Chapter 5: Fears
"Not now…" Neptune watched as her brother glared at the wedding protesters, angered both over them trying to ruin Blanc and Vert's wedding and ruining Uni's dress. Uni stood up, confusion on her face, as she tried to wipe off some of the ink that was blasted onto her clothes.
"What are you…?" Neptune crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Is this the day? The day that Nep Jr. will be able to use HDD?"
"Not ever…"
Neptune glanced upwards, sensing the presence of a Sharicite, that was similar to her own in. As she had felt, a small purple descended towards Nepgear's palm. Neptune's eyes widened. Once the Sharicite was in his hand, the Candidate lowered his arm shoulder level, eyes glowing from the Sharicite's power and his flowing from the feedback of holding the crystal. Neptune watched Uni step back, surprise visible on her face.
Clenching her fist, Neptune knew. From the years of training, the years the girl spent taking care of Nepgear, the years she spent protecting him, loving him and caring for him, Neptune knew that Nepgear could use HDD without harm.
Smiling proudly, Neptune reached a hand out to Nepgear as the boy thrusted the gem towards his heart. As the Sharicite touched Nepgear's chest, Neptune gave him her signature peace sign.
"Go get em', Nep Jr.!"
"Not in this lifetime!" Nepgear was engulfed in the pillar of light for the first- soon to be countless- time. As the pillar began to create a draft, Neptune could faintly see a continuous flash from where Green Heart and White Heart were. Once the pillar reversed it's direction and began to ball itself up, Neptune noticed Histoire out of the corner of her eye.
"Nepgear…" Histoire floated towards the pillar, worry in her voice. Confident, Neptune caught the tiny girl in her hands, pushing her behind the CPU.
"Might wanna be careful." Despite Histoire's concern, Neptune was positive that everything would be fine. Also, she could brag to everyone that her baby brother reached HDD first out of the four! She couldn't wait!
The ball sprouted four triangular wings, the upper two larger than the lower. The wings extended, causing the energy ball to dissipate and revealing Nepgear's HDD form as the CPU floated into the air. Nepgear's HDD build was petite compared to her brother's normal stature. Also, the CPU form was clad in a white bodysuit, revealing Nepgear's feminine curves. As Neptune gazed upon her brother's transformation, which happened to be female, Uni was more concerned about the HDD's bust and gender.
"Why does Nepgear's HDD form have breasts?!" Uni guestured to Nepgear's body with both of her hands. "Actually, why is Nepgear a girl?!" Walking up her brother's closest friend, Neptune patted Uni on the shoulder. Histoire floated in front of Uni, holding up a finger.
"HDD can create vast differences between a CPU's Mortal and Goddess form. For example," Histoire gestured to Neptune. "Normally, Neptune is a bubbly idiot." Pouting, Neptune leaned closer to Histoire, but the tome fairy ignored her. "However in HDD, Neptune is calm and mature." Blushing, Neptune caught the tome fairy and pulled her close. Sighing, Histoire shrugged her shoulders. "Case in point." Everyone returned their attention to Nepgear as she straightened her back and opened her eyes, revealing her light blue irises with power symbols within them.
"...Purple Sister, transformation complete." Purple Sister raised her hand into the air, a white gunblade three times the size of Uni's rifle. "You horrible people… interrupting such a beautiful congregation…" Purple Sister swung her gunblade towards the 'terrorists', pointing the muzzle of the gun portion at them. "I will not let you ruin it!"
The nerds tried to talk to Purple Sister, but the goddess immediately pulled her gunblade back, glaring at the mob of perverts.
"Slash Wave!" After blasting the nerds out of the church, Purple Sister turned to Mina, allowing her to finish the wedding and watched White Heart and Green Heart make their seal of vows with a kiss.
Smiling, Purple Sister touched down, dematerializing her weapon and looked at Neptune and Uni. Waving at them, Purple Sister took a step towards them, only to widen her eyes and flinch. Clenching her heart, Purple Sister was engulfed in a flash of light, fading to reveal Nepgear. Gritting his teeth, the boy reached a weak, shaking arm towards Neptune and Uni. Neptune ran forward, terror in her heart, as she saw Nepgear fall with a pained smile on his face.
"Nepgear?!" Noire caught Uni as she tripped while running over to Nepgear. Neptune dropped to her knees, ignoring her dress, and lifted Nepgear to a sitting position. The boy was breathing heavily and sweated profusely.
"Nep Jr.?!" Neptune touched Nepgear's forehead, pulling her hand back when she felt his forehead. "He's burning!" Clenching her teeth, Neptune picked up her brother bridal-style and turned to Histoire and Compa. When Histoire made eye contact with Neptune, she could see the fear in the CPU's eyes. Compa cleared a pathway as Historie guided Neptune out of the church, towards Lowee's Basilicom.
