Pre A/N: Welcome all to my first official spin-off of The Fall of Pravda series, War Stories. This one is going to be a little different, in that each chapter is its own contained story. Sort of like the campaign for Battlefield 1

Strap in!

Operation Stormbreaker

Rain pelted the mud, thunder rumbled the air, and lightning cracked through the darkened skies over Saunders University. Four long days of war had devastated the ship-borne city, but through attrition, the fight seemed to nearly be over.

Just one more obstacle.

An artillery barrage had decimated a Pravda attack, and the arrival of more Shermans from the shattered Sensha-do team provided an ample opportunity for one final offensive. One to end the battle for good.

First Lieutenant Matsumoto Riko, better known as Erwin, de-facto leader of the First Ooarai Rangers in Commander Nishizumi's absence, stepped away from Saunders Shooting Team Captain Francesca. Erwin dodged and weaved her way between the Student Soldiers, heading towards one of the many step ladders leading up to the cratered No-Man's-Land between the Pravda and Saunders trench lines. She was prepared. She was driven. And, since for all she knew, all of her friends were dead, she had little left to lose.

"We're on a tightrope, girls!" Erwin shouted over the wind and gunfire, catching the girls' attention. "Pravda outnumbers us! They've bloodied our noses! But their best are dead!" Riko pointed at a few of the students around her. "And they lack your Saunders zeal!" She stepped up to the very top of the ladder, whistle in one hand, Thompson in the other. She took a deep breath. "Let's finish this rag-tag army off, and end this war! Make ready!"

As the order crossed her lips, Francesca sharply blew into her whistle, climbing up over the parapet. Her instrument was followed by more from elsewhere on the line, and Matsumoto's came last.

The signals were nearly drowned out by a deafening war cry from the surviving members of First Platoon, who scrambled over the trench wall and charged headlong at the Pravda line.

'Dishka' 1938's and DP 27 machine guns unleashed a hellstorm of lead as the first heads popped up over the horizon, leading to dozens of Saunders girls being cut down. The Lieutenant knew that somewhere, Reizei and Takebe were returning fire with their single M1919, but it clearly did little to distract the Pravda gunners. Erwin glanced back as bullets whistled past her ears, and spotted a girl right behind her being sawed in half by the heavy machine guns. Another to the left had her leg sliced cleanly off, her blood-curdling wail cut short by her head following suit. More soldiers of First took their places, supplemented by actual soldiers from the JGSDF, and Erwin continued. Somewhere up ahead, someone began ringing an alarm bell, which let out rapid dull clanging sounds to alert their fellows of a coming attack.

"Forward!" She screamed at the girls behind her, their boots tramping through puddles of blackened water. "Angriff! Make these bastards pay!"

(No Man's Land Combat | Battlefield 1 Background Ambience)

About one hundred yards of craters, destroyed vehicles, mangled bodies and pits of mud later, Riko was closing in on an apparent weakpoint in the Pravda line. A single machine gun was to her right, sweeping back and forth, with only a string of barbed wire and wooden hedgehogs straight ahead. Erwin turned around and blew her whistle again, attracting her Comrades' attention, but she was cut short by a mortar explosion tossing her through the air and onto her back.

"...Ow…" Was the only thought in her foggy mind.

Heart thudding in her ears, head spinning, punch-drunk from the blast, Erwin looked up at her offensive line.

Saunders attackers were being cut down by the handful, despite their best attempts at ducking and dodging. Some were thrown out of their boots from mortar shells or artillery rockets, others were shot to pieces by machine guns. One man from the SDF running up to Erwin had his face blasted open by a sniper's bullet. More further back were lying lifelessly in countless positions, propped against hedgehogs or dangling from razor wire. A Sherman in the background shrugged off dozens of glancing blows, raining sparks and fragments everywhere. The green beast returned the favor, firing a shot at a pillbox somewhere on the line. Before the crew could revel in their victory, a Pravda shell struck home, enveloping the tank in a ball of flame, and helping it live up to the nickname 'Tommie Cooker'.

Something caught Matsumoto's attention and she looked to the right. A girl from Saunders, with a Corporal stripe on her shoulder, grabbed the Lieutenant by her pack strap and pulled her to her feet. Shaken from her daze, Erwin plucked her weapon from the puddle she'd landed in and stumbled after the Corporal, finding five more young girls ducking beneath a Shingle. One, a Private, was using a pair of cutters to snip through the barbed wire, ducking every now and then when Pravda bullets cracked overhead.

