Author: Finally. My schedule had freed up a bit this week. I hope this continues. It'd be easier to work on future chapters in this story as it will (mostly) follow the plot of the original one. That means the next chapter will be the flashback of what happened at Truk anchorage when it was attacked.

I tried playing a certain FPS game on PC and boy do I suck at it. Also, when playing Warframe, the concept of stealth doesn't apply to me (LOL).

Where are you?

CarDiv 01, escorted by a few destroyers, commenced a search and rescue mission for their yet to be found admiral. They launched reconnaissance aircrafts, but even at the low altitude, not the slightest sign of the admiral was found.

"Akagi-san" Kaga turned to her partner

"No good. None of my aircraft found any signs of the admiral"

"Same for me" Kaga sighed

Both aircraft carriers felt dismay at another fruitless search. They were both worried, knowing how "dangerous" the admiral can get, specially in the current situation where she is nowhere to be found after the air raid on Truk.

"This is Destroyer escort flagship Tashkent, it's a negative here" Tashkent radioed

"The destroyers found nothing either. Just Abyssals..."

Akagi caught a brief glimpse of Kaga expressing her frustration three days after the admiral had gone missing. Light cruisers Yahagi and Noshiro shook their heads as even their seaplanes had found no sign of the admiral either.

"Abyssal fleet spotted. Two Tsu class light cruisers and four Ro class destroyers" One of Kaga's aircraft spotted an incoming enemy fleet

"A torpedo squadron, huh. Let's eliminate them and report back to the base" Akagi drew an arrow

Both aircraft carriers drew their arrows, launching torpedo and dive bombers to intercept the enemy fleet for a pre emptive airstrike. The Abyssal fleet detected the incoming aircrafts, but even with their barrage of anti air guns, that didn't stop the bombers from diving directly at the enemy and dropping their payloads. Shortly after that, torpedoes where dropped.

"Two Ro class destroyers sunk" Akagi reported

Following the pre emptive airstrike, the escorting destroyers charged at the enemy to sink the remaining ones the survived the bombers. Tashkent fired the first shot, blasting a quarter of the Abyssal's face and revealed the horrific combination of flesh and metal concealed by their armored skin.

"Why can't we just search for the admiral in peace!" Tashkent shouted as she continued to open fire

That would be impossible now as after Truk was destroyed, the Abyssals in the area increased as if to prevent the shipgirls to repair the anchorage and make it operational again.

"Urrraaa!"

Tashkent charged ahead of the other destroyers, launching her torpedoes at such a short range.

"Scary. Are Russians destroyers really like that?" Arashi is slightly surprised

"Beats me" Nowaki doesn't know whether to say yes or no

Explosions erupted left and right, the destroyers showing absolutely no mercy to the remaining Abyssals. Akagi and Kaga watched as thick smoke rises to the sky while their aircrafts land back on the flight deck to refuel and resupply.

"They're having fun" Kaga thought

(That's fun?) Akagi thought to herself

While the shipgirls sink the last of the Abyssals, an unknown shipgirl observed the battle from a distance.

"Hmm. I was wondering what's with the commotion. It turns out, it's those girls again"

The battleship with a military-like coat partnered with a peaked cap and a capelet hanging over the right side of her shoulders, crossed her arms and knee she worried for nothing.

"Those girls must be looking for her, huh. I wonder what's going on in their base. I'm kind of curious"

The shipgirl left the battlefield before the fleet could learn of her presence in the area. She can't afford to be spotted and found out just yet.

Maizuru naval district...

Akagi and Kaga reported the result of today's search and rescue mission, but it ended with little to no progress at all. Nagato already expected this result, but she had a small glimpse of hope for any sign or clue of the admiral's whereabout. At the very least, she wanted to confirm whether her admiral is still alive or not.

"Even the submarines found nothing" Nagato sighed

"Nagato-san, you look awfully tired" Akagi noticed

"That's because I am"

They both know Nagato hasn't been able to sleep well ever since the surprise attack on Truk anchorage. Right now, stress and fatigue piles up in Nagato and begins to take toll on her physical health, even for a Big Seven like her.

"We'll keep on searching for the admiral, Nagato-san. Before it gets worse"

"Before it gets worse? What do you mean by that?" Nagato straightened herself

"Ah, well..." Akagi accidentally slipped a hint

"Akagi-san meant before something bad happens to the admiral since we believed she's still alive" Kaga covered for her

"Oh. I see..."

