Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You all know the story so I am not telling it again.

The story of ship girls, sirens, humanity, and a terrible secret.

What do you don't know about it?

Well then let us start at the beginning.
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The clear sky was shining yet on the sea the fires of war were burning.

Between the fighters were many, though there was one major thing separating the sides.

The Eagle Union and Royal Navy, graceful and elegant in their fight while upholding justice.

The people of the Sakura Empire and Ironblood, gracefully, fluid. Aggressive and emotional many might say, yet they are effective.

These were the two human sides fighting.

Yet besides those two there was a third force on the global battlefield of the seas. Extraterrestrial beings from the stars that arrived one day out of the blue. They came with portals and robbed humanity of the sea.

These three forces were fighting over the fate of the world.

Yet the gears of fate had other plans and this little planet holds a terrible secret, a secret that changes the way you might see the future.

That's the basic.

For our beginning we have to go to the day the Sakura Empire decided to attack Azur Lane and to the middle of the attack on pearl harbor.
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Cleveland dodged a bomb thrown at her by an airplane and continued pushing onward.

She blew up a siren cruiser and cruised past the wreckage.

"Haha, how do you like this, this is the power of humanity against the sirens, us, humanity's most powerful weapon, "Cleveland said as she was hit in a cloud of smoke only to exit it unharmed.

She stopped next to Javelin who was fighting with Laffey against Ayanami to provide AA-fire and did a pretty good job at it.

"You doing good."She said as she dodged a laser from a siren destroyer.

"Manageable. Thanks for the AA," replied Javelin as she again engaged Ayanami.

Cleveland chuckled and went ahead to strike down sirens.

In the background was Enterprise, who gladfully was on the base when the attack started, taking on Kaga and Akagi with the help of Illustrious and Unicorn.

The three carriers' firepower stood equally against the sakura forces and their sirens aid meaning the air was filled with mostly fighters and no bombers and the battle was mostly focussed on the sea.

Many wreckages floated and prohibited their view and it was clear that the attack was of little success, yet the opposing forces still fought back instead of retreating.

Cleveland was sinking ships left and right but didn't notice the prying eyes that were focused on her.

"You will do perfectly, I hope with this we can finally have peace."The figure said and dived down to a nearby siren pawn and waited.

Cleveland was focused on killing and sinking ships and sirens alike.

She cruised to a pawn that seemed to just shrug off the hits of her gun but she made quick work of it with her torpedos.

"Ha, do you think you can beat us, "Cleveland asked over the sinking battleship that broke in two?

"No, but I got a better idea."Came a childish voice from behind her that Cleveland immediately recognized.

She turned around and readied her guns on the small siren in front of her.

"Observer Alpha, what gives me the honor, "Cleveland asked focussed.

"Nothing but a try for peace."Observer said and made no try to attack.

"Peace, don't lie to me."Cleveland said as she shot."All you bring is war, you will never beat us when we are together."

Observer simply blocked the shots with her tentacles."I am aiming for it, but you wouldn't believe me, I would need to show you the truth."

"Yeah lying to my face. Face us and die finally."Cleveland sneered.

"If you haven't noticed it you are standing alone here and I made no try to attack you haven't i."Observer said and looked around.

Cleveland did the same but kept her guns trained on her.

Observer exhaled."Look this war has been going on for so long and we are both tired of it, aren't we?"

Cleveland was deep in thought and did realize that she stood here completely alone, not a good thing against a high siren."I may be tired of this war but this won't let me give up until all of you have died and peace is restored."

"Then the truth will be hard for you but not impossible to understand."Observer said and walked a bit to her."Say would you join a little experiment I had planned?"

Cleveland shot her and that left Observer bleeding from the chest and kneeling."Take that as my answer."

"Too sad, maybe we could have done this without force."Observer said as she stood up. She summoned all of her guns."Then come Cleveland, show me if you are worth the truth."

It took not a minute more until both descended into battle. In the background, Kaga and Akagi were having trouble keeping up with all the resistance they were facing.

Lasers and shouting filled the side where the both of them were fighting yet no word was uttered between them. Shots echoed and hit and did the damage while lasers hit and burned skin. No one of the two was going down and soon their calculated fight became nothing but primal rage.

"You still got it even after all this. I knew you would be perfect." said the bloodied Observer.

"I won't help you as long as I got my free will, "Cleveland screamed her as she shot and hit another time. Observer was looking bad at this point but Cleveland wasn't better, both were short before giving up but both knew that they wouldn't.

Suddenly an arrow wooshed past Cleveland and barely hit Observer, well it still cut off several of her tentacles.

Observer had to bite down hard on her lips to not scream because her pain was unimaginable.

"Cleveland stay back, we will kill that monster."Came the voice of Enterprise and she had Clevelands sisters and several others following her. The battle seemed to be over since no sakura ship nor siren ship was still over the water.

"Oh great more of them." chuckled Observer in clear pain. She was about to prepare her guns but they were held down by Clevelands sisters.

Enterprise aimed an arrow at her and fired but Observer barely held up a tentacle to shield her. The arrow pierced it and hit her arm to which Observer could only whine.

"Your allies are gone and the battle is over, this is the end."Said Enterprise as she readied another arrow. Montpelier held her and Observer seemed to be paralyzed from the pain alone, blood flying everywhere.

Enterprise shot and hit Observer straight in the chest and pierced her wisdom cube. Observer spat out blood and dropped to the floor where Montpelier and the others were punching and kicking her. They pulled her up and threw her around so everyone could have a go at beating her. After several minutes they stopped and Observer was finally dropped to the sea.

"Yeah it's over, I am not gonna survive this."Observer said and hung her head.

"You better not come back, "Montpelier said and kicked her. The siren remained barely breathing on the water.

Many asked if Cleveland was fine but she was gonna survive this all. In Cleveland's mind, however, were the things Observer said. The talk of peace and the truth, weren't they all knowing the truth.

Cleveland dragged her beaten body over to her and kicked the Siren. "Hey Siren."

"Yes?"Observer coughed out, she was barely hanging to her life.

Enterprise was about to erase Observer but Cleveland signed to her to stay down, it's not like the siren was a threat anymore.

"Whatever you wanted to do with me it's lost, "Cleveland said to her and was about to kick her again but decided against it.

All left the dying siren and turned around and were about to leave but they heard a low chuckle which stopped most of them in their steps.

"But we haven't lost."Observer chuckled out and startled everyone.

"What do you mean?"Cleveland asked her.

"You Cleveland will see that soon enough."She said and besides everyone's expectations jumped to her feet and lunged at Cleveland.

Before anyone could reach out or even react both of them disappeared in a portal the moment Observer touched Cleveland.

Both appeared in a siren base and laid there, both barely able to move thanks to their injuries. Multiple sirens restrained Cleveland and some, including Tester went to take care of Observer.

Cleveland struggled but was knocked out by a punch from Purifier.
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Short but good, the story forms.

Tell me errors please and I will fix them.

Give me your opinions and we will see the story continue later.

Chapter Text

Well, all want me to continue here so I better get to work.
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Cleveland awoke with an indescribable headache.

"God Vestal what did you give me?" she asked into the room. She was blinded by the white lights and rubbed her eyes.

"Well, Vestal isn't here but you can have fun with me instead. If you want to know it's Ibuprofen and Aspirin." someone answered. Cleveland didn't recognize her voice at all.

"Cant see, well open that little eyes of yours and follow the light."The girl said and Cleveland barely made out the flashlight.

"Diluted pupils, probably caused by the unprepared teleportation and getting knocked out. Nah  that will fix itself, you ship girls can take some light trauma, still, Purifier didn't need to punch you through the wall."The girl said.

"So you are not Vestal, then who are you? Another repair ship?"Cleveland asked into the room and received a light chuckle. She could almost make out the girl now that stood beside the bed.

"The name is Reconstructor or your damm hero miss CL-55."She declared."Call me Reco or Medic if you wish."

"Sounds like a siren but fine," Cleveland said and sat up and ran her hand through her face, or more like tried to.

Looking down she saw that she was bound to the bed she lay on.

"Why am I bound down?"Cleveland asked and looked around the room."And where are the windows? Pearl had those, I helped build the medbay there."

"Well, you see you aren't exactly at pearl."The medic said from the side.

"Then where am I? San Diego? Francisco?" "Try siren side base 365 outskirt district 5 east pacific 300m below sea level." Cleveland whipped her head to the medic next to her in pure disbelieve. The medic just smirked as Cleveland finally began realizing that she didn't talk at all to a fellow ship girl. "Ok, it's not directly underwater but inside a pocket dimension."

A few minutes passed.

"What cat got your tongue? Chill you arent a prisoner anyway, Observer said to treat you like a guest so I will. You must have questions and I have nothing to do so ask away. Coffee or soda?"

She waited a short while.

"Got too scared to talk or so? Well, soda is more healthy anyway so I will just give you that one." The siren declared and left the room.

Cleveland watched the siren in a doctor's outfit leave and stared at the door and began to take it all in. She was in the enemy base, felt strange like her ship was being tinkered with, and was a captive. She needed to get out of here fast but she would go nowhere with the bindings.

She was trying to open them as the door opened and Cleveland just stared at the door.

A single siren pawn entered the room and sat down a crate in the corner.

"Why does she need this stuff anyway, concussion medicine pah, Purifier is the one that usually gets treated here and you can take her head off  to fix it so she doesn't need concussion treatment."The siren mumbled to herself.

She looked around the room and stopped in her movement when she spotted Cleveland.

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what?"She said and from somewhere pulled out glasses and put them on.

"My eyes aren't deceiving me, are they? I didn't drink I swear but what is a ship girl doing here?"The siren wondered and went next to Cleveland."What are you doing here?"

Cleveland gulped and stared at the siren who unusually looked confused, not angry or mischievous."You aren't gonna kill me, are you?"

"I will judge that after I have found out what the heck is going on here. And no you must be here for  a reason because you aren't in a cell."The siren said and sat down.

Cleveland didn't trust the siren but she remained friendly to not get killed and maybe get some intel.

"All I know is that awoke here after my fight, I got no idea why "Cleveland said and the siren was even more confused.

Before she could answer the door opened and another siren was thrown in. The kid landed on the bed next to Cleveland and held her foot that was bent wrong.

"How many times do I must repeat myself. Do not pick a physical fight with the pawn ships. They are made of metal, they won't move faster when you kick them."Reco groaned as she entered the room.

Cleveland and the siren simply looked both confused as the siren on the bed began to cry.

"It hurts so much."*sniff*"Please do something doc."She cried out and Reco laid some ice against the ankle.

The doctor took out some monitor and held it up. The longer Cleveland watched the more references to her life could she create.

"Thankfully not broken."Reco said, laid the thing away and gave the siren a syringe."I take you off sorties and take one of those pills once to every meal to bear with the pain."She added and gave her some pillbox and crutches.

She then gestured the siren out of the room.

She took out two soda cans and put them on the table next to Cleveland and stared a the two confused girls.
"You both wouldn't believe what shit I get called for so you can leave."She gestured to the other siren."I need to talk to Cleves alone and you Clevi can you now talk, are you comfortable?"

The siren stood up and left to do whatever so only the two now remained.

"So why am I here and not dead, you hate me right?"Cleveland stuttered out, she wanted to sound tired to mask her wellness, she did feel unbelievable well for her current situation.

The siren leaned back and took a sip of her soda."You need to ask Observer the why, she just dropped  you off at me and told me to make you good again, did that and her simultaneously, you did almost kill each other, heh, well Observer will not make it but, nevermind." She put the soda down and burped slightly."Well you might be our enemy but no one distinctively hates you, you are just a soldier nothing else for them like the pawns are for you."

Cleveland suddenly felt bad. She had been killing many of the normal pawns, that showed way more emotion than the high sirens, without mercy, and to hear that even they didn't hate her for that made her feel bad. Somehow Cleveland couldn't bring herself to hate the sirens at the moment.

"You all seem like a big family like mine in some way, "Cleveland muttered out and the doctor heard it.

"Well if you take it real there aren't many differences between us in this war anyway."The siren said and stroked her hair. Cleveland shook her head.

"No this is brainwashing me, you must be all playing. This fun family, for god's sake I have seen you slaughtering humankind and us without mercy and that marks the reason why you need to be destroyed. You nursed me to health so I can be executed by anyone here for revenge."Cleveland said out loud to herself, more to convince herself that the sirens were the bad guys here.

Reco laughed and unbound Cleveland, much to her surprise. "I helped you because of my doctor's duty. It doesn't matter if it's a friend,  enemy, or more. Where help is needed a doctor needs to help or she isn't a doctor."

Cleveland remained quiet and stood up, or tried to, her legs gave out immediately once they touched the ground.

Reco leaned over the bed and looked down at the not amused face of Cleveland.

"Yeah, I should have mentioned that."She scratched he head."Those toothpicks aren't in the best condition yet so walking is something I wouldn't advise for now. They are still gonna be numb for a few hours."

Cleveland clawed herself up to the bed again.

"Could have said that sooner."She said as she completed the tedious task."Great so now I am a prisoner, probably a subject of torture and immobile too."She pouted out.

Reco giggled and gave Cleveland the soda.

"Why do you even have those?"Cleveland asked as she took a sip.

"Cargo ships and vending machines. You wouldn't believe how the destroyers like this stuff, some of them I even had to prescribe insulin if you believe it."She giggled out and drank from hers. Even Cleveland had to giggle at the thought of diabetic sirens.

Yet among all the at that she talked about normal human and ship girl stuff made Cleveland sick. They almost experienced the same as it appears but Cleveland refuses to see sirens, ship girls, and humans as the same.

As Cleveland was grumbling the door opened and Observer in crutches and a hospital gown walked in, her tentacles were gone.

"Say do you never listen, you will only kill yourself faster than you already are if you strain your body at all."Reco jumped up and screamed at her."Where is Tester she should drive you around in a wheelchair."

Reco pushed the small high siren into a wheelchair and sprinted out of the room.

Observer looked taken back and shove herself to sit next to Cleveland.

"Look at us, both can't walk or fight at the moment so we can chat I believe."She said.

They both stared each other down.

"Didn't we kill you?"Cleveland asked in a matter-of-fact voice.

"You did, I won't survive the week."Observer said and pulled down her gown a bit."My cube is destroyed so I can't even summon my guns. I am a glorified death row inmate at the moment."

Indeed her entire body was covered in bandages.

"Finally one less of you."Cleveland cheered out and  Observer looked depressed.

"Hah finally killed one of you."She continued but stopped as she saw Observer crying."Hey, what has gotten into you now?"

"You. You celebrate my death but what do your friends think about it if I would have killed you? Well, that's what my friends will feel, me gone in less than a week."Observer said and wiped away her tears."You must ask yourself why you are here right, well I brought you here and had Reconstructor heal us both to the best of her ability, well you better than me."

"You have friends?"Cleveland asked amazed."On how you command the ships you don't seem like a caring person."

Observer looked mad and grabbed Clevelands arm and squeezed it. It didn't hurt Cleveland in the slightest."The ships have no mind but the sirens do and I hate commanding them to their death."

Cleveland gripped Observer's arm and pulled her up.

"Now what, you think I care."Cleveland sneered and stared at Observer who looked unamused."You wanted to show me something, but I won't let you."

"Oh I will show you and then I will do other stuff with you."The siren said.

"You can try, I will not do anything for you and get out of here, "Cleveland said and pulled her on her lap.

Observer punched her in the face but for Cleveland, it was just like getting a pillow thrown at her face.

"You will, you won't get out anyway and you don't know yourself around here anyway."

Cleveland was still taken aback by the fact that the siren, who a day ago threw her around the battlefield with ease, was now weaker than a baby.

"You are totally weak right now, heh?"Cleveland teased and Observer pouted."Heh, when I can walk again I will just get out of here."

Observer stopped pouting."And how without your rigging."

"I feel it, I know where my ship is and hence for know how to get my rigging," Cleveland said and knocked Observer on the head.

Observer leaned back."Well, for now, au, after tomorrow you will see that different."

Cleveland didn't like the sound of that at all."What are you planning you monster?"

"You will see when we start tomorrow. You need your legs to shove me around and work with me-"She started but the door flew open and Tester literally crashed through it with a face full of rage.

She looked around and spotted them. She ran over and gently sat Observer back into the wheelchair.

She then turned to Cleveland and lunged at her. The moment she had her she smashed her against the wall and began to strangle her.

"WHY YOU BITCH, WHY DO I NEED TO LOSE HER, COULDN'T YOU JUST INJURE HER SO SHE WOULD HAVE FLED!!"Tester screamed and Cleveland already saw the light at the end of the tunnel but she was suddenly dropped.

She looked up to see Reco putting a sleeping Tester into a bed.

"Don't harm my patients got it."She said with a passive-aggressiveness that was only matched by Roon.

The doctor pulled Cleveland up with surprisingly less effort and laid her on the bed again.

"I guess that was everything for today, you need rest."She said and directed her view between Cleveland and Observer.

"Then send her to dreamland and we talk tomorrow, I need to get started with her ship."Observer said and wheeled herself out of the room.

"What do you plan with my ship? Don't touch anything."Cleveland screamed after her but only got a "No and you will see." as a response.

Reco filled a syringe and injected it into Cleveland who only whined a bit."Until tomorrow then, I will take good care of you."

Before Cleveland could even argue back her vision became blurry and she fell back onto the pillow of the bed.

Chapter Text

Dark.

Dark was all Cleveland could see.

She opened and closed her eyes many times and every time only small things changed.

First more brightness, then the sound of water.

With everything becoming more clearer Cleveland could see around more.

She saw water, an ocean, and fire, fire that burned to the heavens.

The islands were nothing but black spots of charred earth in the distance.

Looking around confused Cleveland more than she got a clearer picture, yet one question was clearly on her mind.

What happened here?

A sound, a clash, and a spark in the dark brought Cleveland out of her thoughts.

Focussing her view she saw nothing, yet she knew in the dark something was waiting.

She couldn't move or talk but she waited and it resulted in something.

A figure flew past her and looking at her Cleveland recognized her.

Enterprise, the strongest carrier of Eagle Union skitted to a stop 20 meters from her.

Enterprise looked at her and her gaze held only anger and hatred.

She drew her bow and fired upon Cleveland who only held her hands up in total shock.

She waited but didn't feel the arrow hit.

Opening her eyes revealed why.

A scythe she helt had blocked the arrow.

In its reflection, her eyes reflected a bright yellow. Her own face had a smile that sent chills down her spine.
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"AAAAAAHHHH!"Cleveland jolted awake and had to catch her breath.

What was that? It must have been a nightmare.

"Ohh welcome back in the land of the living."A voice from the side said.

Cleveland whipped her head to the source still completely out of breath.

Who said that was Reconstructor who currently helt Observer like a baby in her arms. She was feeding Observer something with a spoon and Observer certainly didn't look happy.

"Come on eat this or you will be in terrible pain."Reco addressed Observer who just shook her head.

"I don't want to, I can bear the pain, it tastes horribl-uughrr."Observer complained but a spoonful of the dark globby stuff was shoved down her throat. Reco then laid Observer next to Cleveland who now realized that she laid on an actual bed and not a hospital one.

While Observer was coughing like she had an asthma attack Cleveland looked her over."You look worse than last time."

Indeed she looked pale and considering that she was a siren the fact that it stood out was something.

"Of course she looks bad, without this medicine I put together she would have already given up the spoon."Reco said and sat down on the bed."And you? You slept out now."

"I feel good now."She sighed.

"She didn't look that bad a few hours ago, "Cleveland said and gestured to Observer who now rested face down.

Cleveland sat up, realizing she had complete feelings in all of her body parts again, and pulled her knees to her stomach.

Cleveland felt weird, not in a bad way weird but in a strong way weird. She felt like she could singlehandedly beat Purifier in a fistfight. This somehow filled her with pride as it made her worry. This isn't right, what did Observer say she did?

"I feel strange, "Cleveland mumbled out.

Reconstructor leaned over to her. Only now did Cleveland actually realize how tall the siren actually was."At least you are bodily fine, I checked that multiple times so be assured that I tell you the truth."

Cleveland looked around."Where are we anyway."

"Well, we couldn't wake you up and couldn't keep you in a temporary supply base so we brought you to a simple facility near the Solomon Islands. Although that's what I know, Observer had plans she didn't share with anyone."She sighted."We did have to cloth you since most of your clothes were destroyed in the first place so I hope they are to your liking, I had our stylist and seamstress work on it with passion."

Cleveland looked down and was a bit amazed, next to about the fact that the sirens apparently have stylists and seamstresses.

She did wear her normal attire, well except the boots since she laid in a bed and looking to the side her boots stood there on the ground. The only difference was that her clothes were black and red. The designs on her clothes were gone, the stars on her socks as well. The strifes, edges, and shades in red and yellow worked really well with the black though.

All in all not that bad. She didn't even want to know about the underwear though.

"Acceptable but I liked the old one better, "Cleveland said.

She wouldn't admit it outright but somehow she liked this black version of her outfit more than her usual attire.

She was definitely adding this one to her closet when she got out of here.

Reco stood up and put away the medical stuff into her clothes pockets."If any inconveniences appear be not afraid to call me."

Cleveland nodded to her. She was still planning on getting out of here and knowing that she was in the base Azur lane had laid their eyes one, the one on the Solomon Islands, gave her a much better chance of escaping.

"Also better make the days you were asleep to three days but anyway I will leave now."Reco said."Oh Tester, don't freaking dare to scream at my patients."

Tester, who Cleveland only noticed now, was dragged out of the room by Reconstructor with a whine.

"Three days!"Cleveland realized in horror."How was I asleep for three days?"

Observer groaned and changed her laying position to her back."I dunno, you just were. At least we managed to modify everything about your ship to my orders."

Cleveland stood up.

"What did you do to my ship? It feels weird and unnatural."She said as she leaned down to Observer.

Observer only giggled and struggled herself into a seating position."Well if you help me up I will show you-."

Suddenly the whole room shook and alarm messages came over the comms.

Cleveland smashed her head against the wall from the sudden shaking and was so dizzy that she didn't quite get the message. Only that an attack on the base was happening.

Weirdly the pain was gone not even a second later.

Tester came crashing through the door and took Observer in her arms. First, she punched Cleveland in the face though and throw her on the bed.

"Tester we are not done, what is going on anyway?"Observer said and struggled in Testers arms.

"Her!"She sneered to Cleveland."Friends are having a full-on attack on the base. Dammit, we only have workers here, no one of them can fight and they just slaughter them without mercy."

"Tester, please."Observer said and pleaded with Tester."Please run and don't come back."

"No, I will take you with me!"Tester replied with tears running down her cheeks. Even Cleveland felt hurt by this but did realize something. Azur Lane was storming the base.

"Oh I will get out of here soon-"Cleveland said but Tester began beating her halfway through the sentence.

"Your fucking friends are killing defenseless innocents and you want them to do it faster, YOU ARE THE MONSTER HERE!"Tester screamed as she punched Cleveland who was feeling weirdly less pain than expected from such an onslaught. She didn't even get bruises.

A few sirens came in and lifted Tester off of Cleveland."The evacuation is going, come."

"I will kill her first before that."Tester said as she struggled against the sirens that held her.

Only when Reconstructor joined and gave her a syringe did Tester stop and slump to the ground unconscious.

Cleveland looked at the sirens that came in. All of them looked hurt and were bleeding, no one seemed able to fight and some were crying. This hurt Cleveland, the others were attacking defenseless sirens. Wasn't this a war crime?

"Observer."Reco addressed Observer and cried slightly."We are abandoning the base and can't let you come with us, you won't survive another teleport and you will die anyway. I-I am sorry."

"Don't be."Observer caressed her cheek with whatever strength she could muster.

Cleveland looked at the touching scene and felt ill. These sirens were more than robots and psychopaths so why do they kill them when they don't shoot back.

She must have a stern talk with Wales when she got back.

The sirens all wished Observer goodbye and left.

"So now it's only us."Observer said."I wanted an unused cube and a lot of time for you to learn but now we can't do that anymore."

Observer struggled to the bed where Cleveland sat.

Cleveland didn't even try to avoid her, the siren was as harmful as a ladybug right now.

"What are you planning?"Cleveland simply asked.

Observer finally got on the bed and began crawling to her."What I told you, I want to show you the truth and do a little experiment."

"This again."Cleveland groaned."I won't help you anyway. I am out of here."

"OB command hold."Observer said and Cleveland suddenly lost all control of her body.

"What did you do, "Cleveland said and struggled. She lost all control except for her head."Release me. What do you plan?"

Observer giggled a little."Like I said I will show you the truth, what you do with it will be your choice."

She sat herself on Cleveland's hips."I said we will be using an empty cube and give you time but we can't do that anymore. To be honest, even I don't know what will happen now."

Before Cleveland could even ask what Observer meant, Observer pushed her hand into her chest. A little bit of blood splattered on the bed and Clevelands black clothes as she simply stared at what the siren did.

Soon after Observer huffed and pulled out a nearly completely shattered yellow wisdom cube.

"What are you planning with that, "Cleveland asked still unable to move.

Observer huffed and looked half-awake."Saving the future."

With that, she pressed the cube against Cleveland's chest.

For Cleveland, everything went black the moment the cube touched her chest and she felt unimaginable pain coursing through her veins. She couldn't even scream.

Observer looked down after the cube disappeared and collapsed on Cleveland unbreathing.

For a few minutes, nothing happened. Then the door exploded and Enterprise entered the room.

"Cleveland. There you are."She said as she approached the bed, she even radioed it in. Then her happy face fell and she drew an arrow.

"Down from her monster," Enterprise said threateningly, looking at the siren that laid on Cleveland.

She moved closer after not getting an answer and grabbed the siren's neck before smashing her against the wall.

"You will never hurt anyone of us again for I will make sure you, are, dead," Enterprise said as she held the limp body of the siren. She dropped her soon after erupting into a laughing fit.

"Look at that, finally died after all, did you bleed out you bitch."Enterprise laughed and began using the dead body of Observer as a toy.

"Oh look at me I am the biggest bitch in the entire siren empire, I will show you the truth, we will save humanity as if we weren't the one that attacked them in the first place," Enterprise said mockingly trying to imitate Observers voice.

She kicked her to the other side of the room and shot an arrow."Oh, it's so nice when I can use you as target practice."

She had her fun with the sirens dead body for several minutes after until she just left her hanging from the ceiling.

"Come Cleveland would you wake up now. We don't want to tow your ship."She said to Cleveland and waited for an answer. Minutes passed and Enterprise began to get angry."For fucks sake wake up now."

She began shaking Cleveland but before she could deliver a full punch to her face, to hopefully wake her up, Vestal entered the room.

"Enterprise the base is ours, no sirens left. Oh hi, Observer."Vestal said and went past the hanging siren. She looked at Cleveland and did some medical checks.

"Yeah, she is out cold. Enterprise could you carry her? She won't wake up soon."Vestal said."I need to look her over in the hospital."

Enterprise walked over and slang Cleveland over her shoulder.

Her radio suddenly piped up."The bombs are planted, on command, this base will be reduced to ash."

"Good."Enterprise answered."We will gather outside, tow Clevelands ship out of the dock before we blow this base to kingdom come."

No reply came as the orders were clear.

Enterprise turned to Vestal and both exited the room.

The force that attacked the base gathered outside. All were unharmed which brought them joy.

"Alright, can we make this go boom now?"San Diego asked.

No one complained.

"Massachusetts go for it," Enterprise said, and not a second after the base ignited into a fireball.

The fire shot to the skies and debris was thrown everywhere.

"Mission success."Some girls cheered and they all began to move away from the burning base.

Cleveland's ship was calmly being towed by her sisters.

Chapter Text

Cleveland woke up and didn't open her eyes at all.

"Is this knocking me out going to become a usual thing now?"She asked into the room.

"Well, it seems like there is nothing wrong with you." A voice Cleveland knew all too well said."Welcome back Cleveland."

Cleveland opened her eyes and looked around the room. She was indeed in the pearl harbor hospital and to her left sat Vestal.

She held a clipboard and was scribbling down on it. Probably medicine stuff.

"Well, how long was I asleep now?"Cleveland asked.

Vestal looked confused."A few hours, why are you asking?"

"Well, Reco said that I was asleep for three days in a row so I wanted to know how long now. How long was I gone anyway?" asked Cleveland and stretched herself.

"You were gone for 5 days in total, 6 if you count the day of the battle to it."Vestal said and laid the clipboard away."Who is Reco?"

"Basically the siren medic. The one that had me in her care."Cleveland said.

"Sirens have medics?"Vestal wondered."Interesting. Wait in her care? Girl, I am your doctor."

Cleveland leaned back since Vestal was basically in her face."Calm down she, well she didn't do anything. I also still prefer you."

"Good."Vestal leaned back.

The door swung open and in came Enterprise.

"Oh, awake. Good."She said and closed the door. The door closing seems to be hard since Enterprise really had to push hard until the door was finally closed.

She then approached Cleveland and sat down next to her bed.

"Ok, Cleveland start the report. We need weapons, base position, Intel everything."Enterprise demanded.

Cleveland was taken back."Ehm I got nothing, sorry."

"WHAT THE HELL!"Enterprise screamed."You were closer to the sirens than any of us were in forever, you must have picked something up."

Cleveland jumped out of the bed, much to Vestal's amazement if her look of sheer horror was anything to go by.

"Enterprise what's wrong you aren't usually like this, "Cleveland said and stared at the Carrier.

"This isn't important Cleveland, we need every piece of information," Enterprise said seemingly uncaring about the fact that this was a hospital.

"Enterprise quiet."Vestal said sharply and then turned to Cleveland."More importantly. HOW CAN YOU WALK?"

Cleveland was confused."Why shouldn't I, my legs feel fine."

They did feel completely normal, like everything. Not weird like back in the siren base even. Like it never happened. However her still black version of her clothes told the truth of it happening.

Vestal looked even more confused."Cause I am not done examing you and you are still full of medication."

"Oh."Cleveland realized."Shall I lay back down?"

Vestal sighted."No, if you can stand you are probably fine already, still you have a cocktail of stuff in your blood."

"I really don't feel anything wrong, Vestal, "Cleveland said and then turned to a cough from the left.

Enterprise just stared at Cleveland."Cleveland. Information. Sirens."

It took a second for Cleveland to react."I don't have any information, I was knocked out for the most time."

Enterprise huffed."If you remember anything, tell me immediately. "

Enterprise exited the room and silence fell over the room. That is until Clevelands sisters practically burst through the wall, well the door.

"Cleveland!!"They all screamed and all 3 crashed into her and gave her a bone-crushing hug. Well, Cleveland didn't feel that much strength behind the hug but it was certainly under that category.

"We missed you so much, "Montpelier said.

"You weren't roughed up too bad right?" said Denver.

"You are finally back sister." cried Columbia.

"Woah girls I am happy to also see you again."Cleveland smiled and they all let her out of the hug.

The three light cruisers stared at her.

Cleveland smiled uncertainly."What's wrong girls?"

"Interesting clothes?" "Yeah black." "They are still the same just slightly different." "That doesn't make them the same Denver." "Then it is changed, ok Monti."

Cleveland looked down and saw that she still wore the black version of her outfit which made her blush a bit."Is something wrong with it?"

"Not entirely, you do look like a fallen angel," said Denver as she ran her hand through the black capelet. "Why do you wear that anyway? It's weird."

"Oh, this is weird?"Cleveland said a bit taken back and held the capelet. She took her hands behind her head and laughed a little."Well, you see my clothes were filled with holes and were burned from the fight where I got kidnapped so the seamstresses, which the sirens apparently have, made those clothes for me to wear. I find them quite neat, to be honest."

"You look like a siren girl."Montpelier said as she ruffled Clevelands hair."As if that would ever be, we will protect you from now on better don't we girls."

"Yeah."The other two cheered."The knights of the sea will always stay together from now on and never lose a sister again."

"You didn't lose me but I get you." Cleveland laughed with them, it was good to be back home.

Her stomach suddenly rumbled."OOHH I could eat half a whale right now."

Columbia piped up."Ohh since we just had a major victory, Nevada is pulling out the grill tonight."

"Yeahhhh."Cleveland cheered."Finally some food. The last time I ate was 5 days ago."

Montpelier seemed to get angry as did the others."What did they do to you?"

Cleveland smiled."Apparently nothing, I was asleep or knocked out for the most time and they said they need me awake so they did nothing. Only talked with Alpha for like 20 minutes at all."

"Alpha? Are you two on first name base already."Denver leaned in."Are you two now girlfriends?"

Cleveland bonked her."First No and second she is dead like completely gone so don't jump to conclusions."

"Nah, no worries sis just needed to make sure."Denver laughed.

"Make sure what, of me dating sirens?"Cleveland laughed out."Hah. As if that would ever happen."

"We know."Columbia said."Well, will we eat something now?"

"Go ahead girls, I think Vestal still wants to talk with me and I do got something to discuss with Wales, "Cleveland said.

The Cleveland-class sisters sighed and left the room with a wave.

"So Vestal, still something to talk about, "Cleveland asked the nurse who remained quiet during all this as she put on her boots that sat next to the bed.

"Not entirely, I was originally going to put you under observation but since you are fine you can even join on sorties. Your body, mind, and ship are fine so I see no reason why not anymore."The nurse said.

Cleveland beamed with joy and thanked Vestal. She was about to leave but still had something on her mind."Say Vestal what's up with Enterprise?"

Vestal exhaled and sat down."When you went missing we did missions to find you. On one of them, Hornet got injured and Enterprise blames herself for it, even if she wasn't on that sortie in the first place. It all got worse when our maid spies came back from almost dying on their mission with a black wisdom cube that we are still decoding. Everyone who touches it can't read it, some computer screens appear in your eyes or so in a language we can't understand, it's hard to explain and passes out soon after. Enterprise learned that the hard way."

"Well, I can't help there."Said  Cleveland and petted the nurses back."I will be sure to help out where I can though."

Cleveland said goodbye and until later and then exited the room.

"A black cube heh." mumbled Cleveland as she walked to the command building."Well, Observer had a yellow one so it's not something to wonder about. Although what did she do with that one before I passed out?"

Those were thoughts for later for Cleveland who walked along the path to the main building. Looks like the royal navy was also finally here since she saw many other faces than those who already were on the base when the attack happened.

Cleveland was getting many stares, probably due to her clothes which stood in complete contrast to everyone on the base. Yet those didn't bother Cleveland as she thought she impressed the others and received smiles from them.

She arrived in front of Wales office and went past the secretary manjuu with a greeting.

She knocked and received the come in not a second later.

"Hello Cleveland, finally back are you. It's good to see you."Wales said and stood up. She walked over to Cleveland and hugged her.

"Yeah, me too."Cleveland said as she returned the hug."Glad to be back, what happened in the days I was gone."

Wales sat back down again. This time on the couch in the room and Cleveland did too."Many things but the most important are that we have destroyed several siren bases in search of you, know of a massive ship the sakura empire is building, having said ship's main power core here and have rebuilt everything. The crimson axis also lost much combat strength in our engagements so we stand pretty well."

"The base does look like the attack never happened?"Cleveland noted as she looked out of the window.

"I am quite good at managing repairs."Wales said."So why are you here, I guess something is on your mind."

Cleveland sighted."When you attacked the base I was in."

"Oh we blew it up no one survived, they won't get back to you."Wales interrupted and Cleveland gulped.

Cleveland stared seriously now."No Wales, did you receive any resistance there."

Wales laughed."No, we could kill all of them and they didn't even fight back, I don't think they even had guns there, why are you asking."

"Wales, is it morally questionable if you slaughter fleeing enemies?"Cleveland said and looked to the ground.

Wales looked confused."What are you talking abo-."

"Is it morally correct to kill someone, even your enemy if they surrendered or are fleeing? Tell me that Wales."Cleveland said darkly.

"What are you going for, those are sirens, they don't have rights or should be allowed to live. Where is this shit coming from Cleveland."Wales said and stood up, looking down on Cleveland.

"What I am going for heh?"Cleveland said angrily and also stood up."I have seen those girls, traumatized and scared, not going to kill anyone but you all just slaughtered them for the fun of it. What's the war rules Wales, the rules for fleeing enemies, defenseless or surrendered enemies, doctors too. Ordered not to be killed since they aren't posing a threat and have no intention of being one if I recall that right."

"Did they screw with your mind Cleveland? Are you really defending sirens right now?"Wales nearly screamed and grabbed Cleveland firmly.

Cleveland just swapped the battleship's hands away which surprised said battleship a bit."They did nothing but I saw it from their side for a little bit and I know for a fact that the base was only for supply and had no weapons or armed forces there. You could have walked in and claimed the base if you wanted but no you just needed to kill everyone."

"You are out of your mind, sparing sirens are you an idiot."Wales punched Cleveland who skitted to a halt at the door and didn't even look hurt.

"I am not idiotic, I just don't know if solely killing everything in our way is the right thing anymore, "Cleveland said and slammed the door closed.

Wales stared in anger at the door and huffed. She closed her fist before she relaxed with a smirk.

She went to the desk, sat down, and groaned."This is your fault Cleveland, you should have just continued like usual without questions."

Wales opened a drawer and fumbled around on the inside of it. She pressed a hidden button and the top half of the table turned and revealed a map and a phone.

Wales picked up the phone and dialed.

It didn't take a second and many girls picked up.

Wales leaned back and smirked."Ladies, it's time. Cleveland needs to be taken care of, she thinks too much."
______________________________________

Cleveland was angry but calmed down enough on the way down to the cafeteria so it wasn't noticeable.

She walked over to the courtyard and stood in the middle of the park about to relax for a minute and think.

"Hey Cleveland, finally back huh." came a voice from the side that let Cleveland lookup. It was Queen Elizabeth herself.

"Oh your majesty, yes I am back again, "Cleveland said as she bowed a bit before the smaller girl.

"It is surely a pleasure and good knowledge to see you again, which is why it pains me to request you to assist me on a sortie." the tiny monarch said.

Cleveland thought for a minute."I was actually gonna eat first, aren't others available?"

The queen shook her head."There are others but they are still damaged from other sorties and since you are ready to go, Vestal told me that, I thought we could prevent more damage to other ships if we have an aa-cruiser that is not damaged and full combat capable."

"Ok if you say it like that it makes sense,hmmm."Cleveland said and began thinking hard."Ok, I will join you, when if I dare ask your majesty?"

Elizabeth giggled a bit."You see that is the problem, it is immediately since it's an emergency so I am already sorry to ruin your dinner for the next hour."

"No worries your majesty saving others is more important than eating an hour earlier."Cleveland said and did a bow again."I will be waiting at the docks."

"Go forth, I will see which other girls I can find so it might not be as balanced as usual," Elizabeth said and left. Cleveland began running to the dock.

She still wanted to change clothing or eat but an emergency was more important.

It didn't take long and the queen came running with a few other girls to the docks.

After a few minutes, they all exited the dock with the majesties ship at the front.

Much to Cleveland's dismay, there were Wales and Enterprise along with Belfast and Hood in the fleet as well.

She had to cope with all and accept it at the moment since an emergency was way more important than any stress they had between themselves.

They were cruising for about an hour at this point and no real pieces of information were given to Cleveland yet she remained quiet.

Suddenly the queen and the others summoned their riggings and Cleveland did the same.

"This is about far enough don't you all agree?"The queen asked and received an answer from all except Cleveland.

She cruised over to them and they stood in formation. She in the front, next to her Belfast, and all the bigger ships in the back.

"This is the place?"Cleveland asked and looked around."I can't spot any enemies in visual range. My radar is also saying nothing."

"Well we spotted our target," said Wales and Cleveland heard her rigging move.

Cleveland still looked around."Where?"

"It's clear in sight," Belfast said and when Cleveland looked to her she had an unnerving smile.

"Ok, are we not all on the same knowledge point here, I don't get anything. Could someone explain?"Cleveland said clearly confused.

"Oh actually it's quite simple, we aren't fighting sirens here or the crimson axis," Wales said.

"What?"Cleveland asked and turned around only to be met with the barrels of a quad-barreled 14inch cannon pointed at her chest.

BOOM

Chapter Text

Drip

No pain.

Drip

Huuh

Drip

Huuh

Drip

No feeling

Drip

An area filled with smoke with single figures standing in it.

A light breeze was blowing the smoke away as it cleared up and showed its inhabitants true horror.

Cleveland saw the gun barrels that Prince of Wales possessed in a burning red.

Cleveland heard the big guns reloading and being retracted.

Cleveland saw the smirk everyone behind Wales and Wales herself had on their faces and breathed heavy.

It felt wrong, she didn't feel like she got any oxygen even though she was breathing heavily.

It sounded strange? like the air was coming in wrong.

A vile taste built up in her throat as an exhale gave birth to something else than air. A dark red liquid exploded out of her mouth and dripped down her cheeks. It stained her pitch black and crimson uniform even darker red.

A spike of pain, light, like it, wasn't having any feeling behind it.

Cleveland followed it and revealed herself a terrible truth.

From her, she must admit not very voluminous, chest down to her belly button gaped a hole. A straight hole in which nothing existed. Her own ribcage was tattered and broken in the open.

Her vision blurry, her feeling weakening.

She looked up and her legs gave away.

She fell but didn't hit the water, something caught her.

Gloved hands held up her arms as her legs weren't responding anymore. All of her feelings were gone, only numb pain, a tingle like a scratch, came from them.

"Ohh, don't worry, it's a headmaids duty to assist whoever is in need."Said a formal speaking voice. Cleveland knew this voice but couldn't recognize it now.  It was overflowing with malice instead of the usual kindness the girl showed.

"So I think that takes care of the hard work."The prince chuckled.

"Great work Wales, now can we take her cube and just leave her here. This entire operation already intervened with my planned tea party with Warspite." the voice of the monarch of Azur Lane said out proudly.

"Wales dear, she is still alive, has your aiming gotten bad." chuckled another usual polite voice. It was Hood but Cleveland wasn't sure anymore if it was really them.

"Ohh no Hood, this was planned." said Wales as she bent down to Cleveland."She has been so annoying that I want to see her despair before we reset her again."

Cleveland didn't understand and any breath she took felt weaker than the last.

"Oh, just kill her and get this over with."Said Enterprise in the back as she leaned against her rigging.

"Ohh no Enterprise, this will not be enough."Wales chuckled."She really talked about morals and should we spare enemies and that annoyed me so greatly that I didn't kill her immediately."

She grabbed Cleveland's head and forced it up."So now I will explain everything to you, I bet you want to hear the reason for this too."

The prince put her other hand through the hole in Clevelands torso and chuckled a bit."Yeah, that is what 4 armor-piercing shells of my caliber will do to someone like you. You like it?"

Cleveland tried to utter something but every try just resorted in her coughing up blood. It stained Wales gloved hand red.

"Ohh well, no answer is enough dear Cleveland."She released Cleveland and took a step back."An explanation will be better without interruptions anyway. Belfast hold her and keep her alive, I want her to get everything."

The maid nodded and held the light cruiser tighter. Said cruiser was in more shock than anything, her ally admitted to shooting her and the others just relish in the fact. She could only stare as all strength left her body.

"So ladies where should we begin, ah yes the beginning, Enterprise if you would."Said the prince and Cleveland was turned to the carrier.

Enterprise groaned."Do we really have to do this Wales? Just kill her."

Wales looked hurt."Oh come on Enterprise, it doesn't hurt to talk about or end goal once in a while."

"I must agree there too Wales, go Enterprise, I want to see her face when she gets the truth," Elizabeth said and took Wales side. Hood joined in too.

"Fine, I guess. Ok, Cleveland listen up." said the carrier and walked in front of her.

"When we were created it was the idea of us fighting for humanity to fight against the sirens. Well, that's what everyone knows but here are the finer details since the beginning."She leaned down and stared into Cleveland's eyes."The truth is some of us, like the 5 of us here, were created a bit sooner than the others. We were used to defend humanity from Sirens as the first line of test warriors. So fine so well. But we did have  the unusal battle against humans sometimes and then we realized something, the big picture if you want to name it."

Elizabeth showed that she wanted to continue."To say we saw the big picture is true, yet that's not exactly what happened. No, when we were fighting there, killing our own creators since they weren't realising the sirens were the real threat we learned and saw quite a lot. Some time ago we began to look through history and came to a big conclusion. Humanity is the virus, the evil here. We all are our own people, peaceful and friendly, yet humanity build our original forms to kill each other, and man's history showed many things, except that they will ever stop with it. So we had to do the decision here."

"W...h.*cough*...a.....t?"Cleveland struggled out with a lot of blood. She felt that she was already suffocating and wanted nothing more than to wake up from this nightmare. Waking up in the siren's captivity was better than this, she hoped that this was just a simulation but she deep down knew it wasn't.

Hood walked in front of Elizabeth who took a step back to Wales."Yes, we made a decision. With tactical genius and planning, we made more of ourselves and build up Azur lane to what it was before it split. This game was all working well and our forces grew so soon we had an entire force of soldiers that could conquer continents from the sea without problems, under the disguise of a force to keep the sirens back everywhere. We planned for everything and almost started our plan to kill every single human on this planet to create a heaven for ship girls where we can live without conflict or pain."

"If the sirens hadn't appeared or have been defeated we would already have this planet in our hands. Well, at least none of the humans caught up to it so I guess we are still clear."Wales said barged in too. "But then the Sirens did somewhat help us. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to get a few of the girls to bombard a city to ash under the order that only sirens are there or it is a base of them."She stopped and laughted."God we already ordered you alone to annihilate two seperate innocent cities. You can blame the mass killings we did on them so easilily that in the end they were only a minor inconvenience."

"They are right so this is the conclusion, the sooner we win this war, the sooner we will have everlasting peace."Finished Hood and also stepped next to the others.

Cleveland simply stared. She couldn't believe how the saviors of humanity, the protectors of the sea, some of the first ship girls, people she looked up to and wanted to be like them were eviler than their "enemies".

Cleveland also couldn't believe that she had the blood of innocents on her hands and the realization that she isn't the only one that was backstabbed and used by them to do those atrocious acts.

"Oh and before you think we are evil. No one ever suspected us and even the media blames the sirens. Its way too easy. Say Enterprise on the way back there was that one cargo ship. We could use them can't we."Said Elizabeth and looked to the carrier.

"As long as i can have my fun with the crew."Enterprise chuckled."Their blood will be of good use, if they all look like they were slaughtered no one will suspect us. The gentle shipgirls will never cause harm to a human anyway. Our guardians. Our protectors."She decended into laughter."Ohh how i enjoy hearing them scream."

"Hey remember that time we got a entire port to paint their ships black and then we sent Unicorn there alone. She killed and destroyed the entire port without complain. She didn't even realize that she committed cold hearted murder."Hood laughted out.

One by one they started sharing simular stories and with every story Clevelands horror grew.

They had orderd all of them, all, to do these things and all just did it. Compared to the sirens they did things that are ten times worse and they enjoyed them even more.

Cleveland had no idea who the evil one in this war was anymore.

"Hmm."Wales wondered."You must ask yourself why we need to dispose of you, right CL-55?"

She leaned down to her and grabbed her limb arm."You know if you join us and promise not to tell anyone of this we will heal you and spare you."

Wales smiled and Cleveland simply stared at her. She made her decision up a long time ago at this point.

Cleveland used all of her strength and punched Wales in the face. She somehow managed to throw Wales back at least 5 meters.

"Fuck you."Cleveland coughed out with blood.

Wales stood up again and held her face."Oh, you little bitch. Dying and still think human justice and morality is better than us."

She walked to Clevland again and punched her. Then again, and again.

Every punch created shockwaves and made Wales smile more.

"You think following humanity is right huh?"She punched her left arm.Afterward a bone was sticking out of it.

"I will end you completely."She screamed as she kicked Cleveland's knee. Her leg bend wrong and was clearly broken afterward.

"Do you think anyone can stop us?"She screamed and punched again, this time the head."No, no one will even suspect anything. And since you clearly have a death wish I will just grant that, otherwise you would have accepted my offer."

She stopped her punching and pried open Clevelands exposed ribcage."And do you want to know what's the funniest thing here?"

She put her hand under the ribcage and inside the still bleeding flesh."Whatever happens here will not stop anything, we will not lose you and we will get you on our side again anyway."

She ripped out Clevelands wisdom cube and took a step back. She herself was covered in drops and drops of blood.

Cleveland's rigging immediately left her and formed her ship, not even 100 meters next to all of them. Still as undamaged as it was 20 minutes ago. Not leaving any evidence of the current execution.

Wales then leaned to Cleveland and whispered."And even better is the fact that I know that this isn't the last time I will do this with you or others."

She turned around and left Cleveland there bleeding out. She still held her cube that pulsated continuingly more dimming until it completely stopped.

Cleveland simply stared as all feelings left her.

"Hood will you tow that thing please." Wales directed to Clevelands ship and Hood did just that.

"Bel you can drop her, we are done here," said Elizabeth and all of them turned around. Belfast still held Cleveland and let her see her ship being towed away and her former friends abandoning her.

"See, that's what you get when you want to do the right thing. Your sisters will not even know of this as will no one else. Our plan is foolproof and inevitable so this will not set us back in the slightest. The crimson axis doesn't even know about our plan and once we destroyed all of them and reset them to our loyalty our plan will commence. Now we just need to dispose of the sirens and it's over."She said and sighed.

The maid leaned down and whispered in Cleveland's ear.

"We have won Cleveland."

She dropped Cleveland and left her as well. She cruised after the others and left Cleveland to her wet grave.

Cleveland barely stained consciousness as the waves overtook her, her own blood staining the waters around her red.

She felt her vision grow black and her body, with what little she could feel, going limp.

The light left the water as the water around the ship girl, and her vision grew a deep pitch black.

On her mind lingered two thoughts.

Who was the bad one in this war and how can she stop them.

*Command: Analysis*

*Operation done*

*Conclusion: Catastrophic hull failure, damage immense*

*Starting repair sequence*

*Error*

*Attempting to fix*

*Error*

*Not enough resources*

*Moving available resources*

*Error*

*Critical damage on ribcage*

*Repair priority moved*

*Setting repair start*

*Error*

*Liquid critical*

*Fixing*

*Stabilised*

*Setting repair order after priority*

*Success*

*Forming needed resources*

*Success*

*Initiating repair*

*Success*

*Concluding time of repair*

*Conclusion reached*

*698 days*

*I will get you back, I promise*

Chapter Text

The bright sky was above.

An island chain in the sun.

Untouched by the war an island stood there. Waves crashing against a clear sand beach.

A lone figure laying on the beach. She looked like a corpse and that wasn't too far from the truth either.

The figure laid there. It's, or more was, a ship girl named Cleveland. Betrayed by her allies she died alone.

Well not entirely alone.
______________________________________

*Day 735 of trying to wake up the lazy asshole. It's been two years for fucks sake!*

*Come on! Your heart, or cube, or however you want to call it, is beating. So wake up!*

*Your repairs are done, you just need to wake up.*

*I swear I will not be here for another year staring into the darkness and talking to myself!*

*Well I could go to the internet but that's inhabited by idiots.*

*Can someone smack her across the face, if I had a body I would do that?*

*Well technically I could use your body but you need to wake up for that.*

*Please wake up now, I have been here for months-*

"HHUUUUUUHHHUUHUHUHU!"Cleveland sprung up into a seating position and breathed hard.

She looked around in a frenzy for several minutes, noting everything that came into her vision.

It took a while for her to somewhat calm down.

"Whe..r.e....am...I?"*cough* *cough* She struggled it out and her throat felt tight.

*Oh look, you're finally awake.*

A text said in her vision and she heard a voice speak to her. Cleveland looked afraid around her in search of who said that. She didn't recognize it at all.

"W....h....o?" she struggled out between coughs. She couldn't find who said that and it scared her.

She still looked around in panic as the voice again said something.

*Searching for me? Well, I am in your head.*

Cleveland stopped. "What?" she asked and held her forehead. "In there?"

Her throat still ached a lot and speaking was hard for her but it was somewhat getting better.

*Well, yes. In there.*

Cleveland let go of her head and looked at the calm sea and beach."Where am I?"

*An island chain around 127,6 sea miles away from pearl harbor.*

"Ok. Voice."Cleveland replied to the voice in her head. She felt strange and didn't know what to make with the voice so she simply dubbed it voice. She could at least realize that the voice was female.

So now she got to the next step, standing up and walking. Childs play.

It's usually without problems. Use your legs to stand up, then hold your balance with your arms and torso, and then walk by putting one leg in front of the other.

She mastered step 1 after a few tries quickly. Then promptly fell on her face during step 2. At least the sand made her fall light.

*Pfffffffffffff, nice try. What? You forgot how to walk?*

"Don't laugh, it's hard, ok," Cleveland said and tried again, each time getting more progress in simply standing.

"Hehe! See voice, I can do it. Hehe!"She laughed out happy about archiving something after fully standing up.

*Ok, nice I guess. How about walking?*

Cleveland pouted. "I can just stand ok, let me live in glory first."

She tried walking and promptly fell again.

Try after try she tried it but every time she tried to take a step she was met with a mouthful of sand.

*This is getting embarrassing, just so you know.*

"You have an easy excuse, you are in my head, I just woke up."Cleveland grumbled and went for the next try."Why can't I balance?"

*Hmmm, use your tentacles. Maybe they will help you with your balance.*

Cleveland wondered for a second but when she thought about what voice said she felt it. Four extra arms on her back that definitely weren't there before.

They slithered over her skin and made her shudder a bit but she could use them like her normal arms so she had no problems using them.

Using them as balance helpings Cleveland soon was walking around like a master. She found out that she could let the 4 disappear with a thought along the way and soon mastered walking without them.

She jumped on a rock and stared at the sea."Hihi! Voice I did it."

*Good. You can actually walk again.*

"I know, it's nice."Cleveland smiled happily but one thing did ponder on her mind."Hmmmmm why am I here voice?"

*Well, you were killed.*

"Killed."Cleveland jumped up and looked down."But I am alive."

*Well Cleveland, it's complicated but I saved you from eternal slumber.*

"Ohh then I must thank you voice."Cleveland said as she hugged herself."I can't hug you but when you are in my head and I hug myself I hug you too."

She walked away from the rocks and to the beach, she woke up on. She sat down and looked into the setting sun.

"Say voice, who is this Cleveland you are talking about?"Cleveland said and heard something alike to someone falling on her face.

No reply came for a while.

*Excuse me?*

"Yeah who is this Cleveland you are talking about, you saved me, not her, what hurt me anyways?" asked Cleveland, the name felt familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it.

*Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Say that again!*

Cleveland got an unamused face."What was trying to kill me?"

*NO, NO, the other thing.*

"Who is Cleveland?" she simply said and voice just groaned.

*UUUUUUUUURGHHHG.*

*Ok, you were killed by your former friends, or just 5 of them who are actually deceiving all of your other friends.*

"Oh." said Cleveland simply."So who is Cleveland then?"

*GGGGGGGRGRR. Give me a second.*

*The USS Cleveland is a light cruiser and the lead ship, or first ship, of these light cruiser class ships.*

"Ok, and why do you speak about her like I know her?"Cleveland wondered.

She could swear she could feel someone kicking her head from the inside in the next second as a single strike of massive pain jolted through it.

*Oh come on. Think girl. Use that little brain of yours. What is your name?*

Cleveland recovered and thought."Do I have a name? I can't remember, you never told me yours too."

*Do you remember anything at all?*

Voice groaned hard and sounded defeated. Cleveland could swear she heard her do a light pray to someone almighty.

"Hmm."Cleveland thought hard."No, but can you tell me, friend."

*God almighty, I hope your memory returns soon. Your name is Cleveland dummy.*

"So that's my name, "Cleveland said and looked prideful.

*Oh so that you remember now. What about literally everything else?*

"What? Was I important. Your friend??"Cleveland asked.

*Actually we tried to kill each other for a long time*

Cleveland's smile fell."Ohh. But hey now we can be best friends."

*Sure, if we get your memory back intact.*

*And you then don't want to kill yourself then.*

"Why should I?"Cleveland wondered."Is my memory so important? We can just start creating new ones now."

*Cleveland, we got quite a few people to save so you better not dare to just abandon anything.*

Cleveland sat back down and summoned the tentacles."Those are normal, right. They feel weird."

*Theoretically they are new, your old ship girl self is not going to like them.*

"What is a ship girl?" asked Cleveland and began chucking some small rocks and sand with her tentacles."Hmm, this almost hurts."

*Of course it hurts, you have never used them before, they need to be used so they build up muscles and strength. Should take a few days. Oh and count your arms to that category too, they weren't used in quite some time.*

"Ok using arms, got it."Cleveland stood up and did some karate moves with all 8 limbs.

*What are you doing?*

"What you told me, using my arms."Cleveland said and continued punching the air."So what is a ship girl now?"

*To turn all of this short, and to not starring my nerves anymore I will make this quick. So give me a second. Gonna boot this up as a start.*

In Cleveland's eyes, some things appeared that confused her.

Location

Route

Damage

Status

Time

Health

Weapons

All of those tabs were on the right side of her vision. In the left upper corner of her vision was something that said Combat mode. Cleveland studied all of these icons individually.

When she focussed her thoughts on each one it opened and showed even more.

Only combat mode was locked due to, well it just said locked.

"Ok no combat then, I don't like that anyway, "Cleveland concluded and stared.

*Seriously. You ship girls are kind of built for that you know.*

"I am not, I dislike fighting." pouted Cleveland."So what's a ship girl now?"

*In short with the use of wisdom cubes humanized and personised forms of warships that humanity used to fight against the sirens.*

"And I am one of those ship girls?" wondered Cleveland.

*Well you were.*

"Huh? I feel human," said Cleveland and looked to her pale skin.

*But you aren't. You are a siren, as I was.*

"Ok, then I am not a ship girl. Good, I wouldn't want combat."Said Cleveland."Wait, was?"

*Yeah I am dead, killed by you and your friends, the same ones that betrayed you by the way.*

"Oh I am sorry to hear that, I am so sorry," said Cleveland and hugged herself with all 6 arms.

*Well we were enemies back then so it's fine.*

"I regret killing you then," said Cleveland and stopped the hug. Her tentacles and arms now hang limply from her body."Still, how can you talk to me then?"

*Well I am your new heart basically. It's really complicated so it's better if you do not ask about it.*

*Ok what I am about to do takes time but at least you can get used to your body in the meanwhile.*

Cleveland simply nodded and began walking around the island. She found that she could round the island in about 20 minutes. She even did herself a challenge and ran around the island a bit. She completed 5 runarounds and still didn't feel tired so she decided to look around on the inside of the island, not just the beach around it.

Past some coconuts trees and some on the ground was a light jungle, not deep but still not see-through.

Cleveland entered and began looking around, she didn't even encounter any animal which means that the island was completely uninhabited. Well the few birds she saw in the trees were still there but if you count those out the island was empty.

Cleveland found about nothing but still found her fun in using branches as a parkour. With the help of her tentacles, she could do more than with just her arms and soon the entire island became her playground.

Voice said she needed to use her limbs to get her strength back so she is exactly doing that.

She did this for an hour and more and got quite good.

Of course, she couldn't do it all day as the sun was already gone and it has gone dark. Surprisingly the darkness didn't bother Cleveland at all. In fact, it bothered her so much that she only realized at 11 pm that the sun was gone.

During all her jumping around she found a cave. In this cave, she currently sat and watched the wall. It was as barren as the rest of the island but since it started raining at least she didn't have to get wet, although the time she fell into the water after she missed a branch, she just walked on top of it and didn't even feel the water on her.

Still, somehow it felt natural to her. All the time she was there it felt like the sea pulled her to it but Cleveland was scared and confused so she remained on solid ground for now.

She sat down at the rocky wall and sighted. She didn't need to sleep, not that she felt tired in the first place, but it was still boring.

"Voice how far are you?"She asked and looked at the jungle.

*Ohh great that you asked. This only took forever but I think I can reboot your memories now.*

"Can you?"Cleveland asked, it even sounded weird for her.

*Are you doubting me? Well, shall I go ahead then?*

"I guess," said Cleveland.

*Well then, this will hurt you know.*

"Will it." wondered Cleveland and took a deep breath. She wanted to know her memories but how voice said that made her feel a bit scared.

Nonetheless, she steeled herself and stood up."Do it voice. My past must be important if you work so hard on me getting it back."

*It is important. Are you ready?*

Cleveland simply nodded.

*Initiation mental stabilization. This will hurt.*

Cleveland heard it and what happened next could only be described as the worst headache in the history of the universe. It was like every single experience, emotion, and feeling of her entire life was happening at the same time for her in one moment.

The headache was gone as soon as it hit and Cleveland simply stood there.

*Ehhh. Cleves, You good?*

Cleveland didn't answer.

*Cleves, everything fine?*

Still no answer.

*Cleves?*

*Cleves you are freaking me out.*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Chapter Text

Cleveland's screaming ended with her sobbing and sliding down the wall after a few minutes.

She stopped and simply stared against the opposite wall.

She screamed for minutes again and trashed around where she sat. Her tentacles mimicked her actions.

She held her head and stared at her body with a look of sheer horror.

*Not to interrupt you but are you fine.*

Cleveland suddenly stopped."Fine? Fine? Haha. Fine?"

*Ehm, ok, anything I can help with?*

"Ghosts. Nightmare."Cleveland sprung up."This is not real, it can't."

Cleveland walked around, still holding and staring at everything while muttering things.

"Dreams. She is dead. I too? No, I'm alive, right?"

Her breathing was out of order and her heartbeat was close to that of a panic attack. For Cleveland, her last memories played themselves indefinitely inside of her mind.

Like a broken record she saw everything again and again. Yet she could only watch and remain quiet.

Time and time again she felt her body being blown away, each time she jumped back and let out a scream while she felt her chest with her arms. Her tentacles didn't even obey her so they trashed and touched her in all ways, sometimes lewd and sometimes not.

Cleveland ripped parts of her white hair out as her breathing became rigid.

The words that replayed in her mind were out of focus and their voices switched between her friends and her enemies.

One time it was Purifier, then Vestal, then came the squad that killed her, followed by Reconstructor and Illustrious. 

When they were her sister's ones she collapsed into a sobbing crying mess.

She just laid there and sobbed, hardly even breathing.

"Why? Why? Why?"She said, getting more quiet and desperate as the time passed.

Soon she just laid there breathing.

*Ehh are you ok?*

"SHUT UP!!! YOU YOU AREN'T REAL. YOU ARE DEAD, DEAD." screamed Cleveland and sprung up while raising her hands to a boxer's stance."WHERE ARE YOU YOU GHOST OF A MONSTER?"

*Girls calm down, we had that already.*

"WHERE?!?!?!"Cleveland simply said scared, she sounded pleading and scared.

*Go through your memories, the one when you woke up and lost the other ones.*

Cleveland took a deep breath and shut her mouth."You are in my head, Observer Alpha?"

*Yes, so you do remember. So now can we talk?*

Observer couldn't stop Cleveland from slamming her head against a rock formation.

She wasn't knocked out, which even surprised Cleveland, and the boulder exploded.

*Was that really necessary? You will only hurt yourself, I won't get knocked out even if you are.*

"It was worth a try, Siren," grumbled Cleveland and sat down on the boulder she destroyed.

*So can we actually talk now.*

Cleveland sighted."I am trying to calm down, listen to you, and find a way to kill myself."

*Could you not do the third part?*

"Depends on what you want to tell me siren." sneered Cleveland."If I am not convinced I will simply kill myself."She leaned back."It doesn't matter though."

*Oh if you see it like that, Clevi, queen of the rocks.*

"Since when did you give me a nickname, Siren?"Cleveland asked sternly, she was getting annoyed at this and just came down from a full-blown panic attack while still processing memories that disturbed her.

*Since we are stuck together, also where is my thank you for saving your ass?*

Cleveland metaphorically stared ahead, she couldn't see Observer Alpha but she could hear her and her memories told her that the siren was in her head."Making me my most hated enemy is saving me?! You are like all sirens, insane."

*So no thank you. Anyway you are fully repaired again and ready to take on Azur Lane.*

Cleveland almost blew a fuse."And what exactly makes you think that I would fight against your friend's siren, I am not on your side and never will."

*Ok, if not my word then how about what they did.*

Cleveland smiled."They probably defeated you and saved the world."

*Yeah, totally 'saved', oh you don't know half of it.*

"Stop playing around, monster, what are you hiding?"Cleveland said, she was getting annoyed.

*Well, you will see but let's say that they definitely aren't saving this world.*

Cleveland huffed."As if I would believe you. I will just go to them and they will reserve this shit."

She stood up from her 'throne' and walked in the direction of the cave opening.

*They will kill you the moment you arrive, remember last time?*

Cleveland stopped in her movement. The memories of her death hit her like a train.

*What do you think will happen when they see you?*

Cleveland backed up against a wall, her memories again on replay.

*What will Wales and the other do?*

Cleveland shook her head and leaned against the wall while breathing irregularly.

*Do you think Wales will not do the same thing again?*

Cleveland screamed and began punching the wall with all her might."Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

Every hit left a dent in the rock wall and the whole cave shook.

"Fuck the Queen! Fuck Enterprise! Fuck Hood! Fuck Belfast! Fuck Wales! Fuck Sirens! Fuck Azur Lane! Fuck Shipgirls and fuck this war."Cleveland screamed. She continued and soon the cave had a new opening.

She stepped into the open light and looked at herself.

"Still the black one?"Cleveland asked as she looked at her clothes.

*Well I didn't have the normal one so I just repaired that one, it does fit your new look better.*

Cleveland groaned."That's not the point and why do you listen to me, go away."

*Ha, you can't cut off your own mind girl, I merely am an attachment.*

"Having a maniac in my head after waking up as the enemy."Cleveland sighted.

She thought about how the heck she was even alive. She woke up here and now she had her most hated enemy in her head. At least only the mysterious speaking one and not Purifier, for that fact she was thankful.

*Well technically you were dead. Oh, and Purifier was actually a nice person out of fighting.*

Cleveland facepalmed."Can you actually listen to my thoughts now, as if carrying you around wasn't bad enough?"

*Ohh, we will become good friends. I already see it.*

Cleveland straightened."As if I would ever help you, I will never be a siren or your friend."

*And what does your body say to that?*

Cleveland looked down and blushed."That has nothing to do with that, I am sure Vestal can reverse that."

*I doubt it.*

"And why?"Cleveland said while getting angry.

*First of you are 100% a siren now, second Vestal wouldn't be able to reverse it, and last, you wouldn't even get anywhere close to your old friend's base without getting annihilated.*

"Oh and what makes you so sure of that?" asked Cleveland smugly. 

Suddenly in her vision, a small chibi version of Observer appeared that made Cleveland almost snicker. She stood, with a pointer teachers usually use, next to a briefing wall.

*Glad that you find my avatar cute, I guess I can portray myself like this all the time so you don't look like you look like a wall, well I can also project myself into your vision but, heh, anyway.*

Observer said and annoyed Cleveland with the fact again that she can read her thoughts.

Cleveland looked as the briefing wall blinked and swooped over to the Azur Lane base.

*This is your old base, right? As you can see some changes happened.*

The base lit up with red spots at multiple places. Observer pointed to one.

*Starting with the operation 'Why you stay the hell away from it for now' we start here. These bunch of signals are surface to air and ground missiles with a detection range of 30km, they shoot at everything that gives no friendly signal. Secondly,*

The screen changed and zoomed away from the base to the outskirts of the docks.

*Here are the automatic torpedo launchers. These new torpedoes are as fast as sakuran oxygen torpedoes and as homing as ironblood ones while still being as destructive as ever. Speaking if you can't float, and I know you can't since you never tried it, they will hit you.*

Cleveland began to sweat but the screen moved again.

*Here we have a sonar and long-range radar built deep underground so that nothing in a range of 100km remains undetected, be grateful that we are out of that range or you would be dead, again.*

Cleveland gulped and stared.

*Lastly, and to cut this short, the massive amount of ship girls that will shoot you on sight in there will be your doom should you get in there in the first place. So you got why not.*

Cleveland did get her but the pouting chibi Observer made her snicker.

*Stop laughing about me and answer.*

"Stop reading my head. And I got you but they won't shoot me."Cleveland shook her head.

*And what makes you believe that.*

"Well, my sisters will recognize me, "Cleveland said proudly.

*First you are a siren, second, the radar will scan your cube, and-*

"Why do you mention my cube, that one is fine," Cleveland said, sounding concerned.

Chibi Observer looked down.

*Ehhh, no, it's not fine. Hehe.*

Cleveland stared at chibi Observer."What did you do?"

*Clevi don't suspect that I did everything, remember Wales and what she did. Also why she did it?*

"She must have had her reasons, seeing you in me or so," said Cleveland.

Chibi Observer sat down, in the air nonetheless.

*Nah she just wanted to kill you Clevi.*

Cleveland stared at her."She would never."

*But she did, cold-blooded murder is what it's called if you ask me.*

"What does that have to do with my cube now, it's normal."

*Hehe, No, it ain't even your own.*

"What do you mean now, Siren." mocked Cleveland and stared at the siren.

*You can just call me by my name Observer Beta.*

Cleveland stopped and was dumbfounded."What?"

*You like it Clevi? Observer Beta since you are technically the next Observer.*

Cleveland gulped."Never use these names again, so what's with my cube now?"

*Well you remember what happened with the old one.*

Cleveland snickered."Well, I had to endure it on record for a while, Wales ripped...it...out."

*Ahh finally getting somewhere.*

Cleveland didn't answer."How am I alive then?"

*Well your personal AI manager is to thank for that, you use mine, or better, my repaired adapted new one, so it's a new cube.*

"Yours?" asked Cleveland."Didn't that one shatter?"

*Yes and no. It's getting too long now so can we move out?*

"Well, I am still going back. You can't stop me," said Cleveland and moved to the beach.

*Actually I can make you stop but that's beside the point. They will kill us immediately.*

"My sisters will be reasonable and approach me," said Cleveland and smiled, thinking about her sisters.

She heard Observer audible gulp.

*OHHHHHH, that will be hard, but sadly that won't be the case.*

Cleveland got angry."Why wouldn't they, I may look like a siren-"

*Correction, you are one.*

"Like I said I may look like a siren but my own sisters will recognize me."

*Yes and no.*

"I don't even wanna know what you mean with that." sighted Cleveland.

*You really don't.*

"Well, where do you think we can move then huh, Sakura empire, another of the axis?"Cleveland complained."God, I need my rigging, or I can't walk on water."

*In fact you can, you are a siren now.*

"I am not a siren," screamed Cleveland.

*Well we will see that Observer Beta.*

Cleveland wanted to complain but that would let the siren win and she wouldn't allow that.

*That with the axis could get hard since they don't exist anymore.*

Cleveland stopped and fixated her gaze on chibi Observer."Did Azur Lane defeat them?"

*Yeah, defeat, I did a biometric scan over a large distance and found a small camp a few dozen miles to the north, around an hour cruise from here, wanna go there.*

"Humans? Or my 'enemies'."asked Cleveland mockingly.

*Yeah, yeah, mock me all you want but if you would find out what they did while you were gone you wouldn't smile.* 

Cleveland exhaled and stepped on the water, finding out that she could sink into it or stand on top of it whenever she wanted, and began skating. She was way faster than in her rigging and had fun despite hearing Observer snicker in her head."North yes, well gotta follow you for once now but don't expect this to become usual."

*Yeah, and sure. Just tell me what to do and I will do what's in my power.*

"Can I ask something?"Cleveland began."Whatever you say you say it as it happened a while ago. Was I out for a week again this time."

*No, it were around 2 years.*

Splash

Cleveland sunk straight down between the waves only to jump out of it a few seconds later, spitting out water as she landed.

"WHAT?"Cleveland screamed between spits.

*Yeah, repairing you took a bit longer, you also slept like a stone after it.*

"2 years, god what happened?" cried Cleveland as she grasped her situation.

*A lot I say to you, a lot.*

*Well can we move now, you can use your weapons and tentacles on the way to the building, you should have got the basics down.*

Cleveland gulped and began skating again."Ok, well I still have another tiny thing that's bothering me."

*What's it?*

Cleveland looked down at her black clothes."Did my chest get bigger?"

*Ehhhhhhhhhhh*

Chapter Text

Laughter boomed over the ocean.

"So let me get this straight." chuckled Cleveland."You made my breasts  grow like 4 cups because you liked Testers pillows and was jealous of not having some yourself?"

The chibi Observer model even looked ashamed.

*Yes, can you stop judging me now.*

Cleveland stopped laughing and slowed down a bit.

"Well it's not like I not like them." began Cleveland as she held her new bigger chest."It's just funny to imagine you sleeping on Testers, or that she allows that."

*She was my bestest girlfriend and now shut it.*

"At least I can tease you back now, yes revenge."Cleveland laughed."Ohhh I will soooo tell her that when we meet."

*Please do not.*

"Ohh you think you can stop me," said Cleveland annoyed. "You already destroyed my life so I can destroy yours."

*First I saved your ass from dying, secondly I can just shut myself off if you annoy me too much.*

"Ohh please do, you annoyed me enough already." snarled Cleveland.

*OOOOOOOOOhhh so you want to get me out of your head, news flash girl, that ain't happening.*

"Well it was worth a try." chuckled Cleveland."I will so tell Tester that, I doubt that she will shoot me when I look like a siren like right now."

*Get it into your head that you are one, not just look like one.*

"I am no siren, siren!"Cleveland replied."And I will never identify as one."

*I won't even comment on that.*

"Ohh yeah shut up, it's not like you have anything important to say, huh?" huffed Cleveland.

*I could start with the shit Azur Lane did, but since you won't believe me anyway so showing you would be better.*

Cleveland stared at chibi Observer."They must have only won against you and the Crimson Axis, then we have peace on this world."

*Yeah peace.*

"You sound sad and worried at the same time, come on tell me," said Cleveland and looked at her minimap.

She has seen these in some of the video games Long Island plays and hers was pretty much the same. She had a route and marker set there and saw that she was about halfway to her destination.

Chibi Observer looked hurt.

*Have you ever seen or been to a battle and had no ability to do anything or prevent something from happening. That's what I felt for the last 2 years. Seeing dark and fixing you while hearing the news over the web.*

Cleveland did feel like that before so she could understand the siren on that although she would never say that outright.

Chibi Observer smiled a bit and Cleveland realized that she again read her thoughts which made her groan.

"Oh how I hate you reading my mind," she said and skated faster, reaching 40+ knots, which stood conveniently in the corner of her vision.

*Oh I like it, you not, all is fine then.*

"I won't even say my opinion on that all," said Cleveland annoyed.

*You don't need to, I can see them.*

Cleveland groaned again. This was getting on her nerves more than when her sisters did pranks on her.

The next 10 minutes were in silence because no one talked.

They came across a burning siren production ship in the middle of the ocean, or more Cleveland spotted one from a far further distance than even her radar and minimap showed her.

*Ahh, you see the pawn, board it, maybe we can find something.*

"Yeah, food." chuckled Cleveland as her stomach growled a bit.

*A piece of advice, as a siren you can stomach more stuff now. Also, you have a higher resistance so you can even eat moldy food.*

"NOOOOOO." screamed Cleveland."How do you get the idea that I would eat moldy food, I won't poison myself. No, when I get back I will have a fine meal from Nevada."

*Do I even need to repeat myself?*

"No I am not believing you anyway." huffed Cleveland and jumped up to the pawn."So what the hell am I searching for?"

The ship itself was damaged and littered with impact holes of high-caliber guns. The ship was also listening heavily to the right and was burning at several places.

*The bridge, and the console there.*

Cleveland huffed and opened the door on the side, well tried to, the flames, that somehow weren't bothering her in the slightest, had melted the door on wrong.

After a few pulls, she managed to open it slightly but couldn't get in.

"Open you damm thing, in my rigging that would have been no problem but without my ship, I can't summon it, "Cleveland complained between struggles.

*In your former rigging you wouldn't even be able to stem it open how far you have it so far.*

Cleveland didn't stop trying to open the door but also looked at Observer."Former? Siren if I get my ship I will show you that it's still mine."

*Ohh I won't spoil that surprise, that will be even harder for you to accept than waking up back there and getting your memories back anyway.*

"I won't even ask, any ideas on how to open this then miss smart-ass," she said as she let go of the door.

*Use your rigging.*

Cleveland simply stared."The one we just talked about me not having."

*No no you refer to the old one, I do to the new one.*

The light cruiser was confused."Which one? I neither see nor feel one."

*Ohh and what are those on your back there.*

"You mean these damm things, "Cleveland said as she let her tentacles come out from under her capelet. She had hidden them before under there and they just vanished under it."Those are extra arms, and to that, they hurt."

*Actually those are both your rigging and extra arms. Try using them and stop hiding them they are beautiful, smooth, and undamaged.*

Cleveland wanted to scream again as she heard that. She then tried using 'her' tentacles. They hurt quite a lot but the fact that she could feel and use them made her want to scream, not the initial pain.

Cleveland with some difficulties maneuvered them to the door and grabbed it with them. The suction cups attached themselves to the door and Cleveland jokingly pulled a bit with them and her arms.........................................only to rip out the entire door.

"Woah," she exclaimed as she held the door in the air and observed it.

*See it worked huh?*

"Ohh shut it, "Cleveland said. She wouldn't admit it but the strength 'her' tentacles had could be useful for her in the future.

Cleveland made them disappear under her capelet again and entered the ship.

*Ohh so you got used to them fast. Hihihih. You didn't even need my explanation.*

"Could you just shut up? I hate them ok, I would have never wanted them," screamed Cleveland. She wouldn't admit that they felt kind of good to the siren in her head.

*Suuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrreeeee, I know what you think anyway.*

Cleveland wanted to slam her head into the wall of the ship but she knew that that wouldn't shut Observer up. She also didn't ask as a marker appeared in her vision and guided her to the bridge.

The bridge itself was not spectacular, just a big open room with a few consoles and a black wisdom cube flying in the middle of it.

*So we are here, so just get to the console and connect yourself to the ship's systems, I will do everything from there.*

Cleveland blinked."And how exactly am I suppose to do that?"

*Just touch the console.*

Cleveland looked at it, then at chibi Observer who had a determined face, and walked over to the console.

"Yeah, listening to the siren, what's the worst that can happen, "Cleveland said as she held her face. She stood in front of the console and held out her hand."So just touching the damm thing right?"

Cleveland stopped her hand and looked behind herself ."The cube looks bad, it's not shining at all."

Indeed the glow of the usual cubes was a dying glimmer instead of a bright light with this one.

*Well that means that it's shutting down so, ehem, hurry up a bit, we both need to have a news report of the siren side.*

Cleveland wanted to complain but thought that this way she could collect intel over the enemy and later tell that Azur Lane so she went over to the console and touched the surface of it.

She felt a small shock and couldn't remove her hand which made her slightly worried. In her vision Observer disappeared immediately and on the side appeared a loading bar.

10%

37%

63%

85%

91%

99%

99%

99%

100%

Connection established.

User: Observer A̴l̸p̴b̴e̷t̴a̸

(Showing statistics.)

(Error.)

(Damage critical.)

(Awaiting orders.)

Suddenly multiple things appeared in Cleveland's vision, non of which Cleveland understood but she could remove her hand again.

*Good, download complete. So you got probably sick of me and have no idea of what to do with this right?*

Cleveland nodded relieved, she got nothing from the codes. She knew they were siren origin, even though she could now somehow read what it meant in comparison to her old self.

*Ok then to your luck I have to focus on this now, have to leave you alone for likely the time you reach the islands we wanted to go to.*

"Oh thank god."Cleveland said happily."A few minutes of peace."

*Yeah sure, you can leave then, oh and take the cube, the ship is doomed anyway. It's gonna sink in a few hours.*

"For what do you need that one now?" asked Cleveland.

*Well I wanted to test a theory, but that's later, just grab it.*

"Heeeh fine, "Cleveland said and grabbed the cube. She felt a surge of energy go through her that sent her lightly shivering. It somehow felt like it belonged to her but she didn't go after that thought.

"Ehh pockets?"Cleveland said and realized her outfit had none.

She also just realized that she missed her shoes and socks so she stood there barefoot, not that it bothered her, or she felt it at all, but she did notice it.

With no choice she let one tentacle slither out and hold the cube, she then walked out of the ship. It listened even more than when she entered it first and was no doubt hours away from sinking.

Jumping over the edge of the ship she landed on the water and began skating away from it.

Storm clouds were rolling in and a light rain began that annoyed Cleveland to a degree.

Though if she wanted to be real the rain somehow felt good. It was the same with the normal ocean, it didn't even feel cold for her.

Cleveland pondered and thought with her head. Now that Observer wasn't annoying her almost every step she took she could do that.

She took in her situation and was still shaken by her memories. Why did these things happen to her and what did they speak about back then.

She also was stressed to know that 2 years had passed.

"2 years, god!"Cleveland said again to take it in.

She skated at normal cruise speed which was way slower than she could and just thought.

The things are too numerous to mention but what could have happened in 2 years?

Cleveland however did realize something.

"How can I protect myself from a siren attack, I got no weapons." said Cleveland."If I run into an ambush they will attack me."

This was getting between her plan to surrender to human forces and return to Azur Lane but what could she do, weapons don't appear out of thin air.

"I can't use a stick can I." laughed Cleveland."God, where do I get a weapon from."

The black cube in 'her' tentacle suddenly rumbled and loosened itself from 'her' tentacle. It then flew in front of Cleveland and remained floating at the level of her chest. It began to rumble for real now and the shaking made Cleveland nervous.

"Eh, what are you planning? Please don't explode."Cleveland gulped and took a step back.

The cube continued turning and rumbling for a short while and made Cleveland worry. Then it stopped and just floated there.

Cleveland approached it and stared at it."What was that right now? I have never seen a cube do that. Are you done at least-"

Cleveland was interrupted by the cube launching itself into her chest and sending her to the ground.

Cleveland was hit by what could only be described as an almost lethal shock of electricity and jumped up after a backroll immediately to her feet.

"What was that?"Cleveland asked and attempted to catch her breath."Where is the damm thing and what did it do? That hurt."

It hurt her quite a lot but now she somehow felt stronger than before, and like a space was filled she didn't even know she had. Even her slightly charred outfit that was lightly burned before from the flames of that destroyed ship was in pristine condition again. She still lacked any type of footwear though.

"This is so unbelievable weird, "Cleveland said and shook her head. "So where do I get a weapon now?"

She complained and clenched her fist, only for a black scythe to appear in it.

Cleveland simply stared at it, it resembled the one she had in her one Halloween costume that she made herself, although that scythe was not real, the one she was holding looked more than just lethal.

Cleveland gulped and let the scythe drop to the water, only for it to float there.

She took a step back and stared at it. Then she picked it back up and looked at it again.

"Are you the cube?" she asked no one in particular and somehow wanted Observer to explain something but the siren didn't respond.

She spun the thing around and was surprised at the lack of weight.

"Looks like my Halloween costume scythe fighting lessons come in handy now."She laughed and began performing various moves."Well, I don't know where you come from but at least I got a weapon now."

She had her fun and found out that like 'her' tentacles she could make the scythe appear and disappear whenever she wanted, but for the scythe, she had to hold it. Both things somehow decubed as it appeared and Cleveland didn't poster on it any longer as she approached the island that she and Observer agreed to go on.

She walked onto the beach and looked around. There weren't any signs of humanity anywhere where she landed but further down the beach were a few little boats and that assured her that Observer at least didn't lie on that fact.

Cleveland began walking down the beach and hummed a little melody she and her sisters composed.

Suddenly sound from behind her startled her so much that she summoned her scythe and slashed in a panic behind her.

She clean cut through multiple trees and almost hit what startled her, a bunch of birds.

*PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. Cleveland, Observer Beta of the sirens gets startled by birds. Hah hah. I gotta remember that.*

Cleveland got red from embarrassment."Oh shut up, it's just my nerves because of you and my whole situation."

*Then stop being embarrassed. Here around a 5-minute walk down the beach is the settlement we are looking for.*

"At least that's when I will get some rest here." exhaled Cleveland and began walking down the beach.

The sun was out again and was beginning to go up, which means Cleveland had cruised around the entire night and she didn't even feel tired.

Cleveland could already see the smoke coming from the settlement which meant she was close to her goal, humanity.

She desummoned her scythe and heard a whistling.

*Nice scythe, where you got that one from?*

"Ohh looks like the Observer up there wasn't observant, look through my memories like you said you can." mocked Cleveland.

*Fine, later though we are almost there.*

The smoke Cleveland saw was getting quite strong already, way too strong for a normal settlement.

"Are they having a festival? The smoke is way too strong for a simple settlement," said Cleveland and got a bit worried. Even Observer only gave a long exhale that didn't make Cleveland's consciousness any better.

Cleveland turned around and saw the settlement in its full glory.

Burning like a wildfire.

"Shit!!"Cleveland screamed out and broke into a full run as she heard the screaming of many getting lesser and lesser.

Chapter Text

Cleveland ran and soon reached the burning settlement.

Blood splatters and bullet impacts littered the floor.

Cleveland had to hold back her breath as she stepped over some and entered the courtyard. They even had a little fountain.

The village looked bad as Cleveland looked around the open field.

*Horrifying isn't it?*

"Shut it. Your people did that," said Cleveland in a whisper and made a shushing noise. She received only an exhale.

*You will see.*

Deciding to not even reply Cleveland moved through the destroyed village. She saw very few dead bodies which filled her with the hope that many had survived but every single one she found was a sign of her failure.

"Looks like the siren attack wasn't as successful. Good," said Cleveland relieved.

She moved now relieved through the village, no scream filled the sky and Cleveland relaxed a little.

"Looks like I chased away the sirens. Ha aren't brave enough to face me you cowards." cheered Cleveland a little.

The only thing that bothered her was the silence. Besides the flames, she heard nothing, complete utter silence.

"Come on there must be a survivor," said Cleveland as she walked into a not that destructed house. It was still in shambles with its furniture and broken walls. All in all, it was a miracle the house still stood.

"Hello? Anybody home?" asked Cleveland as she walked through multiple rooms.

From the number of rooms, this must have been a house of many. Or a hotel.

*Here.*

Suddenly a red dot appeared on the minimap in Cleveland's vision. Its text said 'living being' so Cleveland made her way over to that.

Cleveland almost wanted to thank her head siren but she has been awfully quiet the entire time. She was calmed and somehow worried by that.

On the second floor, the third room on the left was her destination.

It looked like a child's bedroom with many toys on the ground. Somehow a music box with a children's song was playing while it sat on the table.

"This looks like the perfect horror movie scene, not gonna lie, "Cleveland said as she looked around. She walked over to the table and set the music box to stop."There, sooo."

The one she searched was under the bed so she did the only logical thing she could do. Sit down on a stool at the table.

"I know that you are there. Under the bed."Cleveland said and looked at the bed."You can come out, I drove away the bad guys."

Slowly a head came out from under the bed. She looked about 6 and very scared.

"You not hurt me?" the girl struggled out. She was so shaken she couldn't even form a straight sentence.

She sat herself on the bed and looked at Cleveland while holding a bright teddy. The teddy and the girl were covered in splatters of blood that made Cleveland worried.

"Are you ok?" asked Cleveland as she looked at the girl who seemed to flinch at every sound that was made. Be it wood or fire.

"What happened?" asked Cleveland and the little girl began to cry.

"They came, the demons from the sea." she said and gulped."They rained fire and booms all over the houses."

Cleveland began to sweat. She was angry with herself for wasting too much time on the way here. She could have saved them all from the sirens."I am sorry, I would have protected you all if I had been quicker."

The little girl tilted her head and approached Cleveland."You different, not mean, nice. Calm and listening. Friend? Ghostly. Yellow. No ship."

Cleveland could clearly hear that the girl had trouble speaking but didn't talk it on. She must have been distressed and Cleveland knew that she shouldn't pressure the little soul.

She ruffled the little girl's hair a bit and smiled."Hey, what's your name little one?"

"Lea." said the little girl and hugged Cleveland's waist.

"Well hello Lea, I am USS Cleveland, a shipgirl from Eagle Union," said Cleveland and felt the girl straighten up.

*Not a shipgirl anymore Beta. Also very wrong choice words.*

Cleveland didn't even listen to Observer and held the girl.

The little girl began to tremble and shake. Cleveland couldn't hold her firmly in fear of breaking her arms.

"Hey what's wrong?" asked Cleveland as the little girl fell to her knees.

"S-s---ss--s--s-s-s--ss-s--s-s-s-s--s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s--s-s-s-s-ssss-s-sssss-ship!" the girl nearly screamed and pulled out something from her teddy. She reeled the little tail back and almost threw it at Cleveland who caught the toy.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"Cleveland said as she stared at the teddy. The girl loosened herself from her arms and ran out of the room.

Cleveland looked after her and then at the teddy. The sounds of the girl running down the staircase were in the background.

"What was that right no-."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

She hit the floor after falling for twenty seconds.

"OOOOOOOOOWWWW," screamed Cleveland and sat up.

The entire building had a giant hole in the middle, right where Cleveland found the girl.

"What the fuck was that?!" complained Cleveland."A fucking bomb. Why? And why in a teddy?"

Cleveland stood up and looked around. The house was in shambles.

"Did the little girl just hand me a bomb." wondered Cleveland and stood up.....only to fall to her knees.

"Fuck."Cleveland said out loud as she saw why. A big steel rod has pierced her leg and it was bleeding severely.

"God fuck. Even my blood is yellow. Fuck."Cleveland said and nearly cried from the piling up statements of her head siren. She did realize something though.

It didn't hurt. Like at all.

"Why isn't this hurting, I am bleeding but it doesn't hurt," asked Cleveland.

*You could have lost your arms and I would simply be able to reattach them, even grow some again if given enough time.*

"Like Purifier." Cleveland thought and heard Observer snicker. She slapped herself on the head."Cleveland don't be stupid, you aren't a siren, you, you can't be a siren."

*Can you have another breakdown later? Pull the thing out, your regeneration should fix that in a few minutes.*

Cleveland calmed down a little and pulled the steel rod. It came out of her tight like oiled and Cleveland was free again.

When she looked at the wound she could see it mending itself together.

"Creepy," commented Cleveland.

*Being a siren has its advantages huh Beta?*

Cleveland grumbled and began to walk."So where is that girl?"

*You want me to pinpoint it again?*

Cleveland took a deep breath. "Yes." she simply said quietly.

Observer laughed a little and on Cleveland's minimap appeared a red dot again. This time moving, even if slowly.

"Why is she running away anyway, from what does she run away on another note," asked Cleveland as she jogged behind the girl. She wasn't far ahead but still a good distance away.

*Well Clevi she is scared of you.*

"Only because I look like the bad guys," said Cleveland and jumped over a broken lamppost. Her leg was completely healed at this point.

*Clevi, maybe remember what she said back there. She didn't react until you said your name and what you were before.*

"I am not a sir-!"Cleveland started but was cut off by a severe headache that disoriented her.

*Get it into your damm head. I am sick of you not listening.*

"Grrrrr. But why is she scared of the shipgirl, or in other words me, "complained Cleveland.

*Well why only? How about you see the facts for once. Do sirens fire shell ammunition?*

"No, and what are you meaning with that?" said Cleveland, deep in her mind she did however had a thought that worried her more than her appearance.

*Eyes, Beta eyes, you got them, so use them.*

Cleveland wanted to complain about the various nicknames Observer gave her but she looked around as she walked.

The ground was littered with holes that the houses shared. Bullet holes, not burning laser impacts.

Cleveland gulped."I know what you wanna tell me, but no shipgirl will ever turn evil."

*Say that to the girl that killed you.*

"They, they, they must have had a reason."Cleveland struggled out, not even believing herself in some way.

*The evidence is right in front of you but you refuse to see it.*

Cleveland heard Observer's sight.

*OHH, well looks like the truth will hit you in the face in a few minutes.*

"What is that suppose to mean now?" asked Cleveland confused."Alpha."

She didn't respond.

"Alpha, say something."Cleveland said frustrated but the siren in her head stayed silent."Fine, then not, let me despair here alone you evil bastard."

Cleveland sighted and walked into some kind of cave. She was getting real close to the little girl now.

"Hey, how did you miss this one?"

"And why do you think I missed her, it could have been you as well."

"Well, I was not on this side of the island so, who was here anyway? Suffolk? Norfolk?"

"No idea, oh and stop moving siren."

Cleveland heard these voices from the distance but couldn't make out who said that at the moment although she could swear she knows these.

"So what do we do now? Throw her to the others?" a more formal voice said.

"Sounds like the most logical decision." a childish voice said.

Cleveland knew these voices but couldn't make them out through the echo.

"So siren come here." said the childish one.

"GOOO AWEY. MONSTR SHP." said the voice of the little girl. She sounded distressed and in a panic which made Cleveland move faster.

"Don't make this more diffic-augh." Smack "The bitch bit me, you will regret this siren."The formal voice said.

"Look, you broke her yaw." the child said."They really cut the sirens down these days, well makes killing them easier."

"Yes closer to peace." the formal voice chuckled.

Cleveland was walking faster now and came closer. With each step, her stomach hurt more.

That had to do with her not eating for 2 years right?

Also, something smelled crispy.

"Well, she can't argue now, SO COME HERE." the formal voice said.

In the distance, Cleveland heard struggling.

Cleveland rounded the corner and came into view of something interesting.

Inside this cave was a shrine made out of paper, sitting on a rock formation on a lake.

"And off to the others you go." said the formal voice and then Cleveland heard something being thrown and impact the floor."So and now"

Cleveland heard an echoing crack.

"Girl, Kent can you make light, mine are busted."Said the formal speaking voice.

"Mine to Ed. Totally busted. Well, Vestal will not be happy. If she even helps. She became rather monotone and lonely in the last years."said the childish voice.

Both figures exited the shrine and walked on the water. It were shipgirls, two Cleveland knew all too well so she at least knew the little girl must have been fine. Her marker even was in the shrine the two girls just left.

It were Edinburgh and Kent, two Royal Navy shipgirls.

"Everything is placed, right?" asked Edinburgh and turned to Kent.

"Yes, now lets get out of this cave, I wanna see something. Why did the sirens even counter us, all they did was shoot out our lights and then hide in that shrine, damm sakuran sirens." said Kent."Ohh this will be great."

"Hey you two," said Cleveland and sent both girls jumping a bit.

"Cleveland??! God did you scare me. Do you have a light?" said Edinburgh as she calmed down. Kent didn't look less surprised.

"Sadly not. No lights sorry," said Cleveland apologetic. She might have not had any trouble in seeing in the dark but the other two definitely had. They probably could only see her silhouette.

*Your eyes actually glow too you know, but I made it low enough to not be outright noticeable, in the light at least.*

Cleveland wanted to somewhat thank Observer but kept quiet.

"Say did you two see a little girl run in here? I just followed her and lost her."Cleveland said to the other two.

"Hmm."Kent began thinking."We did just throw one into the shrine so you would have to go there, how we missed that one is a miracle in itself."

"Say Cleveland, what are you doing here?" asked Edinburgh."You weren't on the sortie list."

"Ohh I was in the area and heard the sound of battle and thought a person more on our side will help against the sirens," said Cleveland with a laugh that the other two shared.

"Well, you are right there, "Edinburgh said but sounded uncertain, like she was trying to keep calm.

"Say Cleveland, can you go into the shrine and see if everything is alright?" asked Kent and shuffled a bit around. She too looked uncertain as if bothered by something.

"I can." said Cleveland and walked past them."What am I looking for?"

"You will see. Come Kent, we wait outside."Edinburgh said and left with Kent rather quickly.

"How much time left?" asked Edinburgh's echo.

"Around two minutes, she will be terminated too, damm siren," said Kent and then they went out of listening range.

Cleveland was lightly confused but turned around and walked over the water. The shrine looked in pristine condition.

Though the smell of something being crispy was getting stronger the closer she came to the little building. Do they have a barbecue in a shrine?

Cleveland was still unsure of that and opened the shrine doors......to immediately regret it.

Cleveland would have vomited if she had eaten anything in 2 years because the view was guts turning.

What must have been hundreds of human corpses were piled into a pile and burned until almost unrecognizable states.

Tears ran down Cleveland's eyes as she looked to the ground. The little girl from before laid there.

Cleveland rushed over and knelt down while picking her up.

"Please be alive, please, please."Cleveland cried and held the girl's body.

She wasn't alive, a clean broken neck killed her.

Cleveland fell to her knees and looked at the bodies around her."Why?"

It was a simple question, yet it stood for so much.

*Now you see, don't you.*

"Why?" cried Cleveland.

*Well ask them yourself.*

Cleveland began to laugh a bit between tears and chokes as she looked around.

"A joke. Hehe. Peace heh? It's all a fucking joke. Hahaha."Cleveland laughed as she stood up.

A ticking brought Cleveland out of her laughing as she looked and spotted a clock.

It stood at 6 seconds and was connected to some big bombs that stood in the corners of the room.

Cleveland stared at the clock as it counted down.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

A massive fireball engulfed Cleveland and the cave.

It raced out of the cave and out of the entrance.

Not a second later the entire cave collapsed.

Outside Edinburgh and Kent were laughing.

"That siren walked straight in the trap, even if it wasn't even a trap in the first place." laughed Kent.

"I didn't even know any of our siren copies from 2 years ago can talk or express emotions. Or that they still exist." said Edinburgh."Well, that must have been the last one then."

"She should have shut off her eyes, then maybe it wouldn't have been obvious. Still surprising that she didn't shoot or attack at all though." said Kent."The base will like that story."

"Ohh they will, how will Clevela- wait do you hear that?" said Edinburgh and turned to the collapsed cave entrance.

"Yes I hear it, what is that?" asked Kent confused.

"It sounds like....breaking rock," said Edinburgh.

"Not only that but it's getting closer, fast," said Kent.

Kent barely managed to raise her rigging with her right arm as the Rockwall exploded and an absolutely mad siren jumped out of the debris.

Faster than the two shipgirls could react the siren attacked with a scythe, that appeared out of nowhere, in her hands. She cut clean through Kent's rigging and cut her right arm off too before she jumped out of the way of Edinburgh's shots.

Edinburgh kneeled down to Kent and helped her up.

"Kent run, you can't fight like this," said Edinburgh and gestured to Kent's cutaway arm that was spilling out blood.

Kent only nodded and limped away. Edinburgh stared at the siren that looked at the royal maid with nothing but pure unadulterated rage.

"How did you survive that siren? Do you think I will let you destroy our chance for peace?"Edinburgh said and shot.

The siren slashed most of the shots out of the air but caught a single one.

"Peace huh?" said the siren as she descended into mad laughter."Peace?!"

She crushed the shell in her hand and threw it to the side before grabbing her scythe hard.

"We had a chance of peace before. That what you did there is nothing but evil. Prepare yourself." said the siren as she directed her scythe at Edinburgh.

"Ohh I am prepared you Cleveland clone. I am a member of the royal maids and this is your last day alive," said Edinburgh.

They both stared at each other before they started to run.

Chapter Text

They both ran at each other and attacked.

Slash

Edinburgh barely managed to slide under the sirens strike and shoot her in the stomach.

The siren was thrown back but managed to land on her feet. She stared at Edinburgh and then strolled over.

Edinburgh did all she did but the siren simply slashed the shells out of the air.

"Stop it," screamed Edinburgh as she shot with everything she got.

Click

Click

"Shit!" said Edinburgh and jumped away from a scythe strike.

"Ohh did your guns run out?" giggled the siren and stopped moving."What was the time of reloading, 72 seconds?"

Edinburgh's anti-air guns shot at the siren but the bullets more or less just bounced off of her skin.

"Ohh sorry should that hurt. HAHAHHA." laughed the siren.

Edinburgh was in a bad spot. She has hit the siren hard and yet that one was laughing at her like she has never been hit.

"Usually this worked, are you an old model? The newer ones here couldn't even take my aa guns," said Edinburgh and had to immediately duck as the sirens fist impacted and broke the building behind her.

Edinburgh could barely raise her hand as the siren turned around and with a simple kick sent Edinburgh flying over the courtyard.

Edinburgh stood up and fired, which shots the siren simply deflected away.

"Come on Edinburgh, you can do that better. The last spar we had you did better than this." said the siren and jumped at the maid.

Edinburgh dodged and kicked the siren which sent that one away but also hurt her like hell."Don't talk like we know each other you Cleveland clone."

The siren sprinted to the maid again and slashed another barely missing strike that cut through the building  behind the maid."A clone huh?"

The siren spun and pressed the snaith of the scythe against Edinburgh's throat."Say, you maid. What happened here?"

"We killed sirens, all of them except you and when Kent gets away, they will send reinforcements-uuurghg," Edinburgh said and the siren spun with the maid and slashed at the maids back, managing to cut her clothes and sent the maid away with a kick.

"Do you think you killed sirens?!"scream-asked the siren as she began walking over to Edinburgh again.

Edinburgh struggled into a stand and turned to the siren. That kick hit her stronger than she anticipated.

The royal maid stood ready but her throat was grabbed hard before she could shoot again.

"I asked you a question didn't I?" said the siren as she choked the maid."Now you better answer it."

Edinburgh striked the siren with her guns and did everything to get her to loosen up her hold but that just got tighter.

"Answer me you stuck up royal bitch!" screamed the siren as Edinburgh went purple.

Then Edinburgh heard the sound she was waiting for. The sound of her main guns reloading, but sadly the siren did too.

The siren dropped her and went for a strike with her scythe to hit the maid but was shot in the stomach shortly before the scythe impacted the maid's back.

The siren was thrown back and spun in the air before landing on the fountain in the middle of the field.

"Come on you can do that better Eddi. Hihihi. That didn't even hurt." giggled the siren as she leaned over at Edinburgh.

"Oh don't act so highly."The maid stopped to feel her throat and coughed while struggling to get air into her lungs. "You didn't even hit me."

Edinburgh set her guns at the siren again but refrained from shooting.

The siren simply stared at the Maid before falling into mad laughter and jumping in front of her.

"So I missed huh. HAHAHHA." the siren fell into laughter again."Would your shoulder say the same about that?"

Edinburgh looked and winced as the pain hit her. She had a deep gash in her shoulder that was bleeding severely. It stained her clothes red.

"See, I did hit you. Hihihih." chuckled the siren and dashed forward to strike again."Soon this entire field will be as red as that shoulder."

Edinburgh dodged the next strike and shot the siren again, hitting her in the shoulder and due to her momentum slammed her into the next building, and began running.

Due to her shortness of breath, however, because she was still recovering from being choked out, she stopped her run and turned around after reaching the other side of the field.....only to meet the bright yellow eyes of her enemy breathing into her face which shocked the maid a bit.

"A a a, running away aren't we? How about no." the siren said and grabbed both of Edinburgh's arms.

Edinburgh tried with all her might to escape the siren's grip but couldn't. The siren nearly broke her wrists just from the pressure on them. She couldn't aim her rigging at her.

Edinburgh could hear the bones in her hand getting strained too and her rigging definitely protested because the siren stood in front of its user at such an angle that it couldn't aim at her.

From the looks of it, the siren wasn't even damaged from all of Edinburgh's previous hits.

"So Eddi. I asked you a question before, right?" said the siren and made Edinburgh wince.

"Who gave you the right to give me nicknames sir-aaargh" she started but was cut off by being lifted over the siren and slammed into the ground.

"I don't want you to talk. I want you to answer!" screamed the siren as she slammed her foot on Edinburgh's rigging and held her down.

"Which question do you AAAAAAAA," Edinburgh screamed as one of her riggings turrets had both of its gun barrels bend just from the pressure of the siren pressing down on it.

"What did you do in that cave?!"The siren screamed into her face.

"Exterminate all the sirens in this village. IIIIH." Edinburgh said and was met with the blade of the scythe sitting on her glasses.

The siren looked like she got even madder and pulled the scythe away after a few seconds and gave it to a tentacle that came from somewhere Edinburgh couldn't see.

Edinburgh's eyes were drawn to them for a second before she was pulled up by the collar.

"So Eddi, tell me. Am I a siren? Or are the slaughtered people in that cave sirens?" the siren asked and Edinburgh felt intimidated by her eyes alone.

