Quick Author's Note: So, I've been talking about this for a while, but Chapters 14 and 15 are each a part of a two-parter story arc. Part 2 (Chapter 15) will be posted shortly after this story, so look out for that!

Chapter 14: The Lastation Ball

As the Planeptune goddesses touch down on the balcony of the Lastation, Venus immediately spun back to the balcony edge, to look over the cityscape. The celebration of Lastation's founding was in full swing. The whole city was lit up, the sounds of celebration could be heard below, and occasionally, a blue firework shot up into the sky.

It was so amazing for the young Candidate to see. Flying into and above the nation was an incredible thing to see.

"Big sis, look!" Venus excitedly called.

Purple Heart came over. "Indeed, this is a beautiful sight."

"It's even brighter than our nation!"

"This is what it's like during times of celebration."

"Really. Like, do we have a Flounder's Day?"

"Founder's Day," Purple Heart corrected, "and yes, of course we do. Along with a few other days of celebrations." Though the goddess, not that she wanted to admit it, didn't recall when these were. Before, she wasn't attentive enough to memorize her nation's holidays, except for her and her sister's birthdays, and common holidays. She only got involved when she was reminded they were coming up. And of course, over the last year, Neptune didn't even bother to celebrate anything, not even her own birthday.

...And on Nepgear's birthday, Neptune spent the entire day sobbing in her room. Everyone knew better than to bother her that day.

Purple Heart sighed. It's only been a few months since Venus was born. And she hadn't told her sister about any holidays. She knew that she should talk to Histoire about future holidays, especially the national ones, so they can set aside the dates to celebrate with her sister. But could she bring herself to celebrate, too? Especially Venus's own birthday when that came up much later in the year. It'd be her first, so...

"Hey, big sis, are you okay?" Venus asked.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about something... important. We can worry about that later," Purple Heart exclaimed. Then she turned back into Neptune.

Neptune was wearing a purple gown which left one of her shoulders bare with only one strap, with darker purple shoes, and she even brushed her messy hair, something she never really did too much, and swapped out her D-pad clips with ornamental amethysts. All glowed up for the fancy party Noire was holding.

Venus also had a new dress picked out for her to wear, but she wasn't yet wearing it. You see, Neptune didn't want the dress ruined before they arrived. She could transform into Purple Heart, which would change her outfit in the transformation, so her dress would be fine. But Venus still couldn't transform, and had to be carried by Purple Heart, so after trying it on, they tucked Venus' dress back into its box, and brought it with them to change as they arrived.

"We should go inside," Neptune told her sister. She then said, "here", and handed Venus the box with her gown.

Venus excitedly took the box and ran inside to find a place to change. Neptune was going to follow, but... she remained still. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to be here. This wasn't her nation, and if the other CPUs were here...

Then the door opened, and Noire came out, wearing a gorgeous black dress, showing off a generous amount of cleavage (though that was nothing new for Noire), and a pair of black heels. This dress... wow. She looked good.

Noire herself was actually stunned for a moment, staring at how beautiful Neptune looked, how her dress fit nicely on her tiny body, and even how nice her hair looked.

But she quickly composed herself. "There you are! I just saw Venus, and I a worker take her somewhere she could get changed. Are you going to come in?"

Neptune took a sharp breath. "I- uh... sorry, yeah. I'm coming."

Guess there's no turning back now.

Noire guided her into the ballroom, where the party was already in full swing. Many different people were mingling around, people Neptune didn't really know, but she realized they must've been Lastation elites and influencers.

And of course, Neptune was the last goddess to arrive, as the other CPUs were already here. Blanc was trying to keep her sisters under control, who were trying to eat as much food as they could get their hands on, and run around. Vert was close by, next to the champagne, and conversing with some of the other guests.

Neptune kind of wanted to just slink into a corner, and hide from view, but she didn't account for Noire's greeter. "Now arriving, Lady Purple Heart of Planeptune!"

