A/N: Sorry about the absence like the one you just witnessed. Little over a month and no word for me. It was just a combination of working and thinking on Humanity's Lost Identity and the holidays getting in the way, seeing family and all that Jazz.

This chapter is short, I know. But I decided for the ease of my own to use it as a setup chapter for what's to come.

—/—\—

"Reminder! Please do not cut battleships off when traveling in formation!" Arizona yelled between cupped hands as she watched Murasame flail to get out of the way of Bismarck and Scharnhorst. The two German battleships only chuckled to themselves somewhat as they watched the destroyer scramble to get back into position with the line of destroyers that was making up their current practice session.

There was more than fifty girls on the water at the moment, either with gunnery practice, Fleet practice, or simple rigging inspection. All under the eyes of the more experienced girls. Most of the training however was being overseen by Arizona, Nagato, and Maryland. Of course, there was far more than just the three of them involved in helping and overseeing, but they held overall command.

Most of them and the Admirals in charge had deemed it to get a sense of uniformity among the fleet as quickly as possible, whether that be through the knowledge of fleet formations or tactics. Right now, they were working on formation, easy enough in theory. But when you're suddenly throwing four countries who were used to their own way of doing things, everything suddenly got that much more complicated.

Yuudachi stifled a laugh as she watched, pressing her face into the inside of her scarf as she watched her six new sisters attempt to hold Fleet position with the Fletcher sisters. And watching as Suzukaze said something to O'Bannon, only for the resulting action to be the destroyer immediately turning on the girl, having to be held back by both Kawakaze and Taylor, she only assumed things were going well. "Like.... they're not very good at this, poi." The blonde destroyer said, looking up at Arizona. Battleship in question only sighed, a hand pressed to her face as she did so, acknowledging what Yuudachi had stated. Shigure and Yamakaze only offered simple nods of agreement as the three sisters watched Harusame try to settle O'Bannon down, only to look at Vampire with contempt in her expression when the destroyer said something.

It'd been decided that every single new girl from Pennsylvania and the four carriers on was to participate in the fleet activities, almost seventy girls decorating the water in various formations.

"O'Bannon. Calm down!" Arizona bellowed, watching as the destroyer in question went stiff as she heard her name be called. She sheepishly straightened up, only nodding to Harusame, who in turn looked to Arizona with a thankful expression. Crossing her arms, the battleship watched them a moment before nodding. "Strafe them." She said in simplicity.

Lexington and Enterprise let out dark chuckles at that as they began to redirect fighters already in the air, the low hum of their engines almost drowned out amongst the various chatter of the assembled forces and the ocean below their feet. But almost isn't the same as fully.

The fleet in question immediately recognized the sounds of engines whirring, making best pace for the lot of them. And as South Dakota and Massachusetts caught sight of them, it was almost already too late as the fighter's machine guns began to speak, paint sent flying over the assembled group. Fortunately, where their formation skills lacked at the current time, their shooting skills didn't as almost every anti-air gun began to speak, firing back their own paint rounds, sending the fighters scrambling to try and dodge the sudden onslaught of paint. Some were more than successful, breaking away from the fleets. Others were not so to the same extent as their wings and frames were splattered with splotches of blue, red, green, and yellow paint.

But the fighters weren't so easily scared, attempting to dip below the firing angles of the batteries still trying to pluck them from the sky metaphorically. As the handful of fighters dipped Lower and lower to the water, the firing angles weren't spoiled by lack of depression, but instead loss of line of sight due to the other girls blocking the way. Shouts of disagreement and disappointment became the rallying cry for the girls present. Some of the more heavily armed girls, like the two South Dakota sisters, simply shook their heads as the planes skirted around the outer edges of their formation, their guns falling silent.

But some of the cruisers present, like the Agano class, kept up the assault, their double A batteries making the planes run for cover. Which, on the open water of Tokyo Bay, there was no cover to be had. No clouds to vanish into. And as the five Corsairs just barely buzzed over the head of Helena In an attempt to shake the Anti Air fire pointed their way, their work Came with the unexpected surprise of the cruiser being covered in red paint. Sakawa had already stopped firing before hand, having immediately spotted where they were going. But her sisters had spared no such mind, covering the American cruiser crudely before they stopped. Helena only offered a huff of resignment before looking ahead once more.

"Oh Jesus." Maryland groaned at the sight, planting a hand to her face for a moment. Arizona and Nagato didn't verbalize their issue with what they'd just watched like Mary had, but they offered their own signs of exasperation, both involving some part of their hands meeting their faces.

