Strength slowly opened her eyes as she felt a presence behind her. The light of the fabricated sun blinded her for a moment as she turned to acknowledge the disturber.
"What do you want, male Kansen?" She asked Leviathan, lamenting the broken peace and quiet she had been losing herself in.
The two were standing in the middle of the sea. The water was so incredibly still and crystalline at their feet that it looked like a mirror, reflecting their images and the few sparse clouds in the sky above them.
The shipboy raised a confused eyebrow at her. "You are talking fine," he stated matter-of-factly.
"My vessel's speech defect is the result of a flaw in my mainframe. It doesn't apply here because we are inside my consciousness," she replied with a flat tone of voice.
"Correction; we are inside my consciousness. I dragged you here before you could put up any resistance," he informed her, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Then state your business, and then begone; I wish to be left alone," she said with the slightest hint of irritation in her voice.
He narrowed his eyes at her. Given the situation and the bygones they had with each other, her attitude was justified, but at the same time, being their "prisoner," she shouldn't be antagonizing him so openly. Could it be that she had already given up on her fate? That wouldn't do. He needed her to take this discussion seriously.
"You want to be left alone doing what? Brooding over your failures until your Cube runs out of energy and dies out with you?" He scoffed at her.
"What does it matter to you?"
Leviathan internally smirked. It was just a glint, but this time, her irritation was showing.
"Nothing much," he shrugged. "Just tell me how you Arbiters can track the METAs through the timelines, and then I'll be on my way."
Strength looked at him in confusion, furrowing her brow. "Why do you want to know that?"
"Because we are trying to reach Ash and her clique. We can open the portal ourselves thanks to Cinder, but we still need a way to track them," he summarized.
Her frown deepened after hearing his words.
"And why should I tell you? So that you can bring more of the METAs on your side? You think I'm that much of a fool?"
"They want to reach the Original Timeline and kill your Creator, don't they? Well, we know what happens if they succeed; Observer Zero told us, and we want to prevent that."
Her yellow eyes widened in surprise as she peered into his. Zero had told them what, exactly?
As an arbiter, dealing with any anomaly that could interfere with the current simulation was her purpose, and both the METAs and the shipboys fell into that category. The fact that the latter had received permission from Zero because of their link with the Original Sirens was an entirely different matter, but even still, she couldn't allow both parties to work together alongside Azur Lane against her comrades. If that happened, the entire point of testing humanity's limits would lose all meaning.
And yet, all that paled in comparison to the prospect of someone killing the Creator. That took precedence over anything else.
So, she and her comrades had done their job, following Zero's orders and going after the METAs. For the longest time, they had followed the largest group they could track, thinking them the most dangerous, and now this male Kansen had come up to her, telling her that Zero had enlisted their assistance and that the META called Cinder was willing to help them.
It all sounded too absurd to be fabricated. In any case, their goals seemed to align in that regard.
After making her decision, she looked up at him with a resolute gaze.
"Very well, then… Listen carefully, male Kansen; I won't repeat myself…"
Lenin licked his lips as he stared at the remaining card in his hands. One more move, and it was his win-
"Draw four," Le Malin declared as she set the cursed card atop the blue nine on the discard pile. "And Uno!"
"Seriously?! Urgh… I challenge your draw four!" The icebreaker declared.
"I only have one card, mon amie," the destroyer said, showing her hand to reveal a yellow seven. "Did you really think I'd play a draw four if it was of the same color as the top card on the pile?"
Lenin fumed as he shrunk in his seat, chastising himself for being so impulsive.
"C'mon, you lost the challenge; you have to draw six now, and you skip your turn," Le Malin said.
"I know; I don't need you reminding me," Lenin said, begrudgingly adding six more cards to his hand from the deck.
Fortune META and Admiral Graf Spee held back a snicker at the icebreaker's annoyed grumble. He was finally about to get his first win, but thanks to Le Malin's move, they still had a chance to steal it.
The four of them were playing Uno inside his bridge, which the shipboy was very glad about, for once.
