Spoiler warning for Sevarak's current Jutland plans, I guess? I think you could guess the gist, considering it's Kaiserreich and not normal history, but you know.

They had not sailed long on the deep,

When a Queen's ship they chanced to meet,

"You sailors all, pray tell me true,

Does my sweet William sail among your crew?"

"Oh no, fair maiden, he is not here

For he's been drowned, we greatly fear…"

Everything hurt, but it seemed worse around her left horn. Instinctually, Derfflinger tried to reach up and touch, but there was a weight on her wrist that kept her from trying.

"Ah, ah, ah, what do you think you're doing?"

"Lutzow?" She groaned. "What…?"

"Oh no you don't," her sister tsk'd, unusually serious. "We didn't call up a vet just so you could ruin your horn as soon as you woke up."

"A veterinarian?" Derfflinger asked.

"Yes, Derf, a veterinarian. They don't teach normal doctors how to treat horns."

"How bad?"

"Left is snapped about halfway up. We've got some pain meds, if you'd like?"

"I'll manage."

"I don't want you to manage, Derf."

"I can't let drugs dull my senses, Lutz. You know this."

"About that…"

"What? I assume the war isn't over already."

"You're in no state to fight. Lucky you, you get to laze about all day."

"Lutz."

"What, Derf?"

"How long will I be out of commission?"

Lutzow sighed. "Can you feel it, Derf?"

Feel… what? She didn't feel anything but the ache in the horn and the sheets under her.

And that was just the problem. Where was the other Derfflinger, the one that cut through the waves? If it wasn't where she could sense it, the only place it could possibly be was the bottom of the Atlantic.

"Hell."

"How funny, that you're the one who loses her ship." Lutzow didn't seem to find it all that funny, but Derfflinger supposed she saw the irony in the lazy sister keeping the means to do her job.

"My boys. How are they?"

"Casualties aren't bad. Unless they were caught in the blast, most made it. You were… near the worst of it."

"Captain…"

"I'm sorry, Derf." Lutzow didn't like work, but she couldn't imagine what it was like to be without any distractions in a time like this.

"I'd like you to take this." Lutzow plopped a big, fat plushie down on Derfflinger's lap. It stared at her with stitched eyes, little Xs that made her heart ache when she thought of her own rigging.

"Thank you, Lutz."

"I'll try and visit, alright? Every second I'm here, the Admiralty isn't bitching at me."

"You'd use my grievous injury to skip out on work?"

"You know I would, Derf."

"I love you, you slob."

"That's no way to talk to big sis."

"Big sis?" Derf scoffed.

"I've had a body the longest, haven't I?"

"A technicality."

Lutzow giggled, her smile infectious. "Love you, Derf. I promise we'll work this out, and we'll be lazing around in a villa in Estonia soon enough."

"Not Mittelafrika?"

"I'd prefer snuggling up in blankets to melting in that heat."

Derfflinger chuckled. "You, me, Hindenburg, Saaremaa. It's a promise."

She tried not to think about the boys she had lost, and thankfully there was an occasional distraction in the form of the nurses. Maybe Lutzow had pushed some of the nurses to stay with her, or perhaps it was the kindness of their hearts. They passed messages between her and Seydlitz, because neither of them could walk to each other's rooms. Sometimes she'd be wheeled over…

But Seyd was getting better much faster than she was, and she had better prospects when she left. She never bragged, even cringed when she brought attention to it, but it still hurt.

It was the worst at night when there was no one there to talk to. All she could do was stare at the roof of her hospital and wonder what she even was anymore. She was an intrepid pioneer, in the worst possible way.

One of the nurses opened the door, although Derfflinger thought it was a bit too early for her bandages to be changed out. Well, she thought so until a pair of women followed behind the nurse.

"Don't agitate her. She still needs her rest," the nurse warned, shutting the door.

The warning seemed directed at the smaller of the pair, a girl with brilliant white hair and bright blue eyes. She nodded excitedly, and the woman behind her chuckled. She was head and shoulders above the nurse, probably taller than whoever tended to her….

And she knew she needed a tender because the woman was obviously a Kansen. The yellow eyes, the red horns, the bearing. Both of them wore uniforms, but the girl's was clearly too big, even with some hasty modifications. The boots looked civilian, hands completely hidden in the sleeves.

"Derfflinger," the woman smiled, "I am Friedrich der Grosse, and my companion is Bayern. We were quite anxious to meet you."

"I was unaware I was so popular."

Bayern walked up to her bed and laid a bouquet of cornflowers at her bedside. "It's a pleasure, Miss Derfflinger. I, uh, hope to live up to your legacy!"

Her legacy. She still lived and breathed, and here this kid was talking about her legacy. Was there a reason she was so young? Did her captain think Bayern was ill-prepared, like a child in her capacity? Or was it a sort of parental fondness for the ship? Derfflinger couldn't say.

She tried to tell herself it wasn't jealousy. It was concern for a girl who seemed far too young for the burden laid on her shoulders. As for Friedrich… well, the woman seemed keen enough that Derfflinger didn't dare let anything other than a smile show on her face.

(Knocked to the very bottom wrung, pushed aside by a deluge of newcomers. Her seniority and responsibility meant people used to yield to her. They considered her the expert on Kansen matters, because her slightly more experienced sister could barely be roused from her naps. But now? Some part of her knew she should accept her new status as a historical sideshow with grace and dignity, but the rest refused.)

"Perhaps you could fetch a vase and some water, my dear?" Friedrich suggested, laying a hand on Bayern's shoulder. "Flowers as lovely as these should not be left to wilt."

