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

Hey, a second chapter on the same day? Enjoy!

Chapter 79

Walking into the Basilicom in the early morning was always a pain for Cave. While she had mastered working long days on only a couple of hours of sleep, she was like most people and would rather have at least six hours of sleep a night. MAGES. often made fun of her sleeping habits, especially after Cave ended up taking a two hour nap for no reason.

That was neither the first nor the last time that Cave had taken sudden naps for no reason.

Rubbing her eyes to get rid of the gunk that had built up and fighting the urge to yawn, she looked around and saw the over-night staff that were looking tired, but were doing their best to greet anyone that walked in and deal with stuff. "Good morning." She nodded at one of the girls.

"Good morning, Chief Security Officer." The staff member said to Cave. "I know you're shocked by this as well, but yes, the CPU is actually awake right now."

Cave nodded and smirked to herself. "If she's awake now, I wonder if she'll be taking a nap later." The Basilicom staff members all chuckled nervously at that. If the CPU got to sleep at night, she slept in, but if she stayed up and took a nap, well...

They had no clue how long she would be asleep. So far her record was a week straight, though some people wondered if she was really sleeping that long or if she just didn't bother getting out of her room and stayed in bed all day.

Cave walked to the tall stairs and went up them and wondered why the CPU would have her room at the top of so many stairs. She understood why the CPU would have her room where it was though, since the Void of Planeptune was an attention whore unlike any that Cave had ever known and always seemed to want people to know when she was around. When she got to the top, she stopped to take a deep breath before pressing the button to the CPU's room.

"Who is it?"

"Cave, my lady." Cave answered and was told to enter the room, which she did.

Sitting on her bed and looking extremely tired, was the Void of Planeptune, Neptune, who gave Cave a hard look. "I'm pretty sure you know where those invaders from the other nations are at, right?"

"...I have an idea where they are, why do you ask?" Cave wondered what her CPU's plan was.

Yawning, Neptune waved her hand. "Deliver a message to them for me." Cave tilted her head and nodded. "In three days, because I'm going to take a nap after you leave, the Knights and I will be coming for them." Cave stiffened and Neptune smirked at her. "Oh, and you'll be joining us."

"Huh? But I'm..."

"Head of the security forces and someone whom I will have as one of my Knights." Neptune told her, causing Cave to go silent. "MAGES. has been wanting you to join for awhile now, so you're going to join." She smirked at Cave. "So think of this as a test. If you manage to do well in helping me deal with these invaders, you'll become a Knight."

"Yes." Cave nodded and took a knee while bowing to Neptune. "It will be an honor to serve you." After all, refusing Neptune's offer was... Not a smart idea.

"Anyway, go do what you gotta do." Neptune told her and flopped back onto her bed. "I'm gunna take a nap. Oh, and have someone tell my sister that's she free to do what she wants for a couple of days."

"Right." Cave nodded and left the room. After getting out, she sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Have someone inform Lady Nepgear, huh?"

(-)

A couple of minutes later...

There was a knock on her door and Nepgear looked confused but she turned from where she was sitting in front of a mirror while brushing her hair. "Come in." She had her pajamas on and wasn't showing any indecent amount of skin. Plus she knew it had to be someone other than Neptune, her sister never knocked when she came into the room.

"Excuse me for the intrusion, Lady Nepgear." Cave said as she entered the room.

Nepgear's eyes widened as she saw Cave and she smiled. "It's been so long!"

Cave looked at Nepgear with a bit of a sad smile on her face. "Lady Nepgear, your sister told me to tell you that she was going to be taking a nap for a couple of days and that you were free to do what you wanted during that time."

Nepgear looked surprised but it didn't take her long to smile. "Well, it would be nice to get out of here without having to worry about getting back before my sister decides to try something weird again." She giggled at Cave's expression. "Maybe I can see that Uni girl and her boyfriend again?"

"Uni?" Cave gave her a confused look and Nepgear nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, she claims to be the CPU Candidate of Lastation and she seems kind of interesting."

Cave raised an eyebrow. "Interesting?"

"Well," Nepgear pouted at Cave, "I've never met anyone from another nation before, so I thought..."

"If you hurry up and get dressed, I'll take you to where she is." Cave interrupted Nepgear, who stared in shock, which caused Cave to smile at her. "I have to deliver a message to them today anyway."

"AH!" Nepgear's eyes seemingly lit up. "Let me get dressed then!" She quickly stripped out of her clothes, leaving her in her frilly, sexy underwear, while Cave turned around to give Nepgear some privacy while she got dressed. "ACK! I hate trying to get these stockings on."

"You know that you could wear something other than your sexy maid outfit." Cave told her.

