Author's Notes: This will be the last time I use multiple PoVs in this story the way I have been so far. I've just begun disliking doing this so I'll be focusing solely on Karen's POV. I also will be changing the story from first person to third person at a certain point in the future. It may not make sense for why I'm deciding this now, but when I get around to it, you should be able to understand. Call it unorthodox, but the content of that time and beyond in this story will be near impossible to do in 1st person. I'd be pushing myself to insanity if I kept it in 1st person and I want to keep my sanity thank you.

Hyperdimension Standard Time: [17:00] August 3rd 20XX

We've escaped from Rebeat Resort and I find myself nowhere near the two dungeons since I hitched a ride with Linda's escape coordinates, since I knew that I'd need a speedy escape, far from the resort, since IF or any of the others could've easily subdued me in my weak state.

"Great, we just let those goodie-two shoes get the Mascot for Lastation."

"I apologize. My own incompetence allowed them to acquire their target." I say in a sad tone, playing up the angle that I'm still working with ASIC.

"Don't worry about it. We just need to get one mascot to stop them. There's still Lowee and Leanbox. Let's get moving."

"She has a point-chump. Don't let the past stump you, look toward the future."

"Hehe...thanks. Anyway, where are we?"

"We're north of Endless Zone; specifically, it's a two to three week walk from it to here. We need to link up with CFW Brave who's not far from here. After we meet up with him, you need to get to Lowee and rendezvous with CFW Trick."

"Ugh...Trick. Forgive me for this, but I do not want to work with him." I say in a disgusted tone, having heard of him from Brave.

"I don't blame you on that. Trick is the most disgusting of all the CFWs. Trust me when I say that the rest of them are sensible; CFW Judge may be hotheaded but he's decent for the most part. Brave is considered the most noble and 'good' of all the CFWs, but he's strong so we let it slide. CFW Magic is our leader and is the strongest out of everyone in ASIC, well, aside from our guardian deity: Arfoire."

"Impressive. I should shut down my gauntlet's beacon this time. IF's group can easily use the locator to find us unless I do." I say as I deactivate the locator application and I'm relieved that Ophelia was able to seamlessly integrate these kinds of applications and best of all: make them easy to use "Okay, now IF and the others will not be able to track me."

Hyperdimension Standard Time: [17:00] August 3rd 20XX

POV: Nepgear

"She's gone again." IF mumbles angrily, getting pissed off at the fact Karen's doing this.

"Let's not worry about this. Let's get the mascot." I say solemnly, not wanting to think about Karen right now.

"That girl...Karen is a member of ASIC?" Black Disc asks curiously, having spoken with her beforehand.

"Correct, and we aim to take her down before she harms Gamindustri permanently." IF growls angrily.

"Can we ask for your assistance?" I ask calmly.

"Unfortunately, I have two reasons for not offering my assistance."

"Two reasons?" I ask, tilting my head in confusion.

"The first is my vow to the true goddess. I must remain in Lastation because of the fact the CPU is missing. If I leave this place, it will be tantamount to surrender."

"Okay, so there's one reason, what's the other one?" I ask curiously, wanting to know what it is.

"I refuse to fight a CPU. It is against my principles to assist in combat between Console Patron Units."

"ASIC has a Console Patron Unit in their ranks? That's just great." IF mumbles angrily, and I don't blame her. Console Patron Units are very powerful, and if ASIC has one, it'll make our fight much more difficult.

"Who is this enemy CPU?" Kazuto asks curiously, wanting to know the identity of this new CPU.

"The identity of the foreign CPU is the girl who was recently here. She introduced herself as a Console Patron Unit and I know that to be truthful since I can recognize such beings."

"W-Wait. Karen...is a Console Patron Unit?! Explain that one to me!" I ask in a surprised tone, with everyone else looking utterly in awe.

"Although her aura indeed that of a CPU, I did notice it was rather diluted in a significant manner. I must assume that an experience in this world caused a CPU to merge with her consciousness, my guess is it was to save her life from danger."

"Save her from danger? The most danger she's been in when we got to this world was...the Gamindustri Graveyard!" Katsuo says, trying to think of when Karen was in grave danger.

"The graveyard? Oh yeah, you told me that Karen was near death when you all saved me."

"So this CPU merged with Karen to save her life. Considering the injuries I saw on her back then, her surviving shouldn't have been possible, not with how much blood she lost. I guess that's how she survived." Kazuto says quietly, seeing the logic here.

