Inside the storm
Akagi groaned, a pounding headache pulling her from her unconscious state. She tried to move her arm, but found it bound in black metal restraints by her wrists. The same with her legs, as well as her tails. She was in a standing position, with her back against a wall. Looking around she realised she was on a ship's bridge, it had the general human design, but it was all black with dark red markings all over it like a Siren ship. Akagi put two and two together and realised this was Cleveland's hull, corrupted by the Crimson cube, just like Cleveland herself.
The fox woman thought back to their fight, while Akagi was clearly the more powerful of the two, Cleveland just kept getting healed and rejuvenated by the red lightning, Akagi herself was eventually worn down over the course of the long battle of attrition, in her stubbornness she refused to retreat or call for help, knowing she'd be putting others at risk if she did either action.
She never gave up however and threw every last bit of her strength into one final attack. It had ripped Cleveland's rigging clean off her body, the red flames and explosions burned and blasted the metal components of her cybernetic frame away. Unfortunately she was yet again completely healed and repaired by a lightning strike, Akagi had passed out from the exertion.
In the present, Akagi looked around for her captor, but couldn't see anything except outside of the bridge window, which only showed the island the Crimson cube was still pouring its energy into. A red and white shock-wave radiated out from the mountain, washing over the ship. It didn't seem to do much other than rock the hull, but it was more than enough to signify that the cube was still up to no good.
Akagi was about to pull on her restraints, when she heard a clank to her side. She turned and gasped seeing Cleveland shamble robotically onto the bridge. She moved in front of the bound fox woman like a puppet on a string, awkwardly turning around to face her. No signs of life in her exposed eye.
"OK...why haven't you killed me...you need me for something is that it?" Akagi demanded, the cybernetic girl didn't reply or react, simply staring at the kitsune. Akagi growled, struggling harder against the restraints. "You haven't won yet box, I won't become another puppet of yours like you've done to Cleveland, I'll die first before hurting my fellow ship girls again! You hear me you oversized box of shit!?" Akagi screamed, pulling hard against the metal binding her.
Cleveland tilted her head, her lips then began to slowly move. The voice sounded strained, horse and raspy, like each syllable was painful to produce.
"A...ka...gi..."
The kitsune went from angry to shocked in the span of a second, it was enough to make her forget about the restraints for the moment.
"Cleveland? No...you're not her, you're just using her voice." Akagi mused, frowning at her fellow ship-girl's body being used like this.
"Words...hard...must...show..." Cleveland then raised her claw hand to Akagi's face and blasted a bolt of red electricity at her. She screamed as hot pain, coursed through her head from the effect, her eyes closing out of reflex from the bright bolts of lightning. When she opened them however, she was no longer on the ship.
Looking around she realised she was in an ocean, surrounded by fire and the wreckage of Siren ships. She gasped and covered her mouth upon seeing a horrifying scene: dead Sirens, the wrecks and bodies were splayed and coated with the yellow blood of the alien ship-girls. As Akagi continued to look around, more bodies seemed to appear. She tried to run from the scene of carnage, but another wreck always seemed to appear in front of her, also covered in Siren blood.
Akagi repeated her escape attempt a few more times, until she was surrounded on all sides by the gore and twisted metal of Siren corpses and wrecks. She covered her mouth from the shock, gasping in fear and panic, she was terrified by all this imagery, terrified of what could have done all of this, but that feeling was soon dwarfed by the dread of what she saw next:
Project Orochi.
Some distance away she could see the massive ship was half submerged, broken in half near its stern, its bow sticking into the sky at an odd angle, its weaponry battered and broken, with much of it missing. Akagi then saw something hanging from the ship's very front and her pupils shrunk into pinpricks in horror when she realised what...or rather who...it was.
"Observer Alpha?! Shes... dead?!" She whispered, staggering back in disbelief at the dead elite Siren, hanging by one of her rigging's tentacles from Orochi's bow.
"Isn't it beautiful Akagi?" She heard a voice say from behind her...her OWN voice... slightly manic and on the verge of giggling.