"Of course! I can't believe I forgot." She almost rushed out the door, barely stopping to turn around and curtsy at Derfflinger. "I hope you get better soon, Miss."

"Well, I figure you'll be back before that happens."

Bayern giggled. "Of course. Can I get you some water?"

"I'm fine. Thank you, though." Bayern slipped out the door, leaving Derfflinger alone with Friedrich. "Ma'am."

"Derfflinger. Our dashing cavalier. I wish we had met in better circumstances."

"Jutland was necessary. You wouldn't be here without cubes from the fight."

"Certainly. Although I must ask if you managed to create any of your own."

"I don't believe I have." Derfflinger sighed. The collection of battle data should have been enough to get a cube; each of the others generated two a piece, and Derfflinger had managed nothing. It was salt in the wound, a reminder that she couldn't even manage that minor service to her country. Hell, she was taking up a bed that could be used by a soldier, someone who could go out with a rifle and spade. She was less useful than a grunt in a foxhole at the moment.

"I hope things have been tolerable for you here. Ennui is a dreadful foe."

"I manage."

"Perhaps I could come by again sometime," Friedrich suggested. "I've been told I have a fair singing voice."

"Do you even have time for music?" Derfflinger frowned.

"It's a pleasant past time. Boosts morale."

"It's extraneous."

Friedrich frowned, not looking quite as matronly as she did when she talked to Bayern. "I disagree."

The door shot open, and Bayern came in, balancing a heavy vase filled near to the tip with water. "Hello again, Miss Derfflinger! I forgot to ask if you even liked cornflowers. I hope you don't mind…?"

She set the vase down and happily distracted the two women from their previous conversation. With Bayern there, the conversation passed by more easily, until it was eventually time for the two actual warships to return to their duty. Just before they went, Bayern reached into a pocket and produced a collection of wooden pieces, which she dropped on Derfflinger's bedside table with a clatter.

"Thank you…?"

"They're puzzles!" Bayern chirped. "My captain bought them for me, but I knew you'd be here all by your lonesome, so…"

"That's very kind of you, my dear," Friedrich said, patting the girl's head.

"Thank you, Bayern. Stay safe out there for me." Derfflinger smiled at the girl as she went, and tried not to frown when she was left alone again.

Without much else to do, she reached for the puzzle pieces and dropped them in her lap. There was no small number of them… in fact, it seemed like there were too many to fit into just one object. Not to mention the vastly different shapes…

"Bayern…" she sighed. Derfflinger suspected she had brought a set of several puzzles, which had all been scrambled into complete incoherency in her pockets. Well, Derfflinger supposed that only made it more of a mechanical puzzle. It was intriguing, certainly.

Slowly, she created a sort of wooden star from some of the parts, spikey yet beautiful. It had been a trial to assemble, her hands shakey and a bit unused to such fine detail. Well, it was good to be getting back into the swing of things. She refused to simply sit in a hospital bed forever, not when so many people were kind enough to stay with her and aid in her recovery.

"You think wearing a suit would be a good idea?" Valiant hissed.

"I didn't say that. I said Warspite would look charming in a suit. Not that she should wear one now." Malaya sighed.

"It might seem improper," Warspite said, her brow furrowed.

"I know. I know it's a bit unconventional, I know you wouldn't dare at a funeral. But at a party, with other Kansen…"

"We have no time for superfluous speculation!" Elizabeth chastised them. They all fell silent, and Elizabeth continued: "The Admiralty expects nothing less than our best behavior today. We are the only Kansen in any state to attend today."

(Any state wasn't necessarily a good state. All of their new Kansen were too busy being brought up to speed to attend, but at least they were in comparatively good health. Elizabeth and Warspite were both gritting their teeth and quietly bearing some nasty injuries. All hidden tidily away, of course.)

With that, it was time to attend a service. They fell into line easily, falling back on military precision to keep their composure as words failed them. The ceremony was technically just for Sir Osmond Brock, but it felt like more. They had lost crew, entire ships full of brave navy men had perished…

Warspite understood her motto, really understood it for the first time, at Jutland, when the shells screamed through the air and when a British battle cruiser went up in a pillar of flame. The hardships of war felt too terrible to bear already, and they had only gone to battle once.

Elizabeth felt the weight of the crown, even if she was not precisely a royal. King George V was her proper sovereign, and her duty to him was fulfilled through proper leadership of her class. They had sailed to battle certain that a mixture of age-old naval knowledge and new modern powers would see them victorious. And they had failed.

There was no body to bury, but when she closed her eyes, she could imagine. Brock in his naval garb, in one piece instead of scattered across the Atlantic. And faintly, ever so faintly, she imagined those by his side, nothing more than faint silhouettes.

Princess Royal, forever cut off. Tiger, Tiger, burning bright, lost in the forests of the night. Queen Mary, doomed as if she were named after the Queen of the Scots and not King George's current spouse. Indefatigable, Invincible, Inflexible, and Indomitable, each descriptor as false as the last.

Elizabeth would never meet them.

Despite the good example she was supposed to set, she found herself getting distracted. The speeches, the readings, they came at her piecemeal. She fought to hold back tears, to retain royal composure. Whoever Princess Royal would have been, surely she wouldn't have wished for Elizabeth to weep.

Warspite held her head in her hands, and a priest read from his Bible:

"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged, every man according to their works."

The Wikipedia article for Derff the original says he disagreed with his own Friedrich (William) and I translated this into animosity between Derf and FdG. Not all fleets are all hunky-dory, after all.