Nagato leaned back on the chair where the admiral would always sit. As much they wanted to comfort her, they'd make the situation worse if they were to reveal the truth...which they learned from Warspite.

Meanwhile...

Warspite bit her thumb, growing anxious and frustrated ever since the admiral is announced to be missing. She had always known what she must do, but the unexpected attack by the Abyssals had disrupted her ability to rationally make decision.

She doesn't know what to do.

"It'll be only a matter of time before this spirals out of control"

As Warspite wallows in her growing anxiety, she spots Bismarck moping in one corner, clearly depressed about the recent event involving Truk anchorage and the admiral being missing.

"Admiral..."

Bismarck stared at her own clenched hands resting on her lap, recalling the events at Truk. After they defeated the Abyssals and made Aircraft carrier Princess flee, Bismarck rushed to the decimated base. What she found is corpses torn apart by the bombardment and shredded by Abyssals.

"This...is..."

Her stomach curled at the horrific sight of scattered limbs and organs all over the ground. The permanent horrified face of the unfortunate victims only made it worse. She covered her mouth, before her body could think of vomiting from such a gruesome massacre.

"This is way too much..."

Other than humans torn limb from limb, there are, surprisingly, massacred Abyssals. She approached a late model Abyssal destroyer and discovered it wasn't struck by shell or bombs, but ripped apart.

"Who could have done such a thing?"

Just as the humans, the Abyssals fell victim to gruesome deaths as well. It was as if a monster as horrible, worse even, than the Abyssals who committed these violent killing spree. She ran past by the massacre and desperately searched for her admiral, but to no avail.

"Admiral! Admiral!"

She called out, hoping at the slighted chance her admiral had survived the massacre. She looked left right and searched just about anywhere...but her search only ended in failure. There isn't the slightest hint of her admiral anywhere, not even her body is seen.

"If the admiral is still alive...then where is she?"

It's only been more than a week ever since Bismarck and her comrades arrived in the base. She had yet to know much about the admiral, but she instinctively grew comfortable and close around her. Perhaps this is because of the admiral's "coincidental resemblance" to her deceased younger sister.

"Admiral..."

Warspite pitied Bismarck who hoped the admiral survived the attack on the anchorage. Warspite has little knowledge on what truly happened, but she feared it might have been set free which would explain how no body was found and thus declared missing until further notice.

"Are you going to wait till everything worsens than it already is before you reveal the truth?" Yamato approached Warspite

"Do you honestly think I can confess in this situation? For all we know...the admiral..."

"If that's the case, then we would have no choice but to sink her"

"...?" Warspite is genuinely surprised

Yamato may have been with the admiral before Nagato and the others did, but even with her compassion, it was the admiral who would sometimes remind Yamato to prioritize duty over emotions.

Later...

Graf Zeppelin remained quiet ever since the admiral is declared missing, but she could no longer remain quiet with how the situation is beginning to escalate. She marched to where Bismarck is.

"Bismarck!"

"Graf? What's the matter?"

Without a warning, Graf Zeppelin tossed a golden object to Bismarck who caught it mid air. Upon opening her palm, Bismarck gasped in shock upon seeing the pendant...which belonged to Tirpitz.

"Tirpitz's pendant? How and why do you have it? I've been looking for this"

"I didn't, Warspite did. I found it in her room...along with these"

While intruding in someone else's room is unethical and just plain unacceptable, Graf Zeppelin justified it when she searched and successfully found the truth Warspite had kept from everyone else for the past eight years.

"Is this...Tirpitz?!"

The foreign blonde hair matched with sky blue eyes made it certain to Bismarck that the person in one of the photos is without a doubt, Tirpitz.

"But the date..."

If the date isn't lying, then the picture of what seems to be Tirpitz was taken two years after she sunk in Norway.

"This can't be right. Tirpitz sunk a couple of years before this date. So there's no way she could be alive in this photo"

Bismarck refused to believe...then she saw the other photos.

"Admiral?!"

The face slightly changed due to mental and emotional stress, but Bismarck shook her head upon recognizing who seems to be the admiral. The photo she's currently holding is taken about a couple of weeks or so after the first one. What made Bismarck think it's the admiral rather then Tirpitz is due to her snow white hair and less "human" expression.

"The date is not that apart. What's more, Warspite is in both pictures"

Not just the two pictures, the other pictures showed Warspite beside or near the admiral many years ago. Warspite once said she had no previous relation the admiral before, but this evidence contradicted her statement.

"What's the meaning of this, Graf?"