"Howdy, Lieutenant!" One soldier called out. "You're just in time!"

The last wire cut, the handful of girls scrambled into the trench. Erwin came last, sliding down the muddy incline.

"Whose in charge here?" She asked, her ears still ringing.

"You are, Ma'am." The Corporal replied, revealing herself to be the next highest rank in the group.

"Okay, then." Erwin shook her head and fixed her helmet. "You're going to take these three…" She gestured to some of the gathering, not knowing anyone's names. "...and silence those mortars. They sound like eighty two's, or maybe thirty eight's." Matsumoto guessed at the model numbers, knowing of them only through boredom-driven research in her spare time at school. "If you find these Katyushas," She pointed at the sky, where a flight of rockets screeched through the clouds. "Hit them, too. If it shoots, shut it down." A green box caught the Lieutenant's eye and she spotted a field radio on one girl's shoulder. "Inform Major Evelyn of the successful breach."

"Yes, Ma'am!" The Corporal nodded astutely and urged her three friends to follow her.

"You two… what are your names?"

"Crystal Akina. Private." One said, armed with a BAR. "Support gunner."

"Rachael Ashihe. Private First Class." Piped the other, toting an M1 Carbine. "Combat engineer."

"Right then. You're with me. We're going after the gunners."

"Hai, hai!" The girls sounded off in unison.

The battle still raged as Erwin led her new subordinates through the surprisingly deep, though unpopulated trench line. The Saunders counterattack had obviously stagnated, with the already exhausted and ragged First Platoon being slaughtered en masse. Those lucky enough to find some form of cover used it, pushing themselves into the rain and blood soaked ground and clutching their helmets. If the momentum was to be saved, they needed to act fast.

Erwin took the lead, following the rhythmic thudding of the machine gun she had spotted. Encountering no resistance on the way, she gestured to her compatriots to stop when they heard annoyed shouting in Russian.

"Chertova shtuka snova zastryala!" One called out when the shooting stopped.

"Ochistit'!" Another replied angrily.

"Nastya, prinesti nam bol'she patronov!"

Riko ducked into an alcove as one of the gun crew stood up and jogged towards them, slipping a few times on the wet duck boards. She nodded at Rachael from across the trench, dragging her thumb across her neck. The Private nodded in reply, setting her Carbine aside and drawing her knife. The Pravda girl unwittingly walked right up to Rachael's spot, stumbling to a stop when she noticed her.

"Eh?"

Ashihe grabbed the girl by her blouse sleeve, pulling her around and slamming her face-first into the trench wall. Dazed, the ammo carrier had no chance to stop the bayonet that skewered her through the throat. After a moment of struggling, Rachael pushed her away, and the girl fell lifelessly to the ground. The PFC wiped her knife on her jacket sleeve, making an 'X' with the blood, before stowing the blade and retrieving her gun. Erwin had already moved ahead with Akina, finding two more girls fiddling with a smoking and clearly jammed DS-39 machine gun. One looked up at the approaching footsteps, jumping in surprise to find an American weapon aimed at her.

"Oi! Souka!" She cried, scrambling for a weapon of her own. Both girls did so in vain, as Erwin and Crystal emptied their magazines into the gun pit.

"Well, that's one gone." The Private said with a wry grin. She pulled the magazine out of her rifle, trading it for a fresh one after tapping it against her helmet. Matsumoto did the same with her M1A1, letting some excess muddy water trickle out of the chamber. Akina stepped over the Pravda gunners and looked out at the battlefield, waiting for a lull in the gunfire to sharply whistle at her Comrades. She caught the attention of a few, and more Saunders attackers soon joined the Trench Raiders. Erwin dished out more orders. Hold this spot, search that area for usable intel, clear those dugouts. As the girls headed off to their tasks, Erwin took charge of her tiny team again, leading the pair of Privates through the trench line.

Crystal took point, her Browning at the hip. A shot whistled past as she crossed an intersection, narrowly missing her head. Akina ducked around the opposite corner, briefly inspecting the back of her neck for damage. Above her was a fortified gun nest, with a birds eye view of the battlefield.

