It is with a content sigh that I open my eyes and am met by the sight of a darkened, thunderous sky covered in clouds and nary a speck of light breaking through the gray barrier. As I sit up from my position, I am met by an even more amusing sight; a lone tiger tearing its way through swathes of humans along the city roads, painting the streets in a crimson red. Numerous bodies fall under the beast's might. They are like ants in the face of the overwhelming beast.

The sight fills me with such joy that I can't help but smile. Those that would so readily try to burn me at the stake and call me a witch are now the ones burning in the flames of their ruined nation. They can do nothing as the beast systematically slaughters each and every one until there are no survivors remaining and the cat's body is stained with several blotches of red. Unfazed by this, she turns to me as her body is engulfed by a brief flash of light.

Neptune eagerly waves a hand towards me to make sure that I've taken notice of her. I offer a little wave of my own and her face lights up brightly. She immediately runs towards me, stumbling clumsily along the way before she leaps through the air and comes to a sliding stop just before my feet. Since I'm in such a good mood, I reach a hand down and gently pet her lilac hair, to which she purrs in delight.

"You did good, Nepsy," I compliment her as I pull my hand away. Nepsy grumbles in response and raises her head to give me a pout. It seems like I've been spoiling her a bit too much lately, but… I can't say that I dislike this side of her. "Now, now. There's no need to give me that look, is there?"

She keeps pouting at me for another second, but she regains her usual peppy demeanor and gives off a cheerful little smile that almost warms the empty void where my heart once was. Now I definitely know I've been spoiling her far too much. I've spent more time with her than I have with the other 3. Though, I suppose it's only natural to want to stay close to my junior; she's a lot more...expressive than the others, to say the least.

"That's more like it," I say, offering a smile of my own. "By the way, you seem a lot more lively than usual today. Did something good happen?"

"I'm glad you asked, Kuro!" Nepsy chirped, "We finally found where Nepgear and her friends are hiding out. I finally have a chance to strangle her! And the best part is, Histy's with them, too!"

"Oh? That does sound like good news," I agree. I've been meaning to have a nice, long talk with Histoire for some time now, but ever since we leveled the Planeptower she took the Candidates and went into hiding. Poor fool even tried getting help from another dimension, but… Well, at least I got a new decoration out of it, and Nepsy looked so excited when she brought back the skull of that iris-haired Goddess, whatever her name was.

"Ooh, I can't wait to burn and tear Histy's pages one by one!" Nepsy practically explodes with excitement at the prospect. Though, thinking about it now, I wonder where all that excitement even comes from. By now the others have undoubtedly grown tired from the constant games of cat and mouse, losing interest in the idea of killing their friends and family… Well, all except for Nepsy, that is.

"Nepsy," I call her name, to which she responds by turning her head like a cat acknowledging its master. I'm almost tempted to give her a treat, but we can save that for later. She looks at me an expecting look as I continue. "I hope I'm not being too pushy here, but there's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while now."

She blinks for a second before my words sink in. "What is it?" she asks curiously.

"Hm… Well, how should I put this..." I pause for a second to consider my choice of words. If I don't pick carefully, she might misunderstand where I'm going with this, but after a second I decide to just wing it. If she does misunderstand, I can just roll with it… Though, maybe that's just my bias towards showing itself again. "Why do you hate Gearsy and Histy?"

Once again, Nepsy responds by blinking a few times. To my surprise, she actually has to stop to think about to answer for a few seconds. I guess we're a lot more alike than I thought.

"Hm…" She puts a finger to her chin. "Well… I've been with Nep Jr. for a long time now, you see. Even from when she was little, she always kept telling me what to do, to be careful. Always badgering me and at some point she even started telling me what to do, like I can't think for myself or something. It's so annoying. And more than that she's always so clingy that it's suffocating, but the moment I look away she starts clinging to Vert with no effort. Like, does she actually want to be my sister or not? Does she actually care that we have the same blood or not?" I say nothing, choosing to nod along as she continues, "And it doesn't help that everyone adores her, just because she's soooooo special and better than me at everything. She's the good sister, she's the smart one, she's the pretty one, so she doesn't have to do anything for everyone to fall in love with her the moment they see her. She can make a mistake they all forgive her without any fuss, but the moment I do something everyone just loses it like it's the end of the freaking world! Hmph! Some friends they are. I just know that everyone's been waiting for me to finally step down. Well, I hope they're happy, their wish has finally come true."

I continue to nod, with a bit more enthusiasm this time. In a way, I can kind of understand how she feels. We are born from the people's belief, their faith and desires give us life and our personalities, but they always lose interest the moment something better comes along. That's just how it is for us Goddesses, really.

"Ah… Sorry about that," Nepsy apologizes, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. "I got a little carried away there, didn't I? Sorry."

"It's all right," I say, trying to ease her concerns. She still seems a bit uncertain, so I decide to gently run a hand through her soft, lilac hair to put her at ease. It did the trick before, I don't see why it wouldn't now. "I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes you just need someone with who you can share your inner demons with."

"You don't mind?"