"But the thing is, there are only four CPUs aside from Nepgear and the other candidates: Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert; and they're all imprisoned. How are there any other CPUs?" IF asks, clearly confused about this situation.

"The girl introduced herself as Caelus, a CPU long thought deceased during the battle against Arfoire in ages past, but has apparently returned to life."

"Great; so the one CPU that survived against Arfoire eons ago chose Karen as a host and is now working for the person she tried to defeat. But why would this CPU willingly want to work with ASIC? Why doesn't she just leave Karen and take off?" IF scowls, wondering why this Caelus is working with ASIC when she tried to defeat Arfoire in the past.

"When a CPU merges with a human, it is a permanent act. Console Patron Units that choose to do this typically possess grave injuries, to the point where their death is absolute, even then, very few choose to do it because of the fact. They lose the ability to manifest their true physical form, but small specters can be manifested from the power of the CPU and the human combined and if the pair are strong enough, the CPU can manifest a significant part of herself in a different body, but the CPU must stay close to her human partner. This action allows them to merge their remaining life force with the human in question and survive the injuries they suffered. It would allow the human to become a CPU themselves; of course considering that this has only happened once before now and it was undone because of a massive war, it's natural that we don't know the percentage of the success or fail rate of this action. We do not yet know if it happens no matter what or not." Black Disc says calmly, finally speaking up again.

"Is it that difficult to become a CPU?" Katsuo asks curiously, not knowing about CPU creation.

"We've never encountered a situation when humans became a CPU in this corrected timeline. All of our current and past CPUs were created, no human has pulled it off before. According to what I know, the CPU: Caelus used the items known as CPU Memories to handcraft the other CPUs of her generation." Purple Disc says in a serene tone.

"Anyway. I cannot accompany you, but I can give you a fragment of my power. It will have to suffice."

"That will be fine. Either way, we won't be able to leave Lastation for a while. We need to wait for Mamoru, Yuuki, and Sinon to arrive and then we'll help them handle the quests until we build up Lastation's shares to a stable level." I say solemnly, taking the fragment of Black Disc.

"Let's return to the capital. They'll be here very soon so we should help them do quests to build up Lastation's shares." Katsuo says quietly, and considering the tone I heard him use, he apparently has a lot going through his head right now.

Hyperdimension Standard Time: [20:00] August 3rd 20XX

POV: Karen

Linda, Pirachu, and I have been walking about the area for a few hours since we got out of the dungeon and we come across what appears to be a destroyed village. The fact that it's four hours till midnight makes this place seem incredibly creepy in addition to the dark aura of the whole place.

"Perfect, we finally made it. CFW Brave should be in the village center."

"What is this place Linda? Saying that it's creepy is a compliment."

"This is Tregaron. It was abandoned by the Lastation CPU when this village burned down years ago and was replaced with Lagoon City. We use this place as an outpost. Anyway, I can't stay. I was given orders a while back. When our business is concluded in Lastation, I was to return to the Graveyard for new orders while you were to proceed on to Lowee. I am a little thankful, for you atleast, since CFW Trick has been recalled to the Graveyard. Lowee will be all on you. Good luck." Linda says as she fast-travels with Pirachu in tow, apparently both heading to the Graveyard.

I walk to the town center to find Brave walking about and when he hears me approach, he turns toward me

"Ah Karen Koizumi, you made it."

"Yes Lord Brave. I am deeply sorry, but I failed to keep the CPUs from getting the Mascot."

"I see. I imagine it was difficult for you to fight your friends when you were trying to fake being one of us."

"Yeah, it was-...wait, what?" I just fell into this trap; hook, line, and sinker. This is not going to end well for me.

"You can't hide things from me Karen Koizumi. You lied when you said you merely held residue of influence from the CPU Candidate. You are harboring a CPU within you."

I keep a hand on Celeste and I look toward Brave "So I assume we have no choice but to fight Brave?"

"Normally yes, but I don't wish to fight you. Atleast, not while I have an option."

"I...I don't understand." Saying that I'm confused is putting it mildly though I'm relieved I don't have to fight him. If he's as strong as Judge, I don't want to risk it right now; Judge had technically killed me when I got here. I am not eager to relive my death so soon.

