Chapter 4​

___________Noire internally sighed as she looked back at Uni, who was understandably pensive, and Solia, whose eyes darted away guiltily when Noire’s gaze almost made eye contact with her. She felt bad for having been so curt back there, but it wasn’t as if she could NOT react to the unsettling revelation of Uni’s death. It may have been almost three years by now, but she still remembered almost losing Uni to that virus as if it was yesterday. Noire knew that she herseld would eventually die or at the very least eventually step down from her role as CPU, but she had always had faith that long after she was gone Uni would be living a long and fruitful life and Lastation and her people would be in good hands, Uni’s hands, when that happened. But… if Solia really was a time traveler it could mean that they could prevent whatever ended Uni’s life. Noire had been through her fair share of world ending crises that she had helped avert after all, and with proper preparation, she was sure this one would be no different.Just over the horizon was the beginning of the familiar, beautiful sprawl that was her Lastation. And looking at Solia’s face, it seemed that she was appreciating the view as well. Had she not been there before? She would have hoped that Nepgear and whoever had replaced herself and Uni would have had good relations… or it could just be a case of Solia being so young she simply hadn’t the time to see it.“This your first time seeing Lastation? You seem to be impressed.”“Uhh, not my first time seeing it, I have been here a bunch of times its just…” The Candidate’s face screwed itself into a thoughtful look and she pondered for a few seconds before she finally continued.“Its just that the CPU who took control of Lastation after you two were gone did some pretty extensive reconstruction of the city before I was born. The only time I got to see the old Lastation architecture before this was through photos and seeing the Basilicom, which was the one part of the city she didn’t remodel, so seeing this is really cool! I love the diesalpunk style it has!”Strange. It wasn’t uncommon for CPUs to change things to be more in line with their own vision, but usually it was the Basilicom that was still the most drastically changed given its where a CPU took up personal residence. Still, it was nice that she could appreciate the Lastation aesthetic. Her nation’s style had its detractors, many calling it “soulless”, but Noire found its simple functionalism to be beautiful in its own way that set it apart from the other nations.Soon enough, the Lastation Basilicom was in sight and the three touched down on the balcony, detransforming before Noire led them inside. Time for business, which meant wrangling the other CPUs to come over, and given the rather sudden nature of the meeting it was going to be like herding Dogoos. Neptune was a great ally to have when she took things seriously but getting her to take anything seriously was a total pain. Knowing Vert, she would be in the middle of a Four Goddesses Online Raid, and Noire had played that game more than enough to know how long those could last. Blanc herself was fine, but her sisters on the other hand… were certainly a handful.“Uni, can you look after Solia while I go call the other CPUs here? Maybe make so food for the three of us while we wait for everyone to get here. I am hungry and considering we both had to skip breakfast I am sure you are starving as well.”“Noire, anything worth cooking will take ages to finish! The meeting will be over and done with by time I would be done!”Noire gave Uni a pointed look “Uni, do remember that Neptune is included in this meeting. It will be ages before we can even get it started.”“I…. You… do have a point.”“Besides, you are MY sister after all! I trust you to whip up something good in a decent time!”Noire winked at Uni who gave her an affectionate smile in return. She worried sometimes that Uni would think Noire constantly pushing her was because she didn’t think she was good enough, but Noire did it out of love. She wanted to challenge Uni and force her to new heights because she knew Uni had that potential to surpass her if she was pushed to it. Now, to get all the CPUs here so they could ensure Uni would live long enough to reach that point.____________“Thanks for offering to help… even if you only seem to know the basics.”I looked sheepishly at Uni as I cracked another egg. “Yeah, our Basilicom has an automated chef who does most the cooking for us, so I never really learned to cook beyond scrambled eggs and man was that a disaster!”“I’m not surprised Nepgear built a robot for that. Pretty sure if you gave her the time, she could and would build machine to do anything.”“Heh, you got that right; she really is great like that.”“Hey Solia? Has… Nepgear ever told you how she… felt about me? I-I don’t mean to pry of course its not like I li-.”I laughed. “No reason to be embarrassed, I know how closed off and reserved big sis is when it comes to feelings and stuff like that. I honestly can’t tell you too much, as she never likes talking about the other CPUs too much and I try not to pry very much either, she gets… sad when she thinks about the past too much. But whenever she has spoken of you Uni, she said that she respected you a bunch and that you were her equal in every way!”