Strange New World (Star Trek× Azur Lane crossover)

Prelude To MI

Belfast was up and about doing her usual morning routine. That is of course waking up the queen, making her breakfast and tea, and informing her of the day's events and schedule. After that, she is tasked with a more personal task and that is waking up Enterprise.

She had been personally assigned this task in order to get Enterprise to take care of herself and actually look at life in a more "elegant" way.

So imagine her surprise when she opened the door to Enterprise's room and finds the carrier not only awake and sitting up in her bed, but also visibly shaken as made evident from her eyes being wide as saucers and her seemingly try to calm her erratic breathing.

She immediately rushes to her side and tries to comfort her "Enty, what's wrong? What happened?"

That seemed to snap Enterprise out of her stupor as she turned to look at Belfast. They gazed at each other for what felt like an eternity until, to Belfast's surprise, Enterprise tackled her in a full blown hug. All she could do was hug back as she heard faint sobs coming from the usually stoic carrier.

They stayed that way for a while until Enterprise finally calmed down. They hugged for a bit more before they separated. Belfast wiped away what remained with a handkerchief.

"Feel better?"

Enterprise nodded, "Yeah... a bit"

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked.

She seemed to dwell on the thought for a moment before shaking her head. Belfast smiled understandably. Enterprise was still shaken and it would take a while until she's ready to share.

"When you're ready to come te breakfast, you can get properly cleaned up. I'll be waiting outside, alright?" Belfast said softly.

Enterprise nodded "Alright"

Belfast got up and exited the room. She waited outside for what felt like a while before the door opened once again. Enterprise looked significantly better than when she had found her initially.

"Ready" She stated.

Belfast nodded and led the way as they both walked to get some breakfast.
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The preparations were complete. Soon, the force that was to be the tip of the spear in the effort to retrieve the mental cube were to set out and begin the operation. They would be bypassing Azur Lane's patrols via Midway Atoll and deliver a crushing strike against those who had dared to strike against them.

At least that's what Ayanami was able to pick up during the briefing and subsequent morale boosting speech that was given to the task force leading this attack- her amongst them.

Beforehand, she had always dedicated herself in service of the Sakura Empire; always dedicating her time and loyalty to prove that she was worthy of the blade. But now, all of that was coming into question.

Ayanami didn't know when it had particularly started but it was as if something at the back of her mind was plaguing her thoughts, telling her that this was not the right thing to do. Her thoughts kept on going back to those two destroyers she had encountered.

'Javelin... Laffey... Unicorn' Yes... those were their names. Laffey had even offered her to be friends. Ah... that was it. Guilt, perhaps? Guilt that she didn't and couldn't accept the proposal of friendship?

Her mind then settled on another thought, 'I don't want to fight. I don't know why, but whenever they appear I suddenly loose the will to fight, especially against those three. Why... am I doing this? What's wrong with me?'

Before her mind could go further, she was quite literally shaken out of her thoughts by Yuudachi, the ever lovable meat-loving dog destroyer having a concerned look upon her face, "Ayanami! Are you alright?"