14th September, 1941

Leningrad has been obliterated by Iron Blood ground forces. The strongest defender, a Kansen sent to aid the humans of the Northern Parliament, a former Iron Blood ship fires her Cruiser guns until the barrels start warping, and then carries on firing anyway. Unfortunately for her, this also makes her a massive target, and Iron Blood doesn't seem to care in the slightest that she was once one of them.

Petropavlovsk slams her fist into her own control consoles in rage. She thought she would have the battle won by now. Having reached the end of her patience, she fires everything she can. Her AA guns aim at the diving Stukas and her artillery guns unload at the advancing Iron Blood ground forces. She has the range, but she has no clue where their artillery guns are. She's firing blind while keeping dive bombers away from her and the other important parts of the port and city of Leningrad.

"UMRITE, vy, otbrosy sosushchiye zhivotnyye! RRAAAAGH!" She yells out, completely abandoning her Iron Blood accent and language as she fires on her former countrymen.

Although her outburst temporarily makes the Iron Blood focus on her ship, she is a big target. Soon she's unable to remain untouchable. She looks up to the sky and guns down a squadron of Stukas, only to take a hit to her armaments from the ground artillery. She staggers, then turns back around to take her revenge. She fires her main guns and then she hears something crash into her bridge window.

"…Chto…?" She turns and sees a bomb in her bridge right next to her.

"CHYORT!" She dives behind a console in a desperate attempt to shield herself.

BOOM

Hood looks up from where she lay after getting blasted by Tester Gamma's plasma barrage. Spee and the two Maids defend her and the still unconscious Bismarck. The old Battlecruiser nurses the plasma burn mark on her hip and sees Tester getting overwhelmed by Belfast and Sheffield with their new guns and… missiles?

Spee can see the two Maids trying to set up an attack so she gets Tester's attention by punching her with her huge gauntlets. Enraged, the short-tempered Siren turns her attention to the Iron Blood Cruiser.

Belfast and Sheffield look at each other and nod. They stand together and aim their new missile launchers at Tester as she fights Graf Spee hand-to-hand. They both yell out, "ALL-OUT ASSAULT!" Their riggings and eyes glow red and their VLS missiles all launch at once. Belfast calls out, "Lady Spee, retreat!"

Spee stuns Tester by breaking her nose and backs off, leaving the Siren dazed as she aims her guns at the two Maids. "Haha! What's wrong!? Giving up? I could destroy your human fleet in a heartbeat!"

"If you could, you would have done so already." Belfast says as she and Sheffield fire their new weapons, including their Phalanx CIWS turrets and their single barrelled Mk. 45 naval guns in the forms of pistols to focus Tester's shields to cover the front of herself.

Sheffield observes hers and Belfast's missiles circling around undetected by the Siren and counters, "Do you hear that, pest?"

"Huh? Hear what?" Tester asks.

"The ringing of your death knell." Sheffield coldly answers right before the combined missile barrage rains down on the surprised Siren Elite, exploding her rigging and launching her past the Maids and into the wall.

While Belfast and Sheffield run over to help up Hood, Graf Spee walks over to see what remains of Tester while the human fleet continues bombarding the tough armour of the Siren stronghold. She looks through the smoke made from Tester bringing the wall down when she hit it. She thinks she sees a pair of glowing eyes and another light getting brighter…

Spee only just manages to roll out of the way of a massive plasma beam that instead continues on and hits a massive Eagle Union Carrier in the human fleet, presumably their flagship. The damage doesn't seem too severe.

Expecting to see Tester again back on her feet, the Kansen all instead hear the maniacal laughter of Purifier as she walks out of the smoke doing stretches in a rather provocative manner. "Aahhhh…. Ya know, I may have been barely awake, but I still felt it when you used me as a shield earlier, and I gotta say, if ya wanted to do some kinky electroshock and tentacle stuff, ya could've asked for my consent first."

