The return back to headquarters was silent but swift. No one planned on stopping anywhere else to catch their breath. At the head, leading this retreat was Alec in his ship. He could feel hundreds of eyes on him, watching his every move.

Then, he had to remind himself that it was not him they were watching, it was James.

After the two groups that brought him here left, Bearn and Marblehead came to help. Bearn closed the wounds while Marblehead used some specialized medicine meant to accelerate the healing process. At first glance, the pair almost immediately noticed how the bones on his left side were practically gone and that medicine was meant to repair it.

Alec was taken back and wondered if such a thing as completely healing broken bones was possible. Then again, he had bigger fish to fry right now.

"Is there anyone following us?" he asked and the reply came nearly immediately.

"Nothing at all," said Saint Louis "they dropped off after thirty minutes and we've mostly been alone now."

"How is he?" asked Roon.

"Stabilized and breathing," he replied "beyond that I can't say. I'm not a medical expert."

While the girls felt that was enough, Alec knew better than that. He had to lie to them in an effort to keep their hopes up. From what he saw, James lost a lot of blood on the way here and he couldn't imagine the internal injuries.

"What about Akagi? Is she doing okay?"

"She's back to herself but has no memory of what happened when she changed," replied Kaga.

Now Alec saw Alexis climb onto the ship and come to him. She saw the complex look on his face and knew better than to ask what she was really thinking.

"Do you want me to take over from you?" she asked "I can help while you…"

"No," he said, sternly "I should at least do this. After all, they're trusting me with their leader."

"Everyone's so quiet all of a sudden," she said "its worrying how a single loss can affect the fleet's morale this badly."

"It isn't the loss that's bothering them," said Alec "I'm sure that's the last thing any of them are concerned about. I'm positive that even girls like Ranger, Illustrious and the others that got injured are more concerned about James than themselves."

"Can you do me a favor and check up on him please?" he asked, without turning back to her.

Alexis nodded and went below the deck. She saw the room James was in and saw him lying there, barely making a sound. She had to look closely to see if he was breathing and worried was careful not to disturb him.

In some ways, Alexis saw the terrible irony of this moment. In all the times she had encountered him, the leader of the Azur Sky was a strong, capable, and determined individual. Yet now, here he was, looking like he was fighting to survive.

'I wish there was something I could do to help you,' she thought and unconsciously put her hand on his forehead. She got no response and went back up.

Alec, still focused on steering the ship heard Alexis come up and asked "any updates?"

"He's breathing and doesn't seem to have a temperature," she replied "plus I didn't see any bleeding…"

He noticed her voice trail off but said nothing. Alec was internally kicking himself for not seeing it sooner. He may not have known exactly what she planned but he should have known she was up to something. After all, a technologically superior race like the Sirens must have plenty of cards or tricks to play. His role as fleet strategist was to see it and counter that.

The fact that he did is the reason why the march back home was deathly silent.

It took them two days of continuous travel to reach the island. When they did, Belfast was onboard Alec's ship first. She said nothing and darted down the deck, retrieved James and took him away. Alec watched as the girls all caught a glimpse of the maid carrying her Master to the hospital.

Then, they heard a sharp cry pierce the air.

Now, everyone saw a shocked and terrified Unicorn standing in-front of Belfast.

"Unicorn," said Belfast, as the little girl's eyes remained fixed on the body she carried.

"This can't be happening," she said, clutching her head and trying not to shake "this can't be real. Big bro isn't, he…"

"Come little one," said Illustrious, putting an arm around her shoulder and managing to stop her shaking "we have to let them go."

Alec watched as Illustrious took Unicorn away, back to where the other kids were standing. Even from a distance, he could see the expressions of fear and worry on all of them. It was only after Belfast went inside the hospital did those children finally let out their emotions.

As if perfectly capturing the trauma everyone felt, the small group of Unicorn, Eldridge, Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Fumizuki, Uzuki, Nagatsuki, Minazuki, Mikazuki, Fletcher, Aulick, Foote, Spence, Thatcher, Charles Ausburne, Z20, and Z21 sobbed uncontrollably.

The girls continued for about seven minutes till one-by-one they stopped. Now Yorktown and Friedrich came to help the kids by wiping their tears and offering them a few comforting words. Their words, while enough to placate the kids did little to assuage the doubts the rest of the island had.

'At least we can't go lower than this,' thought Alec and fate took him up on that challenge. He heard the sound of a fist crashing into something or someone and saw Enterprise with her right hand stretch out and Akagi reeling back in surprise.

"You promised," said Enterprise, not at all containing her anger "you looked me in the eye and promised me that nothing like this would ever happen to him again."

"Enterprise, be reasonable here," said Kaga "Omega pulled a trump card that none of us were expecting."