All eyes turned to the tiny goddess.

"Okay, I've got to go see if Venus is ready," Noire said. "Why don't you go talk with some of my developers. Perhaps you could set up some cross-platform projects?"

"Yeah, that could be good for business," Neptune replied, but she was distracted. She was still glancing at the other CPUs.

"You'll know when Venus gets here. Have fun!" And Noire left.

Neptune began to roam among the guests. Several people commented on how lovely Neptune looked, and commented on how nice it was to have the other CPUs come and celebrate their nation's birth, and a few curious questions about Planeptune's wellbeing, in regards to Purple Heart's extended absence from the public, as well as the new Candidate.

Neptune did her best to conserve and answer everyone's questions, when she heard some familiar voices.

"Hi, Neptune!"

"Hey, miss Neptune."

Turning around, she found Rom and Ram looking up at her. They were wearing matching dresses with different colors, of course those being blue and pink respectively.

"Oh, hey guys," Neptune replied. "Nice party?"

"Eh, there's nothing really fun to do here. The food's good, but they won't let us have any of the drinks!" Ram answered.

"Well... they are kind of meant for adults. Maybe they have some juice or soda for you?"

"Um, did you bring any games?" Rom asked.

"Hey! You're the ones who wanted to come!" Blanc came up behind the twins, in a blue and white dress.

"Come on! We're bored!" Ram complained.

"My, my!" another voice spoke up, this one being Vert's, coming over in a long green dress. "Blanc, are you sure that this is an appropriate place for kids?"

"They're goddesses, it's not that odd," Blanc countered. "Besides, they can help represent our nation."

"If you say so," Vert replied, not wanting to push the matter further. Still, there had to be a better place for the twins to be. "Perhaps they could hang out with the other Candidates? Uni should be around here somewhere, and I bet you Venus isn't too far behind. Right, Neptune?"

"Yeah, she's getting changed, and Noire's checking on her," Neptune explained. "We kind of just got here."

"Better late than never." Another person joined the conversation, Histoire. She had left early, while Neptune got herself ready. She didn't have another special outfit on, but she really didn't need one.

"We're only an hour late!" Neptune exclaimed. "You see... I had to explain to Venus what this kind of party was."

"Well, I suppose that's a good reason to be late. Wouldn't want her to cause problems here."

"Yeah..." That was part of it, but really, Neptune had a hard time wanting to come out of her room. This whole time, she was on edge in coming.

"Why did you bring her here?" Ram complained. "She's boring!"

"Aw, you're just mad because Venus has neutral reactions to your pranks," Neptune defended her sister. "Just talk with her a bit. She's super fun."

"I agree, she's such a charming young lady," Vert said.

"Like you'd know," Blanc said. "She's an idiot!"

"Well, I..." Vert stopped. What happened between her and Venus had been stuck in her mind since it happened. She couldn't understand, who wouldn't want to be sisterly with her. She wasn't sure if Blanc heard about this, but her comment got to her. "...I'm sure... she's still just trying to understand how everything works."

"So, what's taking her so d*** long to figure it out!?"

"It's only been a little over two months," Histoire countered. "Though, I do agree that she should take learning matters more... seriously." She wasn't sure if that was exactly the problem, but she couldn't think of anything else.

Neptune could feel the awkward air around the group, so she said, "um, I'm going to go get some champagne..." and left.

Histoire knew what that was. An excuse to get away. Sure, Neptune was mature enough to drink alcoholic drinks, and she has had some before, but it was never really her favorite. She's always preferred sugary drinks, and goddesses don't really get buzzed easily anyways.

She didn't know what happened between Venus and the other CPUs, aside from the story of Vert being... overbearing to the Candidate. But Neptune walking off wouldn't help matters. Venus had yet to reach the same levels as Nepgear, so Neptune had to do better to help mend the rift as her big sister.

But then again, Venus should've been here, too. It's only been maybe five minutes since they arrived, but she should be here.