"I don't know, but one things for sure. There's something Warspite hasn't been telling us"

Prinz Eugen switched from one picture to another, shocked at the evidence Graf Zeppelin presented.

"I suspected Warspite is hiding something and I was right when I found this in her room"

"Wait - you snuck into her room?"

"I had to since I knew she must be keeping something in there"

"Normally I'd be angry at what you did, but what you found is more important"

Bismarck let Graf Zeppelin's "past habit" slip by into forgiveness as such crime is rewarded with critical evidence and key to the secret Warspite has been hiding from Bismarck and the others.

"Why would Warspite have these? What is she hiding?"

"I don't know, but she had been hiding it from us for a long time" Graf Zeppelin has no clear answer

Upset and shocked at this discovery, Bismarck had decided to confront the source of the evidence Graf Zeppelin found through an illegal method - Warspite herself.

"Warspite has a lot of explaining to do!"

"Bismarck, wait!" Graf wanted to stop Bismarck, but the latter ignored her

Both Graf Zeppelin and Prinz Eugen followed after Bismarck who marched to Warspite's current location. On the worst moment, she spotted Warspite speaking with Yamato.

"Warspite, explain this!"

Bismarck lifts her hand and reveals the pendant that once belonged to Tirpitz. Bismarck is only able to reclaim it after Graf Zeppelin stole it back from Warspite.

"How did you - What's the meaning of this?" Warspite played innocent

Yamato subtlety draw her distance from the sparked conflict between two battleships, not wanting to involve herself.

"Don't play dumb! Graf found this and among other things in your room"

"...?!"

Warspite briefly turned to Graf Zeppelin who stood by Bismarck's side. She knew someone had snuck into her room and stole several evidences, but did nothing about it. She took no action shortly after learning about the admiral disappearing.

"This picture. This is Tirpitz, but the date doesn't make sense since Tirpitz sank two years before this was taken"

"..."

"Tell me the truth, Warspite. The connection between Tirpitz and the admiral!"

Bismarck wanted Warspite to directly confess what she and the others had been suspecting all this time. Warspite refused to confess, but she knew she could no longer keep the secret.

"Isn't it obvious, you fool? The admiral and your sister are the same person"

"...?!"

They were right to suspect how the admiral strongly resembled and spoke similar to Tirpitz. The only difference is that the admiral doesn't recognize Bismarck and the others.

"All this time, I was really talking to Tirpitz!"

"How is she alive, Warspite? Tirpitz sunk eight years ago" Graf Zeppelin had been meaning to ask it

"The shipgirl Tirpitz sunk, that is true. It was the Abyss who wouldn't let her rest"

"Just get to the point!"

Graf Zeppelin and Prinz Eugen grab Bismarck's arm, preventing her from going regrettable things.

"When Tirpitz sunk, she returned to the surface...but I kept her existence hidden from everyone who knew her, specially to you"

"Tirpitz has been alive all this time and we didn't even knew it?!"

"Yes. For the past six years, no one knew about Tirpitz being alive"

Warspite confessed how she knew Tirpitz had been alive all this time, but kept her existence a secret from everyone who knew her.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't punch you in the face!"

Bismarck attempted to free herself from her two comrades, but both Graf and Eugen use their maximum strength to restrain a battleship like Bismarck.

"When your sister came back, she had no memory of who she was once as a shipgirl. Her memory would occasionally return, but I always made it sure her memory remains the same"

"What did you do to my sister?!"

"I made sure she would never she was ever Tirpitz!"

"All this time...you were gaslighting Tirpitz this whole time!"

"I did. Odd, isn't it? Knowing what I did is unacceptable...I felt no regret"

"You-!"

Bismarck bursted in anger, but Yamato stepped in and separated the two sides.

"Enough! This isn't the time for us to be quarreling. The admiral is there and we don't even know if she's still alive"

"..." Both sides fell quiet

"Bismarck-san, what Warspite-san did is unacceptable, but she didn't do it out of selfishness"

"..."

While it surprised Bismarck on how Yamato has knowledge of this secret, her attention is mostly directed to Warspite whose confession burned her rage.

"Why...why did you hide my own sister from me? From all of us!"

"Because you were the reason she sunk eight years ago"

Warspite's response triggered the memory of how Tirpitz sunk. The guilt Bismarck suffered that day resurfaced and felt as if it impaled her chest, twisting excruciating pain in her heart.

"It was because of your recklessness the fleet was forced to abandon and left her to die in that battle!" Warspite retaliated

"...!"

