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

Chapter 81

"Can you excuse me?" Rom asked as she stood up from the table and walked away.

Uni watched her go and looked at Ram, who was chatting with Nepgear and Filyn. "Excuse me." She said and got up from the table and walked after the shorter girl.

"I wonder what's going on?" Nepgear asked as she watched Uni follow after Rom and turned back to Filyn, answering her questions as best she could.

(-)

Stepping outside, Rom didn't care if people saw her use her magic to launch herself to the top of the guild building. She stalked across the roof and glared at nothing in particular.

"You know, being mad for no reason isn't going to help anyone, much less yourself." Uni said from behind and Rom turned to look at the black-haired girl, who was walking towards her while not looking directly at her. "We're CPU Candidates, we can feel people's emotions, you know? That's something Neptune told me."

"What do you want then?" Rom asked and turned away from Uni to look across the city.

"To talk, to learn more about you, I dunno." Uni said and walked over to the edge of the roof that Rom was next to. The edge was slightly elevated from the roof of the building, allowing Rom to lean on it as she looked across Planeptune, and it allowed Uni to sit on it. "...What do you think will happen when we're done here?"

"I don't know." Rom answered Uni. "Maybe big sis Neptune can stay with us. Maybe she'll leave us for good."

"...You really love her, huh?" Uni asked and Rom nodded, her eyes tearing up. "...Is that why you're mad?" Uni asked, much to Rom's confusion. "Are you mad at her because she'll be leaving soon?"

"What?!" Rom had a shocked look on her face, "no! I could never be mad at big sis!"

Uni sighed and shifted so she could look out at Planeptune. The buildings were just as square and stone as she had ever seen them. "Are you mad at someone else then?" When Rom didn't answer her, Uni took that as a sign to continue talking. "I don't think I'd ever be able to be the CPU of Lastation."

"Huh?" Rom had no clue where this was coming from. "What do you mean?"

Uni had a downcast look on her face. "If becoming a good CPU means I have to care for the people of Lastation, I can't do it." She trembled as her eyes started to burn. "They... They took Noire from me. How can I care for them if they'd do that?"

"Uni..." Rom trailed off as images of what White Void had done to her and Ram flashed through her mind and how people only stopped to stare and watch as they were beaten and abused by White Void. "I..." She bit her lower lip and fought the urge to cry. "I hate them... The people of Lowee. They watched, they didn't do anything for me or Ram. They let us get beaten and hurt and no one ever tried to help us."

"Until Neptune?"

Rom shook her head. "Compa tried to help us, but she got her arms chopped off by White Void. No one else did. I..." She balled her hands into fists.

Uni looked at Rom and wished she knew what to do.

"I was forced to watch as that monster..." Tears flowed from Rom's eyes. "I had to watch her chop Compa's arms off!" She looked at Uni and the black-haired CPU Candidate could only look on, unsure how to respond to that. "Compa should hate me and Ram. But..." Rom screwed her eyes shut. "She still cares so much!"

"And Neptune was the first one to stand up for you."

Rom nodded at that. "Uh huh, yeah. I... I don't know what to do."

"Neither do I." Uni sighed heavily. "What should..." She trailed off as a thought came to her. "...Do you think maybe we should talk to Neptune? I mean.." Uni bit her lip lightly. "She is a CPU, even if she's silly at times, maybe she can help us?"

Rom's shoulders slumped. "...She'll be upset at me."

Uni gave Rom a sharp look, "you think she'll be anything like White Void?" Rom shook her head. "Then I think we'll be fine, come on." She got up and grabbed Rom's arm. "Let's go."

"WAGH!" Rom yelped out as she was pulled along and was moving in an exaggerated motion to try and keep her balance.

(-)

A few minutes later...

"Huh?" Neptune looked at Rom and Uni as she and Chrome had been pulled into the room that the two CPUs had used the night before. "What do you mean, Rom?"

Rom looked down, her face full of shame and loathing. "I... I really don't want you to be mad, but..." When no one said anything she looked up, tears filling her eyes, and continued. "I hate the people of Lowee. They... None of them tried to help me or Ram. I'm sorry!" Her tears fell as she looked down again, unable to look at Neptune. "I know you want me to be a good CPU, but I can't ever... I can't... I can't..."

When Rom felt hands on her shoulders, she looked up to see Neptune giving her a gentle smile. "Rom, it's okay." She hugged Rom, who hugged her tightly and started bawling her eyes out. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm not mad." She whispered as Rom cried even harder.

Both Chrome and Uni watched, silently, as Rom cried and apologized every other sentence while Neptune told her it was okay each time.

