From the moment we were fired upon to when she spoke those words smiling menacingly, I knew we were in some type of danger, but it was only when we were in sight of the enemy that I then knew how bad the situation had gotten.
And seeing her only confirmed it.
Word goes that no ship worth their salt that sailed in WWII would go without hearing at least once of the Bismarck-class Battleships, the dreaded machines of war built by the Nazi Regime for the sole purpose of sinking the enemy before they had the chance to realize that they had just been hit, about how the Bismarck had managed to sink the pride of the royal navy and evade the world for weeks after, and how should any convoy be unfortunate enough to bump into one of them, that they should turn tail and run while they still could.
And here was her sister, the mighty Queen of the North, sailing just a few meters away with almost all guns aimed at her and her rescuers and another enemy ship right next to her, this one an aircraft carrier that looked not quite as powerful as her fellow comrade but equally as deadly.
We were screwed!
I could only stare at the woman dressed in white, frightened and scared out of my mind, when she began laughing almost maniacally, while the woman behind her looked on indifferent.
"When my sister informed me of the latest arrival to your fleet, I must say I expected something quite different, or at least powerful," she spoke out of breath from laughing so hard, "but imagine my surprise when instead I'm met some shipwreck raised from the ocean floor, not even a weak minded torpedo boat, but a Cargo ship."
She paused taking in a breath; "If I had known about how easy this was going to be, I wouldn't have even bothered sending anyone with me when I could just take care of it myself."
The woman holding me started to respond and I looked up at her, she looked at the woman very coldly but one could still tell that there was warmth in her gaze, almost as if she saw battle not as a job but as one's solemn duty, the soft day-light illuminated her smooth face and her light-violet eyes, and she carried me with a soft touch.
She shouted back, "You're one to talk, what with you being sold for scrap after sinking back in 1944," but the lady smoothly replied, the smile no longer on her face: "Ahh, yes, but that was then, this is a new world and its safe to say that I'm not going to make the same mistakes."
"You wanna bet on that!" The taller one of the lady's friends shouted back.
"No, I think I'll pass, don't want to be betting on a sure-fire thing after all." She gestured back behind her: "I'm sure you're familiar with my associate, Graf Zeppelin." She finished and the woman dressed in black stepped forward, gave a short bow, and stood back up once again baring her teeth.
The three people with me all seemed to ready themselves for battle and, the woman noticing this, said "We all seem to know what's about to happen here so I want to present you with an offer, you surrender and follow us back to our base and you will all become prisoners of war, unharmed, of course."
"Like hell we are!" The woman holding me shouted back, and the one who spoke chuckled softly, "Ya, ya, I guessed as much" and another salvo fired from the ship.
The round pierced through the hallway behind us, tearing through metal and shearing pipes, rocketing through wall after wall until it finally stopped in some crew section, it rocked the ship and all of us were knocked off our feet, including the woman who dropped me accidentally in the effort to regain her balance.
I crashed harshly against the rough floor, trying my best to cover my ears, only managing to get one arm up to my head while the other lay almost limply in front of me, a rising pain beginning to emanate from it.
The woman pointed outside in an order for the other two to meet with enemy and fight them off and they quickly disappeared from view, she then knelt down to me and looked me over.
"Are you okay?" She asked worriedly in a sweet tone of voice.
I looked myself over, there didn't seem to be anything else wrong with me apart from the obvious, a new cut had appeared here and there and a headache had started forming, I probably had a concussion, but the worst thing was my arm, I could hardly move it and it was starting to ache terribly.
"I think I may have fractured my arm, I might have a concussion as well," I admitted.
She looked me over and gave me a nod before helping me to a concealed position against the wall, being careful not to knock me around to much, she then said "All right, you try not to move to much, we'll handle Tirpitz and Zeppelin," and with that, gave a nod before jumping out the hole in wall.
I panicked and quickly dragged myself over to the ledge, looking for any sign of the woman in the water.
