Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 5 of The Whale and the Elephant.
Stats:
Published:
2025-10-12
Updated:
2025-10-25
Words:
4,545
Chapters:
2/3
Comments:
164
Kudos:
1
Hits:
49

Final duel

Summary:

An expansion of the final fight to take down a certain evil counterpart of Hood, Alterhood, whose rampage was at its peak.

An expansion to the fight scene in Ships Going Ashore Chapter 24.

Azur Lane characters belong to Manjuu.

Eighty-six characters belong to Asato.

Chapter 1: An eye for an eye

Summary:

Hood and Alterhood's last deadly duel.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Took you long enough to face me," Alterhood spoke to her nemesis, who had the same face as her but in a dark blue dress with a white sash across her uniform. "I told you we'd meet again"

"To think I would see your face again after ten years, aside from my dreams," Hood said as she looked at her long-time foe. "To think you came back from the dead"

"Your friend back there did not make sure I was dead before dragging you away," Alterhood gazed at Lena, who backed out. "To think you asked her to stay out, are you stupid?"

"I will give you a fair fight, just swords," Hood pointed her sword at Alterhood. "Besides, she couldn't harm you anyway. Only I can"

"Perhaps you forgot something," Alterhood pointed her sword at Hood as well. "You think you really had a chance against me?"

"How about last time I ran a sword through you?" Hood smirked. "This time won't be any different"

"This time I am going to stab your cube, and pull it out!!!" Alterhood pointed her sword at Hood's breast. "And then I am going to crush it with my own hands!!!!"

Hood and Alterhood walked in circles as they matched each other's moves step by step. Their eyes gazed at each other. Hood stopped in her tracks and broke out a faint smile.

"Are you going mad?" Alterhood looked at the lady. 

"No, I am just thinking back all about it," The battlecruiser looked up at her counterpart. "How we both got to this point"

Alterhood stopped in her tracks as well.

"All this mess and all this suffering were not my idea, so that you know," She said. "I only helped"

"What's the difference?" Hood countered. "You had a hand, nonetheless"

"Look around you, Hood!!!" Alterhood shouted; her voice echoed in the room. "Morals? Honor? They were meaningless here!!!"

"You endorsed sending children into battles!!!" Hood shouted. "What kind of a woman are you?!!!"

"Go ask those Theocracy officials who were so adamant about expanding their religion!!!" Alterhood pointed her sword up. "The one that girl killed with her own hands who caused her parents to die!!!"

"You saw it all!!! How fanatic these kids become due to religion!!!" She shouted back as she charged with a sword in her hands. "How adults here don't give a shit!!!"

Hood charged as well, and the two slammed into each other in the room. The two swords slammed into each other, sending a hot spark into the air.

CLANK!!!!

Alterhood used her free hand to yank Hood's hair. Hood returned the favour and pulled her hair very hard as well.

"Look at us!!!" Alterhood said. Her hands were tight on the sword and the hair. "We both were in the same game, the only difference is I get to choose!!"

"Then you choose very poorly!!!!" Hood slammed her knee with the sharp knee, thick like a cannonball, which slammed into Alterhood's stomach like a sword. Alterhood's face rested on Hood's shoulder as the kick slammed into her belly like a cannonball. Saliva came out of her mouth as Hood pushed her off. Then the lady used the sword butt to slam into Alterhood's face like a baseball. 

Alterhood flew a few meters away from the lady. Hood pointed her sword at Alterhood as Lena walked to her side. "Lena, I told you to stay away"

"I had something to say to her," Lena looked at her friend. "It won't be long"

"Ah, look who it is," Alterhood stood up, blood on her mouth. "Captain Vladilena Nouzen"

"Tell me, why did you choose to go after Hood rather than coming to get me?" Lena gazed at Alterhood with cold eyes. "You said you summoned me"

Hood and Alterhood looked at Lena at the same time.

"You still don't get it?!!!!!" Alterhood broke out laughing. "After all this time?!!!!"