Neptune stuck to her word, in case the others were watching, and came up to the table serving champagne. "May I have a glass?"

"Of course, Lady Neptune," the server replied, handing her a glass.

Neptune spun around, leaned back on the table, and just began to people-watch, as she took light sips of her drink.

Coming here was a mistake.

But... Venus really wanted to come. Noire wanted her here. So here she was.

That's when some came to the table, asking for a glass herself. Uni.

She was wearing a strapless, low-cut, black and blue dress with a short skirt, and low heels. She looked cute, but there was a frown on her face.

"Hey, Uni," Neptune greeted. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Uni replied.

As Uni got her drink, Neptune replied, "okay, okay... Um, is it... okay for you to have this kind of drink?"

"Is it okay for you?"

"Touche. So... about our last visit."

Uni glared at Neptune. "You're still on about that?"

"I mean, we didn't really get to talk about that fight specifically. It feels like you were using it to vent your feelings." Neptune took a deep breath. She had to keep her composure. "You know I understand how you're feeling, but... you should talk to someone about it, not go overboard in a sparring match."

"I prefer to take action."

"That's not what that means, and you know it! Here's a good saying, make love, not war."

Uni tensed up. That confused Neptune. Then Uni shook it off, took a sip of her drink, and replied, "So?"

"I, uh, look, Venus wants to be your friend. Could you, maybe... think about being nicer to her...?"

"I'm sure she wants to be friends with everyone," Uni coldly replied.

"Um..." Not really, Neptune thought.

Then they heard the greeter call out, "now arriving, Lady Venus of Planeptune!"

Everyone turned to see Venus, now dressed up in her ballgown, and she looked lovely. It was a purple and white dress, very modest compared to the other goddesses, and she had stockings on with black shoes. Her side ponytail was now styled into a side braid, with a purple flower mixed in to tie up the end.

"Wow... just look at her," Neptune complimented. "Don't you think my sister looks great?"

Uni scoffed.

"Come on, admit it. She looks nice," Neptune tried to convince the black Candidate.

Noire had come in behind Venus, scanned the room, and pointed out Neptune. The purple Candidate then immediately bounds on over, with Noire smiling at the joyous energy she had, as she follows.

"Hey, big sis! Don't I look awesome!?" Venus exclaimed.

"You look amazing, sis!" Neptune replied.

"Yes! I knew it!"

"I told you so," Noire said, as she approached. "Sorry, I wanted to mess with her hair a bit. I kind of wish I had the chance to make her outfit."

"What, you want to make ALL of Venus's outfits?" Neptune teased.

"I- well, you know-" Noire stopped and sighed. "Okay, the dress you got her is beautiful. I can not argue about that."

"Isn't it!?" Venus jumped in. "Uni, is it pretty?"

Uni said nothing, looked away, and just sipped away at her drink.

"You look great, sis? And I bet Nepge..."

Neptune stopped herself, but the other three noticed her slip-up. Uni seemed annoyed for some reason, and Venus looked a bit distraught. Noire asked, "Neptune, are you okay?"

"Sorry, just..."

"Big sis, it's okay," Venus said. "...I'm not bothered by it." She didn't sound "not bothered", though.

Noire turned to Venus. "Okay, so we have food over there," she pointed out, hoping to move on from this awkward situation.

"Are there cookies?" Venus quickly asked getting excited.

"I think so..."

"Yeah! Come on, Uni!"

"Huh!?" Uni exclaimed.

"Go on," Noire replied. "You two should hang out."

"I-" Uni tried to start, but Venus grabbed her hand, and excitedly dragged her to the food table. The tsundere Candidate had to instead focus on not letting her drink spill from the lively sprint.

"Well, that's good," Neptune said. "I'm not sure that Venus should try champagne just yet." And she tried to laugh, though it was obviously forced.

"That's what you're worried about?" Noire replied. "Neptune, I don't want to say this, I know it might hurt you, but you need to try to separate Venus from Nepgear."