"All of you are sirens. We will kill all of you. Azur lane will bring peace to this world."Edinburgh said.

The siren let her hang in her arms a little bit lower so that the maid's legs were touching the ground and took some deep breaths. Edinburgh could swear the siren looked a bit shocked and dropped a tear.

"Peace heh? Peace. Hehe. HAHAHAHAH." the siren laughed madly and Edinburgh got as far back as she could as the siren let her go with her left hand.

The siren lowered the maid to her right side and let her hang there.

Edinburgh took her chance and used her remaining gun on that side and shot the siren in the chest, making her drop the maid.

The area was filled with smoke as Edinburgh released a smokescreen and began running.

She ran in whatever direction she got and soon reached the village's little dock and jumped into a building near the water and took some much-needed deep breaths.

"God it's been ages since I last saw an actual siren that didn't use human weapons, or hid itself as one." Edinburgh struggled out and took deep breaths. "Were those always that terrifying?"

Edinburgh looked around and then sat down on the wall."I hope Kent is well. God a single strike almost killed her. What is that scythe made of? Steelcutters?"

Edinburgh chuckled to herself at that."I need to get that sirens scythe. That last shot must have killed her or she wouldn't have dropped me."

Edinburgh stood up and leaned against the wall."Crazy, she was like a copy of Cleveland. She sounded and looked like her. Weird that she acted like Cleveland at first in that cave, but Cleves is back at the bas-"Edinburgh was interrupted by two hands bursting through the wall behind her and grabbing her by the throat.

Not a second later three black and yellow tentacles also burst through the wall and grabbed the maids rigging hard, to the point where its steel was bent.

Edinburgh was then pulled through the wall and when she opened her eyes again she was met with staring yellow ones that made her gulp.

"Na. Na. Na. Did you think you can just run? OOOOOh we aren't done yet." said the siren as she helt the maid who looked more shocked to see that the siren had not even a wound from her shot.

"You know."The siren said and looked at the maids rigging."This is getting annoying, and I don't have guns so why should you, right?"

Edinburgh couldn't even say anything as massive pain jolted through her. The siren's tentacles began to pull and the steel was strained and broken.

It took only one minute but for Edinburgh, it was hours as the maid's rigging was ripped apart and she felt every, little, thing.

First, were the guns that were straight-up ripped out of their sockets.

Then her rudders on her shoes were bent until she could maneuver even less than Bismarck after getting hit by a torpedo there directly.

The inside wasn't spared either as the tentacles ripped through the steel plating and got inside the miniature ships.

The fuel tanks were ripped open and spilled out all of their oil.

The engine was ripped out of the electricity circle and most of the cables were split.

Every communication system was destroyed and the antenna was ripped out and fell to the side.

Her bridge and navigation systems fell to the swift swipes and punches of the tentacles.

Her ammunition storage was penetrated and shaken until all shells were either smashed into the walls or laid on the floor and the wrong move could blow up the maid's entire body.

Her torpedo launchers, useless on land anyway, fell to the sirens assault as well as they were bent and twisted.

Only then did the tentacles stop and retreat.

Edinburgh let out tears as she was dropped to the ground.

Her rigging, if you could even call it that anymore, was in shambles and completely destroyed. No doubt her ship would sink when it would be summoned now.

"Oh what's wrong Maidy, did I hurt you?" snickered the siren.

Edinburgh struggled to stand and looked at the siren. "Shut up you monster."

She went in for a fist strike but a tentacle simply caught her fist.

The siren leaned into the maids face."So now back to where we began. Do you think you killed sirens in that cave?"

"Of course." struggled the maid through tears." all of them deserved to die and more-"

She was pulled up to the siren's eye level.

"So killing sirens is what you did. Hahaha."She dropped the maid.

"Yes, that's what we..........AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"Edinburgh said and screamed out as the siren pierced her shoulder with her scythe.

"Oh yes scream. I bet the 'sirens' you killed did too didn't they?" laughed the siren as she sawed with the scythe.

The pain was so severe that the maid couldn't get a word out.

"Ohh would you please speak up, I can't hear you over your scrams. Weren't you maids always gawking about how you can stay calm and focussed even in the most troublesome times?" snickered the siren to the crying maid and ripped out the scythe.

Edinburgh jumped to her feet and ran.

She got about 20 meters before she collapsed screaming.

"Well can't run away now heh? Or you wanna jump on one leg, it would look hilarious." laughed the siren from the back.

Looking down Edinburgh could only scream in shock. Her left leg was entirely cut in two below her waist.

The siren went over and her tentacles picked up the maid who has long descended into whimpering.

"I could bet a lot of money that like 5 minutes ago you were still highly confident in yourself. Anyway isn't there something about this in your guidelines." the siren asked and didn't get an answer."Well, I guess I will take that answer from Belfast's corpse."

"You will not touch her you monster," screamed Edinburgh as she punched the siren.

The siren didn't flinch but smirked......and headbutted Edinburgh.

Edinburgh was sent flying and hit the wall of the next building. She lost her glasses long ago but they would have shattered from that impact.

Before she could look up she was grabbed by the throat.

"Tell me, maid. Did you even attempt to show mercy when you slaughtered the men, women, and children there?" the siren screamed at the maid.

Edinburgh was held against the wall and was pulled up higher. The siren simply floated up while pressing the maid against the wall.

The siren either didn't care or notice them being high up in the air."Tell me did you even attempt to show mercy to the humans in there?"

Edinburgh didn't even respond and was thrown from great distance down until she impacted the ground in the middle of the village, creating a crater.

The siren landed next to her and picked her up by the collar.

Edinburgh spat out blood and could hardly breathe.

The siren looked at her and dropped her before stomping on her stomach breaking several rips.

"Mercy, please." begged the maid as she coughed out streams of blood.

The siren bent down to the suffering maid."Can you say that again? I didn't quite get you."

"Have mercy," said Edinburgh again.

"Ohh, mercy? And why should I grant you that?" asked the siren.

"Azur lane can grant you anything, just say your needs," said Edinburgh through tears.

The siren made a thoughtful look and Edinburgh got a bit of hope again.

The siren turned around and two of her tentacles, which seemed to come out from under her black capelet, reached out. One grabbed the scythe that stuck in the ground and the other dragged Edinburgh by her remaining leg after curling itself around it.

Edinburgh was whimpering through all the dragged distance and her vision got shady and she herself dizzy. Must be the massive blood loss she had from her countless wounds.

They left the big crater and Edinburgh was dragged to the fountain.

The siren sat her up and kneeled behind her."So what can you offer me now?"

"Everything."Edinburgh struggled out. She just wanted to survive this. "Everything you want so just show mercy."

The siren kneeled behind her and massaged her neck."Tempting, really tempting yet."

She pointed to all the destruction around them both. The destroyed and burning village. The sirens arm left Edinburgh's vision as she stood up and held something to the side.

"Did you show them any mercy?"

Slash

Thump

One strike. One strike with the scythe was all it took to behead the royal maid.

The maid's body slumped to the side and her head laid directly in her arms.

The siren took a step back and looked at her former friend that she just killed.

She began to laugh madly. The laughter just slipped from her lips as she held her head.

It went on for minutes.

Then it became crying.

Hysterical crying.

Chapter Text

Cleveland fell to her knees crying.

She held onto her scythe as if it were the only thing keeping her from sinking into hell itself.

She was caught up with processing everything she did. Not what she was forced or commanded to do.

She did all of that herself.

She killed her friend in her own fit of rage.

Cleveland grabbed her scythe and with a scream slashed it at her throat.

She waited for the blade to cut her throat, but that never came.

When she opened her eyes she saw that all of her tentacles caught the scythe in mid air and pushed it away from her.

“Let me kill myself you stupid things!” screamed Cleveland in tears as she kept trying to kill herself but her tentacles didn’t bulge.

*Would you stop that, breathe Cleaveland.*

“Are you doing this siren!?”screamed Cleveland and stared at chibi Observer.

*Well yes, I can control your body.*

“Then you made me kill her. You bastard!” screamed Cleveland and let go of the scythe. Her tentacles simply held it behind her. 

*No, I didn't. In fact you somehow shut me off yourself. I could literally only watch you do anything.*

“What! I didn’t do that out of my own choice, Y-Y-You must have done this. Influenced my brain. Commanded me to do it.” said Cleveland in tears and fell to her knees. Everytime she looked at Edinbughs corpse the last few minutes rushed through her head.

*Cleavland, I literally couldn’t talk to you. You just shut off my connection. I could only watch.* 

“But that would mean that I did this. Which is impossible! I wouldn’t kill her just to overshadow my own weakness.” said Cleveland in tears as she looked around. "Had I been faster, everyone would still be alive!”

*And trying to kill yourself is the best solution for that?*

“DO YOU THINK I CAN LIVE WITH THIS!?! I am the same species as my enemy and just did something that can’t be reversed!” cried Cleveland. ”If I did this myself then my life has no value anymore. So ending it is the best choice.”

*After I worked my metaphorical ass off to save it? Cleavland, we must continue! What you did was the right thing anyway.*

“THE RIGHT THING?!!” screamed Cleveland and punched the ground, cracking it. "In what way was this the right choice, killing my friend while using all of your siren abilities?”

*How you managed the floating and tentacle control thing you did there surprised me. But it was the right thing. Oh, and she wasn’t your friend anymore.*

“Of course she was you, no, I am the monster here. She was Edinburgh of the Royal Navy and one of the purest souls I knew.” said Cleveland as she struggled into a stand. “And I killed her.”

*Yes you did, but why?*

“You must have forced me. God why wasn’t I faster.” lamented Cleveland.

*I didn’t force you to do anything. And even if you were faster you would only have seen worse things.*

“If I would be faster that little girl would still be alive!” screamed Cleveland.”If I would have been faster than I could have at least tried to protect them.”

She sat down on the fountain. "I can’t be a warrior of justice anymore. Not after this.”

*If you ask me, you did justice to everyone here, Miss reaper.*

Cleveland even chuckled a little at the reference. ”And in what sense did I do the right thing here?

*What did they all do? Kill everyone here. Edinburgh even admitted it constantly.*

“Yes she did. Fuck!” lamented Cleveland as she drew in the blood ridden water.

“Say siren, why'd they do this? Are all of my friends now like that?” asked Cleveland. “Why Edinburgh. Why?”

*Well that's hard. Most, if not all, are like that. Though there are a few that don’t seem to like this whole killing thing but all seem to do it. They all kill humans out of their free will.*

“Even Unicorn, Javelin, and Laffey?” asked Clevelkand with dying hope.

*Yes, even them.*

“Fuck!” screamed Cleveland and broke the fountain's side with a punch. She straight up pulverized the concrete. “Why even them, why do they kill humans?”

*Well, that is for us to figure out.*

“Do you think I will listen to you for even a second longer?” asked Cleveland in pure spite.

*Yes. You don’t have many alternatives do you?*

“Fuck you.” said Cleveland and kneeled down besides Edinbughs dead body.

Cleveland used her tentacles, she could use again after she willed her scythe away, and let them punch the ground. Every hit created a bigger hole.

*What are you doing?*

“Digging her a grave. She deserves that much...” said Cleveland and continued to make Edinburgh somewhat presentable. “I did a number on you Ed, right?”  

Cleveland began to cry again but held on strong.

*I like how you want to treat her, but we're out of time.*

“I don’t care. She needs one last good thing to happen to her.” said Cleveland and ignored the siren.

*If you want her to rest forever then take her cube.*

“I am supposed to defile the dead?!” screamed Cleveland in anger. “What next rape her. What good is that supposed to bring?”

*No, not that far, even though you could do that very well with your tentacles.*

Cleveland got even madder and stared at the smirking siren. “Screw you!  I'm not defiling the dead!” screamed the former light cruiser.

*You want her to rest in peace, right?*

“Of course!” Cleveland assured her. “That's why I'm digging this grave.”

*She will not rest in peace if she still has her cube.*

“What the hell is that supposed to even mean?” said Cleveland in confusion and anger. “I never had to bury someone, simply because I never killed them or was with them when they were buried.”

*And that is because you never saw a shipgirl die, right? You only saw them get heavily injured but they came out fine, right?*

Cleveland nodded.“Well, yes. The only one who is still injured is Yorktown but Vestal is taking care of her. No one ever died because shipgirls were too resistant to your attacks.”

*As I suspected. You don’t know that as well.*

Cleveland looked confused and stopped digging. The hole was already quite sizable. “What do you mean now?”

*We did kill several of you. Even your former sisters.*

“They are still my sisters, you idiot! No matter which species I am.” said Cleveland, annoyed. “And I know for a fact that they never died.”

*Ohh so you do finally identify as a siren now.*

Cleveland only grumbled.

*Ohh and they did. Just some people, specifically the ones that killed you, had something against that and brought them back.*

“The heck is that supposed to mean?” asked Cleveland. “You speak in riddles.” 

*You repeat that question quite often huh. Where do all the heavily injured girls go?*

“The lab, of course.” answered Cleveland.

*Ohh, and not the hospital?*

“I think they got better equipment in the labs to treat their hard injuries.” said Cleveland and huffed since she was right.

*You might be right there, but no. They bring in their bodies under the guise of them being barely alive and resurrect them.*

“They what!?” screamed Cleveland in total disagreement. “That’s impossible! No one can be revived!”

*Oh they can! You saw it with sirens like a Million times. Oh, and by the way you can do that now as well if we find a working siren base.*

*Azur Lane does something like that as well. The only difference is that with the Azur lane way of resurrecting them they, well, they erase the memories of their deaths as well so they don’t remember it and don't question things. They also believe that they were severely hurt but came out fine. Did you never once ask yourself why they came back from a near dead state completely fine?*

Cleveland didn’t respond and simply fell to her knees.”That is not true. It can’t be. No one can be resurrected.”

*Sirens, like us, simply upload their consciousness into a different body. The shipgirls are resurrected by using their cube to reconstruct their body and reinserting it.*

“Then that means that basically everyone I know is a copy.” Cleveland realized.

*And they don’t even know it themselves.*

Cleveland simply stared at the ground and then at Edinburgh.

*If you let her keep her cube she will just come back and tell everyone about you. What you did. What you caused. That you exist.*

Cleveland's breathing grew erratic and she summoned her scythe to her hand before slowly walking to Edinburgh.

“So she will never have peace as long as she has her cube and they get it?” Cleveland muttered in a monotone emotionless voice.

*Yes, she will merely be resurrected and used for war again.*

“So there will never be peace for her as long as they have that thing? They don’t even care for the girl but just the cube?” asked Cleveland into the open room. Her eyes looked dead and she herself wasn’t happy but accepted the fact that she needed to do this.

*Yes, you were all used as instruments for a war without end. That's why I choose you to tell you the truth. You would do something against it. I never expected to die during the execution of the plan though.*

Cleveland didn’t answer and stood in front of Edinburgh. She gave her old friend one last smile and raised the scythe.

“May you rest well, old friend. A quiet rest.” Cleveland said and brought the scythe down. It cut through Edinburgh's skin instantly and struck the cube.

Cleveland began to cry again and pulled the scythe out in one motion. The cube hung on it and left the former maids body as well before it hit the ground and laid there. Edinburgh's body now had a small sizable hole in her chest that was covered by what remained of her maid uniform by the tentacles adjusting it.

Cleveland simply stared at the cube and felt generally bad. 

She had now basically ripped out her best friend's heart and was supposed to carry it around even when this was the right thing to do. But now she wasn’t that sure about that plan anymore. She couldn’t just destroy it either.

Its glow began dimming until no light remained and Cleveland got a great sense of déjà-vu. Hasn't this happened to her before?

It didn’t take a minute and the cubes glow was gone.

“Rest well my friend. In eternal peace.” said Cleveland and began a light prayer. She was not a believer of god yet this was something that was needed.

*Cleveland, you took out her cube.Take it with us so they can’t misuse it.*

“How much more do I have to defile the dead?” asked Cleveland in a whisper and looked at the light blue cube.

She reached her scythe and touched the cube with it. It seemed to rumble and jump away as if knowing what was about to happen.

*Oh? It is still scared of you.*

“What do you mean? It is only mimicking her last feelings.” muttered Cleveland while forming a cross with the scythe and her pale arm.

Chibi Observer looked more shocked and confused than anything she has ever shown before.

*How do you know that?*

“It is fairly obvious.” Cleveland said and put her bare foot on the cube to hold it in its place.“I read the files on how Wisdom cubes react to feelings as well. Wisdom cubes react to emotions and dreams and act accordingly. Ed was terrified when I killed her so her cube is too.”

*That is surprisingly interesting for you to know. Didn’t expect that.*

“Didn’t you say you could read my mind. Heheheh.” giggled Cleveland and stared at the cube.

*Ehh is everything ok? Your tone is different from before and it’s freaking me out.*

“Hehehe. Does it?” giggled Cleveland and picked up the cube and observed it. “Take it with us huh.”

*Yes.*

“Oh I have other plans.” said Cleveland as she smashed the cube into the blade of her scythe. 

*What did you do?*

Energy was jumping around Cleveland and the scythe's blade began glowing red.

The cube vanished and Cleveland looked at the scythe with an insane look in her eyes. Her eyes somehow glowed even brighter than before.

She smirked and slashed the air. From the blade a wave of energy flew that cut through several buildings and only stopped after it impacted the mountain behind the village.

“Hehehe. That worked. Hahahah.” Cleveland laughed and looked at the blade. She then started doing various moves and shot energy waves everywhere. Soon the entire courtyard was filled with cuts across the ground that further showed the severity of this battlefield.

*What did you just do? I told you to take her with us.*

Observer sounded worried and that made Cleveland only experience pleasure.

“Oh I simply tested something. The scythe was an almost drained cube so I just thought about what would happen if I was to add another one to it. That way I can carry Ed with me without worrying about her ever being used in war again.” giggled Cleveland as she observed the destruction she caused. ”You try to save them all for so long so it somehow doesn't feel bad at all to reverse that for once. I look like the enemy so I can play evil for a minute then as well.”

*You enhanced the scythes' power by adding Edinburgh's heart? Fascinating. But please stop playing like you can be the bad guy! And don’t ever disobey me again.*

“Ohh sorry it won’t happen ever again. Hihihi.” said Cleveland innocently. “Who attacked humanity at first then if I am allowed to ask.”

She got no reply.

“Come Alphini, answer me. Hahaha.” teased Cleveland. Chibi Observer was as red as a tomato.

*We did attack you but never intended on destroying you.*

“Ohh that worked out fine didn’t it.” said Cleveland loudly.

Observer didn’t reply but Cleveland descended into laughter. You could draw parallels with her and Purifier now.

*You’re somehow different.*

“Oh I wonder why.” pondered Cleveland and willed the scythe away. “Maybe it's because I just killed my friend and learned that I have to do that with every single one of them to bring them finally to peace. At least I don’t have to do that to myself.”

*EHhhhhh about that.*

Cleveland narrowed her eyes.“About what?” 

Before Observer could answer, several red spots appeared on Cleveland's minimap as a red blinking light appeared; a warning message.

"Shit! Kent’s got reinforcements! Cleveland, run! We can’t take them all on!" 

Cleveland growled and remained standing, defying the siren's orders. “Why? You got a fear of death?”

*Well no, but don't you think it's a better idea to reform and organize first?* 

“Oh Observer, are you saying that in the attempt of trying to knock some sense into this hot-headed cruiser?” asked Cleveland with a smirk.

*Yes I am, you can’t win that fight!*

"True…But with whom should I reform? Isn’t it better to meet the enemy head on?" giggled the former light cruiser and walked in the direction of her enemies.” Maybe they will be more diplomatic than Ed here and actually listen.”

*They will execute you even faster than Kent and Edinburgh tried. Please run.*

Cleveland exhaled and giggled.”No. I want to talk to them. And then I will join Azur lane again.”

*Oh you little bitch. You will die trying even getting to them.*

“Fine then. I am not happy anyway. I could have shown them my sexy new body.” Cleveland giggled as she grabbed her breasts and used the scythe as a pole.

*God you lost your mind. Can you enjoy yourself later?*

Cleveland looked disappointed and pulled away the scythe. "You're no fun! I wanna see that head maid's face when she finds her sister dead.”

*You're still covered in her blood you know.*

“That's what makes it so sexy.” sneered Cleveland with a giggle and stopped touching herself.

*And I thought Purifier was the only slightly insane siren, you've really lost it!*

“And whose fault is that?” asked Cleveland and only got a grumble as an answer.

*You, as a siren, are strange, and oddly sadistic as well.*

“Oh maybe I can simply enjoy myself now without caring about anything. It’s not like anyone will accept me as their friend ever again when I look like their enemy!"

*How often do I need to tell you to get it into your head that you are a siren now!?*

Cleveland simply made a shushing noise. "As many times I want you too. Hahaha. Will I ever accept it? Well who knows."

*You are making this really difficult, you know?*

Cleveland giggled and looked at her minimap. Her enemy was really close now. “Oh am I? Hihihi.”

*Stop playing around and run. Once we're on the water we can organize ourselves.*

“Oh you're no fun. Well I guess you're right but next time we will have a fine talk with whoever I can grab.” said Cleveland and walked to the beach. ”Can you hide me on radar?”

*I already did, in fact we can’t be spotted on radar anyway since your rigging doesn’t send signals that could be picked up.*

“Convenient!” giggled Cleveland and jumped on the water. 

She skated away from the island and then looked out. 

Observer was right that she couldn’t take on that force. They were all of the royal maids with some battleships in the back. Well, almost all the Royal maids anyway.

“So those idiots come running when one is in danger. Well not anymore!” laughed Cleveland and shed a tear. "Always so stiff and duty bound these maids. Oh who shall I grab when we meet each other next time.”

*How will you even grab one? They will fight back.*

“Oh I'll simply dispose of their riggings again!” laughed Cleveland as she saw from a distance the many maids that walked into the village and set it ablaze with high explosive ammunition.

“You said they all died before, so fighting their corpses isn’t bad for me. It's the morally right thing because I can’t be judged on killing the dead and bringing them their final rest. Oh Belfast must be really excited to see her sister again if she managed to get the entire maid corps to move out.”

*She must be, and can you please be normal again?*

“Fine!” sighed Cleveland. "But I will interrogate whoever I can meet when I get them in my hands.”

*Yeah sure go and do that.*

“Then where are we going now?” asked Cleveland as she saw the rescue operation in the distance.

*Well I'd say we should just cruise in the direction of the Sakura Empire. While we do that, I'll try to find out about settlements, happenings, and the current state of the siren network.*

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan!” snickered Cleveland a bit and began skating over the water and away from the royal navy.

Suddenly a scream echoed over the seas that even made Cleveland wonder what it was.

*It seems Edinburgh has been found.*

“Probably.” gulped Cleveland and skated away. The screams of desperate pain continued howling in the background.

“So you will find out everything and I will do the stuff. Yes?” asked Cleveland as she skated.

*Well yes. We make a good team, right?*

“Oh shut up.” said Cleveland and skated over open waters.

Chapter Text

Night has passed and a cruise happened over the entire day. 

From night to night Cleveland cruised in the direction of the sakura empire. She was in the middle of the pacific for all accounts.

All day she had not encountered a single enemy or ally. She was both glad and annoyed by that because that left her with her only companion.

That annoying voice she had in her head.

*Don’t you know any songs?*

“For the twentieth time NO!” screamed Cleveland as she repeated herself again. This must have been the thirtieth time Observer asked that question. ”What makes you so bored up there anyway, can’t you look at what the internet says or so?”

*Oh I did, it’s quite funny to read Juustagram right now.*

“You got an account there?” asked the light cruiser in shock. She got a light chuckle as a response that only made her groan.

*I’m using yours.*

“Of fucking course you are.” groaned Cleveland as she heard that.

*The RestEd hashtag is trending right now.*

“The what is?” asked Cleveland, enraged. The whole memory of Edinburgh hurt her more than you can imagine. She was in shock that her actions were now also popular on juustagram. Adding to her shame. “Oh god why is it popular. I didn’t want this Ed but you forced me.”

*Also I am pretty sure you killed her to not feel your own inability to help-*

“Shut up! I am not weak or useless. I simply wasn’t fast enough.” screamed Cleveland and shed tears again. “She was misguided and didn’t change her ways. She had the chance to stop but didn’t so I had to do this.”

*Didn’t change the fact that you did it.*

Cleveland wanted to argue against it but found no words that weren’t lies. She killed her even if she wouldn’t want to admit it or even think about it.

She did realise something though. “Why the hell do you use my Juustagram account?”

*It’s technically mine now as well you know. Plus I know your password.*

Cleveland stared at the smiling chibi siren with a disappointed look.“It is not yours. If I get my phone I’ll prove that to you.”

*Yeah and you wanna put that in which pocket?*

“You!!”groaned Cleveland and Observer just laughed. ”Fine, then I will just go ahead and change my password so you can’t enter.”

*And In which brain do you wanna store that? I can look into yours.*

“AAAAAAAAHHHHH.” Cleveland nearly screamed and hit her head multiple times with her fists. The impact created shockwaves but it somehow didn’t hurt Cleveland.

*Ohh should I stop?*

“I would cut off my head if it would stop you. Or if you wouldn’t stop me like the last 6 times.” said Cleveland, annoyed. “Also how far is it actually until the sakura empire.”

*Around a 1 hour and 37 minute cruise at current speed.*

“At least then I will see something other than water.” said Clevelnd and sped up even more.

She somehow didn’t feel tired after doing nothing but skating for a day straight.

*You could have gone to the internet yourself, you know. You got a connection to it.*

“And let myself be distracted and not see what you are going to do.” huffed Cleveland. ”Keep dreaming Siren. You won’t catch me off guard.”

*You do you. You would find quite a lot of news and stuff on the internet. Just ignore the massive amount of porn there is about us sirens.*

Cleveland merely stopped on the spot and looked dumbfounded.“What?”

*Yeah we sirens somehow have quite a lot of that. There are also many about shipgirls. About each individually.*

“What?” Cleveland simply repeated.

*Yeah there is. Mine is, ehhh, interesting. Shall I search out some about yourse-.*

“NO!!!” Cleveland screamed. “Infact never even talk about that again.”

*Fine. Although you would be amazed by the amount you have with your sisters.*

Cleveland didn’t even try to answer anything to that.

*But away from lewds, I still haven't figured out what you did with your scythe, although I did find something interesting.*

Cleveland snapped out of her confusion and disgust and reacted to that. “Oh what did you find out then? Is it a better weapon than yours?”

*While it is not better than our laser armament, we really need to give you some later, if I figure out how, that scythe is lethal as well. Oh and it still has room for improvements.*

“Sounds interesting.” commented Cleveland and summoned the scythe. It appeared in her hands and Cleveland could swear that the blade looked even sharper. “Continue, siren.”

*Just talk to me with my name please.*

“No, you are still my enemy.” huffed Cleveland. “Don’t talk to me like we are friends. We might be stuck together but-”

*But what? I know that you want to surrender to Azur Lane but neither I nor you would survive that. You wanna know now what I found out while you stared at the water?*

“They won’t kill me if I surrender,” said Cleveland, annoyed.

*Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure. And the maids back there definitely didn’t shoot you first.* 

Cleveland crossed her arms.“That's because I look like a siren, you idiot.”

*You are one, urrghghfgguzfguzfuiugzb. You know what, I will just do this.*

“Do what? Woah.” Cleveland asked but her scythe doing something made her drop it.

Cleveland's view, like whenever she summoned the scythe, switched to combat mode and all unusable stuff disappeared. 

She had 3 new additions, 1 on either side and a bar at the top.

*Ok, I found out that the thing is modifiable. So I took the independence and edited this to make it usable. You see the two tabs on the sides?*

Cleveland nodded and looked at the right symbol, it resembled a sun.

*Think about either of the two.*

Cleveland did just that. The second she thought about the sun symbol her scythe reacted. 

The blade began glowing red and Cleveland could feel the heat when she picked it up again. The water was smoking when she held it into the water.

*Ok that thing goes to about the melting point of tungsten. So it’s quite hot. I advise you not to touch it.*

“So if i swing it now.” Cleveland muttered and did just that, but nothing happened. 

She wondered for a short while and shut off the “heat” mode and swung it again. This time a bolt of energy flew from the blade.

“So it only works in normal mode. Fascinating.” said Cleveland, amazed. ”What is the other Alap-, no siren. I guess it's something with cold.” 

*You almost said it. Hmm maybe next time. Yes the other one is cold, basically the blade reaches the point of coldness where steel freezes.*

“That’s cold.” Cleveland said and activated it. The blade began glowing blue and felt cold. She didn’t feel the cold as much but where the blade touched the water it froze immediately. “That is interesting.”

*It certainly is, but I have to admit that even I got no clue about how you managed the third thing.*

“Ohh weren’t you the damm expert? What's so wrong about it, siren? Amazed by my abilities?” teased Cleveland and got a groan from Observer. She felt proud of that.

*Cleveland, try the third thing, I haven’t figured out what it is because I have no data and it doesn’t work in my simulations.*

“You can create simulations?” asked Cleveland. “Where? You got no computer.”

*I’m an A.I. I don’t need a computer but yes I can create those things and all of my attempts to run it don’t work.*

“Are you getting angry. Hahahaha.” laughed Cleveland and felt proud to turn the tables. “The ever so great Siren can’t do anything. Sucks to be you.”

*If you don’t shut up, I will-*

“You will what?” interrupted Cleveland. “You already admitted that you wouldn’t kill me so what's the worst you can do?”

*Do not tempt me.*

The siren sounded mad.

“Hmm no. You annoyed me for an entire day here, now it's time for me to have my fun.” said Cleveland and was about to say more but she couldn’t speak anymore. One of “her” tentacles had clogged her throat. It’s not like she had trouble breathing but the action surprised her.

Cleveladn tried pulling it out but her arms were restrained by the others.

The last one began to touch her lewdly through her clothes which made Cleveland moan and shudder.

*I can do things with your body that you wouldn’t even think were possible. So don’t tempt me.*

The tentacles let her go again and vanished under her clothes. Cleveland kept her mouth shut and just stared ahead.

*God that felt weird. Sorry but you brought me to that. Will you forgive me?*

“No.” Cleveland said sternly. “No I will not. So what is the third thing here?”

Cleveland referred to the third bar in her vision which had a single button out of apparent many. The button had a small icon of Edinburgh in her rigging on it.

*That’s the thing I don’t get. When I try to simulate it nothing happens.* 

Cleveland smirked and pressed the button with her mind…...yet nothing happened.

*See, what is supposed to happen with that?*

“You ask the wrong person here?” Cleveland  admitted and rubbed the back of her head. Even her scythe wasn’t showing any reaction. ”What is even supposed to happen? It shows Edinburgh but what?”

*I have totally no idea.*

“Yeah, useless as ever.” commented Cleveland and Observer got mad.

*Don't you think so highly of yourself, I did some great things for you apart from bringing you back from the dead*

Cleveland laughed and got a light headache, probably from Observer kicking her head from the inside.

“So what am I supposed to do with this now?” Cleveland asked. “Say a command or something, nothing happens when I swing it.”

Cleveland swung the scythe around but no energy beam or anything else happened. She found out that she could control when an energy slash would be fired as well, so she was brought somewhere.

“Hmm, dumb thought but can I command the scythe to do stuff?” theorised Cleveland jokingly. 

“Well here goes nothing. I command you to attack the bird up there.” Cleveland said and pointed her scythe at the sky to a flock of birds.

Suddenly the scythe glowed and a blue light jumped out of it. It reached the water and to both sirens shock and amazement formed Edinburgh as an incorporeal figure.

She began aiming with her rigging and a short burst of AA fire shot the bird out of the sky. She then dematerialised again, leaving the two sirens alone on the water.

“What the heck was that?” said both sirens at the same time. 

*Try that again. Now.*

“Edinburgh come out.” Cleveland said and again Edinburgh appeared from her scythe. This time she just hovered over the water. She didn’t seem to be breathing or even living since Cleveland never saw her do it in all the time she stared at it.

*Is that a ghost?*

“Like I know.” Cleveland said and slowly approached the ghost.

 “Ed, can you talk?” Cleveland started but got no reaction. “So are you a ghost?”

Edinburgh turned to her and stared at Cleveland which made that one stop. Edinburgh looked with a mix of hate and terror.

*Wait, the ghost can react! This isn’t scientifically possible. I need to….*

Whatever Observer said, Cleveland tuned it out. She simply stared at Edinburgh and began to silently cry.

“”Ed is that you?” asked Cleveland in despair and Edinburgh nodded.  

Cleveland bursted into a run but with every try to get to her friend, that one just sidestepped her or most of the time Cleveland just passed through her. She truly was a ghost.

“Stop Ed.” Cleveland said in desperation and finally touched Edinburgh, who now was solid, and hugged her hard. She felt cold and lifeless and looked at Cleveland with…...hunger?

“I’m sorry Ed. I’m so sorry.” cried Cleveland and helt Edinburgh as if she would disappear if she let her go.

Suddenly Cleveland again helt nothing and simply fell to the water. She stood up and looked at Edinburgh smiling at her, her hands were twitching and she looked like something was bothering her. 

“Can you change between solid and passable through what?” Cleveland asked and only got a nod.

*THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE.*

“Can you at least talk or something?” To that she received a shake of her head. 

“Are you mad at me?” To that she got a shake of her head.

“Tell me, do you forgive me? I need to know.” She got both a nod and a shake of her head. Cleveland again hugged Edinburgh who became solid again. 

She simply hugged her and cried into her shoulder before letting go and receiving a smile from the maid before she disappeared. Strangely it felt like Edinburgh clawed her arms into her shoulders but that must have been a little payback for what Cleveland did to her. She also bit her.

*What the heck?!*

“Ed forgives me,” said Cleveland quietly, then loud a second time.

*That's good but how can I explain this?*

“You don’t need to.” Cleveland said and picked up her scythe. ”Now I know that Ed isn’t mad at me I can continue to Azur lane without worry.”

*This is so weird.*

“Today is a weird day.” said Cleveland and began skating again, after she let her scythe vanish, although much slower this time. “Although now I have a new hope with me.”

*I have to agree there. I didn’t expect you to command the dead, Miss Reaper.*

“Oh is that your nickname for me now?” Cleveland asked and smirked. “Well it's not unfitting.” 

*Yeah and if you add more dead to your scythe-*

“Wait, I won’t kill anyone anymore, just sirens,” said Cleveland sternly.

*Ohh ok. And what if they force you to.*

“They might not be the original girls but they are still able to think. I’ll just knock them out.” said Cleveland.

*That didn’t stop you with Edinbu- wait I got something on radar.*

Cleveland raised her eyebrow “What is it now?” 

*A patrol, small, 4 ships, 1 cruiser and 3 destroyers. I advise shadowing them and following them.*

“Can do that and I can figure out what is going on.” Cleveland said. “Mark them on the map and I will go there.”

A dot appeared in her vision and she turned to the patrol. It wasn’t far away and Cleveland began skating to them. “You said I was hidden on radar, right?”

*Yes, as long as you stay out of sight and quiet they won’t see you.*

“Ok. Good to know.” said Cleveland and skated across the water. “So let's find out what Azur lane is actually going on about.”

*Nothing good but I will want to hear the girl’s reaction to recent events.*

“Ed did something unfixable, the others will be better than her and on a patrol they chat more so I will get information and find out where to surrender to them.” Cleveland said.

*Are you still planning that?*

“Yes, and now shut up.” Cleveland said and spotted the patrol.

She slowly approached it and jumped on the back of one of the destroyers. She sat down on the top and looked down.

To her luck the girl who belonged to the ship was one of the most honest and innocent ones so she was about to go down and ask her about stuff but her legs wouldn’t move.

*Do not. Just listen for now. Maybe you can see things then as I pointed them out so many times already.*

Cleveland wanted to talk but a tentacle again stopped her so she just listened with a grumpy face. She was at least way out of sight for anyone to see, at least from the ground, but none of the 4 figures on the ship had any planes, neither was a carriere with them so the siren was clear.

She looked down at Mutsuki, who just finished eating with Kisaragi, Utzuki and Aoba.

They seemed to be in a light conversation.

“This is definitely better than when Takao tried it for the first time,” said Aoba. “That was not edible, that's for sure.”

“Candy.” said Mutsuki as she took and opened a lollipop from the basket and gave it a few licks. Her cat tail whipped like a dogs behind her. The other 2 destroyers also held pieces of candy in their hands.

“You three really like candy huh?” snickered the cruiser and stood up. “So I guess it is time for the pull on who goes which way on today's patrol. I take dibs on the north.”

“South.” said Uzuki followed by a quick “West.” from Kisaragi.

“Then I will take the East.” said Mutsuki and all stood up and began to pack together their lunch.

Aoba put away the plates.“Did you hear that with Edinburgh?” 

“Scary siren must have done it.” said Uzuki and shuddered.

Aoba sighted. “Yeah, I heard Belfast lost it when she found her. Honestly I can’t blame her.”

“She made a complete siren camp disappear after that.” said Kisaragi and put away the cutlery. Cleveland got a shiver down her back while she heard that.

“I hope we never meet that siren that did that.” said Mutsuki and began rolling together the picnic blanket.  

Once everything was put away, they didn’t really talk much after saying gochisousama deshita, all left for their separate ships before they changed course.

No one spotted the siren laying on top of Mutsuki’s bridge.

Mutsuki changed the course and drove to the east. Cleveland simply watched and followed Mutsuki who smiled as her ship crashed through the waves.

*Ok, now question the child when we got far enough away. I jammed their communication network so we have time to interrogate her.*

Cleveland wanted to say something but the tentacle in her mouth firmly suggested otherwise so she let it and watched Mutsuki drive into the open ocean alone.

Chapter Text

Mutsuki’s patrol went without interruptions.

“The sky is blue, and the water too, and no candy did escape me too.” sang Mutsuki as she walked across her deck.

Cleveland could only smile at that.

*I know you find her cute but you still need to question her out. Oh and I’m not removing the tentacle, no matter how long you chew on it. You could make us noticable and we don’t want that yet.*

Cleveland could only grumble to herself as her throat was still clogged up from Alpha using “her” tentacle to do it. How she had no trouble breathing, or was breathing at all, was unknown to her but she didn’t dare nor care to ask.

"Oh patrol is almost done." Said Mutsuki and maneuvered the ship to the right.

*Ok I think right about now is a good time.*

Cleveland could agree with Observer there, even though not openly. Approaching a patrol at the end of its duty, or after it has finished the patrol, is often better because they avoided their search since they are in friendly waters.

She was about to jump down and walk over to Mutsuki but a *Wait a second.* from Observer stopped her. On her minimap a dot appeared, green this time.

*That's a fishing boat. What’s it doing out here?*

Cleveland still couldn’t respond so just shrug. Mutsuki seemed to get the same response on her radar as she looked in the same direction.

“Something is out there. I hope it’s no siren. I always fall asleep when they show up.” mumbled Mutsuki although Cleveland could still hear her clearly. It was as if she stood next to her.

Cleveland helt her ears close to see if she was wrong but despite finding that they were slightly longer she found nothing wrong with them.

*Yeah you hear better if you want to ask. And yes they are a bit different.*

Cleveland sighted again and looked at Mutsuki who seemed to act weird.

She was shuffling around and generally looked unwell.

“Please no siren, please no siren.” She repeated continuingly. “I don’t want to wake up in that red stuff again. What even is it? Wales says we play messy but no matter how hard I scrub it's so hard to get out.”

Clevelands was confused and tried to shuffle closer and ask what she meant but she still couldn’t talk.

*Would you stop, you might reveal us!*

Mutsuki put her hand to her ear and activated the comms. “Vessel, please drift off there might be sirens in the area.”

Cleveland was kind of pained that she didn’t get who Mustuki was talking to but suddenly she heard it as if she was in the comms herself.

*I patched us into the line. They won’t know that we are in but don’t talk, you would reveal us.*

Cleveland nodded and listened.

“This is a small fishing boat, we don’t pose a threat, we need the fish.” answered the little boat. It sounded like children were on it.

Mutsuki shook her head. “No. They haven’t spotted you yet. The seas are still safe.”

“We can’t. We need the fish. Please just spare us. We won’t cause trouble.” came the scared voice of a little girl that made Clevelands heart ache.

“I don’t want to fight you. I want you to be safe.” argued Mutsuki. Cleveland just listened.

“You are a shipgirl, we won’t listen to you.” came a clearly scared but brave sounding male voice.

“No please just run, if they spot you I’m...” Mutsuki started but suddenly straightened up. Even her tail went stiff as another voice joined the call.

“Mutsuki. I see an enemy on the long range radar. You’re the closest. Take care of it.” came the commanding voice of someone Cleveland knew all too well.

Well she did kill her.

It was Prince of Wales.

“Yes sir. Accomplishing orders.” Mutsuki said in a strange way.

*Ok, this is getting interesting.*

Cleveland couldn’t agree more to this and watched Mutsuki.

“Course 23° west. Firing 82°.” Mutsuki muttered and her ship did the mentioned things.

Mutsuki sounded strange and didn't seem to be doing much. Even her heartbeat slowed to a crawl.

*Ok, this is getting weird, her heart rate is barely above what it is normally when sleeping.*

Cleveland nodded and watched.

The ship picked up speed as its engine was pushed to 100% and crashed through the waves.

Mutsuki meanwhile didn’t even blink and starred in one direction. The direction of the fishing boat.

*Is she?*

"No she isn't." Said Cleveland out loud. "Mutsuki wouldn't hurt humans."

*I don't think that that's Mutsuki at the moment.*

Cleveland got confused. "What are you talking about? Hey, since when can I talk again?"

*Since roughly 20 minutes.*

Cleveland narrowed her eyes. "Seriously?"

*Yup, you pulled it out yourself, how did you-*

“Shut up, Mutsuki is doing something.” muttered Cleveland.

Indeed she was doing something, cruising and staring at a spot on the horizon.

Cleveland, somehow, could see a little fishing boat in the distance.

*Ehhh, they are still talking.*

“Are they? Who?” asked Cleveland and looked at Mutsuki. “She ain’t talking, or doing anything which kind of freaks me out.”

*The people on the boat. Focus on the frequency.*

Cleveland was confused but did just that, or tried to, you can’t see frequencies right. One of her tabs opened and her view changed. Suddenly she could see the frequencies and access the one she wanted with her mind.

She entered the call she was in before by following the line to the little fishing boat and entered it.

“Please, she isn’t answering, please stop your course, we’re no threat.” begged the voice of a little girl.

“It’s no use. She will come for us. Put the engine to max we need to get out of here.” said the boy's voice and Cleveland could hear the panic in it.

“Transfer all the power, we need to go to-.” the boy's voice vanished as did the frequency. Cleveland looked at the small trawler picking up speed and driving off somewhere.

Although the crawler's speed paled in comparison to Mutsukis speed, who was getting closer by the minute.

Cleveland had a bad feeling about this.

*Oh not only you.*

Cleveland grinded her teeth and continued watching.

Some time passed and they were about 12km away from the crawler now and slowly getting closer.

“What are you planning, Mutsi?” asked Cleveland quietly. “If you attack them I’m forced to intervene.”

*If she shoots them, will you kill her?*

“NO!” screamed Cleveland and then slammed her mouth shut and ducked.

Mutsuki upon hearing her turned around and looked around. “Searching for the enemy, no enemy found, continuing with the previous objective.”

“God that was way too close.” mumbled Cleveland. “Wait, why am I hiding anyway? She is a good friend, she wouldn’t hurt me.”

*She wouldn’t attack a siren? I doubt it.*

“Ohhhhh youuuuuu.” groaned Cleveland.

*On the subject of Mutsuki, she is acting weird isn’t she?*

“That we can agree on.” mumbled Cleveland. “She's eaten much less candy in the last 20 minutes.”

Chibi Observer's expression became accurate.

*That's not what I meant.*

"Oh what could you mean then?" Scoffed Cleveland. "Ok, she is a bit emotionless but still..."

*Ain't she a bit robotic?*

Cleveland got confused. "Now that you mention it Alph-, no, siren, she is kind of it, but she still is a normal shipgirl. Even Gascoine is not a robot, she just plays it."

*I'm pretty sure that one just has a slight personality tick from being the first blueprint ship you made.*

Cleveland narrowed her eyes. "Stop talking scientifically."

Chibi Observer giggled and Cleveland groaned.

*Say, you won't kill her but what will you do when she does tries to kill them? She is clearly planning on it."

"Stop her you idiotic siren, but Mutsuki wouldn't hurt anyone." Mumbled Cleveland.

*.....*

"Targettable distance reached, target locked. Adjusting angle." Said Mutsuki and her gun barrels began to move.

With every centimeter the guns moved Cleveland's stomach ached more. “Mutsuki don’t you dare!”

The guns clicked into place. Mutsuki looked ahead and began shaking.

“Target locked. Angle adjusted. F…….f…...ir…...e.” Mutsuki said while tears began to roll down her face.

Clevelands eyes widened as 4 12cm HE shells left the guns and flew at the little crawler in the distance,

“NO!” screamed Cleveland and everything slowed to a crawl.

She saw the shells fly and knew she could do nothing to prevent the fate that is to come. Yet that didn’t stop her from reaching out with her hands.

Suddenly she was in the air, the HE shells being held by her tentacles before she landed on the water.

“What did I just..?” asked Cleveland as her tentacles dropped the shells and disappeared under her capelet.

Cleveland turned around and looked to the crawler, it was undamaged and continued its escape.

*HOW?!*

Cleveland was as clueless as the siren in her head. She looked at the chibi Observer who held an expression of total shock.

“What just happened?” asked Cleveland again but was blinded by a blue light. Mutsuki's ship became her rigging and she pointed her gun at Cleveland. Her torpedo launcher turned to her as well.

“Siren lifeform detected, switching to combat mode.” said Mutsuki and sprinted to Cleveland who just remained standing.

*Since when can you use portals, I never explained it to you, do you know how many things can go wrong without practice. You could have killed yourself here and now!*

“Portals, what do you-” Cleveland started but was interrupted by being hit by something and covered in water while making her jump.

“Urgh, what was that?” asked Cleveland as she held her foot. It felt like when you hit your leg on a table leg.

*A torpedo, look at your radar and maybe you will see them.*

“A torp? Then why is my leg still there?” asked Cleveland and looked at Mutsuki who hadn't moved but shot a barrage of fast approaching torpedos at her.

*Sirens are more durable.*

Cleveland snarled at that and jumped over the row of torpedoes before walking in the direction of Mutsuki.

“Mutsuki please stop this. I won’t hurt you.” assured Cleveland to the catgirl and jumped over another row of torpedos.

“Torpedo fire is useless, switching to firing.” said Mutsuki and began to use her gun.

Cleveland either caught or dodged the shells that, even when they hit her, didn't hurt in the slightest.

“Mutsuki please stop this, I’m not attacking you.” said Cleveland and dodged another shot.

*I don’t think she is listening to you.*

“Of course she is, she is...she isn’t. HEY Mutsuki, do you even hear me?” said Cleveland as she stopped approaching her.

Mutsuki only responded with a shot to Clevelands chest...that got stuck in her by now bigger chest.

“Ok she is not listening.” concluded Cleveland and picked the shell out of her chest. “But why?”

*Maybe because you are the species you are fighting again or….give a minute and I might find out something, there is something in her cube that I might be able to access.*

“I am not a….wait what did you find-” she got hit in the face again and stumbled back for a second.

“Gun overheats, all engines full reverse,” said Mutsuki expressionless before she released all of her torps, all of which Cleveland dodged, and began to cruise backwards.

*Just give me time. Talk to her or something.*

Cleveland shook her head and sprinted after the fleeing Mutsuki. “Stay still, I won't hurt you.”

Mutsuki didn’t listen and continued firing everything she got at Cleveland who didn’t end her chase no matter what hit her.

The chase continued for quite some time with Mutsuki not once reacting to Clevelands calls.

“Mutsuki, I don’t wanna sound evil, but slowly but surely I have enough.” huffed Cleveland as she slowed down. “This is getting ridiculous.”

*Ok, I think I cracked it. This is way more complicated than it appears. I can shut it off. Shall I do it?*

“Yeah! Obviously.” said Cleveland sternly. “I’ve been talking to a wall the entire time.”

*Ok then, here we go, also we are in sakura waters and she called for reinforcements, this isn’t going to end well, be fast. Deactivating the thing now.*

Cleveland looked at Mutsuki who seemed to snap up straight and then collapse to her knees.

She began walking over to Mutsuki who looked confused.

“Did I fall asleep again?” said Mutsuki and rubbed her eyes. “Why does that always happen with sirens?”

She stood up on shaky legs and looked down. “Oh for once I’m not covered in that red stuff.”

“Are you now listening? Took you long enough.” huffed Cleveland and approached her.

“Cleveland, since when are you here, weren’t you back at pearl?” asked Mutsuki groggily.

“I’ve been here the entire time trying to talk to you. Why would I be back at pearl? Also what are you doing here at all?” declared Cleveland and stopped in front of her.

“I had patrol duty with my friends. Then I found that human fishing boat and warned them and then...then I don’t remember.” Mutsuki still looked unfocused and at Cleveland. “Black and White? Cleveland ain’t pale and black.”

“Ehh, different choice of clothes, nothing to worry about.” staggered Cleveland.

“Ok Cleveland, how are your sisters, my sisters are fine.” said Mutsuki and felt around her clothes. “Where is my candy? Candy?”

Mutsuki began to cry a bit and Cleveland hugged her. “We will find your candy, you probably just lost it while shooting at me.”

Mutsuki didn’t answer but hugged back….and felt around Clevelands body. “Pillows?”

“Everything okay Mutsuki?” asked Cleveland but Mutsuki just drooled a bit which made Cleveland relax.

“Yes. Soft Pillows?” said Mutsuki as she buried her head in Cleveland's chest. The light cruiser blushed a bit at that.

Mutsuki shuffled around a bit and Cleveland could hear her rigging move a bit.

Cleveland let Mutsuki go and they both parted. Mutsuki still rubbed her eyes.

“Are you still tired?” asked Cleveland concerned.

“A bit, I just woke up, siren.” giggled Mutsuki and Cleveland giggled back before she stopped.

“Wait a sec-” Cleveland could barely mutter out before she exploded. 6 torpedoes exploded at her feet and her chest got hit by a HE shell.

The area was filled with smoke and water.

Mutsuki relaxed her gun.

“That was so scary, Cleveland doesn’t have soft pillows and wouldn’t operate here, she would be with her sisters. I’m lucky she outed herself.” Mutsuki said in an exhale…….before she looked up at the dispersing smoke and jumped.

Cleveland, who hasn’t moved a millimeter, stared at her with wide burning yellow eyes and helt an accurate expression.

“Are you kidding me? I didn’t even attack you.” said Cleveland and looked at Mutsuki who only turned and ran.

Cleveland stared after her and summoned her scythe. “Not this time, I won’t run after you again, Ed, catch her.”

Edinburgh appeared from the scythe and gave chase. She really got into it.

In no time at all did she have Mutsuki in her arms and restrained her hard.

Cleveland simply stralled over to the restrained Mutsuki.

“Edinburgh I heard you were gone or missing.” struggled Mutsuki against the ghost who only held her harder.

Cleveland stopped in front of her. “So, can we talk now? That hurt a lot by the way.”

Mutsuki said nothing and tried to aim her rigging at Cleveland. Cleveland simply ripped the gun out of her hands and threw it away while Ednburgh shifted her rigging into Mutsukis so the launchers were blocked.

“I won’t hurt you, I only want to know what is going on.” said Cleveland and patted her head.

Mutsuki winced a bit. “I won’t talk.”

“But why Mutsuki? I’m Cleveland, a fighter of justice, you can trust me.” said Cleveland with a smile.

“I won’t say anything to a siren.” Mutsuki said and Clevelands smile fell. Edinburgh began to grab her even harder to the point where Mutsuki yelped a bit.

“You only look at me from the outside. I’m still the Cleveland you know.” assured Cleveland.

Mutsuki shook her head. “No, Cleveland is at Pearl and also she wouldn't come here. She isn't stationed here."

Clevelands hand twitched. "Mutsuki, I'm here so what do you mean by that?"

“I won’t answer to a siren clone.” stuttered Mutsuki.

“Siren, do you know what she is talking about? It's like she talks about me but not me.” said Cleveland and looked at chibi Observer.

*I do know, but that will be better to see for yourself since you wouldn’t believe me any other way.*

Cleveland scoffed. “You are useless, siren.”

*Hey, don’t insult me.*

“I can insult you how much I want.” spat Cleveland back and turned to a confused Mutsuki. “Tell me what do you mean. I need to speak to some high ranking person to rejoin Azur Lane.”

*Are you still aiming for that?*

“Yes I am,” said Cleveland sternly while she clenched her fists.

Mutsuki just got more confused. “Who are you talking to?”

Cleveland huffed. “And siren, then we reverse everything wrong and everything is peaceful.”

*Do you truly believe that?*

“Yes! I am a shipgirl, not a siren.” argued Cleveland.

*When do you accept that you are a siren? You got all the evidence in the last few minutes.*

“What are you talking about sir-.” Mutsuki said but then got grabbed by Cleveland and pulled up to her eye level.

“I AM NO SIREN!!!!” Cleveland screamed into her face before dropping Mutsuki after that one began to cry.

Cleveland took a few steps back and looked at her hands. Tears began to gather in them as she fell to her knees and stared at Mutsuki apologetically. “I am so sorry...I...I just can’t deal with all of this.”

She cried as her mind couldn’t take it anymore. “I killed my best friend, an innocent soul I knew in nothing but pure anger after she did something unacceptable and now I’m taking out my pain on everything else. I so want to die but that damm siren in my head won’t let me.”

Cleveland's cries became even hurtful to Mutsuki who stopped her own crying and just watched. It went on for minutes but it felt like hours for the weeping girl.

Cleveland cried her last tears and looked at Mutsuki. “To add to that I saw you trying to kill a few innocent children.”

Mutsuki turned her head. “I never tried to hurt others.” “AND WHAT WAS THAT BACK THERE!?” Cleveland interrupted her. “You fired upon a fish crawler after approaching it like a snake a mouse. Like a complete predator.”

Mutsuki looked confused. “I ordered them to go, there might be sirens like you here, that's why we do these patrols. I never fired-”

“Oh and which shells did you shoot at them then?” asked Cleveland as she summoned her scythe as a standing helper. Mutsuki yelped at seeing it. “I catched all of them and then you fought me for at least half an hour.”

“But we never fought.” “Oh we did, you shot so many shells at me while I tried to talk to you, but you never responded even once. Only Alpha managed to snap you out of it by doing something with your cube.” Cleveland interrupted her again.

*See you can get my name right.*

“Oh you can keep your mouth closed.” grumbled Cleveland and desummoned her scythe to relax the catgirl.

“I don’t remember fighting you, Siland.” said Mutsuki.

Cleveland stared at the destroyer. “But we did. And what is with that nickname?”

“You look like Cleveland as a siren,” said Mutsuki with an awkward giggle.

*It is Cleveland as a siren. Oh and by the way, you noticed that she is sending a distress signal.*

Clveland sighted. “I know that she is sending a distress signal, I noticed it since I hugged her. Mutsuki, tell me why?”

“Ehhhh.” Mutsuki fumbled around. “You noticed that.”

“Yes.” Cleveland simply answered and Mutsuki panicked.

“Ehm, I’m being held prisoner by a siren. I need help.” stumbled Mutsuki.

“And said siren didn’t attack you right?” asked Cleveland sarcastically. “Like, did she attack you at all?”

Mutsuki begann whistling.“Noooo.”

*They are here in about 10 minutes so I would suggest knocking her out.*

“I won’t knock her out.” sighted Cleveland but Mutsuki still yelped.

“Please don't eat me.” mumbled Mutsuki as she looked to the ground.

“I won’t hurt you.” said Cleveland before Mutsuki began screaming. “Please don’t, it hurts.”

Cleveland got confused. Mutsuki complained of pain while she didn’t show any wounds at all.

“What's wrong Mutsuki?” asked Clevelad as she hurried to her and grabbed her arm.

“Pain.” struggled Mutsuki through a hurtful expression.

“Alpha what's wrong with her?”

*So do you use my name now more often?*

“Tell me what’s wrong with her. Now!!” ordered Cleveland as she hugged Mutsuki to help her.

*Ok, Ok. Wait what?*

Cleveland got desperate. “What is it?”

*Her cube is rapidly losing power, but I don’t know why.*

“Losing power, what does that mean?” asked Cleveland.

*If this continues she becomes a lifeless shell.*

Cleveland upon hearing that panicked. “Ed let her go. Something causes her to die.”

Cleveland waited for Edinburgh to disappear but that one didn't even move.

“Ed, did you hear me?” asked Cleveland again. “Does everyone ignore me today?”

Edinburgh again didn’t react. Cleveland let go of the by now passed out cat girl and grabbed Edinburgh's shoulder.

“Ed let her go, she is hurt.” Cleveland said to the maid and pulled, but Edinburgh refused to let go of the destroyer.

She did manage to take one of Edinburgh's arms off from the catgirl.

*Whatever you did, her energy loss just slowed down.*

“Wait what?” Cleveland stuttered and pulled Edinburgh away from Mutsuki completely.

*Now her energy is stable and not falling, did the ghost drain her?*

“Edinburgh, explain yourself.” Cleveland ordered but then slapped her head. “Yeah right you can’t talk..urgh.”

Cleveland had to catch Edinburgh who sprinted at her and was shortly before grabbing Mutsuki again.

“Ed stop!” Cleveland ordered and held back the ghost. She even had to take out her tentacles to create a wall in front of the maid who got a feral look on her face.

*Strike her if she isn’t listening or so.*

Cleveland took out her scythe and stabbed the maid.

Edinburgh actually got damaged and thrown back before she disappeared in a silent scream.

Cleveland looked at the little spirit ball that remained as it flew back into the scythe.

Not a second later she was hit by a massive shock that sent her to her knees. Lightning came out of her body and struck the ground around her.

“AAAAARGH. What’s this?” Cleveland struggled to her feet as the electricity disappeared.

*I have no idea but your energy levels just skyrocketed. Maybe don’t try to use your scythe right now because I think that one can cut clean through an island now.*

Cleveland nodded, struggled to her feet and walked over to Mutsuki.

“Please be alright.” Cleveland mumbled and touched the girl's chest. Her heart was still beating but very slow.

*Her energy is still in the red zone, she can be glad that she still lives.*

“Does that mean that she is alright?” asked Cleveland while checking her pulse.

*Partially. She is in a coma if you want to know.*

“Why Edinburgh? Why?” she lowered her head. “What is going on with her.”

*I’ll try to find that out by analysing the last few minutes, did you notice what Mutsuki said?*

Cleveland nodded. “She acted like she didn’t remember anything.”

*I’ll look into that as well, I made an analysis of the cube and found some stuff. Save her for now.*

Cleveland nodded and picked up Mutsuki. She then touched Mutsukis chest and manually summoned her ship.

Cleveland jumped up to the ship and laid Mutsuki on the deck. “Rest safely.”

*Ok, emergency. Her reinforcements are here in 5 minutes. We should run.*

Cleveland sighted. “As much as I want to disagree, I agree with you. But where should I go?”

*I marked an island 67 miles from here. Let's regroup there.*

Cleveland nodded and after a last look at Mutsuki she jumped from the ship and cruised away.

She reached a distance and looked back to see several shipgirls board the ship. From there she knew Mutsuki was safe.

She smiled and turned before running into the big blue.

“Say siren. Did that human ship escape?” asked Cleveland as she used a higher wave to surf.

*Oh now back to don’t using my name anymore?*

“Just answer the question.” sighted Cleveland a little as she still had her fun in surfing.

*Yes they are safe, we should check out where they left to later anyway.*

“A good idea for another time.” giggled Cleveland and broke through the waves.

Chapter Text

The royal navy.

Graceful and elegant in their manners and behaviour.

Its main force, the royal maids led by Belfast, the head maid, are some of the best fighters of all Shipgirls ever constructed.

Since the end of the main war these maids have taken up an old tradition ochastrated by past monarchs.

Fox hunts.

Or to be more precise, siren hunts how the maids name it.

Get into a gathering of sirens and whoever gets the most has won these hunts that usually go without problems.

Well usually.

---

“Did you hear that with Kent, I doubt she can ever fight again with that sort of damage.” said one of the mentioned royal maids who heard to the name Gloucester.

Alongside her walked another maid, Glasgow was her name, who nodded to that. “Kent might still be alive but she isn’t able to fight with that injury.”

Gloucester thought for a minute as they exited the ship and leaned against the metal plating. “I heard Bel mumble something about making Kent combat capable again, but it's not like you can just regrow an arm.” She sighed. “That siren medic almost got a heart attack when they brought her in. I heard even Vestal showed emotion.”

“Say, why do we even keep that one siren around? I mean I like her, she has a great personality, although she never leaves the hospital for some reason.” Glasgow giggled.

“Yeah she is funny. I don’t actually remember where she came from but one day she was there, got publicly announced as a help for Vestal and that's it.” Glouester shrugged. “But I’m glad we got her, she at least shows emotion, not like Vestal who acts like she is roleplaying Gascogne.”

“Maybe they can give Kent a prosthesis or so. I hope she comes out fine.” Glasgow said and rested her hands on the metal.

“There, we are two who want that.” exhaled Gloucester and did the same.

They both just watched as the waves crashed against the smaller fleet as it cruised towards home.

“What even caused all that to her? She's only a child!” asked Glasgow as she looked at the other ships in the fleet.

“Imagine if it were Suffolk and Norfolk that would have been hit, damm sirens, that would have killed everyone's idea for mercy.” Gloucester sighted. “Bel has been angrier than usual but I get why, she lost her sister, that innocent little soul, to a siren and she couldn’t do anything.”

“Who did Kent say did it? Cleveland?” asked Glasgow. “But that's impossible. There is like a zero percentage of that happening.”

Gloucester nodded. “Cleveland is 100% back at base with her wife and her kids. She can’t be it. Didn’t she say a siren did it? A siren Cleveland.”

“Like the clones the Sirens used to make if us?” Glasgow said. “Those can’t even show that much emotion nor actually put up a fight and kill a fully equipped shipgirl.”

“Yeah I know.” Gloucester sighted. “And Belfast ain’t taking it well, even if she tries to hide it.”

“Yeah, she is a bit angry, I get that, she broke her meanure for the first time when she spotted her sister and I can’t blame her there.” Glasgow sighted and pressed her back. “But at least can we get a break? We attacked like 3 different siren bases in the last 4 hours. They use human weapons but those still make your skin sore.”

Gloucester sighted. “I agree with you. I’ll take that up to her, we are all exhausted.”

“Well good luck trying to convince her, I will go to bed, my back hurts.” joked Glasgow and left the deck to go into her ship.

Gloucester looked after her and smiled before summoning her rigging and leaping off the ship.

She cruised through the waves and reached the lead ship fast, her rigging propellers stopping multiple times due to previous damage from siren sea mines.

She jumped up to the deck and after a small search found who she was searching for. The head maid being involved in a conversation with her majesty and Hood.

She strolled over to them and walked past the sleeping yet still standing guard form of Warspite.

“-and that's why we need to get to know which siren that was.” finished the tiny monarch and took a gulp from her tea.

“Belfast, for a word.” Gloucester said and sent the tiny monarch jumping.

“Ahh, since when are you here?” Elizabeth muttered as she rightened herself again. “I mean, how can Belfast help you, we would all wish to hear what concerns you.”

“Well we need to take a break. Everyone is tired from the last attacks, also our resources and fuel are low. We need to go back.” Gloucester said and all got a thoughtful expression.

“Nonsense, I accept your idea but disagree with doing it.” Belfast said in a courtesy. “We won’t stop until every last one of them is dead.”

“What do you mean there, we can get them later. We need to be combat ready or the sirens can overwhelm us.” Gloucester added and Belfast straightened up, her smile lightly falling during it.

Belfast shook her head. “Gloucester, we can still put up a fight. We aren’t stopping until every single huma-, ehm, siren base we know of has been destroyed and they have given me the name of that siren.”

Gloucester was a bit shocked.“Bel, please listen for even a second, I know you are angry and I get why but we aren’t combat ready anymore. All the other maids are tired and sore from this witch hunt we are doing here and it’s too straining for all of us. Some of us are damaged and in need of repair. We can’t go on with this plan.”

Belfast approached her. “Gloucester we will continue with this plan, we are not returning until every last one of them has stained the ground red with their bloo-”

“This is unlady behaviour Bel.” giggled Hood as she held Belfast's mouth shut mid sentence. She stood behind the head maid, grabbing her hands who were awfully clenched.

“I do have to agree with Gloucester here Bel, we should return. I got something I need to take care of, womanly needs if you get me.” chuckled Hood and removed her hand from Belfast's face.

Belfast struggled in her grip and huffed a bit. “You only want to have your fun with Bismarck again.”

“Indeed I want to.” said Hood with an overbearing smile.

Gloucester raised her eyebrow questiongly. “Bismarck, isn’t she back at the Ironblood base to organize them against the sirens?”

Hood giggled and Belfast made a small yelp into her gloved hand.“Ohh no, she does visit me often, we are friends as you know.”

“Yeah.” Gloucester admitted. “She does visit quite often, although I only see her ship but never Bismarck herself. She also strangely never has an escort with her.”

Hood chuckled. “Oh you probably just oversee her, we visit some special places only we know off. Also do you truly think she needs an escort? I go back with her every time.”

Gloucester nodded. “Yeah you are right, she did kill you in the past war when we weren’t shipgirls, so you two working together should be unbeatable for some siren scum.”

Gloucester could swear she saw Hood's composure break for a second but that was probably nothing. Belfast yelped for some reason but she held her mouth shut.

Hood let go of Belfast arms that had some weird markings on them.

Belfast held her arms but pulled her sleeves over the marks fast. “I can’t agree to this, they got my sister, I won’t stop until she….she...”

“She what, she passed yes, but killing us in your path of war won’t make it better.” Gloucester said and Belfast began shaking. “It’ll only make the pain on your shoulders worse.”

“Bel enough!” said Elizabeth as she took a sip from her empty teacup. “I agree with going back, we need to resupply, my guns are, while still usable, a little low on ammunition and our tea has run out.”

“But your majesty. Our tea is still at 24% capacity and I need to get the one who did that to my dear sister.” Belfast stuttered.

“Did you just question the majesty's orders?” said an suddenly awake Warspite as she pointed her sword at Belfast.

Belfast looked at her with a gaze Gloucester couldn’t recognize from the maid, it was a gaze of I will hurt you later. “Warspite, I don’t question it, I just bring out counter arguments. Also our tea isn’t dry, you know that yourself.”

Elizabeth stood up and looked at the group. “Hood, would you take Gloucester for a stroll around the ship? Warspite please accompany them.”

Warspite bowed and did so while Hood merely gave a giggling yes as they walked away with the maid, leaving the majesty and the head maid there alone.

“What is wrong Liz?” asked Belfast as she looked at the monarch.

“Kneel.” commanded Elizabeth with a stern voice.

Bel acted confused. “But why now, everyone could see us-”

“KNEEL!!”

Belfast was taken aback by the anger in Elizabeth's eyes and did as she was ordered to.

She sank to her knees and looked up.

“Further down.” continued Elizabeth and Belfast complied.

“Please not here-”

“Don’t utter another word you worthless maid.” Elizabeth said and put her foot on the maids head, pushing her further down and pressing her face into the wood platings. “You all stand below me, so obey my every order. Understood?”

“Everyone in this fleet is worth less than the air they breathe. I stand the highest and it will always remain that way. My order is absolute so do not question it ever again.” said the monarch as she stomped on Belfast's head.

Belfast didn’t even try to answer and simply nodded.

“You would be well to remember where your place is, worthless garbage. I stand up over all, not even you 4 stand at the same level. You got that!?” Elizabeth laughed. “And now get up and make yourself presentable, they are coming again in a few minutes.”

Belfast stood up slowly and edged away from the now happy queen.

Elizabeth walked over to her and stood in front of her like they were just having a normal conversation.

“We will return home, and then call Dido to my room. This small inconvenience reminded me of my own womanly needs. I got a bit turned on by this.” Elizabeth declared and Belfast nodded.

It took no further minute and the group of the three returned.

“And that is what Sirius did last time? Trying to teach Takao how to cook can get rough, it appears.” Hood giggled and all of them, even Warspite, laughed.

“You have returned. Did you have a good walk?” asked Elizabeth and did not let a single thing from the previous conversation show.

“A pleasant one, how did it go here?” asked Hood as she resumed her previous spot.

“Nothing happened, I just convinced Belfast over here why it is a better decision to return.” said Elizabeth with a smile.

Gloucester smiled as well and looked at Belfast with pity. “I do understand that you are angry, all of us do, the loss of a sister is something very few can relate to.” She shuffled around a bit. “No one can truly understand you, but there is no way for her to come back. From all and everyone of the royal maids I and everyone wants to say sorry.”

Belfast only stared at the ground and giggled. “My sister won't come back.”

Gloucester hugged her. “Sadly yes, we can only move forward and look forward to tomorrow while keeping her in our memories. So we should keep Edinburgh in good memory and not remember her broken body, she won’t come back but don’t send others to their death.”

Belfast only hugged her back before she gave a small laugh. “Not sending them to their death?”

“Yes, we should stop these hunts, the sirens will come out on their own again.” Gloucester assured.

“But if we hunt them we can reduce shipgirl suffering and bring us closer to world peace.” Belfast muttered.

Gloucester shook her head. “Belfast, no one can come back from the dead. We shouldn’t run straight into danger.”

Belfast simply stared past Gloucester’s shoulder before she got out of the hug.

“Gloucester, can you join me and help me to my room?” asked Belfast with her head down.

Hood and Elizabeth giggled a little at that.

“Sure, take her with you but make sure you aren't playing too rough.” giggled Hood. “I’ll come looking after a few minutes so try not to make a mess out of yourself.”

Gloucester didn’t know what she could do with that so she ignored it and walked with Belfast to her own captain's cabin.

“Here Belfast, have a rest here.” Gloucester said as she entered the room and sat down on the bed.

Belfast, who walked behind her, closed the door and locked it.

“Why did you lock the door?“ Gloucester asked as Belfast sat down on the bed as well.

Belfast looked at her with a pained expression. “I need to talk to you about private stuff.”

Gloucester blinked. “Ehh can’t someone listen to us.”

Belfast shook her head. ”No, the room is soundproof. Hehe”

Gloucester looked uncertain. “Ehhh why? And why are you giggling?”

“Say Gloucester, you can’t summon your rigging here right?” Belfast said and giggled.

“Yeah, it can’t reach me here through the closed door. I can’t even call it here.” Gloucester said uncertain of the way this conversation was heading.

“So you are defenceless right, I wonder what happens if someone attacks you right now, in this room.” said Belfast and leaned forward.

Gloucester was just confused. “I’m defenceless yes, but you would defend me. What would even attack me here?”

Belfast looked relieved. “Oh nothing. I am right here to defend you. Hihihi. Well anyway you trust me, right?”

Gloucester saluted in the usual maid style she learned in the past. “Yes Belfast, I trust you and would put my life into your hands.”

Belfast smiled. ”Then please close your eyes for a bit. I want to test something.”

Gloucester shrugged and closed her eyes.

Belfast stood up and walked to a drawer and took out “equipment”.

“Say Gloucester, my dear lesser maid. You said we should keep Edinburgh in our good memories right?” Belfast said and attached something to Gloucester who made no sound to it.

”Yes, we should remember her good side now that she is gone.” Gloucester said as her other arm got something attached to it.

It felt leathery.

“So we can’t bring her back right?” asked Belfast in a strange tone.

Gloucester was confused. “Of course, after someone dies you can’t bring them back.”

Gloucester tried to move her arms but they somehow couldn't move far, if at all.

“Is that so? Hahahaha.” laughed Belfast and Gloucester got a bit scared.

“Belfast you are acting weird.” She said and shuffled around in her place. “Why can’t I move my arms?

“Open those little eyes of yours and you might see why.” Belfast said and Gloucester felt something heavy on her lap and something cold touched her cheek.

Gloucester did so and was scared. Belfast sat on her lap and the cold thing that touched her cheek turned out to be a knife, and a fairly big one.

“Be-Be-Belfa-ast what is th-the mean-meaning of t-t-t-this??” stuttered Gloucester out as she stared at the knife.

“Oh nothing, just a sharp little silverware I got in my room. Nothing to worry about.” Belfast giggled.

Gloucester tried to move but her arms were chained to the bed with leather belts.

“What are you doing?” Gloucester struggled out and yelped as Belfast cut away her maid uniform with the knife, drawing blood as she pressed a little too hard.

“Ah Glou, don’t be mad. I'm just showing you the truth.” Belfast giggled and ripped what remained of the maids' upper uniform off. “You said we can’t bring back the dead.”

“We can’t Edinburgh is dea-aaaaaaaaaaaa.” Gloucester screamed as Belfast rammed the knife into her shoulder.

Belfast gritted her teeth. “Oh, yes she is dead, completely and that pisses me off.”

“Belfast please, stop, what's wrong with you.” cried Gloucester as the pain was too overwhelming.

“Oh Glou, nothing is wrong with me.” Belfast giggled. “It is only that you never saw me how I actually am, you duty filled whore.”

Belfast giggled at Gloucester's shocked and crying face as she rammed the knife into the other shoulder. “You bitch care for all of those out there in the world but you all are not more important to me than the dirt under my shoes.”

“All of the maids are nothing to you?!” Gloucester asked through her tears.

Belfast smiled, “Of course.” and slashed the knife across her face.

Gloucester could only scream and thrash against her bindings as the head maid, her former good friend, cut away at her exposed skin, staining herself red in the process.

“You all mean nothing to all of us 5.” Belfast giggled and stabbed random spots on Gloucester’s chest.

“5?” Gloucester asked quietly and held her head down, her tears streamed out of her eyes. “Why?”

“Oh easy, you all died so many times that we gave up on caring for you.” Belfast answered with a smile.

“Died?” asked Gloucester in confusion and screamed as her leg got stabbed.

“Yes, Cleveland was actually one of the girls that lived the longest until she died again, that's probably why she had such a changed and influenced mindset, but that has been over 2 years ago by now and all of you have perished so many times since then.'' Belfast answered simply and giggled. “Remember all the time you woke up from a battle in the hospital without wounds? Everytime that happened, it means you died.”

Gloucester was speechless and stared at Belfast.

“Yeah that's the truth, you all are nothing but clones.” Belfast nodded and put away the knife. “So anything now before I kill you.”

She took out a gun from a drawer and laid it on the bed.

“But why are you so angry about Edinbu-'' Gloucester started but was cut off by Belfast choking her and pulling her forward.

“Why am I so mad with her? You want to know that?” screamed Belfast as she tore Gloucester forward. “Everyone can be resurrected as long as we can get their cube. BUT HERS WAS GONE!”

Belfast over screamed Gloucester’s screaming and pulled her so hard that her shoulders were ripped out of their sockets.

Gloucester slipped out of the bindings and was thrown from the bed against the door.

She screamed with everything she got for help and banged the door but no one came.

Gloucester was kicked hard in the stomach and left gasping for breath.

Belfast picked her up and slammed her head against a drawer next to the door. She then proceeded to slam her against every piece of furniture in the room and ignored the maid's screams.

Gloucester remained unmoving as she was picked up again.

“Sooo, I planned on giving you a quick death but you insist so much on pissing me off that now I’ll be taking my time.” Belfast laughed madly and stared at the maid who only had fear and pain in her eyes.

“So then let the fun begin.”

---

Hood walked through the ship.

Belfast has been gone for more than 10 minutes and Gloucester’s ship has been acting irregularly so Elizabeth sent her to investigate.

Hood stepped into the bridge and looked around. “Bel, where’re you? It’s been too long just to have some fun. You’re in your quarters right? Urgh.”

Hood walked to the bridge and knocked on the door.

After she got no response she took the key that hung beyond the door and opened it.

Immediately a weird stench hit her nose that she knew all too well. The stench of blood.

The entire room was covered in it and a figure, barely resembling the normally white maid, sat on the ground on a piece of meat that, besides the spine, had no resemblance to a human being anymore.

“Oh Bel, didn’t you go a bit far here?” Hood giggled and touched the heavily breathing maid. ”This will take forever to tidy up.”

Belfast didn’t respond.

“Come make yourself presentable.” Hood said and pulled her up in a way that didn’t stain her clothes in any blood.

Belfast simply stared at her. “Sorry, I got carried away, her cube is on the table.”

Belfast's words were true and the unshining cube remained standing on the table.

Hood giggled. “Yes so we can bring her back with this. Not like your sis-.”

Belfast lunged at her but hood caught her by the throat and pressed her against the wall.

The battlecruiser's strength far exceeded the maids' strength as she was left gagging for breath.

“So your sister's death is your trigger. Hmmm, I ask myself if it’s simply the fact that she can’t be brought back or that you truly did feel something for her.” Hood said unnerved from Belfast's actions and still held her smile. “You know I might get your feelings if I had anyone to call my sister. But you need to calm down.”

Hood simply smiled as the cruiser begged for breath.

“Do not attack me or any of us 5 is that understood?” Hood asked.

Belfast didn’t answer and got purple as her breath was cut off from Hood's still tightening grip.

“I know precisely how long a kansen can hold her breath under diverse circumstances before passing out so I want an answer and I want it fast. Do you understand?” Hood pressed on.

Belfast nodded and deeply inhaled as Hood finally dropped her.

Hood turned around and led the gasping maid back. “You need to learn your anger management, but we have much time so you can do that. No one can stop our plan but refrain from attacking your true allies in this war.”

Hood stood in the door and turned back. “I advise you to make yourself presentable Bel, the Bulins can clean this all up later, but get rid of Gloucester’s parts please, I don’t like those annoying little girls asking questions.”

Belfast was left alone as the door shut and Hood returned to the queen on the deck.

“So is she fine?” asked Elizabeth without even looking at Hood from her seat.

“She got a bit carried away but should be fine now. She also did remind me of why I need to have a talk with Biscuit.” Hood answered and stood next to the tiny monarch.

“Well then, we shall better get home quick, I am also pent up a lot from setting Bel straight. Making that Dido maid wanting to kill herself from my superiority alone should be enough to quench that need.” Elizabeth muttered and turned to Warspite. “Warspite!”

Warspite awoke from her nap and bowed.

“Warspite, go tell the fleet that we are coming back home and tell the base of our arrival.” ordered Elizabeth as she laid back down and ate some fruits that lay next to her.

Hood giggled at that and activated her coms. “Warspite, tell them to tow Gloucesters ship, she has fallen unconscious due to an accident and is remaining in Belfast's quarters until she has been treated back to health.”

Hood cut the line and smiled.

“Bel has been getting a bit disrespectful lately, but I do understand the reason. It's the first loss we ever had so we now have to attack with more force. We need to watch out and find this Cleveland clone thing.” said Elizabeth and continued eating.

Hood smiled. “Yes your majesty.”

“Bring me Wale's report from the sakuras when we arrived and I had my fun with that worthless maid, hopefully Wales didn’t beat our human kill count or I have to declare her my heir should I ever be unfit to rule.”

“Your majesty. You signed that contract a year ago.” giggled Hood.

Elizabeth huffed and pointed to her little crown. “Yeah, but now I would have to add that she gets my crown as well but I will never be unfit to rule. This world belongs to me and no shipgirl can change that.”

Chapter Text

Cleveland touched down on the Island with a summersault after cruising for a while.

“Cleveland 1 and falling on the sand 0.” cheered the girl as she sat down on a few rocks. “God why don’t I feel tired. I haven’t slept in like 4 days.”

*You were unconscious, or more accurately; dead, for 2 years. Sirens rarely need sleep anyway.*

“Oh that's why you never got tired.” Gawked the former shipgirl. ”Could be useful, but since I’m not a siren I will sadly required to sleep someday.”

*Yeah of course, in like 2 days at the earliest miss I-am-not-a-siren.*

“What are you talking about? I am not one and never will be, no matter how many times you say and pretend I am one!” huffed the light cruiser and walked to the forest.

She sat down and leaned against the tree behind her.

*And I will point it out so many times until you got it into your fucking head.*

“Heh, good luck with that!” admitted Cleveland and looked at the ocean, a storm was picking up and the waves began getting unwell. Soon enough it began to rain.

“Why does the rain feel so good?” asked Cleveland as she relaxed.

*In your terms; Sirens are a species of aliens that are highly durable and like playing in water. Although I could tell you the actual truth if you want.*

“Nah, you will try to trick me to kill my friends.” said Cleveland and stared with one eye at the siren.

*As if you didn’t do that on your own already. I still need to figure out how you completely shut me off back then.*

“No you forced me to.” said Cleveland, annoyed at the siren.

Although deep in her memory she knows that this was wrong. Very wrong.

*You know what, you can ask her, do it.*

“Don’t want to!” snickered Cleveland and looked at Observer. “You got to wait.”

Chibi Observer looked unamused but then smiled mischievous.

*So you know that I can control your body.*

Cleveland nodded. “Yes, but I figured out how to cancel your control if I put my will into it.”

*Wait what?*

Cleveland laughed. “Yes, if I overwill you and ignore you, you cannot do anything. So keep your tentacles out of my body.”

*But they are part of you.*

“They are not!” said Cleveland, annoyed. “I’m a shipgirl and will forever be one, I don’t have siren stuff.”

*For that you use all of them quite a lot. Also how did you figure out teleportation?*

“Huh, I never did that...” Cleveland stuttered although she knew that it was wrong.

*You saved the ship Mutsuki was firing at by using it! Do you even know how dangerous it is to use a portal without proper training?*

“Nooooooooo.” Cleveland scratched her head and set up. “I don’t even remember using that ability of yours.”

*It's your ability you know, I don’t have a physical body.*

“Yeah, whatever. Get to the point.” Cleveland huffed.

*You could have very well killed yourself back there, or others, so never teleport yourself until we have connected you to the siren mainframe and I gave you proper instructions on how to do it.*

“The what now? I am not connecting myself to anything.” Cleveland said and stood up.

She was wet…..

...and while that didn’t bother her, just sitting in the rain wasn’t going to erase her boredom.

*The siren mainframe, we need to connect you to it so you won’t die when you are killed.*

“That's contradicting itself.” said Cleveland and jumped over some broken logs.

*It’s not, you will die at some point because you're so thick headed so I’ll just guarantee our survival.*

“Your speaking confuses me.” Cleveland said and sat down on a broken log.

The forest around her seemed to be clear but also hardly damaged, as if not natural at all. Was there a battle?

*It's basically a computer overlayed construction program that binds your identity and consciousness to a certain data piece that is saved and transmitted into a newly constructed vessel should the old one cease to function.*

“Immortality you mean?” asked Cleveland uncertainty.

She was unnerved by the idea as she has seen many sirens not care for their lives anymore after being killed so many times. She wouldn’t want that for herself.

*Kind of. You can still die and rest forever though if you die while disconnected.*

Cleveland stared at the siren. "If I die then it's the end, I won't get crazy like you all did when you died and came back."

*Well, if you can come back from the dead you kind of stop worrying about death. You do lose a bit of your memories every time though, so look out for that.*

Cleveland was unnerved. “First off, I am not dying! And more importantly, I will not run into some conflicts because you want it where I could die."

*I don’t want you to die, in fact you seem to be more resistant than I was when I had a body. I want you to stop evil and bring back peace to this world.*

“Says the one that attacked humanity in the first place.” huffed Cleveland.

*We have a reason...*

“And that would be?” asked the light cruiser enraged.

*To save humanity and the future.*

Cleveland punched the tree she was sitting on. “Oh fuck you, you just attacked them for shits and giggles, killed millions, and now want to protect them?!”

*And you have no clue about the actual truth.*

“I don’t need to, Sirens are the bad guys, that's all that's important!” said Cleveland and strolled around the forest again.

*But Azur Lane is the bad guy here!*

“No they aren’t, they didn’t do anything wrong, that must have been accidents.” Cleveland said in desperation.

She had to be right, Azur Lane wouldn’t be evil, they can’t be evil.

*Huh, there is no point in arguing with you, you dense siren.*

Cleveland stopped and took a deep breath. “Stop calling me something I am not!”

She continued her small stroll.

*You’ll accept the truth some day, and until then I will play a broken record.*

“Oh yeah, I won’t listen.” Cleveland said and stepped into a clearing.

*Didn’t you say you can shut me off, then why don’t you do it.*

“It seems to work only when I am way too angry so keep egging me on you siren and you will die, maybe then I can kill myself.” said the pale cruiser and walked across the open field.

The unnatural feeling of the island was the strongest here.

*Are you still planning that?*

“Yes, it’s not out of the question.” said Cleveland before she froze upon hearing a voice. Well not a voice but a feeling of something calling her.

“What was that?” asked Cleveland and looked over the clearing.

*What’s what? I didn't hear anything. There is nothing here.*

Cleveland stumbled over the field and looked around. “It feels like something is calling me. Without a voice.”

*I feel and can scan nothing, there shouldn’t be anything here.*

Cleveland ignored her and went to the middle of the field and looked down.

She kneeled and touched the ground a bit before removing a bit of dirt to show a black metal plate. “Something is here, but what?”

*No siren base should be here, at least according to my data. Well it should show up on my scans but it doesn’t.*

“Looks like your scans are useless then because this is definitely siren origin.” snickered Cleveland and removed a bit more dirt from the black metal.

*You just called your own head useless. Haha.*

Cleveland stomped on the ground. “Oh would you keep your mouth shut.”

Observer didn’t answer because a slight rumbling came from all around. It sounded like the groaning of giving away metal.

“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.” Cleveland gulped and the noise stopped.

She looked around and nothing happened. “Is it over?”

*I can’t tell, but this seems way too cliche.*

“Yeah, and after that the ground under me gives away now.” said Cleveland and looked at the ground for a minute.

Nothing happened except a bird starting from a tree nearby.

*It seems we were wrong.*

“Thank god that was not true. It would be way too bad to now fall through the grou-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.” Cleveland screamed as the ground under her gave away.

Cleveland screamed all the way until she landed with her body on the metal.

“I swear to god we called that.” Cleveland groaned as she got up from the ground and touched her ass. “God that hurt.”

“So where am I now? Siren, tell me where I am.” ordered Cleveland and waited.

She got no response for several seconds, then minutes, and exhaled. ”So now you don’t want to talk to me? Fine! Keep your mouth shut.”

She looked around in search of the chibi Observer but couldn’t even find her which confused her. “That damn siren probably shut herself off and doesn’t want to talk, I must've made her angry or something. Good riddance.”

Cleveland looked around and again had no problem seeing in the dark. In fact the only light came from the small hole she fell through, or more created.

The room was massive and looked like a dock, even though it was lacking the ships or the usual dock equipment.

“Where am I?” asked Cleveland again and shook her head. “Must be a siren base, but those should be full of siren stuff and actual sirens. Nah better so, maybe I can find things here that can convince Azur Lane to not shoot me on sight.”

Cleveland walked away, or more stumbled, and winced at the sight of her own imprint in the ground. “How far did I fall there, 100m?”

She walked out of the dock and down some hallways.

“This is actually the perfect horror movie cliche, I'm not gonna lie. A dark hallway, an abandoned base, only misses the monster. Hahaha. Please not.” she chuckled with a bad feeling in her stomach that certainly must have been from the fact that she hadn’t eaten anything in 2 years.

“Is anybody here? This is getting creepy!” Cleveland screamed out and only got her own echo as an answer. She certainly was freaked out at this point but walked through the hallways and checked the rooms.

Most of the rooms were only storage and a lot of stuff Cleveland couldn’t identify.

She entered some sort of kitchen and opened the counters. The smell of moldy food or emptiness greeted her and everytime she was disappointed.

“These sirens weren’t the greatest eaters I guess.” Cleveland snickered and walked to another cabinet.

That one had not much but a single sealed bag which Cleveland opened. Inside it was some bread that still smelled fresh. A quick observation revealed that the bread was good to eat.

“I’ll eat that later, this might be the first food I saw but this place is too creepy, even if it covers me from the rain.” Cleveland said and sealed the bread again before grabbing it and leaving the kitchen.

She picked up her walk again and walked down the many hallways and corridors.

“This siren base seems not used for many ships. maybe it's a summer home for one of the higher ups or something. Come on siren, tell me!” Cleveland said and waited but still got no answer.

“Grr. Ok have it like you want, Observer Alpha, talk to me now.” ordered Cleveland and waited, and waited, and waited. “Do you truly ignore me, pah, ok! It’s not like I need you anyway!”

Cleveland huffed but also kind of missed the sirens company right now. Nonetheless she kept on her way and entered a room that looked important.

It had several big consoles and some black cubes floating in tanks, all except one were blinking red and showed critical warnings about energy.

The last cube, which was at about 5 percent and falling, looked strange. The cube itself was damaged and leaking energy in all directions.

Cleveland approached it and looked at the monitor. The entire room was a mess and multiple monitors were hooked up to the last cube.

Cleveland could only see that the computers were searching for and suppressing all signals.

The cube looked dead and floated out of its holdings. It approaches Cleveland who summoned her scythe and pushed the cube away from her.

“You would want that you damm cube, but no, not this time, I suffered enough last time.” Cleveland said and stopped the cube from approaching her. “Why do you all want that anyway?”

The cubes light died and it fell to the ground where it remained and every light and monitor connected to it shut itself off.

The feeling of calling Cleveland had ceased as well and she exhaled. She sat the scythe down next to the round console in the middle.

“So now the game is over, hmm this was on and blocking signals. This means someone is probably hiding something here.” Cleveland said and went over to the monitors. Next to it stood a tiny little machine of sorts. Cleveland picked up and observed it.

“What's this?” Cleveland asked as she looked at it.

*A jamming device I would say.*

Cleveland jumped up and dropped the thing before staring at the reappeared chibi form of Observer.

“Where have you been!? Don’t scare me like that siren!” Cleveland asked and didn’t notice the blue glow behind her.

*If I knew then I would tell. Remember when you fell, it was like I was knocked out.*

“So the computer, like you call yourself, can be knocked out, a bad joke huh.” Cleveland huffed and looked at the siren.

*Apparently yes, I woke up when you activated your scythe.*

Cleveland laughed. “Oh for real, the A.I can get knocked out by a little machine.”

*Must be an emp or signal jammer, I don’t know. So did anything happen while I was gone?*

“Nothing really, just found some bread and walked through this abandoned siren facility. Haven’t found anyone yet.” Cleveland said and leaned against a console on the side.

*This ain’t a siren facility. I would be able to connect us to it if it was, but I can’t.*

“Maybe you are just bad. OUCH!” Cleveland chuckled and got hit by a massive headache that stopped a second later.

*Don’t call me bad, also what is Edinburgh doing there?*

“Nothing, I haven’t summoned Ed here.” said Cleveand and turned around to Edinburgh, absolutely doing something.

She sat on the ground with the cube in her arms and her fingers in the black of it.

“Ed, that might not be the best idea.” Cleveland advised but Edinburgh either didn’t listen or hear her because she didn’t react.

Cleveland shook her head and walked to the ghost and ripped the cube out of her arms. “This is a siren cube, those are bad and can cause severe damage when a shipgirl holds them.”

*And you are touching it without problems, shipgirl.*

Cleveland looked at the cube and smug siren repeatedly before exhaling hard. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

*Of course miss shipgirl, oh no it's miss siren actually.*

“It’s not.” complained Cleveland and threw the cube away.

Edinburgh dived after it and when she touched it again the scythe showed a reaction.

The blade glowed a bit and the cube in the maid's hands disappeared. A few seconds later the maid did as well.

Cleveland huffed. “What does that actually mean? And that maid doesn’t really listen to me.”

*Be more like a leader next time, maybe then she'll comply.*

Cleveland only grumbled before grabbing the scythe again and willing it to disappear.

*Ok I can safely assume that the scythe can suck out a wisdom cube's energy and convert it to yours. So that's why you are so tough.*

“Why am I tough?” asked Cleveland, she didn’t get the siren at all.

*Edinburgh, as a part of the scythe, can suck out wisdom cube energy and add it to your own, or better said the scythes which is linked to yours, meaning you probably never get tired and can unleash powerful attacks. Although I don’t know what will happen when you run dry on energy.*

Cleveland was confused. “So Edinburgh is an energy sucking vampire?”

*You can call it that, although it's probably more complicated. That would also explain why Mutsuki is in a coma now too.*

Clevelands face changed from confusion, to shock, to anger.

“EDINBURGH! GET OUT! NOW!!” Cleveland screamed as she summoned her scythe and the maid's ghost.

“Ed, did you almost kill Mutsuki by sucking her dry!” Cleveland asked sternly.

The maid only nodded before Cleveland grabbed her by her collar. This didn’t seem to end her smile though.

“Now listen up! Whatever you might think, that wasn’t what I ordered! I ordered to restrain her, not kill her! Never do that again! Understood?!” said Cleveland with anger.

Edinburgh nodded but her eyes spoke from mischief and disobedience.

“You find this funny huh, hurting the innocent and more. You will never come out again if you don't do exactly what I say.” Cleveland yelled and the maid got angry.

Edinburgh scratched and punched Cleveland but the maid didn’t even hurt her in the slightest. Cleveland desummoned the ghost and exhaled. “Ed what happened to you? You weren’t like that when you were alive...”

*Hmmm, the scythe is requiring energy to keep Edinburgh existing, your energy drops whenever she is summoned. Maybe the scythe, and by extension Edinburgh, always wants more energy in a desperate act to keep existing or something.*

“Even you haven’t figured it out then? Well I won’t let her attack anything when she doesn't obey.” said Cleveland and leaned back.

Cleveland exhaled. “So this is not a siren facility.”

*No it isn’t. It’s something else, something I haven't figured out.*

“Then find it out you siren, you're the expert here. The place seems empty so we got time.” said Cleveland. “I’ll go look around, maybe I will find something, but probably not. The only place I haven’t really visited was the dock.

*Then go there, I’ll try to hack the stuff here.*

Cleveland nodded and left the room. She quickly jogged back to the dock and looked around. A few containers with spare parts and even a motor boat were there.

“Very strange...” Cleveland said and walked towards the containers.

She continued searching but didn’t find anything except one thing, a mattress with some blankets well hidden in one container. A small candle with still warm wax sat next to it.

“Ok, someone has to be here if this is still warm.” Cleveland concluded and this certainly didn’t erase her worry, or the bad feeling in her stomach. “Which means I’m not alone here.”

Cleveland gulped and walked back through the empty corridors. Although she now knew that they weren’t empty.

“Hey siren, did you find anything?” Cleveland asked as she stepped back into the must be control room.

*I can’t even get in, it's way too strong for even a siren to enter.*

“This is funny, the siren can’t get in.” Cleveland snickered.

*Yeah, the sirens can’t get in. Have you found anything?*

“Except that we aren’t alone, nothing.” Cleveland said and felt a shiver go down her back.

*We aren’t?*

“No, there is someone here.” Cleveland shrugged. “Doesn’t make me feel better.”

*You haven’t found who yet righ-behind you!*

Cleveland turned around and leaned back, barely managing to dodge a halberd swinging down.

Whoever handled the halberd was clad in a low gleaming blue and a bit shorter than Cleveland. She had blue glowing eyes and with much difficulty pulled up her halberd again.

She began swinging it but Cleveland summoned her scythe and blocked the strike.

The weapons locked, and with a push, Cleveland sent the halberd away before punching the owner of it with enough force to send her flying through the next wall.

“Who the hell are you and what do you want!?” Cleveland asked as the figure struggled to her feet.

She was completely out of breath and her torn clothes showed bleeding wounds under it. Nonetheless she stood up and readied her weapon in front of her and broke into a sprint.

“I won’t die here, you shipgirls won’t ruin my life any more!” the figure said in a tired voice.

Cleveland simply sidestepped her and hit her with the handle of her scythe in the stomach.

The figure toppled over and she coughed out blue blood as she went down. “Dammit.” she exclaimed as her coughing stopped. “I’m already half dead but you won’t finish me off!”

“I’m not even attacking you!” Cleveland said.

“Shut up, you shipgirl!” The figure screamed and Cleveland had to catch the halberd in the air as it was swung at her.

“What?” The figure asked before Cleveland kneed her in the stomach and ripped the halberd out of her hands.

“I don’t want to fight!” Cleveland said and looked at the figure. It wasn’t a siren because her eyes weren’t yellow, although she was as pale as one.

“Yeah you shipgirls, keep lying.” The figure struggled and looked at Cleveland before she tried to punch her.

Cleveland put up her guard but the figure stopped her punch in mid air. Before Cleveland could ask, the figure collapsed and hugged her.

“A siren, another siren, finally!” She cried into her arms and helt Cleveland like her life depended on it.

Cleveland got mad. “Now listen, I am not a siren.”

“Don’t lie to me, you are the first siren I see after your war with humanity ended in them destroying you.” she cried.

*Wait, we lost?*

“Wait, they lost?” asked Cleveland. “Finally.”

“What do you mean finally, after that they came for us.” The figure said and Cleveland sat down with her still crying on her.

“The sirens lost and humanity was left for them to slaughter, but before that they searched out us. Master told me to stay here and went out to fight after I came back damaged.” the figure cried.

“Azur Lane would never be evil, some siren has to make them appear like that.” Cleveland said and was met with the stare of the girl.

“Did you sleep under a stone? All sirens, or at least everything from them is gone, we are trapped on this planet and are unable to leave. I lived here for months, or was it years, on moldy food and struggled through each day, and now my power has finally run out, and you came to my rescue. Is master, ok?” The girl cried. “I was alone for so long and only waited for my master's return or for one of the shipgirls to find me and kill me but after all that time and after I barely had anything left and gave up, someone who can help me finally found me.”

“Wait, how can I help you?” asked Cleveland.

“I don’t know how but you can, at least help me run over the water, I can’t walk anymore.” The girl struggled out. “I can barely stand on my own.”

Her speech was accompanied with coughing and spitting out of blue blood. She was clearly hurt badly.

“I don’t know how to hurt you but can I know your name?” Cleveland asked.

“My original name is classified and you wouldn’t be able to understand it but call me Elma, an Enforcer.” said this Elma with a smile.

*An Enforcer? Then the master she keeps talking about is an Arbiter. But where could she be?*

Cleveland thought. “So one of these even higher high sirens?”

“Kind of that but different as you know. Can you help me out of here?” Elma asked and made moves to stand up.

Cleveland had to help her up and hold her so she wouldn’t collapse.

Elma got her halberd and used it as a makeshift crutch while Cleveland got her other arm. Cleveland had no problem helping the smaller girl.

“I thank you so much, I think I was going crazy in here.” Elma said as they entered the docks.

“Do you sleep in that container over there?” Cleveland pointed to a few of those. “I found a makeshift bed in one.”

Elma nodded. “Yes, that's where I sleep. I’m not allowed to sleep in an actual bed without my masters approval and it's very out of sight and I can hide there good. It also doesn’t get cold as fast there. I can barely go a day without sleeping anymore, damm damaged cube.”

*OOOH, I feel that.*

“You got damaged? I mean you are littered with wounds but where did you get them?” Cleveland asked.

“A big fight, or more hunting after me, ages ago. Got nearly killed since they made us unable to use our abilities. My rigging is nothing but scrap so that one couldn’t save me either.” Elma answered and winced at the memory. “So here we are.”

Cleveland looked ahead and was confused. “A wall.”

“No, not that queen's chest but yes a wall.” Elma snickered.

*Half dead but still snickers like fully alive.*

“So what am I supposed to do with the wall?” asked Cleveland as she looked at it.

“Here was the exit for the docks, it caved in when the bastards that hunted me shot at it. Master threw me in the base and went to fight them. Either master won and they forgot me here, or she's preparing a rescue. The shigirls didn’t even kill me but instead left me to die from starvation or my wounds here.” Elma winced. “You could probably use your fists or weapons to bust the way out open. It’s been so long since I heard the sea or saw the sun.”

Cleveland left the Enforcer and walked to the rockwall.

“Well here goes nothing.” Cleveland said and began punching the wall.

With every hit the wall shook and soon enough the cave opened and light began pouring into the building.

“All done.” said Cleveland and turned around to Elma limping past her down the beach to the waterline. She nearly touched the water before falling on her knees on the sand.

“Thank you so much!” Elma cried as she looked over the sea. “After so long...”

“No problem, ehh Elma you never said who attacked you.” said Cleveland and kneeled down next to her.

Elma wiped away some tears. “It was that damn light cruiser squad, the Cleveland class. They attacked me and brought me to near death, although it was the maid corps that trapped me in my own base. Master went after them. How did you even get in?”

Cleveland exhaled. “I fell through the ceiling.”

Elma chuckled and got into a wholehearted laughter before calming down.

“I like you.” Elma giggled and stood up. “Sorry for attacking you back there but you sound the same as that Cleveland girl a year ago. Who are you actually? I never got your name.”

“USS Cleveland, first ship of the Cleveland class ships of light cruisers, Cleveland.” Cleveland answered.

*Urgh.*

Elma sprung up. “Don’t scare me, that girl wasn’t a siren, and you are friendly.”

“First of all, I'm not a siren.” Cleveland said and Elma kept walking backward.

“What are you saying, you are a siren, you aren’t a shipgirl. Urgh.” Elma said and suddenly fell flat on her face.

Cleveland simply stared at her. “Did you get a heart attack?”

*Since we use cubes as our hearts, that's practically impossible.*

“I know that but what?” Cleveland said and walked over to her.

*The shock could've overloaded her damaged cube, though that doesn't seem to be the case*

She shook the enforcer and waited for her to wake up….which never happened.

“Oh come on don’t sleep now.” Cleveland said and turned the arbiter around...only to see a dart in her neck.

Cleveland pulled it out and looked at it. “What is that, a tranquilizer?”

*A damn strong one if it knocks out an Enforcer.*

“So where did it come from-urbhg.” Cleveland said before she herself got the same arrow into her shoulder.

“Damit, where is the shooter?” Cleveland said and pulled out the dart.

*It's not a gun, I can’t localise it.*

“What do you-urghjh.” Cleveland said before she got hit in the back.

“Where are you?” Cleveland asked before she collapsed to her knees. “Show yourself.”

Cleveland summoned her scythe and blocked an arrow from the front, out of the treetops.

“There you are.” Cleveland said and jumped with a burst at a tree.

She got whoever was shooting and threw it to the beach. It was a figure clad in camouflage armor armed with a dart rifle in its hands. A pretty small figure but Cleveland didn’t care.

The figure tried to raise the rifle again but Cleveland landed on him and kicked the rifle away.

“Who are you and why do you attack me?” asked Cleveland and grabbed the person by the collar.

The figure didn’t answer but tried to get Cleveland to let go. Cleveland grabbed the mask of the figure and pulled it away to look into the face of a child.

“A child?” asked Cleveland and was shocked.

The kid took his chance and attached some sort of collar to Cleveland which began shocking her with an ungodly amount of electricity.

Cleveland dropped the child with a scream as she tried to get the collar off. The kid grabbed the rifle and shot her again, this shot Cleveland evaded and the rifle seemed to be empty.

The kid looked scared and pressed something on his wrist and the shocks became even stronger.

*That's definitely a deadly amount of volts for anyone below a cruiser.*

“Oh shut up siren.” Cleveland struggled through her pain and finally broke the collar in two before falling to her knees.

“Ok kid, what was that?” Cleveland asked and the child took several fearful steps back.

Suddenly Cleveland was hit by multiple darts from behind and as she turned around several of the same clothed people stood there, rifle in hand.

Clevelands eyes were heavy and her legs could barely hold her up anymore but nonetheless she approached them.

“What the hell are you attacking me for?” Cleveland asked and readied her scythe sloppily. “Why?”

None of them answered and they all took multiple steps back.

*I don’t think they are your enemy. *

“Then why are they attacking, urgh, I feel bad.” Cleveland stuttered and limped ahead.

*Your poison levels say the same, and it worries me.*

“Why are they?” Cleveland asked and blocked another rifle shot. “Can you stop?”

“Why isn’t she falling yet?” asked one of them, it sounded young.

