"Who is it?" Called the voice of Hood from beyond the door.
"Dame Edinburgh here to bring a wayward lady back to your holy majesty," the cruiser replied in a regal tone, slightly bowing as if to accentuate the impression and offering an amused smile to Ardent.
There was a short pause from the other end. "Edinburgh, if you'd please just tell me what you want, you know I'm bloody busy here."
Edinburgh gave a dramatic shake of her head before turning her head to Ardent, thumb pointing accusingly at the door, "see, I told you she takes the fun out of everything." she muttered knowingly before turning again to the door, "I found your lost destroyer."
"Damn it, why didn't you just say so," the door replied with a exasperated tone, "come in!"
Edinburgh opened the door, offering a disingenuous smile at Hood, before waving Ardent in before herself in an overembellished Impression of a doorman
The office was fashioned similarly to the rest of the building, or at least bore tribute to the same austentatious look. Inlaid wooden walls, broad open windows gave the mostly empty room a look of classically British elegance and the antique globe and paintings of ships of the line reminding those in it of the strength of arms of the organization that funded it.
The current single occupant of the room sat behind a conspicuously plain wooden desk and a mountain of paperwork, with two ornate wooden chairs before it, given the dramatic difference in style and lack of other furniture, Ardent suspected the current owner of the office ad repurpose it from another purpose with little regard for maintaining style.
"I see Zubian wasn't available to show you the way." said occupant murmured, with a tone that only barely covered the incoming lectures towards the tribal class with an overtone of politeness. "Still. thank you Edinburgh for escorting Ardent.
"My pleasure ma'am," Edinburgh announced, "weren't about to leave her wandering alone and afraid."
The destroyer shot Edinburgh a dirty look, but Hood offered a more diplomatic polite smile to the cruiser, "well, you're dismissed Edinburgh."
"With due respect ma'am, while I won't be stealing Ardent's time with me you could I speak to you when you're finished here?"
For the briefest of moments Ardent detected confusion present in Hood's expression, though the battlecruiser quickly hid it behind her usual expression of helpful politeness again. "Of course Edinburgh, my door is always open."
Edinburgh gave a sloppy salute followed with a half hearted about face and dismissed herself.
As the door closed, Hood brightened and returned her attention to Ardent, "well, apologies over your day, It must have been disorienting to have to wander about all on your own." Hood gestured to a finely crafted wooden chair sitting near the desk, "please though, take a seat."
Ardent shook her head, refuting the apology while taking the offered seat. "It was okay, Edinburgh helped me out in the end."
"She's a nice girl, in spirit. But she does tend to get herself into trouble more than I'd like." hood reminisced. "But we have some important and admittedly rather unsavory business to attend to unfortunately."
Ardent nodded, worry seeping into her.
"Tea?" Hood offered, pointing to an antique tea set on the corner of her desk, "I made a fresh pot just before you arrived."
Ardent glanced at the pot, polite acceptance on the tip of her tongue, before flashes of the empty tea Zubian had left for her pilfered from her earlier, instead offering her biggest enthusiastic smile, "I'd love some thank you, I've always wanted to try tea."
The transition between confusion, realization, and anger, flashed quickly over Hood's face quickly as she pondered the statement, but not quickly enough for the destroyer to miss the implications. Ardent offered her thanks from beneath a satisfactory grin.
"Well, on to the business at hand. I'm sorry to bring you it out this so quickly, but frankly I haven't the time to take things slow these days." Hood began explaining, passing Ardent a cup before taking a second herself. "Well, the first bit of information needed to bring you up to speed; the war is over. Has been for a good eighty years. Congratulations Ardent you were on the winning side."
The destroyer glanced down at her tea briefly in thought, "oh." She managed briefly, "I should have liked to have seen it."
Hood nodded sympathetically and took a sip of tea, "As would have I Ardent, we have a bit of reading that can help you fill in the details and an excellent library to fill you in on the details. A bit of warning though, things got much worse before they got better. I had to take some breaks, don't rush yourself."
Ardent nodded weakly, "did England fall?"
Hood gave the destroyer a chiding shake of the head. "come now Ardent, we English are harder to beat than that," she teased before her expression faded again, the somber look on Ardent stealing her desire to press the joke. "I know it feels a bit hollow," Hood offered sympathetically, taking a small sip of tea "I felt the same when I heard the news."
This news seemed to pull Ardent out of her somber worry, she looked up to the battlecruiser now in surprise and alarm, "did the Jerries get you too?"
Hood hesitated for a second, glancing into her teacup and down at the paperwork on her desk. "Yes Ardent. yes they did."
The room went quiet, the silence dragging on for several long seconds before finally the battlecruiser cracked a bittersweet smile. "Bloody hell Ardent, you've made us all gloomy."
"Sorry," the destroyer muttered into her tea.
"It's quite alright, I'm just surprised, I told you we won to try and lighten the mood you know. Most Destroyers spend quite some time celebrating, even Zubian and she wasn't even in it."
Ardent shrugged and continued staring into her tea.
"Well, as long as I've made things here quite bleak I might as well keep pulling teeth proverbial teeth," Hood announced dryly, pulling open a drawer and rummaging through it before pulling them out onto her desk.
Ardent cast a confused look at the Battlecruiser.
"We're at war again. A big one."
Ardent swallowed a nervous sip of Earl Grey, "How big?"
"Well, so far they've been hitting us pretty relentlessly from the seas, luckily much of England has been able to soldier through it and there doesn't seem to be a credible land threat yet."
The younger girl nodded, "that all seems a bit too familiar to me." she muttered darkly.
Hood nodded, before opening a folder, glancing over the contents with a brief flare of unconcealed anger in her eyes, "I apologize for this." The battlecruiser announced before flipping a sheet of paper the folder over for Ardent to view.
Glancing up from her tea at the image, From Ardent's very core a feeling of revulsion poured out over her, a great wrongness permitted from the picture accompanied by a horrific grinding noise.
The destroyer clutched her stomach, the feeling of knots twisting themselves in her as if her very insides were shrieking at the existence of the picture. It took what seemed like minutes for the girl to slow down and realize that the horrible grinding noise came from her pushing herself back deep into the chair, straining the wood. Hood closed the folder and the destroyer felt herself relax, though the lingering wrongness of the sight still stuck with her and her breathing came short and fast.
"What?" Was also she could stammered between breaths.
"That." The battlecruiser began, "is our proverbial tooth pulling. We call it an Abyssal. Wo class more specifically. Most girls have a similar reaction, I hear Rodney punched a hole in the admiral's desk, not really any way to make it easier in my experience."
Ardent nodded, pondering the image she had seen and nervously fidgeting a lock of her hair with her free hand.
"They showed up about two years ago, in the gulf of Japan," Hood continued as she began placing the file neatly back in the desk. "a month and a half before the first of us. They offered no quarter, no warning, no communication whatsoever. Just immediate total war."
"But what are they?" Ardent asked, tentatively taking a sip of tea.
"As near as we can tell, they're simply our antithesis." Hood replied before pouring herself a fresh cup of tea, "the current theory is that while you and I apparently draw ourselves from that soul of national sovereignty, democratic ideals, and protecting Belgians, the Abyssals come from the darker side of the war. "Hate, racism, and fearmongering, those ideals that drove the conflict into its darkest days."
"So they're the Germans?" Ardent asked with genuine confusion causing Hood to nearly spit out her tea in shock.
"No Ardent," Hood stated hastily, hand held to her mouth as the battlecruiser attempted to ensure that she swallowed the tea properly. "They're not the Germans."
"The Italians?" the destroyer suggested
This time Hood let out a short laugh, though with a slight twinge of bitterness to her voice, "come now Ardent, surely you don't think the Italians of all people are presenting a credible threat to the Royal Navy?" the battlecruiser offered incredulously. "No, they're a bit of a mixed bag. We've seen all sorts of ships, even our own, amongst their number, though usually the brutes travel in something reminiscent of their old squadron compositions."