The previous evening, it was decided to let everyone rest for the night and then to depart the next morning at the crack of dawn. Of course, it was Lenin's turn to pull out his ship for everyone to sail on. It's not that he hated having people on board, but he wasn't used to have so many; even now he could still feel the METAs roaming aboard his vessel or stirring in their sleep inside their cabins, and it was giving him the itches; it was hard even distinguishing Leviathan's heavy boots stepping through the halls below deck.
For that reason, he was grateful to the girls for the impromptu distraction they provided him.
"Reverse; it's Fortune's turn," Le Malin declared after drawing a card.
"What?! I skip another turn?!" He whined, eliciting an amused chuckle from the destroyers as she made her play. No matter, he could get back in the game after Spee-
"Uhm… I'm sorry, I only have a skip," the Iron Blood cruiser said sheepishly.
"Seriously?!"
Everything was going fine, despite him not being able to snatch a single game.
Until he received a call from his brother through the radio.
"What is it, brother? What do you mean we have a guest?" He paused as Emperor briefly explained the situation.
His eyes widened in shock, and he jumped in his seat, startling the shipgirls around him. "What?!"
The girls all shared a look. It seemed the game was over.
"Everyone, would you like some tea?" Hermione announced, pushing a kitchen cart across the deck.
"Ah, thank you so much, Hermione," Emperor replied, reaching for one of the cups of tea on the tray before sipping down its contents, immediately followed by Enterprise, Kindle, and Helena.
Cinder looked down at the cup of hot tea with an aloof expression, then at the smile on the maid's face. She relented, accepting it with a nod of thanks.
They were outside, on the stern of the Lenin. The META carrier was keeping her promise and had spent the better part of the morning teaching Emperor and Enterprise how to cast Mirror Seas as the icebreaker sailed through the waves toward Azur Lane. After the umpteenth failed attempt, though, the two had reached their limit for the day.
"Whew, I really needed that. I was literally on the verge of collapsing," the shipboy declared with a sigh of bliss, leaning over the bulwark of the ship to catch his breath.
"I'd be surprised if you didn't," Cinder said, the heat of the beverage bringing a hint of color to her pale cheeks. "The ability to open Mirror Seas is inherent to Siren Cubes. Despite sharing some similarities, Kansen require a lot more effort to achieve it."
"Forgive me for prying, Miss York- Cinder; but if that's the case, how did you learn how to do it?" Hermione inquired.
"It was a long time ago, after undergoing Metamorphosis. I just desperately wanted to flee the hell that was my timeline, and my wish was granted," she replied somberly. "It took me a while, but eventually, I learned to do it on my own free will. I can only assume the process must have altered my Cube enough to make such an abnormality possible."
"But then how are Master and Miss Enterprise going to be able to replicate it?"
"With great dedication and a lot of elbow grease, Hermione," Emperor quipped with a snarky grin. "Am I right, Enterprise?"
"Y-yeah… Of course…" Enterprise panted. She was still trying to catch her breath, as the splitting headache that was assaulting her almost made her lose grip on the cup in her hands. What they had been doing wasn't any different from when she trained with Freedom back at the base, but this time, it was a lot more taxing. Expanding the influence of her Cube to her surroundings, as Cinder had told her to do, was nothing like she had ever done before.
"I was also quite skeptical at the beginning, but you seem to have grasped the basics pretty quickly," Cinder addressed the male Kansen. "If you keep this up, you may be able to make it way before the two-months deadline you told me about."
Emperor brought his hand to his chest in an overly exaggerated display of confidence. "Ma'am, I had to self-teach myself Wisdom Crafting and then teach it to my brothers. I like to think I have a knack for anything Wisdom Cube-related. I'm confident I can do this way before that."
At the mention of the deadline marking the closest planetary alignment, Hermione's heart skipped a beat, but she managed to keep her composure. The shipboys had already vowed to fight by their side as long as the Sirens were considered a threat, so she didn't have to worry about them disappearing like that.
The idea was to take advantage of the closest planetary alignment to enlist the help of the other Azur Lane, but it all depended on how things went with Shinano in the Sakura Empire. Surely, if things didn't go as planned, they wouldn't go back on their own word and leave them with the threat of the Original Sirens looming over their heads. And yet, Emperor had been unusually quiet these past few days after his talk with Queen Elizabeth, or at least quiet for someone like him. She couldn't help but wonder what he had been mulling about, but at the same time, she was too scared of the answer to ask.