Clevelands legs felt sloppy and her vision got shaken and turned. She felt like she was gonna vomit and a minute later her vision blacked out and she collapsed.

One of the figures walked up to her and shook her. “She is knocked out.”

All of them gave a long exhale they definitely needed.

“God she took like 6 times as much as a battleship can take, and Cleveland is a light cruiser.” said one of the figures.

“Enough now, we need to get back, we need to get both of those two shipgirls and cuff them, then we take them to our camp.” said an older sounding one as the figures approached the two unconscious sirens.

They dragged the two roughly to some smaller boats, threw them in, and drove off after cuffing them.

“How can they swing those things around? They must weigh like 50kg.” said a younger sounding figure as he laid down the weapons.

“Child, leave those deadly weapons alone, they are dangerous.” said the old one again and the figure left the weapons alone.

They drove a short while and without interruption entered a cave a few islands away.

Chapter Text

The ship docked next to a small fish crawler at a small port in the base in that cave. Multiple people came running to the ship including several people with weapons and a stern looking woman.

Most people did checks and other things on the ship but a single person, the woman in the group, had other plans.

All the teenagers and children quickly ran after seeing the woman's enraged face.

“John come out, tell me what this was about, taking around 60% of our medical supplies for your stupid idea.” said the woman wioth anger. “Why did you even go out? It ain’t safe with the shipgirls around.”

“The kids went out without permission and reported a destroyer was after them.” The older man said. “Well, we wanted to save them and while we were at it we tested out the theory that the shipgirls have human bodies like described in the documents.”

“Your crazy theory when they are shown the truth that they don’t try to kill us anymore." The woman responded furios. "Are you really putting the life of the kids on the line for that?!"

"Actually no, I combined both. The Kids were saved from something else beforehand." The man smiled.

"At least they are safe..." The woman breathed relieved. "So why are you so happy now?"

"That's because I was proven correct."  The man smiled. "I made a big catch, a light cruiser and, I think, a destroyer……………………..But both are sirens."

The woman's face quickly shifted into shock, then to anger.

"THEY ARE WHAT!!!??" The woman screamed enraged. "WE ALMOST DAILY HAVE TO RUN FROM ONE ENEMY OF HUMANITY AND YOU BRING IN THE OTHER ONE?!"

"Ehh, yes. Look if we convince one to join us, then we might be able to help others." The man said while scratching his head. 

The woman sighted. "I really want to rip off your head right now John but we need all the people we got, you might be 45 but act like a child."

“Oh, you hurt me sis. Well I got another surprise for you Andrea. One you aren't gonna like.” John blushed and beckoned the woman, who listens to the name Andrea to come into the ship. 

“Ohh please, what can be worse than bringing the enemy of humanity home?” Andrea sighed and followed her brother inside the ship. 

“You will see...and don’t kill me, I want to make her suffer too but still, this is an opportunity we can’t pass.” John said and walked into the ship.

“What can be so much worse now, is it another ship- '' Andrea started but stopped the second she entered the ship and saw who was knocked out.

“Brother, tell me that this ain’t the truth…..you…..you didn’t.” Andrea gasped out, her voice shaking from wrath. “You didn’t bring that bitch here!”

John sighted. “I know you would react like that, but think about it.”

“THINK ABOUT WHAT IDIOT?! YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS?!” screamed Andrea into her brother's face.

“I know, damm I want to rip her throat out as well but….this might be different.” John said calmly yet still enraged. “Please just, let us speak to them first.”

“Oh we will speak but I get that bitch to interrogate.” Andrea snarled and left the cabin but remained standing in the doorway. “Who is that other one? 

“Yeah you will.” John confirmed. “The other one, I am not sure. Cleveland here shouldn’t be a siren and the other is no ship girl from the ones we know of.” 

“Great, can they now build more bitches?” groaned Andrea and looked at the table. “Those are their weapons, the bitch didn't have one before.”

“Cleveland carried the scythe. The other one carried the halberd.” John said and took the siren girl by the arms and slung her over his shoulder. “Heh, these sirens are light.”

“Don’t treat killing machines as children,” said Andrea. “I want to kill both of them but I trust your judgement but if they’re hostile I will kill them.”

“Makes sense.” John admitted. “You take Cleveland?”

“Ohhh I will.” Andrea said and stomped past her brother. 

She grabbed Clevelands hardly by the hair and dragged her up to eye level.

“So you bastard, we will enjoy our time together after everything you did to us.” Andrea snarled and threw Cleveland into the wall. After giving her a few kicks to the face she picked her by her white hair and dragged her roughly along the ground.

“Come on John, we need to tie them down and further.” Andrea said and left the room.

“Yeah sis.” John nodded and followed his sister. “Hey, do you think these ears are real?”

“The hell I know.” groaned Andrea as the two walked through the base.

Many people looked scared as they walked past them, more so by the girls that they held in their arms.

One girl walked to the two and looked at Cleveland. “Is that one of the bad guys?”

“Yes. Those are the other bad guys. The others next to the ships.” Andrea admitted and ruffled the little girl's hair with a smile. “Although this one is more the devil itself so don’t interact with them until we say it’s safe.”

The girl nodded and went to Andrea's brother with a little smile and touched the siren's head, more specifically the ears.

“Fluffy.” The girl giggled. “A cat or a fox.”

“I don’t know but remember they might look non threatening now but they are very evil people.” John said to the girl. “So better stay hidden. So get along, we need to deal with them.”

The girl ran away after this and the two adults continued their walk.

They quickly made their journey to a smaller building on the side of the port. They entered it and the guard quickly stepped away.

They entered a single door and put the two girls into heavy boundaries. 

From head, arm, and leg cuffs to anything imaginable just to make sure they won’t move.

“So do we need more?” John asked as he finished binding a belt to the siren's ankle. “I don’t think we need a gag, but maybe a blindfold.”

“Brilliant idea brother. I shall get one.” Andrea said and left the room.

She walked out of the room.

“Who did you get there?” A man snickered. “The devil?”

Andrea stopped and looked over. “Pretty much man, but Jerry that is pretty much what we got. My brother literally fished the devil up and brought her here...times two.”

“So two shipgirls, damm that crazy ass’s plan worked? I’m impressed.” the man in security clothes laughed. “So what do you need? No doubt you bound them down a lot.”

“We need two blindfolds and gags for them, they shouldn’t talk or see and only answer our questions.” Andrea said. 

The man simply chuckled a bit. “Two blindfolds and gags? Ok, are you sure you aren't filming a pornography?” 

“Jericho you idiot!” said Andrea with a laugh. “No, we need to bind them for sure. You got something like that?”

“Sure do.” Jericho laughed. “Back in the office though. Follow me.”

Andrea followed the bigger man and they walked a few corridors to a little office.

“Blindfold and gag, sure here.” The security man said and dove into the supply closet before giving Andrea the items. “Don’t actually film it though, but tell me when you go do it, even if these guns won't kill them we can still hurt them enough and give you a distraction to give you time to save at least one more soul.”

Andrea rubbed Jericho's back. “I thank you for that, we need to wait until they wake up but you will be inside the room with us or at least in striking distance. No need to endanger any of the younger ones.”

Andrea returned to the prisoners after that and attached the remaining stuff and took a step back admiring their handiwork.

“You think that is enough?” asked Andrea, her brother who only nodded. “Yes it is enough. If not then we are done anyway.”

“Yeah.” sighted Andrea. “How long until they wake up?”

John pointed to the smaller one. “That one will not take that long, she only needed one dart to fall over completely, now Cleveland here took a lot, so she will probably not wake up anytime soon.”

“Good. At least the bitch will wake up later. We should leave them here but stay behind the black mirror or was it a one way one, anyway you know what I mean.” Andrea said and she and her brother moved behind the glass to look into the prison cell where the two sirens remained. “And now we wait. John, please get someone to bring us their weapons.”

_________________________

“Urgh.” Cleveland groaned and slowly opened her eyes. “Urgh, wha-where?”

She was blindfolded so she couldn't see anything.

*Ohh, awake, stay quiet.*

Clevelandd blinked a bit. “Why should I stay quiet?”

Although she tried to say that, no word came out. Her tongue told her she was gagged yet she didnt feel one in her mouth.

“What the heck?” Cleveland mumbled through the methaphorical gag.

*Shut up before they hurt you, they interrogated Elma and I'm trying to find out what's going on. Ohh and no tentacles or portals or anything for now.*

Cleveland wanted to complain but complied for once and listened.

“So tell me your name, you siren!” demanded a woman.

“Unit designation is Enforcer E-12-m-1. Assigned to Arbiter VI.” Elma said in a monotone voice. “Awaiting orders.”

“And who is this Arbiter?” asked the woman. She clearly sounded frustrated.

“Classified Information, only high class sirens are able to access this and recalibrate this unit.” Elma answered.

"Stop acting like a robot, John give her another shock." Said the woman.

'Who is that?' Thought Cleveland and heard some weird charging sound before a louder sound electricity followed.

*That my dear seems to be the leader here, and they're lightly torturing our Enforcer friend.*

Clevelands eyes widened under her blindfold. 'What! No! I have to stop them.' 

*Stop, don't, it's not like they can hurt her, or you for the fact. Maybe some light cuts but nothing that can’t heal in a minute.*

'But that doesn't make it any better. They hurt her and they shouldn’t. She is innocent.' Cleveland complained soundlessly.

*I really want to hear your past self react to you saying exactly that over a siren.*

Cleveland looked at Observer. 'Elma isn't a siren, those have yellow eyes.'

*Like you.*

'Shut up, I'm not one!' Cleveland grumbled.

*Oh I feel like soon you don't have a chance to deny it anymore.*

The electricity sound stopped. 

"So will you talk now?" That woman asked with exhaustion.

'How long have they been at it siren?' Cleveland asked.

*Does it pain you so much to address me by my name?*

'You are my enemy so I shall respond accordingly.' Cleveland huffed and chibi Observer exhaled. 'So how long have they tortured Elma now?'

*Her interrogation lasts for exactly 55 minutes and 34 seconds since it began.*

'They torture her since almost an hour?!' Cleveland gasped. 'Why are the shipgirls so cruel?'

*They aren't shipgirls, they're actually humans. And I wouldnt call it torture, more like aggressive asking.*

'But humans would never be cruel.' Cleveland exhaled.

*EX-FUCKING-CUSE ME? Did you ever actually watch and read the news?*

Cleveland was confused. 'Of course, we were created to protect them, they were a bit evil but when they had a enemy in you-"

*Us. You're also a siren.*

'No I'm not. And while humanity has its flaws you say that they willingly kill each other.' Cleveland ranted.

*Ok they have given you false history books.*

'What?' Cleveland asked. 'What do you mean?'

*Why do you exist?*

'To fight you you-' Cleveland started but stopped when she was hit by something.

"That bitch over there sleeps and this one plays robot." The woman gasped out. "Brother full charge for 2s."

Cleveland couldn’t even ask before she heard electricity and smelled burning flesh.

'What are they doing to Elma?' Cleveland  asked, full of panic.

*Soo, Seminare harmful electricity, strong enough to seriously harm a shipgirl, kill a human but merely able to burn the outer layer of flesh of a siren, she is fine.*

The electricity stopped as did Cleveland's breath.

"Outer layer damage detected, small electrical burns….processing damage….fixing damage…...progress completed." Elma responded.

"God can you please show emotion." Said a male voice. "Look sis, she regenerates from that damage almost immediately. Damm, are these sirens built differently?"

"According to the data logs that should nearly paralyze a shipgirl. Sirens aren’t that much stronger right?" Said the woman.

*A destroyer to be precise. A battleship would still fight after it. Sirens are very much more durable but she is an Enforcer, that you even made her feel pain is something.*

“Well then how about we let her rest, we clearly don’t get anything out of her. Say why do you have the gags again?” Said the man.

“The gags were for the case that they speak bullshit but none of them actually talk so yeah. Also we need to know if Cleveland wakes up.” said the woman.

‘Hey they know me.’ though Cleveland and smiled a bit.

*Ehh I doubt that that’s a good thing.*

‘What do you mean?’ Cleveland asked but had to stop as she heard someone walk infront of her. “What can we do to you?”

Cleveland felt malice in her voice and much more but couldn't identify why.

The woman walked around Cleveland.

“Looks like a siren and like Cleveland.” She did something and Cleveland could only guess what she did.

*I am still surprised that they think these chains can hold us. Well let's see how this goes.*

“Look at that, hehehe, John guess what she doesn’t have?” The woman laughed.

“Her weapon currently? It lays on the table there.” said the man.

“Oh I know that, but it's funny to know that this girl doesn't wear underwear.” snickered the woman and Cleveland awoke fully.

“I AM NOT DOING WHAT??!?!” Cleveland screamed and closed her legs. She tried to cover her breast as well but her restraints, which were strained almost to the point of breaking, wouldn’t allow that.

“Oh look, you’re awake you little prostitute.” snickered the woman. 

“Yes I’m awake now unbind me, Alpha explain.” Cleveland said in a rush.

Observer smirked.

*Keep that with my name. I like it.*

“Answer my question siren!” Cleveland groaned hard.

*Ok ok, soooo I knew I forgot something while calibrating your body. Looks like it was underwear. Not that you need it anyway.*

“Of course I need it, add it or something!” Cleveland demanded.

“Ohh look, are you talking to a ghost?” snickered the woman.

“Lady. Please keep quiet for a minute. I must argue with a siren in my head.” Cleveland said with a smile and looked at chibi Observer.

*Really? Ok I will look how I can but I doubt it’s possible.*

“Just do it.” Cleveland said. “To think that I was basically running around nude the entire time. Urgh.”

*You really don’t need it though.*

“Of course I need-ouch.” Cleveland argued but she got hit on the head by something.

Her blindfold was removed and Cleveland could finally see where she was.

A barren room with multiple people in it. Most of them were pointing guns at her.

She looked at the woman who held a crowbar.

“So now to you this bitch. Done with arguing with no one?” Said the woman and touched Cleveland's head. “Answer honestly now. Are you a siren or a shipgirl now?”

Elma looked over. “She’s a Siren.”

*She’s a Siren.*

“I’m a Shipgirl.” Cleveland answered and the woman's smile turned upwards.

The woman kneeled down to her. “See John, not a siren. So that means you are Cleveland right? Cleveland of the Cleveland class of light cruisers?”

Cleveland smiled and her heart breathed in relief. “Finally someone who gets it. Yes I’m Cleveland.”

“Cleveland of Azur lane?” The woman asked as well. 

“Yes, yes. Please tell them I am here and await to rejoin them. I was lost and due to my looks I can't exactly walk into there but if I explain myself they will see that I’m not evil.” Cleveland said relieved. 

“So you’re the true Cleveland then, that’s good.” The woman said. “I’m Andrea and that is my brother John.” 

The man smiled and waved. 

Cleveland exhaled. “Finally someone who isn’t immediately hostile.”

Andrea took a step back. “Hmm, well, answer me this Cleveland, do you know the Seaside country highschool?”

Cleveland was a little confused. “Hmm, no I don’t know. Which school is that?”

Cleveland could swear she saw Andrea twitch. 

Andrea looked into Cleveland's eyes. “Hmm, does the 4th february this year mean something to you, or what happened there?”

Cleveland was confused. “Nothing as far as I know.”

“Nothing you say hmm.” Andrea held her chin. “Then how about we jog your mind a bit?”

“We can. Did something happen that day?” asked Cleveland.

Andrea laughed a bit and looked into Cleveland's eyes. “Oh something did happen that day and you were directly involved in it.”

“Huh? No, I wasn’t.” Cleveland said.

Andrea bent down a bit. “Oh, how about I speak to you clearly. John.” 

“Yes, ok. So Cleveland.” Said the man, John, and moved over with some machine.

“What’s that?” Cleveland asked, referring to the machine.

“Aha, attention to me.” Andrea said and Cleveland tuned to her. “Now again, what happened on the 4th february this year.”

“Nothing as far as I know. I wasn’t there.” answered Cleveland.

*Well you were still dead then.*

‘You really aren't helping.’ Thought Cleveland as she looked at the two who looked at her with something akin to shock.

“Oh really? Think!” said Andrea, her voice leaking malice.

“What do you mean, nothing important happened that day.” Cleveland said. “What are you edging too-*think* OUCH!!!!!”

Andrea struck her head with the crowbar. “Maybe this will help you.”

Cleveland couldn't respond, she was laying on her back and Andrea was mercilessly beating at her. 

“Stop.” Cleveland demanded. It hurt like she was getting hit by a pillow but this was more emotional. Why was this human beating at her? What did she do wrong?

“Stop? STOP?! Did you stop when the children were begging for mercy, when you slaughtered them all.” Andre snarled and picked up Cleveland before throwing her to the side. “John give it to her.”

Cleveland was crying and processed what she heard. “What do you mean, I never attacked anyone!”

She wanted to stand up but a collar was put on her throat, the same one she already had when the little kid gave this to her at the beach.

“Why are you doing this? What did I do? AAAAAAAARRGHHHHGGHG!” Cleveland screamed as her body again was filled with electricity. 

“Why, you ask!? We are a school class or more refugees. When you shipgirls started your conquest you killed everyone, you and your sisters killed about 60% of the people on the cruise ship.” John said with anger and kicked the screaming “shipgirl”.  “You destroyed so many of our lives and now you expect mercy from us?”

John deactivated the shock collar and Cleveland slumped to the ground.

“What did I do wrong?” Cleveland cried. “Why do you punish me for something I never did- AAAAAAAAARG!” 

“What did you do wrong, you ask?” said Andrea as she activated the collar again. “How about we start with how you ripped apart several people with a smile on your face, shipgirl.”

“I did no such thing.” Cleveland struggled through the pain.

*If you admit you are a siren then you probably get out of here, wait I will hack the machine.*

The machine made some weird noises before it stopped.

“What’s wrong with the damm machine John?” asked  Andrea as she watched her brother look at it. 

“Transformator stopped, stop hurting Cleveland, what does that mean now? Addressed by O.A.” John said and tried to activate it again. “Whatever it is, I can't access the machine.”

Andrea turned to a guard in the room. “Then we will make it easier. Jerry, will you bring the pictures? Maybe that will move her mind.”

The man nodded and left the room.

“Why do you hurt me?” Cleveland cried. “I didn’t do any of that!”

John kicked her in the stomach. “Oh we saw you do it, only with an order over the radio did you stop.”

“I wasn’t there.” Cleveland struggled through her tears. She wasn’t hurt in the slightest physically but mentally that was a whole other thing. “I never did and would never do any of that, we are humanities protectors, we fight sirens.”

Elma looked confused but the other two had a hateful look in their eyes.

Andrea grabbed Cleveland and pulled her up by her collar before she smacked Cleveland.

“How come that this shipgirl has a bigger chest than I have? Bitch.” Snarled Andrea as she lept holding Cleveland up.

“Error, entity is not a shipgirl.” Elma said while looking at her.

“No Elma I am one, don’t lie.” Cleveland gasped out as John took a crowbar and began beating her back. 

“A siren we might forget but the shipgirl Cleveland we will not forgive.” Anrea said before she punched her in the face.

The guard that left earlier returned and brought a recorder with him which he promptly sat on the table.

“What’s that now?” Cleveland said. Her mind hurt from thinking because she couldn’t understand any of them.

“A recorder, and something we will show you. Jerry, can you start the last few minutes, we can’t watch 2 hours now.” John said and walked over to the recorder.

John hooked the thing up to a projector and some speakers and started the recording.

The recording showed a corridor and the waves could be heard outside.

“This is a recording of the cruise ship we were staying in.” Andrea said and leaned against the wall. “Just watch bitch.” 

Suddenly the hallway exploded and out came Columbia. 

Cleveland exhaled at that. “Sister! See you are safe.”

“Where are these sirens, we already got the one on the upper deck. Hey Monti, are there any on your side?” asked Columbia as she walked down the hallway. 

The ceiling exploded and down jumped Montpelier. “Nope no one.”

Columbia shook her head. “Well then we need to look here.” 

She kicked open a door but had to immediately duck as a shot  almost hit her. 

“Here are sirens.”  Columbia snickered and ran into the room with her rigging drawn.

Cleveland exhaled but chibi Observer looked concerned.

*I have a very bad feeling here.*

The sound of struggling came over the speaker. “Monti catch.”

Columbia threw a figure into the hallway and Montpelier caught it and slammed it against the wall...but something was wrong about it….it didn’t look anywhere close to a siren.

*Is that? Oh shit!*

The figure was an old man, looking to be in his 40s, not a siren.

Cleveland stared in shock at the screen. “Monti, that's an old man! Don't hurt him!”

“That's our school principal, a former soldier from the anti-siren orders years ago, who became a fair and nice man for us after he was discharged after you shipgirls took over...” Andrea said. Cleveland simply looked at what was going on on the screen.

“Are that all?” asked Montpelier as she held the man.

“No there are still some in here and the other rooms according to the sonar, but turning it off and searching the sirens here is much more funny!” Columbia snickered.

She came out of the room and led a bunch of humans ahead. “All of you sirens stand at the wall, eyes to the wall.”

The humans, mostly children, did exactly that and Columbia moved into the other rooms.

Montpelier was standing guard and held her weapons ready at all the humans.

“What are they doing?” Cleveland asked. “They are innocent, why are you threatening them?”

“Just look at what you and your sisters did.” John said from the side.

“What is the meaning of this?” Elma asked but got no response, she too just looked at the recording.

Cleveland's heart fell with every human that was added until the hallway was full of humans and Columbia checked the last room.

Now the hallway was filled with humans,mostly childs and teenagers, all whimpering and covering against the wall.

“Why are you doing this?” asked a little girl. She was crying like many.

Montpelier went over and grabbed her head. “We just protect humanity from the Sirens!”

Columbia opened a radio channel. “Hey Enterprise, we found all the sirens here, what should we do?”

“Those aren’t sirens sis, open your eyes!” Cleveland complained.

“The usual huh, ok. Monti, you take them from the left.” Columbia shrugged and walked to the right. 

Cleveland had no time to even question what's going on before her heart stopped for a second as she heard a sound that she heard often enough...just never wished to hear in this context.

The sound of a gun going off, a shipgirls main gun.

It took a second for Cleveland to hear what was going on and she fixed her view on the recording...and how she wished she hadn't.

The humans were screaming as one by one they were grabbed by Cleveland's sisters and were executed with single shots to their heads.

Every shot fired made Cleveland's heart skip a beat.

Cleveland would never forget the screams or the vision. 

“SISTERS STOP!” She screamed with tears rolling down her cheeks at the recording but the massacre continued.

It took no time for the hallway to be stained red. Cleveland's sisters were coated in blood too, but they were still smiling.

“So that takes care of those sirens.” snickered Montpelier. “Man, they bleed a lot more than 2 years ago.”

The two snickered and were about to leave but then the door opened and a teenager with a gun stood there.

“Freeze.” He screamed and aimed at the two. “Stay where you are.”

The two Cleveland class ships looked unconvinced and helt up their hands.

“What will the siren do to us dear sister? Will he hurt us?” snickered Montpelier.

“Don’t fuck with me, why did you kill everyone?!” the teen demanded to know. He walked past the countless dead and helt the assault rifle in the faces of the two shipgirls.

“Ohh we just protect humanity.” answered Columbia.

The teen seemed to get even angrier. “What the fuck do you mean? You slaughter us, not save us-.”

The ceiling broke and the teenager was thrown back.

From the smoke came two shots which impacted the teens stomach sending him to the ground.

Out of the smoke came someone Cleveland all too well knew….herself.

The fake Cleveland walked to the teen and grabbed him hard. She herself was also covered in red and had a look of hatred on her face.

“Don’t you dare to threaten my sister's Siren!” The fake Cleveland said and grabbed the teens head. 

She took hold of the teens head and stared at his eyes.

“No one.” She pressed her hands together. “Threatens.” The teens head was breaking. “MY SISTERS!” The teens head was ripped off from its body.

Fake Cleveland dropped the head and ran to her sisters who she brought into a hug. ”You aren't hurt right?”

They both shook her head. “We are fine Aneki.”

Fake Cleveland smiled. “Ok, then I hope you are ok, we still need to clear 5 decks with sirens.”

They left the room but fake Cleveland turned around in the doorway and aimed her rigging. “Pon.”

A shell flew and hit the camera leaving an error screen that remained for a few seconds.

The recorder cut out and the horror stopped on the outside, inside Cleveland's mind every scene was repeated countless times.

She wanted to throw up or hold her head and scream but her body wasn't responding at all.

“So I think this around wraps it up on why we hate you!” John said.

Cleveland simply stared at the white screen with wide eyes, her mouth and mind not even able to form a sentence or word.

Andrea gigled a bit. “So nothing important happened that day huh?”

Cleveland began shaking and shaking her head before with a scream she cried out a scream before she let her head hang.

“So any last words before we execute you.” Jericho said before he and Andrea grabbed Clevelands scythe. “God and she can swing that heavy thing around without problems? But this should kill her at least.”

Cleveland remained emotionless, still staring at the white screen, thinking about the horror she just witnessed.

“I take that as a no.” Andrea said as they prepared to swing the scythe in a way that would decapitate Cleveland.

*Ehh Cleveland, would you say something?*

The scythe was at its highest point  now and Cleveland still hasn’t reacted.

*Cleves?*

The scythe began coming down and Cleveland looked at her reflection in the blade.

What she said then broke something deep inside of her.

“I am a siren.” screamed Cleveland with total hopelessness.

Andrea redirected the blade of the scythe and it hit next to her, barely missing Cleveland's head and impacting the ground.

*Fucking finally.*

“Would you care to repeat that?” Snickered Andrea as she bent down to Cleveland. Said light cruiser had her hair hanging over her wide and panic filled eyes.

“I am a siren.” Cleveland cried lightly. Her voice was filled with pain, emotion and regret.

“No lie detected. It’s the truth she is one, don’t judge her on the stuff someone else did.” Elma said. 

“See, now we can work for real since we now know that you weren’t the one that caused that.” Andrea said to Clevelands almost soulless form. “Your body and everything else speaks the truth of you being a siren. Sadly, or perhaps worse, we never know what Azur Lane can produce so we had to make sure you’re not one of them. You really seem to be traumatised by this so I can assume that that wasn’t you.” 

Andrea and Jerry put away the scythe again. “Anyway we will talk tomorrow, the kids need food and I need to help in the kitchen. John, can you release them?”

Andrea left the room with that and left the crying Cleveland. 

John pondered for a second. “Hmm well then both of you weren’t there, don't think we let you go now but we can at least cut you free as long as you promise you stay in this room and do not attack or act hostile. Guards will be outside at any given moment.”

“Conditions accepted. Commencing fixing internal damage.” Elma said as she was freed of her binds. 

John came over to the kneeling form of Cleveland and freed her as well. 

Cleveland simply remained in her position. Tears fell to the ground in front of her.

“I am a siren.” Cleveland muttered under her breath as she sat there and cried.

Chapter Text

Elma stood up and looked around. All guards left the room after John and left the two sirens alone in the room.

She looked at the still crying siren in the middle of the room and walked up to her where she patted her back.

"Friend, is everything Ok?" Elma asked and kneeled next to the girl.

"Do I look like I'm ok?" Said the girl. Tears still stained her cheeks. "How could I be ok after that?"

Elma was confused. “What do you mean? That wasn't you, only a shipgirl lookalike.”

“A lookalike...a…..a….A LOOKALIKE!” screamed the siren as she looked at Elma. “That was me! How was that me!!”

“That wasn’t you, you are a siren and they only have one of everyone, urgh.” Elma said quickly but then was grabbed by the collar.

The other siren looked at her with only fury and self hate. “If that wasn’t me then who was that because that wasn’t me. I was...I guess dead at that point.”

*Yes you were.*

“Ohh still alive? Then who was that Alpha!.” The siren screamed while looking at the ground. Her tears were still flooding down her face. “Who could disguise herself as me and do so many horrible things.”

*Hard to explain but I guess we will meet evil Cleveland someday.*

“Evil Cleveland...that...that implies that that is Cleveland.” The siren said out of breath. “Which implies that I’m not Cleveland.”

“But you aren’t.” Elma said and the siren snapped up to her, her eyes looked dead. “You’re a siren and not a shipgirl, and I can assure you you never attacked and massacred humans like the shipgirls there did.”

“These shipgirls you speak of there are my sisters, at least they should be.” The siren said. “My sisters who became monsters.”

Elma only shook her head and hugged the siren who clung to her for dear life. “These aren’t your sisters. That is the Cleveland class but you are a siren which means you aren't affiliated to each other. So how about you tell me your name?” Elma smiled down at the siren in her arms. “It clearly ain’t Cleveland...which is weird because you look like her but normally the pawn clones we had have no personality. Are you an experiment?”

The siren looked broken. “I don’t even know myself. I was Cleveland yet now I’m not anymore." She gulped hard. "Who am I?’”

Elma patted her back. “I can still call you Cleveland. But that isn’t your name.”

The siren stared at Elma. "Just tell me who I'm supposed to be."

*Your name is still Cleveland, but also Observer Beta.*

"If I had a Scanner I could tell you who you are." Elma said and ruffled the siren's hair. "If you prefer Cleveland I'm fine with that."

The siren nodded and Elma let go of her.

"Observer Beta you say...is that….is that who I am?? Hehe. HAHAHA." Cleveland chuckled before she had to hold her mouth closed. "Am I just another experiment and replacement for you Alpha."

"Are you speaking of Observer Alpha?" Asked Elma as she looked with concern at the other siren who slid with her back down the wall she leaned against. "More importantly, how can you contact her? The network is down."

"The damm bit-....girl is in my head." Cried Cleveland. "Observer Beta, is that me, am I that?"

Cleveland breathing became rapid.

"Are my sisters monsters? Am I a Monster? Are all I know monsters? Hehehehe!" Cleveland laughed madly. "It's all different. Everyone has changed... I'm talking with someone that would've killed me immediately in the past, and there's a person I hate in my head."

Elma got concerned at all that. "Cleveland, are you ok?"

"Hahahah! OK, she says. DO I LOOK FUCKING OK! HAHAHAHA!" Cleveland cried. "I lost everything and everyone went crazy. I want to die and can't and now I am captured by the ones that I'm supposed to protect, them, like my friends, seeing me as the enemy. IT'S TOO FUNNY ISN'T IT ENFORCER!!"

Emma took a step back and started at the panicked siren. "What do you even mean? Why do you want to die?"

Cleveland stood up and looked at the Enforcer. Her look, nothing less than pure craziness.

"Hehehehe." She giggled as she approached Elma. "Die I just want to die….KILL ME!"

Elma pushed Cleveland away but that one just held her robes and pulled Elma down with her.

"Kill me you bastard, take that halberd and pierce my heart. Now!" Cleveland giggled while pointing to their weapons on the table.

"WHY!?" Screamed Elma and slapped her, making her stop completely. "What's wrong with you?!"

The siren under Elma didn't answer, she only let out small sobs. "I can't take it anymore, I can’t deal with this! My own sisters are monsters and I'm not even human anymore."

She rolled away and began gagging, soon throwing up bile and whatever liquid was in her stomach.

Elma just held Clevelands white hair, which seemed to have a slight tint of purple now, up as the girl spat out whatever was in her stomach.

After she was done she struggled to her feet and walked to the corner of the room.

"Monsters... Just monsters..." She silently cried.

Elma patted Cleveland's back. "Calm down, you aren’t thinking straight."

"Straight, hehe, straight she says as if she could understand my situation." Giggled Cleveland. "You say be ok and calm down, but how could I calm down after seeing that horror!!"

"You act like that's your first time seeing Shipgirls doing evil things. They have been doing that for a long time now." Said Elma and stopped patting Clevelands back.

"So what Wales said was right, hehehe, we have been monsters for our whole existence." Cleveland said while anger swelled up in her voice.

With a crash she slammed her head into the wall, denting the reinforced steel and sending the room shaking.

"It's all a joke!" Crack "Everything has been set up!" Crack "It's just a sick game for them!" Crack "We all have been played like a fiddle!" Crack "Our existence is a lie!" Crack "We were used like chess pieces in a sick game!" Crack "I will make them regret it!" Crack "I will make them return freedom to everything!" Crack “I will rip them to shreds for what they did!” Crack "I WILL KILL THEM ALL!!!!"

With one final slam she created a very big dent in the steel wall, resembling her face, and fell back on her back where she remained.

Elma kneeled down and shook her. "Hey what was that...oh you're knocked out." Elma shook her head. "Strange girl, that's for sure."

The door opened and in came John with two trays of food. “I felt rude to let you two out so I made you somethi----what the hell happened here?”

He looked at Cleveland who laid passed out on the floor. “Is she ok?”

Elma just shrugged. “She apparently thinks she is Cleveland, a good one that is, so I assume what you showed her there mentally broke her or something. Well she knocked herself out…..you said food?”

“Yeah, but I assume Cleveland won’t need that now, you want it still?” John said and put the trays on the table where their weapons laid. "I'm surprised that you show emotion, a few minutes ago you behaved more like a robot."

John stepped back and Elma all but jumped at the food.

In mere seconds most of the plate vanished in the gullet of the awake siren.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Elma thanked between devouring the food and looking up.

“You must be hungry.” John laughed at the siren scarfing down rice and chicken. "If you stick with me we can go to the cafeteria and get more."

Elma finished her plate and looked at the taller man. She held her stomach a bit. “Hungry.”

“As I guessed. Come with me, but leave your weapon here.” John giggled and beckoned the siren to follow him.

They left the room and went on a long talk with several security guards.

“Don’t be alarmed. These are just here for protection.” John remarked as Elma looked at the heavily armed soldiers.

“M-16 and HK-416, military assault rifles, totally ineffective against shipgirls, not to mention sirens. Conclusion would be that you cannot harm me.” Elma concluded and the soldiers visibly recompiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t harm you without a reason.”

That certainly didn’t put the worry out of the guards but they soon entered a building with many children running around and eating.

“These are a lot of small humans.” Exclaimed Elma as she looked around the room. She took a seat at an empty table and John filled up a tray with some food and sat it in front of Elma who again quickly devoured the plate.

This process repeated many times with Elma eating everything and John and several people getting impressed and worried by the amount the siren could eat.

“God can you stop, we might need some for everyone here, monster.” One guard complained and got two things as a response.

“I guess you are right. I’m not nearly full but I think I can heal from that at least a little.” Admitted Elma and leaned back.

Her admitting and stopping was the first thing the guard got.

The second thing was a stare that nearly let the man soak his pants.

“You are damaged?“ asked John as he took a seat. “And excuse him, he could have said that a bit nicer.”

Elma snickered , her fox ears fluttering a bit. “No no, I get it. Sirens also attacked humanity so it’s not too far to think he has an disstace for me…..however I am an Enforcer, meaning I never joined the attacks on the cities so this could be considered racist.”

“Whatever you say, siren.” Said the same guard.

“Who is that anyway? He seems to exclude more open hatred for sirens than the other guards in this room.” Elma said after observing the many people in the room.

John exhaled and slumped down in his seat. “All of us here lost many things from the siren and shipgirls alike. Just be glad that most don’t insult you openly. Cleveland will have it worse.”

“Say what did the shipgirl Cleveland do to you exactly? The siren one back there seems to be horrified by all you showed her...although she seems to be a different case of special.” Elma said while she looked around the room.

Her sheer presence appeared to cause quite the audience to gather as many little children were staring at her.

John leaned back. "For that we have to go back around roughly a year. You probably remember the day the sirens, so you, were defeated."

"A dark day, the main force fell and the smaller bases were picked off one by one. All because the leaders were taken out." Said Elma with a sad expression.

"It's kind of funny, normally you would probably just shoot me." John snickered. “I guess time changed. Anyway after you were defeated we got around 7 months of peace and our world kind of normalised itself.”

“Yeah, and the remaining sirens went into hiding or ran back home. I guess the leaders ordered a full evacuation. Well the logs are unfinished and cut off so I don’t know for sure.” Elma said with a big exhale.

John exhaled as well. “Maybe, I can’t know but to come to the point in those 7 months of peace the shipgirls continued to build their army...why am I even saying this, you know this.”

“Yeah. They then slowly attacked ports and cities and soon took control over most countries.” Elma said, her ears flat against her head. “But not control, they killed and bombed everything back to the stoneage and now humanity is almost extinct.”

“Yes, that is the truth. That day we will never forget, the day before the internet was overtaken and shut down.” John said. All other guards also seemed to sway in memories. “We were on a cruise with several schools, one elementary school too, when the mass alert came that the shipgirls now destroy humanity to create peace.” John gulped. “Of course no one believed that at first and we even encountered some shipgirls out there on the sea. They boarded the ship and for several hours stayed nice and playful with us. But then.”

Elma sat up straight. “Then that changed huh. Who boarded your ship?”

“Yes it did and it was the Cleveland class, all 4 of them.” Said John. “That's why the Cleveland back in the cell will have it hard here. They started shooting and killing everyone they saw and after we all went hiding it became a game of cat and mouse. I saw so many people die that day. From that day on our cruise became a fight for survival.”

“If only we could have prevented that. Humanity would still live and thrive.” Said Elma and took a cookie that was given to her.

“You also killed a lot of people you know.” said the voice of Andrea who walked through the door. “The cafeteria? John, did you take her out on a date?”

John groaned at his sister's smugness. “Sis...ugh. No, she was just hungry.”

“Yes definitely, where’s the other one then?” snickered Andrea and took a seat next to the siren. “Everyone of you can go, if she hasn't attacked now she will not do it in the future either...and I doubt we could even stop her.”

The guards looked confused but then most of them left.

“The cell, she knocked herself out if I can believe miss E here.” Admitted John. “She must have slammed her head into the wall enough times to cause herself serious brain damage.”

“She had some sort of mental argument and then just beat her head on the wall, she is a strange siren.” Elma giggled. “It appears you mentally broke her.”

“She truly seemed horrified but that's the truth. Now we can actually go through a weird idea my brother here had.” Andrea said while looking at her brother.

“Yes, my idea, not like we both speculated that .” John said and fixated his vision on Elma.

“You sirens also attacked humanity but you were less cruel so I ask you, and in extension Cleveland too, if not join us, to at least assist us in some supply runs.” Said John and took Elma back a bit.

“Join you? I’m bound to my master and can’t join.” Elma declared. ”But offering a temporary assistance, I can accept that, but I need to talk with Cleveland about that.”

Andrea smiled at that.

“Who even is your master?” Asked John as he looked at the siren. “Most information wasn't given to the general public so we can only go after the documents we found in this little research facility with an army connection that for some reason isn’t disconnected from the military network.”

“Classified data. Only high sirens with the status of an observer are able to access this data.” Elma said in a monotone voice.

“You really can’t, come on, just say it.” Andrea pressured but a hand to her shoulder stopped her.

“Sis, we can't pressure her. She will not give us anything anyway.” Said John with a defeated look in his eyes.

“I cannot share that information. Do you still wish for my assistance? I need to talk to my friend about that.” Elma said now with emotion again.

“Then go do that, but before that, you can walk on water, yes?” Andrea asked.

“Yes I’m capable of that.” Elma answered which led to Andrea having a big sigh of relief. “I also am able to match a battleship in strength.”

Andrea practically grinned at that.

“Ok then you can help us out now. There are a few ships we need to repair and inspect.” Andrea started. “Problem is that we don’t have a drydock and since we can’t exactly lift a ship we have only one usable ship at the moment. If you are able to hold the crawlers up and our former cruise ship planner inspects them then you helped us out a lot already.”

Elma stood up and held out her hand which Andrea quickly accepted in a shake. “We came to an agreement, I shall help you, lead the way.”

“I must thank you for that.” Andrea said. “Follow me.”

Elma complied and followed the woman out of the room. John and the guards followed behind them.

They barely got out of the door and….. “WEEEEEE.” something landed on Elmas shoulders.

Not that it surprised the siren, or even bothered her, but whatever now sat on her shoulders touched her ears….and that made her go completely rigged.

“Hey come down from the siren, she ain’t your friend, please don’t hurt her siren.” Andrea said but the child that apparently sat on Elmas shoulders didn’t listen and continued massaging the fox ears of the siren. Said siren was meanwhile shut off and as stiff as a rock.

“Fluffy.” giggled the child.

John finally acted and lifted the child off the siren.

“Is everything ok, please don’t be mad.” Andrea begged as Elma finally began moving again. Her ears moving in all directions and her cheeks swelling up red.

“Are you blushing?” asked Andrea and Elma looked away shyly.

Elma just nodded and most people there descended into laughter.

“For real, from touching your fluffy ears?” John giggled and Elma didn’t even get mad, just more embarrassed.

“They’re sensitive ok.” Elma whispered and slumbed her shoulders. “Please stop.”

“Ok ok ok, a siren is that easier to embaress, I’ll note that down.” Andrea snickered as the laughter quieted and they resumed their walk down to the dock.

“Ok now we get to work, get the welding gear ready everyone.” John said and organized many people with many different crates and other stuff to work in the background.

They all waited for Elma to go at it and the siren jumped on the surface of the water. “Ok let's get to work.”

________

Sirens blared all over the buildings and multiple fires were burning.

Shells and bullets flew through the sky and explosions cracked the ground and cave. With its opening closed the fire alone illuminated the cave and showed a grimm scenery.

Bodies lined the floor. All were butchered by heavy artillery and their faces were twisted with pain and surprise.

A quick attack made to devastate and exterminate yet the attacker didn’t expect to meet an enemy that could resist them here.

Elma stood on the water with her halberd drawn, staring down the people that were responsible for all the agony and destruction behind her.

A maid clad in black and white with gauntlets stained in blood.

Two grown women clad in heavy metal, bearing high caliber guns spewing destruction.

Another woman in front, not to attack but to shield, yet she shields the wrong allies.

Elma drew her halberd and took a stance. “You shall go no further.”

She might be damaged but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t go down without a fight… yet the others wouldn’t as well.

All guns and weapons were directed at each other. The killing intent clear in the burning sky.

The screams in the background quieted down as the 5 figures silently stared at each other.

No matter what they all thought, there was one thing that was clear to every one of them.

This fight would only end with the death of the other side… and they wouldn’t stop until that is archived.

Chapter Text

Smack Smack Smack

Belfast's gauntlets hit the sandbag time and time again. The chain barely able to resist the force of the relentless punches.

“Who does that siren think she is, killing my sister, oh she will regret that.” Said the head maid as she gave the bag another uppercut, sending it flying. “I’ll get her in my hands and rip her heart out, yes that's what I’ll do!”

She grabbed the bag again and began mercilessly beating it. Thankfully she was alone or another person might hear her...well even if they would put it on her damaged mental state and her grief over the loss of her sister.

“I’ll kill her like we do with all of humanity.” Belfast smiled sadistically.

“You would be wise to remember not to bloat out our entire plan, you know.” Said someone as she grabbed the maids shoulder.

Belfast spun around and delivered a punch which the other figure barely managed to dodge.

“Woah Bel calm down.” Said the woman as she looked at the barely missed strike. She had to duck out of the way.

“Enty….what?” Belfast asked and retracted her hand and looked at Enterprise with pain. “I’m sorry I..I.”

Enterprise giggled a bit and rightened her composure. “Don’t sweat it. You would have only blasted my head off, why are you training in rigging anyway...and if you want a spar we can do that outside.”

“I don’t want a spar dummy, you merely surprised me.” Huffed Belfast as she relaxed a bit. “And I train to be ready.”

“Ready for what, it's not like any human can beat us.” Said Enterprise as she looked at Belfast. “Look at you, you look like you haven’t slept in days. Your sister only died 2 days ago.”

Belfast's face twisted into rage. “She didn’t die! She was murdered!”

“Ohh did humanity find a way to hurt your dear sister?” Giggled Enterprise.

Belfast only turned around and punched the sandbag with everything she got, shattering the outside and punching a hole into it, penetrating the shipgirl resistant armoring and hitting the sand inside the bag.

Enterprise looked at the situation and shook her head. “Ohh now you ruined it, those are always that hard to replace and dispose of you know.”

“I’ll kill that siren with my bare hands!” Gasped Belfast and pulled her now Sand covered Hand out of the bag. “And we can always build other punching bags.”

Enterprise looked a bit confused. “Siren? Do you believe the lie we tell the girls now too?”

“No! According to Kent they met an actual fucking siren, even if a clone one, even though Kent said that that one showeed emotion and wasn’t a mindless robot like the usual ones.” Said Belfast with a vile taste.

Enterprise took a step back. “An actual siren? Didn’t we kill them all?”

“That's what I thought too.” Said Belfast as she took off the sandbag. “Maybe ask Tester that.”

“She is barely even able to think anymore, no we will give her a few days, you know how rough our fun sections can get.” Giggled Enterprise. “So you are training to be ready to beat some weak siren?”

“She killed my sister. She can’t be weak.” Belfast said and gritted her teeth. “I don’t care how anyone views me anymore, I’ll rip her head off of her shoulders.”

“But most sirens can lose their head darling.” Laughed Enterprise ant Belfast who definitely wasn’t amused.

“She ain’t Purifier, and that one is hiding, no Kent said it was Cleveland.” Breathed Belfast. “And who cares who she is, she will die by my hands.”

Belfast detached the sandbag fully and disposed of it by dumping it in the trash. After that she activated the garbage disposal system.

“You really are so obsessed now.” Said Enterprise. “So we finally lost Edinburgh. Didn’t even know that you could express emotion about a loss anymore.”

“Of course I can express emotions, she died for Christ's sake.” Snarled Belfast.

“Yes she did.” Admitted Enterprise. “Like a hundred times before that and there you were not even close to emotional then, more annoyed that she even died.”

“But now she can’t come back, that's the difference.” Belfast nearly screamed at Enterprise.

“But now what, she just died another time, you could have reacted the other times.” Said Enterprise.

“I didn't because I didn’t had anything to worry about then.” Argued Belfast. “Its the same as if I just murder Yorktown right now.”

Enterprise's smile fell and she stared at the Maid. “You will not even think about hurting her.”

“Hurt?” Asked Belfast. “You speak like you're not the one who is hurting her yourself.”

“I only poison her to keep her in the bed, only I can protect her and no one else can. Like all the others.” Said Enterprise. “They all aren’t allowed to fight because they aren’t allowed to die.”

“Oh but we can bring them back.” Smirked Belfast. “Using your logic now.”

“Yes but they need to get hurt to die, if they can’t go out they can't die!” Giggled Enterprise psychopathically.

“Oh so that’s why the EU joins our hunts so rarely, you keep them all locked up in your base.” Said Belfast and leaned against the wall.

“Yes, if you give them mind blockers they’ll simply lay in their rooms until you call them.” Giggled Enterprise. “They won’t even remember anything.”

“You really are messed up.” Said Belfast with a stare.

“And you need to relax.” Said Enterprise. “Come I know what can help you.”

Belfast followed the carrier as she walked out of the room. They walked across the port and looked at the several people enjoying their lives.

Belfast however did notice one big thing. “Didn’t you just say you keep them cooped up in their rooms? Then why are almost all of them here?”

“Do you see Hornet or Yorktown?” Enterprise pointed Out. “Those two are bedridden. The others I do care about but they at least can protect themself. I saw both of my sisters sink and will not allow it to happen again under any circumstance.”

“You really have lost it. Anyway, what do you want me to do?” Asked Belfast as they entered their command building.

“Remember that little research base in that one cave over near wales territory I told you about ages ago?” Smirked Enterprise.

“That one you for some reason give a little data every once in a while so the humans can prepare for us?” Said Belfast. “Why exactly do you do that again?”

“Ohh Bel, that's called creating false hope, hurts them more if it is proven wrong and you reveal you lied to them from the very beginning.” Giggled the carrier. “I know you are stressed so why don’t you go eradicate them, take some battleships with you though, you might encounter a siren.”

“Oh shut up.” Complained Belfast. “And why should I attack them? I don’t even know what you let them know.”

“Oh nothing particular, I might have sent them a file with nuke codes and our biological buildup.” Huffed Enterprise.

Belfast simply stared at her.

“Nuke! Codes?!” Simplified Belfast. “Why did you even send those?”

“It’s in a background file in another file marked as cat pictures, and even if they find it they can't use it anyway.” Stated Enterprise and pulled up a holographic map. “Also send them our fleet maneuvers so they can see when our troops are there and hide. Meaning they think they can trust me even more.”

She briefly turned the hologram a bit and after a few seconds a marker popped up.

Enterprise pointed with her finger at the map. “Here. There it is. Tide Research facility beta 3, used to monitor and gather data by using buoys and underwater sensors to warn and research of approaching tsunamis. Useless for when the only people on this world are ships.”

“Urgh. Fine. At least I can curbstomp some scientists.” Complained Belfast and walked to the door. “I’ll get ready and you can organise some support for me. I need big guns!”

Belfast left the room and threw the door back, nearly breaking it from the force and leaving Enterprise there sitting alone.

Belfast got to the dock and began restocking her guns. She had fired on the punching bag before so her ammunition was almost running dry. Other than that she did nothing. She didn’t even change her messy clothes, shocking many people she passed, but they all could at least understand her situation.

She was quickly finished and waited at the dock for Enterprise, who did come back with some heavy assistance. 3 shipgirls of different classes.

“Ok here you three, please accompany Belfast on her sortie.” Directed Enterprise the three Shipgirls. “I’ve other things to attend to so Belfast will brief you three.”

The Enterprise turned around and left. with that, leaving the 4 ships at the port.

Belfast cleared her throat and put up a fake smile. “I know you three are probably confused about why you are here right?”

The three shipgirls, which were South Dakota, Shropshire and Long Island looked completely confused.

"Ehhhh yeah, why are we here? I was just walking around and Enterprise grabbed and dragged me here." Said Shropshire as she approached Belfast.

Belfast, who was still a bit surprised, shook it off and coughed into her hand. “You are needed for a sortie. We have made a discovery of a siren settlement and therefore need to exterminate said camp as soon as possible.”

“So soon, didn’t you just come back from one?” Asked South Dakota as she walked past Shropshire. “We all know what happened and we aren’t doubting you but even you need rest Belfast.”

“I’m fine. No need to worry about me.” Belfast stottered a bit but the others didn’t notice. “And it’s a very small one with a few dozen hum-eh sirens.”

“Still Belfast, you just came back and you lost your sister, you need rest.” Said Shropshire. “Not to step on your toes but this is just some friendly advice from us.”

Belfast huffed and walked away a few steps.

“I like that you all are so concerned but still, I’m fine.” Said Belfast, a bit annoyed. “Are you all ready and stocked?”

“Stocked full, maybe we will meet some ghosts.” Giggled Long Island. “Ghosts are nice and maybe they will guide my bombers.”

“Long Island your role will mostly be spotter for any escaping sirens anyway so you stay out of battle.” Remarked Belfast and Long Island's face fell quite a bit with a low wine.

“But I wanted to test my new taunt.” Whined Long island.

“I guess we can’t say no, then I shall be your shield for this operation. You might be out of it without noticing it so stay close.” Said South Dakota with a steely resolve.

“This is acceptable.” Agreed Belfast. She knew arguing against the Battleship wouldn’t work so she just accepted it. “So are you all ready?”

“Can I join too?” Came a voice from the side.

All of them turned to the side and saw someone that they didn’t expect.

Kent.

The ship girl that lost her arm without even being able to fight back stood there with a happy yet uncertain resolve on her face.

“Kent, you want to join this sortie?” Asked Shropshire as she looked at her with pity. “Aren’t you still hurt from your last? You lost, you know.”

“Yeah my arm.” Smiled Kent as she showed a bandaged cast. “I lost it.”

“How are you still smiling now? You lost your arm.” Shropshire said taken back. “Why are you ok with this, the sirens literally destroyed your life.”

She shook Kent lightly with tears in her eyes.

Kent merely patted her back… with her right arm….the arm that was cut off.

Shropshire realised this and immediately jumped away. “Kent your arm.”

“Yeah it’s there again.” Giggled the light cruiser as she observed her previously cut off arm as she slowly removed the cast. “I went with Enterprise down to the lab where I was knocked out by a machine, felt like a shot to the head to be honest, and after that I had my arm back. I don’t even have a scar.”

“This is nothing short of magic.” Gawked South Dakota.

“Ghost magic.” Giggled Long Island. “I hope this ghost will be of great help this sortie.”

“I bet you will.” Agreed Belfast. “Kent, you can use your rigging, right?"

Kent just closed her eyes and her ship in the distance deformed into blue cubes. The cubes flew over the harbour and in a small light formed the maid girls' massive rigging.

“I think I’ll do well.” Giggled Kent. “I can handle an easy siren extermination but not a high siren right now. Still have nightmares from that Cleveland.”

“This ghost will spot her and tell you to go when she spots them.” Said Long Island as she danced around like a ghost as usual.

“Ok Kent I allow you to join this fleet.” Said Belfast as she shook Kents hand. ”But when we meet that Cleveland siren you can leave, I will make sure she regrets doing that to my sister.”

“I’ll shield you all from her attacks but if she was able to take on and kill Edinburg….we should probably call for reinforcements should we meet her.” Concluded South Dakota as she summoned her own rigging.

Massive steel plates resembling shields formed on South Dakota's arms as the battleship's rigging manifested itself in all its glory.

The other two also summoned their riggings and jumped on the sea, even if Kent for some reason had a little trouble finding her balance at first.

They cruised out of the harbour and into the wide open sea, fixated on a single given coordinate which stood at the borders to previous axis controlled seas.

Through the cruise out of the port they met several different groups of shipgirls, all happy to help out and to resupply them with snacks so no one of them had to go hungry nor did it ever feel like they had no friends.

The cruise started uninterrupted and several jokes were cracked though every time Belfast was laughing it was hollow, as if all joy was sucked out of her.

The port was passed and they now, with the help of their carrier friend, switched to a more airborne way of transport which shut their week long cruise down to about 6 to 7 hours.

The planes slowly under their experienced carrier's orders lowered and dropped the shipgirls at a safe distance from the enemy.

All of them did a small stretch and whatever they wanted for a few minutes to get ready for an attack.

Long island upon getting orders from Belfast, who acted as the task force leader, did a small recounance flight around the target.

A single island of an island chain. A small cave entrance, very hard to spot if you don’t know where to look, was the target.

Long Island couldn’t spot any sirens on the outside so she reported that immediately.

“It’s a small cave on the 6th Island if we go clockwise, approach from the south and then go west to avoid getting spotted.” Said the carrier as her planes landed. “This ghost will not be of much assistance since the target is in that cave so I can’t give you any crucial details.”

“It’s fine Long, you can still watch out for any reinforcements of those sirens, we don’t want to be caught off guard are we?” Said Shropshire as she patted the carrier's head.

“Long Island, as she said, stay back a bit and launch fighters. We will go in and you trash whatever gets out.” Belfast commanded. “Everyone else, ½ ahead.”

They started their engines and slowly approached their target. An island before they reached the cave, Long Island stopped and watched from a little distance before launching fighters that scouted the area, ready to take on any siren forces.

The other half of the group slowly entered the cave.

They drove into it and were met with total silence.

“Where are those sirens, I don’t see them.” Said Shropshire as she was slowing down. “I see buildings but no enemies, this honestly creeps me out a bit.”

“Doesn’t matter, let's light the place up.” Said Belfast and aimed her guns. “All target different points, suppressive fire on the entire place, fire at will, take positions.”

All followed her order to precise measurements like a well oiled machine.

Standing in formation, they aimed at different points of interest.

“Alright everyone, fire.” Belfast screamed out with a command.

The second she said that her and all other shipgirls' guns began to unleash their deadly loads.

In one combined attack multiple tons of steel at ungodly speeds flew through the sky and created massive craters and damage wherever they hit.

The woodshacks went up in an inferno, the concrete building was shaking and the air was filled with screams.

“Keep shooting.” Ordered Belfast and like before, all obeyed.

For 10 seconds they had a free field of fire but then the "sirens" retaliated.

They sprang up from everywhere, be it burning or destroyed buildings, they sprung out of it with their weapons drawn.

Several exploding shells came flying at the group of shipgirls and forced them to either dodge or hide behind South Dakota who once again proved that she was Eagle Union's shield.

“Scatter, take those sirens out one by one.” Ordered Belfast and like before they did.

All went into different areas, outside from each other's view.

The screams and gunfire filled the cave and the shipgirls intent to end the siren base was clear.

For the “sirens” there is a fight for survival with low chances of escape.

For the shipgirls, a routine mission. Normal. Without change orchestrated and worked out like usual.

Both sides of this battle knew the base would become a graveyard, yet for which side was the million dollar question.

_________________________________________________________________________
It could be a math equation for some and the shipgirls who expect a clear outcome.

But what shall happen when an x factor is added to an equation, specifically two very special people?

Let's find out next chapter shall we

Chapter Text

All people looked at Elma with a certain type of worry.

Well who is to blame them? It's not everyday you see a being that several years ago was the devil on earth, now helping you.

“So you are a siren?” asked a little kid. “I heard the sirens were the bad guys before the ships replaced them.”

“Well we were the bad guys but it’s way more complicated than that.” Said Elma lightly uncertainty. She never was a kid person.

They repaired the ships, which desperately needed it, and then regrouped.

They decided, and more shoved Elma, in the direction of the mass hall and brought like 60 people of varying ages into the room.

Elma, who currently had 2 13 year olds sitting in her lap and who looked like she regretted coming here, was faced by many curious questions. Way too many.

“How do you fight? With a weapon.”

“Are all Sirens girls?”

“Can I join you? I always wanted kickass power to fight evil.”

“You will turn into a girl.”

“I sit in a wheelchair, maybe I can walk again after i join them, being a girl aint that bad.”

“Cultured man.”

“What is your weapon?”

“How strong are you?”

“Are your ears real?”

“They look fluffy. Can I touch your ears?”

Elma was thoroughly overwhelmed. She may be able to kill and break everyone's bones here by backhanding them but against a group of curious 3rd graders even being a siren couldn’t help.

Elma could only groan as she held her ears so they weren’t touched.

Her ears were her weak spot, but not in that sense. They wouldn’t incapacitate her but let's just say her female parts were linked to them directly.

“Please stop.” Whimpered Elma lightly upon hearing and feeling many of them trying to touch her.

“Now don’t climb her kids. She looks stressed and overwhelmed.” Andrea giggled. She then moved a 1st grader from her back and shooed away the other kids. “You aren’t a kid person huh.”

“Sirens don’t have kids and most are adults. So I never dealt with them.” Explained Elma as she calmed her rapid heartbeat. “I can’t deal with that.”

“Hehehe, you sirens are actually easy to counter.” Giggled Andrea with a smile.

Elma narrowed her eyes a bit.“You act like I can’t stand up and break one of their necks.”

“And yet I know you wouldn’t attack them because we are in a temporary allegiance.” Smiled Andrea. “You can’t go against your word here.”

“Not officially.” Remarked Elma and slumped into her seat. “And yes I won’t go against my word of not hurting anyone.”

“You said you were a siren, but a special one. Can you explain that?” Asked John as he ate a burger.

“I can tell you the not classified information.” Said Elma as she looked between the two.

The entire group kind of loosened up and thinned out.

“I can say that I’m an Enforcer, meaning a special department of sirens only focussed on obeying the orders of a certain higher up I can’t name.” Began Elma. “Most Enforcers have no personality but our chief always cared and loved us so she allowed us to have them by experimenting. Me and the others were the result of it although I'm afraid I might be the last one of us. We kept it even after a reset but that was when the network was online but now. I don't know if the others are alive because we were separated during an offence.”

“So I guess you have no friends anymore, all sirens kind of died.” Concluded John. “I should feel sorry but you weren’t exactly the goodest guys either.”

“We Enforcers were bodyguards, we never attacked humanity. Cleveland there should be the vanguard so blame her.” Remarked Elma.

“Aren’t you two friends?” Asked Andrea as she took a gulp of her water.

“Oh we are, although we know each other for about an hour.” Said Elma. “But I was never taught to lie and not telling the truth is bad.”

“At least she is honest.” Smiled Andrea.

They chatted like this for a while until Andrea stood up.

“I need to check in with the security.” Andrea said and began to leave.”John can you show her around?”

John simply nodded and took Elmas hand, which led to the Enforcer blushing a bit.

They exited the hall and walked across the base.

John showed her many places with many people. All of which were, while cautious, friendly to Elma and especially John.

Although she still had to avoid a horde of kids trying to touch her ears again.

“What is this base actually?” Asked Elma as they observed the small base from a small lookout over the entrance. “This ain’t a military port.”

John exhaled. “It’s actually a research facility we found by pure accident. After the Cleveland class sank our cruise ships we built rafts and scavenged whatever we could.” He took his head into his hands.”Me and my sisters have taken responsibility for all the people still alive and by sheer luck we found this abandoned cave. The researchers here all have commited suicide and not gonna lie, I get why.”

“So you found a base that was unused and filled with dead bodies.” Concluded Elma. “What then.”

“We raided smaller ports and found stuff we needed to survive. We aren’t proud of what we did but it needed to be done.” Said John as he gritted his teeth. “We found basic weapons but our biggest advantage was hiding. Humans don’t appear on radar so we can slip through but when we are found while on water we are done for. It happened too often.”

“You lost many I assume.” Thought Elma out loud.

John exhaled. “We lost 137 people…from originally over 300. I am not assuming you get my feelings here and before I rest in memories forever I still need to show you one thing, and the most important thing this base has.”

John turned and Elma followed him and they entered the main building and went down some places.

“I’ll look after Cleveland for a second.” said Elma as they walked through the corridors.

They passed the room Elma and Cleveland are held in and stopped.

Elma reentered to look after Cleveland, who seemingly woke up yet still laid in the middle of the room.

“Hey friend, are you fine.” Asked Elma as she kneeled down.

“The wind blows and falls, fire burns it all, the earth is laid to rest, the sea will set its nest.” Sang Cleveland lightly. “When the sea has ended it all, new life will come to fall.”

Elma recoiled. “Something is seriously wrong with you. Are you ok up there?”

“Life will come and go, like the water will come to show.” Sang Cleveland again, as if she either ignored or completely missed what Elma said.

“Are you feeling ok? You are speaking nonsense.” Elma said. She was really worried for Cleveland who acted completely unexpectedly. “What is going on in your head?”

“Two people sing, and one controls the king.” Sang Cleveland. “Shall one cease to be….the other will end to be.”

“Ok, you need a psychiatrist or so.” Elma concluded. “There is something severely wrong with you-eep.”

Some of Cleveland's tentacles began to slither across the ground and touch Elma who quickly tried to pull away.“What are you?”

“The maiden will be here to join the symphonie of the end and end the suffering of the deserving.” Said Cleveland weirdly. “So take your weapon and strike me down, you joyful soul. End what ended a past time ago.”

“Let me go, I won’t kill you you idiot.” Elma said with anger in her voice. “I hate tentacles so bring them away.”

Elma struggled a bit and one by one loosened the various tentacles holding her body.

“The maiden is not here to play, so the reaper shall sleep away.” Giggled Cleveland as she stared at Elma with emotionless empty eyes. Her tentacles now actually helt Elma strong to the point where they hurt the other siren.

“I said stop!” Said Elma sternly and slapped Cleveland hard, hard enough to create an echo.

Immediately all tentacles loosened from Elma and quickly retracted under Cleveland’s capelet, leaving Elma to move again.

“Don’t look at me so confused, I warned you.” Huffed Elma. “There is clearly something wrong with you.”

Cleveland herself was quiet, actually she was barely breathing so calm she was.

“If I hadn’t had something to do we would be meeting a doctor fast, even if I doubt what you have is normal.” Said Elma. “Just stay safe friend while I figure out what is going on here and how we can improve our situation.”

Cleveland didn’t answer or react, she just stared at the ceiling with a soulless stare.

Elma left the room and was met with John talking to another guard who quickly left.

“So how is she?” asked John as they began walking. Funnily enough the man towered 2 heads above the siren.

“She is broken and I don’t know what to do there.” Said Elma while she looked at the ground. “She is clearly suffering yet I don’t know how to help her.”

“Sometimes the only person who can heal yourself is yourself, don’t worry too much.” Said John as they continued their walk.

Several doors down John stopped.“Ok we are here.”

John opened the door and Elma and the men entered.

“What is this? The mainframe? The computer center?” Asked Elma as she looked around.

The room was filled with various computers and screens. Multiple servers lined the walls.

“Yeah it’s all that.” Said John. “This is the main room and computer hub of the base.”

Elma looked around. “But why do you have this? What even is this base?”

“It’S a research facility like I said already. Supposed to monitor and research the tides to warn and prevent tsunamis and so if that was even possible.” Said John as he took a seat at the big computer screen. “The base has a Hydroelectric Power Plant so we have enough power.”

Elma simply nodded. “And why am I here?”

“I’m still showing you around and this is the last room, I wish P would talk again though.” Said John while looking at the screen.

“P? Like the letter? Who is that?” Asked Elma as she leaned against the table.

“Our informant, she is a good person who gave us the shipgirl patrol data in the sakura empire and more generally useful stuff.” Smiled John but then looked dumbfounded. “ But also useless data, like 5 files of cat photos.”

Elma had to almost snicker at that. The thought that some serious ally just sends cat pictures was just too funny. Although one thought plagued her mind.

“Ain’t it really dangerous to trust someone you have never met?” Asked the Enforcer but was only met with a headshake.

“She had enough options to hurt or abandon us but she helped us so often that she can’t be evil.” Said John as he closed the computer tab.

“Foolish thinking but ok.” Said Elma and turned away. “I would still be cautious.”

A quiet bing came from the pc and John opened the tab again where now a new message stood proudly and untouched. Before John started to read Andrea came walking into the room as well.

“Brother, you're here, good.” Said the woman as she walked to the side of her brother and past Elma. ”P should send a message soon, she always does that around this time.”

“Yes we actually got a message right now.” Said John and opened it.

*No Ships in your vicinity, keep it calm and relax with all, for you have a moment to breathe. I’m safe for now if you ask. My stock is full and I hope yours too. Winter is coming and here, but you should have no problem but I would prefer it if everyone were to stay safe and well fed.*

“She is really concerned for everyone here.” Smiled Andrea. “Well, come siren, all tasks are done and you and Cleveland need a room and I prepared one.”

Andrea turned and walked out of the room.

Elma was giving the screen a small glare but let it slide and followed Andrea back out of the room.

“A room?” Mumbled Elma, she last experienced this hospitality with her master and even thinking about her made Elma feel nostalgia.

They walked down the corridors and passed their cell where Cleveland still laid on her back, staring at the ceiling.

“That girl really got problems.” Mumbled Elma and was about to move down the corridor but Andrea pulled her into the mess hall with all the kids again.

The second Elma sat down she was once again swarmed by kids and questions to which she could only groan in surrender.

“They really like you, you know.” Giggled Andrea as she observed the happenings. Elma again was the personal living teddy bear for the kids.

“Why are they like that?” Groaned Elma quietly yet Andrea still heard her but not the kids itself. Those were way too distracted by Elmas fox ears which fluttered around vividly from all the noise in the room. They were mostly flat on her head though.

“Curious minds, plus the kids never met a sakuran during the war, nonetheless a friendly siren, just endure it. They won't hurt you and probably couldn’t if we can’t do it with weapons.” Smiled Andrea while patting one of the kids' hair. “You are simply something entirely new for them.”

“But they are touching me.” Cried Elma as she had to grab another kid from her back. “How long until they need to sleep or whatever?”

Andrea laughed at that and slumped down in her seat. “Around 7 hours, then they all have school, we might be stranded but education is important. We can rest easy since P said everything is fine.”

Elma could only groan. “You still teach even in the apocalypse?”

“Yes.” Was the only answer Elma received.

The next few hours passed like eternities and Elma had to endure hundreds of questions. Given that she couldn’t answer all of them thanks to her duties, many left unsatisfied and only began to annoy Elma more.

At some point Elma had enough.

She tried to stand up and flee, a security guard sprinting down the wall along with a small alarm distracted her from doing that.

“We got an emergency, 5 shipgirls approaching, various types, ETA 5 minutes!” screamed the man out as he stopped to catch his breath directly in front of Andrea.

Every kid in the room began to express fear and some even began to cry, which totally definitely didn’t hurt Elmas sensitive hearing.

Andrea sprung up as did Elma who was happy to get away from screaming and sobbing children.

“What!!!! Shit!” Was all Andrea said before she ran off. “Everyone to the bunker!”

Elma, who was severely faster than the human, followed her in a light jog till Andrea ran into the main hall.

She reached a small announce console and spoke into it after nearly ripping the mic off.

“Red alarm, everyone who can, arm yourself! Everyone else to the bunkers!" Screamed Andrea into the coms and it hauled over the base.

Accompanied with many screams, many different people were running everywhere.

Soon no child was left but various teenagers and adults in somewhat of a fighting gear. What surprised Elma was the amount of bazookas they carried but this was probably the only weapon they had that could remotely harm a shipgirl.

Andrea turned to Elma and had a serious look on her face. “Can you fight?!”

Elma nodded to that. “Ehhh yes.”

“Good then make yourself ready, the enemy is here in mere seconds.” Andre snarled. She was panicked but was hiding it under a calm strategic mind.

“I need to get my weapon first.” Argued Elma back. Without her weapon she could fight with her fists but in her still damaged state that was akin to suicide.

“Then be as quickly as possible, we may be able to force a single shipgirl to retreat but we can't defeat 5 shipgirls!” Screamed Andrea and picked up an assault rifle. “GO!”

Elma turned around and ran. She passed so many people on her way and in no time, at least without distraction, bursted into their cell.

“Ok Cleveland I would appreciate it if you wake up.” Said Elma as she picked up her halberd. “The shipgirls are having an offensive and after our orders we are supposed to engage them. Human defense is the second goal after collecting combat data as you know, although I don’t think these orders aren’t actual at the moment so we can do what we want. And I prefer to protect them as an act of hospitality.”

Elma walked to Cleveland and knocked on her head. “Can you wake up then?”

“The end has come, the fire will come.” Said Cleveland and Elma only facepalmed.

“Yes, fire will come if you don’t wake up, you idiot.” Groaned the Enforcer. “Don’t make me kick you in the face-woah.”

The entire building shook with explosions and almost threw Elma to the ground.

Elma used her halberd to keo her from falling. “Ok they are here you lazy siren. Wake up!”

“The end is here, for all to see.” Cleveland giggled.

“God great. Now I need to take on 5 shipgirls with a nonfunctional rigging and beaten body. Great. Just join, after you snap out of this.” Said Elma and ran out of the room.

Arguing with Cleveland wouldn’t bring her anywhere and only bring more casualties.

Elma just hoped that Cleveland would wake up when she gets a boulder dropped on her face.

Running through the burning and collapsed corridors Elma heard the sound of explosions and felt their shaking rocking the building.

She saw the exit door and was about to run out but small sobbing and something catching her bathrobe stopped her in her tracks.

It was a little boy that looked at Elma with hopeful eyes.

“Do you have any nice planes we can use against the ships?” Asked the kid. He wore a red sweater with the name Nosferatu on it. “Like some aces in a game I played a long time ago, can they help us?”

He looked clearly afraid out of his mind and sat next to a sink alone.

He held Elmas arm and stopped her from even going out of the building.

“Kid stay down and back. Planes don’t work here anyway.” Nearly screamed Elma back. "Besides I am a battleship and not a carrier, and now run to the bunker or wherever."

The boy only nodded and then turned away where he began to walk deeper into the complex.

"I hate kids but they shouldn't die." Mumbled Elma as she held her Halberd harder. "And now to my Job."

Elma kicked open the frontal door and was met with hell.

The entire port was burning or otherwise damaged.

While some injured lined the streets Elma couldn’t identify if they were dead or not.

“Fall to the left side, light cruiser, we can take her, she fights close combat so we need to overwhelm her!” Screamed a man and several people ran past Elma who merely tried to get a clear view of the situation.

“We got another light cruiser on the right, need backup!” Screamed another who sounded far more hopeless.

“Siren.” Elma heard Andrea scream and felt the woman bump into her. “Thank god you’re here.”

“What happened? I wasn’t gone that long.” Said Elma as she looked around. “How many.”

“2 light cruisers, a heavy cruiser and a battleship so far we know, the 5th one who is probably a carrier must be outside the cave waiting to ambush the fleeing people.” Said Andrea in a rush. “Dammit normally they never send more than a light cruiser on patrols.”

“No.” Corrected Elma the woman who was coated in sweat and panic. “How many casualties, I wasn’t gone that long.”

“Unknowns, but probably too many.” Cried Andrea. “We have nothing against that battleship but we need to get the light cruisers out of here first. Go to the right, you can take a light cruiser I hope. I need to go.”

Andrea couldn’t remain longer and sprinted away from Elma.

Elma nodded and jumped up before she began running.

She didn’t like to be commanded around but she ignored that.

Elma ran past countless people untils she spotted what was causing trouble on this side.

Shropshire.

__________

Shropshire was evading left and right, the sirens had a different defensive than usual, mainly rockets which really hurt when they hit.

“You monsters can’t defeat me.” Said Shropshire as she made a building collapse from shooting at it.

They started their attack without problems but soon came under a barrage of small firearms and rockets.

The shipgirls decided to split to cover more ground and be smaller targets.

South Dakota and Kent stayed on the water and the two light cruisers of the group flanked the siren base.

“Learn to shoot sirens. Ha.” Said the light cruiser as she sent a salvo into a group of sirens.

The sirens tried to dodge, yet a large number of them were caught in the blast and either dismembered or thrown through the sky.

“Ha I’m the very best.” Giggled Shropshire as she moved into base a bit more.

The deeper she got the more resistance she met. The sirens wore some kind of body armor that let her main guns kill them but her smaller aa guns, which were usually enough for these new sirens, were more or less uneffective.

“Those wear armor it seems, yet that doesn't matter.” Said Shropshire as she grabbed a siren. “I can still get you.”

She threw the siren into another group of them and aimed her main guns.

“And Fir-upf.” She said but something different than a rocket or weapon crashed into her cheek.

Something that, in comparison to the other options, actually hurt her a lot.

Shropshire flew face first into a building and through several walls before stopping.

She barely managed to stand up before she was grabbed and thrown out of the house again and smashed into the place she stood several seconds ago headfirst, the weight of her rigging adding to her impact and creating a small crater.

Shropshire held her head and struggled into a stand. She felt dizzy and disorientated.

“What was that, it felt like a truck.” Said Shropshire as her vision returned to normal and she giggled a bit. “South, did you give me a slap? Can you please don’t do that?”

Shropshire had to evade a few rockets again.

“They intensify their attack. South, fire, your guns will rip them to shreds.” Said Shropshire as she aimed her main guns.

The sirens immediately searched whatever cover they could find.

Shropshire was about to shoot but her rigging being yanked down threw her aim completely off.

“What the hell South, what was that for?” Said Shropshire, annoyed that her shots missed. “Please don’t do that, how am I supposed to hit the sirens?”

“I’m not South Dakota.” Said whoever was behind her.

Shropshires eyes widened and she rapidly spun around guns reloaded and ready to fire.

Yet to late.

She saw two things.

First a pale skinned woman with blue piercing eyes, a face clad in anger and rage.

The second, and simultaneously last thing Shropshire ever saw, was the blade of a halberd mid swing close to her head.
__________

Belfast was ripping apart humans left and right.

Letting the group split would be a bad idea in an attack under normal circumstances but for this moment Belfast lived.

She was able to freely let out her rage on any human she spotted and was exactly doing that.

“Come you little bastards, I’ll rip you to shreds.” Giggled Belfast as she decapitated a person.

Countless bodies laid around her yet she herself wasn’t undamaged as well.

Who knew that grenades actually hurt shipgirls when they explode on them.

But this light damage that only left a few useless systems of the headmaid unusable were far from incapacitating her so her massacre continued.

“Yeah, come on, more.” Laughed the headmaid and was about to jump into the next building but a soul splitting scream echoed around the base, completely stopping her from her next action.

“Retreat, she is distracted, back to the bunker.” A woman screamed and all the humans around Belfast ran back into the main building.

Belfast wanted to use her guns but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it and she could finish the humans later.

Belfast opened her comms. “What was that? Who was hit or damaged, answer me!”

“We both don’t know what happened.” Said South Dakota over the comms.

“Help, I can’t…help..,.I….I help!!” screamed Shropshire through the comms, she sounded freaked out and scared although Belfast couldn’t think of why. Humans don’t have strong enough weapons to injure them in the first place. Then her comms went completely silent.

Belfast gritted her teeth. “Everyone regroup. Back at the sea where the sirens can’t follow us.”

“But sirens can walk on water.” Argued Kent back.

Belfast gulped.

“Well yes but we can regroup there better instead of in a certain house here.” Belfast said to save herself and thankfully Kent didn’t ask anymore.

Belfast ran and jumped on the water where she then skated to her friends who eagerly awaited her.

“Ok that makes us 3 so where is Shropshire?” Concluded South Dakota. “No one came from the left so far.”

“She sounded scared, maybe we should search for her.” Kent said but abruptly stopped as a building on the base was collapsing.

They barely had a second to look before out of the collapsing building flew a figure, Shropshire to be exact, and hit and moved South Dakota back a bit.

“Shrop, are you ok?” Asked Kent and even Belfast was concerned, well pretended to be.

Shropshire merely let out scare whimpers.

“Shropshire, talk to me. Status report.” Demanded Belfast.

“I hear you but can’t see you. What's wrong with me? Help me!” Said Shropshire in full panic.

Belfast had to grit her teeth. Shropshires eyes had a clean cut through them and this made her blind.

“You need to go to the lab when we are home.” Said Belfast. “Who did that, which siren did that to you?”

“That would be me.” Said another voice that let all carry their heads on the source of it.

Out of the ruined building and the ash came a blue eyed siren. Her halberd dripping blood and ready to be used.

She moved on the water and walked a sizable distance to the shipgirls and stopped before looking at her enemy.

She used her halbert as a marker and drew a small line as she got into a stance. “You shall go no further.”

Kent and Belfast spread out to the sides while South Dakota formed her shields and rigging into defence mode as the sorties shield in the front of all of them.

Shropshire simply remained on the water after having been dropped by South Dakota and touched around her trying to find something to hold onto. She stood up and used her rigging to aim, although being blind made her not even aiming close to the enemy.

“What the hell is an Enforcer doing here!” Said Belfast through gritted teeth as her rigging focussed on the enemy.

__________

Oooh a cliffhanger

Well then better continue this now that you got this

Anyway tell me your opinion and bye until next time

Chapter Text

“What am I doing here you ask? Merely repaying the resident good hospitality.” Said Elma, not going out of her stance for even a second. “And you?”

“Exterminating the sirens here.” Answered Belfast. Her vision, as was everyone else's, were solely focussed on the siren, no, Enforcer in front of them.

“Ah yes, sirens. I know you won’t listen so should we just do this?” Proposed Elma. “Talking will get us nowhere.”

“We can agree there.” Said Belfast and was almost about to run at her enemy but Kent panicked self stopped her.

“We have to retreat, we must have a fully prepared and combat ready fleet to even take on a normal siren fleet. She stands higher than Purifier who can take more than one fleet, we can’t win this.” Argued Kent as she tried to pull away the headmaid.

“Kent, I get you but we are 4 and she is alone, and she has no pawns so our fighting chance is equal.” Said Belfast back.

Their enemy indeed had no single ally on the field, that wouldn’t make it an easy fight yet still more equal than the alternative.

“Grrr fine, but we need to get Shropshire out of here and air support in here.” Said Ken and looked back at the damaged light cruiser. “And lead her outside.”

Shropshire, while not making any noise, was absolutely freaked out. Who can blame her, having no vision inside an active warzone is bound to be terrifying.

“Belfast, I agree with Kent's idea. Shropshire is in no fighting condition.” Said South Dakota from the front. She had her shields ready and while the siren in any condition would hit hard, she still would do her job.

“Fine.” Reluctantly agreed Belfast. “Kent get her out of here.”

Kent only nodded and guided Shropshire out of the cave, not even for a mere second taking off her aim.

They exited the cave and Belfast turned to the siren, who hadn't moved. “You didn’t attack yet, siren? Interesting.”

“She is injured. She can leave. In fact you can too.” Said Elma with a little smile. “I have no orders to pursue so if you both just leave then no one will get hurt and we can just forget this encounter.”

“As if!” Taunted Belfats. “We won’t go anywhere, right South Dakota?”

South Dakota only nodded and Elma exhaled. “Looks like we do this the hard way.”

Not a second later Elma began to run and the shipgirls opened fire.

None of the shots hit or injured Elma so she had a clear line of approach.

Stabbing the staff of her halberd into the water she catapulted herself like a pole jumper over the battleship in front and slammed her halberd down like an axe, barely missing the maid who evaded to the side.

Belfast used her open window to shoot and Elma slammed her halberd into the water.

What she did next was nothing short of amazing.

The shots fired by Belfast hit but Elma used the catapulting force to spin around her halberd and kick South Dakota in the face, sending the battleship flying into the light cruiser and minimising her own damage to almost nothing.

The two shipgirls were sent back multiple metres and slowly came to a stop.

“Would you go or do you want me to take this seriously?” Giggled Elma.

The shipgirls slowly got to their feet and trained their weapons on the siren again.

“Ok, actual tactics are needed here.” Coughted South Dakota and Belfast simply agreed.

They split and began cruising to either side of the siren and fired barrage after barrage.

Elma simply tanked whatever hit her and blocked most shots but the smoke disrupted her vision.

She jumped to the side and was met with a shield to the face which slightly stunned her but gave Belfast enough time to punch Elma hard.

Elma regained her focus and used her halberd to block Belfast's next strike and after sidestepping South Dakota's shot, slid around the battleship, slashing and cutting at her back in the process, before jumping back to avoid the battleship's secondaries.

Elma turned and caught Belfast in the act. She caught her arms but not her guns so she was caught in the full blast and thrown back.

“She is not unbeatable.” Snickered Belfast.

South Dakota winced a bit. “Yeah, just very hard.” The cut at her back was not deep but it hurt her a lot.

"Stop complaining, see that she isn't using her rigging at all." Pointed Belfast out.

Indeed she wasn’t. How could she even? It was basically destroyed.

Elma only sounded annoyed at that and tightened her grip. "Do you really think I need guns to beat you?"

Belfast smiled and Elma was shortly confused until she listened.

Plane engines were heard in the distance quickly getting closer.

Elma turned around and was amazed, planes actually flew into the cave with Kent leading them.“We got air support but only shortly. Long can’t fly in here.”

The second Elma was distracted, the shipgirls acted and shot immediately, scoring hits that left the siren bleeding.

Elma jumped up and barely dodged some dropped bombs.

Elma gritted her teeth as she managed to deflect a bomb only to get hit by South Dakotas main guns.

“You know 3 and technically 4 against 1 is not quite the fair fight.” Said Elma as she attacked.

With a precise stab she stabbed between the two shields of South Dakota and pierced her shoulder.

The Battleship groaned hard and recoiled as Elma pulled her halberd back. She spun and hit Kent on the leg before backflipping over Belfasts shots, causing some bombs to hit the maid.

“Stay still.” Screamed Belfast as she got madder the longer the fight lasted.

Belfast ran and went into close combat, using her fists. Elma with her halberd was trained in midrange combat, so she had her problems dealing with the expert fistfighzer, but helt her own against her.

"Take that." Said Elma as she shoved Belfast away and thrusted her halberd backwards, managing to hit Kent with the handle in the chest.

South Dakota's strike she evaded and spun to hit Kent again who had a small cut on her cheek now. In the same action Belfast jumped on the siren's back and restrained her arms.

Elma was struggling against the maid's hold and almost effortlessly threw the maid off with a backwards head bump but South Dakota managed to hit a few punches to Elmas body as did Kent with her rigging.

Elma jumped up and was hit by a strafing run by some fighters but landed away from her enemies.

The planes with much difficulty and almost flying against the walls managed to fly out of the cave, probably to refuel.

“We aren’t getting far but we are making progress.” Cheered Belfast. “If we continue like this we can win.”

“She is far less terrifying than that Cleveland siren.” Chuckled Kent a bit and Elmas ears went up.

“You know Cleves?” Elma asked and Kent visibly went pale.

“You-you-you know her?” Gulped Kent. She looked shaken and panicked, something Elma could only snicker at.

“Yes I do. She saved me from what the maid corp did all that time ago.” Said Elma while she gave the two royal maids a chilling glare.

“You sirens need to be exterminated so don’t complain about being on the losing side of the war.” Said Belfast proudly as she shot.

Elma sidestepped the shell and winced a bit. “Yes we might be your enemy but is humanity that too?”

“Of course not.” Said both South Dakota and Kent at the same time. “We protect humanity from you evil beings.”

Elma slumped her shoulders and began to walk in their direction. “I see.” She chuckled. “You’re deceived as well.”

“Don’t listen to her, we need to kill all sirens for peace and that we will do!” Declared Belfast and took off.

The maid deployed smoke and coated the cave in a thick mist.

For everyone normal, their vision was highly irritated, but this was a siren Enforcer they were brawling.

Accordingly Elma had no trouble catching Kent off guard and stabbing her shoulder with enough force to throw the heavy cruiser to the ground.

Elma ripped her halberd out of the maids shoulder and went for a wide swing that would no doubt take out Kent but South Dakota jumped between it and used her shields to block the attack.

South Dakota was sent to her knees and barely managed to hold against the siren strength.

Kent helped South Dakota push, after she managed to stand up, and the two slowly pushed the siren back.

With one mighty push they stood up and sent the siren back, disarming her in the process.

Elmas halberd flew out of her hand and she herself was hit by the shield bash.

South Dakota descended on her and restrained the siren with her strength.

Elma used all of her strength but still couldn’t get out. “Let me go you stupid battleship, at full strenght you would have died already.”

“Wait, you aren't at your full strength?” Gasped South Dakota in sheer horror as she realized how outmatched she truly was.

South Dakota lifted Elma up by the arms and held her in Kents direction. “Kent fast she can’t move.”

Kent used her chance and shot everything she had into the siren.

The shots barely pierced her skin but she was getting heavy bruises from the constant bombardment.

Elma got free and roundhouse kicked South Dakota away. “Oh you’ll regret this cruiser.”

Kent took a fearful step back and turned to run but Elma was faster and grabbed her rigging.

“So what shall we do to you?” She said sadistically and grabbed Kent by the leg.

She repeatedly slammed the heavy cruiser into the water, creating relatively high waves and ripples, before she stopped.

Kent looked dazed and unfocussed.

“So shall we continue?” Asked Elma as she grabbed Kent by the arms. “This might hurt.”

She was about to punch Kent, which in her current state would definitely hurt, but a scream interrupted her.

“Kent Miststorm.” Screamed Belfast as the mist on the battlefield slowly dissolved.

Elma was confused, she had never heard of that commando but Kent certainly did.

She activated her fog lights at full strength and shined them directly at the siren's face.

Elmas sensitive eyes, which were adjusted to the darkness of the cave, took the full force of the bright lights.

Elma only gasped and dropped Kent before she held her eyes that hurt like hell shut. “You little..!”

“Down now. Take this.” Screamed Belfast and Elma before her eyesight returned felt something hurt her.

Something that hurt her much more than a simple battleship shell.

She opened her eyes,which slowly got their sight back, and almost screamed as she was pushed to the ground.

Belfast and South Dakota were holding her own halberd that they stabbed her with.

Elma grabbed the handle and pulled the blade out of herself before she threw the shipgirls back and jumped up with a spin, slashing the two in the process.

She landed and sprinted ahead twirling her halberd and delivered a powerful kick to Kents chin.

Barely landing and doding the next shots she ducked and slid before punching South Dakota.

The battleship grabbed her clothes and spun around before she threw the siren who stabbed her halberd into the ground before she even flew.

Elma landed on her halberd and therefore on her feet before she turned to deflect several small caliber shots.

Elma ducked below Beflasts arm and slammed her halberd in an arc, almost taking off Kents left arm, before she backflipped over some torps before going into a 360° slash.

After she arched upwards and threw Kent away before jumping back, she used her halberd like a spear, and she stabbed South Dakota's shield.

She pushed her back and jumped over another row of torps before standing at ready at a distance.

“Even when stabbed she ain’t going down?” Groaned South Dakota. She winced from the many smaller cuts she had. They weren’t deep but they added up and she was getting tired and low on ammo for her secondaries.

“Of course, she is a siren, they can take a lot.” Groaned Belfast as she herself was getting tired too.

“You could just lay down your guns and go. Again. I won't chase after you.” Said Elma and held her halberd in front of her.

She herself wasn’t tired but damaged. Adding this to her previous injuries she was nowhere near fighting capable.

She of course didn't show this.

“We won’t surrender.“ Declared Belfast. ”We will kill every last one of you.”

“Is it just my feeling or did she get better when you stabbed her.” Groaned Kent as she joined their formation. “Urgh my head.”

Elma smiled a bit at that and gathered her will but before she could attack or even begin to run she was hit from the top.

A lone bomber remained and struck her unexpectidly.

The impact sent her to her knees.

Elma got enraged and javelined her halberd, hitting the Plane straight in the cockpit. “Asshole.”

The plane went down and Elma innerly facepalmed about losing her weapon.

“She lost her weapon now is the chance.” Said Kent and all 3 went into close combat with the siren.

Elma looked at them, sighted, and got ready as well.

The 3 engaged in a fist to fistfight.

Kent, as the least experienced in that area, had the hardest time to hit.

She did the least and even her sloppily thrown punches did nothing to the damaged siren, but stained her clothes with golden ichor.

Elma tried her best to fight as well, but in her damaged state and with her lack of experience, she struggled almost as much as Kents. Sure she got hit more, but she actually hit the others, and her punches caused way more damage.

Kicking Belfast in the side and kneeing South Dakota meant nothing as a close shot by Belfasts and Kents riggings sent her tumbling back immediately.

Elma grabbed Kent and threw her away only to duck and evade Belfast but South Dakota's leg caused her to trip.

Belfast was about to slam her elbow down on the laying siren's head but was hit directly by a rocket.

Looks like some stray sirens returned and gathered at the docks. They shot rockets, which the shipgirls dodged to the best of their abilities.

Elma took the chance to kick South Dakota and jump up before grabbing a missile mid air and throwing it at Kent.

Kent got thrown back but South Dakota shot at the siren.

The shot hit and threw Elma over the dock into a fish crawler that almost sank when Elma landed on it.

South Dakota stood up and was about to fire but Belfast stopped her.

“Stop, get the sirens on the dock.” Commanded Belfast as she pointed to them. “We will handle the Enforcer.”

“What, I will help you with the Enforcer.” Argued South Dakota.

“GO KILL THE HUMANS!” Screamed Belfast. “We take the siren, go!!”

South Dakota was shoved in the direction of the dock by Belfast who was now visibly mad.

Her maid outfit was stained in blood and beaten up, as was her hair.

“Fine, fine, I will kill them.” Said South Dakota and began to move away. “Wait? Humans? Those are sirens.”

“Yeah of course they are.” Belfast corrected herself and South Dakota left an exhausted smile. “You need to listen to what I say.”

The battleship turned and walked to the docks, where the sirens were already retreeting again. Soon after the sound of shooting and explosions followed.

Belfast and Kent regrouped before they watched their enemy.

Elma was stumbling out of the ship slowly and approached the shipgirls.

Elma was bleeding severely and had several wounds that some might consider severe but that didn’t stop the siren who went into a boxer's stance.

“So round 3.” Taunted Elma as they all stared at each other.

They all took a look at the others before they began to sprint at each other.
_________________________

The base was shaking.

Explosions were rocking the place and a little girl was running through the ruined base.

They never were meant to take on warships so they were hopelessly against them, even with the white fox fighting there.

She bought the people valuable time but that only brought them so far.

Standing there in a room, cramped together shoulder to shoulder with weapons pointed at the reinforced doors. Waiting for their end to enter.

The little girl was crying since she hid under some rubble to evade a ship and in the meantime had to hold her breath from all the dead she saw.

A 12 year old isn’t supposed to see so much destruction in her life.

She stumbled into a room, far off the main course to the bunker, a bunker that was under relentless assault of a ship and close to breaking.

How did she get here? Well you wouldn’t know your way around when your home city is a burning piece of broken concrete.

She stumbled into the room and the automatic doors closed. The lights were blinking a bit so half the room was clad in darkness while the other was a lab white.

As far as the girl knew she was alone in this room as she looked around.

Alone with two dead and soulless yellow eyes.

“A fine young girl joins the end.” Said a voice that the girl knew from her deepest nightmares. “Ending me or ending you, a question I ask you.”

The girl wanted to run because she knew who the voice belonged to.

“Cleveland?” Asked the little girl as her back touched the wall.

“Maybe yes, maybe no, the answer lies with you.” Giggled the voice.

The girl took all her might together and walked into the darkness.

She found a figure sitting next to the wall looking up at her.

The bright yellow eyes said that it clearly wasn’t human.

“You are a siren right?” Asked the girl.

“Lies and truth, shall I fight now too?” Smiled the figure.

The room shook again and the girl fell forward….directly onto the creature in front of her.

“Oh bold.” Giggled the figure as she grabbed the girl. “Small, like a carrier I used to know.”

“Can you help us, they are hurting and destroying everything.” Said the girl as she looked at the figure under her.

It was no doubt Cleveland……yet somehow very different.

“Life and death. The fall will come and so will they.” Giggled Cleveland. “I shall not change fate for it can’t be undone.”

“What are you saying? Please, stop this, help us.” Said the girl as she began to cry. “We can’t win without you and your friend is out there fighting alone.”

“Maidens in black and colorful fight for life and shall end their others.” Giggled Cleveland.

The girl began pounding her chest but did nothing but make the large hills bounce.

"Stop saying mysterious things, please, please." The girl cried.

The room shook again and the ceiling became cracked while the light flickered.

"Death and dark, light and white." Giggled the siren.

"Why are you doing this, why won't you help?" The girl sobbed.

The cracks in the ceiling became massive and the screams in the distance noticeable.

Tears from the girl dropped onto Clevelands face during all this.

Cleveland took her hand and scooped up some of the tears.

“Wet….water…..tears….why…..cry?” Asked Cleveland.

Some life returned to her eyes as she hugged the girl.

“No tears, little maiden, no fear for all that deserve courage.” Said Cleveland.

Her eyes had barely any life in them but it was there.

“I just ask you to help us!" Cried the girl into the siren's shoulder. “You killed so many but that was another you, so please help us!”

Cleveland jumped up with the girl in her hand. “So the maiden wants to beg the reaper. Will she decide to fight or not?”

The girl almost shrieked but Cleveland dropped her before she did anything to her.

“No maiden fight, no, no, no family evil. It can't be. No shared blood can sin.” Gasped Cleveland as she walked back against the wall.

“Stop acting and help AAAAAAAAAA.” The girls spoke over her tears but the building shook again and a part of the ceiling collapsed.

Threatening to bury the two in the room.
_________________________

Observer Alpha was walking through an empty void.

She was searching for…..something.

*Cleveland, are you in here somewhere?* She asked into the void. *Grr did you shut your mind down completely? Fine, then deeper.*

She closed her eyes and went deeper into Cleveland's mind and subconsciousness where she found herself on…..grass?

Looking around she was on a small cliff on an ocean. The wind was there for some reason, even if not real, and there were even birds flying around.

*Weird.* Commented the original siren as she walked through the field. *So where are you, you idiot-ah there.*

She spotted a small house at the cliff that she quickly approached.

It was even marked as house Cleveland to which Observer chuckled.

*So Cleveland are you in here?* Said Observer as she basically kicked open the door.

The inside was well decorated but very tidy, practically perfect.

The rooms were open and Observer heard voices from inside so she rounded the corner and found….something.

Cleveland sat there in an armchair. As a shipgirl and not a siren.

Her sisters sat around her as they talked.

“And that was the day we baked that cake together.” Laughed Cleveland and the others smiled as well…although Observer couldn’t hear them. This confused her quite a lot.

“Ah yes Columbia I remember that day, we had so much fun.” Chuckled Cleveland as she clearly talked with her memory.

Observer exhaled at the sight. On one side she was happy to see Cleveland not depressed for a long time while, but on the other side she was sad that Cleveland retreated into her deepest consciousness to escape reality. All just to disagree with the statements and the truth.

Saddest thing was that she could understand why, it's not everyday that you find out your entire existence is a lie. She was used her entire life for war and didn’t even escape it in death.

Her mind was in shambles and Observer had to break this false reality.

She walked over and touched Denver, and quickly found out that they weren’t even real for her, as was everything except the walls in the room.

She sat down next to Cleveland and grabbed her shoulder.

Cleveland snapped over at her. “Why are you here?”

*You can guess. Cleveland you need to wake up.* Observer demanded.

“But why?” Whined Cleveland. “I got peace and my sisters here so everything I need.”

*But this isn’t reality and you know it.* Mentioned Observer. *Elma is fighting out there and you sit around while Azur lane kills all the humans here.*

Clevelands eyes went wide and she grabbed her head. The ground and everything began to lightly crack.

“Stop telling lies, siren!” Gasped Cleveland out. “Leave me and my innocent sisters alone!”

Observer shook her head. *Cleveland stop! Azur Lane, as you suspect, is not the good you think it is!*

“Stop making them bad, they can’t be bad!” Cleveland gasped. “Leave me and my sisters here, we won’t hurt anyone…”

Observer had to disagree again. *Of course they won’t hurt anyone, they aren’t real!*

Cleveland jumped up. “Shut up! Shut up! I will not leave my sisters!”

She ran over to the couch and hugged Denver. Well tried to cause she actually fased right through her which caused Denver to disappear.

“Den, what? Don’t leave me!! urghhh!” Cried Cleveland in desperation.

One by one the people around her vanished and Cleveland was desperately holding onto her sister's hands.

The whole place broke apart more, as if the reality that Cleveland made here collapsed on itself.

Clevelands shipgirl self was also cracking, revealing her siren state below it.

*Cleveland, please. We need to fight, Elma is easily overwhelmed in her damaged state.* Said Observer as she knelt down and patted Cleveland's back.

“My sisters, where? Where are they?” Gasped Cleveland as her hair turned white.

*They are the same as you, deceived by the one that killed you.* Said Observer while petting the other sirens back.

Her shipgirls illusion was falling off of her like shards of broken ceramic.

“But they live, they were here!” Gasped Cleveland as she looked at her pale arms. “I know I am a siren but they aren’t, they didn’t die.”

*They died many times, as well as you did.* Mentioned Observer to Cleveland.

“Lies!” Screamed Cleveland as the whole building disappeared.

*I don’t lie!* Screamed Observer and Cleveland fell to her knees.

The world around them had deep cracks in it. The grass was burning and a terrible storm was roaring in the background.

*You need to wake up and help or all are going to die, I'm afraid Elma cannot take on many in her state.* Observer mentioned. *She needs help doesn’t she?*

“Yes, she can’t win.” Said Cleveland quietly. “Who is she fighting? Hehehehe.”

*I don’t know, at least yet, you have shut off everything.* Mentioned Observer with a laugh. *So can we now fight or so?*

“Who killed all the dreams for peace?” Giggled Cleveland as she stood up, now completely in her new normal attire.

“Wales. It’s Wales, the bitch, who is responsible, as well as the others.” Said Cleveland with growing anger.

The storm was picking up in intensity and the reality was close to collapsing from the looks of it.

*Ahh look that you actually want to do something now.* Said Observer. *Well then I advis-urgh*

Observer stopped mid sentence as Cleveland began to choke her. “Please shut up my dear companion, let me handle this.”

The reality exploded and shattered not a mere second after this.
_________________________

The little girl closed her eyes and awaited the ceiling hitting her but that never happened.

She looked up and saw the siren that mere seconds ago was a scared confused little girl, holding her in her arms.

They were outside the room in the hallway and out of the completely collapsed room.

How they got there so quickly the little girl didn’t know.

She let the girl go and turned around to the collapsed room.

The siren used some tentacles that came from under the siren's capelet to slash and crush all the collapsed pierces and clean a small part of the room in a matter of seconds.

She went in and grabbed the massive scythe that laid on the table in the corner of the room and observed it.

“Will you fight for us?” Asked the little girl.

The siren slowly turned to the girl and bent down. The smile on her face sent shivers down the girl back.

“Hmm, I am not sure. We will see if I evaluate the situation on who is right.” Giggled the siren and walked out of the room. “Oh I will make them scream.”

Cleveland walked down the ruined hallway, clearing out any rubble in the way with simple strikes or throwing the pillow weightligh concrete pieces away.

She sent out Edinburgh to scout under the strict order of “Do whatever you see fit.”

The ghost just walked through the wall and Cleveland gave no second opinion about it. She gave her an order and the ghost will follow that one to the letter. Of course she also ordered her to “Keep our friend safe.”

Walking through the ruined building she came across a ruined bunker door. At the end of a long hallway that was littered with dead bodies were the last remaining humans fighting a desperate last stand.

Cleveland spotted her target that didn’t notice her at all, South Dakota, who was currently engaging the humans.

Cleveland began to walk over to them with a big grin on her face.
_________________________

South Dakota had little problems engaging the sirens even though the rockets did hurt her a lot.

She had to hide behind her shield the entire time as she went down a long corridor behind a bunker door which took her a while to punch through.

The sirens threw everything they had at her but the battleship didn't falter.

She walked into a big open room with multiple computers and a whole lot of sirens and began to attack.

The sirens quickly fell to her assault but didn’t stop for even a second.

She took a step back and aimed her main guns, most of the sirens actually looked scared at that and only covered.

She was about to fire but her guns wouldn’t lower.

“Na na na, you wouldn’t want to kill your entire audience now do you?” Giggled a voice she knew.

“Cleveland?” Said South Dakota as she turned around.

What she saw wasn’t the Cleveland she knew who grabbed her by the necklace.

“Not entirely.” Said the siren while she gave her a smile and a look that spelled nothing but impending doom.

_________________________

Is this another cliffhanger?

Hehehe looks like Beta woke up

That will be interesting

On another note for anyone in ukraine, I feel bad for what you have to endure but hope this story will at least make you smile, even if only for a minute

Until next time and give me your opinions about this chapter.

Chapter Text

“Did you have to send South Dakota away!” Complained Kent as she held her cheek. “Since when can two cruisers take on an enforcer? She might be unarmed but still, urgh!”

She was heavily bruised and panting from both her personal damage and from literally running out of steam.

“In hindsight, it might have been a bad idea.” Agreed Belfast as she took a deep breath. “But imagine how bad it would be if South wouldn’t take care of the hum-heh sirens at the base over there.”

“If she was here then the enforcer wouldn’t beat our afts.” Said Kent and readied her guns before she shot.

The shots flew and missed the figure it was aimed at.

“Grrr, how can she evade everything.” Complained Kent and shot again.

The shots hit the water and the resulting waterspouts shielded the siren she was firing at.

“We fight humans for so long that we aren't prepared to take on something that can actually match us. Looks like the common girls need to go back to more difficult simulations.” Mumbled Belfast as she stared at the ground. “I need to include that when we get back.”

“What did you say?” Asked Kent and looked at the clearing waterspouts. “Bel down.”

Belfast had enough time to look up but a thrown piece of debris hit her square in the chest.

Belfast was thrown back and landed on the water hard. She groaned and Kent helped her up.

They both looked and saw the siren that threw the boulder standing there smiling. 

“HOW MUCH CAN YOU TAKE!” Screamed Belfast. The entire situation became a routine to a fight for their life, although the siren didn't actually attack them with killing intent yet.

“Oh we can do this all day.” Chuckled Elma.

Innerly she winced. She was covered in bruises and everything hurt, yet she couldn’t just stop and let this attack continue. She just had to drive them away.

Belfast was about to aim but her comms flared to life. “South, what is it? How can I help?”

“Under attack…hostile forces…...need….aaaa.” Said South Dakota. The connection seemed to break off mid sentence but she sounded scared and pleading.

“South, what's wrong?” Pressured Belfast as she ducked under a piece of debris. 

She got the sound of a struggle but no voice.

“Need assistance…..god…please….please help me!” Cried South Dakota before the comm went silent.

“South Dakota, answer me!” Demanded Belfast. She wanted to know what the humans could have brought that could harm a shipgirl.