"Break!" Arizona bellowed, prompting the fleet to stop their formation as some of them relaxed. Arizona pinched the bridge of her nose as she moved to intercept them, already glaring daggers into Agano, Yahagi, and Noshiro. The cruisers subtly flinched under the glare as Sakawa sighed, rubbing her eyes with her palms as she watched her sisters. "So... you three want to let me know what the plan was with covering Helena in paint? Because I really hope that your crews are better trained than whatever I just witnessed. "I mean, unless the three of you think you need to go through the starter courses like Louisiana, Totomi, And Tosa." Arizona told them, nodding her head over to the side of the bay where they found Missouri and Yamato standing before the three, who in turn were listening intently. Totomi and Louisiana didn't look the most stable on the water, but they were holding position at least. Agano scowled at the battleship.

"It was an accident." She said flatly. Arizona nodded at that.

"Clean it up here. Because if more accidents happen in fleet practice, I'd hate to see the results of life fire practice." Arizona said, letting the thinly veiled threat hang in the air. Arizona herself wasn't one to act on a grudge like that, and she wouldn't. But they'd already seen how readily Oakland and San Diego had gone after Hipper just because Atlanta had. This needed to be nipped in the bud and fast. Agano rolled her eyes at that, shaking her head.

"Fine! Fine! It won't happen again!" She huffed.

Arizona nodded at that in acceptance somewhat as she retreated back to position with Nagato and Maryland, giving a hand signal to start it up again. "Focus strikes. The Agano sisters." Arizona said as she glanced at the two carriers to her right. They only nodded in turn, soon launching new fighter wings.

As the fighters began to roll down the decks, a pair of 190's screamed away overhead, playing tail chase with a lone Zero. The three battleships turned to watch the clearly German fighters chase the turn fighter with ease, matching it turn for turn. The pair of the fighters would've no doubt already chewed the Japanese fighter up and spit it out of the air if this was a live combat scenario. But it was flight practice for the German pilots above, trying to bring their newest and greenest carrier up to speed.

Maryland spared a quick glance at the carrier, where she was taking all the advice that her division mates had to give, Hornet and Yorktown. Looking back to the fleet before her, she kept a quiet gaze over the new girls before she realized something.

Where was Admiral Hipper?

—/—\—

Vallory Adams did not know why her mother was so frantic. She didn't know why her mother was pulling her by the hand so drastically, practically tugging her along. There was a lot of things that the girl didn't know, but that came with the territory of being only seven years old.

She was pulled by the hand behind her mother, who when asked what was going on, would only respond with it's going to be alright and we're going to be okay. Vallory was no expert in anything, but the tone her mother used sounded wrong, sounded off. Vallory blamed the loud annoying noise for it, it having started maybe five minutes ago. But as Vallory looked around, she couldn't figure out why everyone was in such a rush.

This was her home. The city of Boston. But she'd never seen it panicked like this. She'd never seen it in a hustle like this, everyone moving in one direction. The roads, the streets were all cluttered, cars with open doors, bikes, various boxes and bags leaning against some cars, others splayed out all over the place. Vallory knew something was wrong, but she didn't know what.

All she could do was look up at her mother with wide eyes amongst the confusion and chaos erupting in the streets.

But as the crowd tightened, as the people began to mass together in one fast moving river, Vallory's grip on her mother's hand loosened ever so slightly, but that was all that was needed. The mass of bodies, the speed of pace did the rest. Vallory lost her grip, her mother's hand being lost in the sea of people before her, completely vanishing from sight. Vallory tried to yell out, to return to her mother's sudden and frantic calls, but the small girl was drowned out amongst the noise.

The crowd of people pushed past her, slowly but ever surely relegating her off to the side of the river of people, slowly leaving her alone as people passed her. Ever and ever closer to the water, Vallory grew farther and farther away from the last spot she'd seen her mother. But all was not lost as she so thought it was.

As the girl was forced away from her mother by the crowd, she found herself at the water's edge of Boston Harbor. Suddenly turning around to prevent herself from falling into the water below, Vallory peered down at the water's surface below. Sometimes, when she would come here with her mother, there would be fish to see and feed. But today, even the water seemed to be afraid. Of some threat that Vallory still couldn't find. Watching the water further, the peace of the tranquil water was slowly brought to an end however as waves from some unknown source began to disturb them. Blinking somewhat, Vallory followed the direction the waves were coming with her gaze, trying to find the sudden interrupter of the water.