"What…?" Spee asks, blushing slightly.

The crazy Siren charges up her cannon again, "But because ya didn't, I gotta punish you now, so stay still and take it, naughty girl! HAHAHAHA!" She fires again, making Spee dodge again while the Maids and Hood try to get into better positions. Luckily this time she didn't end up hitting another Azur Lane ship down below.

On board the stricken Carrier of the human fleet, the Eagle Union Admiral grabs the radio and demands, "Damage report!"

"The flight deck took a plasma beam, sir, but the distance it was fired from caused it to deal minimal damage, sir!" An ensign responds immediately.

The Admiral grits his teeth, "Are the aircraft catapults still operational?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Then let's start using them and get our damn fighters up now!" The Admiral demands.

"Relaying the order now, sir!" The ensign grabs the radio and calls the flight crews and pilots to battlestations.

The Carrier the Admiral commands is a rather old one for her time, and her Kansen was lost long ago, along so many others. Having converted her systems to be useable by humans crews again, the Carrier now feels soulless, but by no means lifeless as the squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35 Lightning IIs as well as their pilots get ready to launch. Hooked up to the catapults, the planes race past the massive numbers written on the bow-end of the flight deck and take to the skies to intercept the Siren aircraft and drop their bombs on the base to try and disable the plasma turrets and SAM launchers, and hopefully put a hole in the fortress itself.

Inside the base, Wales sits and focuses. She looks to her own little version of Zero, "TB, can you try to establish a link with your other self again?"

The little hologram flickers and says, "With the fortress under such heavy stress fighting off the relentless human assault, the blockers have had their power diverted to base defences. Establishing link to the version of myself used by the Azur Lane Combined Resistance Fleet. Connecting to flagship…"

"Wait, the Azur Lane… what?"

The version of TB the Admiral works with appears and flickers dramatically. She says, "Admiral, I'm detecting a version of myself communicating from within the facility."

The grizzled veteran looks at her, "Observer Zero!?"

"Negative. This one appears to be identical to myself, except with less data." TB corrects him.

"Then what's the point of reaching out to you?" The Admiral demands.

His TB replies, "Her small amount of data may be far more crucial than the vast amount of data I hold combined."

The Admiral chastises, "I do not trust "maybe"s, TB. Operation Siren was a complete failure because of "maybe"s. Confirm the data is reliable and allow her to join with you if so."

"Affirmative. Accepting connection now."

"Miss Wales, I have successfully connected with my other self. Your ship appears to be in their fleet." The smaller TB says.

Wales looks at her, "… my ship…?"

One of the other Carriers in the human fleet suddenly comes to life on its own, wrenching away control of all of its own systems and starts shooting down Siren aircraft with its Phalanx CIWS with far better accuracy than before, much to the shock of the crew on board, but nowhere near as shocking as multiple F-35s appearing on the flight deck and taking off with their VTOL capabilities and no pilots. The Royal Navy Captain of the ship gasps, "It… it can't be…" he looks at the fortress, "Is… is she awake in there…?"

Wales chuckles to herself and whispers, "I know not who you are, Captain of my ship, but I will lend my aid." She has her eyes closed and sees the battle through her equipment and planes. "This power… it feels familiar… yet why can I not remember…? Why am I a Carrier…?"

The Captain radios, "This is HMS Prince of Wales to Queen Elizabeth and Warspite, do you read me?"

"Affirmative, Captain!" The commanding officers of the two respective ships respond.

"I believe Prince of Wales herself is awake inside that facility! The intel is right, the girls are in there! She's taken control of her ship again!" The Captain claims.

A female voice from another Royal ship eagerly asks, "Does that mean the Grand Old Lady and the Queen herself are in there, too!?"

Another female voice responds, "Calm yourself, little sister. If they are in there, they'll need our help, so don't get carried away."