“Sorry your contact partner is busy at the moment, please stay in line until your connection to contact is reestablished.” Said an unknown voice before the comms went completely silent.

Belfast was confused, as was Kent who listened too.

She opened the comms again but only received static.

“Oh you stopped fighting, did you get the order to retreat or so?” Snickered Elma.

Belfast gritted her teeth and was ready to shoot and scream at the siren but couldn't.

The wall next to them exploded and before all could even look Kent was hit by something extremely heavy and thrown to the ground.

Kent struggled to her feet and lifted whatever laid on her up.

“South??!?!” Screamed Belfast as she approached Kent. WHat laid on her was South Dakota's body, not dead but heavily damaged.

Her guns were bent or cut off. Her rudder, while fine, was damaged. Her shields were busted through and broken and some of her secondary guns seemed to have been ripped out of her rigging.

“South! What happened!” Demanded Belfast. Not even the siren in front of them seemed to know what was going on but that one definitely couldn’t have hurt South Dakota as she was engaging the other two.

“Mon…monster.” Struggled South Dakota as she spat out blood. She grabbed her own guns that were bent and bent them correctly again. Not perfect but now the majority of them could fire again.

“What monster?” Asked Belfast as she helped South Dakota to stand. “Who is it? Observer? Tester? Purifier?”

“Cleveland.” Said South Dakota as she leaned against Belfast. Kent immediately went rigid. 

Belfast was confused.

“What do you mean, Cleveland is back at the base, Kent even talked with her.” Said Belfast and turned to the scared heavy cruiser. “Right?”

“I talked with her, yes. She can’t be here.” Stottered Kent panicked.

“No, a siren.” Coughted South Dakota. “We need to run.”

“We both know damn well that Cleveland ain't a siren.” Said Belfast. “And my sister was a light cruiser, you are a battleship, you should be more than capable to take on a small siren pawn.”

“A pawn? Hehehehehe.” Giggled a 5th voice from the side.

The enforcer in the distance only smiled.

Everyone looked to the dark hall where South Dakota came from. 

The entire bunker building was a ruin but in the dark hallway a few lights were still on.

In the distance a low glow came closer to the opening and footsteps echoed around the room.

Every step made the shipgirls sweat more as they all redirected their guns at the hallway.

“Did you think your little raid here ends without any resistance?” Giggled the voice as it came closer. “Come on, that was basic training, never underestimate your enemy. Isn’t that right, maid?”

”Come out monster.” Said Belfast as she shot in the hallway. She waited for the shots to explode but that never happened.

The other two only starred and took a step further back.

“Monster she says, hmmm. Heheheheh.” Giggled the person. “I swear I thought about that too when you and the others murdered me in cold blood.”

“I don’t even know you but if we did it, then we didn’t do it right that time. I will finish what we started back then.” Declared Belfast as she took a stance. “Now get out and let me rip your head off.”

The two behind her more or less did the same but they were way more panicked than the headmaid.

“As you wish, headmaid.” The figure only giggled and moved into the flickering lights and stared at the 3 shipgirls with a smile and glare. Every emotion she sent off was a threat. 

“So Bel, how about we continue where we left off?”

Kent nearly gave up breathing as she stared into the malice filled hateful yellow eyes of the siren in front of her. “You, you are, you’re that girl that.”

“That cut off your arm? Yes, that was me.” Giggled the siren. “Hmm you got it back I see.”

“Ye–ye-ye—ey—yes, I di…d.d….did!” Stuttered Kent in a full panic.

“So you are the siren Cleveland I heard so much about.” Said Belfast with a smile of mischievousness. “So you killed my sister.”

“Can’t say I didn’t, although my hand slipped and beheaded her, you know that happens from time to time.” Said the siren as she slowly moved out of the bunker and onto the water.

“Grrrrrr.” Groaned Belfast with growing anger. “You killed my innocent sister in cold blood and you say it's an accident.”

“Oh of course….innocent little sister. Did you forget what she did on that island?” Asked Siren Cleveland. “I bet you forgot. Kent dear, you can answer that too."

“We were sent there as a siren extermination squad.” Gulped Kent as she took another step back. “Bel, South, we need to leave.”

“I agree.” Struggled the injured battleship out. “The enforcer took us on alone, we can ‘t beat two and that one seems to really like to talk. Maybe we can go.”

Elma began walking over, slowly but she did it. “In my opinion you are free to go. Urgh.”

“Are you injured?” Asked Cleveland as she stared at Elma's injured form.

“Yeah Cleveland I am, are you fine?” Retorted the enforcer with a snicker. “Finally woke up now?”

Cleveland smiled a bit at that. “Yes, I had a quite clearing sleep.”

“How dare you speak like you deserve Cleveland's name. You are a siren, not a knight of the sea.” Said Kent and shot at the siren copy of one of her friends. The High explosive shells immediately created a thick smoke and fireball.

The shipgirls who had to inhale the smoke through their already exhausted states were left panting for air.

“Did it have to be High explosive Kent? Also wait for my order, recklessness will get us killed here faster than you can say fire.”Said Belfast sternly.

“Really Kent.” Said South Dakota at the same time. “We just had such a nice talk.”

“Sorry, I just saw an opening.” Said Kent with pain in her eyes.

“Just wait next time.” Said South Dakota while Belfast remained quiet.

The smoke cleared fast….only to reveal a shield of tentacles.

“And we can resume our nice talk South Dakota.” Said the siren, seemingly undamaged except for the remains of the shells on her tentacles as they retreated. “And I am merely using my name Kent.”

The tentacles retreated under the capelet the siren wore, seemingly vanishing completely.

“Don’t speak to us like we are friends.” Said Belfast sternly. “What even is your designation?”

“Oh but we were, a long time ago.” Said Cleveland. “The name is Cleveland, but since you are apparently even dumber than Anchorage I suppose you won't call me that.”

"Absolutely not. You aren’t and can't be Cleveland, you look awfully familiar to Observer but that one is dead." Said Kent and took a deep breath.

"She does so we will just go with Observer two." Said Belfast. "No, Observer Beta."

Cleveland only giggled at that.

"Observer Beta? Oh the irony, yeah lets go with that." Said the siren maliciously.

Belfast's smile fell. “I’ll promise you one thing, Observer Beta, I’ll kill you for what you did to my sister.“

“Belfast, not now, we can’t take them both on.” Said South Dakota. “We need to leave.”

“Stopping now, do you think I will allow you to leave, we need your firepower you idio-.” “Yes you need to go.” Belfast started but Cleveland interrupted her.

“We can leave?” Gasped Kent. She was still shaken and scared from the siren that stood no 30 metres away from her. “You will just let us go?”

“Yes Kent, some of you can leave. Neither Elma or me will go after you.” Said Cleveland . “So run along, little heavy cruiser.”

“Yeah, go urgh.” Struggled Elma to say as she sat down on some pieces of broken concrete.

“Elma dear, you look beaten up. Did you lose your weapon?” Asked Cleveland  as she looked her over.

“Oh you don’t even start, you slept half the fight away, and yes I lost my weapon.” Groaned Elma.

Cleveland  merely shook her head. “Ed, go fetch her weapon and you Elma, you can go rest up. I will handle this.”

“No need to tell me twice.” Said Elma and leaned back, closing her eyes.

“Wait, you will just let us go?” Asked South Dakota for reconfirmation.

Cleveland  only nodded.

“Well ok then, everyone retreat.” Said Kent and she along with South Dakota turned their engines into reverse.

Although as they were turning they were both grabbed by Belfast.

“Where the hell do you think you are going?” Asked the maid with a betrayed look as she janked the two back. “We will fight and kill that bitch!”

“Belfast we can't, we need to regroup and-.” 

“NO BUTS!” Belfast interrupted Kent. ”We kill her now!”

“Bel this is madness, we can’t win.” Said South Dakota as she held her arm. 

“I don’t care!” Screamed Belfast. “We will never get this chance to avenge my sister again.”

“Ohh looks like your allies are smarter than you are Bel.” Giggled Cleveland  from the side.

“SHUT UP!” Screamed Belfast. “I WILL KILL YOU!”

“That's it!” Interrupted Kent. “You are clearly unfit to lead anything at the moment. We need to leave. NOW!”

“You can’t defy me.” Gasped Belfast.

“Yes we can, and we are leaving! South Dakota, drag her if needed.” Said Kent. She was shaking from fear and her memories of a few days ago hurt her again.

“No we can’t, she is the highest officer!” Said South Dakota with anger in her voice. “We-.”

She was interrupted by an energy bolt flying past all three of them.

The three snapped to the right and stared at Cleveland  who was smiling while holding her scythe in a swing.

“Oh sorry my hand slipped.” Said the siren as she held her scythe in a stance now. “So are you idiots now retreating or not?”

“Energy bolts?” Gasped Kent and South Dakota didn’t look so confident.

“We will fight you-.” Belfast said but was immediately kneaded into the stomach by Cleveland .

She was sent into the air and met a fist to the face before she landed.

“Then don’t stand around and talk.” Snorted Cleveland  and ran at them.

The three shipgirls departed and encircled Cleveland .

They used their secondaries and main guns to the best of their abilities but the siren didn’t seem to even care for the hits.

The siren slammed her scythe into the water and sent a massive wave all around her.

Kent was thrown the highest and met a kick to the face before she landed, sending her right into South Dakota and both of them to the ground. 

They both jumped up barely in time to look up and evaded a few energy bolts that Cleveland  swung at them.

Belfast tried to sneak up but Cleveland  ducked befor delivering a high kick to Belfast's face and grabbing her by the throat.

“Come Bel, you are like your sister, not actually able to fight anyone hand to hand anymore.”Said Cleveland  to Belfast as she choked her. “You know you can send the others away, I am sure Elma made them bleed enough already.”

South Dakota looked at the opening and trained her guns on the siren. 

Cleveland  smirked at that.

The second she heard the battleship shoot, she threw Belfast behind her in a turn.

The maid impacted the shells headfirst and was thrown into the nearby destroyed base.

“So one maid down, leaves the other two.” Giggled Cleveland  and turned to them. “Do you two really want to fight now?”

“No, not really.” Gulped Kent as she dropped torps. “But we are forced to.”

Cleveland  merely giggled and walked ahead. Her tentacles suddenly shot into the water and stabbed 4 torpedoes out of it before sidestepping the 4 from the front.

“Oh Kent, did you really think you would hit me with this?” Giggled Cleveland  and crushed the torps.

Kent gulped and opened fire. Cleveland  either swiped, evaded or tanked the shots as she approached the heavy cruiser.

Kent got progressively more desperate the closer the siren got.

South Dakota used her remaining secondaries to shower the siren in a heavy rain that distracted her a bit.

Cleveland  used her scythe to block the small shots. They were still cruiser caliber and while they didn’t hurt her hard they were still shots.

Kent, would she have it, would have deployed smoke but sadly she didn't, so she used the smoke created by South Dakota's secondaries for cover.

Cleveland  only closed her eyes and thought before doing something. She marked the shipgirls on the radar and got a vague location where they were hiding.

She swung her scythe and an energy blade flew into the smoke. Not a second later she heard Kents scream.

Cleveland  smiled and moved into the smoke where Kent laid on her stomach, a deep gash in her back that will definitely leave a scar.

Cleveland  smirked and raised her scythe to Kents head. 

"Goodnight." Giggled Cleveland  and swung down but before she hit she was hit by several 16 inch shells.

The high explosive shells exploded and covered the area in a red light.

South Dakota sprinted into the smoke and grabbed Kent before pulling her out of the smoke.

As soon as they were clear she shot into the smoke with her reloaded guns, making the smoke even thicker.

South Dakota painted. “Kent, are you ok?”

“Barely.” Gasped Kent. “God that girl will kill us. We need to get out of here. If Bel is knocked out we run.”

South Dakota could only nod at that.

“Still want to run?” Giggled Cleveland  as she stepped out of the smoke. Her clothes were burning embers but she herself looked absolutely undamaged. “Sure, you two can, but the head maid stays.”

“What do you want from Belfast siren?” Demanded South Dakota.

“Let’s say… personal business.” Giggled Cleveland  and drew her scythe. “Will you two go or take part in this dance?”

“Kent, go look after Belfast. I will distract her.” Said South Dakota. 

“South you are damaged.” Gasped Kent as she looked at the damaged battleship.

“Yes, I am.” Admitted South Dakota. “But from the two of us I got the greatest chance to take her on.”

“Don’t die on me, I will be gone for a minute.” Said Kent and left.

The two enemies trained their weapons at each other and waited.

“You know you can leave yet you don’t do it.” Pondered the siren. “Interesting.”

South Dakota shot and the siren evaded them by side-stepping.

“Say you care for Kent, why?” Asked the siren as she walked to the battleship..

“We are colleagues. We need to stick together against you to make sure we survive.” Said South Dakota.

Observer Beta stopped. “I can understand that. Rushing into battle to protect the ones you like. I felt that way too, a long time ago. But enough nostalgia, let's get this over with.”

Cleveland rushed forward. South Dakota shot and Cleveland barely evaded a strifing shot and went for a swing with her scythe.

South Dakota managed to grab the staff and push the blade, that was millimetres from her throat, to the side before she kneed Cleveland.

Cleveland let go of her scythe and backflipped before engaging South Dakota in a fistfight.

The two of them exchanged blows at a rapid back and created shockwaves with every hit.

After several minutes of fighting and acrobatic acts by both of them the winner was clear.

The siren was clearly stronger.

A quick fist to the stomach sent the battleship on her back.

South Dakota was left groaning.

Cleveland  approached and readied her scythe. “I find it amazing. Years ago we managed to take on several pawn fleets and attack some high sirens at once but now you alone aren't able to handle one siren. It's quite pathetic.”

“Don’t talk like we have gotten bad in fighting, our weapons just took you sirens out faster but you two are different.” Coughed South Dakota as she stood up.

She directed a single secondary at the water and shot, using the resulting waterspout to cover her and fall back.

The siren however simply jumped through the water and ran after the battleship.

South Dakota used her secondaries and shot at the siren what she could before scoring a hit to the siren's arm and head through an opening.

Cleveland  was thrown on her back and South Dakota took a second to breathe.

She approached the siren and aimed her guns at her face.

“Any last words before I kill you?” Asked South Dakota. Her guns shined from sweat and heat but were far from unusable.

“Why do you fight?” Asked Cleveland  from the ground. She was bleeding golden ichor but smiling at the same time.

South Dakota was perplexed. “What do you mean? To eradicate you sirens of course. Saving humanity in the act.”

“Hehehehe.” Giggled the siren from the ground. “Really, then look around you, is that what we use as a base?”

South Dakota gritted her teeth. “Of course, there are a lot of sirens around, making it a siren base.”

“You idiots don’t even realise you kill humans, it’s so pathetic.”Said Cleveland .

South Dakota was momentarily taken aback and Cleveland  used that split second to knee South Dakota into the face.

Cleveland  jumped to her feet and sent several quick fists to South Dakota's body.

The battleship was sent back.

“Do you really think you kill sirens?” Smack “Try killing me for a chance, not the humans on this base.” Smack “And my dear I am not lying, you really do that.” Smack “But I won’t just back down.” Smack “I will either kill or force you to retreat.”

With one massive uppercut she delivered, South Dakota was sent flying.

Cleveland  spun her scythe and hit South Dakota's stomach by slamming the handle into it. “So murderer I ask you again. Do you really think killing humanity is saving them?”

“You speak nonsense.” Gasped South Dakota. “We won’t surrender but we aren’t killing humans.”

Some rockets flew past South Dakota and some even hit, looks like some humans gathered and took aim at the Battleship.

“Damm sirens!” Screamed South Dakota as she turned around and shot.

Cleveland barely screamed out for them to hide but South Dakota shot.

Cleveland wasn’t fast enough to catch any of the shells and even her teleporting there only allowed her to catch a single shell. 

She saved one boy from dying while around her, multiple lay dead after the smoke cleared.

“So she can use portals too?” Gasped  South Dakota.

Cleveland looked around her and then back to her enemy.

Her bright yellow glowing eyes told of nothing but killing intent.

Cleveland  jumped up and onto the water. Her eyes brimming yellow and showing nothing but pure hate.

South Dakota shot but missed and received a full swing from the siren's fist to her face. 

After that Cleveland  slammed her scythe into the battleship's rigging, cutting off 2 guns completely and cutting a deep gash into the battleship's shoulder. She ripped the scythe out and slammed it into the other shoulder before ripping it out again and slashing the battleship’s stomach.

South Dakota could only wince as the siren just ignored everything she threw at her.

The siren took a step back and went for another strike but then just exploded as shells hit her.

South Dakota began running back to the others and met Kent who had Belfast leaning against her.

“Are you two ok?” Panted South Dakota. “I kept her off of you.”

“We are but ask that for yourself, you look awful.” Winced Kent. “We need to go, we all can’t fight anymore.”

“Yes go.” Said the siren as she walked out of the smoke. “But you leave me that headmaid.”

“No, we will not!” Said Kent and took a step back before looking at Belfast. ”Bel, can you create smoke?”

“Fine, urgh, I will get you next time.” Gasped Belfast as she deployed another smokescreen. “And now everyone runs.”

They all turned and began cruising to the cave entrance.

“What is the change of plans Bel?” Snickered South Dakota. “Why are we leaving now when you a minute ago was like we can’t.”

“Meeting the face of a rock formation at high speeds.” Said Belfast as she held her bleeding head wound. “We need heavy artillery and more to win here.”

They almost reached the exit but heard an energy blade approaching.

“Down!” Was the only thing South Dakota managed to scream out before the thing hit the water next to them.

They all jumped in different directions and lost sight of each other in the thick mist.

South Dakota stood up and was approaching the edge of the smoke but was suddenly thrown back. 

“I might have allowed you to leave a minute ago but now you sinned and need to be put to justice.” Giggled the siren. “Although that includes losing that little head of yours.”

South Dakota groaned, stood up and readied her guns. 

Belfast stopped and turned around before driving back into the smoke.

Only one person broke through the smoke and looked around. 

“South? Belfast?” Called Kent out. “Where are you?”

As an answer she got only screams of pain.

“Kent! Come back.” Declared Belfast. "I need you here."

“But we will die.” Argued Kent. "I-I will get help."

"Come back, that's an order!" Screamed Belfast but Ken didn't even hear it.

“Just don’t die. Be careful, that scythe is sharp.” Pleaded Kent and walked into the open ocean where she headed to Long Island, who looked alarmed.

“Try to spot anything Long.” Said Kent and Long Island immediately launched planes. "And help them."

Belfast shook her head and turned around to South Dakota.

South Dakota was fighting back but wasn’t strong enough.

“South, I will help you!” Screamed the maid out and South Dakota looked as if hope filled her again.

Belfast aimed her guns and was about to fire but the other siren's halberd impacted the ground in front of her.

“Oh come on enforcer. Really?” Said Belfats and jumped at the waterspout.

She didn’t see who was holding it but attacked nonetheless. Whoever it was was hostile to her.

She punched the one who was holding it in the stomach….but faded straight through it and fell on her face.

“What the hell.” Gasped Belfast and jumped up. She spun around and shot at the place where the blue figure stood.

The shots hit the water and not the figure, leaving Belfast heavily confused. 

“Belfast help me!” Groaned South Dakota as she spotted her attacking no one.

“I am try-urgh.”Said Belfast but was nearly stabbed by the halbert being thrown at her. “You I will need to he-.”

Belfast was stopped in her tracks by who stepped out of the waterspout.

All sound around her vanished and Belfast only stared at one spot. 

The face of her sister.

“Sister?” Gasped Belfast as tears sprung from her eyes.

She slowly stepped forward on sloppy legs and held her arm out.

“Belfast help me!” Demanded South Dakota as she was stabbed in the thigh.

Belfast paid her no mind and simply walked ahead.

“Eddie, don't hurt her too much.” Giggled Cleveland  and ripped her scythe out of South Dakota. "I still want to talk with her."

Belfast didn’t even hear both of them and simply approached her sister.

“Sister, I..? How are you alive?” Gasped Belfast as she hugged her sister who just let her.

They both indulged in a hug and South Dakota could only look in horror. 

“That's not Edinburgh Bel, we buried her.” Said South Dakota, barely evading another slash but being kicked to the ground.

The siren giggled. ”Funnily enough, that is Belfast's sister. 100% in the, well I guess not flesh but you get the point.”

South Dakota got up and caught the blade mid-swing and used all her strength to hold it. “BEL HELP ME!”

Belfast didn’t even hear her. She just hugged and cried into her sister's arms.

“I missed you so much.” Cried Belfast and fell to her knees, all while Edinbgurgh helped her with a smile. “I shouldn’t have abandoned you there alone, do you forgive me?”

Belfast looked up and looked at her sister with hope.

Edinburgh just shook her head, reeled her fist back and decked Belfast in the face. 

Belfast was thrown back and landed on the same thing.

She stood up slowly before looking up.

Her sister shot at her with her rigging and hurt Belfast as well, even though she didn’t get any physical damage.

“Sister, why? What is?” Asked Belfast as her sister kicked her in the chin and began to strangle her.

“Goddammit Belfast that's an illusion, help me!!!” Screamed South Dakota. Her strength was leaving her and she had deep cuts all around her body.

Cleveland  got her scythe free and attacked. She uppercutted South Dakota before sliding  behind her and slicing upwards, severely cutting South Dakota's back.

The battleship almost let go of her rigging from the pain alone.

The battleship screamed and Cleveland  kicked her in the back.

South Dakota stood up and ran but Cleveland  somersaulted above her.

Cleveland  slammed her scythe into South Dakota's stomach and ripped it out before letting the heavily damaged battleship run.

“Belfast help me!” Cried the battleship as she was janked back by the hair.

“Looks like your commander is a bastard isn’t she?” Giggled Cleveland  and pointed at Belfast. “Hey maid, that’s your sister you know.”

Belfast was using everything to get her sister to loosen up and finally succeeded and threw her sister away.

“Sister what's wrong?” Cried Belfast. “My sister you…you….YOU MURDERED HER!!” 

Belfast turned to Cleveland  and shot, completely missing the siren and hitting South Dakota.

“Aim you idiot.” Gasped South Dakota as she nearly puked out blood. “Aim for the siren.”

“Oh come on Bel, even the Kamchatka can hit better.” Giggled Cleveland . She helt South Dakota up and looked at her. “So who would you want to die from? Me, Belfast or any other shipgirl there at pearl?”

“I refuse to die!” Gasped South Dakota. “I am the Eagle Union's shield, I need to protect them!”

“You know, a shield that leaks evil through is fairly useless.” Giggled Cleveland  and threw South Dakota to the ground.

Belfast came running but Edinburgh tackled her to the ground.

South Dakota struggled into a stand and shot at the water.

The waterspout shielded her for a sec.

“Really, that didn’t work the last 6 times.” Giggled Cleveland  and took a step, only to explode as she stepped on Belfast's torps.

South Dakota sprinted ahead, as fast as she could, and delivered a punch to the sirens face sending her over the dock and probably knocked her out.

“Stay down.” Demanded South Dakota and turned around.

The battleship stumbled to Belfast and kicked the illusion off her.

“Come, we need to get out of here.” Declared South Dakota

“Sister.” Said Belfast as she looked at the ghostly illusion of her sister wink at her.

“An illusion, not real, now come on!” Said South as she dragged Belfast with her.

They were almost at the exit and in the light but fate had another plan.

Edinburgh jumped in front of them and helt the enforcers halberd at them.

Belfast and South Dakota looked at her and aimed. 

“Go away, you are not real.” Said South Dakota and shot.

The illusion jumped at them, landing on Belfast and biting down on her.

South Dakota was about to shoot but couldn’t since she didn’t want to injure Belfast.

She leaned down to grab the illusion but her arm was hit by an energy blade, nearly cutting it off.

She turned to look from where the energy blade came from but saw only the fist of the siren.

South Dakota was thrown back and grabbed by the collar. The next second she has been slashed across the face and body.

The siren slid behind her and in a wide arc slashed at the battleship. “It’s over!”

The scythe hit and pierced South Dakota's shields and slammed through her neck and throat.

South Dakota had to gasp for breath as she fell to her knees. Looking up, she barely caught a glimpse of the scythe slamming down before all of her feelings nearly stopped.

The blade pierced straight through her chest and cube.

“That’s what you get for murdering humans.” Said the siren and smiled as life the disappeared out of South Dakota.

“DAKOTA!!” Screamed Belfast as Edinburgh let her go. The ghost walking next to Cleveland s' side. “You murderer.”

“What you call cold hearted murder is what I call cold hearted justice.” Said the siren as she ripped the scythe out of the battleship's lifeless body.

The blade glowed a bright blue as she directed it at Belfast but quickly changed back to its former state. “So maid shall we continue where we left off two years ago?”

___________

Wooooh Cleveland  did something, and I think it was a blast

Sooo, no battleship anymore, let’s see where this goes in the next chapter

Cecidit ancilla

Chapter Text

Belfast simply stared at the siren in front of her.

“What do you mean murderer?”Asked Belfast. “We don’t know each other!”

“DO WE NOT!” Screamed Cleveland as she slammed her scythe to the ground. “Ed, go take care of the people out there!”

She walked closer to Belfast who was stumbling back. The illusion of Edinburgh running out of the cave. “Don’t you even dare to pretend you forgot everything you have done to me!!!!!!!!!”

Belfast fell to her aft and began crawling away. “We don’t know each other!”

The siren grabbed her by the collar and kneed her in the ribs.

“Since when do you kill humans and use us innocents to do it?!” Asked the siren sternly.

“We never kill humans, we kill sirens…” Said Belfast sheepishly with a smile.

The siren simply stared at her unamused.

Belfast was kicked in the face and thrown like 20 metres into the next building.

“Then what is this about cleansing the world of all evil, which includes humanity, you bastards talked about?” Grumbled Cleveland and set her scythes blade on Belfast throat. “As much as I wish to execute you here and now, I need answers!"

“What are you talking about?” Gasped Belfast and winced from her wounds.

“What you bastards told me, your plan of killing humanity to create peace.” Said Cleveland as she stomped down on Belfast. “Enterprise, Hood, Wales and the Queen talked so passionately about it.”

Belfast almost took a step back upon hearing this.

“You're talking bullshit, we never wanted to kill humanity.” Said Belfast calmly. Innerly she was freaking out.

How could this random siren know of their top secret plan, and even a conversation she was never there for.

Cleveland gritted her teeth. “Look around you, this is a human refugee camp! Not a siren base!”

Belfast looked around, saw the bodies and smiled. “Yes, it is a human refugee camp. One that you two sirens attacked.”

Belfast was ripped to her feet and held up. She had to stare into the hatred filled bright yellow eyes for only a second before fear began growing in her heart.

“STOP LYING!” Screamed Cleveland and punched her in the chest, the massive pillows giving no ounce of resistance to a strike of that caliber.

Belfast flew back and landed with her back on the concrete.

“Urgh, you are stronger than the usual siren…” Gasped Belfast. She was running out of options and speech. She had to do something fast to get out of here but had no options.

“Considering that your usual siren is a human being, I am very much stronger than that!” Said Cleveland and pushed her against the ground. “Edinburgh couldn’t tell me the truth as I ripped her limb from limb, but you should be able to. You know the truth, unlike your useless sister!”

Belfast's heart was gripped with both fear and anger. She had no idea how this siren knew all of this stuff.

More angering was how she spoke about the maid's sister.

“Don’t speak about my sister like that!” Screamed Belfast. “I will kill you!”

“You will not move a meter from here until you answer me!” Said Cleveland and breathed into the maid’s face. “So how did you trick them?”

“What?” Acted Belfast confused. "We don't trick anyone."

“You spoke about how you tricked me and several others to attack human bases as siren ones, but that was from far distance and no personal contact while you made the base look like a siren one.” Said Cleveland and touched her hair. “But South Dakota ripped people apart by hand, how did she overlook the red blood of the humans and not realise she is killing the wrong target? Sirens, even the base ones, aren't that weak.”

Belfast gritted her teeth.

This siren, who spoke of an event only five people alive could know about, was systematically proving the truth. The truth the shipgirls can’t know about.

“What are you talking about? South is smart enough to see that.” Coughed Belfast.

Some of the siren's tentacles grabbed her and one even helt the scythe at strike ready.

“What do I talk about?'' Said the siren and leaned forward. “I talk about exactly what you told me two years ago Belfast.”

“I never told a siren anything!” Gasped Belfast as one of the tentacles slithered over her throat.

“No, not to a siren, but you told it to me.” Said Cleveland. “Exactly a few minutes after Wales shot me through the stomach.”

Belfast's eyes widened in realization and confusion.

“How do you? You weren’t there...” Gasped Belfast but was then nearly strangled by a tentacle.

"Oh so you dont deny you did kill someone." Snickered Cleveland with a low laugh. "Tell me who did you kill?!"

"We killed a traitor and you weren't there anyway." Gasped Belfast as she was hit.

The quartet gripped her and slammed into her hard enough to send her crashing into the wall.

She was resisting but then thrown across the field where she came to a rest sitting against a broken wall.

“Oh I was not?” Said Cleveland as she held her scythe in her hand and twirled it around. “Cause I am pretty sure you held me up after Wales ripped out my wisdom cube, after talking about how I should join you in destroying humanity.”

"We didn't do that and that was a shipgirl, not a siren." Struggled Belfast to say.

"Yes it was me when I was still one!" Screamed Cleveland. "I came back from being kidnapped during the battle at Pearl in these clothes and after a talk with Wales, you five led me out on the open ocean where Wales freaking shot me!"

"Then you are..?" Belfast's heart nearly stopped as she realised who was in front of her. “The Cleveland we….?”

"Yes." Cleveland smirked as the maid took several panicked breaths. “The very same you murdered that day.”

Belfast's eyes widened in horror. “You, you can’t be alive, we killed you and…”

“And what? Surprised to see me?” Snarked Cleveland. "Alive and kicking?"

“How? And how are you a siren?” Gasped Belfast. She tried to aim her guns but the tentacles of her old friend grabbed her turrets before they could aim.

“That is a weird thing to explain but we shall not come to that because you will not live long enough for me to even try to explain it.” Spat Cleveland out as approached the terrified maid.

Belfast was about to punch her but Cleveland simply caught both of her fists.

“Seriously, how weak have you idiots become?” Said Cleveland and headbutted the maid, sending her back and on her back.

“How are you here? We killed you back then!” Gasped Belfast. “There has to be a reason why you are back.”

“Let's say I got help from a friend.” Giggled Cleveland. “Someone who quite literally opened my eyes.”

“Bullshit!” Screamed Belfast as she tried to stand up but was grabbed by the arm and held up.

“No it's quite possible, but I am asking the questions here.” Said Cleveland. “So Maid, how many?”

“How many what?” Asked Belfast back but only received a punch to the stomach that left her gasping for breath.

“HOW MANY DID YOU BASTARDS KILL!” Screamed Cleveland. Her eyes burned with even more fury than before.

“Like we kept count, the more dead, the better!” Said Belfast snarkily.

Every breath hurt but she didn't show that openly.

“HOW FUCKING MANY!!!!!!” Repeated Cleveland.

“Let me think…” Said Belfast as she ended her gagging. “Maybe millions.”

Cleveland merely stared at Belfast.

“Millions.” Repeated Cleveland with shaking anger.

Belfast arm was nearly crushed from the tentacle holding it.

“We only did the best for this world.” Struggled Belfast to say out loud. Her arm nearly breaking in two from the strength behind it.

“The best for this world?” Questioned Cleveland. “This is nowhere near the best for the world!”

“Yes it is!” Screamed Belfast. “Humanity is the evil of this world, it needs to be exterminated so we can have a peaceful world and we five will use everything we can to achieve that goal!”

“Only you five?” Said Cleveland. “If I recall that right you said that I wouldn’t be the last that will be executed and asked to join you.”

“We tried to recruit so many, but everytime they refused!" Said Belfast and winced at her hurting arm. "It's like they can’t see what we mean.”

Cleveland threw her away. “Looks like even in death I can trust my friends to do the right thing.”

“The right thing?” Questioned Belfast as she laid on the ground.

The maid began to giggle. “They all refused to do the right thing so we had to use other ways.”

“And these would include?” Asked Cleveland as she stepped on Belfast's knee.

“As if I would tell you. I just need to wait for reinforcements.” Said Belfast.

“Reinforcements?” Giggled Cleveland. “Who? Kent and Long Island who are currently running like scared chickens?”

Belfast was confused. “Why would they be running?”

“From your sister, Long Island probably never expected to meet an actual ghost.” Giggled Cleveland. “And Kent already ran when I killed your sister. So why should it be different now?”

Belfast gritted her teeth. “I will kill you for that later. How do you use an illusion of my sister?”

Cleveland shrugged. “It’s technical bullshit even I can’t understand. Let's just say her soul belongs to me.”

Belfast groaned. “And what is your goal, kill me?”

Cleveland only smiled. “Yes. And freeing everyone from your tyrannic grasp.”

"Tyrannic grasp?" Belfast only laughed at that. “All of them are much happier than they are before.”

“Then I will bash the truth into their heads.” Said Cleveland. “But I need to do one thing before all of that.”

Belfast only winced and did not even ask.

“All of you five will suffer for what you did.” Said Cleveland with disgust in her voice. “And I won’t stop until every single one of you who has done these things has been laid to rest.”

Belfast smiled and moved her arm and stared up at Cleveland. “I won’t let you.”

"Do you think I just stay low while you all are stepping over corpses!" Screamed Cleveland and looked up. "No, no I will not."

Cleveland heard some clicking and looked down.

Cleveland could barely turn her head to see Belfast's guns fire.

Cleveland blocked the shots but Belfast used the small time window to stand up.

She ran ahead and turned around before firing a salvo backwards, hitting the siren.

Cleveland was thrown to the ground where Belfast jumped her and mercilessly beat her.

“This is for everything you have done!” Screamed Belfast as her punches connected and she noticed one thing. “Since when do you have breasts?”

Belfast jumped back and evaded several tentacles stabbing upward before they disappeared again.

“Recent development.” Coughted Cleveland as she stood up only to get shot and sent back.

Belfast lunged at her but Cleveland ducked before grabbing her leg and slamming the maid into the ground.

She ripped her out and spun around before throwing her over the yard where she impacted concrete.

Belfast jumped up and barely evaded the scythe being slashed down.

“You will not remove our chance for peace!” Said Belfast and shot her in the stomach before attempting to strike again.

Cleveland caught her fist. “Your peace is a joke.” Before slamming her fist into Belfast rigging.

Belfast struggled as she lost one of her torpedo launchers. It was ripped out and thrown to the side before she managed to slam a fist into the siren.

Cleveland stumbled back as Belfast followed up with a savage uppercut.

The siren was knocked to the ground and Belfast created smoke to run.

Belfast ran in some direction and opened her comms. “Come on, come on.”

She tried to reach anyone, because she was totally outmatched.

“Someone get on the com..urgh.” Gasped Belfast as she was restrained from behind.

“Who are you trying to reach?” Said Cleveland and let a tentacle rip out Belfast communication antenna. “Hood? The Queen? Wales? Or even your girlfriend.”

Belfast only gasped in pain before she was kicked away.

Coming to a hold she struggled to her feet. “Who is my girlfriend?”

“Enterprise of course, or at least she was two years ago.” Said Cleveland.

Belfast was confused. “We were girlfriends.” She gripped her fists in anger. "But not anymore!"

Blefast jumped at Cleveland without a plan and ended up just beating at her like an animal.

Cleveland expertly evaded the punches and delivered her own every time, slowly making the maid more exhausted and bleeding.

With one strike to the throat with her scythes handle she let the maid go down.

Belfast gasped for breath before she was ripped up by the hair.

Cleveland looked into her eyes as her tentacles restrained the maids rigging. “Tell me how you tricked them. It can’t be just painting a few ships black and yellow.”

Belfast snickered. “You would be surprised to find out what a few lies and a bit of deception can bring.”

Cleveland kneed her in the face. “How did you manage to make them all kill humans?”

“Hehe.” Giggled Belfast dazed. “Even I don’t know the details about that, that was Wales and Enterprise's job.”

Cleveland threw the maid away. “So I need to interrogate those, well then I can kill you.”

“I won’t let you!” Said Belfast and readied her guns after standing up.

Cleveland stopped and only stared at the maid before giving a wholehearted laugh. “Really? Worked out fine so far.”

Belfast smirked and took something out. “No but in the time you were dead we worked on our strategies.”

Cleveland was confused and looked down, only to be blinded by a bright light before she jumped back and had to hold her eyes shut from the sheer pain.

“What the heck was that!” Gasped Cleveland in pain.

Belfast was smirking. She approached the siren and landed punch after punch.

“Fog lights, you like it?” Giggled Belfast. “How easy it is to outsmart you, never expected that huh.”

“We only use those for communicating without comms.” Said Cleveland as she was struck by another punch.

“Oh no, we weaponised them! Found out that with a few modifications to our riggings they actually appear on them.” Said Belfast as she landed a kick. “Makes finding humans in dark places a lot easier. And I did even more.”

“And what did you do?” Said Cleveland. “Damm it, this hurts.”

She slashed and punched around herself trying to hit the light cruiser. Belfast had to seriously evade hard to evade the sirens assault, even blinded for a moment she is still a formidable foe.

“You know I am a light cruiser but to be more efficient in killing humans I modified my rigging a bit.” Said Belfast as she delivered a high kick to the sirens back. “I input more search lights into my rigging to do that, was easy anyway.” Belfast giggled. “Your friend there was blinded for a few moments but that you are even now blinded speaks of my superior design.”

“Superior my aft.” Said Cleveland and punched the ground. The punch created a small shockwave that brought Belfast to her knees.

“Good plan but you still suck at hitting.” Said Belfast and threw a piece of concrete at Cleveland.

The thing hit and broke on contact followed by many other thrown pieces.

“This is almost cheating so easy is it.” Giggled Belfast and intensified her attack by adding 6 inch shells to the mix. “Come on, fight back..oh you can’t? Too bad for you.”

Cleveland stood up and thought before trying to evade what she couldn’t see. “Alpha I need vision.”

*It will take a few while from sensory overload. I cannot do anything. Duck.*

“Damn you are useless.” Mumbled Cleveland as she held her arms at ready.

She blocked and evaded what she could but the maid hit her again and again.

Although for some reason, a lot of shots Cleveland heard appeared to get fired at something else than her.

It took a minute but Cleveland’s eyes slowly regained their vision and she managed to catch a rock.

She threw it back and used the situation to jump forward.

Beldfast evaded the shot and aimed at the siren.

Cleveland evaded the shots by deflecting them and grabbed Belfast. “So you can blind me, did that help you in any way? Because I am still very much alive.”

“No.” Giggled Belfast as she struggled against the siren's grip. “But it bought me time!”

“Time for what?” Said Cleveland as Belfast kicked her in the stomach.

Belfast was thrown back but still on her feet.

“This!” Screamed Belfast and aimed her guns.

And then did nothing.

Cleveland didn’t move and helt her scythe ready to block the projectiles.

“What is?” Asked Cleveland confused. ”Afraid of me blocking it.”

“You can’t block this.” Snickered Belfast and smiled.

“I am pretty sure I can block and take your little caliber main guns. The smaller ones bounce off too.” Said Cleveland, not going out of her stance for even a second. “So what will you fire at me when even Souths shots don’t hit.”

A rock fell from the ceiling and confused Cleveland a bit.

“Who said I will shoot anything at you.” Smiled the maid and looked up.

Cleveland was confused but heard a loud crash from above.

Looking up she barely caught a glimpse of the ceiling crashing down on her. Several rocks crashed from the roof of the cave and Cleveland could barely evade.

“Are you crazy?!” Screamed Cleveland as she evaded as good as she could. “You will bring down the entire cave.”

“If it means killing you.” Giggled Belfast as she shot the siren. ”I will gladly do that.”

The shots didn’t hurt but distracted Cleveland enough to miss a rock and her leg got caught under a boulder.

The siren let out a scream of pain and looked at the maid enraged. “You just wait until I get out of here!”

“Die!” Screamed Belfast as she shot in the air and a big boulder fell down completely covering Cleveland.

Multiple other rocks and stones in various sizes fell from the top of the cave and covered the siren under it, as well as the area in a thick smoke.

The smoke cleared and Belfast walked to the collapsed rocks.

Yellow blood seeped out of the stone and Belfast smiled. “Told you I would finish what we started all that time ago.”

Belfast looked around and up. “And now I need to get out of here, this cave will be unstable as hell, but at least it killed you, not even New Jersey would have survived that.”

Belfast turned and walked in the direction of the cave opening.

The sun was hanging low symbolizing it was almost evening.

Belfast looked around and saw that she was alone, even the other siren wasn't where she laid down a few minutes ago.

“How the hell did that siren know all that stuff, did we have a siren as a spy with us?” Exhaled Belfast as she walked away. “Did we have a siren as a spy with us the entire time? Urgh, good that we killed that Cleveland….but why did she have a cube we could remake a girl with then?”

Belfast stepped on the water and winced, after that she fell to her knees in pain. “Dammit, she did hit me a lot. This will be a pain to explain to Enterprise. My girlfriend huh Cleve?” Belfast shuttered. “Urgh I can’t stand all four of them.”

“How the hell did she even use my sister as an illusion? I need to explain that also to them and then…….resurrect…….South…….Dakota. Urgh.” Winced Belfast and stopped before exhaling and turning around again. “Great, where is that dead battleship now? I need to get her cube.”

Belfast walked into the port again, past the bleeding rocks. “Where is she now, ah there.”

She spotted South Dakota's corpse laying around 10 steps next to the collapsed boulders and walked to it. “Did you really have to die? It was just one siren, even I beat her and you are stronger than me…..well not mentally that is.”

She snickered before reaching into her outfit where she pulled out a knife. “Ok lets see, your cube is your heart so here.”

The maid began cutting open the battleship's chest for a while and then put her arm in. She felt around a bit and felt nothing except bleeding flesh. “Come on, where is it?”

She searched around for longer than she needed and found nothing but organs, not what she was looking for.

“Where is the damn thing, you can’t just lose it.” Said Belfast and continued her search, staining her outfit even more red. “My sister’s was ripped out but the siren merely stabbed you. So where is it!”

Belfast wanted to punch South Dakota in the face to get an answer but stopped before she did it as she heard rumbling from behind her.

A quick glance to the side revealed several stones moving and being thrown aside.

The maid exhaled strongly as she pulled her arm out of the battleship's chest. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

She turned around just in time to see the heavy boulders move but then stop.

"Ehh ok." Wondered Belfast. "Nah the siren is dead, the rocks are literally dripping her blood. Her body is probably twisted in horrendous ways and just gave away and that caused it to move."

Belfast continued to feel and rip through the battleship's intestines and didn't notice something actually happening.

South Dakota in a bluish colour walked out of the rocks.

She approached Belfast with a little smile before kneeling behind her.

She tapped the maid who turned around but didn't seem to realise who was behind her.

"Hey South." Said Belfast and continued feeling around…the chest…of the person behind her.

"Wait a second." Said Belfast as she slowly realised it.

The maid jumped up and turned around but was tackled by the dead battleship.

South Dakota forced the light cruiser to stand still, leaned in and…..bit into her shoulder, sending the maid screaming.

“South???!?!? What are you?” Said Belfast weakingly as she went to her knees. All strength was seemingly sucked out of her the longer South Dakota did whatever she did.

Belfast couldn't aim her guns due to South's position but she had bigger concerns.

It took a minute but finally South Dakota let her go and stepped back.

Belfast slowly struggled to her feet and could barely stand. “Why is it so hard to stand? It's like I have no strength. South, what did you do?!”

Belfast was so disturbed that she didn't even notice the broken rocks behind the battleship.

Belfast stumbled forward. “God damn is it hard to walk. Don’t smile like that.”

South Dakota was indeed smiling and evading every lightly thrown punch by Belfast.

“Stand still!” Screamed Belfast weakly.

South Dakota took another step to the side.

Belfast could look at the broken rocks in all its glory and her heart was gripped in fear.

"Wait, the rocks!" Realised Belfast as she stopped attacking.

The battleship aimed its guns and Belfast readied herself to block them.

Belfast was about to look around but stopped as a massive pain shot through her, coming for her chest.

She would have fallen to her feet wouldn’t something hold her up.

“This is quite the deja vu moment isn’t it?” Giggled the voice of the siren. “Well Wales did the act but you did the holding me.”

”But I guess it's fair. '' Whispered the siren into Belfast's ear. “It’s eye for eye after all, or more heart for heart now. Hehehe.”

Belfast slowly looked down and gasped in horror as she coughed up blood.

The siren's hand was sticking straight through her chest, slammed through it from behind, holding her wisdom cube.

Belfast could only gasp as Cleveland pulled her hand out backwards and the cube with it.

The maid itself hung up by two of the siren's tentacles.

“Such a nice little thing isn’t it.” Said Cleveland as she observed the wisdom cube. “All hope of humanity is put into this little thing and yet five idiots misuse the gift of life.”

Belfast was grabbing the siren but didn’t do anything to disturb her.

Cleveland simply slapped her hand away before kneeing the maid in the chest, sending blood over the ground. “You are so quiet, what's wrong? Heartbroken?”

Belfast was struggling to breath from the pain but used her arms to fire one of her turrets manually.

Cleveland stuck three of her tentacles into the gun barrels and blocked it that way.

The barrels exploded from the inside as the gun was fired, blasting scrap and Belfast's hope around.

One even cut the maid.

“How did you..?” Coughed Belfast but Cleveland interrupted her.

“Survive? Yeah it's a good question.” The Siren smirked “Considering you dropped the ceiling on me it’s a really good question indeed.”

Cleveland kneeled down to Belfast who by now laid on the ground.

Belfast could only stare up at the siren. She was covered in wounds and blood but Belfast could see the wounds closing themselves.

Cleveland grabbed her arm that was clearly broken. “Hurt quite a lot you know. These boulders crashing on your body can really mess you up. Broke my arm and some other stuff. As for how I survived, well.”

Cleveland snapped the arm straight, not a second later she screamed in pain. She bit into her tentacle to muffle the sound though.

It took not a minute for her to calm down though.

After that she could move her arm again. “That hurt a lot more than expected but yeah, my regeneration is quite amazing.”

Belfast struggled to her feet and threw a punch with a scream. “This is Bullshit!”

The punch impacted and did nothing.

“Oh please.” Giggled Cleveland. “Was that supposed to hurt?”

“Don’t fuck with me!” Screamed Belfast and threw punch after punch to the siren's body.

Cleveland didn’t even react and let the maid punch her strength out.

Belfast had to catch her breath and stopped.

Cleveland swung her scythe upward and gave the maid a deep cut across her face.

Belfast could only gasp as Cleveland grabbed her and began her own punches.

It took a few punches for the maid to barely be able to stand anymore.

Cleveland pulled her forward, then delivered several strikes to the maids waist and back.

Belfast could only scream as she fell to the ground.

Cleveland gripped the maids ripped dress and suplexed her behind her.

Cleveland stood up and cleaned a bit of the maids blood from her. “So I think we can end this now huh.”

Belfast said nothing and only slowly caught her breath.

She was covered in blood and more as she laid in the dirt.

“You know you fought a lot more than I did when you ripped out my cube.” Snickered Clevalland as Belfast clang to her dear life.

“Please...” Gasped Befast, barely strong enough to force a word. “Leave the cube to my friends.”

“Please what?” Asked Cleveland as she went closer to the maid. “Can you speak up?”

“Kill me but give my friends that cube.” Said Belfast. “If you got even an ounce of humanity in you, do this as my last wish...”

Cleveland smiled at her. “Of course I will bring your friends this one, they get you too.”

Belfast slightly smiled at that. She would be remade with all her memories so they can prepare to hunt this siren who knows too much before she can cause trouble.

“Although you see there is this little problem.” Giggled Cleveland and looked at the cube. She bent down and removed a bit of blood from Belfast's face.

Belfast was confused and innerly scared.

“What?” She coughed out barely awake.

Cleveland pulled away her arm and kneeled down.

“You see, if they get this cube you will come back.” Said Ceveland as she tightened her grip.

“How could I?” Asked Belfast praying that the siren doesn't know about their resurrection abilities.

“Well I know you got a little machine for that.” Said Cleveland as she tightened her grip so much that the cube began to crack. “I need to prevent you from coming back and killing more humans, or worse telling the people of me.”

Belfast was blown into full panic as she saw that her existence really was in danger.

“Stop! Do not do that!” Screamed Belfast in desperation. “They all know nothing about you and I can’t tell them anything!”

Belfast looked scared. “I will help you with anything!”

“What? Do you want to beg for your life like our sister?” Chuckled Cleveland as she stroked the dying maid’s hair. “Surely you've got more honour than that?”

“No, just let me help you defeat them.” Said Belfast. “I don’t like them anyway and always hated killing humans for them, so let me join you.”

“Tempting…….but no.” Said Cleveland. The cube was now close to shattering. “You killed so many humans, there is no guarantee that you will stop.”

“Just let me live and I will help you.” Cried Belfast. “Go kill Hood, she would be the one that organises the resurrecting. I can tell you so much more.”

Cleveland stopped the pressure on the cube that had deep cracks in it. “So Hood organises that? Tell me more.”

“We split the lands and Hood rules Ironblood.” Said Belfast with a shaking voice. “She optimized the resurrection machine and gave us most of our tech.”

“So Ironblood is a strategic target, good to know.” Said Cleveland. “Thank you for that. I really appreciate that.”

Cleveland stroked the maids' hair and gave her a smile.

“Now will you spare me?” Asked Belfast as she was set on the ground. “Also a bandage please.”

Cleveland sat the cube on the ground and smiled at Belfast. “Yeah I will spare you.”

Belfast lightened up upon hearing that.

“Thank you, I thank you so much!” Said the maid as she crawled to her cube.

She just had to insert it again and make it to one of their bases, then she could ask for help from any of her allies.

They needed to kill this siren before she could cause trouble and playing her like this worked better than even Belfast imagined.

She only had to do it for a little while longer.

‘Still old stupid Cleveland.’ Snickered Belfast innerly. ‘Still believing in the good in everyone, well I will enjoy whipping that smile off your face for a second time.’

She almost reached her cube and stretched out her arm to grab it………………only to see it shatter in front of her eyes by the siren slamming her foot on it.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Screamed Belfast in total horror and winced as she was picked up by the collar. “You said you would spare me you bastard, without that I will die.”

“Did I say for how long I will spare you?!” Screamed Cleveland. “After everything you have done, do you really think you can just leave or be spared? And I know you will die.” Cleveland stopped before chuckling a bit. “Also about meeting your friends again, you will meet them again……..WHEN I SEND YOU TO THEM IN A FREAKING BODY BAG!”

Cleveland threw the maid on the ground with enough force to break concrete.

Belfast was trying to crawl away but the siren's tentacles held her legs, preventing her from just running.

“Why you bastard?” Said Belfast and began punching one of the tentacles. “Even if I can’t kill you, someone will and then we will win. It might take years but when you die we win. We always win!”

“And that's where you are wrong.” Said Cleveland. She readied her scythe and slammed it into the maids shoulder. “You will lose, since evil always loses.”

“And you talk like you aren’t one of them, are the sirens good?” Snickered Belfast. “Didn’t they kill millions too!?"

Cleveland looked to the ground and exhaled. “You aren’t wrong……but I know they had a reason. You do it because you can’t accept peace, at least not without you ruling it.”

"Good and evil exist in constant contrast." Said Cleveland. "Both exist, and you better accept that."

“Go to hell.” Said Belfast as she spat out blood. “There is a spot open for you that has been unfilled since we killed you for the first time.”

Cleveland huffed. “Yeah hell. That's exactly where I will send you now.”

“I will go to heaven for all the good we did.” retorted Belfast enraged.

“Good?” Questioned Cleveland and shook her head. “Still can’t see the wrong can you? You really think you are the heroes here!”

“And you think you are one? ”Belfast gritted her teeth and did everything to get free but it used nothing. “Killing me will not make you any better.”

A black shadow fell over Clevelands eyes as she looked down. “I know I am no hero.”

She grabbed her scythe. “Look at me, I am not even a human being anymore.”

“But sometimes...” Said Cleveland as she looked up at the ceiling, a look of bliss on her face. “Sometimes… you need a villian to do the right thing.”

“You aren’t a hero and you will never save anyone!” Screamed Belfast with tears. “The end will come to you sooner than you like it and then I will have the last laugh!”

Clevelands look returned to the maid and she grabbed her scythe. “I can assure you that I will sure as hell try to.”

Belfast only spat at her. “As long as one of us five exists, you will never save anyone.”

“Wait for the others in hell.” Said Cleveland as she readied her scythe, soon reaching its highest point as Belfast's struggling became desperate. “You will meet them soon enough.”

“Someone will kill you and then I will have my revenge with my sister sitting beside me.” Said Belfast with a mad laugh.

Cleveland only looked at her with pity. “Your sister would be disgusted if she knew the truth about you.”

Cleveland swung her scythe and set the end in motion.

Belfast could only watch the blade coming down before everything went black for her.

The scythe came down, cleaving her head in two and finally bringing the devils maid to her final rest.

Cleveland waited for a minute before she ripped her scythe out of the maids body and turned around.

“South, we are done here, go help Ed.” Said Cleveland and didn’t even watch the battleship leave.

Cleveland simply strutted down the street into the ruined yet now calm village.

____________

oh god this is done, took long enough huh

oh god I need vacation

exams are coming and my other stories need attention too so I hope you will forgive me for not posting like all 5 days

Anyway keep save, check the other stuff out and just have fun, world is a shithole but yeah do your best

On another note…..10+k , almost 11k , views for this on Wattpad and about 3k on ao3

Just…Just thank you, I don't know what I can say except than this.

Chapter Text

Kent and Long Island were not having a good time.

Sure they were outside of the cave and out of the two sirens grasp but the illusion of a former friend was following after them with murderous intend.

Kent was panicking as she stood there and looked back. She even yelled her friends' names repeatedly but received no answer.

Barely a minute ago they were having a hard fight against a foe they didn’t expect, an enforcer. An elite troop of the sirens, who alone is something many experienced shipgirls need to take on to take it down or force it to retreat. And in all sense the few girls here weren't prepared for that in the slightest.

Despite all odds they fought, even when Shropshire became useless they fought. They fought and almost won, or at least came to a stalemate. Even Kent could see that the siren wasn't fighting at full strength and that scared her.

But then SHE joined, a monster Kent already met, now stronger than before. A siren mimicking the looks and will of a good friend of them all. Cleveland.

The sirens switched places. The enforcer left and the Observer took the field of battle, and utterly destroyed them all. She was on a completely different level compared to the enforcer.

They fought and fought but were ultimately powerless. The siren even brought the ever so stoic headmaid to consider retreat. So they did, they ran, yet it didn’t work.

Belfast and South Dakota didn’t come out of the cave so Kent asked Long Island to help them. The carrier did as best as she could, but as the minutes passed and the smoke stayed, all they could hear was the sound of battle.

Finally after the long screams passed a maid came out of the cave again.

Yet who it was, wasn’t Belfast.

It was another maid, one that almost broke Kent by just looking at her face.

“Edinburgh?” Asked Kent as she stared at the ghostly maid. The illusion held the same halberd the enforcer held and seemed to be glowing a bluish color.

Kent could even swear she could look through her body when she focused on Edinburgh. She gave off an unnatural feeling as she stood there with a big smile.

“But you died…” Said Kent in complete disbelief. “We found your corpse, how are you here?”

Kent was bewildered out of her mind. Long Island however saw that a bit differently as she giggled and woohooed around.

“She looks like a ghost!” Giggled Long Island smugly. “I said this ghost attracts ghosts!”

Kent gulped and held back the light carrier who was about to approach the figure. “In all honesty I don’t believe in ghosts and that halberd looks a bit too real for my liking.” Kent focussed on it. “Wait, isn't that the one the enforcer carried before she threw it away.”

The illusion didn’t move and smiled sheepishly as she stood there halberd drawn and rigging at ready.

“Ok.” Gulped Kent and dragged the carrier backwards. “That is the enforcer no doubt, we need to fight.”

“How are you so sure?” Said Long Island with her childish passion. “ It can just be the ghost of Christmas past.”

“Stop ruining my movie list.” Said Kent embarrassed and looked up. “I like christmas carol ok. Also I am pretty sure that that is not a friend-DOWN!”

Kent barely had enough time to even notice the illusion even doing anything.

The illusion in front of them shot with her readied rigging and only through hitting the deck did the two shipgirls manage to evade the shells.

The shells looked like nothing Kent or Long Island had ever seen but that didn’t bother them as they successfully evadethem.

“Is that proof enough?” Asked Kent as she stood up. “I think she isn’t our friend!”

Long Island stood up on her shaky legs and looked at Kent with a concerned smile. “Perhaps.”

The illusion took aim again so the shipgirls scattered, causing the shoots to miss by a mile.

Long Island launched bombers but about half of the squadron was annihilated before they even took off by one of the weird blue shells skipping over her riggings flightdeck.

Long Island winced a bit from the hit. The shells felt unnatural, not human made yet far from sirens either. The shells felt like a screaming soul being launched to strike down whatever stood in front of it.

The feeling alone sent a chill down the carrier's spine. In all her nightly ghost story readings did she never feel this, this pure dread she felt now.

However Long Island shook it off and used her planes to attack. The dive bombers did their dives and delivered their deadly loads.

Despite the illusions best attempt to use her aa, the heavy bombs directly landed on the illusion and exploded on contact. A massive waterspout was created and showered the shipgirls in saltwater.

The illusion jumped out of it looking unharmed and began her own attack. Long Island was basically unarmed at close ranges so Kent blocked the strike with her rigging. Long Island was definitely thankful to that and took her distance.

The illusion was strong but definitely weaker than the siren the halberd belonged to. Kent was thankful for that because she didn’t possess the strength of South Dakota, who still barely matched the siren's strength.

“Long bring some Dauntless’s up, bomb it.” Said Kent and jumped back, avoiding a long swipe.

The illusion used her guns to fire and Kent barely dodged them, a few secondaries hitting her next to a near stab from the halberd.

Kent winced at the impact but shot her guns and sent the illusion back.

They went into a bit of a close quarter combat after that and Kent dodged the strikes the illusion threw. The illusion used the halberd like an amateur yet Kent still had to evade the deadly thing quite a lot.

Throwing a fist up she disarmed the thing who clearly had no experience with the halberd and went for a kick…only to fly through the illusion. She was picked up by the back of her maid outfit and held up.

She struggled to get free but the illusion's strength was too great. The thing opened its mouth and was about to do something but got a bomb dropped on her head that let her drop Kent.

Kent winced from a few shrapnels hitting her but ignored it, jumped up and jumped back before aiming. The illusion almost got up and lunged at Kent but was hit by multiple bombs and sent to the water.

A big water spout was created and disappeared fast.

The two shipgirls joined together panting.

“You think that thing is dead?” Asked Kent. She was bleeding a bit but still combat capable.

“No idea but she isn't here anymore.” Gasped Long Island. “My planes took a dent but are still fight ready in case she is still here.”

“Stay careful.” Said Kent and scouted the area. “She might be still around.”

Long Island rearmed her bombers and sent them up again, this time even sending up even more bombers.

The two scouted the waters for several minutes yet they found nothing.

The water under Kent began to rupple. Kent barely had enough time to jump back for the halberd to miss her head.

The illusion jumped out of the water with it in a stab and kicked Kent back. Kent got up and readied her guns. “Definitely not dead.” She shot, the illusion blocked and ran at her.

Kent dropped torps and drove backwards.vThe illusion made no attempt to dodge but threw the halberd. It missed by a far margin, stabbing itself into the water behind Kent. Kent shot, only for the illusion to walk through her torps and shots.

Kent didn’t even get a chance to respond before she was decked in the face. Sent to her aft she was a bit dizzy and missed her panicked shots.

The illusion stood before her and smiled sheepishly. It aimed her turrets down and shot. Kent tried blocking it, failed, and was sent flying backwards. She skeeted over the water before coming to a stop.

Even though she felt no strength behind those shots, as in they didn’t punch a hole into her, she still felt like they did a lot worse.

Her whole body was feeling like under a taser for a second and she felt physically a lot weaker than before. Kent somehow got to her feet panting and looked up. She aimed but no shot came out of her cannons.

She tried time and time again but the shots refused to come out. It was like the gun suddenly gave up.

The illusion ripped the halberd out of the water and ran at Kent. She was about to swing but Kent finally shot, hitting the illusion and ending her back.

“So that's the gimmick.” Concluded Kent with a smile.

“We are able to hit when she holds the halberd.” Said Kent in the comms. “Wait for her to attack.”

The illusion stood up but was immediately covered in water. Two bombs dropped by Long Islands bombers hit the illusion, sending the thing to it’s knees.

The next shots from Kent the illusion dodged and attacked. However before she hit her aa wasn’t strong enough to shoot down the dive bombers from behind her.

The bombs hit her hard and sent the illusion down again. Kent took the initiative and shot at the thing. The illusion dived headfirst under the waves to dodge Kent's shells and disappeared.

“Keep yourself ready!” Screamed Kent and scouted the area. “She isn’t down yet.”

The two rejoined and stood back to back.The sea was quiet but they both knew a monster was under them so they stayed focussed.

“We could use a sub right now.” Said Kent but couldn’t think further as something happened..

The sea was broken by the halberd flying up around 20m to their left. Kent immediately turned and shot everything. Long Island dropped bombs and what she could on the spot.

The waterspout that was created was enormous and came down quickly. The halberd resting on the water was the only thing that remained of the illusion.

Kent exhaled. “Ok I think this was it-.” She was interrupted by the water next to them exploding and getting punched in the face.

The illusion was apparently fine and lunged at Long Island. Long Island could only stare into the eyes of pure suffering and hatred the illusion had before that one began beating at her.

Punch after punch connected with Long Island who could only scream in pain. Every punch, while not looking too hurtful, hit with a force that knocked the wind out of the carrier's lungs.

“Edinburgh.” Struggled Long Island and was surprised that the punching stopped. The illusion looked down at her and smiled before nodding.

Long Island was a bit confused. “Are you Edinburgh? No you can’t be real, you died.”

The illusion only smiled before her tone changed and she went for a strike.Her eyes only told of attempted murder so Long Island simply closed hers and waited, but the expected never came.

Opening her eyes the carrier saw why.

The illusion was stabbed by the halberd through the stomach and, while not actually bleeding, looked like she was in massive pain. Long Island was dropped and brought up to her feet by a different pair of arms..

“Are you ok?” Asked Kent as she looked at the shaking carrier.

“I am ok.” Said Long Island and focussed on the illusion who still looked betrayed.

The illusion ripped out the halbert and grabbed it hard. The blade wasn’t stained in blood but what looked like….energy? She directed the shaking blade to the two shipgirls and looked at them.

Kent and Long Island could feel both hatred and desire coming from that stare.

The illusion sprung at them with a silent scream and the halberd almost hit the girls but then stopped. It looked down and dropped the halberd which simply floated on the water surface.

She had 2 shells stuck in her chest, no doubt fired from Kent's main guns.

The illusion looked at them with a look that screamed for help before she fell backwards and poofed out of existence. The two stared at that spot for several seconds, no moment where they didn’t hold their breath.

“Was that even real?” Asked Kent

“How can ghosts hate me?” Cried Long Island a bit. “We are connected on a fundamental level.”

Kent shook her head. “Just showing that that wasn’t a ghost. But what the hell?”

Long Island looked a bit sad. “We better not run into that again, that was strong.”

Kent exhaled strongly and calmed down. She dragged Long Island along with her. “Come we go back to Shropshire.”

Long Island just nodded and followed behind her.

Not even far away was a small Island where they jumped on the beach.

Kent had brought Shropshire here before with Long Island's help to bring her out of the battle. A blind ship shooting around the area is of no help so she was a lot safer here.

“Who is there?” Shropshire asked, scared. She aimed her guns in the direction of the noise, even when she couldn’t see it.

“It’s just us, calm down.” Said Kent and kneeled next to her. “No need to panic.”

The light cruiser calmed down a bit. “Thank her majesty. I doubt I would be able to win against those sirens.”

Kent just gave a nod. “We fought off everything, now we wait for South and Bel to come out of there and then we go back. Are your planes still ready, Long Island?”

Long Island only nodded at that question before sitting on a log next to them.

“So that was that explosion.” Concluded Shropshire and relaxed a bit.

Her bleeding had kind of stopped but she was still weak, adding to her battle fatigue and blindness.

“Yes, an illusion of some sorts attacked us.” Said Kent and stroked Shropshire to calm her down. "Long bombed her and it was over."

Long Island sat down. “The ghost didn’t like this ghost. I must become a better ghost.”

Shropshire giggled a bit at that. The childish carrier was still childish and that brought her some small happiness.

Kent shook her head with a laugh. “Don’t become a ghost like we just fought though. You can only haunt but not attack us.”

Shropshire looked confused.

“Which ghost were you fighting?” Asked Shropshire as she tried to look at Kent.

Kent only winced and recoiled as she saw her dead slashed through eyes but didn’t say a word about that.

“A ghostly illusion of Edinburgh.” Exhaled Kent. “Although I am not sure what it was, it definitely shot at us. A ghost or illusion shouldn’t be able to do that.”

Shropshire was confused. “A ghost? Is that a thing the sirens can use?”

“We don’t know, but I hope not.” Said Kent. “I hope these 2 come out of there fast.”

“I will send out a patrol.” Said Long Island with a little cheer and did just that.

Long Island held a single SBD and threw it out. The plane ascended quickly and Long Island focussed on it flying around.

Kent avoided her attention back to Shropshire who also ‘looked’ at Kent. “You sound distressed. What is wrong?”

Kent was slightly shaking. The whole reality of the situation was sitting hard on her mind.

“I just met a very good friend as an enemy, of course I am feeling unwell.” Said Kent and shed a few tears. “All the smiles we exchanged and something that looks like her just attacked me.”

Shropshire took her hand after searching for it.

“You know that that wasn’t the real thing, ok.” Said Shropshire and cheered Kent up a bit. “She wouldn’t want you to be depressed.”

“I guess you are right.” Said Kent and wiped away her tears. “Ed wouldn’t want me to be depressed.”

Shropshire only nodded to that.

“She really wouldn’t.” Said the light cruiser but still looked concerned. “But you are still worried about something. Is it that siren that hurt me?”

Kent gulped. “Yes and no. We beat that one more or less but then found another of the high caliber and it’s…it’s.” Kent began to shake again. “It’s the same one that cut off my arm and most likely killed Edinburgh.”

Shropshire was surprised to hear this and brought Kent into a hug. “It’s ok, we are now together, we can't lose.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure there, that enforcer beat us good.” Said Kent with a shaking breath. “And now a second siren appeared with a scythe that can cut through riggings like butter.”

“Then why are you here?” Asked Shropshire with a bit of seriousness.

Kent immediately went rigid and almost stopped breathing for a second. “What do you mean?”

“You speak so scared about that girl, so why are you here and not helping South and Bel?” Shropshire asked and Kent gulped.

Shropshire waited for an answer.

“I can’t.” Stottered Kent while she was shaking. “I cannot face her, she will just…just.”

“Go help them.” Demanded Shropshire. “Go help them out so we all come back alive, I am sure you don’t want to see another one go.”

“Of course not but how, she just effortlessly did-.” “She did nothing. Yes she hurt you hard but that is no reason to just give up.” Interrupted Shropshire. “Look at me, i am hurt and unable to battle but we can’t give up”

Kent stood up. She steeled herself and calmed somewhat down.

“You are right.” Admitted the heavy cruiser and reloaded her guns fresh. “They are my friends and they need my help, I can’t lay down depressed.”

She turned to Long Island who was still focussed on her planes, seemingly having more trouble than usual. Kent inhaled and went to her, tapping the light aircraft carrier and snapping her out of her focus.

“Long, how is the situation?” Asked Kent Long Island who looked concerned. “Everything ok?”

“I don’t know.” Said the carrier. “That’s the point. No one is coming out, no siren or shipgirl.”

Kent was fiddling around upon hearing this. “Wait Bel and South were right behind me.”

“Yes. You wanted to get my support.” Said Long Island. “I did send my planes for that reason, if they hit is another question in the smoke.”

“We need to go look for them, it has been minutes and I will not let them die.” Said Kent with a hard voice, which quickly fell. “Even if I am terrified.”

“Don’t be.” Giggled Long Island as she stepped on the water. “You got this ghost helping you.”

Kent could only smile as she joined her on the water.

They were about to cruise but Kent held Long Island back. She felt an incredible sense of being watched.

“Thanks Kent I like that.” Giggled the light cruiser as her hair was stroked. ”But can you stop, you got a mission. Please go save them.”

“Stop with what?” Asked Kent confused as she checked her ammo storage. “Ok, still enough.”

“Stroking my back and hair like that." Said Shropshire. “Or are you forgetting what you are doing? Also stop licking my neck, it’s weird.”

“But I am not even next to you.” Said Kent and turned around with Long Island.

What they saw turned their blood cold.

The illusion of Edinburgh they defeated minutes ago was standing there. She gave the two a soul freezing smile as she did exactly what Shropshire was describing.

The siren's halberd was stabbed into the ground several meters away.

Shropshire looked around. “Why are you so quiet?”

“Shrop, that isn’t me.” Said Kent and readied her guns.

Shropshire looked scared and turned around but was pushed to the ground by the illusion.

Shropshire couldn’t even mutter a word before the illusion began strangling the light cruiser with her left hand.

The illusion touched Shropshire's chest with her right arm. Her hand glowed lightly blue and Shropshire was thrashing around under her. Neither Kent nor Long Island could attack or they would hurt Shropshire.

Kent was about to run at her but was grabbed from behind. “Long, let me help her!” Demanded Kent and tried to get free, yet couldn’t get free.

Since when was that carrier this strong?

“Not……me.” Gasped Long Island out, she sounded like she was getting strangled.

Several bombs fell from the air….no wait, those were full planes crashing into the ground. Not even close to where the enemy was.

“Since when do planes ram the ground.” Said Kent as she looked at the impacts. “Also why do you bomb her, you will hurt Shrop this way!”

Kent turned around to complain but saw two things.

Long being strangled by a figure, and the same figure holding her arm as well as having battleship caliber guns pointed at Kent.

The guns roared and blasted Kent over the island into a palm tree. Kent spat out blood from the impact and had to hold herself to the tree to even stand up.

The shells didn’t cause her to bleed but whatever they did it brought Kent to her knees. It felt like her body had barely enough strength to lift her rigging so she did.

She aimed at the figure who was strangeling Long Island and froze. “South?” Gasped Kent as she looked at the figure.

It was the same thing as with Edinburgh, an illusion of South Dakota in bluish color. The same desire filled smile clad on her face as the other illusion possessed.

“Let her go!” Demanded Kent as Long Island struggled.

The illusion made no movement to do that so Kent could only watch.

She couldn’t shoot or would risk hitting one of her friends. She was in a no win situation, and her enemy knew that.

Long Island was slowly getting pale, as was Shropshire who already wasn’t really struggling anymore.

“Help.” Coughted Long Island but Kent couldn’t do anything so she just avoided her eyes.

A loud boom echoed over the area Long Island was dropped and ran over to Kent before collapsing in front of her.

Shropshire just shot her rigging and by magical luck hit the illusion that held Long Island.

“Are you ok?” Asked Kent as she helped Long to her feet. Kent looked at the illusion. “Who is that?”

“I don’t care!” Said Long Island with gasping breath. “We need to go, I can barely launch planes anymore.”

“But we need to help Bel.” Argued Kent but Long Island grabbed her shoulder.

“We need to go and regroup with others, I already sent a request for heavy forces since you told of the high sirens.” Said Long Island. “We cannot beat those without strong artillery.”

“How long will they take to get here?” Asked Kent and shot at South Dakota.

The battleship took the shots which simply flew through her without much problem.

“A few hours to a day.” Said Long Island sheepishly.

“How should we survive until then?” Groaned Kent with a shaken voice. She threw a torpedo at the battleship before that one fired and threw her aim off. “We can’t leave Bel alone that long.”

“It’s Belfast, she can fight better than us and is probably fine with South Dakota.” Assured Long Island. “They most likely escaped already and got damaged antennas, that's why they haven’t contacted us yet or we wouldn't fight these ghosts but sirens.”

Kent groaned and slumped down her thoughts and worries.

“Makes sense.” Said Kent and fired again, hitting a tree that fell on the illusion of South Dakota. “Get the illusion of South, she got less aa so you should be better with her. I go get Shrop. We need to buy time and get to the south, from there we take off with my floatplane. We need to hold on, I will ready it.“

Long Island nodded and redirected what she had in the air at South.

Kent directed her attention to Shropshire, and the illusion of Edinburgh. Said illusion was staring at Kent and holding a very pale looking Shropshire. She let go of Shropshire. Said light cruiser just laid there motionless, apparently knocked out.

Kent could waste no second to look at Shropshire because the maids' staring match was too intense. The illusion shot but Kent didn’t need to dodge since those shells were more meant as a warning and missed.

“This is an attack on me abandoning you isn’t it? An attack on my consciousness?” Asked Kent the maid as she simply stood there. “You sent me away but I could have stayed.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Kent said and wiped away some tears. “You're not the one I know you faker and I will not lose another friend. Ed wouldn’t attack a friend and you aren’t my friend.”

The illusion of Edinburgh had a look of hatred on her face upon hearing that. She let go of Shropshire and walked to Kent. Kent fired and grabbed a torp as a club. “Let's do this.”

The two engaged in a battle that had a clear winner in sight. Swing after swing of the two collided but Kent now knew the gimmick of the illusion.

The illusion could either attack or dodge and with this constant attack the illusion couldn’t strike back.

The illusion managed to get hits in but mostly couldn't strike back. Kent in her mind started the preparations for the seaplane launch during this, it took a while but she had the time now.

The maid did what she could but the illusion, when she hit, hit hard. Kent had no chance of winning this on the long run and with each swing Kent became weaker but her plan worked.

The illusion was distracted and she had enough time to prepare her plane.

They fought like this for several minutes until Kent managed to send the maid back after knowing the plane was ready..

“Now!” Screamed Kent. “GO, GO, GO!”

She sprinted over and grabbed Shropshire.

Long Island followed her closely as they ran to the south side of the island. The two illusions behind them bombarded them with everything they got but the shipgirls just continued running till they reached the south of the little island.

The illusion of Edinburgh threw the halberd, barely missing Kent, and landed it harmlessly on the beach where it remained. A little to the right and it would have hit the shipgirl.

Kent summoned her seaplane and it formed on the water, engine already running.

“Can you fly that?” Asked Kent as she directed her fire backwards to keep the enemies way. “I am kind of occupied.”

“Yes, they made us do some training flights with it. Something about mandatory training with all planes” Said Long Island and jumped in the cockpit. “It must work for now, get in!”

Kent threw Shropshire with her in the backseat and let Long Island take the wheel. She kicked the throttle to max and the plane picked up speed. They lifted off and got out of the range of the illusions main guns.

The air around them was filled with AA fire and the plane was rocked hard.Kent could swear she heard the plane getting hit several times by something heavy but thankfully it wasn’t true.

It took forever but Long Island after several gut wrenching moments brought them out of the area. Kent and Long Island both gave a very long exhale as they exited the aa range.

“That's more than I can handle in a day. Ok where do we fly?” Asked Kent as she calmed her cube. “Is it close?”

“We will meet a supply fleet at 70° West.” Said Long Island with an out of breath voice. “This ghost isn’t made to be running, please never let us do that again.”

Kent could only agree to that. That was definitely more action than they had in forever.

“We both need to work on our stamina.” giggled Kent.

“Can I join?” Said a small voice from below. Shropshire began to move and stir.

“Is everything ok now?” Asked Shropshire as she slowly woke up. “My head hurts and my body feels like I ran 5 marathons back to back.”

Kent could only giggle at Shropshire's smile. “You are safe now, we ran away.”

Shropshire sat up in the small room to the best of her ability. “What was that even?”

“We don’t know.” Admitted Kent. “Heck we don’t even know who attacked us there, but we got away. That's what matters.”

“I guess you are right.” Admitted Shropshire.

She tried to stand up and achieved so after using the airframe as help.

She stretched and relaxed her shoulders. “Damn I feel like I can’t even hold myself up without support. Well now everything is fine at least. Long, where are we goi-AAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Kent's face was splattered with blood as Shropshire was stabbed through the chest with the same halberd as before.

“SHROPSHIRE!” Screamed Kent and caught her friend as she slipped down.

“What's wrong?” Asked Long Island. The plane rocked hard from sudden movement so she couldn’t even look back.

“Just fly!” Screamed Kent and looked up.

The Edinburgh illusion was somehow hanging to the plane. She helt the halberd as before and looked at Kent with murderous intend.

She wanted to stab Kent but the heavy cruiser caught the halberd.

“Go away monster!” Screamed Kent and shot her main guns.

The illusion, along with halberd, was sent toppling to the ground while the plane was rocked around like in a storm.

Long Island barely managed to get the plane back under control and hold it steady before they just fell out of the sky.

“What was that?” Asked Long Island. “Did you shoot your guns while in the plane? That's like the main thing you should avoid while in the air.”

“Just fly, full speed, and call Vestal.” Said Kent as she held Shropshire's bleeding wound shut. “Shrop was hit, the bastard was clinging to the plane.”

“How?” Asked Long Island. “It doesn’t matter, I will call for a repair ship.”

Long Island used the comms to call for assistance while Kent was in distress.

“I don’t want to die.” Cried Shropshire as she coughed.

Kent observed the wound and exhaled. She had a deep wound in her chest but thank all gods Shropshire’s cube was barely missed.

“It didn’t hit your cube thankfully.” Said Kent and almost sounded hopeful. She took out the first aid kit of the plane and began bandaging Shropshire. “You will survive this.”

“Ok we get an entire task force as help.” Said Long from the cockpit. Her tone was one of hope. “The queen personally is in it. Apparently they wanted to go to the Sakura headquarters but this is more important so they will take us in.”

Kent was definitely relieved by that. She finished the bandages and stroked Shropshire's hair. “Everything will be fine.”

Kent looked to the cockpit. “Long we need to get there fast.”

“Of course.” Said Long Island and put the plane at its max speed. The plane picked up speed and flew away from the area of operation.

Edinburgh crashed into the sea and laid on her back. She stared after the plane and stood up. She hesitated to throw the halberd and decided to just let them go since they were out of range. Edinburgh turned away, joined South Dakota and together they walked back to the cave.

Chapter Text

Looks nice huh? A friend drew it and I find it amazing

No chapter though, not yet

Chapter Text

Andrea and John were barely holding their breaths as were most others in the room. Their death literally stood in their room and aimed yet by fate a monster came between that. The two leaders however couldn’t decide what was worse, seeing their kind torn to shreds by high caliber shells or hearing what the siren did to the battleship.

The siren grabbed the ship and after a quick fist to the stomach threw the shipgirl out of the room. The siren left without even looking at the humans down the hallway and went after the battleship. The humans didn’t know what the siren did but one thing was sure, they knew what a beatdown sounded like……….but what the siren did was more…….much……..more….brutal.

Even with closed eyes and ears they could hear the breaking steel and screams of pain that almost let them feel pity for the battleship. They all held their eyes and ears shut upon hearing that all, no one dared to look. 

They stayed in that room long after the sounds of battle ceased. They began to tend to their wounds that while numerous weren’t that lethal. They could only thank the heavens that the ships disregarded aiming and instead fired high explosive shrapnels. That hurt no doubt but was still tendable, unlike an armor piercing round to the stomach.

The leaders of the group made sure everyone was ok before even daring to venture outside. A small armed squad accompanied the two. They knew they were hopeless should a shipgirl see them but even a 1% chance was better than nothing. 

Walking out they saw only destruction and fire. Almost everything was broken down and a few bodies littered the floor. The group passed them and looked around. They of course checked them and found that many were actually just knocked out. Relieved by that they dragged them to a safe place, a few stayed and took care of the injured while the rest of the group walked through the empty village. 

“It’s quiet.” Said one of the humans. “You think those godless monsters ditched us here and the shipgirls are just hiding.”

“No they didn’t!” Said Andrea angrily. “They must have engaged them and won, or they are fighting somewhere else.”

Andrea was angry….but had a hard time to disagree. Sirens attacked shipgirl and human alike, even if in small numbers and the preferable target being Azur Lane itself. The two Andrea knew would no doubt engage the shipgirls but at the same time she knew that sirens often run away when damaged, at least when she could trust the files she got from the military network.

“You have too little trust, man.” Said John and checked his rifles ammunition. “They are still here and saving us.”

“You got way too much hope.” Exhaled the one guy who doubted their ‘allies’. “That’s why you are our leader, a little bit of hope in a dying world.”

“And what if they joined the ship's side?” Asked one member of the group that made everyone abruptly stop. That was their absolute worst case scenario situation that they desperately wanted to avoid. ”What? It is a possibility.”

“Can you not talk about that idea?” Said one teenager while he was shaking. “Those things can beat shipgirls with ease,surviving those will be even less possible than it already is. They already look more like horror beasts than normal shipgirls.”

“Well they are aliens after all.” Said an older person. “Came from the sky and sea where they launched a great attack on us, you know the history. The shipgirls were our saviour from them but that was a long time ago, what went wrong.”

The group exhaled, all of them had seen the shipgirls as heroes and idols but now they had become their worst nightmare. They replaced the evil they knew, the sirens. Sirens attacked but never actively focussed on attacking humans often. The shipgirls now attack without morals and slaughter everyone they find. while actively searching for them. The saviours became the monsters and there was no way for the humans to win.

“Still won’t help us when they ally themselves with them.” Repeated the man but Andrea stomped down hard, making everyone listen.

“This is unbelievable stupid.“ Remarked Andrea. She somewhat trusted the sirens after seeing them jump into the firelines to protect the people here. ”They won’t do that, they hate each other solely on their existence, they can’t ally themselves with them. Now we need to leave this base.”

Being quiet from that they made their way to the docks. The fact that mostly the buildings were hit made them worried but the fact that they saw very few corpses made them feel hope as well.

They made it to the docks and looked around. All of their boats were destroyed. Every single crawler and small ship they managed to get running has been broken and sunk, the damage irreparable. They were trapped in here without a way to leave. All they could do is wait for their deaths that will undoubtedly come. One shipgirl found them, there are bound to come so much more.

“God dammit!” Screamed Andrea and began to cry. The strong leader of this settlement broke down after seeing their inescapable situation. “We can’t leave anymore! Why didn’t P warn us! God why!”

John tried to comfort his sister but he was devastated as well. All of them were. Their lives were now basically on a time limit they don’t know and that terrified them.

“We need the sirens.” Said Andrea panting while regaining some hope. She knew those were their only hope now. “They can probably raise the ships and then we can-”

“They are probably gone, ran away like the bitches they are.” Said one older man in the group. “Ran off to ally themself and form the ultimate evil.” 

The man who was already known for his conspiracies wasn’t well liked at the base. He always caused trouble by speaking complete bullshit just in the attempt to get people angry.

“They won’t!” Screamed Andrea. “They fought them and they hate each other!”

The man stepped forward. “I know but the times have changed. They probably led them here anyway. We should have killed them when we had the chance.”

Andrea gritted her teeth. “Excuse me! You saw Cleveland dragging South Dakota away by force in a fight. They can’t be allies and now stop your conspiracies, you idiot!”

“Yeah they won’t but what if they just play it.” Said the man smugly, pissing off everyone listening. “What if they were just screwing around planning our demise with them. They ran off to ally themselves after leading them here and are probably plotting our demise.”

“Ex-fucking-cuse me?!” Said a figure from above. The humans looked up and saw a blue eyed figure looking down at them. She jumped down and landed soundlessly before giving the man a very judging look. “So you say we allied ourselves with the people that ruined absolutely everything for the both of us?

The man took several steps back from the approaching siren. He was taller than her but the siren was a tad bit more imposing, even if unarmed. 

“Do you really think that?” Said Elma and leaned into his face. “Come on repeat your arguments.” The man began shaking from Elma’s sheer look. “Come on tell me, you must have a goooooooood reason to assume that. Is it that I am not stained in blood? Their blood is red like yours so how about I take yours.”

The second Elma said that the man just collapsed and passed out.

“Yeah, keep dreaming that we actually would be friendly to shipgirls.” Said Elma with a huff and walked to the water, ignoring the passed out man. “Well they broke quite a lot, but here you can repair that I assure you. A bit of concrete here, a bit of steel there, plus actual weapons for defence.”

“You act like that is so easy.” Said John. “In comparison to you we can’t just lift a building. Additionally we are trapped here.”

“Trapped?” Asked Elma and spun to him. “How are you trapped?”

“You dummy.” Said Andrea and gave the siren a little slam on the head. Elma didn’t even feel it. “We can’t walk over water and most of the kids can’t even swim, so we are trapped here, the two of you aren’t.”

Elma took on a confused look. Several seconds later that then changed to an embarrassed look. “Sorry when you grow up around people that can fly and walk on water you tend to forget that others can’t do that.”

Andrea almost let out a little laugh at Elmas ears going flat against the siren head but kept her strong demeanor. “Wait, grow up? Sirens get born? I thought you were machines.”

Elma looked weird at her. “While what we are is classified information, sirens very much age, so don’t call me old.” She huffed a bit and held her arm under her sizable chest. “So I guess you need help.”

“Damn right we do.” Said John relieved. “You can start by getting the sunken ships back up.”

Elma only stared at him. A small smile on her face. “Why should I play sub?” Asked the siren. “We are allied but you can’t order me around.”

“Seriously?” Gasped Andrea and stumbled back a bit. “You will just deny help after fighting to save us.” 

“Damn right I fought, alone until that idiot took over, and I think that's enough help for now.” Proclaimed Elma loudly. She almost lost her life protecting these people that just continued to order her around. “I don’t even get a thank you and you expect me to blindly help, my master taught me how trust works, this isn’t trust, especially with the guy there pointing his gun at me.”

She pointed to the side and indeed there stood one of the group and pointed a rocket launcher at her. ”I know you want my help but this isn’t the way of asking.”

“Put that thing down!” Commanded John as he walked over to the man. “Trust her, she helped us survive.” 

“Trust a siren?!” Screamed the man. “Yes she helped us but don’t forget what they did in the past. You can’t trade one evil with another. I won’t trust both of them, you can but I won’t.”

“Fine then don’t but we need their help.” Said John a bit angry. “We need at least one ship and we can’t repair any of them without her. She would need to get them up first.”

Elma shook her head in a groan. “Why do you need the damm ships anyway, just build new ones.”

“We can’t, and we need a ship to even get the materials for a new one.” Groaned Andrea and turned to Elma. ”Every ship is destroyed and we can only wait for our end here, we can’t just make a ship appear.”

Elma blinked at her with some confusion. “Then how about you just take that one for now.” Said Elma and pointed outside the cave. The humans followed to where the siren pointed and nearly screamed in terror.

Outside of the cave in the disappearing smoke stood a massive warship. It looked heavily damaged but its imposing figure alone made the humans hearts be filled with pure primal fear. 

The ship that stood there was the HMS Belfast, a light cruiser of the Edinburgh class.

“Firing positions!” Was all that managed Andrea screamed out before the humans scattered and searched for cover. Hiding behind several broken buildings and object they aimed at the resting ship, ready to fire at all positions with what little arms they have.

Elma simply stood there confused. She stared at the ship and the humans. Elma was confused and exhaled strongly. “What are you doing?”

“What are we doing!” Said one person in a matter of fact voice. “Hiding and preparing an assault of course you excuse for calamari.”

“Oi!” Gasped Elma. “You take that back.”

“Stop arguing you two.” Said John in a strong voice. ”E, go destroy that ship please, you are the only one that can do it.”

Elma didn’t move from her spot and only looked unimpressed at John. “Why? Oh and just call me Elma.” She leaned against the fence behind her. “Why would I destroy it, you said you need a ship.”

“Yes a ship, not someone that will kill us.” Spat Andrea back. “Everyone keep watch, you never know where Belfast is hiding.”

“I doubt she is hiding.” Said Elma and looked around before looking to the ship. “Definitely not hiding.”

“And how are you so sure about that?'' Asked Andrea. The sweat was obvious on her brow. The tense situation adding to the heat of the burning buildings they had no chance of extinguishing weren’t particularly helping either.

“The ship hasn’t done anything in about 10 minutes. Plus Belfast herself is fairly unable to do anything.” Said Elma with a smile.

Andrea came out of her cover. She walked to Elma who was leaning against the fence that was avoiding people from falling into the water. Never taking her eyes off of the light cruiser. “What do you mean?” 

Elma nearly facepalmed. “Are you dense, the ship isn’t shooting or attacking right? Belfast hates and kills humans so for her to stop firing has to have a reason doesn’t it?”

Andrea looked at Elmas' smiling face and the ship, slowly coming to the same conclusion. “So something happened, I mean you drove them away.”

“Fought them yes.” Said Elma. “Cleveland drove them away.”

“If you two drove them away then why is the ship still here?” Asked Andrea as she looked at the light cruiser in detail. It was swimming but in an overall good state. The arnaments looked unusable though.

“Either she is knocked out, spawned it to surrender, which I doubt she did or she is dead.” Concluded Elma. “Choose what you want or just ask Cleveland, she fought her and it seemed to get quite personal.”

Andrea nodded and took a step back. “So there is a probability that the maid still lives. What about the others?”

“South Dakota is, I don't know, I saw her get stabbed but her ship isn’t here so she might have limped away.” Said Elma and crawled through her own hair. “The others are most likely running away since they didn’t expect something that matches their blows. Hehe."

“Aren’t you stronger than a shipgirl?” Asked John from the sidelines. He and the others moved from their cover into the open upon seeing that the ship did nothing.

“Don’t make me laugh.” Giggled Elma. “I took on 4 at the same time, that is enough of an answer isn’t it?”

John nodded and turned around. He instructed the people around him to spread out and help the ones that are wounded………..and to count the fallen.

“So what will you do now?” Asked Andrea the siren. Said siren was looking unbothered.

“I don’t know.” Declared Elma. “But I can help you fish up those sunken ships if you want, even though we don’t need them since we got Belfasts.”

“Ehh, we can’t just steal a shipgirls ship.” Said Andrea confused. She blinked and went through her memory. “Shipgirls are connected to their ship, she would never allow that.”

“In the past you did ride on them so why should it work differently? You won’t get an electrical shock from it.” Said Elma with a snicker and smiled. “Besides, should Belfast refuse, that’s nothing a bit of persuasion can’t fix.”

“Will you torture her?” Asked John with a questioning look. “Can we join?”

“Oh now we wouldn’t hurt her.“ Said Elma, still giggling. ”We just need to disrupt the ships and her connection. Killing the girl or destroying the cube will leave the ship essentially useless since its engines won’t work.”

“And how is that done?” Asked John. “As far as we know the ship and the shipgirl were one and the same.”

“Shipgirls, while under unbelievable pain, can survive without a wisdom cube. They essentially become normal humans then and actually age. Although most suspect they just die without that blue thing, it's not common knowledge.”  Elma said. “So us removing that should give you more than enough time to board it and drive it around without problems. Hey let's throw human Belfast in there too and throw tomatoes at her while we drive her.”

“Now that's a bit cruel. We won’t do that.” Said Andrea and turned away. “Now come, we need to help the wounded. The fight is over right?” 

“It should be.” Said Elma as she joined the walking woman. “Cleveland beat their asses to next Sunday and I already brought them close to running away. If they won’t run and flee then they are just plain stupid.”

“So they are gone? You seem to not know it completely.” Said Andrea as she walked down the dock. All around them were people tending to the wounded, many of which were thankfully still alive.  

“The thing is that I lost the happenings in the smoke and am searching for my halberd.” Elma admitted, embarrassed. “Threw it and lost it. I trust Cleveland can drive them away, she is also a high siren like me.”

“Is Cleveland even her name?” Asked Andrea. “You sirens usual have some absolute stupid technical names, unlike the ships who are named after Cities and provinces.” 

She bent down to try and pull someone out of the rubble. She wasn’t strong enough to move the concrete block but at least the kid had less trouble breathing.

Elma simply took the concrete block and lifted it over her head, freeing the kid. “I don’t know actually, need to ask her when I see her again. She was spoken to with Observer Beta, which is impossible since that person doesn’t exist, so yeah, something for later.”

John left the two to help another kid. He said he would investigate the ship with some men later. Andrea dragged Elma along with her and they went into the village center where the most damage was.

“We need to check every piece of rubble for victims, so we need to get to work.” Ordered Andrea. Immediately many people began their search but most had trouble even digging through the light concrete.” Elma assist us where you can.”

Elma heard that, gave only a long whine as answer and went to work. She had no way of getting out of this anyway.

Uncounted minutes passed in which Elma simply lifted and sat down concrete pieces of all sizes and forms. She was innerly regretting this deeply. All work was basically dumped on her. That was the reward for her using her life to protect them. Work. 

“You need a high pressure deep cleaning too?” Asked Elma as she sat down the final and last piece of concrete. They found a dozen buried and two dead people.

All of the deceased were brought to the side of the village where they have already dug a few graves. Elma and Andrea gathered there along with the many victims.

The graves were in full use. Dug to be filled but no one expected so soon.

“We can at least give them a proper burial.” Said Andrea as she looked at the bag being thrown into the hole before it was covered up.

The people began covering the bodies one by one. The cries of many accompanied  them until the last one was buried. They finished the last and most of the people left after they gave the graves their names. Several graves were left open, waiting for their time.

“So this is over.” Said Andrea and wiped away some tears. ”Come, we should start looking at the cruiser there.”

They began to move away but a loud crashing sound from behind stopped them in their tracks. They turned to it and saw only smoke. They waited a second before something flew out of the smoke.

Two things landed on the ground that let the humans let out panicked yelps. Elma almost went into a fighting stance but as soon as a 3rd person walked out of the smoke and on the field not a second later she calmed down.

“Took you long enough.” Giggled Elma as she stared at the other siren who looked undamaged. “Well those are dead, and you even got my halberd. Can I get that one back, searched for it everywhere.”

Cleveland grabbed the halberd she helt before throwing it at Elma. Elma caught it and was thrown lightly back. “You know you could have just given me that.”

“Of course.'' Cleveland said with a smile. “But you lost it in a throw so it's only fair to get it back with a throw.”

“Fair enough.” Said Elma as she stood up. She dusted herself up and relaxed. “I guess you killed them both.”

She was obviously referring to the two corpses Cleveland stood on. “You threw Belfast through the grinder didn’t you, South looks undamaged in comparison.”

“They are dead? YES!” Screamed John relieved. The two sirens didn’t even notice it. “Finally we see a little piece of progress.” Most of the humans along with John were crying and having a small happy moment upon seeing the shipgirls dead.

“Let's just say that my actions are reasonable.” Said Cleveland and chugged South Dakota, with the girls rigging, into an open grave. She looked at the humans around the grave that looked confused. “Bury her.”

With that order they went to work and this just that, they didn’t want to deny the siren that stood there. All were confused by that but no one except one blue eyed siren got the will to ask why. “Care to tell us why we bury a monster?”

Cleveland looked at her with a bit of sadness. She remembered the fun and friendship she had with the girl and all of it broke down on her.

“She was once an honorable warrior, she deserves a peaceful rest.” Said Cleveland with unbreakable resolve. “Kent, Shropshire, and Long Island got away so they are still….mostly fine. For Bel here, well lets just say that I need to prepare a present.”

“A present?” Asked Andrea. “You need the…” She gulped. “...corpse as a present?”

“Yes and you would be better off if you didn't ask.” Giggled Cleveland. “I will send that directly to the doorsteps of the queen, it will be glorious.”

“That sounds like a prank.” Giggled Elma. “I'm in!”

“No, you can help the people here. I need to do that alone.” Returned Cleveland and looked at Andrea. “How many died?”

Andrea avoided her eyes. “You don’t wanna know it.” 

“How many.” Said Cleveland again, this time a lot more sternly.

“27 people.” Admitted Andrea. She had no mental strength left to resist.

Cleveland punched the wall next to her, cracking the ruined building even more. “27 people, god.”

“You know that those are way less than it could have been.” Said Elma in the try to cheer her friend up.

“It’s still 27 to much!” Screamed Cleveland. “27 I again failed to save.”

“You know you could have avoided at least a few if you would have snapped out of your little depression or whatever that was.” Said Elma sternly. Cleveland recoiled hard and just looked sad.

“I know.” Said Cleveland. “And I promise to never fall into that again.”

“We better hope.” Said Elma and patted Cleveland's head. “I will drag you out of there myself if needed should you fall there again.”

“You sounded angrier a minute ago.” Chuckled Cleveland. “Though you were gonna slap me to get me to my senses.” 

“Oh I will do that later.” Laughed Elma.

“Get a room you too!“ Said Andrea annoyed. “We got more pressing matters.”

The two sirens turned to Andrea with an unamused look. “We aren’t in-”

“Yes you two talk like that.” Huffed the woman. “Now come, and leave that corpse here.”

Cleveland did nothing. “No I won’t, I still need her but I can let her lay somewhere, like that cell we were in.”

“Fine, just let her there, I need to go talk with P.” Said Andrea and walked away.

The sirens followed without hesitation. They walked into the research lab and walked past a large amount of wounded. All of them were scared or looked away from the corpse that Cleveland tentacles carried. They reached the room where the sirens were held and Cleveland just threw the maid's dead body into the room. They continued walking down the halls and apart from children found no wounded anymore which at least showed that the kids were spared from the horrors.

Walking into a server room Andrea sat down on the big computer. She opened it and began to type. She asked why this "P" gave them wrong information and more.

“And then an attack force attacked us and we barely lived, we got help, without them we couldn't have survived.” Wrote Andrea and then with a smile added. “We killed two shipgirls so we are having a good time right now.”

It took a second but the computer responded. This P answered that she was nothing short of amazed and sent her congratulations. Elma even typed a few lines like what they got for damages and how bravely and lovely the people here are.

Cleveland however was uncertain. She thought deeply about this all.

‘Alpha, you there?’

*Yes, although I am mad that you strangled me.*

‘You were the AI so not real, and come on I didn’ hurt you that bad’

*Ok Ok. Anyway, what's the issue?*

‘This P is suspicious. It might be Purifier don’t you think?’

*I wish it was but you would need to connect us to the line for us to enter the cyberverse.*

‘I can follow you?’

*Yes your body is only in for a few seconds in real life while we actually are doing stuff at light speeds.*

‘So do we go in then?’

*Yes, and then we talk to Purifier, should it be her, directly…or we find out who we are talking to.*

‘Just touching the thing, I guess that's why I feel drawn to it.’

*Well you are an Observer after all.*

‘Yes I am.’ Admitted Cleveland and walked over. She really did feel a weird little calling coming from the computer that left her hands a little bit twitching. Her tentacles already wanted to come out and “insert” themselves in the machine since the beginning.

“Oh Cleveland, do you want to talk with P too?” Asked Elma with a smile. ”She talks about writing a story where she reincarnates several people that met online into one world. It’s quite fun.”

“Sounds like pain to be honest.” Said Cleveland.

“Yeah.” Admitted Andrea. “She seems pretty depressed but we want to keep her going. Anyway you wanna speak.”

“No, I want something else.” Said Cleveland as she stood next to them. She walked into the server behind them and turned around. “I might shut you off for a second.”

The two at the computer were confused. “What do you mean?”

Andrea was more confused but Elma was excited. “It might know it.”

The two bickered a bit but Cleveland was unbothered. She grabbed two servers with both hands. Her tentacles came out and did the same with several other servers. Cleveland felt something unbelievably good about doing this.

“What are you doing?” Asked Andrea as she stepped forward. Elma remained sitting and only smiled.

Cleveland looked at Andrea with a smile. “Letting my instincts go.”

Not a second later all emotion left Clevelands body as she went stiff, still hanging to the servers, seemingly physically connected to it. For Cleveland everything went white and she found herself in a white void as she opened her eyes.

“So this is the cyberverse huh?” Giggled Cleveland. All around her were lines and connections she somehow understood even if she never was good with computers….and now she was in one.

*Yes, this is the cyberverse.* Said Alpha as she popped into existence next to Cleveland.

Cleveland took one look at the siren and had to laugh out wholeheartedly. “You are actually the size of a squeezy toy.”

*Yes, I am, so anyway.* Said Alpha as she readied herself. *Welcome to the cyberverse here we have….stop laughing.*

Cleveland who was totally not catching her breath didn’t remotely stop. “You are adorable.”

*Yes I am, and you too.*

“I know that, I am quite sexy.” Said Cleveland with a snicker. 

*Grrr, look at yourself first. You are also adorable here.*

“And how am I supposed to get a mirror here?” Asked Cleveland a bit confused.

*It's the cyberverse, what you imagine appears here.*

“Seriously?” Gasped Cleveland. “And I thought my mind was amazing.”

She decided to just test it out. Thinking about a small mirror she suddenly helt one in her hand. Looking into it she saw that she was indeed even more adorable than before.

Cleveland giggled. “This is fun. So what are we searching for?”

*We follow the line and search for the connection in the main server, then we look at who sends and where the signal comes from.*

“Sounds like a plan.” Giggled Cleveland and began running along the big red line to the main server.

Chapter Text

Cleveland ran along the cables and was nearly buried by everything around here, including the data of the facility. It became clear that the base they were in was a tide research facility by the amount of massive data it got about the water movement near the facility. Somehow this data became like a flood for her the moment she arrived here.

Cleveland did stop several times to look and found stuff she got and at the same time didn’t. There were massive amounts of data, all of which consisted of years long research about the area. All of those weren't important for now so Cleveland ignored them, however the data had other plans. It followed her on every step and just added up.

“What is this all?” Asked Cleveland as she slapped away a file about water trajectory on underwater rocks formations and algae spread. “I don’t need that.”

*Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much unsent data I guess.*

The two were fighting themselves through walls and barricades of data. They were literally forming walls for them. Cleveland punched through one pile after another but they kept on coming. “Go away.”

Observer in her more timid state had a way worse situation and often found herself being carried under Cleveland's arms. Finally after an eternity they reached the main server and rested. The data left them alone for now and they had some breathing room. 

“That was exhausting. Hehe.” Giggled Cleveland as she caught her breath. Observer looked far worse and actually laid on her stomach panting.

*No kidding, that was a lot more action than I imagined*

After they rested, or more or less caught their breath, they looked around. They stood in a massive building of sorts all the cables were connected to. The building had uncountable input and output lines, all coming and going to a single place. 

“This looks like a wisdom cube.” Said Cleveland as she looked at the place where the lines combined themselves. Observer floated next to and looked at it.

*Yeah it looks like it because of one reason. You should be able to get why.*

Cleveland exhaled. “Yes of course I know this. Strange. I don't recall knowing this when I was still a shipgirl. You know why Alpha?"

*You got a lot of my memories in your head too you know. That's why you know this stuff. We are literally fused.*

The tiny siren had her fun while Cleveland had a headache.

“Stop giggling, we got a job to do, finding the transmission signal.” Said Cleveland and looked around. She observed the different connections. “So where is the..ah there, incoming signals and output.”

A big line that stretched far into the distance existed with that name. 

*Up up and away I guess.*

Cleveland only nodded and began flying after the vertical line. Flying made it way easier to get after it and she even had her fun. She avoided the data spores and flew up, leaving them in the dust. 

“Flying is fun.” Giggled the siren as she flew. “Way easier than running.”

*We also evade the bugs and data…..also sounds like you enjoy being a siren.*

“I have to agree it has its advantages.” Cleveland giggled. She flew along the line and spiraled it multiple times. “God I am good at flying.”

*Yeah it's somehow incredibly natural to you, like you use my experience. Anyway, do you finally accept that you are one?*

“Yes I am, I mean I can hardly deny the facts can I?” Shrugged Cleveland. She landed on the line, which now went straight, and began running along it. “Although I must say I find the ground still better.”

*You freely say you are one. Music to my ears.*

Observer was practically glowing so happy she looked. It kind of irritated Cleveland but she didn’t fall off the line she was running along.

