Goddess in the Echo

By MidniteBleuCrusader

Summary: (AU) A lost Planeptune, a Goddess denounced. Neptune seeks to find out the truth behind her lost landmass, as well as who was behind all this. With the help of Compa and IF, Neptune hopes to find all the answers, by any means necessary.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia or any of its characters.

Author's Notes: If you happen to have any sort of questions about what's going on and are confused, please don't be. It's an AU.

Chapter 1: In My Remains

When she looked at the damage, she was shocked, even for herself.

She watched as her clean vision of her own landmass, the glistening and shining Planeptune she knew, now being burnt down completely. Glass shattered out of the tall buildings due to fire attempting to burst out of it. She watched as the 120-inch screens started falling from their buildings, but worst of all, she watched as her own people, the people she was supposed to protect, run in fear, panic-stricken about what has transpired.

All Neptune could do was walking aimlessly through the broken streets of her own landmass and watch it all unfold in front of her.

"What in the world… what the Hell happened here?" She asked herself, continuing her aimless walk down the streets. As she walked, she felt the heat from the burning vehicles and buildings on one side of her. The other side felt debris of sharp glass falling on her. With her eyes wide open, she could only see the pure devastation in her eyes.

As she walked, she quickly noticed a civilian who had tripped at a crossroad. One thing came to another, and following him was a vicious monster; A Fenrir, to be exact, as it attempted to take a bite at him. The man pleaded and begged, but monsters couldn't understand human words. The monster tried to snap at the man, but in a quick second or two, Neptune slashed right through the monster with her sword, quickly dispatching it and killing it.

"L-Lady Purple Heart! Oh, thank the heavens you saved me!" The man thanked, but Neptune wasn't in the mood for praise.

"Get out of here. Find the nearest Sky Platform and get out of here. Lastation should be the nearest landmass you can go to!" Neptune instructed, prompting the man to scurry from his downed state and run for it. As for Neptune herself, she wasn't going to run. In fact, the monster she just killed only summoned more monsters ravaging the city to her location. More of them, ranging from fellow wolf monsters to Vorpals and even Hornets to her side. They were almost the garden-variety monsters to her. She found herself surrounded quickly by such monsters, but she wasn't about to cower in fear, not after what they've done to her Planeptune. "All right, you damned monsters. You want a piece of Lady Neptune? You've got another thing coming." She said, as she pointed her sword toward the monsters from every direction before assuming her fight stance.

The first wave of monsters came out from right in front of her, another wolf-type monster. Grinning, Neptune reeled her sword back, the tip touching the ground, waiting for the monsters to reach her. As soon as the first monster came close to her, she scraped the ground with her blade, slicing right through the first one. At the same time, an air-slash projectile sliced through the other monsters. She threw two more in an instant, killing them off with ease.

Now she had to deal with 3 more waves of enemies. The ones behind were all flying enemies; hornets, griffins and other flying enemies. "Heh, target practice." She quickly sheathed her blade and took out not only her standard gun, but she also had herself a custom-made revolver for herself. "Always wanted to dual-wield! Think I'll be that red-coat demon guy yet?" She said as she started firing away like it was target practice. One by one the flying enemies started to drop like flies. One of the griffin monsters attempted to swoop down at her, but Neptune, using her quickness, dodged the attack and managed to jump onto the monster and started riding it. "WOOHOOOOO! Yeah!" She used the griffin to pick off any other enemies with her gun, before slashing at the griffin she was riding on and nose diving it into the ground.

She looked around, and most of the monsters that were surrounding her were either dead or had run off after witnessing her power. There was only one left, and it was a huge Hydra type monster, the only one that stood its ground and didn't scurry away. Instead, it let out a loud bellow right in Neptune's face. Once it was done bellowing, Neptune only wafted the air in front of her. "Dude, two words. Breath mints." She insultingly said. The Hydra tried to take a swipe at it, but she quickly dodged it. She knew this monster well enough to know what its moves are. She'd seen it in various dungeons. This Hydra was no different. Once it took a few swipes at her, Neptune quickly ran up to it, jumped up at an angle and dropkicked it in the face, causing it to be stunned at the force of the kick. It soon recovered, turning its head toward Neptune, but she shoved her gun right into the mouth of the monster. "Go to Hell and take your nasty lizard skin with you!" She unloaded a full clip right into its mouth, killing it instantly. She quickly holstered her gun, looking at the damage she had caused. "Still got it, Neptune." She said. Then she looked at the direction of where the Sky Platform was. "I bet there's gonna be a lot of panicking people there. Better get there." She said, quickly rushing towards the Sky Platform.