"Good morning, brother. You slept a lot today," Emperor's voice shook her from her musings as everyone turned to greet Leviathan. The newly arrived shipboy was making his way toward them with wide strides and a serious look on her face.
Cinder's eyes widened in understanding.
"I presume you've managed to talk to the Arbiter. How did it go?" She asked him.
"I did. She was reluctant at first, but then she complied," he said, nodding his head in thanks to Hermione as she offered him a cup of tea. "In short, when someone opens a portal to another timeline, the Arbiters can sense the fluctuations it produces. It's how they detect and prevent external factors from interfering with the current one."
"Um, I don't think I get it…" Helena said sheepishly.
"Think of it this way: a spider can tell where prey is stuck on its web by following the vibrations caused by their struggling," Kindle explained. "That explains why they were always on our heels wherever we went but were never accurate enough to catch us. They can track us only when we open a portal."
"That's good to know, but there's only one issue. We are not Arbiters; we can't do that," Emperor pointed out.
"Strength said she'd help us herself… if she had a body," Leviathan said, turning to his brother with a deadpan look. "But someone went a bit overboard with her, and now we are stuck without an Arbiter who can help us."
"Sorry not sorry. She deserved that," Emperor shrugged, brushing off his brother's not-so-veiled accusation.
"Actually, there's someone who may be able to help us," Enterprise mused aloud.
"Who are you talking about?" Cinder asked her.
"Temperance; the one who fled," Enterprise said. "She's probably gone back to their base to ask for reinforcements. If we can reach her and explain the situation, maybe she'll accept to help us."
Cinder considered her words for a second.
"As much as I don't like the idea of budding up with an Arbiter, we have no other choice," she exhaled. "How do we get in contact with her? Should I open a random portal and see if we can get her to come out in the open?"
"I have a better idea. Leviathan, hand me Strength's Cube," Kindle said to the male Kansen. "Together, Helena and I should be able to connect to the hidden channel they use for communication and send her a message."
"There's no need for that. I'm already here," a new voice spoke from nothing.
With those words, Temperance dismissed her camouflage, her rigging's sizable figure seemingly appearing out of nowhere, hovering midair a few feet away from the vessel.
Of course, the Arbiter's sudden appearance startled the group of Kansen, who immediately began squaring off with their rigging at the ready.
"I… didn't feel her coming…" Helena said aloud, her guard up.
"Obviously you didn't. Mine isn't simple camouflage like Tester's; it causes radio interference in my vicinity, and it makes me invisible to radar detection," the Arbiter said, her seemingly disinterested tone of voice matching her detached gaze.
"Bold of you to show your face so nonchalantly. Were you trying to get your comrades' Cubes back?" Enterprise questioned her, her bow at the ready and aimed at the Siren.
"And to what purpose? Going through all that trouble to bring them back with their most recent memories is not worth the effort, especially since one of us is still up and functional," Temperance stated.
"So cold…" Emperor said drily. "I wonder how Strength and Hermit would react if they heard you."
"They would agree with me, of course," Temperance retorted. "We share the same way of thinking."
"Are you going to tell us what you want, or are we going to have to guess?" Enterprise asked her, brimming with impatience.
"You can try if you insist," Temperance said, the sarcasm in Enterprise's voice seemingly lost to her.
"Just tell us why you were tailing us…" Leviathan said with a sigh, his posture relaxing slightly after realizing that the Arbiter didn't seem to have hostile intentions.
"I was planning on going back to report to Zero… but I decided against it. I wanted to see what you were planning for myself before doing that, so I opted to follow you for a while," Temperance explained.
What she said was only half true. In reality, she feared Zero punishing her for failing so miserably at her task, and she figured that if she returned with some information, she'd be more lenient. Then she had overheard what the Kansen were discussing, and a plan had begun forming in her head.
"And you came out of your cover of your own volition because..." Kindle trailed off, narrowing her eyes at her.
"Because I also happened to overhear your conversation. In another situation, I wouldn't even consider something like this, but in this case, since our priorities seem to align, I'm willing to lend you my assistance."
The group perked up at her words, and the Kansen shared a look. They weren't expecting the Arbiter to be so… cooperative. They were ready to set up a trap and force her into it if she refused to comply, but she came out of nowhere like a boon from heaven. All that was left to do was to see how trustworthy she actually was.
Sensing their hesitation, she loudly cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention again.
"Ahem… As I was saying, I know where codename 'Ash' is."
"W-what did you just say?" Cinder asked her, her eyes wide in surprise.
"You heard me right. She opened a portal recently, and I've been keeping tabs on its temporal coordinates the entire time. My comrades and I were planning on heading there after dealing with you lot, but things didn't turn out quite as expected," Temperance explained with a bored sigh. "Do you want me to bring you there or not?"
The Kansen all shared a glance.
"Fine," Enterprise eventually said. "Tell us what we need to do."
"Run that by me again," Freedom told TB.
"I'm an AI created by Observer Zero, tasked with the job of helping humanity against the Original Sirens by supporting the commander of Azur Lane and the Kansen under his command-"
The shipboy let out an exasperated sigh. "Not that… The other thing."
"The Original Sirens have exploited the element of surprise to lay siege to the main humanoid Siren base and take over the seed. They hacked into it and reprogrammed the low-tier humanoid units and mass-produced vessels around the world to follow their orders. Additionally, with the raid on the Basilica, they've secured a considerable supply of Wisdom Cubes to spawn more of their own."
"I can't believe this shit…" Freedom buried his face in his hands as he sank into the couch inside Ryan's office.
"You better believe it, cause it's true," Purifier spoke up from the opposite side, her tone a bit too cheerful for the shipboy's taste.
"Shut your damn mouth, bitch! I'm this close to cutting off your head again, and this time, not even Ryan will be able to stop me!"
"Why?! What did I do?!" Purifier recoiled at his outburst.
"All of this is your fault! Without the seed, the Original Sirens would have been a pain to deal with, but still manageable." He sprang to his feet, seething in anger. "Instead, we are going to have to deal with an entire horde of those monsters because you incompetent pieces of crap have let them take over your base!"
"I would advise against it, Freedom," TB's voice interjected. "With the main base under their control, Purifier won't be able to come back to life if her current vessel is destroyed."
He looked at the hologram with a frown, then at the Elite Siren, who nodded vehemently with her head, her hands pushed forward as if to keep him at a distance.
"Freedom, believe me when I say that what everyone wants the most here is to fire a torpedo up her ass and be done with her," Ryan intervened. "But Purifier is willing to fight on our side, and as much as I hate it, we need all the help we can get. Admiral Nimitz is on the same page as me."
Another exasperated sigh left the shipboy's lips, and he sat back on the couch, much to the Siren's relief.
"Consider yourself lucky that has Kurama decided to stay in the Sakura Empire. He'd beat you to a pulp without a second thought," Freedom said, crossing his arms over his chest. "But let's ignore Purifier for a second…"
"Hey, don't ignore me! I don't like being ignored!"
"Are you sure we can trust that thing?" The shipboy pointed at TB's hologram.
"I also had my qualms at the beginning, but the first thing TB did was to reveal the location of their base to us. I still don't entirely trust her, but I'm willing to at least take into consideration what she says," Ryan reassured him.
"And what makes you so sure that this isn't just the enemy's plan to lure us into a trap?" Freedom asked. "Isn't Zero the avatar of the seed? They could have access to humanoid Siren levels of intelligence now that they've captured it."
The room fell silent as everyone pondered his words. Indeed, they had no idea what would happen if the Original Sirens came into contact with a seed tampered with by the Creator. Freedom's concerns were reasonable; this could all be just a ruse.
"Reservations and mistrust among allies will bring about inefficiency and hesitation during crucial moments," TB intervened. "To prevent that, I'm willing to part with some information that I was planning to share at a later time."
Everyone turned to look at the AI with raised eyebrows.
"Speak up," the shipboy said, narrowing his eyes at her.