Instead, I saw her gliding over the waves, moving with precise and delicate precision as if she were dancing and sliding over the water as if it were ice.
And when I looked back up, I no longer saw those large ships from just moments ago, instead the two women had also taken up strange looking devices on their backs and were also gliding across the water, the one from the Graf Zeppelin fighting against the people with the woman and the other took up a fighting stance as she waited for her opponent to strike.
"Huh..." was all I could say, at some point, this was all going to make sense, but until then I will just watch the action from here.
I didn't exactly feel comfortable leaving that woman there all by herself, what with her being injured and everything, but there more important things, or rather people to attend to.
Lady Tirpitz herself stood before me, taunting me with that smug, over-confident look on her face, and as she stood by, I pulled out my bow and readied a salvo.
As I released the bow string, Tirpitz suddenly dodged out of the way, the shimmering beam of light acting as an arrow transformed instead to a plane and circled its way back to its target, it managed to fire off a few rounds before she turned around to shoot it down, a small scowl on her face.
Which happened to provide the perfect distraction.
I quickly raced over to her position and jumped above her just as she looked back, firing off a round of bombs, two of which impacted the large rig behind her and one which landed in the water, sending up a large plume and which fortunately knocked her off her feet.
Upon landing, I rushed back at her, preparing another salvo, but she ran at me and knocked my bow to the side, "Lucky shot!"
I smirked; "You really think so?" I asked sarcastically, the smile faded from her face, "Let's see how well you fare now that I'm warmed up," she said before knocking me back.
Quickly recovering, I stood up just in time to see Tirpitz aiming her mighty guns at me and I had barely raised my arms in a shield before a shell tore its way through my rigging and my shoulder, disabling my comms tower.
Inspecting the damage revealed that the damage to my arm was minimal and most likely just a ricochet, I raised my bow and launched a couple more fighters and dive bombers to distract Tirpitz while tried to get the upper hand.
Sailing a bit further away while Tirpitz fired wildly into the air, swatting at my planes as if they were fly's, an explosion caught my attention.
Looking over my friends, I could see that they were struggling to fight off Graf Zeppelin, Vestal had taken a heavy blow and was lying still on the water while Washington tried to fight off the planes dropping bombs around her, all of this while Graf took cheap pot shots from nearby, I started to move towards them to help them fend her off but was interrupted by a shot to the leg.
'God, that hurts!' I thought as I fell and looked towards Tirpitz as she walked slowly towards me, struggling not to let my pain show on my face, I would not give her that satisfaction.
She let out a laugh, "Is something the matter, Enterprise? I thought you would have put up more of a fight than this."
"Well, I'm not the one using dirty tricks like you are!"
"Mmm, yes, I suppose all these tactics have been a bit unfair, but Iron Blood has never fought fair, have we?" She stood next to me and leaned over, grabbing my face and forcing me to look up at her, "But even you must admit that this is a bit too much effort for one measly, little ship girl."
"Nothing is too much to protect those on our side!" She scoffed, "If you say so..." and she moved my face over to the left where I saw Graf Zeppelin standing over a fallen Washington while Vestal leaned protectively over her.
"But your friends over there don't appear to share the same sentiment, and neither of you look good to keep going," she made me look back at her, "so I'm going to make you one last offer, surrender and nobody will have to die today, so what's it going to be?"
"I think I'll pass!" I shouted and fired an arrow I had been readying beneath her at Graf which then proceeded to turn into bombs that exploded in her face.
Tirpitz looked at her partner in shock and readied another round but was interrupted by a round sent by Washington who had her hand outstretched and smoke slowly rising from her turret, she looked at me for a moment before turning her attention back to Graf Zeppelin.
Another salvo of bombs was soon prepared and I quickly aimed and launched it at her, she managed to dodge out of the way but not before one hit her torso and knocked her back, granting me the time to launch some more planes for her to deal with.
She fired randomly at them, focusing her attention on one only to be hit by another, this distraction granted Washington to fire once more at Tirpitz, there was no dodging this time and she quickly become engulfed in a cloud of smoke with bits of hot metal flying off of her.
