9th August, 1941.
The day after Aircraft Carrier Shoukaku had been Awoken and commissioned in the Sakura Empire, Prince of Wales docks her ship at Placentia Bay in Canada with the Prime Minister of the Royal Kingdom himself, Winston Churchill. The man says to Wales, "I thank you again for the ride over here, Miss Wales. I request you come along with me. I'd hate to keep you waiting on your own on this ship."
"Yes, sir." Wales nods. She takes it as a direct order instead of request. She joins him on the small boat that ferries them both over to the USS Augusta, a non-Kansen sister of the Northampton-class Heavy Cruiser. Taking the small boat seems a little more dignified than her carrying him over. Upon entering the ship, the crew guide them both to the meeting place on the deck where the President of the Eagle Union himself, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, sat waiting for them along with other members of both militaries and Northampton, the Kansen of the elder sister of the USS Augusta. Upon seeing Wales, Northampton smiles a little, but sees the scar on her cheek makes her stop. She keeps her stoic stance, despite being dressed in just a white tank top and short shorts in a freezing environment.
Roosevelt stands and extends his hand, "Winnie! Good to see you again, my friend."
Churchill smile and shakes his hand, "Indeed, Franklin. Now, then, let us discuss this new document, hmm?" Churchill asks as they both sit next to each other.
"Yes, let's. Iron Blood have been giving you enough trouble, and I don't very much trust the Sakura Empire, what with a new Carrier being launched just yesterday." FDR replies.
As they start their meeting, Wales notices Northampton looking at her face injury. Wales says, "Sir, shall I go make sure the bay is secure?"
Churchill replies, "Yes, yes." before taking a puff on his cigar. He's paying more attention to FDR. Wales nods as she turns around to leave the area.
Feeling bad, Northampton notices the two of them probably wouldn't even notice if she just walked away from all the officers despite her attire, so she does. The Heavy Cruiser looks left and right, seeing Wales walking towards the other end of the ship. She follows her just as she steps out of the view of a camera that then snaps a picture of the two men.
Wales, noticing the Eagle Union ship behind her, sighs and stops right at the end of the ship, allowing her to stand beside her. She looks out to the sea in front of them.
Northampton says, "Uh, Miss Wales? I'm sorry if I offended you, but.."
"You were just curious about this horrific scar, weren't you? The fact that it hasn't fully healed with my advanced healing and likely never will is very irritating." Wales guesses.
"Well… yeah… um… if you don't want to tell me about it, that's fine… but…" Northampton tries.
After a few seconds, Wales says, "…I got it as a punishment. For underestimating my enemy."
"A punishment?" The Eagle Union ship looks at her.
"Yes. Every time I look in the mirror or someone gives me a strange look, I am reminded of my inability to protect my beloved from a superior ship." Wales says with little emotion.
"Oh… I'm so sorry, Miss Wales… I'll just go…" Northampton says, feeling even more guilty.
"No, it's alright… you can stay. It's your sister's ship, not mine." Wales says with a slight smile. At least this fellow Kansen is considerate.
Northampton can't resist her curiosity. She asks, "So… what exactly happened…? Um.. don't worry, I won't judge."
Wales softly chuckles, "You're not very good at this, are you? Oh well, I suppose it can't be helped." She goes on to tell the Heavy Cruiser about what happened at the Denmark Strait.
In the Siren HQ, the conversation between the two Sirens continues after the door closes behind them.
"…Now, we wait to see if Azur Lane does what I hypothesise they will and us both Roon and Friedrich Der Große together against us instead of doing the more foolish thing; making them fight each other. Their power is unmatched by anything else any faction currently has, perhaps except for the Eagle Union's and Sakura Empire's Carriers, but even then, their AA defences are not to be taken lightly."
"Our capabilities put them to shame, though. By the way, you do know that Royal Kansen woke up and heard us, right? She's probably accessing the network right now." Tester Gamma asks.
Zero nods, "Of course. I'm detecting her unauthorised access. I just let her in. I want to see what she does before taking action. She can only influence her own timeline, after all. I limited her access to any others."
"Right…" Tester replies.
"Hmm… it seems she's woken up another… the one in the same room as herself…"
"Prince of Wales? Why only her?" Tester asks.
"To know why is all the more reason to keep watching them…"
Back at Scapa Flow, Bismarck is at the shooting range practicing with her left hand due to losing the other arm. With her is U-556 who is happily helping her reload her P38 and fetching more ammunition. Bismarck hits the target in the head with the entire magazine. "Parzival, reload."