"It because you acted so recklessly, you sealed her fate. That's why don't expect she'll ever forgive you"

"...!"

"I can't have Tirpitz returning to the very person who caused her demise. She suffered enough already"

She resented spitting out the reminder of Bismarck's guilt and "sin", but she does so not out of selfish reason. Not even for the reason of causing emotional pain to Bismarck through reminding her.

"It's not Bismarck's fault!" Graf Zeppelin defended her

"No, she's right. It was my fault. It has always been..."

Bismarck's knees surrendered to the ground, her self inflicted guilt overwhelmed her unbridled rage.

"It was all my fault. I got my little sister killed...even though I promised to protect her and never abandon her"

"Had she return to the Kriegsmarine, she's bound to suffer the same demise. I cannot afford to repeat your foolish mistake...Bismarck"

Warspite turned her back away from Bismarck, leaving her to wallow and drown in her own guilt. Prinz Eugen attempted to comforted Bismarck who burst to tears with little to no effect while Graf Zeppelin is unhappy to how Warspite reminded Bismarck about the tragedy.

"Will this really work out, Warspite-san? You, reminding Bismarck of her own guilt and causing her to emotionally break down in the process"

"I have to. Bismarck has to overcome her longtime guilt so I forced her to he reminded"

Warspite leaned against the wall, knowing what she deliberately said would cause Bismarck to break down in tears. Bismarck had been avoiding her own guilt for far too long, so Warspite is forced to resort to harsher methods on order for Bismarck to confront her own emotions.

"It must be hard to play the villain, huh"

Of course Yamato knew how Warspite had picked up and wore the mask of an antagonist which heavily contrasts to her own nature. Warspite is willing to be despised in order to achieve her goal, not for herself...but for the others.

"I'm not taking the role of the villain, when I'm already one before the opening act"

"You're not a bad person, Warspite-san. If you are, then you wouldn't go this far to protect the admiral from herself"

"I manipulated and lied to the admiral for the past six years"

"You had a good reason. Warspite-san"

"Good, you say? What really defines good and bad? Do we, humans, have the right to dictate which is which?"

Warspite chuckled, as if her own guilt had slowly twisted into madness and crept to her mind, tampering her own sanity.

"It's only a matter of time...before the pain and suffering I made her forget frees Beast of the North"

"When that happens, then all we can do...is to sink her once again"

Once Tirpitz reverted to her Abyssal self, Yamato knew they will all be forced to sink her once again, even with a heavy heart.

"You kept this fact hidden from Bismarck-san after you confessed" Yamato is slightly dismayed

"With Bismarck the way she is now, she's not prepared to learn the reason why I did what I did"

"So you made Bismarck-san break down and cry as to prepare her for the eventual truth"

"I can see why you're the admiral's confidant. You may be mysterious, but you're perceptive and wise"

"Well I had a legendary shipgirl as a mentor"

From how Yamato vaguely mentions her mentor, Warspite theorizes this "legendary shipgirl" is someone Yamato views and treats with great respect.

Solomon Islands...

The admiral laid unconscious on the cold and solid ground of what was once a port for passing by ships. Exhausted, the shipgirl who is given the name Arkhangelsk ever since she reluctantly fought under the Russian navy, wiped the sweat from her forehead. The sweat absorbed in both her gloves and slightly worn out sleeves.

"Sooner or later, I won't be able to keep her in check. This like putting tape on a cracked wall.

Arkhangelsk slid down the nearest wall she could lean on, both her mind and body on the brink of physically collapsing.

"The Abyssals hunting her down isn't making things easier. Just how long is Warspite planning to do nothing?"

She asked herself, both frustrated and exhausted at the task she regretted accepted in doing. Then again she couldn't bring herself to refuse an order from Warspite herself.

"The Beast isn't going to remain bound any longer. She had enough of being trapped for so long..."

That Beast being the unconscious shipgirl who forgot she is even a shipgirl. Concerned at how what happened at Truk escalated the situation of control, Arkhangelsk fears for what's more to come.

"If she breaks loose like what she did at Truk a few days ago, it'll be Norway all over again. Not to mention, Warspite is going to be in trouble with those geezers"

Arkahngelsk does everything she could, in order to make sure her mission will not fail or be jeopardized by any nuisances, may it be shipgirls or Abyssals. She fears Warspite will be punished by certain navy officials if The Beast wreaks havoc in the open seas once again.

There's not much time left for you. How long can you remain in control, Tirpitz?