There was silence for a bit, apart from the fighting going on nearby and I moved in to investigate.
"Got you now!" I suddenly heard from behind me and before I could turn, a loud and massive explosion sounded off behind me, ripping through my rig and making a large gash in my side, I fell to my knees clutching my side which bled profusely.
Tirpitz leaned down next to my ear and whispered, "Really dear, today is just not your day," she then reared up and took aim behind me and said in a sickly sweet tone: "Goodbye."
Then before she could take the shot, I heard that woman we met shout "No!" before everything seemed to disappear in a fog of thick green.
Despite the woman's commands, I was not willing to rest while the others protected me, so I slowly stood my self up and leaned my weight on the wall while I watched this dramatic fight unfurl.
It was strange to understand exactly what was going on but it seemed that the ships once present had become attached to their bodies in certain ways, granting them the ability to move on water and attack with the same power as those powerful vessels.
It was odd to say the least but that does not mean that I didn't find the battle exciting at all, whenever group clashed against the enemy, I would find myself giving a small cheer with every successful hit, even if I was busy trying to figure out how planes and bombs were forming from arrow-like beams of light.
But whenever one of my rescuers took a hit, I wished desperately for someway to help them, someway to give them an advantage.
I clutched at my head feeling another throb of pain, the headache was getting worse and it was becoming unbearable at this point.
I opened my eyes and... and...
The woman who had carried me, who was shooting arrows left and right and taking charge of the group had fallen, and the woman attacking her was now standing over her, and looking around I could see that the other two were at their mercy as well.
"No... no, no, no, there must be something I can do, there has to be!" I frantically whispered to myself as my headache got worse and worse and I looked around the room for something, but when I looked back, the woman was already taking aim at her.
This can't... I can't let this happen!
The pain came to a crescendo and as I shouted in panic in fear, "No!" while reaching out to them, the entire surrounding area became clouded in a thick green mist as thick as pea soup.
I only was aware of it for a moment before I collapsed to the ground and passed out, my last conscious thought being...
'What just happened!?'
"What is this?"
I asked myself looking around at this sickly green fog, it come in out of nowhere and so suddenly that it almost took me by surprise, but I instead got my thoughts in order and looked back down at my victim.
Who was now gone.
"Augh, of course, is this one of your new tricks, Enterprise? If it is, it won't save you, you're just delaying the inevitable." I shouted into the mist, hoping to row a reaction from her, but there was none, there was only silence.
It was an old silence because not only was there no response from Graf Zeppelin but even the sound of the waves seemed muffled somehow.
It was as if it were just me sailing alone on an endless ocean and it was bringing back some rather unpleasant memories.
I shook my head, "They have to be here somewhere, I would know if they moved or not."
And so I walked about the area, keeping my guns armed and ready, looking for any traces of the enemy I was just fighting but none showed themselves.
Then just a few feet away, I spotted something floating in the water so I walked over to it and picked it up, it was a picture with an image of a small crew standing in front of an eerily familiar looking submersible with the words 'Successful crew of the X7 Midget Submarine.'
The same submarine among the three that attacked me back in Norway, 1943.
Startled and shocked, I dropped the photograph and looked quickly around me for any sign of an enemy or their trickery but looking back, I found that not even the photograph I just had was present.
I clutched my arms closer to me, rubbing them nervously, "Your... probably just seeing things, you're freaked out because of this fog and your mind is just playing tricks."
"Oh, but this is very real."
I swung around and saw my sister standing before me but instead of the comfort I feel normally around her, I instead felt suspicious and somewhat fearful.
"Sister, I didn't realize you were here, did you follow us? How'd you get past the fog and Enterprise with her group?"
"I managed to take care of them easily, unlike you." She said coldly.
I could only blink in surprise, this wasn't like Bismarck at all, "I'm... sorry, what do you mean, sister?"
