Chapter 11: What Has Changed
Neptune didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that she was in a dark forest, and she was being pulled along by her sister, Venus.
"We have to go, sis! She's coming!" the purple Candidate cried, completely freaked out by... something.
"W-w-wait! Sis, what's going on!?" Neptune replied, starting to get scared. "Who 'she'!?"
"You know! Her!" her sister responded, tears of fear in her eyes.
Unfortunately, it didn't help answer Neptune's question.
They made it out into a clearing, though Venus did not let up with the running, practically dragging Neptune behind her.
"Please, Venus! Calm down! I don't know what's happening!" Neptune pleaded. "Can just talk and-"
Neptune suddenly got cut off, as a burst of dark-purple energy exploded in front of the sisters, knocking both of them on their butts.
Trying to get up, Neptune could see a figure, hidden by the cloudy debris that was launched into the air from the attack. And as the dust cleared, Neptune could only stare in horror.
Standing there was Nepgear, in her HDD form of Purple Sister. She looked, for the most part, the same as her human form, but her hair shifted from a light purple to a pink color and grew longer, and for eyes went from purple to blue. She had a circular hair clip in her hair, a white swimsuit-like outfit with purple designs, and was showing off her C-cup cleavage, and long white gloves and thigh-high boots similar to her main outfit.
But what terrified Neptune the most was the sword she was holding in her right hand, with its dark purple blade, emanating a menacing aura.
"I-it's her..." Venus managed to sound, petrified in fear.
"Wh-what...? That's what you're... no..." Neptune said softly and in fear, terrified of what was going on.
"Neptune," Purple Sister said in a monotone voice. "Why are you still with this girl?"
"She's my... my sister..."
"Your 'sister'? No, she's not. I am." And with that, the darkened Candidate walked over to the scared one.
Venus began to scramble back, trying to get away. But she slipped on the ground, causing her to trip over. And Nepgear reached her, she raised her sword...
"Let me handle this." And she swung down.
Luckily, Venus was able to summon her shield, and blocked the strike.
...Unfortunately, the shield, which was supposed to be incredibly tough, shattered with that single attack.
"Nepgear, STOP!" Neptune shouted.
Nepgear simply smiled, saying, "I'm doing this for you!" And raised the sword again...
Venus looked over to Neptune, and cried, "big sis!"
...As the sword swung down.
Neptune shouted at the top of her lungs "NO!" ...as she jumped out of her covers, waking from the nightmare, sweating.
She looked around the room, realizing that everything was normal. ...At least as much as it could be with Nepgear gone. Venus was probably sleeping in her room, completely fine.
Neptune tried to calm herself from the nightmare, but instead, she began to cry. These nightmares had started to become more and more frequent, and it wasn't helping her cope with her loss.
She just wondered... what could she do...? What could've she done...?
Hours later, Neptune was working. There was nothing major, but it had to be done.
That dream was stuck in Neptune's mind. Couldn't her sisters get along?
Then there was a knock on the door. "Neptune?"
It was Noire.
Another attempt to see her? Really?
...But, she was a good friend. And she had a good friendship with her sister.
Alright... she'll give for a moment.
"Come in," Neptune said.
The Lastation goddess walked in, giving her an expectant look. "You forgot, didn't you."
"Wh-wha- huh!?" Neptune replied.
"Last week. At the summit? We planned to hang out today?" Noire explained.
"Uh... I don't remember agreeing to that."
"Yes, but I remember saying that I was going to make it happen. I put aside the entire day for you, and Histoire agreed with me, saying that you should take the day off."
"Could... we do this a different day."
"Neptune... you need to take a break!" Noire demanded. "And this is coming from me! The 'loner that works too much'!"
Neptune just didn't say anything.
Noire really felt like she was just running smack into a brick wall. No one could break through that.
Well, one might...
Noire then leaned out of Neptune's office, and called out, "hey, Venus, are you around?"
"Uh, Noire, why do you need my sister?" Neptune asked.
Noire didn't answer, waiting for a response.
"Give me a second," the twin-tailed CPU said, before leaving.
Neptune raised an eyebrow, but just decided to get back to work. She assumed that Noire would be back quickly, regardless.
And of course, she was right, as Noire came back with Venus.
"So, Venus, how much does your sister work?" Noire asked the Candidate.
"Too much!" Venus replied.
Wait, are you really going to use my sister against me? Neptune thought.
"And how many breaks does she take?" Noire continued.
"Uh..."
"Better question, how often does she hang out with you?" Noire asked.
"A couple times... but I want it to be more!" Venus exclaimed.
"And do you think that she maybe should hang out with her other friends, too?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, I'm here to hang out with Neptune, but she doesn't seem to want to leave her work," Noire explained.