Akagi slowly turned around, dreading what she was about to see. It was herself, but drastically altered. Her alternate self had black and red eyes, a small evil smile without a shred of humanity behind it. Her tails, hair and ears were a much darker brown, almost black, her clothes were a shiny black and red leotard, with equally shiny black thigh high boots. She even had long black claw-like finger nails.
"Don't you love it when you finally get to kill annoying insects like these?" Alt-kagi asked, stepping closer to Akagi with a hip-swaying sashay, rasing her arms to gesture to the dead Sirens, she even stepped over some bodies deliberately to emphasis her point. "And that giant POS..." She pointed to the half sunk Orochi. "...just wasn't needed...we're already stronger than anything that Siren bitch could give us..."
Akagi took a step back, creeped out by her doppelganger. "Just...who the hell are you?!" She demanded with a quaking voice. Alt-kagi tilted her head and giggled.
"Why I'm what you could be Akagi, that pretty little red cube just gave me a little power boost." She explained casually. With a hand on her cheek she then declared: "With this power, your love really can incinerate the world and keep burning! your Commander and you together...forever!" Alt-kagi laughed manically, the same laugh Akagi herself used to do long ago.
Akagi held her hands to her head and collapsed to her knees. "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" She screamed. Alt-kagi stopped for a moment, putting a finger to her lips in curiosity at her counterpart's defiance. Akagi looked up at her, rage plastered across her face before red fire appeared in the palms of her hands.
"Oooh scary~" Alt-kagi teased, unphased by the now angry fox woman, after summoning black paper planes between her fingers she continued to speak. "I'm not opposed to fighting if you REALLY want to, but don't you want to hear me out first?" The doppelganger asked. She then smirked before adding: "I know Amagi wouldn't want-"
Before she could finish, Akagi threw her fire balls at her. Alt-kagi simply threw her paper planes at the fire balls before they could connect with her. "Rude..." She uttered causally.
"You bring up Amagi again and I won't stop until you're another body among these Sirens!" Akagi screamed at her, readying more fireballs. Alt-kagi just chuckled before vanishing like a puff of smoke. Akagi looked around frantically, watching where she could have gone. She could hear her speaking, but her voice seemed to come from everywhere.
"Come on Akagi, you can be honest with me, doesn't it get tiresome needing to restrain yourself all the time? 'Protect this, defend that, don't upset them, don't hurt her.' don't you wish you could just..." Akagi then felt hands on her shoulders and a hot breath in her ear as Alt-kagi whispered to her. "...burn them all?"
"NO!" Akagi wheeled around to throw a fire ball, but her doppelganger was already gone, just a wisp of smoke where she just was.
"Remember what happened to Prince of Wales? How good it felt to finally knock her around?" Alt-kagi reappeared in front of her, this time holding the British battleship in question by the back of her neck, Akagi gasped seeing her, unable to tell if she was alive or dead. She looked exactly how she did when Akagi last saw her: Broken arm and leg, battered and burned from her vicious assault at the end of their duel together, her rigging torn apart and missing a turret. Akagi then realised that Alt-kagi was hold the missing turret in her other hand, holding it by one of its four barrels.
"L-let her go!" Akagi yelled to her. "I didn't want to do that to her! I..." "Don't lie to me Akagi." Alt-kagi interrupted. "If you didn't want to hurt her, you wouldn't have provoked her when she tried to take Unicorn away, in that moment you knew you wanted her gone, you can easily end her if you pushed yourself a little harder." She pointed out, she then smacked Prince of Wales away with her own turret, just as Akagi herself once did, vanishing yet again along with the British woman.
"Imagine it, no one else to steal him away, no 'sharing' him, no war, no Sirens to distract him from you." Alt-kagi kept saying. "With the Crimson Cube's power inside you, no Siren can oppose you, Azur Lane won't be needed, the Commander, Sakura Empire can be protected by you alone, so getting rid of those other girls will be easy~"
"Shut up...I...I don't..." Akagi trailed off, unsure how to reply. Alt-kagi appeared behind her again, hugging the red kitsune's torso. Her dark tails slowly creeping around her body and limbs, enveloping her.
