Once I had gotten all of the damage reports from the battle, I was very pleased with how things went, overall. A few minor scrapes and scratches for the most part, with Algerie being the most injured, taking some shrapnel from an exploding Pawn that needed a few stitches to fully heal. After checking up with her and letting her know there would be a debriefing amongst the senior staff in thirty minutes, I was stopped in the hall by Vaquelin, who handed me a message from Tartu. I paused to read the short missive, and I couldn't help but smile as the last piece fell into place. I thanked Vaquelin and patted her on the head before carrying on with the last things to get done before the debriefing.

After making sure everyone had made it into the office, I got straight to the heart of the matter. "We've driven the Sardegnians off, with minimal casualties and no damage to either the harbor or Jean Bart," I announced, to the joy of the assembled kansen. "Everyone did an excellent job, but I'm afraid this isn't over. This is the second time the Sardegnians have made a push on Toulon within a week, and I don't think they're going to stop because we took out a few mass-produced ships and Pawns. It'll slow them down, but once they get a new batch, they'll be back. I've got a few options, and I'm always open to suggestions, but first, I do have a bit of news."

"Just before coming here, we received a message from Tartu…" I reached into my pocket and carefully unfolded the message Vaquelin had handed to me and looked over at Dunkerque, who was seated to my right. I took her hand and looked her in the eyes as I said, "They found Strasbourg. She's unharmed and under escort now."

There were audible noises of relief around the room, and you could feel a massive weight off of everybody, none more so than Dunkerque, who let out a shuddering sigh, her eyes welling with tears. Richelieu, who was sitting next to Dunkerque, patted her on the back, gracing her with a genuine smile. As I looked around the room, I saw nothing but happy smiles, all directed at Dunkerque.

"Merci, mon Amiral," Dunkerque finally said as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "That is wonderful news. When will she be here?"

"Not for a while," I answered apologetically. "The Sardegnians are between her and us, and until we get this situation under control, she's going to have to stay in Malta for the time being. She's on her way there now."

"So, you're just going to hold her and the others there?" Algerie cut in, a growing note of hostility in her voice. "'For safekeeping', I suppose?"

While her tone should have raised a red flag, I simply wasn't paying as close enough attention to Algerie as I should have. It would prove to be a costly mistake. "Until this situation with Sardegna is under control, yes. Trying to move through the Sardegnian lines has a pretty good chance of her being captured."

She snorted and folded her arms over her chest. "I've heard that before."

"The circumstances are a little bit different here, Algerie," I explained. "I'm not holding their health and well-being over your head. I want them back here as quickly as possible, too. But I'm not going to compromise their safety."

She sighed and shook her head, but seemed to let the matter drop. I waited a few moments for any other objections before speaking again. "In any case, I'd like to move on and lay out the possible options I've come up with for this situation."

With no other arguments, I carried on. "First, we call in reinforcements. Easiest way to deal with the Sardegnians-overwhelm them with numbers and crush them outright. This does have some drawbacks, though. We have to wait for reinforcements to arrive, which gives Littorio time to rebuild her numbers, and moving ships away from their current assignments weakens those positions. Second option is to counterattack now. Hit them while Cesare and Cavour are still too damaged to fight and knock as many as we can out of action. That'll give us enough breathing room to at least move Strasbourg and her escorts back to Toulon." I hesitated before offering up the last option. I knew it would be unpopular, and as much as I'd rather not mention it, it was a viable option. "And the last one...we evacuate Toulon."

As I expected, the room erupted into shouts and objections, and I waited for the outrage to die down before continuing. "I know, I know. But it is a potential option. We can safely move Jean Bart to Alexandria or Malta and continue her repairs, move elsewhere. If we stay here, they're going to just keep coming and all it takes is a lucky shot for all this hard work to become undone. Besides-"

Algerie never gave me a chance to fully explain, her voice dripping with contempt. "Coward," she spat.

The room went dead silent. All eyes looked to her, then to me. I stared in disbelief at what I just heard. "You wanna say that again?" I asked, my tone leaving no question as to what would happen if she did.

"I said coward!" she shot back, her lips curling in a sneer. "You want us to run, to leave our homeland just like before with your false promises. And all the while dangling Strasbourg and her destroyers over our heads! Ask for our opinions, but keep in mind the wrong answer means we'll never see Strasbourg again!"

Some of the other girls moved to speak up, but I quickly cut them off. "You're out of line," I growled, feeling a surge of anger. "And coming dangerously close to insubordination."

"Pah!" Algerie spat, getting out of her chair and slamming her hands on the table. "Crimson Blood and Azur Lane, the only thing different between you is a color swap and a name!"

That was enough. I slowly stood up, my voice icily calm as I declared, "You're relieved. And confined to quarters until further notice."

Algerie flinched, the color draining from her face. She cast pleading looks to both Richelieu and Dunkerque, and when neither of them met her gaze, she turned back to me, stone-faced and defiant. I met her gaze, as uncompromising as hers, and after a few more tense seconds, she stormed out of the room, slamming the open office door shut behind her.

I sat back down in my chair and looked around at the remaining mortified group. Richelieu was the first to speak up. "I...I'm sorry, mon Commandant," she muttered. "I have no idea what got into her."

"Not your fault, Richelieu," I smiled softly and waved my hand. "She's always been a little suspicious of Azur Lane's motives, and I understand evacuation is an unpopular choice. I'll straighten things out with her later on today."

Dunkerque spoke up next, her voice small, but laced with steel. "It is not 'unpopular', Commandant. It is unacceptable."

It was that tone more than anything that got my attention and dropped my heart into my stomach. "Unacceptable?" I repeated.

"We have fought and bled and nearly died for this place. We have gone to war with our own sisters for this land. It is our home, and right now, it is the only part of our country that is still ours. We will not abandon it, abandon our vows. Not now, not ever. For any reason. To suggest otherwise would be both cruel and cowardly." Those last words hit my heart like an icy spear, and I did not miss the not-so-subtle implications of what she was suggesting if I pushed the matter any further.

I tried to keep my anxiety from showing on my face as I nodded, holding my hands up to ward off any further arguments or admonishments. "My apologies. I will withdraw the option of evacuation, and I will personally apologize to Algerie after this." Dunkerque seemed to weigh my words before she nodded her assent, and I let out a quiet sigh of relief, falsely believing things were patched between us. I would be swiftly disabused of this notion later. "So we have two options, attack now or wait for reinforcements. Unless anyone else has a third option."

Everyone looked around at each other, waiting for someone to speak. In the end, it was Richelieu herself who took the initiative. She stood and boldly proclaimed, "I am tired of reacting, of defending. I say we sail forth and show the Sardegnians and their Iron Blood masters the fury and power of the Iris Orthodoxy. I say we attack!"

A chorus of cheers went up around the room, and as I looked around, I saw no sign of dissent. "Very well, then," I said, leaning forward in my chair and flicking on the holotable. "Let's get down to planning our assault…"

Several productive hours later, we emerged with a comprehensive, yet flexible plan of attack that we would be able to carry out in a few days, once the appropriate repairs and refits had been made. I kept the polite smile on my face as I watched everyone file out, my stomach roiling at the confrontation that was coming soon. As soon as the door shut behind Warspite, leaving Dunkerque and me alone, I turned to her and blurted out. "I am so sorry."

She turned and gave me a cool look, which was honestly worse than her being upset. I think I would have preferred a slap in the face and an angry retort rather than this icy treatment. After a few long moments of eyeing me up and down, she simply shrugged. "There's no need to worry about me, Amiral. The error in judgment is mine. I simply thought you were better than this."

With that quiet rebuke, more gutting than any dressing down I'd ever received, Dunkerque strode from the room, closing the door behind her. I called out after her, but it was too late. For a moment, panic gripped my chest, and I waited for the sound of crashing and sundered steel and aluminum that my rational mind knew would never come. This wasn't going to happen like last time. This isn't the same situation, I told myself. But for all my rationalizing, my fears would not be allayed. I had to go find her. I had to set things right.

I searched high and low throughout that damn HQ, but my own unfamiliarity of both the layout and where Dunkerque may hide left me easily turned around and lost on more than one occasion. In the end, I found myself outside Jean Bart's recovery room, the soft sounds of her life support catching my ear. The door was open, and I peeked inside to see Richelieu sitting by her sister's side, her head bowed in prayer. Be it divine influence, good hearing, or sheer dumb luck, without looking up, she simply said, "Come in, Commandant."

I quietly stepped inside, trying to be respectful of the Cardinal as she continued to pray. "How is she?" I asked, looking over Jean Bart's charts and monitors as if I could understand what any of them meant.

"They've done all they can," Richelieu sighed, looking up at me with mournful eyes. "It's up to her now. I pray that she has the strength to find her way back to us."

"Everyone here says she was a fighter," I said softly as I took a seat next to the Cardinal. "I hope she's fighting to come back to you. To all of us."

"She was very much a fighter," she agreed before she chuckled softly. "And stubborn as a mule. Reckless, but not without reason. I think you two would get along quite well."

I sighed, thinking about the reason I had wandered this way. "Yeah, well, she'd be the only one right about now…" I muttered glumly.

"I wouldn't worry about Algerie, she'll come around once she's had time to calm down."

I shook my head. "Not her. Dunkerque. I think she was really upset by suggesting the evacuation. After the meeting, she said she made a mistake in thinking I was 'better than this', and stormed off. Been trying to find her ever since."

"Perhaps you should give her some space," Richelieu suggested. "Let her come back to you on her own."

Again, I shook my head, more emphatically this time. "No. No. I-I can't. It's a...uh..thing...personal. It's a personal thing."

She gave me a worried look, concern in her eyes. "Are you alright, Bernard?" I think it was the first time she'd ever called me by my first name, and the weight that carried was not lost on me.

"No," I admitted, letting out a shaky breath as I tried to stay composed. "No, I'm not. I need to find Dunkerque. I need to fix this or let her go. And I can't...I can't wait for us to get that space because we may not get that chance if we wait." I looked over at the Cardinal and pleaded, "If you have any idea where she is, please...tell me."

Richelieu stared into my eyes, judging my intent, my state of mind, and probably my very soul before she sighed heavily and nodded. "I think I know where you can find her…"

Sure enough, Richelieu was exactly where she said she would be: on the roof, where we had shared our first night. Also where I was nearly blown up and sent hurling three stories to the ground. She was gazing out at the harbor, watching the sun slowly set, her arms folded across her chest. Not wanting to startle her or yell across the rooftop, I slowly made my way over to her. I'd gotten about halfway before she spoke up, just loud enough for me to hear her. "Was it Richelieu?"

I felt there was no point in lying, and Richelieu hadn't asked me to keep it in confidence. "Yes," I answered.

"I thought she would have known me better," she said, her tone still icy. "I thought she would have told you to stay away."

"In her defense, she did," I explained. "I begged her to tell me. I have to talk to you, I have to at least try to put this right, to explain-"

Dunkerque cut me off, her tone harsh. "You have nothing to say that I am the least bit interested in right now." She whirled around and strode past me, heading for the exit. It was now or never, and for the sake of my own sanity, I put it all on the table.

"Her name was Alex," I called out to her. Dunkerque stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around with a confused look.

"Quoi?"

"Her name was Alex," I repeated, slowly walking towards her. "The woman I was close to. We started out as neighbors. Adjoining apartments, actually. Neither of us could cook, so we ordered a lot of takeout, which kept getting delivered to the wrong apartment. It happened so frequently that we started just eating together. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were dating."

I kept going, the words just spilling out of me like water from a burst dam. It felt good to get it out, after keeping it pent up for so long. "Dating worked out pretty well and she even moved into my place. I'm not going to say it was a match made in heaven-we had to work on it, had our struggles and squabbles, but I truly cared for her, and she cared for me. Maybe even loved each other."

Dunkerque continued to listen, not moving, not reacting, just listening to me with a rapt expression on her face. "When we started getting serious, she started pushing for me to quit the Navy. Do something else with my life, something far away from the ocean. Something safe. I tried to tell her that wasn't a negotiable point with me. The ocean, the Navy, it's in my blood, my soul, it's part of who I am, I can't just abandon it. She kept insisting and one morning, it turned into a full-blown argument. Things got heated, and she told me I was 'an idiot who was going to wind up as a pile of hamburger' if I stayed in the service, and I told her she was a 'moron who didn't listen to what I've been telling her'. Probably would have kept at it, except she had to go to work that day, so she left, and said we'd talk about this once she was back home and we'd had time to cool off. But…" The memories flooded back in and robbed me of my voice, as much as I tried to find it again.

"That time would never come, would it, Bernard?" Dunkerque asked softly.

"No," I rasped, the despair threatening to drown me as I shook my head. "She wouldn't even make it to work. As she passed through the intersection outside our apartment, some kid goes barrelling through it and hits her. They don't know how fast, exactly, but they figured it was somewhere around a hundred miles per hour. Heard the sound from my apartment, and when I got there, both cars were little more than scrap metal pieces strewn all over the road." I stopped, taking a deep, shuddering breath as I blinked the tears from my eyes. "That last exchange we had haunts me still, and not a day goes by where I don't wish to have her back for just five minutes to say I'm sorry. I don't know if what we had was love or if we even would have stayed together, but...I do know she didn't deserve to have me calling her a moron being one of the last things she heard on this earth…"

The tears flowed down my cheeks, and I sniffled a bit as I looked over at Dunkerque. "I...I can't end things on an argument. If you want to hate me, hate me. I am truly, deeply sorry for what I did. I didn't know, I didn't understand what I was asking of you and if you want to be released from your vows and go your own way, I don't blame you. I really, really don't want to. I want to make this right, I want to be with you. But I'd rather we end it than let the last things we said or did be hurtful. I can't do that again, Dunkerque. I just can't."

"Bernard," she whispered, reaching out, her gloved fingers lightly brushing against my forearm. "Have you ever told anyone about this? Talked to anyone?"