A pause followed, as Hood waited for the girl to continue her questions, none forthcoming, she placed her teacup on the desk before herself with finality "that is the state of things at the moment in brief. If I'm honest with you, the whole thing is a bit messy overall."
Ardent nodded and took a short sip, placing her now empty cup besides Hood's "So where do I fit in?"
Hood leaned down and opened a drawer, shuffling through a series of documents with what sounded to Ardent like wild abandon "Well I would first like to say that the draft is over, I can't force you to fight, we have a-"
"I'll fight" Ardent interrupted, far louder than she had intended
Hood peeked over the edge of her desk and offered a pleased smile to the destroyer, flopping a new folder onto the tabletop. "I figured you wouldn't be nearly so eager after all you've been through, you're stronger than I credited you for Ardent."
Ardent nodded slowly, surprised by her own hastiness to agree, "I-um did have another question though, if you don't mind."
"Oh?" Hood asked, "certainly." The battlecruiser flipped open a folder, filling out a series of papers at a rapid but deliberate pace.
The destroyer pulled another lock of hair from underneath her sailor cap, fidgeting awkwardly with the strand. "You've mentioned ships- including myself 'coming back', How many ships do we have, who has returned?"
Hood sighed and gave Ardent a sympathetic look before setting her pen down "in answer to your direct question, about half of the Royal Navy has come back, near all are in active service somewhere in British territory or assisting allied fleets. However. In answer to your implied question, neither Arcasta nor Glorious has returned."
Ardent slumped back in her chair and nodded sadly.
"I'm sorry Ardent." Hood offered with genuine sympathy. "Don't fear though, we've all got someone we're waiting on, they'll be here before you know it, then you can lead them through the ropes yourself."
The destroyer offered a simple disappointed nod.
The battlecruiser gave an encouraging smile and pushed her paperwork to the side, clasping the hand of her charge. "How about we get you settled in? I apparently have an unscheduled appointment with Edinburgh after this. But I'll get one of your new roommates up here to show you around okay? I do hope you don't mind having a roommate for a bit, it tends to help girls get acquainted to the day to day of the new world, if it's trouble we can get you your own quarters later.
Ardent nodded, "okay."
"I know it's a lot to take in" Hood replied, ruffling the destroyer's hat."You're dismissed Ardent, just wait outside and I'll send someone out to get you.
Ardent stood up rapidly, clicked her heels together, and attempted a salute, throwing her hand up in the familiar flat handed British manner. Her lack of muscle memory and form control betrayed her however and her gesture slammed her thumb joint directly into her eye, a shriek of pain and surprise followed the gesture.
Hood's brief smirk went unnoticed by the destroyer, who was firmly occupied with trying to rub the pain and welling tears away. ",You'll get the hang of it eventually dear." the battlecruiser admonished.
Ardent said nothing, electing for discretion and ignoring the pain, she did a full turn and carried herself out with long strides and an only partially composed impression of a grenadier guard, fumbling awkwardly with the doorknob for several seconds before flinging the door open and stepping outside.
"You alright lass?" A familiar Scottish voice asked as the destroyer stepped out.
"Fine." Ardent mumbled turning away from the voice to hide her eye.
The voice let out an unconvinced grunt and passed Ardent through the doorway, stopping in the frame briefly before turning back to the destroyer, "well, will you need directions? I'll only be a minute."
"I'm fine thanks." Ardent retaliated, pouring more of her pained frustration into the statement than intended, she quickly grabbed the handle and closed the door quickly on Edinburgh.
It was only after she glanced both ways down the hallway to verify she was alone that Ardent let out a dissatisfied grunt and took a seat against the wall, rubbing her eye as she did.
She sighed with frustration, let out a bitter pained curse, and waited.
