Lusitania's survivors were stunned by the loss of their loved ones and fellow passengers. They sat silently in the lifeboats, called for help from nearby ships and bickered miserably as they floated in the Irish Sea. Thanks to the lack of a plug, the previously capzised Lifeboat 14 was gradually sinking. Adrien and Marinette watched from the cuddle of their blankets as some of the other passengers shouted and cheered to signal the approaching rescue ships. The Admiralty tug Flying Fish/Galloping Goose was steaming toward them from the northeast. Captain Thomas Brierley reached Lusitania's last known position, only to find lifeboats, debris and bodies scattered over three to four miles. The empty ones told an awful truth. Another tug, the Stormcock, drifted towards Lifeboat 11, ready to take aboard the next batch of survivors.

The crew of the rescue ships greeted the survivors with strong arms and respectful silence. The men, women and children of Lusitania pushed through the crowds and lined the railing, looking for their wives, husbands and parents. Anyone at sea might have shared their fate, or the fate of the victims they had left behind. Those coming aboard did whatever was necessary to survive a long day in the sea. Captain Turner understood the price he had paid for his survival. He had to bear the responsibility of driving his ship of innocents into the war zone. His eyes had the face of a damned soul as he boarded the Granton trawler Bluebell, where he passed the accusing gaze of a woman who said.

"My child's death was not necessary. It was due to the lack of discipline and organization aboard your ship."

At 3:00 PM, the Courtmacsherry lifeboat Kezia Gwilt was launched, arriving at the site of the disaster two hours later and recovered sixty-five bodies by 8:40. By then, the last Lusitania passengers and crew were rescued. Other ships nearby went on a final search of the area. The terrible realization grew and there were none left in the water.

As Wanderer loaded Lusitania's passengers and crew, the Eclipse cruiser Venus was sent out to recover bodies, but they were too late to help the living. Chloé and Gabriel watched the procedures taking place from the starboard side, then she started to look for Adrien. The decks of Wanderer were crowded with huddled people, about two hundred of the survivors at least and the weight was starting to take it's strain on the fishing vessel. They found him and Marinette in a blanket sipping hot tea.

"So you two lived," she smiled.

"How awkward for you," Adrien furrowed his brow.

"Adrien, I want you to know-"

"That you're sorry?" he held up his right hand for silence and wrapped his left arm defensively around Marinette. "No matter how genuine it is, I am through with you. I might have mentioned to you a long time ago, that you can not force your own child to marry someone they don't love, whether it be for money or for something else. My heart will and always belong to Marinette. Do not try to find me or I will have you persecuted for stalking. In return I will keep my silence and Chloé can be free to love whoever you want."

Chloé was touched by his words. In a rare emotion of emotion striking a chord into her heart, her eyes welled with water and it was clear that she truly deeply loved him.

"You are so precious to me, Adrien."

Adrien fixed the young lady and his father with a glare that was as hard as the torpedo that had changed their lives forever.

"Your jewels are more precious than lives."

He turned to the lighthouse of the Old Head of Kinsale.

"Goodbye, Chloé. Goodbye, Father."

After a moment, they walked away.

True to his word, they did not see each other again. But Marinette and Adrien did find out that Alya, Alix, Nathanaël, Ivan and Mylène survived, the latter two having been picked up by the steamer Westborough, disguised as a Greek steamer named Katrina along with Rita Jolivet. Adrien sympathized for them, while the other passengers, whose pleasure cruise had turned into a mission of mercy, were provided with aid and comfort from Wanderer's crew. The tug Julia sailed over the location of the sinking with bodies and pieces of wreckage still visible and drifting to shore. Skipper Ball asked his son for a full survivor count from other ships and prepared to return to Queenstown. Commander Shee, Stormcock's master made one final demand before leaving the area, that the survivors be transferred to his much larger ship. There was thanksgiving for the survivors and a brief funeral for the lost. The sobbing survivors were overpowered by grief.

In New York, Cunard's representative Charles Sumner received a morning call from a reporter with the news that Lusitania had been torpedoed and was sinking. The story had already reached the Admiralty and Liverpool was soon buzzing with rumors. The headline of The Evening Star claimed that Lusitania was sinking, but all of her passengers were safe. But the New York Times assumed the worse and published it. Hatred for the Germans began to spread.