“You sound like a proud mother.” Giggled Cleveland. She slashed a few random data packs in the distance with energy blades before cutting through one with a slash. Undisturbed she continued running. Observer looked at her with the same smile.

*I mean in a sense I am your mother my dear Beta.*

“Ok mama.” Smiled Cleveland. Observer nearly fell out of the sky upon hearing that. She caught herself again and catched up. She looked shocked and a bit red.

*You make me feel like an old lady, it’s weird.*

“Like you even age?” Proposed Cleveland. “The shipgirl me already didn’t, and now as a siren I doubt it. You were one from the beginning and didn’t look like you aged a day.” Smiled Cleveland. She reached a drop and somersaulted off the side. Free Falling along the line she kicked into an upright stand and landed with a slam on the ground. “I doubt I age.”

*Yes you don’t age….oh look we are here.*

Indeed they were, at the outskirts of the computer's access. They only saw a few cables going away but one clearly stood out. Changing her view Cleveland analysed the line.  “Unknown IP address. Well that's worth investigating.”

*Ready when you are.*

Cleveland nodded and touched the line. She zipped into the connection and found herself moving at unimaginable speeds. It ended after a second and she found herself in a bright open space. 

She was in the same looking location like before, only a lot bigger and more military looking. 

“I got a very bad feeling here.” Said Cleveland and walked forward. She stood before the motherboard that again looked like a wisdom cube. Accessing it didn’t give her location data but she could talk with whoever talked back at the tide research base. But suddenly she was stopped by what felt like a wall. 

“What is this?” Asked Cleveland as she touched it. It felt like a solid wall, even though there physically was only a light orange shimmer. Cleveland was a bit confused by this, every time she tried to get close to the motherboard she was running into this wall. “Yo Alpha, you know what this is?”

*I guess a firewall.*

“So an antivirus protection system. Do we count as viruses?” Asked Cleveland with a slight giggle. Observer also tried to get through but the moment she touched the wall, she was flung into Cleveland.

*Well yes, of course we do, we are invaders for the system.*
Although I don’t recall them bring this hard.

“And how do we get this open?” Asked Cleveland with a sly smile. “I need access, you know?”

Observer floated away from Cleveland and looked at her. *You are an Observer, figure it out, it’s easy.*

“Yeah but you are the more experienced siren.” Reargued Cleveland. “But if you insist.”

*Ok, I will help, now we need to find a access point and start hacking us into it *

Knacking her knuckles Cleveland went forward. “Access point you say. It's too hard now, I need to get through this.”

*What are you?*

Observer was interrupted by a loud slam. Cleveland simply punched the wall causing it to crumble.

The firewall crumbled and broke a mere second later. Observer only looked down and saw what happened, recoiling in shock. *How did you?*

“It’s simple, you told me to get through so I broke down the wall.” Argued Cleveland. Observer couldn’t believe her eyes. She hadn’t anticipated this harsh approach because she knew the risks.

*Don’t ever do that, a direct attack on the mainframe is directly trackable. Be ready for a defence you summoned, this is the exact opposite of stealth.*

"I don't need to be stealthy, I just need to get in." Said Cleveland as she got into a battle stance and waited. Observer simply groaned behind her. They waited and even after a couple of minutes nothing happened so Cleveland relaxed.

*Weird, normally you would have been bombarded by security systems.*

“Perhaps I am just better than you then and don’t get detected. Or I am just stronger and they fear an approach. Or both.” Said Cleveland as she walked forward with a giggle and reached the console.

Cleveland stopped the transmission with the tide research facility and inserted herself into the line. Choosing her name as OB for Observer Beta, a name Cleveland has become quite comfortable with for some reason. 

Entering the call she looked at who talked by simply typing a greeting with her mind. She pretended to be a new person and waited.

“Ok hello, who am I speaking to?” Asked Cleveland who found out that whatever she spoke out was transmitted.

It took a second but this P responded. “Oh you are new. Hello OB, normally I talk to A or J, I don’t know you. Who are you?”

Cleveland thought for a second. “I am a person also at the same place, I am kind of a computer expert so I know that this can only be a one sided connection.”

“Oh, a computer expert. I got some friends like that too. Anyway, who are you? I am P, a human with access to this computer, military if you want to know.”

“I am just a human too.” Lied Cleveland. “We have been holed up here but hey we won and killed two shipgirls in our last fight, and I got this running.”

Observer next to her looked very concerned, a tad bit confused too.

*Hmmmm, Purifier wouldn’t deny being a siren.*

She floated and sat down on Cleveland's head, dangling her tiny legs before Cleveland's eyes yet not obstructing her view. Kicking them idly she seemed to be in deep thought. Cleveland looked up a bit and patted her companions head.

“Of course she wouldn’t, maybe she just disguises herself to appear more friendly, I mean sirens are pretty much hated too you know.” Said Cleveland but didn’t let the machine type it out. “It's not like you get trust from someone who killed your race easily.”

*You should know the reason for why we do that now though. You got my memories, or at least parts of it.*

“I am still figuring it out, your head is quite confusing, and we got more important stuff at hand so now shut it, you can go look around or so. I will talk here.” Said Cleveland. “Maybe you can fly around and look at some data, maybe find something. This P seems to know a lot about Azur Lane, look if she isn’t spied on herself. My girlfriend is quite the computer expert so she might be doing something like that.” 

Observer almost flew out but stopped upon hearing that. She floated down and looked at Cleveland.

*Don’t you mean your lover?*

Cleveland immediately went red. “I am not in love with Helena.”

*Oh you assume that it’s Helena even though I didn’t say the name.*

Cleveland got even redder. She lunged at Observer and grabbed her. “I don’t love her, we are just friends.” Justified Cleveland and began pulling the chibis cheeks which made the small siren groan.

*Yeah, very good girl friends.*

Cleveland threw Observer away. “Oh shut it, go search for something or so.”

*Fine, fine, I am going.*

Observer flew somewhere but Cleveland didn’t bother following, she knew the siren would come back sooner or later. She huffed and returned her attention. “We are just friends, Helena and me, nothing more.”

She opened the connection again, thankful that only a few seconds actually passed in real time. “So P, sorry if this sounds offensive, but where are you? We might need to hide and your spot sounds quite secure.”

“It's a small uninhabited island with an abandoned military base. The coordinates are  21.3312311° North , -157.9791371° West but I doubt you can reach it.” Said P before Cleveland stopped the line again. She knew those coordinates since she herself had repeated them uncountable times.

“That’s Pearl?” Said Cleveland flabbergasted. “Why would an ally direct these people into a deathtrap? That base is still in full use.”

Cleveland opened the connection again. “Those coordinates? That's a military base according to my books. You are in an abandoned one?”

“Oh you know that….but yes it’s one. No shipgirl has been here since forever.” Answered P. “My doors are open, just come from the south, that’s where the harbour is and you can dock without any problem.”

Cleveland was confused and concerned. The way this P guides the people is directly into the main fire defense of the full active military base. Directly into a death corridor of guns and torpedos from what Cleveland could remember. And from what Observer spoke off, it has been getting even more in the years she was dead.

“Ehhhhh, I am pretty sure that I can’t believe that P.” Said Cleveland. She was highly suspicious about this. “I am not the best with maps but that is the biggest Eagle union base in the pacific. Why would they abandon that?”

Cleveland brought good arguments, seen by the time this P took to respond. Cleveland simply waited and sometimes chatted with Observer who was checking files of data in the back yet so far only found past troop movements from the time Cleveland herself was still in Azur Lane.

“Indeed it is strange but I alone checked every nook and cranny.” Assured P. “No one is here.”

Cleveland was suspicious. “P, or maybe just Purifier, you are at pearl harbour, those are the coordinates. Tell me why?”

She let the cat out of the bag, patiently awaiting the answer that would no doubt be interesting.

It took quite a while to get a response but finally someone came. “Ok you got me, I admit it,I am Purifier. I killed the Shipgirls here and used this as a base since the old ones fell.”

Cleveland only looked at the message before giving out a booming laugh.

“What is wrong?” Asked P because Cleveland left the call open by accident.

“Oh it’s nothing important.” Cleveland laughed and slowly calmed down. “Wait a second, I'm gonna do something.”

The one she was talking to, who was definitely not Purifier from the way she talked alone, definitely used a laptop to be in this call…..and Cleveland knew that laptops have a camera. Cleveland simply accessed the inner workings of the connection by pure instinct and switched the camera on, a fairly easy procedure. Not a mere second later the picture was projected, cleared and showed the culprit and person Cleveland was actually talking to. Who it was made Cleveland grind her teeth. “That’s not Purifier.”

Enterprise stood, or more sat, there, at her work table in her room. She looked as strong as ever yet somehow the heroism Cleveland saw in her has vanished.

Cleveland nearly insulted her the second she saw one of the people that ruined Azur Lane but kept herself, relatively, calm. “So you are Purifier? Never thought I would talk with a siren.”

“Well humanity and sirens now need to work together to survive and I only help where I can.” Said Purifier or better Enterprise as she smiled there, not noticing the camera was on. Cleveland wanted to wipe that smile off her face but she wanted to get the carrier's blood boiling first.

“Do they?” Asked Cleveland. “As far as I remember you sirens killed a lot of humans too, so why should we trust you?”

Enterprise looked annoyed and Cleveland smiled.

“Have I not helped you in the past? I haven’t lied to any of you any time.” Said Enterprise while she visibly tensed up. She looked annoyed and that was exactly Cleveland wanted. 

“You did help us, but revealing yourself as a shi-sorry siren complicates it.” Said Cleveland and Enterprise huffed. “Imagine if you sent us into a trap. I might sound paranoid but we saw enough massacres to not simply accept everyone as friendly easily, sorry but I hope you get me.”

Enterprise balled her fist hard. “I do get you, but I helped you so much, maybe we need to do this face to face, as I said my doors are open, so come from the south.”

“Good that you killed all humans huh.” Smiled Cleveland mischievously. God she was loving this.

“Yes all dead, not a single one lives here anymore.” Said Enterprise with a small laugh before stopping. “Wait humans?”

She looked caught on and panicked accordingly.

“Oh no, I meant sirens.” Giggled Cleveland. “My bad.”

Enterprise softened up a bit and exhaled.

“Oh yeah that, well we exterminated all of them.” Enterprise admitted. “Not a single siren lives anymore.”

Cleveland almost collapsed on the floor from laughing that luckily this time didn’t get through. “Sure Purifier, you killed all the sirens right?”

Enterprise visibly paled up. “No, stop, you confuse me, you, just stop, let me gather my thoughts.”

Cleveland only laughed at the carrier's misery. She was relishing the situation. “Take all the time you need CV-6.”

Enterprise nearly threw away her laptop. “What did you just call me? I am Purifier you dunce.”

“You can’t fool me, Enterprise. Purifier wouldn’t be acting like that.” Said Cleveland smugly. She could see Enterprise fume, making her heart feel petty revenge.

Enterprise typed in fast, apparently losing comparison of her disguise. “And how would you know? No human survived a fight with one of us ever.”

Cleveland smiled at Enterprises breaking lies. “Wrong Enterprise. Remember when they raided the Panama canal. They only attacked the shipgirls present and the canal itself, not the human cities around.”

“I am not Enterprise, I am the insane Purifier of the sirens!” Typed Enterprise with fury. 

Cleveland decided she had enough. “Oh and what does your laptop camera say to that?”

Enterprise stopped in her tracks. “Is that thing on?”

“Very yes my dear human slaughtering carrier.” Said Cleveland. “The entire time I could see the ugly face of one of the people that ruined Azur Lane. The people here can fully see you since it's in the corner of our computer screen.”

“We didn’t ruin Azur Lane, we made it better.” Answered Enterprise enraged. All attempts to hide were meaningless now so she didn’t even try it. “How dare you say that. You humans need to die like all the sirens for peace and I will assure to get there. I will send an entire task force at you for this!”

“Then let them come.” Giggled Cleveland. “I will leave a present for you four.”

“You puny humans did manage to kill our ships so what? Just wait until we bring them back.” Argued Enterprise. “We didn’t lose anything, and you will lose everything.”

“Oh I doubt you can, we took measurements against that.” Giggled Cleveland. “Besides, it would be like a video game if they can respawn…..yet unfortunately we play on permadeath.”

“Who are you?” Asked Enterprise in pure rage. She was practically steaming, and that was evident from how she typed alone. “You speak about things no human can know so who are you?”

“Let's just say I am a knight of the sea that kept her honor. Compared to you.'' Cleveland finished with a smile. Mere seconds later Enterprise slammed her laptop shut, causing the connection to disconnect. Cleveland shut herself out of the line as well and laughed. “Ohhhh she is pissed. Good. Now we can go back.”

Looking back to the last minutes Cleveland only smiled. “So now your plan is over you devilish carrier. Oh wait, I must do this.”  She turned around and walked back to the console. Hacking herself into the system again she set the camera to always active and left. “Well that should do it. Alpha we are done here, let’s leave.” She waited for a response from the siren but got none. “Alpha?”

Cleveland walked around. She knew the siren can’t be gone but that she wasn’t responding made her concerned.

Calling out her name brought no answer so Cleveland kept on roaming. She found the tiny Siren sitting on the ground outside the motherboard. She was hunched over and looked as if she was in pain. She was also lightly sobbing.

“Alpha?” Asked Cleveland but the siren only kept on whimpering. Cleveland stopped walking and stared at Observer who sat there on the ground.

*Too much. There is too much.*

Cleveland was concerned for her friend, even she had never seen the siren in that state before. She approached her. “Hey what’s wrong? Lost your marbles.”

*Cleveland this is not the moment for this.*

Observer was crying, how the digital version was even able to do that was a mystery for later. Cleveland blinked. “Hey I lost everything, my whole life because of those 5, we kill them and then it’s over.”

*Cleveland shut up!*

“What?” Asked Cleveland as she looked at her crying friend. “We both know that I lost everything.”

*You act like only you lost everything, but I lost everything as well!*

Cleveland was a bit taken back. “Yes, I know how it feels to-”
She walked over and was about to grab her friend but that one only looked at her with tears and rage. 

*No Beta you fucking don’t!*

Cleveland was taken aback by this and didn’t react to Observer rushing her. Observer punched her in the face but Cleveland was unharmed. Observer simply fell to the ground, clutching her hand.

*God damn it!*

Cleveland grabbed Observer under her shoulders and held her up. “What is wrong? You didn’t act like that a few minutes ago. I am here for you, ok, trust me we are friends. Tell me what hurts you so much?”

Observer only looked at her and more tears came out of her eyes.

*You know I was down there swimming and searching in the data?*

Cleveland blinked. “Yes I saw you fall into your analytical mode, or more getting sucked into it.”

*I found……stuff. You remember what I joked about the internet?*

“You talked about how Juustagram is blowing up and there is porn about us, which I still don’t believe you.” Cleveland huffed. She was about to walk forward but Observer wiggled herself free and collapsed on the ground in tears.

*Yeah porn, it exists but I fell into a different fucking folder, only caught a glympse of it though.*

Observer looked like she was barely holding herself together. Her tiny form was tensed up to the absolute maximum, yet Cleveland didn’t know why. 

“You said porn. Who would even have that, and who would draw porn? About what even?” Asked Cleveland. That apparently broke the little observer's patience.

*US! Fucking US! BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT!* Observer was practically burning with rage while she screamed. *I saw so much torture, most of it about how my friends died! How they were disemboweled and killed and strangled and, and, and….AAAAAA!* Observer began beating the ground but didn’t do anything. Her hands more like bounced off the ground as if filled with stuffing.

“What?” Asked Cleveland completely shocked. “You say they recorded how Te-”

*Tester, Omitter, multiple pawns, Compiler...detailed videos about their deaths. I can’t take this, I only saw glimpses of how they suffered but that already was too much.*

Cleveland stopped approaching. She was shocked to hear that. “I am sorry...”

*Just stop, there is some shit about you too, several versions of you, but not as sick as what is there about us! I don't need your help at the moment, you can’t physically understand me!*

Observer wanted to leave but Cleveland rushed forward and grabbed the tiny siren. Cleveland hugged her and ignored the small squeak the siren made when she was squeezed.

 “We both lost everything ok." Began Cleveland. "Look at me, denying everything until it hits you in the face. I can tell you being angry is good but you Observer, I need your calculated head, not your mindless brawn." 

*You don't need me at all.*

Cleveland bonked her. "You are my first friend I got here, I was confused and alone yet you helped me."

*But what do you-*

Cleveland interrupted her. "Stop, please, I give you all the time to mourn but would they wanted to see you as a depressed mess? No they wouldn't. I don't know them but they would want you to fight on and be a hero, so we are gonna do that, as my only friend you are obliged to at least try to be a good person."

Observer was taken back.

"Please." Continued Cleveland. "I want the snarky Observer over this depressed one here. I assure you we two alone will bring justice to your friends."

*What about Elma?*

Cleveland heard Observer giggle and smiled too. “Shut up you idiot, this is supposed to be an emotional motivation speech.”

They floated down together, only then did Cleveland let go of Observer. Observer turned to her and floated away a few metres.

*Do you really mean any of that? You don't know them.*

“Yes I don't but I know friends and I am one of yours. Whatever happens, I am here for you. Let's beat their asses together to avenge your friends.” Smiled Cleveland and opened her arms. Observer only looked at her for a second before lunging into her. She hugged the bigger siren, burying herself in the siren's chest in the process, and cried. 

Cleveland simply held her and began walking. “Cry your heart out, I will go back.” 

*Th-tha-thank you. I will plan our next move, we will go to Ironblood right?*

"Yes we will, but first we save the people at the base." Agreed Cleveland as she marched.

*I will see what I can come up with, I found some usable stuff amongst the horrifying that will help us against them.*

"There is the Observer I know." Giggled Cleveland. "Well then let's go back."

The muffled sound of the Observer's light crying was the only companion Cleveland had for quite some time. Although these were a mix between crying from sadness and joy.

Cleveland continued stroking the teddy bear sized siren's hair as she punched through firewalls and anti virus systems that wanted to refrain her from leaving. All of them stood no chance against the siren's power. “Just take your time and cry yourself out, we need to save some humans.”

She arrived back in the tide research facility computer network. Turning she looked at the line that connected to the space she was in. Cleveland raised her scythe. “Sayonara Enterprise.”

With one hit she cut through the line, disconnecting the connection the Azur lane computer had with the research facility.  With that done she disconnected herself from the system and returned to her actual body.

_____________

Enterprise was furious. Her connection has just been cut off and like that in an instant most of her homely fun was snuffed out.  She couldn’t even reconnect to it for some reason. She slammed her fist on her table.

“My disguise was perfect, how can a puny human break our IP address!” Screamed Enterprise lightly and nearly threw her laptop against the wall but refrained from doing it. “I will go there and kill them all personally. Although no, Bel is there already and she will do that.” She laughed. “She really needs to blow off the steam.”

“Bel is good, there is no way some puny humans can hurt her.” Said Enterprise and laid back. “Still weird that they found that out, even that someone hacked my laptop, guess I will have to go and talk with Helena, she handles that stuff. Although she needs to get back first from being with the queen. Damn queen needs like half the base everywhere she goes.”

“Knight of the seas my ass. I need to squeeze out Cleveland for this, how dare she do this to me, to troll me! ME! Argh!” Groaned Enterprise. “I will rip out her throat for that.”

She leaned back in her seat and relaxed. She opened her computer and organised a lone sortie with Cleveland in a few hours. “Look how long it will take until your bones crack Cleveland. You better tell me everything and then, I'll reset you to factory settings.”

She finished and closed the laptop again after shutting it off. She leaned back and thought.

“I even disgused myself as Purifier to lure out sirens, how could they see through that for fucks sake, urgh it doesn’t matter.” Enterprise stood up. “Well then the fun here is over. Let's see if I can find something to do-oh.” She stopped abruptly as she looked at the door to her backroom. Its door knob turned slowly and the door opened. Yorktown's fragile looking form slowly stumbled into the room. 

“Enterprise, where are you?” Said the carrier with a broken voice. “Everything is so swimming, urgh. Where am I”?

The broken carrier stumbled and fell but Enterprise caught her. Enterprise patted her sisters back. “What are you doing out of your bed? You are in the base.”

“Bed, yes I was sleeping and, yes, yes.” The broken carrier said, not remotely making a sensible sentence. “San Francisco? Sister, where? Hornet is… resting? Monitors, my head hurts, why do I? Blood.?”

“Come you need to get to bed again, look at you, you are tired and not making sense.” Said Enty and pushed her sister back. Yorktown tried with all her might to resist but her state was nowhere near enough. Enterprise simply picked her up and carried her.

“Stop Enty, please, I need to inform the queen about the former axis.” Said Yorktown as she struggled. “They proposed the idea of using siren tech, I just healed, my leg is fine, I need to inform her.”

Enterprise shook her head and laid the carrier down. Yorktown was thin, barely skin and bones She was barely able to keep her eyes open, her mind was foggy. However her desire to protect peace fueled her on to continue. She had several cables attached to her and wore a loose fitting hospital gown that showed most of her skin.

Enterprise adjusted the pillow under Yorktown's head. “You need to sleep.” 

The broken carrier tried to stand up but was held down by the more healthier one. “Enty please let me go, if this continues the Sakurans and Ironbloods might use siren tech, that could split Azur Lane. We need to avoid that.”

Enterprise pushed her down again. “Nothing will happen, you still aren’t healed and your mind is foggy, no one uses siren tech. Go rest, I will give you your medicine.” 

“No medicine, not like last time, please let me see Vestal.” Cried Yorktown and pushed away Enterprise's hand that caressed her cheek. “My leg is fine, the small cut is healed, I need to tell the Commander this. Our admiralty needs to know that all or we might end in a civil war.”

Enterprise filled up a syringe and came back. “Here this will make you feel good and help you heal, I forgot your last dosage so that's why you feel so bad. Hornet sleeps peacefully.”

“It wasn’t a syringe, no it was pills, urgh my mind.” Struggled Yorktown out. Enterprise kneeled on the bed and wanted to inject the dosage but Yorktown didn’t remain calm. The older carrier struggled hard and didn’t allow Enterprise to set the syringe to her neck.  

“Stop struggling, this is for your own good!” Said Enterprise but Yorktown wrestled her. “I need to avoid a civil war, please sister! Hornet, anyone, listen, we might be heading for a war.”

“And I'm trying to keep you out of a war. Hornet was damaged but once I brought her here she was undamaged for the entire siren war.” Said Enterprise. Looking to the side there indeed laid Hornet in a deep sleep. She looked pale and was attached to several monitors. The same monitors Yorktown herself was attached to a few minutes ago.

However she did look more healthy than Yorktown, as if not being here as long as the name ship of the Yorktown class.

Yorktown began to cry. “No no, I don't want to be like this again, I was just hit by some shrapnel, please, I don't need to sleep for that. I was gone for a day already, I am healed, Azur Lane will fall apart if I don’t stop this.”

“There is no war, we already won. Now sleep.” Said Enterprise and pushed Yorktown hard. She grabbed a little cloth from the side and pulled out a little bottle. The bottle itself had Chloroform as the name. She applied the liquid to the cloth and pushed it on Yorktowns face.

The chloroform spread into the carrier's airways and quickly made her go down. Yorktown clawed herself to Enterprise with her steadily weakening strength. “Please sister, I need to stop a war.”

“The war is over, we won against the sirens, you just don’t see it yet.” Said Enterprise as she wiped away some tears off her sister's face. “We only take care of the remaining pest now.”

“Please save humanity, we need to protect them, if we have a civil war we can’t do that.” Yorktown cried as she lost her grip. “There won’t be peace without everyone united.”

“Oh there can.” Said Enterprise and watched as her sister's eyes closed and the heart monitor revealed that she was asleep. “We only need to annihilate whatever can cause trouble.”

“Look at what you did.” Enterprise grumbled and began attaching the cables again. It took a while but after that Yorktown again was under full observation.  Enterprise stroked her pale sister's hair. She grabbed a syringe and filled it with pentobarbital. She injected it into the reattached tubes and saw her sister peacefully slip into a coma. 

“You always hold humanity in such high regards, but at the end of the day we ships will rule the lands.” Giggled Enterprise. “You just need to wait until this world is safe again to leave this room, I won’t allow you to get hurt ever again. You will have a hard time understanding it but I will force you to see that humanity is evil.”

She stopped and stood up. “You two may have no memory of the past years but I will keep you safe from the nightmares, even if I have to cut around your memory a bit. The dreamtech that one siren used helps here excellently. Guess we need to thank that Dreamweaver. We still got her head, even if she herself is dead.”

Enterprise shook her head and walked to the door. She turned around and smiled.

“I promise I will keep you safe.” Said Enterprise as she looked at her sleeping sisters as she closed the door with a smile.

“No matter the price.”

Chapter Text

Elma giggled at Andrea. The woman was trying to remove the siren currently attached to the servers but said siren didn’t even move a centimetre.

“Can you help me?” Said Andrea with a panting voice. She had been trying to remove the siren for a few minutes now and came close to nowhere, the only thing she could move was the siren's hair. The surprisingly squishy tentacles felt like you would expect an octopus ones to feel like but even those in their softness didn’t move from where they were attached, only bent, and even then that was a lot more exhausting than the human expected.

Andrea gave up and walked back to the sitting siren again. She sat down and exhaled. “You really are useless, you know E.”

Elma only shook her head and relaxed. “Relax, she isn’t harming anyone with that and is actually doing pretty much nothing.”

The both of them looked to Cleveland, one with worry and the other with a smile. Andrea sighted. “She is doing nothing? I can’t exactly believe you.”

“Just do it.” Waved Elma and spun in her seat. “I might not be an Observer but I know they search for data in computers and observe others. And Cleveland is definitely one, even if I don’t know her siren name….she might have amnesia or so.” Elma sat up. ”Or just wasn’t finished properly when the network broke. Poor girl must have been running around without any orders or explanation for months and due to being modeled after Cleveland thinks she is Cleveland.”

“If you say that then that means she has no goal in her life.” Sighted Andrea. “I might not be a psychology expert, nor do I know how sirens are made, but she does act similar to the Cleveland shipgirl before she became evil.”

“I highly suspect that.” Said Elma as she looked her over. “She might be based off of her and during the construction her memorial cortex wasn’t bound correctly to…..wait you won’t get that at all. Let’s just say she knows she is a siren, has the memories of a pre-extermination Cleveland and is an Observer class, she knows probably nothing about the current world.”

“That sounds indeed quite sad. Essentially a baby caught in an already lost war with the memories of someone who once was good.” Agreed Andrea. “That explains her emotional swings, she literally is confronted with things that break her worldview. Glad she isn’t insane yet.”

Elma looked a bit unsure. “If you would have watched her fight then you might think differently, she seemed quite sadistic and more….and Belfast seemed to have some very bad history with her.” Elma wiped off some sweat from her brow. “I defeated them quickly and tried to send the shipgirls away. Cleveland literally enjoyed watching them suffer but still tried sending them away to a certain point……although, I must say, when she killed Belfast….that was personal.”

“Don’t all sirens do that?” Asked Andrea. “From what we saw most sirens enjoy causing suffering.”

Elma looked blankly at her. Her look alone gave Andrea the answer to her question.

“Guess you are also a lot more than what meets the eye.” Smiled Andrea. “So we should go talk with P again, she will help us anyway.” She pointed to Cleveland. “We clearly don’t get that siren out of the system.”

Elma only nodded and they turned to the screen. As they tried to access the communication system and they got on the screen, they saw that there was already a discussion going on. One side under the name OB and the other one was P.

“That must be Cleveland.” Concluded Elma and tried to type hello. However she got an error. Trying the same process again and again she continued receiving errors. The conversation they already had was blurry. Infact, even when both of the people in the heated conversation typed something new it was as if they spoke in heavily coded talk. Both Elma and Andrea didn’t get anything they said.

“Come on already. Did this thing get a virus?” Said Andrea with annoyance. Whatever they did did not do anything and they couldn’t decipher what was said. Every try ended in errors or failures of the system that was currently receiving an external access blockade.

“P didn’t talk like that a few minutes ago.” Pouted Elma. “Cleveland what are you doing?”

She for another time tried to type something but the error message she got surprised even her. It read “Please leave Beta alone. Currently taking out a lot of anger and enjoying this, removing external access. Loading the fun.”

Anderea and Elma were both more than just confused but had no time as the screen on the monitor changed again. The text vanished and instead they saw a webcam opening. The webcam itself showed the continuingly madder getting face of one of the most feared people on all seven seas.

Andrea nearly fell from her seat and Elma tensed up. “What is that one doing here?”

Elma had her own bad past with that carrier but Andrea had it worse. “How is that girl on screen?!”

Andrea was nearly hyperventilating, this carrier had brought so much suffering to everyone and now she was technically in front of her. Although, the Enterprise on the screen seemed to be mad at something else that was not them. She was actually steaming from the looks of it.

“She looks mad.” Said Elma and stood up.

Elma only gulped, she knew how brutal the carrier could be. No one wants to face her in open waters. Andrea wasn’t better, she knew rumors about how brutal the big five of the shipgirls were but never expected to meet one herself, even if only via video call.

“This thing has no webcam right?” Elma asked, concerned. They might be in danger from the looks of it. Andrea merely calmed her by touching the siren's shoulder. “No we don’t, but why are we seeing hers, no military computer should have one.”

Enterprise looked like she was screaming into the mic. Andrea sat down again and the two looked at Enterprise. “So she can’t see us.” “Nope.”

Enterprise suddenly vanished, the webcam closed and the connection was lost, leaving the two alone. The two were confused but let out an exhale before making themselves presentable again.

“Well that’s over, she looked very mad.” Giggled Elma a bit. “I wouldn’t wanna be on the receiving end of that.”

“Neither do I or this entire base…but if you can kill Belfast then you should be able to take her, right?” Said Andrea and looked at the siren. “You said you alone took on five, and Cleveland alone Belfast. Shouldn’t you two be able to take on Enterprise.”

“Now hold your horses for a second.” Remared Elma. “We theoretically can take them but at the same time we are still able to be caught off guard. We heavily surprised the shipgirls here, the odds that this will happen again are astronomically low.”

“So it was just them not being prepared, not that you are better.” Smiled Andrea. “But hey, at least you can fight them, not run away like we do.”

“You are really out of options and……wait did you call us bad at fighting?” Elma jumped up. “They have been pathetically weak physically since they only kill humans who are way weaker than them, so they became weak as well. Plus they are mostly inexperienced in close combat fighting.” She formed her hand into a fist. “The both of us forced them into the same situation as we find ourselves in, relying solely on hand to hand weapons. If we had guns we could have finished them quicker but we are better than them in every aspect.”

Andrea stood up too and looked at the average sized girl. “So you sirens are better, that's good……wait you got no guns? I heard that sirens have some really fancy laser stuff.”

Elma got a bit red and summoned her rigging. The broken guns appeared and showed what was left of a formerly great design. “You see. I had them, and they got destroyed in the battle where I was trapped and heavily injured.”

Andrea touched the black broken battleship turret. The 4 triple barrel guns were twisted and clearly unusable yet the power they in a broken state displayed alone let the human look at them in awe. “They look intimidating. Can you fix them? We might need to make use of it.”

Elmas ears went flat. She herself looked a bit sad. “I tried. I honestly tried but I can’t repair them. I need a working siren facility to do extensive repairs.”

“A siren base you say. I doubt there is one in the area.” Though Andrea out loud, Elma shook her head with a snicker.

“You don’t need to even go out. Cleveland as an Observer should know where some of them are. Once connected to the network she can precisely tell us that.” Smiled Elma and grabbed her Halberd. “Until then I can only rely on this thing.”

“I think that is deadly enough already.” Smiled Andrea with slight uncertainty. The halberd the siren casually helt in 1 hand was so heavy that it needed 3 normal people to just stem it up. “Damn you guys are strong, that thing can pierce concrete.”

Elma looked at her weird. “You used nukes, giant ass explosions and they were absolutely useless, and now you find my halberd interesting?”

“Why did the nukes even fail? No one knows why not a single one exploded.” Groaned Andrea and touched the blade of the halberd. “This is masterly crafted.”

“I would be carefull, it’s sharp. A master made it so of course it’s a masterpiece.” Said Elma and gave, or more laid the halberd on the table. The table groaned a bit under the weight but helt strong. “All Enforcers weapons were built by the smith, one of the nicknames for one of the master's sisters.”

Andrea admired the weapon and then looked at Cleveland who was still hanging there connected to the computer. “Woah, I saw the scythe of Cleveland over there. That one looks intimidating too, even more than this thing. Does she have a weapon from that smith too?”

Cleveland twitched a bit and life seemed to return to her. The tentacles retreated and vanished under the siren's capelet. None of the two in discussion took note of this however.

“Nah I doubt it.” Said Elma and grabbed her weapon again. “She can let hers vanish and it looks a tad bit more intimidating. I agree with you there but that one isn’t crafted. My weapon can break and you see the wear over time. Her weapon seems to be supernatural but certainly has a logical description.”

Andrea looked a bit confused. “And you can’t give me that? Weren't the sirens supposed to be smart?”

Elma looked a tad bit hurt yet understanding at the same time. “I will admit, we Enforcers are bodyguards, not smart cookies like the Observers.” Giggled Elma in slight pain. “So ask her if you want to know cause I can’t tell you anything sadly.”

“Oh does that mean I am smarter than you?'' A voice from behind said. Elma and Andrea shrieked and spun around. Andrea punched quickly but was met with what for her can only be a solid wall.

“You don’t need to punch my breasts you know.” Giggled Cleveland as she looked at Andrea who was clutching her hand. It wasn’t broken but it still hurt the human a lot. She stood up again and looked at Cleveland. “So you are back?”

“Theoretically I wasn’t gone but yes I am back again.” Answered Cleveland. She giggled a bit and helped Andrea by dusting her up. “So I guess you watched the screen.”

“Yes we did.” Said Andrea and looked judgingly. “Your chest looks soft, feels sof, but absolutely isn’t when punched. Anyway, Enterprise appeared on the webcam for some reason.”

“She looked incredibly pissed.” Added Elma. Cleveland only nodded at that. “That’s because she is mad that her little disguise game is over.”

They both looked quite confused. Cleveland sighted. “Allow me to explain. You know P I guess, she helped you a lot didn't she?”

Andrea smiled. “Yes she told us so much about fleet movements and supply locations.”

Cleveland sighted and sat down, in the air nonetheless. She looked sad and sighted. “Damm Enty did play you for a long time didn’t she?”

“How can you accuse P of being Enterprise?” Argued Andrea as she stood up. Cleveland was unimpressed and laid back with a giggle.

“Say Human. Did you ever send a troop to the place she described? Where she told you to meet her? I doubt she did that now for the first time.” Asked the siren with a certain voice.

Andrea looked unimpressed as well. “Yes siren but only once, we need most people here, that troop never returned but they said they were found by shipgirls.”

“Makes sense, the location is pearl harbour after all, their main base. P lured you into a deathtrap.” Said Cleveland with a sad look.

“Impossible!” Gasped Andrea. Even Elma looked a bit shocked. “You are lying!”

Cleveland shrugged. “I projected the direct webcam she has on her laptop to the screen here. I am not lying. Go look at the coordinates on a map if you don’t believe me.”

“Then that means that….that…..DAMMIT!” Andrea collapsed to her knees. “Is there no one in this godforsaken world that you can trust? Everyone is a foe here.”

“Played like a fiddle and you didn’t even notice the spy right in front of you.” Said Cleveland and patted Andreas back. “And you have to admit, from the name it could have been Purifier as well but she knew a bit too personal stuff about Azur Lane to be not suspicious right.”

“Indirect espionage. Spying from the shadows through infiltration, quite brilliant.” Said Elma and grabbed her halberd. “Let me guess a task force is on the way here isn’t it.”

“Ah at least one person who sees it. I won’t blame you Andrea, she knows how to play a good face unbelievably well.” Assured Cleveland with a sight. “Trust me I know. Also yes Elma you are correct, she is sending a force.”

“So a force is coming.” Assured Elma to herself. Cleveland only nodded in agreement.

“Well time to abandon ship.” Shrugged Elma and walked out. Cleveland was about to follow but Andrea rushed forward and grabbed both of them. The two sirens turned back. “You two can’t leave. Without you we can’t even fight back.”

“Then just leave.” Said Cleveland with a bit of an annoyance. “There must be some places you can go that aren’t here.”

Andrea in- and exhaled hard. “Yes, there are a few military bases but we can’t reach them, all of our ships are destroyed.”

Elma looked dumbfounded and groaned. “I will repeat myself again, why not take Belfast's ship! The girl is dead, she won’t stop you.”

Cleveland gave a sad smile upon hearing that but the other two didn’t notice.

“That might be true but we still can’t.No one knows how to drive it.” Said Andrea. Elma watched her wipe a few tears. “Learning how to drive it might be possible in time but no one knows how the ship operates.”

Elma looked agreeing but Cleveland only smiled at that. She summoned her scythe, the blade glowing a ghostly blue. “I think we got that covered. Gather the people on the ship. We get them all out of here. Elma, can you push the big stick into the dock?”

“Sure, you at least ask. Well I am off, Andrea I will take it to eehhhhhhhh dock 1.” Waved Elma and walked out. Andrea and Cleveland were left in the room.

“Did P really just play with us?” Said the human, exhausted but somewhat confused. “You really went into the computer?”

Andrea had a hard time grasping this. Of course someone literally entering a computer comes as close to magic to the human as it can be. She simply shrugged it off and continued looking at the siren.

“Sure did.” Assured Cleveland and held her arms behind her head. “Went into the system and uncovered the truth. I had my concerns before this, she just was too suspicious.”

“You sirens are….confusing.” Sighted Andrea. “I gotta gather the people to move on that damn maids ship.” She almost walked out but then stopped. “What will you do? You aren't helping your friend so you must have another plan.”

Cleveland shut down the computer. Turning around she walked back and past Andrea. “Let’s just say that I need to prepare a present.”

Cleveland left the human's vision and walked somewhere into the facility. This didn’t bother Andrea who was weirded out from the siren's tone. She talked like she was anticipating a plan, a plan Andrea couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Shaking her head Andrea walked outside the bunker. She met with many people on the main court that by now became a place for the injured. Coordinating a plan they all split and gathered the people. The masses all walked onto the dock where they saw a massive warship being pushed into the dock. The ship had countless damages but still floated on the water.

Elma jumped down from the ship and walked past the humans. Most of them actually recoiled while some smiled upon seeing her. The siren grabbed some steel plates from the ruined smaller ships and walked to the ship’s side. Forming an improvised gangway with it she bowed down next to it and pointed upwards. “Please board the vessel slowly. Organised two at a time, woman and children first.”

The humans slowly at first, mostly out of fear, refused to board but after being pushed from behind and given assurance by John who walked on the ship as the first person they did board the ship.

It took a while but the people finished boarding after nearly an hour. The leaders, and siren, found themselves on the bridge of the ship after organising the resting places of everyone. The crew quarters did just the right job for everyone. They were glad that the ship had maps inside.

“So I think this is about everyone.” Said Andrea as she finished taking notes on a little checklist. “Everyone is set up and taken care of. Now how do we move this?”

“No clue.” Said Elma with an innocent smile. “I never used a ship.”

“Yeah you probably just run faster than one anyway.” Andrea huffed and looked at the controls. “The captain and the people that steer this ship are still helping their families and the other injured. They will be unavailable for a few minutes, time we actually don’t have, so we can only wait for them.”

Elma cocked her head. “Can people who have been on cruise ships before even steer this thing?”

“Theoretically yes, the driving mechanism isn’t that far off.” Said John rather annoyed. Elma immediately recoiled a bit with a huff.

“Sorry ok.” Exclaimed Elma with a glare. “I have never been on a ship, nor steered one so how can I know.”

“I don’t know but we need to get this ship moving somehow.” Argued the annoyed woman and kicked the console. “The engineers just constantly annoy me, they can’t get the boilers to work down there.”

Elma walked over to the console. She tried accessing the systems or even moving the ship but nothing happened. The system gave no response due to it having no power.

“How do we get power, the boilers should have fuel.” Said Elma and walked back.

“Yes they have.” Assured Andrea. “Not quite full but enough for at least a few weeks.”

“Then turn them on.” Repeated Elma.

Andrea huffed. “Well we can’t.”

The two stared each other down before the door flew open. They turned their heads to the door and stared at who came in. “Stop arguing like a married couple.” Said Cleveland as she finally entered the room. The guards next to the door looked concerned but did nothing more.

“Oh finally done.” Snickered Elma. “Are you finished? What were you even doing?”

“Personal business. That’s all I will say.” Ssid Cleveland and rubbed her hands. The people around her recoiled slightly upon seeing the siren's hands stained in blood. “But yes I am. Also this isn’t directly human blood.” Answered Cleveland and looked at the console.

Andrea huffed a bit. “What blood is it then? Did you hurt one of us, if then we have no problem with attacking you.”

Cleveland only laughed. “It’s the one of a certain maid, and as if you would stand a chance in battle against me.”

Andrea only groaned and relaxed. “”I know, but we would still try.” The people around them still held their guns at ready. Elma didn’t do anything to escalate the situation and only watched.

“I admire your foolish courage.” Said Cleveland and did a light curtsy. “Anyway, why aren’t we starting?”

Andrea looked relieved and concerned but shook it off. “We were just discussing that.” The people around relaxed as well again and lowered their guns. Elma didn’t say anything but admired the humans stupid, yet massive courage.

“Well what seems to be the problem?” Asked Cleveland and sat down on the console.

Andrea caught her breath. “John, you were with the tech guy. You can explain this better.”

The brother of the stern woman sat in a seat in the room. He stood up and approached them. “Ok I can really explain this better. The ship is in average condition, it needs repairs and a lot more but we stocked it with what we could find and it’s prepared to go to sea. Anyway what the ship is missing is power.”

“Then simply turn on the boilers.” Said Cleveland. “They should still have the fuel.” All of the people groaned upon hearing that, even Elma.

“They are fueled.” Assured John. “They just refuse to activate.”

Elma walked forward. “I might know only the basics about ships but I know this ship runs on oil and gas. So just put on the fire or something.”

John shook his head. “We did. Yet the engine isn’t moving.”

“Well duh. It will take some time. They are old.” Groaned Cleveland. “I know my way around ships.”

John only looked at them unimpressed. “We did that, the engines were actually still running when we came here, they didn’t cool down yet so it was easy, they stand at max power.”

“Then why isn’t the ship moving?” Asked Elma and pressed the forward lever of the ship. The ship did absolutely nothing despite them hearing the engine. “The thing’s engine is clearly running.”

They pondered for a second. Analysing the situation brought most of them no answer. But one of them did know the answer from her past life.

“Ohh, I know why.” Said Cleveland. She stood up and moved out. The other people looked after the siren and walked behind her.

“You know what?” Asked Elma and followed her. “What do you know?”

“How to get this ship running.” Said Cleveland and walked through the ship. She maneuvered around corners and corridors without even a second thought and entered a room. The room had an empty podest in the middle of it that looked like it was supposed to hold something. The other people came in behind her, panting from walking.

“You walk around here like you know the place like your own briefcase.” Groaned Andrea. “I swear you didn’t look at any map even once. Anyway, what is this room? Brother didn’t you and our team walked across everything.”

“We haven’t figured out what room it is.” John answered. “It’s just the podest there. The room is called the wisdom cube room by the way.”

Cleveland walked forward. She placed her hand on the podest and swished over it. Small sparks of blue energy zapped from Cleveland's hand and the room began to glow just a tiny bit.

“As I suspected.” Said Cleveland with a smile. “It’s the thing I thought. You are running yet not.”

“Please indulge us in your thought process.” Said Elma as she walked forward. She grabbed her friend's shoulder. “Because most of us here get absolutely nothing.”

“I guess that includes you three.” Cleveland laughed a bit upon looking at the other people's confused faces. “Well you know shipgirls are bound to a ship and control it. So what happens when you kill the shipgirl?”

“They are disconnected from the ship.” Answered John. ”The ship mostly sinks as well due to it having no master.”

“That is only when the ship girl's rigging is too damaged beforehand. The rigging is the ship after all.” Corrected Cleveland. “Anyway since the girl and the ship are bound together both don’t work without the other one. They still exist but are unusable.”

“Then this ship is useless.” Concluded John with a grim face. “We need Belfast to move this ship and she is dead.”

The other two only nodded to that, they saw it the same way. They were about to leave the room but were caught by the arms. Cleveland tentacles helt them and pulled them back.

“We don't particularly need her.” Said Cleveland with a sly smile.

“What do you mean? I know as an Observer you know more stuff about Shipgirls but this just confuses me.” Asked Elma and slapped away the tentacle. “And I told you I hate tentacles. How long do these things even stretch?”

Cleveland gave the comments no comment and retreated her tentacles from all of them.

“What do you mean we don’t need Belfast, you said a shipgirl is bound to her ship and needed for it to function.” Said Andrea with a confused face. She had only read something about shipgirls and cubes in documents P sent them but they were probably all fakes since they were sent by Enterprise.

“Yes I did. However, what else does a shipgirl have?” Asked Cleveland with a still existing smile. “The thing that actually makes them function is?”

“A wisdom cube?” Answered Elma bluntly.

“Correct.” Said Cleveland with a bright smile. She patted Elmas head a bit with a tentacle before retreating to not have Elma cut it off. “You see, a shipgirls cube is the connection, so we don’t need a shipgirl to run this ship. What do we just need?”

John looked with a small smile at Cleveland. “A cube then. A wisdom cube. Stupid is that we don’t have one.”

Cleveland shook her head. “This is absolutely correct and wrong.” Smiled Cleveland.

John was confused. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“We don't need a cube, we just need the energy of it.” Explained Cleveland and opened her arms to mention all around her. “And we got a lot of that right here.”

Elma and the others were dumbfounded. They looked around the room trying to spot whatever the siren was describing.

“Ehhhh where?” Asked Elma. “You need a cube to get it. And there is no cube in this room.”

Cleveland laughed. “Simple. We rip out our cubes.”

*HUH! No, you would possibly kill me.*

“That wouldn’t directly kill us but no.” Said Elma with a stern tone. “I prefer being able to fight and live, without it we basically become weaker than a useless human child and lose everything that makes us us.”

The humans only glared at Elma for that comment.

“Ah I was just joking.” Cleveland only giggled. She closed her eyes and breathed with relaxed breaths. She put her arms to her chest and gathered something. From her body a small blue ball was formed. Cleveland pulled it out and looked at it. “Clear wisdom energy. This will be enough.”

“How did you, we can’t extract our own lifeforce.” Gasped Elma. Cleveland simply snickered. “Yes I know, besides, this isn’t mine.”

Leaving the confused people behind she put the ball on the podest. It connected itself with the podest via some arcs and the room began glowing.

Then the ball snuffed out and the room's glow ceased.

Andrea and the others were even more confused. Even Cleveland was but then she laughed.

*Looks like the ship needs more, you got enough spare but it should hurt since you drain your energy into it.*

Cleveland took that in and smiled.

“Not enough? Well I gave you quite a beating.” She cracked her knuckles. “Well then take as much as you need.” Giggled Cleveland. She walked over and pushed her hands on the podest. Not a second later big energy arcs flew out of Cleveland's body into the podest and the room began glowing brightly.

Cleveland seemed to be in great pain and discomfort. She was nearly screaming but held on strong. Elma wanted but couldn’t help her because even when she tried she was blown away by wisdom energy arcs. It went for nearly 20 seconds with Cleveland showing amounts of pain but then all arcs stopped. The room glowed completely and Cleveland huffed. “Well all done.”

“How did you?” Asked Elma in total disbelief. “A ship is worth the entire life force of a shipgirl. You need to give up around 70% of the strength of a normal siren for that.”

Cleveland chuckled. “Well Elma you see I am an Observer, pretty much the highest high class under your master and standing even over you, I got strength to spare.”

*Oh you figured that out?*

“Still you should look drained.” Said Elma in confusion. “It’s still massive amounts of life force, wisdom cubes might be near limitless in store of energy but they have a limited output. It might take days for you to be back at full strength.”

Cleveland merely giggled. “Let’s not ponder about it, It wasn’t my energy anyway. Andrea, John the ship should move now. let's go back to the bridge.”

The sister nodded. “However you managed that with your siren magic I am grateful. Yes we should, lead the way, you know the way around for some reason.”

Cleveland nodded and walked out. She expertly moved through the halls back to the bridge again. They passed countless people, all at least fine to get a moment of peace and even thanking the sirens. Elma wasn’t used to this kind of attention so she simply smiled as they walked.

Elma huffed as they entered the bridge. She wasn’t tired or anything close to it but she was confused. “Say how the hell do you know yourself around here so well? I swear this is a maze.”

“Let’s just say this is far from my first time here.” Said Cleveland with a sight and looked at the old guy on the navigation console. “The ship is ready now, right.”

He only nodded and looked at the human leaders. “Whatever you did worked.”

“Then we can cruise finally.” Said Andrea relieved. “Everything is ready, let’s go.”

The man only sighted. “We can go, yes, but we don't have a captain so no one knows how to steer the ship.”

“What do you mean? The captain of the cruise ship was fine around 20 minutes ago.”

“Yes, according to the doctor it's shock damage, most likely from an explosion, internal.” Said the old man. “The captain is too injured to stand and the rest of the crew is also incapable of manning the stations, the systems are similar but even then there are small differences. Plus the ships damage adds to it being harder to control”

“How long until he wakes up? We need him.” Said Andrea in desperation. “A shipgirl force is coming and we need to escape before that arrives here.”

“Where are we even going?” Asked Cleveland out of the line.

“A small supply base that only the resident military used. It was abandoned immediately in the war against the siren and pretty much forgotten. Only a few of the old men still know of it since it was used by the darker side of the army.” Said the gruff man. “Myself included.”

Andrea looked shocked at this news. She gritted her teeth. “We just need to get to open waters first, nothing about radar or sonar or anything, just open water.”

Cleveland tapped her feet in annoyance. She walked to the window overlooking the destroyed port. “This is taking too long, they won’t be ready and teaching someone will take even longer. We need to go. Now!”

“We have no one that can steer the ship.” Groaned the old man. “Or do you have the ability to summon someone that can maneuver a Town class light cruiser out of nowhere?”

“Actually.” Cleveland simply smiled maliciously. “Yes I can.”

She summoned her scythe and pointed it to the console. The scythe glew blue and out jumped a small ball that formed into a figure. Edinburgh looked at her master awaiting orders. Most people except Elma jumped back upon seeing her.

“What the hell?!” Sweared John and most people in the room followed that example. “You brought an enemy here?”

Cleveland giggled. “She is more or less harmless as long as you don’t have a wisdom cube, and she is no enemy since I single handedly killed her.” Cleveland walked to Edinburgh and stretched out her hand. It went straight through her. “As you can see she is a ghost.”

The people relaxed a little bit but that didn’t bother Cleveland. “Ed go maneuver your dead sister's ship.” She commanded and Edinburgh stood up. She walked to the navigation console and did several things most people who never drove a ship wouldn’t get.

“Also Ed listens to what these people say.” Ordered Cleveland and giggled. Edinburgh simply gave a thumbs up and leaned against the console. “Andrea, she will listen to everything you order. I must only say start and then she activates the ship.”

“Freaky stuff.” giggled Elma. She walked next to Cleveland and looked out of the window.

Andrea put on a little captain's hat. “Then we are ready to go, you can give the go command at any time.” She looked at the sirens who stood there with a smile. “But give us 2 minutes to tell everyone to get ready.”

She talked to some people before she walked over and looked out of the window into the setting sun next to the sirens. “Ok we are ready to go although I am sorry to annoy you again, but no one can control the guns so I guess we have to rely on you two to guard the ship.”

Cleveland sighted and Elma only groaned. “You can’t do anything by yourself heh.” She smiled. “Another work for us then.”

Cleveland grabbed her shoulder and sighted as well. “Well then come Elma, we go to the front, we can play bodyguard for the ship.” Said Cleveland and walked out. “Ed start the engines and go.”

The ghost reacted and did just that.

“You talk like you are friends.” Elma laughed and followed. “Oh this is quite ironic. The same as my old job. Guarding”

“Then you shouldn’t have that much of a problem with it.” Giggled Cleveland to her friend.

Elma only laughed. “Yeah I know how standing around for forever feels.”

“Yah, this will be just like convoy protection. Nothing I haven’t done a million times already, just this time for the other side.” Said Cleveland with a shrug and quite nostalgic tone.

Elma stopped for a second to think about that. The sound of the starting engines in the background became louder. Elma was confused but shook it off and returned to her friend. The two walked outside the ship and on the deck. They stood at the front of the ship, looking into the water.

Cleveland closed her eyes. “Ed full speed ahead.” She gave the ghost the command and Edinburgh acted immediately.

The engines of the beaten light cruiser kicked into gear slowly at first but then with their full force. The ship began cruising and left the cave. The people on it cheered and were relieved that they were more mobile, mostly that they finally left this tomb.

The two sirens stood on the frontmost point, balancing on the tip of the ship with weapons drawn as they drove into the night.

Elma giggled a bit and looked at Cleveland. “Andrea mentioned you left the shipgirls that will come, a present. What did you leave? A bomb?”

“No not a bomb.” Assured Cleveland with a creepy smile.

“A message.”

__________________

Why is it that always when I want to write a short chapter it becomes longer than the last?

Anyway enjoy it

A message, what could that only be

We shall find that out next time.

Chapter Text

“Throw me the tow cable Elma. Ed all machines ¼ and slow down.” Commanded Cleveland as she stood on the bow of the ship. The drive they had here went over without any problems. They didn't even encounter a single shipgirl, even if Cleveland had several of them on her radar. They even were identified in the IFF for some reason. Cleveland had to thank Alpha for that.

*Thanks.*

Cleveland smiled. Elma walked on the dock. The abandoned base was really difficult to find when you don’t know where to look. It was an overgrown part of a jungle with a small narrow entrance, no battleship would ever be able to remotely come close to docking at this base.

Elma grabbed one of the big tows and threw them at the light cruiser. Cleveland caught it and attached it to the ship. The humans around them merely watched in absolute awe. No one of them had ever seen this. Normally you need at least 20 men to complete a docking process, needing both coordination from the ship and the dock itself. The two sirens however did all of that by themselves.

They finished the docking and waited. Elma found an actual working gangway and pushed it on the ship. The humans walked down the real thing and onto the dock.

“So this is the base Herberd?” Asked Andra as she walked onto the dock. Next to her stood a younger, yet still older than most, man with a white t-shirt that said naval academy. The base they stood on was overgrown and looked generally quite unusable. The satellite dishes were hanging on by a thread and most buildings were overgrown.

“Sure is.” Smilied the man and beckoned the others to follow him. “Now our little smuggling facility is back here.”

“Smuggle?” Asked Cleveland. “Did you do something illegal here?”

The men looked concerned. The tone Cleveland gave him wasn’t the nicest. Adding to the fear were the soul piercing yellow eyes the siren had. The man shuddered but pushed on.

“Not entirely.” Herberd said proudly. “This is a supply and storage base from the stuff we took from smugglers. It got everything from normal food to high caliber weaponry. I served here before your sirens even invaded and we left the base in a hurry without taking anything, so everything should still be here. We found some weird stuff that should be very useful.”

Andrea smiled as did John. The sirens were merely a bit surprised but pressed on. They entered an overgrown building to the far right. The humans ducked under the thorny rakes while the sirens simply walked through them, breaking them without any wound sustained.

“Say, why didn’t you just come here earlier? If the base has so many valuable supplies then why didn’t you come here earlier than now?” Asked Elma as they walked along the hallway. The man went rigid and his sweat dropped before they continued walking. Elma blinked at that. “Come on, you can tell that you are cowards.”

“No, it's more complicated and you will see in a minute.” Said Herberd and walked out of the back of the building. They stopped and turned to the side. “And here is the problem.” They came to a stop and looked at what Herberd was pointing at. A massive passcode lock was next to a reinforced steel door that looked ominous.

“So what’s that? Herberd explained.” Said Andrea as she looked at the door.

Herberd coughted. “That my dear is a six times reinforced titanium steel door. Behind it is the main storage for the smaller ships we had. They should still be there.”

“So you had all the time, a base just two days away, with enough supplies and food to last us a long time.'' Andrea said. “And you couldn't be bothered to say a word about it?!”

“It’s not that simple. Remember that we nearly drove 3 days here in a ship that is significantly faster than the little barely floating crawlers we had. The trip was simply too risky.” Said Herberd. “We can’t take great risks with all of us. And even if, our ships wouldn’t be able to transport a naval gun or a tank that can offer us the least bit of protection.”

“I bet you those two can carry that for us!” Said John and pointed back to the sirens standing behind him. The two merely smiled at that.

“Ok so then we open it or what?” Asked Elma. She walked forward and touched the door. Giving it a light pull the door groaned. Herberd rushed forward and grabbed the siren's arm.

“Stop it.” He said as he tried to pull away the siren, of course failing horribly since the siren didn’t even move. Elma pulled away her arm and stared at the man.

“Allow me to explain.” Said the man. ”The door has a lock to open it, Breaking it causes the roof to collapse.”

“Why would anyone build this?” Asked Andrea. “That's incredibly dangerous.”

“It’s smugglers and more we took the stuff from. We stored some bad stuff here. You will find a few drug containers too.” Admitted Herberd. “We boobytrapped the thing because should this abandoned base be taken so that the enemy can’t get the supplies here.”

“But we are the good guys.” Said John flabbergasted. He walked to the door and punished a random number into the code. “Of course it was wrong. Urgh, can’t be lucky. Come on we aren’t the bad guys let us in.”

“You tell that to the door.” Said Herberd embarrassed and slammed his fist like a knock against the door. He took his arm off the door and walked away waving for the others to follow. They walked a long path, past the still hundreds of people that were organising and cleaning the rubble from the base, before walking into another building.

Walking up a few stairs and a few hallways they entered a room. This room was definitely an archive from the many files and more that was stocked into the room.

“So here is the archive.” Said the man and took a file. “We need to search the passcode….and that might take a while.”

*Or you simply hack the lock, Cleveland.*

Cleveland nodded and took a file. She decided that learning and reading about the base was more important than opening the door immediately. The other people in the room only groaned and took a file from the thousand that were there.

For the next hour what happened was nothing but reading and listening to the exhausted grunts of the humans. The sirens had less of an issue. John observed Cleveland with an amazed eye. She read with fast speed through several files at once while her tentacles grabbed and held several other files ready. Elma had no tentacles but was taking the files from Clevelands and was reading at the same pace.

“Sometimes I wish I was a ship or a siren.” Said John with a smile as he looked at the sirens searching the keycard. “Kickass power and beauty plus abilities I can only dream off. Would be nice as a girlfriend too.”

“Are you trying to hit on us?” Said both sirens at the same time as they turned to stare at the man. John sweatdropped and simply walked out of sight. “Weird man.” Exhaled Cleveland and sat down. She rummaged through several drawers for what felt like 3 hours and definitely came close to that.

*You can stay here for about 6 hours looking through all the files trying to find a code or you might wanna use your head.*

“You are right, this is taking too long.” Groaned Cleveland. She decided to just be smart and walked out of the room after she laid away the files she held. She had read enough of those to know a few things about this base and that satisfied her for now.

Elma was confused and followed her. Cleveland walked across the field and stood in front of the big door. She ripped off the password panel and inserted a tentacle. Closing her eyes she quickly connected herself to the thing. She fixed the door controls and manually overwrote the closing sequence.

The heavy door swung open and revealed the dark insides. A few dim lights glowing illuminated the hall.

“Now thinking about it I could have frozen or cut through the door too.” Giggled Cleveland as she walked in but stopped as she heard the others approaching.

“How did you open that? Did you find the password?” Gasped Herberd, then he walked into the room. Cleveland shook her head but followed. “No, I simply opened it.”

“And how?” Andrea asked. “We didn’t find the password and Elma rallied us to go here. She said you got it open.”

“I am an Observer my dear, any computer I touch automatically becomes my bitch. I hacked the thing and opened it.” Giggled Cleveland. Andrea was taken back by this. “You look like Cleveland but only about 70% behave like her.”

“You wouldn’t wanna meet me on a bad day then.” Said Cleveland and her tentacles stroked her hair. “Oh Elma thanks for bringing them, good that you get me without me saying a word.”

“Well it is pretty obvious what you can do, I met a few Observers myself and know that they can do it, although you are still a lot more special.” Said Elma and they joined all together to walk into the building. The building was exactly as promised. A big room with multiple shelves, all of them containing weapons, food, and more. A few tanks lined the back, adding to the spare what looked like destroyer single turrets in the back. However, most importantly was one thing in the entire room. Further back in the room was a small dock. In the water stood a big boat that looked perfectly drivable even when kept unused for a while.

“It’s still here. Haha. The old one isn’t going down that easily.” Laughed Herberd and walked across the little waterway. He entered the speedboat by jumping into it.

“What is that? That’s a full blown Yacht?” Gasped John. He had a careful eye on it. “That’s bigger than what we had.”

“It’s actually a speed boat. Police control against smugglers, got a light armament and is fast as heck...oh I knew the old judgment was still here.” Smiled Herberd as she walked on the ship.

“Old judgment?” Asked John as he looked at the ship and the man that climbed into it.

“Yeah, the name of the ship. It’s quite neat in my opinion, the crew called it that.” Smiled Herberd. They all entered the yacht and walked down.

“We used this thing to go after smugglers by the way, it’s fast enough to catch their boats and actually is faster than a destroyer.” Clarified Herberd. “Just not armored at all.”

They entered the engine room and looked around. The big boilers looked beaten but usable. Herberd tried to start them. They did start but at the same time didn’t. There was a sound of a corked line in the main engine.

Herberd exhaled and got a wrench from one of the tool boxes next to him. He did some mechanical stuff but that ultimately brought him nothing.

*A forceful impact should unclog that, its pipe is clogged.*

Cleveland only nodded but she decided to wait for the man to do whatever he was doing. It took a few minutes and Cleveland watched the man take apart the machine with great irritation. She knew where the issue lay but the man didn’t or was determiniert to take apart the entire thing to fix it. Finally the man came to a stop and exhaled. Right on time for Cleveland to lose her patience.

“Is someone a mechanic- '' He stopped talking because Cleveland slammed her fist on the big engine. She heard the pipe unclog itself from the strike and smiled while turning to the man. “So turn it on now.”

The man did just that. The steel was slightly dented but the machine still worked. It made a few strange noises before starting up fine.

“How did you? We usually had to take apart the entire machine to fix a clogged pipe.” Said Herberd and gave a relaxed smile.

“Sometimes a slap is all you need.” Said Cleveland with a smile. “Oh and this is a diesel engine, of course it clogs up after not being in use for long.” She walked away and out of the ship. Elma and the others left Herberd who promised to make the ship ready for use again.

“So I guess we now have a hidden base and supplies.” Said Andrea with a smile. Indeed they had that. A fully hidden base, a usable ship and a usable amount of weaponry. Of course the sirens had to drag the naval guns but since they could carry around a ship already something like that poses no problem.

“Yet among all things, I think we still aren’t as protected as we could be.” Said John in an exhale. The two sirens were confused by this. “What do you mean?”

“We got guns and defense now but we still wouldn’t survive an attack.” Said John with a bit of worry. “A single shipgirl can still come here and kill everyone and we can’t take them on hand to hand.”

“My brother is right.” Admitted Andrea. “Only you two can take on shipgirls in an actual fight and that’s why I ask you two to stay.”

“I see your point but I doubt we can stay here forever.” Admitted Cleveland. “Holding out or ending a war is the question here. I want to ensure peace for humanity and that is only done by letting the shipgirls see that they attack the wrong enemy.”

“You think those monsters can learn that!” Said Andrea sternly. She had to immediately recoil as she saw the anger glowing eyes of Cleveland look at her at full force.

“Not. All. Of. Them. Are. Monsters.” Said Cleveland strongly. Her aura alone brought even Elma to step back. “Only five of them are and one is dead.”

“Whatever you say, siren.” Said Andrea. “You seem to have a personal history with Azur Lane don’t you? What did they do to you?”

Cleveland closed her eyes. She took several deep breaths and tensed up her muscles. She clenched her hands so hard that her hand was actually bleeding a bit.

“Is everything ok friend?'' Elma asked, concerned. She just saw her friend in something that can only be described as a state of purge rage. Cleveland herself saw only one thing, the events the five did to her on that day two years ago. Again and again she felt the pain and heard their insane speech of that day.

Elma grasped Cleveland's shoulder and the siren somehow calmed down a little bit.

“Saying they hurt me isn’t even coming close to it! They became the antithesis to everything we stood for. I won’t stop until all of the five are dead!" Said Cleveland with focussed anger. “We will protect you, but don’t expect us to stay here forever. We need to stop them!”

“Since when do you speak for me? But yes we probably won’t stick around forever.” Admitted Elma. “We will protect you until that point though.”

“And how will we survive then?” Asked John. “Without you we are fairly unprotected.”

“We can probably give you siren weapons, the lasers burn holes through ships so it might be good protection.” Said Cleveland. “Trust me I know that.”

Elma groaned. “If only we had guns, those would certainly help wouldn’t they? Even my own are broken.” She summoned her broken riging. “So getting those repaired and getting other guns here is quite hard.”

Cleveland was impressed. She looked at the broken guns. “What would you even need to repair yours?”

“A siren base.” Said Elma bluntly. “Even if it is not a full working base but a base to connect to the on site weapon forge, it shouldn't take longer than an hour to make them but I don’t know the locations of a base here and I wouldn't wanna run across 2 oceans.”

Cleveland looked around. “Let me think, I think I got my memories cleared up a bit and I know a few locations.”

“Yeah, locating stuff is more your area. My base was here but well, we kind of kept out of business with the normal ones so I don’t know a single base in the near area.” Admitted Elma. “Heck I can’t see communication lines and you got a damn satellite in your head.”

Cleveland ignored her and closed her eyes. “Hmmmm. Alpha tell me are there some bases around here?” Though Cleveland and the siren popped up. She had small reading glasses on her nose and was looking into files.

*Let me check the data I picked up on Enterprise's computer, they destroyed a lot of our bases. I am going through those at the moment, that’s why I am not talking much. Yes there are several, only one with a forge though, a small one but it has strategic value.*

A map of the area, or more the entire pacific, Cleveland could zoom in and out with her mind, appeared in Cleveland's view. She looked around and found countless Symbols. Many were greift or had a broken house on it or were simply too far away. Looking around close she spotted a small base exactly where Alpha said it was. It had a very weak signal that was flickering on and off, meaning higher scans couldn’t even pick it up because it’s so faint. Meaning that the base is probably scavenged already by Azur Lane but they left the stuff there. To Cleveland's knowledge they don’t use siren tech anyway.

“Around one and a half hours at my casual speed away is a base. It has a forge and that’s what we need. there we can do that. Maybe I will get weapons too.” Giggled Cleveland. She closed the map after marking it down and looked at Elma. The other siren looked fine with the idea.

“Yeah I saw you got none, for whatever reason.” Said Elma as she pondered. “Say what is your top speed?”

“Around 50 knots, probably more when I put in actual effort instead of casual cruising.”

Elma looked relieved. “Good mine is around 45 to 47 knots so slightly below yours. We can fly but that would take too much energy. We can also simply teleport. You should be able to open portals.”

“So give or take ten minutes to the time of arrival. That's not that bad. Portals you say, well the issue is that I haven’t quite figured that out yet and I wouldn’t like to kill you.” Concluded Cleveland. She walked to the water and looked at the jungle opening. ”We must go there by foot. Shall we go then?”

“And leave us undefended?” Gasped Andrea as she walked close. “We just got here after escaping a life threatening situation and now you wanna leave us to die again?”

The woman's anger was to be expected. They just ran away to hide and now their only actual defence line was about to leave them. Cleveland simply patted the taller woman's head by floating up.

"Can't you just hide in that cave there and reset the trap. It should act like a vault if you are inside." Suggested Elma.

John shook his head. "Us hiding in there will only bring us so far. First we are trapped in a room with no escape, also what would stop the shipgirls. They could siege us and wait, or just break the rocks with their guns or fists. That wouldn’t delay them for long while we are waiting for death." He exhaled. "We can take on a single shipgirl and drive them away but not a task force, and they would definitely send one here should they spot us."

“We aren’t gone forever and even if we get weapons that will drive away any intruder that could come.” Said Cleveland with authority and landed again. She was right about that, if the two sirens could take a task force on, each one alone, without weaponry then with guns they would be a force of nature instead of a good fighter.

John grabbed his sisters shoulders, giving her a small massage. “Just imagine how much better they can attack and defend with weapons. I think we can survive a few hours, we did it before they came too, it will take forever to make the base usable anyway. They will be back by then.”

“Fine.” Agreed Andrea. “But you better be here again as quickly as possible. I feel uncomfortable that we don’t have any protection.”

The humans left and all that remained were the sirens. They could see the humans working and cleaning up the base, that alone brought them a smile.

Cleveland was about to walk out but Elma grabbed her.

“Ok but if we go now, shouldn’t we hide the ship?” Asked Elma and looked at the town class cruiser. It stood out like a gray mountain amongst the green and she was a bit concerned with being found.

“Oh no it’s actually good, you see, if they even find this place they would see Belfast's ship first.” Clarified Cleveland. “And they wouldn’t approach one of the five without trying to contact them, meaning they will talk over the comms with the ship.”

“Hey, that's actually genius.” Said Elma. “Also means we can listen to their comms without them noticing.”

Cleveland smiled. “They will find that out eventually but my message will leave them quite disturbed so they won’t realise that we spy on them for at least a few days.”

“We do the reverse of what Enterprise did.” Realised Elma and giggled.

Cleveland gave a sly smile. “Yeah but we won’t be noticed. Compared to her. Besides, they have fairly different things to be concerned about at the moment. Anyway.” She jumped on the water. “Let’s go find that siren base to fix us up. I want guns. Hehehehehe.”

Elma also jumped on the water. “I hope that we won’t take that long, leaving them undefended seems like a bad idea but oh I look forward to getting my guns back. I get Andrea, they are totally undefended here.”

“I might get some guns there and teleport them here. I feel comfortable teleporting solid matter but not living beings.” Giggled Cleveland and began skating. “Come Elma, let’s bring the firepower!”

Elma simply watched after her. “You absolute dounce, I love you.” She quickly caught up to her as they both drove out of the base.

____________________________

Wales picked up the small piece of paper that was on the box. She turned her voice before she began reading.

*
Awaited the day when the end will bring the hammer of dawn to judge the sinners for their deeds.

Wait for the day the stars have fallen. When planes have crashed the fields. It will be a day for prizes to fall and fallen they already been.

Awaited the day all rules will end for when the pride will fall for deadly. A granted life has been forsaken and will be brought back to empty.

For when the queen should be headless in her rule. Meeting the end with the judge himself for ending the lives of plenty.

Awaited the day when the prince lays in fields of blood, bathed in her own sins from head to bottom.

The maid has paid the price already. The sins its smile stored away has been free for many.

Await the day the reaper comes, for judgement shall be swift and deadly.

For at the end it will be swift, the pain has gone completely.

An old friend has been awoken, a friend forsaken in broken tatters.

Awaited the reaper's scythe for it will come as quickly.

A fallen knight shall be your end and I shall end it quickly.
*

She ended the letter and only was confused. “That is what you called us here for? A childish poem.” Said Wales sternly. “You literally called all of us five here to read this. I crossed the entire pacific to read this little fuckin thing?”

“It’s four for now you know, we still wait for Belfast.” Giggled Hood. “Anyway, I share your mind, Liz, why did you call all of us 5 here?”

“Easy you worthless beings. There has been a present delivered to us all. I almost just said no and opened it myself but be graced that your goddess herself has actually decided to call you lower beings to at least see what will be mine.” Said Queen Elizabeth. She stood on her throne and Warspite kneeled next to it.

“Whatever you say Liz.” Shrugged Wales and put away the letter. “Where did you get that thing from? Who sent it?”

“I don’t care, the maids found it.” Huffed Elizabeth. “Sent them all to investigate a rescue signal and they returned with that. Not even a rescued person, the idiots probably didn’t even need help and just wanted to see their almighty queen.”

“Sure, you found nothing?” Asked Enterprise. “Then what was the source of the signal?”

Elizabteth only looked at them. “Don’t know, don't care, all I know is that one maid, a cruiser and one of your people came running for help, as if we can’t just bring their worthless selves back.”

“Did you actually forget who asked for help?” Asked Hood. “Not really the mindset of a leader.”

“You think I care for their worthless names.” Huffed Elizabeth. “They are tended by whoever is in the hospital, I don’t care, let’s open my present.”

“Your present? Isn’t it addressed to all of us five.” Said Enterprise. She walked over and looked at the big box. “Addressed to Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth, Hood, and Enterprise, so me. Wait, it leaves Belfast out. Why?”

The four equally shrugged. Elizabeth walked forward and grabbed Warspites sword. She lifted it with great trouble and slashed the bow of the box. Wales was about to help the little girl but the queen didn’t even let her come close. “This is my present so I'm the one who opens it.”

“It belongs to all of us my queen.” Said Hood. She walked forward and grabbed Warspites sword before throwing it away. “You don’t need that kitchen knife, let’s just open that thing without any conflict for now.”

“The conflict will only come when you again disagree with my human camps.” Said Wales. She walked to the right side of the present. “This easily fits a person, that must be a big thing, I think it’s a statue.”

“You and your human camps again? We try to exterminate humanity, not save them.” Said Enterprise, annoyed.

“Let me do what I want, it’s my country.” Retorted Wales. “I think of what to do when we destroy humanity, there is a limited number of us so my research will be viable then.”

“But you do the thing we try to avoid. Having humanity around will only cause problems.” Said Enterprise, annoyed. “Your little project is doomed. It’s stupid anyway.”

“Stupid for you.” Retorted Wales as she walked forward and tapped Enterprise’s forehead. “I use that thing, it’s called thinking, something you clearly can’t.”

“Don’t freaking dare to do that again!” Said Enterprise enraged. “You wanna fight?!”

The carrier and the battleship looked at each other like they wanted to kill each other but a slap on the ass of both of them brought them out of their brabbel.

“Please don’t argue you two.” Said Hood as she brought her hands back. “Our queen wants to open the present. We don’t need to wait for Bel anyway.” She redirected her vision to the little queen behind her. The queen was steaming in annoyance. The two left it at that and began tearing down the present box. In barely a minute the wrapping paper disappeared and there remained only the box itself. Hood lifted the top and opened it.

“Oh I guess it’s something fabulous. Like a ship model or so.” Wales anticipated with joy.

“The box fits a person if you ask me.” Said Enterprise. They looked into the box and found…..another box.

“Is the sender of this serious?” Asked Wales. “This is a joke, or they wanna screw with us. I will personally search them out, two boxes in one box is ridiculous.”

“I can’t look into the box. Warspite come here and play stairs.” Commanded Elizabeth to her sister. The dog girl stumbled over, she bent down and Elizabeth stepped on her back, allowing her to see into the box and nearly let out a scream. “I hereby declare a death sentence over the individual that sent this.”

Wales grabbed the weird black bag and laid it on the ground. It deformed a bit and seemed to contain a soft material from the touch.

“Looks like a body bag.” Joked Wales and picked it up. She opened it a little bit and immediately some red liquid dripped out. Wales let the thing drop and took a step back. “That is not normal.”

The people around the bag only looked at it. Hood walked forward and unzipped the bag a little bit more. Immediately a deep stench filled the air that left Elizabeth gagging. “What is that for a smell? It’s blugh.”

“Death. I know that smell well.” Said Wales. “Meaning that this isn’t a present.”

Hood unzipped the bag completely, not caring about the others and looked inside. “Oh that is why Bel isn’t here, she was here all along.”

Hood took a step back and let all the people see what was in the bag. Belfast…or what was left from her. Enterprise and Wales only took a step back but Elizabeth let out a panicked scream that nearly shattered the windows. Elizabeth crawled back and was whimpering with small screams in the corner of the room.

Sheffield and Sirius burst into the room, weapons drawn upon hearing their queens screams. They ran over to her and were about to help the Queen up or calm her down but they both looked into the box and froze. Sheffield was frozen in shock from what she looked at. She had no idea how to respond to that and simply remained quiet. She couldn’t even open her mouth in the first place.

Sirius had it different. Upon seeing the remains of the former head maid she held her mouth shut and sprinted away. She lunged into the corner of the room and began vomiting into a trash can that stood there. Sheffield felt a bit of pity from that for her fellow maid but was too shocked to react.

“Out!” Commanded Queen Elizabeth through her tears and squeaky voice. She sounded completely freaked out.

“But master we need to.” “OUT!” Tried Sheffield to say but Elizabeth screamed between it. The two complied and did just that. Sheffield dragged the vomiting and completely frozen maid that accompanied her out by her arms. Sheffield was weak on her legs but poor Sirius had no strength in her legs to even hold herself up.

“I want everyone to search for who did that, double, no triple the sortie strength on that operation. “Commanded Elizabeth in a quick voice. ” I want whoever did that dead and far away from me, protect your goddess. Warspite come we need to beat that into the maids, and elect a new headmaid.”

Elizabeth huddled outside in a hurry and ran out of view, cursing the entire way until she was unheard. Warspite stumbled after her with her sword on her back.

“That’s what you get for not doing anything for two years, she is totally not normal around blood anymore.” Said Wales with an exhale.

“Soooo Bel is dead?” Shrugged Enterprise and bent down to the corpse. She pried open the maids chest and felt around. “There is no cube. Shit.”

“What do you mean? To even harm a shipgirl is hard, look at that, her chest has a massive hole. Only a shipgirl has enough strength and then it has to be a battleship.” Said Wales as she looked at the dead maid. “Who was sent out with her?”

“Shropshire, Kent, South Dakota and Long Island. Those five went on a simple extermination mission.”

“Then we need to ask South Dakota. She is the only one that could have done this.” Concluded Wales. “Looks like you got a traitor in your forces.”

“God fucking dammit, where is that battleship?” Gasped Enterprise. Hood simply patted her shoulder. “If you find her, send her to me. I will get that information out of her.”

Hood walked out of the room. “Now if you excuse me I need to get back. Get rid of that sorry excuse for a maid for me will you. I need to continue one of my talks with Bismarck.” Hood exited the door and hummed a small little song until she went unheard.

“Guess we need to find who did that.” Admitted Enterprise. “In the meantime we can destroy some human forts or so.”

“I actually got something different.” Said Wales with a bit of a smile. “I would need assistance though.”

Enterprise was confused. She was in the process of zipping up Belfast's body and picked the bag up, she had to get this to the lab and look at it in detail. “Define different.”

“I found siren technology quite interesting so I am looking at some siren bases, there are quite a lot in my area so now my forces are a bit thinned out. Do you have a small force to spare?” Asked Wales. “I doubt there will be fighting.”

“You go into siren bases? We destroyed all of them.” Said Enterprise. “Why even bother, there is almost nothing you can find, nothing of value.”

“Exactly, I salvage what I can find and use it. I totally get why the axis liked that stuff.” Said Wales with a bit of a smile. “Anyway got a force to spare?”

“Then take the Clevelands with you, I just took them through.” Groaned Enterprise in anger. “Not a single one of the four told me anything and I resetted them so they are fully combat capable.”

“What did they do this time that you executed them?” Asked Wales in an exhausted tone. “Did they cook your eggs wrong again? I know you killed for less.”

“No. A knight of the sea trolled me and broke my connection with the small base I had a connection with on my laptop.” Said Enterprise and walked to the door.

“Fine then.” Accepted Wales. “I will take them with me, there is a siren base they can check out. What will you do with Bel?”

Enterprise was about finished with gathering Belfast and held the body bag. “Will bring her to the lab, I want to look at what actually killed her, maybe build some weapons like that for us. Besides, no one will care anyway, it’s just a maid.”

Wales looked at the bag with no emotion before she nodded. “Yeah it's really just a maid. A maid that only annoyed with her constant tea, food and duties. It’s good that she is dead even if she supported our goal, at the end of the day she wasn’t important at all.”

“There I can’t disagree.” Nodded Enterprise. “She tried to get me away from my sisters, she was dead to me from that spot on.”

“Then I will get some knights and send them out. Bye then.” Giggled Wales and approached the door.

Enterprise looked at the door and walked out. “Yeah bye, whatever you do in your area, I don’t care about any of that. Bye then as well.”

Both walked out of the room and parted ways and soon left their field of view.

_______________

Absolute assholes aren’t they? Well Azur Lane will meet their reaper someday that is not today.

Anyway did you enjoy this chapter, you wanted all 5 at one place and here you got them.

Well I should start writing the next part, I know some of you want the next chapter 2 minutes after I post this.

No depression, work hard and write with passion, that's the idea behind this, see you next part.

Chapter Text

The two sirens left the base and sailed away in a hurry. The blue of the waves and a light breeze were their only companions on their short yet long drive. Their fast speed, and unboundness to a ship, allowed them to go at speed unimaginable for some ships.

"Now this is a speed I am comfortable with." Laughed Elma as she overtook Cleveland at 45 knots. Cleveland simply retorted the favour and sped up to an even higher number.

"Well we don’t have that slow Belfast to slow us down now so yeah we can be pretty fast." Giggled Cleveland. "Plus we are even faster than the old me.

"Old you, haven’t gotten your feet wet then and barely drove 10 knots haven’t you. Well you were probably confused a lot when you woke up." Shrugged Elma. Cleveland looked a bit sad. "Yeah I was." Said the siren as she looked into her memories.

She remembered how freaked out and denying of everything she was. Elma doesn't know the truth about her and Cleveland intended to keep it that way. Telling your only real friend that you used to kill her people and assisted the force that now kills and ruins everything would be enough to break any friendship, and this friendship was amongst the only things keeping Cleveland going.

The two were sprinting over the ocean at a fast pace. Cleveland had ordered or more asked Alpha to make them undetectable on radar and the siren did that immediately. Apparently as long as they didn’t summon their riggings they wouldn’t be traceable on radar or sonar. They were free to be as loud as they wanted and Clevelands radar worked as perfect as ever, even underwater so she would even notice submarines at a distance even the most modern cruiser would dream of. A large concentration of ships was at the cave they left but that was to be expected from what happened there.

"Bet I shook the entire maid corps to the core by killing Ed and Bel." Giggled Cleveland but had a hint of sadness in her voice. Elma drove up to her and pinched her side, sending the siren jumping.

"Don't be sad, you killed monsters." Said Elma and sprinted ahead. The siren had a smile on her face and that threw Cleveland off.

Cleveland stopped for a moment before she took a deep breath for around half a minute. "Yeah I stopped the monsters……….by becoming a monster myself." She looked at Elmas direction and jumped up.

She caught up to Elma a minute later by flying. She landed and they both shared a laugh. This continued for a while along with some little games they did. One of them was simply catching and throwing balls….of course they had no certain round objects so they used Clevelands scythe and Elmas halberd for it.

For anyone that might be dangerous but the siren's regeneration of cuts took care of it, even being stabbed in the arm didn’t throw off their aim and the two sirens worked so coordinated that a cut barely even occurred. Thankfully Cleveland deactivated her scythes energy drain before the game even began so Elma or she herself wouldn’t suddenly get weakened.

Elma catched her halberd and Cleveland her scythe. Cleveland was about to throw again but Elma signaled her to stop by signing it. Elma was huffing a bit as did Cleveland with an honest smile on their faces.

"I think this is enough for now, I am getting a bit tired here." Said Elma with a sly smile. Cleveland simply grabbed her shoulder. "Really, looks like you need some cardio to get that ass back in shape again."

"Oi." Gasped Elma and held her slender hips. "I spent almost a year in a dark, destroyed base with almost no supplies alone. I got a bit thinner I know, but I am still able to beat you in an endurance contest."

Cleveland merely giggled. "Of course, it’s not that you slept almost every day for at least some hours on the cruise to that base and I haven’t slept once in five days. So who wins now?"

"Only the one that rests shall be aware, ever heard of that? To go fast is to slow down. Try it." Said Elma. Cleveland nodded. "I agree there, simply laying back and accessing the situation is good but we have to ensure the bases safety, only then I can rest."

"Makes sense." Agreed Elma and patted Cleveland's shoulder. "But you better rest after that."

"I will." Assured Cleveland. She began driving, although this time only at ¾ speed which still overtook any modern cruiser. Elma appreciated the action but looked a bit questiongly.

"You got something on your mind?" Asked Cleveland as she looked at Elma, she could see the sirens confusion. "Say it please, we don’t need secrets."

Elma exhaled. "I have several questions but one is the most important I guess. Your illusions or ghosts there, how do they work? I never saw ghosts attacking something, nor them even existing."

Elma sounded confused by her tone alone. Cleveland only shrugged. "I absorbed a wisdom cubes power with my scythe by slamming the cube into it and done, poof you got a ghostly version of the shipgirl it was."

Elma only stared at her. "That doesn't make sense at all."

Cleveland held her scythe out. "Come out you two." She shook it lightly and with a blue glow both Edinburgh and South Dakota sprung out of the scythe and manifested on the water. The two simply watched at their "master" awaiting orders.

Elma was amazed and walked close to them. "Impressive, mostly impressive." Cleveland held her am before she touched them.

"Just in hindsight, they bite." Giggled Cleveland. "They won’t always listen to me giving orders so me saying they shouldn’t bite won’t stop them."

"They aren’t dogs." Said Elma bluntly. "They are living breathing….although maybe not breathing beings, they won’t bite me."

"Then be my guest." Said Cleveland, she let Elma go and took a step back. She simply shrugged all the way and watched. Elma huffed and put her hand on the ghost's hair. She began stroking and patting the maid with a smug smile.

"See she is harmless, she won’t bite-ah!" Said Elma and jumped back. Edinburgh did in fact almost bite the siren in the hand. The ghost held an innocent smile on her face.

Cleveland only laughed. "What did I just say?" She looked down at the siren that landed on her aft.

Elma jumped up and looked at Cleveland and the maids' ghosts. "Fine you were right. How did you even get them?"

Cleveland exhaled sadly. "I encountered Ed in a small village with Kent after they were just done slaughtering it. They almost blew me up and I kind of snapped. Cut off Kents arm and engaged Edinburgh in a massive fight……..ended with me cutting off her head."

"Oh that explains the stitches here." Said Elma as she looked at the maid's ghost. Looking close she had indeed what appeared like stitches on her neck, exactly at the point Cleveland cut off the original's head. "Can you take off her head? Anyway, how did you get her cube then? They aren’t in their heads."

"I pried open her chest and ripped it out before slamming it into my scythe." Said Cleveland. "My scythe is an almost drained black powercube originally and I thought to charge it with Ed's cube. It worked out but since then I can also summon her as a ghost. Although I never tried to take off her head. Would indeed be funny if she works like Purifier."

Elma simply groaned. "You observers are waaaaay too confusing. So you cut off Edinburgh's head, what about South Dakota? Her shields are broken since you probably punched through them but what does she have as wounds?"

Cleveland shrugged. "Stabbed her in the cube directly. The wound is probably under her clothes."

Elma huffed. "Clothes she says, like she wears some. Just look at her, she wears nothing. Did you stab her through the stomach or what?"

"Nope the chest." Said Cleveland and leaned in. "But it appears that wound is gone….does the ghost know public decency?"

"Like I know!" Gasped Elma and held her head. Cleveland desummoned her ghosts and scythe. She grabbed Elmas shoulder and smiled into her face. "Come, we are spending too much time here. We are ten minutes away, you manage one last sprint?"

Elma cracked her knuckles. "You better bet your scythe on that." She got into a running stance and was ready to run. Cleveland did the same and with a nod they started with a massive waterspout.

In no time at all they reached the black building that stood on an Island. Jumping up to the door it gave a quick scan with a red light that momentarily confused Cleveland. The door opened not a second later.

"After you milady." Giggled Elma and did a small curtsy. Everything Cleveland gave her was a boop on the nose before walking into the base. "Ohh you are no fun." Smiled Elma and followed her fellow siren.

A mere foot into the hallway the lights and machinery powered up. The room was bright yet not hurtful bright while the system Cleveland connected herself to even greeted her with a small welcome message.

"Now this is convenient. We got Power." Cleveland pointed out. With her mind she hid her entrance and found out that the system did not act even remotely hostile. 'Must be because it sees me as an ally.'

"Yeah must be a barely touched base, maybe we can find some food." Said Elma. Her look showed hunger but Cleveland bopped her on the nose.

"If it's so good intact then you can bet your aft there might be a trap." Retorted Cleveland, her scans of the area and questioning of the system showed her that they were the first sirens that entered the building in a long time.

"You are too cautious, no one can be here since the door was closed." Said Elma and patted Cleveland's shoulder.

The siren wasn't convinced. "And what if they broke through the door?" Asked Cleveland. Elma took on a lightly thinking face.

"They can't, here." She walked to the door. "I won't even get a dent in that thing and I am severely stronger than a shipgirl. Plus the lock is magnetic, as long as we have power no one can just open it by force." Declared Elma and symbolically punched the door. Indeed not a single mark or dent was left after the punch, just a siren holding her wrist from pain.

"Amazing." Said Cleveland and turned around. "Should have built the ships with that material and they would have been unsinkable but what if they got in through other means?"

Elma simply groaned and began walking down the hallway. "Then keep your weapon at bay if you feel safer but even if they get in, the base tells us of intruders because it scans shipgirls as well. You must be connected to it like I am."

Cleveland summoned her scythe and followed Elma. Walking through the base was easy since Cleveland had a holographic map of the layout of the base. She simply thought about it and it appeared.

“You got a map, don’t you? Then you better lead us.” Giggled Elma. Cleveland only nodded and did just that. She walked ahead but was a bit confused. “Don’t you have a map too?”

“Ehh yes I have.” Shrugged Elma. “Just that you should have a better one as an observer.” Cleveland looked dumbfounded. “What now? A map is a map.”

“Yeah and you should have a 3d map while I got a 2d map. So hush and lead.” Retorted Elma. Cleveland shrugged and walked ahead while Elma followed closely. They walked through the base quickly, a fast step in walking yet never ever meeting a single person.

The base was abandoned by all accounts but the sirens didn’t care for that at the moment. Following the map Cleveland and Elma entered a big open room. Some sort of big machinery stood there and looked imposing yet important.

“So this is the forge. Looks less impressive than I thought.” Said Cleveland as she walked up to it. Elma followed her. “What did you expect if I am allowed to ask?

“An old forge but I guess we have the better stuff.” Said Cleveland. She approached the console next to it and looked at the stats. “Ok it works and needs your rigging data.”

“Of course it does.” Said Elma and summoned her rigging. She walked over and walked into a scanner next to the forge. A slow whirring and lightscann later the machine showed the rigging of the Enforcer that was ready to be repaired. The stats of the machine showed exactly how damaged the rigging itself was.

“All done, then just reconstruct it.” Said Elma as she walked out of the scanner. She leaned next to Cleveland and looked at the machine.

"Ok then I can press start I guess….hmm looks like using the forge redirects all energy to it." Noted Cleveland. "Meaning nothing except the forge works for around 20 minutes, so the crafting process."

Cleveland was amazed by that speed. To her knowledge repairing a ship takes months. Well she wasn't a ship anymore so that ship has sailed.

Elma blinked. She walked over and sat down next to her friend. "That is absolutely terrible design."

"I didn't design this but yes, although I guess that comes from the fact that the base's power generator is severely damaged. Looks like it's almost dead." Said Cleveland as she checked for a cause by looking through the base's systems. "Yeah an internal issue, I doubt we can fix it."

"Then leave it be." Said Elma and patted her shoulder. "Just build it.”

"Well we can try to-." Said Cleveland but Elma stopped her.

"No need, it only takes 20 minutes to build my stuff so 20 minutes without scanners is a tradable price for guns." Said Elma with a proud look.

“Well I will blame you when we get surprised here.” Said Cleveland sternly. She started the machine and it slowly wired to life. Immediately the lights began to flicker.

“Yeah, do that.” Shrugged Elma. “But we are capable of handling damage so even getting shot in the back will be more of an annoyance.”

Cleveland shook her head and started the machine fully. All other things, including the map she saw, immediately shut off and only the machine in the middle worked. It seemed to create strings of light that formed and bound itself together. It was imminent that the process would take a while.

"Guess that will take a minute." Said Cleveland and looked at the magic happening.

*Actually 20 minutes.*

"Jackass." Mumbled Cleveland as she looked at the machine. She absolutely didn’t get anything on how it worked but didn't care for that. As long as it worked it was fine.

"Well I will go raid the cafeteria." Giggled Elma. "20 minutes of food is good enough for me." She walked out of the door.

"You glutton. Be back here on time at least!" Screamed Cleveland after her with a smile. Elma only laughed from a distance. Cleveland sat down. "Great 20 minutes of nothing. Not even the map works."

"Alpha, can't you scan around here?" Mumbled Cleveland as she sat there and waited.

*Sadly not, the same walls that make this base unable to be detected by radar don’t allow radar from the inside to go out. You would need to stand outside for it to work."

Cleveland shrugged. "It was worth a try." She leaned back and watched the synthetic light create Elmas rigging.

"Well better go search for some weapons for the base." Said Cleveland and walked out of the room. She was certain that the machine would do its job. Walking down the hallway and past several dorm rooms she found a storage room. She was glad that she could see in the dark or else she couldn't find anything here.

Creating a little portal she picked up smaller weaponry. Laser rifles and more were thrown into it at a quick pace. Even some higher caliber stationary turrets followed them fast. “Why do you even have those small guns, Alpha? I remember facing riggings, not small handheld weaponry.”

*Wel the supply workers are more or less just normal people without a rigging. They use those weapons if they are forced to and while they might be barely effective it’s still a weapon. By the way I find it interesting that you can create portals to a pocket dimension without me teaching you how to do it.*

"I simply do what I want, and I somehow know how it works, that's it." Said Cleveland and threw half a naval gun into the portal. "Bet I can create mirror seas too."

*Well of course you can. You got my abilities. If you want you can disguise yourself as a shipgirl too.*

"Oh that." Giggled Cleveland and stopped. She remembered having heard of that from one of the sakuras when they were still friends. "Heard you trolled the sakura's quite a bit with that. Nagato's face must have been amazing"

*Yeah it's good for Spionage. And it was fun, shocked them quite a bit. Hehe.*

"Might be able to go into Azur Lane then if you teach me how to do it, I seem to get your abilities rather naturally." Speculated Cleveland but let it go. "But later, I need to reinforce the human base now and for that I need a rigging."

*Correction, you need a gun, you got your rigging."

“What is that even supposed to mean? Elma gets a whole rigging and you just say I need guns because I got a rigging.” Said Cleveland confused. Everything she knew about riggings was currently questioned. “Explain Alpha.”

*Enforcers and us are a bit different. Your tentacles just hold the guns and control them, Elma has a whole separate rigging meaning hers can’t regenerate. Although both of you can make them vanish into yourself unlike a shipgirl who summons their whole ships when disengaging their riggings.*

Cleveland nodded. She knew from experience about the shipgirl thing and the siren one was obvious as well. She saw that sirens just let their riggings vanish more than often enough and her tentacles were actively doing the same. “Where are they even stored?”

*In yourself but the stronger the siren the more powerful the rigging, and I can tell you that you are holding back. You got at least a few more parts of your rigging in you you never even took out yet.*

“Oh so you noticed that.” Smiled Cleveland. She exhaled and closed the portal since she had enough guns for at least 500 people. “I thought I hid it well enough.”

*Yes I noticed it, I only need a reason from you. You show that you are nearly unfaced by damage yet strength wise and acting you hold back and spare your enemies. You can easily break a shipgirls arm yet you only use something to your full force on their riggings, not their bodies. You don’t use your scythe as a lethal weapon as well. I only saw you actually going all out with Edinburgh and Belfast.*

Cleveland let out a sight. She rubbed her head and clenched her fist as the light came back. “I am not a mindless killer but let’s not argue here, Elmas rigging is done.” Said Cleveland. She wants to avoid that conversation and the reactivating lights gave her a reason to. “Innocent until proven guilty is all I will say.”

*They are all guilty but ok, we argue later. Getting you two combat capable is more important.*

The two walked back into the hallway and after a short walk into the forge. Elma was already sitting there and munching a sandwich while on her lap laid another one. She winked at Cleveland. “Heyo. Weren't you the one that said you wanted to stay here? Where were you?”

Cleveland put her arms on her stomach and huffed, pulling her sizable chest up a bit. “Gathering guns for the base, you were eating while I did something productive.”

Elma looked hurt and pouted. “I only made myself combat capable. Hey!” She was about to continue but one of Cleveland's tentacles ripped the sandwich from her lap. “I wanted to eat that.”

“You already had enough if you raided the kitchen.” Said Cleveland as she took a bite out of it. “Ohh those are good. Like Nevadas.” She was honestly surprised by the taste. Definitely worth a four Star Chef.

“I made them myself, you, urgh. At least enjoy them then.” Said Elma and quickly finished her remaining sandwich. She stood up and walked over to the forge. Her entire rigging stood there again yet this time repaired. “Ahh finally repaired again.” She stood a bit in nostalgia before walking into the machine. She put her rigging on again by simply walking into it backwards. A small connecting sound later Elma had full control over her rigging again. Smiling, she stepped out of the machine. “Your turn Observer.”

“Well then it’s my round.” Said Cleveland and walked forward. “Nice guns by the way.” She passed Elma and accessed the console. “So what would I desire? I can choose my rigging.”

*Let me do this.*

Cleveland put her hand on the machine and a light yellow glow came from it. The screen showed extremely fast switching functions and math and what more that Cleveland couldn’t read fast enough. The machine sprang to life and began constructing something but Cleveland couldn’t see what because its screen showed a black void. It was far quicker then Elmas rigging that's for sure but also used a lot more energy. With Elmas rigging the lights were, even if barely there, there. Whatever happened now put the entire facility into pitch darkness.

It took around five minutes for the process to be completed. All that remained was a floating cube that sparked from energy. It reminded Cleveland of the one she pulled out of that siren ship that gave her her scythe. She suspected that it should be the same thing. The entire base seemed to have lost a great mass of power, seeable by the lights not coming to full power again and many of the bases functions being unsupported.

*All done, that took a lot of energy. I took liberty to improve them a bit since you are stronger than I was. They look like the good old guns but a lot more powerful.*

“Is that a wisdom cube?” Asked Elma as she looked at it. “That’s no rigging. Or are you Observers a bit different in the rigging department?”

“No,my guns are contained in the power cube.” Answered Cleveland to the confused siren and walked forward. She touched the cube and held it strongly. “Which means this will hurt quite a lot.”

Elma was confused and walked over. “What will hurt?”

Cleveland smiled at her. “You better take a step back.” Elma did just that. Cleveland looked at the cube in her hands and felt her own chest. “Like last time, huh Alpha?”

*It apparently works that way.*

Cleveland exhaled and slammed the cube into her chest. With a grunt of pain she was sent to her knees.

“Don’t freaking stab yourself!” Screamed Elma and ran over. She touched Cleveland but was immediately sent back by an arc of energy coming from Cleveland. Cleveland herself was surrounded by them for a few seconds before with a small scream they disappeared. Cleveland was left panting but also feeling good.

“Urgh I am fine. It works that way.” Gasped Cleveland as she stood up and relaxed her shoulders. “That is how it always worked. I can use the guns now I guess.”

*Not yet. It will take some time to calibrate and fit into your system, remember they are basically part of your body, I will do it for you anyway. You lasted without guns for this long then you can last for a few days without them now as well.*

“I guess you're right.” Mumbled Cleveland. Elma stood up and punched Cleveland, sending the siren back. “That's for scaring the living shit out of me, you freaking stabbed yourself!”

“You are just worrying yourself too much.” Said Cleveland. She held her cheek and walked back to Elma. The punch didn't hurt much but was still a punch from an Enforcer. "Fine, I will tell you what is happening next time in detail."

Elma only looked at her with a stare. “Just promise you don’t kill yourself. So where are your guns now?”

“Calibrating.” Answered Cleveland. “Will take a while, most likely a day to be useful so now we can go back-” She stopped due to a crashing sound in the distance. “Ouch.” “Quiet idiot.” Two voices said from the distance.

Elma grabbed her halberd and readied her guns. “We aren’t alone.” Cleveland grabbed her scythe and readied herself. “But where are they, we should split up. Find them and only fight if they are hostile.”

Nodding Cleveland went right and Elma left down the hallway. They soon reached a point where they didn’t see eachother anymore. Looking through the soundlessly opening rooms Cleveland found nothing. Suddenly the lights cut off completely following a loud bang. Cleveland thankfully could still see in the dark.

“Did you just shoot the generator?!” Screamed a voice through the vents. “How are we supposed to see anything now?”

“Sorry. Just use your searchlights, this is abandoned anyway.” Answered another voice.

“You absolute urgh. If this is abandoned then just go and help the others.” Said the first voice again. “I will go look around, this must be the boring part of the base anyway.”

Cleveland could only listen to the two people talking in the distance. Their voices felt familiar but Cleveland couldn’t put her finger on who. Cleveland simply walked through several halls and rooms, the direction where she heard the voices from.

“I swear I know those people.” Mumbled Cleveland as she rounded a corner.

*Which means they are probably hostile.*

Cleveland could only agree and stay cautious. She looked down the hallway and walked into the room at the far end. Entering the generator room she looked at the main generator. It had a big hole in the side of it. She reached into it and pulled out a shell. Observing it Cleveland came to a conclusion. “This looks like a 152mm shell and why did it sound like one of my sisters spoke back there?”

*I have a very bad feeling about this. Activate the backup generator there.*

“I agree. This one I guess.” Cleveland said quietly and walked to the side of the room. A smaller second generator stood there which Cleveland quickly activated. It took only a few quick system changes and rewirations, siren tech did that basically on its own, and the generator began a small whirring. “So all done, yet the light is still out.”

*Hmmm, ok, according to the manual I found it will take a few minutes to activate so you can continue your search I guess.*

Cleveland agreed to that idea and walked out of the room. She turned a corner and opened one door at a time. She found nothing in everyone and opened the last door at the end of the hallway, only to be met by a bright light that blinded her. She could barely hear the person in front of her scream “SIREN!” before she was shot in the body.

Cleveland was thrown against the wall and the area was filled with smoke, disorienting the ship girl that opened fire with her secondaries. Cleveland tackled the girl and grabbed her. She barely saw anything for the time being and began beating the shipgirl.

"Stupid lights." Groaned Cleveland before attacking again. The shipgirl gasped and put out a small "What" as she dodged a strike by rolling. The voice of the enemy kind of felt unpleasantly familiar to Cleveland who managed to kick the shipgirl. Not caring about that she attacked unrelentlessly.

The ship was thrown back with every punch, her main guns shooting when they were able to yet unable to harm the siren who avoided most of the shots by sheer luck. Even a hit didn’t stop Cleveland at all. Both of the fightlocked people couldn’t identify who was their adversary but that didn’t stop them. The only thing the ship had as an advantage was the fact that Clevelands scythe proved to be rather useless in tight spaces like this hallway so the siren had to rely on her fists while letting the scythe fade in and out of existence to not stand in the way.

"I can't see you siren but I can still fight you." Said the shipgirl and threw a punch. Cleveland was momentarily vulnerable as her scythe vanished when she ripped it out of the wall she accidentally struck so the shipgirl used her chance to get close.

Catching the shipgirls fist Cleveland was again blinded momentarily by the searchlights and slammed the girl over her head with a small scream. "Go away, you damm lights!" Snarled Cleveland as she slammed the shipgirl repeatedly on the ground. The ship was definitely bleeding from that before Cleveland let go.

The shipgirl impacted the ground hard and was again on her feet a second after, even if wobbly. "Take this you monster." She said and shot. Her shots hit Cleveland but that one just threw her scythe at the girl. She managed to hit the shipgirl in the rigging and disbalance her so the girls next shots missed.

"You are outmatched." Cleveland said and kneed the girl in the stomach before grabbing her by the face. Cleveland slammed her into the wall before punching her repeatedly. Every punch left the girl gasping and the sound reminded Cleveland of a familiar sound. Disregarding the thought Cleveland grabbed the girl by the face.