"We'll cover you, El Tee!" She called out. "Find a way around them!" The Private shouldered her BAR in her off hand and opened up on her assailant. Erwin scrambled through the open spot and jogged forward, glancing back to see Rachael firing and Akina looking through her web belt for a grenade. The young Lieutenant continued, in search of another message trench that linked to the reserve. She eventually found one, which was well populated.

"Sondersi!" Someone cried out as Erwin opened up. A few shot back, their bullets flying wide. The .45ACP of Riko's gun made short work of the invaders, allowing her to continue. Rounding the next corner, the Tanker found herself in the perfect spot for a grenade throw. The device detonated between a pair of Pravda girls, sending them flying. She then stepped through the door of a small house that was being used as a gun nest, swiftly dealing with the gunners inside. When Erwin emerged, she found Rachael in the main trench.

Kneeling over Crystal.

The Gunner had been hit at some point during the engagement, and was quite clearly dead. Rachael sat next to her for a time, having attempted to help, if the blood all over her hands was any indication.

"What happened?" Erwin asked.

"One of the Pravda sub gunners." Rachael growled through her tears. "They got a lucky shot." The Lieutenant sadly looked down at the pair for a time.

"If I'd just been a little faster. Like with getting Caesar and Oryou to the clinic…"

Erwin shook the thoughts out of her head. There were more important matters at hand. She offered to help Ashihe to her feet. "I'm sorry. But we have to go."

The Engineer rose up, checking the chamber of her gun. She eyed her superior with gritted teeth.

"Absolutely."

The pair continued, encountering little resistance, and clearing two more machine gun emplacements. Somehow, however, this appeared to do little to lighten the concentration of gunfire. Before the girls could question it, movement caught Erwin's eye, and she raised her weapon. On a hunch, she called out a challenge phrase.

"Icepick!"

"Phoenix!" A girl answered, hand raised. Riko waved her over. "Lieutenant!" She was revealed to be one of the Privates from earlier, the one carrying the radio. "We cleared three mortar crews. They were eighty two's, like you said. W-w-we also found a Katyusha launcher, but we ran into trouble there."

"Where's the rest of your team?"

"Bonnie got shot during a dugout raid. Charlotte and Corporal Sapphire both got hit falling back from the launcher. She might be alive, but for all I know, I'm… I'm the last one." Annmarie looked around. "Where's Chrissy?"

Rachael quietly shook her head.

"...damn."

"Where's the launcher?" Erwin asked, getting the younger girls back on track.

"This way." Private Annmarie raised her Grease Gun. "Pravda's dug in tight around it. We couldn't get close enough."

"I don't hear any rockets, so they must be reloading." Matsumoto observed. "That'll take some time. Let's hit them before they fire again."

The Privates nodded in unison, with Rachael mentioning a set of satchel charges in her possession.

"Did you see where this heavy fire is coming from?" Erwin gestured to the bullets cracking and whistling overhead.

"No, Ma'am. It seems like it's coming from everywhere." The Lieutenant shook her head. Thanks to the trench walls and shells of buildings, she couldn't make out where the gunfire was coming from, which would be easy from inside her Tank Destroyer at home.

Reaching the rear of the trench line and entering what was left of an urban area, Annmarie pointed at a fast food restaurant.

(Call of Duty 2 Ambience - Newvillers Light Rain)

"There. The Burger Town. The launcher battery is behind it. There's two trucks, I think."

"Where are Char and Sapphire?" Rachael hissed.

"Sapphire went down here somewhere. It was when we were running away. Charlotte is inside the burger place."

"There!"

Erwin and Rachael squinted through the rain and spotted a girl sitting behind an overturned car, nursing a wound to her shoulder.

"Icepick!" Erwin called out. The Corporal's head perked up and she looked around, eventually spotting Rachael's waving hand. She waved back excitedly.

"Phoeni-!" Sapphire was cut off by gunfire from the left. Several bullets from a PPs 43 ripped through the girl and silenced her. Stunned, nobody stopped Annmarie from running forward and returning fire, drawing the attention of the squad that had chased her friends away. Rachael joined her after a few beats, sidehopping towards her wounded friend. By the time Erwin rounded the corner, the Pravda squad were dead, as was Sapphire.

"These rotten cocksuckers." Annmarie snarled. "We're gonna make 'em pay."

"Fuckin' A." Rachael growled back, reloading her gun. "Right behind you."