"Jawohl, Lord Bismarck!" The Sub diligently catches the empty magazine as it falls out of the gun and puts in a full one. Bismarck then releases the slide and takes aim again.
Victory enters to check on her. She sees her empty another magazine and U-556 reload it for her. She approaches, "How are you, Bismarck?"
Bismarck and U-556 look at her and the Sub salutes, "Hallo, Kommandantin!"
Bismarck answers the question, "I don't feel the pain anymore, but I actually feel quite the opposite…"
"What do you mean?" Victory asks.
"Sometimes, I can feel a strange tingling in my fingers." Bismarck looks down.
Victory asks, "Really? Is something wrong?"
Bismarck looks at her, "…my right fingers."
"Huh… strange… maybe your brain still thinks they're there?" Victory guesses.
"Perhaps… but it sometimes makes me think my arm is still there. I'm reminded of my foolishness in prioritising the state of your office over killing an active threat and for thinking that a 9mm bullet would be enough to kill a Siren Elite." Bismarck says looks at her pistol as she keeps it aimed down range.
U-556 says, "Lord Bismarck, you are a kind and considerate person if you tried to preserve all of the Kommandantin's antiques! Plus, you couldn't have known that your bullets wouldn't affect her!"
Victory smiles, "She's right, Bismarck. Plus, I don't care if my stuff gets destroyed if the alternative is one of my Kansen getting injured or killed. You girls will always be far more important to me, and we don't even know if the Revival machine even works yet."
Bismarck blushes slightly and says, "Danke, Kommandantin." She starts firing again. Victory watches and is impressed with her accuracy, but she sees a problem when she asks U-556 to reload for her.
"Don't you find it annoying you can't reload by yourself?" Victory asks.
"Extremely." Bismarck answers, "But Parzival here is doing a great job."
Victory shows her something she brought with her, "Here, try this. Anzeel made it for you." She straps a new magazine pouch to the Bismarck's left hip and hands her a new empty left-handed P38. She sees a magazine get pushed to the front of the pouch and get pushed up. "Now, simply push it down onto that new one and then let the slide go forward. It's devised from the Auto-Loader tech that Anzeel developed a while ago for our riggings."
Bismarck does so and the magazine is pushed into the gun. Another magazine is then prepared. She lets the slide go forward with the left-handed magazine release and the gun is reloaded. "…Danke… Kommandantin…"
"What's wrong?" Victory asks.
"Nothing… I'm just constantly surprised you care so much for me, despite what I've done." The Battleship says.
Victory chuckles and jokes, "Well, if I didn't care, little Parzival here wouldn't be very happy with me, would she?" She pats the Sub's head, making her giggle. "I wouldn't want incur her wrath."
"I shall practice with this. Danke again, Kommandantin." Bismarck nods in appreciation.
Victory nods back and leaves them both to it as U-556 is now free to take Bismarck's old gun for herself to practice with. Bismarck doesn't have to have a Royal Knight watching her all the time now as Victory trusts her fully after Tester's attack. She's still not on speaking terms with Wales, but she's getting there…
After a while of emotional storytelling, Northampton says, "I'm sorry for your loss, Miss Wales…"
The Royal Battleship wipes a tear away and says, "It's alright. I may never get used to telling that story. Bismarck took Hood's Wisdom Cubes and handed them over to the Sirens, so I might never see Hood again. Just my luck. It took until I had to be stopped from attacking Bismarck in the café back home before I learned that she was being partially controlled by a device on her neck at the time…"
Northampton shudders at the thought, "The Sirens can control us… I can't imagine what would happen if they did that to us…"
"Just bear in mind, Miss Northampton. Never underestimate your enemy. You must always know as much as you can about them before you go after them. The Sakura Empire have something planned, I'm sure of it. They wouldn't be expanding their navy so vastly if not. They launched a new Carrier yesterday, but nobody seems to be taking the Sakura seriously, except for your President. You are off to Hawaii soon, are you not?" Wales asks.
"Yeah. The President is definitely getting more cautious of the Sakura. He's ordering the entire Pacific Fleet there soon. I'm just here right now because Augusta was already here and she doesn't have a Kansen. Once this meeting is over, I'm going back there by plane."
"The entire Pacific Fleet? Even all your Carriers?" Wales asks.
