Strike Witches: Fallen Humanity

Reconstruction

The group returned to the 501st base in the dead of night, apparently no one had noticed their disappearance, only Mio who was waiting for them, observing the horizon with her magical eye. She was quite surprised to find Virginia Robertson with the witches and Andrea.

The witches landed, some of them for some strange reason were so wet that it looked like they had taken a shower while still dressed, and now that she looked closer Andrea was very wet too.
It didn't ended there, in fact the more she looked the more her head got filled with questions:
Erica had a big bump on her head, Sanya and Francesca were taking distance from Minna while trying to see whether Andrea was still unconscious, Virginia was feeling like a fish out of water and, talking about sea related things, the Striker Units were smelling as if deep poured into the ocean.

"What on earth happened?!" Mio asked looking both angry and surprised "Why are you three here, why you're wet, what happened to the Striker Units and why does Erica has a giant bump on her head?!"

"She'll talk to you, meanwhile you three are better follow me!" Gertrud shouted, referring to Sanya, Francesca and Erica, though this last one didn't noticed.

"Hartmann, I'm talking to you!".

"What? But we catch him ba- OUCH!" Another bump on her head.
Still complaining she was dragged away by Gertrud, followed by the two youngest witches of the 501st.

"Minna? Any answer?" Mio asked cluelessly.

"She will tell us" Minna answered, pointing at Virginia.

She was trembling, she never expected to see such high ranking witches, and worse in such a bad situation.
"Ehm... Good morning Miss Sakamoto...".

"Did anything happened with him?" She asked, now pointing at the unconscious body of Andrea.

"Well, yes, a few things...".

"Mio, help me carry him to the nursery, we'll set things after" Minna asked.

And so this unpleasant adventure ended, the dangers were now far away and everything would go well... For some of them.
Under Gertrude's supervision Erica, Francesca and Sanya washed themselves to remove sand, salt and/or sea water, all three were then sent to an isolated room to sleep for the next few hours.
Except for a couple goodnight wishes and Gertrud's clear order to sleep in order to then serve their punishment, nothing was said. It was still difficult to get any sleep given what had happened, but at a certain point tiredness took over.

Meanwhile, Virginia was asked every possible question, from the most basic to the most soul crushing. She explained what she was doing there, what she had seen and heard, what her thoughts were.
Everything was going fine... Until the part of the attack:

"So, why were you fighting the Neuroi? You know you shouldn't as a non-fighter" Mio asked.

"I... I thought It was my fault, I wanted to help but I couldn't find the strength... Until Andrea looked at me".

"What did he say?" Minna asked.

"He firstly thought I was hurt... Then that he didn't knew there were non-military witches".

"How was his reaction?" Minna asked once again.

"He didn't knew what to say, when he told me that he didn't knew he quickly shut his mouth... And in that moment I knew...".

"I see, you've also arrived to that conclusion..." Mio said, becoming more serious.

"What conclusion? I don't understand" Minna asked.
She was a positive thinker, as a commander shall be, but some times it's better to see the dark side of things.