Chapter Text

The third Bismarck

Ironblood convoy. On route to main Azur Lane base.

Admiral Hipper smiled as she took a sip of coffee, the gentle sea breeze blew past her. She was surprisingly happy for once. She wasn't being teased by Prinz Eugen for once, as she too was happy. And there was a good reason that both of them were happy, for they were helping to escort their sister, Weser, home to the Azur Lane main base.

It had been so long since they last saw her, so long in fact that she went by the name Seydlitz when they last met her. Her conversion into a carrier was difficult for all of them, especially when she was denied an air wing. But that was all over, and now they could make up for lost time.

They weren't the only one's escorting their sister. There was also the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, who were both currently sunbathing on the decks of their ships whilst Ravel's Bolero played throughout the fleet. There were also the cruisers Roon and Mainz, and the destroyers Z25, Z26, Z35, Z36, and Z2.

Also, U-556 was there for some reason.

The three sisters were currently sitting at a fold-out table on the deck of Admiral Hipper's ship. Hipper had acquired the best coffee available on the market, plus several pastries and confectionery's made by Dunkerque. She was sparing no expense for this meeting, as this was something she had been waiting for for a very long time.

Weser looked very similar to Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen and wore the same uniform, just with a few minor alterations here and there. She was bustier then Hipper, but wasn't as endowed as Eugen, as Weser's bust was only half the size of her more bustier sister. She had brown eyes and long blond hair. She also had a crossbow by her side. Like Enterprise used a bow to launch her planes, Weser used a crossbow to launch hers.

Hipper put her cup of coffee down “It's nice that we can finally talk to each other” she said, “It's been so long that we were calling you Seydlitz last time we met”.

Weser smiled “Yeah, it is. Having my name changed against my will was annoying, I ended up getting used it. Ships get renamed all the time,” she said before she picked up her crossbow “At least I finally get an opportunity to use my crossbow now. I was never able to use it outside of training”.

Both Hipper and Eugen lowered their heads slightly. The Luftwaffe wanting to maintain its monopoly on air-power affected their carrier projects greatly. They wanted all carrier planes to be controlled by the Luftwaffe, but that would mean that the planes would have to be manned planes, with a human pilot. That would mean that when the carrier entered combat, they couldn't activate their rigging, lest they cause a repeat of the first rigging activation incident.

It's was only recently did they allowed the ships to command their own air wings, allowing their carriers to be fully operational.

“It must have been hard on you, knowing that you would never be able to fight due to a petty inter-service rivalry,” Eugen said.

“It was, at first,” Weser said “We tried our best to keep our spirits up, saying that one day they would allow us an air-wing, but. You only need to glance over at Graff Zeppelin to know that not all of us came out of it ok,” she said sombrely. She then perked up “But that's all the past now. We've reunited once again. Three of the five sisters of the Admiral Hipper class,” she said with a smile “By the way, where our other two sisters?”.

Hipper lowered her head “Blücher, doing well, all things considered. It hit her hard, being sunk by old 11-inch coastal guns, and two torpedoes from a nation that doesn't even exist even more. She's gotten better, but it's best not to mention Operation Weserübung or the Battle of Drøbak Sound around her”.

Weser frowned “I see. She didn't have the best service life,” she said, “At least she got to fight. I spent the entire war in port. Any word from our sister, Petropavlovsk?”.

Eugen giggled nervously “Oh, her. Well she's ur” (Gilligan cut to a scene of several Northern Parliament kansen, Petropavlovsk included, drinking and dancing to Russian Hardbass) “She's doing fine, all things considered. We don't get to talk to her much, what with us spending a long time on opposite sides of the war. But we're getting along well,” she said with an obviously fake smile.

It was no secret that Eugen didn't exactly get along well with Petropavlovsk. Her Northern Parliament influence, plus the fact she was sold to the Russian's days after being manifested, didn't give her a good opinion of the Ironblood. But they were still sisters, so they were striving to improve on things. But as of now, they're still working on it.

The sound of thunder brought them out of their peaceful chat. They looked up to see a mass of dark clouds forming above them.

“Oh for fucks sake!” Hipper said loudly “Rain, now! I thought today would be a sunny day today?”.

“It was,” Eugen said replied as she picked up the, and put it over the table. She stopped just as she finished putting it up “Do you girls seance that?” she asked.

“Yeah, we feel it” Hipper replied as she looked around. It was an odd feeling, the kind you get when something impossible is happening around them. Or, when a mirror sea was opening.

“All ships, battle stations” Scharnhorst shouted over comms “We've run into a mirror sea. All ships, activate your rigging and prepare for Siren contacts” she ordered.

The three sisters wasted no time in preparing their rigging. Hipper waited for her sisters to get to their ships and activate their rigging before she herself activated her rigging. Soon the three sisters were standing side by side, weapons and aircraft ready for battle.

The rest of the fleet was ready for battle as well. The kansen had activated their rigging and were now entering a defensive formation, and the mass-produced ships that were with them all had their weapons ready for battle.

“You know. This is my first real battle” Weser said, sounding very nervous “I'm, I'm kind of scared right now” she said as it started to rain.

“Don't worry, we've got your back, sis” Hipper said as she raised her weapons, ready to fire at the first Siren ship she saw.

“It's going to take more than a few sirens to stop us now,” Eugen said with a smirk “With our AP shells, and your planes, nothing will be able to stop us. Besides, we have an entire fleet around us, so any sirens are in for a nasty surprise”.

They waited for several tense moments, waiting for the sirens to show up, but none did.

“Where the fuck are they?” Scharnhorst shouted over comms, annoyed that the sirens hadn't sent anything against them yet.

“Ur, guys,” Z35 said over comms “Why is it raining upwards?” she asked.

Everyone's focus quickly turned towards the rain. Indeed it was raining upwards, with the rain droplets moving up their body's and flying upwards towards the sky.

“Ur, is this normal for a mirror sea?” Weser asked sounding confused.

“No” Hipper replied “I've never seen anything like-” she said before the rain suddenly remembered that it should be going down instead of up, and came crashing down in a few seconds of very heavy rain, soaking everyone “This,” she said sounding rather annoyed.

“What the hell just happened?” Mainz asked over comms.

“I have no idea” Gneisenau replied calmly.

“Well that was anticlimactic-” Hipper said before she heard a distinct beeping sound in her ear. It was Morse code, a cry for help.

“It's an SOS distress call,” Z2 said over comms “It's originating north-west of our location. That's interesting. Its estimated location is directly at the epicentre of that strange weather phenomenon”.

“You mean, whatever caused that upwards rain, this SOS distress call is coming from its epicentre,” Scharnhorst said.

“Indeed, it is quite strange,” Z2 said calmly “Recommend we proceed towards the source of the SOS with caution. This could be a siren trap”.

The entire fleet confirmed the order before they changed course towards the distress call.

“Weser, deploy some fighters to act as spotters” Z2 ordered, “We need eyes on whatever is sending that SOS”.

“Copy” Weser responded, quickly loading a plane onto her crossbow and launching it into the air and sending it towards the SOS “Aircraft away. ETA one minute”.

The fleet proceeded towards the source of the distress call. Moving cautiously just in case this was a trap.

“Weser” Hipper said, turning her head towards her sister “What's it like, commanding aircraft?” she asked.

“It's, strange” Weser replied, “I can see perfectly through my own eyes, but I can also see from the perspective of the plane's themselves. It was rather strange and unnerving at first. But I got used to it”.

“It must have been hard, getting used to being an aircraft carrier when you were originally meant to be a heavy cruiser,” Eugen said.

“It was. But I had Rhein and Erich Loewenhardt to help me” Weser said, “They were really-. Hold on a sec, my planes are almost at the target location-. Mein Gott in Himmel!”.

“Weser, what is it?!” Scharnhorst asked over comms.

Weser was quiet, very quiet. Eugen and Hipper could see a shocked look on her face. It was after several seconds did she reply “It-it's. It's the Bismarck”.

“What!” was the collective response from the rest of the fleet. There was no way that it was Bismarck, as they all knew that both Bismarck and Tirpitz, plus their younger versions, Ottilie and Alfrena, were all back at the main Azur Lane base. There was no way that Bismarck herself, or any of her sisters for that matter, would be out here without them knowing about it first.

“That can't be Bismarck. If it was, we would have known” Scharnhorst said “Are you sure the optics of your planes are working?” she asked.

“I'm one-hundred percent sure that it is Bismarck” Weser replied “I went through an eight-day course on recognising friend from foe. I know what our ships look like, and that ship looks exactly like Bismarck,” she said “Odd, the ships tilting heavily to the port side, I wonder-. Mein Gott!”.

“What is it Weser? What have you seen” Z2 asked calmly.

“There is a massive gash all along the starboard side of the ship” Weser replied sounding shocked “It's dangerously close to the waterline”.

“I see. That would explain why it's tilting to one side” Z2 observed, “It's doing so to avoid flooding from the other side”.

“It must have flooded the port side of the ship to avoid further flooding. Impressive” Gneisenau remarked.

“Didn't Texas flood half of her ship, just so she could fire her shells farther then they had any right to go?” Z35 asked.

“Indeed she did, the crazy woman” Scharnhorst replied, “The only ship to hit her targets during D-day. Still, what on earth could have caused damage like that?”.

“I don't know, but it can't be good for us” Z2 replied calmly “Weser, can you see anyone on board the ship?”.

“Negative, I can't see anyone. Their all probably inside the ship” Weser replied, “Wait, I've got eyes on the ships name plaque. That's odd, it says Moltke on it”.

“Wait, you mean, that we're dealing with a Bismarck class ship called 'Moltke'!” Scharnhorst said in disbelief “How is that even possible? There were no plans to make a third vessel of the Bismarck class, nor were there any plans to name one Moltke”.

“Well, we can find out why it's called that once we talk to its crew,” Z2 said calmly as the unknown vessel came into view.

It did indeed look exactly like a Bismarck class ship, weapons and all. They were approaching the vessel head-on, but they could see that it wasn't moving. It was just holding there, still as the water around it.

It was unnerving to see a vessel that they recognised, but at the same time, they didn't recognise it. There was no third vessel of the Bismarck class, nor was there one named Moltke.

They had a lot of questions, hopefully, they could be answered by whoever was on board that ship. If they were still alive.

“Holy fuck!” Scharnhorst gasped as she saw the gash on the side of the ship “You weren't kidding about the damage to the starboard side of the ship. That is a massive gash”.

“Indeed, I'm almost surprised the ship is still afloat,” Z2 remarked “All ship's hold” she ordered, and all of them stopped “Hipper, take Z35 and Z36 and investigate that ship. Find it's crew, and get some answers from them. I want to know where that ship came from”.

“Rodger” Hipper responded before she skated off towards the ship “You heard her 35 and 36. Form up on me,” she said, getting a Rodger from both destroyers.

“Stay safe out there, sister” Weser said over comms.

Hipper smiled “Don't worry, I'll be careful” she said as the three ships moved towards the Bismarck class ship, Moltke. Hopefully, they could find out where it came from, and what caused that massive gash in the side of the ship.

The vessel was almost like a ghost ship. There was no activity coming from it. Its guns remained still, and it was obvious that its propellers were not turning. Was there even anyone onboard? There would have to be at least someone, as ships don't deliberately flood themselves.

The three kansen jumped up onto the deck of the ship. Kansen were not really designed for land-based combat, as walking with their rigging on used up more fuel. So, as much as some people would like to use them as walking artillery platforms, it was extremely fuel inefficient.

“We're on board the ship” Hipper reported as Z35 and Z36 raised their weapons.

“Copy. We're holding well within weapons range” Z2 said “If you need assistance, just call for it. We'll be there as soon as we can”.

“Copy that,” Hipper said over comms before she turned to Z35 and Z36 “Come on you two. Let's go find someone who can hopefully give us some answers,” she said as she walked along the side rail of the ship, looking for one of the ships metal doors. It would be more likely to find someone on the inside of the ship, not the outside.

It was slightly difficult to walk along the ship, as it was leaning heavily to the side. As much as she would have liked to flatten the ship out, it would have only spelt the ships doom, as water would flood the ship.

“You sure someone's still onboard this thing?” Z35 asked as she and her sister awkwardly followed Hipper towards a door.

“There has to be” Hipper replied “Someone had to flood half this ship,” she said as she reached the door and opened it.

“Hello,” a young and quiet voice said as they opened the door. The three Ironblood kansen instinctively pointed their guns at the figure in front of them.

Chapter Text

The three Ironblood kansen kept their guns pointed at the figure in front of them, but after a few seconds, they pointed them away from her, as it was quite obvious that the girl in front of them wasn't a threat.

The girl in front of them looked very young, like the destroyers or child ships, but she looked like she had just been through hell. Her blond hair was burnt in places. Her uniform, which looked like the Officer service uniform worn by human Ironblood navy personal, was ripped and torn in places and was covered in blood. Her left arm hung limp at her side, with her right holding her left shoulder. Her blue eyes looked at them with fear and pain.

“H-Hipper?” the girl asked slowly before she collapsed, falling forwards into the arms of Admiral Hipper.

“Oh god!” Hipper said panicky as she grabbed the girl “Someone get me a Gott Verdammt first aid kit! We've got an injured girl over here” she shouted over comms.

“Copy. There should be one on board one of the supply ships” Z2 responded, “Z25, retrieve it and provide medical aid”.

“Rodger that” Z25 responded calmly, quickly moving towards the supply ship.

Hipper quickly sat down on the ground and rested the injured child on the ground, resting her head on her lap “You ok?” she asked as she made sure she was ok.

“It hurts. Everything hurts” the young girl cried.

Hipper could tell that she was in a very bad condition. Whatever happened to her ship, obviously almost killed her.

“Don't worry, medical help is on the way,” Hipper said, reassuring her. She then turned to Z35 and Z36. “You two, check the ship. There might be others,” she ordered.

“Rodger” the two destroyers responded before they entered the ship.

“Don-don't bother. I-I couldn't save them” the girl cried as her breathing started to slow.

“Save who?” Hipper asked.

“Th-the engineers who were with me” the girl replied “I, I couldn't save them. The storm was just too, strong,” she said slowly as Z25 rushed over to them, medical kit in hand.

Engineers, that meant her ship was undergoing sea trials. They were there just to make sure the ship was functioning properly before the kansen was permitted to deploy without a crew and activate her rigging. They had to be sure that their ships functioned after all, and she was obviously in the midst of these trials when she was brought here.

“I've got the medical kit,” Z25 said as she crouched down next to them and examined the girl”.

“Will she be alright?” Hipper asked.

“She should be” Z25 replied as she started bandaging the girl's wounds “She's not that badly injured, most of this blood doesn't look to be hers. But there's not much I can do about that broken arm of hers,” she said.

“Well, at least she's not critical,” Hipper said with a sigh of relief.

“Hipper,” the girl said wearily “Your uniform, it looks, different”.

Hipper looked back down at the girl “I'll explain that later. Right now you need to get some rest” she said, comforting her as best she could. Rest was what she needed right now.

The young girl nodded and closed her eyes. At least she understood that she needed to recover before questions could be asked.

Hipper waited a few seconds for the girl to rest before she opened up a comms channel “Guys, we need someone to get over here so we can transport her onboard. It's not safe for her onboard this ship” she said.

“Copy that” Gneisenau responded over comms “My ship is coming alongside the vessel now. She should be safe onboard,” she said.

Sure enough, Gneisenau's ship came alongside them on the port side of the ship. Gneisenau herself jumped over to the ship and rushed over to them. Hipper noticed that she was still wearing her bikini, which was understandable as she hadn't had the chance to get changed yet.

Hipper stood up, cradling the injured child in her arms. When the battlecruiser got close, he passed her to Gneisenau “Go with her Z25. She still needs medical care”.

“Got it,” Z25 said before she and Gneisenau jumped over to the battlecruisers ship.

Hipper watched as they brought the young girl inside. Hopefully, the kansen would recover. She could only assume that her name was Moltke, as she was the only kansen onboard the ship.

“Hipper” Z35 said behind her. She turned around and saw the destroyer holding a flagpole similar to the one's Bismarck and Tirpitz “I think I found her flagpole. But I don't recognise the flag on it” she said as she stretchered out the flag.

Hipper was perplexed by the sight of the flag. It wasn't the flag of the Ironblood, but a three-headed Reichsadler, on a white background with a black circle around it with four bars coming off it. The Reichsadler itself looked similar to the one used by the (second) German Empire, it just had a few design tweaks, like the aforementioned three heads.
“That's not the Ironblood flag” Hipper observed, “Nor is that a flag ever used by Germany”.

“I know. So what's it doing on board this ship?” Z35 asked.

“It's probably the flag of whatever nation she's from” Hipper theorised “She did say my name, so it's obvious that she knows me. But we never planned or built a third vessel of the Bismarck class. Yet this ship is obviously a vessel of that class. So it stands to reason that she is from some alternate reality. It's the only explanation that makes sense” she said, “By the way, where's Z36?”

“She's still inside, counting the dead” Z35 replied sombrely “We found the remains of some of the crew. Z36 went deeper into the vessel to search for survivors. But if what that girl said is true, she's not going to find anyone else alive”.

Hipper lowered her head. It always saddened her when more humans die at the hands of the sirens. They were made to protect humanity from them, but they can't respond to all siren attacks. It always hit them hard when they read reports of siren attacks they were unable to stop. Each human who dies in such attacks in just one more they failed to protect.

She would have to make sure Z35 and Z36 pay Bremerton a visit once they get back to base, as they will defiantly need counselling after this.

“I see. Well, leave the flagpole here” Hipper said, “We'll give it back to her once she's recovered”.

“Rodger that,” Z35 said calmly.

“Sister” she heard her sister Weser call out. She turned to see both Weser and Eugen running up towards her “We heard you found a survivor”.

“I did” Hipper replied as her sisters stopped a few feet in front of her “She's currently resting on Gneisenau's ship. I think she might be the ships kansen”.

“Another kansen” Eugen said sounding surprised “Who was she?” she asked.

“How am I supposed to know that,” Hipper said sounding slightly annoyed “Best guess is that her name's Moltke, going by this ships name. Who even is Moltke anyway?”.

“She's probably named after Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Chief of the German General Staff” Weser replied, “He had a close association with Bismarck's namesake, Otto von Bismarck. So Moltke would make for the perfect name for the third vessel of the Bismarck class”.

“Well, that makes sense,” Hipper said “We'll have to ask her about it later, probably after we've answered all the questions she will defiantly have. She's already asked about my uniform being different, so it's obvious that wherever she's from, they have a different dress code to us” She said before she picked up the flagpole and showed them the flag “Also, look at this flag”.

Her sisters looked at the flag with surprised looks “Oh my, that is an. Interesting design for a flag” Eugen remarked, “Why a three-headed Reichsadler?”.

“I don't know. We never had a flag designed like this” Hipper said, “Something must have happened in her world, reality, dimension, place, whatever. Something significant must have happened to cause someone to choose this as our nation's flag”.

“Like what?” Eugen asked.

“Oh, so it's like alternate history,” Weser said with a slight smile “Something could have happened during the first world war to cause a massive divergence in the timeline. Or the second world war happened sooner then it did in our reality”.

“It's possible, you can never tell what those Sirens are doing,” Hipper said “It's possible that the sirens are attacking multiple different realities or dimensions. But we can't tell until we ask that girl Moltke what her worlds like” Hipper said.

“Hipper, report,” the voice of Z2 said into her ear.

“Z2. Hipper here. The girls been brought onboard Gneisenau's ship and should be recovering” Hipper reported “Z35 and Z36 are investigating the ship's interior. But chances are they'll only find dead body's. There is a very high chance that this ship is from some other reality, probably brought here by the sirens”.

“Understood” Z2 replied calmly “I'll get in contact with the commander. Hopefully, he can send us a repair-ship to repair the vessel. It'll take three days, but we can't afford to abandon or scuttle this vessel. It's doesn't exactly belong to us” she said “In the meantime, form up in a defensive formation around the ship. After that, we can focus on searching the ship for the remains of the engineering crew. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can administer them last rights. They may not be our personnel, but their still human. They still deserve a proper burial”.

“Understood. I'll inform the destroyers” Hipper said before she switched comms channel “Z35 and 36, report back to the main deck and enter defensive formation around the ship. We're putting a hold to our search until the area around the ship is secure”.

“Rodger that” Z36 responded, sounding rather shaken.

Hipper frowned. Whilst the destroyers of the Ironblood were made out of stern stuff, not all of them had Z2's unnatural calm. Some of them were like kids in a way, and kids don't react well to seeing dead body's.

It will take them a very long time to recover from this.

The heavy cruiser sighed “They're going to need counselling after this”.

“Agreed. Despite being weapons, their not exactly used to seeing dead body's” Eugen said “They're trained to sink ships, not kill humans. Seeing the dead can be quite hard on them” she said as Z35 and Z36 walked out onto the deck, looking rather unwell.

“You two ok?” Hipper asked as the two destroyers walked up to them. It was obvious to her that they were unnerved by what they saw.

The two destroyers looked at her with almost fearful expressions. They quickly moved up to her and hugged her tightly “Don't send us back in there please” Z35 begged as they both cried.

Hipper was taken back for a moment by the sudden hug, but she didn't do anything to stop them. They had obviously seen some gruesome things inside the ship.

“Don't worry, I won't send you back in there” Hipper said, trying her best to comfort them “You should get into formation around the ship, we'll handle the search now”.

“Ok,” Z36 said before the two destroyers walked off the side of the ship and moved into formation around this ship, deactivating their rigging and re-materializing their ships.

“We should have been the one's to investigate the ship,” Hipper said sombrely “Some of the destroyers are just not capable of handling the sight of a human corpse”.

“Agreed. We should deactivate our rigging, then investigate the ship” Weser said, “We should focus on finding the dead. It'll be easier to find them with us three searching for them”.

Her two sisters nodded before they all left the ship and re-materialized their ships. They then boarded the Moltke again and began searching the ship. They soon found out why the destroyers looked so horrified after leaving, as they didn't find a single body that hadn't been crushed in some way, some in rather horrific ways.

The inside of the ship was a mess as well. Metal was bent, broken wires were everywhere, bulkheads were compromised, and the massive gash that was on the ships hull dug deep into the ship. Whatever caused it ripped more than half of the ship's insides out, effectively gutting the vessel. It was a miracle that this ship was still floating with this much damage.

They soon managed to find a crew manifest, telling them that this ship was indeed on undergoing sea-trials and that there were over one-hundred and fifty engineers onboard. After two hours of searching, they only found the bodies of thirty-three of them. The rest were either in the area that had been flooded, crushed underneath a mass of metal, or were pulled out of the ship by whatever gutted it.

“What could have caused this?” Weser fretted as she and Hipper saw what was left of the ships engine room, which couldn't really be called one, as there was no engine to speak of. There were only large chunks of metal and the distinct smell of oil.

“I don't know” Hipper replied “That girl must have been so terrified by whatever caused this. I know I would be. Having something rip into your ships hull and completely gut it. That's not something a kansen should have to face during her first sea-trial”.

“Agreed. I do not want to find out what caused this damage to her” Weser said.

Both of them suddenly heard a beeping sound in their ear “Hipper, Weser” Eugen said over the comms “I've just heard from Gneisenau that they've finished treating the girl's wounds and that she's in a stable condition. Z2 suggested that you go talk to her, and explain the situation to her”.

“Why me?” Hipper asked sounding slightly annoyed “Why can't Gneisenau or Z25 tell her?”.

“Because she asked for you specifically” Z2 replied over comms, having been listening in on their conversation “I suggest you go to her. She sounds rather fond of you”.

Hipper sighed. Whist she didn't like to show it, she was rather fond of Ottilie, Alfrena, and Eugenie, and very much liked spending time with them. Although she never showed it. Having one more young girl like them around shouldn't be too bad.

“Fine, I'll go talk to her” Hipper said reluctantly.

“Oh don't worry about it sister. Knowing how much you liked to spend time with Ottilie, Alfrena, and Eugenie. You'll just love spending time with her” Eugen teased.

“Sh-shut up,” Hipper said sounding rather annoyed “I do not like spending time with them you dummkopf. Especially Eugenie, the little-”.

Eugen giggled “Well, whatever you say sister. Still, you are expected to report to our guest”.

Hipper huffed before she made her way back to the deck of the ship. At least the girl will be talking to a friendly face.

Chapter Text

Hipper made her way inside Gneisenau's ship, having reformed her ship outside. Gneisenau herself was waiting outside of the ships medical bay, along with Z25.

“Hipper. Nice to see you here” Gneisenau said as the heavy cruiser walked up to them “Moltke's inside, waiting for you,” she said, pointing at the door.

Hipper nodded, opened the door, and walked in. Moltke was resting on one of the ships medical beds, wearing a white medical gown with her arm in a sling. She looked rather down but perked up the moment she saw Hipper walk in.

“Hipper,” she said with a smile as the heavy cruiser walked in.

“You ok?” Hipper asked as she walked over to her and sat down on the bed next to her.

“I'm doing well. But my body still hurts in places” Moltke replied “Why are even here. Aren't you supposed to be at Bremerhaven. What are you doing in the Baltic sea?” she asked, “And whys Gneisenau here as well?”.

“Ah, well. We're currently not in Baltic sea, we're not even near Germany” Hipper replied calmly “We're in the north Pacific ocean, just a few days away from Pearl harbour. And I'm-, I'm not the Hipper you know” she said, watching as Moltke's smiled turned into a frown “I am Admiral Hipper, the lead ship of the Admiral Hipper class. I'm just not the Admiral Hipper you know”.

“What. H-how. How could-” Moltke cried, not knowing what to say. Hipper couldn't blame her, having just been transported to a different world was probably more than the young girl could handle “What happened?”.

“I don't know” Hipper replied, shaking her head “We just found your ship after a strange weather phenomenon, so we don't know how you got here. But don't worry. We'll find a way to send you back, just have faith in us”

Moltke lowered her head, tears still falling from her eyes “Hey, don't cry. We'll find a way to send you home” Hipper said, trying to reassure her “I promise you, we will get you home. We just need to know what happened to you. You wouldn't know what might have happened to you to send you here?”

Moltke shook her head “I don't know. The last thing I remember is talking to chief engineer Denis Kiesinger when everything started to shake. A report that a massive storm just formed around us was said over the intercom, then everything went dark” she said “When I woke up, I-I found D-Denis lay-laying on top of me, dead” she stuttered as she started to cry “I was supposed to protect them, and I failed”.

Hipper quickly walked over to her and hugged her “Don't worry, it's ok. Your not the only one who failed to save those who you promised to protect” she said softly “I know it can be difficult to cope with loss, especially if it's someone you cared for deeply. I've lost a lot of people who I've cared for over the years, friends, colleagues, even sisters. But despite all our losses, we have to be strong for those who are no longer here to support us” she said before she moved back a bit “Tell me, what did Denis think of you?”.

“He said I was a lucky girl. That I was one of the greatest weapons in our nations arsenal” Moltke replied as she wiped the tears away from her eyes “And that despite being a weapon of war, he hoped that I would grow up into a nice woman one day. A lot of the crew liked me” she said, “Then there are my sisters, Bismarck and Tirpitz. They supported me all the time, from my disastrous manifestation to my training. I probably wouldn't know what I was doing without them”.

“See, Denis cared about you, so did a lot of people,” Hipper said reassuringly “He wouldn't have wanted to see you cry, now would he?” she asked.

Moltke shook her head “No. He said that I should smile, no matter what happened”.

“Then smile for him, and remember him. As long as you live, his memory will still live on” Hipper said softly “I promise you, this worlds Azur Lane will get yo-”.

“Azur Lane. What's that?” Moltke asked, interrupting Hipper.

“Ur, it's a global organisation formed to fight the Sirens” Hipper replied.

Moltke looked rather confused by that statement “Sirens? Are they those things from Greek mythology who lured sailors to their death with their enchanting music” she said.

“No, not those sirens. The sirens we fight are an extraterrestrial threat that took over the world's oceans. Its why we were created in the first place” Hipper replied “I take it that neither the Azur lane nor the Sirens exist in your world” she said, and Moltke nodded her head “If that's the case, then why were you created then”.

“To help protect our country during the upcoming war against the French Commune,” Moltke said, causing Hipper to look confused “They've been amassing a large number of troops along our borders, right into the demilitarized zone along the Maginot line. So it was deemed necessary to make a third vessel of the Bismarck class to bolster our fleet a bit”.

Hipper was rather confused by this. French Commune, demilitarised zone along the Maginot Line, the French being aggressive. What the fuck happen in her world to cause that “French Commune. What on earth is that?” she asked.

“It's communist France” Moltke replied, “They had a communist lead revolution a few years after the Great War. Did that not happen here”.

“No” Hipper responded “I have a feeling that our two worlds are rather different,” she said “Tell me, how long was the great war, and were there any major events that happened after the great war?” she asked. She theorised that something must have happened during world war one to have caused a massive divergence in her world, possibly a longer first world war. A longer war would have caused more economic problems for all parties involved. But that wouldn't have been enough to cause another French revolution, so several more events had to have happened to cause that.

“Ur, the great war lasted from 1914 to 1919” Moltke replied “There were also a lot of smaller wars after that, like the second French revolution. Then there was the Russian implosion, which was really a lot of smaller wars, but they all culminated in the complete collapse of the Russian empire-” she said. She then went on to detail several more wars, dating from 1919 to 1925. Most of them were smaller wars that either saw several smaller nations form up into larger ones or larger nations collapsing into several smaller ones. Her worlds economy must have been so fucked, that Hipper wouldn't have been surprised if the great depression not only happened a lot earlier but lasted a lot longer “-and in 1927, two years after the start of the great depression, the second American Civil War happened. Which saw a fascist government take control over America. Although, with the way those morons are running things over there, we'll probably see a third civil war within the next few years or so”.

Hipper took all of this information in. It was very obvious that Moltke's world was very politically unstable after the war, as well as economically ruined. It would have taken decades for anyone to recover from all those wars. But what intrigued her the most was that the war lasted one year longer “Ok, may I ask how the great war lasted till 1919?” she asked, “As ours only lasted till 1918”.

“1918!” Moltke said sounding surprised “But that would-. Please don't tell me that the Americans didn't sabotage the peace negotiations”.

“What. No, they didn't do anything of the sort” Hipper said sounding shocked “Did they really do that?” she asked.

