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

Getting closer to the end, everyone.

Chapter 98

There was a ringing noise from the desk next to her bed that caused Neptune to groan and blindly grab for the ringing object in question. Cracking an eye open, she grimaced at the time and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tiny Me!"

"Big Me, it's like three in the morning over here." Neptune's voice was hoarse. "Why are you calling?"

"Well, Crostie says she's recovered enough to make the jump with me now. I know we're about half an hour early, but I thought you'd want us over there as soon as possible."

Neptune yawned and nodded. "Yeah, I'll leave the phone on, but I'm going back to sleep. It's hard to sleep with how much my back hurts and I'm really tired right now."

"Okay, just don't turn the phone off."

"I won't." Neptune flopped her head back onto her pillow and fell asleep as the phone slipped out of her hand and onto the ground.

(-)

Meanwhile outside...

Standing on the Basilicom grounds, Uni, who was wearing biker shorts and a tank top that morning, was looking at the sky and taking some deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

"You're up early." A familiar voice had her turning to see Chrome, dressed in her usual adventurer pants and shirt, walking out of the Basilicom. Chrome turned her head to see Steamax standing by the wall in a relaxed, yet ready pose. "Couldn't sleep?"

"We're facing the end of the world," Uni told her. "I've been so wired the past couple of days that my sleep schedule is all screwed up."

"I understand," Chrome said as she walked over to the girl. "Been there before myself. The only thing I can say is work through it." She suddenly smirked at the CPU Candidate, "or don't. Right now, until we have a plan, there's no point in stressing yourself out."

"Easy for you to say." Uni muttered. "You're a former CPU, I was born into the world to kill my sister and take over as the Void of Lastation. And now that won't be possible because Noire's dead, the whole world's dead and it doesn't matter what I do now!"

Chrome merely shook her head and walked past Uni before stopping a few feet away. "Do you really think I'm so unflappable, Uni?"

"You never react to anything!" Uni protested as she glared at Chrome's back. "Your lover was laying on the ground, dying and instead of giving her that crystal, you keep it for yourself."

"I've never even kissed Neptune, just so you know." Chrome told her, her voice steady as she ignored the accusations. "And what makes you think I didn't react? I was thoroughly pissed at Purple Void."

"So was everyone else." Uni pointed out. "And the end of the world and you're acting completely like it's okay and..?"

"Should I be screaming in frustration?" Chrome spun around, her hair whipping around as she gave Uni a stern look, quieting the younger girl. "Crying about how unfair everything is?" She walked to Uni until she was standing right in front of the girl, seemingly looming over her. "I wasted sixty years, Uni. Sixty years. I languished in despair for that amount of time. I had the strength and ability to fight back, yet I didn't bother because I felt that life had no meaning anymore."

Uni wanted to say something, but there was something in Chrome's eyes that kept her from speaking.

"I felt that I burned through my emotions ages ago." Chrome continued to speak, her voice never raising or lowering in pitch. "I would scream, cry and smash things when I was alone. But I had to watch after a settlement of people in Lowee who fled from the Void of that nation. I had to watch after my sister who was in a coma for over fifty years because of Iris Void. I lost my nation, my people, my status, almost lost my sister..."

Uni was speechless as she listened. "...I... Chrome, I..."

"I know that it's hard to face the end of the world like I am. But someone has to be the rock for everyone." She put her hand on Uni's shoulder. "If you need to cry onto someone's shoulder, both Neptune and I will let you scream and cry. Never forget that."

"...Thanks." Uni smiled at her. "But isn't it hard?"

"...ove!"

"Hmm?" Chrome raised an eyebrow. "Being everyone's emotional rock?" Uni nodded. "Yeah, it can be hard. I'm used to it by now."

"...move!"

"Um, Lady Uni, Lady Chrome..." Steamax spoke up as he walked out of the shadows and both women turned to him. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm picking up someone yelling 'move' from quite a distance away."

"Huh?" Both Chrome and Uni gave him an identical look of confusion.

"Darn it! Move move move move!"

"Huh, that sounds kind of like Neptune." Chrome muttered and frowned in confusion, wondering if Neptune was up and about or not and why did the voice sound like it was coming from up in the air.

"You know, the last time she yelled move," Uni muttered and slowly looked up. "She was crashing down and ACK!"