"What!" Venus ran up to her big sis's desk, and slammed her hands on it.
...The desk didn't break, but the top of it did crack from the impact of the strong Candidate's smack. Not that Venus noticed.
"You should hang out with your friends more, big sis!" Venus told Neptune. "She came here to have fun! And who knows when she might be back again!"
Probably next week, Neptune thought, but she knew that her sister was too worked up now to convince her otherwise.
"Today, you hang out with Nora! And tomorrow, we'll have fun, right!?" Venus demanded.
The smaller purple groaned, but she couldn't see a way out now. "Okay, just... give me a minute to get ready, Noire."
"Yay!" Venus cheered. "See you tomorrow!" And she ran out of the room.
Noire smirked, while Neptune turned to her.
"Well, you've certainly changed," Neptune noted.
"Maybe a little bit," Noire replied. "So...?"
"Yeah, let me get ready," Neptune exasperated.
Noire had managed to convince Neptune to walk down a mountain path. Trees passed by them, as Planeptune city could be seen in the distance.
It was nice, and Noire figured that it would be good for Neptune to be outside, talking to a friend.
However, it was silent. Neptune wasn't talking back. Very unlike her.
So, what would she talk about?
"So, is... work good?" Great start. Talk to the person who normally hates work about work.
"...It's fine," Neptune replied. "I've been working hard."
Right. Normally hates it. But not now.
Noire sighed. "Listen, I'm not good at this, you know. But I care for you. And, you know, you're not that same anymore."
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know. I mean, don't stop working. But, maybe don't work so hard. And don't ignore your sister. She wants to be a good sibling to you. And your friends, go see them more."
Neptune just looked down. "...I don't know if I can face them."
"Neptune-"
"They were just as much... my sister's friend, too, you know. It'd just be weird."
Noire took a moment to think about this. "You mean Nepgear?"
Neptune didn't respond.
"Neptune," Noire said softly, "I think... we should talk about what happened with Nepgear."
"What is there to say. I failed as a sister, and she disappeared."
"I know, but I don't think we ever talked about how it affected you."
Neptune remained silent for a moment. Then she sniffled. "You know I really care about Venus, right?"
"Yes? Does this have to do with Nepgear?" Noire asked.
"Yeah... I cared about her, too. I love both of them..."
"Where are you going with this?"
"...I've... been having dreams. No, nightmares. And in these nightmares, I see Nepgear. And she always blames me for... forgetting her," Neptune solemnly explained. "I try not to think about them. But I... I can't. I can't stop thinking about her"
"What about Venus?"
"Recently, she's been part of the dreams. And... Venus and Nepgear... they're..."
"Are they fighting?" Noire asked. It was a hard question, but she felt that was where this was going.
"Yes. They always fight, Noire. Sometimes, Nepgear straight up kills Venus. And it feels... it feels like..." Neptune started crying. "...Like I have to choose between them."
Noire stopped Neptune and turned her around to face her. "Okay, first of all, I know you won't like hearing this, but Nepgear's gone. But Venus is here. There isn't a choice between two sisters. And assuming that you had both Venus and Nepgear here, then why would you have to pick only one?"
"How do you know that I wouldn't have to!?" Neptune shouted back. "You don't understand Noire, I... really care about Venus. I want to be there for her... But I... I... every time I look at Venus, I can't help but think about Nepgear. Like, Venus is sister 2.0, not Nepgear, but, at the same time... she's the new Nepgear."
"Neptune, you shouldn't think of her that way. I told her that she didn't need to worry about Nepgear. Don't make her, okay?"
"I don't want to! I don't want to tell her about Nepgear at all! I don't want her to think that she's just another Nepgear! But it's hard... I can't get Nepgear out of my head... And I can't connect with Venus like I want to! Don't you understand how difficult that is! Especially when you've already lost a sister!"
"Well, at you HAVE a sister that loves you!" Noire finally snapped. "I get it's hard to have lost someone you love, but it's nothing like having a sister who won't even give you the time of day!"
Neptune stepped back in shock. "Noire, I... I..."
Noire's expression fell when she realized what she did. "I... I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Sigh. "Look, I've been frustrated, too. I don't know what to do anymore. I want everything to go back to how it was before, where Uni doesn't hate me for some unexplained reason, and Nepgear never went away... But I can't make that world."
Neptune looked down. "...I think maybe you can work things out with Uni... Maybe, she just feels lonely. She doesn't have a friend anymore."
"She didn't have friends before meeting you guys..."
"Neither did you."
"...But then you pushed them all away."
Neptune went silent.
"I'm sorry, that was a low blow," Noire apologized.
