Chapter 29

Despite airships being the now-dominant mode of transportation on Remnant, traditional shipping was still the economical choice for many medium-sized companies. Thus, despite the Port of Vale no longer as busy as it once was, ships of various sizes still sailed to and from the historic port. In contrast, Atlas only had airships, being a floating island meant that traditional ships would just fall to the ground, not very useful to anyone. Why did Atlas float in the first place? Aside from the astronomical amount used in gravity dust for national prestige or whatever the television programs liked to spew, the tactical considerations were that there was no danger of being overrun by Grimm.

Or foreign armies, Weiss believed the latter was actually the true reason why Atlas was elevated. That, or they simply wanted to differentiate themselves from the poorer residents in Mantle, but even classism had its limits, certainly not to the extent of making an entirely new city float.

"Doesn't that make you nostalgic?"

"You mean the port?"

"Mhm, feels like I'm right back in NY Port, watching ships sail down the Hudson…"

In the few times she was allowed to go out of the Schnee estate with Klein in Weiss's younger years, she explored Atlas, every nook and cranny of it. She was disappointed, glamorous from the outside, but in reality it was 'hollow' for lack of a better word. Compared to the sprawling skyscrapers of NY Port or even the Island city of Honolulu, Atlas felt more like a fancy military base than an actual city. Weiss knew what military bases were like very well after all.

"Weren't you the one to tell me to let go? Here you are, reminiscing like some old Veteran."

"But we are old Veterans, we fought in the bloodiest war of our world, don't you remember?"

On one of those trips outside, however, she came across a music shop. It had the standard corporate flair, branded instruments, top one-hundred leaderboard song discs, but the second-hand section in particular caught her attention. An old man was trying to sell an old, beat-up Banjo to the clerk who was refusing him. Despite arguing for its sturdiness, the old man was not successful. As he was leaving, however, Weiss approached him with an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I'm not sure about the 'old' part."

"Hm, if counting the years since I was laid down, I should probably be older than Winter. You too, I believe."

The old man was reluctant to sell it at first, citing that she wouldn't take care of it. A quick demonstration of a famous folk song she learned from the Appalachian regions of the Eagle Union East Coast dispelled his concerns immediately, and thus she was left with a well-made, if worn banjo. Her parents were apprehensive at her bringing such an instrument back, instead of something respectable like a harp or a grand piano, but young Weiss stubbornly refused to let go of it. At that time, she latched onto anything that reminded her of 'home', having awakened not long ago.

"Hah…what I wouldn't trade for a NY hotdog with relish right now…You would think a sausage on a bun was simple enough to be everywhere, I should have known better after not finding hamburgers anywhere…"

"I do miss eating currywurst in Ironblood…"

On a stretch of road overlooking the Port, Weiss and her coincidentally found companion were simply taking in the sights. She was in disguise, with clothes she bought randomly in a thrift store when Winter was preoccupied arguing with Mister Branwen the other day. Thankfully her sister was busy with other matters today, and thus left Weiss alone to do whatever she wanted. While she did take up the musical arts, such as Opera at her father's insistence, she never liked playing for the crowds who usually attended her shows. Usually, they were business associates of the SDC, or others trying to use the event as a networking opportunity. They weren't there for the music, like most events in Atlesian high society.

A street performance, however? The people who stopped to listen for her genuinely wanted to listen to the music, especially when no one knew who she was. Fake glasses, a cap, a change in hairstyle, and a completely different attitude went a long way in making oneself another person.

"So, was it a coincidence we met each other today?"

"You tell me. Your eagle was the one who spotted me leaving." Ruby answered prickly, the coffee she bought for her didn't seem to work as an apology…oh well, it wasn't like Weiss was wrong in the first place. Ruby chose to walk past her, she really should have seen it coming.

"Don't be so dour, tell your big sis what's wrong~"

"By Kansen years, we are the same age."

"By Remnant years, you are younger than me, so, tell me what's wrong~"

Ruby and Enterprise made the same expression when they didn't want to tell her what bothered them. In the end, however, she always got Enterprise to open up, and Weiss was not going to let Ruby go that easily. Leading on the stone railing, Ruby crossed her arms while humming in thought. Weiss could wait, if she could deal with Hornet's antics, she could deal with Ruby.

