It was a morning like any other in Planeptune the sun was bright and shining, there was a gentle cooling breeze in the air to counter the heat, yes truly a wonderful day...

At least it was for everyone else. But for two very specific people it most certainly was anything but. One of the two had locked herself in her room, the other had stepped outside to try and enjoy the weather a bit but found her mind drifting back to her little sister as it always did this day.

She was Neptune, the CPU of Planeptune though to anyone else right now she look like a girl in her early teens in a white and purple parka and skirt with short purple hair and purple eyes, said eyes right now were looking up at the window of her and her sister's bed room.

"Nepu... It's the same every year..."She muttered with a sigh as she turned away from the window to look out at the city. "I have to do something. I can't let this go on any longer, not without knowing what is bothering her."

Neptune crossed her arms and closed her eyes, tapping her foot on the ground in rapid succession as she tried to think of an idea. Finally her eyes opened. "I got it." She yelled, as an idea came to her. Quickly she rushed back inside and to her seldom used office. Once at her desk she logged onto her PC. "I may not be good at this serious stuff but I know a few people who are." She said as she launched a conference call with the other three neighboring leaders.

After a few moments of silence three images appeared on screen: one of a woman with jet black hair tied up in two twin tails and dressed in a Gothic maid like outfit. Behind her stood a slightly younger girl similarly dressed but with her hair let down rather than tied up. This was Niore the leader and CPU of Lastation, along with Uni, her Sister and CPU candidate

The next was of a woman with long blonde hair and wearing an elegant green outfit that revealed her rather enormous chest. This was Vert the Leader and CPU of Leanbox.

The last one shows a rather stoic woman with short, light brown hair which was kept under a hat. She had a dress on along with a jacket for warmth due to her country's cold climate. Behind her were two small children, one with short brown hair, one with long brown hair down on a table wearing cute dresses, one blue and one pink. This was Blanc the CPU and leader of Lowee along with her sisters and CPU candidates Rom and Ram.

Neptune nodded at all of them." Thank you for answering my call everyone, sorry for the short notice but I sorta need help with something super duper important." She said but before she could speak again Noire spoke up.

"Neptune I am not helping you get your shares up again if you let them fall low again due to your laziness" She replied sharply as she rolled her eyes.

Neptune instantly lost all momentum and slammed her head into the desk out of surprise before looking back up at the camera. "This is not about Shares or work, it's about Nepgear!" She all but shouted back catching her fellow CPUs and their sisters off guard.

"Is something wrong with young Nepgear?" Vert asked, being the first to speak up, her expression becoming serious.

Neptune nodded and glanced down at her lap." Ever since she was born she would lock herself away on two days of the year, at first I thought she was just working on something after I found out about her fondness for mechanics, but year after year every July 31 and October 30 she locked herself in her room and I can barely get a word out of her if I even see her that day, and if I do see her she just seems so out of it." Neptune explained in a sad, serious tone that was very unlike the Neptune they were all used to.

The other CPUs and Candidates exchanged glances with each other before Noire spoke up. "Why didn't you come to us before?" She asked in a gentle tone knowing this was not the time for their usual banter.

"I'm her big sister," Neptune simply replied in a sad tone of voice. "I should have been able to help her, be there for her when she is hurting but nothing I did worked and I can't figure out why. It made me feel like I failed her somehow."

The call went dead silent for several moments, until someone chose to speak up.

"I think you're wrong Neptune, you have helped her more than you or any of us realized." Uni said as she stepped forward and turned the camera slightly.

"What do you mean Uni?" Vert asked, urging her to continue with her thought, curious what the young CPU candidate had to say.

"Well think about all the stuff she has gone through rescuing you and the rest of the CPUs, helping take down the Deity of sin, accidently traveling to the Ultra and Zero dimensions, fixing all of the Hyperdimension and getting Uzume back yet she kept it together despite this hidden issue.." Uni replied before she turned her attention back to Neptune. "And a huge part of it is probably because of you. You're her big sister and closer to her than any of us. You have been there for her after she comes out of hiding to help her get back to a normal life. She looks up to you more than anyone else, for some unknown reason, it's clear that whatever effect you have on her after these days is a positive one."