"Enlighten me," Lena replied. "Because I am stupid on that part"

"I told you long ago," Alterhood pointed her sword at the lady at Lena's side. "You, Hood, are an obstacle in my way"

"You could have gone after Lena here first!!!" Hood said with Lena, giving her an understanding smile. "She was trapped all alone for god knows how long!!!"

"It made no sense," Lena said. "You went through all that hassle to summon me, but you let Azur Lane take me"

Alterhood's face darkened.

"Because I was supposed to fucking kill you first, Hood," Alterhood gazed at Hood with her dark blue eyes filled with nothing but hatred. "Seeing you reminds me of myself, who killed Lena from my timeline"

"So what?!!!!" Hood's anger boiled over. "So you want to kill me first before getting the one you said you loved, like your own sister, you killed?!!!!"

"You stole her from me!!!" Alterhood shouted back, her face angry. "I was supposed to be reunited with my friend!!! She meant a lot to me!!! But you took her from me!!!"

"Oh, cut the crap already!!!" Hood took Lena's hands. "You never truly cared!!!"

"Oh, I cared!!!" Alterhood shouted, her saliva on the ground and her eyes red with anger. "Looked at you!!! Happy while I had to suffer!!!"

"You could not let go of your hate toward me," Hood calmed down. "If that day, you went to Lena instead of me, it would be me who would be at your mercy and jealous of you right now"

Alterhood gritted her teeth so hard that the two could hear the sound of teeth breaking all across the room. "Then I just have to kill you two"

"You created us", Hood and Lena spoke at the same time, their voices synced. 

"Lena, get away, please," Hood spoke. "And please do not interfere"

"I won't," Lena nodded, slowly walking away. "Rest assured"

The battlecruiser steeled herself as she felt a sense of rage coming from her foe. Her foe looked at her feet for a few seconds and then.

"Ha...ha..HA...HA...HA!!!!" She looked up with the face of a mad woman with glowing eyes and a twitching mouth. Her dark blue eyes aimed at Hood like a crosshair of a naval gun. "Oh, Hood, you pissed me off many times before, but this time..."

"YOU WILL FEEL MY RAGE!!!!" The voice echoed through the room as she shouted the words.

Alterhood summoned her rigging and aimed it at the lady.

"DIE!!!"

Hood summoned her rigging as well. The lady aimed at Alterhood's laser gun; the 16.5 rounds slammed into the guns, damaging some of them.

"My...ears..." 

The lady looked back with horror on her face. Lena was on the floor, both hands at her ears. This was a closed space, and the naval gun noise would echo hard to a normal human's ears.

"GOTCHA!!!"

The lady turned around and saw her foe mere inches from her. Hood's heart turned cold as her foe's body and rigging slammed into hers. Her feet moved back from the force and slammed into the wall behind her.

"Look who hurt her own friend now"

Their faces were a few inches apart, divided only by the swords clashing around the neck. Hood looked around; her foe's rigging pinned her to the wall. Her rigging also blocked the way. Her foe got Hood where she wanted.

"How the tables had turned"

Hood gritted her teeth as Alterhood pressed the swords closer. Her own eyes were visible in Alterhood's dark blue eyes as the steel of their rigging clanked into each other.

"Today, you die"

"So you wrecked your own rigging so that you could knock me out?"

Alterhood looked at Hood, who was bleeding with half her head red with blood, and the metal guns, turrets, and VLS cells in tatters, sitting in the waters. The hats they wore were long gone in the fight. Cuts and bleeding were all over their clothes, skin, and faces.

"You think that would be enough to kill me?" Alterhood snapped her fingers, and the rigging went away in a flash of light.

"You can no longer use those laser guns of yours," Hood said, snapping her finger as the metal behind her back disappeared in flashes of light. Her hands formed into fists. "Our swords broke, so you know what is going to happen now, don't you?"

"If you mean that I get to break every bone in your body," Alterhood cracked the bones of both her hands. "A hand-to-hand fight it is, but answer me this question: what drives you, huh?"

"Same as you," Hood spat back. "To kill you"

Alterhood charged forward, throwing a fist right at Hood's face. The lady merely moved her head as the fist went past her face. Alterhood suddenly found herself a few inches from Hood's face, who proceeded to grab her foe with her two hands at her waist and deliver a knee right into her stomach.

"I have been waiting to do that for months!!!!" Hood shouted as she delivered the knee into her foe's belly. "You bloody haunt me and Lena for a long time, you fucking bitch!!!!"

The lady moved her hands behind her foe's neck and held it in place as she shifted her target to her foe's face. Knees after knees, she unloaded it into her foe, whom she had hated for a long time.

"I killed you three fucking times and you still came back to haunt me!!!"

In her fifth knee attack, the force was so great that Aterhood's head went up along with a stream of blood from her nose. Hood delivered a punch right into her foe's face. Yet Alterhood held her ground and launched a counterattack, grabbing Hood's back.

"I have been waiting for this day for ten years too!!!!"

Alterhood moved one of her legs behind Hood's, and they both fell into the water. Alterhood pinned Hood's face to the water.

"You have no idea what I have been through!!!"

She slammed Hood's face into the water time and time again, trying to drown her or at least trying to.

"I want you to feel what I felt!!!"

Alterhood grabbed Hood by the hair, yanking her out of the water as they stood up. She wrapped one of her hands around Hood's throat. The lady was breathing as Alterhood finally held her neck in place.

"Years being locked up inside a cube, years of being tossed around, years of being left to rot in the sea and years of pain and suffering," Alterhood whispered into Hood's ears. "What do you know about it?"

"Know what?" Hood tried to break free. "How long have you prepared for this day?"

"While you were having a happy time, I went around messing with people's lives," Alterhood said with pride in her voice. "The bombing at the Iron Blood's naval HQ was my doing. A little persuasion there and a little smuggling here"

"You were behind it all?!!!" Hood asked, trying to look at Alterhood. "How could you?!!!"

"Because they wanted Lena dead!!!" Alterhood shouted in Hood's ears. "Because Lena was the obstacle in their way"

Hood stopped resisting as she stood frozen at her foe's words.

"Oh my poor Hood," Alterhood mocked her foe. "If you were me, you would have done the same. But you did not go far enough"

"You!!!!..You!!!"

"She almost died when she got captured by the German commies!!!" Alterhood squeezed her hands at Hood's throat. "She almost died when the Germans invaded her home!!! What did you do? Nothing!!!!"

Hood fell into silence.

"When her own country ordered her to shoot at you," Alterhood continued. "She ran away. Bismarck called her weak —what did you do? Nothing. You should have punched Bismarck in the face, but you did not, unlike me"

"I made all those who made her suffer pay one way or another," Alterhood shook Hood's head. "I watched as their lives crumbled from their own foolishness"

"I care about her, Hood," She said, ready to end Hood's life. "More than you ever do"

"Then why?"

"Huh?"

Hood's hands gripped Alterhood's tightly as she squeezed them hard.

"Why didn't you just leave and take her with you then?" Hood spoke. "Why don't you just take her away!!!!"

Hood moved her feet forward and slammed them hard into Alterhood's ankle. Alterhood backed off, and the lady slammed her elbow into her foe's face.

"Instead!!! You made her go through this!!!" Hood threw a punch right into Alterhood's belly.

"She lost her entire family for fuck's sake!!!" The lady threw a punch at her double's face. The fist cracked her foe's nose with a stream of blood.

"You could have everything!!!" Hood delivered the uppercut right into Alterhood's chin, sending her into the air. "You added more to her pain!!!!"

Hood shouted as her foe landed in the water, the water around them turning light red.

"Because that is what I felt,"

Hood looked on as her foe stood up, clearing the hair from her face. Blood covered her face, but failed to mask the cold, dark blue eyes gazing at Hood.

"Now you do," Alterhood said. "The feeling you had of wanting to kill me so much after I tortured you and her in the dream alone. I wanted you to feel what I had to endure"

"FUCK YOU!!!!" The lady dropped the elegance she held so dear. "Fuck you and your sick mindset!!!"

"How about we just get back to fighting?" Altehood charged into Hood as the lady braced herself.

"I could do this all day!!!!"

"Shut the fuck up!!!"

Hood and Alterhood's foreheads touched as they gripped each other's hands tightly, trying to push the others back, but they held firm. Yet the lady was playing for time.

Hood backed off, and Alterhood raced after her, throwing a punch in her way. The lady ducked right under and backed away before Alterhood could throw another punch. The same thing happened again as Alterhood threw kicks and punches, and the lady ducked or blocked them with her hands.

"You said you cared," Hood said as she ducked as Alterhood's iron fist went past her head. "But you never did!!!"

"Shut your fuking mouth!!!" Alterhood threw a punch, and this time Hood caught the punch with her hand. Hood also threw a punch at Alterhood, who caught it with her free hand. "Because you took her from me, you royal bitch!!!"

They broke off, and Alterhood repeated the attack.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!!!!!?"

"As if I will let you kill me quickly!!!"

Yet the battlecruiser maintained her distance, even as her foe threw punches and kicks at her like shooting a machine gun.

Alterhood stopped and looked at Hood with a look of the demon. "Did you lose your pride and will to fight, huh?"

Hood stood in place as she removed blood from her mouth with her gloved hands. "Let's say I have a new style for my fight,"

Alterhood gritted her teeth as she looked at the room they had fought in earlier, and she reached for something in her coat. It was a button with a red circle in the middle.

"How is that going to help?" Hood braced herself.

Alterhood grinned as her eyes and face tilted to the room she had just looked at. "Not for you, for her."

Horror filled the lady's face as she gazed at her foe and the button.

"Say goodbye to your friend, because her body might not be there for you to find at all"

"LENA GET OUT OF THERE!!!!," Hood shouted as she ran to take the button in Alterhood's hands. She pressed the button just as Hood was a few feet from her. The room above erupted into a massive fireball of explosions and smoke. Hood stood there in silence as she watched the room explode.

Seeing her foe distracted, Alterood reached for a knife in her pocket, which she had been sharpening for all these years. She looked at Hood's belly, then ran to the lady. She swung the knife hard into the lady's belly. The sharp blade cut through the clothes and then into her skin. The lady looked at her and then down at her belly as the double twisted the knife.

"You turn," Alterhood said as Hood tried to wrestle the knife. Yet her hands could not remove the knife as blood dirtied it. Alterhood pushed the knife deeper into her organ, and the blood came out of the lady's mouth as she did so. "You fought well, old friend, but this is the end of the line for you."

She pulled the knife out, and the lady fell backwards into the water like a doll. Her body slammed into the water so hard that he water bent a little. Her eyes closed slowly as the water around her turned blood-red.

"Don't die yet, Hood." Alterhood walked closer to Hood's motionless body. "This is just the beginning"

She had waited ten years for this day. To kill Hood with her two hands. Her mind began to come up with torments she was going to give to the lady.

CLICK!!!

She saw an object with a red tip fly into her face, and it exploded before her vision went blank.

Notes:

An expansion of the life-or-death struggle of Bismarck, Hood and Lena against the one they put down a decade ago, who came back for revenge.

Hood and Alterhood's physical duel is over. The next one is going to be very personal between Alterhood and Lena.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment.

Chapter 2: Blood for Blood

Summary:

Alterhood personal talk with Lena.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Alterhood woke up with pain in her face and walked up to the grey concrete dock. She turned her eyes to the one who fired at her face.

Lena was at one of the docks, using ropes to pull wounded Hood up from the water, where she had fought with the lady. Lena wrapped both hands around Hood's waist as she dragged the lady to a wall to treat her injuries. Red liquids splattered everywhere as the young captain dragged her kansen friend from the dock with both hands.

Alterhood just sat and watched the girl trying to heal the lady. After about 10 minutes, she walked to the girl who was so deeply bandaging Hood's belly that she did not notice her behind. She grabbed a pistol from her coat and pointed it at the girl right at the back of her head.

"You never learned. Didn't you?"

The woman just sat in place. The lady remained unconscious and lifeless.

"Go sit over there," Alterhood picked Lena up, grabbing her arms. She pointed her fingers at a rock nearby as she pushed Lena with the barrel of her pistol at her back. 

"Why don't you just kill me?" Lena took her seat as the lady walked back to sit at another rock right across her. 

"I wanted to talk to you, only us alone," Alterhood sat, keeping her eyes on the girl holding the pistol. "You studied history enough to know what I will talk about,"

"You know the consequences of your actions, while you think for the good of the people and the nations, that's not how the world works," Alterhood put the pistol back in her holster. 

"I know, but that does not mean I would stop trying," Lena replied.

"You know, my Lena was like you, you know?" Alterhood closed her eyes. "Brave, fearless and cunning like you"

"My other me told me everything," Lena looked at Alterhood. "It was not your fault"

"Of course, it was my fault!!!" Alterhood shouted. "I was the one who ran my sword through her!!! I was the one who killed her in her own family grave!!!"

The day she ran the sword through her friend came back, the day she killed her friend, who had the same face as the girl sitting right across her.

"Is that a lie you made yourself believe?" Lena said to her. "Living a lie?"

"She meant a lot to me!!," Alterhood said, her face downcast. "Then I had to watch Bismarck pull her heart out after I killed her."

Lena's face turned pale as she took in the words.

"I broke that cube to prevent the last part of her from being used like a lab rat," Alterhood looked up, anger in her eyes. "That cube exploded, and before I knew it, I got this from. The rest is history"

"You killed them all?" Lena asked with her eyes white. "How?"

"Nukes," Hood's double said. "The Germans used the nukes they made with the Giad Empire's help to act as an insurance policy. I stole it and used it instead. They wanted to ensure they win so much they were willing to ruin the whole world for it"

"So you doomed everyone with a nuclear extinction?!!!" Lena stood up and pointed her fingers at Alterhood. "You condemned them all to nuclear annihilation!!!"

"It was not my idea!!!" Alterhood stood up. "The Germans were going to do it anyway!!! They could not live with being defeated again, so they would rather destroy the world!!"

"What gives you the right to do that!!!" Lena countered, walking close to Alterhood. "What gives you the right to kill millions of people!!!!"

"What right do your nation have to condemn the Eighty-Six to their doom!!!!" Alterhood shouted in Lena's face. "Ten years of hell and suffering!!! The most heinous crime in all of human history!!!"

Lena looked at her feet as Alterhood spoke about the past she wanted to denounce. The past she detested.The past that haunts her to this day. The past she spoke out against.

"We are both killers, Lena," Alterhood put a finger on Lena's heart. "What you and I did will haunt us until we die"

"Then why are you going this?" Lena asked. "Pitting the two worlds against each other"

"Because I wanted to show you the truth, my dear girl," Alterhood pointed to the submarines at he docks. "Humans will always be humans, no matter time and place"

"Look around you, Lena!!!!" She spoke. "Both our worlds are no different at all!!"

Lena followed her gaze.

"Three years of peace?" Alterhood spoke as she walked in circles around Lena. "More like three years to rearm"

"I...I..." Lena tried to speak.

"You gave them the time they needed to do so," Alterhood said, stopping beside Lena and speaking into her ear. "While you hope trade would solve problems. It caused an economic crisis in Iron Blood and Federacy, who resorted to military forces thanks to the time you gave them"

Tears came out of Lena's eyes as she took it in. Three years in the AL's service, she hoped peace would prevail, only for it all to come crashing down in the Great Continental War.