"If you had…information that someone desperately wanted, but you know that you could potentially harm them by giving it, would you still do it?"

Weiss's lips thinned, she was not ready for a moral dilemma this afternoon.

"This is about someone in your family, isn't it?" She got right to the point, Ruby's silence was taken as an affirmative.

Sighing, Weiss next to Ruby, a small tour bus passing by behind them. Switching back to the Union language, the Essex-class carrier gave the battleship the best advice she could give.

"I suppose it depends on how much risk you're willing to shoulder."

"Me?"

"Hm. Think of it from the perspective of a Commander, giving out commissions for Kansen to undergo."

Commissions were not the same as regular missions, there was usually an objective unrelated to direct combat in them. Such as convoy escort, deep-sea mining or even Wisdom Cube salvage, all were considered lower-risk missions, though there was still a certain level of danger to them, hence why Kansen were still deployed.

"The Commander looks at the commission, the potential gains it could have-"

"Ulrich had secretarial duties in her past life, I know how commissions work." Weiss blinked, she forgot that many Kansen also worked as secretaries in their spare time, Yorktown included. Though her memories of the Commander she was under… never mind, those weren't important now.

"Oh, you too? Never mind, then you should know where I am going with this. You are weighing the risk and reward, the real challenge is in mitigating potential risk. If you cannot withhold this information to said person, then all you can do is mitigate the potential risk to them afterwards. Am I right in assuming you can't simply brush it under the rug?"

Ruby sighed again, even harder this time. "I don't know, but in my heart, I feel that it is inevitable, perhaps destiny, even. This is deeply personal to her, me? Not to the same degree."

They stared at the port again silently, this went on for a few minutes. Weiss didn't say anything, Ruby needed to think this through on her own.

"...I miss when our biggest problems were Siren fleets and mirror seas, those have tried and true methods of solving them, not whatever this soap opera drama is…"

"If it helps, Enterprise, you know her as the Grey Ghost, had a similar bad habit of keeping things to herself. In the end, it was our Commander who got through that thick shell she made. I guess the moral of the story there is that we have people who we can rely on. Is there anyone else who you can ask about it before bringing this information to your sister?"

"How did you-"

"And you just confirmed it, my intuition has not failed me yet!"

Despite the grumbling Ruby gave her, Weiss saw that her words gave the fifteen-year-old a lot of food for thought. She hit the stone railing, causing the brick she impacted to crack. "Damn, remind me to be careful around you."

"Oh don't be like that, I'm harmless! I helped raise two little sisters, a little brother and an elder sister by myself, don't you know?" Deep in the captain's cabin, which doubled as Weiss's personal room in her hull, there was a hung picture of the three Yorktown-class ships together, smiling at Enterprise's launch day. Even now, it was the most treasured part of her hull, though she didn't know how that picture got there in particular. Perhaps Yorktown's memories were strong enough to manifest it, she couldn't deny that part of herself, could she?

"Isn't Winter older than you?"

"Pffft, she wishes, did you know she can't actually cook to save her life? There was one time…"

They continued passing the time, with each recounting stories from either this life, or their past life for hours on end. Eventually, the afternoon turned into dusk, and it was time for Ruby to head back home. Before leaving however, Weiss stopped her with a gift in hand.

"Here, I don't know if this will help, but you can never go wrong with a Hellcat good luck charm!"

Weiss held out one of her Hellcat fighters, obviously in miniature form for Ruby to take. The battleship gingerly took it, slightly bigger than the palm of her hand to inspect. Some of the younger destroyers often used surplus Kansen planes as toys, and while they could be used that way, they always made sure to remove any fuel or ammunition from them just in case. While it was counter-intuitive to give battleships a carrier-based fighter, what mattered was the thought behind it, Hellcat fighters were the backbone of Eagle Union Fleet Carriers later in the war in the Pacific after all.

"A good luck charm, really?"

"Yes, this little Hellcat here will protect you, won't ya?" The Hellcat on Ruby's palm briefly rotated its propellers twice, signalling its willingness to do so.

"Obviously, it can also become full size again, useful if you find yourself stuck somewhere!"

"I have not heard of a good luck charm with machine guns before…"

"Six, actually. There are six .50 calibre machine guns in this Hellcat, four hundred rounds each. It'll shred most Grimm you come across without breaking a sweat, though for anything that won't die to them, you probably have to use your main guns anyway."

To this day, the Atlesian Army Air Service was chasing reports of a 'Ghost Squadron' targeting Grimm in the frozen tundras of Solitas. Weiss had great fun in evading their interceptors if they found her in the first place.

"Cute, I will…keep the Hellcat safe. In that case, I have something for you as well."

Ruby made the motion of scrounging around in her pocket, but Weiss knew she was just muting the flash from materializing something.

"Here, this is a charm to make things cease to exist."

Weiss initially thought she heard her wrong, inspecting the 'gift', when she held the cone-shaped object, which fit snugly in the palm of her hand, the words printed on it were a little hard to make out. And also in a foreign language.

"What is this exactly?" Ruby's Union was on the more literal side, probably due to the Ironblood influence, and as such, Weiss decided to just ask her directly.

"Exactly as I said, it can make things cease to exist. It is a HE Shell from one of my sixteen-inch main batteries."

The aircraft carrier stared at the extremely dangerous explosive in her hand, the craters these shells would create were measured in the dozens of meters. There was a faint memory when Yorktown sortied with Wisconsin, a Siren-held fort bombarded them, the fort and the rock formation it was housed on ceased to exist soon afterwards.

"I-I can't use this, you know that right?!" Ruby looked at Weiss in genuine confusion, aircraft carriers had naval artillery, sure, but they were not big enough to shoot a sixteen-inch shell! If only Kearsarge was here…wait, was she mistaking Weiss for her?!

"Nonsense, simply prime it with your thumb, and throw it vigorously at something. What was the sport you Eagle Union Kansen like to play…? Ah, yes, like a 'baseball' if you are familiar with it." Ruby even made a crude pitcher throw to emphasise her point. As much as she wanted to talk about Eagle Union sports, this was nowhere near the right place and time to do so. Besides, there was one important point she left out.

"Baseballs do not explode upon impact!"

"Isn't that what a 'Home Run' means? Apologies, I am not familiar with Eagle Union sports."

Weiss attempted to make Ruby take her dangerous 'gift' back, but the younger girl was already walking away by the time she realised she was leaving. "Goodbye, Frau Schnee, I will take your advice to heart."

I'd rather you take your dangerous shell back!

Either because of unfortunate, or planned timing, a bus just so happened to stop right in front of Ruby, thus losing the chance to chase after her. Weiss stood there, flabbergasted, and with a sixteen-inch shell held in her hands. One of these things could pulverise the entire lighthouse they were next to easily, let alone the ancient roads they were on right now, she kept a steady grip on the pointed cylinder, treating it exactly like how a live grenade should be handled.

"What in the sam hill am I going to do with this?!"

One ferry ride back to patch later…

Saying goodbye to Patch of Hope , one of four large ferries that ran from Patch to Vale, Ruby landed back in the main town. She was acquainted with all of her sisters, virtually having rode on them all of her life. Though she would never admit it, Hope was the sister she got along with the best, though their conversations had to be held with caution, otherwise the other passengers may think she was crazy for talking to nothing.

As the gate opened, and Ruby turned to the main road leading back to the Xiao Long residence, she spotted a familiar patch of short blonde hair.

"Hey, kiddo! Glad I caught ya, come on, let's head back together."

"Dad…"

Taiyang was waiting for Ruby next to Zippy, their family car, along with Zwei in the front seat. This was certainly no coincidence, and she briefly considered just ignoring him and walk back home herself. Though ultimately, this conversation was a long time coming.

Ruby gently picked Zwei up from the co-driver's seat, and placed him in the back. Luckily he and Schwarz were getting along well now that she could freely summon her rigging in the residence, now that she thought about it, Zwei was the one who first found out about Ruby's Kansen abilities. A careless eight-year old Ruby summoned Schwarz at the wrong moment in their shed, only for Zwei to pop out of a nearby stack of autumn leaves and bark at the construct. It wasn't a big deal, since Zwei couldn't exactly speak in human languages.

