The Seventh

A Dance with Death

()=Whisper

{}=Author's Note

[]=Thought

{Had to think of this part. Oof, effort}

Neptune stares at me full of bewilderment. Mumbling to herself she says, "But how could Lonely Heart...?" Lost in thought Neptune is unable to predict what happens next.

*Whack*

Stunned Neptune falls to the floor with a thump while it's now my turn to be confused.

"Oh good, you're still alive," I say with an innocent smile. Noire gives me a small glare but says nothing.

"Owie-ow..."

Pained groans can be heard from the floor as I look down at Nep-Nep whose writhing rather pathetically. Eventually, she gets to her feet sticks her tongue at Noire and looks at me. "Wow, I can't believe Noire got married. And I wasn't even invited to the wedding!"

*WHAM!*

"...back to the floor, I goooo...." Neptune groans.

"Stop saying nonsense! I don't even know him well enough!"

Neptune, while still on the floor decides it's the best time to do an it's-not-like-I-like-him-or-anything impression behind Noire's back. 

"And you!" Noire points at me. I can now see her eyes are full of malicious intent. "Don't lie about things I'm secretly okay with!"

"Well, I-" I stutter a little, "wait, what?"

Noire realizes her mistake and quickly tries to deny it.

"W-wait! That's not what I-"

*BOOM!!!*

Before she could finish a soldier of Lastation clearly wounded hurriedly comes forth and while breathing heavily tells us some grave news.

"Lady Black Heart! We've been attacked! We need help...we..." with his last breath he collapses to the floor. Noire stares blankly at the corpse her eyes devoid of all light. Placing my hand on her shoulder she blinks and instantly transforms.

"I won't forgive who did this!!!" She dashes out her weapon unsheathed.

"Noire, Wait!" I shout sprinting after her the rest quickly following. The moment I leave the Basilicom I notice a giant crater where a portion of Lastation was only just there previously. "B-but how...?" It's all I could muster. The second is a giant mech not unlike a corrupted Gundam. However, completely destroying the solemn atmosphere it lets out a pathetic Vrrrrrrrrr sound. I finally notice Noire staring intently at the Mechbot. I immediately feel slightly dark energy originating from Noire. 

"SCANNING. INVALID TARGET" an absurdly high pitched voice I assume was coming from 'Optimus'. It changes targets going from one person to the next, and all in the offensively high voice. "SCANNI-" God is real!

"HEY!!! STOP IGNORING ME!!" An uncharacteristic yell from Noire. Actually that probably is characteristic for Noire. "DIE!" With just one swing she demolishes the terroristic robot. 

"...?"

When I saw Noire destroy the robot I couldn't help but feel the malice I sensed grow exponentially higher. Something is wrong... Noire returns back to us and transforms back, however never showing her face in the process. Something is wrong.

"You did it without us having to team up!" Nep says cheerily oblivious to the unnaturalness of our current situation. She skips up to Noire and before she could even react Noire punches her in the gut causing her to slam into a nearby wall. When she gets up I immediately notice something I don't recall ever seeing from my little experience of the Neptunia series. Blood.

"...huh? That's *Cough* new..." She says weakly while wiping her mouth causing her sleeve to be ruined in the process. Noire walks up to her weapon still in hand. "H-hey...Noire...? If this is about before I'm sorry..."

"sHuT up" {Oops not intentional}

*Clang*

I blocked Noire's attack, but only just barely.

"Why?" Noire is shaking now "WHY!?"

Perhaps it's just my random fits of insanity, but I somehow know how to bring Noire back from this dark place. I need to get closer...

"WHY!?" Noire screams her intent is clear as day. She each attack is violent yet somehow still graceful. The longer it takes to do things the harder it's getting to parry her attacks. With each swing, I can feel my concentration slipping. {Of Course}

I touch her cheek and say, "Noire stop, please. I don't want to see someone I care about so deeply be in so much...pain. Even from the less than ideal amount of time we've spent together, I find them to still be cherished memories. I understand how you feel. I'm not the most popular person, and this may sound outrageous but that doesn't matter because I met you" She looks away with a bright red face. I felt her grip on her rapier lessen, eventually letting go. "I only wish I could have known you longer..."

Noire has a confused expression and says, "huh? what do you mean?"

Before I could answer I collapse...

(Noire's POV)

"Hey! What are you-?" I gasp in horror at his stomach. "I-I stabbed him..." Panicking I quickly try to find something stop the bleeding, but my rapier is still lodged in his abdomen. "Someone help!" I spot Uni standing still. "Uni! Go get help!

Startled Uni runs off and I look back at him, "Hang on please, Uni went to get help. You're going to be fine. If you die I won't forgive you! Promise me you won't!"

"Noire...I'm not sure that's...Ngh...how that works." He winces and tries getting up a little. "Noire, promise me you won't blame yourself."

"What? Of course, this is my fault! You didn't stab yourself with MY sword!"

"Heh...that's true, but don't... don't look at it like that. It was a...necessary evil"

"What!? What part of this is necessary!?"

"Still yelling...even to a dying man...*Cough*Noire listen. take this..." Mychal hand me a necklace. "It was the last thing...my parents got me before...well...before *COUGH* before somet-*COUGH*thing cliche happened"

"What? But I ca-"

"Please Noire. Fulfill my dying wish. I was...supposed to give this to someone special."

"I...okay." I hesitantly put on the necklace and look at him. Tears are flowing down my face.

*Chu* 

He...kissed me? Stunned I grow red with embarrassment.

"Noire, I love you..."

His final words...

Sorry I died