Listening in on the radio, the Admiral stares at the fortress. "…How is that possible…?" He whispers to himself, ignoring the excited chatter amongst the crews of the Royal Navy ships. "I thought the Sirens severed their connections to their ships…"

The ensign from before calls out, "Sir! Do you think… she… is in there, too?"

"The Kansen for our ship? We can only hope so, son." The Admiral replies. He thinks he sees something on top of the fortress. He grabs his binoculars. "My God… it's really them…"

Having outmanoeuvred the Maids and their missiles, Purifier picks them both up by their necks and slams them through a wall, knocking them both out and she has injured Spee, who struggles to stand on her now broken leg. The Siren then shrugs off a volley from Hood, speeds at her and decks the Battlecruiser. She pins Hood down with a foot to the neck and aims her cannon at the Kansen's face, charging it. She sighs and appears to be genuinely sorrowful for a second. "Ya know, you girls are all so pretty. It's a shame I have to kill you all now, but you shoulda just submitted to me like the good little test subjects you are… we coulda had so much fun… having two sexy maids like those two at my feet like they are with you lot sounds so hot…"

Noticing her regretful tone, Hood manages to say, "You… don't have to be like this, Purifer…. It's not too late for you… don't do this. You can… be so much more… you can… be better… come… with us…"

Purifer, not being nearly as strong-minded as her peers, actually starts debating what's she's doing, but remembers that Hood had taken out Zero herself earlier and increases pressure on the Kansen's neck, choking her, "Stop trying to get in my head! Stop trying to bullshit me! You'd kill me the second you get the chance!" Her cannon is fully charged and she says, "Time to die, bitch!"

Hood closes her eyes tight and struggles against the Siren's slender but strong leg until she's saved by the last person she was ever expecting.

Bismarck grabs Purifer by the neck, lifts her off of Hood and grabs her plasma cannon. Just as it fires, Bismarck aims it into Purifier's own rigging, melting it off her back and causing her debilitating agony, making her scream. After a while of dangling from her hair, the Siren smirks and says, "So… you like it… rough, huh…?"

Wide-eyed, Hood can only stare in awe and admiration as Bismarck answers, "Du widerst mich an." And then slams the Siren Elite to the wall face-first, neutralising her. She then walks over to Hood and says, "Are you injured, Frau Hood?"

Hood snaps out of it and shakes her head. She grabs her hand and is helped up. "I'll live. We must check on Lady Spee and the Maids."

"I'll get Spee." Bismarck nods before heading over to the Iron Blood Cruiser who also watched Bismarck obliterate Purifier.

Spee says, "Just a broken shin, Lord Bismarck. Please check on the Dienstmädchen…"

Sheffield regains her bearings. For some reason, neither she nor Belfast woke up again in the simulation. Perhaps due to them not being fully out? She looks up at Bismarck, who asks, "Are you alright, Frau Sheffield?"

The Royal Cruiser nods, "Yes, Ma'am. I'm not certain that Her Majesty's order to serve you extends to the real world, but I shall not risk disobeying her."

"Can you walk?" Bismarck asks.

"Yes, I think so…" she's helped up as Hood helps Belfast stand after their own little exchange. Sheffield mutters, "I'm getting rather tired of having my face smashed through solid surfaces, I must say." As she nurses her bruised cheek. Her hull armour seems a lot tougher now, which is represented through her increased durability.

Bismarck sighs, "You'll hold that over me forever, won't you?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Sheffield responds with no emotion as usual, making Belfast let out a soft giggle.

Hood asks, "Do I even want to know?"

Bismarck answers, "I'm sure she will tell you sooner or later…" Bismarck walks back over to Spee and helps her stand. "On your feet, soldatin."

Wales emerges from inside the base at last. She sees Hood all beaten up and rushes to her, "Hood! Are you alright!? How hurt are you?"

Hood smiles at her and says, "I'm fine, Wales. Lady Bismarck saved my life."

Wales looks at Bismarck and smiles, "You have my gratitude, Bismarck. Now, where are the Sirens you beat? Purifier raced past me here earlier. I'm honestly surprised she didn't see me."

"Tester is over there in the corner and Purifier is right there." Bismarck points to the two defeated Elites.

"Alright, get the injured to the medical room and I'll join you soon." Wales says. The others go back inside and Wales looks down from the high up platform of the base and sees her new ship. Or is it new? "I… feel like I can remember… but I cannot… when did I get a new ship…?" She shakes her head. It would be best not to turn her ship to rigging while h7mans are aboard it. She instead switches her focus to picking up the bodies of Purifier and Tester…

Now that the fighting had died down as all the Siren Elites of the facility were not able to direct the mass-produced units, the human fleet surrounds the base looking for a way in. They search for a whole day before deciding to try and blast their way in. Wales works on Tester and Purifier's "brains." Working with them is a lot easier this way, she thinks. She tries to ignore the feeling of some of her human crew members trying to get control of her ship back.

A ringing in the ears is all that Petropavlovsk can hear as she looks around at her destroyed bridge. She pulls herself away from a fire before it spreads towards her. She realises there's a large piece of shrapnel embedded in her thigh. Pulling herself up by a shattered window frame, she looks out to see that her ship had beached itself after she was knocked out by the bomb on her bridge. She looks over the ship and sees that she's been severely damaged. "Yebat'…"

Unable to do much, she waited for Iron Bloods to board her ship and kick open her bridge door. However, it didn't happen. She looked out at Leningrad now that the siege had died down for now, but she doesn't see any Iron Blood banners and the Northern Parliament forces are scrambling to get more defences up.

"They… they didn't even try to take the city…?"

Just then, someone actually did open her bridge door, but it was a NP soldier. He helps her up and says, "Skuchat' Petropavlovsk! We need to get you some medical help!"

"My ship… my ship is unable to fight…" the former Iron Blood says dejectedly.

"It's alright. We can start repairs until the Iron Bloods return." The soldier tries to console her.

"What? They're coming back?"

"Da. It seems they don't even want to take the city. They just want to kill us all…"

3 more days pass and the Azur Lane fleet sends its new Kansen to try and blast open the fortress. The two sisters that spoke before stand with their other 4 siblings.

The name ship of the bunch orders, "Daring-class, take aim and concentrate fire on that point!" She aims a laser at the wall. "Ready? Fire!"

They all fire their Mark 8 naval guns and missiles into the wall.

Standing with her arms crossed, an Eagle Union Kansen rolls her eyes and scoffs, "They think that is firepower?"

One of her older sisters says, "You're just still salty you got your ass kicked by the Sirens in that last encounter, Sampson."

"Oh, get fucked, Barry! We're not exactly meant to fight aliens!" Sampson yells.

"Both of you, can it! Barry, stop trying to start fights. Sampson, for the last time, the Sirens aren't aliens, and fighting them is exactly what we were Awaken for. Got it?" The eldest sister scolds them.

Both her younger siblings pout and say, "…Yes, Arleigh Burke…"

"Good, now instead of mocking our allies, why don't you two go help them and demonstrate for them just how much more powerful you are?" Arleigh-Burke smirks. Reluctantly, her two cocky siblings go and help the Daring sisters.

Sheffield and Belfast are still sat in the medical bay of the base pressing ice packs on their cheeks where they impacted the wall face first. Even though it happened days ago, the pain still hasn't gone away.

"Bloody hell, if we were human, we wouldn't even have our heads anymore…" Sheffield mutters.

"Indeed, Miss Sheffield. It is rather fortunate that humans don't attempt to fight Siren Elites hand-to-hand." Belfast agrees.

Hood looks after them. She smiles and says, "Even so, neither if you are invincible, even with your new riggings. You should both still prioritise making sure you can survive an encounter over winning it."

"Yes, Ma'am." Both Maids say in unison.

Hood asks, "How are things in the simulation while you've been sleeping here?"