"I am aware of the fact that your comrades have been dispatched to get in contact with the META Kansen trying to break into the current simulation. I'm also aware of the fact that you are looking for a way to reach the Original Timeline and the Creator before they do."
"Go on," he intimated her.
"I may have found a way to do so."
Eveyone's heart leaped into their throats. This was it; this was exactly what they had been looking for. If they could reach the Original Timeline before anyone else, all their problems would be resolved. They could interrogate the Creator and ask them about the method to repair damaged and defective Cubes, how to completely shut down the seed once and for all, or even interrogate them on the reason behind all the clusterfuck with the humanoid Sirens.
If TB already had their curiosity, now she had their total attention.
"What?! Since when?!" Purifier was the most shocked of all those present.
"Since the moment I was able to add two and two together, Purifier. Observer Zero created me with that purpose in mind."
"That bitch! Always keeping secrets from us!" Purifier threw her hands in the air in frustration. "I hope the Original Sirens blew her up with all her stuff!"
"She never felt the need to share anything with you and the others because your programming prevents you from doing or sharing anything that could endanger the Creator. Of course, that goes for her too. It took her countless simulations, but in the end, she created me as a way to circumvent that."
Purifier grumbled in annoyance. The feeling of being just a pawn in the hands of Zero to carry out the will of the Creator never truly bothered her; at least she was aware of it, and she was ready to bet the other Elites felt the same way. Even still, being kept in the dark about such important matters angered her to no end.
"TB, why didn't you say it sooner?" Shoukaku addressed the AI with an inquisitive look from her seat at the secretary desk.
"Because, despite what I just said, the only thing I can actually do is act like a coordinate finder. We still need someone capable of physically traveling through the timelines—someone not impeded by a program…"
"The METAs," Ryan concluded. "Is that why Zero told us about them when she realized we already knew about the Creator?"
"Indeed. She sent the Arbiters after the METAs when she realized they had a means to travel through the timelines, but they always seemed to slip through their hands. She sensed an opportunity when she met you and decided to tell you everything."
"I see," Ryan mused. "It all makes sense now."
"Enough beating around the bush. What's the method?" Freedom was getting impatient.
"It's actually rather simple," TB began. "This is not an accurate depiction of reality, but rather an indicative representation for explanatory purpose. Imagine the flow of time as a straight line and the various timelines existing as a sheave. When the seed goes back in time, a new timeline is created, diverging from the previous one and adding itself to the bundle. The result is a cluster of timelines, with the original one located at the center of it all. Being the cornerstone, it's extremely hard to reach because it's completely engulfed by all the others," she explained. "Being Observer Zero's creation, I'm also considered a small part of the seed—a scion, you could say. With the correct calculations, I should be able to trace its course back through the timelines up to the original one, where it came from. But as I've already said, we still need someone capable of physically traveling through them."
The room fell silent again as everyone tried to make heads or tails of what the AI had just said.
Belfast gently cleared her throat to shake everyone from their stupor.
"Overcomplicated technicalities aside, this simply means we can't do anything at the moment but wait for Miss Enterprise and everyone else to return."
"You are right, Belfast. In the meantime, I bet high command would want proof of the veracity of TB's claims. The details are still confidential, but I believe they are planning a full-scale operation, and they assigned us the task of checking on the Siren main base location while they secure their Cube stocks and amass enough forces," the Commander announced.
"You mean they're planning an all-out assault to their base? Ryan, did you forget what we told you during the meeting with the flagships? If they find themselves with the back to the wall, they'll just skedaddle out of this timeline and into a new one," Freedom reminded him.
"There's no need to worry about that," TB intervened. "Before the Original Sirens took over, Observer Zero was able to erase the seed's time-leaping protocol, effectively blocking them any escape route."
"Well, that's good to know," Freedom let out a sigh of relief at her words. He really wasn't looking forward to a repeat of what happened in his world.
"That only means it'll be a harder battle. A wild animal is more dangerous when it's cornered," South Dakota spoke up from her position right next to Ryan. The battleship had been standing beside his desk in silence the entire time, watching Purifier like a hawk.
