands away from Uni's face. "You aren't in the same bad place as they were in. So I'm not sure what to do here."

"...What to do?" Uni asked her.

"Well..." Neptune scratched her cheek and looked a little nervous. "I took Rom, Ram and P-Ko with me to help them learn to be good CPUs because the Voids that were in charge before were really bad?"

"As bad as Kei?" Uni raised an eyebrow and Neptune nodded. "Bullshit!"

Neptune sighed, knowing that Uni wouldn't believe her. "Ask Rom and Ram about what they went through."

"...They didn't like talking it." Uni told her and Neptune tilted her head. "We... We talked some yesterday for a few hours while you were out."

"Oh!" Neptune smiled at that. "I'm glad you're friends then." She giggled as Uni blushed softly. "Anyway, yeah, White Void was a real meanie and hurt them a lot. And in Leanbox, well... Green Void was a real pervert and tried to force herself on me and Iris Void was..."

Uni watched as Neptune shuddered and went pale. "...That bad?" Neptune nodded and the black-haired girl sighed softly. "What should I do?"

"What do you want to do?" Neptune asked her and Uni gave her a confused look. "Do you want to stay here? Do you want to come with us? At least to see what it's like in the other nations?"

Uni bit her lip softly. "...Noire wanted me to be a good CPU." She gave Neptune a serious look. "Then... Teach me to be a good CPU, please?"

Neptune smiled at her. "Sure!" She got off the bed and spread her arms wide while taking several steps forward before spinning and winking at Uni while putting her right hand by her head with her index and middle fingers extended. "But first! There's something very important we need to do!"

"...What?"

"Breakfast! I'm starving!" Neptune giggled as Uni twitched and fell over, which wasn't that far, considering that she was in bed, and caused Neptune to giggle at her.

(-)

After breakfast...

Uni found herself in Noire's office again, this time with Steamax, Neptune and Chrome with her. "I... Should I be in here?"

"It's technically your office now," Chrome said to her as she looked around and sighed. "A messy office."

"To be fair, with the mess that the others made in here, there was no time to clean it up." Steamax told her. "Lady Uni..."

"...Lastation still needs someone in charge." Uni told him and walked over to the desk, before sitting in the chair and sighing again. It didn't feel right, being in Noire's chair. Not like this. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm down and activated the computer terminal to see the list of things that needed to get done. "...This is a lot of stuff."

Neptune came up behind her and looked at the list. "Wowza! That's a lot of stuff!" It kind of amused her that no matter what dimension she was in, Lastation always seemed to have a ton of paperwork and other stuff to do.

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "if you could create some extra terminals for Lady Neptune and Lady Chrome, perhaps they could help?"

"We are CPUs after all." Chrome told Uni, who nodded and opened up some terminals at points across the room. "Well, at least I won't get hand cramps with stamps and pens." Chrome muttered as she went to another terminal and sat down, going over the information. Neptune took a seat next to Uni to help her out directly.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Rom, Ram and Peashy all found their way into the office at various points. While Uni had been against the idea of them being in there again, when they sat down at the holo-terminals and began helping, Uni relaxed and continued her work.

"Hey..." Uni looked at Neptune, who paused to look back at her. "Um... Noire was really good at her job. I can't possibly do what she did. And even she needed help running the nation."

"My suggestion," Chrome told her, "is to find some people that you can trust." She sighed at the dirty look on Uni's face. "Don't be like that."

"It's not that, it's..." Uni trailed off, trying to describe how she felt.

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "Lady Noire had her reasons for not trusting people. But can you say that you trust no one?"

Uni was about to answer when she looked around the office and saw Neptune, Rom, Ram, Peashy and Chrome before looking back at Steamax and shaking her head. "No. I know that I can trust some people. I just don't know who I can trust."

"Um..." Neptune spoke up, "I know that this might be a bit weird, but why not Brave? Noire said she wanted to rebuild him. Maybe if his memory is still there he can be useful?" She didn't know that much about robots as that was more of Nepgear's strength, but she did pay attention to things from time to time.

"...That's not a bad idea." Uni said, nodding. "I'll have to figure some more stuff out."

"Hey, Uni," Ram spoke up and Uni looked at her as she smiled at her. "Don't worry about Lastation, you'll be a great leader." Rom and Peashy both nodded, though it was obvious Peashy wasn't doing much with the terminal as she was just touching it all over the place without looking at it.

Uni, Chrome and Neptune all sweat-dropped as they looked at Peashy doing that. At least the three of them could look over what she was doing and fix any problems later.

"Thanks." Uni smiled, before sighing softly. "Um..." She fidgeted softly as everyone looked at her. "...If it's okay... I'd... I'd like to have a funeral for Noire."

"Sure." Chrome smiled at her. "How big do you want it?"

Uni sighed softly and shook her head. "I want to keep it small, just us, okay?" The others nodded and Uni had a small smile on her face. "I think that's how she'd want it."

"Yeah, probably." Neptune thought about making a loner joke, but decided that it wouldn't be a good time to make that. "Both of the Noires that I know were kind of private people."

"Thanks." Uni smiled and went back to doing the paperwork as she thought about how to set up the funeral. "Huh?" She blinked as she came across something unusual. "What's..." Her pupils went blank and white while an angry expression crossed her face. "Hey! Who charged the Basilicom for hospital services rendered?!"

When Uni read off the services, Chrome sweat-dropped and fought the urge to blush and chuckle. 'Ooops.' She thought to herself and tried to keep quiet.

To be continued...

Brick jokes are fun.

Also, I had no idea what to name this chapter.