"Thats right~ You have the power to make it happen, make Sakura empire safe, the Commander yours, no one to oppose you." She then turned Akagi's head to face her, her black and red eyes looking longingly into Akagi's own. "Even Amagi can be returned to your world, think about how perfect it would be, you, Amagi, Kaga and of course, the Commander, alone at least~"
Akagi's head was flooded with images of the Commander and her. Holding hands, kissing by the beach, even in an empty church getting married. Amagi was at the alter, reading their vows, and Kaga was a bridesmaid, watching her with a smile.
Then it changed again, to watching Observer on top of Orochi, she was running to its bow as it was sinking, a scared expression on her face as a Zero made of red fire swooped down and fired a barrage of bullets at her, making her fall into the position she had seen her in when she arrived in this world. Then the image changed again, it was the Commander in his office, looking at her from across his desk with a smile.
"Akagi...you know I trust you..."
Those words brought Akagi out of her daze, she remembered the rest of that fateful meeting with the Commander, the beginning of journey to become a better person, when she began to let go of her lust for power, her anger and need for vengeance.
"Do I have your word you will stop the bullying...?"
Akagi then flashed back to more memories, of how much she had truly changed since that day in the Commander's office: Forgiving Enterprise, befriending Unicorn, rescuing a pilot from an exploding plane, saving an entire fleet from a madman and a mirror sea.
One last image then truly pulled Akagi back from the brink...Amagi...reaching out to her.
"I'm so proud of you, you've grown up so much since I left..."
Akagi smiled, a single tear ran down her cheek as she regained her confidence.
"No deal."
Alt-kagi's smirk vanished hearing her utter those two words. Akagi looked at her with a smirk of her own, watching as the darker kitsune walked back from her.
"I don't want to be like you, I don't need to be like you." Akagi stated, her tails and ears starting to catch fire as her power increased. "You're a relic of my past, an empty husk of a person, consumed by a toxic need for power. Even if you were telling the truth about bringing back Amagi, she'd never want to see me like that!" She ranted, gesturing to the dark kitsune's appearance. Alt-kagi growled, getting angrier at her refusal to accept the power.
"How DARE you!" She yelled, summoning paper planes. "My love is strong enough to incinerate the world and keep burning!" She threw the planes at Akagi, but before they hit her, a massive wall off fire sprung up between the two kitsunes. Alt-kagi shielded her eyes from the glare and her mouth went agape when she saw what was behind the literal firewall.
Except it wasn't a firewall, it was Akagi's tail, transformed into a massive flare of fire, Akagi swung the appendage into Alt-kagi, knocking her into the Orochi's side. Akagi stalked closer to her, her kimono gone and her eyes glowing a bright red. Before Alt-kagi could move, Akagi grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the hull, she tried her vanishing trick, but somehow Akagi had over-written it with her own powers.
"You... never had any love... for anyone... all you had... was a blind hatred for the world... a world that... did not deserve the horror you had planned for it, the Commander...and Amagi...will never forgive you." Alt-kagi struggled to say. Akagi then jammed her hand into Alt-kagi's torso, making her utter a gasping scream, instead of blood, a black tar-like streamed from the wound, confirming her non-human nature. Akagi pulled her hand out, revealing a red mental cube. Alt-kagi then gave one last gasping, gurgling scream before going limp in Akagi's grip.
"You were right about one thing: I did hate the world. But I outgrew that hate...and now... I'm free of it..."
Akagi then punctuated her point by crushing the red mental cube, a bright light shone from inside its cracks, enveloping her.
Akagi opened her eyes, the Crimson cube was flying around her erratically, like it was panicking or in pain. Looking around herself she realised she was on the island's beach, Cleveland was next to her on the ground, flopped over, but still had that dead expression on her face. Akagi bolted to her feet and was about to run for it when she heard something, she looked back and gasped seeing something bounce off a rock from the Crimson cube, a blue glowing box.
"Cleveland's mental cube!" Akagi thought, snatching the glowing box. While the Crimson cube was still distracted, and reeling from whatever she did, she picked up Cleveland's body and flew away from the island as fast as she could, without looking back. The Cube spitting red lightning in fury at her defiance and rejection.