Eventually Rom stopped crying and pulled away, her face covered in tears while Neptune's shoulder was soaked from her crying. Neptune just smiled and reached up with her thumbs to gently rub the tears out of Rom's eyes. "I'm not mad, Rom."

"Tell me something, Uni." Chrome looked at the other CPU Candidate. "Do you feel anger and hate towards the people of Lastation?" She looked at Uni, who was looking down, before she nodded. "I see."

"Are you upset with me?" Uni asked.

"No." Neptune answered her. "I don't think Chrome is either."

"Of course not." Chrome shook her head. "I can't say that I'm happy to hear this from the two of you, but you were born from Fearicite, so I can't be upset. And," she trailed off and looked at Neptune. "I should have seen this coming." The other three looked at her and Chrome elaborated. "I've been so concerned about what Neptune's going through that I haven't thought about what the rest of you are feeling."

"But you aren't mad?" Rom asked with a troubled expression on her face. "I know you want me to be a good CPU, but I'm just..."

"Rom," Neptune smiled at her. "It's okay." Rom blinked a few times, not understanding, "I want you, Ram, P-Ko, Uni and even Nepgear all choose if you want to be CPUs, okay?"

"Huh?" Uni, Rom and even Chrome said at the same time.

"There's no point in making you be CPUs if you don't want to." Neptune told her. She had a pensive look on her face before she nodded. "I met a couple of people who became CPUs and didn't want to rule a nation. One of them lost her people, her nation and her powers. She lived for a long, long time before deciding that since her people rejected her and made her lose everything, she would destroy everything so that more CPUs couldn't be made and betrayed by their people."

"...What happened to her?" Chrome asked.

Neptune smiled at the memory. "Me, P-Ko, Nepgear, Plutie and our friends got together and beat her up." She really did need to check in on Rei in the future to see how she was doing. "There was another girl who became a CPU. She didn't know what she was doing and was all alone and made bad choices that caused her people to abandon her as well. But you know what?"

"What?" Rom asked, wondering who this second person was.

Neptune smiled at Rom. "Me, Plutie and my other friend, we went to her nation and helped her when she needed friends. Now she's a good CPU who looks after her people and she helped stop the other Goddess."

"Can I ask you something?" Uni asked Neptune, who looked at her and nodded. "...Did the people of your nation ever..." She trailed off as she tried to collect her thoughts. "Did they ever betray you?"

"More than once." Neptune answered and everyone suddenly jerked in shock, staring at her silently as Neptune just smiled at them. "Hmm... Let's see..." Neptune looked up and tapped her chin, "Well, there was the time people got tricked with free, pirated games and we lost our shares and me, my sister and the other CPUs of my world were captured for years by tentacles and were slowly dying before we got saved. Then there was the time that B-Sha took over my nation by accident."

"...How do you have your nation taken over by accident?" Uni asked, trying to comprehend what happened.

"Ah!" Neptune giggled at the memory. "Kurome erased everyone's memories of the CPUs and changed the world since shares were really weak. It's a good thing my friends and their sisters had a good amount of personal shares or they would have died I think."

"How can you not hate them?" Rom asked and Neptune looked at her. "They betrayed you, the people hurt you. They didn't care to help you when you needed it. One of them even stole your nation from you."

"Because," Neptune's face was completely serious as she spoke, "they don't mean it."

"But!" Rom and Uni both said at the same time.

Neptune closed her eyes and shook her head. "B-Sha never wanted my nation. When shares got really weak, all of the CPUs and our little sisters of our world put on a fighting tournament and during the final round, B-Sha and her friends showed up to challenge us. They had gotten some power similiar to ours and wanted to see how strong it was. Well," Neptune giggled and rubbed the back of her head, "they were really strong and kicked our butts good. Then Kurome decided that was the time to mess with Gamindustri and make everyone forget us. In the end, we got to fight against B-Sha and her friends again and none of them wanted our nations."

"But what about the piracy stuff?" Chrome asked, curious about that.

Neptune shook her head. "Nah! I don't blame them. If I was a human and someone offered me free pudding to believe in some other Goddess, then I'd do it."

"It's not the same for me." Uni said. "I can't trust them." She balled her hands into a fist. "It wasn't a mistake. They betrayed Noire and..."

"Not all of them." Neptune interrupted Uni, who gave her a confused expression. "There were people that I met who didn't like how things were and believed in your sister. Even if she was a Void, they believed in her to be a good CPU."

Chrome smiled at the floored expression on Uni's face. "Even if you can't trust most of the people in Lastation, you just need to find one person. So long as there's one person you can tolerate or even like, that's all you need."

