Thorson screamed through closed lips as his body struck the water feet first. The impact reverberated through his very bones as he tried to collect himself in the cool waters. His eyes stung and the world around him was a pitch black shroud of muffled explosions and the creaking of warships. He couldn't see the Sakura girl anywhere. As he thrashed underwater and panic began to set in, Thorson's deliverance arrived as the rest of the Yamashiro exploded above him. The shockwave pummeled his body but the angry orange light of the detonation granted him a fleeting moment of visibility in which he was able to locate a limp, slowly sinking figure just off to his right. With a colossal effort Thorson grabbed a hold of her, straining against gravity, their clothing, and the depths of the sea to finally break the surface of the water. He gasped desperately for air as two hands grabbed him by the shoulders of his uniform. He looked up and saw Downes staring back at him. He'd never been so thankful for the ability of his girls to skate on the water.
"Don't you ever, EVER do something like that again!" She yelled over the storm, dragging him and the unconscious Yamashiro over to the Laffey. Thorson spluttered, ridding his mouth of salt and rainwater.
"Didn't know you cared, Downes," he quipped, just happy to be alive and to have Yamashiro's head above water. The eldritch tendril pressing against his chest was another story though.
"What, you think just because I don't throw myself on you and casually proposition you for nap time or sex that I dont-" Downes yelled, as they hauled themselves aboard Thorson's other destroyer. As if to prove her point, Laffey arrived momentarily and made a beeline for Thorson, moving at great speed for the usually sleepy girl. The ship beneath them still moved with haste towards the island as she impacted at full force.
"Commander is cold from the ocean. Laffey must warm the Commander," she stated, nuzzling into his side as best she could.
"Laffey, now isn't the time. And we live in the tropics for God's sake! Get us to the base, now! The nearest dock to the labs, go!" Thorson ordered. Downes rolled her eyes but gave him a quick hug before departing.
"You'd better make some time for all of us after making us worry like that," she warned, hopping off the Laffey and into the water without another word so she could return to her own ship.
"We'll see, Downes. We'll be blessed if we get any time at all," Thorson whispered, collecting Yamashiro in a bridal carry and moving towards the bridge. He could feel Laffey kicking the ship into high gear beneath him.
"Diverting all power to engines," she informed him, her guns and sensory equipment powering down and shifting to resting positions. "Is the Sakura girl alright? She has a large chest. Laffey is jealous."
Thorson tried to ignore Laffey's perpetual dichotomy of airheaded bunny and competent sailor as he laid Yamashiro down and checked her vitals. He couldn't feel any life in her wrists and even her carotid pulse was weak and slow. He didn't dare risk removing whatever it was that had burrowed deep into her spine. "She's not doing well, Laffey. Can you get me the radio?"
Laffey complied with his request and he hailed his ships. "This is Commander Thorson. Pennsylvania, Tennessee, you two there?"
"Damn good to hear your voice, sir. What are your orders?" Pennsylvania replied immediately.
"I need you to take the other Sakura prisoner. She's complied with all orders so far, so show her mercy if you can. You have discretion in how to deal with her. Tennessee, take the cruisers and Downes and make sure that Sakura battlegroup is in full retreat."
"Yes sir. Alright girls, form up on me and keep your eyes peeled," Tennessee ordered, increasing her speed and turning for the open ocean. Finally, Thorson radioed the base.
"Shiranui, what's the situation there?"
"Things are quiet, Shikikan. What of the battleships?"
"One of them is on the brink of death. Make sure Akashi is ready with the matrix," Thorson ordered, looking down at Yamashiro's pale face. The pain was gone, but that was of no comfort to him. She's so innocent, he couldn't help but think as Shiranui acknowledged his command.
"Understood. I'll be there."
There was nothing left for Thorson to do but wait, he and Laffey sharing silent and worried looks as the lights of the base drew closer and closer. The few minutes felt like an eternity but eventually they did arrive at the docks. Laffey had barely docked by the time Thorson had carried Yamashiro onto the deck. "Not you too...don't let me lose another one," Thorson muttered, unable to dispel the eerie similarities between the girl in his arms and Arizona. He cast a fleeting thought towards Pennsylvania and the other sister before sprinting to the labs.
Fusou turned to the door of her bridge, finding a beautiful and imposing Union battleship staring back at her.
"I'm here to formally accept your surrender on behalf of Commander Andrew Thorson," she stated firmly.
"Where is my sister?! Is she alright?"
Pennsylvania frowned at the shrine maiden before her. She was a pretty thing in a floral black and azure kimono, her disheveled hair adorned by a pin of teal butterflies.
"You're the older?"
"Uh...yes?" Fusou replied, caught off guard as the battle maiden before her pointed two of her rigging batteries away from her head, a token sign of peace.
"Were you at Pearl Harbor?"
"No."
"Then I'll save my anger. Your sister isn't doing well," Pennsylvania admitted, watching as tears formed in the young woman's deep blue eyes. "She survived her ship's destruction and is on one of our destroyers. Our Commander will do what he can for her, I'm sure."
"Oh Yamashiro…" Fusou bemoaned her sister's fate as Pennsylvania approached her.
"I lost my sister at Pearl Harbor. Don't make me kill you," she pleaded. Fusou nodded, kneeling and bowing her head as a sign of surrender. "By the fates, what the hell is that?!"
"I wish you'd gone to help my sister. This thing will likely kill me anyway. I can't fight it much longer," Fusou admitted as Penny recoiled from the writhing black mass on the back of the shrine maiden's neck. If there was such thing as evil incarnate, the Union battleship was sure she was looking at it. It seemed to be searching for something, though it recoiled as Pennsylvania pointed her guns at it.
"Don't like me, do you? At least you know who to fear. We're getting off this ship now. If that thing hates the Union, I want it surrounded by us. Move, now. I'm taking you to the base."
"Will I be able to see Yamashiro?"
"If you behave. Let's go."
When Penny entered the labs, walking behind Fusou with her guns drawn, she happened upon a scene of chaos. Bulins were running about everywhere or hiding in their hammocks. Thorson was pacing back and forth in front of the conductive matrix as Akashi labored at her work station, the telltale glow of a wisdom cube lighting her profile. Shiranui was standing guard, floating above a shriveled piece of nightmare that looked disturbingly similar to whatever was infecting Fusou. The thing was lying in a pool of blood next to a kimono that matched Fusou's perfectly, save for its golden accents.
"Yamashiro!" The shipgirl wailed, bringing a halt to the activity in the large building as Thorson turned quickly to face them. Pennsylvania knew immediately from the look in his eyes. Something perverse inside of her found the pain attractive. It called to her own.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "But we need to take care of you now." Pennsylvania growled and grabbed Fusou by the arm as the shrine maiden's knees gave way. "Oh no you don't! You don't get to just give up and cry, not when the Commander and the rest of us put our asses on the line to save you both. Tennessee and the others are still out there so get up and let's make sure you don't die to this creepy fucking siren shit. I refuse to suffer alone in this world. Now move!"
Fusou swallowed her protests and walked forward with Pennsylvania's help, crying freely as she passed Yamashiro's kimono. Her younger sister was suspended in the conductive matrix, the tint of blood in the water as her naked body floated listlessly. Thorson looked as haggard as Pennsylvania had ever seen him, still soaked from the ocean. "Commander, her shard is corrupted."
"Understood Pennsylvania. I'm sorry, Fusou. We tried. She's not taking to the cubes in the matrix."
"The hell is that thing, Commander?"
"Some sort of corrupt tether," Thorson answered. "It detached the moment she died; damn thing was connected all the way down to her lumbar spine and had her attached to the ship itself."
"Explains the blood. This one's still fighting it. Can you do anything?" Penny asked. Thorson shook his head.
"I don't know. The other one was fixed so deep I might kill Fusou if I removed hers. It was a part of Yamashiro by that point."
"Then Shikikan must push instead of pull, nyaa! Make her your ship!" Akashi interjected, turning from her work station and bowing. "Akashi had a feeling that Fusou-san and Yamashiro-san would come here someday. We are not giving up, so neither should you, nyaa!" The minty kitty had a pair of googles over her eyes and had as many tools in her hands as fingers. "Akashi was making shards for Yamashiro-san, but Shikikan should use them for Fusou-san instead."
"I don't understand…" Fusou sobbed, unable to take her eyes off of her sister's body.
"If I understand correctly, and I may not be," Thorson admitted freely. "Akashi is saying that the shard is a mark of servitude and that if you choose to serve me it might purge the siren taint from yours."
"It's you…" Fusou whispered, finally taking a good look at Thorson.
"I'm sorry?" He requested, running a hand through his hair as the siren war continued to confuse and strain his mind.
"When they were forcing us into the tanks I remember them talking to one of the sirens. You're the Knight, the one collecting pawns," Fusou whispered.
Thorson shook his head and exhaled in frustration, trying to ignore the dead battleship floating to his left. "I don't know what I am, but it's worth a shot Akashi. How official should I make this?"
"Lay it on thick, nyaa!" Akashi advised, presenting the shards to Fusou on bended knee, a gesture that wasn't missed by Thorson. He thought he was beginning to understand why Shiranui had been so insistent that he attempt to save those two.
"Take the shards and swear your allegiance to me and my cause, then," Thorson commanded, feeling frankly ridiculous but far too tired and worn down to protest. Fusou took them and held them to her buxom chest, kneeling before him. He could tell she was in pain, fighting valiantly to control the taint in her shard.
"I, Fusou, shrine maiden and servant of the gods and spirits, battleship of the Sakura Empire, and elder sister of Yamashiro pledge myself to Commander Thorson of the Union. I do so in the hopes that he will use me as his divine instrument, a cleansing force to destroy the evil that has poisoned my people. May the gods have mercy on us all."
"I accept your offer. Activate your rigging now," Thorson ordered, watching with satisfaction as Fusou gasped and absorbed the shards before doubling over and shaking. The evil pustule on her back shrieked and was consumed by fire as a miniature Pagoda bridge and four double barrel turrets came into existence. The look of relief on Fusou's face was palpable.
"Please tono-sama, let me try to save her!" Fusou pleaded with him, not taking any time to appreciate her freedom.
"The hell does that mean?" Pennsylvania asked.
"Your Shikikan is my master now, my Lord," Fusou replied simply before entreating Thorson again. "Please."
Thorson eventually nodded, unsure what else he could do. Yamashiro had already perished. It wasn't like Fusou could to any more harm. "What do you plan to do?"
"Give her a new purpose and see if her cube will sing again. No matter the outcome I will fight for you, tono-sama." With that promise Fusou stepped into the other chamber of the matrix and closed her eyes, the machine quickly filling with water. Thorson and everyone else watched as Tennessee and her crew finally made their appearance, the girls joining them to watch the spectacle unfold.
"We need to talk, Commander," Tennessee warned him. He nodded silently. "And do I even want to know what in the name of my main batteries is going on here?"
"The younger sister died. The older one is trying to bring her back," Thorson reported tersely, his tired tone indicating exactly what he thought of the chances of success.
"Seriously? I'll be waiting in the command office then. The main force is in full retreat. Penny, you coming?"
"No Tennessee, you go on ahead," the other battleship responded, staring unflinchingly at the conductive matrix. Yamashiro's body remained unmoving, but Fusou was relatively animated, her brow furrowing as she reached out for her sister.
"Yeah, whatever," Tennessee replied, turning on her heel and departing, watched by the rest of Thorson's fleet.
"Commander!" Downes demanded his attention, pointing at Yamashiro. Portland and the others all turned as well. "I think...I think I saw something."
Thorson approached the matrix, resting his palm on the glass and watching Yamashiro's face for any signs of life. He didn't want to fool himself, didn't want to hold out hope just because of all the effort he and his fleet had put in, but the muscles of her face did appear to be twitching minutely. "My God...it can't be."
"Commander...Commander!" Pennsylvania gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as Yamashiro's body stirred and animated, drawing the attention of even Shiranui, who floated over to directly observe the goings on, her normally disinterested eyes glinting with life. As the water drained from the matrix and the glass opened Pennsylvania turned and ran, sprinting for the door and the stormy night beyond. Thorson grabbed Yamashiro as she stumbled out of the machine, weak and frail but miraculously alive. The wounds on her back had been healed. Fusou followed soon after.
"Nee-chan!"
"Nee...san," Yamashiro gasped, looking between her and Thorson as Shiranui draped the girl's kimono over her pale, curvaceous body. Thorson slowly transferred Yamashiro to Fusou's hold.
"I don't anticipate any trouble," he told Cleveland and company. "But should it arise, come find me or handle it yourselves. I have faith in you lot."
"Go after Penny. We will be fine," Indy agreed. "We will put them to bed, establish a watch cycle, and then retire." Portland nodded in agreement, holding her hands together and smiling as the Sakura sisters wept in happiness after their ordeal.
"Thank you all. Shiranui, lock that siren tissue up somewhere for further study...tightly. Dismissed."
After a long search, Thorson finally found Pennsylvania halfway up the slope behind the command office. She'd given up and sat at the side of the trail in despair, drenched from head to toe.
"It's not fair! Why?" Pennsylvania demanded of him, her head in her hands as she cried. "Why does she get her sister back? Why?!"
"Penny," Thorson murmured, kneeling at her side as the proud battleship sought him out for comfort and broke down.
"I miss her. I miss her so damn much!"
"Why do you think I came to find you?" Thorson asked, stroking her head and returning her desperate embrace. "I think this is the best chance we'll ever get. You saw it with your own eyes, just like I did. I'm willing to take the risk."
"Andrew?" Pennsylvania asked, looking him in the eyes, looking for anything to confirm that he was talking about what she thought he was. Her raven hair clung to her face as drops of rain ran down her neck. "Don't give me that kind of hope if you don't mean it."
"I'm as serious as I've ever been, Pennsylvania. I want to bring her back."
He could tell she was scared, they both were. It was easier to wait and leave the question open forever than to try, fail, and be forced to give up hope. To take the risk was to possibly end Arizona for good. Penny was afraid, just as afraid as he was. He had never felt as close to her as he did in that moment. Finally someone else felt the fears that gnawed at him constantly.
"Andrew…" with tears in her eyes Pennsylvania reached for him. He took her hand in his as it rested against his cheek and kissed her. It was soft and chaste; a promise only that they would walk the road together, and no matter what laid at the end they would suffer together. Her lips softened for just a moment as they moved against his. She'd never felt so alive. "I'm ready."
"Then let's go," Thorson said, helping to her feet. The two of them made for the command office as fast as they could in the night, hand in hand as the earth under their feet shifted in the rains. They found Tennessee there.
"I don't want to know," she said immediately as Thorson bolted for his office to retrieve Arizona's cubes. "Commander, I need to make a report."
"Then do so," he replied, returning with a pale, purple glow emanating from his fist.
"I think this was a front," Tennessee warned, pointing at the golden fins that protruded from her temples when her rigging was active. "It's impossible because of the storm but I sensed...something out there."
Thorson looked between his two battleships. "You're sure?"
"No. And that's why I'm telling you."
"Damn. Best not assume then. Is there anything you can tell me, Tennessee?" Thorson demanded, upset to have been waylaid but understanding the importance of a potential enemy in hiding.
"No sir, I'm sorry. I'll continue to monitor," Tennessee promised. "With your permission, sir?"
"Granted. Get some rest and remain vigilant. Inform the other Union girls and tell them to keep their rigging active as much as possible. Thank you, Tennessee."
At his word the battleship saluted and headed for the door, casting a final glance at Pennsylvania. "I gave up on miracles long ago, Penny. I hope you prove me wrong."
Pennsylvania remained silent, nodding to her companion as Tennessee left them. She looked at Thorson. "I feel like my cube is going to explode."
"Then let's go channel that energy to something useful," Thorson replied. As they passed the dormitory he saw that the collection of shoes had expanded yet again. "Tomorrow is going to be quite the event."
"We can worry about that when the sun rises. We have the firepower," Pennsylvania promised.
"With luck we'll have another sixteen guns on our side, any maybe even Arizona's twelve," Thorson said as his boots slapped against the concrete steps. He idly wondered if he'd spent more time wet than dry since leaving Hawaii.
"If you pull this off I'll fight for you forever," Penny promised.
"If we pull this off it will be thanks to you. I'm not the one who has to get into that machine and force the dead back to life," Thorson deferred. They arrived at the docks and he let them into the labs, the place left dark and eerie as only the glow of the wisdom cube cache lit the large warehouse. The bulins had finally gotten a chance to retire after the excitement of the evening. Without fanfare Thorson walked to the matrix and activated it, placing Arizona's cubes in one chamber as Pennsylvania looked over the wisdom cubes, some of them having been acquired that very night from the pursuit fleet.
"This is harder than I thought it would be," she murmured, feeling the energies mixing and mingling together just under her fingertips. "Which of you would she like the most?"
Thorson waited patiently as Pennsylvania selected four cubes, looking at him tentatively. "I'd use them all if it meant bringing her back," he affirmed, flashes of the dying battleship poisoning his mind. He wanted so desperately to undo the helplessness of his past. "I trust you."
"Thank you for everything, Commander. I'm going," Pennsylvania affirmed, placing the cubes in the hopper and stepping into the chamber that Fusou had used but an hour before. Thorson stood before her as the door closed
"I don't think just wishing will be enough. Give her a new purpose, Pennsylvania," he ordered, resting his hand against hers. They were only separated by the glass of the matrix. She nodded just before her head was enveloped by the water, leaving Thorson with nothing to do but watch and wait. The Commander pulled up an old oil barrel, long empty thanks to the bulins, and sat down against it, finally allowing himself a moment of peace after the night of stress, victory, and terror. He considered closing his eyes to try for a rest, to bury that sense of hopelessness that grew every moment the matrix remained unmoving; that was until Arizona's cubes thrummed faintly and began to float up from the metallic base of the machine. Thorson sat bolt upright.
"Penny...you got this!" He murmured, watching as a sleepy 'buli' came from behind him, the denizens of the labs curious as to what was disturbing their home. Thorson's wonder multiplied and rendered him speechless as Arizona's cubes rose and circled one another before coming to rest level with Pennsylvania's heart. The human watched awestruck as nerves and bone began to grow from them, drawing on the power of the other cubes. Muscle and sinew, fat and skin came next. Before his eyes the body of Arizona took form, literally willed into existence by her sister. All that remained was the spark of life. "C'mon...give her something. All I could do was keep her from dying. Let her live!" Thorson pleaded.
The Commander lost track of time as he watched Pennsylvania and her sister, wondering what sort of the connection the two shared, what sort of thoughts or experiences Pennsylvania was trying to impart. The cubes remained a mystery to him, but he was starting to form patterns in his mind, the Knight and the pawns, command and control, master and servants, soldier and weapons. Men and women. "By God…ARIZONA!" Thorson cried, running forward as Pennsylvania terminated the operation and the matrix started to drain. For a brief, blissful moment Thorson held her again. Then she screamed.
"Commander!" Pennsylvania called in panic, reaching for her sister as she knelt beside them and Thorson transferred Arizona to her. "Arizona, sis, c'mon, speak to me!"
"Where, what? Penny? Penny it hurts. Please the blood, I'm going to die!" Arizona pleaded, her fearful teal eyes darting everywhere as she struggled in Pennsylvania's hold while Thorson stood back and tried to think, his breathing coming quick and shallow. It was Pearl Harbor all over again. She was still there, right where she'd died in his arms.
"Ari, there's nothing wrong with you. You're back! You're alive!"
"Penny please, help me. Help me!" The younger sister cried, gripping Pennsylvania's uniform for dear life. The elder sibling turned to Thorson, more fear in her eyes than he'd ever seen in the face of the enemy.
"I did all I could...I showed her everything, what I've pledged to you. How much I want her back. Commander…" Penny implored, cradling her sister to her as Arizona gripped tightly at her own abdomen. Something clicked in Thorson's head.
The wound, he thought, rummaging through Akashi's tools as the bulins found themselves hiding again from yet another fraught commotion in their home. He found what he was looking for and turned back. "Pennsylvania, cover her eyes," he ordered sternly.
The battleship saw the screwdriver in his hand. "What are you doing, Commander?!"
"I said cover her eyes. I'm ending this," he said with steel in his voice, trying to keep the charade together. He watched as Arizona's terrified eyes found him at last. "It'll all be over soon," he promised. "I'm sorry for trying to play God."
"NO!" Penny roared, activating her rigging as Thorson lunged and stabbed Arizona in the gut, right where the shrapnel had mortally wounded her back in Hawaii. In Arizona's fear and Pennsylvania's rage, neither had watched the sleight of hand as Thorson spun the tool at the last minute, delivering a painful but ultimately harmless punch to Arizona's abdomen in the hopes that new pain would override and reset the old. She choked and gasped as her sister rose and threatened Thorson, guns drawn. "You...you...I trusted you!" She roared, preparing to fire. Thorson stared her down.
"And I haven't betrayed you," he asserted seriously.
"You dare-"
"Penny?" The elder sister stopped cold as perfect, pale fingers grasped the hem of her skirt. "Penny is it really you? What are those guns? That...really hurt."
"A-Ari?" Pennsylvania gasped, allowing her rigging to fade into nothing as she turned to find her sister looking up at her, naked and flushed with exertion and embarrassment, but otherwise alive. "Oh my God. Oh my God, sis!"
"How? I remember smoke and fire, and a man. Thorson, maybe? I think that was his name. But then there was nothing and now...was it a dream? Am I dreaming? I still can't see very well. Where are we?"
"No, no Arizona you're alive! We're at war and you're alive! Oh my God, oh my God it's really you! I thought I'd never have the chance to say goodbye or anything," Pennsylvania cried, hugging her sister as tightly as she could without hurting the girl. "You'll be alright, you'll see. We're on a tropical island base. We have food and water and shelter and a Commander that treats us like equals. We'll get you some clothes and find you a place to sleep, you big softie."
"Who...who is he? The one you showed me?" Arizona asked, still dazed after her awakening. She could faintly hear something that sounded like 'buli' from the dark corners of the building as Pennsylvania answered her.
"The one who saved your cubes and helped me bring you back. Commander Thorson, you have to-" Pennsylvania fell silent as she looked up from Arizona and tried to locate Thorson, but the Commander was nowhere to be found. The bulins aside, she and her sister were utterly alone.
"Penny?" Arizona asked in confusion. The elder sister just stroked her hair, caressed her face, and did everything she could to commit to existence that her sister lived.
"Just stay with me, Ari. Stay by my side for now."
"Wherever I was, I missed you Penny."
"I missed you too, sis."
In the jungles beyond the labs, far from the dorms and his ships, Andrew Thorson looked to the sky, called to the fates that had entangled him in a war far beyond his comprehension, and yelled until his voice left him.