"I... I'm trying."

"Neptune..."

At the food table, Venus was picking through the selection of cookies. "Ooh, this one looks interesting!"

"A maracroon?" Uni replied, disinterested. "Whatever."

"Are you going to get some cookies?"

"I don't care."

"Oh..." Venus looked down. She wanted to do something to make Uni... happier. But what? "Um, what do you like to eat?"

"Curry," Uni replied, no change in tone.

"Oh... uh..." There was no curry here. "Um, do you like mini-sandwiches?" And Venus picked up one of the small snack sandwiches, and offered it to Uni.

"What you doing?" Uni asked, getting irritated.

"I just... wanted to be nice," Venus replied, putting down the sandwich and plate of cookies she was gathering. "You seemed unhappy."

"Well, maybe I'm unhappy, because I have to hang out with you!"

"Bu- bu- bu- but, I... I'm trying to be friends with you."

Uni heard this, and she began to fume. She couldn't take this anymore.

"Really! You! You really want to be friends with me!" Uni snapped.

This caught the attention of everyone at the party. Especially Neptune and Noire, who grew very nervous at this outburst.

"Oh no, Uni, what are you doing?" Noire asked, concerned.

Venus tried to speak, "B-but- I just-", but Uni wasn't done.

"You really think you can just waltz on in here, call yourself Neptune's little sister, and we'd all be okay with that!?"

Everyone was shocked by Uni's sudden declaration. They knew Uni wasn't herself since Nepgear disappeared, but this?

Venus started to tear up. "I just want to be y-your friend..."

"Nepgear was my friend, but you're not Nepgear, and YOU can't ever replace her!" Uni jabbed back.

Venus was silent for a moment, save for the soft sobbing, and she began to look around... she saw the other CPUs for the first time this party.

Blanc was just glaring silently. The twins were ignoring the situation, munching on some snacks, and Vert was diverting her gaze, unsure of what to do.

Watching this, Neptune said with a sad expression, "Venus..." she wished she could help her, but she didn't know how to react to this. Everyone else was appalled that Uni would say such a thing, but was too stunned to do anything.

Venus finally got it, and started running off crying, taking off for the exit.

"V-Venus!" Neptune tried calling out, but she couldn't speak loud enough, as she sailed past, sobbing loudly as she left.

Everything was silent after that, for only a brief moment...

"UNI!" a loud voice sounded. Looking over, everyone found that it was Noire, who was thoroughly done with Uni's attitude. She stormed over to her sister, angrily saying, "We. Need. To. Talk. Now!"

Before Uni could argue, Noire grabbed her arm, and dragged her out of the ballroom, leaving everyone to awkwardly stand there and stare, still trying to come to terms with what just happened.

Once they were alone, in a room far from the party, Noire turned to Uni, arms crossed. "Okay, what is your deal!?"

Uni grunted in annoyance.

"No, none of that! Talk!" Noire demanded. "Why did you hurt Venus like that!?"

"Why do you even care!?" Uni retorted.

"Because she is my friend! Because she's Neptune's sister! Because she did NOTHING wrong, and you pushed her away! Do you understand how she must feel after that!? She only wanted to be your friend."

"WELL I DON'T! I don't want her to replace Nepgear!"

"What the h*** is all this about replacing Nepgear!?" Noire asked hysterically.

"Don't you get it? No one cares about Nepgear anymore. It's all about Venus! H***, you seem to care about Venus more than your own sister!"

Noire growled. "No! I want to see Venus grow, yes, but I am not playing favorites!" She then took a deep breath. "You know, all I wanted... was to talk to you. To find out what was going on with you, and all you ever do distance yourself from me! I wanted to be the nice sister, and be there to comfort you. But no! And now you've crossed the line. So TALK!"

"So, what do you want me to say?"

"Just tell me why you said that to Venus?"

"Because it's the truth!" Uni snapped back.

"Is it? IS IT!?" Noire angrily replied. "Because I don't think it matters whether Venus is like Nepgear or not, if she's 'replacing' her, but she's still Neptune's little sister. And she just wanted to be friends with you!"

"So you do care more about her than Nepgear!?"

"NO! No... I just want everyone to be themselves again."

"Nothing can be the same without Nepgear!"

"You don't think I know that!? You don't think I want to do something about that!? But there's nothing... nothing I can do about that!"

"You could have kept looking for her!"

That's when Noire finally understood. "You're mad at us because we stopped looking for Nepgear, aren't you?"

"Of... of course I am! I wanted to find her! I HAVE to find her! And then you just went and blew the whole thing up. You even convinced Neptune, the one person who would've never stopped looking, to do just that and stop! Looking! And look what happened to her! She's a shell of her old self. You want Neptune to go back to being her old self, but you made her that way in the first place!"

"...But, Uni, you know we had to stop. We found no sign of her, and-" Then Noire realized... why Uni always left on her own, why she never talked to anyone about what she was doing with her time. "You still looking for her, aren't you?"

"...Of course I am! I spend every moment I can looking for her! No thanks to you!"

"Uni... I'm so sorry... I know Nepgear was your closest friend, but-"

"No you don't! You don't know anything! I... I..." Uni couldn't finish her statement, as tears began to fill her eyes.

Noire felt terrible seeing this, so she replied softly, "then tell me, Uni. Help me understand. It's okay, I'm your sister, you can tell me..."

Uni was still silent for a moment, before building her courage and admitting, "...I loved her, Noire. Okay? I love Nepgear!"

Noire was shocked. Uni was in love with Neptune's little sister? She... wasn't expecting that. She knew they were close, but... "No wonder you want to find her so badly..."

"I wanted to admit my feeling to her so badly, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't say those words to her. And now... she's gone..." Uni finally burst into tears. "I wasn't able to tell Nepgear what she truly meant to me."

Noire pulled Uni into a hug and softly patted her back. "It's okay, Uni. I understand. I want to know what happened to Nepgear too, and I'd want her to know how much we all care. And I'm sure she'd love you back, Uni."

"Why... why did she have to go?" Uni sobbed.

"I wish I knew, I really do..." Noire sighed, "but Uni... none of this is Venus's fault. She just wanted to be your friend, and a good little sister to Neptune. I don't think it's fair to tell her she can't. You really hurt her feelings, and you need to apologize to her for that."

Uni was still sobbing, but didn't say anything.

"Look, Uni... I'm not asking for you to treat Venus like you would have treated Nepgear. But she wants to be your friend, and I'm just asking you to give her that chance."

"I doubt she wants to be friends with me now..." Uni said through her tears.

"Well, you need to fix this, then. This is your mistake." Noire pulled back, and put her hands on her sister's shoulders. "You need to apologize, and mend this relationship. At least try to. You owe it to her, to me, and to Neptune. Heck, do you think that what you did is what Nepgear would've wanted?"

Uni just silently cried, staring at the ground, before shamefully saying, "no... no she wouldn't."

"Please, Uni. Venus needs a friend. That's all. You can keep Nepgear in your heart... keep her memory alive. But Venus doesn't deserve to be pushed aside or dragged down because of this."

"I... I'm an awful person... Nepgear should hate me."

"No, don't say that, you can still fix this. Trust me."

"I... I-I- O-okay, I'll do it. I owe it to everyone."

"Good, now go find her," Noire finished.

Uni nodded, no words, wiped her tears, and turned to leave, to begin her search for the Planeptune Candidate.

Now alone, Noire turned to look out a window, overseeing her nation. What Uni said rang in her mind. I loved her, Noire. Okay? I love Nepgear! They were such close friends, but she couldn't imagine...

Noire sighed. What did it mean to love someone? She wished she could understand what that really meant, and how Uni felt.