The Radio Operator took the lead, taking up a jog towards the rocket battery. She was happy to find that Erwin was correct. The crews of the two trucks, with the help of some soldiers, were busy loading fresh rockets onto the tracks. The trio ducked behind a decorative hedge as a Pravda girl approached from the restaurant's drive-thru lane, having clearly heard the gunfire.

"Byt' nacheku!" She called to her Comrades. "Kto-to zdes'." Erwin retrieved her combat knife, before pouncing on the girl. In one motion, she knocked her weapon away, covered her mouth and stabbed her through the chest. The soldier quietly squealed in surprise, struggling against the attack, but her strength quickly waned and she fell to the wet pavement.

"Look out, Lieutenant!" One of the girls called out.

"Trevoga! Sonders atakuet!" A Pravda officer spun around. "Vystrel! Vystre-ACK!" Annmarie cut her down with a short burst.

"They're going to fire!" Erwin said, lifting her Thompson. "Let's go!"

Two Pravda girls, carrying an M-13 rocket, halted in their tracks and looked up. When they saw the advancing Saunders soldiers, they dropped the warhead and scrambled to the fully loaded BM-8 truck. Erwin charged the position, blasting one of the girls. The other reached the truck, but Rachael cracked her in the face with her rifle butt before she could fire the launcher. Erwin and Annmarie made short work of the truck crews, being only equipped with sidearms. Having silenced the battery, Riko looked around.

"Güt arbeit. Nice work, girls." She said, taking a breath. "Rachael, set your charges." Erwin gestured to Annmarie's radio as Rachael got to work. "Slugger, this is Queen 1. We've broken through the enemy line and disabled multiple machine gun and mortar emplacements. I'm about to destroy a battery of artillery rockets. Over."

"Roger, Queen. Good work. A wave of reinforcements is on their way."

As the Major spoke, Erwin felt a subtle rumbling under her boots. She eyed one of the launcher trucks and spotted a Pravda hammer and sickle charm hanging from the mirror.

The charm itself was jingling like a leaf on a tree.

"Hey… do you feel that?" Annmarie asked around the same time.

"Yes." Erwin said hesitantly. "Hurry up, Private!" She called out to Rachael.

"Almost done… annnnnnd… we're hot!" She announced, priming her bombs. "Let's skedaddle."

"Jesus H. Fuck!" Annmarie cried, pointing down the street. "Pravda tanks!"

"Fall back!" Erwin barked. "Zurück!" The three girls scrambled back towards the trenches. Out of sight of the tanks, the Lieutenant eyed Rachael. "Where's the explosion?"

The Engineer looked to her watch, then held up three fingers. She counted down to two, then one, then balled her fist and pulled it down. When her arm stopped, a bone-rattling blast shook the neighborhood. "There it is." She said with a grin.

Before the raiders could enjoy their success, a T-34/85 appeared on the road, aiming at them with its cannon.

"Aw, shit."

Mud splashed as the girls ran, and a DShK opened fire, cutting the Engineer down. She fell lifelessly, face first into a puddle.

"Rachael!" Annmarie cried, before being hit herself. A stray 12.7 bullet struck her in the thigh, making her collapse. Erwin, at her side, pulled the Private around the corner of a nearby building. She felt helpless as her team was cut from eight to just herself. Acting on instinct, she keyed her radio.

"Slugger, Queen 1! Objective complete! Taking heavy fire from advancing armor! Requesting airstrike!"

"Ugh… ow… sunova…bitch." Annmarie growled through her teeth.

"Copy that, Queen. I have Acrobat, flight of five SBD Dauntless dive bombers in the air. I'll push them to your location. ETA thirty seconds."

"Queen, this is Acrobat. Rolling through IP Cadillac. Heading 160. Say your target?"

"Multiple Pravda tanks have us pinned. We can't move! Need immediate airstrike! Grid 7 Delta, Oscar 5 2!"

"Roger, Queen. Ah… visibility is poor. Can you mark the target?"

"I can." Annmarie said. Erwin looked up to find the wounded girl holding a smoke grenade. The pin was pulled, and she was ready to throw it. "It's red."

"Affirmative, Acrobat. Marking target with red smoke!" As she spoke, Annmarie allowed the spoon to flick away, but she still tightly gripped the grenade. Even as smoke began spewing out of it. "What are you doing, Private?"

"I can't throw it far enough from here." She growled, forcing herself to stand. "I'll mark the tanks, and you run."