Moltke nodded her head “The Americans joined very late into the war, and their generals were glory hounds who saw this as an opportunity to get a lot of medals. But peace talks started soon after they arrived” she said “They wanted more medals from this war, so they sabotaged the peace efforts and blamed us for it. It wasn't until a year later that the rest of the allies realised that the Americans were the one's sabotaging the peace efforts. By then, it was too late. The economic and physical damage caused by the war crippled Europe, which had a knock-on effect that crippled the rest of the world's economy. The great depression happened a few years after that, and we've only recently recovered from it. The rest of the world, not so much”.

Hipper was shocked by this. She knew that the American generals wanted to get a lot of medals from the first world war, going as far as fighting battles up until the very last moment, and causing a lot of unnecessary deaths. But she didn't think any of them would go as far as to sabotage peace efforts to make the war last longer. That was absolutely barbaric.

She wouldn't be surprised if the Eagle Union girls were horrified by this news.

“Oh my, that's, barbaric” Hipper said.

“I know. They were brought in to end the war quicker, but instead, they extended it” Moltke said before she slumped back into her bed.

“You ok?” Hipper asked sounding concerned.

“I'm fine” Moltke replied, “It's just, a lot to take in. I'm in another world where the Americans didn't mess everything up. I guess that there's not a third vessel of the Bismarck class here then”.

Hipper nodded her head “We only built two vessels of that class”.

“I see,” Moltke said with a sigh “It's going to rather difficult for me here. Seeing people I know, but also don't know”.

“Hey, don't worry. We'll find a way to send you home” Hipper said reassuringly “Just have faith in us”.

Moltke looked at Hipper and smiled. She then leaned forward and hugged her. The heavy cruiser was taken aback by this, but she didn't do anything to stop it. That was until she heard a very familiar giggle behind her. She turned and saw her sister Prinz Eugen standing in the doorway, holding two mugs of coffee in her hands.

“You know, that was quite cute,” Eugen said with a smile.

Hipper's face turned a very dark shade of red “H-how long have you been standing there!” she demanded loudly.

Eugen giggled “If I told you that, you'll probably explode,” she said as she walked over and put one of the mugs down on the side table. She then sat down on the bed next to the one Moltke was resting in.

“Why are you ever here!” Hipper demanded as she stood up.

“Calm yourself please sister,” Eugen said with a smirk “Shouting isn't going to make that chopping board of a chest of yours bulge out”.

“You!” Hipper fumed “I am not flat you, dummkopf!” she shouted.

Moltke giggled “Well, you two aren't that different from my worlds versions of you,” she said with a smile.

“Oh, so your worlds Hipper is just as flat as this one” Eugen teased, causing Hipper's red face to turn several shades darker.

“You, utter, bastard” Hipper fumed “Why are you even here!?” she demanded.

“Z2 just finished communicating with the commander. He is sending a repair ship to us to fix Moltke's ship” Eugen replied calmly “She'll arrive within the hour”.

“Wait, within the hour. That doesn't make sense” Hipper said sounding surprised “We're three days away from the main base. How can they send a repair ship over here so quickly?.

“There's a fleet nearby that has a repair ship with them” Eugen replied, “The commander just redirected them our way”.

“Ok. So who's the repair ship?” Hipper asked.

“Yep, she'll be arriving within the hour,” Eugen said with a nervous giggle.

Hipper was almost surprised by this. It wasn't often that she saw Eugen act so nervous “Sister. Who is the repair ship, and don't try to dodge the question” she said with a slight smile.

Eugen sighed “The Northern Parliament salvage ship Kommuna” she said sounding slightly annoyed.

“Kommuna!” Hipper said sounding surprised “But, she's not really designed to repair large ships like battleships. And why were you so ner-” she said, stopping mid-sentence when she realised something. Eugen wasn't nervous about Kommuna, but one of the girls she was trailing with.

She knew that there was a Northern Parliament fleet behind them, she just didn't know how far behind they were. She also knew who was in the fleet.

A smile formed on Hipper's face “Oh, well it looks like we'll be able to invite our Russian half-sister Petropavlovsk to our party” she said with a smug grin. It was not often that she got to see Eugen get a taste of her own medicine. And Petropavlovsk was one of, if not the only one, who could embarrass Eugen.

“Who's Petropavlovsk?” Moltke asked sounding confused “Why do you have a Russian half-sister. Why do the Russian's even have kansen?”.

“Ur, well. Petropavlovsk is actually our sister Lützow. The Northern Parliament just renamed her after they brought her” Hipper replied, “As for why they have kansen, well, every sea fairing nation has kansen. Isn't that the same with your world?”.

Moltke shook her head “Nope. Only the German Congressional Republic and our allies have kansen, no one else has them”.

“You didn't share the technology to make kansen” Eugen said sounding surprised.

“Nope, it's just us and our allies. No one else” Moltke said “What did you expect us to do with it, share it with the people who broke the economy and refused to accept our help? It's ours, we found it, and we're not giving it away to people who are not our friends”.

That was a, somewhat reasonable excuse for not sharing kansen tech. Her world was vastly different from theirs, so they couldn't really judge them, as their world was a bit more politically and economically stable.

“Huh. Well, it's your tech. We can't really complain about it” Eugen said.

“Well, I'll be outside waiting for Petropavlovsk to arrive,” Hipper said as she stood up and walked towards the door.

“Hipper wait,” Moltke said just as Hipper reached the door “Don't leave me please” she cried.

Hipper stopped at the door and sighed. As much as she wanted to wait for Petropavlovsk, truth be told, she wanted to spend more time with Moltke. She was in a familiar yet unfamiliar world, with people she knew yet did not know. It might be best that she stays by her side, for now, to help her feel more comfortable in this world.

“Fine” Hipper said as he turned around and walked back to the bed. She didn't show it, but she was happy to see a smile back on Moltke's face.

Chapter Text

The Northern Parliament fleet arrived half an hour later, during that that Hipper and Eugen learned more about Moltke's world. From the names of the surrounding nations, to who they're on good terms with, and who's hostile to them. She was surprised and shocked by some of the things she heard. Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, Nordic League, Hellas, and United Netherlands, just to name a few countries to form after the great war.

Moltke's own country, the German Congressional Republic, formed from Germany and the remnants of Austria and Hungary, as Austria-Hungary suffered a country killing economic crash after the war. The remains of the once-great power were absorbed into Germany, and a few years later the Weimar Republic reformed into the German Congressional Republic. It's wasn't exactly plain sailing for them after that, but they managed to keep their country together through the crisis.

It was shocking how different her world was, and that it all happened because the first world war lasted one year longer. It made her wonder, how different would the world be if Germany won the first world war.

She had to push that thought aside as the Northern Parliament fleet arrived, and sadly, she had to meet them. That meant that she would have to leave Moltke alone for a bit, which didn't agree with the young battleship.

It was obvious that she was very close to her worlds Admiral Hipper, as well as her own sisters, Bismarck and Tirpitz.

“Don't worry” Hipper had told her “I'll be back as soon as possible”.

That had thankfully calmed her down. Before she left she made sure that Moltke was comfortable, tucking her in before leaving.

Her sister Eugen teased her to no end over it “You know, maybe you should think about getting a younger version of yourself” she said moments after they left the medical bay “You'll make a wonderful mother”.

“Shut the fuck up Eugen!” Hipper snapped as she stomped off towards the deck of the ship. Eugen just giggled before she followed.

When they reached the deck of the ship, they made their way to the back of the ship and watched the Northern Parliament fleet approach.

The fleet contained the kansen Avrora, Chapayev, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Tashkent, Gangut, Grozny, Minsk, Pamiat Merkuria, as well as Stalingrad, and Hipper's sister Petropavlovsk. The submarine salvage ship Kommuna was there as well, as well as twice their number in mass-produced ships.

Kommuna's ship was a double-hulled vessel and had the capacity to hold a submarine in-between her two hulls. She was designed to salvage and repair submarines and small ships, not battleships. But she would have to do for now, they only needed to cover the massive gash in the side of the ship, and it only needed to last till they reached port.

A group of Northern Parliament aircraft flew overhead as three kansen moved towards Gneisenau's ship. Sovetskaya, Avrora, and Kommuna.

Gneisenau herself walked up beside them, as well as Z2. The rest of the Ironblood fleet were on guard around Moltke's ship. Protecting in just in case of a siren attack.

The three Northern Parliament kansen soon reached the ship and jumped onto the main deck, landing in front of the assembled party of Ironblood kansen.

“Sovetskaya,” Z2 said “My apologies for diverting you to our location, but we do require the assistance of your repair ship”.

“It is no problem comrades. We are happy to provide you with whatever assistance you require” Sovetskaya said calmly before turning towards Moltke's ship, she looked like she was about to say something, but Kommuna interrupted her.

“How the fuck am I supposed to repair that!?” the repair/salvage ship asked, “I'm a submarine salvage and repair ship, I salvage and repair submarines and other small craft. I am not designed to fix a battleship”.

Kommuna was dressed smiler to the other Northern Parliament kansen, and was slightly taller than the Eagle Union repair ship, Vestal. She had greyish white hair and blue eyes.

Her rigging was small compared to the rest of the Northern Parliament kansen, but that was par for the course with all repair ships, as their rigging was never that big to begin with. She was also carrying a model KV tank.

“We're not expecting you to fix it, not completely anyway,” Z2 said, “All we need you to do is temporarily fix the massive gash in the side of the ship, as we can't safely move it at the moment. It just needs to last till we get to port and move this ship into dry dock”.

Kommuna breathed a sigh of relief “Oh thank fuck for that” she said “For a moment there I thought you wanted to completely fix it. Still, what the hell caused that to the ship?” she asked.

“Yes, I was about to ask that one as well” Sovetskaya added, “In all my years fighting Sirens, I've never seen this kind of damage done to a ship. What kind of Siren weapon did this?”.

“I don't think it was the Sirens who did this” Hipper replied “Moltke, the kansen who's ship this is, thought we were fighting the sirens from Greek mythology,” she said, “I don't think the Sirens are attacking her world”.

This little bit of information not only surprised the Northern Parliament kansen, but Z2 and Gneisenau as well.

“Wait, the sirens don't exist in her world,” Avrora said sounding surprised.

“How is that even possible?” Gneisenau wondered.

“Maybe in her world, they found some other means to acquire wisdom cubes” Z2 theorised “Or the sirens are in her world, but are observing and influencing things from the shadows”.

“Well, she did say that the Americans in her world sabotaged the peace efforts during the first world war, causing it to last one year longer. Which is rather suspicious if you ask me” Eugen said, “A siren could easily have influenced someone to do such a thing. But we don't know much about her world anyway, so we could just be overthinking things”.

“Agreed,” Sovetskaya said “I would like this meet this Moltke girl if that's alright with you”.

“Ur, she's currently resting,” Hipper said, “She was injured when her ship, got gutted by something and is currently resting”.

“Oh, so who's the small girl who's currently hiding behind one of Gneisenau's turrets?” Sovetskaya asked.

The four Ironblood girls quickly turned around, and just saw a flash of Moltke's hair move behind one of the ships turrets.

“Oh for-” Hipper sighed before she rushed over to turret and rushed behind it, finding Moltke hiding behind it, resting against the side of the turret “Moltke, what are you doing out here. I thought I told you to rest”.

“I wanted to see the Northern Parliament kansen” Moltke said looking rather sorry for herself “Russia doesn't have any kansen back home, so I wanted to see what they were like. Sorry”.

Hipped looked down at the young battleship. She couldn't blame her for her curiosity, as she'll be meeting a lot of kansen who just don't exist in her world.

The heavy cruiser sighed “Fine, you can come meet the Northern Parliament kansen. But be careful, your body is still recovering from your injuries, so don't do anything that might cause you more harm” she said.

“Ok,” Moltke said before she stepped forwards, and almost collapsed were it not for Hippe quickly moving in and helping her stand.

“I've got you,” Hipper said as she helped her up “I suggest that you hold on to me, your in no state to be walking around”.

“Ok,” Moltke said. The two then walked over to the rest of the group slowly.

“Sovetskaya, meet Moltke, third ship of the Bismarck class,” Hipper said as they walked up to them.

“Hi,” Moltke said skittishly, raising a hand up.

“Greetings. I am Sovetskaya Rossiya of the Northern Parliament” Sovetskaya introduced herself “With me are the light cruiser, Avrora, and the salvage ship, Kommuna” she said as she pointed towards the respective kansen “Tell me little one, what's the Northern Parliament like in your world?” she asked.

“Ur, we don't have a country called the Northern Parliament back home,” Moltke said “We have the USSR, that's in Russia. Well, what's left of it anyway. It kind of imploded a bit, and now it's only one-third the size it used to be,” she said, “At least it's not as bad as the British. They've not only lost their overseas territories, but Scotland, Ireland, and Wales as well”.

The Ironblood girls grinned at the news of the British Empires demise. It was oddly satisfying to know that the British Empire was no more, in Moltke's world anyway.

“That's almost worth the knowledge of my homelands collapse,” Sovetskaya said, “I'm guessing that the Royal Navy isn't as powerful as it is in our world”.

“Probably not, seeing that it hasn't been called the Royal Navy since the seconds battle of Jutland” Moltke said “
“Oh, the Royals are defiantly not going to be happy with that news,” Eugen said with a large grin “Elizabeth might throw a fit if she hears that”.

“Agreed,” Avrora said, “We should probably let Moltke rest now, we can ask her more about her world later. Right now we have to fix her ship”.

“I'll get onto that then,” Kommuna said, “At least I'm only fixing that massive gash. How did that ever happen anyway?”.

Moltke retreated behind Admiral Hipper's back, looking like she didn't want to talk about it. Thankfully Hipper herself was there to answer for her “She doesn't know. She was knocked unconscious when the storm hit her ship”.
“Understandable,” Sovetskaya said “We'll get to work fixing the ship. You should get some rest Moltke,” she said before she and the other two Northern Parliament kansen jumped off the side of the ship and made their way towards Moltek's ship.

“Come on, let's get you back to bed,” Hipper said as she picked Moltek up and carried her back to the medical bay. Once there she made sure she that the young battleship was tucked in properly. She stayed by her side until she fell asleep, making sure that she was comfortable before leaving and helping with the repair effort of her ship.

Meanwhile. Azur Lane main base

Tirpitz walked through the corridors of the Ironblood dorm, making her way to her sister's room. She found her sisters room easily and knocked on the door.

“Bismarck,” the battleship said after knocking on the door “The commander requires your presence”.

“I'm a little busy at the moment right now” Bismarck replied loudly, although she heard a faint moan coming from the room as well “Tell him to call me later”.

“It's important sister,” Tirpitz said loudly “One of our fleets have encountered a kansen claiming to be the third vessel of the Bismarck class”.

Silence came from Bismarck's room. She could tell that her sister was taking a moment to process what she had just heard. She then heard footsteps coming towards the door, followed by it opening just a bit, and her sisters head peeking out from behind it.

“Pardon,” Bismarck said sounding confused.

“The fleet escorting our new aircraft carrier Weser ran into a damaged Bismarck class vessel,” Tirpitz said “According to the nameplate, and the kansen they found onboard, the vessel was named Moltke. The third vessel of the Bismarck class.

The door fully opened, and Tirpitz wished that it wasn't. Her sister was wearing a rather risqué outfit, and the less talked about the state Hood was in, the better.

“A third vessel of the Bismarck class. How the hell is that possible?” Bismarck asked, “We only made two. You and me. Ok so we also have our younger selves, so we technically have four. But a kansen calming to be the third vessel of our class. Where did she even come from?”.

“According to Z2, she's from an alternate reality with a different history to ours” Tirpitz replied “There's a lot to take in, so I suggest you go to the command building to find out, as it will take far too long for me to explain it all to you,” she said, “I suggest that you get changed into something sensible first, and untie Hood”.

Bismarck looked slightly confused until she looked down and remembered what she was wearing. She started to blush a dark red, and quickly slammed the door closed.

Tirpitz sighed before she turned and walked away. She thought about the news of the third Bismarck class kansen, Moltke. No such plan to build a third vessel was ever conceived, and if the reports were correct, Moltke's world had gone through a massive economic crisis after an extended first world war. She was surprised that this alternate worlds Germany was able to build two Bismarck class ships, let alone a third vessel of the class.

She wont be the only one who has a lot of questions for the young girl.

Chapter Text

Bismarck rushed into the command centre. It wasn't busy at the moment, as there was only a few base personal in there. The commander was there, standing at the command table. With him were her sister Tirpitz, Friedrich der Große, Enterprise, Nagato, and Queen Elizabeth.

“Bismarck. Sorry for interrupting your day off, but this is kind of important” the commander said.

“Don't worry sir, we were just finishing up,” Bismarck said before she looked at the command table “Holy fuck! What the hell happened to that?” she asked, looking at the holographic image of a Bismarck class ship with a massive gash in the side of its hull.

“That image depicts the current state of the KMS Moltke, the vessel the Ironblood fleet ran into” the commander replied “This data was provided to us by the Northern Parliament salvage ship, Kommuna. She's currently welding sheets of metal over the gash, covering it up so that it will be safe to move the ship. Once it arrives we can move it into dry dock and fully repair it” he said.

“Any idea where she came from?” Bismarck asked.

“She's apparently from some alternate reality” Tirpitz replied, passing Bismarck a folder “That folder contains everything Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen have managed to gather about Moltek's world. There are some rather surprising things in there”.

Bismarck took the folder and examined its contents. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the only image in the file. A young girl with her arm in a sling, looking worse for wear. The word Moltke was written at the bottom of the image. She looked young, slightly older then Ottilie and Alfrena. But she defiantly had the characteristics of a Bismarck class.

Poor girl, she must have been so frightened by what happened to her. Having your ship ripped open and transported to a different world.

A quick read of the file revealed that she was on her shakedown cruise when she was transported here and had a team of engines onboard. All of whom were now dead. She hadn't even entered service yet, and already she's been through a terrifying ordeal.

“Mein Gott. She must be terrified” Bismarck said sounding shocked “Any idea what happened to her?” she asked sounding very concerned.

“Sadly we don't” the command replied “She was knocked unconscious after a storm hit her ship. We don't know what happened to her to bring her here. All we know is that, before her ship came here, it rained upwards in the area she was found”.

Bismarck frowned. Upwards rain, how was that possible. Mirror seas were known to cause all kinds of weather phenomenon, but upwards rain, that was new. She looked back at the file and continued to read it's contents. She was almost shocked by what she was reading. America sabotaging peace efforts, causing the first world war to be extended by another year. A massive economical collapse caused by the extended war. The complete collapse of several country's, and the formation of several new one's. And of course, no signs of Siren activity what so ever.

“Her world is, vastly different from ours,” Bismarck said as she finished reading the report “Are there really no sirens in her world”.

“We can only assume that there aren't, seeing that she thought we were fighting the one's from Greek mythology,” the commander said.

“Whatever the case is, we should focus on finding a way to send her home,” Friedrich said, “Her sisters must be worried about her. I know you would be if your sister went missing, Bismarck”.

Bismarck nodded. She would be devastated if anything were to happen to her sister Tirpitz. If she were to go missing, she would do everything within her power and more to find her. She guessed that the other worlds Bismarck would do the same.

“Agreed. Sending her back should be our top priority” Enterprise said “But still. The news of what my country's counterpart has done in her world, it's almost sickening. How could the American generals who were sent to Europe even consider deliberately extending the war, just so they could get more medals”.

“We would have to ask her more about it when she arrives,” Nagato said, “When she well enough to do so that is. I wouldn't want to bombard her with questions whilst she is recovering”.

“Well, hopefully, she'll be in a stable state once she arrives,” the commander said, “Kommuna said that she will probably have the ship ready and safe to move before nightfall. The fleet should be making their way here sometime before midnight, but it will be slow going. They're not going to risk moving Moltek's ship at full speed, so it's going to take them five days to get here instead of three. Better safe then sorry I'm afraid”.

“Understandable” Bismarck said “I wouldn't want to cause her any more problems. The loss of her ship would be devastating for her”.

“We should begin preparing for her arrival,” Queen Elizabeth said, “Dry dock space will need to be made available, and accommodation will need to be provided. She may not be from our world, but that doesn't mean we have the right to treat her like an outsider”.

“She can stay with us in the Ironblood dorm,” Bismarck said, “She is a German kansen after all. It would be better to keep her close to people she's familiar with, even if they only look like people she knows”.

“I'll be in contact with the shipyard,” the commander said “There's aren't any major construction projects going on at the moment, so there should be dry dock space for her ship. In the meantime, Bismarck, Tirpitz, I suggest that you go prepare a room for our guest. Everyone else can focus on other tasks in the meantime”.

“Of course commander,” Bismarck said “We will get to work on it immediately,” she said before she and her sister walked towards the door and left the room. Making their way towards the Ironblood dorm.

“So, we have to make space for a second new arrival,” Tirpitz said as the two sisters walked.

“It shouldn't be too hard, sis,” Bismarck said, “We've sorted out a room for Ottilie and Alfrena. Organising one more shouldn't be too hard. Still, why does she look so young. I half expected her to look about the same age as us”.

“Well, Hipper's report did mention that her manifestation was 'disastrous'” Tirpitz said, “Something must have happened to her whilst she was manifesting to cause her to become a child. Should we ask Hipper to ask her what happened?”.

“No, it would be insensitive to do so. Plus she might not trust us enough to reveal the answer” Bismarck replied, “But do get her to fish for information about this German Congressional Republic, its allies, and it's navy. I would like to know more about them and our counterparts in that world”.

“Anything in particular, or just general information?”

“Just general information sister, nothing too big, classified or would make us look suspicious. Just enough so we have a better idea of the world she's from”.

“Right, I'll go inform her now. I hope you can organise her room yourself”.

“Don't worry about it. I helped organised Ottilie and Alfrena's room. I'm sure I can organise a room for Moltke” Bismarck said with a smile. And with that, the two sisters parted ways, heading towards their respective tasks.

As she walked, Bismarck wondered what Moltke would be feeling right now, how lonely she must be. She may be surrounded by people she recognises, but they aren't the people she knows. Just people who look like people she knows.

It won't be Moltke who's also suffering from this ordeal, the young battleships sisters, her versions of Bismarck and Tirpitz must be so worried about her. Having your young sister go missing during a shakedown cruise. They must be desperate to get her back, not to mention the rest of her worlds navy.

Whatever happens, she will everything she could to help Moltke return to her world.

Meanwhile, Ironblood/Northern Parliament combined fleet.

The Northern Parliament moved into formation around the damaged KMS Moltke, and Kommuna started working on fixing the hole in the side of the ship.

The fleet kept watch around the ship, keeping an eye out for any siren activity. A damaged ship would be easy picking for a siren skirmish fleet, even with a fleet of kansen around it.

Kommuna was able to cover the hole in steal before nightfall, allowing the fleet to start moving towards Azur Main. Their pace was slower as they had to tow KMS Moltke, due to its lack of an engine. But they made good progress during the night and were able to go slightly faster due to Kommuna's sturdy repair job. So their journey time had been reduced significantly.

When dawn came, Hipper made her way back to Gneisenaus' ship. She wanted to check in on Moltke, just to make sure she was ok. Plus she had Tirpitz orders to follow as well. She made sure to go before her sister Eugen found out. She had been teased enough by her about it already.

On her way, she picked up something for herself and the young battleship to eat.

She walked into the medical bay, carrying a large tray of food. Moltke was resting in her bed, eyes closed and still asleep.

Hipper quietly put the tray down on the neighbouring bed, making sure to put her own place of food off to the side, before gently waking her up.

“Hay Moltke” Hipper said gently “Time to get up,” she said.

The young battleship woke up slowly “I'm hungry” she groaned as she sat up.

“Don't worry, I've got you some food,” Hipper said as she passed her the tray of food, and her eye's instantly lit up. She started eating at a normal pace, which was good as Hipper didn't want her to get indigestion.

“This is delicious” Moltke smiled as she ate.

Hipper smiled before she sat down on the other bed and started eating her food “So, I was wondering if I could ask you a few more questions about your world. Specifically about your country and navy”.

“Ok, ask away,” Moltke said with a smile “But I warn you, I will not divulge anything that's supposed to be a secret”.

“Don't worry, I was only going to ask about general things. Like who's in charge and how your country is governed” Hipper said, “Simple things that can help us get a better idea of your world”.

“Oh, ok then,” Moltke said with a smile “Well, the human commander of the Kriegsmarine is Großadmiral Hermann Honigsberg the second. We like to call him Großadmiral moustache because of his glorious moustache. The highest-ranking Kansen are the Kaisers, the five girls of the Kaiser class battleship. König Albert, Prinzregent Luitpold, Kaiserin, Friedrich der Grosse, and Kaiser herself”.

“Wait” Hipper interrupted her “The five Kaiser class ships are Kansen in your world?”.

“Indeed they are. All the surviving ships of the old Kaiserliche Marine were turned into Kansen” Moltke replied with a smile. She then frowned “Are they not Kansen in your world?”.

Hipper lowered her head “No” she replied, “They were sunk by Sirens at Scapa Flow. Before we had mastered the use of Wisdom cubes. We had very few Kansen back then, and not a lot of cubes to make new one's”.

The news that the Kaiser class battleships were Kansen in Moltke's world would be very interesting for the girls of the Ironblood, especially Bismarck. It was no secret that the battleship had always wanted to meet Kaiser and her sisters. Sadly all of them were sunk my Sirens before they could be turned into Kansen. She wouldn't be surprised if Bismarck would want to visit Moltek's world, just to visit Kaiser.

“Oh, so their not Kansen here,” Moltke said with a frown.

“Well, sort of. One of our PR ships is called Friedrich der Grosse” Hipper said, “She's a prototype H-class battleship”.

“Prototype. Why is she a prototype?” Moltke asked before realisation hit her “You never built the ships of the H-class”.

Hipper nodded her head “There were a lot of planed ships that were never built or finished. The PR ship program allows us to manifest the Kansen for ships that were never completed or only existed on the drawing board” she explained, “A lot of the ships planned as part of Plan Z were never even started, due to it being cancelled when the second world war started”.

“Wait, you cancelled plan Z,” Moltke said sounding surprised, getting a nod from Hipper “Oh, we've almost finished plan Z. Ok so we've had to add a few ships over the years, myself included. But we're almost finished with it”.

“What!” Hipper exclaimed, surprised that Plan Z was almost completed in Moltke's world “How did you people manage-” she said before she remembered that the German Congressional Republic was not at war with anyone yet. They were still in a pre-war state, building up to an inevitable war with France. So they weren't focusing on building U-boats “Oh right, almost forgot your not at war with anyone yet”.

“Ah, so that would explain why our fleets our different. You went to war early, whilst we're still building up to one” Moltke said, “I guess that there will be a lot of Kansen who just don't exist here”.

Hipper nodded “As I said, our world is vastly different from yours. There will be a lot of differences between our two worlds, some big and some small. There will be a lot of Kansen around here that you won't recognise. But don't worry, we'll be here to support you”.

“Thank you,” Moltke said with a smile “It's nice to see that you're just as nice to me as my worlds counterpart”.

“I am?” Hipper said sounding surprised “I don't see myself as the friendly type”.

“Well, you're being friendly to me, just like my worlds Hipper,” Moltke said, “Ok you haven't sung me a song yet, but it's only a matter of time”.

“Wait what? Singing. I can't sing” Hipper said sounding flustered “Ok, I do play the guitar. But I can't sing. I can't even carry a tune. Does my counterpart in your world really sing?” she asked.

Moltke nodded her head “She's quite the good singer. She normally sings lullaby's for me and the destroyers when Friedrich wasn't around to do so. My worlds Eugen teases her to no end about it, with predictable and very loud results. Although, unlike you, she can't play the guitar”.

That was interesting. Despite being the same person. Moltke's version of her was good at singing, but bad playing the guitar. The exact opposite of herself. It looked like there were more than just historical differences between the two worlds, there were also differences in personality, ability's, and skills. Because there was no way she would play her guitar for the destroyers.

“Looks like there are a lot more differences between our two worlds then we thought,” Hipper said as she finished her food.

“Looks like it,” Moltke said “So, is there anything else you want to know about my world?” she asked.

Hipper nodded, and over the next hour or so, she asked her more questions about Moltek's world. She learned so much about the world the young battleship was from, getting more detail about all the minor wars and incidents that brought the downfall of so many nations. The current political spectrum of Germany and the surrounding country's. And information about the GCR's Kansen fleet. In return, she told Moltke about the world she was in now, about the war with the sirens, and the Crimson Axis declaring war on the Azur Lane. Not their proudest moment, but it was something that Moltke needed to know.

Moltke seemed to be ok with it, but Hipper could tell that the battleship was unnerved by the war. She couldn't blame her, they had bigger problems to deal with, like the Sirens. They shouldn't have declared war on their allies. Just goes to show that even when under alien invasion, humans can still find the time to fight each other over petty reasons. Dragging those who are supposed to protect them into their war.

Hipper sadly couldn't stay long. She had to go back to her ship to help patrol the surrounding water. Before she left she promised Moltke that she would be back later in the day. That helped keep the battleships mood positive.

Whilst she was out on patrol, she transferred everything she had learned to the Azur Lane, and to Bismarck. The leader of the Ironblood found the information quite interesting.

Chapter Text

It was dark when the combined Ironblood/Northern Parliament fleet arrived back at Azur main. The Commander was there to meet them, with him was Bismarck, Tirpitz, Friedrich der Große, Enterprise, and Queen Elizabeth. Nagato couldn't be there, so she had sent Akagi there in her place. All of them watched as the fleet came into view. The lights on the ships, and the numerous searchlights marking the ships locations in the dark.

“So, that's Moltke's ship,” the commander said as he watched the ship come into port through a pair of night-vision binoculars “Dear god that things a mess. What the hell did that thing go through?”.

“I don't know. Not even Moltke knows” Bismarck replied, “All we know is that it almost ripped her ship apart”.

“Poor girl. She must be so traumatized by what happened to her” Tirpitz said with a frown “If we're not careful, getting her back to her own world might kill her”.

“We should try to find a way to send her back that doesn't run the risk of killing her,” Akagi said, “I'll get Akashi working on a way in the morning. But it will take some time. Finding the reality she came from will be difficult”.

“Well, the least we can do is make her stay here as comfortable as possible” Friedrich said with a motherly smile “Still, the information Hipper has given us about her world is both interesting and troubling. Especially about what the Americas did during the great war”.

“Agreed, there isn't a single one of those reports that hasn't made me feel sick” Enterprise added “How could they justify invading so many neutral countries, ruining them economically in the process. And how could they let that bastard Samuel Harvey, the man who ruined Europe in the first place, live after everything he's done?” she sneered “They should have had him shot by a firing squad, yet they just arrested him and sentenced him to life imprisonment. But that didn't stick as the fascists broke him out, claimed he was a war hero, and now he's the leader of a fascist America! How, how could they let this happen”.

“Some people are just like that. Monsters who are drawn to power” the commander said “In our world, such people rarely get into a position that they can exploit. Yet in Moltke's world, the global economic crisis allowed such people to come to power, in most cases by force. It will take a very long time for her world to fully recover, made even longer by the impending war”.

“Is it right to send her back there? Back to a world that's about to rip itself apart” Bismarck asked, “Our world may not be safe, as we still have the Sirens to deal with, but it's more stable here”.

“I'm afraid we can't do that” Friedrich said sombrely “It would be cruel to keep her here, denying her the opportunity to go home to her sisters. Her real sisters. You may be Bismarck, but you are not her Bismarck, just someone who looks and sounds like her. There are also a lot of Kansen she knows who just don't exist here, like my Kaiser class counterpart and her sisters. As much as you want her to stay, Moltke would prefer to go back to her own reality”.

Bismarck lowered her head. Friedrich was right, they couldn't force Moltke to stay. This wasn't her world after all, and she had people back home that cared for her. Sending her back was the only option for her.

The fleet moved into port and started to dock. Several tug boats started to move the KMS Moltke into an empty dry dock. Once all the ships had docked, the Kansen disembarked.

Admiral Hipper, Z2, Gneisenau, and Sovetskaya made their way to the commander.

“Sovetskaya, Admiral Hipper, Z2, Gneisenau. Welcome back to Azur Main” the commander said as he welcomed the Kansen back.

“Greetings commander,” Z2 said as the four Kansen walked up to him “I hope our delayed arrival didn't cause too many problems. We couldn't risk moving at full speed with Moltke's ship so heavily damaged”.

“That's fine. We couldn't risk losing her ship. Where is Moltke anyway?” the commander asked.

“She's still asleep onboard my ship” Gneisenau replied, “I recommend we let her rest, she's still recovering from her injuries”.

“That seems reasonable,” the commander said, “We can show her around the base tomorrow. Hipper, I hope you and your sister will be able to show her around”.

“Oh come on, do I have to?” Hipper asked sounding annoyed “Haven't I spent enough time around her already”.

“She seems to like you, a lot,” Bismarck said, “It'll be easier if you show her around. Plus I'm rather busy tomorrow, so neither myself nor my sister can help”.

Hipper sighed “Fine, I'll babysit her and give her a tour of the base,” she said reluctantly.

“Good,” Bismarck said with a smile “Also, did she give you any more information about her world?” she asked.

“No, if you can call knowing that her world's version of America doesn't have a Yorktown class carrier or a ship called Enterprise” Hipper replied.

“Yes!” Enterprise said loudly, arms in the air “Thank you, I've been needing some good news lately”.

“How is the knowledge that you don't exist in Moltke's world good news?” Akagi asked sounding confused “Her worlds version of America doesn't even have Kansen”.

“I know, but if there isn't a version of me in her world, then they can't do anything stupid with me to my sisters,” Enterprise said with a smile “I can sleep happily knowing that those bastards can't ruin my reputation”.

“Well, at least your not complaining any more,” the commander said, “I suggest you pay Bremerton a visit in the morning”.

“Don't worry, I was planning to do that anyway,” Enterprise said, “Belfast was worried about my mental health as of late, so she booked me an appointment with her tomorrow. I'm right after Z35 and Z36”.

“Well, good to see that your still looking after yourself,” the commander said, “Anyway, you girls should get some rest. You can file your report in the morning”.

“Yes sir” the gathered Kansen responded with a salute before they departed to their respective dorms.

The next day. Gneisenau's ship.

Moltke awoke slowly. These beds were a lot more comfortable then the one's in her reality. She might have to ask Hipper if she could bring one back with her.

When she sat up in bed, she found a clean uniform resting on the side of her bed. It was her own uniform, cleaned and repaired.

She got up and put it on. Her arm was still broken, so she had to be very careful with how she put her uniform on. The boots were the trickiest, as they required both hands to put on, but she managed to get them one without much of an issue.

Once she had finished getting changed, the door to the room opened, and in walked Admiral Hipper.

“Oh, your already awake,” the heavy cruiser said as she walked in “And dressed as well. Good, that will save us some time”.

“What are we doing?” Moltke asked.

“I am taking you on a tour around the Azur Lane's main base, Azur Main” Hipper replied.

“We reached port?” Moltke said sounding surprised “Which port are we at?”.

“We're at Pearl Harbour, Oʻahu” Hipper replied.

A smile formed on Moltke's face “We're in the Pacific federation!” she said happily.

“The what?” Hipper asked sounding confused.

“The Pacific-. Oh right, I forgot you guys didn't have a global economic crisis” Moltke replied, “The Pacific Federations is, as the name implies, a federation of all the Pacific islands. I take it that they don't exist here”.

“Nope. Oʻahu is owned by the Eagle Union” Hipper said, “They're a lot better than your worlds America”.

“Oh, ok then,” Moltke said “So, what are we going to see?” she asked.

“Well first we're visiting the cafeteria, just to get some food before we visit the dorms” Hipper replied as she lead Moltke out of the medical room “We will be visiting the Ironblood dorms first, after that, it will be whichever dorm in closer”.

The two soon made their way onto the main deck of the ship, outside waiting for them was Hipper's sisters Prinz Eugen, Seydlitz and Lützow. But there was something odd about the latter two. Seydlitz was dressed differently to Eugen and Hipper, and Lützow was dressed like the Northern Parliament girls.

“Well, you girls ready?” Hipper asked her sisters.

“Yep, ready” Eugen said with a nervous smile.

“Ah come on sis, no need to be so nervous,” Lützow said calmly as she put an arm around Eugen and, strangely, groped her sister's breast, causing her to blush “Seriously thou, how did you get such large Anti-Torpedo Bulges?” she asked. Her accent was odd, it was a German/Russian mix, an accent she should not have had.

“Petropavlovsk, please stop embarrassing Eugen,” Seydlitz said with a frown.

“Come on Weser, I'm just trying to be friendly to her” Lützow, Petropavlovsk, said calmly. Moltke had no idea why Lützow and Seydlitz were being called different names, nor did she understand why they were dressed differently for Eugen and Hipper.

“I have so many questions,” the battleship said sounding confused “Why is Seydlitz dressed differently to Eugen and Hipper? And why is Lützow dressed like the Northern Parliament girls? And why do you two have different names?” she asked.

“Ah, well, Seydlitz was renamed to Weser during her conversion into an aircraft carrier” Hipper replied, “And Lützow was sold to the Northern Parliament and renamed Petropavlovsk. I take it neither of those things happened in your world”.

Moltke shook her head “Nope, we didn't do either of those” she said before looking around “By the way, where's your other sister, Blücher?” she asked.

The four sisters all looked away with sorry expressions on their faces.

“Blücher. She doesn't get out much” Hipper said quietly “She's not been the same since Drøbak Sound. It's best not to ask about it. It's a bit of a touchy subject for us”.

“Oh, ok then,” Moltke said sombrely.

“So, ur, breakfast?” Petropavlovsk said with a fake smile, trying to improve the mood.

“Yeah, let's get something to eat,” Hipper said before she lead the group off the ship and towards the base cafeteria.

On the way to the cafeteria, Moltke looked around the base. She watched people and Kansen walk and rush by. Most were headed towards the cafeteria, but others were headed elsewhere. There were a lot of large buildings about the place, several of which looked remarkably different from the main buildings.

“Why are there buildings that look different from the others?” the battleship asked.

“Those are the dorms for the different factions,” Eugen said “You've got the Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Sakura Empire, Ironblood, Dragon Empery, Northern Parliament, Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion, they share a dorm, and the Sardegna Empire,” she said, pointing towards each factions respective dorm “There are several other members of the Azur Lane, but not all of them have dorms space here”.

“Whys that?” Moltke asked.

“They can't afford to have Kansen stationed here” Hipper replied “They're too busy protecting their own waters from Siren attacks. I can't really blame them, we all rely on ships to transport goods and much-needed resources, and a lot of them only have enough Kansen to protect the waters close to them. I'm just surprised that the Dragon Empery can afford to have Kansen stationed here”.

“Their right next to the Sakura Empire, they have far more ships so can protect a much larger area,” Weser said as they reached the cafeteria “They can afford to protect Dragon Empery waters as well as their own. That's why they can afford to have a few Kansen stationed here, as the Sakura Empire is protecting their waters,” she said as they entered the cafeteria.

Moltke was surprised by the Number Kansen who were in the cafeteria. There were far more here then she had ever seen before. And this wasn't all of the Kansen this world had. There was a large diversity of them as well, all wearing different uniforms and clothing. Some of them even had animal ears and tails.

“Wow, there are a lot of Kansen here,” Moltke said with awe “I've never seen so many”.

“Well, your country is limiting access to wisdom cubes to only your allies, so it stands to reason that you wouldn't have so many of us,” Hipper said as they walked towards the serving area.

Moltke was about to take a tray, but then she saw the yellow, egg-shaped birds on the other side of the counter, searing and cooking food.

“Ur, what are those things?” Moltke asked.

“Their Manjuu, a species of birds who are surprisingly intelligent” Hipper replied, “They help us out with day to day maintenance, mass-produced ship production, and other tasks that help us fight the Sirens. They're useful, but they can be a bit perverted at times as well”.

“Ok,” Moltke said as they got their food “Where did they come from? We don't have any birds like them back home”.

“We don't exactly know” Eugen replied “They just, showed up about the same time as the Sirens”

“Your sure their not spy's for the sirens?” Moltke asked as they finished getting their food and walked over to one of the tables.

“I doubt it” Weser replied, “They have been seen attacking Sirens and their mass-produced stuff, so it's rather unlikely that they're on the same side. Plus if a report about Tester beta is correct, the sirens don't like them”.

“Oh yeah, I read that report,” Petropavlovsk said as the five of them sat down “That poor Manjuu, kicked right into the stratosphere. Was he alright after that?”.

“He lived” Hipper replied, “Had a rather soft landing. By soft I mean he landed right onto Illustrious”.

“Ah, that would explain that,” Petropavlovsk said before she started eating.

The rest of them started eating as well, Moltke included. The young battleship was still very curious about this world and its Kansen, as well as everything else that made this world different. But she could worry about all that later. Whilst she didn't know how long it will take to get her home, and was hoping that it would be sooner rather than later. She guessed that she would be here for at least a few days, which was long enough for her to get a better idea of this world and its people.

Chapter Text

Ironblood Dorm.

“This is the Ironblood dorm!” Moltke said as they walked up to the dorm “It looks like a cross between an armoury and a factory”.

“That's because it is” Eugen replied, “We not only live here but we also design, develop, store and maintain our equipment here. We also have a fully functional lab to research new tech, as well as a pub and brewery”.

“Thank gott for that” Weser said sounding relieved “Foreign beer doesn't taste that good. Nice to know that we have local access to good quality German beer and food”.

“As much as I would like to contradict that statement, the Northern Parliament isn't really known for making beer” Petropavlovsk remarked, “Vodka yes, but not beer”.

“I thought you liked Vodka?” Hipper asked as they walked towards the Ironblood dorm.

“I do. But I like German beer more” Petropavlovsk replied “I may not have spent long in Germany, but I remember it's food very well. The Russians may have some good dishes, but it just doesn't match up to German food. In my opinion that is. Don't tell the other NP girls what I said, they might lock me up for a bit”.

“Well, as long as you behave yourself and don't cause us any problems, then I will keep my mouth shut,” Eugen said with a smirk.

“I'm doomed”.

Moltke giggled as they walked into the dorm. It was always funny to watch the Admiral Hipper sisters squabble. Admittedly two of them were vastly different in this world, and they were one sister short. But it was ok, this world was different from hers after all.

Ironblood recreation room.

“Check,” Graf Zeppelin said as she put the white king into check with a knight. Her opponent, her younger sister Peter Strasser, countered this by taking the knight with a bishop. Sitting on her sister's lap was Graf's child version, Zeppy.

“I must admit, your chess ability has improved since the last time we played” Peter Strasser observed.
“I've been practising against the commander” Graf replied, “He's quite the good opponent, even if he never wins. I also got a few lessons from Friedrich”.

Peter Strasser smiled “I see. Well, at least you getting some practice,” she said as she patted Zeppy on the head “So, I've heard that you've started dating Yorktown”.

“Indeed I have,” Graf said, moving a castle in front of her king “She and I are not so different. We both have a rather gloomy outlook on life, after all. As well as a poor service history”.

“I see. Well, I hope it works out for you” Peter said before she moved a pawn, and took a sip of coffee. Completely ignoring the door opening.

“Hi Graffy,” a child-like voice said happily, causing Peter to spit out her coffee.

The three carriers quickly turned their heads towards the door and saw Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Petropavlovsk, and Weser walk into the room. With them was Moltke, the Bismarck class Kansen from another world.

The speed at which Zeppy got off of Peter's lap and zoomed over to the young battleship was astonishing “Hi there” the carrier said with a smile.

Moltke was taken back a bit by Zeppy “Ur, who are you?” she asked nervously.

“Oh crap, we haven't told her about the child Kansen yet” Hipper realised. She quickly crouched down next to Moltke “Moltke, this is Zeppy. The child version of Graf Zeppelin” she said.

“The child what version?” Moltke said looking confused.

“A few months ago, we discovered a laser that, when it hits a Kansen whilst a Wisdom cube is present, a child version of that Kansen is created” Hipper explained “Several Kansen have been hit with said laser, creating several child versions of themselves. Zeppy here is one of them,” she said, “Bismarck, Tirpitz, and my sister Prinz Eugen also have child versions of themselves. Named Ottilie, Alfrena, and Eugenie respectively”.

“Ok. So that means you people have four vessels of the Bismarck class. That's a neat way to double the size of your fleet right there” Moltke said “Wait a second, what happens when the laser hits a Kansen who's already a child, like a destroyer or submarine?” she asked.

The four sisters looked at each other before turning back to the battleship “We don't know” Hipper replied, “No destroyers or submarines have been hit by the laser. And we're not going to try it on one of them, even if it is willingly”.

“Ah, I see,” Moltke said before Zeppy took her hand.

“Enough talk about science stuff. Let's meet my older sisters” Zeppy said as she quickly dragged Moltke over to Graf Zeppelin and Peter Strasser, sitting the small battleship on Graf's lap before returning to Peter's lap.

Graf looked down at the child who had been dumped onto her lap “So, you're the battleship Moltke” she said with a frown, which wasn't odd as she always had a frown on her face.

“Yep,” Moltke said with a smile “You seem, different from my worlds Graf. She always has a smile on her face”.

“Graf didn't have a great service history. None of the Ironblood carriers did” Peter said “Neither of us was really completed or given an air wing. Hell, I wasn't even launched, and Flugzeugträger C and D were never even constructed. So you can say that we're curious to learn about your world's version of us, and of our unfinished sisters”.

“Oh, ok. So, my worlds Graf Zeppelin is kind and friendly, if a bit weird at times due to her desire to spread the song of love and peace to the world” Moltke said “But she gets super scary when she's mad. Believe me, she will purge you and everyone around you with Stuka's and her four double mounted 15 cm SK C/28 turrets if you do not want the greatness of love and peace shared with you”.

“Wait a second” Hipper said as she rushed over to the table “Love and peace. Purging. That sounds a lot like the personality Graf had during that incident when several Ironblood Kansen had their minds and personalities reversed,” she said before a shiver went down her spine. Love and peace Graf was a rather violent yet kind and loving person and was the kind of person who would skip right past making threats, and go straight to carrying them out.

She almost felt sorry for the poor bastards she would be fighting.

“I heard about that incident,” Weser said “Wasn't Eugen involved as well?” she asked.

“Well, Ja” Eugen replied nervously “But I wasn't affected”.

Hipper quickly turned around to face her sister “Oh yes you were. You were all 'I can't stand wearing such a shameful outfit' and 'I would die of shame if the commander saw me'. Seriously sister, out of everything that happened that day, you caused me the most stress”.

Eugen looked at her annoyed sister with a rather annoyed look of her own “Thank you Hipper for providing Petropavlovsk with something she can use against me”.

Petropavlovsk smiled innocently “I promise not to mention this to anyone outside of this room, or use it to tease you” she promised nervously.

Eugen, not really believing her, simply shot an annoyed glance her way before turning back to Moltke “Anyway, please continue, Moltke”.

“Of course. Peter Strasser isn't much different from the one from my world” Moltke said, “Although she doesn't share Graf's desire to spread love and peace, and has glasses. She's also one of our Kansen teachers at the Hamburg Navy academy. Alongside the Königsberg sisters, Z23, and Emden”.

“She's a teacher,” Graf remarked sounding surprised “I'm not surprised, she's good when it comes to organising training and practice battles. Tell me, what of our sisters who were never built. What are they like?”.

“Well, Flugzeugträger C and D are named Theo Osterkamp and Gunther Plüschow respectively” Moltke replied “Theo is a bit of a history buff. Ask her anything about Germany's past as she will go on a massive rant about important events like the unification of Germany, and the Kaisers of old,” she said “Gunther on the other hand, likes to bomb things into the ground. She also likes cooking, but nothing she cooks is ever good, or edible. It's probably because she thinks a flamethrower is a suitable alternative to an oven”.

“Good names for them,” Petter said with a smile “Theodor Osterkamp was one of our first naval pilots, and one of the few men to score victories in both world wars. And Gunther Plüschow was quite the decorated aviator. He's the only German combatant who escaped from a British prison camp. But I must ask, why Theo Osterkamp? He was very much alive when we were being built”.

“Not in my world” Moltke replied “He died during the Seconds Battle of Jutland. We fielded a large number of torpedo bombers during the battle and managed to sink a good portion of the British fleet. At the cost of almost all of our planes”, she said, lowering her head “We thought that we would have air superiority during the battle, so we didn't send much of a fighter escort. We didn't know that the British had brought a prototype carrier with them. Whilst the Second Battle of Jutland was our greatest naval victory, it was also our greatest aerial defeat. That battle taught us the importance of aircraft carriers, which is why we focused on building up a carrier force”.

“I see,” Peter said, lowering her head “That battle must have effected your country badly”.

“It did. We lost almost all of our navy aviators during the battle” Moltke said “But it taught us a valuable lesson about aerial warfare and the necessity of having carriers. It's why we prioritised finishing them, we need them in the war against the French. They have a substantial carrier fleet after all”.

“Wait a second. The French have a substantial carrier fleet” Hipper said sounding confused “Didn't they only build one carrier, Béarn” she said.

“They did, but they also brought several carriers from England,” Moltke said “The morons who wanted to rebuild the British Empire thought that they could build a large number of ships without messing up their economy. As you can guess, they broke their economy and had to sell off all of the new ships they built, plus a few of the ships that survived the great war, because they couldn't afford to run them” she explained “Most of their ships were brought by their old colony's, but a few were staunched up by other countries, like France. Who brought six carriers from them, bringing them up to seven carriers”.

“Oh wow, I didn't expect them to do that” Eugen said sounding surprised “Selling off the majority of their navy. That's a lot of ships right there”.

“Did your country buy any ship's from England?” Petropavlovsk asked.

“We did. But only two” Moltke replied “The aircraft maintenance carrier Unicorn, who we renamed Einhorn. And the battleship, Queen Elizabeth, who-” she said before everyone else in the room broke down laughing. Even Graf Zeppelin was joining in. Moltke was rather confused by this, as she didn't know what was so funny “What's so funny?”.

Hipper rested a hand against the table, using the other to cover her mouth as she giggled almost uncontrollably “I'm sorry Moltke” she giggled “But, Queen Elizabeth is going to be so pissed when she hears that she was sold off to the GCR”.

Eugen chuckled “What did you rename her to?” she asked with a giggle.

“We named her Prinzessin Victoria, after Princess Victoria Louise, the only daughter and last child of Wilhelm the second” Moltke replied, and the laughing stopped.

“Oh, well that's disappointing,” Eugen remarked as the laughing died down, “I thought she was going to be named after a guy”.

“At least Queen Elizabeth will be somewhat happy that she's been renamed Victoria,” Peter said with a smile “Even if she's named after a princess, not a queen”.

“We have to visit the Royal Navy dorm next” Weser giggled “Just to see the look on Queen Elizabeth's face when we tell her that”.

All the Ironblood Kansen in the room grinned. Whilst they were allies with the Royal navy now, it would bring them a lot of joy to see Queen Elizabeth pissed off at something. This would be something they would remember for a long time.

“Make sure to record it,” Graf said with a slight half-smile “Bismarck would have your heads if you didn't record it”.

“Oh don't worry, we'll make a recording of it,” Eugen said, pulling out her phone.

Moltke looked at Eugen's phone with a confused look “What's that?” she asked curiously.

“This is a mobile phone” Eugen replied, showing the battleship the phone “I can do all sorts of things with this, like take calls, take photos and videos, play games, download apps, and a whole assortment of other things” she explained “Don't you have anything like this in your world?”.

Moltke shook her head “No, we don't. Our phones are all connected to wires and aren't exactly mobile” she said, “Plus they can't take photos. And our cameras are large things. Also, what's an app?”.

Everyone in the room looked at her with a confused look “You don't have mobile phones” Hipper said sounding slightly shocked “Wait a second, can your world's cameras take coloured photos?” she asked.

“Coloured, photos?” Moltke said looking confused.

It was then that realisation hit Hipper “Her world is behind us in technology” she said, “She doesn't have any of the advanced tech we have”.

“How is that possible?” Peter wondered.

“No Sirens,” Petropavlovsk said, “Her world is not under attack by them. As a result, they never had any of their tech to reverse engineer, so their world has progressed at a regular pace, not an accelerated pace like ours”.

“That would explain why the communication systems in Moltke's ship isn't as advanced as ours,” Hipper said, “She isn't as advanced as us”.

“What! I'm not as advanced as you lot” Moltke said before lowering her head “Oh. And they told me I was the most cutting edge battleship in the world” she as a tear fell from her eye.

A hand came down onto the battleship's head “There there” Graf said softly as she patted the battleship on the head, calming her down “It's ok. Your not the only one who was promised power, only to find out that your not the powerful ship out there”.

Graf continued to pat Moltke on the head for several moments before stopping. She then picked the battleship up and put her onto the floor “You should get back to your tour around the base. This is a large place after all, and there is a lot to see”.

“Will I be able to talk to you later?” Moltke asked.

“Sure,” Graf said with a half-smile “I'm not going anywhere for a while”.

“Yay!” the battleship beamed before she rushed over the Hipper “So, where too next?” she asked with a smile.

“Well first, we're visiting the armoury” Hipper replied as she lead the battleship and her sisters towards the door “Then, we shall visit the Royal Navy dorm, and witness the hilarity that will be Queen Elizabeth's reaction to the news of her fate in your world,” she said with a devious grin.

Chapter Text

Royal Navy dorm, one hour later

The tour of the Ironblood dorm lasted a bit longer than expected, there was a lot Moltke wanted to see, as well as several kansen she wanted to talk to. It was weird for her, seeing so many people that she knew but also didn't know. The German kansen in this world were vastly different from the one's back home.

Eventually, they managed to get her out of the Ironblood dorm, which looked like Buckingham Palace. Because the Royal Navy has the funds to replicate the real queen of England's current place of residence.

When they arrived at the doom, they were greeted by the light cruiser Belfast “Ah, Hipper. Good to see you. Her majesty has been expecting you”.

“Let me guess, she wants to meet with Moltke,” Hipper said.

Belfast nodded her head “Indeed she does. She's interested to learn more about her world's version of England” the head maid said.

“Well, I'll try to answer her questions best I can,” Moltke said “But I should warn you, England isn't exactly doing well at the moment. It's been in a downward spiral ever since the empire collapsed, not helped by the large number of people who want to rebuild the empire”.

“I see,” Belfast said with a frown “Her Majesty had hopped that your world's version of the Royal Islands was as grand as ours. But, not every world is the same after all,” she said before turning around “Follow me please”.

The four heavy cruisers and one battleship followed Belfast into the dorm and through its corridors. On the way, they passed by several other maids, all of whom were busy cleaning or pushing carts with trays of food and drink on them.

“Tirpitz would have a field day here,” Moltke remarked as they passed by Dido and Sirius.

“Whys that?” Eugen asked, curious as to what the young battleship was talking about.

“Tirpitz. My Tirpitz, dispute being highly focused, serious, and dutiful, is also a massive flirt” Moltke replied, “I've lost count of the number of times I've seen her flirt or grope the other girls. And don't get me started on the outfits and swimwear she got some of us”.

“That, sounds a lot like Prince of Wales,” Eugen remarked “You're sure you're talking about the right person?” she asked.

“Yep, defiantly talking about the right person” Moltke replied, “I mean, she got Kaiser and her sister's Italian strophium swimsuits. Those things are rather on the skimpy side by the way”.

“That's interesting,” Weser said sounding rather surprised. She didn't expect Tirpitz of all people to have the personality of Prince of Wales. What on earth caused that to happen “How did that happen?”.

“It's a different world sister. There are bound to be differences. Some big and some small” Hipper replied, “Like differences in personalities and ability's. In Moltke's world, I know how to sing, and you're still a heavy cruiser, not a carrier” she explained.

“And I'm still owned by Germany” Petropavlovsk added, “I wonder what I'm like over there”.

“We can find that out later,” Eugen said as they walked into the throne room.

Queen Elizabeth sat on her throne on the other side of the room, besides her were Warspite and her sister Valiant.

“Greetings Kansen of the Ironblood,” Elizabeth said as the group walked up to her.

“Ur, I'm not an Ironblood Kansen” Moltke interjected as they came to a stop.

“And GCR” Elizabeth sighed “Sorry about that. I'm still getting used to that”.

“Ah that's ok queeny” Moltke said with a grin, causing Elizabeth to frown.

“Please don't call me that” the battleship groaned “I've got enough problems with the submarines calling me that as it is,” she said before she noticed Eugen getting out her phone “Eugen, why do you have your phone out?”.

“Oh, I'm just checking something” Eugen replied calmly “Don't mind me”

Elizabeth looked at her suspiciously before turning her gaze back towards Moltke “So then Moltke, you would know anything about my counterpart in your world? I know I'm not a Kansen in your world, but I would like to know my ships current whereabouts, even if it is a the bottom of the sea”.

“Well I've got good news and bad news for you,” Moltke said, and Eugen discreetly started recording “You survived the second battle of Jutland, but your sister ships didn't. Although they did go out fighting. Warspite did quite the number to Kaiser, and Valiant almost managed to sink both König Albert and Kaiserin”.

“I see,” Elizabeth said, lowering her head “When I heard that there was a seconds battle of Jutland and that we lost it badly, I feared the worst. But, it's nice to know that the vessels of my class fought valiantly during their final hours,” she said before straitening herself out “What about myself?”.

“Ah,” Moltke said, looking a bit sheepish “You haven't exactly had the best service life. Jutland was kind of the start of a downward spiral for you. You got torpedoed by your own side, twice, because someone thought you were a German ship. Put into dry dock to repair the damage, only for the dock the break and flood your ship. Then, during the ship's recovery, your magazine somehow exploded. They did manage to repair you, but by then the war had been over for several years, and the Royal Navy never sent you back out to sea”.

Elizabeth looked rather annoyed by the news of her counterparts bad service life “Oh come on! Seriously! How incompetent is our admiralty in your world?” she asked loudly.

“Very bad” Moltke replied “By that point in the war, everyone's leadership was suffering heavily from the extended war. Most of the commanders from both sides of the battle were fresh out of training. So mistakes were bound to happen”.

Elizabeth sighed “Oh well, at least things can't get worse for me. Right?” she said with an awkward smile.
“Ur, yeah, about that” Moltke said, “During a bit of a financial crisis, you and the carrier Unicorn were sold to the GCR”.

Elizabeth reaction to the news that she had been sold to another country was, well, unexpected “Oh, well that's not bad. At least I'm a Kansan in your world”.

Hipper and her sisters looked at Elizabeth with very shocked looks. They were not expecting her to be ok with the news that she had been sold. Eugen even dropped her phone.

“You're ok with being sold,” Hipper said sounding very surprised.

“Ships and Kansen get sold to other country's all the time,” Valiant said, “Whilst it can be difficult at first, we do eventually get used to our new country”.

“Besides, I was sold to Germany” Elizabeth added, “And as well all know, the royal family is part German”.

“Well that was a disappointment,” Eugen remarked as she picked her phone back up “I was hoping you would be mad at the news”.

“It'll take more than that to make me mad,” Elizabeth said with a smile “Although, I'm surprised you also brought Unicorn. She and Illustrious might not take to well to that news. Their close, almost like sisters”.

“Would it help that my worlds Unicorn, who we call Einhorn, sees Graf Zeppelin as an older sister,” Moltke said.

Elizabeth smiled “Well, at least she's happy in your world,” she said “Is there anything else you can tell me about your world's version of England?” she asked.

“A lot actually” Moltke replied. She then went on to explained a lot about the current political state of the country and it's neighbours, as well as it's now free colonies.

England wasn't exactly in the best of shapes at the moment, nor was the rest of its colonies. The collapse of the UK and its empire had a drastic effect on the world's economy. Made much worse by its government trying to rebuild its military. A massive military build-up is not the smartest thing to do whilst in the middle of a massive global economic crisis.

They recovered from it, but not after selling off the majority of its navy.

There were a few other things she said. Minor things really, like who's in charge, how quickly the various countries are recovering, and the status of the royal family. Stuff like that.

After she was done, and Elizabeth had no more questions for her. They said their goodbyes and moved on to the next dorm.

Sakura Empire Dorm.

“You know. I don't actually know much about my world's version of Japan” Moltke said as they approached the Sakura Empire dorm.

“You don't,” Weser said sounding surprised “Whys that?”.

“We don't get much information about that part of the world” Moltke replied “The Asian countries weren't affected by the economic crisis as badly as we were, so they recovered far faster then everyone else did. We do have trade deals with them, but we don't get much information about that part of the world” she explained, “You think they'll be mad about the lack of information about their counterpart?”.

“I doubt they will be” Hipper replied “You can't be expected to know everything,” she said as they walked into the dorm, and immediately wished that she hadn't. As sitting at a low table in the middle of the room was Akagi, Taihou, Junyou, Atago, and Roon. AKA, the commander's wives. All of whom were calmly (for now at least) playing a game of Risk.

“Ah, Admiral Hipper” Akagi said with a smile “I was wondering when you would arrive. Don't mind us, we're just having a friendly game of risk”.

“Ok,” Hipper said nervously. She had no idea why the commander decided to marry three yandere's, a perverted big sister, and a cute and psycho killing machine. But hay, if the idiot wanted to put his dick into crazy, then so be it.

“Why do some of them have animal ears and tails?” Moltke asked, reminding the four Ironblood girls that they hadn't briefed her on the Sakura Empire's unique feature all their Kansen have. Animal ears and tails.

“The Sakura Empire incorporated some animal DNA into us, giving us animalistic features and traits” Akagi explained, “We're a bit like youkai and oni in a way, but with the firepower of a warship. But it does come with downsides. The various matting seasons from the animals we have DNA from”.

Hipper shivered “Please, don't remind me of the various matting seasons you guys go through,” she said, “Fox mating season was one thing, but cat mating season. I may never see Akashi in the same way again”.

“That's, interesting. Never heard of anyone trying to merge animal DNA with a Kansen” Moltke said, “Although, Germany is the only country that makes Kansen, so it's understandable that no one's tried it”.

“Wait, your the only country that can make Kansen,” Junyou said sounding surprised, “I thought you gave kansen tech to your alias”.

“We did. They just have yet to build the necessary facility's to manifest Kansen, so we're having to do it for them” Moltke replied.

“Must be taking a long time for them, what with the economic crisis,” Atago said with a friendly smile “You girls can sit down if you like”.

Moltke easily took the offer, rushing over and sat down in-between Akagi and Atago. The others, not wanting to cause any disrespect, reluctantly sat down at the table as well.

“So little one, what's Japan like in your world?” Atago asked.

“Ur, there's not much I can say about Japan” Moltke replied, “We don't get much information from Asia. We're more focused on Europe and America at the moment”.

“Oh, well that's disappointing,” Taihou said, “But, no news is good news as you westerners always say”.

Moltke nodded her head “So, who are you people?” she asked.

“Oh, how rude of us,” Akagi said “I am the aircraft carrier Akagi, of the Sakura Empire” she introduced herself “With me are the Sakura Empire carriers Taihou and Junyou, the heavy cruiser Atago, and the Ironblood PR heavy cruiser, Roon,” she said, gesturing towards the respective Kansen.

“Ok. So, what are you girls playing?” the battleship asked, looking at the board.

“It's call Risk” Roon replied with a kind smile “The commander got us this so we can play together and learn to get along with each other. That, and he changed the lock on his door and won't give us new keys until we learn to get along nicety with one another”.

Hipper gulped. She didn't know what the commander was doing, but whatever it was, it was a stupid idea. Getting these five to get along with each other and not try and kill everyone was an almost impossible task. Hopefully, this doesn't backfire on him and they all decided to smash his bedroom door down and, well, let's not get into what they will do to him.

“Well, that would explain why your all being so civil with each other” Eugen remarked. She then noticed that Moltke had a rather confused look on her face “You ok Moltke?” she asked.

“Ur, why would your commander give out keys to his bedroom to the Kansen under his command?” Moltke asked.

“Because we're married to him” Taihou replied, “He just got a bit tired of the others arguing, so he band us from his room until we all learn to get along with each other”.

“Don't try and pin this on us,” Akagi said as she shot Taihou a mean look “You're just as much to blame as the rest of us, if not more so!”.

“Oh, I'm sorry, but what exactly did 'I' do!” Taihou smirked

“You dive-bombed his room whilst I, his childhood friend, was busy helping him remember our school days!” Junyou responded with a harsh glance “Well, I would have been, had a certain fox not been there!” she said as her gaze turned towards Akagi.

“I was there first!” Akagi argued “Besides, I wasn't the one who brought their rigging along and ruined his bed!” she said before turning to Roon.

“I would just like to point out, that the bed had been destroyed before I got there” Roon retorted calmly “My rigging just, ruined it a bit more”.

Atago sighed “Why couldn't we have just stuck to the rota I spent hours working on?” she asked, “We all had one day in the week with him, giving him two days off. Why did you all decide to come to his room on my day with him”.

“We never agreed to use that rota of yours” Akagi interjected.

“Well, you should have” Atago snapped “It's a lot safer for everyone if we took it in turns and not went whenever we wanted to”.

“Please no fighting girls” Hipper squealed “We have a wounded battleship from a different world with a broken arm here. We don't want her to get any more injured,” she said, hoping that it would calm the five girls down.

“Of course,” Akagi said calmly, breathing in and out slowly to calm herself down “She's been through a lot, and Akagi doesn't want to cause her any harm. Right girls?” she asked, getting nods from the rest of the commander's wives.

“So, your commander is married to five kansen” Moltke observed “How does that work?” she asked.

“It's a long story” Akagi replied. She and the four other Kansen who were married to the commander then went on to explain affection and promise rings, as well as marriages between humans and Kansen. They also told her about relationships between Kansen, and that promise rings can also be used by Kansen as well, but so far only humans have used them.

After the talk on Kansen relationships, they talked a bit about the Sakura Empire, about its history, and about what it did during the war. Akagi felt a deep regret for what she did during the war, of the things she did. Even now she was trying to repair the divide between them and the Eagle Union, as well as make amends for what she did.

Moltke seemed understanding, saying that 'some people think what their doing is right, only to later see the error of their ways, and regret what they did'.

The game the girls were playing soon ended, and Hipper and co said their goodbyes and moved on to the next dorm. There were still several more dorms to get through, as well as several other facility's they wanted to show her.

Today would be a long day.

Chapter Text

Northern Parliament dorm.

“So, why does the Northern Parliament dorm look somewhat like a prison?” Moltke asked, “And why is it covered in ice?”.

“It's not real ice” Petropavlovsk replied “It's just glass made to look like ice. As for the prison look. I have no idea why Sovetskaya wanted it to look like a prison”.

“It might have something to do with that exercise the on-site NP girls had a while back,” Eugen said “You know, the one with the prison and warden uniforms”.

“No, the dorm was made long before that exercise happened,” Hipper said “Whatever the reason is, it's not important. We are showing Moltke around the base after all,” she said as they reached the entrance to the dorm and walked in.

It was cold inside the dorm, just the way the NP girls like it. The walls were a dark grey and the doors looked more like prison doors than regular doors.

“Your sure this isn't a prison?” Moltke asked.

“I'm sure,” Eugen said before she walked over to one of the doors and opened it.

“-I'm not defending German technical superiority, I'm stating the fucking obvious,” the voice of Stalingrad said loudly.

The five Kansen looked into the room and saw Avrora, Chapayev, and Stalingrad, playing a game of Bolt Action on a large table in the middle of the room.

“Ah, comrade Petropavlovsk, Hipper, Eugen, Weser. Good to see you” Avrora said with a smile as she turned to face them “And you've brought Moltke with you”.

“Hey girls,” Petropavlovsk said as they walked in “What on earth are you three playing?” she asked as she walked over towards the large table. There were a lot of models on it, models of tanks, infantry, aircraft, transports, and buildings. Representing the land and air forces of three factions, Ironblood, Northern Parliament, and Eagle Union.

“It's a miniature game called bolt action” Chapayev replied, “I'm playing the Eagle Union, Avrora is the Northern Parliament, and Stalingrad is playing the Ironblood. It's not a navy warfare game, but, we all have hobbies after all”.

“Huh. And here I thought you were all only interested in, 'bondage', and stuff” Hipper remarked.

“We have other hobby's, like miniature war-gaming, drinking, ETC,” Stalingrad said “But that's enough about what we're doing. I see that you've brought Moltke with you. Greetings, I'm the aircraft carrier Stalingrad. And these are the light cruisers Avrora and Chapayev”.

“Hi,” Moltke said with a smile “I guess you girls have read Hipper's report on my world's version of your country”.

“Wait what!” Hipper said sounding surprised “How did you know I made a report on it?” she asked.

“Well, it was obvious what you were doing. You were asking a lot of specific questions about my world” Moltke replied “Also I am the third ship of the Bismarck class. My sisters taught me everything they knew about combat tactics, strategic thinking, observation, and other stuff. So don't think that, just because I'm so young, that I'm not up to their specs”.

“Yeah, talking about that. Why are you so young?” Avrora asked, “Sister ships are normally the same age as each other. So why aren't you?”.

Moltke lowered her head and hid behind Hipper. The heavy cruiser was confused as to why she did that. But then she thought back to something she battleship had said. She said that her manifestation was disastrous. Something very bad must have happened to her whilst she was manifesting to cause such a difference.

“I think we should drop the subject” Hipper advised “It's obviously a sensitive subject”.

“Right. My apologies for bringing it up” Avrora said.

“It's ok,” Moltke said as she stepped out from behind Hipper “It's just not something I like to talk about”.

“Don't worry about it. Your not the only one who had problems during their manifestation” Stalingrad said “Just take us ship who never existed in the first place. Manifesting us was painful, very painful. The first batch of PR ships had it worse. Back then they were still new to the idea of building ships that never existed. Everyone thought that we would manifest just like everyone else. Oh, how wrong they were”.

“Was it painful?” the young battleship asked.

Stalingrad nodded “Very painful. It was like something was drilling into my brain. Forcing a Kansen who never existed to exist isn't a simple process, and we're still working on a way to make it as painless as regular Kansen manifestation” she said sombrely “But that's enough talk about pain. What do you think of my rigging?” she asked as she manifested her rigging.

Stalingrad's rigging consisted of four large metal serpents. The lower two had runways on their backs, whilst the upper two had several AA guns on their backs.

“Stalingrad! What have I told you about manifesting your rigging inside the rec room?” Avrora said sounding annoyed.

“Relax, it's fine,” Stalingrad said with a smile as the four metal serpents on her back growled slightly “They'll behave. Won't you, my lovely little zmeya” she said as she started to affectionate pat her rigging.

“Oh, that an interesting design” Moltke said as she admired the carriers rigging “My world's version of Russia doesn't have any carriers or ships for that matter. No sea access. So it's interesting to see what Russian Kansen look like”.

“Oh, well that's interesting,” Chapayev said sounding surprised “Hipper's report didn't mention that”.

“I never asked if her world's Russia had sea access,” Hipper said “I just assumed that it did”.

“Nope, it does not. All its territory that is next to the sea are all now independent” Moltke said.

“Wow. It's that bad for us over there” Stalingrad said.

Moltke nodded “It is. It's been getting better over there as of late. But they're currently trying to distance themselves from the other communist nations. Ever since relations with France took a downward turn they've been trying to distance themselves from the French” she explained “Their nation has been crippled beyond belief and they can't afford to be dragged into another war”.

“Yet their alliance with France can easily bring them into one” Petropavlovsk said “Is another war really on the horizon in your world”.

“I'm afraid so,” Moltke said “We're trying to get the French to stand down. But they're being very unreasonable. The other communist nations aren't helping either. It'll take a miracle to calm them down”.

“Well, at least our world is somewhat stable. We still have the Sirens to deal with so it's not all perfect” Avrora said “But, no one's perfect. Anyway, would you like to have a tour of our dorm?”.

“Yes please,” the battleship said with a smile.

“Alright then. Stalingrad, Chapayev, don't touch anything whilst I'm gone” Avrora said as she walked towards the door “Follow me please”.

Moltke followed the light cruiser out of the room, followed by Admiral Hipper and her sisters. As the light cruiser showed her around the dorm, she asked a few questions about the Sirens. Avrora answered all of them. She had spent quite a long time fighting them after all, so it was understandable that she knew a lot on the subject.

It was halfway through Moltke's questions that Hipper realized that the battleship was doing some information gathering herself, but was being a lot more subtle about it. She probably wouldn't have noticed it hadn't Moltke pointed it out when she was doing it. The questions themselves were simple ones, the kind that wouldn't arouse suspicion if asked. But they gave her a great deal of information about the Sirens.

The heavy cruiser could only assume that the battleship was gathering information on the Sirens, just in case, they show an interest in her world. It made sense, as it would give the GCR an edge over the sirens in case they decide to invade.

After the tour was finished, the group said their goodbyes, and moved on to the next dorm.

Iris Libre/Vichya Dominion combined dorm.

“Is that the Italian dorm?” Moltke asked as they approached the cathedral-like dorm.

“Ur, no. It's the French dorm” Eugen replied “It's the combined dorm of the Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion fleets. It's kind of a complicated situation. Even though their country is back under French control, the fleet is still somewhat split in half. The divide caused by the war has yet to be fully healed. It's getting there. But it'll be a while before their a unified fleet again”.

“I heard that we're helping to repair that bond” Weser said.

“We are, as we are responsible for the breakup in the first place,” Hipper said “But as Eugen said, it's slow going,” she said as they reached the door to the dorm and walked inside.

The interior of the dorm was quite different from the other dorms. The main lobby of the dorm was actually a fully functional church, complete with stained glass windows, benches, an organ, as well as everything else you would expect to find in a cathedral.

“Ok, I did not expect this to be a fully functional cathedral,” Moltke said as she admired the interior of the building “I'm still finding it hard to believe that the French fleet here is religious. I half expected the Italian fleet to be the one's with the churches, seeing that the pope is situated in Italy,” she said before she stopped “Who's that?”.

Hipper looked head of them and saw Saint Louis, quietly praying at the other end of the room, standing in front of her was the battleship Richelieu, flagpole in hand “The one kneeling on the ground it Saint Louis. A PR ship. The other's Richelieu, Cardinal and leader of the Iris Libre” she whispered into the battleships ear “We should probably leave, as their obviously in the middle of something”.

“There is no need for that” Saint Louis said as she stood up, picking up her spear and turning to face them “We had just finished”.

Hipper was rather surprised that Saint Louis was able to hear them from the other side of the room. It was a big room after all “Ok” Hipper said, having to raise her voice a bit so that the two Kansen could hear her. They then quickly walked over to the two Iris ships “Sorry for the interruption. We're just showing Moltke around the base”.

“There is no need to apologize,” Richelieu said with a smile “As Saint just said, we were just finishing up. Although I am surprised that you brought her here, seeing how bad relations between her worlds Germany and France are”.

“That's a different France,” Moltke said “This isn't my world, and this worlds France is vastly different from my world's version. I'm not going to judge you based on what your country is like in my world,” she said before looking around “Although I am surprised with the cathedral-like dorm. There haven't been any cathedrals in France since they turned communist”.

“Oh. And whys that” Richelieu asked.

“They dismantled them, all of them. Banning religion altogether” Moltke replied, “It's not gone down well with the Italian's, especially after they became The Holy kingdom of Italy”.

“Italy, a holy kingdom,” Richelieu said sounding surprised “That's quite unexpected. Still, I'm surprised our own country is so different in your world”.

“How could that even happen?” Saint Louis asked.

“There was a communist uprising, caused by a long chain of poor decisions by the French government” Moltke replied “It wasn't as bloody as all the other wars. But it did cause a lot of damage to the nation's infrastructure. A large number of historical artifacts and works of art were also destroyed as well, much to the new government's dismay. Whilst they did condemn the destruction of so many historical works of art, they put the blame on us and tried to get us to pay reparations for it. Fortunately for us, they were banking on the English to back them us, but they weren't in a state to help them, as they were busy falling apart” she explained “No one else backed them up. So they gave up. Relations between us and the French have been getting worse since then”.

“I see,” Richelieu said sombrely “Is there nothing your country can do to improve relations?”.

“I'm afraid not” the battleship replied “If there were, we would be doing them. But, they're being so unreasonable. It's like they want a war, even though they know another war would be disastrous for the economy”.

“Yes, yes it would be,” Saint Louis said “Are you sure that there are no sirens in your world?”.

“I'm sure” Moltke replied “Although it would help if I know what they looked like. I learned a lot about them from Avrora, but I haven't been shown what they look like”.

“We'll have to show her our records on the Sirens later,” Hipper said “It's quite possible that there are Sirens in her world, but they don't go by that name”.

“That does make sense,” Weser said “It would be far more easier for them to hid in plain sight in a world that doesn't know about them”.

“You think they're trying to start a war in her world, then make their appearance when the fighting starts?” Petropavlovsk wondered “Because if that's the case, then Moltke's world is going to be facing even more problems”.

“You think the Sirens will show up in my world?” Moltke said sounding very worried.

“Most likely. Especially since you've shown up in our world” Hipper said “It might be a good idea that, when we do find a way to send her back to her world, we send her back with information on the Sirens. Not everything we have, as that would be impossible, but just enough to give the GCR a head start in the battle against them”.

“You girls will do that for me,” Moltke said.

“Of course we will,” Hipper said “The Sirens are a deadly threat. Any information we can provide you about them will give you an advantage when fighting them. You won't be unprepared like we were, that's for sure”.

Moltke smiled before she hugged Hipper tightly with her good arm “Thank you” she said happily.

Hipper was taken aback by the battleship's sudden show of affection. But she didn't do anything to stop it. On the contrary, she actually put an arm around the battleship. A part of her wished that she had a younger sister like Moltke. One who didn't tease her and piss her off to no end. She then remembered that Eugen was here, as well as two of her other sisters.

A click and a flash alerted her to the other two Kansen present. She looked up and saw Richelieu smiling, phone in hand.

“Now now Hipper. You can't deny, that was quite cute” Saint Louis said with a smile.

Hipper's face turned a deep red “Don't post that on Juustagram” she said sounding very annoyed.

“Too late,” Richelieu said with a smile as she showed them her phone, the picture she just took already posted to Juustagram.

Eugen giggled “Looks like someone's been caught showing their sweet side,” she said with a smile “You should show that side of you more often. Then maybe you might grow a little”.

“Come on Eugen” Hipper fumed “You really had to bring that up!”.

“Now now girls, calm down please,” Richelieu said “This is a house of the Lord,” she said before turning to Moltke “Now then Moltke, would you like a tour of our dorm?”.

“Yes please,” Moltke said with a smile.

“Then follow me please,” Richelieu said before she lead them on a tour around the dorm.

The older battleship showed her around the dorm, showing her places like the library, swimming pool, and the industrial kitchen. Moltke showed an interest in the kitchen and asked if she would be able to have some lessons. Richelieu said that she would ask Dunkerque if she would be willing to give her some. But she would have to wait until she gets back, as she was out on a commission.

Once the tour of the dorm was over, the group said their goodbyes and moved on to the next dorm.

Chapter Text

Sardegna Empire Dorm.

“Huh. Well this is strange” Admiral Hipper said as the group walked into the dorm “Where is everybody? I would have thought that Littorio would have had someone waiting for us. She's been dying to meet you”.

She was surprised to find the dorm this empty. Whilst it wasn't as big as the other dorms, due to there being only nine Sardegna Kansen on-site, but she half expected to see at least one of them into the dorm.

“Maybe she's in her room” Eugen suggested “I did see the window to her room open”.

“Might as well” Hipper said before the group proceeded towards the battleships room.

Littorio's room was easy to find, just look for the room with the double doors. The door was slightly open, and they could hear voices inside.

Hipper polity knocked on the door, waiting for a reply.

“It's open,” the voice of Littorio said, inviting them in.

Hipper opened the door and was rather surprised to find Littorio, Zara, Pola, and a girl they didn't recognize, wearing rather revealing swimsuits.

The new girl was slightly taller than Zara, with long green hair that was of a different shade than Littorio's. She had yellow eyes and, whilst she wasn't as busty as the other girls, she made up for it in the ass department.

“Ah, signora Hipper. I wasn't expecting you or your sisters to be here so soon” Littorio said as the three girls turned to face them “And you've brought the newest addition to the fleet with you as well”.

“Hi, Littorio,” Hipper said “Why are you wearing bikinis? And who's the new girl,” she asked.

“Oh right. This is our new aircraft carrier Aquila” Pola said as the new girl, Aquila, bowed “She arrived yesterday, but her arrival was overshadowed by Moltke's. So, not many people on-site know she's here”.

“Ah, but they will know of me tomorrow when I show up at the competition,” Aquila said with a smile.

“Of course,” Pola said “As for the swimsuits. We're trying them on in preparation for the swimsuit competition tomorrow”.

“Oh right, almost forgot about that” Hipper said sounding annoyed. She had almost forgotten that her sister had 'persuaded' her to take part in this year's swimsuit competition. And she was not happy about that.

“Wait. You girls plan on wearing those strophium's in public?” Moltke said sounding surprised.

“Ur, yes. There's nothing wrong with it” Zara said sounding confused “Also what's a strophium” she asked.

“Ah, same thing, different name,” Moltke said “In my world, we call what you're currently wearing strophium's. Their relatively new and are a bit controversial. A lot of the Kansen I know have one, but none of them would be seen in public wearing one”.

“Ah, that would explain that little misunderstanding,” Littorio said “Figures that there would be opposition to them. It took a while before the bikini became accepted in our world. So I guess it's the same in your's,” she said “Still, why are they called strophium's. I am familiar with the historical strophium from the Roman period. But why call a swimsuit suit that? Why not name it after Bikini Atoll and the nuclear tests that took place there?”.

“Nuclear what?” Moltke said sounding confused.

A wave of realization flowed over them, as they realized that nukes had yet to be invented in Moltke's world. No nukes meant no nuclear tests. Which meant that operation crossroads hasn't happened in her world.

A silent agreement was made to not mention operation crossroads, least they accidentally scar the young girl's mind.

“Nuclear weapons are, well, very powerful bombs that leave behind a radioactive fallout in the blast zone” Hipper replied, trying her best to give the battleship an explanation that wouldn't make her interested in them “We developed them to use against the Sirens, but it turns out that they are completely immune to nukes and the radioactive fallout left behind. So, don't bother with them. Their just a massive waste of time and money that could be put into more useful things”.

“Ah, so a useless superweapon then,” Moltke said “Understandable. Not everything made for war turns out to be useful. Still, for the world's largest navy, I haven't seen that many Italian Kansen on-site”.

“Worlds, largest, navy” Littorio breathed, looking a bit light-headed.

“Ur, correction. The Regia Marina is only the fourth-largest navy-” Weser corrected before she realized that the battleship was talking about her world Regia Marina “Is the Italian navy really the largest navy in the world?”.

Moltke nodded “First nation to fully recover from the global depression, giving them a bit of a head start over everyone else. They were able to build quite a large navy and have territories all over the world. They've pretty much replaced the British as the 'global navy powerhouse'” she explained “They also brought a few ships from the British. Like the four Illustrious class carriers-”.

The battleship's explanation came to an abrupt end when Littorio suddenly fainted “Littorio!” Aquila said as she caught the battleship, Pola and Zara quickly fanning her to cool her down “Are you alright?” she asked.

“I'm ok” Littorio replied as she was helped back onto her feet “Just had a bit of an overload there. I just can't believe Italy has been so successful. And the Illustrious sisters are within our grasp. I'm almost jealous of your world's version of me”.

“Whys that?” Moltke asked.

“Littorio has a thing for Illustrious and her sisters” Zara replied “So I think knowing that your worlds Italy owns them was a bit too much for her”.

“Undisputed access to the Illustrious sister,” Littorio said, blushing heavily “I might need some time to process that”.

“In the meantime, seeing that it's almost lunchtime. Would anyone like any pizza?” Aquila asked, “I've got a few pizza bases in the kitchen so I can make a few”.

“Yes please!” Moltke said happily, a large smile on her face “It's been a very long time since I last had Italian pizza”.

“Well good for you, as I am an expert in making pure, Italian pizza!” Aquila said proudly “Just don't ask for pineapple. Unless you want me to bomb you into the ground. Which is something I really don't want to do, as you've been through far too much already”.

“Well, we might as well have lunch here,” Petropavlovsk said “Beats having to go to the cafeteria”.

The pizzas, whilst taking a while to cook, were quite good. Admiral Hipper had to admit that Aquila was quite the good cook. Although she never did understand why the Italians hated pineapple on pizza so much. She had tried a Hawaiian pizza before and liked it, so she didn't see what the problem was. She just chose not to voice that particular opinion of hers.

As they ate, the Sardegna Empire Kansen asked Moltke questions about her world's Italy. The young battleship was able to answer a lot of them. Apparently, her world's Italy was doing very well, all things coincided. A military powerhouse alongside the GCR as well as close allies. Apparently, half of the Regia Marina had already been converted into Kansen, and plans are already in place to convert the other half.

After a while, the questions came to an end. And, with their stomachs full on pizza, they said their goodbyes and moved on to the next dorm.

Eagle Union dorm.

The Eagle Union dorm was, unlike the other dorms, a rather bland building, but it was also the largest by far. The Eagles preferred their buildings to be simple and functional. So they tended to match the style of the other on-site buildings.

“You know, after visiting all the other dorms, this one looks, rather bland,” Moltke remarked as they approached the dorm.

“Yeah, it is,” Eugen said “But, for all its lack of personal flair, it is much cheaper to operate than the other dorms,” she said as they reached the door to the dorm and opened it.

“-Just don't stop running!” Enterprise shouted as she and Little E rushed out of the door and away from the dorm, carrying several small boxes of rations. Moments later Belfast and Little Bel rushed out of the dorm, clearly in pursuit of the two carriers.

“What the fuck was that about?” Hipper wondered as the group walked into the dorm.

“Hey girls,” Yorktown said as she walked up to them.

“Oh, hi Yorktown,” Eugen said with a smile “You wouldn't know why Enterprise and Little E are running away from Belfast and Little Bel?” she asked.

“Ah, that. Well, Enterprise was hiding some chocolate that she was going to use to make some home-made chocolate confectionery for Belfast's birthday” Yorktown replied “Although she probably shouldn't have hidden them inside a box that used to contain ration bars”.

“Ah, so it's just one big misunderstanding then,” Hipper said.

Yorktown nodded “She really doesn't want Belfast to find out about the chocolate, hence why she's currently running away from her,” she said “I wouldn't worry about her, Hornet and Essex are helping her out to swap the boxes around for one's actually containing ration bars. It may make Belfast disappointed in her, but at least her secret will be safe” she said “Just don't tell Belfast or anyone else about this”.

“Don't worry, our lips are sealed on the matter” Weser said.

“Good,” Yorktown said with a smile. She then looked down at Moltke “And you must be Moltke” she said, offering her hand to the small battleship.

“Hi,” Moltke said as she took the hand and shook it “Nice to meet you”.

“Nice to meet you too,” Yorktown said, “Although, I am surprised that you're being nice to me, considering what my country has done in your world”.

“That's because this isn't my world. So I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt” Moltke said “Also I've heard good things about the Eagle Union so far”.

“Well that's good to know,” Yorktown said with a smile “Also, I highly recommend that you lot step away from the door. The Fletcher's are about to finish lunch, and I wouldn't want them to trample you as they go out to play”.

“Oh, right,” Hipper said nervously. She knew how large the Fletcher class was, and she had no intent on getting in the way of that swarm. If it was at all feasible, they would have just swarmed the Sirens with Eagle Union destroyers. Sadly, amassing a fleet that big for one operation was just implausibly.

The group quickly got out of the way of the door, just in time to, as moments later the entire Fletcher-class came rushing past like a swarm. All 175 of them.

“Those were all destroyers!” Moltke said as the last of the Fletcher's rushed past.

“Yep, those were all destroyers of the Fletcher class” Yorktown replied “And they're not all of the destroyers the Eagle Union has. We have well over three hundred of them at our disposal”.

“Three-hundred!” Moltke said sounding surprised “My worlds America doesn't even have nearly half that number of destroyers”.

“How many ships do they have?” Yorktown asked.

“Well, we don't exactly know the true size of their fleet,” Moltke said “But we guess it's somewhere around one-hundred. Give or take a dozen or so. Although that may change as their building up their military quite a bit, and there are significant military build-ups along the borders of Canada and Mexico. We think they might be planning to take control of the entirety of North America, maybe even South America as well. But we don't have any proof on that, yet” she said.

“I see,” Yorktown said with a frown.

“You ok” Moltke asked.

The carrier shook her head “No, I'm fine. It's just, the news of what our country's been doing in your world is having a bit of a negative effect on us. We're not used to our country performing such diabolical acts like the ones you've described. So it's a bit demoralizing to hear them” she explained.

“I'm sorry about that” Moltke said “But there's nothing I can do to change what's happened in my world”.

“Don't worry, it's ok” Yorktown said with a smile “The past is the past. There's nothing we can do to change it. All we can do is strive for a better tomorrow”.

“Didn't you already say that to Graf Zeppelin during your first date?” Eugen asked, “You know, to help improve the mood”.

“It worked didn't it” Yorktown replied “Got her talking about things other than destroying the world”.

“What?” Moltke said sounding rather confused.

“Ah. Right. Forgot to mention that some of us in the Ironblood are dating Kansen from the other factions” Hipper said “Yorktown here is dating Graf Zeppelin, and my sister Prinz Eugen is dating Prince of Wales” she said, “There are a few other Ironblood Kansen who are also dating like Bismarck is dating the battlecruiser Hood”.

“Bismarck is dating!” Moltke said sounding surprised “I would have expected Tirpitz to be the one dating people”.

“Actuary, Tirpitz is also dating the carrier Victorious” Eugen added.

“Both of them are dating!” the battleship said sounding very surprised.

“Yes, they are,” Hipper said “But we can talk about that later. Right now, we're we've got a dorm to show you around”.

“Of course,” Moltke said.

Yorktown was happy to show them around the dorm, as well as letting them speak to some of the other Eagle Union Kansen. Some of whom very much wanted to meet her. Unsurprisingly there weren't that many questions asking about her world's version of America, as most of them have heard enough about it already. So they asked her about the rest of the world, how everything was going and all that. Which was quite the mixed bag of positives and negatives. Her world was not even remotely ready for another war, as a lot of countries were still recovering from the last one. Hell, some of the smaller nations didn't even have a real army. Just a small number of people with only basic military training. Another war would be very bad for her world.

Soon the Eagle Union girls ran out of questions, and the group moved on to the next location. The command center.

Chapter Text

Azur Main central command building.