Before she could, however, she realized something.

"…SHIT, HISTY!" She yelled to herself, quickly scurrying over to where the Planeptune Guild was before she left for the Sky Platform.

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She managed to get there, but the building was up in flames.

She tried her best to get through the building as fast as possible, covering her face with her hand so as to not breathe in the smoke and any ashes as she constantly called out for Histoire's name. She managed to dodge some debris nearly falling on her due to the fire.

"HISTY! HISTY! Where are you! We gotta get out of here now!" She called out. Finally, she could hear a faint voice, so on instinct she quickly went over towards the direction of the voice. First thing she saw was a table. Quickly, she opened the drawer and there the tome was, in book form, nestled in the drawer. "Histy, thank God. What the hell happened here?"

"There is no time to explain, Neptune. As far as I know, you may need to use your powers again, though it may be too late now. Planeptune's destruction is imminent."

"I was afraid you'd say that. Okay, Histy, gimme back my powers for a while." Neptune requested.

"I would do that, but we should quickly adjourn to Lastation before the landmass leaves without us." Histoire said, and although Neptune wanted her to rush the process, she knew it was a bad idea to do it now. The building was going to fall at any minute.

"Okay, okay… wait, where's Compa and Iffy? I thought they were with you."

"I know, but they were away in the other landmasses when the attack began. We must quickly reunite with them. Our first priority is getting off Planeptune. I feel a great evil residing in this landmass alone." As Histoire was explaining, Neptune looked out the window of the office she was in. Suddenly, the sky turned completely blood red. The world she knew started to twist and turn in its own evil way.

"Histy, I don't think we've got time for any more explanations. We've got problems." Neptune said, as more monsters started spawning right in front of her. This time, they weren't the same as before. They looked more like broken humanoid soldiers with blades, all of them dripping some black ooze on them. "And where the Hell did you come from?" Neptune shouted at them, but it wasn't as if they would listen.

Even more strange was the ground started to shake. And suddenly, the building tilted sideways and she was sent sliding out towards the glass and to the ground. Neptune quickly shot the glass to break it, sliding out and landing on her two feet on top of a car. When she looked up, what she feared was true. Her own landmass was out to kill her for whatever reason.

"Neptune, quickly, we must head to the Sky Platform and escape Planeptune!"

"Don't need to tell me twice, Histy!" Neptune said, quickly running towards where the Sky Platform was. The landmass wasn't about to let her just do that, as the buildings started to close in by themselves to try to squash her, black thorns attempting to stab her and create more obstacles for her. Neptune's natural ability to run for it wasn't about to let these obstacles beat her. She jumped off a car and managed to land in a more open area, a clear path towards the Sky Platform and a way out. "All right, we should at least be able to get out of here now. This place has really gone to Hell."

"I agree, Neptune… but I'm afraid our escape may not be as easy as you expect it to be." Histoire said, as she pointed out what was right in front of her. A dark portal had opened, and slowly a dark silhouette approached Neptune. The silhouette looked exactly like Neptune, from the face to its figure.

"Histy, please explain what that is, because I have the sudden urge to go and kick its ass."

"Neptune, you mustn't fight that. That is a Nightmare. In your current state, you will not be able to defeat it." Histoire said. Neptune's Nightmare stood between the purple-haired girl and a way off the landmass.

"Not like I have a choice, Histy!" She quickly drew her blade out and pointed it at the Nightmare. "I'm giving you one chance to walk away, monster." The only response she got back was the Nightmare's blade being pointed right back at her. Neptune, with absolutely no time to waste, quickly rushed up towards the Nightmare and tried to slash it, only for the Nightmare to block it. Neptune kept hacking away at it, but there was no way through her defense. The Nightmare then pushed Neptune away and struck at her, attempting a horizontal slash on her stomach. Neptune managed to back away in time, only getting nicked a bit. "Gh, this monster's tough." Neptune once again tried to fight her, aiming slash after slash at her, but she just could not get through her. She eventually backed off trying to catch her breath.

"The Nightmare is too powerful for you right now. We must retreat immediately." Histoire advised. "And before you ask, transforming won't help either. A Nightmare is a manifestation of you. If you transform, it transforms with you."

"I hate it when you throw a catch like that in the middle of something like this, Histy." Neptune annoyingly said, pulling out her gun and shooting at the Nightmare, forcing it to pull out her own gun to fire back. It was as if every bullet Neptune fired at it kept colliding with the Nightmare's bullet. She ran around to try and shoot her from the back, but her opponent followed her throughout. "Geez, you are ANNOYING!" Neptune yelled, before grabbing her sword again and lunging forward attempting to outright stab her.

The Nightmare stood her ground, waiting for the strike, and when it did arrive, she blocked it and used the force to push Neptune off. She then quickly counter-attacked and attempted to slice her right down the middle.

She, however, didn't account that it was all part of Neptune's plan, as the purple-haired warrior quickly pulled her gun out again and this time, fired 3 quick shots right at its chest, stopping its actions. The Nightmare faltered, before falling onto her knees, and subsequently falling to the ground.

"…Okay, seriously, I thought I was done for there for a sec." She said, holstering her gun once again.

"Neptune, it isn't-"

"I know. I know it's not. Let's get to Lastation." Neptune said, quickly rushing towards the Sky Platform and leaving the Nightmare, and of course, her beloved yet destroyed Planeptune, behind.

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They managed to get to the Sky Platform, but there was nothing but widespread panic with people frantically trying to get through, hoping to get off Planeptune as quickly as possible. Yet they were forced to wait, thanks to the military forcing them back and to keep order in the area.

When Neptune arrived, all eyes were easily averted right to her, and some of them tried to run up to her and ask her too many questions at a time. "Why is this happening?" "What's going on?" And the occasional "Lady Purple Heart, please save us!" were all cries from some of the citizens. 'Well, that just shows how much faith I actually have.' She thought to herself. She went up to one of the military staff and enquired.

"What's the hold up?"

"Lady Purple Heart, we've been dealt a serious hand here. One of the monsters cut the cable ties to Lastation, so traffic has been slow. We must get you out of here at once. That is our top priority." He said. Neptune, however, had other plans.

"Screw that. Get these people off this rock first. They're more important."

"But Lady Purple Heart, your safety is our top priority!" He said. Neptune wasn't in the mood for any arguments.

"LIKE I COULD GIVE A SHIT ABOUT MY SAFETY!" She yelled at him, forcing him to keep silent. "You get these people off this rock first. Do I make myself clear?" She said, aggravated. She managed to restrain herself from outright punching him. Out of fear, the soldier complied, rushing the civilians into the cable wasn't too amused at Neptune's current attitude though.

"That wasn't very nice, Neptune."

"Histy, I'm not in the mood. Whatever happened on this landmass… I want to know. Who called for an attack of this caliber, and what those… black creatures were." Neptune said, aggravated and peeved. Who could blame her, though? She just witnessed her own landmass, her own people, being ravaged by monsters. The city that she helped craft with the humans was destroyed right before her eyes.

"Yes, but that was no excuse to adopt an attitude to that man, Neptune." The purple-haired girl looked at Histoire, and then realized what she had done. She cursed, shouted and then outright told off the soldier.

"Oh, God, I almost sounded like Blanc for a sec… man, I am a mess."

"All you need is some good rest, Neptune. You'll feel better when you wake up the next morning. Maybe it will help you to think better." Histoire suggested. She was right. Neptune completely looked out of sorts from the moment she found out that her city was being attacked. Maybe rest would actually help her.

Her thoughts were halted when the last civilian made it in to the cable car. Neptune and Histoire quickly followed suit, getting on board. The sliding doors closed behind them, and quickly the cable car was moving to its destination; Lastation. Neptune couldn't help but to look around, as she saw a few panicked faces, worried sick about how life was going to be like now that they were forced to move to Lastation. 'Not much I can do about it now…' She thought to herself. Her eyes peered from side-to-side, turning her head to look, but there was no sign of the two people important to her.

'Compa… Iffy… I hope you guys are all right.' She then looked at Histoire, wanting to ask her something. "Histy… how long would it take for you to find out who was responsible for the attack on Planeptune?"

"Depending on how much information I have to look through, it would take roughly 3 days to a maximum of 3 months." Neptune just gave an annoyed look to the tome.

"Gee, that's new. What about any information on those black creatures I saw earlier… and about the Nightmare."

"That, I can find quickly." Histoire said which brought a bit of a smile on Neptune's face. The smile only lasted for a few seconds, when she looked out the window of the cable car and saw the now completely destroyed landmass of Planeptune. She clenched her fist tight and crossed her heart, vowing to herself that one day she'll fix this place.

"Good, Histy… Tell me when we get to Lastation. I'll need it when we fight those things again."

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To Be Continued

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