"I've seen how he acts Karen; he may be working for ASIC, but he is honorable. But no matter what we do, we will inevitably have fight him when we return to the Gamindustri Graveyard." Caelus replies calmly, and to my surprise, she is willing to speak openly despite how we're in front of a CFW.

"We can make that time our battlefield. Like I said in Endless Zone, the problems of this world shouldn't have affected you, but because of your association with the CPUs, it is unfortunately inevitable that we fight to the death. No one is here to overhear us but I will keep this brief. No one in ASIC, save me, is aware of your secret for now. I am the only one who has realized this, so feel free to pretend you are still working with us if you so desire." Brave says before he moves his hand near me and a bolt of lightning is projected which destroys the Anti-crystal on my arm "Why bother having that insignificant trinket when it doesn't affect you?" He then backs up a short bit.

"Why are you helping me when I'm trying to destroy ASIC?"

"Consider it my way of evening the battlefield. We four are immensely strong and we could easily destroy any of our enemies, but I am not interested in fighting enemies unless they are on par with us. I barely used half of my power in Endless Zone since I was told to gauge their abilities. One way or another, you will be gathering in the Gamindustri Graveyard. That will be our final battlefield. But as one final gift from me to you; Hanari, Mizutani, come out here." Brave is rather calm in his statement before looking to the right as I see two girls coming out from behind one of the buildings after a few minutes pass when he called out for them.

One of them has brown hair with a dark shade of burgundy and saffron colored eyes. She appears to be wearing a unique set of armor colored white and gold and what's a little strange based on what I've seen from the others in Gamindustri, this girl has wings which seems to be poking through the armor based on the brief glimpse I caught of her back. That armor clearly has to be customized to handle those special appendages, if they're real anyway. The other girl has maroon colored hair and what's odd is that her right eye is a crimson red while her left is a soft velvet color. She is wearing a rather nice looking dress colored red and white.

"You called for us Brave?" The red haired girl asks with a serious tone.

"Yes. Magic ordered for your termination and for this place to be razed to the ground. You've been loyal to our cause so far so I want to give you both an opportunity to escape the upcoming hellfire."

"Damn that sucks. You guys paid good credits for the jobs we did."

"I know. I'm afraid I can't offer you any compensation beyond this warning. Hurry to Lowee with this girl here." Brave says before fast-traveling away from the area.

"Okay, mind giving your name, whoever you are?"

"I'm Karen. Yoroshiku."

"Er...what?" The red haired girl blinks rapidly, and I guess that she has no idea what the word means based on the confused expressions on both of these girls.

"That means 'Pleased to meet you.' I guess I should've been more clear."

"Oh...er; pleased to meet you too. I'm Miyo. Miyo Hanari; my friend here is Izumi Mizutani. Have you been to Lowee before Karen?"

"No, not really."

"Ah dang it...I have to spend two weeks walking to Lowee? Well, atleast I have two pretty girls nearby so I guess it's not all bad." Izumi mildly pouts before developing a mild grin as she walks away.

Miyo then walks next to me and gives me a casual warning "Be careful of her alright? She's going to be making moves on you for atleast a little while."

"Er...could you elaborate Miyo?" I sheepishly ask, though I have a slightly idea of what she means, but I need to get confirmation.

"Do I have to?" Miyo asks me with a small frown, and that response was enough to build up a degree of fear in me.

"Urk…" I can only groan as I realize what Miyo is trying to warn me about.

"Just keep an eye open when you sleep and I'll try to do my best to keep her off ya during the waking hours. Anyway, let's get moving."

"Can't I get a little rest? I've been through a lot today." I ask weakly, with my fatigue catching up in a heartbeat at the mention of rest.

"There's no place to rest here in Tregaron, or rather: no comfortable place. There is a small village about four hours north of here called Meteli. We can stay there."

"Ugh...more walking? As fit as I've become, I'm not the kind of person who can handle exerting this much work."

"Just try to bare with it Karen. Ya know, I feel obligated to ask; is that what you normally look like?" Miyo asks me after trying to apparently reassure my spirit.

"No, I look like this because of the clothing enchantments. It's a little strange since clothes from my world don't do things like that."