And what the young girl found was far beyond even her comprehension, but she continued to stare, even if she did not fully understand what she was seeing. All she knew for sure that the sight before her was not of a normal thing. She didn't know for sure what she was looking at, but she wasn't able to ponder it much longer as her mother found her quickly enough, embracing the girl in a quick hug as she bent down to the girl.

"Vallory!" Jennifer Adams exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around her daughter. The moment she'd felt her daughter's hand slip from her grasp, she'd immediately turned around and tried to push back against the river of people. It had taken her a few minutes to push back against the river of people trying to get away from the water's edge as fast and as far as physically possible. To say that the woman had been immensely grateful that her daughter had found one place and stayed put long enough for her to find her did not do it justice.

But now Jennifer was completely focused on her daughter, so much so that her daughter trying to garner attention to something out on the water almost passed over her head completely. It took a moment, but eventually Jennifer looked up from her daughter to follow Vallory's frantic pointing. Following with her eyes, Jennifer looked for what her daughter had been so interested in, and the reality of it almost slapped her dead in the face.

It was no unknown fact or secret that after the opening weeks of the Abyssal war, the Navy had gone into a flurry of recruiting every able bodied hot blooded American that they could get their hands on, moving them to every necessary position required. Which meant that special postings had been dried up for years now, such as those aboard the Constitution. It wasn't a required posting for the war effort, so the navy had left the ship unpopulated with sailors.

The constitution had no crew. It hadn't since the start of the Abyssal War, that Jennifer knew without a doubt.

Her late husband had been apart of it's last crew before he was called away to fight against the waves of the armored monsters. Dressed in steel so black that it gave even the most hardened of criminals glimpses of true evil. Her husband had been her everything.

She didn't even get a body back.

So, with that in mind, knowing that the constitution had no crew, her mind screamed at her for an explanation that she knew she could not provide. An answer that would never come to her any time soon. And she wasn't sure that she wanted to.

As Jennifer Adams watched the form of the USS Constitution drop her sails in the middle of Boston Harbor, making way for the open sea before her, not a man or woman to be seen on board, for the very first time she was speechless. For the very first time, Jennifer's mind had no reason to give as her heart overrode anything that could be put forth. She had no reason. She had no logic.

She only picked up her daughter in her arms. But unlike her plan moments ago, she did not turn and leave for the sea of people once more. She didn't try and make for an escape. She didn't let panic override her senses a second time. She stayed quiet as she and her daughter watched the ship that the city knew better than anyone else on Earth sail on towards the coming darkness.

And they weren't the only ones either.

As people near and far noticed Jennifer standing, watching something on the water, they took notice. They took notice of the impossible out on the water and joined her, on all edges of the water, the people of Boston watched. But they didn't say a thing, lest it be a bad dream given to them in their darkest hour. All eyes focused, men, women, and children focusing on the sight before them.

Tens. Fifty. A hundred. Hundreds of people soon lined the water's edge, all gathered in a silence. As they watched that ship, one old enough to have witnessed three different centuries, no one said a thing. But as the silence washed over them, as the tension splashed over them in droves, there were some that day who thought they saw a woman. A lone woman at the helm of a ship only bested in age by the city itself. A woman who's hair, dark rusette in color, hanging to her mid back, somewhat mixing in with the navy blue officer's coat she adorned.

But only for a second.

As the wind picked up, letting a gust of the breeze carry the ship away over the waves to meet her destiny.

—/—\—

How could she have been so blind. How could she have so blindly followed a country like her own? She spoke of them like they were saints, and no one was worthy to be even within their shadow. But their actions spoke of the nine pits of hell and further yet. There was no humanity in their actions. There was no caring, no caution, no empathy. As they threw lives away in the name of science, in the name of purity, she had been preaching their innocence to those around her. When she had been the fool all along.

Tears that threatened to spill bit at her face, but the Heavy cruiser kept them back. She wouldn't show weakness. Not anymore that she'd already shown anyways. Her ignorance was serving to be her undoing. Once she'd learned the truth of what her country had gotten up to, it'd made her sick. She'd seen her birthplace as a country of honor and her own Admiral had been the one to remove the so called wool from over her eyes. Something she knew that she should be thankful for, but it only stung more when she thought about it. The entire situation left a bad taste in her mouth and there was nothing she could do to change that fact.

Her current location pinged about thirty five miles outside the mouth of Tokyo Bay. She needed to get away, to clear her head more. And the relative peace of the oceans before her served to do that far better than most other things that she'd learned of in her relatively short human life upon the earth. No matter how much it vexed her, she knew that many in the fleet were her superiors in that regard. Maybe the only reclaiming aspect of that was the fact that she had come through before her younger sisters. Had they come through before herself, Admiral Hipper probably would not be able to bare with it.