As Wanderer and Admiral Coke's rescue party of ships steamed east, Lusitania's survivors settled uneasily into crowded new quarters with their sympathetic hosts. Passengers and crew shared or gave up their spots. Under these conditions, Wanderer was too small to allow anyone much privacy. The common areas inside were filled with sleeping refugees, driving and transferring many others out onto the decks. Lusitania's lifeboats were towed behind them in a haunting reminder of the disaster. Amidst the crowding, surviving family members reunited. Newly made widows, widowers and orphans, recalling their own lost husbands, wives, sons and daughters were tortured by the presence of those who have survived, among them being Ogden Hammond, having lost his wife; Gladys Bilicke, who had lost her husband and Lady Allan who had lost both of her daughters along with the entire Crompton family.

Throughout the evening, desperate families of Lusitania passengers and crew jammed the Cunard Line offices in New York, London and Liverpool. With no real news yet, all rumors seemed true. Finally, one German sent a simple message to a crowd of New Yorkers:

"We warned them; our Embassy advertised the warning; we were within our rights."

One hour later, reporter Jack Lawrence announced it to the New York Evening Mail. The news crossed the Atlantic by cable. No one knew who was alive or dead. The first numbers appeared; about fifty one of the one hundred and fifty nine American passengers picked up. For a ship who had been booked with over two hundred and ninety passengers, this could only mean the worse for America. Hopeful speculations gave way to horrible predictions. Germany's Kölnische Volkszeitung disrespectfully called the disaster a triumph of their country's submarines which had to be seen as "the greatest achievement of this naval war". Other papers claimed that the Kaiser even gave the children of Germany a national holiday to commemorate the sinking. Lists of names were posted and then corrected with each vague new report. Familiar names were misspelled or omitted. There would be no relief from the short-lived confusion and German bias until the next day, when the survivors arrived in Queenstown.

Adrien stood by the port railing of Wanderer as the sun went down. The day had turned into early night and all aboard could see the lights of Cobh Harbour in the distance. By 8:10 PM, Stormcock docked at the pier, dropping off the first batch of survivors along with Number 13 of the six Lusitania lifeboats that the other ships were still towing from their own cables. These lifeboats were all that remained of the sunken Lusitania. Adrien, watching them from afar, gazed at the town lit by gas torches, welcoming the sons and daughters of Ireland home from the new world. It was just as Alya saw it, so clearly in her mind.

Amongst the darkness, Cunard's wharf was packed with soldiers, sailors, and townspeople who clapped for the survivors. Waiting were some friends and relatives of Lusitania passengers, city officials, the US consul, doctors, nurses and coroners. Stretchers, blankets and ambulances waited as well, ready to provide comfort and aid to those without family. Delegations came with money for those who lost everything and a crowd of two thousand had spread out behind the soldier lines. Irish journalists were there, among them Wilbur Forrest of United Press, looking for a good story, eager to share this moment with the world.

By 9:00, Wanderer had docked in Queenstown with at least half of the survivors still aboard. Adrien and the others came down the gangplank and passed through the Cunard office. Some like Charles Lauriat were impatient, arguing to have his fellow survivors aboard Flying Fish disembark immediately due to the need of medical assistance. Adrien, still wrapped in his shawl, walked with a group of steerage passengers with Nathanaël and Katherine Coughlin following at the very end. American Consul Wesley Frost came to each passenger, asking them questions. When he came to Adrien after Marinette went first, he asked.

"May I take your name please, young man?"

Out of honor, faith and wanting to be as far away from his father as possible, Adrien spoke like a mature boy, having grown into manhood, even after losing his family.

"Cheng. Adrien Cheng. She's my wife."

He didn't care if his family tried to find him without changing his first name. All he wanted was to get out into the world and fulfill their dreams together, but before they could, he was escorted by Mr. Frost to a bench for processing. As they waited, the crowd jostled to see the faces of Queenstown residents and even some family members shouting the names of loved ones whose fates were still unknown. For every reunion that happened, many more never would.

One man intent on formally greeting the survivors was John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey, head of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea who had previously investigated the sinkings of Titanic and Empress of Ireland. He messaged the Queenstown coroner John Horgan to send out a handful of subpoena, one of which was for Captain Turner. The investigation's hearings would begin on June 15th at 10:00 AM and Lord Mersey wanted Turner to be there.

Finished with their quick processing, Adrien and Marinette bid Alya, Alix Nathanaël, Ivan and Mylène farewell and slipped away into the crowd, walking with purpose and hoping to join the army in their own quest (and the quests of many others) for vengeance against Germany and her crimes of war against humanity. About a mile away from the harbor, they soon discovered three valuable objects in his jacket: his pen, his diary and the ring. He stared at it in amazement. