Chapter Text
19th December, 1941.
Queen Elizabeth and Valiant arrive in Alexandria as per Victory’s orders. Knowing the reason why, QE remains mostly silent, which Valiant has been growing very suspicious of.
The younger sister asks, “Lizzie, why are we out here?”
QE gives the simple answer of, “After the loss of Ark and our dear sister Barham, the Mediterranean needed reinforcing. The Sardegnans are—“
“Why are we actually here, sister?” Valiant clarifies. “That’s the official reason. We’ve been sent to be sunk, haven’t we?”
Breathing a heavy sigh, QE responds, “…no, Valiant. We will be attacked by two-men human torpedoes, or whatever they’re called, sent by the Sardegnans. We must be ready, or we will be temporarily disabled.”
“…”
“What’s wrong, Valiant?”
“I’m scared, Lizzie… what if we can’t escape this world?”
“It’s alright. Once we’re properly awake, we can rest. I promise.” The flagship reassures. She switches off her radio. “Hopefully Enterprise has a way to finally end these ghastly loops…” she mutters.
“I have absolutely no f*cking clue how to end these damn loops…” Enterprise mutters as she runs her hands through her hair, annoyed.
Zero replies, “As I said before, I can end them, but any Kansen still in the simulation when it ends—“
“Will have their minds get deleted leading to mindless husks, yeah we know. I just don’t understand how we can’t just pair them back up with their real Cubes, the only cost being losing the memories they gained in the simulation.” Enterprise counters.
Bismarck, also present, agrees, “Ja. It would be a significant bolstering to our forces here. For that, I believe it would be more beneficial to get them out immediately.”
“If you would prefer that, I can do that.” Zero chimes in.
Enterprise and Bismarck slowly look at her.
“…what?”
“…vas?”
“I can wake the Kansen up fully and reconnect them to their real Wisdom Cubes, but their simulated experiences and memories will be lost.” Zero answers, looking back up at her.
“…”
“…”
“When were you planning to tell us about this!?” Enty yells.
“My apologies… I had not regarded it viable, considering the objective of getting them out with all memories intact. If the Royal Navy Kansen are woken up now using this method, they will not remember their Commander.” The Siren answers.
“Why not? Doesn’t she have her own pod in the Scapa Stronghold? Aren’t we getting everyone out with going over there to save her in mind?” The Carrier asks.
Already knowing some of the answer, Bismarck remains silent.
“Because the Kansen ‘Victory’ does not exist.” Zero ominously replies. “She has a simulation pod, but hers is for training, not reenactment.”
“T…training?”
Zero lets go of the console, putting a pause on fast forwarding the simulation. She turns to face her. “Commander Victory was never a Kansen in the real world. She is an AI construct developed by Observer Alpha for the experiment of seeing what would happen to history should the HMS Victory be given a Kansen form before the Battle of Trafalgar. Unfortunately, not having a real form allowed her to undergo METAmorphosis and revert back at will, something that has not yet been proven to be possible by any real META Kansen.”
“So… she can have that much power whenever she wants?”
“Negative. Only when she undergoes extreme emotional stress does her META form awaken. She does, however, have the means to access the console within the simulation and manipulate it to her will, but she does not have the knowledge of how to do so consistently, and if she inputs the wrong commands, she could endanger everyone, so I created a mental blocker that prevents her from doing so, but her tampering is starting to border on being a virus. Is she continues, the automatic antivirus software will start to target her.” Zero explains.
“And I assume just turning off the antivirus will endanger the entire simulation?” Enterprise asks.
“Affirmative.”
“So… what can we do for her?” Bismarck finally asks.
“We need to somehow imbue her with the knowledge of the power she holds, but that much power could easily corrupt her even further than she already has been. Every new iteration of the simulation has broken her code increasingly so. She hides it remarkably well, but she is becoming more and more incompatible with the virtual world build.” The Siren explains.
“Is it causing her pain?” Enterprise asks.
“Yes. Extreme amounts. So much so that she has learned not to show it. Her body is severely damaged, but nobody else in that world can tell. Not even her new girlfriend, Nelson.” Zero answers.
“We have to get this information to Nelson and the rest of the Royals still in there. They need to make sure they can look after her.” Bismarck urges.
“Negative. They cannot do anything, and anything they try could hamper her work. Luckily, Victory seems to understand the importance of following history, having experienced it multiple times. Like the flagships, she remembers every loop.” Zero argues.
“Then why don’t I?” The Battleship demands.
After a brief silence, Zero answers, “Because you were the most likely flagship to prevent any of this happening. Your knowledge of science and technology far surpasses the other flagships, Bismarck. It was inevitable that you would’ve found out everything before the rest, so you were not put through the experiment of remembering everything.”
“But… why even do all of this in the first place? Why not just allow us to win, and then reset the timeline again?” Bismarck asks.
Zero stares at her and says, “Because the Leviathans don’t abide by the same rules of time as we do, and they’re getting close. We’re running out of time, and no amount of rewinding it can help us. We are extremely desperate, and all of this is only dooming us further.”
Enterprise asks “What about Bonnie? What’s up with her?”
