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

Chapter 82

Slipping into the Basilicom had been easy for Steamax. Even without his incredible stealth abilities no one really paid attention to the front door. Seeing a muscled person with a dogoo for a head walking around and no one paying attention to it made Steamax wonder if he even needed to sneak into the Basilicom, but he shrugged it off as he listened to people talk. It took almost an hour, but eventually he learned where the CPU's room was. 'Really, I should have figured it out from the gaudy door and the stairs up to it.' Getting inside the door had been a little difficult as the door was closed tight and didn't open easily. However, as the door was not sealed with magic or some other seal, he was able to open the door and slip inside.

Looking around, he found his target on the large bed and silently pulled out a large dagger as he moved over to the bed. As he got closer, he confirmed that it was, in fact, someone who looked like the Neptune he knew. 'Eerily so.'

Still, he volunteered for this and he wouldn't let anyone down. 'The sooner she dies, the sooner this all ends.' After all, she was the last Void and if she was gone, then everything would end. Lifting his blade up, he plunged it down right at the Void's chest.

There was a clang as a glowing blade of dark energy blocked his strike. His eyes widened as Neptune opened her eyes.

"My my..." She chuckled, her voice deeper than he thought it would be. A crackle of energy filled the air and Steamax jumped back as Neptune was engulfed in dark energy. "It's been so long since someone tried to assassinate me."

"This whole mission's a failure." Steamax muttered.

"Aww..." The Void of Planeptune purred as the flash of energy stopped, revealing Purple Void in all her glory to Steamax. "And here I thought I was going to have fun."

Steamax gawked at her. "...That's not very practical. And I take it you're Purple Void?" The CPU, like Noire, had a hole in her chest above and between her breasts. Her breasts were covered by a bikini top that looked more like someone was using their hands to cover her nipples than an actual bikini top. Her crotch was covered by a bikini bottom that was rather small, her hands were covered by black gloves and her arms were covered by black sleeves with purple lines that left her shoulders and armpits bare and her feet had short black and purple boots on them while her legs were covered in skin-tight black leggings that went half-way up her thighs...

And the rest of her skin, from her upper and inner thighs, her abdomen, shoulders, the top, bottom and inner curvature of her boobs were all exposed.

Her eyes had blue irises with the same upside-down black power symbol on them and black sclera surrounding her irises. Her purple hair was long and in twin braids while having red and black stripes throughout it.

Purple Void chuckled at him. "Does it matter how much is covered? I could fight naked and no one would care." A shark-like grin came to her face. "Of course," her eyes seemed to glow in the dark as she stood up. "It doesn't matter how much you're wearing when all your enemies are dead at your feet."

Several dark glowing blades appeared in the room and Purple Void gave him a disturbing smile. "Die for your Goddess now."

(-)

When the walls to the CPU's room exploded outwards, everyone in the reception area of the Basilicom immediately jumped behind something and looked up as they saw their CPU, in her transformed state, holding a sword in each hand as her blades clashed against a mysterious blue ninja as they flew through the air.

"Impressive." Purple Void chuckled as the ninja used his dagger to block one of her blades and his large ninja star to block her other blade. "I would think that you'd be in pieces by now."

Steamax didn't say anything as he twisted out of the way of a slash and put his feet on Purple Void's stomach and used it to launch himself to the ground below. He looked up to see Purple Void grimacing while several black glowing blades formed around her. "Shit!"

"Die." Purple Void whispered as she launched all of the swords at Steamax at once.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Nepgear was smiling as Uni, Rom, Neptune and Chrome all came back to the table. While Uni and Rom both looked a little troubled and she could tell that Rom had been crying, they both looked like some mysterious weight had been lifted from their shoulders as they both looked relaxed. "Are you all..."

Neptune suddenly clutched her stomach and doubled over, falling to her knees as she let loose an ear-piercing scream of pain.

"Neptune!" Chrome was grabbing her as soon as she started to scream.

"Big sis!" Rom, Ram and Nepgear all yelled out. Nepgear blushed as she realized that this Neptune wasn't her big sister, but she couldn't help it.

Neptune's scream was getting so loud that it was getting painful to listen to. After a few more moments of that, her screaming tapered off as she panted while sweat rolled down her face. "S...She... Other me... She... Transformed!"

"You can tell?" Chrome asked, a horrified look on her face while Neptune nodded. "How?!"

"I don't know!" Neptune yelled at her. "It's not like I've met a lot of mes that can transform too!"

"Transform?" Nepgear had a confused tone of voice as she heard them talk about that. "But why would sis transform?" A look of dread came over her face as the implications started to run through her brain. "If she was sleeping, then... Did someone try to kill her?"

Neptune panted and grimaced. 'Why? Why am I able to feel her? What..?' Her eyes widened as she felt a painful throb from her chest. 'The Fearicite? Is it... Reacting to hers?' She looked at Chrome, a scared look on her face. "C...Chrome... I think the Fearicite I have is reacting."

"It never did that before..." Chrome muttered, wondering why it was happening now. "Will you be okay?"

Neptune nodded as she panted softly. "The pain's gone now. It was just so sudden that it hurt and I didn't expect it."

Chrome sighed and nodded, helping Neptune back to her feet. "I'm glad, but it looks like Steamax failed, huh?"

"Huh?" Both Uni and Nepgear said at the same time.

"What did Steamax do?" Uni asked, worried about the ninja robot. Both Neptune and Chrome looked a bit uncomfortable and she frowned at them. "Come on! What did he..?"

"He tried to kill my sister, didn't he?" Nepgear asked softly as realization dawned on her. When neither Neptune nor Chrome denied it, she had a look of betrayal and anger on her face. "WHY?! Why would you..?"

"The point of traveling to each nation," Chrome interrupted her, "was to kill each Void and rescue the CPU Candidate from being tortured by the CPU."

"But I'm not being tortured by my sister!" Nepgear protested.

"Aren't you?" Uni snapped at her. "She has you walk around and pretend to be a dog, beg for treats and people at the Basilicom see it as normal for her to take off and not know where you are."

"And what do you know about her?!" Nepgear snapped back at Uni, who jerked in surprise. "Yes, she does bad things sometimes and she's random, but she always treated me good!"

"If being forced to do things that are humiliating is treating you good, then I'd rather have Noire alive and being distant to me again." Uni snapped back at Nepgear as the two glared at each other while sparks started to crackle in the air.

Neptune gawked at what she was seeing. 'Nep Jr. and Uni never fought like this in our world.' Then again, the two had become friends when Nepgear was trying to free all of the CPUs from the graveyard and had become close over the combined grief of having their sisters captured, the stress of running a nation and working to try and save everyone where these two versions didn't have that same bonding experience.

The two argued for over a minute more before Nepgear turned to leave. "Whatever! I'm going to my sister and hope that she can be calmed down before..."

"I'm not done yet!" Uni yelled and grabbed Nepgear's arm.

The maid spun and had a look that was downright murderous on her face as she wrenched her arm free of Uni's grip. "Don't you dare touch me!" She yelled and swung her right hand at Uni's face.

There was a loud slap and stunned silence in the building.

Even Nepgear stared in shock, her anger quickly disappearing.

Not because she slapped Uni, she would have stormed off if she had.

But because the person on the other end of that slap was her sister's look-a-like.

Neptune's head was jerked to the side and she slowly turned to look at Nepgear, a sad look on her face. "...How long have you been wanting to do that, Nepgear?"

"I..." Nepgear trembled and stepped back. "Neptune, I..."

"Go ahead..." Neptune gave her a sad smile. "I deserve it. I wasn't a good big sister to you and you should have hit me a long time ago." Her voice was soft and meek.

"N...No... I..." Suddenly Nepgear burst into tears as she turned and ran out of the guild.

Neptune lowered her head as she slid to her knees. "I'm sorry, Nepgear, I'm so sorry. After everything I've done to you, this is the least I deserve."

"What do you mean by that?!" Uni suddenly yelled as she grabbed Neptune and shook her, causing Neptune to blink several times. "What you deserve?! What the hell are you talking about?"

"I..." Neptune had an utterly horrified look on her face. "I..."

"Uni," Chrome spoke up, "calm down."

"No!" Uni protested and glared at Neptune. "You're harping on and on about being a good CPU to me and Rom and yet you act like Rom, Ram or I do when we're at our worst moments! What the hell is wrong with you? What did you do to her? To Nepgear? What did you do to her that makes you like this?"

"...I almost killed her." Neptune answered Uni, an absolutely miserable expression on her face. "I choked her, squeezing her throat and laughed about it." Her eyes screwed shut. "I... I enjoyed it."

"What?" Uni and Rom both gasped in shock as they looked at the utterly defeated form of Neptune.