"Ah, you're not native to Gamindustri either? That's a relief. Now I don't exactly have to hold back too much in terms of conversation." Miyo visibly sighs in relief and her serious tone turns into a more laid-back one "You see, and while this may just be my own opinion, we're supposed to hide the fact that we originate from different worlds since the vast majority of people seem unaware of this particular thing, so we hide our appearances with the enchantments that clothing here has. We tend to not wear it when we work with ASIC, but we need to put different clothes on before we reach Meteli." Miyo says as she changes her outfit from what it currently is to a dark green colored outfit that makes me think she looks like a female samurai. And considering that Izumi changed at the same time as Miyo; and if Miyo's appearance makes her look like a samurai, Izumi's is that of a kunoichi, since she's wearing a purple top with the kunoichi style to it "Do you have any other clothes to wear?"

"Actually yeah, I do." I lightly smile as I open my inventory to switch my clothes to the one I bought in Lastation.

"Nice. Anyway, come on, we need to hurry to Meteli."

Hyperdimension Standard Time: [2:00] August 4th 20XX

Location: [Meteli]

Miyo, Izumi, and I have finally made it to this quaint little village and I fall face-first almost immediately but I'm thankfully caught by Miyo beforehand and she helps keep me from falling. While we were walking to Meteli, I told these two about my plan to take down ASIC as a double agent and to my surprise, they had no problems with my intentions. Either Miyo and Izumi are just plain untrustworthy, or they aren't as loyal to ASIC as Brave believed. Perhaps they just follow an interesting code of loyalty: They are loyal to whoever pays them. If it's the latter, I doubt that these two will be loyal to me long since I can't pay them, but of course, I need to find this out as soon as possible.

"Aye, you weren't kidding Karen. You really are tired."

"You think…?" I retort to Miyo in a weak sarcastic tone, hardly able to use a true sense of anger because of tired I am.

"Let's go to the inn and try to get as much sleep as we can. We wake up at six sharp."

"WHAT?!" I exclaim in dismay. I've spent a full day going through rather rigorous events and now I have to wake up in four hours? Not even I am this ruthless and strict.

"Look Karen, we need to get to Lowee as quickly as we can. We have a client waiting for us and we don't want to make her mad. We've been planning to work with this client for about a year now so we don't want to get her irritated and call this off. Thankfully, she is patient so if we explain that you don't have access to Lowee via fast-travel, our job safety should be kept."

"But what about sleep? How are you not tired?" I ask, noticing that Miyo seems utterly unfazed compared to my extreme fatigue and Izumi's own exhaustion.

"Cybernetics. As far as I know, while it's impossible for it to outright eliminate biological needs, even by my people's level of technology, these puppies can make it so I don't need to eat, sleep, or drink as much."

"Sugoi." I can only mutter in surprise from how this girl has cybernetics that can reduce the need for food, water, and sleep. Having that kind of technology would revolutionize society on Earth.

"What did you say this time?"

"That basically means 'Wow'."

"Oh. Anyway, let's get you some sleep Karen." Miyo says maternally as she helps me walk to the inn.

When we make it to the village inn and enter our room, we find that it has two beds, meaning that one of us will have to sleep on the floor or a chair.

"Okay; Izumi, Karen, you two go get some sleep. I'll stay awake and do a little research. Actually, I want to look at your gauntlet Karen, you mind loaning it to me for the night?"

"Why do you want to look at it Miyo?" I ask, wanting to know why she wants my gauntlet; particularly since Ophelia worked on it a good deal.

"What can I say; I'm a technology addict and it looks like there are a number of computer programs embedded within the central core. Besides, I imagine I could easily upgrade those programs."

"You want to upgrade my gauntlet?"

"Yeah, but if you don't want me to, I won't push you."

I hum as I try to think of an answer and nod "Sure" I say as I take off the gauntlet and pass it to her.

"Excellent. I'll avoid tearing it apart too much. I'll get it back to you in the morning. Go get some rest Karen, Izumi."

Izumi and I then quickly get into our beds and I see Izumi instantly fall asleep though it's taking me a little bit more time, but I fall asleep just as quickly as her.

Hyperdimension Standard Time: [6:00] August 4th 20XX

Location: [Meteli Inn]

Miyo apparently really does keep things to a very strict schedule since she woke me up at six sharp according to the clock in our room. I can easily feel the bags under my eyes since I had difficulty sleeping because of what happened between me, Nepgear, and my friends. Miyo quickly shows me what appears to be my gauntlet but radically transformed in appearance. Before, it only had a conventional steel overlay, but now it appears to be far more advanced in every single way.