Realization struck Matsumoto and she shook her head vigorously. "No! No, you can't! Give it to me! I'll throw it!"

"Those guns'll cut you to bits, Ma'am." Annmarie declared. "The Rangers need you. I'm a dime a dozen." The Private dropped her gun. "See you on the other side, Lieutenant. Tell the Aces to make it count."

Annmarie stepped away before Erwin could stop her. The girl ran, or hobbled, screaming with fury towards the tanks.

"Marie! No!"

As expected, the machine gunner fired again, slicing through the soldier like butter. The smoke grenade flew through the air and landed directly on top of the tank. Annmarie, meanwhile, fell to the ground in a pool of mud and blood.

"Acrobat has eyes on the signal. Dropping payload."

Plane engines roared through the air as a formation of Dauntless bombers broke through the clouds. The pilots released their bombs, which all landed around or directly on the armored machines. The blast from the lead tank kicked the stunned Erwin off of her feet, forcing her into the soft, muddy ground.

The world fell to darkness. For only an instant. A subtle nudging caused Erwin to open her eyes, where she found none other than Captain Francesca and her detail kneeling around her. The rain had stopped, and the clouds were receding from the sky. The deafening sounds of battle had ceased, replaced with an unfamiliar quiet.

"Lieutenant?" The Medic Sergeant who had prodded her asked.

Panting, her whole body sore, Erwin forced herself up onto her elbows. Looking at where she had come, there was a wall of smoke and fire where the tank had been.

"Are you okay, Matsumoto?" Frankie asked. The Ooarai Ranger looked up at her, finding her with an extended hand. She took it, and the Captain helped her to her wobbly feet.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice sluggish and distant.

"What happened is that the battle is over." The battered Captain said. "It's… it's all over. The last of these lot surrendered. We won."

Erwin looked back at the raging fire, which now had a gaggle of Saunders girls around it, trying to find a way to put it out or get around it. Her eyes landed on a few surrounding the body of Private Rachael Ashihe, with one wearing a red crossed helmet. She ushered her helpers to place Rachael on a stretcher, before covering her with a blanket.

"I…" Erwin began, still shell shocked from the dramatic conclusion to the fight. "I… I tried…" She pointed at the body.

"It's okay, Lieutenant." The Captain said quietly, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You did good." Francesca looked to her Sergeant. "Bring this Ranger back to the Campus."

"Yes, Ma'am." The Medic, with a nameplate reading 'Moriya', rested her hand on Erwin's back. "Come on, Lieutenant." She said gently, ushering Riko towards where more soldiers were coming from.

No-Man's-Land was now even more littered with corpses than it had been before. Erwin did her best not to look at any of them, out of fear of spotting one of her teammates. On the far side of the battlefield, a short line of Pravda girls were being led, hands raised, further to the rear. In one spot, some Saunders girls were beginning the long and arduous process of collecting their dead.

"I must've been out for a while…" Erwin thought numbly. One of the soldier-girls staggered away from the bundle she was about to pick up. She stumbled a few feet away, before pulling off her cloth mask and vomiting into the trunk of a burnt out car.

(We Were Soldiers Original Score - That's A Nice Day)

It felt like a century had passed before the pair finally returned to the Saunders trench line. As they did, Erwin felt completely exhausted. Physically, mentally and emotionally. It had been less than a day since their arrival at Saunders, but to her, it felt like she had just stepped through the Siege of Leningrad.

Sergeant Moriya led Erwin along the trench line, sidestepping girls who had stayed behind, either manning positions or being tended to by Medics. The JGSDF were lending a hand, helping carry more critical patients to waiting helicopters.

One interesting sight to the devastated defenders, including the drained Lieutenant, was the arrival of Fourth Platoon. These newer, fresh-faced recruits had been held back in reserve until there was an opportunity for them to relieve a position. Pravda keeping the burners lit for entire days and nights prevented them from coming in, at least without being maimed themselves. Their commander accepted orders from someone, before relaying them to her girls. Fourth Platoon quickly got to work, helping wherever they were needed. One squad of girls sidestepped Erwin as they moved down the line. Many of them saluted the Lieutenant, but she tiredly ignored the gesture, making eye contact with a few, but mostly looking down at her soaked and filthy boots. As she passed, every one of the new girls watched her slowly walk towards the Campus building.