Everyone agreed with her statement. It wasn't a reassuring prospect, but at least they had a plan of action that didn't involve sitting idly as they waited for the enemy to come at them.
With the discussion seemingly over, Ryan felt the tension dissipate, and his eyelids began fluttering close on their own. He turned to look out the window and noticed that the sun had already gone down. How long had they been at it exactly?
"I think we can call it a day," he declared. "We'll discuss things further tomorrow while we wait for the others to return."
Purifier sprang to her feet with her hand held up in the air.
"Commander, quick question!"
"What is it, Purifier?" He sighed.
"Where do I sleep?"
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? You and Ash weren't exactly on good terms when she left," Kindle told Cinder with a hint of concern in her voice.
"Don't worry, I'll be all right," the META carrier reassured her with a tired smile. "You need to bring the others to Azur Lane. While I'm away, you'll act as my liaison with the Commander until I'm back."
The decision to depart immediately was unanimous. Cinder would follow Temperance's directions and lead the Azur Lane delegation to Ash and her group. Kindle would temporarily take her place as the METAs' leader, and Howe and Alabama would bring them all back to the base with their ships.
Of course, the Arbiter's presence garnered plenty of hostile glares from everyone, although she didn't seem too bothered by them, if the usual unimpressed, thousand-yard stare she regarded them with was any indication.
"Howe, please, take care of Fortune while we are gone," Emperor said.
"You can count on me, Emperor," Howe replied with a cheery smile. "I'll make sure she's treated like a princess when we get back."
"Enterprise, are you sure we can trust her?" Alabama asked the carrier, nodding her head toward Temperance, as the METAs took turns saying goodbye to their leader before getting aboard her vessel.
"Of course not; we'll have to stay on our toes the entire time with her around," Enterprise replied with a hushed voice, glancing at the Arbiter hovering to the side. "Report everything to the Commander and say hi to the others. We'll be back as soon as possible," she added, the battleship nodding in acknowledgement.
"Be careful, everyone!" Fortune and the others waved them off from aboard as the battleship's engine came to life and the ship drifted away.
The group simply stood there, waving back at them as the ship went further and further away until it disappeared into the distance.
"If we are done putting off our departure, I think we can start."
The Arbiter's voice called them back to attention. Everyone turned to glare at her, and Cinder stepped up to her.
The tentacles of the Arbiter's squid-like rigging, which had been resting idly up until that moment, suddenly came to life. One of them reached toward Cinder under the watchful gaze of the Kansen around them. The META allowed it to wrap around her arm and closed her eyes as Temperance's rigging began glowing. The mantle that acted as a nestling dome for the Arbiter to place herself under began flashing like a real squid's bioluminescence. The light spread through the tentacles of the rigging until it reached Cinder's arm.
At that moment, the shipgirl's mind was invaded with information, specifically the temporal coordinates corresponding to the timeline where Ash was supposed to be. Once the transfer of information was over, the tentacle let go of her arm, and Cinder brought a hand up to cradle her head as she winced uncomfortably.
"Are you okay, Cinder?" Helena asked her with concern in her voice.
"I'm fine," she reassured her. "If everyone is ready, I'm doing it."
With that said, she took a deep breath and extended her arm forward. Her eyes lit up, her rigging flashed into existence, and the space right in front of her began distorting. The unnatural distortion slowly twisted itself into the form of a fissure of light, rising from the sea to a few feet above eye level before parting sideways and opening into an effective gate of light.
Once stabilized, Cinder released her focus and turned to the others with a resolute expression on her face.
"Let's go," she said as she stepped into the portal.
AN: Careful here, we're entering the realm of bullshit "time travel" shenanigans, and this is your typical info dump of every respectable sci-fi.
If anyone felt a bit put off by that, don't worry; you can just ignore it, and it wouldn't undermine your understanding of the plot. It's there only for people like me who like to delve into the deep mechanics of a fantasy universe, and also because I want to have a (fairly) reasonable explanation for all that wacky stuff.
Wait, wacky? What am I talking about? Compared to the stuff we are used to get in the game, this is a children's fairy tale.
Next Chapter: Ash Seeketh Embers