“The Kansen Bon Homme Richard seems to exist in a similar fashion to the Leviathans. Her METAmorphosis was far different to most other members of the Ashes. All data on her is either missing or corrupt. She is the definition of an anomaly. She could potentially be the most dangerous being on the planet, in all dimensions and timelines.” Zero explains.
“Well… that just fills me with confidence…” the Carrier mutters. “So… let’s talk about what Victory is.”
Scapa Flow Stronghold.
Victory floats in her pod, still unconscious. Her pale skin barely visible in the fluid suspending her.
Tower types away and make sure Victory remains unable to learn how to access the console inside the simulation.
“She’s trying more and more… an automatic system wouldn’t be able to keep up with her attempts… and the antivirus just isn’t helping… damn it… why did Purifier have to go over there and get killed? This is her department…”
Temperance looks over from her console, “Just send in some fleets keep her busy.”
Tower looks at her. “…oh… of course…”
Scapa Flow.
The base alarms once again ring out for another attack, pulling Victory’s attention away from trying to hack the simulation.
“Oh, bloody hell! Not again! Nelson! Assemble the Knights!”
Once outside, the Royals all assume battle formation and charge forth to combat the attacking fleet once more.
Scapa Flow Stronghold.
Tower says, “That should keep her busy for a bit…”
“If Roon doesn’t get involved, anyway…” Temperance counters.
“Roon…?”
“That crazy PR ship that doesn’t exist.”
“Ah, yes. Of course. How is Devil progressing?” Tower asks.
“She’s almost done putting together simulations for Victory. Ones where she’s always guaranteed to fail.”
“How is that going to help, again?”
“To prevent her developing an ego. The Creator knows we have enough members like that…” Temperance rolls her eyes. “There are a lot where Nelson dies because of her.”
“Wouldn’t that wear off after a couple of different simulations?” Tower asks.
“Have you been paying any attention to how close Victory is to all her Kansen? Even the ones not in her faction she cares a lot about. Even if Bismarck were to die over and over, it would tear her apart, now imagine her experiencing her lover dying repeatedly because of her.” Temperance explains. “We can s8moly turn off our emotions. Kansen can’t, and Victory’s mind is based on a Kansen’s.
“How diabolical.” Tower smiles.
Both Sirens continue to talk, not noticing Victory’s finger twitch…
Scapa Flow.
“Commander? COMMANDER!”
Victory opens her eyes, having zoned out for a second. She finds herself gripping the railings of Nelson’s Battleship. She looks forward and she’s the battle raging with a portal spitting out seemingly unlimited amounts of Pawn-class Destroyers. She looks to her side and sees Nelson trying to get her attention. “My apologies, my love. Continue pushing back while I think of something. I may be be able to close those portals.”
“Yes, ma’am!” A blushing Nelson responds, aiming her turrets.
Victory closes her eyes again, trying once more to force her way into the inner workings of the virtual world. “Come on… come on…” she doesn’t quite know how she understands all the coding and technical jargon, but she blasts her way past multiple firewalls and the antivirus, overpowering it and breaking through.
“There we go…”
She eventually comes across something and activates it. Causing a flash of light big enough to engulf the entire harbour…
Scapa Flow Stronghold.
Tower loses connection to the simulation and the pod. She and Temperance slowly look up from their screens.
In the pod, Victory is staring right at them, with fiery, crimson eyes.
Tower gasps, “What…? How…?”
Victory raises a leg, and kicks forward, shearing the door off the pod, launching it at the two Sirens, hitting them before they have a chance to summon their riggings. After Victory steps out of the pod, she sees the two Sirens get back up and stare at her in utter confusion.
The “Kansen” summons her outfit and rigging, despite the blocker that should be preventing her doing so, cracks her knuckles and her neck and asks, “Ok… so who’s first?”
Scapa Flow.
Victory gets booted out of the inner workings of the simulation and is back in the middle of the battle again.
“Wha…?”
“Commander, we’ve almost got them!” Nelson informs.
“Uh… oh, good, Nelson! Let’s finish them off!” The confused Commander orders, unsure of what just happened.
When the last Pawn sinks, Victory looks at her hands, feeling very strange indeed.
“Are you alright, Vic?” Nelson asks.
“I… I’m not sure, Nellie…” Victory answers.
Zero pauses from her task and takes a step back, as if in pain.
“Hey, you okay?” Enterprise asks.
“I am unharmed. Although, it would be a lie to say I am not shocked.” The Siren replies.
“What happened?” Bismarck asks.
“It would seem that Victory has done something… very unprecedented…”
“What? What has she done now?” Enty inquires.
Zero looks at them and says, “She is awake in both the simulation and the real world simultaneously. She has compromised the Scapa Flow Stronghold and the signals from Tower and Temperance have ceased transmitting.”
“She woke up and took out two Siren Elites? But is also still awake in the simulation? How is that possible?” Bismarck questions.
Zero accesses the console again. “Hmm… She has split her consciousness in two. It seems she is no longer able to switch to her META form. Meaning…”
Enterprise realises, “Oh no…”
“What!?” Bismarck demands.
Zero answers, “Victory and Victory META are now two separate entities, and the latter is very, very angry.”