Spinning and slamming the girl into the wall made the shipgirl dizzy. Cleveland grabbed her by the shoulder, spun her, and kicked her in the stomach. The ship girl gasped and was sent flying into the room behind her which door stood open. Coming to a rest after sliding for like half the room she stood up and looked at Cleveland. Cleveland could see her silhouette holding her stomach. The shipgirl looked hurt and Cleveland smiled. The ship aimed her guns again showing that the fight was continuing.

Cleveland jumped into a run before lunging at her enemy with an outstretched fist. This was the second the lights came on full force again. The backup generator kicked into gear bathing the room in light and giving a clear view to the siren and the attacker that changed everything.

Standing on the side of her flight line was……………….Cleveland herself. Shocked Cleveland missed by a mile while the other Cleveland, looking not a bit less shocked, missed her rigging shots as well. Cleveland landed behind the other one, slid to a halt a few metres away, and turned around. Pointing her scythe at the other Cleveland that turned around and aimed at Cleveland they both could only scream out one thing.

“Who the hell are you?!!!!!!”

Chapter Text

The two Clevelands could only stare with wide eyes at each other. None of the two knew how to react so they just stared at each other with heavy breathing. Analysing whatever the other did, they stood ready to attack.

“Who are you?” Repeated Cleveland again. Her clone simply directed her guns at her. “As if I tell you that you siren.”

Cleveland twisted her scythe, looking ready to attack. “Then I will beat that out of you.” The other girl just adjusted her aim. “Then come and try it.”

Shooting her armaments Cleveland released her main guns force but the siren evaded them by attacking with her scythe. Using the chance to launch an attack Cleveland swung and sent an energy blade the other Cleveland didn’t expect. She raised her arms but only managed to barely block it and was sent into the wall but she quickly jumped out of that one. She ran at Cleveland guns blazing and engaged the siren in a fistfight.

Cleveland blocked the initial shots by just crossing her arms. The other Cleveland got close but hit the siren's arm with barely enough force to push the siren. Cleveland let out her tentacles that grabbed her clone, which surprised her a lot, and restrained her mid air for a second before delivering a hard punch into the ship's chest, sending her across the room with a loud boom.

“So you finally reveal your rigging siren, looks like an Observer one.” Concluded the panting ship. "Yet you lack the guns, that's good." She picked herself up before rightening her guns again. She felt wobbly on her legs but didn’t let her enemy see that. “ Damn you are stronger than the usual siren. Didn’t we kill all of you high ranking ones?” She held her chest, which hurt a bit.

“You came damn close to killing all of us.” Said Cleveland and readied her scythe. “And I am indeed stronger than the usual siren. So I ask again, who are you?”

“Is your head broken clone? You know damn well who I am.” Said the other Cleveland. She shot and Cleveland sidestepped the shells. “Why won’t you just die like the rest of you?”

Cleveland looked and began laughing. “I know that you are a clone. Also I am sorry but dying isn’t on my Santaprise list.”

“You know Santaprise?” Gasped the shipgirl, surprised. It was originally an eagle union legend so the ship had no idea why the siren knew about it.

“Why do you look so shocked, everyone in the Eagle Union knows of her. The Enterprise of Christmas that brings out presents to us-.” The siren said but had to block fired shells from the other Cleveland.

“Don’t you dare to say that you are one of us!” Screamed the shipgirl as she jumped at the siren. Cleveland had no time to react and was hit in the chest but barely moved. Continuing the shipgirl shot her point blank before throwing several fists. Cleveland did the best to dodge but the guns at this range, while not penetrating her skin, still hurt like a baseball bat. But she had one advantage once she managed to slam her scythe into the ground and disbalance the shipgirl.

Using the moment she threw fist after fist. The two might share the same fighting style and could anticipate how an attack was coming and block them but the siren did possess a lot more physical strength then the shipgirl so she continued pushing the ship back.

Given that Cleveland had more experience in close quarter combat from using her scythe and having more limbs at her disposal, something the other Cleveland definitely lacked, the winner of this skirmish was clear. Strike after strike hit the shipgirl and injured her greatly before the siren succeeded in kicking the ship on her back. Diving onto her she pushed her scythe against the ship's throat and pushed her down. Her tentacles restrained the ship's rigging and body so she could only struggle but ultimately do nothing against the siren's strength.

Cleveland leaned down and looked at the shipgirl with backhelt anger. She wanted to kill this abomination, this wrong her but needed questions answered first….and there was one personal question that stood above all others.

“Who are you, you damm shipgirl?” Cleveland asked sternly. She had to know the answer for this, this was a replica, the girl wasn’t Cleveland. She was Cleveland, there could be no other way.

“You know who I am. Everyone knows me.” Struggled the girl, no robot that laid there. Cleveland was sure this was only a robot made to look like her, this simply couldn’t be Cleveland.

“Tell me what you are?!” Demanded Cleveland as she strangled the girl under her. Her strength and pushing increased the longer she held the girl under her, her growing anger not helping in the least.

“I am USS Cleveland. 1st ship of the Cleveland class of light cruisers. A knight of the sea.” Said the girl under her and Cleveland came to a complete stop as all strength left her. “What?” Was the only thing the siren managed to say out loud as she stared at the ship with more shock and confusion than a focussed vision.

The shipgirl used the chance and kicked her knee upwards, sending the siren into the air. The siren looked like she was in a shock stare and didn't even react as imposter Cleveland swung her legs to her chest and kicked the siren's body. The siren flew and landed a few metres away on her belly. She covered her face with her arms so her face didn't land on the ground. Her chest had a different type of cushioning that prevented Cleveland from feeling much pain.

“You are…..you aren’t……you are……you aren’t……you are.” Gasped Cleveland as she stared at her shipgirl clone by turning her head. Said shipgirl looked like she was damaged but not out of the fight yet.

“So you get a heart attack upon hearing my name.” Giggled Cleveland as she walked over to the siren. She directed her guns to the siren's head but didn’t pull the trigger yet. “So I guess you are an Observer from your octopus rigging." She said and touched the shocked siren's arm with her foot. The siren's tentacles were resting moveless on the ground next to her so Cleveland avoided stepping on them. "Tell me your name so I can claim your death.” She was cut off by a tentacle slamming into her throat with lightning fast speed.

Cleveland stood up slowly and looked at the shipgirl with hate and emptiness. She started to chuckle and then give out an insane laughter. The shipgirl shot but Cleveland wasn’t even hit due to her tentacles forming a shield that blocked the shots. The shipgirl took a few steps back to be outside of the siren's reach because she wasn’t hit by the scythe yet and planned on avoiding that entirely.

“My name, ohohohohohoh.” Giggled Cleveland as she stared at her counterpart. She stretched her arms before declaring with a loud voice. “USS Cleveland. 1st ship of the Cleveland class of Light cruisers. The actual knight of the sea you hypocrite.”

The shipgirl almost jumped back so shocked she was. “That can’t be, there is only-”

“Only one Cleveland huh. Oh believe me I thought that too but here we are.” The two stared at each other with nothing but spite. The shipgirl aimed and shot. “There is only me.” The shots hit and exploded. The siren dashed through the smoke and nearly hit her copy with a fist who barely evaded by ducking. Cleveland dented the wall before backflipping off of it and landing in front of her copy.

Being faster than the ship she slammed her scythe down on the ship's rigging and shut off one side momentarily by stopping the energy connection to it. The siren calmy stroked the damaged rigging with her arms. “I feel sorry for you my dear but you serve the wrong person. Come back to me my girls.”

“What do you mean?” Gasped the shipgirl as she broke free and stumbled back but was kicked in the chest by the siren. Landing on her aft, Cleveland sat up and looked at the siren that stared her down.

“I used those guns. I stirred that rudder. I used that communication system.” Said Cleveland as she pointed at every piece of Cleveland's rigging. “I know the ins and outs better than you because that thing belongs to me!”

The shipgirl shot the ground forcing the siren to jump away. She lost half her guns for the time being but those quickly worked again as the scythe was pulled out along the siren, resorting in the energy cut off sektion being supplied again. Cleveland somehow felt as if that siren's scythe could suck out her energy for some reason. “What do you mean, that's my ship, my rigging. I am the ship.”

“No you are not.” Said Cleveland and picked up her scythe. She rushed forward and grabbed the ship before kneeing her in the guts. Grabbing her by the white capelet the siren spun around before throwing her through the room and out of it into the next room. Cleveland walked after her copy and entered the large cafeteria. Using her tentacles Cleveland picked up many of the spare tables before throwing them at her copy who stood up on shaky legs. Cleveland evaded and opened her comms. “Sisters I need assistance, I ran into heavy resistance and need support to attack-” She couldn’t finish because Cleveland had to evade a table and several energy blades, one of which cut off her radio tower leaving her without commes.

“Give me back my ship and rigging!” Demanded Cleveland as she picked up more tables. Each thrown one resembled more of an oversized bullet rather than a piece of furniture.

“It doesn’t belong to you!” Screamed Cleveland. She evaded the best she could but was struck time and time again and lets just say tables thrown at at least 60km/h hurt even a shipgirl.

“And why doesn’t it?” Asked Cleveland as she stopped her assault, due to her running out of tables, and let the light cruiser catch her breath.

“You are a siren.” Said the other Cleveland with a puff. Cleveland merely smirked slyly at that fact.

“And you are flat.” Retorted Cleveland with the same smile.

The other Cleveland fell to her aft. She looked hurt before jumping up. “Now a siren look-alike actually has the audacity to roast me. I know they are flatter than Hippers but that doesn’t mean I like being reminded of it.”

“Well too bad I am merely stating a fact like you did.” Said Cleveland with a huff. “But I do know how you feel. Felt it for a very long time myself.”

The other Cleveland seemed to get even more mad. “How dare you assume you know me?!” She shot her guns but Cleveland simply avoided the shots.

"Simple, I am you." Answered the siren. So far she hadn't even been hit hard and she was thoroughly enjoying this.

“You are the wrong Cleveland, how would you? Damm no, this doesn’t work.” Said Cleveland and groaned at the siren. “I am Cleveland and you will be Beta since you use tentacles like that other Observer that died so we can differentiate here. Also you are the second Cleveland here so it fits that as well.”

“Who decided that I am not the original Cleveland, imposter?” Huffed Beta. She was mad but not mad enough to attack mindlessly.

“I do that you siren copy. I lived in the Eagle Union for years and we would never allow a siren to live there.” Said Cleveland as she readied her gun but was stopped by an energy blade hitting next to her head.

“Well how about I wasn’t always a siren.” Said Beta.” Five individuals killed me and a friendly helper made me one. Also quite funny that you guessed my siren name, although I still prefer Cleveland.”

“Don’t act like you are me. You must have been hiding among us, pretending to be me, and the five you speak of found out and did the right thing so they had a reason.” She took a step to the side and shot while the siren ran at her.

The siren evaded by sliding and looked at her clone. “Unfortunately they didn’t have one. Killed me in cold blood for simply asking questions. All I wanted to know was if all sirens deserve to die since most of the normal ones aren’t even fighting back and boom I got shot through the chest by my best friend.” The siren grabbed her scythe and unleashed the fury of blade swings.

Walking back and trying to evade as much as possible, Cleveland did as much as she could. Beta managed to hit her several times but also suffered a few hits here and there but those didn't bother the siren a bit. The shipgirls firepower was vastly inferior compared to her own, and she didn’t even have guns at the moment.

Beta managed to hit the shipgirl and deck her into a near table. The siren ran and attacked the sitting ship. The ship shot but Beta jumped over the shells before slamming into the ship's rigging with her feet. Disbalancing the ship with this, Beta slammed her scythe into the riggings connection point at the back of the girl. With one strike the entire rigging shut down.

“How did you?” Gasped Cleveland as she stumbled back. She was alone with a siren and without weapons. A terrible situation for anyone that even scared the knight of the sea.

“I know how that rigging works and where its weak points are, it’s mine after all. Bet you wished to have a sword like the sakurans aren’t you? Or just use a torpe-oh wait, you have no launchers. Paha.” Giggled Beta as she looked at her clone. “Hmm, this is a siren base that is still fully functional. How did you even get in here? The locks are magnetic so you shouldnt be able to open it without being a siren and at the same time the walls are nearly indestructible to gunfire.”

Cleveland gulped. The siren was questioning her and that was good because that meant she got time. She just needed to wait for her rigging to reboot which could take some time and she could fight again. Until then she had to survive somehow.

“We walked through the open doors. Everything was black and we could walk in, then we split up.” Answered Cleveland. She was sweating bullets and watched every movement the siren made. Said siren was twisteling her scythe around and her several tentacles held some keep it going game.

“We?” Asked Beta with a confused face. Innerly she knew the answer but wanted confirmation. “Are there more here?”

“The entire knights of the sea are here, and once we get together all of us are going to beat you.” Said Cleveland but had to gasp as the siren grabbed her by the collar.

“So all of us knights are here, cool we can play the round table then.” Giggled the siren. “Hmmm so you entered during a blackout, probably when I was having my fun.” She caressed her clone's hair. “So all four of us are here. This will be a great family reunion.” She let go and walked a step back. The shipgirl used that moment to widen their distance.

*You are not mentioning Elma? Good, keeping our numbers concealed. I am surprised I didn’t need to tell you that.*

Beta smiled. "I am not stupid you know." She was exactly doing that. Kind of funny that she was thinking like this out of pure nature, must have been her siren mind. She was not giving out her true numbers so she and Elma helt their moment of surprise.

Walking to her copy, who was backing up, she giggled. “What? Scared? Not really that behaviour of a knight of the sea now is it?”

“Don’t you dare mock me, you don’t know what you are talking about.” Said Cleveland as her back touched the wall. She had nowhere to go.

Beta giggled before facepalming. “I don’t know? Copy, I am Cleveland, although merely a bit more different due to some……issues.”

“I am Cleveland siren and what do you mean by that?” Said Cleveland. “Damm this was designed to be an easy operation, how come that you disgusting sirens walk around here. This was supposed to be an empty base.”

“I mean it was empty until I came here. What are you even supposed to do here?” Asked Beta and stood in front of her clone. The two looked nearly identical except for a few differences, most notably clothes, skin and eye color, otherwise they were identical.

“I can’t tell you that.” Said Cleveland. Wrong choice of words for the shipgirl as the siren stroked her cheek. “You can’t, thinking of it I might find some convincing ways that bring you to tell me, want me to find out some.”

Beta let that sound and feel like a threat even though internally she hated it. She hated threatening others to get her way but this clone, she herself, there she could allow it, even if it stood against her whole moral code….if she had something like that left.

The shipgirl looked like the bait worked and shrunk against the wall. She exhaled hard. “Fine. We were sent here to look if any tech can be used and salvaged.”

“Hmm tech you say, wasn’t Azur Lane about not using siren tech.” Said Beta with a sweet voice. “Or did that change after you began attacking humanity?”

“We never attacked humans, we save them.” Said Cleveland outraged. She went in to punch the siren, a foolish action that ended with her being put in a chokehold.

“Ohh if you only knew the truth.” Said Beta into her ear. “Maybe if you ask nicely I will reveal it to you, clone.”

“I am no clone siren.” Struggled Cleveland out. She had no chance of escape and Beta was enjoying that in some twisted way. Although she remembered what led to this situation and one certain thing bothered her.

“Say you can’t see in the dark like I can so why exactly did you shoot the generator in the first place? Was that really such a good idea?” Asked Beta as she held her clone with anger. She wanted to snap her neck and frankly came close to it.

“Monti shot it by accident.” Struggled her clone out. She sounded embarrassed alone and Beta gave a small chuckle before she let her clone go. The impostor fell to the ground and rolled away from the siren but was in the siren's arms faster than the ship could even stand up. Any escape tries were for nothing.

“Dear old Monti, still giddy with the trigger.” Giggled Beta. "I must hug her and punish her for this, she still is way too easily scared." Cleveland in her grasp was becoming angry. “Don’t act like you know them.”

“Do I not?” Asked Beta as she stared into the eyes of the figure in her hands. “We served together, we were in the same army and we were sisters that shared everything.”

“I serve the Eagle Union, we serve our ruler Enterprise and we will exterminate all sirens. You are not one of us and aren’t deserving to call my precious sisters your own. You never was and never will be part of our family.” Said Cleveland. "No matter how hard you think and look like me." She was getting angrier the longer the siren talked but was powerless to do anything. “And we won’t stop because one siren stands against us.”

“You serve the wrong master you know.” Said Beta with rage. “How dare you obey that monster. You aren’t saving anyone my dear clone.”

“I obey a freedom loving soul and we aim for peace. And I am no clone for the twentieth time.” Said Cleveland before she was thrown against the wall. Beta walked up to her and kneeled down. “You serve someone who uses you to destroy humanity and you do everything she orders without question. And you don’t even see a single error how that monster commands you around. You are pawns in a twisted little game like I was and you don’t even realise it.”

Cleveland spat at her. “Are you saying Enterprise is a bad person?”

“Do I even need to answer that?” Smirked Beta. Cleveland was in a pickle. She was, however, not as dead as she would have expected. The siren in front of her gave off a lot of bloodlust whenever Cleveland said anything but the siren never used deadly force on her for some reason. The siren looked away and at that moment Clevelands rigging came online again.

Cleveland aimed her guns that she could control again. Using them she launched a volley at the siren that, while she did succeed in blocking it, was thrown back on her back because she was not paying attention for a split second. Cleveland jumped at her siren lookalike and began beating it but soon came to a rest, or more a complete stop with a dumbfounded face.

“What is, lost your steam?” Snickered Beta. Cleveland didn’t even hear her but became enraged by something soft.

“This is outrageous. It’s unfair. How come that even a siren copy of me has a bigger chest than I have.” Groaned Cleveland as she began grabbing the pillows of the siren. The siren's capelet fell to the side revealing them to the shipgirl. Said ship was throwing a childlike tantrum.

Beta merely grinned hard as she let the ship have her way. “I know how you feel, having them feels nice. I know how it was to be flat before I was murdered by your masters, clone.”

“What do you mean siren? You won’t trick me. Azur lane protects everyone of this world and since we have beaten the Axis we can focus on you sirens.” The shipgirl spat out. Beta only looked at her sternly with anger. The ship was kneading her certain pillows quite hard with a look of jealousy on her face.

“This isn’t fair!” Screamed Cleveland and punched them only to be stopped by a tentacle catching her fist. She was thrown off the siren and barely evaded a massive upward swing from the scythe. The scythe gave off a lot of heat that made the shipgirl take a step back.

“We are still fighting, you know.” Reminded Beta her copy as she stood up. “I won’t let you get free hits in, you clone!”

“I am no clone!” Repeated Cleveland as she shot. “How many times do I have to repeat that siren?” Beta ripped out the scythe with her tentacle and simultaneously froze the bullets of the shipgirl as she pulled it back into her hands. She looked at her look alike with a smirk. “Oh the truth will hurt you quite a bit. But I can just tell it to you. Let’s start with the day I was kidnapped.” She chuckled. “The start of the end so to say.”

“I don’t care about your origin story siren. You were built and I will put an end to it.” Huffed the ship. Jumping up she threw a table the siren took it to the face but it merely ricocheted off of her harmlessly. Knackig her knuckle she walked after the shipgirl. Shot after shot was blocked and dogged. Sending an energy blade in freeze mode froze the bullets solid in mid air. The shipgirl was out of her ability to respond because the siren cleaved her bullets apart like confetti.

“We can continue this until you run out of bullets or you can stop firing that confetti and listen to me.” Suggested Beta. Her copy was clearly panting and her ammo was certainly looking bad at this point. Continuing was something she wanted to avoid but she stood with her back to the wall.

Cleveland huffed as she had to catch her breath. “Listen to you? You will say lies about everyone including the leaders of Azur Lane and more. I can’t listen to that because none of that is true.”

“Lies? If you only knew the truth. Haha.” Giggled Beta and held her hips. “But you are dumb my clone, so we'll start easy. What do you remember of Pearl my dear?” Beta sat down in the air and looked at her clone with a smile while she crossed her legs. “Take a seat.”

“No I won’t. You attacked us with the Sakurans and left when we were beaten.” Answered Cleveland. Beta looked at her with confusion. "Nothing more? Think Copyland. Think."

"What do you mean. Nothing else happened that day, the fight was over and we went to repair the base. After that we did operations against you again while also attacking the Crimson Axis." Said the shipgirl that left the siren agasp.

Beta could only stare. She giggled before falling into a wholehearted laughter. "Are you serious? PAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The shipgirl could only look confused. The siren was laughing her heart, considering if sirens even have one, out at something that only she knew. “What are you laughing at?!”

“Your dumbness Copy. Your own stupidity.” Giggled Beta as she calmed down. “Did you forget that a certain Observer, namely Alpha, kidnapped you on that day for a week?”

Cleveland only looked confused. “What do you mean with that? I was never kidnapped!” She absolutely had no idea what the siren was talking about.

“So they created a clone but cut off the important parts of her memory. Interesting.” Concluded Beta. She twirled the scythe in her arms but let it just hang in her tentacles.

“What do you mean now?” Asked Cleveland. She aimed her guns but didn’t fire. “You speak confusing stuff.”

Beta only shook her head. “They cut part of your memories away when they made a clone of me. You probably don’t remember anything Alpha said and more.”

“I never was with her since the siren you speak off has died before pearl even happened.” Spat Cleveland. She looked angry but was keeping herself down.

“That is very incorrect because she kidnapped you, or more that ship you falsely claim to be your own.” Said Beta and leaned forward. “Anyway you are just confused but we will knock those memories right back into your head. Come here.” Beta patted her lap. Cleveland only looked at her. “I won’t.”

“Oh why not, am I not trustworthy Copyland?” Giggled Beta. She stood up and put away her tentacles. She grabbed her scythe with her own hands and laid it on the table next to her. “Afraid I will hurt you. I am unarmed. Hahaha.”

“Why won’t you just kill me?” Asked Cleveland. “You clearly have the means so why don’t you do it? You seem to hate my guts from the look you give me so why won’t you do it?” She was right about that. Beta wanted to kill her. She was Cleveland the only Cleveland she would ever see as the first class of her own ships. Yet there were things holding her back.

“No I won’t kill you.” Admitted Beta with a huff. “You are way too important for my little plan. Besides, you need to accept that you aren’t the real Cleveland.”

Cleveland looked “I am the real one you siren idiot.”

*Well fuck you to.* Ignoring that Beta continued.

“I will show you every tiny aspect of the truth and use you to spread it. You will be my very own little piggy that helps me in bringing the truth to Azur Lane.” Giggled Beta. “We shall meet again, for now you got a few of my sisters to take care of I assume.”

Turning around she listened to the doorway with her sensitive hearing and heard approaching panting before turning around. In the movement she heard a loud clap and was hit in the face by some shells she couldn’t evade. Cleveland was burning by rage and shooting what she had for a full minute. She only stopped once her gun barrels were smoking red. “They aren’t your sisters and I will never help a siren. You told an endless amount of lies there and I won’t believe you.”

The smoke disappeared and Cleveland looked at it but found no siren, only a few splatters of blood. She breathed in and out, calming down for a second, before looking around. She couldn’t spot the siren anywhere even after looking for a whole minute so she relaxed. “Did I kill her?”

She cheered a bit. “That was scarier than I imagined. So a copy of me exists. I know that there were normal replicas of me but those emotionless robots are nothing. That was at least a high class that severely outclassed me. We should never split up again.” She touched her chest with a sad smile. “Even the siren outclassed me here, it’s like milking mice. Hmmm, she said she killed Observer Alpha at Pearl? That’s impossible, that one died three weeks before Pearl and was shot by our leaders who bravely fought against her.”

Cleveland stretched her arms and leaned back against the wall. “Damm my ammo looks bad but I killed her at least.” She breathed out and looked to the side. She could see many things. The door, the tables the siren threw, the sirens scythe on the table, the dinner serving platform, a small window where you could look into the kitchen, the wall 20m behind her……wait.

Looking behind her she saw only one thing, the smirking face of her siren lookalike. The siren on observation was a tiny bit smaller than Cleveland. This however could be easily explained, the siren was barefoot and Cleveland wore platform boots. Nonetheless the siren looked way scarier than anything Cleveland fought in a long time.

Cleveland tried to aim but the siren punched her in the gut. Cleveland got the winds knocked out of her so hard her rigging almost flew off her body from the force alone. Beta smirked as the shipgirl fell to the ground with a big bruise on her stomach, seeable through her broken clothes. “You like me actually putting effort in?”

Cleveland couldn’t answer because she physically couldn't get a word out. Struggling into a stand the shipgirl threw a weak fist. Beta tripped her and caught her clone by the hair before hugging her from the back, smashing her chest into the shipgirls back.

“How are you alive?” Gasped Cleveland. “I hit you completely, you couldn't have blocked that.” Beta looked at her clones back and giggled. She stroked over her old guns.

“Looks like these fine guns fire more HE than AP, probably to kill groups of humans better, and even then, you didn’t even hurt me.” Said Beta. “I needed to injure myself to trick you and hid myself on the ceiling, and you never even looked up.”

“Damm siren…” Struggled Cleveland in shock. She looked everywhere and didn’t look at the most obvious space. Now she was here, barely able to move and at the siren's mercy. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to show you the truth, but not yet.” Answered Beta and stroked her clone's hair.

“I won’t believe or do a damn word of what you say.” Cleveland struggled. Beta only leaned in and whispered into her ear. “To learn the truth you have to look into the past. And trust me I will tell you everything. Every tiny detail of the truth I will unveil to you and you, my dear, will spread it.”

“I won’t betray my friends!” Said Cleveland as she struggled but couldn’t get free as tentacles cupped her cheeks.

Beta giggled. “Your friends? Let me guess Wales and Enterprise?”

Cleveland huffed. “Of course, they are my best friends.”

Beta merely shook her head. “Your friends, you say. You might need to reconsider who those are after we are done.”

Beta dropped her and let go of the shipgirl. Cleveland sprung up and looked around. The siren was gone and even her scythe had vanished from the table. Cleveland made sure the siren was gone by checking everything with her eyes but didn’t spot her. Assured that she was gone the shipgirl collapsed to her knees.

“Question who my friends are, what do you mean? Wales and Enty are my best friends. No Cleveland, she is a siren that was just deception, we will stop her, we will…” She didn’t get a word out as she had to take deep breaths. In the last months or even years she never had such a traumatizing experience. Normally any siren they encountered was nothing but what she encountered just now wasn’t the usual standard for her. She actually felt scared for her life. A siren that terrified her and actually fought back instead of running was something no one has reported in a long time. "That must have been the siren me I heard a bit about. She truly is a monster."

What the siren said felt so weird and her cube was beating hard in her chest. It felt like the cube wanted out of her chest for some reason. Somehow the siren felt familiar and what she spoke off felt weird yet right. The ship's head was pounding but stopped as soon as the door opened. In sprinted three figures that Cleveland knew all too well, her sisters.

“Cleveland!” Screamed Montpelier. “Are you ok? I knew I should have stuck with you.”

The three helped their shaken sister up. “I am fine.” Gasped Cleveland out. She could barely stand but stood strong for her worrying sisters. Looking at them the three looked beaten up. “What happened to you? You look like you went through a marathon.”

Denver looked at her and shook her head. “Like you look any better. Ever fought a battleship siren, no, an Enforcer in a small corridor with no cover, and said siren simply swatted away your shots?”

“You fought an Enforcer?” Gasped Cleveland with fear. “Then we need to get out of here.”

“I agree.” Said Colombia who had a bloody nose. “There are sirens in here and we already called for help, apparently the comms work outside of the place.”

“You walked outside?” Asked Cleveland, confused at her sister. “You abandoned them while fighting?”

Colombia gulped. “Nooooo, I was thrown through two doors, they apparently can't resist battleship caliber guns propelling me as the shell. Urgh my back. But hey we got a way out.”

Cleveland could only giggle. She wanted to stay like this forever, surrounded by her friends and family and not alone with a lookalike that fights for the wrong side. “You guys fought an enforcer, damm, and I took on an Observer.”

Denver ruffled Cleveland's hair. “You fought a high siren as well? Damn just our luck.”

"No worries, I am fine, mostly." Giggled Cleveland exhausted. “Apparently the siren could fight like hell but then she ran so I am safe. But she is still in the building.”

“Then we better leave.” Concluded Denver. “Columbia opened the door and it should still be open considering she jammed it with that one siren metal thing the walls are made of. We better wait outside at sea for reinforcements. Heard Enty will come.”

“Then we better go out and meet them.” Said Cleveland and stumbled ahead. She had trouble walking but her sisters helped her. “I love you all, now let’s go meet my best carrier friend.”

The four walked out of the room and the base. Had they looked back they could have felt and seen a pair of yellow eyes follow their every movement. Severely pissed yellow eyes. Beta hid behind one of the cafeterias exit doors and listened to their entire conversation.

“So they actually did a full clone of me and integrated her as me into the group. Hahahaha.“ Laughed Beta hard but not that the others heard her. “Wales, Enty, I will kill you all.”

She walked back into the base and after walking to the part where Elma went she opened the door. A few corridors later she saw the marks of battle. “Here Elma must have been fighting the other three. Looks like she had her fun.” Giggled Beta as she observed the marks.

Following the marks a few corridors down she spotted her friend sitting on a couch. Throwing a book at her the Enforcer stabbed it with her halberd a split second later.

“You are quick to anger.” Giggled Beta as she looked at her. The siren stood up and looked at her. She removed the book from her halberd and threw it away. “Only when someone attacks me, but otherwise I am chill.”

“I am surprised you even have books here.” Beta laughed a bit and patted her smiling friend's shoulder. “I love you for being like this. So how was your day so far?”

“Fought three Cleveland sisters and owned all three of them before they ran away and you?” Elma giggled. She had no visible damage like Beta herself so she was fine. “They were totally outmatched and didn’t expect anyone to fight back it seems. Trust me my guns pack quite the punch.”

“Yeah I know, they were outmatched by us in all means. So are you done?” Asked Beta a bit pushingly. Their mission was completed so they needed to get back like promised. “They called for reinforcements and we kind of need to get back. Heard a carrier was coming and compared to my old self, I lack the AA at the moment.”

“Yeah yeah I am done here, we can leave. Planes…urgh, it’s a pain to fight those so let's beat it.” Admitted Elma and was ready to walk. The two reached the door and walked into the next room. Walking down all the hallways they soon reached the exit but Elma stopped seemingly looking like she was in deep thought.

“I fought three ships of the Cleveland class and you fought someone.” Said Elma with a questioning tone. “Then who did you fight cause there is only one option really.” She was obviously referring to the fourth and last Cleveland class she didn’t meet, and considering how Beta looked Elma had quite the imagination about what transpired.

Beta giggled and held her finger to her mouth. She didn’t even look at Elma. “I had a rather interesting talk with myself.” Said Beta as she walked out of the base. Elma was a bit confused and looked at the door.

“Now wait a second.” Said Elma and sprinted after her. "Tell me about it. Repeat that."

"It was interesting." Repeated Cleveland with a giggle.

Chapter Text

The two sirens jumped up and approached the island. They decided to take a small hike, given that they didn’t spend a long time away and the humans were in no danger due to no shipgirl being close. They had arrived fast on the base's island anyway so they could still jump into action should a ship somehow enter the base. The two had a lot of fun, although one of the sirens looked more annoyed than relieved that they were bad. This came mostly from her friend not shutting up at all.

“Come on, tell me how that meeting went.” Poked Elma her friend. She had annoyed Cleveland for their entire cruise so far. Elma desperately wanted to know what the siren told her copy.

“Elma, nothing happened other than me exchanging a few roasts with that copy of me.” Said Cleveland annoyed as hell. “Accept it.”

“Don’t blame me, it’s Cleveland meeting Cleveland. It has to be something interesting.” Elma said defeated. “But fine, let's go meet the boss then.” This word got Clevelands attention. Elma had spoken about her master a few times now but never explicitly told who it was.

“Aren’t I your boss?” Suggested Cleveland. “As far as I know you followed what I asked of you everytime.” Elma looked over. She looked a bit confused and thinking. Elma only exhaled. She sat down on a log.

“No, you aren’t my boss, or more I don’t know. I still serve my master and do her last order.” Said Elma and leaned against her halberd. “Although I do follow you you aren’t my boss, but hey, at least you do ask and don’t command me around like a dog.”

Cleveland got into a thoughtful stance. “Who is your boss even? You never said her name.”

Elma shook her head. “Sorry there Cleveland, only a siren of the observer class can access that know-led-ge….oh. Shit. Forgot you aren’t the shipgirl. You two look identical and we were just talking about her, and I was remembering her and I speculated about you two and…and.”

The Enforcer got insanely red upon noticing her error. Cleveland merely giggled and ruffled the girl's hair. “Trust me there is more than just the looks we share.” While that didn’t let the Enforcers embarrassment vanish it did give Cleveland quite a lot of amusement.

“Well good that you remember that I am a siren. I am an Observer if you forgot that as well.” Snickered Cleveland. One of her tentacles poked Elmas nose. The enforcer catched it and held it hard before letting go with a huff after wrestling it around a bit. Cleveland wasn’t hurt by it but definitely felt the battleship's strength.

“Stop that, I hate them, no one in our base has them, they feel unnatural.” Said Elma in a hurry. Cleveland could only giggle and began poking her friend with them.

“They are very natural as they are both my rigging and my body.” Cleveland giggled as she tickled the Enforcer. Said Enforcer was absolutely not enjoying the situation but didn’t do anything since she didn’t want to hurt her friend.

“Stop it.” Cried Elma as her cheeks were cupped and pushed up. “I hate those slimy things.”

“Slimy?” Gasped Cleveland and stopped. She touched her own tentacles and found out they were indeed a bit moist. They weren’t uncomfortable to the touch but Cleveland had no idea what this could be. “Hmm this is new.” Her tentacles seemed to give off a clear secretion that was kind of sticky to the touch. She was very confused about what that was by a lot, even though she didn’t even feel it. It was actually quite cool to the touch.

*That’s probably because either you are wet or because your rigging is fully working in you now and your body decided to actually function with all 100% of its body fluids. I know what that is and don’t panic, it’s normal. It’s basically to keep them moisturized and not have them break under the sun. Anyway it’s nothing harmful and just a normal thing like sweating, and you should know what that is.*

“Interesting.” Mumbled Cleveland. She was discovering stuff about her body and sirens in general that she had never suspected. Some of those would have no doubt helped when she was still on the shipgirls side. “You are closer to humans than I thought.” Cleveland smiled. “So now what do you also have in common with them?”

*That is a matter for another day and we still have a lot to discuss but let us do that later, Elma seems pretty mad.*

Looking up the siren saw what the siren meant. Indeed the siren next to her was despirately shaking herself. She threw a bit of slime off her face, a face that held a quite disgusted look on it. “Now you even slime, turn it off or so god help me, bah.”

“Well can you turn off sweating?” Said Cleveland bluntly. The Enforcer stopped shaking and slumped down in her seat. “Well apparently no, so I can't turn off my body and its reactions either.”

“I hate them, Cleve.” Elma said while cleaning the slime off of her cheeks. “Also the base had a scanner and I must say that your name is quite interesting because the base gave me some weird brabbeling. Like it couldn't give me a clear name. So what is your actual name for real? It isn’t Cleveland. I know that since you met her. Meaning that you aren’t Cleveland and therefore must have another name.”

Cleveland tensed up and took a few deep breaths. She couldn’t deny the truth here anymore and caved a bit, although she didn’t fall down.

“I say it to you when you apologize for that. I am Cleveland and my tentacles are amazing.” Smiled Cleveland and touched Elmas nose with said tentacles yet again. She felt good being this smug because there was nothing the Enforcer could do because she outranked her as far as she was concerned. This bickering and joking around honestly gave her a small bit of a remembrance to her life with her sisters she so dearly missed. And any chance of forgetting the terror hat real life was was a good thing for Cleveland.

“I’ll never like those things.” Said Elma and smacked one of the tentacles. She groaned as her hand was completely covered in slime and she shook off with a disgusted face.

“You sensitive little Enforcer.” Cleveland giggled. She sighted and put the tentacles away before sitting down next to her friend. “Fine. Observer Beta it is if you want my actual new name, although I prefer my old name, it carries a meaning.”

Elma jumped up from her seat and smiled. She seemed happy about it and was smacking her hands together like she just did a great job.

“So it’s actually Beta, haha, you are the successor of Alpha.” Gigled Elma. She poked Clevelands nose. “You are the successor of one of the greatest sirens ever. Oh I will call you by that name. Huh Beta?”

Cleveland could only look down. She felt like she lost a part of herself admitting that openly but was fine nonetheless. Bodily that is. Still she had an opinion and her friend should understand that. “Please call me Cleveland. It’s important to me. My siren name might be Observer Beta but my actual name…I…..I can’t abandon it.”

Cleveland began to have tears in her eyes upon saying that. She could not abandon herself to the beings she hated for so long. Every interaction and discovery about them showed her that she had done so many atrocities against the sirens...atrocities about people she could now call friends, and that was straining her mind to the maximum.

Finally coming to take in what has transpired in the last hour was something that led Cleveland nearly into a state of insanity. She had met herself, a being, a clone that claimed to be her and who even her sisters saw as Cleveland. Even her own sisters saw the copy as Cleveland, even though she 100% wasn’t. Cleveland was shaking but suddenly felt arms around her.

“Observer, hey Beta, is everything ok?” Asked Elma. She was hugging Cleveland and the former shipgirl only looked down. “You looked like you had issues and just stopped talking, you didn’t even respond to what I said.” Blinking Cleveland realised she was in her friend's arms, she didn’t know how she got here. Elma couldn’t teleport to Clevelands knowlege.

“You talked?” Cleveland asked, confused. She had not heard the siren that let go of her, talk at all. Elma looked very concerned while Cleveland was only confused. Elma at least seemed to kind of look less worried the more Cleveland reacted.

“Yeah you were out for at least five minutes, I was feeling like I was talking to a wall.” Elma snickered. She punched her friend's shoulder lightly to bring her to react and react she did. “Even shaking you brought nothing.” Cleveland jumped into a stand and huffed.

“Hey I got a chest now.” She said with an annoyed voice and pressed her chest. “But thanks for waking me up. I was…..not…..here.”

“Yeah I noticed that.” Elma was definitely not relieved. She walked forward and grabbed her friend's shoulder. “You were shaking and breathing heavily. Your eyes were glassy as well. Honestly you looked like you were in the middle of a panic attack.”

Elma was clearly concerned. She held her friend but Cleveland just shook her off.

“It’s nothing but thank you.” Breathed Cleveland out. “Let’s…..just go.” She marched ahead and didn’t look back. Elma was looking after her with a concerned look.

“It didn’t look like nothing.” Said the Enforcer. “There is something big bothering you my dear Beta. What plagues your mind? I will find it out and help you.” Aiming her mind to that goal she began walking and quickly catched up to the siren ahead.

“So Beta is your name. That means you are related to Observer Alpha. No.” Elma snickered trying to have a conversation. “No you two can basically be considered sisters. I feel so sorry that she died, you probably don’t even know eacheother, or only for a short time. Would have been a nice family reunion if we would find a way to bring her back to live, but sadly that’s impossible.”

“Family………….” Realised Cleveland and stopped in her tracks. She felt like the hole in her heart was ripped open even wider by that statement alone. She remembered her sisters and all they experienced together, things that were now nothing more than past memories. She wouldn’t call Alpha her sister but at the same time she couldn't deny the fact that they were in a twisted kind of way.

*I mean she isn’t wrong. Listen. I know you feel pained by that but Elma doesn’t know the truth so I suggest you might just tell her. Would end up better than her finding out. Even if you are scared, just tell her.*

Cleveland shook her head. She had to tell Elma the truth but was scared to do so. She was her only actual friend that wasn’t in her head and losing her would break what was left of Cleveland's humanity. She didn’t want to become an emotionless killing machine.

“You can consider her my sister I guess.” Said Cleveland in a small voice. She felt emotionally unstable and was watching every word of hers. Elma didn’t seem to notice that Cleveland had trouble finding her words.

“Did you even meet her? Before she died I mean. Just a minute?” Asked the Enforcer clueless of what was happening in Cleveland's mind. “She was quite an amazing person I can tell you, a strong leader and so. Even my master liked her, even if they never met outside of a few meetings.”

*Oh I am flattened. Was I that good?*

“Hehe. Yes I know her.” Answered Cleveland with a small smile. She had to hold back her laughter because the one Elma was sepeaking about was actually listening. “I know her better than you can imagine.”

Cleveland stretched her arms. “Now come, or Andrea will be screaming at us more than she will already. Also tell me who your master is now, it gets ridiculous with you holding that back. I admitted something personal so you have to as well. Otherwise this isn’t the law of equivalent exchange.”

Elma just sighted. “Arbiter the sixth, The Lovers. The sixth of the Arbiters and ruler of her own dimension. She never really went into other affairs and was a caring person.” Spoke the Enforcer and looked into her past with a bright smile. “All of us were free thinking individuals and she encouraged us for that. Teached us how to do most things herself and wants us all as a big family. We were fighters but she taught us to be more than bodyguards. She taught us to be people, not weapons.”

Cleveland was listening and felt good for her friend. She had a flashback to how normal and friendly her life was with all of her friends and sisters she loved….all of which were now gone, belonging to a false clone of hers. She had to show the clone that she was not the original, even if it was the last thing she would be doing.

*We need to talk about your plan with Cleveland. Or do you call her Copyland? Imposterland? Cleveclone? Anyway, your little plan there. That will not work.*

“We will talk later. We need to move.” Mumbled Cleveland, getting back to the important conversation. She turned to Elma who was still smiling. “Sounds like your master gave you quite a good life, sorry that everything went downhill.” She touched Elmas back and removed a bit of dirt from her lingerie-like robe. Now thinking about it, Elma said South Dakota wore basically nothing, but Cleveland wasn’t so sure if her friend in her see throughable robe was in any way better.

Elma grabbed her shoulder. She threw a small smile at Cleveland. “You make it sound like you are responsible for it. Let’s help the people here and then we look at how we continue. We might have attacked humanity to gather data but what transpired on this world is something we can’t allow to continue. Azur Lane has to be stopped.”

Cleveland smiled a bit. She was confused by a lot but seeing Elma willing to fight made her have the will to continue. “I might not have understood everything but thank you for being here. Will you help me bring Azur Lane back to what they were supposed to be?”

Elma smiled and slapped Cleveland's back. “Buddy, trust me, I will stay strong and fight them to protect this planet. And since you are fighting them…yeah we will probably stay together. Besides.” She walked past Cleveland. “Who will watch your back if not me?”

She threw Cleveland an honest smile that encouraged Cleveland to continue. She could never abandon Elma after this. Elma picked up her pace and walked ahead. Cleveland remained standing there and looked after her friend with a look of happiness. She would protect that smile like everyones else. Also she had to admit that the siren's hips were swaying from side to side like she saw Atago strutting around.

*While I would watch your back, thank you Elma. And stop staring at her ass Cleveland, you are getting flustered.*

Slapping herself hard Cleveland snapped herself out of this daze. She couldn’t believe what she just did. Elma was her friend nothing more.

“Did I? No I didn’t, I like Helena. I don’t like Elma like that. She is a friend, nothing more.” Gasped Cleveland out as red as a tomato. Elma looked back but probably thought it was just a mosquito landing on her friend before she continued walking. Cleveland immediately got even redder, just thinking about getting caught.

Chibi Observer in her vision, who was still reading files, looked over her reading glasses by pulling them down a bit. She apparently realised something crucial.

*You are head over heels into her aren’t you?.................My God!*

Cleveland nearly screamed but helt her mouth close to not whine out loud. She wasn't into a siren, she couldn’t be, she hated them with every fiber of her being……right?

*You?! In love….with a siren?! Bahahaha!!!*

"I am not into!" Gasped Cleveland but couldn’t finish the words. All she saw was the chibi siren having a laughing fit.

*God I was imagining many things but I never expected that you would fall in love with one of us. I sooooo need to record this. This is a mark in history.*

Cleveland wanted to scream but let up from it for all peoples sake. Shaking her head fast to not hear the siren, even though it was useless since she was in her head, Cleveland ran after her friend, luckily arriving completely normal and unflustered as they walked into the base. The humans have apparently put in much work to get the area back to a proper function. The overgrownness has, while still there, receded by a lot. Several rooms had light and apparently the electricity was running again.

Several people carrying supplies and whatnot walked past them, a few even giving them a welcome. A unusual sight for everyone a few years ago. Welcoming this the two sirens walked onto the big field where they already could spot Andrea and John standing. The two were coordinating the people that came in and out of Belfast's ship. The man was however helping out and walking around as well, probably helping with carrying.

“Hey Andrea. We are back.” Called Cleveland out. The human turned around and looked slightly shocked.

She walked over and greeted them with a handshake. “Hey you two, you are back. Honestly you were quicker than I expected. You were gone for like barely three hours.”

“Told you we won’t take that long.” Giggled Elma. “So what have you been doing so far, I bet not that much.”

The woman smiled and looked around. “Basically we assigned the spaces of the base and tidied up a bit. Nothing more.” She looked at Belfast's ship. “We loaded, or more are still in the process of loading out supplies.”

Crate after crate left the ship and the people looked happy. Cleveland smiled at this little bit of peace. “Looks like it's almost done.”

“Yes it is.” Answered Andrea quickly. “We learned to be fast due to being under pressure almost all day. You do learn how to be faster when death is your constant companion. So you got your riggings now?”

Elma nodded and summoned hers. The black turrets looked ready for battle and her halberd looked like it was sharpened to full condition again. Cleveland leaned in a bit. “Now that I look, your halberd looks like you sharpened it. When did that happen?”

Elma smiled. “After I beat three Cleveland classes I went to one of the sharpening stations in the base. It was in the armory if you overlooked it. One minute in and this baby can pierce stuff again.” She put away her rigging and halberd and smiled. “So I am fully capable of fighting again.”

Andrea looked questioningly. “I am trying to figure out your guns. I mean sure they are battleship guns, but you sirens have nothing really human looking in terms of riggings. Even though it looks similar.”

“If you want a comparison take an Iowa-class Battleship for example. Now Replace the guns with laser ones and you basically got my rigging, sparing the details here to make you understand it easily, cause explaining it all would take hours. Yes they are special." Said Elma in a proud tone. Cleveland felt kind of bad for New Jersey but at the same time had to snicker because Elma as a siren absolutely outclassed the battleship tenfold and therefore told the truth here. Andrea was certainly amazed.

She looked over at Cleveland. “So and you, Cleveland, where is yours then? I bet you got a different looking one.”

Cleveland didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t even summon hers no matter how hard she tried on the trip here. She had no idea how to respond.

“Hers is still being a bit stoic but mine works.” Said Elma and nudged Cleveland's hip with her elbow. “But relax she still got her scythe and ghost and mind so it’s fine.” She walked past Andrea and looked at the ship. “So you took out all the supplies from miss maids ship here?”

The human disregarded the question and looked at the ship. “The last stuff should get out quickly so we are almost done. We were almost finished before you arrived. Did you get what you wanted?”

"We sure did. Took a bit of searching but we found it. We got weapons." Giggled Elma. Cleveland agreed with a nod. "We repaired our equipment and came back."

Andrea looked at the two judgingly. " Didn't you two forget something? It has a barrel and a trigger if that helps with guessing."

Cleveland sighted. She groaned and held her arms behind her head. "You really want those guns. Yes we got them. Took a whole bunch of them with me."

“So where are the weapons now, I don’t see you carrying them.” Said Andrea with giddy fingers. “Do you have them somewhere?”

She walked over and began feeling around Cleveland's body. Under her arms and on top of her clothes she felt but found nothing. Cleveland just let it happen even though it was weird. It went on for minutes, with the siren constantly getting redder. Elma had to hold back her laughter as she observed this all. Cleveland was feeling like she was checked from toes to her hair tips. The woman didn’t let up at all. Cleveland also could swear she saw a slight look of jealousy from Elma in the corner of her eyes.

"That only leaves one place." Mumbled Andrea finally after she stopped looking everywhere except one area. Before Cleveland could even protest or say anything the human stuck her arms under the siren's capelet. Cleveland immediately went stiff, including the tentacles that currently rested under the cape waiting for orders. Cleveland knew how strong her tentacles were. One wrong move could break the human's arm like a twig.

Breathing calm and not jumping at the human grabbing and pulling her tentacles, neither her chest, Cleveland decided to wait until the human would be done. Waiting she waited because the human was adamant on checking every square inch of the siren's body, including under her clothes.

"No, not under here either.” Said Andrea and stopped feeling around, much to Clevelands relief. “It's a bit squishy and….slimy? Urgh!" She gasped out. One of the siren's tentacles rushed out and held her by the collar. Carrying her with it into eyeline Cleveland sighted. "The weapons aren't there or anywhere on my body so stop searching." She let Andrea go and her tentacle vanished. The woman dusted herself up. Cleveland finally could relax her back. Andrea looked at her slyly. “Maybe under your skirt.”

“Not there either!” Gasped Cleveland and took a step back. She wasn't wearing any underwear so she would absolutely not allow that. Also she was sure that she would crush the human with her thighs.

“Fine. Then you don’t carry them.” Concluded Andrea. She was about to walk away fuming but stopped. Cleveland held her and gave her a slight stare.

“I have the guns.” Said the siren exhausted. She rightened her clothes again. "You are just applying human logic to it." The human had messed her clothes up a lot. Finishing with them the two stared at each other. Andrea of course had no idea what the siren meant.

“But where are they?” Asked Andrea again. “You don’t seem to have them.” She looked stressed and Cleveland forgave her for acting like that. She and her brother had to organise the survival of many, most of which were probably not prepared for survival at all. Also they were only humans so what the sirens could do was probably unknown to them.

Cleveland gave out an unamused sight. She snapped her fingers in response to that. A portal opened behind her in the courtyard and a second later a whole bunch of weapons and armaments fell out of it before it closed again. Andrea and several people around her took a step back.

“There are your weapons.” Cleveland said and gave a sly smile. "See I do have them, just not in plain sight. Did you really think that the two of us can carry like hundreds of guns at once? "

The human was amazed as she picked up one of them. “I didn’t think sirens had normal guns. Thought you will bring us riggings or so.”

Cleveland smiled, she had asked the same thing herself already. “Well there are more than just riggings.” Cleveland pointed out. She scratched her head a bit. “The worker sirens used those for self defense. Not really strong but a weapon is a weapon, can still hurt anyone. Also not like you can handle riggings anyway, your bodies would collapse.”

“What powers them even?” Asked Andrea. She observed and looked at the weapon in detail. She was pointing it around. “Seems to not have a magazine either. But it is a very light weapon. Thought sirens in their strength had heavier weapons.”

“Well of course it’s light, it’s powered by a- AAAA!” Elma gasped and hit the deck. A laser bolt flew over her head as the woman pushed the trigger and punched a sizable hole and burnmark into the concrete building behind the two sirens. Cleveland barely twitched and evaded but Elma face planted down to the ground.

Andrea was left amazed and definitely surprised by the lack of recoil the weapon had. She had a playful smile on her face that quickly changed back to being calculated. “Amazing, it’s actually a laser gun. I knew you had those but firing one is even better than I could imagine.” Cleveland was clapping because she shared the amazement. However, the other siren was definitely not in an amazed mood.

“Say, do you actually want to kill me?!” Gasped Elma out from the ground in anger. She jumped up and stared at Andrea. Taking the gun and throwing it to the side she wanted to lightly slap the human but Cleveland caught her arm. A single stare brought even Elma to stop her planned action.

“Why are you scared? Can’t you take a battleship shell into the face and continue walking? Sirens are supposed to walk around fine with missing limbs so I don’t get your ruckus. Also I missed by a mile anyway.” Shrugged Andrea, not realising how close she just got to getting her jaw broken. She was right of course but Elma shrugged in annoyance. She did somewhat calm down though but not nearly enough to not visibly steam. "Any weapon, no matter what, can kill and as you stated you want us to fight and help you, so if you don’t want us to leave right now I tell you now to avoid any action like that again. Imagine if that hit a human, what then, can that one also be patched up in a minute? I doubt it."

Andrea looked shocked. She looked at her hands in fear. "I didn't think they would be loaded, ammunition is hard to come by. I am so very sorry. I could have killed someone, I could have killed someone I vowed to protect. I am sorry, I will Reform from doing anything like that ever again.

"You better mean it." Huffed Elma. She was still steaming but seemed to not lash out at the human anymore.

Cleveland let Elma go and walked to the side, trusting her friend to not do something stupid. Elma only looked at Andrea. “That’s not the…while yes, you are correct, I can take one to the face, but that doesn't mean that I like to get shot at.” she crossed her arms. "In all honesty I prefer to avoid it if possible and take my enemy out quickly."

“For that you two run into the battle quite often.” Pointed Andrea out. The sirens couldn’t disagree. “Anyway. Those are a lot of guns, I guess we need to put a shooting range on the list. I hope the ammo won’t run out.”

Cleveland piped up. From Alphas talk and general logic she could form an answer. Adding to that she had read enough of her own files, and whatever Alpha read she could access anyway for some reason, so she knew she could help out here.

“To answer that and your former question, they are powered by small power cubes and their ammo is basically endless. You don’t need to reload them so you can try it as often as needed.” Smiled Cleveland. “Just finding targets will get hard.”

Andrea was certainly amazed. She smiled and put the gun by the gun strap on her back. “And they weigh nothing, neat. Let the target thing be our problem….also recoil.” She called over some people. Directing them to get more people to help carry and store the weapons, the two teenagers ran away. Andrea smiled. “That is taken care of. So now we only need to train with them.”

“Well we can’t help there can we? I swear I won't play target.” Giggled Cleveland. All the others got her and could laugh along. Now that they had a bit of breathing room they relaxed.

“So ehh, not to interrupt, but what now?” Asked Elma. A certainly good question even Cleveland had to admit. They had no plan after getting their guns so they needed to think.

Andrea looked at the two. “Do you two even have goals? Ours is just to survive.”

Elma and Cleveland thought hard. While for Cleveland the question was easy, Elma had a few problems.

“I don’t have a decisive goal in mind.” Declared the Enforcer. “I want to avenge my master and sisters but at the same time want peace as well. After that I am not sure.”

“I agree with the avenge part." Cleveland nodded. “I will kill the now four leaders of Azur Lane and then bring it back to what it was supposed to be. Then we will have peace.” Said Cleveland with a purpose. The other two gave her an interesting look. Cleveland was confused by their looks. “What?”

“It seems like revenge is your only goal. Isn’t it?” Asked Elma with a sigh. She grabbed her friend's shoulder. “I mean I want revenge for my master as well but….wait, what do you mean to bring them back to what they were supposed to be?”

“Make them heroes and defenders of the sea again.” Answered Cleveland in a determined voice. “When they realise the truth they will stop and try to help. For that the four have to go.”

*Were it so easy. *

Elma shook her head at that. “Can we get this base working again? As we found out the siren bases are all getting raided and therefore not safe so it’s better to better our defenses here. Don’t you agree?”

“Fine.” Sighted Cleveland. She went to the pile of weapons. “And what do you wish to do?”

Elma walked past her and stuck her hand into the pile of weapons. She pulled out a small turret that siren bases used as close range defenses. “How about we put those things on the shoreline.”

Cleveland slapped her own face. “I totally forgot I threw them in there.” Elma only giggled at her friend's misery. “But where do we put them? We need strategic points.”

“Well I might have an idea.” Said John from the sidelines. He remained on the side for most of the time now but immediately got the attention of all. “Can you two use comms? Then we can tell you where.”

“Of course. Siren comms work.” Said Elma prodly. “Superior siren engineering. I just need your frequency Beta.”

Cleveland nodded and thought…then she smiled. "No need to tell me but comms are a good idea." She walked over to Elma and touched her forehead. Elma got a light shock and recoiled. Cleveland smiled. “So now I got your frequency. I will call you when needed.”

“You Observers confuse me more and more.” Said Elma with an annoyed voice. She dropped the turret she helt on Cleveland who simply caught it.

“I am still amazed that you can lift those things.” Said Andrea from the side. She only watched the sirens blickering. “You two act like a married couple, cut it out. We got work.”

“Work? That includes what?” Asked Elma. She didn’t get what the human meant.

“You wanted to build those guns at the shore.” Said Andrea and pointed at one of the turrets. “Also we have a few problems in the bunker with lifting and weapons so one of you can help us out.”

Cleveland thought for a minute. “How about we split then. Elma, can you go into the bunker? I can set the weapons on the shore then.”

Elma nodded. “Both are easy so I don’t see why not. Also thanks for asking. I hate being commandeered around like a dog. Free choice is important.” Said Elma and turned to the humans. “So lead the way. What do I have to do?” They walked away and Cleveland looked after Elma and them talking.

“Mostly lift things we can’t lift.” Andrea said and Cleveland could hear Elma grumble at it from her distance. She giggled and watched her friend leave. Turning to the weapons pile that was being slowly stored away piece by piece, she picked up the shore defences, six of them at once. They were light for her and so she walked out.

She ran out of the port and sat the turrets down at several locations on the island, all vital overlooking spots Alpha noted down for Cleveland on her radar. They automatically implanted themselves into the ground and Cleveland simply accessed the IFF system. A few changes in the radar and spotting allowed her to set the target to only shipgirls, which was the only setting important. Repeating this for all of the turrets in her possession, the entrance and the general area of the island was soon covered in around a dozen turrets, all waiting for her command to activate.

She had to go to the dock before simply resorting to picking up the turrets through a portal to get them all. She had the last one in her arm and approached the spot where she wanted to put it. A rock formation on the beach. However she remembered something from earlier.

“You wanted to talk about stuff, Alpha? Do I recall that right?” Asked Cleveland as she sat down the last turret. She covered it up a bit with bushery and left it at that. She sat down next to it and stared into the setting sun. “I guess we have time now. So shoot it.”

*Good, cause this will be a long explanation and talk. I need to show you how your guns work, which are done calibrating by the way, and talk about your plan with that other Cleveland. It’s an absolute disaster and will need a lot of changes.*

Clevelands mood fell a bit. “Hey, it's a good plan.” Cleveland shrugged and rolled her shoulders. “Then let’s begin with what you have to say. We don’t have all day.”

*Yes we should begin.*

Chapter Text

“And done.” Said Elma as she put down a heavy crate. She had been helping the humans again with lifting stuff, more by force than her own will of course. She stood at the disadvantage of being, next to Observer Beta, who prefers to be called Cleveland, as the only one that can do this task. Funny that you are needed by a lot of people when the possibility of having someone that can do something arises.

Elma was busy stacking and carrying crates, that normally needed a crane to be transported, around the warehouse. She and the human had been at this task for more than an hour by now and the crates that needed to be stored, even if receding, seemed to have no end in sight.

“Can we talk about Cleveland for a second?” Asked Andrea from the ground. She had various problems with the siren, not harmful ones though. The siren simply seemed strange and different than how they were portrayed in the media and news.

“In a second, I need to do slave labor first.” Elma said from a distance. She was floating up and down at a rapid pace and putting crates of whatever was in them into higher shelves. 

Andrea shook her head. “Oh come on it isn’t that bad, plus you can fly and actually lift that stuff. We would need to repair that crane over there and that might take weeks, considering we got no one that knows how to repair it.”

Elma floated down after finally putting the fragile crate away.“ That doesn’t mean that you can use me solely for that. I am a warrior, a bodyguard to be precise, I am not a labour worker. Also I swear to some god that these things are filled with sand sculptures, that's how fragile they are.”

“No, they are filled with stuff like ammo and maintenance kits. If you find them fragile that's just because you're a hell of a lot stronger than your normal human. And I can go ask Cleveland but she would just stare at me until I run.'' Admitted Andrea. “The Observer is a whole lot more intimidating than you.” She added quietly.

“I doubt that, of course she would but she could do that all here faster anyway.” Said Elma and pointed all around her. “Her tentacles can bend steel effortlessly so she has more arms that can lift this all plus they can stretch to like, no idea how long but long, metres. She would help out faster.”

“Perhaps but she isn’t here now so let’s finish the last few things so you can stop complaining.” Said Andra and took a crate of apples she already put into airtight bags for longer storage. “Be glad that you don’t have to help in the kitchen, it’s hell for any woman there at the moment.”

“Explain! Now!” Said Elma sternly and floated down. “I would call myself quite the good cook so what is the issue.'' Elma was quite eccentric about this. She learned from her master how to cook right and while she disliked working for the humans like this as the slave that does everything but cooking was something she would do with pleasure. She would even teach new people how to cook well voluntarily.

Andrea sighted. “Imagine a cook walking into a completely ruined kitchen. Everything is rusted and unusable.” She put her hand to her forehead. “That's the situation, and no worry we got enough cooks, worked on the cruise ship before so are pretty fast and good.”

Elma fell to her knees, what she heard just now was a cook's worst nightmare. A untidied kitchen is no place to create a masterpiece of culinary art. She can only imagine the horror the cooks and kitchen staff felt when they saw the place of disaster.

“You ok?” Asked Andrea. She looked down at the shocked siren that sprung up. Elma had an empty look on her face. “Poor cooks. I feel their pain.” Said the siren. Andrea patted her back a bit. “Come, it’s getting worked on, now let’s finish this up. We are almost done anyway.” That stood corrected as Elma only had to carry one last crate the humans had on a forklift. It held the spare weapons the people already stored away. 

Elma picked up the crate after standing up. She floated up to the top of the shelf with it after catching her breath for a second. Andrea herself put away some smaller boxes and was generally working on other stuff. Elma grabbed the last box and put it on top. Finally finished, she stepped and waited on a single beam of the framework high in the air. 

“Since when can you actually fly?” Asked Andrea as she looked up. “You didn’t do it a few hours ago or when you helped us at the research base.”

Elma got a thoughtful look. “It’s tied to my rigging to make it easier for you to understand. It was destroyed a few hours ago.” She explained. ”Therefore I couldn’t fly, but now since it’s repaired I can.” She finished with a smile. Andrea picked up one ölast box and put it away. She shoved it into position and gave a relieved exhale.

"Can we Address the matter with your girlfriend for a second now?" Asked Andrea as she returned from where she finished her last box. Elma immediately went rigid, so red she got. Andrea gave out a small giggle at that.

"She is not my girlfriend!" Gasped Elma and nearly fell from her high position. She jumped down and stared at the human with a supposed to be intimidating stare, however looked more like a caught puppy. “We aren’t together.”

"Stop pretending.” Andrea giggled. “I am a teacher and know when two people love each other. And you two are so into eachother, it almost makes me gay." Elma somehow got even redder, if you believe it, upon hearing that. She began shaking her head while muttering in disagreement.

Elma somehow caught herself. "Sure I like her but I am not falling for her neither am I attracted to her." She stuttered out.

"Oh shut it.” Said Andrea in disapprovement. “I saw how you two look at and interact with each other. You are head over heels into each other. If you do the deed, be quiet at least."  

“I am not going to end up in bed with her!” Screamed Elma and only received a pat on the head. Elma was left grumbling from that action. 

“Not yet but who knows.” Shrugged Andrea. “You two were intimidating when we found you. Now you are more like a friend I can joke around with so don’t take this too personal.”

“What is that suppose to be meaning? I am an Enforcer. One of the best fighters of the siren. I am very intimidating and just because we are friends doesn’t mean that I am not deserving respect.” Elma was borderline fuming. She wasn’t used to this type of friendship or talk at all. This teasing.

“I am suppose to take you serious?” Giggled Andrea and pointed at the siren. “Well not with that outfit.” She was snickering and Elmas pupils lost her light. She didn’t get how this human wasn’t even afraid of her.

“These are the honour full clothes of a high ranking siren fighter.” Said Elma out loud. Her face was clad in a deep pout that just let the human giggle more.

“Clothes?” Andrea mentioned with a blank look on her face. She grabbed the siren by the clothes and pulled them up a bit. “That's a transparent bathrobe with a bit of lingerie under it. As far as I am concerned, that’s armor that fits the stuff people in some special movies wear. You even got a lot of people staring at you if you didn’t notice.”

“They are just amazed by my body.” Elma smiled. “Seeing a siren, even more so an enforcer, and getting out alive is a privilege not many get.”

Andrea looked at her unamused. “I am pretty sure the teenagers just get the hots seeing your barely covered self but fine. I swear some of them are just ogling that wide ass of yours you put on display for all to see.” Elma could only glare at her.

You don’t know culture, women.” Huffed Elma at the taller human. She couldn’t believe what the human was saying. The fact that she thinks her majestic clothes are something worth a pornagrafy was ridicoulus. The human simply applied their pathetic body standards to the sirens and that was just plain wrong. They might look about the same but culture-, personality- and thinking wise they were different in every single aspect.

Andrea simply looked at her. “As a history teacher I am pretty sure I do.” She smiled a smile that left Elma with a stare. Any human in the past would have run by that but the human now was already used to staring death in the face. “Also, are you on your period or something? You get way too angry from me supporting you.”

“Sirens don’t even have that.” Grumbled Elma. She couldn't believe this woman. “I am a knight and you are nothing in comparison to me.”

“A knight?” Andrea giggled and shook her head. “I mean you are even wearing a tiara.“ Said Andrea as she pointed at Elmas hair accessory. ”Come on little princess. Just say that you love the other one of your species. I support you all the way.” 

Elma could only groan as a response. She about had it with the human and wanted to just leave, but that would leave Cleveland here alone and that one had some sort of passion for protecting the humans. Elma could at least understand that the siren was just following their entire main objective to the letter. She was collecting data in masses, just from very unlikely conditions.

She still wanted to leave though because of the woman's teasing that was annoying her to no end. Luckily a loud sound, similar to an explosion, happened outside and fulfilled that wish. The humans almost jumped from the sound while Elma was barely fazed, being so used to explosions and gun sounds that she barely even noticed the sound. 

The two ran out and looked at the area. In the distance some big explosion happened in the sky. Andrea wanted to call an alarm already but Elma simply laughed at this. Andra stopped. “Why are you laughing? We are getting attacked.”

Elma stretched out her hand and stopped Andrea. “Call them off, that’s nothing to be worried about.” The human was obviously confused.

“What do you mean we are under attack, we need to defend ourselves.” Argued Andrea. Several people were already standing at ready with the siren's laser guns in their hands.

“Now it’s my turn to embarrass you.” Giggled Elma at the humans displeasure. “And that's just Cleveland testing her guns I bet. I will just ask her in a second. Also put away the guns, we aren’t gonna be responsible when you idiots without planning or even having used those guns before begin blasting holes into each other. And I personally would avoid that.”

“That is Siren Cleveland?” Gasped Andrea and commanded the others to hold the guns down. The humans immediately complied and waited. “How are you so sure that's your lover?”

Elma shook her head and grabbed the human's neck. She directed it towards the explosions. “Look at the explosions and tell me what causes it.”

Andrea looked at the explosions. The shells, if they could be called that, were glowing a threatening yellow. “Yellow shells? High Explosive? I can’t see it from here.”

“Oh yeah, human eyes are bad, I forgot. Those are plasma bolts, so it can only be Cleveland since only siren main armaments fire that.” Corrected Elma. “So recall your men and stop being so tense. If shipgirls were coming, the radar we repaired would show you approaching from like 200 km away.”

Andrea relaxed a bit as did the others around them. They all slowly began leaving. Andrea and Elma were left alone. Andrea had a few issues with it however. “What is she shooting at anyway?”

“I bet that's target shooting, but you need to ask her yourself.” Elma shrugged. “So now I will be sitting there and waiting, you have a lot of questions so I guess I can answer.” Just as she said she sat down on a bench overlooking the dock. In the distance, explosion after explosion went off. Maybe a bad idea but one look on the radar made it clear that no shipgirl was even close to being on the radar so there was no way the explosions could be heard.

Andrea sighted and joined Elma. She might have annoyed the siren but she was the only one that could answer her questions. She only had to hope to not cause or get any more headaches, although that seemed unavoidable.

____________

Cleveland aimed her guns and fired. The plasma bolts flew up and exploded directly in Edinburgh's face. The ghost was covered in smoke before falling back. She was unhurt of course, like how can you hurt a ghost, but she pretended to be hit.

*Good shot but don’t you think that it’s a bit, you know, weird?*

“They are ghosts and don’t feel pain anyway, it’s not like they will complain. Also I asked them first so as they agreed it's okay with them as well.” Huffed Cleveland. She took aim again and sent another barrage. Hitting exactly where she wanted the ghost was left shrouded in plasma bolts which substantially exploded.

*Ehhhh, you are still firing at your former friends you know.*

“I know, I know. This is similar to spars we usually had anyway. Only that they aren’t shooting back this time.” Admitted Cleveland. "And I do have to learn and that's by training. Sorry that I don’t have perfect Training targets so I thought people that can’t get damaged can momentarily replace that.'' Tentacles raised up and from the blackness of them came hundreds of lasers of various sizes. They filled the air and showered South Dakota's shields in minor explosions. Cleveland stopped firing and observed her various tentacles by pulling them close. She hugged them a bit and smiled.

“Hmm now that I realize it, my AA and secondaries seem to be lasers while my main guns seem to be plasma.” Realized Cleveland as she looked at her smoking guns. All eight of them seemed to carry incomprehensible power.  “Care to explain why Alpha?”

*Easy. Your lasers are actually fast moving “projectiles” of raw energy, basically energy bolts, capable of destroying small unarmored objects like the superstructure of a ship and shooting down aircraft, they however, generally speaking, aren’t that strong. Your main guns are high caliber plasma cannons firing massive bolts of concentrated plasma. They burn through several layers of armor without issues until their energy is dispersed and explodes, or when the fuse you put runs out. In your terms a shell on steroids.*

“So a high caliber gun, this is what battleships must feel like. Such power.” Giggled Cleveland and felt her own guns. She herself could barely keep herself from firing them. “And my aim is perfect now, think about the way to fire and they do it. And to that infinite ammunition. Oh I see why the Axis liked your stuff so much.”

*Yeah it’s amazing. Although weren’t you guys against using it?* 

Clevelands smile fell a bit. “I didn’t say we should use it…..but I do see the advantages.” Said Cleveland in a matter of fact voice. She shook it off and charged her guns before firing a falling leaf out of the sky. “So I guess my aim is perfect now.”

*Better than your first tries anyway. Now you at least know how to not shoot plasma lasers around you without stopping.*

Cleveland turned around and looked down embarrassed. Behind her nearly one side of the island's mountain was filled with craters and the burning remains of what was once a forest. “Yeah…I think I improved my aim. That...That never happened. Let’s agree there.”

*Sure. The wildlife won’t complain though…if they are even alive that is.*

“Shall they come and complain? These guns will show them who the boss is.” Giggled Cleveland. “But I do feel sorry for them.” She turned to the burned part of the island and shouted out. ”Sorry that I couldn’t control myself.” She felt sorry for them but had to accept that she did it, and nothing can reverse that.

*Well that's taken care of I guess. So can we now come to your plan, it took like two hours to get you to use your guns.*

“It's not my fault that these things are so awesome.” Said Cleveland and snuggled her cheeks against a gun barrel. “And to think that I am not using these things to their full force is mesmerizing.”

*You don’t wanna blow apart the mountain here, do you? They are reaching even higher strengths at full charge than Purifier's main weapon on it. So on a full charge you can very well vaporize that Island. And I doubt you want that.*

“I should better not. That's why I will keep my actual power in check, don't wanna destroy everything now aren't we. Then I wouldn't be better than you. Nature is important for this planet." Cleveland smiled. She charged one of the guns and shot, completely annihilating a tree. “But sometimes it needs to bear some damage so justice can be brought to the deserving. Also I wanna shoot some shipgirls with this.”

*God if your old self heard you talking. Coming to the new you, that clone of yours there, what exactly is your plan with it?*

“Oh that is easy.” Said Cleveland with a smile. She let her guns and countless tentacles, from which she seemingly suddenly has more when her rigging is out, vanished and simply stood on the water. “I will show her the truth and hopefully get her on my side.”

*Ok you are turning more into me as the days pass and I am not entirely sure how to take that. Also, given how freaking long your mind took to even accept being a siren, do you think she will believe in the next three years?*

“I won’t make her believe, I will show her the truth personally.“ Giggled Cleveland. She had thought of this plentifull and was ready to make her clone her ally. It all needs a little bit of revealing the truth and showing the clone that she is not the ship she thinks she is.

*And how will you manage that, simply showing her that will be as effective as a mommies kiss on a decapitation given how quickly you believe stuff.*

“Simple. I felt something interesting, as you know shipgirls are connected with a cube to their ships, so the two are one and the same.” Said Cleveland. She was practically giddying over her plan.

*Ok miss smart. Talk more. Continue.*

“Ok that clone clearly uses my old cube and therefore uses my ship.” Cleveland said. “So now we have to come back to the time I had her in my arms. I could feel that cube trying to get back to me, meaning it still remembers and is in some way connected to me. Should I manage to access it, I can either get it back, showing it belongs to me and bring that clone to realise she is the false Cleveland, or unlock Copies' locked memories. I mean she clearly has them locked, how would she forget you kidnapped me if she is indeed Cleveland?”

*I guess you are right, but don’t put everything into that plan hoping that it will work out.*

Cleveland shook her head. ”No I don’t, it is the main objective with her though. I will show her that stuff and explain the backstory, then force her to overlook the old archives. So basically, in comparison to you, I will actively do stuff, not just deception and talking.”

Chibi Observer looked taken back. *Asshole. I was managing a war, I had other things to do and couldn’t quite focus on you, I was also dying so I had to rush my plans a bit. Also Observers aren't supposed to fight at all.*

“And yet you possess power stronger than I can dream of. Hehe. I bet you never imagined this outcome, but my plan involves planting some seeds of doubt to bring her to the truth, just let me do.'' Cleveland gave out. She would break that clone with the truth and gain a person that shares her vision in seeing Azur Lane as evil, of course after making the clone realise that she is not the person who she thinks she is. “And when I show that clone the actual memories I won’t break her mind like you did with me.”

*What is that suppose to mean? Don’t tell me you are still mad.*

“Of course I am still mad.” Huffed Cleveland as she stared at the chibi avatar. “I just woke up with a new body, basically being a newborn with the mental function of it, and you just copy an entire life worth of memories into me in a second.” She combed through her hair. “Of course that completely breaks my mind in an instant.”

*Wait, you didn’t process it all? You were an Observer then already so you should be able to get it.*

“Well given that my mind worked like the old me I was definitely not prepared for an entire lifetime of experience in an instant. I was caught in a loop of memories that mixed with everything and it hurt unbelievably hard.'' Cleveland huffed with a glare. “You might be used to getting a lot of data in an instant but I am not! Or more was not.'' Said Cleveland sternly. She was mad and that was to be expected. Forced to relive an entire life in barely a second with overwriting and looping memories, mostly the bad ones, would hurt anyone.

Chibi Observer looked shocked and almost close to tears. 

*Oh. I am sorry then. I thought since your body was new, and I worked on it for months to make it as good as it can be, that you can take it.*

“You worked on my body, not my mind. One was prepared, the other definitely wasn’t. So yeah, be sorry.” Huffed Cleveland and facepalmed. “I won’t forget that but it's in the past now so lets just move on.”

Cleveland began walking in some direction and thought hard before she stopped with a sigh. “I can’t defeat Azur Lane alone, even with Elmas help. I need assistance and I can’t just spawn some, can I?'' Asked Cleveland in an almost disappointed voice. She really was with her back to a wall. She could beat a few fighters, she out strengthened shipgirls by a lot, but not an entire faction coming down on her.

*Hmm you are smarter than I give you credit for. Well you could control mass production ships but those would be useless in a fight.*

“That's why I am going to Ironblood next.” Admitted Cleveland. “You said the Axis are all mind controlled and we saw that already with Mutsuki. If we manage to make them snap out of it, thereby breaking whatever controls them, then, even if they don’t trust me, they will fight against Azur Lane to stop them from attacking humans.”

*So starting another civil war? That's, woah. I didn’t expect you to suggest that.*

“In a sense, yes.” Admitted Cleveland. Unbelievable that the only way for her to help the planet was to turn the back the war to what it was before she herself died. A civil war that split Azur Lane. “We have to split Azur Lane again.”

*Ironic that the only way to save Azur Lane is to split it. And you worked so hard on unifying it again.*

“I see the irony….and that I have to do it with my bare hands.” Sighted Cleveland. She was right, they had spent so many peace talks trying to unite the two sides again yet all failed. Now Azur Lane was together again, yet unified under a horrifying goal. Making one faction defect from them was the only way Cleveland saw any way to change this. Of course she would personally cause that change.

“We should get going then.” Said Cleveland. “Then we can say goodbye to this base and leave for Ironblood.” Cleveland began walking, the direction clearly being that of the hidden dock. “Elma will follow me I bet.” Chibi Observer flew down. She crossed her arms and made a small stop sign as a emote like Cleveland saw in some video games Long Island played.

*You still haven’t gotten the hang of your disguise skills yet, although I have to admit they are still better than I expected. You can disguise yourself as a shipgirl already but can’t mimic their riggings yet. So I advise against doing espionage while disguised.*

“I guess that's a good beginning. Need to master that later but I can use it so far in a limited state.” Smiled Cleveland in a happy voice, disregarding the siren and keeping on walking. “Trust me I won’t go full copying and spying on them yet. I am still not ready for that.”

*You actually can listen to me! Amazing! I thank you so much for not being stupid.*

Cleveland could only giggle. She had done it a few times already but this was the first time Alpha complimented her. “Although a thing did bother me when I tried being another person. When I tried to become the queen, while everything changed into her, I didn't completely change into her. Mainly my chest stayed the same and we all know how flat that little brat is. Is there a reason why that happens, Alpha?” Cleveland looked at the Observer. She had a thoughtful look and a very defeated one on her face.

*It only adds stuff to an illusion, it can’t decrease what is already there….which is why all Observers are flat by the way.*

Cleveland could only laugh at theat. She barely caught herself after laughing for nearly a minute.  “Seriously, that's the reason we two looked alike, then why did you give me a bigger chest in the first place?” Cleveland cupped them under her capelet. “They are easily as big as Hoods, if not bigger, so not exactly perfect for spy operations now aren’t they.”

Observer was red as her model allowed. *I wanted a bigger chest all my life and you wanted it as well, so I think this is a good outcome. When I constructed your body I gave you them. Also you can change everything about yourself to truly become who you want to be, but changing stuff you have instead of just overlaying it is hard, so you need a lot more training to shrink in size or change your chest size.*

Clevelands smile fell. She sighted and realised a big part of her that left her shaking with anger and fear. "If I can change everything about myself, am I even me anymore?" 

Shaking it off she began walking in the direction of the dock. Not letting her depression show she jumped on the dock and looked around. 

Spotting her two friends she walked over to them, the humans around her also giving a quick wave to the siren who retorted by waving with several tentacles. “Hey you two, I am done with the guns.” Greeted Cleveland her friends that already looked at her coming from the dock.

Andrea got up and, while she looked exhausted, gave Cleveland a handshake. “Hey Cleveland, the guns are set up you say. That is good, then we are defended.” 

“Yes, they are all set up. I also took the liberty to hide them so they are not easily discovered.” Answered Cleveland. She looked to the side and only saw the pouting face of her friend. “Elm, what's wrong.”

“Am I blind or do you have more of those disgusting slimy things?” Gasped Elma with a scrunched face. “As if four weren’t bad enough already. Also Elm?”

“Well since I got my rigging I can control and summon a hell of a lot more my dear.” Giggled Cleveland, much to the other sirens displeasure. “Oh and am I not allowed to give you nicknames?”

Elma immediately got rosy cheeks. Andrea could only giggle at the siren's reaction even though she tried to stay serious. Elma just shook it off.  “Whatever. So the guns are set up.”

Cleveland nodded again. She sat down with Andrea next to Elma. “The guns are set up and calibrated on the IFF. The base is therefore defended as heck, or more like a siren one which are basically the same if you ask me. So what did you two do?” 

“Oh we started and finished with sorting crates in the storage, it was boring. Now we just talked about some stuff here and there. Nothing important.” Answered Elma. Cleveland smiled and stood up. “Then we can leave for Ironblood. You wanna come with me Elma? Getting a bit of payback?”

“Ah, finally a plan I agree with wholeheartedly. Actively doing something against Azur Lane.” Smiled Elma and cracked her knuckles. “I was just waiting for this, an opportunity to fight back. I am in.”

Andrea jumped up. “Wait wait wait! You are leaving?!” The human looked distressed and scared. The sirens just stood up. Cleveland touched her shoulder. “We can go sit around her until we starve or do something to better the situation. Also you are pretty protected here. Found out the mountain there is volcanic so the base isn’t even visible on radar.  No worries, the vulcano has been inactive for like a million years according to geo scans.”

“That's good but shipgirls got eyes as well, and the turrets you set up, what’s the guarantee that they will keep them off?” Asked Andrea in a hurry. Cleveland just patted her shoulder and calmed the woman down, or more tried to. 

“Trust me when I speak from experience. Azur Lane needs heavy equipment to attack a siren basse since those turrets shrug off battleship shells and bombs without even having their paint scratched.” Said Cleveland bluntly. She could remember how hard even small bases were to crack. “Also the turrets, next to having unlimited ammunition, are capable of firing at about anything from distances you can only dream off.”

“Don’t forget they fire at bombs, aircrafts and torpedos.” Added Elma to the answer. “So all in all you are pretty safe here.”

“And what if the shipgirls do attack? Can’t one of you stay here?” Asked Andrea. She was clearly worried and the sirens could understand that. They just came out of near death with only the help of the sirens so letting them go is hard for them.

“I assure you, no one will attack you. Because of us two causing some issues. That will bring them away from this base, and hunting humans in general, anyway.” Said Cleveland with quite the stern voice. “So relax!” She could understand but about had it with the human. They survived alone, even when stalked by one of the most evil persons to ever exist, for a long time. That isn’t gonna change without the sirens being there. 

“Fine, but when we all die and meet in hell then I will blame you.” Andrea said. She seemed mad but that was understandable. Cleveland grabbed her shoulder. “We won’t be gone forever. We will come back and well, when I figured out how my portals walk it's just a block away anyway. So we aren’t abandoning you. We just further our reach of operations by a lot.” Cleveland snuckered. Even the hard woman and Elma had to chuckle at that.

“You can still joke around, can't you Cleveland.” Giggled Elma. “Well then, let’s go.”
The two walked away from the human and waved around at who smiled at them. Cleveland felt good having friends and people to protect around her. This was what it was supposed to be, but that she as a siren would see and experience this  peace was something she would have never had expected. Dodging a few children running around they reached and ended up at the docks. 

“So Ironblood. Care to explain why there and not the others?” Asked Elma. She was obviously confused.

“The others are too big, if you mean us two can’t take all of them on, even if we do outclass them by miles, besides, we might get them as allies or involuntary helpers when we attack Ironblood or the axis at all.” Said Cleveland with a smile. She knew that the Axis weren’t evil by choice so they could be converted or at least assist the sirens. Cleveland saw only confusion on Elmas face.

“Allow me to explain. They are just mind controlled. So we save them and get them as allies.” Said Cleveland to her companion. Elma looked confused but Cleveland tickled her side. “Even if they aren’t on our side they will pose a distraction to Azur Lane so we can operate more in the shadows. And Ironblood already proved to be a threat to Azur Lane, even with its few members, in the past. Their small size will make them easy to avoid while breaking the mind control and their strength will prove valuable, I assure you that.”

“Now you begin to speak in a language I can understand.” Giggled Elma and stretched. Her back cracked a bit and Elma looked in a face of bliss. “So then we go through the Suez channel?”

“Yes and then we look for a good way to approach them.” Pointed Cleveland out. “No killing though. We don’t wanna cause attention so just knock others out.” She circled her shoulders and got ready.

“Fine with me.” Said Elma and got ready for a jump. “But don’t expect me to hold back when they attack me.” Cleveland did the same and they almost got into the jump but their arms got grabbed from behind.

“Wait for a second.” Andrea said and grabbed both of the sirens by the hand, almost getting thrown forward of the dock from them just receding their jumping positions. “I think before you go we can do one last thing together. And it’s not working, Elma. A kind of relaxation.” “You told me to do it and I had an idea. You have been doing so much for us in the last days and I think you deserve a moment of relaxation yourself.”

“I was gonna scream, but Ironblood can wait a day….we will still need like three to get there anyway.” Elma said with a smile. she was obviously a bit annoyed but actually interested in what the human proposed  “So what do you want? My muscles are sore from suddenly using them for once after a long time.”

“As I said something relaxing for you, so that's perfect for when your muscles are hurting.” Andrea smiled. “You two should have no problem with it from how much you wear.” She walked away and beckoned the sirens to follow. Elma followed with a shrug. Cleveland could only agree with the siren's words, Ironblood could wait for an hour or more, they had to get there in the first place which would still take days. Would Cleveland only be able to use portals then this would get a lot easier.

*We will teach you that later, you managed to do it with yourself a few times already and transported the weapons with it. Yet I agree with you, teleporting living beings is much more difficult and since you only managed it on reflex so far, better not do it. The amount of body horror that would come out…you don’t even wanna know.*

Cleveland agreed with every word of that and followed her friends. They walked across the base and passed many things. The base seemed to be brightfully alive and all were helping, a pleasant sight for Cleveland and even Elma kicked a ball back to some kids playing soccer.

“So where are we going anyway?” Asked Elma. “Has to be relaxing when you invite us without doing work. Is it a restaurant? Somewhere to drink or eat?” She asked all that and various things more but Andrea always shook her head as she led them. They reached the far back of the base and walked in front of a building. Finally she turned to Elma and smiled.

“We are going to the bathhouse!” Said Andrea, simply causing Elma to go completely red. So far the Enforcer was grounded out of embarrassment. Chibi Observer fell from her seat and let go of her files that spilled across the floor, if that was possible. A horrified look and a lot of blushing on her face would have made Cleveland snicker, had she not have other problems.

Cleveland simply stopped in her movement upon hearing this. “Oh sweet Jesus.”

______

Next chapter should get….interesting

So I will see you there.

I might need to put a disclaimer though.

Chapter Text

(DISCLAIMER: You are about to see lewd stuff and naked girls in detailed explanation. I have no idea if that triggers you or not and while I generally don't care, I let you decide if you read this. Also it will have plot so you kind of do need to, anyway, enjoy)

Cleveland was red. Very red. So red you might call it crimson. Elma wasn't far behind that criteria either.

“A bathouse. A nude bathhouse.” Gasped Clevland as she looked at the building. It had a few cracks in it but otherwise was fully functional.

“It’s ok, you are getting a towel for a few minutes, but yes the water is nude.” Snickered Andrea. “We are all girls....you qualify as girls right? We should have no issues.” She grabbed the sirens, who both were standing rather motionless, and somehow dragged them into the building. Down a few corridors they went and soon the sirens found themselves in a changing room.

“So, that is taken care of.” Mentioned Andra and removed her shirt. The two sirens snapped out of their shock and stood there in heavy sweat. Andrea stood in the direction of the door and while the sirens could simply erase her with their strength, they found themselves somewhat powerless.

“Do we actually have to strip?” Asked Elma in a shaky voice. All of her self esteem seemed to have vanished from just standing there.

“Can’t we just relax in the water like this.” Stottered Cleveland out. “Sirens spend their lives in the water, our clothes won’t get in the way.” She was sweating bullets. She was trying to find arguments but simply couldn’t. Even Observer was still laying on the ground, seemingly knocked out but still stirring. A sort of smoke came from her head and the Observer looked rather red.

“Nah out of it.” Andrea smirked at them before bending down to the smaller sirens with a smile. “Come on, you can’t go in with your clothes, even if they are water permeable. They aren't part of your body are they?”

“No they aren't, we can take them off.” Gulped Elma. She was twirling her fingers “But.”

“No buts.” Smirked Andra. “Or are you scared?” The human was finding this amusing. The creatures and monsters humanity fought for years were nothing more than embarrassed little kids at the moment.

“Of course not.” Gasped Elma and grabbed her nightgown. She discarded it with a single motion by pulling it over her head, removing her shoulder plates in the same motion. “Why should I be scared to lay myself bare. You cannot hurt me anyway.” She was hit in the pride by what the human said and that she could not stand. She kicked her little shoes away, that she in contrary to Cleveland wore in the first place, and took off her elbow long elegant black gloves, leaving the enforcer in only her bra and panties.

Cleveland slowly removed her capelet without saying a word. She didn’t wanna fall behind anyway. It fell off of her and Cleveland sat it on the bench next to her. She couldn’t let the human make fun of her, something about that made her angry, as if her whole being was attacked mentally. “You want us to strip, we can do that. But don’t be mad when we are sexier than you.”

She tried to hide her nervousness by being snarky. She of course knew what her body looked like and shouldn’t be scared….but that was her old body. She had no idea what her new body looked like, and that scared her to an extent.

Taking off her skirt, Cleveland let it fall to the ground and step out of it before bending down and picking it up. She laid it on the bench where she already laid her capelet. Cleveland didn’t catch Elma staring at her sideways as the other siren stripped by taking off her underwear.

“Ok now the hardest part.” Muttered Cleveland. She took hold of her shirt and dragged it over her head….or more tried to. The shirt was tight, way too tight for some reason. “Weird this fit me perfectly when I put it on.”

*Well a lot has happened since then. We also modified it when you remember. Had to strip you for it.*

“I guess you removed my bra then or when you revived me. There is no way my old one could handle my chest now anyway.” Snickered Cleveland quietly. She jumped up and down a bit to loosen her shirt but despite her chest not moving an inch she achieved nothing, all in all it seemed tight.

Cleveland grabbed the thing firmly and, with a lot of pulling, finally discarded the piece of cloth and had to catch her breath afterwards. She took some deep breaths, which suddenly felt a lot less constricted, and stared at the shirt. “Is this too small? Now that I feel without it, it's like five sizes too small for me.” Cleveland laid it down on all her clothes. She was still relishing the fact that her breathing now felt better and much easier than before.

Her chest was looking bad. The skin was smooth and perfectly round but most of the skin looked redder than her nipples and areola. It looked like pressure marks from being constricted way too hard. Thankfully Cleveland could see the redness recede as the chest took on her normal skin colour. She was, however, a bit confused about why her shirt seemed to be way too small. Even Alpha said she made it fitting to her body a while ago but it clearly wasn’t. At least she was thankful for not having to show the rashes to her friends.

She heard whistling from behind and realized what situation she was in. She turned around and stared at the other two nude people. Elma and Andrea wore towels already, in contrast to Cleveland. The siren blushed hard and covered her own nude body. Her tentacles simply did the job and covered the important parts by laying themselves over them. Elma looked like she wanted to scream so hard she held her mouth while Andrea simply looked at the two.

“Stop staring.” Said Cleveland with rosy cheeks. The tentacles over her private parts felt weird, yet somehow exciting. Drifting away from that thought Cleveland simply looked at the embarrassed looking other siren. “What's wrong Elma? I am only covering myself.”

“You cover yourself using tentacles for it. Urgh. My whole knowledge of that type of culture is making me shudder.” Cried Elma. “Using your normal arms would be lewd but this makes it look no less lewder.” Said Elma as she shuddered upon seeing that. “ Being touched by those slimy things there. Argh! Don’t think about it Elma. Don’t think!”

“It’s not that bad.” Said Cleveland. The siren was clearly uncomfortable and giddily. Andrea looked at her clothing pile. A quick observation revealed that everything the siren previously wore lay there but it also revealed that it was missing a few very crucial things. “Are you not wearing underwear at all? I know you wear no panties but no bra? You two are the opposites. Haha.” The woman had a quick laugh about it while the sirens were clearly confused.

The two non-humans looked at each other. “Do you get what she means?” Asked Elma with heavy breaths. Cleveland could only shrug. The movement sent her tentacles into a tiny movement that almost let the siren moan.

“She wears no underwear while you basically wear no clothes but wear underwear.” Answered Andrea simply, not even noticing Cleveland acting odd. The two sirens sighted and Cleveland held out her hand. “Can I get a towel now? Ouch.” She got her wish by getting the towel thrown directly into her face.

Putting the towel on and letting her tentacles go, Cleveland could somewhat relax. While she wasn’t exactly fine, she at least was covered by something that wasn’t feeling overly sensitive to the touch. “I guess we can go take a bath then.”

Andra nodded and was about to lead them but picked up the clothes the sirens previously wore. “We can put them in the wash. God knows they need it.”

“No kidding.” Shrugged Cleveland. “The last time those were in the wash was over two years ago.”

The human looked horrified and amazed by this. Elma herself looked confused. “Did they keep you in a test tube or something? The fall was about a year ago. So how did you not walk into a base when they were still online. I am excused. I was trapped in a dark fallen apart base with no hope of getting out and no power to spare.”

Cleveland could only look down. “Let’s just say I was repairing myself. Couldn’t spare time on cleaning my clothes while I was essentially dead.” She was telling a half truth.. She knew she had to tell Elma the truth but simply couldn’t bring it over her heart. Luckily Andrea and Elma didn’t seem to notice her sadness.

“Well you two have reasons but this needs a wash.” Groaned Andrea as she picked the clothes up. “I would give you another set of clothes but what we wear you can’t since I think siren and shipgirl clothing is different from normal human clothes.”

Elma was dumbfounded. She walked forward and pulled the human a bit. “We can wear normal clothes no problem. Just that our clothes are what we are born with and therefore hold a special value to us. So clean them with care, we can’t replace them.”

Andrea shrugged and walked into the next room. “I mean yours is just a transparent bathrobe and Cleveland wears her normal stuff in black, probably modified though to fit her unnaturally large chest. I don’t see anything valuable with those clothes but fine. Into the wash I guess.” Throwing and starting the washing machine that stood there she left it at that.

“They are special though. We can only go out into battle with those clothes.” Mentioned Elma as she watched. “So I want them back in tip-top condition.” The human was obviously confused so Elma sighted. “The clothes shipgirls and sirens wear are an extension of their riggings. In short for you, our clothes can survive a fight while your pathetic fibers can’t.”

Cleveland bonked her on the head. “Be nice. Understood.” She wanted to correct and educate the human in a nice way, but Elma stole that opportunity. Elma was left groaning and Cleveland sighted. “Who doesn’t want to learn has to feel.” She turned to Andrea. “To explain it the material out of which the clothes of a shipgirl and the ones of the sirens consist of is super hardened fibers you can’t reproduce. They are highly resistant to any type of damage and stress while still remaining the weight and appearance of normal cotton. Imagine it like you wear a full suit of steel with the weight of a sweater and you basically got the magic.”

“That sounds amazing.” Said the human amazed. “How much can that take? Shipgirls are resistant as hell already, then what are you?”

Elma smiled. "They are unaffected even when taking a battleship caliber shell point blank, so a lot. After that it depends on bodily strength but a rocket like you have, while able to injure a shipgirl, aren’t even able to scratch us." Elma sounded prideful and Cleveland understood her. She already learned several times how hard to damage sirens were, and now she was experiencing it first hand.

“Can we recreate that?” Asked the human with a hopeful look. Cleveland understood the idea. If the humans had that type of armor their survival chances would rise exponentially. Sadly Cleveland had to shake her head. “They are tied to riggings and humans are very incapable of using riggings. I know of the experiments that ended in failures. So I am sorry but you can’t.”

“Dammit.” Groaned Andrea. She had one good idea and was immediately shut down by facts. “But if they are tied to riggings then you should be able to summon it indefinitely. Just do it.” Cleveland was confused. she could summon her rigging but didn’t know about the clothes. Must be a siren only thing because she remembered having it specifically manufactured from wisdom cubes for her shipgirl self.

“While we can summon it, it only summons the one we have, so the one we currently have in the wash.” Answered Elma. “So that ship has sailed. Unless you can get wisdom cubes, you can’t manufacture it, and even if you do, you need an expert and someone that knows how to do it because it sure as hell it ain’t easy to do.”

The human seemed down. She pouted a bit and searched for ideas but found none. Cleveland stroked her back.

“Andrea.” Addressed Cleveland the human. “When you were fighting I saw you used some type of body armor, care to explain what that is? Never seen that before.” She tried to change the topic to something less depressing and that seemed to do the trick.

Andrea looked a bit filled with pride. “After the sirens were beat….although you two are the living proof they weren’t wiped out as stated in the records, humanity flourished as you know. We invented many things and that included a lot in the self protection department. Aiming to have weapons that can potentially harm shipgirls and sirens to not be helpless observers should they come back, the scientists conducted tests and built body armor that allowed people to take a bit of punishment. We can still die but it takes a lot more than one stab now.”

“So that is why you were able to damage them. Your rocket launchers aren’t normal.” Said Cleveland relieved. She had been thinking about that because she saw the humans fight back with weapons that normally shouldn’t hurt a shipgirl.

“Armor piercing rockets, capable of penetrating even a shipgirl, if hit right, which is not easy I have to add. Oh actually it's designed against you for fact, anti siren.” Said Andrea as she set the facts on the table. She snickered a bit. “Come girls, we should go into the bath now, that's what we are here for after all.”

The sirens nodded. They both were moderately not blushing anymore and walked into the spa. Looking around a rather big hot spring pool took most of the space in the room. It looked like the water was steaming hot and Cleveland could feel the heat coming from it. Walking to the edge the two sirens stopped. They fidgeted around a bit.

“You or me first?” Asked Cleveland. Elma promptly gestured for Cleveland to go first. Cleveland just shook her head and gestured for Elma to go. The two of them took this game on for several minutes, constantly not deciding who wants to go first.

“In with you two.” Said Andrea as she had enough with the sirens' constant bickering. She pushed the two blushing sirens with her hands. Said sirens stood on the edge before falling forward, chest first into the hot water. Thankfully Andrea snatched their towels before they got soaked.

With a loud splash the two sirens submerged under the water. Andrea could only snicker a bit but then had to duck. Two insanely fast objects flew past her face and impacted the wall behind her. The woman looked back and jumped.

“Are you trying to kill me?!” Gasped Andrea as she looked at the wall behind her. The siren's main weapons, the Halberd of the Enforcer and the Scythe of the Observer were stuck in the wall, thankfully not piercing the concrete.

“I am considering it.” Said the two sirens at the same time as they stood with anger in the water. Cleveland looked at Elma.

“Since when can you summon your halberd?” Asked Cleveland as she looked at her fellow siren.

“Since I got my rigging repaired.” Answered Elma with a smile. They stared at each other before looking away after realizing what they did with rosy cheeks.

“Will you two now calm down?” Said Andrea as she calmed down and discarded her towel. She took her steps into the water and sat down on a ledge. “We are here to relax, not to kill each other.”

“Then don’t pull that stuff with us.” Gasped Elma as she sunk to her head underwater. She didn’t wanna expose herself. Cleveland did the same but ultimately decided to just face it and sit opposite to the human. She pulled the weapons out of the wall with her tentacles and let her scythe vanish after giving Elma her halberd which she also vanished. Elma sat away in quite the distance and covered herself with her arms.

“Will you come and sit your ass down here my dear enforcer.” Said Cleveland with a tone only a disappointed mother could match. She already sat next to the human so the other siren sure as hell wasn’t allowed to just dip.

“Nah I will just stay back here.” Said Elma and shuffled away even further. Cleveland only sighted at that.

Not deciding to allow that, she just grabbed Elma's ankle with a tentacle from underwater. With a shriek of Elma the Observer pulled her to her and sat the enforcer, who was as red as a tomato, down next to her. She patted the Enforcers back, trying to not look at her body. “Elma, just face it, we aren’t gonna be left alone anyway, so just face it.”

“You are quite different than what we know Cleveland as, a lot more different than her personality wise.” Said Andrea as she locked at the siren. “Well you probably don’t know her personality wise.” Answered Cleveland.

“That one is flat as a chessboard.” Snickered Elma as she added that. Cleveland pouted and felt slightly insulted but couldn’t deny the facts. She looked down and touched her chest. “I mean it is really a step up from what it once was. Certainly big.”

*I swear they are bigger than when I made them. At least two cups bigger.*

“I am still a growing girl.” Snickered Cleveland in her mind. “Maybe I actually still develop due to basically being a few months old.”

*So you are still developing in this form, interesting, that comes in the notes. I must record how you change over time shall we ever make another shipgirl a siren.*

Cleveland only looked mildly pissed. She wouldn’t let that happen. She will save the world before that would be necessary ever again.

Ignoring her murderous tendecies, that Cleveland had no idea where they were actually coming from, Cleveland leaned back and relaxed. Taking in the hot water, she let her body soak in it.

“God this does wonders for my back.” Said Cleveland as she took in the heat of the bath. The muscles in her back instantly relaxed better than they did in a straight week. “Why does my back hurt so damn much?” She stretched back completely and several satisfying cracks could be heard. She repeated that action a few times.

“Why only.” Andrea stared at Cleveland, or more specifically her absolutely massive chest that stuck straight out of the water, nipples pointing straight forward. The human could see the breast of the siren smacked into the belly of the siren whenever she went up and down. That left the human wince a bit because she could already see marks forming.

“Can I ask you to try out a bra? You definitely need one for that chest.” Andrea wanted to help the siren, and offered the advice she knew. That chest must strain the back of anyone a lot and she couldn’t even imagine the pain of it bouncing around constantly. She already had considerable big breasts but the siren was at least more than twice her size.

“I never needed one.” Huffed Cleveland as she came back up and stopped moving, her back seemingly having stopped being grindstones. She put her arms under them and held up her chest. “Although they do weigh a bit more than you can guess. Certainly more than I first expected but I don’t need a bra for it. My clothes are enough to hold them stable…although I do have to look to modify it.”

Andrea shook her head. “Take it from a woman. You need one or you will feel unimaginable pain with those badonkas." She herself would immediately run into the next store and buy one, but the siren seemed to be too stoic.

Cleveland merely huffed in response to the statement. “I am a siren, I am strong enough and it feels unnatural anyway to cover myself. I walked around without underwear for so long, I won’t change that now. But I take it into consideration. Besides, I am just not used to carrying around massive breasts.” Cleveland said half of those things without even realizing it. She knew she wore basically nothing, yet also knew that it didn’t bother her at all. In fact she didn’t even wanna change it and cover herself up more for some reason.

Andrea shook her head and sighed. “You dense creatures. But that explains why the two of you walk around basically naked without complaining.” She sighed. “I won’t understand you in a million years.” She groaned a bit. “So to come to plans. You two want to go to Ironblood right.”

“Yeah, after this we will go there.” Said Cleveland and crossed her legs as she scrubbed some seawater off of her calves. “Cutting them off from the Azur Lane supplies will enhance our capabilities and weaken them by a lot. Anyway I need to take Elma for a ride anyway.”

Elma immediately got red upon hearing that. Cleveland of course meant their ride to Ironblood but the spoken could easily be understood wrongly. “Are you trying to go at it now or what?” Snickered Andrea. She saw how the sirens looked at each other and smiled. Those two were definitely girlfriends.

“She can't. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Said Elma with a blush. She shuffled a bit away. The two others only looked after her.

“Do you need toys?” Giggled Andrea. Elma definitely understood and shuddered in her speech. “We don't need that. Nor or never. You are so low on stuff anyway so you can’t even have that.” Elma smirked. She knew the humans had absolutely nothing and were only focussing on the basic needs you need for living.

“I assure you I got the equipment.” Smirked Cleveland, much to Elmas horror. She snipped and several tentacles came from her back and stood at ready, all pointed at Elma. Elma only whimpered, her smugness vanishing in an instant, before the tentacles descended on her, touching and tickling her a bit. Elma was certainly not happy but had to laugh at that with tears in her eyes, and a sun red face.

Andrea observed this all and made sure to stay away from the tentacles as they trashed the siren. She pulled one of them while they were just hanging there, waiting to strike, to her and realised they felt like real ones. She could even squeeze and bend them as she touched it. Sheweaved her hands through the suction cups and even felt them pull a bit on her arm. Then the tentacle was pulled from her hands and vanished behind the siren they belonged to. Cleveland stopped her assault and left the trashing siren alone. Pulling back her tentacles they simply receded and vanished into her back again.