I wiped the tears from my eyes as I shook my head. "No. At first, I was terrified, I thought people would blame me or hate me. Her parents already blamed me, really didn't approve of me, and I didn't want to give them any more fuel for that fire. And as time went on, the war raged on, I found myself running Azur Lane and I just...I never had time to talk to someone outside of the fleet. And so I buried it, used it to drive me forward."

Realization blossomed in her rosy eyes. "And now, you don't want to see it happen here with Richelieu and Jean Bart…" She sighed and shut her eyes. "I understand now why you said what you said, but I still don't know if I can forgive you. What you said-"

"Was unacceptable, I know," I finished, hanging my head in shame. "If I'd even thought you would have thought less of me for suggesting it, I wouldn't have. I am so, so sorry for letting you down."

"Why did you even think asking me to abandon my home would be alright?"

"Because it wasn't permanent!" I blurted out. "Evacuate Toulon, move Jean Bart someplace safer, regroup with Strasbourg and her escorts and then come back and smash the Sardegnians."

The answer shocked Dunkerque, who took a half-step back, drawing her hands back. "Then why didn't you say so?"

"Because Algerie cut me off the first time," I sighed, "And you wouldn't listen the second. And after you left, I just kept flashing back to that argument with Alex and it became more about finding you than it did explaining myself. I know I should have waited, should have let you calm down, but I just...I just couldn't."

"Is that what you told Richelieu to get her to tell you where I was?"

I emphatically shook my head. "No. God, no. As much of an equitable relationship we have, I'm still her commander, and I don't want to look weak in front of anyone in my command."

Dunkerque sighed softly and shook her head, taking my hands in hers, waiting until my gaze lifted to meet hers before she spoke. "True strength is not measured by our capacity to suffer in silence, but by our courage to open up to others, Bernard," she said, her tone soft and warm. She hesitated as if weighing something important. "That's why... if you ever feel like crying, I am always available for you."

My heart swelled, almost afraid to confirm what she meant. "Then…?"

She smiled warmly and nodded. "Oui. You are forgiven, all is well. Come here."

I leapt forward, taking her into my arms and holding her tightly, relief crashing over me in waves. She wrapped her arms around me in return, her hands running through my hair as she whispered reassuring words of support. I melted into that embrace, letting the tears flow until there were no more to shed. We stayed that way for a few moments more before we parted, and I tried to tell her something.

"There's something else I-"

Before I could say anything else, Dunkerque put a finger to her lips, a playful smile on her face. "Later," she whispered, moving her finger away to replace it with her own lips in a tender kiss. With such a compelling argument, I followed her lead and kissed her back, enjoying this tender moment, blissfully unaware of what was going on several floors below…

Algerie strode down the hall, trying to keep her expression light and happy. It was bad enough she was out here when she was supposed to be confined to quarters. She placed her hand on the door to the radio room and took a deep breath. If anyone saw her now…

"Algerie?" Merde.

She turned around to find Richelieu standing behind her, a stack of papers in her arms, and a concerned look on her face.

"I thought you were confined to quarters," the Cardinal stated, and Algerie's heart raced as she quickly spun a story.

"He saw me earlier today and we got everything cleared up," she lied, hoping she sounded believable.

For a second, Richelieu frowned and her heart sank, thinking her cover was blown. "Odd. He didn't mention it to me when we ran into each other an hour ago...but he did look preoccupied." The blonde shrugged and shook her head, "He probably just forgot to mention it. In any case, I'm glad the two of you patched things up."

Algerie smiled broadly and let out a huge internal sigh of relief. "So am I. I should have heard him out instead of going off like that. But, what's done is done and it won't happen again."

"Good, good." Richelieu finally noticed Algerie's hand on the radio room doorknob and raised an eyebrow.

The white-haired cruiser simply smiled and explained, "The Amiral asked me to change a few of our older codes in case the Sardegnians had broken them as a sort of penance for my rudeness earlier."

"Ah," the Cardinal said, "In any case, I've got to drop these reports off to the Commandant's office. I'll see you in the morning. Good night, Algerie."

"Good night, Your Grace!" Algerie smiled and gave a little wave before she ducked inside the radio room, shutting the door behind her. She quickly locked it and let out a little sigh of relief, she wasn't used to this sort of deception, and while she was certainly uneasy about lying to Richelieu, it was all for a good cause.

Wasting no more time, she sat in front of a communication terminal and dialed in an old frequency she'd managed to get from her time with the Iron Blood. Once she was sure she was broadcasting on the correct frequency, she thumbed the microphone and spoke into it.

"To the Sardegnian High Command, this is Algerie of the Vichya Dominion. I wish to negotiate the terms of our surrender and the capture of Admiral Bernard Holland of Azur Lane…"

A/N- Plot twist! And a cliffhanger! Oh, boy! Trying quite a few new things during this run, hopefully, this pays off. Guess we'll have to wait and see how this works out for our brave hero(and heroines). Until next time, fair winds and following seas!