"Oh cry me a god damned river," came another voice. Now, everyone turned and saw Belfast standing out of the hospital and marching towards Akagi.

"I saw the things that were chasing you," she said, staring daggers at Kaga "are you telling me that you didn't do anything because Omega built a few robots that look like the Azur Lane?"

At this, everyone in the crowd started murmuring to themselves.

"They didn't just look like them," countered Akagi "they moved and acted like them too. None of us, none of us could have predicted that."

"It doesn't matter if you could or couldn't," interjected Enterprise "in that moment, James' life, the Commander's life was in danger. What did you do when you saw that was the case?"

None of the girls answered. Their answer came when Saint Louis noticed something and spoke her thoughts

"Why is it that my liege is the only one covered in blood while there is not a scratch on you?"

Tirpitz then locked eyes with Friedrich, who quickly covered her mouth to hide her expression. Yet, she could still hear what her mother said

"You, did nothing?"

"Oy Akagi," said Saint Louis, now pointing her spear at Akagi's cheek "tell me you didn't do what the others did. Tell me that you of all people did not simply stand by and watch your husband get cut down like some dog."

"Saint Louis…" said Richelieu trying to reason with her but the leader of the PR class gave her a cold glare.

"Shut up," she said, doing everything she can to contain her anger.

"Well out with it Akagi," said Enterprise "did you just stand completely still while he faced those monsters all on his own?"

She said nothing, however that in itself is was an answer.

"You don't understand Enterprise," said Takao "that thing didn't just look like Atago, it fought like her, used the same movements as her. It was like… it was like Atago was alive once again only now she sided with Omega."

"Takao," said Belfast now, shifting from Akagi to her "they are not your sister. If those things were, they wouldn't have attacked you. How is it that none of you could see that except for My Master?"

"The way I see it," said Saint Louis "you failed your duty to protect the Commander. And for that…"

"That's enough," shouted Alec now banging together a pot and ladle to stop the conversation.

"Everyone is angry and everyone is scared," he began "that's all well and good but we can't spend time here fighting against one another, not when there's trouble coming."

"Trouble?" asked Saint Louis.

"Omega won," he said, "this is the first time since the Azur Sky entered the war that Omega won. She's not going to let this be and take it in stride."

"As we speak, she is mustering up every force she has with the sole intent of wiping us off the map once and for all. So you can all sit here and point the finger or we can focus instead on stopping that monster."

For a moment there was silence. A thick and nerve-wracking silence filled the island as literally every girl in the fleet stared at him. The last time Alec felt this much attention was when he survived that incident where he and his school mates were out in the wilderness.

"He's right you know," said Prince of Wales "we have to shore up the defenses."

"Very well then," said Saint Louis lowering her spear "the PR class will start by doing routine patrols along our borders."

"As for the rest," said Alec "time is of the essence."

0000000000000000000000000

The group of Alec, Alexis, Queen Elziabeth, Akagi, Kaga, Takao, Tirpitz, Rossiya, and Richelieu stood outside the waiting room, no one saying a word. There was an uneasy silence and tension that filled the room as they all waited.

Alec turned up and saw a wall clock indicating the current time as three forty-five. The seconds seemingly moved at a snail's pace.

Then, they saw the door open and out came a weary Vestal. She staggered a little and Alexis immediately came to help her.

"Thanks sweetie," she said and returned to standing on her own. She took a moment and looked at them, knowing what they were all thinking.

"You want the bad news or the good news?" she asked, turning to Akagi.

Akagi however, could not answer. She seemed torn between which she wanted to hear first. Hear the bad might drown out the good and hearing the good may not be enough compared to the bad.

"The bad news first," said Kaga, answering for her.

"For starters, he's lost half his blood on the way here despite the work that Bearn and Marblehead did," said Vestal.

"Damn it," said Akagi.

As if picking up on what she was thinking, Vestal said "if it weren't for them, we'd be burying him right now so count your blessings."

"More than half the ribs on his left side are shattered," she continued "the medicine our girls use has an enhanced effect on humans so I used that to reduce the bleeding and stimulate bone recovery. I've also put him on several pills that'll help speed up the recovery process."

"The big problem though is that I can't tell for certain when he'll wake up," she added, lowering her head "all we can do right now is keep an eye on him and nothing more."

The room once again fell silent.

"What's the good news?" asked Alec.

"He's alive," said Vestal "and let me be honest, it's nothing short of amazing that he's alive after what happened."

"Atago is the greatest sword wielder in our world and Jean Bart's kicks could turn a hill into a valley," she continued "by all accounts, he shouldn't be alive after facing that force yet he is."

"I know you all want to, but right now, I'm only letting two of you enter."