“Oh… w-well thanks for telling me Solia.” Uni’s face had a rather thoughtful look which was rather understandable. Having my big sis of all people say that you were their equal was definitely something to think on. Even though they may not realize it would be Nepgear who would peacefully unite Gamindustri, I am sure even as a CPU Candidate her innate leadership, bravery, and all-around amazingness (even if she had her quirks at times) was clear to everyone!We fell back into a comfortable silence, I focused on making these scrambled eggs (but right this time!) while Uni… did everything else. Apparently, it was around noon, but due to the Ancient Dragon they had to skip breakfast to kill it before it could attack any nearby towns, so we were making a belated brunch meal for the three of us.I was glad we were talking again after I made that faux pas earlier. Even though I didn’t know Uni for too long, I felt like I had a… friend, maybe? Its not like I didn’t have friends, but they were all internet friends who thought I was just some normal human, and I couldn’t even speak to them over mic due to security concerns. Uni was the first person, human or goddess, that wasn’t my big sis or one of the Oracles, to really know me. Plus, I couldn’t deny it was cool to put a face to one of my historical idols, who Nepgear spoke nothing but praise for when she did deign to speak about the past to me. I had always been curious about – oh fu-frick the eggs are starting to burn aghhhhh!_____________“Just in time Uni! This breakfast looks…” Noire’s face went from adorably pleased to a mixture of confusion and worry and her nose scrunched itself up as she must have just caught a whiff of the odor my disaster made. “Why is there the smell of an Ancient Dragon’s breathe coming from my kitchen?” She looked nervously behind us. Crap, I thought we had gotten the charred smell of my mess under control!I groaned in embarrassment. “Hehe yeahhhh sorry Noire, while Uni made what you see here…” I gesture to the bacon, pancakes, and breakfast sausage all neatly arrayed on the counter. “I tried to make eggs and I may have burned them just a little bit.”“If you count the pan catching fire and one of our pots catching fire, then yes Solia did burn the eggs ‘just a little bit’.” Uni deadpanned.“Uni!” Nuts she betrayed me! But really, why would I of all people underestimate the unnatural compulsion big sisters have to get the truth out of you. The number of times Nepgear forced me to fess up to whatever I wasn’t telling her through the big sister stare of disapproval and love was innumerable.“Well, I guess its breakfast minus the eggs, at least the smell will stop the others from wanting leftovers when they get here. Still, thank you for making breakfast Uni and…” Noire looked over to me “Thank you for at least trying to help. If it was Neptune here, she would have just sat around on her butt and played videogames. Anyways let’s dig in and enjoy ourselves before the others arrive.”Odd. Perhaps Neptune wasn’t as stubborn as my big sis, so Histoire’s constant nagging about taking a break and to take it easy worked on Neptune and made Noire think she was lazy? That was the only explanation I could think for now.There wasn’t much small talk at the table really. We were all pretty hungry and Uni was dam-dang good cook so we ate as fast as we all politely could, we were CPUs, not some sloppy humans at some diner after all. Plus, I will admit I was more than a bit nervous, and there were butterflies dancing throughout my stomach. I mean, I was about to meet all the CPUs and given my uh, bad choice of words earlier I hoped I didn’t mess up this either. Plus, I had to interact with my sister who didn’t know I was her sister (yet) so that would also be nerve-wracking. Big sis could get pretty intense after all, and it was only the fact I was her younger sister that it wasn’t ever really directed at me, but I had seen enough humans who had gotten on her bad side for one reason or another to know she was scary when she needed to be. I know some of it was just from them being human, but I still remembered when I was newly born, and she hadn’t realized I wasn’t her little sister yet; not all of that fear and reverence was due to a simple difference in status._______________We were just about to start taking away the plates to be washed in the kitchen when balcony door opened and in stepped in White Heart… who wasn’t as tall as I thought she would have been, especially given how historical records always emphasized her legendary toughness.“You better have a good reason to have called us over here. You usually are more well organized and less cagey about these things. I guess Neptune has been rubbing off on you.”Noire sighed. “Sorry Blanc, but if I provided you all with more information, I would have gotten badgered by questions which would have slowed everything down, especially since what I know is incredibly limited at best.”With that she glanced over towards me before looking back to Blanc “I see you didn’t bring the twins with you?”“They were both taking their nap and I didn’t want to force them awake only for them to hear apparently ‘disturbing information’ as you put it. That combination is a recipe for disaster.”“Yeah, it would be best if they got to hear it in a more… gentle fashion.” I looked guiltily at Uni; whose face was a bit downcast as she said that. Given how young they are I doubt would take the news of their fellow CPUs, let alone their big sister and fellow twin, dying to the Deity of Sin well at all.“Oh, and to think I got here at nearly the same time at all as Blanc despite me being in the middle of a raid and oh my who is this, she is absolutely adorable! If I didn’t know better, I would say Nepgear had gotten herself a little sister!” And there was Green Heart, and man the memorial to her didn’t lie when it came to her – oh goodness I am getting smothered by the boobies! Soo… soft…“Vert! This is Solia and I can’t have you smothering her to death when she is why we are holding this entire meeting in the first place!” Noire not so gently pulled Green Heart away from me, revealing my now bright red face to everyone. Was this how Uni felt when I fell on her? No, Vert was definitely more… smothering than even that.“Ahh yes you did call us for business. It is quite odd that it is Lastation of all places we are meeting, normally it is Neptune’s Basilicom we all gather in, for work or for simply hanging out. I certainly hope you invite us over more often Noire. You are a better host than Neptune already by simply being ready for us to arrive!”“Vert, you of all people shouldn’t be lecturing people on being a good host, or have you forgotten the time you decided to host a party at your place, only for us to have to set it up since you were too busy playing videogames!” Blanc certainly lookedabout that one. Hel-heck she could just maybe give my sister a run for her money in the scares department!“Blanc it seems you have forgotten that time you had us all come to visit Super Nintenland but were too tired to even properly show us around! Talk about bad manners!”“Oh don’t you bring that up thundertits-“As the argument continued, I nervously sidled my way towards Uni before furtively asking “Is this… normal?” I know the CPUs back in the day conflicted and competed with one another, but I expected it to be… more diplomatic?“Yes, they banter all the time like this. Don’t think anything of it, they will be back to acting perfectly reasonable with one another as soon as this whole arguement finishes up.”Noire huffed, “And now we wait for Neptune. It will probably be another hour before she gets here! Why does she have to be so-.”“Late?”Entering the Basilicom was Purple Heart, former CPU of Planeptune and the big sister to my big sister! In person, she was even more beautiful and elegant then any photo or statue could properly depict, looking rather smug at a now gaping mouthed Noire. Wow… I can see why my big sis attributed so much of her success and inspiration to her…“Noire, do you REALLY think I would be late for you inviting us over to your place? That’s certainly a rare occasion I wouldn’t want to miss. Besides.” She gestured behind her to the two figures floating behind her. “These two helped keep me on schedule, even if we had to fly slower so Histy could keep up.”Histoire, who currently had that grumpy and concerned look she adopted whenever she was trying to not say something to my big sis, floated to Neptune’s left… While to Neptune’s right…It took me a few seconds to recognize her, but even though she held herself… differently, wasn’t in the majestic HDD that signified her status as the one True Goddess of Gamindustri, and didn’t have the Holy Weapon Gehaburn in hand, I could still recognize my very own big sister. She looked and smiled at Uni, who blushed a bit before sending back a smile of her own before averting her eyes. She must have noticed I had been staring as her blue eyes now rested on me in slight shock. The look she gave was not too dissimilar to when my Nepgear first saw me, though with less suspicion and more curiosity.“Well, now that all of you are here, lets cut to the chase! As I said earlier before Neptune had arrived, this is Solia and she has some rather pertinent information. Solia, may you introduce yourself please?”“Uhhhh h-hello everyone.” I stuttered nervously. EVERYONE was looking at me after all. “As Noire said earlier, my name is Solia! My uh, other name however, is Lilac Sister and I’m the CPU Candidate of the future Planeptune, and Nepgear’s younger sister.”Unfortunately, my audience was still surprised (despite me not even mentioning the dying thing yet). Most of all my big sister to be, judging by the look on her face.“What the goodness!?”Oh boy, I know it’s bad when she starts throwing the ‘G’ word around…____________AN: Sorry about being so late! Chapter was longer than the last couple ones and I wanted to get it right! Don't worry, next chapter will be the big reveal about the fates (well what Solia believes happened) of the CPUs from Solia's dimension. As always, criticism and feedback is super appreciated!