Belfast smiles, "Commander Victory has been working to make sure the Iron Bloods still in there don't gain an advantage. The Northern Parliament is holding on and one of their Cruisers has been giving Iron Blood quite a fight."

Sheffield adds, "The Sakura Empire is still conquering Southeast Asia and the Philippene Islands remain firmly in their grasp. The Eagle Union remains neutral and are still hunting Sirens."

Hood nods and sees Wales working with a troubled expression. She walks over and sits down on the opposite side of the table to her, "What troubles you, my love?"

Wales smiles at her. It seems her world brightens whenever Hood is with her. She replies, "I'm just worried about the state of this world. The Sirens seem far more powerful than we've ever seen them before. We're lucky that Sheffield and Belfast seem to have new ships. Also, TB here called Azur Lane a "Resistance Fleet." Resistance means a force fighting against a superior enemy. Also, whatever time we are in, it's clearly after 1941. Far after, and if the war is over, the Allies won, as most of the human fleet trying to get in here are Eagle Union and Royal Navy, so how has the side that defeated the Nazis and quite possibly the Sakura Empire fall so greatly to the same enemy that we've been fighting at the same time? Surely we could focus all of our attention on the Sirens, especially after having the power of the Crimson Axis alongside us?"

"The Sirens have always been superior to us, Wales. It takes multiple Kansen to defeat a single Siren Elite, remember? I imagine they were just trying to experiment with the War, rather than trying to win, and now that we can focus on them, they can have a proper fight." Hood reminds her.

"Well, yes, but I don't think Azur Lane has ever been called a Resistance. I fear that humanity has already lost to them, because the Sirens somehow captured all of us, preventing us from helping them. I think that fleet outside is all that remains of Azur Lane. We need to find a way to get everyone up and out of that damn simulation right now." Wales explains.

Before Hood can suggest anything, TB appears, "May I suggest using Observer Zero's admin privileges to wake up all Kansen not currently participating in the simulation? Also, if you wish to know the history of what happened to humanity and the Kansen, my other self knows everything."

Wales and Hood slowly look at her. The former says, "…you can wake them up?"

"Affirmative. I have all of Observer Zero's admin privileges."

Hood says, "Well, then… do that, please."

"Affirmative. Waking up all Kansen not awake in the simulation and opening their pods." TB says before flickering.

Wales asks, "Thank you, TB, but are you able to just end the simulation and wake the rest up?"

TB shakes her head, "Negative. Observer Alpha is still in the simulation as well as the Cubes of the trapped Kansen. If the simulation were to end now, they would be deleted along with it."

"Good Lord…" Hood gasps. "They could've killed us all the whole time… so that's why the Commander kept Alpha alive…"

Wales shudders, "We need to make sure Alpha stays in the simulation as the amount of Kansen keeping her there decreases. We need to get the Kansen currently "alive" in there out ASAP."

"What about Doctors Anzeel and Fritz? Are they even real?" Hood asks.

TB interrupts and says, "Doctor Anzeel and Doctor Fritz are both real. Their bodies are being kept alongside Commander Victory."

They both look at the hologram much faster this time. Hood says, "And where is the Commander?"

"The Commander, Doctor Anzeel and Doctor Fritz are being held in a separate facility at what used to be Scapa Flow." TB informs them, bypassing all the restrictions in the Siren database that Wales couldn't access.

Hood asks, "If they're at the real Scapa Flow… then where are we?"

TB looks at her and says, "This location is what used to be Midway Atoll, given to the Sirens by the governments of the world alongside the Kansen to ensure peace between them and humanity."

Wales and Hood stare at each other processing the bomb TB just dropped on them. Having been quiet and listening from across the room, Bismarck suddenly storms over and puts her hands on the table and angrily demands, "THE HUMANS DID WHAT!?"

Stepping out of her pod, an Eagle Union Battleship runs her eyes after having slept for so long. She had not been needed in the simulation yet as it wasn't yet her time. She looks around and brushes her navy blue hair out of the way of her eyes. "…huh? Where… where am I…?" She summons her enormous rigging and wakes up a little more. She suddenly realises something and looks down, "…Where the heck are my clothes?"

The Azur Lane Kansen at long last manage to put a hole in the side of the Siren fortress. The younger Darings jump and cheer while the human-crewed landing ships start unloading SEALs who storm in and with the help of the modern Kansen they start fighting the lower-level humanoid Sirens that Hood and Wales blocked off from where their fellow shipgirls are all being held. The Admiral lights a cigar and says, "It's about damn time we got in there. Those idiots in charge made a huge mistake giving those girls up. We need them now more than we ever have." The ensign from before walks up and salutes. The Admiral looks at him and says, "Permission to speak, son."

The ensign puts his arm down and says, "Sir, you do realise this makes Azur Lane a terrorist organisation in the eyes of the world now that humanity has allied with the Sirens, sir?"

"I'd rather be branded a terrorist than shake the hands of any of those damn things. I can only hope you have the same feelings." The Admiral says after exhaling smoke.

"Sir, I agree, sir."

"Very good, son. Plus, we need those girls so they can take over their new ships. We were fools to think naming them after past ships with Kansen would create new girls. We need their experience." The Admiral says. The sailor salutes him again and returns to his post. The Admiral observes the massive hole in the fortress and says, "It's about damn time we get one up on these bastards…"

Wales hears some strange static in her ear. She asks her little version of Zero, "TB, is that a radio transmission I hear?"

"Affirmative. Would you like me to clean it up?" TB asks.

"Please and thank you." Wales smiles.

TB deadpans, "Your politeness is unnecessary, but nonetheless appreciated." Wales could swear she saw her smile very slightly, "Radio transmission cleared. It is from a friendly source. Patching you through now."

Wales listens and hears voice that sounds familiar, but she can't quite recognise it. "This is HMS Daring to any Kansen still alive in this facility! Can anyone hear me!?"

Wales responds, "Daring? This is Prince of Wales, I read you!"

"My God… it really is you, Miss Wales!? Where are you? We do not know the layout of this facility and we are under heavy fire from Siren forces!" Daring asks.

Wales, now with Hood listening in, says, "We are on the way back to the blockade we created! We will come to you!"

Daring gasps, "'We'? There are more of you alive and awake?"

Hood smiles and joins in with her radio, "This is Hood. It is nice to hear friendly voices in this place. Ladies Belfast, Sheffield, Bismarck, Graf Spee and Deutschland are with us also."

A moment of silence airs on the radio, with the exception of the sounds of plasma beams being fired from the humanoid Sirens. Daring then says, "…Lady Hood…?"

"Oi! Shipgirls! We're getting killed here!" A Navy SEAL yells out, snapping the Darings out of their moment of bewilderment.

"Oh, sorry!" Darings' youngest sister Duncan says as she joins back in with her elders.

"Pfft… stupid Brits…" Sampson snickers, unaware of her eldest sister glaring at her from behind.

Hood says directly to her, "I heard that, young lady. You may be more powerful but you're never too big for disciplinary action."

Sampson goes white, realising she's still on the same radio channel, "Oh shit…" before getting smacked on the back of the head by Arleigh-Burke.

"Get your ass back in the fight, idiot!" The eldest sister yells. The remaining humanoid Sirens are dealt with and they all move up. "Admiral, advancing further into the fortress. We've made contact with Prince of Wales and we are moving to meet her."

The Admiral replies, "Acknowledged, Burke. Keep me updated. TB, track them and use the data to map their route through the base."

"Affirmative." His AI helper says as she does just that.

Back in the simulation, Victory does what she can to make sure the virtual base keeps running so they can safely escape when they're able. She reads reports and the news to see what's going on in the world. Anything particularly strange could indicate the simulation acting up, so it's nerve-wracking, but nessecary.

"Hmm…" the Kansen Commander hums.

Nelson looks up, "What is it?"

"Iran's been successfully invaded. Looks like we and the Northern Parliament have a joint occupation." Victory informs her as she sips her tea.

Her Secretary scoffs, "Hard to believe they're losing ground to Iron Blood and still have forces to spare for operations like that…"

"I don't know how she does it, but Rossiya is one hell of a leader." Victory agrees.

In Brest, Z23 is called into Cilliax' office. She stands up straight before the Iron Blood Admiral and tries her best to not look at the very motherly FDG smiling softly at her and playing her music. "You called me in, Herr Admiral?"

Cilliax nods, "Ja. I need to give you a fair warning, Z23. I'm aware that you listen to foreign radio broadcasts often?"

"Jawohl! I do so in hopes of discovering any intel the enemy may accidentally—"

"It needs to stop." Cilliax interrupts her. "The Reich has just made doing so punishable by death."

Z23 stutters, "O… Oh… um… am I…?"

FDG chuckles, "Do not fret, my child. You are not in trouble. You just seem to have not known because, I assume, you listen to their broadcasts so often you stopped listening to Reich broadcasts. As long as you stay away from foreign broadcasts, you will be fine."

Z23 looks at her and says, "Jawohl, Mama… I mean… ugh…" she looks down in embarrassment.

Cilliax, understanding the feeling, nods, "Please don't make me have to report you listening to them, Z23. I would hate to lose such a reliable Zestörer."

Gaining her stoic professionalism back, Z23 stands up straight again and salutes her Admiral and marches back out. Cilliax looks up at FDG and asks, "How do you do that?"

"Do what, my child?" She teases.

"…Nevermind." Cilliax returns to his work. The RAF have been bombing his port less and less since FDG lended her aid to defend it alongside Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, who are both grateful for the extra AA cover, but still weary of her. The way she just appeared and became Cilliax' Secretary so quickly just doesn't sit right with them, but they wouldn't be able to do very much against her, even working together.

Prinz Eugen stands on her ship overseeing the repairs to her control centre. She keeps offering help so she can be ready faster. Her headache flares up again and she takes some medication for it. She's having to take multiple times the amount recommended for a human as she's used up all the dangerous Kansen-only ones that would kill a human. She groans and mutters, "This verdammt pain… ugh…" she holds her head. "Schwesters… please be alright…"

Hipper helps out Fritz and Anzeel in the lab after having shown she has interest in science like Bismarck, but she purely does it for her own self interest, of course. Definitely not to help the charming Dr. Fritz at all. Anzeel of course has already caught on to why, but she knows better than to incur her wrath. She simply glances over when Hipper seems enthusiastic to help and smiles. She thinks to herself, "At least she's happy…"

Deutschland finally wakes up in the Siren Fortress and finds herself being carried by Bismarck, who looks down at her and says, "It's about time, soldatin." She puts her down on her feet and says, "Come with us. We're meeting up with new allies."

The Cruiser falls in line and says, "New allies? Are they Iron Blood?"

Bismarck says, "I've been told some of them are. It's the Azur Lane fleet. Most of them are Eagle Union."

"Oh, great…" Deutschland rolls her eyes. "More tea-swiggers as well as burger-gorgers…"

Dragon pins down the last humanoid Siren and looks down at her. She growls, "Where are the veterans!?"

The Siren flares up at her and refuses to speak. When Dragon sees she won't get any information out of her, she breathes fire and melts the Siren's face off, making her scream as she dies.

Daring shakes her head, "Sister, is that really necessary?"

Dragon shrugs and replies, "She looked at me funny. I'm not funny."

Arleigh-Burke stands with Daring and asks, "So… this is the blockade Prince of Wales erected?"

Daring nods, "Sure seems like it. If the Sirens couldn't get through it, we'll really have to focus fire."

"Agreed. Everyone, stand back and aim for the centre! Wait for the order to fire!" Burke orders. Everyone does so and waits for the word. She radios, "Prince of Wales, this is Arleigh-Burke of the Eagle Union. The Sirens on our side are dealt with. We're about to start blowing apart the blockade."

"Roger that. We're ready this side as well. Commence firing!" Wales responds. Both sides blow apart the blockade until a hole appears. The youngest Daring sister, Duncan, runs up to peek through.

Wales is surprised to see the young shipgirl smiling through the hole. She says, "Hello there." She smiles back.

"Hiya, Miss Wales! We missed you!" Duncan says cheerfully.

"I'm sure you did, dear, now if you'd be so kind as to step back a bit so we can make this hole a bit bigger?" Wales kindly suggests.

"Oh! Yes, sorry!" Duncan backs up.

Wales yells through the hole, "Everyone stand back! Our big guns are about to fire!"

The modern Kansen all take cover. Bismarck, Spee, Deutschland and Hood ready their cannons and blast the remains of the blockade to bits. It all collapses and the girls all see each other. The Darings see both Hood and Bismarck stood with each other in confusion, but then they see Wales. They all bow to her.

"Lady Wales! It's an honour to see you again, and a relief to see you are unharmed!" Daring says.

Wales and Hood look at each other and back to her. Wales says, "Um… rise, Miss…?"

Daring and her sisters stand and she responds, "…Daring. Do you not remember?"

Wales informs, "I'm afraid not. None of us remember who you are. Any of you. It seems our memories were wiped, or at least blocked. I do apologise, but we don't remember a thing."

Remaining silent, Hood looks at their rescuers and details about all of them appear in her vision. Their names, class, factions, weapons, the condition of their hulls, their remaining ammunition and fuel, and most concerning, all their weaknesses. Along with that last detail, they're all lit up with red outlines and the word "ENEMY" next to them. She becomes very worried, but decides not to say anything at the moment.

Daring and Burke share a concerned look and the Eagle Union Destroyer says, "Well, we'll have to fill in the blanks, then. Are we able to wake up all the rest of you?"

Wales says, "TB says we can't wake them up until they "die" in the simulation they're all in. We've managed to wake up some of them, but only the ones that aren't active in there."

Duncan asks, "You have a TB too? Is she as cute as ours?"

"Wait, you mentioned a simulation?" Burke asks, ignoring her.

"Come with us, we'll show you." Hood says.

Upon seeing some Kansen in pods and viewing the simulation on screens through Siren spy drones, Arleigh-Burke starts using the computer Wales had used previously. "Huh… you're right… we can't get them out fully while they're stuck in there, but maybe if…"

Wales and Daring look at each other, wondering what the Eagle Union DDG is doing, until, "I got good news and bad."

Hood smiles, "Good news first please, we could use some good fortune, even for a little bit."

Burke nods, "Good news is that I found a way to manipulate the simulation so we can go straight to whatever time we need to save the Cubes of the Kansen that get sunk or scrapped in there."

Wales asks, "So what's the bad news?"

"Well, two bits of it, actually. First part is that at least one of us will have to go in there and explain to everyone what's going in without looking crazy. The second part is that girls that weren't sunk or scrapped since World War 2 won't be able to wake up, and the simulation will end itself when it reaches Operation Crossroads. Since there is no Observer Zero in charge to reset it, the simulation may delete them when it ends. On top of that, we can't go backwards to get them out before they've been Awoken in there."

Struggling to remember, Wales asks, "Wait… Crossroads? That sounds familiar…"

Bismarck chimes in, "More importantly, we had discovered the treachery against us that humanity had committed! I demand an explanation!"

Daring and Burke look at each other and back to them. They're about to answer, but the Admiral finally arrives with a SEAL Team as escorts. He says, "I'll answer that, Miss Bismarck. You all may want to take a seat for this…"