Darkness. Water.

This is what she had known since she had returned. Yes, returned. That was right, wasn't it? She had returned to this place. After all, it was all naggingly familiar. Well, except for one minor detail.

It was empty. The waters were still, where once they had been agitated; darkly blank, where once dots of light could occasionally be sensed. This puzzled her, as did the question of how she knew this, but she paid it no mind. The waters were quiet, peaceful, and too much thought disturbed it. Bliss was the better alternative.

And then it sounded. The drums, the whistle: beat to quarters. She was needed once again - and once again it, the call, was familiar. She had done this before. And if she had answered the call once, well, she had no reason not to answer it once again.

Slowly she moved up, heading for the surface.

~o~

The mood in the summoning room was tense. Nobody knew if this was going to work, and while the glowing circle was promising, the outcome was still in doubt.

Finally, the band finished, Enterprise still unsummoned, and the effort fell on the shipgirls gathered.

"Please, little E…" Yorktown pleaded, her words barely more than a whisper. "Come back to us. I… I need to..."

"E… come back, please," Hornet also pleaded, her hands warping the railing separating the gallery from the summoning floor. Her mouth opened to continue, but the only sound she produced was the continued shriek of abused metal under her fingers.

"Please, E, I don't want to lose you too," Saratoga whispered from next to the two Yorktown sisters.

"Dammit, I didn't even get to meet you before you kicked the bucket!" snapped the ever-feisty Wasp. "Get back here so I can get to know you properly!"

Lexington remained silent and stoic, her mouth a thin line. Just as silent but no less supportive were the other shipgirls gathered: the remaining American carriers, their battleships, both Northamptons, the First Air Fleet, even Richelieu and Bismarck had managed to find the time to stick around after the memorial service. Faith and longing and respect poured off of them in waves, an almost tangible thing that flowed towards the glowing circle.

And finally, the glow intensified, building into a white flash that exploded outward. And there, standing in the circle when everyone could see again, was a figure. She was shorter than the old Enterprise, her hair cut above the ears and blonde, rather than long and red. Brilliant red eyes completed the color swap. Her features and build were that of a young teenager, rather than a mature twenty-something, softer yet straighter. And her outfit - a white sailor's hat, sleeveless crop-top, and short side-tied skirt - had also changed. And most notably, there were no Abyssal parts: no tacked-on legs, no clawed gloves, and no hat.

"USS Enterprise, CV-6, reporting for duty!" she announced, saluting. And then her serious demeanor promptly evaporated, the saluting hand shifting into a jaunty wave. "Hey, Yorkie, Hornet!"

Admiral Holloway smiled as the two carriers teared up. "Welcome back, Enterprise," he said.

"Back?" He had to admit, the puzzled look on her face was way more adorable with her like this. "Oh, yeah, I- Oof!"

That last exclamation was due to Hornet and Yorktown leaping off the gallery and knocking her down to the ground in a massive hug, sobbing into their resurrected sister's chest.

"We missed you so much, E!" they wailed in unison.

"She was sunk for a week…" Bismarck muttered, earning a cuff upside the head from Richelieu.

"Aheh heh…" Enterprise nervously chuckled. "You guys missed me that much, huh?" Her only response was intensified happy sobbing, and, letting out an indulgent sigh, she settled back and began patting Yorktown's head.

Tearing his eyes away from the happy scene was hard, but Admiral Holloway managed it, glancing back towards the gathered shipgirls. "You aren't going to greet her just yet?"

"Nah," Zuikaku denied, seemingly for everyone. "We need to let 'em have their moment."

The Admiral nodded, and went back to watching the reunion. The road ahead of them was still long, hard, and rocky - but for the first time in a long time, he was confident they, and the rest of the world, could weather it.

~o~

The Submarine Empress grumbled imprecations under her breath as she crested the stinking, muddy banks of the river she'd steamed up. Four Ma-class submarines followed as an honor guard, silent and stoic.

[Who does she think she is, ordering me here like this?] she grumbled, kicking a rock and taking great satisfaction in its journey through the nearest ruined wall. [Then again, I did follow that order…]

It rankled, being bossed around by that upstart, who she'd created! And yet, even as her forces had waned under the full might of the Canadian and American navies, the new Fast Battleship Empress' forces swelled in strength, protected by the very land they had conquered. Answering the summons was the only choice available.

The sight of the charred ruins of the human city, plant life already starting to grow through the intact pavement, cheered her up some. And then it plummeted right back down as her fellow Empress was revealed in the ruins of another square, three of her Princesses at her side. The Fast Battleship Empress was an oddity among the Abyssals; scarred all over her torso and her legs crippled, her throne acted as her means of movement and rigging together. That did not hurt her severe image, though, nor did her long hair tied up in a bun and the relative modesty of her dress combined with a perhaps over-fascination with spikes.

[Alright, I'm here,] the Submarine Empress snapped, coming to a halt and not bowing in deliberate show. [What do you want?]

The Fast Battleship Empress smiled, and it was the sort of smile that reminded her of why she had chosen this particular shipgirl for conversion.

[Oh, nothing much,] she said in perfect Queen's English. [Just a little help in utterly crushing the shipgirls of Europe.]

The Submarine Empress shivered, but a confident smile nonetheless spread over her face.

[With her here… yes, we can't lose!]

[Of course I'll help. As one Empress to another,] she said in reply.

[Good. Here's how we'll start…]

AN: And that's a wrap. My first long(ish) fic, complete. It's satisfying, knowing you've written and completed a story.

Now, some of you may be wondering: Hornet, but you didn't answer everything! What about the Fast Battleship Empress? And Revenge? And everything else going on in Europe? This fic is about Enterprise. It was always intended as a limited story. No, Europe will have to wait for the sequel. Yes, the sequel, Best Served Hot and Smoky. It's currently in the planning stages, but it's one of the front-runners for my next major project, and I expect to get started on said project sometime after the new year.