"Histy, what happened?" Histoire lowered her hand, a magic circle fading over Nepgear's unconscious body. The tome fairy sighed.
"Nepgear activated HDD too soon." Neptune stood up, eyes wide.
"What?! But you said that it would take three years for Nepgear to safely use HDD!" Histoire shook her head. Compa and IF walked into the room, the former carrying a bucket of water with a cold press and the latter stood guard near the door.
"I said theoretically." Neptune pressed her lips together as Compa wrung out the press and gently placed it on top of Nepgear's forehead. "Fortunately, Nepgear had trained sufficiently enough that he did not damage his existence. He will not die." Everyone in the room sighed in relief. "However, Nepgear will be vulnerable until he regains consciousness." Histoire gripped her dress. "If he does not, it is possible that either his mind or body will dematerialize, turning him into a form of monster." Neptune put a hand to her chest, curling her fist against it.
"I'll watch Nepgear." Histoire turned to Neptune, concerned.
"Are you sure? This is your close friend's wedding after all." Neptune shook her head as Compa wiped Nepgear's face.
"Blanc and Vert will understand." IF nodded.
"They have. I already told them the situation, although Blanc is more cautious about the twins' safety now." Neptune gave IF a thumbs up.
"Iffy, you're awesome!" Grinning, IF turned to the door.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, Compa. Let's get some dinner." Compa whipped her head towards IF, tears in her eyes.
"B-But Ge-Ge…" IF shook her head.
"Nep will take care of him, so let's get something to eat so that she can eat later. We could also bring something for Nepgear to eat later." Nodding, Compa patted Nepgear on the shoulder.
"Please get better, Ge-Ge." Compa hugged Neptune before leaving the room. Histoire watched as Neptune sat down next to Nepgear's bedside, staring sorrowful at him.
"I don't get it, Histy." Neptune stroked her brother's head, brushing stray hairs out of the way. "We trained Nep Jr. so that this wouldn't happen, so why did it?" Histoire put a hand over Neptune's.
"Neptune, I understand how terrified you must feel, but you must accept that these things can happen." Neptune squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back the tears. "In order to prevent Nepgear from causing further harm to himself, I've placed a seal on his HDD form until he's recovered to full strength." Wiping her her eyes, Neptune nodded.
"Thanks Histy... I'm such a terrible sister to let this happen to my little brother." A weak hand latched itself onto Neptune's arm.
"You're not… bad." Neptune opened her eyes to see Nepgear struggling to sit up.
"Nepgear!? What are you-" When Neptune tried to help Nepgear back down, the boy fought back by grabbing onto his sister's arm.
"You're the greatest sister I could ever ask for!" Neptune was stunned as Nepgear coughed painfully, taking a deep breath and relaxing himself on the bed frame.
"Nepgear…" Histoire nodded and quietly left the room, giving the siblings some alone time.
"You didn't do anything wrong! I just… wasn't ready to handle HDD is all." Neptune shook her head, but Nepgear nodded his.
'Are you sure that you're all right as rain?" Nepgear chuckled as he leaned against Neptune.
"I'm right as rain, sis." Nepgear then pushed Neptune off of her chair. "Now go have some fun, I'll be fine." When Neptune tried to protest, Compa entered the room, a plate of food in her hands. "Go Neptune." Looking at Nepgear's smiling face once more, Neptune nodded. Hugging Nepgear one last time, Neptune left the room, hearing her stomach rumble as she closed the door.
"Ah… I really am hungry…" Neptune looked at the door, hearing Compa and Nepgear chat. Smiling, Neptune skipped down the hallway, humming a song as she left.
"Mmm~" Neptune stuffed her mouth with cake. After having dinner, Neptune filled a plate with dessert and rushed over to Nepgear's room, finding that he was able to move from the bed to the table nearby. Leaving the sweets with her brother, Neptune returned to find that dessert table had restocked, causing the CPU to jump for joy.
As she was stuffing her face, Neptune caught Uni at the CPU's table, glancing around. Reminding herself of how close Uni was to Nepgear, Neptune guessed that she was looking for her brother. The CPU watched as Noire tried to console her little sister, who had changed into a gray dress since her black one was ruined. At that moment, Neptune spotted Nepgear walked through the door, exhausted and unstable. As her brother leaned against the door to catch his breath, Neptune grinned like a cat and bounded over to the Lastation siblings.
"Hey, Nowa~!" Catching Noire's attention, and by extension, Uni's, Neptune stood next the raven haired CPUs.