Neptune's eyes began to water with tears of joy at Uni's statement as a smile threatened to appear upon her face.

"Well now that Neptune's status as a decent sister is confirmed, perhaps we should return to the main subject." Blanc said in an irritated tone of voice though the other CPUs could tell it was out of concern of Nepgear rather than actual irritation.

Noire nodded. "Perhaps if we could find out the cause first it would be easier for Neptune to confront her about the issue." She suggested it after a few moments.

Neptune's eyes widened as she clicked on a few options with her mouse causing another user window to pop-up, this time showing a tiny fairy girl sitting on a tome, she had blonde hair tied up in pigtails that went down to her shoulder blades. She was wearing a purple dress with a cyan blue tie. This was Historie the Oracle of Planeptune and chronicler of Gameindestri

"Is there something you and the others need Neptune or are you actually doing your work?" She asked with an eyebrow raised as she looked at her CPU and friend suspiciously.

"Histy, I was wondering if you might know why Nepgear locks herself away in her room on July 31 and October 30?" She asked, ignoring the jab at her laziness.

Historie's eyes widened and she turned pale but nodded as she looked down. "Actually Yes, I have a rough idea." She replied sadly much to everyone's surprise. "The only reason I have not come forward sooner with my theory is that I also tried to help Nepgear but she would not accept it past my initial help."

The CPUs and Candidates glanced at each other before they turned their attention back to Historie. "What do you mean "initial help" Historie?" Vert asked calmly.

Historie took a deep breath before speaking. "As you know, in order for a Candidate to be born a nation's Shares must reach a majority of the other nations. Once that is done the wishes of the people can materialize the Candidate's form and abilities, but they cannot make her soul; however, no known magic, spell or share ability can do that. Despite this all CPUs and Candidates have souls."

The Candidates and CPUs look shocked at this, the Candidates more so. "So where does the soul come from?" Uni asked in a shaky voice worried about the answer.

Historie smiled at her reassuringly. "This is where the answer gets more complicated: there are two seemingly semi-documented sources. The first seems to be wherever all souls come from when normal people are born, this is what usually happens but sometimes the second option occurs." She said as she glanced down. "Reincarnation, the soul is the soul of someone who had died, usually quite recently, and due to what we know about dimensional travel from anywhere."

"Well that answers where we came from but not what is wrong with Nepgear." Blanc said but then her eyes widened. "Unless..."

"Actually it does." Noire finished for Blanc and caused everyone to turn their attention to the two. "If she is reincarnated then it is possible that she somehow retained her memories and that they are horrible ones, those two dates especially."

Historie nodded at this. "That is correct. When Nepgear was first born she panicked and it took me several hours to calm her down and explain things to her. It then took a matter of months for her to finally stop jumping in fear at the slightest noise but once she was adjusted she refused any more help and I finally was able to introduce her to Neptune." She explained looking down. "This is one of the few times I am happy Neptune dodge my calls for I highly doubt she would have been helpful for the inital healing process." Neptune giggled nervously as all the CPUs and CPU candidates glanced towards her before focusing back on Historie.

"Despite all the help I gave her, she refused to tell me of her past and no matter how much time has past or how much trust we have built she is too afraid to speak of her former life." Historie added as she finished her story.

The call fell silent at this revelation. Blanc's usually stoic face was currently showing shock and anger at this new information.

Ram's and Rom's eyes were watery at the implications of their friend's former life. Their young minds try to process how their older and strong sister could be like this at some point.

Vert's head and eyes were lowered and her expression was one of contemplation and sorrow.

Uni seemed to be on the verge of tears at what her best friend could be going through. Annoyed at herself for never noticing this about her and thus never being able to help her.

Neptune was the worst off, her usually bright eyes had dimmed and her body seemed to tremble at the mere thought of this possibility. "Y-y-y-You think someone abused Nep Jr?" She asked in a shaky voice that slowly seemed to get stronger as she spoke.

Noire's eyes widened at her rival's reaction and nervously nodded. "I-i-It is a possibility but only one person knows for sure." She replied carefully as she tried not to set Neptune off.

Neptune nodded slowly as her eyes focused into a glare usually, only seen in her HDD form. "If anyone dared lay a hand on Nep Jr like that I will kill them." She growled as her eyes radiated with power.

Vert nodded in agreement as did Blanc, Noire, Uni, Ram, and Ram. However thoughts of avenging their friend were interrupted by Historie. "As thoughtful as this all is, it does not help the here and now." She stated in a firm tone. "But I have an idea, if neither me nor Neptune alone can get her to come forward to get help maybe an intervention of sorts with all of us will work."

'Friends, family' every time she ran these words through her head over the years. There were some few times she still found it hard to believe that she had the first one and a positive version of the second. Don't get her wrong as much as she loved Neptune and she knew Neptune loved her back and combined with all they're adventures together a small part of her mind kept pulling her back into the darkness, especially these days and it was a fight to keep herself calm and relaxed.

Some may call it depression, others PTSD she was not sure what the correct term or even if it was either of those, what she did know was it was the result of her previous life and family's "care" and the best treatment she had found was to curl up in her bed with her favorite weapon to help her feel safe while looking at a picture of her friends and family.

Oh she was sure some therapist would scream their head off about letting her hold a sharp object when she was in this mindset but she did not care. It made her feel safe and that's all she cared about. And the picture kept reminding her of her friends and family regardless of the dark thoughts her previous "family" ingrained in her mind.

As she glanced at her alarm clock she let out a sigh. "Eight pm huh, might as well get something to eat before finaling going to sleep." She muttered as she slowly sat up, despite doing nothing all day it was an emotional draining day for her and thus she was already tired. She attached her sword to her belt and smiled softly at the picture in her hand. She decided to take it with her as she stepped out of her room and made her way into the kitchen.

Once she made it to the kitchen she opened the fridge to see what leftovers they had since she did not feel up to cooking something new. She quickly found some recently made pasta and meat sauce and made herself a small plate, enough to tide herself over to the next day.

As she made her way back to her room a loud but familiar and loving voice called out to her. "Hey Nep Jr, glad to see you up and about." Neptune said as she stood in the doorway to the living room.

She froze for a brief moment but calmed herself down as she turned around to face her older sibling with a big semi force smile. "Ya I was getting a bit hungry so I figured I would get something to eat before I called it a night." She replied.

Neptune stared at her sister for a few moments, she could tell she was still not 100% herself yet but was doing her best to hide it. "Oh I was wondering if you wanted to hang out for a bit with your older sister, maybe we could watch some of your favorite anime and play some games."

Nepgear thought about this for a few moments. Normally she would love to hang out with her sister but today she preferred to be alone. But then again maybe it would help her feel better and avoid getting nightmares tonight.

After she finished her contemplation Nepgear nodded and started walking towards her older sister. "Sure I think a few rounds of gaming would do me some good." She replied in a grateful tone. 'Neptune may not always have the best ideas but every so often she does come up with a few good ones.'

As she stepped into the room with her sister and her eyes widened. Waiting for her and her sister were Noire, Blanc, Vert, Uni, Ram, Rom, Compa and IF. All of them had been sitting in chairs just out of view of the entrance from the hallway.

"G-goodness w-what are you all doing here?" She asked in a nervous tone as her eyes quickly traveled between all her friends.

Uni was the first to speak up. "Neptune called us today and told us what had been going on, naturally we became worried. Then we asked Historie for her opinion and we just had to come over and help."

Nepgear's eyes widened a bit as she felt her body shake in fear at the prospect of them finding out while her mind went through what possible information her adoptive mom could have told them about her. "W-what d-did she tell you?" She asked after several moments of silence.

The group exchanged glances unsure who should speak up when finally Noire took the plunge. "She told us there was a possibility that you were reincarnated and it was possible you retained your memories." She explained in a calm, gentle tone.

After hearing that Nepgear lowered her head and closed her eyes before nodding. "Y-y-yes, Histoire's is correct. I-I had a life before this one and I have my memories up to m-my death." She said in a quiet voice but it carried through the room.

Nepgear could not see their expression but she could easily guess them, the CPUs would be the calmest on the outside but on the inside a storm was brewing. IF would be a raging inferno. Uni probably had tears threatening to fall while Compa, Ram and Rom would already be crying.

Opening her eyes and raising her head she was not disappointed though her guesses on the CPUs were off. Noire, Vert and Blanc did not try at all to seem calm in fact they looked ready to kill someone. Before she could turn her head to look at her sister she felt two arms wrap tightly around her and hold her close.

"It's ok Nep Jr you're safe with us now." Neptune whispered gently and lovingly to her as she hugged her protectively as she always did when she was worried about her.

Nepgear did nothing other than lean into her sister's embrace hoping it would help settle the emotional stress. It helped a little but a majority of the stress remained.

The silence of the moment was finally broken by Blanc who seemed to have recovered first. "If you do not mind, could you tell us what happened?" She asked politely.

Nepgear froze for a moment and shut her eyes as her body trembled with stress and fear at the very notion of revealing the full truth to someone. She suddenly dropped the plate of food which shattered on the floor and she wrapped her arms around herself as she tried to comfort herself along with Neptune.

Her friends and family watched with shock, this was not their Nepgear. She could be shy at times, maybe lacking courage when she was younger, but like this? What had happened to her to turn their friend into such a wreck.

'Maybe this was a bad idea.' Uni thought as her eyes watered as she watched her best friend have a panic attack, unsure what to do.

Fortunately someone did. Neptune reposition herself infront of Nepgear and gently put her hands on her cheeks. "Hey, it's OK Nepgear, I'm right here, and I won't let anything bad happen to you if they find out." She said in a surprisingly mature tone.

Nepgear remained silent for several moments that seemed like an eternity before she returned her sister's gaze. Her body continued to tremble but settled slightly. "You promise?" She asked quietly, her eyes not leaving her sister's.

Neptune quickly gave her a nod in response. "I promise and I am not the only one. All of us will stand by your side and help you." She said as she gestured to the rest of the room who returned the gesture with a smile despite the sadness in their eyes.

Her eyes brightened slightly at the gesture and she took several deep breaths to try and calm herself down as she and Neptune walked over to the couch and took a seat, sitting down between the rest of her fellow CPU candidates.

"It started when I was a bit over one year old on Halloween night, I was left on my Aunt and Uncle's door step." She said as she started her story. "From there it got worse, in a four bedroom house housing four I was put in the closet under the stairs with a lock on the outside to keep me in, they barely refered to my real name unless others were around I was just Girl or Freak not Holly." She ignored the gasps of shock as once she started it felt like she could not stop. Her body was starting to tremble from the memories.

"When I was maybe four or five was when the chores started, they had me do the cooking, clean the floors, work on the garden and it got worse as I got older. And if at any point I messed up or did something "freakish" I got a beating before being locked in my room for a few days with little to no food." She heard more gasps and yells of anger as well as her sister transforming but her mind would not let her stop.

"Finally a few days before my six birthday I came down with a flu but they refused to waste money to get medicine for me and due to the fever I messed up breakfast so I got another beating and was thrown in my room for the week." She paused as her body trembled.

"I felt weak... so very weak.. I cried and cried for help... but I could barely make noise... and if they heard me they gave me another beating finally on my birthday I felt so weak that I couldn't keep my eyes open and then the next thing I remember was meeting Historie. I was confused and scared at first but eventually I felt safe for the first time and I guess you guys know the rest..." she said as she finished her story and her voice trailed off.

