Yearlong Roadtrip

Summary: Neptune is lazy. Plutia is lazier. Histoire takes forever to do anything. Not a good combination when time dillation is involved. Good ending? My foot.

"You know, I have this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be doing something right now," Neptune spoke as she rubbed at her eyes.

Plutia snored softly.

"Yeah, I'll worry about that after a nap..." Neptune agreed, and collapsed back onto the bed with her bedmate.

"RESCUE MEEEEE!" Nepgear wailed from where Histoire served as their communication.

That same scene had been repeated many, many times.

Occassionaly, it'd be broken up by Histoire reminding Neptune of what exactly it was she was supposed to be doing. That is, get off her ass to gather shares so they can return Plutia to her world and Nepgear to hers.

Of course, though, Histoire usually had so much to do, what with having to make up for all the work that Neptune and Plutia weren't doing, so it was rare that she did remind them. And so, the days passed.

They soon turned to weeks... and then to months...

Uni kicked down the door to Neptune's room, after having made short work of everything and everyone that had stood in her way here. Behind her, Rom and Ram were both looking more than a little upset themselves, but neither had the face of sheer fury that allowed Uni to make Planeptune's citizens quake in fear at the mere sight. Some had fainted, others had turned tail and ran far, far away, and only one had been brave enough to impede her. She'd embedded him in a wall for his troubles.

To say that she was angry was an understatement, for sure.

"IT'S. BEEN. A. YEAR," Uni yelled, her pigtails waving madly with her every, jerky, movement. "WHERE. IS. MY. GIRLFRIEND!?"

"Your what now?" Neptune asked, scratching the top of her head.

"Where is Miss Nepgear?" asked Rom, perhaps a little too strongly.

"Yeah! We haven't seen her in forever!" Ram added, crossing her arms and glaring at Neptune.

"... Oh right. I said I would get to that, right?" Neptune admitted, scratching her chin, yawning as she did.

"But Neppy, the bed is so warm and inviting and-" Plutia said.

"We've been resting for a long time, haven't we? I'm sure your Noire and Blanc and Vert all miss you very much, Plutie," Neptune commented, before yawning once more.

Uni wrinkled her nose. "We'll be supervising you. We already got the OK from our sisters, so we're going to get you all the shares you need, and open that portal!"

"Okay, okay. It's about time I went to pick up Nep Jr. anyway," Neptune admitted, getting up and dragging Plutia off the bed as she did. "Say, how did you get in here, anyway?" she asked, though she then spotted IF with a keyring making a show of twirling it, out in the hallway.

Well, that explained that.

"... Who are you?" asked Nepgear, as soon as they had finally managed to open a portal to her location.

It was an oddly sizable lab, with all sorts of mechanical and chemical implements that none of them could name strewn about, seemingly at random.

Nepgear herself looked exactly the same as the last time they'd seen her, physically speaking, save for her dress, which had black instead of its usual lilac trimmings, and the fact that she wasn't wearing her usual hairclip in the shape of a d-pad.

"Y-You don't remember me?!" Uni asked, shocked, falling flat on her butt.

"... You wear Lastation's colors, but I can't say I recall ever seeing you before. I'm sorry," Nepgear said, frowning with unease.

"Come on, Nep Jr.! This joke isn't funny," Neptune said, grinning at her little sister.

"What joke?" Nepgear asked, genuinelly curious.

"This might be the wrong parallel dimension entirely," Uni commented, looking out of a nearby window. "This looks like Lastation, and she's dressed in Lastation colors."

"Parallel dimension?" Nepgear asked, blinking. "Well, I am from a parallel dimension, yes, but it's been so long since I was left here by... her... that I don't even remember what that world was like," she admitted. "I've been living in Lastation for a while, now."

Nepgear has gained the 'Resentful Little Sister' Affinity!

"Agh, those silly things again? I thought I'd done away with them for good last time!" Nepgear huffed.

"... Eh... It's been only like, a year, Nep Jr... you don't need to exaggerate THIS much," Neptune said, wishing she was in a visual medium so she could do the sweat drop gag.

"You keep calling me that. Why? My name is Nepgear, not Nep Jr.," commented Nepgear, frowning.

"I've always called you Nep Jr.! Because you're my little sister, and your name kind of sounds like it," Neptune admitted.

Nepgear's left eyebrow twitched, before she abruptly turned around and headed for the door in the lab, where a big, red button covered by a glass case was. "Please, leave my laboratory or I will be forced to call security," Nepgear stated, lifting the glass case so the button was within her reach.

Neptune let out a few giggles. "You wouldn't do that to your big sister, would you Nep Jr.?"

"The only big sister I had left me stranded in a parallel world for four hundred years," Nepgear stated, matter-of-factly, as her hand inched forward to the button. "Please, just leave," she said.

"B-But... Nepgear... don't you remember me? I'm... I'm Uni! I'm your g-girl-"

Nepgear raised an eyebrow. "I might have known someone with that name long ago," she said, with a tone of finality that brooked no argument. "Like I said, please leave. This is your final warning before I call security."

Neptune frowned. "Nep Jr..." she muttered, trying to and failing to come up with words to use. There was nothing she could say.

Defeated, Neptune just walked out of the laboratory, head hung.

"Goodness, I never thought I'd see her again," Nepgear commented, as the two left. "I... didn't think she'd ever come reopen such an old wound," she added.

Minutes after the other two goddesses had left, Lady Black Heart, also known by very few as Noire, walked into the laboratory, pigtails swaying with every step, much like the younger girl who'd been here before. "I heard about the infiltrators. Are you okay?" Noire asked.

"Yes... I believe I'll be okay. It's just... an old wound that never scarred properly," Nepgear admitted, walking over to her work table and placing her hands on it, closing her eyes as she did.

Noire put a hand on her shoulder. "You were thinking about your sister again?" Noire asked, softly.

Nepgear shook her head. "I have no sister, Noire," she said, her voice firm, her tone carrying only the finality of such a statement.

For the first time in a very long time, Neptune could do nothing but cry herself to sleep.

If you're wondering why Nepgear is in Lastation with Noire, the answer is simple. It's an allusion to how the Neptunia games are PS3 (and soon 4, I imagine) exclusives. If you need a further explanation... Well, Planeptune was never nice to its CPU (IIRC, at one point, the game outright tells you that Planeptune thinks Nepgear is a crappy CPU), and eventually, Nepgear, deppressed from being abandoned by her sister and left to manage a nation that didn't like her, just told them to go fuck themselves and left them to their own devices. In much more polite terms, of course.