There was a loud crash and thump that caused a crater and kicked up a lot of dirt and dust.

"Lady Uni!" Steamax yelled and quickly made his way over to the dust cloud. "Are you okay?" He jerked in surprise when he saw what happened. "What the?"

"Oww, oww, oww, oww!" The person hissed in pain while rubbing their back and sat up. "Nnngh... Crostie! You said we'd get closer to the ground this time!"

Steamax stared in shock. While the outfit wasn't the same, the hair was longer, the body was taller and more voluptuous, the voice and face were unmistakably the same. "Lady Neptune?"

"Hmm?" She blinked a few times and looked at Steamax. "Oh! It's my former coworker!" She giggled and rubbed the back of her head. "How'd you get here?"

"Um... I believe you have me confused with someone else." Steamax told her. "And you're currently sitting on two people."

"Huh?" She blinked and looked down, her eyes widening as she saw someone's head under her parka. "Nep woah!" She jumped back and stared. "Hey! It's Uni."

"Nnnngh..." Uni groaned in pain and slowly sat up. "What the hell is with you falling on me?! This is twice now!"

"I do believe this isn't the same Neptune." Chrome muttered as she got up from where she was on the ground. "Believe me, CPUs don't age in our human forms. Otherwise I'd have wrinkles and gray hair by now." Looking the newcomer over, she raised an eyebrow. "So you're Neptune?"

The girl nodded. "Yep. This Nep is also known as Neptune." She looked around and frowned before something landed on her head. "Hey! Crostie!" She pouted. "I thought you said that we'd be closer to the ground!"

"We were!" The dark-skinned blonde said as she looked around. "We were only one hundred and fifty feet in the air instead of three hundred feet this time."

"That's still a long ways!" Neptune whined with an upset look on her face.

"Um..." Uni looked at her. "...How are you still alive then?"

"I've always been tough." Neptune winked at Uni and curled an arm while patting it. "But enough about me, Tiny Me said something about needing to move a lot of people?"

Croire suddenly let out a squeal of delight. "OH MY!" Her eyes started to sparkle as she looked around. "OH HELL YEAH! This is what I've wanted to see for YEARS!"

"Crostie?" Neptune blinked in confusion. "What are you..?"

Croire had a large grin on her face that was actually disturbing. "Holy fuck! This whole dimension's beginning to collapse! In less than one week this whole reality will go poof!" She started laughing while kicking her feet. "Where's that idiot? I need to give her a big kiss for giving me this gift!"

The next thing Croire knew, a hand was wrapped around her body and she was face-to-face with Chrome, who had a very irritated look on her face. "Try not to get too giddy at the thought of our world being destroyed, some of us like living here." Croire nodded rapidly. "Good," she let go of Croire. "As for Neptune, well... Um..." She looked at the Neptune in front of her. "This is going to be confusing, what can we call you?"

"Well," she smiled at Chrome. "You can call me Big Neptune if you want, since I'm bigger than Tiny Me is." She giggled as Chrome rolled her eyes.

"You certainly have her sense of humor." Chrome smirked at Neptune. "But she's probably still asleep. Anyway, there's..."

"A whole lotta people." Croire said as she looked around. "I have to go explore this world!" Her eyes sparkled in delight. "Holy fuck! I've never seen a dying world like this before! I need to record everything!"

"Crostie..." Neptune gave the fairy a dirty look. "You do realize that if you let everyone die that Nepgear and Histy will hunt you down to the end of the Multiverse and make you suffer, right?"

Croire sweat-dropped upon hearing that. "Ah heh... Don't worry, since that tiny idiot made this possible, I'll make sure to get everyone out of here."

Neptune narrowed her eyes, there was something about the way Croire said that last bit that was setting off all sorts of alarm bells in her head. "...Wait a moment." Neptune gave Croire an annoyed look. "Crostie... Were you lying about how exhausted you were?"

Croire gulped as Neptune, Uni and Chrome all loomed over-head. "...Only for about fifteen hours?"

Chrome twitched and grabbed Croire, squeezing her tightly. "You mean you could have gotten here almost three weeks ago?!" Croire gasped and gripped the hands while kicking her legs up and down. "If one day in your world is basically thirty days here, then it stands to reason fifteen hours in your world is four-hundred and fifty hours here, which is just shy of three weeks."