"It took me a little bit of time, but I upgraded every single application this thing held, severed the connection to the network it was connected to, and I even had time to install four different applications, I even put in a voice changer feature. I have no idea who designed this kind of system, but I made everything incredibly streamlined compared to the old cluttered layout. That kind of layout the work of an absolute novice; I made just about everything voice-activated and or directed through mental commands, and best of all: It's far simpler to use. I actually inspected the sword you're using as well; It's a masterpiece! No other sword I have seen has ever had such...elegance and magical power. I even tried to adjust your gauntlet to act as a sort of tuner to the magic inside the sword though I failed with that one. This particular strand of magic looks too uncontrolled to me, though I will admit I barely can understand it. Something about this magic is extraordinary but I can't translate it." Miyo rambled on pretty fast, to the point where I barely understood her, so I had to look through my memory to figure out what she had said to me. She then gives me my gauntlet back after speaking.

"What do you mean translate magic?" I stare at the new gauntlet in awe though I frown at how Miyo criticized Ophelia when she gave it her all to make this technology "Wow, this is crazy remarkable Miyo. How did you do all this?"

"Hehe, I'm from a civilization famous for their technology. Something like this is child's play. Anyway; maybe translate was a bad term to use in this situation. It's just that Izumi taught me how to identify magic on a different level. I can't identify magic if it's used against me in battle since it requires instantaneous perception which I can't pull off too well, er, I'm rambling. Look, I just...well. I can see ancient magic embedded in the blade. I just can't figure out its effects. Do you know?"

"Should I tell her Caelus?"

"Karen, no. Telling her about the magic would give me away. That strand of magic is tailored to my own DNA. If she figures it out, she'll find out about me. I don't want people finding out about me. Not while ASIC still exists."

"So are you saying that if we take out ASIC, you'd be more inclined to reveal yourself to people?"

"Well. Maybe. I just don't want my identity revealed when faith in Arfoire is so powerful. Remember that I nearly died trying to seal her away. And now my work is close to being undone."

"Karen, are you going to answer my question?"

"Oh, uh. No, I don't know what the magic does to be honest. I'm not good with magic to be frank. I'm a tactician by trade." I half-lie when I speak with Miyo. Considering that Caelus said that this is a touchy subject, I don't want to push it too much.

"Interesting. We've been needing a strategist. We have no formation between the two of us. We've just been fighting no holds barred. No hint of strategies whatsoever. Hehe…" Miyo says with a sheepish smile before nervously chuckling at the end.

"Are you telling me that you've been fighting with no strategy for...how long ago?"

"Ten years for me, six for Izumi."

"How...just...how…?" I weakly ask, seriously wondering how these two survived years of fighting without strategy.

"I've used my own special flamberge sword which can convert into a heavy rifle while Izumi uses her staff and magic. The monsters usually aren't that strong so we didn't need strategy to fight them before. But now, it's getting tougher to fight them since they're getting stronger and stronger."

"Oh, I see." I say, since I'm starting to understand the situation a little now.

"Anyway, it's never been easy for me to wake up Izumi, so ya mind doing a little shopping? We'll meet you at the plaza." Miyo asks this of me as she passes me a sheet of paper and a pouch of what I presume to be credits.

"Sure." I say as I stumble out of the room "Caelus, if you can, I could use a little boost." I ask while walking about as best I can.

"No can do. You need to toughen up. CPUs rarely need to eat or sleep."

"But I'm not a damn CPU. I'm still human remember?"

"Ever heard of preparation Karen? You need to make your body grow accustomed to this level of strain. You'll be better off for it."

"Fine fine." I groan, trying to avoid thinking of my fatigue and just focus on the task that Miyo gave me.

I walk around the village to buy what is on this shopping list and meet up with Miyo and Izumi who apparently was waiting for me

"Did ya get what was on the list Karen?" Miyo asks me in a calm manner.

"Yeah, well, all but one thing." I say as I pull the bag out of my inventory and pass it to her.

She looks through it thoroughly and simply shrugs, then apparently puts the bag in her own inventory since I see it fade into pixels "Oh, I see. Well, that one thing isn't too major. We can try getting it in a different town. Anyway, let's go. I contacted our future client while I was trying to wake up Izumi and told her about her current situation. We have a month and a half to meet her before she terminates her offer to us. Although we have a bit of time, we'd better make haste, since it'll take about a month to reach Lowee from here."

"Alright. Let's get this over with." I sigh, heading out of town with my party members in tow.