This is Part 2 of a three-parter set of chapters, Chapter 19 being Part 1. Please read Chapter 19 before you read this chapter.

Chapter 20: For My Friends

Black Sister stared Parallax down, her eyes full of righteous rage. There was no way this Gizoid was going to escape her fury.

But quickly she realized that her skills with the sword weren't... great. Well, it was a gunblade. Perhaps she could work with that.

"Alright, let's end this!" Black Sister shouted, as she held out her gunblade, and unleashed a rapid fire of energy blasts at Parallax.

The robot dodged quickly, his blades arranging themselves to make a spear. "I grow tired of this. Die!" And he made a leaping jab at Black Sister.

His speed was incredible, and he closed the distance near instantly. Black Sister managed to block the strike and push it to the side, while evading Parallax himself.

Parallax retaliated quickly, spinning around and making a swipe at Black Sister with the tip of his imitated spear. The Candidate made a flying leap back to avoid the attack, but it managed to graze her leg.

"Gah!" she cried out in pain, but she wouldn't give in. As quickly as possible, she counter-attacked. "Tricolor Order!" she shouted, firing a burst of multicolored shots at the killer android.

Parallax leapt back, groaning. The annoying goddess managed to strike him. Even still... "I know of this move. Tricolor Order. You wield a sword, yet you use the inferior version."

"Excuse me, my sister taught me that move," Black Sister responded.

"I know. I wish I had the superior skill. But it matters not, you're inferior swordsmanship means nothing to me. Rainy Ratnapura!" And Parallax rushed the goddess with a flurry of spear jabs.

Black Sister wasn't able to block or evade the attack, getting blasted back. Parallax then quickly made a move to make a follow-up attack, rushing forward to make a downward swipe, but Black Sister managed to recover and block the attack. However, his strength forced her down, and she had to keep holding the attack back, lest she take the damage.

"Those are Vert's moves..." Black Sister said, straining as she tried to keep Parallax away. "How...? How do you know how to use all of these abilities!? These are my Skills, as well as Vert's and Plutia's. There's no way a simple robot can replicate these abilities."

"Ah, but I am no mere 'simple robot'," Parallax responded with malicious glee. "I am Gizoid. I represent all things. I shall become greater, become the conqueror of all."

"Like h*** you'll take Lastation OR Planeptune," Black Sister groaned, as she managed to push Parallax off of her. Or wait, no... he let her.

"I care nothing for your pathetic nation," Parallax jeered. It was a hit to Black Sister's pride as a Lastation goddess, but he wasn't done. "Even still, you fail to understand. Now, let me show the Skills I learned in just this battle alone," he said, as his blades changed the arrangement, half of them into something like a six-pointed star, but slanted into a spiral, making an energy shield over it, and the other six into a simple large sword, one blade acting as the handle, two as a makeshift guard, and the final three being used to channel energy into a blade. "Behold..."

In perfect motion, Parallax swung his sword, unleashing a wave of energy. Black Sister, surprised by this attack, quickly evaded the attack.

He learned that just now? That was Venus' Sonic Sever! Black Sister played her thoughts in her head. 'I represent all things'. So does that mean he represents all of our power, combined...?

"You copy and mimic the Skills you see in battle," Black Sister exclaimed. "You're a copycat!"

"Oh, you're so crude," Parallax replied. "I'm no mere copycat. I take your power, and turn it into something new."

Parallax then made a dash towards Black Sister. "Cross Combination!" He called out, unleashing a series of quick slashes. Black Sister had seen this move many times, but blocking it wasn't easy. However, instead of using the moves finisher, Parallax then followed with mimicry of Venus's Stardust Saw, making a thrust with a spinning magic-bladed imitation shield. Venus hadn't called out the move's name earlier in her anger, and along with the sudden shift in attack, Black Sister was quickly caught off guard.

Okay, so he just copies the move, not the name. The name isn't necessary to him... Black Sister noted. They called out the move, so their allies would know what they were doing, but she never considered that Parallax didn't need to do this. Perhaps he also had to copy the call out, unless it was never made? Still didn't explain where he got these moves in the first place.

The point was, the longer she fought him, the more dangerous he would become. She needed to end this quickly.

Using her flight, Black Sister made a quick backflip to evade Parallax's last move, and make a gap between them.

"Time to end this!" Black Sister called out, aiming her gunblade right at Parallax. "XMB: Empress!" And she prepared to charge her powerful laser.

However, she made one miscalculation. She didn't have her large railgun, but a gunblade. A powerful weapon, to be sure, especially as an HDD weapon, but not made to handle such a strong blast. At the very least, Black Sister couldn't give the weapon the firm two-handed grip she needed.

As she fired, the blast pushed her back, causing the massive laser to veer off its aim. It did graze Parallax, but between his agility, and the wildly off-course shot, he escaped mostly unscathed.

Then he simply chuckled, a low, mechanical, taunting laugh. "I agree, I still tire of this. But if that was meant to finish me, then you were far too boastful."

Black Sister, as she recovered, grimaced. Okay, so that was a bit too powerful. She wasn't used to this weapon as Purple Sister Nepgear was. She just needed to adjust.

Black Sister was always agile, and most swords are always good for that. She had a move for that. And no need to call it out.

With this thought, she used her next move, Areo Shooter, silently preparing digital magic circles in the air, as she began to use them as platforms, jumping between them and shooting at Parallax.

However, as Black Sister was using her move, Parallax was already on the defensive, blocking her bullets with his imitated shield. And when Black Sister leapt up for her final attack, charging up a blast down at her enemy, he countered.

"Aurora Reflect!" He shouted, and sent her projectile back at her.

...Except she was anticipating this. It was the same scenario back when she had her dual with Venus. Parallax was on top of this battle the whole time, so she pulled out a sneaky trick, something he couldn't have copied, known about, or planned for.

Black Sister spun to the side, avoiding her own reflected shot, and aimed for a second shot. She just needed one, just to cripple him.

"Ice Coffin," Parallax announced, as he just slammed his sword into the ground, casting the ice spell.

Black Sister didn't even have the time to react, as she got frozen in a prison of ice.

Parallax quickly rearranged his blades to make a staff, as he began to speak. Black Sister couldn't hear him very well in the ice, but he spoke regardless.

"You are so very annoying," he said. "Thought you were clever, with that fake out? Well, in all honestly, you almost did get me. I had to perform this spell ineffectively to keep up. Best strengthen your cage." He used Ice Coffin again, now at its proper, full power, completely sealing Black Sister in her frozen shell before she could attempt to break out of it.

"Usually, the Ice Coffin would burst at the end, dealing great damage, but right now, I'd rather cut the move short, and keep you trapped, for the moment," the Gizoid continued. "The data I was given from your abilities suggested you were strong, an ace shooter. But this is so far below my expectations. I suppose I did rid you of your weapon, but your inability to adapt is quite a disappointment. Whereas for me, adaption is my strength!"

Parallax rearranged his blades in front of him, six of them in a simple hexagonal formation, as they began to channel energy between them. This formation flew up in front of his face, as he shouted "Dream Roar!" Using only the last part of the move, he unleashed a powerful sound blast, that instantly shattered Black Sister's ice prison, and blasted her back into the wall.

The Candidate fell to the ground, in great pain, and barely able to maintain her HDD. She still wouldn't give in, but as she started to get back up, Parallax rearranged his blades, back into the railgun formation he used when the fight began. "Allow me to show you the power I expected from you, Lastation Candidate," he said, as he pointed his weapon at the weakened goddess. "The power you failed to use on me. XMB: Empress!"

As energy charged up in Parallax's makeshift cannon, Black Sister could only watch, knowing that after all her efforts, it was all for not. If she had a moment to recover, she'd easily escape the blast, but at the moment, she knew that she wasn't in a state to do this. Even in HDD, she knew this attack would finish her.

This was it. She failed. He had won.

"Noire... I'm sorry..." Black Sister said remorsefully. "I should've listened to you. Neptune, I'm sorry I couldn't protect Venus... You didn't deserve this. And Nepgear... I wish I could've told you how I felt..."