"But big sis always finds out when I wear something else." Nepgear protested as she got her garter belt on. "The last time she found out, I was forced to wear a tiny thong and no skirt for a week." Nepgear pouted heavily. "It was so embarrassing to have people staring at my butt for that time. And big sis kept telling me that she could have spanked me so that I would have a bright red bum."

Cave sighed and felt her shoulders slumping. "Lady Nepgear... Why do you put up with it?"

"She's my sister." Nepgear told her. "Besides, I know she does mean things, but I know that she cares about me."

Cave was silent and looked back at Nepgear, who was putting the finishing touches on her maid outfit. 'Does she though?'

There were times that Cave wanted to take Nepgear away from the CPU of Planeptune, but she knew that it wouldn't end well for anyone. 'Our CPU is too possessive of her.'

"I'm ready." Nepgear smiled as she finished her outfit.

"Then let's go." Cave smiled softly.

(-)

A little while later...

Uni sighed as she, Rom and Filyn all walked downstairs into the main area of the guild. "So you need to go back into the catacombs today?" She asked Filyn, who nodded at her.

"Yeah, even if we took care of that scary boss monster, there were other monsters and it wouldn't hurt to take down a few more." Filyn told her. "Plus we..."

"Excuse me." A member of the guild staff spoke up and the three looked at her. "There's someone here looking for you."

"Huh?" All three looked confused and turned to where the staff member was pointing. Standing there was a redhead with her hair in pigtails while wearing a skin-tight black body suit and a girl in a French Maid outfit that Uni instantly recognized.

"Oh hey!" Uni smiled at the purple-haired girl. "It's Nepgear."

"Isn't that big sis's little sister?" Rom asked, getting a nod from Filyn and Uni. "Neat!" She smiled, knowing that Neptune would be happy to see her little sister. Part of her, however, was worried now that they had found Nepgear that Neptune would no longer care about them.

The redhead and Nepgear walked over to the three girls. "Good morning." The redhead said to them. "I don't suppose that one of you could get the rest of your group together so I can deliver this message once, could you?"

"I'll go get the others." Filyn said as she turned and ran back upstairs to the rooms.

Nepgear smiled at Uni and waved while looking somewhat nervous. After all, she had no clue how things were with Uni's group, for all she knew the rest of Uni's group were really bad people.

Cave looked at Uni and then at Rom and closed her eyes while taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. Opening her eyes, she walked over to Uni and Rom. "You're the CPU Candidates of Lastation and Lowee, correct?" Both girls jerked in surprise and Cave smirked at them. "Here's a tip, if you're trying to keep a secret, don't react like that when someone says something that's too close to home."

"What are you going to do?" Rom asked.

Cave sighed and shook her head. "MAGES. is right, you need to control your temper." Rom looked surprised and Cave gave her a look of understanding. "I can see the anger in your eyes, girl."

"Might I ask you not to scare them?" Cave looked to the person who spoke and saw a woman with long silver hair who wore pants, boots and a shirt that looked a little out of place in Planeptune, but wasn't too uncommon for those who went to the catacombs constantly. Next to her was a girl with blonde hair, the one-eyed girl, a girl with long brown hair and...

"Neptune?!" Nepgear gasped as she saw the last girl.

"Nep..." Neptune's face was pale as she saw her younger sister. "Nepgear..?" She was going to run forward when Chrome grabbed her arm. "What?" She gave Chrome a hurt and confused look. "You see her too, right?"

"Yes, but I don't want you falling down and breaking your neck or something." Chrome pointed out.

"I've fallen thousands of feet before and only had a small bump on the head." Neptune pointed out and Chrome sighed, nodded and let go of Neptune's arm. "Thank you." She smiled at Chrome before turning to Nepgear. "NEPGEAR!"

"WAGH!" Nepgear let out a cry as Neptune dive-tackled her, from the stairs, at speeds that had everyone staring in shock.

"It's you!" Neptune cried out as she hugged Nepgear while the two were crashed onto the ground. "Oh I missed you so much!"

"Ack!" Nepgear's eyes were wide and she had a shocked look on her face as Neptune started babbling about how it had been so long since she had seen her and things that she didn't know. "Wh...What the..?"

Seeing Neptune hugging Nepgear tightly and sobbing, Chrome just smiled and walked up to Cave, who was looking at the scene in a mixture of confusion and worry. "Just give them a little bit, okay?"

"I am..." Cave began and Chrome just gave her a knowing look.

"Believe me, it's probably confusing for you, for that girl, for a lot of people," Chrome looked at the sheer look of happiness and tears on Neptune's face and could only smile softly. "But just let her get this out of her system and then we can talk."

Cave looked at the girl who looked so much like her CPU and the look of sheer joy on her face and decided that she could abide by that request.

After all, she knew that her CPU would never look that happy no matter what.

To be continued...

You were expecting a rescue of Nepgear? But it was me, DIO! All along!

Okay, now that I got that reference out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.