Azur lane HQ, USS Dominatus
Minutes after the attack on the carrier, several kansen jumped aboard to contain and subdue any attackers remaining. Once everything had been secured, the Manjuu also came aboard to assist the crew with repairs. The Commander and Sheffield were on the flight deck, discussing the attack itself.
"We've completely cleared the ship of hostiles, Sirius and Dido have confirmed the lower decks are clear." Sheffield reported.
"Good work, any indication where they took Nico?" The Commander asked, helping a medic treat Jackson's injuries.
"Not sure, Helena and a few other radar equipped ships are scanning the area, but nothing is coming up as of right now." She replied. As they were speaking, two white kimono clad women jumped up on to the flight deck, one with a long brown haired pony tail and the other with silver haired bangs above her eyes.
"Zuikaku, Shoukaku, you got anything?" The Commander asked. Both women just shook their heads, shrugging at the same time.
"Nothing, my planes don't see a ship anywhere Commander." The brown haired girl, now known as Zuikaku replied with irritation.
"How could they get this close to us without being detected?" Shoukaku asked. The Commander put a hand to his chin, thinking.
"Only other method I can think of is via submarine, have the destroyers come up with anything?" The Commander asked the two of them. Zuikaku looked out to sea.
"Hamman and Shigure are both patrolling the area, we're waiting on their repor-"
"Unidentified sub!" A younger voice interrupted. Everyone turned to see Hamman running up to them. "We found a submarine heading away from the base! Shigure is pursuing it with Yuudachi and Yukikaze!" She yelled.
"Great work, Shoukaku, go with Hamman to back them up! Zuikaku, find Musashi and follow them, I have a feeling you'll need her. Don't sink the sub if you can, we need to interrogate the crew." The 5th carrier division women both nodded and jumped off the carrier with Hamman. Sheffield looked back at the Commander after they left.
"What do you need me to do?" She asked.
"Find your comrades and round up the surviving attackers, maybe they'll shed some light on who and why they attacked us." The Commander told her. Sheffield nodded and jumped off the ship herself, with the Commander turning back to Jackson to help the medic again.
Chasing the submarine...
Shigure, Yuudachi and Yukikaze were pushing their riggings hard to keep up with the mysterious submarine, with its head start and impossibly powerful engines, the sub was maintaining a decent gap between it and the Sakura destroyers, despite still being submerged.
"Urgh, how is thing matching us? We're the fastest ships in Azur lane!" Yuudachi complained.
"Stop whining, we need to catch whoever is in this thing!" Shigure chastised her. "We can't get close enough for depth charges, we need to slow this thing down somehow."
"What if we force them towards a reef or something?" Yukikaze suggested, "They'll need to slow down if they don't want to crash."
"Great idea! Know anything like that around here?" Yuudachi asked, readying her weaponry to attack the sub.
"The rock formation Shigure crashed into a few weeks ago! Its perfect!" Yukikaze stated, smirking at the dark haired destroyer, earning a hiss and glare from her.
"I TOLD you, my rigging seized up on me that day!" She yelled, trying to be heard over Yukikaze's laughter.
"Haha! Sure it did, you're just a clumsy oaf!" Yukikaze laughed and pulled ahead of the other two before Shigure could retort. She then readied her torpedo racks and started taking aim. "Tune your torpedoes to their deepest cruising depth and fire them to the submarine's side, it should scare them in the direction we need them to go." She explained with an eye closed, pointing her finger ahead to aim.
"Got it! Lets do this!" Yuudachi yelled, aiming her own torpedoes. Shigure sighed aimed her own torpedoes. After firing a few torpedoes each, the got the submarine to change course towards the rocks, realising it was cornered, the submarine slowed down and started to surface.
"Hey we got it!" Shigure yelled, but her elation was short lived upon seeing the sub itself. "Whoa...this thing is weird..." she mused, noting its strange shape compared to conventional military subs.
"This thing almost outran us while submerged, of course its weird." Yukikaze said, getting irritated. As those two started to argue, Yuudachi tore the sub's propellers off as it surfaced. Then sighed watching her friends start to argue about nothing for the thousandth time. She was so distracted she didn't even realise the sub's hatch had opened...