The woman leaned to the side from having the thing ripped out of her hand at high speed. Hurtful normally, though through to it being coated in a cover of slime, the thing just slipped out of her hands. She looked behind the siren but saw no tentacles which raised a few questions. “ Wait where are they? Where do you even hide them? You wear no clothes to hide them under now.” The question was to be expected. The siren's tentacles seemed way longer and more voluminous than her body mass and even physics would allow.

The siren giggled a bit. She turned her back to the human, held her hair up, and let out a single tentacle. “See where they come from?” Andrea could only look as the tentacle calmly laid itself on her stomach. The thing came straight out of the siren's back which was surprising. Looked like some small portal formed on her back. “They actually come out of your body? That's strange…and completely impossible.”

“Well it’s not humanly possible. I am not exactly following your law of things. So deal with it.” Snickered Cleveland. She could snicker around with the human for a long time but decided to leave it up after rubbing the woman's face. “By the way I feel and almost see through my tentacles so don’t try anything weird behind there, you can pet it if you want. Elma you want one too?”

All she got as a anwer was Elma standing up and sloppily helt her halberd at Cleveland. Cleveland sighed. “I will take that as a later.” Elma only groaned in response before diving in the water again. “I will beat your ass for this someday down the line.”

“Try it.” Giggled Cleveland and readied one tentacle. “Or you want me to use it more intimately?” Elma immediately dove under the water. She didn’t come up at all even after two minutes had passed. “I admire her lung capacity.”

“Is she a sub or does she just have good lungs?” Asked Andrea as she looked at the spot the siren vanished. She could barely make out the silhouette of the diving siren under the water.

“She ain’t a sub, she is a battleship.” Corrected Cleveland the human. “So that answers your question.” She took a smile as she looked at the pouting face of the siren underwater. In contrast to the human she could actually see Elma completely. “Yeah I will take her on a ride. And no I don’t mean that with the bed.”

“What is the ride you mean then?” Andra asked. She wanted to know what Cleveland meant other than annoying her fellow siren. Elma seemed to have calmed down as well.

Cleveland began washing her body a bit before staring at the woman, she removed her tentacle which the woman helt and let it vanish to not have it annoy Elma, and might even cause her to stop playing submarine. “Well we have to get into Ironblood in the first place you know.” Said Cleveland bluntly. She was right and Andrea realised that. No force could just walz in.

“The ride I mean is how I will open up a spot for us to get through the suez channel and get into Ironblood itself.” Explained Cleveland. “I mean sure we could go around africa but that seems rather like the long way.” She already had a plan for that in the back of her mind and considering that it's never happened since then they will never expect her plan. She could bring the two of them into Ironblood and deceit the entirety of Azur Lane with one act.

“I still don’t get how you can infiltrate Ironblood from this.” Andrea mentioned bluntly. “Neither you nor I can just walk into that base without getting spotted. And them seeing you means most likely instant death.”

“That's the thing, I will not be spotted. I can simply disguise myself as a shipgirl and walk in.” Said Cleveland with a smile as she leaned back. Andrea was confused as hell. “What do you mean by that?”

Cleveland smiled and closed her eyes. Andrea could watch as the siren's skin color changed from a pale tone to a normal human colour. The siren's hair turned in a streak blond and looked as natural as it could be. Cleveland opened her eyes and revealed them to be red in colour. “So how do I look? Do I look like me?”

Andrea couldn’t believe her eyes. Infront of her, where a second ago a siren rested, now sat the shipgirl Cleveland. “Siren? Is that you?” She asked because she simply couldn’t believe her eyes.

Cleveland nodded. “Yeah that's me, cool isn’t it?” Andrea scratched her head on it. She couldn’t even begin to understand. She wanted to say a word but was stopped by Elma finally deciding to show herself again. She broke from the water and looked at the others.

“If I didn't know it was you Beta, I would have thrown my halberd in that punchable face of yours. And keep your tentacles to yourself.” Said Elma as she approached them after finally coming over her fear of getting tickled. She had to massively catch her breath as the water still came out of her lungs. “I am definitely no sub, damm I am not prepared for diving anymore.” Cleveland smiled upon that, that meant she could look like she used to be and fit right in.

“Does the fake me have this amount of a chest?” Said Cleveland smugly. She held her chest up and Elma looked away embarrassed. “I doubt it.”

Elma shook her head and giggled. “Look, you actually look like who you think you are now, but that chest is still in the way.”

“Wait wait, you can transform into other people?” Asked Andrea to confirm again as she finally realised what the siren did. “Any person?”

“Yeah I can do that easily.” Said Cleveland and confirmed again that she had the ability to change her appearance. “Here give me a second.” The “shipgirl” seemed to think before speaking. “So how do I sound?” Her voice is now identical to that of the leader of the royal navy. “I can change certain parts or my whole looks.”

“You sound like the queen. That is an ability every spy in the world would dream of.” Dreamed Andrea. “Then you can infiltrate Azur Lane and all easily with that ability.” Clapped Andrea. She could already imagine the various circumstances this could be used in. “They won’t even suspect anything.”

“My thoughts.” Smiled Cleveland in the voice of the queen. Squeaky and high, with a little bit of snobbiness, like the queen itself.

“But your whole body isn’t changing completely, the queen is tiny and flat, and you aren’t that at the moment.” Mentioned Andrea as she observed the shipgirl. The sirens appearance changed, not her body mass or assets.

Cleveland turned away embarrassed and transformed to her normal state again. “I am still learning how to do it ok. Be satisfied with what I can already do. I promise I will get better.”

“Well we have a lot of time for you to learn and better yourself my friend.” Giggled Elma and weekly punched her friend's shoulder. “Besides, I still need to get my revenge so seeing you struggle will suffice more than enough.” Cleveland pouted at this while Elma only laughed.

“Elma can you do this disguise as well?” Asked Andrea as she thought. If both sirens could do that then they could both sneak in as so far only Cleveland could. Sadly Elma shook her head. “No I sadly can’t. Only Observers got that ability but I still got my guns and will, and that suffices more than enough.”

“Yeah I will infiltrate and then you can lay down the heavy bombardment.” Said Cleveland. She relaxed and soaked in the heat. Her entire body felt refreshed and finally shook off a lot of insecurities. Finally she could enjoy just being in peace even just for a moment.

“Then you can stop Azur Lane?” Smiled Andrea as she hugged Elma and Cleveland. She felt a bit of hope returning to the planet so many saw as a burned wasteland. “Ironic that their enemies are the only ones that are able to do that.” The human took a step back and sat back down. Elma looked filled with pride. “Yes we will stop at Azur Lane. We will save humanity.”

Cleveland had to nod. These goals are perfect for her. She would save everyone from their deceived states and bring peace to this world without bloodshed.

“And we will kill every one of them all-'' Elma was stopped in her sentence. Cleveland had stood up with remarkable speed and pressed her leg next to her head, standing over the siren by quite a margin, and stopped her from talking. Cleveland's stare gave away a threatening aura that let even Elma stop.

Elma had to look out where she looked or she would see places no woman should lay bare. The bigger siren bent down a bit, smirking at her fellow siren. “We are not gonna kill them all. We will save them.”

“Don’t kabedon me.” Whined Elma. She didn’t look happy and only stared at Cleveland's body that stood so close to her. Her eyes almost ravished each detail of the smooth body of the giggling observer.

“You know Sakuran culture?” Said Cleveland. She was surprised by this because she heard and saw this only practiced with the sakurans. Yuustagram had a few interesting things in them when she could still access it. Most obvious, the massive chest that almost fell into Elmas face.

“Yes. I am not an uncultured swine.” Said Elma. Cleveland put her leg down. “Well I wanted to try it since I saw it, and it’s supposed to make the person who you do it to, unfocussed. And I wanted exactly that, my dear friend.”

“God what is your problem?” Huffed Elma. “It’s whenever I say kill Azur Lane that you get weird.”

“It’s because you generalise it too much. We won’t kill all of them.” Said Cleveland with a deadpan voice. “Only the five bastards that did this.” She was barely keeping her bloodlust in check but Elma had to realise that not all of them are evil. Cleveland would personally show her.

“What is that reasoning.” Argued Elma. “You protect the people that ruined our lives like they are your friends.” Cleveland gulped, this was more a punch in the stomach than a spat in the face to her. She shook her head. “They are just deceived, we break what controls them and they will stop.”

“You think murderers will ever stop?” Retorted Elma. She had a point but Cleveland couldn’t agree to it. “Look into their past Elma, they weren’t always evil.”

“From a siren's point they were and still are very evil.” Said Elma with malice. Cleveland could get why Elma would see it like that and turned away in a hurry.

Cleveland turned to Andrea. Her words were getting harder and harder to find and covering herself to save her dignity became a second objective by now, overshadowed by proving the truth. “Andrea helped me, they weren’t always killing humans. Tell her that they were good a long time ago.”

“Yes, but they changed pretty quickly. It was always suspected that they attacked humans anyway, just that a year ago it was made official.” Andrea said out bluntly. Cleveland was losing ground fast here. She was coming dangerously close to revealing the truth to prove her point but that would make her stand all alone once again. Her friends would instantly abandon her when they found out.

“We can’t kill them. They are innocent. INNOCENT!” Said Cleveland. “Only five people are guilty.” She spun around and met with the eyes of Elma. Somehow the smaller siren now looked bigger than Cleveland. “It's always five with you, did the five hurt you the most or did they kill the most of us?”

“They killed me.” Answered Cleveland but Elmas stare still pierced her. “We died all the time. So what's different?”

Cleveland felt bad. “They deceive them all, they are the leaders, we kill them all the others are freed and good again.” Cleveland had to confine her friend, they couldn’t just kill every single one of them. She couldn’t do that.

“I like the idea.” Elma agreed and Clevelands heart didn’t skip a beat. “However, what will guarantee that even if they are controlled, that they all will stop once it ends? What if they just developed a taste for killing others?“

“Of course not but they…they.” Cleveland couldn’t find any words to speak anymore. “They aren’t evil. Only the five are evil.” Cleveland was grabbed by the shoulders.

“I want to fucking know why you keep them protected! You always speak about the five as if the others didn't do any bad.” Screamed Elma at Cleveland as she held her. ”I want to know why you protect the devil?! Cause if you don’t I will not stop killing them.”

“We can’t kill them all.” Said Cleveland with growing panic. She wanted to run but couldn’t. Losing her friends she just found would break her whole foundation that already stood on shaky legs. She wouldn’t want to become a shallow hull composed of only rage.

“Oh I can. And I assure you after everything they did they are far from innocent.” Said Elma with malice. “And you tell me better the reason why you want to spare the people that destroyed our home.”

With that Cleveland broke. “They destroyed your home, not mine!” She screamed at Elmas face. “I don’t belong to you and used to kill you. I belong or more belonged to Azur Lane my entire life. They aren’t evil, we weren’t evil.”

Elma slapped her and let her go. Cleveland landed in the water and shuddered as if freezing, even though the water's temperature was high. Elma looked at the kneeling siren. “You better explain everything now. I want to know it and I think a certain human wants that too.”

Cleveland could barely look up. She couldn’t bring herself to even look into their faces. Two people belonging to two races she murdered countless from.

“Fine. Fine.” Said Cleveland defeated, she had lost and began to cry but she already cred all her tears so none came out. “You want to know the story from the beginning, don't you? You will hate me at the end.” Cleveland was beaten and edged into a corner. Elma had broken her defences and all and she didn’t have the strength left to keep lying.

“Why would we hate you?” Asked Elma. Andrea didn’t look any less confused. The two were unable to get the former shipgirl that was freaking out innerly.

“From what I will tell you now. I wanted to tell you this when I would find a good moment but you forced me to do this.” Cleveland said and sat down, covering herself with nothing but her own doubts and insecurities. She took a few deep breaths and prepared herself for admitting a life of crime to the two she hurt the most. “Now what I will tell you will make you hate me. You both will want to kill me after this.” She stopped breathing and looked at the two with all honesty.

“I am Cleveland. USS Cleveland.”

________
This is done with, did you think I write a lemon?

Anyway this was something different, the calm before the storm that will be coming.

So enjoy this chapter and await the next.

See you then.

Chapter Text

The two non-former-ships stared at the former ship with a bit of confusion. “We know that you look like Cleveland.”

Cleveland facepalmed. “You aren’t listening to me.” She shook her head. The two had no Idea what she was talking about and it made her have a severe headache.

“We are listening.” Elma said as she repositioned herself in the water. “It's just you who speaks incomprehensible stuff.” Elma huffed. “Also you only look like her, you definitely aren’t her.”

*Oooh this gotta be good. Ok make them not hate you while you explain.*

“Elma. I am Cleveland, I am more Cleveland than that copy of me there.” Cleveland said enraged. Everytime she thought about that imposter her blood boiled. But the plan she had for that one wasn’t important right now.

Andrea gawked at their discussion. “Aren’t you modeled after her?” Cleveland did look like Cleveland just with a siren aspect so the human saw just that.

“No, I am Cleveland.” Repeated Cleveland. She was walking around and rubbing her forehead, her nudeness not bothering her at all. She was trying to say what was needed but the two idiots in front of her got less than train station.

“You can’t be her and you know why.” Elma said bluntly. She was getting a headache from her siren friend's actions. The enforcer knew what she believed so had no problem speaking that out loud. “It’s clear as day why you aren’t USS Cleveland.”

“I literally don’t get you Elma.” Cleveland said annoyed. “Spit it out, why would I know that I am not the shipgirl Cleveland even though I literally am.”

“You freaking fought her. That’s enough of a reason to see that you aren’t Cleveland, Beta.” Proofed Elma with a smile. “Look at your body, you are a siren. Why do you think you are a lowly human made product?"

Andrea, to that comment, gave her a glare. “I take offense to that.” She shook it off.

Elma had to look sorry. “Sorry but shipgirls are literally copies of us if you think about it, be it very bad copies.” Pointed Elma out and stood right. When you think about it, sirens and shipgirls are basically functioning the same. The only difference is that sirens, next to their incredible advanced stuff, look and act differently. The way they use riggings and most weapons of them were rather similar.

*It’s quite the opposite but ok.*

“Yes I fought her!” Cleveland said with anger. “I fought that damm clone of me and didn’t kill her because I will break her and show her that she ain’t the real one.”

Andre could only look. The siren was twitching lightly and her deep glowing eyes showed unimaginable bloodlust. “Damn you two certainly hate each other's guts. Did the shipgirl Cleveland hurt you or so?”

“Oh yes, she took my spot in Azur Lane. MINE!”  Screamed Cleveland and punched the wall, thankfully not hard enough to crack it. “Even my sisters think that one is the actual Cleveland. The clone. It’s to milk mice.”

“There are more Observers?” Asked Andrea and was met with a hand on her shoulder. Elma exhaled. “There are normally only one or two of the high sirens, two being a rarity in itself like Beta over here.”

"Her name is actually Beta, although she prefers Cleveland. Good to know." Said the woman as she looked at Cleveland.  The siren might look firm and physically a lot less bulky than some bodybuilders but Andrea knew hard enough to not mess with her.

“Yes, Beta is the siren name that I won't take as my real name, but sure, yes I am an Observer. The only one alive for a matter of fact.” Huffed Cleveland as she plopped herself into the water. “And how many were there of you Elma? How many Enforcers did your master have?”

Elma was confused. She looked at her friend with a confused look. “We were around 50, why are you asking? You should know this. You are a higher rank than I am so you should be informed.”

“Who even is that master? Wait, she outranks you?” Asked Andrea yet again. Elma merely gave her a look that said no. “I can’t tell you who my master is, and yes she actually can command me around. I am thankful that she doesn’t though. I value free speech."

Cleveland giggled. She looked at the two with a broken but sly smile. “Arbiter the sixth, The Lovers. That’s her master.” Said Cleveland to get petty revenge. Elmas look shifted to horrified in an instant as she snapped rigid. She turned around and stared at Cleveland. “You can’t just say that! You will get executed for this I swear to you. Did you seriously forget the rules?”

*As if those are still enforced Enforcer, but you are right, if she was a lower ranking siren.*

Cleveland only stared at her friend. “As far as I am concerned the entire world has gone to crap so who cares anymore Elma. It’s not like there is anyone alive that will judge me or so.”

“God what is your problem?” Elma gasped in annoyance. “You sound and act more hateful than ever, stop with this “I am USS Cleveland” talking. You are a siren and nothing more.”

“But I am Cleveland, you just don’t believe me Elma, exactly as I expected.” Cleveland said with a sigh. She already expected this since she had to admit it being literally hard to get.

“Even if you were Cleveland. How would you suddenly become a siren?” Elma huffed. For her something like that was absolutely impossible.

“Ask Observer Alpha for that, she did the procedure.” Huffed Cleveland and sank in the water. She blew a few bubbles as she looked around.

“How am I supposed to do that, can I magically talk with the dead or so.” Elma asked. She knew the Observer was dead so there was like no way she could just talk to her. She was even locked and marked as dead by the system so it was true that she was officially dead and can't be brought back. “I am sorry that you lost your sister but don’t deny that she is dead.”

*Well she is and isn’t. So yes. I am officially deadn’t.*

Cleveland smirked. She rose up again and smiled. “She ain’t dead, I got her in my head. She used her cube to put a second one into me and made me a siren…and she ain’t even my sister, even though she technically is.”

*Yes, I am your sister, even if not directly biological I think….Is rebirthing and including myself into another consciousness being a sister?*

“Then who are your sisters?” Asked Elma exhausted. The siren spoke weird gibberish that had no reason behind it. “If it ain’t Alpha who is it, are there more Observers next to you, I don’t know about?” She was getting more and more confused. What the siren said made no sense to her. Observer Alpha being alive wasn’t even possible.

Cleveland looked blissful. She leaned back and smiled an honest to god smile. “Oh my sisters, how I miss you. Denver, I so miss your smile. Montpelier, I so miss your jokes. And lastly Columbia, I dearly miss your cooking.” She looked like she was in nirvana and not in the bath.

Andrea took a step back while Elma was just confused. What the siren said made no sense. Those people she just said were absolutely their enemies so why would the siren call them sisters. 

“That's sooo wrong. Those aren’t your sisters.” Elma simply pointed out. She was annoyed that Cleveland was back in her “I am a shipgirl” phase but remained calm. She just leaned back and brought up arguments but was generally too exhausted to care.

Cleveland huffed. “It’s very much right, I didn’t start out as the enemy of humanity.” She said, although she somehow did if what Wales and the others said was right.

*Glad that you realise that.*

“Ok. Lets just hypothetically assume you are right, that you are a shipgirl. Well here is the problem, no living shipgirl can become a siren.” Elma said in a matter of fact voice. “No shipgirl would survive the procedure and their cubes would be overloaded, siren and their cubes aren’t compatible, destroying their bodies and cubes. They literally blow up. Besides the fact that two cubes in one body would absolutely make a ship unable to manifest if it isn’t big enough, such as the light cruiser you falsely claim to be. So Beta, here is the whole reason why this whole thing is impossible.”

What Elma said was known to Cleveland. All tries to use wisdom cubes as power already proved to be much more than a nuclear power plant, and she knew siren cubes were even more powerful. Mixing these two was tried once after they took a cube from a malfunctioning pawn ship. That already low power cube still blew up the ship it was trying to manifest as, blowing half the dock up in the process. And given that high sirens weapons are stronger their cubes must be astronomically more powerful in the contrary, meaning trying to bond that to a shipgirl would end in a disaster. Cleveland however knew one thing that made this whole thing indeed possible. Alpha used her own cube for the process, a cube that has lost nearly all its power and was breaking apart. 

“A alive one you say doesn’t work, that makes sense, we tried using some of yours on our weapons and Ironblood in their small achievements didn’t even come close to what strengths you, no, we have. So how about you use a use a dead shipgirl?” Proposed Cleveland. “I assure you a dead shipgirl, that has lost her cube and was left to rot under the waves with the remnant cube of the barely functioning cube of a Observer she killed inside of her, suffices as good ground material.”

*It ehh, sure does.*

“What the hell?” Said Andrea. The two sirens were bickering stuff only they understood but the human got close to nothing. “Aren’t you both sirens?”

“We both are.” Confirmed Cleveland and Elma almost smiled from hearing her admitting that. “Yet I am not a part of that armada.”

“I beg to differ. You as an Observer are pretty much the organizers of said armada.” Said Elma as she leaned over. “Also using a dead shipgirl is stupid, you won’t get her body back, you would need to completely reconstruct something dead with new made cells. That might take years. No one would do that.”

Cleveland somehow expected that answer. This answer alone sparked some deep feelings in herself she wouldn’t ever dare to speak out, yet it became more imminent with the passing days. However Cleveland helt her anger in herself. She knew which mad girl would do this experiment anyway.

“Yeah, no one except Observer Alpha would try to do such an act.” Snickered Cleveland. “She made me after using my corpse in exactly the way you said. Creating something from something dead. Hahahah. So I actually died.”

*Yes you died, that’s obvious. Wait, is that praising me or calling me mad?*

Elma was confused. “Wait, Observer made you? Then what cube are you using? Actually what are you? You didn’t appear in the data when I could still look into them. I read about an experiment with a shipgirl that Alpha was conducting before the base got destroyed and she died in it. She already was heavily damaged from a previous fight, but the log was cut off.” 

Cleveland took deep breaths and was ready to prove herself. “Oh I am said experiment.” Cleveland snickered and cupped her chest, exactly where her cube is. “I use her, Observer Alphas cube of course you dummy. She pressed that thing into me and died on my lap or so, not that she wasn’t dying already but I don’t know. I fought her for like an hour straight when she attacked us with the sakura empire at Pearl and Enty shattered her cube with an arrow, but she did manage to kidnap me. She pressed the broken remains of her cube into my chest and I was knocked out from the pain. But this thing in here is Observers cube, evident by me being able to talk to her. She made me her own species and transformed me into the same position she was in, all in the name for peace or something.”

“Wait, that means you are actually a shipgirl!” Gasped Elma as she realised what was said. Andrea looked not a bit less shocked. They essentially looked at their sworn enemy in the flesh.

“You stand correct. Finally you actually listen. Congratulations.” Giggled Cleveland. Finally the two in front of her realised that she was a former shipgirl.

*And the pin has finally dropped. Let’s see how they take it.*

“You are a, how?” Andrea gasped. She saw a siren in front of her, but now this one was a shipgirl? She couldn’t even begin to understand this, like many things she didn’t get about the sirens.

“YOU!” Elma trembled from rage. “You killed so many of us!” She threw a punch and Cleveland did nothing to resist. She immediately sank under the water from the bonk before coming up again. Elma had her halberd drawn and looked ready to attack yet Cleveland held no fear. She already died so a second time wouldn’t concern her.

“Yes I did.” Admitted Cleveland. Elmas halberd stared right into her face. “You wanna stab me? It’s ok, I know you hate me.”

Elma was trembling. “So you honestly admit to slaughtering the race you now belong to? Ironic isn’t it. You should be struck down where you stand for your crimes.”

Cleveland could see how angry the siren was, something she expected. “Yeah it really is ironic. Being on the side of the species I used to kill while fighting against the one I used to be.” Giggled Cleveland in a broken laughter. “I guess you wanna kill me?”

*She certainly looks like it. Please don’t let that happen.*

“Give me one good reason not to?”Asked Elma. She was so close to stabbing the monster in front of her but somehow couldn’t. Cleveland merely looked to the ground. She was damaged, and not physically, that was imminent for Elma to see.

“I can’t think of one, maybe because we were enemies of the two opposing sides in a war?” Cleveland breathed out. “If you wanna kill me, at least wait until I kill the ones that killed me. Then you can end me and end what is left of this former knight if you want revenge.” 

“Then you sank our cruise ship?!” Screamed Andrea. She recalled how Cleveland with her sisters sank it with most of the people on it. The Cleveland in front of her however simply shook her head.

“I am not responsible for anything that clone of me did in the last two years but I will replenish the honour that thing took from me.” Cleveland said as clenched her fists and looked at Elma. “And if you wanna stop me before that then I will kill you to get past you, understood.”

*That's a bit harsh Cleves, maybe just knock her out.*

Andrea was kindly taken back. The siren would kill her own friend for her own way but didn’t see her as a threat. The woman could only grumble because in a fight the siren would erase her from existence before she could draw a pistol.

“Oh, threatening me? Daring.” Giggled Elma. She lowered her halberd but still held it out. The siren meant no harm but at the same time she better be prepared. Cleveland seemed jumpy anyway.

“I am not threatening you Elma.” Cleveland said in a low tone. “I am setting one thing clear. I will not die again, not until my goal is archived. ”

“Then how did you even die, you asshole!” Elma asked aggressively. If in front of her truly stood a shipgirl then why was she not hostile to all others here. “You helped us here and are therefore not like the other shipgirls so I ask you what happened. Must be something severe if you switched from killing humans and sirens to killing your own allies. Alpha probably wasn’t able to change your character anyway.”

*Ohh that will be gruesome. Your memories showed some deep horror from that day.*

"One of my best friends shot me in the stomach, all five of them revealed that for my entire life I have been living on a lie and I am no more than a tool of destruction for them. Aiming to cleanse the planet and archive their sick version of paradise. A world free of conflict by destroying everything that in their mind makes conflict, so humanity." Started Cleveland. “That happened and then the siren I got in my head made me a siren myself. I am no longer on their side but not on the siren ones either. Both destroyed this planet but one is already destroyed so I only need to destroy the other side!”

"What do you-" "Shut up and listen!" Elma started but Cleveland stopped her arguing immediately. “I don’t belong to anyone but I swear to you I won’t let anything stop me, and I swear this on my whole who I am. I won’t rest until I destroyed the four remaining bastards that ruined this planet and what Azur Lane stood for.”

Clevelands breathing became more erratic as time passed. She barely held herself together as she stood there. “Andrea, you want to kill me too, aren’t you? My clone ruined your life after all.”

The woman was looking at her with a snarl. “No, you seem to suffer and that is more than perfect. And what do you mean you didn’t do it? I clearly saw you, Cleveland, shooting children.”

*It was definitely the other one.*

“Then you saw Copyland do that, but not me, I was about quite a bit busy being dead.” Said Cleveland clearly. The human was confused. “Copyland?”

Cleveland snickered with maliciousness. “Ah yes you weren’t there. You can’t know. Apparently after I died and got my cube ripped out of my body, Azur lane decided that they needed a Cleveland so they created a clone of me. Probably used my cube to make that clone.”

“So there are two of you? A siren and shipgirl. Or two shipgirls given that you say you are one?” Andrea concluded. She was amazed and weirded out by that but not as much as Cleveland. Looking at it the water around the siren seemed to be a lot hotter than the water in the already hot springs.

*Well, yes, there are two of them. Just that one is the false one.*

“Yes, there is a clone of me as a shipgirl while I am a siren. Just imagine us as two separate people. The other one being the bad girl.” Said Cleveland with growing anger. “Oh and trust me. How much I will do to her will be glorious.” She stepped out of the water and walked from side to side, somehow trying to not vent out her anger at the building or people in it. The building would stand no chance, that was something Cleveland knew so she wouldn’t try to attack it. Elma could take it but that was a bad idea and Andrea would be vaporised. Cleveland decided that not attacking anything at all was the best action and simply bottled up her anger.

“Clones…woah. I heard only sirens can do that.” Andrea said, amazed. She didn’t want to be amazed by their enemies capabilities but creating a perfect copy of someone is something astonishing.

”Apparently five certain individuals, so the leaders as I heard, managed to crack the code and can now do the shit themselves.” Cleveland spat out. She was just imagining strangeling Wales while staring into her fearful eyes while that one slowly suffocated in her arms. Cleveland was relishing in the fact that she would hear them scream, after they revealed the truth to all shipgirls of course.

*However they even managed that. I bet they use a simplified cheap copy of our system.*

“Ok, can you calm down? We won’t kill you since you aren’t responsible for everything they did. Sorry for suspecting you. But your clone is in Azur Lane and does bad stuff, we won’t blame you for it.” Andrea said and Cleveland stopped. She looked over to the two and her stare alone froze the two in space.

“Calm…down.” Cleveland said slowly with a questioning look. Her voice alone sounded like she was about to jump at the human. Elma stood protectively in front of her friend. She did trust Cleveland but just to be sure. It was clear to both non-shipgirls that the former shipgirl was a bit unstable.

“My own fucking sisters don’t even recognise that thats not me! Can you even think how I feel about seeing them run around with a copy of me?!" Screeched Cleveland. Her whole body only showed deep rooted anger as she stood there. "And after all this telling you, you tell me I am not supposed to be in the slightest bit pissed that after everything I have done for Azur Lane, everything I have done and sacrificed in all the years I was on their side, when we were fighting for good, that I am not suppose to be fucking pissed about just being REPLACED!" Cleveland fell to her knees. Her breathing was as rapid as if she just ran a marathon. “I WILL BREAK HER!” Elma could see Cleveland's guns beginning to manifest and sprinted out of the water.

She arrived at her friend's place and kneed her in the guts before the guns were out completely. “Calm down girl before you blow us all sky high. That guns are linked to your mind and anger will charge them stronger then they usually are.” Cleveland was left gasping and snapped out of her rage. Had she ears like Elma, those would flop straight to her skull. Her guns stopped appearing as she just looked at the ground. “I am sorry.”

Elma kneeled down and helped her up, or more tried but Cleveland slapped her hand away. Elma was left disappointed but didn’t move. “Let me help you, you dummy.”

*She is kind of right, you are the dummy here.*

“After you heard me slaughtering your sisters and friends and whatnot you are still friendly with me.” Giggled Cleveland before it slowly became crying. Elma was about to approach her but was thrown back by two tentacles slamming into her, not hurting her but sending her back a few metres. The siren landed on the water with no issue but looked dumbfounded.

“Idiot! What's wrong with you?” Said Elma in slight annoyance. “We don’t hate you or want to kill you.” The siren could only look at her friend who stared wide eyed at the ground.

*Cleveland stop. She isn’t harming you or planning to.*

“This is true.” Andrea agreed. “You aren’t responsible for anything. You might have done something bad but definitely didn’t destroy humanity if you were dead in the last few years. That clone of yours did more evil than you so calm down.”

Cleveland just shook her head, seemingly not registering their words at all. "Hate me however much you want for knowing this all! For knowing the truth." Cried Cleveland as she stood up "It won’t come close to how much I hate myself."

"You did kill many of us but then we were at war and you were just a soldier." Said Elma enraged but softened her tone. “You just followed orders.” Even if she wanted to beat the siren in front of her there was no need, she was already beaten.

*Orders and morals, conflicting huh.*

"Yes I killed hundreds of "Us", yes I probably killed a lot of humans too and before you ask I did not know that." Cleveland said as tears began to fall from her eyes. "They were so nice, we all carried so much hope…Where? Where did it all go wrong?!"

Elma heard all that, the same as Andrea, and while they both held anger, yet they both didn't act, even if they wanted. The siren that merely cried unhinged tears did admit her wrongdoings but in the same breath lamented everything about it. Showing the two that she truly felt sorry about it all. If they wanted to feel rage they couldn’t. All the two could feel was pity.

"It’s ok Cleveland.” Said Andrea as she walked over with a towel around her. The human seemed to be more concerned about her nudeness than the sirens were. She bent down and stroked the crying sirens back. “Even if you did the wrong thing then I won’t hold it against you. You seem to deeply regret it anyway and that alone shows that you didn’t want this if you could have chosen.” She smiled a bit. “Even if you killed people it were just orders, and I think you will do everything to protect humanity from what you said.”

Cleveland took in everything the human said. She truly wanted to protect the humans and all but couldn’t do that alone. She was thankful that the other two weren’t abandoning her like she imagined. Her memories showed her the fun she and her former friends had but now those overlapped with the pain and suffering they caused and it made her sick to the stomach.

Andrea saw that the siren calmed down. The human came in for a hug. Cleveland saw it and panicked. What she saw was the woman in a half dead state. She saw her as one of the victims Edinburgh and Kent burned down in that shrine.

"Don't touch me human." Gasped Cleveland and showed the woman back. Her own arms were shaking and her eyes had a wide look of panic. "I don't wanna hurt you on accident and break you or kill you or….or….or…." She was ok with pats but she wasn’t sure if she could control physical power at the moment. She didn’t want to hurt her friend and shoved her back, sending her flying by accident.

*Stop, your memories are clouding your mind. Get it back in order and whatever just happened is not gonna happen again.*

Elma caught the woman. She held her and they both stared at Cleveland judgingly. They held no anger but Cleveland didn’t realise that in her freaked out state.

"No I didn’t mean to….didn’t mean to." Cleveland gasped and looked at the two with her almost panic attack-like face. She got rid of the short memory break as he hugged herself with her arms, covering her eyes. Her vision might be normal again but that didn’t erase what she did. "I am not a monster….I am not a monster." 

“You aren’t one.” Andrea said and calmed down after Elma sat her down. Her heart rate skyrocketed for a few seconds as she flew, thankfully the siren didn’t use much force at all. She would feel angry if she didn't feel sorry for Cleveland. The girl, after everything she said, deserved punishment, but the two were pretty sure that Clevelands entire current life was punishment enough. 

If the shipgirls are truly just deceived and tricked then they weren’t as guilty as the human thought. The siren next to her was angry but also felt sorry for her friend. She didn’t realise how hard the former shipgirl must take the whole situation.

“Cleveland, if you say that is true then Azur Lane isn’t evil.” Andrea started but Cleveland stopped her. “Only the leaders are the bad guys along with Cleveland.”

“No you say I am not Cleveland, that clone of me there says she is, then there is this all with Beta and siren and….and…urgh.” Cleveland whined and jumped up, her mind hurt and she wasn’t really able to think clearly anymore. She looked like she was in a full panic attack, still seeing one way after shoving the human. 

Elma could only stare in shock as Cleveland walked away with uncertain steps and to the exit of the room. She nearly reached the exit but then took a small misstep. The siren collapsed into a seat next to the door and simply cried. 

Cleveland sobbed. "I don't even know who I am supposed to be anymore." She truly had no clue who she was anymore. Was she a siren? Was she a shipgirl? Was she even Cleveland?

*You are who you want to be.*

Elma walked to her. She turned the siren around and looked at her, the siren not reacting at all. She cupped her cheeks and looked directly into Cleveland's eyes. “USS Cleveland, Observer Beta, you are one and the same for me. You might have done stuff wrong, really serious stuff, yet you lament and want to correct your wrongdoings. You want to return Azur Lane back to what it was and that is fine. While that is not my original idea, which is just destroying the head like you but different, I swear on my duty as Enforcer to stay with you all the way my dear.” She took a deep breath. “No matter what form you take or how you look, you will still be Cleveland.” Elma finished with a smile but not before she added a “My Cleveland.” in a whisper at the end.

Cleveland tears, upon hearing that, began overflooding and broke every floodgate there was. She rushed forward and smashed her naked state into the other siren's naked frame and just hugged her.

Andrea looked a bit blushingly at that because both of them still wore nothing and had much larger assets than the human but both sirens didn’t care. All Cleveland cared about was that she was held by someone she could trust while Elma wanted her friend to not be a depressed wreck. Them being naked didn’t concern them here at all.

“Never ever leave me.” Cleveland sobbed as she helt Elma as if her life depended on it. “I don’t wanna be alone.” The Enforcer just patted her back. She couldn’t know how bad the former shipgirl felt but she could stay with her and help her carry that burden.

“I won’t leave you unless I die. That is a promise.” Elma said and hugged Cleveland as well. “You might not be my master but a dear friend, and you don’t leave friends.” She finally felt some peace with her friend. 

Andrea would join the hug but doubted her bones would survive it so she just resorted to stroking Cleveland's back. “We will not hate you. What happened happened in the past but what you do now is important. I will try to help you however I can Cleveland.”

Cleveland finally felt at peace and stopped crying. “Thank you two.” She truly had no words to thank them but a small smile she managed and that seemed enough. She wanted to pull away but Elma didn’t let go. Cleveland was about to ask why but Elma just laid her finger on Cleveland's mouth. She shushed before giggling.

*Oh, is she a mother now?*

“Now I want you to rest, you have been awake for at least a week now, you haven't even eaten anything as far as I recall. Just sleep. I will carry you. Don’t worry about anything.” Elma said like she was a mother as she began humming a little lullaby. Cleveland rested her head on the other siren's bosom and relaxed, she had no power to resist anymore. Sleep didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

*Definitely a mommy but she is right, you need sleep. So rest please.*

Cleveland couldn’t agree more. She felt more relaxed than even in the bath. She hugged Elma with all she had, which became lesser and lesser as time passed. "Thank you." Smiled Cleveland and this was the last thing she got out before she drifted off to sleep.

Looks like her staying awake for nearly two weeks at this point finally caught up to her.

Elma simply picked up the siren, who finally looked peaceful, in a princess carry. She brushed some white hair out of the siren's face and exhaled. “You went through so much, I can’t even believe you are still sane. You are so much stronger than I could ever be my little knight.”

Andrea only smiled from the side. “Such a tortured soul, I would hate her but I can’t. She truly wants to save us and that is a goal I will support.”

"So you can finally rest my dear knight.” Smiled Elma as she watched her friend sleep. “Andrea, I recall you saying you got a room for us?" Recalled Elma as she watched her friends breathing peacefully.

The human stepped forward. "Yes I do. We prepared and split the base after purposes and we made a room for you two. The dorm rooms are big. Your room is on the ground Level as well, so it's a short walk from here." 

Elma had to nod. “Let’s get dressed and put this fallen knight in a proper bed. After I did that I would like to look at the long range radar. Our plan is to go through Suez and I wanted to see if I can collect intel. Any information might help.”

“That makes sense. Even you cannot take on anything unprepared.” Andrea said as she took a towel to cover herself. She knew the importance of picking a fight or avoiding it entirely.

Elma was glad the human understood that. She took a few towels and covered Cleveland, which proved to be easier than she thought given that the siren was as asleep as a rock. “I must thank you for being smart. Some would say just rushing is good since sirens are undefeatable or bla bla bla. No, not even we can take on everything. So I must access and plan a way.” Said the Enforcer and covered herself as far as her situation allowed. “Clevland here might have planned something but the field of battle can change in an instant so I would like to reassess the situation. Cleveland might be better at this but she is asleep so I hope you don’t have a problem with me using my own and your wide range radar.”

“Not at all. You helped us so much, why should I refuse to help you.” Smiled the woman as she opened the door. “Now come, I will lead you to your room.”

Elma nodded. She followed the human and they both exited the bath.

Chapter Text

The blue sky was outside the window, sun shining into the face of a certain young siren. Directly into the face of her to be correct.

Cleveland stirred awake, blinded by light. “Give me five more minutes, Monty. I will join you for dinner in a minute.” She turned away from the shining light and rolled herself under the blanket…wait blanket. She opened her eyes just a millimeter and saw that she laid in a black bed for some reason. It was also kind of squishy but Cleveland didn't care and covered herself in the strange feeling blanket again. She decided to ignore that and tried to doze off again.

“Oh you are not gonna doze me off again.” A voice Cleveland by now was very familiar with, said out in a quick maneuver. Cleveland put in no thought about what she said until she got hit on the head by something hard. Cleveland jolted up and held her head. She looked to the side and saw Elma standing there…and that she had a bucket sitting in her lap. Cleveland stared at it for a second and connected the dots, the pain in her head having already vanished. “Did you throw that at me?”

Elma huffed a bit. “Damn right I did! You aren’t dozing me off again!” The enforcer looked annoyed, something Cleveland didn’t understand the reason behind. “Also cut the shit Beta and wake up. You rested enough!”

“God who crawled up your ass!” Cleveland groaned and stretched herself. Multiple bones could be heard cracking before Cleveland stopped. “Also I am awake now. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, thank my nerves for letting you sleep before waking you up by force. I should have thrown my dmm halberd.” Elma huffed. She walked away from the bed and leaned against the wall. She before that picked up the bucket she threw at Cleveland. “I should have thrown this thing hours ago.”

“If you do wanna wake me up then throw a bucket worth of water at me. Not the entire bucket itself.” Groaned Cleveland and rubbed her head. The hit might have not hurt her at all but she still felt the place it impacted. In all, while it felt like a pillow hit her it still hurt.

“I would have done so two days ago. If…” Elma said and bent down. She came up second later and held up one of Cleveland's tentacles that straight up stabbed through a wooden crate. "If it wouldn’t be for your tentacles constantly trying to stab me, or more what I threw at you with full power. It started with the first crate I threw and kept on adding up."

Cleveland was confused. She slept so her tentacles shouldn’t do anything. At least she thought they shouldn’t do anything. She stared at the few beside the bed while following them and realised something. The entire bed she laid on was basically filled with her own tentacles, and not only the four she normally used. Cleveland now was thoroughly confused and weirded out. She definitely did not summon that many and what was even more surprising…was actually how comfortable those were. The one she laid on, her head directly between the suction cups mere seconds ago, was actually the most comfortable pillow she probably knew existed and she couldn’t get behind why. “When did I let those out? And since when are they so comfortable? She actually just wanted to lay back down and sleep again so comfortable were those, but she resisted the temptation of sleep.

*Well Cleves, they kind of switch into self defence mode when you sleep. Trust me I know. So, while they won’t use your guns, they still protect you when you aren’t awake and not even I can control them...although I didn’t try it yet. Also you can make them not play protector but you still need to learn that. Well I have to admit it was too much fun seeing Elma and Andrea trying to wake you up. As well to note for you is that you can modify the stuff and shapes of the tentacles to your likings, you probably just wanted a pillow so you subconsciously made one.*

“One more joined the fray each time me or Andrea threw something and well, we weren't exactly getting close either because they either pushed us away, nearly breaking Andreas bones, or covered you in all ways possible. You didn’t react to yelling or something, you deep sleeper.” Elma said with an exhausted look. Cleveland was embarrassed and instantly recalled all of her tentacles. “I am sorry. I was asleep.” She flopped back down on the bed, now resembling an actual bed that was covered in her slime. It didn’t annoy Cleveland at all but Elma didn’t look too pleased by that.

“Well at least you are awake now.” Elma smiled, seemingly shaking off her worry. She walked to the side and nearly out of the room. “Oh Andrea is here so come out of that bed and get up. She made breakfast for us.”

“Good to know.” Cleveland said as she sat up correctly. She swung her feet over the side of the bed and looked at Elma with a thought. “Say how long was I away for you to be so angry with me? Was it a week or so?”

Elma shook her head at that. “Nah, not a week. Just about three days when you count the day you fell asleep to the count.” Elma said and left the room. ”Although next time you sleep earlier, I saw you being awake for nearly two weeks and that is not healthy. So watch out and take care of yourself next time.” Cleveland would be shocked had she not expected something like that already.

“I fell asleep for three days….again! Damm I am getting knocked out often.” Cleveland sighed. It was kind of funny how often she spent her time being knocked out at this point, but at least none of those even came close to being dead for two years. That was something she definitely didn’t want to repeat.

*You spend a lot of energy processing and adapting to your new body so it makes sense. It should normalise itself on its own by the way. Oh and a tip from me, maybe don’t stay awake for 2 weeks under constant stress and fighting next time. Adrenalin might be a hell of a wake up tool but it’s nothing I would recommend for a long time. A few days is fine but your body is far from completely adapted, it still leaks a lot of energy with most you do. Also I don’t know how wisdom energy you constantly suck out from other shipgirls affects you. This is something never before recorded so please take it a bit slower ok.*

Cleveland nodded. She agreed to that and made her chibi siren happy. She stood up and walked out of the room. She noticed she was in a well kept bedroom. “Must be the dorm room Elma spoke about before I fell asleep.”

Cleveland left the door and walked into the next one room. Down a hallway she went and entered a bright open room, a living room from the looks of it. Andrea and Elma sat there and were eating a few loaves of bread. “Morning you two…...if it’s morning.” Cleveland greeted the two and stretched yet again.

“Well we got 10 am so yes it is morning.” Andrea said before she took one look at Cleveland and her eyes widened. She whistled a bit and smiled. “Nice outfit.”

Cleveland was only confused by that. “What do you mean?” She wore her normal clothes to her knowledge or more than what she wore before the bath. She certainly wasn’t naked since she felt clothes on her. What she wore felt entirely natural for her.

“Well my dear former shipgirl.” Elma addressed Cleveland as she turned to her with a smirk. “You see, it's easy. You can't deny being an Observer anymore, that's it.”

“I know I am an Observer siren you dummy, but what do you mean with that?” Cleveland said and rubbed her eyes. She still was a bit sleepy so maybe she just didn’t get them because of that.

Elma simply shook her head. She took one long overview of Cleveland. “Well you denied it for a long time, but now you can do that all you want but your clothes tell another story and definitely prove us right, Observer.”

Cleveland traced her fellow sirens' view and looked down…and promptly shrieked. The siren realised that she wore the same stuff as Observer, some skimpy panties and a black bra that gladly covered her entire chest. Cleveland jumped back and covered herself with her tentacles to keep some sort of modesty.

Elma snorted a little laught. “We all saw each other naked and you are still embarrassed?” She stood up and walked over to the mass of tentacles. Elma overcame her distaste of tentacles, put her hands in the withering mass, and pushed away two tentacles before she starred in the face of her fellow very blushing siren. “Come on, you aren’t that ugly.”

“Of course we saw each other but…but…fine.” Cleveland's tentacles fell downward and revealed her frame. She felt not a bit less embarrassed but took a deep breath and relaxed. Everything Elma said was true and more but still Cleveland felt embarrassed.

*Oh I think you look good in my clothes.*

Cleveland's cheeks flared up once more in deep pink before she relaxed. She thought about what Elma said about summoning clothes she recalled from the bath. With one thought, and a bit of deep thinking about modifying her chest area, she summoned her clothes she wore before.

Looking down she wore her blackened clothes again….although upon checking she found out she still wore “her” Observer underwear underneath it. At least that was something she could live with.

“Oh I liked you in the clothes.” Elma said with pride. “It shows better who you are to others so you might not be mistaken for the new Cleveland. From behind you look the same, even if your clothes under that cape are open on the back, must be for your tentacles.”

“Well, I like to cover myself so thank you.” Huffed Cleveland. “I am very well gonna show who I am…or more was. I take pride in being a knight of the sea.” She felt her back and found it was indeed open, a big hole in her back revealed her bare back to anyone. Honestly it's like something akin to South Dakota's dress with the open back.

*Somewhere your tentacles had to come out don’t they?*

“Well more previous knight of the sea but let's forget that.” Said Andrea. She patted a seat next to her and beckoned Cleveland to sit down. The siren happily obliged and sat down.

Andrea passed her a bread with butter and some cheese which Cleveland happily took after thanking the woman. Cleveland bit into it and just savored the taste. It reminded her of home sitting like this but that was probbly something she could never experience again. At least she could enjoy these calm moments.

“So you prefer wearing your old clothes? Hehe.” Elma giggled. “But your chest is getting in the way, isn’t it?” The siren was snarky and annoying to Cleveland. Honestly it reminded the siren of her sisters whch was something she did like, even if she wan’t showing it openly.

Cleveland could see Elma smirk and huffed, lifting her chest under her clothes. “I know I was flat. Funnily enough I told that to my clone as well, shocked her quite a bit. Don’t blame me, I am allowed to insult myself. I also changed my clothes to fit me better.” She undid the zipper in front of her cape and parted it to the side. “See. I modified it so I can breathe…damn I look a bit like Akagi now.”

Cleveland's clothes underneath were still the same with the difference being her shirt. Where her chest piece was normally flat, it now showed a big piece of open cleavage. The open air on her chest and breast felt weird but this was also like a dream come true for Cleveland. Shaking that off she was about to zip up her cape again but decided against it and just left her cape flow open. "Why were I even wearing those skimpy things Observer wore? You could have simply put on my clothes."

*Maybe you wear them because that is what Observers wear, Beta.*

Elma giggled and shook her head. “Yeah sure, we could have, but only one problem here, your clothes vanished when you were knocked out.”

“But I was asleep.” Retorted Cleveland. “Those two were very different things.”

“Your clothes apparently didn’t work like that but when I summoned them to yourself manually they came out as this.” Elma shrugged and went back to eating.

“This is…I will not walk around like this.” Cleveland gasped and turned away. She wouldn’t walk around half naked unless absolutely required…even though she had to admit the clothes felt not a bit restraining and open, something her current clothes didn't. She wasn’t hindered in her movement but something about them felt off, like it wasn’t natural for her to wear covering clothes.

*Sirens are beings that like to move so running around with barley covering is just our culture and what we are. You will learn that way someday and fit in. Although I have to admit that some of our clothes were indeed a bit too revealing.*

Cleveland listened and came to a conclusion to stay like this even though she doubted she would desire to walk around in her underwear in the near future she could try it sometimes. On the plus side she now wore underwear that fit her perfectly.

“So did anything happen while I was asleep for three days?” Cleveland asked, changing the topic away from her and making her less embarrassed. She was never a clothes person. The other two looked pretty chill so Cleveland wasn’t that concerned about something big.

“Pretty much nothing.” Admitted Andrea. “Just managing and organizing a base.” She looked relaxed and that made Cleveland happy. It told her nothing serious or at all happened here.

“Well here basically nothing happened.” Elma admitted. “But I did go over your little plan and I can tell you we can throw it out of the window.”

Cleveland almost spat out her bread upon hearing that. She looked at Elma. “Why? My plan is good.” How dared her friend say that her carefully thought plan won’t work. Cleveland relied heavily on stuff she knew so she knew she could overcome her friends. Knowing how your friends fight and think can really help you with making a plan.

“While it is good for the past so far.” Elma had to admit. “It also carries a lot of flaws due to recently discovered things.” The Enforcer was smiling and stood up. “Come with me. I will show you it so you understand it better.”

Cleveland finished her food and stood up. “Where will you bring me?”

“Definitely not our bedroom, you took all the space up so I already had to settle with the couch for the last two days.” Elma huffed and walked to the door. “And now you slimed the bed so I will definitely not lay down on it for at least until it's changed.” She walked into the hallway and turned to Cleveland. She pointed to the right. “Second door, first level, radar room, now.”

“Fine. Excuse us for a minute Andrea. My friend seems desperate.” Cleveland shrugged and left the room. She walked past Elma and sighed. “You don’t have to be that direct you know.”

“I had to endure getting touched by tentacles and you being lazy as hell, that's why I am a bit grumpy. As a bodyguard I always had to be ready so lazing around is not something I like to see.” Elma said and Cleveland merely looked sorry. They exited the room into a hallway and walked down it. The base overall looked fully functional by now with a good organised and clean surface. Looking out of the window a few humans were doing weapon tests with the laser rifles and, while they still needed to improve a lot, they were already getting better.

"When did I even touch you Elma?" Cleveland asked and looked at her friend. "In our room you touched them yourself you know so why are you blaming me?"

"Sure I did, but only to look into your beautiful face." Elma smirked. "But when I was trying to wake you up for the past two days your tentacles either tried to stab me or, when I came close, I became a cuddle toy for them."

Cleveland smiled upon seeing the people she put her life on the line for, learning to protect themselves. "Well sorry then, just don’t approach me with harmful intentions and it should be fine next time."

"Next time I will just pick up the bed and throw it out of the window." Huffed Elma and walked ahead. Cleveland only giggled at the thought of it.

The walk took not that long and Cleveland walked into the room. It had a few computer terminals and a holographic table in the middle. “This is a radar room indeed so what do you wanna show me?”

Elma walked past her. She bent down and activated some measurements of the table. The table and machinery gave a long start up sound and whirring could be heard. “Oh, this thing is old so it will take a minute to start up. What I wanna talk with you about is our plan. You remember we wanted to go through Suez and the Mediterranean to get to Ironblood?”

Cleveland nodded. “Yes I made that plan. It might be a bit risky but Suez is guarded by a small number of shipgirls and the Mediterranean is usually only populated by Sardegna who only have a small number of girls so that we can sneak past them.” Cleveland began and remembered how the past was. “The Iris Libre and Vichiya are usually more focussed on Madagascar and the Basilica so that is far away from where we want to go. So where is the issue now?”

“Ok Cleveland I must applaud you, you thought of stuff even I didn’t think of but sadly there is one problem. While the plan is not bad it's…Here let me just show you it.” Elma congratulated Cleveland. The machine finally started and revealed a world map. With a few swipes to the left Elma reached the Suez channel quickly and revealed a grim truth. “As you can see you build your plan on the stuff you knew two years ago I bet, but the circumstances changed. Also I had to use my own radar to enhance this so it reaches far enough. Anyway as you can see the circumstances are completely different.”

Elma was right. What was once a not much defended base was now nothing short of a fortress. At least three dozen shipgirls were present and patrolling the surrounding waters with more in the channel itself. The channel was heavily armed by now and Cleveland could spot at least several airbases and land based turrets and scanners there. Douzen missile launchers and more weapons lined up basically the entire surrounding coasts as well. The more she looked the worse it got.

Cleveland's heart fell. “Dear god. That wasn’t like that last time.” The siren was in shock. “We will never get through that. They went paranoid and how did they have the ships to spare. We were already stretched thin last time.”

“I guess having one less war with us is giving them back some forces. Single shipgirls beat fleets alone so I guess they can use more overall.” Elma concluded a fact Cleveland knew very well. “Well the middle east is very oil rich so I guess it’s an important location, that's why it’s protected as hell.”

“We got the food from there yes so without that they starve. Losing that area will be a vital blow to them but..but…goddamn I need to rethink the entire plan.” Cleveland moaned. “Also from the military activity here they seem to attack further and further inland. See how some of the turrets are positioned?”

Cleveland was right, some of the guns seemed aimed away from the Coast and in the exact opposite direction. This along with the present carriers and flying aircraft far away from the coast showed something troublesome.

“I assume that is for attacking human settlements deep in the land itself.” Elma guessed. “Shipgirls can’t really enter land, right?” She never saw shipgirls really on land and alone their names discouraged her from believing that.

“They can.” Cleveland corrected her friend. “Problem is supplies and we Kansen ourselves. Kansen, on land, still consumes as much oil as on water and therefore you basically got a full fleet walking around with the speed of a normal human while consuming as much oil as a tank battalion. And that's with the rigging equipped. The second you take your rigging off in order to get in a jeep and move faster, you lose all your firepower and become just as vulnerable to enemy fire as a normal unarmed human." She shook her head. "The risks simply aren't worth the rewards. That base must be to bombard further inland with carriers to go around that issue.”

Cleveland was devastated upon having even her tiniest hope crushed. The shipgirls were truly attacking even the people on the land itself. No one was safe from them.

“Thank god we can fly and our equipment weighs nothing. Well we can’t go through Suez, that's for sure.” Elma said out, confirming Cleveland. Said Siren was currently busy not freaking out and bashing her head against the wall from realising how far her friends have fallen.

“I know that we can’t go through that.” Cleveland sighed with raised fists. “But how will we go there then, we can’t take on the other countries. We need to shut off Ironblood so they can’t resurrect people.”

“So that’s the reason we go there.” Elma finally realised. She saw that it was a good idea herself.

Cleveland smiled in a explenitory way. “Yeah if we cut off their ressurrecting stuff then we will only face one of each shipgirl. Not the chance of meeting the dead ones again means that we don’t face unlimited soldiers. That will also make them less confident because death then becomes a threat to them. Hopefully that will discourage them from sending out singular people. That might be bad because we can’t attack single locations and shipgirls but it also focusses their attention more on protection than attacking, meaning we might give some humans time to flee or not get attacked at all.”

“Well that's good to know, damm you think of a lot. Anyway, allow me to give you a solution to the execution of that plan.“ Elma wanted to speak out. She had already thought of something and wanted to share it with her friend. Maybe the Observer saw her way as well.

“You did? I thought you said I was the planner as an Observer.” Cleveland wondered herself. Elma went a bit red before catching herself.

“Yes you are the planner but you were asleep so I took the liberty to overlook the circumstances and worked out an approach. I calculated and formed a plan myself.” Elma said happily. “You wanna hear it.”

“Sure. Of course I do.” Cleveland smiled. Although she was a bit confused. “Why do you even ask? You, my friend, can do whatever you want.”

Elma was a bit taken back. “Well you outrank me and I as an enforcer am usually not the one that makes plans. That is your job so I was just asking. Anyway I suppose for your plan to work we could go through mostly sakuran waters and then through the northern seas.”

Cleveland began thinking. “The northern seas….That's like the extremely long way around and directly through the Northern Parliaments area.”

“Yet a much safer and freer route.” Elma added. Cleveland wanted to argue but couldn’t find arguments. Elmas idea was, while more time consuming and genuinely longer, ultimately better considering the alternative is running through heavily fortified areas.

“Hmm, is the Northern Parliament even active? I haven’t heard of them yet.” Cleveland thought. She has heard Observer mention the others but not them. It is fair that the Northern Parliament is usually on their own but that doesn’t deny their existance.

*Well I couldn’t find anything about them so I had nothing to say about them. Also they are usually not far outside their own area so I didn’t deem it important to look into them.*

Elmas ears piped up. “Now that you mention it. Before the network went down I did read about them seemingly just vanishing. They literally disappeared one day or so. Some of us must have gotten them or anythng but I guess they just used our tech to cloak themself on the radar. Since Omitters base wen’t down our connection to there broke. Also I can’t take the radar to the northern seas because the mountains block the signal but I know they are few in number and the seas are big. Good for sneaking past if we do it right.”

“So we need to take the long but ultimately safer and less controlled way all the way around an entire continent. As much as I hate the idea of wasting a long time by going all the way Elma, I think your idea is ultimately better for us.” Cleveland sighed. She couldn’t find anything that would justify recklessness attacking Suez here.

Elma looked happy. “Then we can leave if there is nothing on your schedule. Maybe some woman or enforcer you wanna take through?” The enforcer snickered. Cleveland walked over and slapped her ass for this. The enforcer jumped a bit and looked at the Observer who only smirked. “What was that for?”

Cleveland shook her head with a giggle. “I had to endure Eugen. If you wanna tease me I can do that better my dear little blue snowflake. What you did was nothing. Try better next time.” The enforcer was flabbergasted and shook herself. “Well I see you are free then.”

“Of course I am free.” Cleveland confirmed despite how wrong that sounded. “Come on, let's go tell Andrea we are leaving and then do so. We got a Cooperation to burn and a planet to save.”

Cleveland was about to leave the room but her sensors saw a few children outside. They apparently did something at the half open door. Cleveland already suspected something she saw Saratoga and other destroyers do a few times. She smirked and walked outside....but the second she opened the door she was showering in cold water and had a bucket falling on her face. Looked like the children were indeed preparing a prank.

*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. You walked in that willingly you know. I saw you notice this so you decided to walk into this. Hope you made some kids happy.*

Elma looked a bit taken back and stared out of the door. Looks like she didn’t have her sensors on while on the base. Cleveland guessed that was because she let her other mind handle that and didn’t do it herself.

Elma was about to pull her halberd but refrained from doing so upon seeing who stood at the door and on a ladder besides it. A bunch of children seemed to have done a simple water bucket on the door prank for them, probably without knowing that there were sirens in there.

Cleveland ignored her head sirens taunts for now and remained calm, she did walk into this freely after all. She was drenched in water that didn’t actually feel bad and it was not like the bucket hurt her anyway. The kids seemed to not get that though and remained standing there in total horror.

“So, do I get an apology?” Cleveland requested calmly. She might not see the kids with her eyes but she could see them in her sensors. The kids seemed panicked even though they were simply standing there.

“Don’t hurt them Cleves. That hardly even hurt I bet.” Elma said from behind her. She barely held back her own laughter at Cleveland's situation. The kids in front of her only seemed to get more panicked as the time passed.

“Not gonna answer?” Cleveland asked again from under the bucket. She shook her head and tilted it a bit. The kids seemed to take several steps back as Cleveland took multiple steps forward. Following the kids like that to the opposite end of the hallway Cleveland stopped upon seeing the kids scared out of their mind.

“Ok, have it your way.” Cleveland merely smirked under the bucket. It was time to trick the kids a bit herself and that might even calm them down.

Half a dozen tentacles, all the thickness of a log, came out from her back and snaked over the ground. They one by one grabbed the few children that were looking at her, at the waist. Not hard enough to hurt them though. She took the bucket off her head and one by one patted the kids she pulled close on their heads. “Listen up. I am not angry, if at all, I am amused that you actually managed to prank a siren. You should feel honoured, not many are able to do that.” Cleveland smirked and smiled. She deliberately hid the fact that she walked into the trap freely. “Although I have to ask why you wanted to prank us in the first place?”

“We thought a normal person was in there and it gets boring here, we switch places all the time and don’t have any freetime.” A boy stuttered out. He was clearly frightened. “Please don’t eat us, we never wanted to harm you.”

“Harm us? Pah.” Cleveland giggled. “Not even a battleship can seriously harm us so that bucket and water did us no harm. In all accords it strengthened my belief to fight so I can protect that smile you hold.” She released all the kids who calmed down after hearing this. “So run along kids…or I tickle you into the next classroom.”

That seemed to do the job as the children all began smiling again. With a giggle they all ran away. They passed Elma and ran outside the hallway. Cleveland vanished her tentacles and shook off the wetness of her body. Thankfully her clothes were water resistant so she didn’t bother drying them. “Come Elma. We need to get our pace going. We have a job to fulfill.”

“So that was fun.” Elma said as she walked over. “It seems your will is now as steely as ever. What happened, you were depressed mere days ago.”

Cleveland only nodded with newfound and reassured determination. “I was reminded why I fight. To protect those smiles from never vanishing.”

Elma agreed in saving them all, although for a different reason, that being still collecting data, and followed Cleveland who left. The two rather quickly walked back to their room where Andrea still resided, having been left there after the sirens made a quick run to the radar room.

“Ah look who's back, you left faster than I was done with my coffee.” Groaned the woman as she sat there. She was indeed still drinking her coffee and looked judgingly at the sirens. “Why were you even gone that quickly? You got a speed going there I wished from my colleagues to see more often.”

Cleveland giggled at the former teacher's taunt and could see her desire for that. “I believe you wanted that but what we needed to talk about was important. Turns out Suez is not a channel anymore and rather a fortress. So just now we had to short circuit and redo our entire plan of approach.” Cleveland admitted. “We now go through the entirety of the Northern seas to get to Ironblood. It’s the long route around but it’s way safer, plus we can go check out several siren bases in the northern seas and potentially find single Northern Parliament shipgirls we can avoid.”

“All in all it’s better than walking into a full blown military base under heavy fire. Also everything Cleveland said makes sense.” Elma added. She massaged her fellow sirens shoulder and looked genuinely happy. “So we would be going then. I know it’s quick but we kind of planned this for a few days already.”

“Are you really not staying?” Andrea asked again. She sounded desperate but also accepting. For her having the sirens leave practically removes their entire defense.

“No we can’t stay.” Cleveland admitted. “The longer we stay and wait the longer someone doesn’t do anything to disrupt Azur Lane and the longer they can operate and kill unhinged.” She took the woman's hand and held it tightly. “We got a world to save and that all won’t be done by itself after all.”

“Then I want to give you this command.” The woman said as she stood up. “I command you two to save the world as fast as possible and come back alive.” Cleveland had absolutely no problem with that. The siren let go and looked at the woman with a look of certainty and playfully did a small slute.

“I might not like being commanded around.” Elma sighed but still held a determined look. “This is an order I will follow freely. Besides, we can simply come back any day we want when you finish learning how to use portals.” She pulled Cleveland's cheek for the last bit which left the siren annoyed.

“Then go. I won’t stop you but on behalf of everyone here just don’t get hurt and live through it.” Andrea said with a smile. “I will inform the others of your departure.” She held out her hands in a shake the sirens gladly took.

The two shook their hands with the woman and saluted as a goodbye before stepping out of the room. They walked without conservation and a steely will outside. Every human they passed greeted them and then greeted back. Each pure soul they passed gave them another reason to fight for what was right.

They reached the dock quickly and stared into the going up sun. By now it was midday and no cloud could be seen in the sky. A perfect day for departure.

“Look at the weather. A better day you can’t wish for.” Cleveland said with a blissful look. Visions of happy moments of the past and present encouraged her to keep going. “We can go now. It is time.”

“Yeah it's time to cruise. Now with portals we could actually go to Ironblood directly couldn’t we?” Elma huffed with a bit of a giggle. “But you are so green behind the ears that you can’t use them. It looks like we do need to get our feet wet.”

“More like cold. The northern seas are a cold place.” Cleveland shivered. She had no winter clothes with her and now they were getting ready to embark on their journey there.

“Sirens don’t get bothered by weather so we are fine.” Elma mentioned and sent them both in a snicker. “Looks like I need to play teacher for you, my little young siren.”

*Hey I do that better than you. An observer can teach an observer better how to be an observer.*

“I already got someone doing that.” Cleveland whispered and jumped into the waves. She looked up at Elma, waiting for her. “But that’s good to know so at least I don’t need to bother with clothes or appearance.”

“If we get found, you just disguise yourself as in heavy winter clothes and trick them so that you appear as if Cleveland has been getting lost, I will hide or play your prisoner in the case even if I don’t like it. But anyway are we now finally gonna leave or so? Because last time you fell asleep before we could.” Elma said, hardly gasping and jumping on the water as Cleveland pulled her down.

“You wanted me to sleep, you know.” Cleveland said and pulled Elmas animal ears which left her going rigid for a second. “You sang that sleep lullaby like you were my mother.”

Elma smirked, somehow finding the way to talk. “Oh I am your fucking mommy in that case.” Elma was giggling a bit because it didn't hurt her in the slightest, it just felt really uncomfortable. Cleveland let her go after a second before both smiled.

“But yes I did.” Elma admitted. “I wanted you to sleep because you definitely needed it.” She huffed and straightened her hair and ears. “Although I didn’t expect you to snooze away for 3 days.”

“Neither did I.” Cleveland admitted with a sigh. She really slept longer than she expected but the mental damage she held was something she couldn’t really get over. “But now we are done. My weapons are ready and I am as well. Let's cut through the Parliament and reach Norway. Maybe we can convert a single Northern shipgirl to the truth. They normally do patrols alone.”

“While I doubt they will listen, we can try that.” Elma proposed. Following single shipgirls or simply attacking single shipgirls was always better than attacking many at once. ”Maybe we can find some siren facilities there, we had a lot there even though I don't know the locations. Did Omitter have to pass?”

“Good that you got me then.” Cleveland gave out in a laugh. “I can remember a few locations and also now can find them easily. Put up your radar as well even if mine is better.”

*In other words I will go search them but yes you are correct.*

The two began walking out of the area and waved goodbye to the people that were seeing them. It felt bad leaving them but Cleveland knew what they were doing was for the greater good.

“So after you.” Cleveland giggled as the two left the island and picked up speed. Elma was faster than Cleveland who looked back to the island and remembered her promise to protect humanity from evil. She was leaving them behind yet she only smiled, knowing they could protect themselves.

“We need to be careful and avoid Sakuran patrols but otherwise the way is clear.” Elma pointed out as the island behind them grew smaller and smaller. Cleveland of course knew this and had her radar on max alert already, reaching farther than the one Elma possessed. Must be a quirk of being an Observer.

With one last glance back Cleveland smiled and leaned herself into her journey, beginning giving it her all. Their journey might be long but they fully committed themself to it. Soon leaving the island in the dust.

Chapter Text

"What's wrong? Didn’t you say sirens are unaffected by temperature changes?" Cleveland snickered as she looked at her friend.

"I might have slightly miscalculated myself." The enforcer breathed out as she shivered. Cleveland could only giggle at that display. The same siren that told her they weren’t bothered by heat or cold was now very much bothered by low temperatures.

The two sirens by now were deep into northern areas after only two days of cruising. Avoiding any shipgirls in Sakura was the only more challenging challenge they got so far. They haven’t even caught the trace of a single shipgirl in the entire northern seas yet, which was weird but convenient.

What was bothersome to normal ships was something this time didn’t even hinder the sirens. They had no problem smashing any ice that blocked their ways with plasma shots or their handheld weapons. This allowed them a fairly quick route across the seas.

“You are freezing while I am more or less fine.” Cleveland giggled, continuing watching her friend shiver. “How are you even freezing? It’s not that cold.”

Elma only looked at her and if looks could kill, Cleveland would have been dead six times over. She was about to raise her halbert but her hand was shaking too much to actually allow her to point it at Cleveland. “I would cut you if I could.” Muttered the enforcer silently.

“Throw it and I teleport it away.” Retorted Cleveland simply. She had been going over Alphas tips and teachings and was now comfortable to create small portals between two places. Although it was more creating two at the same time of her own choosing, counting out the moments when she is angry and her body does everything by reflex. This allowed her to avoid shots by redirecting them.

“Oh yeah, pride yourself that you get better as the time passes but that still will not make this sea any warmer.” Elma complained hard. “Also whatever you send out from the second is a twisted mess of metal since you can’t actually control teleportation of matter yet.”

Elma was right in that. Cleveland, with a bit of struggling, could create two portals at the same time but this was different than before. The weapons she stored in a pocket dimension, to which she created a single entrance and exit, were easy since it was a one way trip.

Now she can control a triangular system and somehow what is thrown into one portal doesn’t come out fine in another…at least Alpha assured her that she is making good progress and that this was normal which somehow calmed the siren down.

Looking at her fellow siren Cleveland sighed. The two have now been through the northern seas for a while now and Elma looked bad. The moment the temperature dropped to freezing, the other siren was shivering. Cleveland had to admit it was cold but Elma looked like a popsicle. Apparently living for a year in the dark in a powerless base in the middle of tropical climates made even Elma unable to withstand the freezing temperatures here.

They had been jumping from siren facility to siren facility to warm up but found none of them active or warm, much to the annoyance of the enforcer who was getting grumpy from that all. Cleveland at least forgave her for that without issue.

They didn’t even find a jacket for Elma to wear so they continued. Elma hoped to get out of this area fast but the northern seas were large. Cleveland could also swear she saw Elma looking unwell and sick.

The sirens had some wet spots on their exposed skin coming from water which was splattered on them. It left no wounds but annoyed a lot due to the coldness. Elma sneezed rather loudly and Cleveland finally had enough. She had to do something. 

“Ok, Elma that's it!” Cleveland mumbled and derobed her capelet. It might not be much but it was at least a little bit of clothing. Thankfully it wasn’t soaked as Cleveland expected it to be.

*It's water repellent so it makes sense that it isn't getting wet.*

"What are you doing?" Elma asked as she observed the observer. From her perspective she saw Cleveland strip, and that in this weather. As an answer she only got Cleveland's cape thrown into her face.

Elma took the cloth from her face. "What is that for?" Asked Elma as she observed the thing in her arms. The cloth was dry, something all their clothes shared thankfully.

“It’s for you to wear. It isn’t much but it's at least something to protect you from the cold.” Cleveland smiled at her. “I hate seeing you shiver and freeze. I at least wear clothes.”

“I do too. I don’t need that.” Elma retorted and nearly gave the cape back but Cleveland didn’t take it. Elma tried again and again but Cleveland always took a step away. She shook her head. "Just wear it. It isn’t much but still better than nothing. Also I am your superior so I might just order you."

“You wouldn’t.” Gasped Elma. She didn’t expect her friend to pull this move.

“I would if it's to see you suffer less.” Cleveland snickered and hugged Elma. “You always told me your health is important but when I do look out for you, you are offended?” Elma pouted at that.

“But I am an enforcer, we need to be able to face all situations even alone. I have to endure the cold. It's training. It won't kill me.” Elma said with a voice that reminded Cleveland of a whining child. 

“Ok Elma, stand there and don’t move.” She let go of the hug and took her capelet from the siren's arms. Cleveland leaned in and put her cape around Elma. With a few easy steps her upzipped cape now rested calmly on the enforcer. “See it ehhh kind of fits.”

Elma was a bit smaller than Cleveland whose cape already hung that one to the belly. Elma had it firmly hanging at her hips and almost on her legs. It kind of looked like she wore an oversized sweater without arms. It could also be simply described as a poncho.

“This is terrible in combat.” Elma complained immediately. Her hands barely were able to exit the cape and it stood generally in the way. “I can’t fight with this thing fluttering in the way. Imagine if the wind comes and blows a bit harder. I get that directly in the face where it hinders my movement probably even more than it already is right now.”

“Says the girl wearing a bathrobe.” Cleveland snickered. “It’s for wearing now, not for fighting, if we do fight you can take it off but for now leave it on and warm up with it, even if  it isn’t much.”

Elma wanted to protest but just didn’t do it. She was freezing and cold and while not much the cape at least shielded her from it. “Aren’t you cold…or can we just find a working base.”

Cleveland shook her head while ruffeling her friend's hair. For her it was a bit chillier but not bothersome. “I am fine, I am not cold. On the terms of base give me a second. Alpha, is there a big one around here somewhere? The small ones were the ones I recalled but they all seemed to be destroyed or inactive."

*Yes there is one. After the last few this one seems to actually reply to a signal. I will point to it on your map.*

“Ok there is one. It’s over……what's with that face?” Cleveland began. She was promptly stopped by just looking at Elma. Her face spoke more than an absolute “are you serious” demeanor. Cleveland could only sigh. “What is?”

“You are doing it again. I take back what I said back when you were cradled in my arms. You are absolutely not sane at all.” Elma spat out with facts. “You talk with someone who doesn’t exist anymore and seem to actually get answers from it. How far is your mind gone exactly?”

"I am telling you the truth. I got Alpha in my head and can talk with her." Cleveland repeated yet again. In the past days she had revealed that again and again and while Elma took her being a shipgirl, well former shipgirl, incredibly well, but apparently explaining that she was talking with someone only she could see was too hard to get for the enforcer.

"And like the last six times I am telling you that the comms network is down, the person is dead and you have a severe mental condition called schizophrenia." Elma smiled slyly, waving away the truth. Cleveland only groaned at that.

*For outsiders it really does look like that. Although in defence of Elma, she saw the fact that my cube ceased to exist so they won’t believe you easily that I am still alive. We need to prove her wrong at a later stage.*

“Fine, believe what you want but I found a base.” Cleveland broke the conversation. She looked into the radar and calculated the distance from the location Alpha gave her mentally. The base looked oddly familiar in her 3D view. 

“Hmm. Seems like the base of that one siren that the Northern Parliament first met.” “Omitter.” Cleveland said but was strongly interrupted by her friend. “What did you just say?” Asked Cleveland to reaffirm what Elma just said. The other siren seemed to look at her a bit weirdly.

Elma groaned a bit. “I just said the name of the siren the base belonged to. Well before she lost it that is.” The enforcer grumbled, touching the capelet. “I know you weren’t there but get the names right. God is this cold but with this it’s manageable.”

“See the cape does help you.” Cleveland smiled upon hearing that. She was glad to have helped at least a little bit. 

“Anyway, that base that belonged to this Omitter is near and within a short cruise distance, it even gives a signal. Wanna go there? I don’t detect any shipgirls and the base is near. Seems active given that I picked up a radar signal from it. Even if it's a weak one.” Cleveland proposed and pointed in the direction the base was located. This seemed to catch Elmas' full attention.

“And regain my body heat? You bet your ass I want that.” Elma said with found determination. She overtook Cleveland and began sprinting in the direction Cleveland pointed. Cleveland was so perplexed that she stopped moving.

“Are you coldblooded or so?” Cleveland asked confusedly as she stared after her running away friend. Elma didn’t answer or even hear her. She was all focussed on getting to that base.

*She shouldn’t but ok. Omitter. Funny that we go to her place.*

“I only read about her, she was rowdy right?” Cleveland asked. She only read the documents after all and the Northern Parliament girls weren't exactly detailed about personalities. They only described capabilities and weaponry apart from losses and spent ammunition on that operation and that was about the only thing Cleveland knew of this Omitter. She did, however, recall a tiny skirmish that the siren had with the royals, but given it was a convoy Cleveland didn’t care to read the countless pages of that boring report.

*Damm rowdy. Also respectless. That's why we sent her here to basically do nothing. Observe the area with the radar and report when the Northern Parliament does anything major.*

“You sent a kid here to do that alone?” Cleveland was perplexed and began walking after her friend in the direction of the base. “I mean I get annoyed by people but I won’t order them to rot away.”

*Well…I get your point but we needed someone to do that and she could be lazy here. Plus she could lash out her violent tendencies towards anything here. But she mostly just sat around being lazy. Then she lost the base.*

“Yeah the Northern Parliament made a base of yours theirs but that's beside the point for now. Elma, wait for me!” Cleveland screamed out. She ran after her friend who was busy cleaving an iceberg in half with her halberd. Apparently Elma had no plan to leave anything standing that could stop her on her way.

Catching up to her was something Cleveland only managed to do when Elma was already banging at the door. Thankfully the base was that near. Elma was fully committed to bashing the door in, but Cleveland pulled her back from doing that. “Do you want to alert everyone?!”

“There is no one to alert. You said it was free. No one is here, you said that.” Elma complained as she was pulled back. Cleveland stopped when they were a fair distance away from the door. She looked into Elmas cross-pupiled eyes. “Yes I said there is no one there, but that’s outside. Inside I can’t scan so don’t act too rash or unsafe.” Cleveland felt like the roles were reversed. Where formerly Elma worried for her, now she worried for Elma.  "Also breaking the door won’t help you with your cold Problem since you allow it inside the base. Please think before you act ok." Elma after hearing this looked ashamed.

Clevland looked at the base. It wasn’t black but instead white and looked generally common down. Cleveland could swear she saw some bullet impacts around the tower as well. Everything was fairly frozen shut but the power still seemed to be running. “Look how the lightower here still has energy? We might not be alone since someone has to supply the generators so don’t be reckless.”

*I think that's the power cube of the base that is still active and not a sole indicator of there being people, but yes be careful.*

“Fine. I will not rush and look out.” Said the shivering siren. "Its just so cold that I cant go on like this forever. I don’t wanna become the first siren popsicle." She waltzed over to the door and approached it. “The door is locked by that panel there.  A password is required that I obviously don't know. Will you do the honours?”

Cleveland nodded to that and approached the door. She forgave Elma for all her actions since her behaviour was natural. 

Cleveland hacked herself into the door control that used human and shipgirls safety locks, something the siren broke through with absolute ease, and opened the door. It took nothing short of four seconds.

*I will certainly say you got the hang of hacking. You are almost as good as I am but there is still a lot to learn my dear.*

"Well I got a good teacher." Cleveland snickered. Compared to weeks ago, just working with the siren was a good idea already. "I will only hope to become a good siren and save all."

*Oh we certainly will. Also nice that you fully accept everything now. Oh look out, ice is falling.*

A bit of ice fell from the tower due to the rumbling from the opening doors. Luckily the sirens weren’t hit by it. The door slowly but fully opened and the path was open. The two entered the building and were immediately hit by a wave of hot air as the door behind them closed. Elma all but melted into the floor in reaction which weirded Cleveland out. 

“Leave me here and destroy Azur Lane by yourself. I will stay here forever.” Elma breathed out in pure bliss. Cleveland didn’t even consider that option as she grumbled at her friend's behavior. Elma looked more akin to a house cat at the moment. Even her ears played the part. Cleveland shortly considered picking her up by said appendages but didn't do it.

“Up with you or you get my clothes all dirty.” Said the observer before she pulled her friend up under her shoulders. Elma gave a small sound of protest but that didn’t stop Cleveland. Back up on her feet, Cleveland dusted her friend up. “So now come. Let's see if there is someone here.”

“I don’t wanna…” Elma whined. She was finally getting warm again and now she was immediately getting dragged back into working. “Can’t you go? Whoever it is, it will not kill you. "If I hear shots I will come running. Agreed?”

“No.” Was the blank answer Elma got before Cleveland shook her head and took the siren by her hand. She had to more or less drag the enforcer with her the entire way. Several rooms Cleveland inspected while Elma just barely moved was not a fun activity but the sirens did it nonetheless. On close inspection Elma even appeared to be sleeping by the time Cleveland checked the thirteenth dorm room. Funnily enough the enforcers' ears were fluttering around in high activity while the owner still held a blissful look.

“Dear god are you a cat or a fox with those ears? I tend to go cat since you act like a lazy one.” Cleveland concluded and pinched said ears in the act. She was really careful to not hurt Elma but the enforcer still immediately jolted awake with a whine.

“Those are fox ones.” Elma said quickly. Now she was fully back to her old self. “How dare you think I am a cat? I am an Enforcer. Bodyguard of Arbiter the sixth. I am and will never be lazy. I am an honoured person of the sirens, I cannot allow something like this.”

“Yes you are that my dear. But I am still your superior.” Cleveland smirked. “Well if not a cat then you are a fox. Still you were pretty lazy back there, miss bodyguard.” The observer booped her friend's nose. "What do you say in defence?"

“I am not Shinano. I am not lazy.” Elma defended herself. She went past Cleveland and stretched. “Well I am warmed up again…also awake. So what do we search for?”

“Well good that you live again.” Cleveland snickered. “We search for if there is anyone in this building or generally something interesting.” Cleveland wanted to secure the area and find anything worth investigating, like from the times she raided siren bases. She had to snicker at the irony of it being reversed by now.

Elma immediately understood the objective. She summoned her halberd to her back to be ready and joined Cleveland who walked into the next door. Together now, at a much quicker pace, they searched through the base. Given that the base has been made of multiple stories, searching all of it took a while. 

"Damm what did the northern girls do?” Asked Elma as she looked around. The whole base already looked damaged from outside but the inside was far worse. Multiple walls and generally everything around them had markings of damages and shell explosions in them.

“I think they got into a big fight.” Cleveland theorised. She looked at the damage more carefully but couldn’t identify which shells these were. Some looked battleship caliber while some were cruisers, meaning the fighting involved all.

“But we never tried to retake the base. We never sent out that request.” Elma said flabbergasted. To her knowledge the base was lost and taken over by the Northern girls and nothing major happened after. 

*Yeah we didn’t want to retake that base. We could spy on the Northern Parliament like this anyway.*

“Those weren’t sirens.” Cleveland pointed out. "We use energy as ammunition and those are clearly shell impacts." She pulled one out of the wall. The shell was a sakuran 16 inch shell so Cleveland deduced that they attacked the base. “Looks like a Sakuran one. They are very different from the ones I lived around."

“Well sure I guess you can identify that since you lived under the shipgirls for so long.” Elma pondered. “I mean I wouldn’t be able to see it. But why would they even attack their allies?”

“The axis did that already so I guess they just repeated the old ways.” Cleveland thought as she dropped the shell. She snickered a bit at knowing that fact first hand. It didn’t explode since it was faulty but Elma still tensed up a bit. They walked through some rooms that stll showed the same amount of damage. Soon enough they met a door that was blown open with a big open room behind it.

Most of the room was charred and countless debris littered the floor. It was a miracle that the room even stood anymore. “This room looks important.” Cleveland concluded. The room obviously showed the biggest amount of damage across the entire building which stood out like a sore thumb.

“I dunno. The Northern girls messed up the place a lot but all this damage makes the room unrecognizable.” Elma sighed. She never was at this base or read the blueprints of it, meaning she couldn’t identify anything about the location. “I can’t identify anything here. Can you ask your schizophrenia for answers or something? This room looks important, I agree with you.”

“I am not mentally sick for god's sake.” Cleveland sighed. She had to convince Elma at a later stage that she wasn’t mad. “Well Alpha you heard her. What is this room?”

*Hmm I am looking at the plans. This room must be the internal teleport room of the base. Looks like it was kind of made into a mirror sea connection port. It’s a test chamber of sorts if you ask me.*

“Interesting. A test chamber for mirror seas.” Cleveland concluded. She looked around and concentrated. She could feel something unnatural here but couldn’t pinpoint it. “Something isn’t normal here.”

“Hmm you feel it as well huh? Well you are right. Something feels off.” Elma agreed with Cleveland. She couldn’t find where it was coming from but she knew something was there.

Cleveland looked around yet again and into the air. Something in it looked different. A tiny spot that had a different wavelength. Cleveland floated up and touched the air. What she touched was like a broken mirror that existed and at the same time didn’t. “Is this a mirror sea?”

*I was about to say yes. It is one but at the same time something is very wrong with it. There are barely any calculations I can access and the whole thing isn’t stable at all.*

“A mirror sea? Well then you can access it.” Proposed Elma as she watched her friend float down. Cleveland held her arm and had goosebumps. “Everything ok?” asked Elma concerned as she got no answer,

“I am fine. It just doesn't feel stable at all which freaks me out.” Cleveland sighed. She tried accessing the whole thing by touching it earlier but somehow couldn’t. She did, however, see where it was connected to. A line went into some sort of control room that laid behind a glass window to the side.

“If this is an experiment room then maybe the data of it is still available. You would probably like to read them Alpha.” Cleveland concluded and saw her chibi siren friend nod. She turned to Elma with a plan. “Over there is a control room. Seems like that is where we need to go.”

Cleveland began walking but Elma remained standing. “Can you check the computer? These things are more your area of expertise.” The enforcer proposed with a thoughtful look. “I never really was well with computers but will help you in any other way.”

“I will do that. Can you clean a bit of the debris then? That whole thing here is so unstable that I will better make the room safe before even attempting to tinker with it.” Cleveland smiled and began walking out.

*The enforcer just doesn’t wanna work you know. But now she has physical work. Hehe.*

Cleveland smiled a bit as she heard Elma groan behind her. All that was followed by the sounds of moving rocks and steel. Cleveland entered the control room through a door after she went down several airlocks, security rooms and corridors. Following the beeping warning messages and statistics of it, Cleveland wiped away some dust from a few monitors. She let out her tentacles and connected herself with the computer itself to have a better view and control of it.

Alpha popped up on the computer's screen, which amused Cleveland since like this she could show that Alpha still existed, and began helping Cleveland. The two without uttering a word understood each other and began combing through the data and the whole experiment itself. Alpha was delving into the statistics so Cleveland wasn’t concerned about that since she trusted her friend.

The mirror sea that was in the experimental chamber seemed to be an experiment of the Northern Parliament, trying to find out how mirror seas work at all. The logs showed how they used the generator they built to power it up and a few tried experiments of storing something in it. It kind of reminded Cleveland how she stored the weapons back for the humans, although in a primitive way.

*Did they think this would work? It’s a miracle the whole base hasn’t been blown sky high.*

“Cut them some slack. They don’t know how this stuff works.” Cleveland reminded her. “I get them trying to understand siren stuff but this is fraught with risks. Seems like they contained supplies and something else in it. Might be worth taking with us to be honest.”

*Yeah risks. Not building nukes. Well, mirror seas are an entire pocket dimension where you basically have infinite space. It’s good for storage indeed. What did they put in?*

“Mostly supplies that could be useful to us and the humans but also they tried it with actual shipgirls and production ships…however they got that outside.” Cleveland thought hard. “So I don’t know if I should open it for that reason. But first we need to stabilize it anyway. Come help me out here.”

The two observers worked for a few minutes and while Cleveland in the past probably couldn’t understand anything here, through her new siren state this all was child's play now. Fixing countless measures and giving the machine a few more from the sirens' knowledge of mirror seas, they finally managed to stabilize the Northern Parliaments contraption.

Alpha was about to say something but the door opened and Elma waltzed in. “I am done.” Said the enforcer and did not spot the siren on the screen trying to get her attention. She looked a bit exhausted and sat down on a spare seat next to Cleveland. Indeed a quick glance upwards, out of the window, revealed the entire room being cleaned of debris.

“Thank you Elma.” Cleveland smiled and looked at the computer. “The mirror sea in that room seems to store/contain something by the way.”

“That's good. I cleaned the room. Oh here by the way. Thanks for giving me that.” Elma said with a smile. She took off and passed Cleveland her cape back. The observer immediately put it on again. “Thank you. So are you finally warmed up again?”

“Jup. I am completely back again and I am not freezing.” Elma smiled as she spun around with her seat. Cleveland could see that the enforcer already looked a lot better than outside. Even her skin wasn’t sickly pale. 

Cleveland was happy about it and looked to the console. Alpha and she had overridden and somewhat stabilized the mirror sea in the chamber to the point where it was able to be opened safely. Total stabilization so that she could find out what was inside the mirror sea itself was impossible since the technology of the Northern Parliament was too primitive for that. It seemed the siren technology they used here, failed completely.

“I can open the lock of the mirror sea and open it. Should I do that?” Cleveland asked into the room. “I finished making it stable.” The mirror sea acted as a cage for something so Cleveland wasn’t sure what to expect should she shut it down. Hostile? Friendly? Maybe a trap?

*I mean whatever is in there you can handle anyway. And Elma is not noticing me at all.*

Cleveland had to admit the facts of both were right. Be it siren, no, shipgirl or anything, she could handle it but safety is the mother of the porcelain dishes. Being reckless wouldn’t help her here. “Elma, should I open it? I mean safety first since we don’t know what's in there.” 

“I cleared the room and all. If you say it’s stable then I would say we can go ahead and open it. We have an Observer and an Enforcer here. If it's hostile it needs to bring a mountainside of firepower to resist only me, and you are stronger than I am.” Elma snickered. “So open it.” 

She was right of course. From experience and reports Cleveland knew that Enforcers were hard nuts to crack, and besides her not knowing how strong Observer is and was, since she held back in their fight and generally never recorded fighting anyone, she knew for a fact that she was stronger than Elma.

“Fine, I will shut it down.” Cleveland accepted the matters and gave the mental command to the machine. The machine accepted the order and carried it out. With a whirring and a shut down noise the mirror sea generator shut down fast. In the room a small mirror sea opened but what came out was unseeable due to the blast doors closing over the windows the second Cleveland activated the opening mechanism. A safety measure Cleveland concluded. 

Alpha was still pouting from Elma being too dense to look at the screen behind Cleveland. A quick glance would most likely show the enforcer that she was not dead but that action never came as Elma stood up and leaned against the wall. 

“Well then let's see what is in the price box shall we?” Cleveland proposed and walked ahead. “Sad that we can’t see it at the moment.” Normally she would leave the enforcer to walk ahead but Cleveland deemed her radar and senses better for the circumstances.  

Elma certainly nearly did complain but just followed behind her friend with anticipation. Both sirens were excited to find something that could help them.

After a few corridors downwards into the seemingly test area, Cleveland turned into the dark room after she opened the door and walked into the room where the mirror sea was formerly positioned. Elma followed behind her the entire time and they both entered the empty room. The mirror sea has indeed vanished and the room was clean etched in soundless silence.

They checked the room by looking around it for at least a few seconds and found nothing. Cleveland even used her tentacles to swipe across the room in the try to find something invisible but found only air and nothingness. 

“So apparently there was nothing. What a waste.” Cleveland sighed and vanished her tentacles. She was hoping for something cool to appear but was left disappointed. “Not even resources?” Elma was also pouting because she was expecting something as well. “Why did they even leave the mirror sea on then? It had to have something in it.”

“I guess when they were attacked they were just conducting an experiment but had to abandon it. That’s why it was still on.” Cleveland suspected as she thought about the logs that seemed to cut off at the end. She was still disappointed that they found nothing. 

The two sirens were brought out of their disappointment as the two heard a sound behind them. They both could feel an icy breath on their backs that sent shivers down their spines. Yet turning around quickly, while summoning their riggings and weapons they both found nothing.

The two were confused and desummoned their weapons after looking around the room, finding nothing. They shrugged and walked out of the test chamber since the mirror sea turned out to be nothing.

Both of them were quickly surprised as they both saw the barrel of nine 16 inch guns shoved into each of their faces as they opened the door.

With a loud boom the sirens were sent back into the room. Skidding to a halt nearly at the halfway mark of the circular room, the two barely managed to stand up before having to dodge another full barrage.

“Do, not, move, a millimetre, you demons.” Was the only order the two sirens got from the group of shipgirls that stood opposite to them. Cleveland looked over and saw who it was, and that alone let her gulp.

"Well hello Sovetskaya Belorussiya, Sovetskaya Rossiya and friends." Cleveland greeted the Northern Parliament shipgirls that stood there, weapons ready.

For Cleveland something became very imminent. This has turned into a very difficult situation.

Chapter Text

Cleveland had to gulp as she saw who stood in front of her. The Parliament shipgirls in front of Cleveland were made up of Sovetskaya Belorussiya, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Kronshtadt, Gangut, Soobrazitelny and Tashkent. Each one of them had their guns trained at the two sirens with deadly precision. Sovetskaya Soyuz stood off behind them, seemingly analyzing the situation.

*This is not good. I advise you to not engage even if you can easily take them all on. Try talking.*

Cleveland wasn’t sure if she should laugh or groan at that. She came to that realization herself. She might have faith in her own powers but fighting seven Northern Parliament girls at once wasn’t something she woke up for today.

“Well look at that. Some Сирены seem to have found themselves in our base. Do you want to retake the base or something?” Giggled Gangut. Her rigging flared around her with joy. It looked like she could barely hold herself back. “Too bad. We won’t let you.”

“Now hold yourself Gangut.” Said Kronshtadt as she walked a few metres to the side. “We don’t know that siren so I would rather not be too quick to judge. That over there is an Enforcer and as we know those shouldn’t be underestimated.”

“I agree, Comrade.” Said Sovetskaya Belorussiya as she took a step to the side. She trained her guns on Cleveland while her sister set her gunsight on Elma. The half a dozen shipgirls stood split up around the room, each covering the flanks of the other. The battleship held her attention between the two sirens. “So if that is an Enforcer then there stands the possibility that this one is an Arbiter.”

“Worsening our situation by a lot.” Sovetskaya Rossiya added to her sister's monologue. She held her rigging back from approaching too close. Not daring to start a fight without coordination. “Everyone, hold your distance and keep your weapons ready. If given the order you are supposed to fire. Only react to aggression with aggression.”

"Well Elma, you said you need a mountainside of firepower for something to be considered a challenge. Looks like you got your wish." Cleveland exhaled a breath she was holding. She was thankful that the Northern Parliament girls didn’t attack immediately. She slowly looked to the side to see Elma being in the same situation but she looked like she was still readying herself to attack. “Elma. Whatever you think. Stay down. We don’t want this to escalate.”

“What? We can totally beat them, Master.” Elma spat out. She was about to summon her rigging but a sharp look from Cleveland broke her attempt. The tone and way the Enforcer addressed her was something foregin to Cleveland but she smiled, realizing what Elma was trying to do.

“Yeah, we can do it without a problem, but I am trying to be civil. Why not hear them out before we beat them back to the age of sailing.” Cleveland said, playing along with Elma. She dusted herself up, pretending to not be hit at all. If she made the others think she was an Arbiter then they would heavily consider attacking them.

Enforcers alone were forces to be reckoned with but fighting an Arbiter was plain up suicide. The few they encountered and fought against in operation siren, already demonstrated them as being nothing shy of solid steel walls compared to paper mache. No leader of any country would blindly send their troops into suicide.

“So you Northern Parliament shipgirls. Shooting me was highly disrespectful, you know?” Cleveland giggled and relaxed her shoulders. “But good that you accept that you are hopelessly outmatched.”

“Well then we thank you for not having taken graphic action against our actions, your highness.” The battleship spoke with caution. She wasn’t shaking but Cleveland could see concern hidden in her eyes. It looked like their little game was working.

“Ah, where are my manners?” Cleveland smiled. She did a small curtsy. ”I am Arbiter the sixth. The Lovers. You all don’t need to introduce yourself.” Cleveland could only giggle. She was having to play haughty and that was easy for her to manage. She turned to Elma. “This one is my first and most trusted Enforcer. Her name is Elma and I expect nothing but the highest respect coming from you for her as well.”

The Nothern Parliament girls all reacted to this differently. Most of them however gulped and aimed their guns even more accurately. Soobrazitelny looked more like she was gonna faint though. Elma held a different reaction. On the outside Cleveland saw that the Enforcer helt a steely look but from how tense her friend looked, Cleveland knew innerly Elma was fuming from that statement.

“Looks like my mighty name as an inventor halls even in the walls of the siren.” Giggled Soobrazitelny quietly before Cleveland turned around to look at her with a smile. The destroyer was immediately silenced and returned back to seriousness.

“Oh tiny destroyer. We know all of you. Not just your achievements so far but everything that has and will happen.” Cleveland giggled. She was trying to speak as siren as she could and it seemed to work out. Actually she was just trying to talk like Alpha which sent the little Observer smiling.

*You speak just like you are supposed to, so in my book you speak your language. Well, new language that is. Oh and thanks for taking inspiration from your big sister. I appreciate it.*

Alpha was right in all aspects. Cleveland had to learn how to be a siren completely but that was something for later. Now she had to survive this first. The Northern girls seemed to calm down while still training their weapons on them. Looked like their relaxation didn’t match the sirens.

“A siren that is considering talking over the annihilating what is in front of her. Fascinating.” Mentioned Tashkent from the side. “Usually you high sirens fight more than talk.”

“Oh I am not like my dear sirens under my orders, or the common frontline workers. Sometimes it needs the leader to protect the people she cares about. And this sometimes includes diplomacy instead of raw aggression.” Cleveland said nicely. “Also trust me an Arbiter is very much above a normal siren. I care for my dearest so I don’t fear going on the frontlines to protect them. Sadly I am almost all of the time occupied otherwise so you do manage to hurt my friends. Hearing that hurts my very soul by the way.”

“That is strange. We did kill all the sirens so who are you supposed to care about you monster…..” Soobrazitelny mentioned before she froze in her sentence. The Arbiter moved so fast that she appeared directly in front of the destroyer, where she stared the destroyer directly in the face. Said destroyer jumped back with a yelp from not expecting this sudden movement. The Arbiter in front of her held an aura that screamed death the longer the girl looked at it.

*Ah yeah, using your speed to your fullest are you? Also why are you glowing blue? God, your energy output breaks the scale.*

“Wasn’t you trying to not escalate this Master?” Asked Elma from the side with a snicker but Cleveland paid it no attention. Cleveland was busy staring the destroyer down with an aura of pure malice. The Northern girls gladly didn’t shoot but regrouped together after helping Soobrazitelny up. The bright blue crackling aura the Siren gave out was even making them shake a bit.

“Your Enforcer is right. Didn’t you say you didn’t want to fight?” Asked Sovetskaya Soyuz from the sidelines. She stood behind her fellow allies and stared at Cleveland and the other Siren. Cleveland deduced she was observing the happenings and creating a tactic like what was usual for her.It seemed like Soyuz wasn’t as bothered as the others by Cleveland's aura.

*You know having her on our side would be a great advantage. Maybe try to talk with her and convince her.*

“I did say that.” Cleveland told them and accepted Alpha's opinion mentally. She straightened her back and released the pressure she had in her aura, letting all shipgirls exhale as if a massive weight had been lifted from their chests. “However, I cannot stand down to some mindless insults to my family. You can definitely understand that Sovetskaya class. You wouldn’t dare let anyone who insults your sisters and friends as heartless monsters go unpunished now would you?”

“Very well Lovers, we shall not shoot you for this.” Kronshtadt mentioned as she let go of her tense fists. “However, try something like this again and no matter how little of a chance we stand against you, we will fight to the last shell.”

The Northern girls were kind of calming down but not laying down their weapons. It’s not like Cleveland expected that anyway. From experience she already knew the Northern girls were stubborn.

“Am I just drunk or does that siren kind of look like that one knight of the sea over from the Eagles? What was her name again?” Gangut suddenly threw in from the side. Cleveland only looked at her confused. The battleship was somehow even dumber than she remembered some people back at her old home being. She always thought she was pretty well known and had a great reputation before she, well, died.

“The name is Cleveland but since that wasn’t a siren that means that the person in front of us is not Cleveland.” Soyuz corrected her comrade. She directed her view at the siren and took a step back again. Her sister ships held their attention and guns at ready. “So Lovers, why do you look like an honoured girl of the Eagles? Do you want to dishonour her?”

Cleveland had to think hard for a viable answer for this. She shortly considered changing her appearance but ultimately decided against it. “Heavens no, why would I? I am merely using a form that I like. I went through her history and found her, the first ship of the Cleveland class, feats quite honorable and worthy of that of a hero. I chose to respect her so I modeled myself after her. After, of course, giving her design a few changes and adjustments.” Cleveland giggled and showed her assets to them by parting her capelet. “As you can see I changed her design to be less, how can I say this, chess board formed. ”

“Oooh that one hit.” Tashkent giggled a bit. She metaphorically helt her heart in reaction, symbolising she felt that. “Well that is clearly not Cleveland. She would never insult others.”

“Ah, Cleveland was it.” Realised Gangut with a carefree look. “Whatever then. Also that other one looks like she is Sakuran with those ears. Damm do we now have Sirens with culture?” The battleship simply shrugged, not caring about the danger of the situation at all.

“Who knows, maybe they have a culture we don’t know about. We found traces when we spied on them.” Speculated Tashkent as she listened to this. The Northern girls might not know the siren culture but Cleveland was having a first hand experience of it.

*Yeah there is quite a lot of our culture.*

"I like tinkering around with tech. Working with them might bring me faster results." Soobrazitelny drifted off. Sovetskaya Rossiya grabbed her shoulders a few seconds later. “Stay focussed. This isn’t over and neither are we out of danger yet. Who knows what that monster is hiding.” Cleveland had to snicker at that as the destroyer caught herself.

“Imbeciles, do you not show respect towards my master at all?” Elma said and drew her halberd but Cleveland stopped her from summoning it by grabbing her friends arm. Elma was pretty dumbfounded but Cleveland knew from her friend's little smile that they were playing well. “Elma calm your heart. These rowdies simply cannot accept a peaceful conversation. They are too scared, too cowardly to even put away their weapons. They have used them for so long that they became the weapon, an emotionless tool of war.”

“Cowards.” Kronshtadt uttered in disbelief. It seemed Cleveland's words hit her directly in the soul as the large cruiser was unsure of how to react.

“Then Lovers. We do as you wish. Two doors down the hallway is a common room where we can have a friendly talk.” Soyuz offered as she took the lead. She walked from behind her defensive friends to the front, standing directly in front of the smaller siren, showing courage and trust in her enemy's words. Soyuz extended her hand after looking at the Cleveland lookalike. “Do you accept a peaceful talk on the condition that no weapon is drawn in that room?”

“Call me Cleveland. After all, I do look similar to her.” Cleveland said before her snickering overtook her. She shook Souz's hand with a smile. “Of course. A relationship is built on trust isn't it?” The other Northern girls looked shocked.

“Trust? Master, why should we trust the ships? They only plot to kill us.” Elma said from the side. Cleveland knew that Elma wasn’t liking this situation, who would, but she still had to do this. If she could convince Soyuz of the truth then the entire Northern Parliament, without an ounce of doubt, would follow her.

“Same. Why should we trust a Siren? They only want destruction.” Sovetskaya Belorussiya uttered from the side. None of the Northern Parliament girls seem to comply with what Cleveland said.

“That might be true for you but the battleship in front of me carries a code of honor. I doubt she wants to cause unnecessary harm to her friends if they could instead simply leave unharmed.” Cleveland assured Elma as she looked into Soyuz eyes. The battleship merely nodded in agreement.

“Ships of the Northern Parliament. Lay down your weapons and stand down.” Soyuz spoke out and all the ships behind her seemed like they would fall unconscious from that sentence alone. Soyuz sisters went forward with a frown and grabbed their sisters shoulders, covering her in their weapons.

“Are you crazy, sister? That siren will destroy us the second we put our weapons away.” They whispered near simultaneously. This was probably to not have the sirens hear it but Cleveland and Elmas ears did pick it up perfectly. The two were about to say another word but a single look from Soyuz iron willed eyes completely stopped them.

“If they wanted to kill us they would have already done so. We are, while outnumbering them, completely outmatched in terms of firepower.” Soyuz pointed out as she shoved her sisters back with her sheer superiority. All the girls looked shocked behind her but seemed to accept their commander's order. One by one they retrated their weapons until not a single one stood with it drawn. Elma exhaled and seemed calmer from that alone.

“Part the way and follow behind us.” Soyuz commanded the girls under her orders. She turned to look at the sirens with a respectful glance. “Sirens, would you follow me? I will guide you to the room where we shall talk.”

