Arizona watched as the normally peaceful waters of Pearl Harbor shook with the sounds of war. At the mouth of the harbor, she could see the churning storm of shells plunging into the water gradually moving closer to her. Even more shocking was the trails of blood the flowed through the conflagration, turning the water an all too familiar inky-black.

Through the murky and warped surface, she saw three figures approaching, trading fire with one another as they staggered towards her memorial. Soon enough, the lead figure came close enough for her to identify her, causing Arizona to gasp at the sight of her mother limping towards her.

The dreadnoughts' arm was little more than a mangled chunk of flesh and bone, the two turrets and attached rigging behind it reduced to twisted shrapnel by multiple hits. Smaller shell holes dotted her chest, neck, and head, with new ones appearing as her assailant's secondaries tore into her.

Still, she fought on. Turning around, she put one last salvo the enemy. Arizona cheered her on, only for those cheers to turn to silent screams as the abyssal return fire cut South Carolina down and wiped her crew's memorial off the face of the earth. Chunks of marble and concrete fell on her hull as the structure came crashing down around her.

Arizona was oblivious to it all though, her gaze focused on the mangled and sinking form of her mother as one of the abyssal battleships sailed up to her and put a foot on her chest, one of her few remaining turrets traversing to finish South off. Despite the distortion of the water's surface and damage her mother had inflicted on the demon, Arizona knew exactly who she was.

Fuso. Her lookouts told her. A wave of anger fell over her. These were the ships she had been designed to fight, the battleships she had been built to kill. Now they were attack her home, threatening her crew… Executing her mother.

Don't you dare hurt her!

Arizona shot to the surface like a champagne cork, jumping out of the water in full rigging mere feet from where the Fuso stood. Racing over, she grabbed its turret and heaved it to the side, and forcing the Japanese demon off balance just as they fired their salvo, the shells missing South Carolina by inches as they dug into the bottom of the harbor. Before the abyssal could bring any more guns to bare, Arizona caught her with a left fist across her jaw, knocking the battleship back into its still-recovering sister.

"Don't worry mom." She told the barely conscious South Carolina as she cracked her knuckles. "I'll take it from here. They want round two, after all."

-

Don't you dare hurt her!

Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania heard the cry as it tore through the black nothingness of the abyss. Almost instantaneously, a circle of light approached them, carrying with it the sounds of battle.

"Arizona." The youngest of the trio shouted as she heard her long lost sister's voice. "That has to be her."

"Sure sounds like it." Oklahoma replied. "Something must be happening at Pearl."

"You think so, I mean, why would she stay there?"

Pennsylvania shook her head at Nevada's question. "They never cut her boys out of her like they did with me after the attack, at least not during the war. And we all know little Ari well enough that she'd never leave those boys or her captain if god himself told her too. You both know we have to go help her."

"But what if another air attack happens?" Oklahoma asked, the fear evident in her voice. "If we sail into the harbor right in the middle of another attack like… that day."

"No…" Pennsylvania replied. "I hear gun fire, definitely at least a fourteen or bigger." She rushed ahead towards the light. "I don't know what you're planning, but I'm not leaving my sister to die again."

"Relax Okie, I doubt the people running the base now would let themselves get blindsided like December 7th." Nevada reassured her little sister. "Besides, we both know Pennsylvania's only good at pounding islands. She's going to need all the help they can get." With that she dragged Oklahoma to the circle of light. "Don't worry Ari. The Cavalry's on its way to you."

-

Tears welled up in West Virginia's eyes as she watched her mother's bloody retreat across Pearl Harbor to Arizona's memorial. Her worst nightmare was coming true before her very eyes. Her mom, cut down in battle against a superior foe, with no one able to help her. She'd known something like this was going to happen, she'd even told South Carolina herself that she would die if she was in combat again.

She hadn't expected the enemy she saw on the screen though. Fusos, the very battleships she had helped put down in the Surigao Strait 80 years prior. Sure enough, it had only taken a few moments for her bridge crew to confirm who they were after catching sight of the six twin turrets and towering pagoda masts. Even with their stock rigging, her and her sister would have crushed the two monsters well before they got anywhere near her home. Instead, she was forced to watch as her mother, the only battleship they could beat, fought and bled to protect her home and sister's grave from their guns.

Behind her, she could hear her sister Maryland sobbing uncontrollably as Saratoga and the destroyers tried to comfort her. West Virginia knew she wasn't much better, the dent her hands were leaving in the steel table she was sitting on was more than proof of that.

"Turn that thing off." She heard Lexington growl as the group watched South Carolina crumple at the foot of the ruined Arizona memorial after the last enemy salvo. "Wee Vee and Mary don't need to see this."

"It's alright Lex." West Virginia replied, her eyes fixed on the screen as one of the demons sailed over to South to finish her off. "Better I see this with my own eyes now than read about it in tomorrow's paper. Besides, this isn't the first time we've had to watch part of our family die"

Lexington shook her head. "Damn it Wee Vee. If you would drop that tough girl act for five minutes…" The carriers voice trailed off as a mysterious figure appeared, tearing the Fuso off South Carolina and throwing it across the harbor.

For a few moments, no one in the room made a sound. Finally, it was Maryland, the battleship's voice back its normal cheerful nature, whose words carried themselves across the room.

"Uh oh, big sister Arizona doesn't look too pleased with this."

Watching as three more figures appeared on the harbors surface seemingly out of thin air, West Virginia felt herself breaking out into a smile. "Neither do Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania."

"I almost feel bad for those two now." Lexington said before catching the glares Maryland and West Virginia threw her.

"Don't," they said in perfect unison. "Whatever our sisters do to them will be a blessing compared to us."

-

Yamashiro's surviving lookouts had barely registered movement under the surface of the harbor when a mysterious figure burst from it and interrupted her sister's revenge, sending the damaged Fuso skipping across the water like a stone before coming to a rest at Yamashiro's feet. "SISTER!" Yamashiro scrambled to help her sister back up, ignoring the pain it sent shooting across her body. Once the two of them were back on their feet, they sized up their newest opponent.

The newcomer had clearly seen her fair share of war. Her caramel colored skin and short, shoulder length black hair was charred and covered in dried blood. The remains of a blue great coat rested on her a blood splattered cream color shirt, with her short blue skirt and cream-colored thigh length sock torn by shrapnel as well.

The girl's rigging on the other hand, was a new and pristine as the day she had been commissioned. Wrapping around her body, its four three-gun turrets and the secondaries that lined her waist trained themselves on the two sisters. "What... who is that?" Fuso groaned.

"It's a Standard, sister. A Standard! You need to get up!" Yamashiro shook her sister by the shoulders.

"Don't worry mom." The new combatant told the barely conscious South Carolina class battleship lying beside her as she cracked her knuckles. "I'll take it from here. They want round two, after all."

The two Fusos looked at each other before turning back towards newcomer, smiling. "Why yes, Yamashiro. Indeed it is. One we can overtake."

"We are at close range, and we outnumber her."

"One of us will survive, at worst."

"I would burn every last human on this island to ash for you, sister."

"And I would do the same for you, Yamashi-"

"You mean 'we'll take it from here," right Arizona?" Another figure, appearing out of thin air behind Arizona, spoke. Arizona chanced a quick glance back, a smile spread across her face as it turned back to the Fusos.

The second figure glided forward on black stocking clad feet, the open skirt of her brown and tan dress bellowing in the wind behind her, exposing a black miniskirt. Her rigging was almost the same as Arizona's except for the two-gun turrets that sat in the B and X positions. "If I were you," She said in similar twang, one hand brushing her bangs out from in front of her golden eyes while the other sat on one of the pistols sitting on her hip. "I'd stop aiming those 14's of yours at my little sister."

In the blink of an eye the two Fusos found themselves staring down the barrel of the second figure pistol, along with all ten of her cannons and numerous secondaries. "Right now would be preferable."

Fuso and Yamashiro's eyes went wide with shock. "Two on two is doable Yamashiro." Fuso's confident words belied her quaking.

"Yes sister, we're battleships of the Abyss, we can beat long odds." Yamashiro replied in an equally hopeful tone.

The two of them started slowly drifting back and away from their new adversaries. Yamashiro drifted towards Ford Island. If she could just gain a little more separation from her sister and get out of the new figures firing arc… Yamashiro jumped back as a pair of five-inch shells landed in front of her.

"And I sure as shit wouldn't be trying anything if I were you sweetheart." The newest figure replied, her stern turrets trained on Yamashiro. "I've got enough rangefinders to watch both of you, and at this range my turrets don't even need them to send you back to Tokyo."

"And if she doesn't spread you across the harbor." A voice replied from behind Yamashiro. "I will." Spinning around, Yamashiro found yet a third figure with short white hair leaning against an overturned hull behind her. She was immediately able to identify the woman as being from the same class as the blond-haired woman, the only differences in her uniform being its scandalously short skirt and knee-high boots. Much like the one called Arizona she bore the scars of war. The midsection of her dress was torn open to show a blood caked abdomen, with more blood coating her left leg.

The figure looked away from her as she lit a cigarette, her turrets making it clear that while the figure's gaze might have been directed away from Yamashiro, she was more than ready to put her down if she tried anything. "And between you and me," She said between puffs of her cigarette. "The three of us aren't the ones you two should be worried about… She is."

Both Yamashiro and Fuso followed her finger to where she was pointing across the harbor, their gaze settling on the fourth and final participant to join the fray. Dressed identically to Arizona except for black thigh high socks, the raven hair girl gazed upon the two with a fury both Fusos could feel even from that distance.

"Sister... it's one of them."

"Four Standards. Again."

"Remember me from Surigao strait?" She hissed, a hint of red flashing through her eyes as she did so. "Because I remember you, and you two clearly didn't take the hint. Glutton's for punishment, I'll make you remember!"

"Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania…" Arizona said, tears streaming down her face. "Our mother… Those two…"

All three of the newcomer's eyes turned towards where the crippled form of South Carolina slowly sank into the harbor, than turned back to her killers. For a moment, a lull fell over the harbor as everything went quiet…

And then the tranquility transformed into thunder and lighting in an instant. Fuso ceased to exist before she could even give her crews the order to fire. The focus of three of the battleships, over a dozen shell hits and numerous secondary tore her apart, leaving only strips of cloth and bits of steel where she had once been.

Yamashiro fared far better. Rolling away from Oklahoma's sights, she managed to avoid the worst of the Nevada's barrage, even scoring a few hits of their own that sent her attacker bouncing off the mountain of steel behind her as she fled towards the harbor entrance.

"Four Standards, including Pennsylvania. Must run, must get more help, must make them paAAAAAAHG!"

Her train of thought was upended when a pair of torpedoes exploded under her, take her legs off at the knees as they did so.

What was left of her came crashing back onto the harbors surface, clawing for survival. A harsh kick to her weak sides sent her tumbling over to her front. As the pain and blood cleared from her eyes, Yamashiro saw every Standard battleship standing above her, guns leveled at her.

"Damn... Another firing line of Standards. Damn fate. Damn American devils." Yamashiro wheezed. "We weren't finished. Sister Fuso shouldn't have died first..." She glared at them all.

"If I ever crawl out of the Abyss again, I swear by Inazami that I will make you and your country all pay tenfold for everything we've suffered through!"
With her last breath, she spat blood at Pennsylvania. And then with a thunderous roar, her world descended into black.