One of the girls of Fourth was toting a camera, likely a correspondent or photographer, and she began snapping pictures of Erwin. These photos would later emerge on various forums and news outlets, displaying a stark contrast between what Saunders, particularly the Shooting Team, had looked like before and after the battle.

The only people Erwin acknowledged were her only friends left on the line, Takebe and Reizei, still in their spot at the machine gun. Saori waved and offered a weak smile, which Matsumoto returned. Mako did the same, albeit with difficulty, being tended to by a JSDF medic.

Inside the school, Erwin immediately sought out her team. She knew of Saemonza, Caesar and Oryou's states upon arrival, but she needed to find them. Being a sniper, Kiyomi could have been sent back to the front, and easily become another casualty.

Barging into an occupied recovery room, Erwin found the very person she was most worried about at the moment.

Saemonza looked up from her spot, seated lazily on a cot. Her eye was more securely bandaged, but there were still streaks of blood on her nose and cheek. Her unbuttoned blouse showed the same stains on the shoulder.

Kiyomi's usable eye beamed when she spotted her Commander.

"Erwin." The Sniper forced herself up, clomping towards her friend in her untied boots, and wrapped her arms tightly around the Officer. "You came back."

"Of course I did." Erwin mumbled. Beneath her grizzled exterior, Riko was overjoyed, to the point of being on the verge of tears.

"What the Hell were you thinking?" Saemonza demanded, her voice muffled by Erwin's shoulder. "Where have you been?"

"Somebody had to-"

"You know what? Forget it." Sugiyama cut in, her eye misting over. "You're here. You're alive. That's all that matters." Her breaths were slow and trembling.

"Saemonza's not known for getting this emotional…"

Erwin slowly pulled away. "Where are the others?"

Saemonza wiped her eye, making streaks on her cheek from her grubby hands. "Uh… Caesar got taken into surgery a few minutes ago. The doctors are optimistic about her. Something about it being an uphill, but winnable battle. Oryou…" Kiyomi hesitated. "Nogami… the doctor who's with her… came by around the same time. She said that, uhm… Takeko-chan…" A tear fell out of Saemonza's eye, followed by more. "She might not… she said we should be… prepared to hear…" She couldn't finish the sentence before falling back to her cot, well and truly sobbing now. Erwin felt gut punched. As if the last scraps of herself had been violently ripped out. A cold hollowness took hold. She wanted to move to Saemonza. To hold and comfort her, but she couldn't move. Erwin felt rooted to her spot, as if her boots were made of lead.

"They gave me her helmet." Kiyomi sniffled, reaching under her bed and handing it over. Erwin hesitantly took it. The thin steel bucket looked normal from the front, if a bit muddy. When Riko turned it over, the back looked like a pasta strainer. Shrapnel from the mortar blast had torn the helmet apart, chipping the green paint and cracking the metal.

Before Erwin could say anything, a Saunders nurse walked in.

"Corporal. The orderlies are ready. Lieutenant." The girl said tiredly, her white uniform stained red. "I'm afraid you'll have to step out for this."

Erwin looked at the girl, then at Saemonza.

"I-I'll be right… outside." She croaked out. The nurse didn't even wait until the Ranger was all the way out before sharply closing the curtains. Feeling empty and lost, Erwin meandered into the crowded lobby. She eventually found an unattended crate and plopped onto it, absently setting her Thompson down nearby. Her strained mind began to wander. Out of the entire platoon of girls she had led into battle, hardly any had come back alive. Hundreds, if not more, now lay dead or dying on the battlefield just outside. Many of which she had been a personal witness to. The three Privates in her team came to mind. Rachael, Annmarie and Crystal. She had privately been hopeful for them. She saw all of them, including the rest of the squad coming back from the raid unharmed. There wasn't supposed to be much resistance, if any at all. Why did Pravda have to cling to their positions so stubbornly? They knew the battle was effectively over. Why couldn't they simply surrender? Why did they have to butcher so many? Why did we launch that assault in the first place? Why?

Exhaustion and grief taking over, Erwin looked down at the helmet in her hands, and began to cry.

A/N: Hooh. This one was fun to write

For a bit of reference, this chapter takes place between 'Hollywood Cinema' and 'Devastation' in the main story. Shortly after the ending, Miho and Kay arrive, and things continue from there

I hope everyone enjoyed. Any and all critiques are welcome