"Your kind intentions meant nothing to them, Lena," Alterhood picked Lena's tears with her finger. "Just like me, the continent would blame you for bringing the foreign powers to this world, even though they needed it to end the Legion War and to survive. You know why?"

Lena looked at Alterhood as she stopped right in front of Lena. Her eyes remained dark blue, but they held some emotion.

"They would do anything for their own gains," Alterhood said. "You were nothing but a tool for them"

"I know that"

"Huh?"

Alterhood looked at Lena, whose tears stopped flowing out of her eyes.

"I knew one day my nation would end, but I tried to save it," Lena said as she walked forward. "I made my peace with it long ago, as well as the fact that I was a tool for this ruthless political game"

"Why do you care so much about this world and not let it burn to the ground?" Alterhood swung her head. "I really don't understand you, but that is what you make unique"

"One day, Lena, even if you think the Azur Lane will kill me, someone like me will always rise," Alterhood smiled. "Even if there is no villain born, the world will make one. Mark my words"

Lena tried to grab her pistol, only for Alterhood to rush forward and snatch the pistol. She hugged Lena with the barrel of the gun in Lena's belly.

"For old time's sake,"

BANG!!!

"Don't you worry," Alterhood spoke into Lena's ear as blood from the gunshot, followed by the bullet, splashed the ground behind the girl. "I will send Hood right after you"

The double let the girl fall slowly as she shared one last look with her. The girl fell to the ground beneath her feet. Blood filled the ground beneath her feet. She looked down at the dead girl's body.

Alterhood put the smoking pistol in front of her mouth. She turned to Hood, who looked at her with eyes filled with rage. "Defiance until the very end,"

"YOU!!!!" 

Gone was Hood's speed. Gone were her careful movements. Gone were her restraints. All that was left was her rage. She got and ran into Alterhood. Her body slammed into her foe, and she pinned Alterhood with her legs as her fist slammed into her foe's face.

"Kill me if you want, Hood," Alterhood grinned as Hood held her throat with her two hands. "She won't be coming back"

"WHY?!!!, Why must you be so cruel!!!!," The lady shouted as she looked at her captain. "She suffered like us, for god's sake!!!"

"That's where you are wrong; this world is a cruel place," Alterhood spoke as the barrel of her pistol rested at Hood's belly. Hood looked down with horror on her face. "Serve you right, Mighty Hood"

BANG!!!

The bullet cut a hole through Hood's stomach and came out from her back with a line of blood. The lady's body flinched, and Hood fell to the right of her double. The lady fell off from her foe, her force all swept aside by the pain, all the will to fight gone with her eyes on her dead captain.

"I envied you, Hood," Alterhood got up. "After everything, she wanted to fight alongside you"

"You won't get away, Alterhood," Hood said, without looking at her. Her hands shook her captain. "Azur Lane and the Royal Navy will find you. They won't stop until you are dead!!!!"

A boot stomped on her hand, and the lady let out a cry of pain.

"Maybe," Alterhood told her. "But the war is over for you two"

She opened the lid of the big red can in her hands.

"Since you two loved each other so much. I will send you both to hell myself," She poured its contents on them. "I will give both a funeral I was denied"

Then she kicked Hood in the face, knocking her out.

"I wished I were dead back then," Alterhood muttered to herself as she threw the can into the two. The smell of gasoline filled the air. "I wished she had killed me, too"

"Too late for that now, though," The madwoman looked at the two as the past scene where she killed her friend came back to her mind. "I was like this too, lying dead by her side as you did"

She brought out a lighter from her pocket.

"My last act of mercy for you, Hood," Alterhood clicked the lighter as a single flame came out on the top. "Burn alongside your friend there"

That was until a pole knocked it out of her hand, followed by a boot in her face

Notes:

The next one is Bismarck settling scores with Hood's double.

Series this work belongs to: