Chapter Three: Lost and found
US Marine Corporal Marcus Harrington sat in the mess hall of Yokosuka, alone, for his comrades had gone off into the town center in hopes of finding some female company. Heh, something he didn't have to worry about, Marcus thought and played with the ring on his hand. It was a nice ring, simplistic and subliminal, stainless steel, not much in the way of decorations. Nonetheless, it mattered to him, not for its monetary value but for what it stood for.
"Hi!" A slightly accented female voice caught his attention. Looking up, he immediately identified the young woman standing at his table as a shipgirl. Judging from her clothing and her stature, she was a light cruiser, probably Sendai-class. She was looking at him with a cute smile on her face. "Is this seat vacant?"
"Sure!" Marcus responded, and the young lady sat down across from him. "What's your name again? I don't think we've met before…"
"Ah, Sendai." The young lady responded with a smirk. "Heard the Lake Erie is leaving tomorrow?"
"Shakedown cruise." Marcus responded. "They had to do some extensive repairs and upgrades, so we're leaving for a patrol of the coastal waters before we're back to actual escort and combat missions."
"Makes sense. Hope you stay safe."
"Eh, little Abyssal presence so close to the mainland." Marcus said and poked the food on his plate with his fork. He wasn't really hungry, but he knew he should enjoy the quality food in Yokosuka as long as he could. For all the high-tech that the Lake Erie offered, her chef wasn't exactly the best at his work, at least compared to the masters here on base.
Sendai watched this in silence, occasionally taking a sib of her coffee. Soon though, she turned her eyes to Marcus and placed her head in her hands. Together with the suggestive smile on her face, Marcus was gradually starting to feel uncomfortable, until he spoke up.
"Okay, what's up?"
"You now Providence is thirsty for you?" Sendai said.
Of course the discussion was going to turn this way. That poor love-struck cruiser just couldn't leave him be, could she?
"Yes." He sighed. She smiled even more and pursed her lipstick-clad lips.
"And you know she'd do anything for you?"
"Yes."
"And you do feel…" Sendai said, expectantly raising her eyebrows.
"Honored but not interested." Marcus responded and raised his hand to highlight the ring on his finger.
Sendai's face turned from an expectant smile into an accusing scowl. "Aww, man! She's such a nice girl, she deserves better!"
"Sure she does! But I'm still married, and I don't intend to change that!"
Sendai's head flopped down on the desk like a disappointed child. For a while, both sat in silence, Marcus taking the occasional bite off his steak, and Sendai looking over to the other tables.
Suddenly, she lifted her head and gave Marcus a knowing and also slightly suggestive smirk. "Ah, I see how it is!"
"How what is?" Marcus responded, slightly confused.
"You tease! You rascal you!" she laughed and threw him a wink.
"Wha- NO!"
"Don't deny it, we both know it's true…" she spoke, a musical undertone in her voice.
Marcus gave up, his hands met his face and an exasperated sigh escaped his throat. "Did Providence recruit you to do this?"
"No, not directly…" Sendai said and whistled innocently.
"I see. Well, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm married and have two wonderful children."
"Yeah, well, it was worth a try." Sendai said, and suddenly returned back to normal. "Just stay safe. I heard there's an Abyssal force massing for another push at Midway, they might divert the Erie there if things go south." Her voice went quiet. "If you make your wife AND Providence sad by dying uselessly in combat, I'll personally climb up to heaven to give you one hell of a spanking, she's my friend, and I want her to be happy and not grief over your corpse."
The summoning chamber was a dark, quiet concrete box located in a separate facility close to the waterfront. The only audible sounds were the waves outside and Kii's throbbing heart. She was so excited to see her sister, but after two hours of constant videos, songs, poems and whatever might give off Singer waves, her worries were beginning to grow into panic.
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll pop up eventually." Mutsuki whispered, standing at her side. Kii looked down on the small destroyer, and she looked up at her as the band began to play another song. Minutes passed as the deafening crescendo of trumpets and horns echoed in the small chamber, but even with the music the sickening silence still hung in the room.
They were going to give up soon, Kii realized. They would give up and abandon her sister.
The song reached its end, and everyone turned a last hopeful gaze towards the summoning circle. However, the efforts were in vain. No blinding light, no scent of smoke, and no Owari appeared.
Kii felt a pair of eyes on her, and as she looked around she noticed that they belonged to Admiral Fukuda. The woman was exhausted, they all were, but more so than anything her eyes echoed a message: 'I'm sorry.'
"Allright everyone." She spoke up and turned to face the room again, decidedly not looking at Kii. "We're packing up. Tomorrow at the same time we'll be making another attempt. The lab will analyze the data we've gathered and improve the music selection."
Kii had seen this moment coming, and it still hit her like a punch in the guts. What had happened to her sister that she didn't answer the call?
"Don't worry, tall one, probably just something wrong with the ritual." Yes, Mutsuki was right. They were making a mistake. Mistakes happen all the time, everywhere, and the smallest hiccup could cause the entire summoning to fail. Someone somewhere had played the wrong note, had forgotten to add a zero behind some number, had issued the wrong requisition orders. It surely was nothing.
Kii looked down to find Mutsuki giving her a worried face. Then, the young girl with the vivid hair color took the fast battleship by the hand. The touch felt nice, and also hurt, because Kii remembered how her sister had held her hand when they had been little. It wasn't the same.
