20th May 1941.

Two days after having left Iron Blood, Bismarck walks around the deck of her ship watching the waves pass by her thick armour belt. She catches something in the corner of her vision. She turns her head to focus on it. A small dot on the horizon, partially obscured by the sea fog. She gets an intense feeling of being watched, but she's snapped out of it by Lindemann putting his hand on her shoulder and saying, "Fräulein Bismarck!"

Jumping a bit, she looks at him, then back at where the strange dot was, but it was gone, and so was the feeling it gave her. She turns back towards Lindemann and asks, "Ja, Herr Kapitän?"

"Are you alright, Fräulein Bismarck? You were unresponsive for a while there."

"Oh. My apologies. What do you need?" Bismarck asks.

"You look exhausted. You haven't rested since that Royal Navy Kansen infiltrated us. Get some rest for tonight. I'll steer your ship, then you continue after you wake up."

"Jawohl." Bismarck gives him access to her ship's controls. The Captain's chair has controls in the armrests under where the person's hands are. On the left, an aircraft-like throttle for the engines and a small valve-like steering wheel on the right. No controls of the guns though, as only the Kansen can use them. As Lindemann goes to the bridge to use it, Bismarck looks back out to where the dot was again but it's still not there. She shrugs, thinking the fatigue must be getting to her, then she turns in for the night…

After laying down and falling asleep, Bismarck opens her eyes to find herself in a featureless black void. She looks at herself and she's she's fully dressed again. "Where am I…?" she thinks. She hears a whisper as is someone is right behind her.

"You will fail…"

She stands up quickly and spins around but sees nothing. She hears the whisper again.

"Iron Blood will burn…"

She shouts, "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"You won't be able to save them. They will all die…"

She tries to use her radar, but it is not responsive. The voice gets louder, as if whoever it belongs to is getting closer.

"Take a look at what awaits you…"

Is it telling the truth? She surely can't trust it, can she? Anyone can tell her she's not good enough, but it took some serious bravery or stupidity to tell a Battleship her fellow Kansen would all die because of her future failure. She says with a more subdued voice, "…Who are you? I demand you show yourself!" Just then, she hears the crackling of fire behind her and she turns back around to see Blohm & Voss shipyard again, but at another time. It's all on fire. The orange glow reflects off the black waves of the nighttime sea. She looks down at her feet and sees blood floating on the water. Her gaze follows it and she sees them.

All her Iron Blood comrades. She then sees visions of Graf Spee exploding, Blücher burning, and events yet to happen, of the rest of Iron Blood meeting their ends, like Scharnhorst being hunted down, Graf Zeppelin being used as a training target by the Northern Parliament and finally a glimpse of the far future of Prinz Eugen, becoming engulfed in the light of an explosion unlike any she has ever heard of. Twice.

"Lord… Bismarck…" she hears from behind her. She spins around to see U-556, clinging to life, being held up by her hair by a very peculiar Kansen who is wearing a black uniform. Her wooden rigging looks tattered, old and primitive. Her crazed glowing deep crimson eyes shine through her messy, dirty blonde hair as they burn into Bismarck's soul and her mouth adopts a sadistic grin.

Surrounding them both are Royal Navy Kansen, but Bismarck notices something off about them. Their eyes are all glowing and their faces are distorted into evil smiles just like the strange one, with bloodied and tattered clothing. They were all stood aiming what look like their own ship cannons on mechanical arms on their backs. Bismarck, however, was more focused on the one with U-556' bloodstained blue hair wrapped around her fingers.

Seeing how beaten and cut up her faithful Parzival is, Bismarck feels a rage build up inside her far more intense than when she caught Sheffield. She takes a step forward but can't seem to get any closer to them. She shouts, "RELEASE HER, YOU FEIGLING! FIGHT ME INSTEAD!"

Her challenge does nothing except make them all burst out into maniacal laughter. The odd looking one holds out U-556. She beckons Bismarck closer, as if to let her take back her little submarine. Bismarck is now able to approach.

She carefully carefully moves closer while feeling all the daggers being stared at her by the other twisted Kansen. She gets closer to hold the terrified, exhausted Parzival in her arms, but then she hears the sound of a blade being unsheathed, then a sword with gun barrels on the hilt gets pressed into the submarine's neck. Bismarck holds forward her hand to beg her for mercy, but the Kansen simply smiled and speaks.

"Rule Britannia."

She pulls back her sword, painting it crimson.

Bismarck's ears are filled with laughter and the sound of U-556 choking on her own blood. Her murderer throws her to the ground closer to Bismarck, who can't find any words to say as she looks down at her. She drops to her knees and holds her Parzival's lifeless body.

With a near psychotic look of her own, she slowly looks back up at her smiling killer, who points to Bismarck's right with a tilted head. She glances over and sees her own ship, burning and slowly capsizing. Another Kansen appears from the flames, her eyes glowing a cold blue. A white hat is worn crooked on her blonde head and a Union Jack is draped over her shoulders. She would be beautiful, if she wasn't giving her a death stare and the only frown of this group of seemingly insane Kansen.

She approaches Bismarck, who goes to throw a punch at her, but the frowning Kansen grabs her arm, breaks it and grabs her by the throat, lifting her up like she weighs nothing. Bismarck tries not to scream from the pain and struggles against her, overcome by the grief of losing everyone, and can only hold onto the Kansen's arm with her one remaining good hand and look down at her aggressor, who finally speaks.

"You will all sink by our hands, Bismarck! I, the Mighty Battlecruiser Hood, will make sure of it!"

Her grip on Bismarck's throat tightens, choking her. Bismarck just barely makes out a miniaturised pair of 15-inch guns bing pointed at her face, then…

BOOM

Bismarck wakes up in a cold sweat. She looks around and sees she's sat up in her bed, wearing only her black tank top and shorts. She puts her hand to her neck, slows her breathing and feels her unbroken arm. She then finally realises there's somebody sat in her chair looking at her. She snaps her vision onto her and stands up, ready to fight. The stranger, however, just holds a little plushie that's as snow-white as her skin and hair, except for a blue strand off to the side. The thick white overcoat she wears looks far too big for her. She says to the startled Battleship, "Please don't… I need your help, and you need mine…"

Seeing her German was far more fluent than Sheffield's, Bismarck relaxes and sits on her bed. "You know, it's very impolite to enter somebody's room uninvited, especially to watch them sleep, and even more so if you're a stowaway."

The small girl rubs her one exposed eye and says, "I couldn't sleep because of something that's happened and you look like you can help me."

Bismarck notices the girl's voice sounds a lot like the one in her nightmare, yet far more clear now. Cautious of her, she says, "I'm currently on a mission. I can't help you."

"Incorrect." The girl countered, speaking almost like a machine. "You fighting the Royal Navy will help me. I just want you to do something on top of it, in exchange for the power you need to kill the one who had you by the neck in your dream."

"You mean that Mighty Hoo— wait, what!? How do you know about that!?" Bismarck becomes defensive again.

The girl gives her an uneasy smile. "Because I caused it. I showed you the future of what will happen if you don't accept the power I offer you."

Bismarck narrows her eyes. "Is that a threat?"

The girl remains calm, "No, it's a warning. I mean you no harm. I simply want you to defeat the Royal Navy. I offer you the power to do so, in exchange for a favour."

"A favour? What do you want? Who are you?"

"My name is Zero. I am but a simple Observer, watching how the war is progressing and keeping track of everything, but my fellow Observer was kidnapped some time ago simply for wanting to help humanity evolve. She was taken by the Royal Navy, and I need your help to save her, Lord Bismarck."

Bismarck clenches her fist, "Those bastards… so they will kill all of my comrades…?"

Zero nods, "Yes, unless you become powerful enough to stop them."

Bismarck sits up, "So, before I accept this power, how do I help save your friend?"

Zero sits up on the chair, her legs dangling above the floor. "You need to retrieve the Wisdom Cubes of Battlecruiser Hood."

"Retrieve her cubes…? How?" Bismarck asks.

Zero's expression darkens. "Kill her."

"Kill her…? Why should I even trust you? You're not even human, are you?" Bismarck accuses.

Hiding her frustration, Zero calmly states, "No. Like you Kansen, My sisters and I were created to help humanity. Unlike you, we are supposed to help them evolve. The Royal Navy have abandoned that cause, and have taken over the Royal Kingdom, even placing their own Queen in charge, with a Commander aiding her. They have reverted back to enslaving people like they did during their Imperial years, ready to begin it again, unless the Crimson Axis can stop them."

Bismarck believes her. Her words alone probably wouldn't have been enough, so it's fortunate for Zero that she had implanted a device on the back of her neck under her hair that is making her far less resistant. It also allowed Zero to give her the nightmare she just experienced. The Battleship grits her teeth, "The British humans have been enslaved by those monsters?! We must liberate them!"

Now that she has Bismarck under her thumb, Zero uses her words and the device to continue filling her head with both lies and half-truths about how her friend got herself captured and how evil the Royal Navy is, as well as who their Commander is.

Bismarck says, "Alright, if it will help me save the humans and the Iron Blood Kansen, I'll help you get your friend back. What is her name?"

Zero looks her in the eye and answers, "Alpha."