Skully Islands Archipelago, Spring Sea.

"We've got a hefty trophy here, boys. Don't slip up now." The voice of Cocoon 1 sounds over the radio. The Usean Allied Forces may now control the Spring Sea again, but the ace squadron won't back down without a fight with Phoenix.

One of her wingmen responds, "Roger. We'll defend our Queen to the death."

"Cocoon Squadron, head out!" The woman orders.

Scarface Squadron have been hunting them in the area to fully secure the Allied Forces liberation of the Usean southern coast and the Spring Sea and now they're finally staring down the enemy aces again. Phoenix and Edge both fire their missiles and roll out of the way of Cocoon's own, but they fail to score any hits as well. The two mercenaries observe their cluster formation and know they'd have to wait for an opening to hit Cocoon 1.

Getting closer, Phoenix attempts to break their formation by forcing them to take evasive manoeuvres, but they're too well-trained. They all turn with perfect synchronisation, as if they were all collectively one aircraft.

If they were an air-show team, they'd be world-famous.

Phoenix finally manages to get a good shot and is about to press the button to fire a missile at the flight lead, until Keynote interrupts.

"There's another hostile. It's that red fighter again!"

Phoenix suddenly freezes, missing his chance to hit Cocoon 1, allowing her to leave his field of view. He snaps his attention to the red plane, now completely ignoring Cocoon Squadron.

Cocoon 1 sees it too, taking her own attention away from Phoenix. She asks, "Who's the red avenger? He with the Allied Forces?"

Her wingman answers, "Negative. He has the same ID code as us."

"I don't need any more interruptions…" Cocoon 1 hisses. "Move in for the kill."

Phoenix snaps out of his trance as he looks in his cockpit mirror and sees the ZOE there again, stalking him.

Only this time, it isn't a Tomcat.

"The red aircraft is a Super Hornet, now!?" Scarface 2 questions. The horror of the thought of there being more than one ZOE makes Scarface 1 start to lose it.

"Get some distance, boys." The Rebel ace orders. She sees the possibility of the ZOE messing with Phoenix so much that it scares him, so she decides to order another retreat to come back at him when he's been shaken. She looks at the ZOE and says, "Perfect timing, pretty boy." She then issues the order, "Cocoon Squad, fall back and regroup."

"Roger that." One wingman responds.

Scarface 1 continues to stare at the ZOE chasing him again.

"Phoenix!" He hears Scarface 2 yell, "The ace squadron is falling back! Come on, we'll get this red guy together!" He sees his wingman put a few bullets in it and force it to disengage him. He smiles, thankful for his guardian angel. He starts to relax and then pulls his plane around to help her out.

Keynote asks "Is that red aircraft's pilot the same as before? Its moves are even sharper than last time."

Experiencing it first-hand, Phoenix knows he isn't kidding. He could just barely keep out of the modified F-14D's weapons envelope, but with this new F/A-18E, he's just lucky Nagase is here as she won't allow it to get that far this time. She knows how much it seemed to traumatise Phoenix and she worries for him. She hopes he won't panic and lock up, but she's prepared for the event.

Even so, the new plane gives the ZOE more speed and agility than before.

At the cost of its armour.

Edge distracts the red fighter and Phoenix manages to pull his plane around and lets off a missile. It scores a direct hit on the cockpit of the Super Hornet, forcing it to flee and maximum thrust.

Nagase gasps, "No pilot could've survived that…"

Keynote interrupts, "The red fighter is retreating. Forget him, Phoenix. Focus on the mission."

Scarface 1 watches the ZOE go, until he gets a transmission, "Did you miss us, birdy? This time, I'll stick around until you're a charred blot on the ground…"

Then a missile alert sounds.

He instinctively pulls his flight stick to the side, just barely dodging the projectile. Having overcome his fear of the ZOE, Phoenix is back in his element. He flies straight towards their formation.

"You're just gonna walk into our trap? What an adorable idiot…" Cocoon 1 condescends.

What Cocoon fails to realise is that Scarface is not trapped in their formation.

They're trapped in the sky with Scarface.

"We lost Bruno." Cocoon 1 announces as she sees his plane explode, "Damn it. I'm gonna miss him.

"I'm hit! I can't eject…" another says as he loses the back end of his aircraft.

"I see… we won't forget you." His flight leader responds. "Boys, take him down for Rodrigo."

Edge yells out, "Gotcha!"

She is followed by another Cocoon screaming out in terror as his plane becomes unresponsive.

One of Cocoon 1's two remaining wingmen announces, "My lady, we've lost Kaio!"

She glares at Phoenix and responds, "That good-for-nothing pigeon!" She gets some distance from Scarface and sees the wreck of the Arquette. She remembers the intimidating-looking girl in charge of controlling it and how friendly she was to them. Enraged now that she's lost her, their Carrier and her wingmen, she yells out, "You've sunk our ship! You'll pay for that with your life!" She flies right back towards Scarface with her last two teammates.

Seeing a potentially peaceful resolution, Cocoon 2 asks, "My lady, why don't you ask him to join our squadron?"

Having calmed herself, Cocoon 1 replies, "Not a bad idea… if he manages to take you both out too, I'll consider it."

Right on cue, Cocoon 3 yells, "My lady! Let the battle be yours!" Right before his now smoking Rafale crashes into the sea.

"3, no!" Cocoon 2 shouts, but is cut off when his own aircraft is blown to pieces by Nagase.

"Ha ha… and then there was one… Pretty impressive work." Cocoon 1 compliments Phoenix. "Looks like I'm the only partner you've got left, so let's dance, birdy!"

Nagase backs off, knowing Phoenix needs this to fully recover from the ZOE reappearing, but she stands by in case he needs help. Her flight leader chases after Cocoon 1, who both fly in a scissor manoeuvre, trying to get behind each other, letting off bullets as if they were in propellor-driven fighters as neither are in front of the other long enough for a reliable missile lock.

Landing a few bullets on one of Cocoon's afterburners, disabling it, the female ace grunts, "Mm… You're pretty good…" she knows she'll be destroyed this way, so she suddenly breaks off, but Phoenix saw it coming. He falls in right behind her and locks on, finally letting off his last missile.

It hits her other engine, rendering her aircraft powerless. She lets go of her flight stick and grabs her ejection handles. Smiling, she radios, "Well done, boys. Not bad at all."

Her plane explodes, but neither Scarface 1 or 2 could tell if she managed to deploy her parachute.

Before they can confirm the kill, Keynote reports, "No enemy presence detected in immediate airspace. That was a tough battle, but you handled it well. Return to base."

Edge flies alongside her flight leader and looks at him. She smiles and says, "Phoenix, those were some impressive moves. With your skills, we might just win this war."

"Hehehehe…" The Observer giggles, having watched the whole thing. "Yes, Miss Nagase… I wholeheartedly agree…"

Gründer Industries, ZOE hangar.

The ZOE Super Hornet makes a rough landing at the airstrip. Crews race out to save the AI stored in the cockpit as it got hit by a missile. Having successfully recovered it and brought it back to the hangar, another team brings in the battered plane itself.

Dr. Schroeder has the AI upload all its new data on Scarface Squadron to the system. While he's analysing it, Dr. Morgan enters the room, muttering something under is breath in anger. Sighing, the other scientist asks, "What is it now? Did the Kansen finally die on you?"

"No… but I'm starting to wish it had. I think Purity has befriended it." Dr. Morgan begrudgingly answers.

"Hm… those two truly are… interesting creatures, aren't they?"

"Not after that… thing tried to kill me." Dr. Morgan retorts.

Dr. Schroeder finely pulls his attention away from ZOE's data, "It what? Wasn't it tied down and powerless?"

"Let's just say that Purity decided she was suddenly smart enough to do her own little experiment. That girl…" Morgan grunts.

"What actually happened between you two? You used to be so close. It was adorable, really." Schroeder asks.

"… we just… started seeing things differently, that's all. She's more compassionate than I and it hinders scientific study. It just irritated me whenever she questioned me and objected to things we've had to do, so I started to leave her out of projects, especially the study of that Kansen. We couldn't afford to risk losing the funding for ZOE. Our artificial Cubes sell for almost as much as the value of the ships they're for." Morgan explains.

"Are you ever going to restore her memories?"