"The Battleships and another heavy hitters are all arriving there first. The Carriers won't be there for a while. Don't worry, Battleship Row is an unbeatable wall of firepower." Northampton claims confidently.
"Don't forget what I've said. Do not underestimate the Sakura Empire. There are rumours of them developing a Battleship with guns bigger than even the Big Seven, despite the Washington Naval Treaty. For all we know, that may be how they've been capturing so many islands so quickly." Wales warns. "Imagine what a massive ship like that, even bigger than Bismarck, could do with Carrier escorts…"
"Miss Wales! Come!" Churchill calls her over. Northampton walks with her back to the small ferry, and shakes her hand.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow when we come aboard your ship, Miss Wales." Northampton smiles.
Wales replies, "I look forward to it, Miss Northampton. I'll prepare the tea." To which Northampton recoils slightly.
On the way back to her ship, Wales asks, "Sir, if I may be so bold, what were you discussing?"
Churchill looks at her and says, "We were finalising the Atlantic Charter, Miss Wales. It is a statement that will be enforced should we win the War, as agreed by our own proud little island and the Eagle Union. It will ensure that self-governing countries that the Crimson Axis have invaded will return to how they were and make sure no territorial changes are made against the will of the people. Also, I can only hope that it will have the people of the Eagle Union support getting involved in this War. Imagine the boost to Azur Lane, having Eagle Union Kansen coming to bolster the strength of your base."
Wales smiles, "It would indeed give us an advantage over the Crimson Axis, Sir. However, our Commander would prefer to have all Kansen of the world united against the Sirens."
"Indeed. Unfortunately, unless we do that, Hitler and his lot won't let us focus all our attention on those otherworldly meddlers." Churchill responds as he continues smoking. Wales sees the cigar and him breathing the smoke in and out and how it seems to keep him calm and relaxed. He notices and asks, "Would you like one?"
"…no thank you, Sir." Wales responds, remembering how Hood frowned upon it.
The next day, Northampton, the Eagle Union representatives and the President himself board the HMS Prince of Wales for some more friendly chatter and some tea provided by Wales herself. Northampton is hesitant to try the beverage, looking at the steaming cup.
"Don't worry, you don't have to drink it while it's still scolding hot. Just let it cool a little." Wales encourages while stood next to her.
Northampton does so, blowing on the rim of the cup in an attempt to cool it. Eventually, she tastes it and it really helps warm her up in this cold berth. She's just glad it's not her hull in the freezing water right now. "Huh… not bad, actually…"
"Quite. I've heard you have your own version of tea in the Eagle Union." Wales takes a sip.
"Yeah, but instead of boiling it, we put ice in it."
Wales spits out her drink in shock and then looks at her, "You… what!?"
Before Northampton can explain what iced tea is, they're shushed by one of the sailors as they're all now holding a Sunday prayer service. The two Kansen don't quite understand, but they respected it enough to not interfere. Churchill even selects the hymns himself and Wales can't help but hum along.
The pod containing Wales lights up the keypad, now able to be used. The Kansen who found her enters the code she had discovered on her file. The pod drains like hers did and opens, but Wales doesn't wake up. She falls and the Kansen catches her…
"Woah! Wales, you okay!?" Northampton yells as Wales just suddenly collapsed.
Wales groggily replies, "Ugh… yes… I apologise, I don't know what came over me…" she looks at the sailors looking back at them. She gets up and bows to them, "My sincerest apologies." She leaves the room with the Eagle Union Kansen in tow, headed out onto her deck…
Anzeel stands before Observer Alpha again, always thinking of some way to get one over on her. She certainly doesn't like working with her, and if Victory finds out, she fears what may happen. The Siren smirks and says, "So, Roon was a success, hmm?"
"…yes."
"Oh, don't look so down. Smile." Alpha orders.
Anzeel forces a smile and Alpha chuckles.
"Humans… anyway, I have a new PR plan for you. Luckily, I had this copy in my personal data drive from a recent experiment. Tell your Commander that you designed this one." She summons the new PR plan in her hand and throws it through the cell bars at Anzeel's feet.
Silently, Anzeel picks up the file. "…Monarch? But… why? Aren't there far more powerful PRs you could choose from?"
"Of course, but again, that one was the only one I had on me. Go now. Tell your Comman—" Alpha cuts herself off as Victory suddenly appears and puts her hand on Anzeel's shoulder, making her gasp.
"You can tell me yourself, Alpha."