"You know," Neptune gave Croire a sickeningly sweet smile as the dark-skinned blonde struggled to get out of Chrome's grip. "I know there's a CPU who's a real sadist to bad girls," Croire suddenly turned white as a ghost, "and Tiny Me said that she was friends with that CPU too... I wonder what she'd do to you if she knew you let Tiny Me get hurt without helping her?"

Croire turned blue in the face as she trembled at the thought of facing an angry Iris Heart. "You can't... You wouldn't..." Neptune shrugged. "Oh come on! I've seen what that sadistic bitch does to her friends! You think she'd hold back against me?!"

"I suspect I have an idea of who you're talking about." Chrome said and pulled Croire up to look her in the eye. "So, about saving everyone on this planet..?"

"...For the amount of people and the size of the portal I'd need to make, I need... Well, I can do it in six hours." Croire told her and gulped as Chrome smiled. "But I can only make one big portal and I won't be able to keep it open for more than twenty minutes. After that, I'll have just enough energy to open a smaller portal for a few people. Anyone left behind will be stuck."

"Fair enough." Chrome said and let go of Croire. "I swear if you screw any of us over..."

Croire winced and shook her head. "Trust me, nothing you could do could possibly compare to what those three would do to me." The mere thought of having an angry Histoire, Nepgear and Iris Heart after her was flat-out terrifying.

"Anyway," Chrome said, "Uni, will you be able to relax now?" Uni was silent, but nodded. "Good. How about we go inside and relax for a few hours?"

Uni nodded and suddenly yawned. "Sorry, guess I'm just so relieved that something can be done that it's catching up to me." She nodded to Steamax, who was next to her and offering her a hand, which she took and the group walked inside the Basilicom.

"Oh wow! This looks like a throne room!" Neptune giggled as she looked around. "So neat!"

(-)

Five hours later...

Grumbling as her stomach rumbled, Neptune yawned and licked her lips before reaching up and rubbing her eyes with her left hand. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine." Was the answer she got, but it wasn't from who she expected. As her vision became clearer, she saw Nepgear sitting by her bed. "Good morning." The maid-dressed girl smiled at Neptune. "I got you some pudding, would you like me to feed you?"

Neptune smiled at her. "You don't need to, Nep Jr., it's okay."

"Nonsense," Nepgear smiled and opened the pudding cup, revealing custard pudding that had Neptune's mouth watering. "Your back is still hurting and you can't even walk right now, this is the least I can do."

"Well, if you want to..." Neptune said with some uncertainty. "I mean, I don't want to impose."

Nepgear just smiled and moved Neptune so she was laying on her back, keeping the injured part of her back elevated and sat down with Neptune's head resting on her lap. "Nonsense, just relax and let me feed you."

Neptune sighed and let Nepgear do what she wanted. There were a few reasons for her doing this. One was because she really missed her sister and even if this wasn't her younger sister, she was still Nepgear. The second reason was because she wanted to make Nepgear happy.

And the final reason?

She was hungry and Nepgear was offering to feed her, darn it!

After feeding Neptune the full amount that was in the pudding cup, Nepgear looked somewhat troubled. "Um, Neptune... May I ask you something?" Neptune nodded. "...When you were... Um... A Void, you tried to attack me with your sword, but you stopped just before you hurt me. What happened?"

Neptune was silent for a little while as memories flashed through her mind.

"W...why?"

"Because I despise you, Nepgear."

"...I did something really horrible to you, Nepgear..." Neptune said softly and looked away. "I won't... I can't..." Her eyes watered up and she screwed her eyes shut. "I'm so sorry."

Suddenly Neptune found herself being moved so that she was sitting on Nepgear's lap, with her younger sister hugging her tightly, which Neptune returned.

They both knew they weren't really the other one's sister.

But neither of them cared at that moment.

For Neptune, no matter how much she apologized or got Nepgear's forgiveness, she could never forgive herself for what she almost did to Nepgear because of Kurome.

The best she could do was try to be the best big sister she could for Nepgear.

For Nepgear, the fact that Neptune apologized was more than enough for her to know that this wasn't her Void of an elder sister.

After all, Purple Void never apologized to her for any of the things that she did to Nepgear or others.

To be continued...

Dang it, Nep, stop blaming yourself!