"Fun day today?" Her father asked as he wore the seatbelt, Ruby hummed in response. 'Fun' wouldn't be the word she would describe today as.

"I guess…when are you going to let me try driving?"

Before all of that business regarding Summer's past came up, Ruby kept bugging Taiyang to learn driving now that she was fifteen. Vale's laws were that minors fifteen and above could start to learn driving if they lived in a designated 'rural' zone, which just so happened to include all of Patch. She didn't want a car specifically, but rather just to get a feel for the wheel again, Ulrich did work as a 'race queen' among other things in Ruby's memories after all. Zippy was no racecar, but it would suffice.

"Um, a-are you sure you don't want to wait until you're sixteen?!" Taiyang suddenly looked very nervous as he said that. Ruby narrowed her eyes at him.

"I can drive better than you can."

"Oh, Ruby, just because you watch a bunch of videos on how to drive online-"

"Ulrich was a track racer in her spare time."

"Memories do not count! We'll just do it later…huh, it ain't starting."

"Your handbrake."

Ruby noticed it was on immediately, Zippy's model had a special safety feature where the car would not even cycle its Dust engine if the brake was on. Her father sheepishly unlocked the handbrake, and the two made their way back to their house slowly.

A few minutes into the journey, Ruby couldn't handle the awkward silence anymore, and tapped on his shoulders.

"Stop at the road there."

"Huh? We're nowhere back at-"

"You wanted to talk, so let's talk."

Taiyang did as Ruby asked, and stopped next to the main road. Taking out the file she got from Junior, Ruby showed it to her father, not entirely surprised that she had it.

"Who told you I went to Junior's again? Qrow?"

"Ahaha…he knows Junior a lot more than I do, I used to ask Qrow to get info on what his sister is doing. At some point…I just stopped, you probably know a lot more about the Branwen tribe than I do at this point."

"Let me guess, Qrow just so happened to overhear Yang asking me to get information?"

"You know how his semblance works, he can't really control it, I don't think he meant to eavesdrop, Ruby."

Ruby knew, just like how her uncle just so happened to call Yang when she was still outside, escaping on a stolen Atlesian shuttle.

"No matter, it's done already. So, here to confiscate it before I give it to Yang?"

Tai sighed, Ruby did not know what he would do, but the fact that he waited outside the Ferry terminal for her to come back meant he wanted to do something. Just what exactly, remained a mystery.

"Ruby, listen to me, Yang isn't ready-"

"When were you planning on telling her?"

"...Qrow and I agreed on after Yang graduated from Beacon-"

"That's four years, do you think she can wait four years instead of leaving in the middle of Spring Break after her first year? Can you control her then?"

"I know, I know! Not the best plan, but it's what Qrow and I could agree on…"

Ruby wanted to go on, but she couldn't help but agree her uncle and father had a point. Yang was strong, strongest in Signal, and a very strong candidate for a prospective Beacon Huntress. But against a trained huntress and ruthless tribal raider such as Raven Branwen? No, Ruby would not send the only sister she had in this world to an early grave, if she could even make it that far to her.

"Here we are, deciding what is best for her, without any input from the person we are trying to protect. There is some irony in that somewhere, I believe there was a conference in Ironblood that was similar to this..." In which Ironblood, the Sardegnan Empire, the Royal Isles and the Iris Orthodoxy met together and decided the fate of a country in Europa, all without the delegation from said country. The conference was even held in the Southern Ironblood provinces, maybe Ruby inherited their politics much more than she would have liked after all.

"We'd just be sending her on a wild goose chase, or worse. The moment you give her that file, she will be planning for a journey to Mistral, can you live with that? I don't think I can, and she's not ready, we were hoping Beacon could give her more time to train and wisen up before telling her. Heck, we hoped you yourself would have been away in University by then, we weren't sure how you'd take the news…"

So that was their grand plan? It was half-baked and relied entirely on optimism for the best-case scenario, neither of which was a solution she wanted. Ruby massaged her temples, literally raking her mind for any solution that could result in even a moderately happy ending, which she had no hope of achieving.