Author's Note: So I want to know, were you surprised when it was revealed Uni had a crush on Nepgear? Or were you guys just like, "yeah, I suspected as much"? I mean, I tried to play this off as a big deal, but at the same time, well... I'm not unaware that Nepgear x Uni is one of the most popular ships in this fandom. Plus, I haven't exactly made it a secret that I am a fan of this ship, too.

I mean, I haven't exactly made it clear in this story, but in my other Hyperdimension story, "Ultradimension: Big Nep and Smolgear", I have Ultradimension versions of the Candidates, and I have teased the idea of Nepgear and Uni becoming close when they get older, several times. And with how Uni in this story has been acting, I'm sure someone has thought "this has got to be more than Uni wanting her best friend back". I'm just wondering if this is not as big a deal as I was hoping it to be.

Regardless, if you are now thinking "hey, with Nepgear gone, and Uni might be starting to mend things Venus, could we be seeing some Venus x Uni?" No. No, I am shutting that down right now. I have ABSOLUTELY no plans to make Venus and Uni a couple. Aside from the fact that I've established that Venus is asexual (maybe not aromantic, but still!), what Venus needs is a friend. This is not me saying what's going to happen next. I've already promised the next chapter is coming out in the next few minutes after this is posted, so you just keep reading to see what happens. I'm just telling you that Venus has no romance plans in this story.

So, part of this chapter was actually written a while ago. I don't remember exactly when, but I just wanted to write down some of the parts of this chapter to help me visualize what I wanted for those parts, and I didn't want to forget exactly how I wanted them to play out. These were the parts where Uni snapped at Venus, where Noire reprimands Uni, and also the first (fairly lengthy) part of the next chapter, which you'll see when that comes out. Yes, those are all connected and back-to-back, but I had them separated when writing.

But they weren't just prepared before writing just to be cut and pasted in. I knew I had to edit them a bit, which I did, for the sake of the story flow. I also added some extra bits to help flesh them out, and cover more info related to what I've written since I wrote those excerpts, since I didn't have this completely planned then. For example, the part after Uni finished yelling at Venus, where Venus was seeing what the other goddesses that hurt her emotionally were doing. That was added to help the story flow.

Also, if you're thinking I just added Rom and Ram, and didn't have a good reason for them to be there... yeah, you're kind of right. They just need to be here for Part 2 / Chatper 15, that's all.

And I really don't know how CPUs and alcohol are supposed to work. I know about the audio clip about Noire somehow getting drunk off of rootbeer... I don't know what happened there, and I think that was the point. I'm just going to play that as best I see fit.

And of course, I kind of what to draw the ballgowns that Venus, Uni, Neptune, and Noire had. Got to add it to the list.

As an aside, I am making an update to Venus's OC Profile. Her birthday was set to be the original release date for the Sega CD, since she is supposed to be based on that console, the first release in Japan. However, that date is December 12th, 1991. The year's not important, but the month is a problem. December is the official beginning of the winter season, and the month of the Christmas holiday. Two things that were not happening at the beginning of this story!

Okay, let's be fair here, if you remember, I didn't make and finalize Venus' OC Profile until part way into writing this story, so I didn't have her birthday date set up then, and could not have considered this at the time. But when I started writing this chapter in full, I realized I needed to look into what holidays may have happened during the story, and... yeah, I don't think I could fix that.

Luckily, there's a different way to fix it, and that is retconning it. And, it really isn't much of a retcon, since I never actually gave a time frame in this story other than what time has passed, nor have I mentioned any major holidays. If you're wanting to know the new retconned birthday for Venus, it'll be the release date of the Sega CD in Europe, which is April 2nd (again, the year doesn't matter, but it is 1993). It'll let me keep the original idea of the goddess's birthdays being based on the release dates of the game consoles they're based on, even if it isn't the original release date, like I would've wanted.

Look forward to Part 2 of these two chapters (Chapter 15), where we'll see how Uni fixes things up with Venus, if she can. It's coming out within the next half hour or so!