The main command building was at the very centre of the base. Four storeys tall, and with several more floors underground. The command building was the nerve centre of the entire war against the sirens. From here, every battle against them is monitored, operations are coordinated, and fleets are dispatched on numerous missions. Without this facility, the war against the sirens would have been lost long ago.

“I've seen better” Moltke remarked as they entered the building, passing by several humans officers and marines.

“Huh?” Hipper said sounding rather surprised “Moltke, this building contains some of the most advanced computers on earth. Which are being used to coordinate a global war, against an enemy that can strike anywhere they want. Not even Germany has stuff like this, and we have some very good computers over there”.

“The navy command building in Hamburg looks better,” Moltke said.

“Looks aren't everything you know,” Eugen said as they walked up a flight of stairs “Function is more important then looks. It would be very bad if our command building looked good but wasn't functional”.

“Function over form as I always say,” Weser said, “Making a command room look impressive at the cost of function is a bad idea”.

“Only the outside and the corridors look better. Everything else is just plain old military” Moltke said.

“Unless you do that,” Weser said, “That's allowed. Also you're in a different era to us”.

“Yeah. Keep forgetting it's, what, early 1948 for you?” Hipper asked, getting a nod from Moltke “Yeah, 1948”.

“So, what are you going to show me in here?” Moltke asked.

“Oh, it's not something” Eugen replied “It's someone,” she said as they stopped by a door. 'Commanders office' the sign on it said. She knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a male voice said loudly and clearly.

Eugen opened the door and the group walked in. Sitting opposite them on the other side of the room was the commander of the Azur lane, sitting at his wooden desk. Flanking him on either side were Bismarck and Tirpitz.

“Ah, Hipper, Eugen. I was expecting you two” the commander said with a friendly smile “And you've brought Moltke-”.

“Bismarck?” Moltke said as she walked forward slowly “Tirpitz?”.

“Yes, that is who we are,” Bismarck said “Sadly, we are not the ones from your would. So we're-” she said before Moltke rushed over to her and hugged her, surprising both herself and Tirpitz “Ur, ok,” the battleship said nervously, slowly returning the hug “You do know that I'm not your Bismarck. Right?”.

“I know” Moltke replied, tears slowly falling from her eyes “I just, wanted to hug you”.

“Well, this has gone better than expected,” the commander remarked before turning to Hipper “I guess you showed her around the base?”.

“Of course we did, you idiot” Hipper replied in the way she did to every question the commander gave her “What do you think we've been doing for most of the day”.

“Now now sister, you don't have to shout at him for everything,” Eugen said, “I swear that you keep doing that as a way to make your chest bigger”.

“Huh! Are you serious?” Hipper asked sounding rather annoyed “Why do you always have to bring that up?”.

“Hay hay, calm down you to,” Weser said, trying to calm her sisters down “Moltke's having a moment and it would be rude to interrupt it”.

“Oh right. Sorry” Hipper said, turning to see that Bismarck was nay holding Moltke in her arms, smiling.

“Why aren't you a little cutie,” Bismarck said with a smile “You're almost like Ottilie. She's my child self by the way, just in case you didn't know about them”.

“I know about them. Hipper told me about them after we met Graf Zeppelin and Zeppy” Moltke said.

“Ah, good” Bismarck said.

“So, I take it that you two will be taking over the duty of looking after her then,” Hipper said.

“Of course” Tirpitz replied “Since she is a member of the Bismarck class, my sister and I will be taking responsibility for looking after her from now on until we find a way to send her home. But if you want to spend some time with her, you can just ask”.

“Right, ok. Got it” Hipper said, “So, has there been any progress in finding a way to send her home?”.

“Sadly not” the Commander replied “We're still struggling to find out how she was brought here in the first place. I've got Akashi with an escort fleet scanning the area she was found in, but they are still in route to the area. Plus we still don't know what caused that damage to her ship” he said “If it turns out that, whatever sent her here did that damage to her ship, then I can't in good conscious use it to send her home. The trip here dealt heavy damage to her ship. The trip back might kill her”.

“Don't worry, We will find a safe way to send her home” Bismarck said before she ruffled Moltke's hair “Won't we, you little biscuit”.

“Aren't Ottilie and Alfrena our little biscuit's?” Tirpitz asked.

“Of course they are, we just have three of them now” Bismarck replied, “As well as Oscar, she a biscuit as well”.

“Who's Oscar?” Moltke asked.

“Oh, she one of the Meowfficer's assigned to my fleet” Bismarck replied.

“What's a Meowfficer?” the young battleship asked.

Bismarck's eyes widened in surprised “You haven't shown her the Cat Lodge yet?” Bismarck said, sound very surprised. The silence told her everything she needed to know “Right then, we must correct this” she said before she walked out of the room, a rather confused looking Moltke in her arms.

Tirpitz sighed “Sorry about that commander, I have no idea what's come over her”.

“It's ok. I can have a chat with Moltke later” the commander said, “You should probably go with her. Just to keep an eye on her”.

“Of course,” Tirpitz said before she too left the room. Leaving Admiral hipper and her sisters along with the commander.

“Well, that happened,” Petropavlovsk remarked, “Did not expect to see that from Bismarck of all people”.

“Yeah, she's been through some changes,” the commander said, “Since she started dating Hood, and with Ottilie and Alfrena manifesting, she's become a lot more, happier”.

“Good to see our leader smiling for once,” Weser said, “I never saw her smiling back in Germany”.

“She was a lot different back then,” Eugen said “A lot colder and detached. But, since she was reconstructed, she's been getting better”.

Hipper nodded. Whist she was slightly annoyed that Bismarck had taken Moltke with her without letting her say goodbye. But, she could always see her again later. It wasn't like they were going to send her home within the next few hours, so she had time to see her again.

Cat lodge.

Tirpitz had cached up to her sister just as they came into view of the cat lodge. It was a simple lodge-like building, larger than your normal lodge. With a large sign over the main door saying 'cat lodge' with a cat paw print next to it.

“And here's the cat lodge,” Bismarck said happily as Tirpitz caught up to her.

“You move, very quickly sis,” Tirpitz remarked.

“Well, I had a very good reason to be quick” Bismarck replied.

“Why do you have a cat lodge in a military base?” Moltke asked “Why do you even have can-” she said before a Meowfficer walked by. Her gaze focused on the strange white, spherical cat wearing a navy hat and tie.

“That's why we have a cat lodge,” Bismarck said as the Meowfficer walked by “Meowfficer's are companions of sorts that are assigned to our fleets. They help command the fleets and strengthen them with their skills and Abilities”.

“So, they're like support staff,” Moltke said.

“Exactly,” Bismarck said with a smile “Do you want to have a look inside?”.

“Yes please,” Moltke replied with a smile.

“Alright then,” Bismarck said before the three walked into the lodge.

The interior of the lodge was nice, with a large number of very nice looking cat baskets, cat toys and all kinds of things to keep cat's occupied. There were also several Meowfficer's there, and whilst most of them were spherical like the Meowfficer that walked by, there were a few that looked like small humans with cat ears and tails. There were also a few Kansen there, mainly the younger one's, playing with them.

“Well, here's the cat lodge,” Bismarck said as they walked in “What do you think?”.

“It's, why are there humanoid Meowfficer's?” Moltke asked.

“Oh, those are the super rare Meowfficer's” Tirpitz replied, “They are a lot stronger than the rare and elite Meowfficer's. It why they're different from the others”.

“Oh, hi Bismarck” Algérie said as she walked up to them, Meowfficer in hands “Didn't think I would be seeing you here today”.

“Oh hi Algérie,” Bismarck said, “We're just showing Moltke the cat lodge”.

“Ah, I see,” Algérie said with a smile “I'm glad you've decided to show her around here. The cuteness of these adorable Meowfficer's just has to be shared to everyone,” she said before she hugged the Meowfficer in her arms tightly.

“Yes, of course,” Tirpitz said nervously “You wouldn't have seen Ottilie and Alfrena here, by chance?”.

“Oh yes,” Algérie replied “They're currently playing with Oscar over there,” she said, pointing towards a corner of the room where Ottilie and Alfrena were playing with several Meowfficer's, Oscar.

Bismarck instantly melted on the spot. The sight of Ottilie hugging Oscar was more than enough to melt through her strong and mightily armour.

“Is she ok?” Moltke asked.

“Oh she'll be fine” Tirpitz replied “She's just having a cuteness overload from seeing Ottilie doing something cute. It happens all the time,” she said “Come on, let's meet our younger selves,” she said as she and Moltke walked towards them. Bismarck following behind them.

“Hi, there my little biscuits,” Bismarck said as they walked up to them.

“Oh, hi there Bismarck, Tirpitz, and-. Who's this” Alfrena said as she and her sister Ottilie turned to look at them. Alfrena gave Moltke a quick scan “You look like a member of the Bismarck class, but I don't remember there ever being a third vessel of our class built”.

“I'm Moltke, third vessel of the Bismarck class” Moltke replied, “Well, in my world anyway. I'm not from this, reality”.

“Oh, so you're like the Ashes Kansen,” Alfrena said.

“The who?” Moltke asked sounding confused.

“Oh, their Kansen like us, but their from another reality, one where we lost” Alfrena replied, “Or that's what we think. We're really not too sure about what really happened to them to make them who they are. Getting them to talk about their world and what happened to it is almost impossible”.

“Ur, Alfrena, where did you get that information?” Tirpitz asked, “Most of what you just said is highly classified. Only available to those in high command positions, like myself and Bismarck”.

“Ah, you forget, we are you. Just, younger” Alfrena replied with a cheeky smile “And due to being you, we have access to everything that you have access”.

“What,” Tirpitz said sounding surprised. She quickly turned towards Bismarck, who was currently hugging Ottilie and Oscar.

“You two are so adorable together,” Bismarck said happily.

“Ur, Bismarck. I think we might have a problem” Tirpitz said, trying to get her sisters attention.

“Yes,” Bismarck said with a smile “What's the problem?”.

“Our child selves having access to the same classified material that we have access to, that's the problem” Tirpitz replied, “Alfrena just told Moltke about the Ashes Kansen. She should not have access to that kind of information”.

“What!” Bismarck said sounding rather surprise “It this true, Ottilie”.

“Ur, well. Maybe” Ottilie said nervously “It might be the way we found out about the prototype hologram ship”.

“Ah. Now that would explain how Saratoga found out about it” Tirpitz said, “We're going to have to make some adjustments to what our younger selves have access to. Which will be quite difficult as they have the same biometrics as us”.

“We can worry about that later,” Bismarck said as she went back to hugging Ottilie and Oscar “I've got these adorable little biscuits to fuss,” she said happily.

“Yep, that's exactly how my Bismarck reacts to me whenever I do something cute,” Moltke remarked.

Tirpitz nodded. Ever since her sister had first laid eyes on Oscar she had been entranced by the Meowfficer's cuteness. Then Ottilie came around and now she can't bear to be away from either of them. Hence why Oscar is attached to her fleet. Having Moltke around probably helped melt that cold shell of hers a bit more.

Well, only time will tell.

Chapter Text

Ironblood dorm, later that day.

After spending a few hours fussing over Meowfficer's, Bismarck and Tirpitz returned to the Ironblood dorm, with Moltke, Ottilie, and Alfrena. It was getting late, so they decided to have dinner in the Iron Pub. Treating the young battleships to some good traditional German food. Needless to say, the three girls enjoyed the meal. Moltke especially, as it reminded her of home.

Bismarck felt sorry for the young battleship. She was stuck in a foreign world, with people she both knew and didn't know, away from those she truly cared about.

As the Leader of the Ironblood, she had access to the most advanced technology the Ironblood had to offer. Yet even she was baffled by this. She had no idea how Moltke was brought here, and no idea how to send her back. She had never touched interdimensional travail, so was very unfamiliar with the concept of moving between dimensions. She didn't even know where to even start. Hopefully, the recon team that had been sent to the area she was found would be able to find something that could help them because she was at a loss right now.

“You ok sister,” Tirpitz asked, bringing Bismarck back to reality “You haven't eaten much”.

“Oh, sorry,” Bismarck said before she quickly went back to eating her food “I was just lost in thought for a moment. Just trying to come up with a way to send Moltke home without killing her. We don't have anything to work on at the moment”.

“Hey, don't worry yourself about me,” Moltke said with a smile “Don't rush things. If you rush it, you will miss something and could get someone killed. Bismarck. My Bismarck that is, told me that”.

“Now that is some sensible advice,” Bismarck remarked, “Your worlds version of me has some very good advice. I just wish that I knew that before I decided to turn against the Azur Lane. That was the worst dissension I have ever made”.

“We all make mistakes sister. Some bigger then others” Tirpitz said.

“I know. But it is good that the others have allowed us to make amends for our actions” Bismarck said, “Hood especially. Sinking her troubled me greatly”.

“Who's Hood?” Moltke asked, “I've been told by Admiral Hipper that you're dating her, but she didn't tell me who she is”.

“Oh, she's a Royal Navy battlecruiser. Admiral Class” Bismarck replied “Does she also exist in your world?” she asked.

Moltke nodded “I think she did, but I don't think the ship is around any more,” she said, “The Royal Navy broke her down during the financial crisis”.

Bismarck lowered her head “I see” she said “I should have expected this, what with England not doing so well in your world. I guess that there are some Kansen from our world who just don't exist in yours. Wait a second, how many U-boats does the German Congressional Republic have?” she asked sounding rather distressed.

“Ur, somewhere around two-hundred and fifty” Moltke replied “Maybe three-hundred. Why do you ask?”

Bismarck looked very shocked at the news, barely able to hold herself together “U-556 doesn't exist in your world”.

“What!” Ottilie said sounding almost horrified “Say it ain't so” she pleaded, turning towards Moltke.

The young battleship lowered her head “I'm sorry. But we don't have a U-boat designated U-556. Plan-Z didn't really include any U-boats, so we haven't been producing many of them”.

“That would explain why she doesn't exist in her world,” Tirpitz said “Her worlds Germany focusing on completing plan Z resulted in fewer U-boats being built. We did only have twenty-four ready for operations in the Atlantic when the war started. It was only after plan Z was cancelled did we speed up U-boat production. So it stands to reason that they won't have as many as we do”.

“Who is U-556?” Moltke asked

Bismarck smiled lightly “She's my little Parzival” she replied “I gave her my personal band during her commissioning ceremony. In return, she gave me this,” she said as she got out the Patenschaftsurkunde U-556 had given her and showed it to Moltke “She promised to protect me. But, when the time came to fulfil her oath, she was unable to do so. She had used up all of her torpedoes on a previous mission and was running low on fuel, so was unable to protect me from the Royal Navy's onslaught. She had never forgiven herself for that”.

“I see,” Moltke said quietly “You must care for her a lot”.

“I do” Bismarck replied “I try to play with her whenever I have free time. But, as the Ironblood leader, I have a lot of work to sort through. So I have very little free time on my hand to begin with. But, thankfully, Friedrich der Große has agreed to share the leadership of the Ironblood, giving me a bit more free time than I usually have”.

“Well that's good to hear,” Moltke said, “Overworking can have quite the negative effect on us. Many nights I've walked into my sister's office and found her fast asleep at her desk, paperwork all other the place”.

“I can relate to that” Bismarck said as she took a sip of beer. Many a time had she fallen asleep at her desk, only to wake up in the morning with a blanket over her, courtesy of Friedrich der Große. Speaking of which “Oh yes, I heard from Admiral Hipper that the ships of the Kaiser class are Kansen in your world. I've always wanted to meet them, but never can as the Sirens sunk all of them before they could become Kansen. And our Friedrich was never of that class. So I'm rather interested in getting to know about them”.

“Oh, ok the” Moltke said “Well, Kaiser is a lot like her namesake, regal and strong. She refers to us as her subjects, but we're all ok with it, as she treats us well. She also refuses to use KMS as her ship prefix, preferring to use the old SMS one. Friedrich is, from what I've heard of her, a lot like this worlds Friedrich. She's like a mother to us all” she explained “Kaiserin is also a bit like her namesake, with a love of flowers. Expect any navy base she's on to have a sudden influx of flowers. Prinzregent Luitpold is a master in the kitchen and can cook almost every single German dish. Also, her butterkäse is to die for. And König Albert is the headmistress at the Hamburg Navy academy”.

“I see,” Bismarck said, “If it was possible, I would like to meet them. But, right now we have no way to get to your world. And even if we did, how would we get back. We don't even know if it's safe”.

“Agreed. Until we can find out what brought you here, we can't find a way to send you home” Tirpitz added.

“I understand” Moltke said “I just wish that I could help in that regard. But my ship wasn't cleared for rigging manifestation, nor was I linked up to its systems yet. So I was unable to get any readings. If there was a repeat of the weird storm you found me in, then we might have an idea what happened. But, I don't know if we'll ever see rain going upwards again”.

“Well, let's just hope the patrol fleet we're sending to the area we found you can find something,” Bismarck said before she noticed that Ottilie and Alfrena had only eaten half of their food “Aren't you two going to finish those?” she asked.

The two young battleships looked at each before turning back to there older serfs “Ur, don't you remember. We're going to a sleepover with the Eagle Union child Kansen. You know, the one with Enterprise, Little E, Clevelad, Lena, Li'l Sandy, Zeppy, and Eugenie” Alfrena said, “There's going to be a lot of snacks there, so we don't want to eat too much now”.

Bismarck looked at them with a rather confused look, taking a moment to process what Alfrena just said, “Fuck, I forgot that that was today”.

“Can we bring Moltke along?” Ottilie asked.

“That might not be the best thing to do” Tirpitz replied, “She's still recovering from her injuries. And I've heard what happens in those Eagle Union sleepovers. They can get quite hyperactive with those pillow fights”.

“I don't think that will be a problem,” Alfrena said, “We will have Enterprise watching over us, so it shouldn't be as bad as that one time Akagi-chan smashed a pillow through a wall. Plus I'm sure she can look after Moltke”.

“Well. As long as she's kept safe, I'll allow it” Bismarck said, “But the final say comes from Moltke. It's up to her if she wants to go or not”.

The two young battleships turned towards Moltke, looking at her expectantly “Ur, well. If Bismarck's ok with, it, then yeah, I think I'll go” she said “Just don't expect me to do much. My arm's still broken after all”.

Ottilie and Alfrena smiled before they hugged Moltke. Bismarck smiled at the sight. They've known her less than a day and already they've welcomed her with open arms. But, as much as it saddened her, one day she would have to retune home.

Hopefully, the patrol fleet they sent to the area they found her in would be able to turn something up.

Sakura Empire patrol fleet. On route to the area where Moltke was found.

“Fuck me, how big is this storm!” Zuikaku shouted over comms as her ship was shoved all over the place by the massive waves that suddenly formed around them.

It had been a quiet day for them, that was, until, it wasn't. The sea turned violent very quickly, and what felt like a tsunami raged around them, with thick and heavy rain that felt more like hail. None of them had activated their rigging, so all of them were riding on board their ships.

“We have to get the destroyers onboard the larger ship's!” Kii shouted over comms “They risk getting capsized in this weather”.

“Rodger. Mutsuki, get you and your sisters into their rigging and onboard one of the larger ships, now” Zuikaku ordered over comms. She could hear screaming and crying coming from the Mutsuki-class destroyers who were escorting them. Their ships were not built to withstand such large waves and violent storms.

“I'll try Zuikaku” Mutsuki shakily replied. The carrier could hear the fear in her voice.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday!” Mikasa shouted over comms, sounding very distressed “I've got multiple hull breachers across my port side, and my engine room is flooding quickly. I require immediate assistance!”.

“Fuck!” Zuikaku cursed as she tried to keep her balance. Whilst she was safe inside her ship's bridge, the violent rocking was making it impossible to stay standing “Akashi, can you get over to her?”.

“I'll trying to, nya!” Akashi replied franticly “But I have absolutely zero control over my ship in this weather!”.

“Well, there goes both my floatplane's!” Aoba shouted over comms “Bloody wave just swept them off the deck. How am I supposed to gather a scoop on this now?”.

“Zuikaku, all the destroyers and their riggings are safely onboard my ship” Kii reported.

“Ur, guys,” Kisaragi said nervously over the comms “Why is it raining upwards?” she asked.

Zuikaku's eyes widened as she quickly looked outside. Indeed, the rain was going upwards “Yuubari! Start taking reeding's!” Zuikaku said.

“Don't worry, I've already started taking readings on the local area” Yuubari replied calmly “This storm is definably not natural. Something is causing this”.

“Any idea what it-, Holy fuck!” Zuikaku shouted as a very large lightning bolt hit the sea ahead of them. It was soon followed by five more, each one hitting the surface of the water with the force of an artillery strike. She didn't have time to comment on it before gravity remembered how it worked, and the rain started falling towards the ground again. Then, moments later, everything clammed down. The rain stopped, the wind died down, the dark clouds vanished, and the sea calmed down considerably.

“Ok, that happened,” Kii remarked, sounding rather confused “Any idea what caused that, Yuubari?”

“No, I don't” Yuubari replied “I've yet to start looking through all the data I gathered on that storm”

“I'm still sinking over here guys!” Mikasa shouted.

“Akashi, get over to Mikasa and fix the damage to her ship” Zuikaku ordered.

“On it nya” Akashi replied.

“Contact” the salvage ship Kommuna shouted over comms “I'm reading six unknown Kansen ahead of us”.

Zuikaku quickly rushed to the front of her bridge and looked ahead of her. The waves were still somewhat big, so it was difficult to see them “I don't see anything” she said. Her own radar was malfunctioning, so she couldn't use it to find them. Then she saw someone lying motionless on the water. She couldn't get a good look at them, but it was defiantly a person.

“Man overboard!” the carrier shouted, manifesting her rigging and advanced quickly towards the person in the water “Kii, deploy the destroyers to my location. Have then scan the area for anyone in the water”.

“On it. How many casualties are we looking for?” Kii asked as the destroyers disembarked from her ship.

“Six by the sounds of thins” Zuikaku replied, “There are six radar contacts. And there were six lightning strikes”.

“You think the lightning is connected to how they got here?” Kii said.

“Probably” the carrier replied “Hipper's report did say that there was upwards rain in the area before they found Moltke. So we've probably just seen first hand the phenomena that brought her here. But we're nowhere near where she was found”.

“Obviously it's not limited to one area,” Yuubari said, “Recover the six Kansen and bring them to Akashi's ship. If this is that same thing that brought Moltke to our world, then these Kansen are most defiantly need healing”.

“Copy that,” Zuikaku said as she approached one of the Kansne. She recognised the rigging as that of the Ironblood. But it was heavily damaged and wasn't moving. The Kansen herself was laying face first in the water, which would have been fatal if she was human, or didn't have her rigging on her. Her uniform was completely destroyed, with only a few rags left.

She quickly skated over to the Kansen and rolled her onto her back, and was instantly shocked by who she saw.

“Hipper?”.

Chapter Text

Sakura Empire patrol fleet. On route to Azur Main


“So, how are they doing?” Zuikaku asked as she walked into the medical bay of Akashi's ship. The green-haired cat followed close behind.

They had long since recovered the Kansne who had suddenly appeared after the storm, and were now heading back towards Azur Main. The command already knew what had happened, and was now making preparations for their return.

They had managed to identify five of the six Kansen. Bismarck, Tirpitz, Graf Zeppelin, Admiral Hipper, and Z46. There was also one unidentified destroyer with them. But, by the look of her rigging, she was probably of the Type 1936C class.

All six of them had sustained heavy damage. Their uniforms were torn to shreds, their riggings were ruined, and their bodies were covered in deep cuts and burns. The two destroyers had it worst, as they were currently on life support.

There was something odd about these Kansen. Yes, they were from Moltke's world, Bismarck's flagpole proved that. Their rigging was the same, if slightly more aggressive-looking, as the rigging of their Ironblood counterparts. Which was rather confusing, as the Ironblood's rigging only looked like that because of the Siren tech they've incorporated into their ships. And Moltke said that there were no sirens in her world. So why does their rigging look like those of the Ironblood?

“Their doing better than when we picked them up nya” Akashi replied as they walked up to the bed that Hipper was laying in. Kommuna and Yuubari were busy checking on her rigging “The destroyers are no longer in a critical condition, and the Regen we've injected them with is doing its job. They should be fully recovered by the time we reach Azur Main, nya”.

“Good,” Zuikaku said as she walked over to Kommuna and Yuubari “Kommuna, Yuubari. How're the repairs to their rigging going?”.

“Not well” Kommuna replied “Despite this looking like Ironblood rigging, there are a lot of internal differences that are making it almost impossible for me to fix. It's the same problem we're having with Moltke's ship. There are a lot of differences between our world's version of the Bismarck class, and her world's version. It's almost like these guys are stuffed to the gills with Siren tech”.

“Siren tech?” Zuikaku said sounding surprised “They have Siren tech incorporated into their rigging? How is that possible. Moltke said that there were no Sirens in her world”.

“Just because she says that there aren't any Sirens in her world, doesn't mean that they aren't there” Yuubari stated “The Sirens could be keeping to the shadows in her world, watching as events unfold and waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves”.

“That doesn't explain why their rigging has siren tech in it,” Zuikaku said.

“They could have found an abandoned Siren base in their world,” Kommuna said “We have found a few bases that have been abandoned by the Sirens, so it stands to reason that the GCR may have found one and are incorporating the tech they found in it into their Kansen. But that begs the question, what are the sirens doing in her world and why are they keeping to the shadows”.

“We may never know-” Akashi said before Admiral Hipper suddenly started coughing violently “What the!” she shouted as she and Kommuna quickly rushed up to her.

“What's wrong with her?!” Zuikaku asked sounding very concerned.

“I don't know!” Akashi replied “She may be having a negative reaction to the Regen we've injected her with, nya!” she said before Hipper coughed up a small fish “Or she had a fish in her”.

Everyone looked at the dead fish as it lay on the ground, very surprised and rather confused by the sight of it.
“I, have several questions,” Zuikaku said as she picked up the fish.

“Can I have some water please?” Hipper said weakly. She spoke in German, which wasn't much of a problem as all of them knew the language. As a Kansen they were sent all over the world to fight, so it stood to reason that they should know all the major languages, just in case.

“Of course,” Akashi said before she rushed off towards a trolley, taking an already filled glass of water and rushed back over to them “Here you go nya”.

Hipper took the glass without question and downed it in one go. She then passed it back to Akashi, and then froze with a very shocked look on her face “What the fuck are you?” she asked sounding very surprised.

“I am the Sakura Empire repair ship Akashi, nya” Akashi replied in German, just in case this Hipper didn't know English.

“Sakura who?” Hipper said sounding surprised “Where even am I?” she asked before looking around, noticing the other five Kansen who were resting in the medical beds “What happened to us?”.

“Oh boy, not this again,” Zuikaku said with a sigh “Alright. Miss Hipper, this may sound strange, but our world is vastly different from yours. Here, everyone has Kansne, and we're all working together as part of a large organisation call the Azur Lane, to fight off a bunch of alien's called Sirens. Now, there are several factions in the Azur Lane, there's the Royal Navy, Eagle Union, Sakura Empire, that's us by the way. There's also the Dragon Empery, Northern Parliament, Iris Libre, Vichya Dominion, Sardegna Empire, and then there's the Ironblood, which is our world's version of the German Congressional Republic, just minus the territory's of Austro-Hungaria” she explained, “And before you ask how we know about your world, Moltke told us”.

Hipper's expression quickly changed into a smile “Moltke's here?” she asked happily.

Zuikaku nodded “She is, she's just not here in this fleet. She's back at our main base recovering. Whatever brought her here caused some major damaged to her ship” she replied “You wouldn't know what happened to her?” she asked.

Hipper shook her head “I'm afraid not. The events concerning Moltke's disappearance are sketchy at best” she replied “I'm too sure on the details, but after Moltke disappeared, we sent a fleet in to Investigate the area. When they reached the area they got attacked by an unknown Kansen, one that didn't show up on our sensors”.

That set off every single alarm bell inside Zuikaku. There was only one kind of Kansen who was invisible to sensors “An ashes ship” she said “Do you know what she looked like?” she asked.

Hipper shook her head “I wasn't part of the operation. You'll have to ask Bismarck, once she wakes up that is, as she was there. All I know is that there was a lot of unknown aircraft in the area and that the unknown Kansen disappeared during an unnatural storm” she replied before turning to Akashi “So, what's with the cat ears?”.

“The Sakura Empire incorporates animal DNA into its Kansen, nya” Akashi replied “Some have cat, dog, or fox ears and tails, other's have horns and multiple foxtails, whilst others don't have any visible differences. Like Zuikaku here, she's part crane nya”.

“Ah, I see. That could give you some serious advantages in some areas” Hipper said “Does it have any disadvantages?” she asked.

“Ur, well. Let's just say that the fox and bird mating seasons can be a bit dangerous for the Commander. He's our boss” Zuikaku replied “And don't get me started on Akashi's 'heat cycles'. You do not want to know about them” she said, as Akashi nodded franticly.

“I, see,” Hipper said nervously “Ur, changing the subject a bit here, but you said something about an 'ashes ship'. What exactly is an ashes ship?”.

“We don't exactly know who they are” Yuubari replied “We think the ashes are versions of us from another timeline, one that we lost the war against the sirens. Although even that's only a guess, as we know nothing about their world” she explained “The Ashes themselves are very dangerous, not only are they invisible to our sensors, but they can also lay waste to entire Siren armadas. If you've encountered one in your world, then that must mean that there is a Siren presence there”

“Right, well that would explain why the patrol fleet we sent there got their arse kicked by what they say was a carrier,” Hipper said “Still, what on earth are these Sirens your keep bringing up?”.

“Their alien invaders, from where they're from we don't know. They just showed up one day and took over the world's oceans” Yuubari replied “Think of them as really advanced Kansen who's rigging's resemble fish and other sea creatures. They all wear black clothing, have white hair, yellow eyes, and talk in a rather cryptic manner. Well some of them do. You wouldn't have seen anyone like that?”.

“Sorry, can't say that I have,” Hipper said.

Well, that only confirmed it. The Sirens were keeping to the shadows in her world.

“You know, your acting a lot differently from our worlds Hipper” Zuikaku remarked.

“Well, when you don't have your annoying younger sister around, you tend to be a lot calmer and controlled,” Hipper said “Although, seeing that there is another me in this world, there stands to reason that there's another Eugen as well,” she said sounding slightly annoyed “I am so glad she didn't come with us on this mission. I don't think I could survive having two Eugen's around”.