She felt the Hellcat in her bag begin moving around, and gently caressed it to make it calm, the last thing she wanted were six machine guns going off inside of Zippy. One thought led to another, and she was suddenly transported back to what she and Weiss talked about.

Damage mitigation, for battleships like her, it could be through damage control, superior armour or even 'angling' the ship so that shells would have a harder time of penetrating. Here however, if the goal was to mitigate all potential damage…then wasn't the best solution to simply have more 'allied units' to ensure that a 'negative' outcome would never materialize? Ruby suddenly sat back up straight and turned to her father with a solemn expression.

"I know what we must do."

In the Mistralian tradition, her name would have been Xiao-Long, Yang. But in Vale, where cultural practices dictated that first names came first, Yang Xiao-Long was her name to most people.

"Come on…she should be back any moment now…" Yang, literal meaning best translated as 'Sun', paced around her room like a headless chicken. Ruby just texted her that she was on her way back with the info from Junior in hand. In hindsight, her initial plan of simply beating the info out of him was something a musclehead idiot would have thought of. She wrecked a club, but in the end got absolutely nothing out of it other than a good fight. At that time, she was back at Square One, like many of her attempted leads over the years.

Some attempts at finding Raven were dumber than others, such as the time she made an altar for the legendary Spring Maiden to find her mother, though in her defence she was only nine at the time. Faced with the reality of finally having what she wanted, however, Yang felt an equal mixture of crippling fear and excitement for what was to come.

Then, she heard it. Three gentle knocks on her room's door, only Ruby knocked on her door that way. Practically leaping over to it, Yang damn near ripped open her door in the rush.

"Y-you have it?" Yang asked Ruby, standing in front of her door with a neutral expression. In her right hand, she held up a file simply titled 'BRANWEN' up for the blonde girl to see. Yang immediately gestured for Ruby to come in, but her emo-phased little sister remained rooted in place. What was she-

"Yang, we're going on a sailing trip."

She was stunned, where did that come from?! "What?! Just the two of us?"

"No." Uncle Qrow said that, now appearing behind Ruby on her left. Yang was mortified, she was betrayed! But before she could shout, her father came into view on Ruby's right, crossing his arms as well.

"We're all going on the trip, as a family." Her father finished for them, but his face had an expression anything but pleasant. It was the kind of face he would make when about to ground her, not a pleasant memory to relive whatsoever.

Yang fell to her knees on her carpet, mind overloaded, and about to shut down.

What in the name of the Xiao-Long ancestors was happening?!

AN:

Chekhov's Fighter Plane/16-inch shell

This is for everyone asking if I'll be porting Legacy of the Beiyang fleet over or continuing it: I will no longer be updating that fic, nor will it be ported over onto either site. I won't be deleting it, but I don't have any plans to update/move it around right now. Please stop DMing me about that fic.

From what I can find, the 'Temper, Temper' story involving Wisconsin has some evidential basis, but the actual bit about taking out a mountaintop seems to be an exaggeration. It is a great lesson in how historical myths start, something is taken from a factual event, years pass, it is retold with embellishments as more people know about it, and eventually, only a sliver of truth remains in it. The important thing is to not simply repeat it at face value, I'd say a rule of thumb to always ask is: "Cool story, source?"

Or the more elegant way my History Department supervisor put it: 'Ad Fontes', meaning 'to the sources' in Latin.

Writing things from Yang's pov is hard (insert Vin Diesel family joke in here), I feel like a lot of fanfics, especially in the crossover category tend to flanderize her a lot, thus leading to a lot of fanon ideas about what she's like. Hope this portrayal was a little bit different from what you're normally used to, hope the new boat trip they're going on will be fun for the whole family, heh.

Happy 6th Anniversary to Azur Lane! Here's to many more Shipgirls in the years to come!

Shameless Advertising: I've stated before that my account on this site is just my backup, and the vast majority of my works are instead over on Ao3. The only reason this fic is still updated here is because of legacy reasons. So, if you like Blue Archive, Arknights, Worm or more, then check out my Ao3 profile as well.

Be civil in the comments below.