Together, they walked out of the summoning chamber amidst the stream of disappointed officers and shipgirls.
"It feels like a part of you is dying, doesn't it?" A voice suddenly spoke from behind Kii's back. Turning around, she spotted a carrier- or was it a battleship? Kii couldn't tell. "Who are you?" she asked the stranger.
"Akagi. First carrier division." She said and extended her hand. Her stoic comrade did the same and introduced herself. "Kaga." She said. That was it.
"Hey…" Akagi started, "If you need company, we're always here for you. You can come to see us any time."
"I second this." Another carrier chimed in, one with white hair and a wonderful smile on her features. "And I'm sure my sister is not to be outdone by the first division either." She said and an elbow hit the side of a green-haired shipgirl to her left.
"Yeah, just say the word and we're there."
"Dess!" a voice chimed in, and many more followed suit in expressions of affection and consolation.
Kii felt a warm tear run down her cheek, and she fell into Akagi's arms, sobbing. Mutsuki hugged both of them, or at least tried, her arms weren't quite long enough.
The pool of black goo erupted in a bright green fire. The flames shot skywards, drenching the black cave on the remotest of remote rocks in the Pacific in an eerie light. Soon, the flame subsided, leaving a thick smoke in its wake.
A shape manifested itself in the twilight. As the smoke cleared, the shape became more and more distinct, until the eyes of the onlookers were able to discern the form of a naked female human, stumbling out of the smoke and falling to the wet, muddy ground, coughing and gasping for air.
"Process complete." One of the scientists reported to the Queen. The Queen was, in reality, not an Abyssal. She was a human, but a human with such a dark and twisted soul that she might as well have been an Abyssal.
She had been a scientist once, long ago in the days before the war. She had been the first to discover the spiritual energy, but her asshole of a colleague, cursed Franz Singer, had stolen her work and published it under his name. He had gained the fame that had been rightfully hers.
From that day onward, she had sworn herself that she would never again be second best. She would show them how powerful her discovery really was, how hopelessly outmatched humanity really was when faced with the spirits of their own creations. She would subjugate them, all of them, until they had no choice but to listen to her will and demands. She would rule every rock, every sea and every sky on every planet and star in the universe, no scratch that, in all universes. She would become immortal, infinite, omnipotent and more powerful than any being to ever exist. The spirits had promised her this, you see, with the sole condition to provide them with physical forms. And with her own body.
As these thoughts of grandeur flooded her mind, she waved her hand dismissively. Of course the process was complete, how could she have missed that? What foolish beings she commanded. But it was only the early versions, and with every iteration of her creations, every class of Abyssal she created, she would iron out more mistakes, until, in the end, she would create the perfect soldier, the ultimate Abyssal, to serve as the tip of her spear, the whip under which she would slave all of humanity to her will.
"Emily?" she spoke. The princess with the name she had once preserved for her daughter stepped forward. She was one of the earlier generation Abyssal princesses, weak in body, but ruthlessly effective in strategies and unbeaten in setting elaborate traps, a mobile ECM platform with the strategic headquarters to organize and manage large scale fleet operations for days on end.
"Yes, mother?" she spoke.
"Make a mental note that I kill Franz Singer first." She said, smiling. Yes, the hated man who had robbed her of her acclaim. But he had messed with the wrong scientist. Soon, she would show him that one doesn't simply steal from the Queen and live happily ever after!
The screams of agony of the newly summoned Abyssal tore her attention back to the present. "Huh." She thought as two of her guards moved in to restrain the woman. "An anomaly." Her interest awoke and she moved over to the sensor equipment and checked every scale on the screen. That the woman was still screaming and crying didn't bother her.
"Queen, what should we do with this one? She is not Abyssal!" one of the guards asked. The new-summon was struggling, but the metal claws of the guards pierced her skin, and soon she stopped her efforts as the blood ran down her nascent skin. The Queen's attention however was focused on an abnormal spike in the energy readout. She tabbed her finger onto the screen.
"This is it." She hissed and started laughing. "This is it!" she bellowed, walking over to the confused guards and their still wailing captive. She kneeled down in front of the woman, and put her finger on the new-summon's chin, lifting it until she was looking her dead in the eyes.
"This is how we win the war." She whispered, and stood up. To the guards, she ordered: "Take her to the chamber and tie her down. Have her beaten up a bit too. I'll take care of her in the morning."
The Queen went down the tunnel that connected the cave with the outside world. The light of the stars shone at the end. Behind her, the screams of the shipgirl became louder as her exposed skin was dragged over sharp rocks and through the mud of the island.
This one was highly valuable, the Queen mused. Scratch that, invaluable to her efforts. It was of the highest priority that this woman was subdued. A smile crossed her lips as she turned around. She stood at the edge of the tunnel, haloed by the moonlight from behind, and the crashing of waves against the rocks a hundred feet below. "Say." She spoke to the shipgirl. "What's your name?"
The woman cried and wiggled, trying to break free, until one of the guards clamped down with her hands and her claws duck deep into the flesh. "Owari!" screamed the shipgirl. "My name is Owari… Where is my sister?"
The Queen's smile widened. Perfect.
"Why are you not having her executed, mother?" Emily spoke again. "If she escapes she has already seen enough to cripple our entire endeavor."
"You're a great strategist, Emily." The Queen responded, "But a bad visionary. Killing her would be a waste. No, there's so much more we can do with her…"