“Yeah, talking about there duplicate Kansen, we've been unable to identify one of the Kansen with you. One of the destroyers to be exact” Kommuna said, “We know Z46, but we don't know who the other one is”.

Hipper looked rather confused by the question she had just been asked “Ur, that's Z50, one of Z46's sisters. Surly you should know who she is, right?”.

The four Kansen present gave her a rather sombre look “I'm afraid that there is no Kansen or ship named Z50 in our world” Zuikaku replied “The Ironblood never completed plan Z, so there's a lot of ships that were never completed in this world”.

Hipper Looked down sombrely “I see. What happened?” she asked.

“Plan Z was cancelled because someone in the Ironblood chain of command decided to start a world war” Zuikaku replied “They switched their focus to U-boat production just after the war started. As a result, a lot of ships were either sold, cancelled, or just left incomplete”.

Hipper frowned as she laid back in bed. It was obvious that she wasn't taking the news well. Who would? Knowing that your friends and colleagues don't exist in another world isn't something anyone can easily handle.

“You ok, nya?” Akashi asked.

Hipper sighed “I'll be lying if I said I was ok,” she said “What about my other sisters. What happened to them?” she asked.

“Ah,” Zuikaku said, really not wanting to answer this one.

“Oh god, what happened to them?” Hipper asked sounding very concerned.

“Oh, ur, well. Nothing too bad, well, for two of them anyway” Zuikaku replied nervously “Blücher's fine-ish. She hasn't exactly been the same since the battle of Drøbak Sound. Seydlitz was converted into an aircraft carrier and renamed Weser, and Lützow was sold to the Northern Parliament and renamed Petropavlovsk. Or was it Tallinn” she said, noticing Hipper looking more and more shocked the more she spoke.

“What!” Hipper shouted sounding very shocked, only to suddenly screech out in pain “Oh god, that was a bad thing to do. Ow!” she screeched as she laid back in bed “The carrier conversion I can understand, but selling Lützow to the Russians. What the hell were they thinking”.

“Hay, ships get sold to other country's all the time,” Kommuna said “Yes I know, it's a scummy thing to do selling a Kansne. But it's something we've all come to terms with. Also, you can't really complain about it, as your country brought both Queen Elizabeth and Unicorn from the British. Ok, they weren't Kansen at the time, but it's still the same thing”.

“Can we get back to the more important question I've been waiting to ask for a while now?” Yuubari said sounding a bit annoyed “Like how they got here in the first place?” she said.

Hipper sighed “I don't like that two of my sisters were renamed, and one was sold, but I can live with it. This isn't my world after all,” she said “And to answer her, question. I don't know, none of us knew what we used to bring us here. High command kept the workings of the device that would send us here very secret. All we knew that the device had two charges, one to send us to where-ever Moltke was sent, and one to take us home” she explained “Although, there is a zero chance in hell that I'm going through that shit again”.

“Do you remember what happened?” Yuubari asked.

“I remember a massive storm, then lightning, then pain” Hipper replied slowly “God the pain was unbearable. It was like I was being cut up by my own propellers. I must have passed out sometime after that as I don't remember anything else after the pain started”.

“Must have been too much for you to handle,” Zuikaku said “You know your lucky that we were in the area when you arrived, otherwise you would probably all be dead by now”.

“Yeah. We're defiantly not using that to send us home” Hipper said, “You are working on a way to send us back right?”.

“We've already got a few ideas, nya” Akashi replied “Thanks to the data we gathered on the storm, we've got a better idea on how the storm was created. But it will take a while for us to go through it all, nya” she said “But, it has answered one question that's been on our minds for some time now, how the Ashes Kansen more between realities. Now that we know what we're looking for, we can easily detect when an Ashes shows up. This can really improve our observation on them, nya”.

“Yes, but it will take a while for us to set everything up,” Yuubari said “We're talking at least a few weeks to get everything ready, then we'll have to wait for an Ashes to show up, then we have to go over there and hope their still around to help us. And then there's a chance that they will flat out refuse to help us” she said “I estimate that it will take us at least two mounts at best to find a way to send them home”.

“Two months!” Hipper said loudly “We can't wait that long”.

“Why, what's wrong?” Zuikaku asked.

“The situation back home is getting worse by the day” Hipper replied “France continues to pour troops into the demilitarized zone along our borders, there are communist uprisings happening all over Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, fascism and communism is on the rise in our own country, America just revealed the mother of all Zeppelins, as well as a lot of new warships, Brazil just declared war on the entirety of South America, England has jumped in bed with the French, and to top it all off, Japan just turned India into a puppet state, giving them complete control over the entirety of Southern Asia” she explained, “We are on the verge of another great war in our world, and this one's shaping up to be far more bloodier than the last one”.

Zuikaku, Akashi, Yuubari, and Kommuna collectivity gulped. They knew just how bad the last war was, having all fought and died in that war. The way things were shaping up in Moltke's world, it sounded a lot worse than their own world, not help by the fact that the war was happening much later, with all the improved technologies that would have been developed over the years.

Hipper was right, the war in her world was going to be far worse than their own one.

“Ok, I'll get to work on the data right away,” Yuubari said as she quickly rushed out of the room. Zuikaku could understand the rush, they needed to get these girls home ASAP. Their country would need every asset it had to fight the upcoming war, and losing seven ships, three of which are battleships, as well as a carrier, before the war even started, was a blow they couldn't afford.

Hopefully, they could get them back before the war even started, that is, if they could get them back alive and in once piece that is, as they still had no idea what had been used to bring them here in the first place. Whatever it was, the Ashes clearly use it as well. So the answers to this problem lies with them. It was just getting one to cooperate that was the problem.

Chapter Text

Sakura Empire patrol fleet. Half an hour from Azur main.

Admiral Hipper did not like being an errand girl. She did not like going about and carrying out small and meaningless tasks. Yet, when the order came in for a volunteer to send replacement uniforms to the Sakura Empire patrol fleet, as the uniforms of the six GCR Kansen had been destroyed, Hipper jumped at it. Not because she wanted to be kind or anything, but because she wanted to meet with her other self without her sister Eugen around. The last thing she needed was for her sister to be teasing the both of them.

It was only as she was walking towards the medical bay onboard Akashi's ship, carrying replacement clothing for the GCR Kansne, with Moltke by her side, did she start having second thoughts. Up until now, the only copy's of herself she had seen her mindless pawns made from a Mirror Sea. But now she had to deal with a copy of her that was not only from another world but also just as alive as she was.

Still, she was glad that she would be doing this without any of her sisters around, as this would be quite a difficult task for her. For both of her.

“I hope my sisters are ok,” Moltke said with a frown. Her arm had recovered enough so that it didn't need to be kept in a sling any more.

“Don't worry, Akashi been looking after them,” Hipper said reassuringly “She's one of the best repair ships in the fleet, so I'm sure your sisters will be ok”.

“Graf, we are not spreading the joy of love and peace to these Sirens” the voice of Bismarck was heard coming from the medical bay. It took Hipper a moment to remember that this was the GCR Bismarck talking here, not the Ironblood Bismarck “This worlds version of you has already tried that, and all that did was piss them off”.

“Then perhaps, with both our powers combined, we shall succeed” the voice of Graf replied, although this wasn't normal Graf, this was the voice of Love and Peace Graf, which was already giving her flashbacks of the personality reverse incident.

“I'm afraid that won't work,” Hipper said as she walked into the medical bay, stopping a bit into the room “Our Graf Zeppelin has long since had her personality restored to its original doom and gloom state, so there is very little chance that she would agree to such a plan,” she said.

The six Kansen quickly turned to look at her, still resting in their beds. It was surprising to see them, five Kansen who she knew but also didn't know. Bismarck, Tirpitz, Z46, Graf Zeppelin, and herself. Z50 was the only one there that stood out, as she was a Kansen that just didn't exist here.

The six GCR Kansen looked at her with a mix of shocked and surprised looks. Her other self was the most surprised. Who wouldn't be when their face to face with someone who looks exactly like you.

Moltke was the one to break the silence “Sisters” she cried as she rushed over to GCR Bismarck and jumped onto her and hugged her “I never thought I'll ever be able to see you again” she said, tears falling from her eyes.

“It's ok sister,” GCR Bismarck said softly as she hugged her younger sister “We're here now. We're not leaving you alone ever again,” she said before turning to Hipper “Thank you for looking after her”.

“Your welcome” Hipper replied as she walked over to one of the spare beds “I've got you all replacement uniforms, although they are the uniforms worn by my worlds versions of you, so they will be different,” she said, “I've got two sets of Z46's uniform, as Z50 doesn't have a counterpart here”.

“We understand” GCR Bismarck said with a frown “We have already been informed that plan Z was never completed in this world. You have our apologies”.

“That's not really necessary. There was nothing we could have done about it” Hipper said “Circumstances beyond our control caused it to be abandoned” she said, only just noticing that there was an obvious difference between this Bismarck and Tirpitz, they had swapped hairstyles. At least that would make it easier to tell them apart from this her worlds versions of them.

“So, your me,” GCR Admiral Hipper said, a surprised look still on her face.

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Hipper said as she started separating the pile into everyone's individual uniforms “There are differences between us, due to the vastly different conditions in our respective worlds. But there are some things that are the same, like an annoying younger sister”.

“Oh fuck” GCR Hipper cursed “And here I thought I'll be able to spend some time away from my annoying sister”.

“Oh don't be like that Hipper” GCR Graf Zeppelin said with a smile “Your sister Eugen loves you”.

“Yeah, well she has a rather annoying way of showing it,” GCR Hipper said as Hipper gave her her new uniform “Danke,” she said before she examined the uniform “Well, it's not exactly proper navy uniform, but it will have to-. Why the fuck are their armpit holes!?” she suddenly shouted, noticing the holes where her armpits would be.

“I have no idea” Hipper replied as she gave Graf her uniform “That's the uniform I manifested in, holes included”.

“You manifested in this!” GCR Hipper said sounding shocked.

Hipper nodded “Yep, that I did,” she said as she passed Z46 and Z50 their uniforms “It could have been worse, I could have manifested in something skimpy”.

“I, see,” GCR Hipper said as she noticed that the uniforms for Bismarck and Graf Zeppelin had not only rather small skirts but also didn't completely cover their breasts.

“This is what my counterpart wears here?” GCR Bismarck said as she looked at the uniform “How can she wear something like this? The skirt is too short, and the top of the breasts are exposed”.

“Hey, don't worry about it sis,” Moltke said “It's just until they can make you new uniforms. Shouldn't take more than a few days”.

GCR Bismarck sighed “Alright, I'll wear this for now,” she said.

“Well, this is bullshit!” GCR Tirpitz said sounding rather annoyed “Why does Bismarck's uniform show cleavage, but my one doesn't?”.

GCR Bismarck sighed “Seriously sister, that's what you're complaining about, the lack of visible cleavage on your uniform,” she said, “You never complained about our old uniforms”.

“Yes, that is because they're all the same. Here everyone's uniform is different” GCR Tirpitz said “And it's bullshit that your uniform shows cleavage whilst mine-” she said before she suddenly found Bismarck's uniform thrown into her face.

“Alright then, we'll switch uniforms then,” GCR Bismarck said, “You wear Bismarck's uniform, whilst I wear Tirpitz uniform. Is that ok with you”.

Hipper sighed, this had gotten slightly out of hand. Oh well, at least people will be able to tell the difference between the two Bismarck's and Tirpitz's.

Half an hour later. Azur main port.

Bismarck was feeling rather embarrassed right now. Not because she was waiting to meet with her GCR self. But because she was waiting to meet with her GCR self, whilst wearing a bikini. All thanks to someone telling her that the Sakura Empire patrol fleet would arrive late in the afternoon. By the time someone had informed her of the mistake, the fleet had already arrived as was now docking. She had no time to get changed.

There were a few other Ironblood Kansen there, Tirpitz, and Graf Zeppelin. Both of whom were wearing swimsuits.

“I hope they don't mind that we're wearing swimsuits,” Tirpitz said as the gangplank of Akashi's ship was lowered down in front of them.

“Hopefully they'll be understanding of our situation, seeing that we weren't warned about this” Bismarck said as Admiral Hipper walked down the gangplank, followed down by the GCR Kansen. She was surprised to see that the GCR Bismarck and Tirpitz had not only swapped uniforms but also haircuts. At least that would help tell them apart.

“Greetings. Welcome to Azur Main” Bismarck said as their GCR versions formed up in front of them “Sorry about the swimsuits, but someone told me that you would be arriving late in the afternoon. As you can see, we were busy with something else when we were told about the mishap”.

“Understandable,” GCR Bismarck said with a rather concerned look on her face “I've had that happen to me a few times myself. Still, why are you wearing, ur, strophium's and, whatever Graf's wearing?”.

“We were in the middle of a swimsuit competition” Tirpitz replied, “As well as a beach volleyball tournament”.

“A beach volleyball tournament?” GCR Bismarck said.

“It's basically normal volleyball, but on the beach,” Bismarck said, “And the participants are wearing swimsuits”.

GCR Tirpitz eye's widened when Bismarck said swimsuits “This I got to see,” the battleship said as she walked towards the beach, only to be held back by her sister.

“Oh no you don't,” GCR Bismarck said as she reeled her sister in “We are not here to enjoy ourselves. We are here to complete a mission. Find our sister Moltke, and get home. We've already completed step one, so all we have to do now, is find a way home that won't kill us” she explained “In the meantime, we have to deposit our ships in dry-dock for repairs. We're running low on fuel at the moment, so unless you want your ship to materialise on land, we need to deposit them ASAP”.

“Don't worry Tirpitz,” GCR Graf Zeppelin said with a friendly smile “We can always have some fun in the sun later after we've settled in a bit”.

“Oh no,” Graf said as she facepalmed “Of all the personality's she could have had, why does she have to have my reversed one,” she said.

“Oh don't be sad,” GRC Graf said as she somehow appeared beside her and put an arm around her “There's no need to have a frown when the world is full of the song of love”.

“Someone get Yorktown,” Graf said sounding displeased “I can handle Yorktown. I can't handle love and peace me,” she said before GCR Graf pulled her closer “I hate this”.

“Graf, please stop tormenting this worlds version of you” GCR Bismarck said with an annoyed look on her face.

“Graf,” the voice of Zeppy said loudly as the small carrier rushed over to the group “The match between you, Yorktown, Enterprise, and Belfast is almost- ready?” she said as she stopped a few feet away from them, looking rather confused at the sight of two Graf Zeppelins.

“Oh no,” Graf said, realising what was about to happen.

“Oh my god!” GCR Graf beamed brightly as she laid eyes on Zeppy. She zipped over to her and hugged her tightly “Aren't you the cutest little thing I have ever seen” she said with a large smile.

Zeppy did not look like she was enjoying the sudden affection “Graf, help. There's a madwoman who looks like you trying to squees me to death!” she said as she summoned her rigging, which promptly started gnawing on GCR Graf's leg, to no visible effect what so ever.

“Ur, ok. Who is that, and why does she look like a younger version of Graf Zeppelin” GCR Bismarck asked.

“That would be Zeppy, the child version of Graf Zeppelin who was created after an incident involving a Siren laser and a Wisdom cube” Bismarck replied with a sigh “There are several of them on site. They even have their own rigging”.

“Wait. You mean these child versions manifest, with their own rigging, without anyone having to build a ship for them” GCR Tirpitz said, getting a nod from Tirpitz.

“We've been unable to explain how that happens, but for all intents and purposes, we're making an exact copy of a ship out of nowhere” Tirpitz explained “It's just that the Kansen for the new ship are just younger than the original”.

“Taste my wrath!!” Zeppy shouted, activating her barrage and focusing it on GCR Graf, causing a rather large explosion. When the smoke cleared, Zeppy was sitting on her rigging whilst GCR Graf was laying on the floor, smiling blissfully.

The GCR Kansen looked on with rather surprised looks “That's a lot of firepower for a carrier”.

“Well, she does have sixteen medium-calibre naval guns, so she's not exactly a slouch in close range combat,” Tirpitz said.

“Sixteen!” the five other GCR Kansen said sounding surprised.

“Our Graf only has eight guns on double mounts!” GCR Bismarck said “How does Zeppy have more. Does your Graf have a similar loadout?” she asked.

“Actually, I don't” Graf replied “Zeppy, being a younger version of me, reflects my early 1938-40 design, which, thanks to a miscommunication, the builders thought that they were supposed to double the number of guns I had, where in fact they were supposed to be on double mounts. I myself am the 1942-3 refit plan, which had the guns removed” she said “Now if you can excuse me, I've got a beach volleyball match with my girlfriend to win” she said as she walked off towards the beach. Zeppy following behind her.

“Graf has a girlfriend,” GCR Hipper said sounding rather surprised.

“Oh yeah, she's been dating the Eagle Union aircraft carrier Yorktown for a while now,” Hipper said “Some of us are still surprised about it. Anyway, we should get you out of your rigging, before a forced materialisation happens”.

“Agreed,” GCR Bismarck said before she and GCR Tirpitz walked over to GCR Graf and picked her up “Let's get out ships deposited,” she said.

“Follow me please lady's,” Bismarck said before she and Tirpitz walked towards the drydocks, followed by the GCR Kansen, Moltke, Hipper, and Akashi.

Chapter Text

Azur Main dock

“Sister,” Bismarck said as she and her sister Tirpitz watched several dock workers start repairing the damage to the GCR Kansen's ships. It didn't help that the two of them were still wearing their swimsuits.

“Yes, sister,” Tirpitz said, notching her head to the side.

“There's something I've just found out about our other world counterparts,” Bismarck said, looking at a tablet device “Something that pisses me off”.

“And what might that be?” Tirpitz asked.

“Oh, nothing much” Bismarck replied “It's just that, why do the GCR Bismarck class have sixteen-inch guns whilst we only have fifteen-inch guns! This is bullshit, shouldn't the Washington naval treaty and treaty of Versailles prevented Germany from building ships with sixteen-inch guns?”.

“The what treaty's?” a voice asked behind them.

The two battleships turned around and saw GCR Z46 and her sister, Z50, standing behind them.

GCR Z46 didn't look much different from her counterpart in this world, apart from the Reichsadler on her forehead resembled the three-headed one on Moltke's flag. Z50 meanwhile looked slightly taller than her sister, and had long brown hair that was shorter then Z46's, blue eyes, and seemed to be rocking from side to side with a smile on her face.

“Z46, Z50. Shouldn't you two be with your Bismarck?” Tirpitz asked sounding rather surprised.

“We were,” GCR Z46 said “But we saw a very cute yellow bird thing and followed it. And now we're lost,” she said. Bismarck noticed that her speech pattern was very different from their worlds Z46. She was more friendly and outgoing, not distant and formal like this worlds Z46.

“Oh, that was a Manjuu you were following,” Tirpitz said “You can find that all over the base, working and supporting base operations” she explained.

“Ah, I see. We don't have anything like Manjuu in our world” Z50 said with a smile “They look very cute”.

“They can also be quite perverted at times,” Bismarck said “Believe me, I've lost count of the number of times I've found one of them in my underwear draw”.

“Ah, that would explain why we saw it looking up my skirt then,” GCR Z46 said “So where were those treaty you were talking about?”.

Bismarck sighed “The fact that you have to ask what they are, already tell me that they don't exist in your world. And I think I know why,” she said “The treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty that brought the first world war to an end. But, seeing that you lot decided to just end the war due to the economy being ruined and resolve everything once the economy was stable, you never signed the treaty. As for the Washington naval treaty, it was a treaty proposed by America to limit ship construction. But, since everyone was pissed off at America for extending the war in the first place, and that the economy was so ruined, nobody signed the treaty as none of them could afford large scale ship construction projects”.

Both destroyers nodded “Yep, that's what happened” Z50 said, “Like we would allow the nation that ruined everything to screw us over even more”.

“So, no Washington naval treaty,” Tirpitz said before she quickly turned to GCR Graf Zeppelin's ship “Now I understand why their Graf's ship looks different. It wasn't based on Akagi”.

“What?” Bismarck said sounding rather confused.

“Graf Zeppelin was based on Akagi right? Well, Akagi was only converted into an aircraft carrier because of the Washington navy treaty, which never passed in their world, meaning that their world's version of Akagi never got converted into a carrier. Which, if I'm right, their Graf was based on another carrier. And I think I know which one” she replied before turning towards GCR Z46 and Z50 “Correct me if I'm wrong, but your Graf Zeppelin was based on Illustrious, right?”.

“Yep” Z46 replied, “Our commanders based her off of the then Royal Navy's Illustrious class armoured carriers. Before they sold the four vessels of the class to the Italians”.

“Yeah, heard about that. Really hoped that Queen Elizabeth would have been pissed off by being sold to you guys, but sadly wasn't” Bismarck said “Really annoyed that we didn't get a reaction out of her. Anyway. We should be getting you two back to your Bismarck. She'll probably be worried about you” she said before the two battleships escorted the destroyers back to the Ironblood dorm, where the GCR Kansen were staying.

When they arrived at the rec room the GCR Kansen were staying in, they were rather surprised to find that it was empty.

“Ur, where did everyone go?” Tirpitz wondered as they walked into the room “Wasn't Leipzig supposed to be keeping an eye on them?” she asked.

“She was,” Bismarck said before she walked over to the table, noticing a note had been left on it. She picked it up, and read it 'Lord Bismarck. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to stop them, but the other Graf convinced everyone to go to the beach. I tried to stop them, but their Graf was too scary for me, so I had to let them go. I'll follow them and keep an eye on them, but I may need some help. Leipzig'.

“Well crap, they're all at the beach,” Bismarck said sounding annoyed “Looks like their Graf didn't listen to our advice”.

Tirpitz sighed “We should have had Hipper or one of us keep an eye on them. People might get them confused for us”.

“Sister, the other you is more open and would probably get a kick out of seeing the other girls in swimsuits, whilst the other me would probably be unable to look at anyone. Plus their hairstyles are different. And their Graf is permanently in love and peace mode, so she'll stand the fuck out” Bismarck explained “The only one I'm worried about them getting confused with is Hipper, as she's exactly like our Hipper”.

“We should probably get over there before your Eugen starts teasing her” GCR Z46 advised “I really don't want to know what two pissed off Hipper's looks like”.

The two battleship sisters nodded before the four of them headed towards the beach. They didn't hear any explosions on the way, so hopefully, everything was fine.

Most on the one site Kansen were at the beach today, all of whom were wearing swimsuits. It was a pleasant day today, perfect for a nice day at the beach. As well as a swimsuit competition and beach volleyball tournament.

They arrived at the beach to see their GCR versions standing on the edge of the boardwalk, overlooking the rest of the beach. GCR Tirpitz had a pair of binoculars and looked to be looking directly at the girls playing volleyball.

Bismarck sighed as they walked over to them, only to notice that Eugen was with them, as well as their Hipper, both were wearing swimsuits. The two Ironblood heavy cruiser's noticed them and Hipper rushed over to them “Oh thank Gott you two are here. I was almost about to grab my sister, throw her into the sea, and scuttle her” she said.

“Well, looks like we arrived just in time to stop that,” Bismarck said before she looked around, and noticed that GCR Graf was nowhere to be seen “Oh god, where's the other Graf Zeppelin?” she asked as she looked around.

“Don't worry, I was just getting some ice cream,” GCR Graf Zeppelin said with a smile, carrying an ice cream cone tray with several large cones with a lot of ice cream in them.

“Holy cow, that is a lot of ice cream!” GCR Tirpitz exclaimed as she saw the ice cream “How are we allowed to have that much?” she asked.

“I don't know. It wasn't that expensive for some reason” GCR Graf Zeppelin replied “In fact, none of the food seemed that expensive, I wasn't even asked for my ration book”.

“Ration book,” Bismarck said sounding surprised “You guys have rations?”.

The GCR Kansen all nodded “We're still recovering from the great war, food output has still yet to recover, so we have to ration everything. It'll probably get worse if the French decide to start a war, as that would really cause us problems” she said “You lot don't have that problem, don't you”.

“Well, we used to, but not any more,” Bismarck said “Before we secured the world's oceans it was difficult to transport food around the planet, as the sirens would attack transport convoys. But, ever since things with the Sirens have settled down a bit, it's a lot easier to transport stuff around the planet now”.

“We should probably take advantage of this” GCR Tirpitz said “It's not often that we're allowed to pig out on a large quantity of food”.

“I don't know about it,” GCR Bismarck said “Why should we be allowed to 'pig out' when there are people back home who may never be able to eat this much,” she said before GCR Graf passed her one of the ice cream cones.

“Oh don't be like that Bismarck” GCR Graf said with a smile “We're stuck here until they find a way to send us home, so we might as well enjoy ourselves whilst we're here,” she said, “Besides, Moltke seems to be enjoying herself”.

“Yeah, speaking of our younger sister, where is she?” Tirpitz asked looking around “I haven't seen her since she went off with that, French ships”.

“She has a name you know,” Hipper said sounding annoyed “Dunkerque happens to be quite friendly and good at cooking. She and the other Kansen of the Vichya Dominion and Iris Libre are not like the French from your world. They are nothing like them. So don't go treating them as such, because some of them would be quite pissed off about it” she explained “Plus there are a lot of girls who would come to their defence, so please, leave your mistrust of the French in your own world”.

GCR Tirpitz looked away shamefully “I'm sorry about that, it's just that, the French are being so unreasonable back home”.

“Yes, Moltke told us of the situation in your world,” Bismarck said “I wish there was something we could do, but, we've got our own problems here. The Sirens are still a threat around here, and we still don't know how we're getting you lot back to your world,” she said, “So, in the meantime, I suggest you lot relax because your probably not going to get a chance to enjoy yourselves in your own world for a long time”.

“You right” GCR Bismarck said “We're probably not going to get a chance to relax like this again for a while once we get home”.

“Excellent” GCR Graf said with a smile, putting an arm around GCR Bismarck, surprising the battleship with the very skimpy swimsuit she had somehow gotten into without anyone noticing “We shall enjoy this wonderful day together”.

“Graf, what the fuck are you wearing!?” GCR Bismarck asked, blushing heavily.

“Oh, one of the Royal Navy Kansen gave it to me” GCR Graf replied “Hood I think her name was”.

Bismarck sighed “Looks like I'm going to have to have a word with my girlfriend about this,” she said before she walked off.

“Girlfriend!?” GCR Bismarck and Tirpitz said sounding surprised.

“Oh yeah, Bismarck's dating the battlecruiser Hood” Tirpitz replied “And I'm dating the carrier Victorious. You'll be surprised to find that a lot of Kansen who fought each other during the war are dating each other. Take Eugen for example, she's dating Prince of Wales”.

Prinz Eugen smiled “Well, Wales did give me this swimsuit, so it's only fair that I, return the favour,” she said with a smile “Although I am surprised that my sister isn't dating Glowworm”.

Hipper instantly blushed “For fuck sake Eugen, I am not dating Glowworm or anyone for that matter!” she shouted “I respect her, that's all. I don't feel remotely attracted to her. So please, stop saying I like her before me and the other Hipper decide to scuttle you for real”.

“Now now, no need to be like that” Eugen said, “Especially after you got second place in the swimsuit competition”.

“What?” Tirpitz said sounding surprised “Hipper got second place in the swimsuit competition!”.

“Well, sort of. It was only for the Ironblood one, not the overall one” Eugen said as her sister got redder and redder “Scharnhorst got first place out of all the Ironblood girls, with Admiral Graf Spee getting third. Deutschland was over the moon about that. The overall winners were Azuma with first place, Bunker Hill at second, and the newly arrived Sardegna carrier Aquila got third”.

“Eugen!” Hipper exploded “That was completely unnecessary! Seriously, I swear you convinced the commander to award me second place somehow!”.

Eugen simply smiled “Please sister, what could I have done to, 'convince' him to do that. Wales would have had my ass if I tried to cheat. Plus his wives would have had a word with me afterwards”.

“Wives?” GCR Z46 said sounding surprised “Your commanders married to multiple women”.

“Oh yeah, he's got five wives,” Tirpitz said “All of whom are either Yanderes, perverted Onee-san's, or are just outright axe crazy psychos”

“That's, quite the dangerous Harem your commanders got there,” GCR Bismarck said nervously.

“So, I take it he's the guy who's currently laying on his chest, whilst five girls, ur, fight over who puts sun cream on him,” GCR Tirpitz said.

“Yep, that's him,” Hipper said “That's our useless commander. I have no idea what he sees in those girls, other than a constant risk of death whenever he sleeps with one of them. And don't get me started on the things he tries to do to get them to get along with each other, because that's just a powderkeg just waiting to explode”.

“Sounds like a man who likes to live dangerously,” Z50 remarked, “Or has a death wish”.

“Probably both” Tirpitz said “Anyway, you girls should get to relaxing and enjoying the sun. You probably won't have so much free time on your hands when you get home”.

GCR Bismarck nodded “Yeah, might as well. But I'm not wearing one of those, skimpy swimsuits you girls seem to like”.

Chapter Text

Azur Main private beach. Half an hour later.

“I'm not coming out!” GCR Bismarck shouted from within the black beachside hut. Waiting outside was Bismarck, her sister Tirpitz, and GCR Tirpitz, who was now wearing a swimsuit similar to the one Tirpitz was wearing.

“Oh come on sis,” GCR Tirpitz said sounding annoyed “Do you want to have some fun in the sun today?” she asked.

“Tirpitz, there is a difference between having fun in the sun, and exhibiting one's self!” GCR Bismarck said “This, 'outfit' I've been forced into suits the latter. Why did you even put me into this anyway!?”.

“Do you want to get heatstroke sister?” GCR Tirpitz asked, “Because wearing the uniforms we've been given, at the beach, on such a warm day, is just asking for heatstroke. Besides, it's looks good on you”.

“Don't say that!” GCR Bismarck said “What if some perverted old man comes along and gawps at me?” she asked.

Bismarck sighed “Oh gott, not another one. Look other me, this is a private beach owned by the Azur Lane. The only people who are allowed near hear are either navy personal attached to the Azur Lane, Manjuu, and Kansen” she explained “Civilians are not allowed near here. Besides, the only men you'll see around hear are either the commander or some of the sub-commanders. And they're all busy looking at the other girls”.