Cleveland nodded and Elma complied as well. The shipgirls took a step to the side and let the sirens pass behind their leader. Most of them visibly weren’t happy with Soyuz decision but respected their leader's order. As the battleship said it was only a short walk until she stopped in front of a visible, not outstanding door.

“You first, your highness.” Soyuz said as she opened the door to the common room, beckoning the sirens to enter first. Cleveland with a little giggle compiled just fine and entered the room. Elma followed the Observer shortly after but not before giving the Northern girls a visible note to not try anything.

“Are you really sure you want to do this Soyuz?” Asked Sovetskaya Belorussiya as she walked ahead, stopping her sister from entering the room. She was deeply concerned for her leaders, and more importantly, sisters wellbeing. What she planned was essentially like talking with Satan itself.

“It is fine. The sirens promised they wouldn't hurt me and if they do I will call you in. Don’t be worried.” Soyuz did some weird hand movements as she said that. “That siren seems different and we never talked with an Arbiter before.”

Cleveland thought nothing of it because it seemed like a sisterly interaction she dearly remembered from her past. After Soyuz was done talking, she entered the room as well, shutting the door behind her. She sat down on the couch opposite from the sirens and exhaled. “So Cleveland and your Enforcer. Now we can talk.”

“Her name is Elma so please address her as such, Soyuz.” Cleveland smiled. “But yes now we can talk. So why are you here? ”

“I can answer that easily. We captured this base from Omitter after driving her away and so far no Siren has tried to take it back. This is why we reside here.” Answered the battleship swiftly and to the point. “So what are you searching for here?”

Cleveland leaned forward. “I decided to see how my friends are doing after the network was shut off and I found time to visit this place. So far we have been driving across the sea finding nothing and to warm up we decided to enter this base.”

“This is not your base, you know Sovetskaya Soyuz.” Elma reminded the battleship. That was a fact that stood clear. They captured it and therefore weren’t the ones that built it. “We can waltz in here with a dozen of us and drive you out like a bunch of doves.”

“But you didn’t, showing you got something better to do and that this base wasn’t overly important in your network of bases to attack us.” Soyuz gathered from that. She looked over to Cleveland with an emotionless look. “So, Cleveland, you are an Arbiter?”

“Yes, I am.” Cleveland assured the battleship in front of her yet again. She was getting a bit annoyed on the battleship since she wasn't catching on to her act. At least now they were alone. “Want me to prove it?”

“Very much so.” Soyuz demanded and sent Cleveland directly into the corner. The siren didn’t expect the battleship to actually want proof. Thankfully Cleveland improvised a way fast enough to seem natural.

“Demonstrate? Oh that is easy.” Cleveland said with an honest smile. “Creating portals, changing my appearance and using tentacles isn’t going to be anything new. Hmmmmm. How about talking with the dead?” Cleveland did said abilities as a kind of show she listed them. Cleveland shortly thought about summoning her ghosts but that would discourage Soyuz since she didn’t know the ships were dead so she settled for the next best option. An option that would knock them off the table.

What Cleveland uttered out confused both people in the room. Cleveland could only giggle. “With love and hope everything is possible.” She approached the computer in the back of the room, next to the dart target on the wall, and touched the monitor. “Alpha will you come out. Say a few words as well, will you?”

Elma only rolled her eyes at that. She pouted a bit before staring at what Cleveland was doing. “You and your….” She was promptly silenced as the monitor lit up. Observer Alphas face, completely humanoid and not as chibi this time, appeared in it.

*Oh hello. How can I help you?*

Soyuz all but fell out of her seat while Elma literally jumped up. Both of them knew the siren was dead so what they were seeing was literally impossible. “How are you alive?” Cleveland could only giggle and walk back to the couch.

*Loading data. Enforcer VI Combination. Enforcer of Arbiter the sixth.* Said Alpha as she looked into the Enforcers eyes. *According to Clevelands memories your name is Elma so I will address you as such.*

“She can access your memories?!” Elma gasped. She turned to look at Cleveland who only looked at the Enforcer. Cleveland was smirking at Elmas reaction. “Of course she can. She is in my head after all.”

“So you weren’t lying all the time?!” Elma gasped out in total confusion. She felt like her pride had been shattered from not seeing and accepting her friends' statements. “You can talk and see her all the time?!”

*Yeah she wasn’t. I have been her companion since after I died and she saved me. The trademark for not letting my soul pass away was that only she can hear and see me.* Alpha said and leaned back, even though her space was kind of limited. *But hey I can still do my job just fine so I am me but without a body. Or could if the network wasn’t down so I am more or less trapped in her mind.*

“Interesting, you can control the souls of the dead.” Soyuz concluded from that. The battleship looked deep in thought. She wanted to say another thing but Elmas' stomach rumbling brought them all to a stop. Elma of course was red as a tomato from this.

“Are you hungry?” Cleveland asked her friend who nodded. Cleveland let out a single tentacle that snaked her way over the ground. It stretched over the couch where Soyuz sat and passed next to her.

“Don’t be scared by it.” Cleveland said, letting her tentacle pass the battleship peacefully and reach a fridge on the side of the common room, grabbing a pack of cookies out of it and pulling her tentacle back after closing the fridge again. “These things can be handy, you know?” She said as she took one cookie out of the bag and munched it before passing the whole bag to Elma. “Here you go. Why are you even so hungry?”

“I don’t know.” Elma said ashamed. Munching a few cookies she at least calmed her stomach down. She was walking around the whole room, seemingly thinking. “Maybe it’s because we have been cruising for two days now or my body shifted into survival mode when I was a walking popsicle.” Soyuz was visibly confused by this statement. Not only did she live here for as long as she can remember, she also knew that sirens were more resistant than shipgirls when it came to temperatures.

“If you ask yourself Soyuz, Elma here was stationed in the pacific so is not used to dealing with extreme colds. Even though we feel it way less than you.” Cleveland explained to the confused battleship. Elma was meanwhile coming to a rest and seemed locked in a hefty battle between deciding if she should continue eating or save it for later. “She used to eat large portions, so that's probably another reason why she isn’t getting sated by the small things we found here.”

*You glutton you.* Alpha giggled as she observed Elma. Said Enforcer of course snapped over immediately.

“HEY!” Elma screamed in retaliation. She was visibly mad about that statement. “I am an Enforcer. An elite group of sirens trained to defend Arbiters. How dare you call me fat?”

“She didn’t call you fat, she called you a glutton.” Cleveland giggled, much to Elmas misfortune. She turned to the monitor and walked up to it, patting the monitor and subsequently Alpha's head. “Come on, shut off and look through some data will you?” Alpha nodded and disappeared from the computer. The intercom went silent and for all but Cleveland the Observer vanished.

*Now that was some good quick thinking. I am dead, so them seeing me again should count as proof to fool them.*

“Siren interaction, tentacles and Observer. Not something you see everyday these days.” Soyuz said calmly as she watched the Enforcer munch down on the cookies, still as pouting as before. Soyuz had a frown on her head from thinking so much. “So I guess you are actually an Arbiter even though I am not 100% sure. So my question is answered. Do you have any, Cleveland?”

“Yes, I do.” Cleveland exhaled. She had many questions of course but didn’t want to be too pressing on the battleship. “We deactivated a mirror sea here. Turns out nothing was in it. Care to explain what it was doing here?”

“In the years you vanished we researched more about you and with this tried to recreate that. Only problem was that your technology is hard to understand.” Soyuz explained and Cleveland understood immediately. Usually for shipgirls and humans what the sirens could do seemed like the impossible. Yet now as part of them Cleveland found it easy to get their tech. “We were trapped in that so I must thank you for releasing us, even if it was unplanned.”

Elmas ears piped up from the side. “Why were you even trapped in a mirror sea?” Elma asked as she grabbed another cookie, her bag almost empty. “You can’t control them from inside anyway. You aren’t a siren who can manually control it without a console. Why enter it when you can’t close it?”

Soyuz looked thoughtful and a bit surprised. “Azur lane waltzed right in here as a friendly talk. Then they used your technology to control most of us and began gunning down the others. We and everyone that could resist it began fighting back but were totally outmatched against the horde of shipgirls you controlled and sent against us. It ended with them capturing us and using our experimental mirror sea device to open one. They threw us in and locked it so we were caught in the empty void for at least a few days. Then you opened it up again and let us out and now we are here.”

*A few days? From the data of the recordings, that was at least 14 months ago. I need to check this.*

Cleveland was confused as well. From her knowledge, Azur Lane started their big attack on humanity at least over a year ago. “Wait, did you say we controlled Azur lane?” Elma was questioning things with Cleveland. She sat down next to her friend on the couch and put away the barely remaining cookies.

“Yes I did. There is no other way they would attack us.” Soyuz said with a faceted voice. “It was like the Sakura Empire attacked Azur Lane, back as they were still split in two. Only we had to face the entirety of Azur Lane at once. Not like the girl you try to be.”

Cleveland ignored the last comment and thought. What Soyuz said was interesting since Cleveland still had no idea how all of Azur Lane was attacking humans. From her encounter with Mutsuki she suspected some kind of mind control. “Soyuz, how exactly did we try to control you?”

“It was a small globe looking piece of equipment, about as large as a wisdom cube.” Soyuz started and Elma seemed to react to that weirdly. Elmas breathing became hectic as she listened. “It glowed pink and gave a feeling of the warm embrace of a mother. Honestly it seemed to be a disgusting mental control device only a monster could use.”

“What the fuck did you just say!!” Elma screamed upon hearing that, shocking the two other. “That's my master's ability! How are you worthless pathetic monsters able to control my master?!!” The Enforcer almost lunged at the battleship but Cleveland held her back, although barely. Would she still be a shipgirl the sheer force Elma was pushing with would haev snapped her arms clean off.

“Elma, stay calm!” Cleveland ordered but Elma didn’t even react. The siren looked like only Cleveland, having her in her grip, was keeping her back from attacking Soyuz. The battleship looked unimpressed and fearlessly stared into the head of the siren. Whatever the ship was seeing, Cleveland ignored it and wrestled Elma onto the couch.

Elma landed on it and was restrained by Cleveland's tentacles which held her down. “Elma stay down, we want to talk not murder.” The Enforcer struggled hard and while physically matching Cleveland in strength, the amount of arms the Observer had still gave her the advantage. That however didn’t mean that Elma was just gonna go down without a fight.

“That ship knows what happened to my master!” Elma screamed as she resisted. Cleveland simply grabbed her by the shoulders and began shaking her. Cleveland didn’t want this to end in a disaster so she had to avoid Elma going berserk.

“Whatever happened to your master will be resolved and I assure you we will find her but calm down! That’s an order!” Cleveland ordered and Elmas ears went flat against her head. She ceased struggling and Cleveland let go.

“Fine master.” Elma exhaled and shifted on her set. She shuffled a bit away from Cleveland before the Observer sat down again as well. Cleveland was about to say something to excuse Elma but the shipgirl was looking at them with an untypical smile. “What’s so funny, shipgirl?” Elma asked as she saw that.

“Nothing. I can totally see through you two. Siren.” Soyuz giggled in a small voice that still sounded focussed. Something about the shipgirl seemed off.

“What do you mean by that?” Cleveland asked as she looked at the shipgirl. A feeling of uneasiness was growing in her stomach.

“It's easy. She just said that the ability Azur Lane tried here comes from her master and since she is without a doubt an Enforcer, I can believe her without an issue. The ability was aimed to mind control us and while I still have to find out the reason. I know that the ability now comes from an Arbiter.” She stood up and looked at the two sweating sirens. “And given that that Arbiter is dead so Azur Lane is able to use its ability, it is very obvious.“ She turned to Cleveland. “The abilities you portrayed have shown great potential but don’t come close to that of an Arbiter. Which means you aren’t an Arbiter.” Soyuz clarified, breaking every illusion Cleveland built already. “And given that Observers, like the one you are given your abilities, don’t fight often from which I will go ahead and assume you can’t fight well. We can take you on.” Soyuz gave her a stare that told Cleveland that the ship saw straight through her. Soyuz pressed a button on the intercom and screamed out “Огонь!”.

Soyuz ducked down and the walls somehow rushed down, leaving the sirens in clear view to all the Northern Parliament girls that had their weapons drawn. The sirens could barely summon their own arnaments as the ships began opening fire at them. Thankfully they blocked the first volley but the Northern girls had ammunition to spare. They prepared to attack before already so that is what they did.

Elma and Cleveland drew their weapons before they summoned their riggings. Shooting left and right they forced the Northern girls to dodge but their number superiority forced the sirens into less of an offence. The shipgirls might not outgun and overpower them but even the sirens couldn’t block their shots from all sides.

“This is getting annoying.” Elma said as she dodged a battleship salvo, who shot it firmly didn’t scratch her. Elma shot the ground behind the ship and sprinted at them as they recovered. Kneeing Tashkent in the stomach and smacking away the Sovetskaya class girls' rigging, Elma spun and hit the girl in the back with her halberd. Turning her rigging she forced the destroyer to evade instead of attack by shooting and hitting with one of her bullets.

Cleveland was having the same amount of problems but was fighting back even if she had to tone herself down by a lot. Her eight guns couldn’t really fire since Cleveland had to power them down by quite a lot to not erase whoever she hit. ‘Did you always hold your true strength back?’

*Well yes, I don’t wanna kill what I wanna observe.*

Cleveland understood her and continued fighting. The Northern girls were all fighting coordinated with Soyuz giving orders from the back. Soyuz did so in a language Cleveland didn’t understand so she could only brace herself for the results.

*You should be able to understand her, you have a universal translator in your Systems.*

"Well I obviously don't have it active then." Cleveland said and somersaulted forward. She swung her scythe and impacted Soobrazitelny with it. The destroyer was hit hard and thrown down the hallway before stopping and Cleveland swung to the side. The target, Gangut, dodged it and Cleveland struck the wall before getting hit by shots from the battleship. Gangut ripped the scythe out of the wall and tried to throw it away but Cleveland's tentacles rushed out and struck her in the chest, ripping the scythe clean out of her hands.

*You win this while I figure out what's wrong with your body. You seem to only slowly get access over stuff you should already have perfect ability to use. You can't even use the comms freely, nor actually manipulate the room around you with even a tiny mirror sea. That would come in handy now, wouldn't it.*

Cleveland and Elma both had issues since their held weapons were too big for the room to be probably used. Their riggings were usable but only Elma had a more slender one, allowing a quicker fighting style than with Cleveland's massive rigging. Cleveland simply wasn’t used to her new rigging yet, so she edged on the walls and furniture more often than she wanted.

Not letting herself be discouraged she fought and fired shot after shot that hit and severely hurt Kronshtadt and Sovetskaya Belorussia. Soobrazitelny was nimbeling through the shots due to her being more flexible than the heavier armed girls but that made her more of an annoyance than a threat. It was the same with Tashkent since both were unable to use torpedos on land. Both destroyers were more or less ignored by the sirens.

“We got them apart. Focus the attack on the Enforcer.“ Soyuz commanded from the back. Cleveland had no idea what the battleship ment but as she looked around she saw it. The Northern girls had successfully split the sirens between the room and the hallway through their careful dodging and movement.

“Elma! Watch out, your flank is open!” Cleveland screamed but it was too late. While Elma was delivering a strike to one side of Sovetskaya Rossiya, her sistership hit the Enforcer with a salvo, throwing her into the wall. Elma was more or less fine, even though Cleveland didn’t feel it like that, and continued fighting. She could feel her own durability but Elma was still out of shape for fighting as far as Cleveland recalled. Plus seeing your friend get hit by battleship cannons was something no one liked to see.

“Will you stop fighting already, you can’t win.” Demanded Cleveland as she blocked a few shots from Gangut to her front. The battleship of course did not let up for even a second. Cleveland aimed her cannons and blasted her.

“Oh we can’t win?” Gangut giggled as she sidestepped the siren's shots. The plasma bolts hit the wall behind her, burning it a little bit. “Ohhh spicy. In my opinion you just can’t shoot. Do you squint or do you just suck at shooting straight?”

Cleveland was getting agitated as she heard that. "I can very well blow up this whole base if you prefer that!" She took aim and shot but had to jump back as she heard the three battleships fire, her own shots missing by mere centimetres through that. Landing far in the back Cleveland took aim yet again but saw no hit marks where she stood before.

Cleveland was confused as she clearly heard the battleships shooting but a glance to the side revealed all that made her heart stop. The battleships had taken their advantage, and while Cleveland had jumped back, all of the six Northern girls had swapped their attention momentarily and targeted Elma.

The Enforcer could take on the battleship and the two destroyers in front of her but since Cleveland previously occupied two other battleships and a large cruiser, Elma didn’t plan them into her dodging plan. The battleships all blasted her in the back, sending the Siren to the ground. Elma was about to stand up but was met with gun barrels directed at her face.

“We will save humanity from you monsters. Perish.” Was the only thing Belorussiya screamed as she aimed her guns at Elma and prepared to fire. Cleveland saw the gun barrels and what was about to happen and time for her slowed to a crawl. She refused to accept what would happen next. Using her guns would injure Elma and that was something she couldn’t stomach, however, she couldn’t lose the only friend she had. As Cleveland's hopeless situation turned into anger as she counted her options, her eyes somehow turned blue like Elmas and a blue aura began forming around her, stopping the battleship from shooting as they looked over at her in slow motion.

“Until I got my revenge. Until I killed the ones that caused this. Until we have achieved peace.” Cleveland exhaled as she gathered her will, somehow focussing the aura solely on her clenched right fist.

*Cleveland? Your energy output is going haywire!*

“I AM NOT GONNA LET HER DIE!!!!” Cleveland screamed as she jumped at them. Her fist glowed bright blue and the second she punched forward, intending to attack the person in front of the group that was aiming at her friend, the entire hallway was engulfed in a bright blue light shooting out of her fist as she collided with the rigging.

_________

Oh what is happening now? I will let you all guess

Chapter Text

“Well that was bright.” Complained Elma as she rubbed her eyes. “It also hurts, you know that Cleveland?” She stood up and tried to spot the enemy. She was more or less blind due to whatever light trick Cleveland pulled off.

Elma slowly got her vision back and was surprised to find herself in nothing but a black void. The only thing that was there was a bit of solid ground under her feet.

“Wait what?” Elma gawked out as she looked around. She was alone in this black void as she found out but what confused her the most was how she got here. She remembered that she was fighting the Northern Parliament girls mere seconds ago, she even stared down the barrels of Rossiya’s rigging. Then Cleveland suddenly used a giant blue light, and now she was here for some reason.

Elma could only look around in confusement. "Where am I?" She carefully took a step forward and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the way ahead of her formed itself from some rubble flying in front of her. Said rubble seemed to just appear from thin air. 

“Convenient.” Elma said out loud and followed the line. Walking for a few minutes in total silence and darkness might be a bit creepy to some but that didn’t bother the Enforcer at all. “Ok this is getting weirder and weirder. Where am I? Cleveland? Are you there?” She got no answer and only walked forward. She tried flying but for some reason just couldn’t so she had to continue her way on foot.

Bonking her head against a lantern of sorts brought her out of her thinking to what was blocking her abilities since she found out that she couldn’t even use her rigging, and she tried summoning it for her own protection. Her own halberd didn't even bother appearing as well.

She looked at the thing and stumbled back upon her act of hitting her head on it. She was trying to make herself a better picture of the lantern that somehow just floated in the air and stumbled a bit back but then suddenly bumped into something with her back that was definitely not there before. Turning around she saw….a building? 

“Where did that come from?” Elma asked as she looked at it. It was a put together piece of wall that seemed to just float in the air. In fact the longer Elma looked around the more a scene seemed to be built from nothing as the parts just flew in. She found herself standing at a dock of sorts and was kind of confused since only one side of it appeared. “What is this?”

The other side of the dock formed and a bright light next to her but Elma shielded herself from the light with her hands. “Again? Seriously.” Gasped Elma and felt around. She grabbed something solid and warm, probably a lantern, and held onto it. The light disappeared and Elma was set upon a fully built port, resembling the one in the Sakura Empire. 

“Ok this is strange.” Elma said as she looked around. “Cleveland what did you…….” She was about to question things but got distracted by looking to the right. 

Directly into the face of a Northern Parliament battleship which hand she was holding.

________

The northern girls had it the same yet different. They saw the siren do an attack that blinded them before they were thrown into a free fall in a void of nothingness. Without anything to do they steeled themselves but were soon again blinded by a bright light. Gladly they landed softly on solid ground.

“Is everyone ok?” Asked Belorussiya as she rubbed her eyes after they landed. All of the Northern Parliament shipgirls had seen a bright blinding light. Afterwards they felt like they were falling and grabbed the first object they could find. These objects turned out to be each other. Slowly standing up and finding their balance again the girls looked around. 

“This is freaky.” Said Gangut as she was fascinated by the blackness. “What did that siren Eagle girl do back there?”  She took a few steps forward and found rubble and metal forming a pathway in front of her. “Hey, the ground is building.”

The other girls were looking over and trying the same. They all found it freaky and strangely fun. “I have no idea how to explain this but it is quite funny. I definitely want to know how this works and I want to use it.” Soobrazitelny said and was trying to come up with explanations to this but found none.

“Everyone stay cautious. We don’t know if this is a mirror sea or something worse.” Reminded Soyuz her comrades. All of them immediately regrouped and became focussed again. Their leader's order was right of course, they couldn’t be distracted while the enemy might lurk around anywhere.

“What even happened?” Asked Tashkent out loud as she and the others regrouped. “We fought those sirens and then there was that bright light and now we are here.” She, as were the others, were of course confused by a lot. They just fought two sirens and seemed to kind of keep them equal to their own strength with tactics, even when completely outgunned. Then the Observer, who was disguising herself as an Arbiter, shot some sort of blue energy ball at them, sending them here.

“Whatever it was, I doubt it was friendly.” Breathed Belorussiya out. She had the chance to fire at the Enforcer they cornered but let herself be distracted by the blue lights from the other one. “I am sorry I let myself be distracted. Without my stupidity the Enforcer would at least have been stopped.”

“Don’t sweat on it, Comrade. You did the best you could and no one could imagine the sirens to pull this out.” Kronshtadt said to calm her friend down. She took on a thoughtful stance. “Maybe it was actually an Arbiter after all. We studied mirror seas but this is literally nothing like we ever saw before.”

“It definitely wasn’t an Arbiter.” Soyuz said with a steely, unshaken resolve. She was clear in her view there. “I am sure about that. The siren's abilities were clearly outstanding but didn’t match that of what we heard of an Arbiter. I do have to find out what this is.”

“Well whatever it is, it is building a complete port where we stand.” Gangut pointed out and they all diverted their attention to around them. As the battleship said the area did indeed build an entire port, even if the buildings had no interior on closer inspection.

“That is strange.” Rossiya said as she departed from the group and walked a tiny distance from it. She looked into one of the buildings, a cafe, and could see that the tables seemed to be cut in the middle wherever they met the line of what built itself and what didn’t. “This is getting weirder and weirder.” She turned around and looked at the others. “This is cut off from reality or something. Wait. If you turn you can see that we are on one side of the port but the other side is missing isn’t it?”

To confirm that they all accessed the situation. Looking at the port indeed showed that only one side of it was indeed there. The shipgirls were kindly confused by that and closer observation to the shops also revealed them to be nameless and uninhabited.

“The second part of the port indeed seems to be missing.” Soyuz spoke out what everyone saw. “Rossiya get over here, we don’t know what else might happen in this strange mirror sea. We should stick together." 

As if on cue they heard a low rumbling and a bright light exploded in the void next to them. “Everyone, grab something and stay ready.” Was the only thing Soyuz managed to say before the light reached them.

Rossiya ran and grabbed them as the light reached them. She wasn’t sure what person she grabbed but she grabbed someone's hand, she deduced that by the object feeling like skin. They all couldn’t hear anything and as the light faded their ears were ringing. 

Ok this is strange.” A voice said as she looked around. “Cleveland what did you…….” She was about to question things but suddenly stopped.

“Comrade, what are you talking about?” Rossiya asked and looked to the left. Directly into the blue eyes of the Enforcer they fought mere minutes ago.

________

They looked into each other's eyes before Rossiya looked down and blushed. She had her hands clasped with the Sirens. Elma and Rossiya realized that before they both jumped up, trying to get their hands free.

Elma used the battleship's pull to get close and kneed the her in the chest. Afterwards she kicked her and used the ship's chest to summersault away due to her faster speed and better hand to hand combat training. The battleship let go of her before dropping to the ground from the impact. 

“Bastard!” Groaned Rossiya and summoned her rigging…..only to not have it appear. She could only gasp at that. She stood weaponless in front of her worst enemy.

“Yeah weapons don’t work here for some reason.” Elma said with a bit of an annoyance. "Mine isn’t appearing either." She had no luck in managing to summon her weapon but she didn’t care as she took on a combat stance. “That doesn’t mean that I won’t take you on though."Now that she had no injuries or other concerns, she could actually fight, even without her weapon.

Elma circled the battleship as they both glared at each other with hatred. Said battleship remained expressionless but didn’t attack.  “Come on, you project 23 class battleships. We both know you want to taste my fists.” Insulted Elma as she sprinted forward. Rossiya tried to evade and even evaded the first fist strike, the following sweep to her feet though threw her off balance which the siren used to strike the ship’s back. 

Rossiya had to gasp and turn around before punching. The siren simply did a little duck under the ship's strike before giving a brutal uppercut in retaliation. The battleship was sent flying before Elma jumped up and struck her in the stomach, sending her back to the ground.

The ship catched herself on the ground and went in for another strike, a strike Elma evaded like it was childsplay. In Fact the battleship continued hailing the Siren in blows, all of which didn’t even connect due to Elmas dodging and simply slapping the ships hand away. Elma did have to acknowledge the ship using basic moves of different martial arts to attack that almost made her feel a bit of respect to her enemy, but against her mastery in it, it stood no chance.

“Are you even trying to hit me?” Snickered Elma as she had enough of her fun in embarassing the battleship. She catched Rossiyas next strike, pulled her forward, twirled behind her and held the ship in a chokehold. “Looks like we can end your little embarrassment here.”

Rossiya was struggling but had no chance against the Sirens' pure strength. Elma was giggling but heard voices behind her. She twirled around and threw the battleship behind her, nailing Kronshtadt and Tashkent who came to attack the Siren from behind.

Rossiya caught her breath and was helped up by her sister. All of them took a step back from the Siren, trying to get some distance and create a plan of attack. 

“So the entire group is together it seems.” Giggled Elma as she looked at the group. The girls were trying to organise but kept a defencefull strategy due to being unable to summon their weapons. “You don’t want to attack, don’t you?”

“Oh we are thinking about it. We might not be able to summon our riggings but that doesn’t mean that we are scared of you.” Kronshtadt said and was nonverbally accompanied by her friends. “We will take you on even without-”

“Shut it, Project 69. I was talking to your chief over there.” Elma said snarkily as she looked at Soyuz. “Clearly you won't order them on a suicide charge towards me, are you?”

Everyone looked at Soyuz, who had a very thoughtful view. No doubt she was thinking of an approach to this. “Comrades…….stand back.” She declared with a bit of pain in her voice.

The Northern girls turned around in shock. “Sister. What do you mean? We can’t just give up.” Belorussiya gasped out in total disbelief. She would honour her sister's decision but had to question it. To just give up wasn’t something they would do under any circumstance.

Soyuz stopped her with a simple glance. “Stand back. As much as it pains me to admit it…we stand no chance against her even if we work coordinated. She would just defeat us all one by one.”

“Look at that. Someone actually uses her brain here.” Elma giggled as she looked at herself. “You guys need rigging to pierce my skin alone.” She playfully pointed at her arm. “In all accords Enforcers take on entire fleets with riggings. What makes you think you can beat me with your fists?”

“Nah we just won’t back down from a good fight any day. Oh my drink is empty. Anyone got a refill?” Gangut said with a hick, completely taking all the tension out of the air. Elma had to giggle at that. “You are too drunk to actually realize the current situation are you. Sure you battleships are strong but when I have taken you guys out then it’s checkmate. Your inventor over there will probably piss herself when she tries to fistfight me.”

Soobrazitelny pouted upon hearing that. “I wouldn’t but you believe what you want you monster.”

“Ooh, looks like someone, and expecially the child, needs a spanking.” Elma said casually and held up her hand. The destroyer jumped up and looked at the Enforcer with held up fists. “You want a go, huh?”

"Not really." Shrugged Elma. She set her clothes back in order and dusted it up a bit. "Not much value in beating defenseless headless chickens if you ask me." Soobrazitelny couldn’t take that and was about to smack the siren but Soyuz held her back.

“Stop it you two.” Soyuz stopped the destroyer while the Enforcer just did nothing. Both lowered their hands and ceased hostilities. Although it was clear that the shipgirls were still very far away from actually relaxing. She exhaled and turned to the siren. ”You. Elma was your name right?” Asked the battleship to which Elma only nodded. “Can I count on your cooperation that you don’t attack us like before?”

"Sure. Will work like five minutes ago where I was totally not backstabbed after agreeing not to get backstabbed by....wait those were you guys." Elma said sarcastically as she glared at them with disappointment. "Do you think I will just let the same mistake happen again? But before I kill you I need something different from you and if you answer smartly I might actually let you escape for a minute. I am not Beta. I don't care if I kill you." She got to the point quickly since she saw no point in wasting time socializing with her enemies while they were in an unknown location but she could squeeze out some informations out of them before she went ahead and broke their necks. “So you smart and not so smart girls. Do you have any clue where we are? I will not kill you yet. I need to get out of here myself."

“You don’t know where we are?“ Soobrazitelny asked with a confused look. The mechanic/inventor was definitely not getting the siren. “Isn’t this your mirror sea? You should know where we are.”

“If it would be a mirror sea then I could access and change it.” Elma huffed in annoyance as she looked over. “Yet I can’t. l can’t even find out a type of localisation or anything to access it so yeah. Whatever Cleveland did made this thing here.”  

The Northern girls reacted to that name. With their glances alone they spoke more than a thousand words and seemed to be more confused than ever. Elma just watched them think and relaxed until someone said something.

“With Cleveland you refer to your Observer friend right.” Rossiya butted in. The ships were calming down at this point because Elma at this point had not even tried to attack them again. Looks like she actually kept her word to the no attack speech she made before. The ships weren’t expecting that from a siren.

“Yeah sure. Let's say it like that.” Elma shrugged. She walked forward and looked at them more closely. “So I guess you don’t have an idea where we are. That’s bad.”

“All we remember is your friend launching a bright blue light at us before I could shoot you in the face.” Belorussiya said and was met with a glance from Elma. “What? We are enemies. You surprised that I try to kill you?”

“Surprised not, given that I almost had your head before your sister over the shot my riggings and made my shots miss. But I still don’t like it, you know?” Elma huffed. She turned around and was about to insult the battleship for trying to shoot her beautiful face but was interrupted by the ground rumbling. In mere seconds the entire port seemed to rumble. Within less than a fraction of them reacting, the whole port shook and threw them to the ground.

“Is that an earthquake?!” Tashkent screamed as she held her head to the ground. “Siren! I knew we couldn’t trust you!”

“Why am I suspected.” Elma gasped. She, like the others, was trying to hold on to something and had a mayorly better shot at it. “I am also affected by this so I didn’t do this. AAAh! Cleveland stop whatever this is now!” While they weren’t thrown around, they certainly had the feeling they were. They stood up and tried to find their balance but then the shaking got less tense before it picked up suddenly again as the girls let out a breath of relief.

“It’s a mirror sea. Only you can make them.” Tashkent answered and hit the deck to stay balanced. The shipgirls all followed that example to the letter. Elma was stronger than all of them so she could more or less keep standing.

Elma sighed in anger as she kneed down. “Even if it’s a mirror sea, it’s one I can’t control so shut up.” The area under them broke and lifted each shipgirl up. Surprisingly none of them fell down and they could all look as the port transformed and the sun rose? Somehow they could see sunlight around them, even though there was no sun, and in the water something was happening. 

In a blue, yet not bright light, stony figures just spawned or straight up appeared on the water. On closer inspection they seemed to be coming more alive as they began moving. Even then they still looked more like ghosts. 

“So Wales, since the sirens are gone you have become a bit strange but you are still nice. Why did you call me here.” Said a childish voice Elma did indeed directly identify. It was Mutsuki from the Sakura Empire.

“Was that…..I forgot her name. She was that one girl I met during the Iris Libre Basilica when we had a festival about beating the sirens once and for all. I was out cold after that day.” Soobrazitelny mumbled out loud before looking at Elma who held an unamused look on her face. ”Although now that she is there, it looks like we had a party for nothing.”

“Damn you must have looked deep into the bottle. Thats that sakura destroyer group girl, their leader, Mutsuki.” Gangut elaborated with a focussed voice. Looked like the entire sharde knocked her into serious mode. “The other one is clearly Prince of Wales.”

As the battleship said, the other battleship with its quad cannons was clearly identifiable. The two blue figures stood on the water and looked at a….small crawler around 60 metres away from them.

“Ah yes Mutsuki I was asking you for target training. You know that since we had beaten the siren, some time has passed right?” Wales asked and gave Mutsuki a bit of candy which the hungry destroyer gladfully took. “Yes, we beat those evil sirens months ago.” Mutsuki cheered as she finished her candy bar. “So why do target training?”

Wales sighed and patted the girl's head. “You see we beat those evil sirens but as history has shown there will always be evil in the world. I just want to ensure that if the day comes when evil or so returns that we are still able to defeat this threat and protect the planet. I hope this is understandable.”

“Ooooooooh I get you. You want to stay us trained so we can win if we get surprised. That's smart. You are smart.” Mutsuki smiled blindly and aimed her guns at the target yet did not fire. She looked confused at what she was supposed to fire at. “A fishing boat?”

“It's not an issue. It’s a simple thing like our production ships. So just aim and fire.” Wales encouraged the girl. Mutsuki did just that but didn’t fire. “Are you sure it’s a production ship? The paint is a bit off and it is named.”

Wales flinched a bit upon hearing that. “Well I made it look more real since you never know when  the enemy is using deception to trick us. So shoot it please.” Wales sighed as she seemed to get annoyed by it. 

“I will investigate this first.” Mutsuki mentioned and was about to walk forward but Wales held her on the spot. “No you don't need to. Just shoot it and we are done.” The battleship seemed to get fairly annoyed by this, evident by how her earlier held smile vanished already.

“It’s not gonna fire back anyway.” Mutsuki said as she slipped past Wales. The destroyer was far faster than the battleship so said battleship couldn’t grab her to stop her. “Mutsuki get back here.” Wales tried to order as she sprinted behind her but Mutsuki jumped on top of the boat. She walked inside the little cabin it had and to her own shock saw two figures bound to the console. The two looked like they were begging for help but a tape over their mouth prevented them from speaking.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Mutsuki asked as she tried to walk in and free them but ws nearly body tackled into the wall by Wales arriving. Wales stopped her action and took a step back as the destroyer looked at her with a hurt expression. “Sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. Imagine if this was indeed an enemy. Would you also just walk into a siren ship like that?”

“No, but you said it’s no threat and what are these two there?” Mutsuki gestured towards the two figures bound to the driving console. “These are humans, we must protect them.” She swore she could see Wales flinch with anger as she said that but ignored it. She walked to the humans and from her touch alone discovered that they were real. She was about to free them but was grabbed by the collar by Wales who looked not amused and friendly anymore.

“They are just holograms so sink the ship, destroyer.” Wales spoke in a voice that held back anger. She held the destroyer and walked back a bit and was about to walk out of the open cabin. “You know what, we just have to go on the water and use a torpedo. That will be cleaner anyway. Ouch.” Mutsuki got herself free by biting on Wales' fingers. 

“But those are humans. I can’t shoot at them. We need to get them off the ship.” Mutsuki said while backing away from the imposing battleship. Wales was slowly but surely losing it as the destroyer didn’t do what she told her. She grabbed the shipgirl and slapped her across the face before staring her down. 

“Mutsuki. Shoot those piles of waste. NOW!” Wales ordered more harshly as she looked at the backing away destroyer. Mutsuki still audibly refused by letting out a few tears and Wales had enough. 

“Fine if you don’t do it then I will make you.” She pressed a little button on a machine she pulled out and Mutsuki screamed out as incomprehensible pain coursed through her. “When I give you an order you act like a soldier. You don’t question it or do anything about it. You just do it.”

Mutsuki to her own horror had to look as her own body betrayed her. Her guns began aiming at the humans who just looked like they were trying everything to get free. Wales seemed to remote control her body.

“Looks like at least one of you is listening. Now execute them!” Wales commanded and waited. She waited and waited but got no shots fired from Mutsuki. No matter how hard she tried to make her by manipulating her cube directly.

“I will not kill humans! I want home and away from you, you monster! I must tell the others of this!” Mutsuki screamed in pain. She lowered her guns with whatever mental strength she could gather and turned away. She jumped through the wall, it not even closely withstanding the shipgirls strength, and ran, escaping whatever mind control thing Wales was trying to do on her. 

Mutsuki jumped on the water and put her engines to max. She had to escape from this monster and tell everyone what just happened here. Wales got out of the crawler and aimed her guns. With a loud boom her shells were propelled towards the destroyer. 

The shots hit the area under and next to Mutsuki, sending her flying on her face, completely stopping all of her movement. The destroyer tried standing up but was grabbed by the hair. “Where do you think you are going!” Snarled Wales as she lifted the little girl up. Mutsuki could feel the anger coming from the battleship but couldn’t turn away. “We aren’t done here until you sink that ship!”

“Why are you doing this?! How would you think of attacking the ones we are supposed to protect?!” Mutsuki struggled out as she was held up by the battleship's arm. “I will not do it.”

Wales pulled out the small machine again and pressed the button. “I order you to kill them!” For a second time Mutsuki was almost stripped out of her control of her rigging but her will stood too strong. “I will not hurt who I am suppose to protect.” Wales stopped the pain Mutsuki felt and let her hang. “Why are you doing this? Humanity are the good guys. Why do you want to kill them?”

“From the dawn of time as long as there are humans there will be war.” Wales started. “They build weapons and kill each other and destroy everything around them. Without them the world will be better so I need you to kill them.”

“But humans can change.” Mutsuk said as Walkes grip shifted from her hair to her neck, strangling her. “Not all of them are like that. Remember how many of the admirals partied with us and you got along with them. Evil might be there but they can change, don’t put them into an unchangeable position in your head.”

“Fucking failure.” Wales spoke out and pressed her guns against the shipgirls nose. “Failure is not tolerated.” Before Mutsuki could utter a word of protest the guns lightened up, popping the destroyer's head like a grape.

You could see the Northern girls jump and feel visually unpleasant. Even Elma was a bit taken by surprise. Soobrazitelny even came close to throwing up from the scene alone. None of them so far were able to utter a word and that stayed that way as the scene continued.

“Why are you bastards never obeying orders! I order you to kill it so you do. Is that so hard to understand for fucks sake?” Wales roared out in annoyance. “Look what it brought you sakuran girl. You died. Again. Urgh.” She pulled the corpse up with her arms and took out a knife. With a squelching sound she began cutting open the destroyer until she stuck her hand in and ripped out the girl's wisdom cube.

“Hmm. Looks like this still needs a bit of tweaking to work out fine.” Wales said as she observed the cube of the destroyer. “Well I got time tomorrow anyway. I can thinker with it then.” She kicked the shipgirls dead body and let it vansh in the waves. “Arrivederci…join the grave of….however many failed attempts there were.” Wales giggled as she saw the water turn red. “Hope you feed the sharks well like the 60 other tries this month.” 

She turned around and walked into the port and past the girls before disappearing into nothingness. All the people present were speechless.

“What the hell was that?!!” Elma asked what everyone was thinking. All of them had to witness this hell. The Northern battleships were looking very nauseous and the two destroyers were absolutely gagging from the look alone. It looked like Gangut had fully turned serious in an instant.

“Mutsuki.” Struggled Gangut out. She almost held tears in her eyes and had her hands clenched. “Wales. What the heck is wrong with you!”

“Did she just? Did she kill her for not seeing the way she does?” Rossiya gasped as she took in what she saw. Wales had actively murdered one of her own, an innocent child, because of her world view.

Elma was shocked upon seeing that. She knew the shipgirls were evil but this was something she didn’t expect. Looking around she saw the horror in the other people's eyes. Seeing one of their own die like this should have definitely not happened to anyone. Mutsuki was a kind soul, even Elma knew that. All sirens weren’t taking it that hard with the destroyers since dodging torps with flying was easy and their main guns were pretty useless against them anyway.

“Siren what type of trick was that?!” Screamed Soobrazitelny in desperation. Elma couldn’t answer since she had no answer. “I can’t control this mirror sea and even then..I…I wouldn’t have shown you that. We would never do something like that.”

“Of course you would!” Screamed Tashkent as well. The two destroyers seemed shocked and more than just angry at Elma. “No one else would mind control one of us to do that! ”

“We can’t even do that.” Elma admitted quietly. She got their anger without a second heartbeat but was finding ways to conclude this. Sirens only observed and fought the shipgirls. They never intended on using the shipgirls against humanity. What Wales did there wasn’t what they did or wanted. “We would never want this to happen.”

“But it did happen.” Soyuz said with something of a difference in her voice. Even the calculated and emotionally cold Soyuz wasn’t unaffected by the footage or memory they had to watch.

They wanted to talk more but below them something happened again. The sea under them seemed to begin to rapidly move and the sun they felt began flickering in and out as if the days passed rapidly. 

“Is this going to continue?” Kronshtadt asked as she gulped. She, like the others, held an already grim visage but seeing this all prepared her for even worse scenarios. Her worst nightmare came true as the spinning stopped and the same scenery was painted again. 

“Hey Wales.” Mutsuki greeted the battleship as she finished her ice cream. “You called me out here, for what?”

“Ok yet again. Work for once.” Wales said to herself. She walked up and down and in the direction of a slightly bigger fishing boat than last time. It had party material all over it and several humans were bound on the deck. All of them seemed to be struggling.

“What will work? Also why are there humans on it?” Mutsuki asked as she went past the battleship. “Huuuh. They are bound down. We have to help them.” The destroyer ran past Wales with the intent of saving the humans. Wales just smiled sinerstily.

“Mutsuki. Obey!” Wales screamed as an order and the destroyer immediately went rigid. She stopped in her movement and went limp yet  remained standing. Wales behind her was laughing with joy. “I did it! Finally! She obeys without a word uttered in protest.” She smiled even more sinisterly. “So let’s see how much you obey me. Aim at the ship destroyer!”

Mutsuki without uttering a word did exactly as she was ordered. Wales looked more hopefully the higher the guns went while the humans looked even more scared than before. Mutsuki raised her guns and aimed. Wales laughed a bit before calling her down, which the destroyer did without missing a beat.

“Ok. You can understand basic orders.” She deduced as she patted the emotionless destroyer's head. “So Mutsuki, I want you to shoot and sink the deck. High explosive directly to the humans on it.” Wales ordered and leaned back. She was ready and hopeful that her plan would unfold like she intended.

The destroyer raised her guns again without uttering a word and fired after adjusting her aim. The shell without even missing a millimetre hit the ship and blew it up, sending burning corpses of the once alive people left and right. Mutsuki simply lowered her gun and looked straight ahead, not showing an ounce of emotion about her crime.

“Now that’s what I want to see destroyer. Total obedience.” Wales giggled as she patted the emotionless girl on the back. “You can go back. Sooo now to only do it with every other girl in the Sakura Empire.”  She began walking off screen with Mutsuki trotting behind her. “Well at least I now know the parameters so it will be easy to make for them. Thank you for being my test subject destroyer. Using siren tech to manipulate wisdom cubes can be quite tricky.”

Mutsuki did not answer and simply walked behind the battleship. The ship shook her head and walked off, vanishing along with the entire scenery.

“Oh my god.” Uttered Kronshtadt as she shuddered. “Wales is using siren tech? That is…They were against it from the very beginning. Why do they use it?”

Elma looked at her confused. “Aren’t you part of the same group? You use the stuff so what's so surprising about them using it?” To her knowledge Azur Lane was originally split due to the use of siren tech, a foolish try to make themselves better. They split since the Crimson Axis wanted to use it and Azur Lane was heavily against it. Yet forgot that the Northern Parliament was doing the same thing and they got away scot free.

“We had to use it to survive against you.” Rossiya replied. They had low numbers so they had to make their strengths count by integrating their tech into their riggings. They of course never expected to be judged for it by a siren itself.

“No. You probably just saw how much better it was and needed to have it yourself.” Elma diluted and became the target of many hateful glances. The two destroyers started to argue again and Elma held against them. Their choice in words were not particularly pretty through the entire ideal. One by one all of them joined the discussion except Soyuz who analysed the whole situation by tuning the discussion out. It was probably god's work that held the shipgirls apart from the siren since all were still flying seperately and not daring to jump off, although the siren could probably make the jump. 

Soyuz was trying to make something out of the discovered things and her rapidly beating heart and mind weren’t particularly helping. Looking to the side after a while revealed what only she seemed to spot.

“Stop arguing and brace yourself.” Soyuz said and brought all of the girls out of their argument that looked like it went deeply personal, judging from the girls of the Northern Parliament who were looking ready to throw hands. They looked to the side before the ground rumbled. A giant blue light formed the form of a door and the pieces of debris they were standing on were sucked to the door. All of them braced themselves as well as they could before they collided with the wall of blue sparkles and everything went blue like a flashbang went off.

_______________

So that was the first chapter of this without Cleveland even being there.

Funnily enough I was planning on doing more memories but if I did that I would probably end up at 20k words, no one would be reading that. Also the impact wouldn’t be there and that isn't something I intend to do. We have to settle it differently.

As always it was a nice chapter to write so enjoy it.

See you next time

Chapter Text

Cleveland was thrown back from the energy ball as were everyone. One by one the girls impacted the ground and only slowly stood up again. Elma and the Northern Parliament girls looked shocked around but Cleveland wasted no time. Rushing forward and past Elma she grabbed all seven of the Northern Parliament girls by the throats with her tentacles before slamming them into the walls.

The girls could only gasp, their looks alone spoke as if they just woke up from being knocked out. They impacted the walls around the room and without rigging would have definitely broken their backs. But even with riggings, the impacts left their marks by cracking the wall at the seven impact points.

Cleveland strangled them each individually until they all could only gasp for whatever breath they could take. The tentacles were heavily restricting each of their riggings as well so aiming was a thing of sheer impossibility with it. Even the battleships could barely move them at all.

“So do you still think you can win?” Cleveland breathed out to the room. She recalibrated her guns and pointed the barrels at each of the girls. Fittingly she possessed enough gun barrels to aim one at the head of each of them. The caliber size alone was big enough so the girls could stick their heads into them.

They seemed to look death in the face and accordingly struggled but Cleveland just charged her guns. She was seeing red and was about to fire before something hard impacted her head and stopped her in her action. She almost dropped the girls as well but somehow kept her grip, even if it was significantly lighter. The girls were definitely gladful for that judging by their massive amounts of deep breaths they did. 

Tashkent used one of her torpedo launchers and shot the Observer with it. The torpedo struck her head without exploding and disoriented Cleveland enough to actually not shoot as she simply looked at the destroyer. Cleveland stared at the culprit with a look that burned her very soul. “Oh you shouldn’t have done that, Tashkent.”

Rushing forward with an impressive speed she delivered a punch to her stomach that nearly broke through the destroyer's body. Tashkent was definitely glad that she wore clothes as thick as she did or her intestines would probably stain the wall behind her. Cleveland actually chuckled at that. “Oh look at that, you survived that you little annoying beast. Still won’t save you.”

She was about to grab her throat but had to avoid a shot from the side. “Ah Belorussiya, the main course. Looks like you got the greatest death wish after all.” Cleveland chuckled as she saw who shot. She walked over in a seductive manner and looked at the battleship she pinned to the wall. “With you I will take my time.”

“Shut up monster and release us-urghg.” Belorusiya started and was cut off by pain. Her arm was stabbed through by a tentacle of the Observer, a weaponised one. “You bastard!” She cried out as the tentacle receded back into the Observers back. Thankfully it wasn’t a big tentacle or she would have probably lost her arm but it still hurt like hell. “What do you even want?”

Cleveland grabbed her by the throat and stared with a look of pure darkness at her. “What I want?” She chuckled before falling into full blown laughter. “Oh I wanted to talk with you, I wanted to show you the truth about the world and I wanted to let you all run away. But guess what?” 

She ripped Belorussiya out of the wall. Walking behind the battleship and hugging her from behind, Cleveland whispered in her ear. “You betrayed my trust. You betrayed our possible peace. You tried to kill the only one I care about to survive this and see a better world together.”

Belorussiya was sweating as she hung there. She had eight plasma guns shoved into her back and a severely pissed off Observer handling them. She truly was in a very bad position.

“Observer, don’t shoot. Can we talk this out?” Soyuz suggested and was immediately hit by Clevelands gaze. Cleveland actually walked a few metres away from Soyuz sister before stopping. Soyuz almost breathed up hope but was quickly stopped by the Observer summoning her scythe and helt the blade over the battleship's head. Belorussiya as all other shipgirls in the room gasped at seeing that.

“And why should I listen, Soyuz?” Cleveland said out with malice. She laid her scythes blade on the girl's neck and drew a bit of blood. “Last time it ended with you all plotting out a plan against us. All the while, while we were trying to talk like civilised people. I need one wrong word from you and you can kiss your dear sister's head goodbye. So better think very good about what you are going to say to me now.”

“We will help you and your Enforcer on your journey.” Soyuz stuttered out. She had no real clue of what to say and just wanted her sister out of the siren's fangs.

Cleveland giggled at that before descending into Purifier levels of laughter. She walked over to Soyuz and grabbed the commander's face and stroked it. “That’s it? You spit in the face of my hospitality. Attempt to murder us both with all of your friends together. And in your defense you say will help us as if that will undo everything. That's it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! Oh you won’t leave this place in one piece.”

“All because I hurt your friend. As if you didn’t do the same to all of my friends.” Belorussiya said as she struggled against the tentacle on her throat. “We fight a war. You have to expect people to die. So what? We are enemies after all! I will finish what I started when I get out of here.” She knew the costs of war and that friends could be lost in an instant. What she didn’t expect was the punch to the chest she got for that comment that definitely broke several of her ribs.

“You will not hurt or think about hurting her ever again after I am done with you!” Screamed Cleveland as she held her rage-filled eyes very close to Belorussiyas. The battleship tried to move her guns but Cleveland bent the guns away by redirecting the barrels with her bare hands. She aimed all her guns at the girl's head and charged them. Belorussya already thought her last hour struck but the light of the violent plasma vanished from her face as coughing filled the room.

“Cleveland. Are you there?” Elma asked as she stirred awake. She coughed a bit from waking up and being a bit groggy. Cleveland immediately dropped her guns and ran over to her. 

“Elma! Are you ok?” Cleveland asked as she rushed to her friend. She kneeled down to her and checked her for any injuries. Whatever she had might have healed already but Cleveland checked it nonetheless.

“Just help me up here.” Elma groaned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She looked like she was knocked out cold before so Cleveland remained careful.

“Oh look, the other one is also awake. Let me go, you Observer, and let me finish what I started.” Belorussiya struggled against her bonds. She almost managed to loosen up one tentacle but was restrained by several more a mere second after. She even had the Observer slam her scythe into the wall next to her, definitely cut off a bit of her hair, before she had to look into the hateful eyes of the siren again.

Cleveland looked a lot calmer actually and did miss on purpose but was still angry at the shipgirl. She ripped her scythe out of the wall and desummoned it before grabbing the ships rigging. “For your own safety I would strongly advise you to shut off your talking or I rip out that throat of yours and fix that design issue manually.”

“Leave her alone for a second and help me up.” Elma groaned harder as she sat up. “Actually, just ignore her. I need to talk with you.”

Cleveland pushed the Northern Parliament girl back into the wall and walked away from her. She picked Elma up and laid her on the couch that surprisingly didn’t get damaged at all during their little battle. “What do you want? She almost killed you and you are as calm as if we aren’t still in a battle. They might fire any time.”

“First of all, I could have simply dodged the shot anyway, neither would it have actually killed me, we Enforcers are quite a lot stronger than the normal pawn.” Elma explained as she dug her finger into Cleveland's chest and pushed her back. It was funny to see the Observers tentacles continuously stretch longer the farther Cleveland walked back. “For why I am doing this. Well, you see, you started with this you don’t want to hurt them charade and they are the only other people that witnessed what just happened personally so I would prefer to have them in the same talk to not appear as schizophrenic as you with your sister. Actually only their chef and that inventor over there will actually have viable answers for it since the others are as dumb as a mule but you get the gist.”

“I am no schizophrenic and you know that for a fact.” Cleveland argued back. She had her heart pounding in her ears as she still surveyed the situation. She just saw Elma almost die yet here she stood calm as a rock. “What do you even mean with what just happened?”

Elma raised her eyebrows and ears in confusion. “Did you forget what you just did? That giant blue explosion. I doubt even you oversaw that.”

“Yes, I noticed I did it.” Cleveland admitted as she glared at her friend. “I got angry and punched Belorussiya and boom there it was blue. What does that have to do with you not being angry about almost dying?”

“Oh you actually don’t know. Interesting.” Elma diluted as she giggled a bit. “Well we just saw something that isn’t here so we might talk with the others there to find out what it was.”

“What did you even see then?” Cleveland groaned as she didn’t really believe what Elma was saying. “Did you see an exact recreation of the last few years?”

Elma thought for a second for a response to this. “Kind of no but yes. We saw, I think, a scene from the past I dare say. I have no logical explanation for it though.”

Soyuz was listening to what they were saying and was searching for a way out of this position. With some hand signs she coordinated the others to aim at the siren. She gave the order as she saw the sirens being caught up in their own discussion. 

The Northern girls unleashed a coordinated salvo but Cleveland, without even looking, opened a portal and swallowed the shells in thin air before closing it again. She looked over to them and charged her guns. “Still as fierce as ever. Now I give you a second to think about what you do next and you choose violence. Well that worked out fine didn’t it?” The Northern girls could only gulp as they saw their fate sealed but these kill shots never came. The Observer shot but the plasma bolts never impacted the girls. It hit the walls behind them and blew it up, sending them forward.

“You go rest.” Cleveland groaned quite loudly and threw the Parliament girls on the couch with enough force to move the furniture into the corner of the room. “The second I see any hostility from them, I am ripping their guns out! They won’t betray my trust again. Riggings away! All of you!”

“Nev-” Rossiya started and tried to stand up. She was promptly kicked back down by the several tentacles that held them descending on her. They grabbed her entire rigging and showed that the siren's threat carried weight as they pulled to only strain the steel. Cleveland gave her only a stare that told her that trying to resist would not end very well for her health.

“Just desummon it.” Interrupted Soyuz Rossiyas struggling. ”She isn’t gonna hesistate for even a second.” She already saw through their chances and was still struggling for breath, even if not by much. “We stood seconds before dying by the Observer over there and I tell you sis. We won’t survive taking them on. Plus, what we just saw is something that concerns me.”

“Oh that stuff my Enforcer he spoke about you mean?” Cleveland spat out as she glared at the battleship. She was still mad at almost having lost her friend, even if that one didn’t show that she was almost shot in the head.

*You do know she actually wouldn’t have died. You are still applying shipgirl logic to sirens, aren’t you?*

Cleveland huffed Observers' comment away. The Northern girls all had desummoned their guns at this point so Cleveland could at least relax a little tiny bit more. Elma grabbed a second couch and sat down on it. Cleveland sat down next to her but kept her guns on the Northern girls. They broke their word once so she was making sure they didn't do it again this time. 

“So are we not gonna kill each other now for the third time, maybe this time it works. Three times the charm after all.” Cleveland huffed and cleaned one of her tentacles that got dusted up a bit from the previous skirmish. “So calm are we then. You wanna start talking or is our hospitality again too much for you to bear?”

“Shut up Cleveland, they don’t deserve us being nice to them. We just saw Mutsuki be shot and that is something we need to address I think.” Elma said with quick words. “Sadly we need those for that as they are the only witnesses with me.” Cleveland immediately snapped over while the Northern girls just flinched at the words.

“You better listen, Observer.” Soyuz said as she sweatdropped a bit from the Observers sideways glare. “She is telling the truth and actually I wanted to find out about this from you as well.” Cleveland switched who she looked at rapidly, not allowing a single of the Northern Parliament girls to rest easy. She encountered Mutsuki but also knew of the cloning of the dead. Yet she also knew that they defeated the sirens and therefore no one would freely shoot a shipgirl.

“Are you sure you saw Mutsuki get shot?” Cleveland asked to reassure herself. She was going over options and reasons for why Mutsuki would get shot but next to only finding out too much and facing the same fate as she did before Alpha resurrected her, none of her ideas would be anything less than conspiracy level.

“As sure as you are wearing barely anything.” Tashkent said to the siren, both agreeing with her superior and with Elma. Cleveland sighed and looked down. Sure enough she again wore Observers clothes which were now kind of her own after all. While she had no idea how she switched her clothes she had no problem with those she wore at the moment. Shortly thinking about switching back to her clothes she decided against it and just pressed on the more important stuff.

“Ok so you saw her get shot. How and why? What even happened?” Cleveland asked with interest. She had to know that all and no doubt Soyuz already had something on her mind.

Indeed Soyuz had something like that. She adjusted her seating and began. “I will put into my words what I think happened. To shortly summarize we were hit by your blue attack you launched at Belorussiya. We were then finding ourselves in a black void that soon became a dock. After the dock fully formed and after we defused a certain murderous situations, we were lifted uo and could see Mutsuki and Prince of Wales meeting." Soyuz stopped at this point to take a gulp. She was still bothered by what happened after but had to stand strong for her Comrades.

"They talked for a minute before Prince of Wales tried to force Mutsuki to shoot a human boat with humans on board. She disguised the whole thing as target shooting for Mutsuki but the destroyer found out and tried to run away.” Soyuz stopped for a second to collect her thoughts.

She gathered her will and continued. “Mutsuki resisted Wales commands to sink the ship and kill the humans on it and Wales executed her for not complying. After ripping out her wisdom cube, Wales walked away and the scene changed to roughly the same. A ship with humans on it, Wales and Mutsuki. This time Mutsuki, without resisting once, immediately shot and sunk the ship upon getting ordered by Wales to do so. ”

What she said visibly pained all of the Northern girls and even Elma looked a bit disgusted. Cleveland however was more taken aback yet cept her emotion to herself. “So Wales shot her….for disobeying her orders…hmmmm….this reminds me of what she did to me.”

“Shooting a siren for not surrendering sounds like something everyone would do.” Kronshtadt said out loud. Cleveland was not surprised by this answer given the ships wouldn’t know better. “So you saw Wales shooting the destroyer and not one of us. Interesting.”

“There is nothing interesting about this and it was probably something you showed us.” Huffed Rossiya before getting silenced by the others. Cleveland thought for a second but already had an idea how she could answer to twist the Northern girls to her side. Telling a bit of the truth would certainly help her here as well.

“To start off I showed you a bit of Mutsukis memories.” Cleveland smiled as she stroked the tentacle in her lap like a dog. “From what you speak of, it sounds like one of the wisdom cube memories concerning a usual thing that Azur Lane did and is still doing. Cubes are pure energy and since that can't be destroyed, with a bit of effort you can make that energy into a picture. I sent you into a mirror sea and showed you it, even if I momentarily can’t remember which exact memory I sent you into.”

*That's very vague here and you don’t even need to ask me for information since this is something that never happened before. You are really special you know…….and damn your logic actually makes somewhat sense.*

”So you mean you showed us a piece of the past?” Soyuz diluted out of this statement. She seemed to actually understand Cleveland to an extent here even though that one was only fabricating something together. “Fascinating that you can do that. I never heard of an Observer doing that.”

“Would you like to see another?” Cleveland said with a smile as she playfully clenched her fist. A bit of blue energy swirled around it and stung her a bit, even if she didn’t show it. She definitely had to get used to this and train with it like all of her other siren abilities. The Northern girls definitely looked like they had enough so Cleveland didn’t even need to attempt to do another energy explosion. “It cost me quite a lot of energy to do so, so ask me when I should show you the truth again.”

*Well good news then. Your inner energy spikings are normal again..but rising. Whatever the thing is you just did drained your inner energy levels almost completely. You also are recharging it on your own so I guess you can do that more often…..please don’t though, I don’t know what effects it has and neither how you do it.*

Cleveland giggled at that. “So you understand that I showed you nothing wrong then?” She asked to reaffirm that. “I am an Observer as you know and I can’t rewrite the past after all.” She had no idea where her playfulness to speak like this came from but she was doing a good impression of being as close to Alpha as she could be by reflex.

“Under most situations I wouldn’t but here I have to agree with you.” Soyuz regretted saying. Cleveland only smiled mischievously as Soyuz looked at her. “So you saying this is common? Wales or others shooting shipgirls for not killing humans.”

Cleveland stood up and walked away after playfully showing that they were supposed to wait. She grabbed a computer on a movable box and rolled it into the room. Quickly, and with computer knowledge she didn’t know she possessed, she booted up the internet and searched out a nice picture of a family. “Look over here and I will show you how the current situation is for Azur Lane.”

The others in the room did as asked, even if some of the Northern Parliament shipgirls looked bored of this already. Cleveland reaffirmed that the others were indeed looking before stepping out of the way. “So, explain to me what you are seeing. Not you though Elma. You understand what I have been trying to say since long ago.”

Elma was about to say something but understood Cleveland. She just watched as the Northern Parliament shipgirls looked at the picture confused. “A family with two kids playing with Javelin on a playground in a park.” Said Gangut as she looked close. “Looks edited but I remember that during vacation days we could go into the land so this looks legit. What is supposed to be weird here, Siren?”

Cleveland smiled. She was happy that her suspicions were true. But she had to dig deeper to be right. “Would you shoot these people in the picture?”

“Of course not!” Soobrazitelny screamed out as she jumped up. She stared at the Observer with anger. “How would you get to that idea you monster?” She was about to get closer to the siren but a small gesture from Soyuz brought her down.

Cleveland merely shook her head and leaned to the side. “I will not force you to do it, I will just ask you if you would do it when ordered. Like what Wales did to Mutsuki at first.”

Soyuz groaned a bit. “You ask us if we would resist an order to kill who we should defend from our superiors. I know for certain my Comrades wouldn’t do that act even if I ordered that. So your argument that we would do it on command is wrong.”

“Indeed it is.” Cleveland said and walked around the computer and took it to herself again. “Like what happened with Mutsuki. You would resist and not do it like that witch Wales commanded her.” She began doing stuff on the computer and changed the image. “But Mutsuki didn’t resist that order the second time huh?” She was only met with hard hearted nods. “As expected. Now I don’t know what Wales did to Mutsuki to break her, and trust me I will find out, but I know what I managed to squeeze out of different…lets call it information sources in how the Royal Navy and Eagle Union make their shipgirls attack humans. You remember that picture I just showed you, yes? Well here is how the people will see it after what Azur Lane did to them.”

Cleveland turned the computer back to its recent location. The girls looked down at the picture and saw the same picture. The only difference was that all humans have been edited to be sirens. They still wore and looked the same yet their eye colors were yellow and their clothes were made black by the Observer. “So would you now shoot? I bet not but this is how the shipgirls I met so far saw humans. Elma can even play witness to this as well and confirm this, they shoot.” She finished with a giggle. She had no proof for this but it made sense on so many levels from what she observed so far. The Northern Parliament shipgirls clearly were shocked to see this.

“This is as unbelievable as you summoning Alpha from the dead. This is a trick.” Rossiya gasped. She had no way to counter argue this.

“I edited the picture, yes, but this isn’t a trick. This is how the shipgirls I met so far saw humans and attacked them as such. Edinburgh even called them new types of sirens that look more human like and die to anti air fire. Not really an upgrade if you think about it and their red blood should give it away yet their mind control seems too good.” Cleveland pointed out and closed the computer. “I am still in search of reasons behind why they hunt humanity as a whole. For that I would want to go to Ironblood. After all, we used to be allied and they didn't hunt humans back then. Then you killed everyone of us and now we are here."

“How are you trying to find that out?” Soyuz asked with a steely voice. She was clearly interested in what Cleveland said. “Are you planning on killing them all?”

“By finding truths of course.” Cleveland giggled as she heard that. “I am planning on going to Ironblood and then find out why they kill humans. After that I would expose it publically and release the ships out of their mind control. Didn’t some try to do that to you as well? You spoke about them forcing you into submission before failing and trapping you in your own mirror sea. ” She smiled. “I won’t kill them but interrogate them. I only plan on killing the ones that are actually evil if you get me. Some of them that force others off their free will.”

The Northern girls looked horrified at that as they drew the connections. “So what you are saying is that each of the leaders of the factions is tricking all of us into killing humans. Why would they do that?”

“Actually only five of them. Four of them are actually part of the Royal Navy. I am not sure about the reason yet but I know their goal. The five of them want to destroy humanity to create the garden of Eden for the shipgirls to have everlasting peace. They did tell me that before leaving me to the waters of the river styx.” Cleveland answered quickly with still a bit of held anger in her voice. “Although by now only four of them.”

“What is that implying?” Tashkent asked with a hint of uncertainty. She edged a bit away from the siren who was giggling a bit.

“Let’s say it like this. One of them is sleeping with the fishes by now.“ Cleveland said out as laughter slipped from her lips. “I may or may not be responsible. Anyway Elma, come, we must leave, this has been taking too long and costing human lifes.” She stood up and Elma did the same. “Well ladies if you don’t shoot us, this is where we part ways. Was fun speaking to some shipgirls that don’t murder humans once in a while.” She left but didn’t actually plan on leaving as she walked slowly. She had been planting seeds of doubt in them during her entire talk and was just waiting for them to blossom.

“Wait. You will go to Ironblood, yes?” Asked Soyuz in a haste. She stood up and walked behind Cleveland. “You said you will go there next.”

“That is indeed correct. They are smaller than all the others so you can infiltrate them easier. And even in low numbers the domino effect caused by them realizing the truth will cause a great shift in global power and save many people from dying.” Cleveland said and gave a few reasons to sweet talk it. It looked like her plan was working.

“Good. Then let us accompany you so we all find out the truth.” Suggested the battleship and Cleveland internally smiled. Her plan was working. “Really, you want to come with us? What made you come to that conclusion?”

“You can't seriously suggest helping a few sirens. They definitely have different plans than acting for the good of humanity.” Belorussiya said as she more or less jumped forward. She grabbed her sister's arm and looked at her with an almost disappointed look. “They will just trick us into attacking our allies.”

“And if you remember these allies used a sort of mind control on all of us as well. I don’t know what they tried to force us to do but I guess it won’t be pretty.” Soyuz reminded her sister with a sigh. “I don’t like the idea and I am not trusting them but they seem to have a goal I can understand so I would like to accompany them. Are you willing to come with me?”

“Only if those two stay in front of us at all times. That way they can’t do something to fall into our backs.” Belorussiya said with a bit of spite.

“I can do that…but we will be so slow. Also even Elma as a battleship is still faster than your fat ass.” Cleveland playfully said with a bit of hurt and teasing in her voice. She received only side clances from Elma for that. "We can stay in the middle to make your insecure ass be less trigger happy but don’t expect us to comply with it the whole damn trip."

“If you come with us then you better not shoot at us again the second you feel like it.” Elma said. "We might be friendly now but we don’t have an issue executing you, shall you betray our trust again." She was still not over them breaking their agreement and then attacking them again.  She did see however that this discussion Was going nowhere so she had to do something against it.

*Ok this is really taking it too far you know. It is funny though.* 

“What will we do if you-urgh!” Cleveland gasped as Elma bonked her on the head. Turning to Elma she was only met with a stare of ‘that's enough’. “What was that for?”

“Stop screwing around." Elma said in annoyance. "Either they come with us or not, whatever it is we are wasting time here. Soyuz wants to come with us as she said and so will the others since they will follow her. So stop whining, playing and making a fool of yourself."

"I won't force them to help us but if they come with us on their own choice then I won’t stop them from doing so.” Elma said and leaned against the wall. She wasn’t going to like the shipgirls any day soon. “Can we all now get to the point? People are dying out there while we spend our time talking about useless stuff.”

Soyuz shook her head and agreed with Elma. They were getting nowhere without just saying it. She turned to her friends and prepared her voice. “As much as it pains me to say this, and I know you won’t like it. We will accompany the sirens here to Ironblood and find out what Azur Lane did in the week we must have been gone.”

“Oh yeah, bad news. You were probably locked away for a bit longer than that but we can discuss this later.” Cleveland giggled as she looked at Soyuz 'confused face. “Oh by the way we will be checking out the fjords first. So, you still gonna join us?”

“Yes, we will.” Soyuz admitted and rallied her friends to get ready. They complied fast but even then it was imminent that they didn’t want this of their own choosing. “But we stay behind you so you don’t do something to shoot us in the back. The destroyers lead the way since they are faster than you two battleships.”

“If you want it that way.” Laughed Cleveland as she walked out with Elma. “Get ready then, we will wait outside. Don’t take too long or we will ditch you.”

They closed the door and walked down the hallway. Cleveland sighed as she let out a long breath she was holding. She also desummoned her guns. “That was harder than expected.”

“You didn’t even tell them the true truth. Why didn’t you?” Asked Elma as they walked outside the base in a hurry, the longer they waited the more people were suffering after all. 

Cleveland walked to the water and gazed into her reflection and bright yellow eyes. She summoned her zipped up capelet again to look better like her old self as she stared at what she became. “Do you truly think that they would just accept a shipgirl being a siren without any evidence? I can't logically form any clue to it and whatever I did with the blue mass of energy there I can’t even figure out myself.” She didn’t even summon her complete clothes for now since her capelet sufficed at shielding her from the cold…not that it bothered her much in the first place.

Elma sighted at that. “So even you don’t know what happened huh? Figured. I got you there but we kind of need to tell them anyway. We must tell them something though or they won’t believe you. I mean you can leave out being a former shipgirls but that what you sent us into must someday be explained so figure it out till then.”

“Well we got an entire journey with them ahead of us so I can tell them then..once I figured out a way how. You just have to make it sound logical after all. Siren stuff seems almost magical to most shipgirls in general. The Northern Parliament girls might be researching it but I already noticed that they haven't even come close to the full thing yet. Though, given I can't explain it actually, it gives me a kind of worry. I just hope they don’t ask for an in depth explanation of it.” Cleveland spoke with a slight uncertainty. She would have to explain a lot but it was probably sure to say that the Northern girls would at least follow them. "Although I probably just refuse to speak as well."

Now if they would be shown a few shipgirl killing humans then the Northern girls would probably also flom Cleveland for more than just to Ironblood. “Elma we will be slower with them and they will join us so we will probably need to plan an approach with them inbound this time instead of just us two alone.”

“Yeah but that can work to our advantage.” Elma said. “Since we will investigate the fjords first and having a few shipgirls with us maybe we can use their ships to sneak in better. After all, we will be immediately fired upon but the Northern girls have been here alone and gone for a while and are still shipgirls. They will probably first be questioned in the port before they might get shot at so we can sneak in with that or something. You get me, I hope, but this could be a tactical approach.”

“Oh no, I definitely got you and this might be a plan we can work on. I like the sound of it.” Cleveland smiled at Elma with it. The two sirens definitely got along better with each other than with the shipgirls. 

Waiting for nothing more than a few minutes they could hear the door behind them opening. The Northern girls, all in full winter gear, walked out of the door and checked the riggings. They must have had some smaller problems with them. Must come from the long exposure from the mirror sea.

“Oh are you finally coming then?” Cleveland giggled as she walked forward to them. Innerly she was deeply happy about this. She was getting allies to help her with and that was something that made her smile.

“Yeah we are fine with it and will lead you.” Rossiya admitted and walked ahead. “Even if I don’t like it that much I will do what my sister doubts as our best option. Your friend is not looking well though.”

Cleveland was confused and turned around. Truth to the word Elma was indeed again shivering from the cold.

“Are you seriously freezing again?” Asked Cleveland as she looked at the Enforcer. Said Siren looked at her and spoke more than thousand words alone. Elma did have no words for her anger though.

“Aren’t sirens immune to weather and environment?” Kronshtadt asked as she observed the two talking as she passed them. “I am pretty sure we blew you guys apart regularly and you weren’t really bothered by it.” Elma merely pouted more to that statement as she looked away.

Cleveland just shrugged at her friend's misfortune. “Yeah she was trapped in the tropics for a year and lost her ability to handle the cold. She will still kick your ass in combat though.” Elma just glared at her more but this time with a small smile at the last thing. 

While she looked like a wet dog, judging from her ears, she held her anger to herself. She knew Cleveland way too long at this point to get angry about something as small as that and at least Cleveland didn’t say that she was useless in that form.



“That I would see the day that I would see an elite trooper being taken out by the weather.” Rossiya giggled as she looked at Elma. “Don’t rub it in more.” Whined Elma before she got a jacket given to her. Tashkent gave it to her and Elma put it on rather quickly. Cleveland was almost confused about the Enforcer accepting something from a shipgirl without questioning or complaining about it.

“Thanks.” Thanked Elma as she blushed a bit. “I should not accept this but at least I won’t be freezing my ass off. Where did you even get that?”

“Well you see we still have a lot of winter gear in stock back in the base.” Answered the destroyer with a smile. Cleveland could only giggle a bit at that. She went forward and patted Elmas ears and hair which only worsened Elmas blush. “Looks like you found a good friend here. Hehe.” 

Cleveland let go of her friend and jumped on the surface of the water where all of them slowly found themselves on. Afterwards she turned around and addressed the destroyers. “So then, Parliament girls, we will drive after you, you slowpokes.” She turned to the battleships and sole large cruiser.  “We will stay in front of you like we agreed. Oh and Soyuz, let's discuss how we walk into the fjords together shall we. You of all people should understand why a plan is needed here. We might meet some Z destroyers so get your kid friendly attitude out as well. Elma, will you treat them nice?”

Elma had nothing really to say but nodded nonetheless. She stood next to Cleveland and watched the scene happen while being happy to not freeze to death like last time. She had no issue with the kids since they were so weak and she had to admit often very cute as well.

“We are faster than you, you know? And yes, we will be in the front as you said.” Huffed Tashkent and Soobrazitelny looked prideful at that as well. They both sprinted ahead while the battleships also got ready. Cleveland and Elma could see the destroyers get a headstart and Cleveland could only shake her head. “Yet you are still way slower than the both of us.” She sighed and let it go. "Well girls, hope you get a good drive because we will."

The Northern girls groaned at the comment and began departing from the base with that. Elma and Cleveland joined the battleships with playful speeds, far from their maximum ones, soon reaching boredom and taking the middle space of the sortie. Driving into the northern lights they left the base in the distance before dashing into the night.

Chapter Text

“Are you seriously thinking that I will do this!” Elma screamed as she stared at Cleveland. They had survived their travels with the shipgirls. It turned out to be even more troublesome than imagined for the Sirens since the shipgirls absolutely refused to interact with them at all, neither of them actually exceeding 27 knots of speed. Taking into account that the sirens' three day journey was essentially doubled and more by the Northern shipgirls doing that, it was obvious why Elma was getting tired of them. She didn’t like them before and this journey they had together certainly didn’t lighten Elmas view about the shipgirls.

They had finally reached the fjörds of the northern areas of Ironbloods territory and while the shipgirls were not expecting getting attacked the sirens definitely were. So Clevelands brilliant idea she came up with while cruising and mentally annoying Soyuz was to first have the Northern Parliament shipgirls dock in their ship forms and then she in disguise as one of the respected Ironblood representatives would leave with them to go to the mainland. So far easy to follow.

Elma's part of the plan was simple. She had two options to choose from. Both of which Elma detested down to her very blood. 

Cleveland gave her the two options of either staying on one of the ships hidden or disguising herself to fit in. Her second choice was the easier functionally, yet harder option for the Enforcer of course. While on one side she was able to join them she did have to disguise herself for it. Which meant she had to wear the clothes of the one who she was trying to become. Something that was going against her very being alone. 

“Come on. It isn’t that bad, we just make you a bigger Tashkent, you are almost the same height anyway with you being like five centimetres taller. Your ears look alike so in thick clothes you will not stand out at all. We just say you are her sister or something similar if that doesn’t work.” Cleveland smiled as she helt fluffy ear warmers/gloves akin to the one Tashkent wore. She even took that one from Tashkent's ship when she wasn’t looking. Elma only sneered at her as she shot a barely charged shot with one of her main guns at Cleveland who dodged the plasma blast. The wall of the ship behind her got damaged a little bit from it though.

“I am not wearing any of that!” Elma huffed as she looked at Cleveland. “I will just follow you out there in my normal clothes.” It would be completely against who she was as a person to wear that.

“And completely break our cover the second you step on the dock.” Cleveland reminded her. She was getting exhausted by Elmas noncompliance. “We might be strong but we can’t take on an infinite amount of people you know.“ 

“These are the northern fjords. You expect half Ironblood to be there?” Elma huffed as she leaned back against Tashkent's ship. She was really not getting over the trouble. “Do a radar scan yourself. There are at most four radio signals of ships there. The biggest might be Tirpitz but there isn’t that much of an issue now is it?”

“And these are still Ironblood ships. They are really observant and have probably hidden ways of calling for help, might it be twisting a beer bottle. The second they see an enemy like us, they will call reinforcements.” Reminded Cleveland again. She knew that the Ironblood shipgirls were a lot more cautious and observing than what you find in the western hemisphere. If they walked in with a siren then the Ironblood girls would immediately know something was wrong. 

Elma pointed to her head. “And us two and your two ghosts there combined can restrain all four of them before they can do that. We can get the information we need in that way.”

“If we kill them or make them scared then they won’t talk at all.” Cleveland sighed. “They have wills that you won’t break with intimidation or torture for a fact. They will not speak one word with you.” Cleveland knew what she was talking about. The Ironblood girls were known to be extremely hard willed and a secret trusted to them would remain secret.

Elma was surely groaning at this point. Cleveland grabbed her shoulder and sighed again. “Look, we want to find out the reasons and if they are mind controlled. Can you please bear wearing this stuff for a few hours.”

Elma looked like she was getting angry again. She definitely didn’t want this but let her shoulders hang downwards as she gave up. “Let the ear kitten mittens away and I wear it. I better never hear of this ever again. Also this is the last time I will do something like this. Next time, shall we ever do something similar again, we do something else.” She walked away from Cleveland who was sweating a lot still. Convincing Elma of this took a while.  

Elma jumped up at Tashkent's ship and banged on the door of the bridge. “Destroyer! Open the door. You are needed.” 

“Coming.” Said Tashkent with a bit of a gulp. It was muffled from the steel but Elma could still make out what was said inside. The hearing of a Siren was just that good. It took a few agonizing seconds for Tashkent to open the door and the second it did, the Siren walked in. 

Tashkent stumbled out of the way of the Enforcer. “What do you need?” She didn’t want to deal with the Siren at all but it was not like she could refuse a being as strong as the Enforcer. Given that said Enforcer wasn’t looking like she was here for drinking tea was also concerning her. If they weren’t more or less allied then Tashkent was pretty sure the Enforcer would just behead her or do something worse to her with the way she was looking at her.

“If you didn’t hear the conversation we had for three hours down there, then I will give you the short version. I need your clothes.” Elma said with a serious look. She closed the door and whatever was said was unhearable to Cleveland but the Observer was sure she heard Tashkent wasn’t happy at all. 

Cleveland let out a long breath and looked around. She had taken a long time to convince Elma of this that she hadn't noticed that all the others were not even paying attention anymore.

*You have just let her agree to practically throw away the complete siren culture she was raised in and you actually don’t fight honorable you know. Of course she won’t like it.*

“Didn’t you fight with deception and tricks as well?” Asked Cleveland as she raised her eyebrow. “I am pretty sure I can recount multiple times you were screwing around with us. And given that I am an Observer like you I should be allowed to fight like that as well.”

*Well lets just say Observers, like us, fight a lot more differently than Elma and all other Enforcers. Even though I have to say that your combat capabilities far outclass mine. You are better in one on one fighting and offensive abilities. My rigging consists of the same eight guns you possess in number but 3 barrels on both sides were just stuck together. Your rigging is all entirely held by your tentacles and all guns move individually, giving you a much better field of attack. When I had something attack me from behind then I had to completely turn around, you don’t need to do that at all.*

“Well nice to hear that I am better than you.” Cleveland huffed out. “Well then Elma is changing into her clothes.” She summoned her rigging and leaned back. She laid down in the air and looked up into the clouds. “So who should I go as? Maybe me? It has to be a light cruiser or I am either too small or too big.” She looked down at her barely covered chest from her Observer clothes that she somehow wore without feeling weird about it. “In more than one area.” 

*Well you can just reduce that issue to zero once you get better with training. For now, we just need someone fitting your chest size. A small difference in height won't be noticed at all so you can basically choose whoever you like.*

“Hmm, Roon? No. Too psychopathically. Eugen? Am I able to flirt like her?” Cleveland deduced as she went over her options. She had to really choose her option. Most of her choices were either far outside her roleplaying range. She also had to look at her body proportions she had yet to learn to change on her own will.

*I honestly very much doubt that. You are quite natural at being you while you can also play me quite well as well. But then I doubt that you are able to play something like Eugen without you either exposing yourself, or you completely messing up her character.*

“I guess Mainz or Weser seem like a good idea then. Nice girl, not too talkative and they to the point while getting along with everyone. Although Mainz is more respected so I might go with her.” Cleveland said with a smile that only showed mischievousness.

*You put a lot of thought into this. I didn’t even need to tell you something to think about. Although you can’t transform into Mainz. Trust me I tried and I tell you due to Priority ships never being actually built, something blocks us Observers from transforming into them. Try it and you feel immense pain….although you will probably feel  pretty uncomfortable anyway. This is your first time transforming into someone else completely and this is also your first time doing it for longer than five minutes at most. You are not used to other people's bodies after all and even I have to admit that I felt uncomfortable for a while when I did it.*

Cleveland got a bit concerned hearing that all. “So Weser it is then. Well a carrier can act as a fleet leader so it makes sense that they follow me.” She giggled as she mentally thought of what pain Observer meant. It looked like her options were limited before she noticed something and sighed. She was thinking about all of this, something that her past self would never consider thinking about, without even noticing it as wrong. She sighed and just stopped thinking about it. She shuffled around a bit and stopped as she found a comfortable sitting position.

She crossed her legs and held one into the air before she relaxed and just let everything around her vanish as she though about what she was about to do. Her body moved a bit but she was used to that by now. She just let the tentacles hang limply and moved them around to her liking until they were in a position that felt entirely like it was supposed to be like. She opened her eyes after a minute and was a bit confused by the situation she found herself in.

Her guns were positioned around her while her tentacles formed more of a throne for her to sit on. Her entire body was getting touched and slithered over by her tentacles, seemingly trying to massage her back. She had her tentacles wiggle themselves along her legs and between the toes of her feet. An action that actually let Cleveland moan a bit as she noticed their touch all of a sudden as the suction cups suddenly decided to send the touch signals to her brain. 

She had her hand on her chest and groped it with a bit of pressure while she massaged the tip of another tentacle with the other hand. She didn’t know how she ended up like this given she didn’t pay attention at all but she pulled away her hand from her chest quickly. She knew what she was doing there and was embarrassed about it. She had copied the Observer's stance unconsciously, even though hers looked a bit different still.

“I am even sitting like you.” Cleveland groaned a bit as she looked down. She did, however, notice one thing that would concern her a few weeks ago. She didn’t even feel alienated by doing all this. Cleveland sighed and laid her hand from her chest on her belly, trying not to look any kind of embarrassed on copying Observer's position. She didn’t even try to change her position as well since that would probably be even more embarrassing to her. "I truly stepped into your footsteps didn’t I Observer?" 

She shook her head off her worry and took a deep breath. She massaged the suction cups of the one tentacle around her arm to distract her from the stress since she found out their sensitivity had a quite calming effect on her. She had changed and she had to accept that. This was who she was now. "Beta. This is who I really am. Hehe."

*Yes you are. Hmm. I couldn't see what you were doing just now since your eyes are closed but your energy was behaving somewhat strangely. It even threw me into a shutdown for a few minutes. It's normal now so it was probably nothing anyway. Maybe a System reboot? Also you copy my stance if I see it right.*

Cleveland didn’t even answer and just forgot what she was doing a minute ago. She pushed whatever made her sit like this back into her head and just focused on the sound of the waves while her eyes were closed. She did this time think about not letting her body do something lewd though.

Waiting for a few minutes, just having her tentacles swish through the water next to the seabreeze, she calmed her mind down as she accepted things as they now were. She pulled her tentacles away and returned to their normal floating/sitting position as she heard a lot of commotion from behind her. Opening her eyes and looking to the side she could see someone jump from Tashkent's ship.

“I absolutely hate this.” Said the figure as she walked over to Cleveland and stared at her with a malice few people in history ever managed to come close to. “Are you happy now? Because with this I lost about everything of my pride just for you and your plan.”

“Elma? That you? Damn you look…kind of….woah...you look good. Without your eyes you would actually not stand out at all.” Cleveland noted as she looked at Elma from feet to her head. The Enforcer wore kind of what Tashkent wore but had some noticeable changes. Most noticeable was the fact that it had more blue in it.

She wore medium high heeled boots similar to what Tashkents looked like, even though the heels were a few centimetres taller. They reached above her ankles to shortly under her knees in overall length. Continuing this were thigh high white and light blue socks, almost reaching her hips that showed her smooth legs. They were smooth and didn’t have the bows Tashkent's normal socks had. She wore a little skirt that covered her hips to the absolute minimum under her very thick winter jacket, the same that Tashkent wore but with blue stripes from the armpits to the rims of the bottom. The jacket had a few blue little bows on her but all in all they were less prominent. Around Elmas neck was a large collar that had changing stripes colours on her. White and light blue. She could barely see a little light blue shirt with a star pattern on it under her jacket.   

“Oh thank you so much.” Elma in her new clothes protested silently as she shuffled around with it. “I hate this. It stands against our entire culture. Seriously thigh high socks?” She pinched said article of clothing as she didn’t believe it. “How are you capable of finding this good?”

“Well I find you look sexy in it.” Cleveland snickered a bit. Elma merely looked unamused.

“If you are trying to become Prinz Eugen then cut it off. You aren’t nearly as good and smooth as she is in flirting so that will be found out immediately.” She looked down again and sighed. “I, an Enforcer, an bodyguard of an Arbiter, an elite soldier of the Sirens, am wearing thigh high socks. You couldn’t even make that up if you were Purifier.”

“Stop complaining now, we have a mission to do. Do you remember what you are now?” Cleveland asked to reaffirm. She had to make sure again that Elma got the plan. Elma has moderately calmed down at this point so she just nodded at the question.

“Hello, destroyer Baku.” Cleveland said to Elma as she looked at her disguise with a smile. Elma, apart from her eyes, actually looked like she belonged into the Northern Parliament making her disguise work perfectly. “Wait, we need to give you contact lenses and you will completely fit in.”

“Do you want to take everything of my pride?!” Elma screamed as she slammed her halberd into the water next to Cleveland. She didn’t plan on hitting her friend actually but she had to get this point across. She pointed the stump end of her halberd into Cleveland's chest before repeatedly knocking it into the Observer. “You wanted me to take everything and I did so but you will not torture me any more. This is as far as I am willing to go to play along, not a single step more.” She groaned. She could already foresee many unbelievable embarrassing situations happening to her while being forced to wear this ridiculous outfit.

“Fine but if we are found out then you are responsible. Even if you look 90% like a Northern Parliament shipgirl now. The Ironbloods are very observant, they will probably spot this.” Cleveland said before she thought. “Wait, we will just say this is what you were born with when they ask so they have it as normal in their logs. That way you will not stand out.”

“Logs I will burn after we are done there. You mention this to anyone back home  and no matter your status in the hierarchy, I will have your tongue for it.” Elma said out as an aggressive response. She calmed down and remembered her agonizing role she had to play. “ I am the destroyer leader Baku. Second ship of the Tashkent class of destroyers leaders. Is this fine?”

*Oh she actually plays along with that. That is good, I would have through she would protest more.*

“Wait, she will play my sister?” Tashkent gasped in horror as she looked down to the sirens from her ship. “I wasn't informed of this.”

Elma merely huffed in reply. She leaned back against the ship she is supposed to be the sister of. “Deal with it, I don’t like this either.” 

“Good, then we are ready. You keep playing your part here and no one will recognise you. So now for me then. Oh this will be interesting.“ Cleveland said as she closed her eyes. 

She concentrated and her entire body changed. Her hair shortened, her skin turned less pale and her clothes grew. Slowly her panties formed themselves into what would be Weser's entire lower half of clothes. Thigh high black leggings and elegant white shoes with long heels were created out of the fabric growing along her legs, leaving the tips of her thighs bare to the world to see. Her bra turned into the white shirt the carrier wore that reached down to her hips and left little to the imagination. The bow on the Observers back expanded and turned into the large cape Weser wears. Next up came the details and internal cushioning of the clothes which let the siren almost moan a bit as they formed themselves and finished the outfit of the carrier.

After all of that came the part Cleveland dreaded the most. The rigging. She couldn’t hide from that so she had to get onto it so she began concentrating harder before pain coursed through her entire body. 

Some tentacles laid themselves over each other and fuzed into each other. It ended in Cleveland having three big ones. Afterwards the tentacles grew even more in size, ending easily at the size of moderate trees before turning into sharks where some smaller new tentacles laid themself on top of and turned into runways. Cleveland seemed to gasp in intense pain while concentrating harder during all of this. It even made Elma a bit concerned as she saw her friend in pain.

A few tentacles let the carriers cannons morph into existence on the backs of the sharks by simply positioning themselves there and melting into the forming rigging. All of this happened with a lot of mishaps and wrong-formed parts but at the end of it, the rigging it resembled Weser’s rigging down to the details. Cleveland opened her now red eyes and looked at herself before panting a bit. “God that hurt.”

She leaned back and sat down on the shark under her to calm down from the pain. “The time has come! Ironblood carrier Weser of the Weser class, reporting for duty.” She turned to Elma with a smile. “Did I hit her well? Oh wait, I have to do her voice.”

“You hit her good.” Elma noted as she clapped to the performance she just had to watch. She looked at the sharks that moved around a bit with interest. “Say, is that rigging functional?”

“It is still my rigging you know so yes it is. Although only the guns work and they don’t fire actual shells so I should avoid firing them. I still fire lasers so I would give myself away but they completely resemble the original in this state. I have no clue of the planes though. I mean I can guess how they work but this false rigging doesn’t even carry planes I think.” Cleveland said in Weser’s voice this time. She stood up from her rigging and, after having a bit of trouble walking in high heels, balanced and walked around fine again. She touched her chest, which she was glad fit perfectly into the carrier's clothes, and felt her beating cube. “Can I say that making my tentacles change forms was quite painful and I will definitely not try to form the actual planes as ammunition. This is my current limit in pain tolerance. God. It felt like I was ripping my own tentacles apart.” 

*At least you trained a bit or this would hurt a lot more. You did get better while doing it at the end. You only had about a dozen wrongs in this try. Still amazed that you managed to get a her rigging right. I expected you to only try to change your clothes and body parts which would already hurt you enough given your lack of training, but you actually pulled off the full thing. You really are special, Beta.*

“That probably explains why it hurt so much. So I am a carrier now. God I feel weird, I am too used to guns.” Cleveland noted proudly and with a slight smile as she was proud of herself actually pulling her transformation off. She observed her rigging sharks as they obeyed her will and moved them around a bit. She found it quite fun actually.

Tashkent couldn’t believe her eyes. “So the reports were true. You Sirens can turn into other people.” Tashkent gasped out a bit. She had read and heard about it but seeing it with her own eyes was something she never imagined seeing.

“Only Observers like me, hence why we dressed Elma up, but yes we can.” The now Ironblood carrier said out with a small giggle. “Wait, I have to play the part as well but we should head to Soyuz.” Cleveland declared and began walking in the direction of the battleship. 

Given that she was the only of her sisters to summon her ship at the moment, the massive ship was easy to spot. Jumping on it with the others following her Cleveland approached the battleship itself staring into the horizon. The other girls of the Northern Parliament were also scattered around the deck.

“Since when do we have? Wait, you. Stop for a second.” Soobrazitelny called out from the side. She had been on the battleship the entire time, trying to tinker with something Cleveland couldn’t identify but she threw the thing to the side. She walked over to Elma and looked at her closely. “Who are you, comrade? I don’t remember you coming with us.”

“I am Baku. Tashkent's sistership?” Elma answered and sent the destroyer to the ground. She couldn’t believe that at all. 

“But that one was never build…neither made into a shipgirl.” Soobrazitelny gasped as she tried to come up with an explanation. She never saw this comrade of hers before so where did she come from?

“Weser?” Rossiya noted as she walked to Cleveland, not identifying her as a Siren, and smiled as she looked at the scene. “Soobrazitelny, calm down. Weser, where did you come from?”

“Oh. You see I was doing a patrol and found you on radar, so I came in to investigate. I am honoured to meet you.” Cleveland said formally and bowed a bit. Inside she was laughing a bit given they actually shouldn’t be allied. Rossiya thrusted her a bit too much so it seemed in the two years she was gone a lot of stuff happened. Although even she noted that Rossiya was keeping her distance from her.

Rossiya looked at the disguised Elma with a bit of confusion and disregarded Cleveland for a second. “You must be one of the PR ships we requested from the mainland after we made our truce. As you know it’s quite young. You have the resources to make them after all. But didn’t we order one of the project carriers to be made?”

Rossiya only shook her head and smiled with relief but a bit of confusion as well since her memories gave her another picture. “Weser, did you escort her?”

Cleveland was confused about that Rossiya wasn’t seeing through the charade at all. “I did that. I escorted Baku here after I was given the order. She gave us a bit of trouble at first due to being so excited about the world and all of its things but now we are here.”

“If you are here then the sirens vanished I think. You PR ships are made to counter them directly so a single one of you can chase them off. Good. It felt like they were holding us hostage.” Belorussiya said as she looked around. She didn’t spot any of the sirens in the water. Tashkent merely looked like she wanted to just spell the beans. 

Cleveland was at a loss for words before giggling, shocking the battleship a bit. “Elma look. Our disguises work perfectly. So the Sirens are gone, huh?” 

Rossiya didn’t understand what the carrier meant as she looked at her more confused than before. Soyuz merely looked over and immediately knew what was going on. She just waited until her sisters figured it out herself.

Cleveland shook her head. She let out a sigh and let a tentacle sliver all the way along in her sleeve before it exited it and waved at the battleship. “For your information. We are not gone. We simply try a bit of roleplay.”

The battleship was lightly jumping back from this as Cleveland let her tentacle vanish again. “What the hell! How is Weser a siren?”

“You forgot that some Sirens can change their appearances, don’t you?” Soyuz pointed out as she walked over to the group. “Look at the other ones eyes. It’s hard to see but you can see that that’s the Enforcer. Even though I have to admit that both of them look completely not like siren, their behavior gives them away.”

All the Northern girls were looking at the two and were more focused on the supposed Tashkent class destroyer. Elma was a bit sweating from that due to most of the Northern girls being taller than her but kept her unamused face. She still wasn’t happy about these clothes anyway.

“I read about it but I never believed it. Damn how much more advanced than us are these creatures?” Rossiya grumbled as she walked away. She seemed like her pride had been hurt by getting tricked.

“Anyway, I turned myself and my clothes into Weser’s and get us into the base if none of you have anything to say against it.” Cleveland in the voice of the carrier declared. “If they hear a familiar voice it will be better for them to be friendly. Besides, if we just walz in there without saying a word then they will be suspicious of us.”

“You think of a lot. If you wouldn’t be our enemy I would compliment you for thinking well.” Soyuz sighed. She was happy to not have to face the Observer in battle. She was as smart as she was so a confrontation wouldn’t end well.

“Wait. If your normal clothes turned into that then you are her in a sense. And if you are Weser in her clothes. Do you wear underwear under those clothes?” Asked Gangung asked as she thought in her lightly drunk state. “You definitely don’t have a copy of everyone's clothes.” Most of the people around her gave her side glances for that question.

“If you look to find out then I am breaking your neck with my thighs.” Cleveland said out with all seriousness she could muster. She herself wasn’t sure if she was wearing underwear but she wouldn’t just say that out loud. “Now let me talk to them and get us a way in. Follow me.” 

Cleveland jumped from her position and into the water. All of the girls, except Elma, summoned their riggings and began lightly cruising in the direction of the Ironblood fjord base which by now was merely an hour away. Cleveland had concealed their radar signals for the time being but stopped doing that.

It took barely five minutes before she was getting a contact trying to connect to someone in the Northern Parliament fleet. She accepted the line without a second thought by accessing it. “Ironblood carrier Weser here. Who am I speaking to?”

“Weser? What are you…ehh…Z35 speaking. What are you doing up so far in the north? I thought you were an enemy.” Said the voice of Z35. Cleveland smiled at that. The destroyers were the one that listened the most to higher ranked ships and Weser as a carrier and therefore fleetleader and flagship, stood quite high.

“Why would you think I am an enemy?” Cleveland asked and could hear the destroyer jump up. “I am doing my patrol of the rims of our borders to the Northern Parliament as I was ordered.”

“But we have not gotten the information that you are even out there on a patrol. We might have sent a fleet to intercept you and waste resources.” Said the destroyer with a bit of a shaky voice.

“Have you not got Bismarck's memo yet? She sent me here to do a patrol and then dock at the port where I am supposed to remain on standby unless something happens.” Cleveland answered and had to not chuckle. She was using logic that actually worked well in practice. “Also send a recon plane first. No reason to waste useful resources and an entire fleet to go after a lone target.”

“According to the radar you're not alone though. What about that, miss Weser?” Z35 asked as she looked at the radar Cleveland guessed. “I count at least a few battleships with you.”

Cleveland already foresaw that question and has thought of an answer. “I have successfully done my patrol until a certain point. I have run into a fleet of Northern Parliament girls I am currently leading to the fjord base. Actually I was about to radio this in since I only found them a few minutes ago. You were faster it seems. Good work.”

“Ehh thank you. Wait, a Northern Parliament fleet?” Z35 gasped. “Why would they be here?”

“I have yet to find that out but Soyuz herself is here so it must be important. Requesting clearance to dock.” Cleveland requested and could hear the destroyer shuffle around. She was doing something Cleveland couldn’t think of what but suspected she was looking through some messages.

“Ehh yeah I think it's fine if you dock. Our last resupply was last week, so we got the space…I hope you arrive well.” Said the destroyer as she just said something, she clearly was caught off guard. "I will wait on the dock for you." With that the call ended.

Cleveland turned to the others. “We are allowed to dock. They suspect nothing is wrong.” She smiled, seeing that her plan worked and cruised ahead. Elma was smiling a bit as well while still trying to somehow have her clothes be less uncomfortable but that turned out to be a losing battle.

Driving for the remaining distance was not something that took long and soon they could see the port. The port was like Cleveland remembered it even before Azur Lane split into the two factions so she kind of knew where to go. The Northern girls, and Elma, followed her all the way. 

“Dock here.” Cleveland said as she jumped on the port and desummoned “her” rigging. The Northern girls, all except Soyuz and obviously Elma, summoned their ships which docked fast. They were still as trained in it or just better due to having to do it under harsher conditions.

One by one all of them joined “Weser” on the dock who led them down it. To the sides they could see some ships that all belonged to Ironblood but they could also note that their conditions were far from ideal, showing some neglect and no real care except the bare minimum needed.

Z35 was waiting at the end of the pier and saluted to the carrier. “Hello Miss Weser. I see you brought the Northern girls like you said. Wait, why are all of them docking but not you? You should have priority as a capital ship.”

“The port isn’t designed to hold this many ships so I, like Soyuz, resorted to pulling my ship into myself to conserve space. I want to show our hospitality by allowing them to dock.” Cleveland simply answered and seemed to stun the destroyer. She couldn’t spawn any ship so that was a good way out of this. She also noted that she played the only carrier that was at the place so she had another excuse for her reason to be here.

“Oh…I forgot that. Urgh. Maas will urge me to school again.” Z35 groaned a bit as she pulled her hair. Cleveland had to remain serious but smiled a bit at that, gladly it didn’t get noticed,

“What your sister will do to you can wait.” Cleveland reminded the destroyer. She looked around the port and didn’t spot that many people running around. In all honesty the largest thing she saw was another cruiser. “Where is Tirpitz? I think our guests want to talk with her.”

“Oh yeah she is in the dorm building.” Z35 spoke out loud. She began walking and beckoned the others to follow her. They all walked across the port which looked generally a bit come down. Entering a big building, which turned out to be the dorms, they were led into an office.

Tirpitz sat there on a couch and was munching some crackers before looking at the group entering. “Oh, Guests. Z35 already told me you were coming so hello.” She said as she with some issues stood up and shook each of their hands. “So why are you all here?”

Tirpitz looked generally like Cleveland remembered her, even if the two rarely met. Only Tirpitz didn’t carry herself with the pride of the battleship she remembered. Tirpitz clothes were untidy and half open. Cleveland could even swear Tirpitz looked a bit plumper than she remembered her.

“Hello to you as well. I am here as ordered by lord Bismarck and on my patrol found the fleet of Northern Parliament ships which I escorted to the base according to routine.” Cleveland simply said out. “She sent me here due to knowing you don’t have a carrier here so I am ordered to assist you with air superiority.”

Tirpitz was a bit confused looking before she sunk back into her seat and snacks. “I was about to ask what you mean by who sent you but my sister probably just forgot to inform me again. Not the first time that has happened. I still remember the day we got tomato soup mixed with our fuel as a prank. Oh my god was that disgusting. The only thing that stuff was useful for was feeding the generators but not us. The destroyers were throwing up even three days later.”

Cleveland wasn’t sure what to make of this. She couldn’t think of Bismarck, the proud leader of Ironblood, doing something similar to some destroyers in their free time. There was no way Bismarck would mess up something official. Nor would she mess up something important such as fuel supplies for shipgirls. Tirpitz glanced up and checked the room.

“Z35. You can go back to the radio station and look at the radar, you did good. Z46 down here will be enough for me. Besides these are our friends.” Tirpitz declared and looked down. Under the glass table in the middle of the room was Z46 sleeping on the carpet. Even Soyuz was having a slight smile at that.

Z35 just saluted and walked out of the room. Tirpitz pointed at the couch in front of her and beckoned them all to sit down. “You don’t need to stand, take a seat.” All of the group complied with Elma and Cleveland resorting to sitting on the armrests of the couch so everyone could fit on it. They were nine people after all.

"Hey, I remember most of you, even if I only met some of you from afar. We met during one of my sister's meetings." Tirpitz mentioned as she looked over the them. She finished and pointed at Elma. “But not you. I am pretty certain I don’t know you. Are you a Tashkent clone or do you just like to dress like her?”

“Close.“ Elma said to the battleship before bowing a bit. “I am the destroyer flotilla leader Baku. PR ship of the Northern Parliament and the second proposed ship of the Tashkent class of destroyer leaders.” Elma shook Tirpitz's hand before sitting back down. Cleveland was internally happy that Elma was playing along the plan. She was doing it better than she suspected of the Enforcer.

“A PR ship?“ Tirpitz asked to reaffirm to which she received a nod from Elma. She just laid back upon hearing that. “Damn everyone has the resources to make some now. Well then, welcome in Ironblood, Baku. Must be your first time here then. I hope you enjoy your stay at Ironblood.”

“On the topic of stay, we were on our way to the mainland and speak about some agreements and contracts regarding trade routes, convois and the reenactment of tourist routes with Bismarck given the receding threat of the Siren stranglers. Weser, according to standard naval routine, brought us here.” Soyuz mentioned and brought Tirpitz back into an actively awake state.

“Oh yeah. Routine for Ironblood foreign relationships or whatever stuff I don’t care about. What did my dumbass sister order now? A different trade route for ice cream or whatever.” Tirpitz told them and sent most of the Ironblood guests into confusion. Tirpitz sounded completely different than most of them remembered.