"It's okay. You're right. When the search ended, I felt that... I was betrayed. And I didn't know how to handle that."
The duo stopped at an overlook clearing, giving a great view of Neptune's city.
There was a bench city a few feet from the cliff, overlooking the city. Neptune walked over, and sat down.
"I just want to know... what did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve this?"
Noire sat down by her. "I... don't know. Say it's just a lack of responsibility doesn't seem right, because you still care about your people."
Neptune started to tear up. "I can't take it, Noire. I want to know what happened. I can't..."
Then the purplette got a surprise, as Noire wrapped her arms around her. Neptune then leaned into it, burying her face into her chest.
"It's okay. I'm here for you. I don't want you to be alone anymore," Noire said.
"...Thank you," Neptune replied softly, tears rolling down her face.
"Do you think we should... maybe, bring our sisters together to meet more often?"
Neptune moved away from Noire. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Venus really needs a good friend. And I mean, what could go wrong?"
"Yeah..." Noire sounded. "Also... I wanted to invite the other CPUs to the upcoming Lastation ball."
"A ball? Like, a dance? For what, your birthday or something? Didn't we just have a big group meeting?" Neptune replied. "And a rather disastrous one, at that?"
"It's for the celebration of Lastation's founding," Noire explained. "It's not my birthday, remember, there were goddesses before us."
"Oh, right." Neptune wasn't sure what to say to that. Mostly because she never bothered to memorize HER nation's founding day.
"I'd... normally not invite the other CPUs to the founding event, since they're not Lastation's CPUs, of course. But with everything going on... I thought that maybe everyone would enjoy a more... casual gathering. A way to recognize each other as friends, and not rivals or partners in business."
"'Casual'," Neptune teased. "With a fancy dance, and those fancy dresses, and fancy food..."
"You know what I mean!"
Neptune chuckled. "You've changed, Noire. A lot... I don't know if I can keep up."
"Is that a bad thing?" Noire inquired.
"I don't know. Maybe not." Neptune smiled. "Yeah, we'll come. I love seeing Lastation, and I think your nation is the only nation left that Venus doesn't hate, aside from our own."
"You should know that this is the chance to figure things out with Blanc and Vert, for both you and Venus."
"Right..." the purple goddess sighed. "That sounds... fun."
"I know you don't want to... but you should," Noire told her.
"I know. But... the bigger issue is how they've treated Venus, and that I don't know exactly what they've said to her. She won't talk about what is upsetting her about them, and I think she just doesn't yet understand what's even going on. ...Is that why you think she and Uni should be friends?"
"...I don't know. But it would be a start."
"Maybe." Neptune got up. "You know what, thank you, Noire. I really needed this. As for the invitation, I'll think about it. And maybe, I'll bring Venus over to Lastation again, sometime soon."
"I'll look forward to it," Noire said.
Neptune gave Noire a hug this time. "Thank you. I'll see you later"
Neptune then transformed into Purple Heart, and took flight back towards Planeptune.
Watching her friend fly away, Noire exclaimed to herself, "You've changed, too, Neptune. I just hope that, eventually, it'll be for the better."
Author's Note: So, I really felt that I needed a chapter for Neptune and Noire. For... reasons. But Noire's big part in this story is how she's trying to help Neptune break out of the shell she got herself stuck in, while also being a source of encouragement for Venus. So, I kind of felt that I should make a chapter where Neptune and Noire talk things out.
I... am a bit worried that maybe this is giving a bit too much away, but it's fine. Really, I'm just adding some fluff before the big chapters I'm planning, so it doesn't feel it came too quickly, as well as establishing a few things so they don't feel that they came out of nowhere. You'll see what I mean.
I really don't have much to talk about for this, but there is the dream that you're probably wondering about. Well, before now, there were two dreams, the picnic one before Neptune even knew Venus was born, and then the sunflower field one where Nepgear and Venus first fought. I wasn't originally planning this, ...but I kind of felt I needed to add a third dream to the lineup.
I mean, there is one big final dream sequence that I have planned, but that is going to be a very different kind of dream sequence (with different inspiration), and will not really have the same tone as these nightmares. Not to mention it's planned far down the line, after the big chapters coming up. Besides, this is a good way to show where Neptune's mental state is currently.
And I bet you're wondering, "did I really bring in THAT sword". Yes. Yes, I did put THAT sword into this chapter. But I should make it clear, I ONLY planned it for the dream sequence. It was nothing more than a reference, and a way to help establish the horror of that scene. I promise you now, it has NO place in the greater story. I just have no interest in writing the kind of sorrow that blade brings, not for this story at least.
Well, short follow-up today. For a shorter chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.