A powerful blast was fired from Parallax's imitation railgun. The light filled the Candidate's eyes.

And then came the crash of energy.

...

...Wait.

She was still alive.

In front of her, some kind of large disc was floating and spinning right in front of Black Sister, blocking the laser. In fact, it was generating an entire energy shield, completely surrounding the Candidate in a dome barrier.

Parallax's attack ended, and he saw the barrier protecting the Candidate. His mechanical eyes squinted, and the anger coming off him could easily be felt, even with his near lack of expression. "How?" he sounded, in disbelief at this new development.

With this brief moment of respite, Black Sister began to check her inventory for any kind of healing item. Parallax had acted and fought too quickly to give her a chance to heal, only defend and attack, but with the shield up, and considering how beaten up she was, Black Sister was not going to waste this opportunity.

Even still, she very much wanted to know where this barrier came from.

She was in luck, as she found a Nepbull that she had gotten from the older Neptune a while ago. It was old, but hopefully still effective, As she consumed the medicinal drink, Black Sister then got a scare as Parallax angrily retaliated against the barrier. He had tossed his imitation railgun to the side, where it split back into its multiple blades, and made a punching move while his fist was surrounded by spiraling energy, forming a drill, a move Black Sister knew to be Uzume's Dream Smash Fist.

As the Nepbull's effects took hold and helped the Candidate quickly heal up, she quickly raised her gunblade, realizing that she would need to react quickly. However, this actually proved to be unnecessary, as the barrier then burst open as a counter-attack, blasting Parallax back.

"I already told you, you're not getting away with hurting my friends," a familiar, but more confident voice spoke.

Parallax attempted to get back up, only for the strange, oversized disc to suddenly fly towards him at great speeds, as if it had a mind of its own, smacking into him, sending him spiraling back to the ground. Then the shield turned back around and up, flying into someone... floating above Black Sister, who caught the disc on their arm.

No, not a disc, a shield.

Black Sister, gaze focused on the strange figure, and she realized who it was, she could only stare in shock. Hovering above her was a goddess she didn't recognize. ...No, she knew who this was, just not in this form...

This new goddess had dark purple hair, much like Purple Heart's, which was styled into a single braid on the right side of her face, and she had electric blue eyes. She wore a white one-piece swimsuit-like outfit with purple lining and exposed her cleavage, of which her chest had grown from a B-cup to a C-cup (which, on an unrelated note, did annoy Uni, very much).

On her arms, she had gauntlets with a very sleek design with the same white color as her bodysuit with the same purple lining. Gloves were connected to the gauntlets, and they had open fingertips with purple trims around the open tips. Past the elbow, where the gauntlets ended, were transparent, purple-meshes made up detached sleeves that ended halfway up her bicep with black trims.

It was similar on her legs, where she had greaves with the same white, sleek design as the gauntlets, and from above her knees to halfway up her thighs were stockings with the same purple mesh and black trims on top of her arms. Her feet were covered in flexible padding which was connected to the greaves, and had openings on top covered in more transparent purple-mesh, but still showed the top of her feet.

She wielded a long, straight, double-edged sword with purple edges and a black middle-core in the blade. While the blade curved towards a point at the end, the purple edges were split into two tips. On the other arm, attached to the gauntlet, was a large, round, flat shield that looked kind of like an oversized CD. It had the purple Planeptune-N on it over a white base color and a purple rim. Her techno-styled wings were two purple, near-semi-circles with circular cut-outs along the flat edge, almost like they were a disc split into two.

The new goddess spun around to acknowledge Black Sister, giving the Lastation Candidate a cocky smirk that she wouldn't expect to see on this person.

This was when Black Sister figured out who this was, but still, she had to confirm this, so, in shock, she asked, "...V ...Venus?"

"Who else?" she replied in a tone of voice matching her new cocky expression. Suddenly, the killer android behind her began moving again. She turned to face it, swinging out her sword and entering a fighting pose, while announcing, "Purple Sister is here, and ready to roll!"

Okay, while this isn't important, I would've put an image of Purple Sister Venus here, but on Fanfic, I can't place images or links. You can see the image in this point of the text on the other sites I post this story (DeviantArt, Wattpad, and Archive Of Our Own), otherwise, you can the image itself on the OC Profile for Purple Sister Venus of DeviantArt, titled "Purple Sister Venus (New Planeptune Candidate HDD)" by author Cobalt-Gemini.

Author's Note: So to start, I would like to mention that normally, I don't tell readers what music they should listen to while reading. I'm sure most people prefer to read in silence as a relaxing thing, or if you do listen to music while reading, then obviously I wouldn't know. It's uncommon, but I've seen some fanfic writers tell you what music to play while reading, in order to fit the mood, but I don't care. I'll listen to what I want, even if it doesn't fit.

However, for this one instance, I am making an exception here to, at least... recommend what song you should listen to when you read the next chapter. What song is it? Well, the name of the song in question will also be the name of the next chapter. And if you've already figured out what it will be, then all I'm going to say is... I don't actually remember if the name of this song inspired Venus's name, and I feel like it wasn't, but you can't deny it is the most fitting song to play here.

But yes! It finally happened! Venus has achieved HDD! Now, I have a lot, and I mean a lot to say about Venus's HDD, but I think I should wait on that for the next chapter, when you get to see Purple Sister Venus in action. Remember, this is part two of a three-parter, so the next chapter is coming out today, very soon.

However, on top of that, I'll be posting a new OC profile for Venus. On my DeviantArt, I post profiles for all of my OCs, and Venus is no different. I already have one up for Venus, but that one only covers her human form, as I didn't want to spoil her HDD. So this second one covers her HDD form, and it is also coming out on my Devi, right after I post the next chapter! (Furthermore, I have also gone through to update Venus's first profile, which is already done.)

(A side note, a lot of people were wondering when I'd finish Venus's HDD, however, it was never about finishing her HDD, it was about when I wanted to reveal its story. I know that I said a while ago that I wanted to save it for a big moment, and this is it. Her HDD design has been finished for quite a while now.
In fact, you want to know how finished I was this her HDD? A few months ago, I was getting ready to draw her HDD form, but when I was looking through my files, so I could get my first drawing of Venus for reference, I found that I had ALREADY completed her HDD sometime before. I was just waiting for the right time to reveal it, but I was waiting so long, that I had forgotten that I was already prepared, and was unintentionally ready to do it a second time! So, I was clearly just as ready to show Venus's HDD as you all were to see it!)

Besides that, this chapter is just the battle between Black Sister and Parallax. The plan was to have Uni / Black Sister use her gunblade as just a gun, unless blocking attacks (although I think she also blocks attacks with her railgun, so that doesn't mean much). And the idea there was that it wasn't the most effective or correct way to use the weapon, weakening Uni's effectiveness in combat.

But the idea that the gunblade couldn't handle her stronger beam attacks was last minute addition. Yes, the gunblade is an HDD weapon, but I didn't think that its divine nature would mean that it was made to handle that kind of power. A normal gun could handle Uni's beams, but once she transforms, her railgun is massive, and made to handle the HDD power-up. But the gunblade, while also pretty big, it's not strong enough.

Not to mention, as stated in the chapter itself, Uni wasn't able to keep the proper grip on the weapon. I mean, she clearly uses a stable two-handed grip on her rifles, even in HDD. But she can't do that with a gunblade. Unless you want her to grip the blade, and cut her hand when the kickback from each shot goes off.

As for Parallax, Uni alluded to this in the chapter, but I want you to pay attention to what Skills he used in this battle (besides the ones he learned mid-battle, which were just Venus's moves), and which ones he noted that he didn't know. It's incredibly subtle, but there is a rhyme and reason to the moves I picked for him to know. And it hints to what's going to happen next.

But for now, that's it. Again, save your comments and reviews until you read all three parts, Chapters 19 to 21. With this chapter up, I am already working on getting the next chapter up, so just keep an eye out!