"…No. they're still right here." He holds up his experimental petabyte flash drive. "We've seen what she's seen. That other world… those other Kansen, far more powerful than anything we've seen, and she is even more powerful than they are. She could destroy this base if she found out. We were extremely lucky they were both knocked out upon arriving in our world. Cutting through her scalp to retrieve her memory chip wasn't easy, either. It was like cutting through several layers of steel armour, but if it was the thickness of skin and bone." He sighs and pockets the flash drive again. "If Purity continues to disobey us, I may have to terminate her…"

Gründer Industries, Top-Secret research lab.

Purity herself brings out Deutchsland's Cube and gently rests it on the Kansen's chest. She grabs her hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze. "I'll be here if you need me."

Deutschland nods, "Danke." She starts absorbing it back into her body. With a flash of light, she gets all her strength back properly. After a while of heavy breathing, she gets up and stretches. "Ah… that feels so much better. Now, we get the hell out of here, and blow this Gott-forsaken place to kingdom come."

Purity nods, "Yeah, but now that I helped you get something of yours, I need your help getting back something of mine."

"What do you need?" The Kansen asks.

"My memories. I don't know how to get them back, but I think we could figure out a way to restore them from the other labs. Come on, I wanna know who I am." The Siren answers.

"NEIN!" The Cruiser objects.

Purity stops and looks at her, "Wha… what?"

At first, Deutschland instinctively wanted to object to helping a Siren, especially now that she's lied to her and fears what she'll do when she remembers, but she did help her first and she'd still be suffering like she had been for years.

"Umm… just… had another flashback..." the Cruiser lies, "My apologies. Let's go, then."

Purity smiles, "It's okay, friend. If you feel like you're about to have another panic attack, you let me know, okay?" She hugs Deutschland, who nervously nods, and then skips merrily out of the room.

"…Schiesse…" the Kansen mutters before following.

2024.

Azur Lane HQ, Akashi's lab.

Essex, Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet enter and salute, "Y'all wanted to see us, sir?" Hornet asks.

The Fleet Admiral salutes back, "At ease, girls. We have some heavy news for the three of you. Enterprise, you may want to sit down."

"Huh? Um… okay…" Enterprise complies.

"Girls… simply put, something very strange has happened. Admiral Hipper, I'll let you explain." The man steps aside.

"Hmph. Only because you don't fully understand, dummkopf…" the Cruiser mutters. She stands where he was in front of the Carriers. "Not so 'simply put', three of you were, obviously, all created as the Yorktown-class, ja?"

All Carriers except Essex nod.

Hipper continues, "As it turns out, two of you are no longer Yorktown-classes."

The looks of shock take over their faces and Enterprise sits up. She and Essex both ask, "What?"

The Iron Blood carries on, "Frau Yorktown and Frau Hornet have been upgraded to Type II Rigging through Compiler's program and the cross-universe interference from Herr Bishop's Trinity Warhead. Frau Enterprise, your sisters are now Frau Essex's."

Silence engulfs the room. Only the tapping from Akashi typing on her keyboard on the other side of the room can be heard.

Yorktown and Hornet both look down at Enterprise, who looks like she just had her heart torn out. The sitting Carrier stares at Hipper and, with her voice just above a whisper, asks, "…they're… not my…?"

Hipper shakes her head, "Nein. I am sorry, Frau Enterprise, but telling you without coating it in sugar was ultimately the best way."

Enterprise's former sisters both gently out their hands on her shoulders and kneel down to her level either side of her, taking her hands into theirs. She looks at Yorktown, "Did you know…?"

"No, dear sister, we did not." Yorktown replies with a sad smile.

Hornet adds, "It's a shock to us too, big sis."

Lt. Colonel Bishop himself offers, "If I may, I could try to explain why they've changed classes?"

Hipper huffs, "Hmph. Fine, but only because you're polite." She turns away, letting him speak.

Warwolf 1 looks at the confused Carriers and begins, "You see… in my world's history…"

1998.

Estovakian Police Station, interrogation room.

The Tester sits impatiently tapping her cuffed hands on the cold metal table. Corporal Voychek and his comrades become unnerved when she seems to look right at them, but they know that nobody can see through the mirrored side, surely.

Finally, the Colonel who arrested her enters the room and sits opposite her with a cup of coffee and a folder.

"We need to talk." He starts, slamming the folder down on the table.

The Tester just glares silently into his soul. She asks, "Do I have the right to remain silent here?"

"No. You do not. This is Estovakia, not Emmeria or Osea. You will answer my questions or your punishment will be severe." Gustav warns before taking a sip.

"Those three names mean nothing to me. I am in the wrong universe." The Siren retorts.

"About that, you were raging about being 'in the wrong universe' ever since we arrested you. Explain." The Colonel orders.

"I'm not your subordinate. You can go fuck yourself." The Tester hisses.

"Excuse me?" The man asks back, his mug stopped halfway to his face.

"You're not getting shit from me. Stop trying. Let me go, and you'll never have to see me again."

"You're not going anywhere. We have several armed men in and around this facility." Gustav threatens, putting his coffee down in front of him.

"Yeah? How many?" She probes.

"Nice try, but I'm asking the questions." He shoots her down.

"Are they armed to to the teeth like the six guys in that room, equipped with assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols, grenades and ballistic knives?" She looks at the mirror again, "Oh, the one with the light machine gun just got nervous…"

Gustav looks at the mirror as well, wondering how she can seemingly see through it, "How did you…?"

"That one is aiming at my head now. It won't do him any good. That glass is bulletproof, even against several rounds of 7.62x39mm, though I am naturally curious at how determined he is. Even if he manages ti break through it, my skin is tougher than the hull of a Battleship."

"Wha…!?"

"I say let's test him. His heart rate has spiked." The Tester jokes. "Humans become so much more interesting when they're terrified."

"How the hell are you doing that!?" Gustav demands.

The Siren looks back at him. "You're terrified, as well. Your heartbeat is at 165 bpm. If you don't calm yourself, you could take a few days off your embarrassingly short lifespan. Now, you gonna let me out of here?"

"J…just because you somehow have… X-ray vision…"

"Hmm… seems you need a more… practical demonstration…" The Tester ominously says with an unnerving grin.

"What do you mea—"

He's cut off by the Siren effortlessly breaking the chain between her handcuffs, grabbing his hair and smashing his head into his cup of coffee, getting shards of the shattering mug in his face and burning his skin with the scolding water as well as denting the table. The Colonel screams, holding his steaming face as he falls onto the floor.

Before his men in the observation room can act, the Tester stands, rips the table off the floor and yells, "LOOKS LIKE THE TABLE HAS TURNED! HAHAHAHA!" Before throwing the thing with enough force to smash right through the window, crushing the two of them and making the rest shield themselves from the shards of glass flying at them.

The Siren jumps through the hole and grabs Corporal Voychek, using him as a human shield and grabbing his holstered sidearm.

"Let him go!" The others yell, aiming their rifles at her. "You don't even need him if you're that tough!"

"True, I don't need him, but are you gonna risk his life to see if I'm bluffing?" The Siren taunts.

"Just let him go!"

The light machine gunner warns, "If I have to shoot through him for the safety of the people, I will!"

She gives them a devious smile and calculates the best angles and timing to take them all out in a nanosecond, then executing it perfectly, emptying the pistol's magazine in a couple of seconds, dropping all the soldiers dead.

Voychek mutters, "You… you're a monster…"

"Oh no, sweetie… I was created to kill the monsters." Before he can question what that means, she pushes him down and kicks him in the head, knocking him out.

By the time Colonel Gustav gets back up, stumbling and holding his burned skin and bleeding nose, he looks ahead to see his prisoner, holding him at gunpoint. He raises his arms and pleads, "Alright, alright! We… we can let you go! Just don't kill any more of my men!"

"… silly human. I don't want to escape, I'm having way too much fun!" The Siren smiles, before flipping the gun around, holding it by the slide and pistol-whipping the man, making him stagger to the side. She uses his momentum and grabs him, swinging him around until he's thrown into the chair she was sat on. He regains his balance just before he's kicked in the chest, falling backwards on the chair. He looks up and gets a painful amount of pressure put on his ribcage by the Tester's foot. She points the pistol at him, smiles and mockingly quips, "We need to talk."