"Oh, I think you understand exactly what I mean," she stated and started walking closer, "I followed you to make sure you were following my command but imagine my surprise when instead I find my own kin failing to destroy a couple of measly, weak, little ship girls."
I started walking back away from her, "Si- Sister?"
"Don't call me that, if I can't trust you to do one little thing, then how can I trust you to be my sister."
"Sister, don't say that!" I cried out nervously to her as I tried to walk further away only to stumble on my own feet and fall back on the water.
I raised my arms as she walked closer still, the air around us starting to grow cold as her face became angry and demonic, "If there is no further use for you then I might as well throw you to the dogs." She shouted before raising her arms, the sudden sound of airplane engines appearing in the air and hundreds of Lancaster Bombers appeared in the skies above her.
Tears came to my eyes and I shouted back at her crying from the floor: "Please, sister, this isn't you, don't do this!"
But she just leaned over me as the planes grew closer and closer, "Please try to still yourself, Tirpitz," she said which shocked me, she wouldn't even call me her sister anymore; "if you're going to go out as target practice, then you might as well be quiet about it." She then laughed maniacally above me as the sounds of sharp whistles started to make themselves present.
I merely collapsed the rest of the way to the ground, bringing my knees up to my chest and covering my head with my eyes shut tight as I waited for the end to come as above the whistling sound grew louder and louder and my sister's laughter grew deeper and more demonic, until suddenly it all came to a halt.
I gritted my teeth and let out a short but loud groan, "Of course, I just had to have my target right there, right within my grasp, only for them suddenly to disappear in a fog."
Said as with the realization that the two people I was just fighting and had come so close to defeating were mysteriously gone from their spot on the water.
"Alright, where are you."
Looking around yielded no results apart from making her angry, and the mist only made things more difficult, yet still I looked around in this unnatural fog.
I was almost tempted to let lose a plane just for the fun of it to see what may happen but that would just be a waste of equipment if I did.
Then I started hearing voices nearby, and I smiled to myself, thinking: "The enemy deserves to die if they think they can have a normal conversation during the middle of a battle." before making my way towards them.
But as I got closer, the voices became more clear and even familiar, "... can you even believe how arrogant she is, it's almost like she wants us to hate her." was that... Prinz Eugen, but why would she be out here?
"Is it true that the previous leader didn't even want her, but she was completed because the people building her came into some more supplies?" Another voice asked, one that sounded like Roon, who on Earth could they be talking about?
"It is. She was almost sunk too by those inferior Soviet ships." That was the fleet commander, Bismarck, did she follow me here to ensure I did a good job? "Imagine the embarrassment she must feel, Graf Zeppelin's a disgrace to the navy." Wait they were talking about me!?
I rushed over to where the voices where coming from and soon enough, I saw them all standing together, Prinz Eugen, Roon, and the fleet commander herself.
Bismarck looked over at me; "Ahh, Graf Zeppelin, how nice of you to join us, we were just talking about you."
"I heard, why were you all saying such mean things about me?"
"Well to be fair, dear," Roon spoke up, "most of what we were saying was true."
"What!?" I was taken aback, how could they just antagonize me like that to my face, after all that I've done for them.
"Yeah, don't get me wrong, I do appreciate all that you've done for us but really all that you do is bring shame to the Iron Blood flag." Prinz Eugen said in return.
"I can't believe this, I've done nothing but fight the enemy, I've never complained and I've followed every order without fail, don't you think I have a right to feel prideful about all that I've done!"
Bismarck responded, "There's a difference between prideful and being an annoyance and you've crossed that line more than once, or need I remind you about your little competition between Peter Strasser, Wesser, and Zeppy."
"A competition that I won!"
"And would not stop talking about months after, and then there was that chess tournament between Iron Blood and Sakura Empire."
"But that was hardly-"
"And then there was your treatment of my sister this morning."
"What? How could you possible know about that when you weren't even there!?"
She frowned and looked sternly at me, "It doesn't matter how I know, what matters is that it happened in the first place. Just face it, your arrogant!"