Suddenly she felt multiple pairs of arms wrapped around her in a hug. Glancing around she saw Uni, Ram, Rom and Neptune in her Purple Heart form all hugging her tightly as she and the rest of her friends sat close around them. As they did this she felt her cheeks were wet and realized she had been crying as she told her story.

The group sat in silence just showing her how much they cared rather than tell her. Till finally curiosity got the better of one of them. "You said they punished you if you did something "freakish". What did you mean?" Vert asked in a gentle tone as she looked at Nepgear.

"M-magic" She replied back shyly. "I did not really understand it at the time but now I know it was magic that seemed to be based on extreme intent or need while still requiring energy."

Vert nodded at her explanation. "Do you still have this magic or did you lose it?" She asked, trying to be polite by avoiding a keyword.

Nepgear swallowed and nodded quickly. "I do, and it seems to be separate from Shares so I try to practice it when I can." She replied, while she felt slightly better emotionally thoroughly she was exhausted from telling her story.

Neptune seemed to take note of this and rubbed her sister's head gently." How about we order some pizza, watch a few episodes of your favorite anime and do a few rounds of gaming like I said then we get you to bed." She offered.

Nepgear couldn't help but smile for real this time as she leaned into her sister and nodded. "I like the sound of that, Neptune."

Later that night after Nepgear had gone to bed the CPUs gathered up for another meeting. This time in person while their sisters had a sleepover in Nepgear's room.

Once the door to makeshift conference room was closed a loud bang was heard and the CPUs turned to see Neptune was Purple Heart again and had punched a hole through the table.

"H-how dare those vile, disgusting, evil monsters do that to Nep Jr! They better hope I never find what dimension they are in or they will wish they had never been born!" She growled angrily.

The other three CPUs stared at Purple Heart for a few brief moments before Blanc spoke up. "Neptune's completely understandable outrage aside, I assume you all noticed something missing from her story?"

Noire and Vert nodded but Purple Heart did not and she blinked as she glanced up at her. "What do you mean missing?" She asked Blanc, her eyes somewhat narrowing accusingly.

"Her parents were absent, yet she did not say they were dead or she was abandoned. Her wording was that she was "left on her Aunt and Uncle's door step", this implies: A. Her parents were alive and left her there for some reason, possibly planning to come back one day. B. Her parents abandoned her there and moved on with their lives, or C. They died." She replied calmly to her still enraged comrade. "Personally I lean towards B or C being the likely option."

Vert nodded. "Yes after all it is a possibility that they also have or had magic and thus would not have been liked by this family. They would have had no reason to leave poor little Nepgear there if they cared about her."

"Actually it still could be the first option." Noire said, drawing all attention towards herself. "She said they called Magic "freakish" which most likely means magic is rare in that world, thus what if her parents thought she did not have magic?"

Blanc went to open her mouth when another loud bang was heard and they turned to Neptune who was now standing up with both hands on the table. "As interesting as this is, I do not see how this helps us help Nep Jr." She said with a slight glare at the others.

Noire was the first to speak up. "S-sorry Neptune we got distracted trying to sort out more of her story without her here." She replied in an apologetic tone.

"As for how we can help her one day at a time I think, the fact she finally opened up and told us what happened is a good thing, now we just need to help her figure out how she can handle it and maybe one day move past it." Vert added politely

Blanc nodded in agreement. "Unless something happens there is no reason to treat her any differently than before, the only difference is now we know what is bothering her and we can offer some help should she need it."

Neptune nodded as she stood up and deactivated her HDD, her fellow CPUs could tell she seemed emotionally exhausted as well."Well I am going to hit the hay, if you all want to spend the night feel free to, it's the least I could do for all your help." She said, extending the offer politely.

The other CPUs nodded showing their acceptance of the kind offer and the four went to bed, hoping the next day would be much better than this one.


So I said I would not start another story but I have been having some writers block stuff and I had this written up for a while and I wanted to get something out there for people to read.