"I... There were so many times that I got upset with Nepgear." Neptune wasn't even looking at them as she couldn't stand the thought of seeing their expressions of disgust with her. "The people love her, some people even said that they couldn't wait for me to step down so Nepgear could be the CPU. She took over my nation for awhile. She trapped me in Plutie's world for over a decade."

"Neptune..." Chrome whispered, knowing that admitting this had to be hard on her. "You don't..."

"I pushed it all down, buried it, because I knew I still loved her." Neptune laughed suddenly. It was a bitter, cold laugh, one that felt like it shouldn't have come out of her mouth. "I don't know anymore. When Kurome nearly destroyed Gamindustri, she captured me and the other CPUs and made them feel like they hated their sisters and friends, but..."

"She brought your negative feelings forward, huh?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "So how did you stop?"

"Another me smacked me and helped my sister free me and the others from Kurome..."

"But that wasn't you!" Rom protested and Neptune looked up to see Rom standing right in front of her, looking at her sadly. "You just said that Kurome made you feel that way and..."

Neptune shook her head. "No... My feelings were real... I... I can't ever forgive myself for it and..."

There was a loud smacking sound and everyone who was there gasped and stared as Neptune found herself on her back, her other cheek throbbing in pain, though much less pain than when Nepgear had slapped her.

"NO!" Rom yelled, her hand held up high as she glared at Neptune. "STOP IT!"

"But..."

"YOU'RE WRONG!" Rom yelled again, interrupting Neptune. "You're an awesome big sis! Didn't you just tell me that it's okay to feel bad feelings sometimes?!"

"Yeah." Uni nodded, giving Neptune an upset look. "Or was that all talk and bluster?"

"But..." Neptune tried to protest, but was stopped when someone else interrupted her.

"Sometimes," Chrome began as she walked over to Neptune, "those of us who are older are hypocrites," she reached out her hand to help Neptune stand up, "and we don't want those who come after us to face the same problems we did." When Neptune was standing up, Chrome looked at Rom and Uni, "but you are right, Neptune probably needed you two to talk some sense into her." She smiled at them and then looked at Neptune while fighting the urge to laugh at Neptune's red cheeks. "Still, thank you both."

"HEY!" The four looked to the door as Filyn, Peashy and Ram all ran into the building, all looking scared by something. "You need to come out here, Chromey!"

"Huh?" Chrome, Neptune, Rom and Uni all had confused looks on their faces.

(-)

The group got outside only to see large projections of Purple Void facing all of them.

"Huh..." Neptune tilted her head, "my evil HDD self is really sexy, huh?" She laughed at the looks the others gave her. "Can't I appreciate how sexy I look?"

"I give up trying to figure out how you think." Chrome sighed in exasperation and focused on Purple Void.

"Greetings, people of Planeptune." Purple Void said in a rather pleasant tone of voice. "It's been awhile since I addressed all of you. Do not worry, none of you are in trouble. Well, those of you who are from Planeptune."

The air itself seemed to become tense as Purple Void's voice became more sinister and even Chrome felt her knees trembling slightly.

"It seems that some people from outside of Planeptune made it to our great nation." Purple Void smiled and was silent, no doubt allowing people to process this information. "One of them even attempted to assassinate me today. And I was going to take a nap too."

"Steamax..." Uni muttered, hoping he was okay before gasping as Purple Void held up a familiar-looking metal throwing star, only it was in two pieces.

"I admit, as a ninja, my would-be assassin did put up a great fight, but," Purple Void sneered, "in the end, it didn't even matter."

"No..." Uni fell to her knees, her eyes watering up.

"Now then," Purple Void continued and tossed the broken ninja star to the side, "I know that you invaders are listening and watching this. So listen up and listen well. In three hours, my knights and I will be in the central square waiting for you. If you don't show, well..." Purple Void smiled and shrugged. "I can't be held responsible for what may or may not happen to the people of Planeptune." Smiling sweetly, she waved at the onlookers. "So, until then... OH!" Her eyes widened as she remembered something. "And Histoire," she sneered, "I know you're listening in. When I find you, I'm going to make sure that you won't be able to listen or move ever again."

A bright, sunny smile came across Purple Void's face as she closed her eyes. "That's all. Ta ta for now."

The image shut off and everyone looked at each other in worry.

"It's time, huh?" Neptune said softly.

She didn't know what was going to happen, but she did know that it wouldn't be easy.

To be continued...

This is a total SNAFU. Nothing ever goes as planned, does it?