Silence came from the hut, as GCR Bismarck tried to come up with a reply that could help get her point across. None came “I'm still not coming out”.

“Bismarck!” GCR Tirpitz said loudly “Either I come in there and drag you out, or I get some of these Manjuu to breach in there and carry you out”.

Silence once again came from the hut. Bismarck and Tirpitz were worried that their 'mirror' selves were about to get violent. But, to their relief, the door to the hut opened, and GCR Bismarck walked out, clad in a black bikini similar to the one Bismarck was wearing.

“I would like everyone to know that I despise every single one of you,” GCR Bismarck said sounding very annoyed.

“Please other me, don't turn into our worlds Graf Zeppelin,” Bismarck said calmly.

“You should probably put some sun cream on. It is a rather hot day today” Tirpitz advised.

“I noticed,” GCR Bismarck said, “Why do you think my sister forced me into this in the first place”.

“If it makes you feel any better, I was hesitant to wear a bikini as well,” Bismarck said with a friendly smile “But Hood managed to convince me to go out in it. Now let's find a nice, semi-quiet place on the beach to settle down and relax for a bit. Preferably close to the volleyball court, because I want a nice view of Friedrich der Große and Roon smash the everliving hell out of Drake and Cheshire”.

A haughty chuckle behind her caused her to jump, turning around to find Friedrich der Große standing behind her, wearing a black and red one-piece swimsuit.

“You flatter me, my child,” Friedrich said with a motherly smile “I do hope that my performance will leave an impression on you. It's not often I get to use my full strength in games like this. It'll be a nice change of pace,” she said before locking eyes with GCR Bismarck “Ah, and you must be Moltke's Bismarck. I would have expected you to be resting”.

“Well, our Graf can be a bit, pervasive at times,” GCR Bismarck said with an awkward smile “So, your this worlds version of Friedrich der Große”.

“Indeed I am,” Friedrich said with a smile “Prototype H-class battleship of the Iron Blood navy. I may not be the same class as your worlds Friedrich der Große, but from what I've heard about her from your sister Moltke, I am a lot like her”.

“Yes, I've noticed” GCR Bismarck said, “You, seem more intimidating than our Friedrich”.

“Maybe It's because she's a bigger ship,” GCR Tirpitz said “She is an H-class after all”.

“Indeed I am,” Friedrich said with a smile “I do hope I can talk to you more after the match. I'm interested to know about your world's version of me and her sister,” she said before she politely bowed before walking off towards the volleyball court.

“Ok, at first I was disappointed by Friedrich's choice in swimwear, but,” GCR Tirpitz said as she watched Friedrich walk away “She has... an incredible ass,” she said with a smile.

“I heard that~,” Friedrich said with a smile, stopping to look back at her.

GCR Tirpitz froze on the spot, her face turning a bright red. Friedrich smiled back before she continued to walk towards the court.

GCR Bismarck waved a hand in front of her frozen sister “Is she alright?”.

“She'll be fine,” Bismarck said “This kind of things happens all the time. Just give her a few moments to calm down. She'll be back to normal in no time”.

After waiting for GCR Tirpitz to cool back down, the four battleships made their way over to the beach, GCR Bismarck was a little nervous about it and took a lot of convincing. She eventually went along, and the four of them sat down on the beach in a good spot to watch the other girls play volleyball.

The current match was Kirov and Gangut vs North Carolina (who was wearing a bunny girl swimsuit) and Washington. I won't go into any detail about the match itself, as we've all seen Azur Lane Comic Anthology Breaking, Vol. 2 Ch. 18 - The Swimsuit Hero, as well as Dead or Alive Venus Vacation. So I think we all have a good idea of what's going on.

GCR Tirpitz's eyes were glued to the girls who were currently playing, mainly focused on their 'assets'.

“Mind if we join you?” Prinz Eugen asked as she and Admiral Hipper walked up to them.

“Sure,” Bismarck said, letting the two sisters settle down beside them.

“Looks like the other Tirpitz is rather interested in the beach volleyball tournament,” Eugen said with a smirk.

“She's more interested in the girls playing then the match itself,” GCR Bismarck said “Talking about sisters, where's Moltke? I haven't seen her since she went off with Dunkerque”.

“Sorry, can't say that we have,” Hipper said before she noticed Dunkerque walking behind them holding an ice cream “Oh, hay Dunkerque!” she said, getting the battlecruiser's attention “You wouldn't know where Moltke's is?” she asked.

“Oh, well, when I saw her last she was handing out some of the pastries she made today” Dunkerque replied “She made quite a lot today, so I told her she could pass them out freely. But, there was something odd she's been doing. She made these sort of pastry boxes with several confectioneries in them, and has been handing them out to specific Kansen”.

“Ok, which Kansen was she handing these out to?” GCR Bismarck asked sounding confused.

“Let me think,” Dunkerque said as she thought for a moment “She gave those packets to Nagato, Sakawa, Salt lake City, Conyngham, Anderson, Hughes, Independence, Tuna, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhind, Saratoga, Arkansas, and several others”.

“That's a lot of Kansen she's prepared those packets for” GCR Bismarck said “Why would she make so many of them for a bunch of random Kansen?” she asked.

“Their not random Kansen,” Eugen said sombrely, a frown on both herself and her sister's face's “All the Kansen Dunkerque just named were all involved in Operation Crossroads,” she said as a tear fell from her eye “After everything we did to hid what happened that day, she found out anyway”.

“I don't understand, what's Operation Crossroads,” GCR Bismarck asked as her sister took interest in the conversation.

“Every faction has done something in the past that left a 'stain' on their records” Eugen replied sombrely “The Royal Navy has Operation Torch, the Ironblood has the entire war, the Sakura Empire has their attack on Pearl Harbour, and the Eagle Union has Operation Crossroads, an illegal nuclear weapons test on Kansen,” she said “Someone wanted to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on Kansen, but of course, no one would allow it as all of us were needed to fight the sirens. So they conducted it in secret, getting everything ready for the day they would nuke several Kansen. We were told that we were preparing for an assault on a Siren stronghold, hence why there was a lot of auxiliary vessels present that day. We never knew they were about to drop a nuclear bomb on us”.

GCR Bismarck and Tirpitz looked horrified by what Eugen was saying “They, nuked you!” GCR Tirpitz said sounding horrified “I-I. Why would they do that?”.

“We don't know” Eugen replied “A few days after the second nuke was tested, the observation fleet was attacked by Sirens. They only had mass-produced ships to protect them, as no Kansen would have sat back and watched us get nuked. So the fleet was completely destroyed”.

“Wait, you were there?” GCR Bismarck said sounding horrified.

Eugen nodded her head “Indeed I was. When I was first told of the operation, I was excited, we all were. It was an opportunity to get back to what we were made for, to fight the sirens. But then, then they dropped Able on us, the first of three nuclear tests” she said “Sakawa, Anderson, and Lamson was the lucky one's, as they sunk during the first test, and didn't have to go through the month of torture the rest of us had to endure. They didn't let us die, you see. The radiation couldn't kill us, not as long as we had our rigging on. And we couldn't switch back to ship from, as our rigging had fused to our skin. Some of us tried to refuse to be refuelled, so they could end their suffering quicker. So the humans doing the experiments forced fuelled us, almost drowning us at times”.

Both GCR battleships were shocked and appalled by what Eugen was saying. Why would people do such horrific things to Kansen? And what could they gain from it, apart from tormenting several Kansen for no reason?

“And you know what, out of everything that happened to me during Operation Crossroads, the one thing that caused me the most pain, was the fact that man behind it all, the man who wanted to see how a nuclear detonation would affect us. Was none other than the commander of the Azur Lane” Eugen said sombrely.

“What!” GCR Bismarck gasped “But, I've talked to him, he's a nice guy. How could he-” she said before Bismarck stopped her.

“He's not the same commander” Bismarck explained “The commander responsible for Operation Crossroads died when the Sirens attack the observation fleet. Our current commander is his replacement, and was just as horrified by his predecessor's actions as we were” she said “Still, there were a lot of Kansen who didn't trust humans after news of Operation Crossroads came out. So our current commander was sent over here to repair the damage. And, as you can see by his five wives, and the fact that he's dated almost every Kansen on site, he's succeeded with that. Might have something to do with him being from the Maple Monarchy”.

“So, the man responsible for it is dead then,” GCR Terpitz said sombrely “Karma at it's finest I suppose. Nukes a couple of Kansen, only to get killed by the very thing they were supposed to protect him from. I take it that a lot of you felt betrayed by what he did?”.

“The Kansen of the Eagle Union and Royal Navy were, as he was their commander throughout the war” Hipper replied “The girls of the Ironblood and Sakura Empire, not so much, mainly because most of us had been sunk beforehand and were in the process of being reconstructed, so it didn't affect us that much”.

“Hay sisters,” Moltke said happily as she walked up to them, carrying a few small boxes of pastries, one of which was wrapped up like a present “I've ur, got some stuff I made with Dunkerque-. Oh, she's already here,” she said as she only just noticed the battlecruiser was with them “Why do you lot look so sad?” she asked.

Eugen wiped a tear away from her eye “We found out that you found out about Operation Crossroads” she said calmly.

Moltke looked at her with a surprised look as tears started to form from her eyes. She dropped the box's she was holding, which, as luck would have it, landed on a beach towel. She then rushed over to Eugen and hugged her tightly “How could they do such a thing to you?” she cried, tears falling from her eyes.

Prinz Eugen quickly returned the hug “It's ok, there's no need for you to be sad. It's not your fault that it happened, and I've long since come to terms with it”.

“B-but, they dropped a nuke on you!” Moltke cried.

“I know, but everyone responsible for it got what was coming to them,” Eugen said “Plus, I've long since recovered from what happened that day,” she said, comforting the young battleship “You need not worry about me, I'm perfectly fine. Your sisters on the other hand have been worried sick about you. You should have returned to them once you've finished your cooking lessens with Dunkerque”.

“I'm sorry” Moltke cried “I just wanted you to feel better”.

“It's alright, I understand what you were trying to do,” Eugen said “But you should have checked in with your sisters first. Now, go join your sisters. They haven't seen you for a while, so you should spend some more time with them”.

“Ok,” Moltke said before she cleaned her eyes and made her way over to GCR Bismarck. Stopping next to the box's she had dropped “Oh, wait a second” she said as she picked up the wrapped up box and passed it to Eugen “This is for you”.

“Thank you” Eugen smiled as she took the box. She wasn't going to refuse it, not after Moltke worked so hard on its contents.

The battleship then returned to her sisters and settled down between them. By now the current match was over, with a clear victory to North Carolina and Washington. And now it was time for Friedrich der Große and Roon to go up against Drake and Cheshire.

Bismarck smirked as Friedrich prepared to serve. This was going to be a very nice display of Ironblood technical superiority.

Azur Main private beach.

Souryuu sighed as she read her book, laying on her chest on a beach towel surrounded by crisp white sand. There was a beach towel lying next to her, it was meant to be occupied by her sister, but she had to go off on an errand, and had yet to return.

Footsteps beside her told her that her sister was finally coming back.

“Your late” Souryuu said as her sister sat down on the towel beside her “That errand you went off on shouldn't have taken that long”.

“Sorry about that” Hiryuu replied. Souryuu instantly noticed something was off, as her sister's voice sounded different. She quickly turned towards her sister, it was Hiryuu alright, but she looked different. Her hair was longer and had a more depressing look on her face, even her voice was different. It was calmer and slower than her sisters.

This wasn't Hiryuu, it was Hiryuu META.

“Hiryuu META. Why are you here?” Souryuu asked with a scowl “And why are you wearing my sister's swimsuit?” she asked sounding rather confused.

“I needed a disguise so that I could get close to the commander without having every Kansen on-site pointing a gun at me” Hiryuu META replied “But, seeing that Akagi won't leave his side and that she knows I smell different from your Hiryuu. I'm having to improvise a bit,” she said before she reached between her breasts and pulled out a USB stick “Give this to your commander as soon as you can. It contains everything you will need to get your friends back to their own reality”.

Souryuu took the memory stick and stashed it between her own breasts “Thanks, this will be most helpful” she said with a smile “But I must ask, why didn't you just give this to my sister?”.

Hiryuu META looked away “I, didn't think of that at the time”.

Souryuu sighed “Oh well, at least you didn't cause a problem this time,” she said calmly “You should go, quickly, before someone gets suspicions. Oh and, leave my sister tied up for a bit. She's in need of a bit of disciplining”.

“What?” Hiryuu META said sounding surprised, right in the middle of getting up “How did you-”.

“I don't know if you haven't forgotten, but I do know you, a lot” Souryuu replied calmly “Right down to your likes and dislikes. So, as I said, leave quickly, and leave Hiryuu tied up. I'll deliver your package to the commander soon”.

“Of course,” Hiryuu META said before she turned and walked away.

Souryuu watched as she walked away before returning to her book. She decided to give her some time to get sorted out and leave before she told the commander what happened. It was a pleasant day today, and it would be disastrous to ruin it now.

Besides, Hiryuu had been a bit unruly as of late, so leaving her like that would be good for her.

Chapter Text

The next two weeks went by quickly. The information provided to them by Hiryuu META proved to be exactly what they needed to send the GCR Kansen back to their own world. They just needed time to understand it all and build a gateway that could be used to send them back. Plus their ships still needed to be repaired. The 'Riftway' as the ashes called it, wasn't exactly nice to them.

This Riftway proved to be troubling. Basically, it was some kind of interdimensional rift that the Sirens use to move and communicate between dimensions. What's worse is that their base of operations is somewhere in the Riftway, but the ashes have never been able to find it. This meant that the Sirens could never be defeated, only pushed back temporarily.

Whilst the Sirens have gateways that allow them safe access to the Riftway, the ashes don't have access to those gates, so they basically rip holes in reality to breach into the Riftway. This was very dangerous and required them to have a special compound covering the hulls of their ships to survive the process undamaged. And, according to the data provided, transporting a human through the Riftway was always fatal.

Admiral Hipper looked through the files one more time as she made her way towards the Ironblood dorm. She could understand why the Ashes were so hesitant to provide this information to them, as it would make finding them far easier. But it did answer a lot of questions, like why all the engineers on Moltke's ship were all killed when most of them only were only lightly injured. Just being in the Riftway killed them. Still, it didn't answer how Moltke ended up in the Riftway in the first place. There was nothing in the file that told them how she ended up there. All they knew was that the Ashes were somehow involved, and that's it.

She had a gut feeling that they were never going to tell them what happened to her that day. And a part of her told her that that might be a good thing. Whilst the report didn't voice it, it did hint at there being things far worse then Sirens out there that can also use the Riftway, and she did not want to know what they are.

Let the Ashes keep their secrets because she wanted to be able to go to sleep at night without having to drink herself unconscious to avoid nightmares. That would not be good for her health, or her wallet.

In other news, the GCR Kansen's ships were almost fully repaired. There were a few difficulties due to different layouts, gun sizes, and the use of Siren tech that not even the Ironblood or Northern Parliament were crazy enough to use. But they had managed to repair them to a point they the Kansen could manifest their rigging. Yet there was still the problem with Moltke, as she was not yet clear for rigging manifestation, as her ship was still going through its sea trials. And, due to their laws on Kansen development, they could not make her manifest her rigging, nor could they finish her sea trials, as the GCR did not exist in this world. So, instead of making a gateway that was big enough for a Kansen to walk through with their rigging on, they had to make one large enough for a ship to go through. Which will take longer to make. Luckily Akashi had already set to work on building a gateway that Moltke's ship could go through. They just needed to sort out a few more things.

Speaking of Akashi, why the hell hadn't that greedy cat made her a skin yet? She'd bribed her with several gems to make her a skin, and yet, six months later, she still hadn't gotten one. Maybe she should pay her a visit and 'remind' her of their deal.

She was brought back to reality after bumping into someone.

“Oh, gott, sorry about that” Bismarck apologised “Didn't see you there”.

“Don't worry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going either” Hipper replied, noticing that she had bumped into GCR Bismarck “So, what brings you out here? I thought you were helping our Bismarck with building that Riftway gate”.

“Ah, yes, well. I may not be as smart as your worlds Bismarck when it comes to understanding alien technology and other science-based stuff” GCR Bismarck said.

“You're not a scientist!” Hipper said sounding rather surprised. Bismarck was, in their world at least, one of the Ironblood's top scientists in the field of Siren research. She's responsible for the development of most of their advanced tech, including their hologram and nano-machine tech. But then she remembered that GCR Bismarck came from a world that had a completely different past to hers, and was without sirens, which probably explained the difference in personalities.

“I never took an interest in science. We already have people who are experts in a large number of fields, so why should I bother with that stuff” GCR Bismarck said, “Also, I may be a bit of a safety hazard, considering I may have accidentally shot a few Kansen with some kind of laser”.

“What laser?” Hipper asked sounding very worried. With good reason to, as the only laser in Bismarck's lab was the broken child maker.

“Oh, some laser that had a sign on it saying 'do not touch'” GCR Bismarck replied “Yeah, I may have let curiosity get the better of me. The other Bismarck was rather annoyed at me about it, and asked me to leave”.

“Do you know which kansen you hit with the laser?”.

“No, I got out of there before I have time to find out. I'm going to get into trouble for this, aren't I?”.

“Well, that depends on if one of those Kansen you shot with the laser was carrying wisdom cubes. Because if they were, then we have an unknown number of new child Kansen on site. And we're still recovering from the last time someone created a group of child Kansen”.

“Well, I didn't see any Wisdom cubes, so we're probably safe” GCR Bismarck said “Anyway, you wouldn't have seen my sister Moltke anywhere have you?” she asked.

“Oh, yes I have” Hipper replied “I last saw her heading towards the Sakura Empire dorm with Zeppy, Ottilie, Alfrena, and Eugenie. I can help you find her if you like”.

“Sure. You know this base more then I do” GCR Bismarck said.

Hipper nodded and lead her towards the Sakura Empire dorm. As good as it felt to help GCR Bismarck find her sister again, she really didn't want her sister Eugen to find out about this. Her sister already had enough ammo to use against her already.

They soon arrived at the Sakura Empire dorm. The GCR Kansen had already been shown around the base, but it can be difficult to navigate around the place if your new around here.

“So, where will we most likely find Moltke?” GCR Bismarck asked.

“Oh, it's simple. She came here with Zeppy and Eugenie” Hipper said with a smile “So. First, find their favourite midday sleeping spot” she said as they walked up to a tree, this particular tree just so happened to have the Sakura Empire aircraft carrier, Shinano, sleeping against it.

“Who's that?” GCR Bismarck asked as they approached.

“That is Shinano, the Dreamwalker” Hipper replied “Sister to the Sakura Empire's leader, Yamato, one of the three Decisives, and the fluffiest kitsune on-site”.

GCR Bismarck's eyes widened at the sight of the sleeping kitsune. She was gorgeous and majestic, even when sleeping. It was only after a closer inspection of her large and fluffy tails did she notice the small children sleeping amongst them, Moltke included. She had to cover her nose to prevent blood from coming out of it and hitting the floor.

“Oh my gott, it's so adorable,” GCR Bismarck said, sounding like she was having a cuteness overload.

“Yep, knew that would be your reaction to this” Hipper said “Our Bismarck reacted exactly the same when she first saw them like this. Anyway, we should probably leave them be. Shinano will hopefully wake them up once she's found the world you came from”.

“Yeah, I think your-. Wait what!” GCR Bismarck said sounding rather surprised.

“There is a reason we call her the Dreamwalker” Hipper said “Shinano has the ability, when sleeping, to drift between the past, present, and futures of different worlds. She effectively times travails in her sleep. She's now exactly visiting those worlds, merely visiting a dream version of them. She can't affect them in any way, only observe” she explained “Or, that's what I think she does. I don't fully understand how she does it, only that she can visit other worlds in her sleep”.

“Oh, so even asleep she's doing something important,” GCR Bismarck said, “Like finding our home”.

Hipper nodded “Building a gateway to send you home is all well and good. But it will be all for nought if we can't identify the destination,” she said “It was a miracle that you all ended up in the same world. In a worst-case scenario you all could have all ended up in different worlds, with a very little chance of ever being found”.

“I see. Well, I'm glad we all arrived in the same world. Still, I hope Shinano can find our world. I don't want to be stuck here” GCR Bismarck said

“Don't worry, if there's anyone who can find you a way home, it's Shinano,” Hipper said with a smile.

Dreamscape

Shinano sighed as she took another sip of tea. It wasn't real tea, just a simulation of it. You couldn't get real food in the Dreamscape anyway, but it's purpose wasn't to sustain her, it was to help keep her occupied whist she planed her rout to find Moltke's world.

Navigating around the dreamscape wasn't a simple task. It's a constantly shifting place as worlds and dreams drift around like shells on the shore. Nothing remained stationary, save for one small point in its centre, the bar of dreams.

She didn't know who made this place, or why. All she knew was that it was a handy little place for her to use to act as a waypoint to work off of.

She wasn't the only one there, as the place was full of Shinano's from other worlds. Most were planning their routes in their minds, whilst others were either arriving or leaving. There was also someone manning the bar, whilst they did look like another Shinano, she and the other versions of herself could tell that the Shinano manning the bar wasn't a Shinano. It was something else that had adopted their physical form.

None of them ever pressed the issue, as whoever the fake Shinano was, it wasn't causing them problems. In fact, it had helped her and other Shinano's several times in navigating this ever-changing place. So it had to be some kind of benevolent being.

Getting back on subject, finding Moltke's world had proven to be quite difficult. She's searched all over the Dreamscape and found nothing. Until now that is. Whilst she slept, Zeppy and the rest of the Ironblood child Kansen showed up and snuggled down amongst her large, fluffy tails. With them was Moltke herself, who was currently dreaming about her launch day. This was exactly what she needed, Moltke's dream of her world will be her guide. Now she knew where she needed to go, and how to get there.

She finished off her tea, stood up, and made her way towards one of the bars' many doors. She opened it and stepped out into the dreamscape.

She opened her eyes and found herself sleeping against the tree she normally sleeps against. Had she accidentally woken up? She looked up, the sun was at a different angle, and it felt warmer. Meaning that not only the time of day was different, but also the month as well. She could also only feel one person amongst her tails. She turned to her side and lifted one of her tails, and was rather surprised by who she saw. It was a young boy, about the same age as the other child ships. He had short raven hair and was wearing what looked like a smaller version of the uniform the commander wore.

Who was this boy, this worlds commander's son? Or was he the commander turned into a child after one of Akashi's experiments? Or was she just thinking a bit too much into it? Probably the latter. She didn't know anything about this world, other then it wasn't the one she was after.

She smiled before lowering her tail back down, and once again closed her eyes. This world was only a rest stop to help reorientate her with the rest of the dreamscape. The next world would be the one she was looking for.

When she opened her eyes again she found herself standing amongst a large crowd of humans. A large mix of civilians, dock workers, and navy personal. She looked to be in a German port, with a ship that she almost mistook for the Bismarck resting in its dock, waiting to be launched into the water in front of it. It took her a moment to read it's nameplate to realise that it wasn't Bismarck's ship, it was Moltke's.

She had a quick look around, just to make sure that this was her world. She didn't need to look for long, as the three-headed Reichsadler of the German Congressional Republic was everywhere, from the flags flying all over the place to plastered on the surrounding buildings. And, were those armoured Zeppelin's flying overhead? Yes, they were.

She was almost awestruck by the number of Zeppelins in the air, as well as a large number of Stuka's, Messerschmitt's and other German aircraft flying in formation above them. There were even a few biplanes towing banners behind them. The GCR was pulling out all the stops for this launch ceremony. There were camera crews, flags were everywhere, and a brass band was playing celebratory music. There was even a raised platform right next to the ship, with several people wearing navy uniforms standing on top of it. Among them was Moltke herself, standing beside her sisters, Bismarck and Tirpitz.

There were also two other people who stood out on the platform. One was a woman with long black hair, brown eyes, and wearing what looked like a cross between a military uniform and something a politician would have worn during the nineteen fourteen's. Was she a GCR politician, or was she it's leader?.

The other was also a woman, with short blond hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a lab coat. She was probably a scientist who was brought in the observe the launch, just in case something happened to the ships wisdom cube.

She closed her eyes and smiled. She had found it, she had found Moltke's world. With this information, she could provide the coordinators for the gateway to send Moltke and the other Kansen from her world home.

She then opened her eyes again and focused on the scientist. There was something off about her. She had a gut feeling that she had seen her somewhere before, but she didn't know where. She was about to brush it off when it suddenly hit her. Change the uniform she was wearing, make that hair of hers longer and white, and turn her eyes yellow and what do you get, the Siren known as Reaper. A Siren that hadn't been seen since the first days of the war.

What the hell was she doing here?

Chapter Text

Azur Main, meeting room 3.

“I don't understand. How could doctor Dorothe Auspitz be a Siren” GCR Bismarck said as she, GCR Tirpitz, and Moltke, sat opposite the commander, Queen Elizabeth, and Shinano. In between them on the table was a few old and low-quality images of the Siren Reaper, as well as a surprisingly high-quality image of this doctor Dorothe Auspitz that Shinano had taken when she was visiting Moltke's world in her dream. How the carrier was able to take a photo in a dream world and make it appear on her phone IRL was beyond them, only that she did it somehow.

“I know this is going to be hard for you to believe, hell, even I'm having trouble believing it,” the commander said “But if what Shinano's saying is true, then you have a very dangerous Siren in your mists”.

“But how could this be” GCR Tirpitz said “We've known this woman for our entire lives. She's not evil. Ok so she does go into the occasional bout of crazed ranting about crushing our enemy's under our metal boots, but that only happens when she hasn't had her coffee in the morning”.

“Yeah, about that” Queen Elizabeth said “Those 'occasional bout's of crazed rants' she has. What exactly does she say?” she asked.

“Ur, well. A lot of things really” GCR Tirpitz replied, “From bombing people into submission to threatening to boil the entire ocean”.

Elizabeth sighed “Boil the ocean. Reaper said that she would boil the entire ocean with everyone on it the last time I met her, and that was back during the first days of the war when we had very few Kansen” she said “The last time anyone saw Reaper was during the Scapa Flow massacre, where she destroyed the entire German High Sea Fleet, and almost sunk me. So you can see why I'm taking this very seriously, as this is the siren who almost killed me we may be talking about. I'm not one-hundred per cent sure that it is her. But seeing that we haven't seen Reaper since the Scapa Flow massacre, there's a high possibility that this doctor Dorothe may be the Siren Reaper, or not”.

“So, you're saying that there is a possibility that she's Reaper, not that she is Reaper,” GCR Bismarck said.

“Yes I am,” Elizabeth said “It is possible that we're simply overeating and that she isn't Reaper, and just looks a bit like her. But, this is something we can't look into, as she's in your world. If you want to look into this it will have to be without our help, as the gateway we're making will only be one way and will be dismantled after we're done with it. As we do not want to risk giving the Sirens a backdoor into our main base”.

“I understand about the dismantling the gate, but I can't start an investigation into doctor Dorothe being a Siren without some more evidence,” GCR Bismarck said “Everything you've presented so far doesn't prove anything. It's all circumstantial and proves nothing”.

“Actuality, it does,” Moltke said quietly.

Everyone turned towards Moltke with surprised looks on their faces. Well, everyone safe for Shinano, who had fallen asleep.

“Moltke, don't tell me you believe them,” GCR Tirpitz said sounding surprised.

The small battleship nodded “Only because I had my own suspicions about her as well. It all stems back to a few weeks before I got sent here. I went into Dorothe's private lab without permission. I didn't want to get into trouble by being there without permission so I hid in the lab when she walked in” she explained “Whilst I was hiding, I heard her talking to herself. Normally I wouldn't be suspicious of something like that, but the way she was talking to herself, it was almost like she was talking to another person. Whatever she was doing, she threw the name Reaper around a lot. I don't remember much of what she said, but I do remember her saying something about Alpha, probably referring to Observer Alpha” she said “Plus, all our discovery's about Kansen and Wisdom cubes came from her. Whilst those same discovery's took thousands of people and several years to discover in this world. It took the people of this world years to find out how to use wisdom cubes, yet Dorothe figured out how to do it in less than a month. Plus it was two years before the first Kansen in this world manifested their rigging for the first time, whilst for us, it was two weeks. All because of a theory from Dorothe. She's been the only one to make these discovery's, the only one. She has to know a lot about us Kansen already and is drip-feeding us this information slowly as to not draw attention to herself. So, either she is a siren, or is someone who knows a lot about Kansen”.

“Oh god,” GCR Tirpitz said as realisation hit both her sister and herself, that the kind and pacifist doctor Dorothe wasn't exactly who she said she was “Ok, I believe you now,” she said, “Dorothe may be a Siren. Or she could just be a normal human from another world. We won't know for sure until we confront her”.

“I suggest you do so slowly, as to not antagonise her,” the commander said “Reaper destroyed over fifty warships at Scapa Flow. So take things slowly. Don't outright call her Reaper, as that's a sure-fire way of ending up without a spine”.

“Don't worry, we'll be careful” GCR Bismarck said “Still, can't believe that Dorothe of all people could be a Siren. Apart from her random bouts of murderous ranting, she's actually quite nice. Although, her being a Siren probably explains the murderous ranting” she said with a nervous smile “Why do you think she's even hiding amongst us and helping us?”.

“Well, I've never heard of a Siren infiltrating human society before, they do stand out a lot after all” the commander replied “I'm almost surprised that she can even pass off as human. Their voices are modulated after all”.

“She's probably been modified to look and sound human” Queen Elizabeth theorised “As to why she's helping you develop Kansen faster than us. Well, maybe the Sirens want to speed up your Kansen development just to see what it's like to invade a world that already has Kansen. Why they would want to do that I don't know. Plus, we don't know where she's keeping her rigging, so, be extra careful when dealing with her”.

“Don't worry, we will,” GCR Bismarck said “Anyway, how long before we can go home?”.

“Ur, well, with the coordinators provided to us by Shinano, we should be able to send you home the moment we get the gate working,” the commander said, “The gate itself should take about a week to finish. And probably a day or two to properly set up and to make sure it works”.

“That's good to hear” GCR Bismarck said “Let's hope that nothing happens to delay things. Some of us really want to get home”.

“Don't worry, we'll make sure you all get back to your own world?” the commander said before he reached underneath the table and got out a large box “In here is everything we have on the Sirens. From the different models and versions to their combat tactics. If the Sirens do show up in your world, this will give you an edge over them. Hopefully, it'll help keep the Siren threat under control in your world” he said as he passed GCR Bismarck the box.

The battleship smiled as she took the box “Thank you, commander. This should prevent us from being caught off guard by the Sirens when they eventually show up in our world”.

“Agreed,” GCR Tirpitz said, “As much as I don't want to admit it, us coming here might have drawn the attention of these Sirens. They may put their plans for our world forward after this”.

“Well, at least you'll be ready for them,” the commander said “Anyway, now that all that has been sorted out, is there anything else you three want to talk about”.

“Commander...” Shinano said sleepily “Don't you have a date with Roon and Akagi... in about ten minute's?” she asked.

The commander's eye's widened at the news “Excuse me” he said before he got up and rushed out of the room.
“Wow, he was in a hurry,” GCR Bismarck remarked.

“Well, Roon and Akagi can be rather, violent at times,” Elizabeth said, “Especially when a certain crazy commander is late”.

“Roon, violent” GCR Tirpitz said, “Ok I know Roon's a quiet girl. But violent, that doesn't sound like her”.

“Ur, sister” Moltke said, drawing her sister's attention “Different Roon. Our Roon is a V1 tender whilst theirs is a heavy cruiser developed as part of the PR ship development program”.

“Ah, that explains that then,” GCT Tirpitz said

“Wait. V1 tender?” Elizabeth said sounding confused “What's that”.

“Oh, right. None of the old Kaiserliche Marine ships survived in this world” GCR Bismarck said “Our Roon, and her sister Yorck were converted into seaplane tenders. Later, they were converted into V1 launch platforms. They carry modified V1's with a larger payload and less fuel. They're used for coastal bombardments and can hit targets that are far outside of the range of a battleship”.

“That's an interesting design for a ship,” Elizabeth said, “Especially for a warship as old as her”.

“Well, she's not really good in a fight against modern warships, considering how outdated she is,” GCR Tirpitz said “We do still have a lot of old ships that you don't have”.

“Good point,” Elizabeth said “Well, considering that the commander is gone and that we have nothing else to talk about, I suggest we call this meeting adjourned. Right Shi-” she said as she turned and saw Shinano fast asleep next to her “Of course she's asleep. Let's just leave her be. If anyone asks, we can just point them here”.

“Agreed,” GCR Bismarck said as the four battleships stood up and made their way towards the door. Moltke picked up the box of Siren data before following them.

Once they reached the door, Elizabeth opened it, and they were surprisingly met by Houshou and a few child ships.

“Oh, hello Houshou” Elizabeth said “What brings you here with some of the child-” she said as she looked at the child ships, and realised that she didn't recognise any of them.

This was not completely true. She did recognise them, Littorio, Jean Bart, Richelieu, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Yet Sen, Massachusetts, and Amagi. The only reason why she didn't really recognise them was that they were all children.

“What the hell did I miss?” Elizabeth asked sounding surprised “Where did this lot come from?”.

“Hello, Elizabeth,” Houshou said with a smile “To answer your question, Amagi-chan was created during a recent commission. The rest were created after an accident at Bismarck lab” she replied, “I'm just showing them around the base”.

The speed at which GCR Bismarck hid behind GCR Tirpitz was almost shocking.

“Sister, why are you hiding behind my back, and are you somehow involved with this lab accident?” GCR Tirpitz asked.

“Maybe” GCR Bismarck replied.

“Oh my god” GCR Tirpitz sighed “Why did someone allow my sister into a lab? She's a health hazard in such places. Even Dorothe said so”.

“Hay, this worlds me brought me there thinking I could help” GCR Bismarck said “I tried to tell her that I wasn't a scientist, but it wasn't until after the incident with the laser that I managed to tell her why it was a bad idea to bring me into a lab. So, it's both our faults”.

Elizabeth sighed “This has got to stop. Really, we've really got to do something about that siren laser before it makes child versions of us all”.

“Oh, it's not all bad,” Houshou said with a smile “Some of us enjoy looking after the children. And they're nice to have around. Helps remind us of what we're fighting for”.

Houshou had a point. Their purpose was to protect mankind from the Sirens. And what was the most valuable resource that they must protect above all others. Children, the next generation of mankind. Making sure they survive is a top priority for all Kansen, more so for others. Having a few child versions of themselves around helps remind them all of what they must protect. Of what they're fighting for.

Still, there were far too many of these child ships on site right now. Seriously, this place was starting to feel like a daycare centre at this rate.

“Yeah, that's true,” Elizabeth said “Well, don't let us get in your way”.

“Of course,” Houshou said before turning towards the new child ships “Come along you lot, we've still got a lot of the base to show you,” she said.

The carrier walked off with the child ships following close behind. Elizabeth's would have thought that Friedrich would be doing this, but then she remembered that she was being repaired after a run-in with a category ten siren.

Abyssal zones really are no joke, the sirens there are fucking terrifying.

“Remind me to tell the research people back home to never mess around with any Siren lases we may find,” GCR Tirpitz said “Not because I don't want a child version of myself running around. But because we won't be able to afford to have them around. We're effectively at the maximum number of ships we can support right now. We don't have the space to dock more ships at any of our ports”.

“And I guess you can't afford to expand them at the moment,” Elizabeth said, getting a nod from GCR Bismarck “Well. Let's just hope you guy have more control over things than we did. As that laser really got out of hand”.

“Well, I'm going to have a look through all of this Siren information,” Moltke said with a smile as she walked off.

“Well, that should keep her occupied for a while” GCR Bismarck said as the three battleships watched her walk away with the box.

“If the Sirens do show up in our world, we're going to need an expert on them,” GCR Tipritz said “Looks like our sister Moltke is planing on being our Siren expert. It will be helpful, just in case things with Dorothe don't go well. We're going to need knowledge on how to take something like her out”.

Elizabeth agreed with that statement. Her last encounter with Reaper still haunted her. A killing machine like her isn't someone you can just take on without preparation. She did take out the entire high see fleet after all, and almost her as well. She was a dangerous Siren to go up against, so the GCR will need everything at its disposal to take her out.

Chapter Text

Gateway construction site. One week later.

Admiral Hipper sat on the bench, watching as the gateway that would send Moltke and the other GCR Kansen back home to their world. There were a lot of mass-produced ships, gun turrets, and Kansen surrounding it. This was a gateway into a place the Sirens have control over, so they weren't going to leave it 'unguarded', even if it was supposed to be one way.

She was sitting with her was her sisters Prinz Eugen, Weser, Petropavlovsk, and her half-sister, Mainz.

“Not long now till that gate's finished,” Weser remarked.

“Yeah,” Mainz said, “Shame we have to dismantle it once we're done with it. It would be fun to visit other worlds”.

“We can't afford to take the risk,” Hipper said “The sirens use gateways like this all the time. We can't risk giving them a backdoor to our base. So, once their through and we are sure their in the right world, we shut it down and dismantle it”.

“Yeah, better to be safe than to be sure,” Petropavlovsk said “I've fought the Sirens long enough to know that we should never give them an edge over us”.

They all nodded. The Sirens could be very tricky at times, deploying tactics and stratagems that really caused them problems. Like their lookalike pawns. Those can be difficult to fight, especially if you're not used to fighting mindless looking versions of your friends, which can be quite difficult for newly created Kansen.

“You think the GCR will be able to fight off the sirens?” Mainz asked.

“I don't know” Hipper replied “Even with all the information and data on them we're are giving them, they still have a massive disadvantage. Far fewer countries have Kansen at their disposal, and only one has the facilities to manifest Kansen. Plus their economy is still recovering, and there looks to be a war on the horizon. They are not in good condition to launch a successful counter-attack against the Sirens even if they do show up”.

Petropavlovsk sighed “I wish there was a way we could help them a bit more,” she said “Sending everything we have on the Sirens is good and all, but there must be something else we can do to help”.

“What they need is resources, food, and money,” Eugen said “Whilst we can send them food and resources, we cant send them in the large quantities that they need. Plus we can't send them any money because, well, it would just cause more problems to their economy. Face it, we've done everything we can do to help them. All we can do is help them get home and hope that everything turns out well for them”.

It was a grim thought, but really, there wasn't much they could do for them anyway. They had problems in their own world that they needed to deal with, like the Sirens. There wasn't a hope in hell that their governments would allow a large number of resources to be sent to support another world. Not even the Ironblood would agree to such a thing, as like everything else, they need everything they can get their hands on to fight back against the Sirens. They simply couldn't afford to support another world in a fight that isn't even theirs.

“Hey, guy's,” the voice of GCR Hipper said behind them. The group turned and saw both GCR Hipper and Moltke. GCR Hipper was now wearing her original uniform, which looked a lot like Moltke's. Obviously, the Kansen in Moltke's world manifested with the same uniform used by their navy.

“Oh, hay other Hipper” Eugen said “And Moltke. What brings you two here?” she asked.

“We're just checking in on the progress of the gate” Moltke replied as she walked up to the bench “I hope everything goes as planned. I really want to go home”.

“Don't worry, we'll get you home,” Hipper said.

“Ah, how sweet,” Eugen said, drawing the ire of both Hipper's.

“Eugen! Do you want me to throw you through that gateway once it activates?” Hipper asked sounding rather annoyed.

“For the love of Odin please don't do that” GCR Hipper said “I don't think I could live with two Eugen's around. I'd probably sink myself”.

“Did somebody call?” Odin asked as she popped up right next to them, startling GCR Hipper.

“Gah! Who the hell are you?” GCR Hipper asked, “And why are you here?”.

“I am the third wave PR battlecruiser Odin” Odin replied “As to why I'm here, I heard someone call out my name”.

“Ah, sorry about that. Whilst I did say Odin, I was referring to the Norse god Odin, not you” GCR Hipper said “Sorry about that. I wasn't aware that you were here. Although, I must guess that you aren't a Coastal defence ship like our Odin”.

“No, I'm a battlecruiser based off of early proposals for what would eventually become the Scharnhorst-class,” Odin said “Well, since I'm not needed here, I'll be on my way,” she said before she turned and walked away.

“Well, she didn't stay long,” GCR Hipper remarked as Odin walked away “Our Odin isn't anything like her”.

“Well, she is a different ship, so there are bound to be differences,” Mainz said “Unlike your Odin, ours doesn't exactly have a history”.

“Yeah,” GCR Hipper said before turning towards them “By the way, who are you again?”.

“Oh, right. I'm the third wave PR Light cruiser Mainz” Mainz said, “Whilst I was part of the fleet that rescued Moltke, I was too busy at the time to meet her. Plus I've had a lot to do over the past few weeks, so I've only just had the time to meet her”.

“Sister, you've been busy buying a ludicrous amount of coffee machine's and putting them all over the base” Weser said.

“It's not my fault someone didn't put an adequate amount of coffee machine's on-site,” Mainz said “Before I came here it was impossible to get a good black coffee around here. Now it's much easier to get one anywhere on base,” she said “Besides, I had to keep myself busy as to avoid that Royal Navy heavy-cruiser Drake. She's been looking to, and I'm quoting her here, plunder my Ironblood booty. Which I have no intention of letting her do that”.

“Wait, sister?” GCR Hipper said sounding confused “I don't remember ever having a sister named Mainz”.

“That's because she's only a half-sister,” Hipper said “She's basically a Light-cruiser configuration of the Admiral Hipper class. The idea was based on the Mogami class cruisers, where the smaller light cruiser guns could be popped off and replaced with our heavy cruiser guns once the fighting started. But the only two incompetent ships, Seyditz and Lutzow, weren't completed before the fighting started. So they just dumped the light-cruiser configuration in favour for the heavy-cruiser configuration, as there was no need to comply with any treaties at the time” she explained “So yeah, technically there were two ships of the Mainz class that did exist in real life. They were just converted into Admiral Hipper class ships once the fighting started”.

“Ah, I see. That would explain why I don't have a sister named Mainz in our world” GCR Hipper said “Although considering that we already have a ship by that name, it would have been rather confusing”.

“Oh right, almost forgot you guy still have all the old Kaiserliche Marine vessels under your command,” Petropavlovsk said “Plus I'm probably still named Lutzow over there. And Weser's still named Seyditz”.

“Well, we never have converted one of my sisters into a carrier,” GCR Hipper said “Nor have we sold a ship to Russia. Although I can't really blame you for that, as it was your government who made those decisions, not you,” she said, “Anyway, I've heard that the gate is almost completed”.

“Yep,” Hipper said “We've only got one last part of the gateway to attach, then we can test to see if it works. Then we've got to make sure the coordinators Shinano gave us lead to the right world, otherwise, we could be sending you to another world that isn't yours” she explained “Only then can we safely send you lot home. Shouldn't take more than a few days”.

“Yeah, well let's just hope that that gateway thing works,” GCR Hipper said, “You sure you can trust these 'Ashes'?”.

“Well, to be honest, it's a bit hit and miss on the trust department” Eugen replied “They're just as likely to attack us as they are to attack the Sirens. But we have worked alongside a few of them before, like Hiryuu Meta, who is also the Ashes who gave us the data to build this. So I think we can trust them with this. Just knowing about the Riftway and how they can enter it without gateways like this makes tracking them down far easier. They wouldn't give information like that away without a good reason”.

“Fair enough,” GCR Hipper said, “Although I am glad to see that your not skimping out on security around the gate”.

“This is high-level Siren tech we're dealing with here,” Weser said “We're still not sure that this won't open up a backdoor into our base, so we're not taking any chances. If needs be, we've planted explosives inside the gate in case Sirens start coming through”.

“Good thinking. Makes destroying it easier” Moltke said, “As much as I don't want that gateway destroyed, if it does pose a threat to your base, then destroying it is better than letting your base get overrun with Sirens”.

“Let's just hope that doesn't happen,” Hipper said as they watched the last part of the gate was attached and welded on.

It would be a while still before the gate could be tested, there was still a lot of internal wiring and systems checks to do before they could test it. Plus they still have to attach its power source, which is, of course, a Siren energy storage device, or SESD as some Kansen called them. That was to be the last part they would add to it, as they didn't want it turning on whilst their still setting it up. That could be disastrous, and cause a massive explosion if they were really unlucky.

“Not long now,” Mainz said as she sipped on her coffee. Hipper didn't ask how she had managed to get a cup of coffee without leaving, she probably got a Manjuu to make it for her.

“You know,” Moltke said “I'll miss this world once we go home. I know it's not my home, and that I really want to go home, but. I've made so many friends here and seen so much that doesn't exist in our world. I'll, miss it,” she said, “Isn't there a way we could set up a way to travel between both our worlds”.

“I'm afraid that's not possible, not without a gateway in your world,” Hipper said “Plus, how would we be sure that's it's a secure passage. For all we know, the Sirens could easily hijack the system and used both gateways. Then both our worlds would be fucked” she said, “Plus what if the gateway gets captured by the French in your world. If they find out what it's used for they could launch an invasion of our world. And you wouldn't want that, not would you?”.

Moltke shook her head “No. No I wouldn't. You've already got enough problems on your hand at the moment, and I wouldn't want to add any more” she said, “Looks like, when we leave, it will be goodbye for us”.

“Yeah, yes it will,” Hipper said.

It was sad that she would have to say goodbye to Moltke, she was a good kid born in a world that's about to be torn apart by war. But there wasn't anything she could do about it. She couldn't go with her, as she had her own Hipper. It was sad really, knowing that in a few days time they would be parting ways forever. She was going to miss her, but she wasn't going to admit that whilst Eugen was around. God, she already teases her enough as it is.

Oh well, testing on the gate should start tomorrow. Hopefully, everything would go as planned.

The next day.

The area around the gateway had been cleared of any non-essential personal. The defences and guards had been doubled, and there were active Kansen all around it. They were taking no chances with this.

An automatic crane moved the SESD towards the gate, placing it inside the gate before moving away.

“Power source inserted, nya” Akashi said over the intercom. She was in charge of constructing and operating the gate, and was currently inside of a nearby bunker, overlooking the gate “Commencing power-up sequence, nya”.

The SESD was soon activated, powering up the gateway. All the surrounding Kansen aimed their weapons towards it, ready to fire on anything that came through.

“Gate powered up, nya” Akashi said over the intercom “All reading as stable, and nothing looks like it's going to explode. Starting up the initial test of the gateway, nya”.

“All Kansen prepare for Siren contacts” Yuubari added over the intercom “We have no idea what may come through that, so everyone be on your guard”.

The gathered Kansen acknowledge the warning and kept their eyes open and focused on the gate. Several of the carriers launched a few of their aircraft, just in case.

At first, it looked like nothing was happening, but then what looked like a purple rift started to open up within the gate. The rift slowly started to get larger and larger until it was fully formed.

“Gateway active” Akashi announced “Now let's see if it goes to the correct world, nya” she said.

“Copy. Essex, launch the sensor probe” Yuubari ordered.

Essex nodded before she moved in front of the gate, standing a fair distance away from it. Loaded on her crossbow was a small sensor probe. She aimed it at the gateway and launch it, sending it flying through the purple rift.

“Receiving data now. All Kansen hold one” Yuubari said as she looked through the data. The surrounding Kansen kept their guard up. Just because everything was going fine now, didn't mean that things weren't going to go well later. There was plenty of time for the Sirens to start flooding through the gate.

They waited for five tense minutes, waiting for a potential Siren invasion. Thankfully, their fears never came true, as the gate deactivated.

“All Kansen, gate test has been successful” Yuubari said “We have confirmed that the coordinators given to us by Shinano do indeed lead to Moltke's world.

Hipper smiled at the news. This meant that they were only a day or so away from Moltke and the other GCR Kansen being able to go home. Still, there was still plenty of time for the Sirens to show up and mess everything up.

Lets just hope that doesn't happen.

Chapter Text

Azur Main. One day after the successful testing of the Riftway gate.

“So I guess this will be goodbye for us then,” Moltke said sombrely.

Admiral Hipper nodded. With the gate now active, the way home open, and all the repairs to the GCR Kansen completed, there wasn't anything stopping them from heading hope. Baring of course a surprise Siren attack through the gate.

They were currently standing at the front of Moltke's ship. Ahead of them was the gateway, which was inactive at the moment. Around it were a large number of Kansen with their rigging on, and defence emplacements. All of which had their weapons pointed directly at them.

Hipper's sisters were part of the defence fleet around the gate, as well as Hipper herself. But she had boarded Moltke's ship just so she could say one last goodbye to Moltke before she went through the gate. Plus she didn't want Eugen around as well.

Moltke's ship was currently docked a good distance away from the gate, as the final preparations for their trip through the gate are finished, and the GCR Kansen are loaded onboard with their rigging.

“Yeah, yeah it is,” Hipper said. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she would miss having Moltke around. The little battleship added something to the base that would be missed when she left. But, she knew that this day would come and that Moltke would have to go home at some point. Ok so a few more Kansen from her world showed up as well, but that didn't change much.

She secretively wished that there would be a Siren incursion through the gate, just so Moltke could stay here a few days longer, but that would be unfair on not only the young battleship but also for the other GCR Kansen who also wanted to go home.

In the end, this was the best thing for them. They had their own world to go to, and the longer that gate remained active, the higher the risk of Sirens finding out about it and using it.

“I'm going to miss you, Hipper” Moltke said.

“I know, I'll miss you too,” Hipper said “But I won't technically be leaving you, as you do have your own Admiral Hipper”.

“Yes, but your different from her” Moltke said “Yes you both dislike your sister Eugen, and have short tempers. But there are things that make the two of you different”.

It was then that GCR Bismarck walked up to them, her rigging active on her back “Moltke, Admiral Hipper. I hope everything's ok?” she asked.

“Don't worry. I was just saying goodbye to Moltke” Hipper replied “This is the last time I'll ever be able to see her after all”.

“Of course” GCR Bismarck said “I would just like to thank you again for looking after her. I was so worried about her that when we found a way to follow her to wherever she was sent to, I jumped at it, not waiting to see if it was safe, and it almost got me sunk for it. Thank you”.

“It's alright. Our Bismarck would probably have done the same if the same thing happened to Tirpitz” Hipper said.

GCR Bismarck nodded “Yeah, I think she would,” she said before she turned towards Moltke “Come along sister. We should get inside before we go through that gate. I'd rather not risk us getting exposed to the Riftway”.

“Of course, sister” Moltke said before she turned towards Admiral Hipper “Goodbye Hipper,” she said before the two battleships walked towards the nearest door to the ship. But, when they were about halfway there, Moltke stopped, turned around and ran back towards Hipper. She then jumped up and hugged her tightly “I'll miss you,” she said with tears coming from her eyes.

Hipper was taken slightly aback by Moltke's sudden hug. Had she not been used to being rammed by Glowworm that she was able to brace herself properly beforehand, plus she had her rigging on as well.

Hipper quickly returned the hug “I'll miss you too, Moltke” she said, tears falling from her eyes. She would miss Moltke, but once she was through the gate, that was it, no more contact with each other. That gate would be dismantled once it served its purpose. But they would keep it around, just in case they needed it again.

“Attention all personal” Yuubari said over the comms “Gateway activation in progress. All personal are to move back from the gate and to stay out of the path of KMS Moltke”.

Hipper quickly put Moltke down “That's your cue. Get back inside your ship. We'll provide overwatch just in case”.

Moltke nodded “Yep,” she said before she wiped the tears from her eyes “Goodbye,” she said as she rushed back to GCR Bismarck, who was currently holding the door open for her. The two battleships walked inside as the ship started to move.

Hipper quickly jumped off of the side of the ship and sailed away from it. She soon returned to formation and watched as the KMS Moltke sailed towards the now active gateway. Her guns were aimed at the gateway on the off chance something came through it. Be it either a Siren or whatever else uses it.

“Gateway activation complete,” Yuubari said over the comms “We have confirmation that it leads to Moltke's world. All Kansen stay alert. Something may come through it. KMS Moltke, you are clear to move through the portal,” she said, “Have a safe trip”.

“Copy that Azur lane,” GCR Tirpitz said over comms.

Admiral Hipper watched as the KMS Moltke approached the gate, moving closer and closer to the portal back to their world.

“Please don't let Siren come thought” Hipper silently preyed as the ship started to enter the portal.

Everyone was tense as the ship started to disappear into the portal. A million things could go wrong now, from a siren ship coming through the other way, to the gate suddenly shutting down. They all silently hoped that they would make it through, and find themselves back in their own world.

It took a full minute for the ship to pass through the portal. Once the ship was gone, everyone waited for news that they had made it through and were now back in their own world. It was a long wait, far too long for some as several Kansen looked to be a bit itchy on the triggers of their weapons.

Finally, after eight minutes of waiting “Azur Lane, this is Moltke. We have safely come through the portal and are now in our own world. I repeat, we have arrived back in our own world” Moltke said over comms.

A massive wave of cheering followed as all the amassed Kansen celebrated their success in getting them home.

“Copy that Moltke,” Yuubari said over comms “Be advised that we will be shutting down the gateway in a few moments. Is there anything else you want to say before we cut the connection for good?”.

“Yes,” Moltke said “Thank you, all of you. For looking after us whilst we were in your world. At first, I was worried that your world would be just like mine. But it wasn't, and you treated us like we were fellow members of your fleet. Thank you for that” she said “I hope that one day we can we can repay your kindness in turn. But for now, we are all grateful for your hospitality. Now close that portal before something else comes through”.

“Copy. Shutting the gate down now” Yuubari said over comms “Safe travels Moltke”.

“Safe travels to you too,” Moltke said before the gateway shut down, closing the link between their world, and Moltke's for good.

“Attention all personal, operation has been a success,” Yuubari said over comms “The GCR Kansen have been successfully sent back to their own world and the gateway has been shut down. It is now safe”.

Hipper let out a sigh of relief. Nothing had gone wrong and Moltke and the other GCR Kansen had returned to their own world. Now all she could do was hope that things work out for them in their own world.

Azur Main. Two days later.

Hipper sighed as she sat on the bench overlooking the gate, watching as it was dismantled. Its power source had already been removed, so there was no risk of it activating. Plus half of it had already been dismantled.

She was sitting alone as she watched. She missed having Moltke around, having the little battleship around, completed her. It made her wonder what having a younger version of herself would be like. But there was almost zero chance of that happening to her. Plus she had Eugenie, the younger version of her sister Prinz Eugen to deal with.

Besides, Moltke was now back in her own world, with her own Admiral Hipper to look after her.

“Hipper,” the voice of Eugenie said behind her.

Hipper sighed “What is it?” she asked as she turned towards Eugenie, and was almost surprised to see a worried look on her face “What's wrong?”.

“It's Prinz Eugen” Eugenie replied “She just come back from a commission and I saw her crying when she entered her room. She's locked the door and isn't respond to my nocking. I would have gotten Friedrich but she's out on a commission and won't be back till later. I've worried about her”.

Hipper sighed. What had her sister done this time? “Fine, I'll go see what's wrong with her,” she said as she stood up and walked towards the Ironblood dorm. Something bad must have happened to her sister for her to lock herself in her room. Luckily it was a shared room, so she had a key to the room as well. So she was going in there, find out what happened to her sister, comfort her, and then thank the person who made her cry because that bitch really needs to be taught a lesson.

She soon arrived at their room, unlocked it and walked in. Eugen never announced herself whenever she entered the room, so she might as well not do it as well “Ok Eugen, what's wrong with you?” she 'asked' as she entered the room, finding her annoying younger sister laying on her bed.

“Hello, Hipper” Prinz Eugen said as she wiped a tear away from her eyes “What brings you here?”.

“Eugenie is worried about you,” Hipper said as Eugen's younger self walked in behind her, “She said she saw you walking in here crying, and locked your self in. She's worried that someone's hurt you”.

“Sad?” Eugen said before shaking her head “I'm not sad. I'm actually happy” she said before she raised a hand and looked at it.

Hipper was slightly confused by what her sister was talking about, that was until she looked at her sister's hand, at the oath ring she was wearing on her finger.

Hipper's face quickly turned a deep red as her jaw dropped to the floor “That useless, stupid, moronic, block-headed, suicidal idiot!” she suddenly shouted “The commander didn't?”.

“No” Eugen replied with a smile “Prince of Wales did,” she said as she admired the ring on her finger “She proposed to me just after we came back from the commission. I didn't even see it coming. But, even with the surprise, the only thing I could do was say yes,” she said with a smile.

Hipper's face, no, her entire body turned a very bright red. As red as it was possible for the human body to get, and her jaw metaphorically smashed through the floor, into the dirt below the dorm, and right down to the core of the planet, all the while her brain went into meltdown.

How? How could this have happened? She knew her sister and Wales was close, but she didn't think they would ever take their relationship to the next level. In fact, she thought they wouldn't.

She just couldn't take it, and promptly collapsed onto the floor, her body stiff as a statue.

Eugenie looked down at her still body “Eugen, I think you broke the chopping board” she remarked, surprised that her older sister would react like this. Even more surprising was the fact that she didn't even react to the chopping board comment.

Eugen smiled “Don't worry about her, little one,” she said, “She should be fine in a few hours. Although I suggest you go get Vestal, and a large bucket of cold water to cool her down”.

“Of course,” Eugenie said before she rushed off towards the infirmary.

Eugen smiled before she went back to admiring the ring on her finger. She had never expected Wales of all people to be so bold as to buy an oath ring and present it to her. But, she was glad she did. As much as she wouldn't admit it, she was actually scared of moving their relationship up to the next level, as she was worried that Wales would be against it. But, now she didn't need to worry about that now, as Wales was the one who pushed things forwards for her, so all her worrying was for nothing.

Her other sisters would need to be informed about this, they needed to know about this after all. She wondered how they would react to the news that she and Wales were getting married. Hopefully, it won't be as bad how Hipper reacted.

She smiled, this was by far the happiest day in her life, and nothing in the world could ruin it. Not even the Sirens.

?????????

“Well, looks like the Azur Lane has done all the hard work for us again,” Observer Alpha said with a smile as she, Tester, and Purifier looked at the large screen in front of them “They've sent the GCR Kansen home, and we didn't even need to do anything”.

Tester nodded “Agreed. Without them we may never have found out the world Moltke came from,” she said “Such an interesting world. It's deviated from the others greatly, but the fact that this German Congressional Republic still not only has all the old Kaiserliche Marine vessels but also turned them into Kansen. It will give us valuable data we can't gather from other simulations”

“Agreed” Observer said “I can't believe that we were about to delete that simulation. I'm glad you brought up the anomaly, Purifier. Otherwise, we would have lost this perfect opportunity to gather data on Kansen who just don't exist in the other simulations”.

“Well, when a third Bismarck class ship named Moltke shows up out of the blue we're bound to notice it,” Purifier said “Besides, I really want to fight the Kansen of her world. Just to see how different they are”.

“Well, you'll get your chance,” Observer said as she started trying on the holographic keyboard in front of her “I'm reinstating the simulation amongst the main simulations. Since simulation 101 is no longer viable, we will be removing it and setting up Moltke's sim as it's replacement”.

“Simulation 101. I thought everything was fine in that one” Alpha said sounding surprised.

“It was, up until someone unleashed a virus that killed every single Kansen in that simulation, so it's useless to us now,” Observer said “Moltke's simulation, on the other hand, is far more useful to us now, so it will make the perfect replacement for simulation 101” she explained.

“Wow, another simulation that bit itself in the arse and killed all of its Kansen with a stupid bioweapon meant to kill us,” Purifier said sounding rather amused “It's a bit like that simulation where they unleashed a virus that can turn Kansen into zombies. Now that's a fun simulation to sit back in and watch the chaos ensue,” she said with a smile.

“At least these incidents are happening in simulations we can afford to lose,” Tester said “If something like that happened in any of the important simulations then we would be fucked!”.

“Well, we do have Sirens in those simulations to prevent those things from happening,” Observer said “And there, Moltke's simulation is now the new simulation 101. Tester, deploy scout units to the simulation and start setting up bases in the north and south poles, but be quiet about it. I want our facility's built before we make our presence known to them”.

“Of course” Tester said before she walked over.

Observer then turned towards Purifier “Purifier, once the facilities are in place, I want you to deploy several assault fleets to the simulation and cause as much damage as you can to as many coastal cities as you can find. Make them fear the ocean”.

Purifier smiled “So the standard MO for making ourselves known in a simulation then,” she said with a large smile “Oh I am going to enjoy this! Hahahahaha~!”.