"Of course not. No matter how scary yours are, I can guarantee that mine are even uglier than you can possibly imagine." Despite my dry attempt to liven the mood, Nepsy actually smiles. I guess she's started to rub off on me lately… I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not, but that's beside the point.

"Heheh. I guess I can't argue with that," Nepsy chuckles. "Now, where was I…?"

"You were talking about Gearsy," I answer for her.

"Ah! That's right!" she chirps. "Ah, I wonder what kind of face she'll make when she sees me again. Ooh, I can't wait!"

"It'll be like a regular family reunion, won't it?" I offhandedly comment. "And who knows, maybe we'll finally get them before they have a chance to run away. For the last remaining CPUs protecting the world they sure do run away a lot. You'd think they were scared of being killed by their own family or something."

Nepsy chuckles again. She's so easily amused that I could probably give her a mouse toy and she'd probably entertain herself. Hah! Too bad I don't have one on me right now, that'd be amusing to see… Then again, I think I know a better toy for her to play with...

"Come to think of it, what about Histy?" I ask, reminding her of the sentient tome. I guess she was so caught up with thoughts of her sister that she forgot about her, but I could have never expected to hear what came next.

"Ah… Hm... it's a bit more complicated," Nepsy says in an oddly low voice; how unusual for her. "From the moment I was born, she told me that I was going to be the ruler of Planeptune and lead its people. I didn't really think very much about it at the time, but… then I got sent to another dimension."

I quirk an eyebrow as she continues her story, silently listening to every word with renewed interest.

"At first I was actually kind of freaked out by the whole thing, but I actually got used to it a lot faster than I expected. In fact, it was actually kind of nice, so when I had to go back to being a CPU, I felt kind of bummed out, though I never really understood why. I was still able to see everyone else I'd met anytime I wanted, so what else could I want? It wasn't until I saw Big Me that it finally clicked with me.

"I didn't get to talk to her much, but I was jealous of her. She's free to do anything she wants, go anywhere in the world she feels like while I'm expected to crawl back to the cage Histoire made for me."

"..." I… For once, I'm not sure what to say to that. This girl... is really full of surprises.

"I'm not any good at paperwork, all I'm really good at is swinging a sword at anything that gets in my way. When I was sucked into Ultradimension, I was finally given a chance to do anything I wanted, but I let it go to waste and wound up spending years on end spending it next to some idiot who wanted to sleep all day, and chasing after some stupid kid with an attitude.

"All the while, Big Me was going around from place to place doing all of the things I should've been doing with my life. She had a choice in what she wanted to do with her life, but my choice was made for me from the moment I was born. And it's because of Histy that'd I'd actually let myself think that it was okay to live in a cage like that. It's because of her that I...never got to truly live my life..." Her voice grows colder and more detached as she finishes speaking, and I think maybe, just maybe, Neptune and I are more alike than I first thought.

It takes me a second to realize that I'm staring at her with wide eyes. I shake my head a little and I start hearing laughter escape my throat. Nepsy looks on in confusion, and maybe a little bit of concern at the sudden change coming over me. I can't really blame her, even I'm not entirely sure why I started laughing, either. I just know that, for once in my life, it feels like I have someone I can actually relate to, even if she is being blinded by delusions.

Yes, Goddesses like us are born into our position with no say in the matter. Most would never question it and just do as they're told, but every now and then, a deviant is born. Someone like us – wild animals, and wild animals are not born to be trapped in cages for their whole lives. And we owe it all to that self absorbed, all-knowing book who thinks she knows what's best for us... No, she doesn't really care about us, does she? She only cares about the well-being of the precious little nation she was created to watch over.

"Are… Are you okay?" Nepsy finally musters the courage to ask. I take a slow deep breath before I look her directly in the eyes and reassure her that I'm fine. She blinks a few times, but shrugs her shoulders and goes along with it anyway.

Behind the smile I give her, I feel great regret. I really shouldn't have started getting to know her more, it's going to make so much harder to sacrifice her and her friends to make the Dark CPUs more powerful. Well, I suppose I brought this upon myself for playing favorites, didn't I? It's going to be kind of lonely without her around, but what kind of witch would I be if I gave up now? And, who knows, maybe I'll get a nice reaction out of "Me" when one of the people she'd grown to care for so deeply becomes just another corpse in the pile.

"Well, since we're done here, what do you say we call the others and go pay our family a little visit?"

"Sounds good to me! As long as I get to have some private time with Nep Jr. and Big Me."

"When you say it like that..."

"Do not try to pervert my totally noble goal of murdering my family! I'm a kind girl who just wants to flay Histy's tome from the table of beginning to prologue."

"If you say so. But you know, I think it'd be more interesting if we waterboard her first. Drown her while she's trying to cope with the trauma and the like."

"How evil… I like it! Teach me your ways, oh wise predecessor of mine."

"Always one for theatrics, aren't you?"

I guess it's time to say goodbye, Nepsy. You will be missed.

Broken Sky

Why... Why did I say that...? No! I don't feel that way at all!

I love Nepgear! And I love Big Me! I love Histy!

I don't want to! I don't want to hurt Histy! I don't want to hurt Big Me! I don't want to hurt Nepgear!

Please... Someone! Anyone! SAVE ME!