"Stubborn!" Roon piped up.
"Useless!" Prinz Eugen followed.
Their voices started to surround me as I collapsed to my knees clutching my hands to my ears to try and stop me from hearing their insults, but still they found their way in my head.
"Weak!"
"A disgrace to the uniform!"
"Iron Blood's better off without you!"
Louder and louder their voices grew, stacking on top of each other in increasing disharmony and tears started pouring as I tried to make myself smaller and smaller to try to get away from their words and accusations.
And then, as quickly as it started, the voices faded away into nothing.
Upon feeling no sudden sense of death, I opened my eyes, 'I'm still alive, for the time being.' I thought to myself before looking up at the woman who shouted.
She stood from her spot in the middle of the impact hole in her ship, just barley visible in the dark, before swaying to one side and collapsing on the ground.
I looked over to my left and saw my fellow compatriots looking back at me in a similar manner, equally confused as to why we were not yet dead, I carefully stood myself up and limped on over to Washington and Vestal before sitting down next to them, Vestal quickly worked her magic on Washington, wrapping whatever wound she could find before moving on to me.
Now, thinking we were at least some what out of danger, we looked around at our battlegrounds and realized that the whole area had been covered in a thick green fog, limiting our vision to but a small area.
As we pondered on what may have caused this abnormal mist, we started to hear the voices of the people we were just fighting, Washington stood up from her position and got into a fighting pose while I was being held down by Vestal.
The mist slowly cleared and the two people became more and more visible until we were able to clearly see them, and when we finally did, all three of us were shocked.
Both Tirpitz and Graf Zeppelin appeared to be in an animated conversation with people who weren't there, Tirpitz apparently talking with her sister who was clearly accusing her of something with the way she reacted, and Graf Zeppelin arguing with people who had thought her arrogant.
Which was true but we didn't wish to interrupt that.
Nobody did, looking over our group it was clear to see that we were all somewhat disturbed by their conversations with the mist, it was unnerving to see the enemy reacting with so much emotion and fear with something incorporeal.
It became more uncomfortable when they both collapsed to the waves crying and cowering, these two powerful figures brought low by their own fears and imaginations, but it also wrought the question, why wasn't the same thing happening to us.
Then it occurred to me, it did, we saw the same thing when we were exploring the ship looking for the girl who sent the emergency signal, so under that assumption, it would make sense that there was something that was making us hallucinate in the ship that is making them see stuff now.
But that still didn't answer why it wasn't affecting us.
Eventually, the green fog gave way to white mist and everything looked as it had before the battle, and Tirpitz and Graf Zeppelin got up slowly from their position on the floor with tear streaks going down their faces.
They looked around and at each other for what they had each just seen before looking at us, no longer did we see the confident people looking to fight off against an army alone, instead we saw people scared out of their wits by what they experienced and clearly in no position to fight.
Tirpitz took a few steps forward: "I... I..." she said in a wavering voice before walking off.
Graf Zeppelin followed Tirpitz's movements before turning back to us, she raised a finger as if wanting to shout an insult or a warning at us, but the words disappeared in her throat and she just turned and followed after Tirpitz, each disappearing in the mist shortly after.
After waiting a few more moments for Vestal to finish wrapping us up, we turned back to the ship, jumping up and entering through the hole we came from, neither of us said anything to each other, just total silence.
I looked down at the woman we had fought to protect, she laid unconscious on the floor and had a small pool of blood spreading out from under her, but she was alive and that was all that mattered.
Carefully, I picked her up and brought to my command deck upon releasing my rigging, it was a bit worse for wear but she needed to stay some place warm and safe and we were most certainly not going back into that ship without knowing what other horrors lie within.
And as I lied her down on a makeshift bed we had constructed, I asked a question to her under my breath while Vestal tended to her many injuries, knowing she wouldn't be able to respond.
I asked her, "Who are you?"
Hopefully, she'll be able to tell me herself.