"Don't call me that! …Anyways, what do you want?" Noire redirected her attention Uni.
"The dessert table is gonna be restocked! Come on, we gotta get some more delish sweeties!" Pausing to look at Uni, Neptune saw Nepgear open the door as he tried to move forward. "Uni, guess what?"
"...What?" Uni followed Neptune's gaze to find the person she had been looking for this whole time. "Nepgear…" Taking this chance, Neptune pulled Noire towards the dessert table, leaving Uni alone.
"Hey, let me go!" Ignoring Lonely Heart, Neptune watched Uni walked over to Nepgear, who was heading towards the punch bowl, parched from his lack of energy and the heat from the room. "Did you not hear me?" Neptune put a finger up to her mouth. "What are you…? ...Oh." Neptune and Noire sat down as Uni asked Nepgear to pour her some punch, which after that the two walked out to an open balcony. "Hey, Neptune?"
"Hmm?" Neptune had gotten up and picked a plate, filling with cakes and other treats.
"Do you think that they'll be really close?" Neptune hummed to herself, finding that Uni was a great friend for Nepgear, so much that she didn't mind him leaving so often to see her. "I mean, Uni's been talking about Nepgear a lot lately..."
"Hey, enough of the heavy stuff!" Neptune pointed her fork at Noire. "Now let's eat some cake!" Noire blushed a deep red as she pushed herself away.
"Wh-What are you doing?!" Suddenly, the room shook lightly as the sound of HDD activating and Nepgear's scream erupted through the room. Dropping her fork, Neptune activated HDD and dashed over to the balcony, causing the other CPUs to do the same.
Once at the balcony, Purple Heart heard Uni call out to Nepgear, but could not find them anywhere. Glancing at the ground, Purple Heart found Nepgear's hairclip on the ground. Picking it up, Purple Heart clenched it tightly.
"And I thought I could trust her…" Standing up, Purple Heart looked around, searching high and low for any sign of Nepgear or Uni. A pillar of light caught her eyes as she found Nepgear and Uni lying in the patch of Forsalis Flora that Vert had brought for Blanc. Seeing the honest look on Uni's face, and the surprised one on Nepgear, stopped Purple Heart in her tracks. Instantly regretting her anger, Purple Heart watched as Uni lie down next to Nepgear and the two stayed there. That faded anger turned into growing tension. The goddess gripped her brother's hair-clip tighter.
"So that's where they went…" Suddenly, Black Heart was next to her, stars in her eyes.
"Uni finally gained HDD…" Purple Heart raised an eyebrow.
"Is that all you're noticing?" The CPU could hear Black Heart scoff and the sound of her heels scratching against the stone as she turned around.
"Who Uni loves is not my business," Purple Heart froze at the word love. Although she had accepted Uni as Nepgear's close friend, maybe even a sibling-friend. She didn't even once think of her being romantically involved with Nepgear. "You should too. After all, Nepgear can't be by himself forever." Purple Heart gritted her teeth, because she knew what Black Heart actually meant, and it stung her. It stung her so much that she might have an actual allergic reaction because the sting was so painful it gave her the allergy.
Purple Heart knew that she had to let Nepgear go.
"Hm…" Staring at the frozen lake, Purple Heart heard Black Heart walk away while another one walked up to her.
"Hey." Relief washed over as her as White Heart's voice reached her ears. "Don't be so uptight about it." White Heart patted Purple Heart on the back, a small grin on her face. "Nepgear's growing up. It's natural. Tell ya what." Purple Heart made eye contact with White Heart. Vert and I are going on our honeymoon and Mina's going on a forced vacation. Can you do me a favor and watch over the twins for me?" Remembering that both Rom and Ram were still children, Purple Heart realized that White Heart was trying to cheer her up. The CPU nodded, a small smile growing in her face.
"You don't mind if I teach them new pranks?" White Heart scratched the back of her head and sighed.
"Just don't teach them anything outrageous." Purple Heart giggled as White Heart out a fist and the CPUs bumps fists together.
"No promises." Suddenly, Green Heart's voice came from behind Purple Heart and White Heart.
"We're going to have a child~!" Purple Heart nearly fell forward as White Heart scratched her rosy red cheek.
"... Vert wants me to have the kid…" Purple Heart chuckled, patting her close friend on the back.
"Good luck with that." Purple Heart watched as Uni and Nepgear stood up, hand in hand.
"Yeah…" The CPU of Planeptune pressed Nepgear's hairclip against her chest, an empty feeling filling her heart. Quietly, White Heart narrowed her eyes and turned around, entering the Basilicom and leaving Purple Heart to stare at her little brother's happiness.