Cleveland followed Enterprise down the staircase, clutching tightly onto the limp body of her sister. The KAN-SEN descended to Level 5-Payload Maintenance quietly, in single file, like a funeral procession. No one said anything as they moved slowly, quietly.

Payload Maintenance was a thick door, restrained by four horizontal bolts locking from top to bottom. Zuikaku's sword cleaved through the bolts and the door was blasted off its hinges by Akagi. Behind it was a corridor, several metres long, and another door, which was taken care of in a similar fashion: sliced to ribbons by Zuikaku's honed blade.

Behind the doors lay a large, circular room, roughly five metres tall illuminated by floodlights set at intervals into the corners where the walls met the ceiling. The ceiling itself was grey and nondescript, the only interesting feature being several grooves that radiated outwards from the centre to touch the walls. It appeared that this room was what at least some of the circular floors had revolved around. Set into the far end of the room, slightly to the left of the exact centre, was a thick, armored door labeled "SAMAEL".

It was a name that Cleveland had once heard Tennessee tell her about, the large battleship reading from her Bible. Samael, the ruler of the fifth heaven. The angel of death.

In the centre of the room stood a tall, black, vaguely bullet-shaped, about two metres in height and resting with its thin point touching the ground. Ribbed with yellow accents, it bristled with spines that looked like they had been ripped from the bodies of deep-sea creatures. It was connected to the walls by countless tubes and wires. The entire make of it looked disgustingly biological.

"It looks like a fat, alien dive bomber bomb."

"That's exactly what it is."

All eyes fell to Enterprise, who was staring intently at the thing. "It looks exactly like the bombs we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, except those didn't have the… spines, and things."

Zuikaku, Akagi and Kaga visibly stiffened at the mention of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cleveland winced. Enterprise had never been particularly… tactful.

"Can we hurry? We need to get Independence to a hospital." Cleveland dandled her sister up and down in her arms, nestling her face in Independence's brown hair.

Now it was Enterprise's turn to stiffen, her violet pupils filling with sadness and… something else. "Cleveland… she's-" She stopped mid-sentence.

"She's what?"

The carrier ace shook her head. "Nothing." She continued to observe the strange thing.

"What is it?" Denver asked.

"A… bomb of some sort. Possibly the type that was tested on the girls here."

Nagato seemed to react to being in the same room of the structure, shrinking away and grabbing Kaga's neck tightly. The larger ship stroked the fox's neck gently.

"It looks like it was made by the Sirens."

"No. This is of human make." Enterprise pointed at the barely-visible screws and welding points, which weren't found on Siren artifacts. "They took the Siren's technology. Twisted it to suit humankind's needs."

Akagi chuckled mirthlessly. "The Sirens, no longer, kill us, so we do, it for them."

That earned a bleak smile from Enterprise.

"Humans, KAN-SEN, we're all not very smart, huh?"

Enterprise straightened her coat. "Yeah. But we're better than the Sirens."

"Because we can think, and feel, and fix our mistakes, and each other's. Akagi, if you will."

Kaga gently passed Nagato to Zuikaku.

"Please hurry… Independence is-"

"Stop."

"Hunh?"

Enterprise was staring at Cleveland now, her eyes filled with tears. "Please, Cleveland. Just stop. Please-stop."

"Enterprise, what are you talking about-I don't understand-"

"SHE'S DEAD, CLEVE!"

"Eh…?"

Cleveland felt a strange, jarring sensation inside her mind, as if she was trying to push two cogs that wouldn't fit together.

She laughed nervously.

"Enterprise, heh… that isn't funny, you know, like I said, you needa be more… tactful-"

"THERE'S NOTHING TO BE TACTFUL ABOUT!" Enterprise screamed, her voice breaking. "SHE'S DEAD! DEAD! SHE'S FUCKING DEAD! SO STOP IT! Please..."

Three things happened after that, in a very short time.

First, Independence's body disintegrated into a shower of blue light, leaving only the dried blood on Cleveland's body. As her cube fell to the ground, bouncing on the steel floor with dull, metallic thunks, flames of red and blue erupted from Akagi's and Kaga's palms, washing over the bomb.

Then something flew through the flames, grabbing Kaga and tossing her into the air like a doll. The kitsune hit the ceiling with a sickening crack.

"Kaga!"

Akagi turned and ran to her sister, her crimson flames vanishing and revealing the bomb, looking absolutely no worse for where despite being cooked for several seconds by flames rivaling the Sun in temperature.

Independence-what-

The door that had been labeled "SAMAEL" was open, revealing a small room on the far end of the larger chamber. The inside of the room was coated from top to bottom with brutal, deep scratches.

A low sound emanated from the corner of the chamber. A strange mix of a growl and a whimper, it got louder as whatever had thrown one of the Sakura's finest soldiers stalked out of the shadows. Six orange eyes gleamed in the darkness as four arms flexed and writhed, the wretched thing hunching over like a starving ghoul prowling a graveyard.

Even in the gloom, it was easy to discern the dirty white tresses matted about the creature's face. A single streak of red ran down its hair like a trail of blood, waving about wispily as it cocked its head to the side, slowly, menacingly. The horrific damage sustained to its body by walking through the foxes' flames was apparent on its body, although the burnt flesh, charred down to the yellow bone in some areas, knitted together and healed in front of Cleveland's eyes, far faster than anything she had seen before, and it seemed to stare intelligently, if not savagely, at the KAN-SEN.

"Hungrig... brauche... Essen..."

Zuikaku gasped.

"Eugen?"