"...Just one person?" Rom asked softly. "But..." She jerked as she felt hands on her shoulders and she looked to see Neptune's smiling face.

"When I was trapped in Plutie's world for twenty years I helped raise three little girls. Sure, I wanted to get home, but those three little girls always made me happy. Some days I thought to myself that if I couldn't ever get home again that it would be okay so long as I had my daughters."

Both Uni and Rom were silent and had troubled looks on their faces while Chrome and Neptune watched them silently.

"Big sis..." Rom spoke up after almost ten minutes and looked at Neptune, "...How?"

"Huh?" Neptune's confusion was obvious in her voice and on her face. "How what?"

"How can you smile after all of that?" Rom asked and Uni nodded.

"Because," Neptune just smiled at Rom, "it happened, it's over and things worked out fine."

"But..." Uni protested, trying to make sense of what Neptune was saying.

"Besides," Neptune continued as though Uni hadn't said anything, "if you focus on all the bad stuff, you'll be sad all the time. And life is hard enough. You need to focus on things that can make you smile." She winked at Rom. "It doesn't matter if what makes you smile is pudding, bad jokes or the people you love. If you focus on that instead of the sad stuff, then you can smile all the time."

"Oh." Both Uni and Rom said at the same time.

"You can be mad, sad or feel other emotions." Neptune continued, "it's okay. But you can't dwell on them, because that's why CPUs become bad." She thought to Blanc of Plutia's world, Rei and even Uzume and how their negative emotions had festered and nearly ruined them forever.

"So you two," Chrome spoke up as they looked at her, "if you're feeling overwhelmed by your negative emotions, it's okay to yell and scream. Or to cry if you need to. Talk to someone that you can confide in."

"Like we're doing now?" Uni asked, getting a nod from Chrome.

"Yes." Chrome told her. "The worst thing you can do," she sighed, "is become like me." Uni and Rom gave her a confused look and she continued. "After Iris Void took my nation and injured Filyn all those years ago, I bottled my emotions up. I cried when I was alone, but I never talked to anyone about it. I became bitter, cynical and aloof. Even seeing Compa, IF and how White Void was treating Rom and Ram, I couldn't bring myself to care or fight to stop her. I didn't have the power I used to, but I did nothing when I could have."

"Chrome..." Rom said softly and looked at her silently. "But..."

"If you hate the people of Lowee, Rom..." Chrome told her, "do you hate me? I was no different. And I'm a CPU as well."

"I..." Rom trembled and squeezed her hands into fists. "I..." She unclenched her hands and felt her shoulders slumping. "I... I don't know."

"If you can't hate someone who could have helped you." Chrome said softly, "how can you hate those who had no way of helping you?"

"I..." Rom hiccuped and trembled. "I..." She felt Neptune gently pull her into another hug, which she returned and cried again. "WHY AM I SO ANGRY THEN?!" She screamed into Neptune's chest.

"Because no one helped you for so long." Chrome told her. "I was angry for a long time as well. Angry for something I couldn't control."

Uni looked troubled as well. "I... Do I have anyone who.." Her eyes widened as she realized that there was someone she did care about. "...Steamax." She whispered to herself. "I..." She spoke up louder. "Even if I don't care about most of the people of Lastation, I... I'll become a good CPU." Neptune, Chrome and even Rom looked at her. "I want to make Noire proud of me, and I want..." A determined look came across her face as she squeezed her hands into fists. "I don't want what happened to Noire to happen to anyone else. I want Lastation to be a good place. Besides," she smiled as she thought she felt Noire's hand on her shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze, "I promised Noire that I'd do my best. I can't let her down."

Neptune smiled at Uni as she rubbed Rom's back. 'They'll be okay. They need help like all of us, but they'll be okay.' Both of them had lots of room to grow, but she knew that in the end it would be worth it.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Interesting..." MAGES. said as she sat in her room with her eyes closed. "So that's what was the problem, huh?" She knew she shouldn't have listened in on that entire conversation, but she was just so curious about the magic using CPU Candidates that she couldn't stop herself from looking in on them. But the information that she had gotten from that conversation was really interesting. "Other dimensions?" She sighed and shook her head. "I wonder if there's another version of me out there." Shrugging, she got off of her chair and walked over to her fridge and opened it up, pulling out a large can and opening it up. "Ah, Doc Tear Popper, such a good drink." She idly wondered why she liked it so much, but decided it wasn't important as she chugged it.

To be continued...

What? You thought Rom and Uni wouldn't have hang-ups over the stuff they suffered through?