Still however, she'd not even told her sisters even where she'd gone. She'd needed to be by herself, to clear her mind. Free of her so called allies. Free of the Admirals that would no doubt fret over her worries. Her own Admiral to start. Ishigara and Johnson no doubt. And perhaps even the Captains, Algerona and King.

Hipper gritted her teeth at the thought of the American Admiral. She'd struck her down in what she thought was justified defense of her country. In what she believed to be a fair trial. But instead, she'd only come away from that encounter looking like a villain, like the supposed bad guy. Part of her told herself that she was justified in her actions, that she had made the right call. But the other side, now privy to information that she'd not been in possession of when the event had taken place, scolded her for it, racking her thoughts with memories of guilt.

She knew why she'd struck the woman, there was little if any doubt of that. Why she'd laid a hand on her. But now, in the afterimage, Hipper wanted nothing more than to strangle herself instead that day. She'd made a mockery of herself, shown her Admiral that she needed to be watched closely, and her sisters would not leave the subject to die. The American admiral had, to be fair, changed the way she approached the German ship girls as a whole, Tirptiz aside. And for good reason. In the wake of what had gone down with Admiral Hipper, it was questioned which of those present had abundant knowledge of what exactly most associated with the Second World War. And the answer had been damming.

Exactly two of the fifteen present ship girls already knew of what had transpired. Tirptiz, because one too many late night internet searches had led her into the worst of the stuff, both factual and not. Short to say, Tirptiz learned just how much weight a conspiracy could carry with it.

The second of the two was Hipper's own sister, Prinz. Given that she'd spent a fair amount of time in allied hands after the war, she heard a lot of talk. Of what exactly had transpired. Whether it had been whispers or full blown topics of conversation, Prinz Eugen knew all too well of what exactly had gone on during the war.

That left thirteen ship girls with little to no idea of what exactly had gone on. Of course, it made sense for girls like Bismarck, Blucher, And Graf Zeppelin. Blucher and Bismarck had gone down long before it would've ever come to light to the world. And Graf hadn't even been fully aware of her own existence, never having been completed or turned into another project. But that left those like Scharnhorst, Bismarck, Hipper, Blucher, the subs and destroyers at the mercy of whoever thought it deeming for them to learn.

Hipper knew that the general idea was for the ship girls to be hailed as heroes of the highest order in modern history. But would the people really hail those that had once worn the Swastika with pride truly see them as heroes? Or convenient weapons to be used and tossed aside as they saw fit?

Perhaps for the first time, Hipper envied the American admiral for being exactly that.

American.

But as much as Hipper hated to admit it, she knew that the Admirals in charge of them were their biggest allies. Because no matter what she wanted to think of the assembled group of various nationalities they currently was comprised of the leadership of four countries, there was little she doubted they would not do for her if the situation called for it short of outright murder or another form of felony.

As Hipper's eyes studied the horizon before her of the high afternoon sun, some clouds spotting that ever so crystal clear sky, the Heavy cruiser briefly wondered if it was truly a good idea to bring back those of her country like this. But, then again, she reminded herself that Imperial Japan hadn't been free in it's own wrongdoings but the girls that represented the former Empire were still treated as heroes of the highest caliber around.

Ultimately, in the end, Admiral Hipper didn't know what she truly preferred. She chalked it up to revelations in the past hours and her newness to what was ultimately called humanity.

Something however brought her from her thoughts quickly enough however, the cruiser looked up as her guns bristled somewhat. There was something out before her, just beyond the Horizon. Her radar told her nothing was there, but she knew better. Hers wasn't anything to gloat about like those of the Yamato or Iowa sisters. Steeling herself somewhat, her entire being bristled as she readied her bridge to sound general quarters at a moment's notice.

Eyes glued to the Horizon before her, it was a solid moment before she'd realized that her presence was no longer wanted nor accepted. As the horizon began to now decorate itself with a black line of dots, Hipper got her first good look at this supposed threat to humanity as a whole.

And for once, after merely one glimpse at the blackened and twisted metal that made up their amror and their pale white skin, Hipper didn't have a differing opinion. Because she knew without a doubt that they'd been right about them. That these things were a danger to them all

As two Ta-Class cruisers began to ready their weapons to fire at the lone Heavy cruiser, their distance closing rapidly, Admiral Hipper steeled herself as she sounded off general quarters, her fairies scrambling for their positions.

The Heavy cruiser would not go down this day, that she was sure of.