Almost instantly, Akagi, Kaga and Alec stepped forward before even realizing what they did. The trio looked at each other in surprise then Alec took a step back.

"Sorry," he said, "it should be you."

The two went inside and saw him lying quietly on the bed. There were a myriad of machines hooked up to him and some of them gave off a regular beep or hum for reasons that only Vestal knew.

Akagi stroked some of the hair from his forehead and saw he was less pale than before. Kaga tilted her head till it was in line with the bed just to confirm he was breathing regularly. Relieved when she confirmed that, she returned to her upright position.

Akagi saw his one open hand and gently reached out and held it. There was so much she wanted to say. Starting of course with an apology for not acting soon, sorry for not seeing the danger that he did, sorry for going insane, and sorry for not helping at all.

Yet, something happened that made all the pain in her chest vanish. She could feel something in her hand. To her astonishment, she looked at and saw the fingers slowly closing in on her own.

"Kaga…" she said, turning to her sister to confirm that she was not seeing things. When her sister nodded in agreement, she looked back to him and felt a new emotion in her.

As much as she did not want to let go, Akagi knew she had to. After all, if he were fighting then she had no excuse.

With that in mind, the sisters left the room.

Alec, meanwhile left after the girls went in and met up with Curtis. While the fleet was busy preparing, the pair had a very difficult discussion and they both reached the same conclusion.

When he returned to the hospital, he found that none of the faction heads were around. He left the hospital and saw that they were headed to the cafeteria where some of the girls took it upon themselves to oversee operations and handle things.

Enterprise was among the girls in the lead and immediately stopped what she was doing when she saw Akagi approach.

"What do you want?" she asked, making no attempt at hiding her disdain.

"Be mad at me, you have every right to be," said Akagi as others listened in "but right now, we need unity not division. We need to put this problem on the back burner now."

Enterprise was about to say something when Akagi held out a hand to stop her.

"When it's done, I will gladly submit myself to the necessary punishment," she added and surprised everyone."

"Same here," said Tirpitz, stepping forward, followed by Queen Elizabeth, Rossiya, Takao and Richelieu.

"Grab a ladle and start helping then," said Enterprise and the girls spread out.

With everyone working together now, Alec divided the fleet into several shifts to maximize efficiency. He waited for the leaders to finish their shifts and outlined the plan.

"Our first line will consist of Curtis' troops. They'll be the firing line meant to shoot down the Ships and Hybrids to prevent landfall," he began "in the meantime, the carrier and Battleship division will provide long range support but will not directly engage the enemy."

"We estimate it will take Omega one hour or less to break through the front line," he said and everyone's expressions turned grave. The only one that remained the same was Curtis.

"When that happens, the destroyer and cruiser division is to engage in close combat," he continued "we expect the enemy will try to use a wedge formation to create small openings in the front line. When you see those openings, you charge through and push the enemy back."

"Meanwhile Curtis' reserve troops will attack the enemy from the left and right flanks. The idea is that we're to have them fully focused on the front line attackers that they don't see the others till it is too late."

"With regards to the Antiochs," said Alec "based on initial reports, I believe that the PR class are the only ones capable of fighting the six of them."

This move was based on how the girls were unaffected seeing Hood and how Saint Louis attacked Atago, despite the latter being the greatest sword user in the fleet.

"The Royal Maids and the Big Three are free to engage with enemy forces as and when they see fit. Their goal is to hammer the enemy ranks and make it nearly impossible to organize things."

"Any questions?" he asked and almost immediately, Saint Louis raised her hand up.

"This plan will be placing our human forces directly in Omega's path," she began "you understand what that means Alec?"

"We're prepared to make the necessary sacrifices when it comes to Ma'am," said Curtis, stepping forward "in truth, many of us are only alive thanks to the Azur Sky and it's high time we pull our weight in this war."

"This is not about balancing whatever debt you may think you owe us," said Saint Louis "the Azur Sky did not come all this way just to have humanity owe us one."

"Forgive my words ma'am," said Curtis, lowering his head "all I'm saying is that time and again, it's been the Azur Sky that's been pushing the enemy back while we sit on our asses doing nothing. We also want to fight back and believe this is the time to do it."

"You seem to be in a rush to meet your end Curtis," commented Tirpitz "you understand that by doing this, you'll be losing a lot of your troops."

"That is the case with any war Ma'am," he said, now turning to her "truth is, humans aren't like you. You girls can walk away from bullets and shells like its nothing. And, to be honest, I'm scared as is everyone else in under my leadership. A lot of us aren't coming back after this and that's a fact."

"But, when you're faced with this kind of enemy, you only have two choices: fight or run. I've run away long enough. A lot of us have. We're done running."

"Any more questions?" asked Alec and was met with silence.

"Good then, let's go to war."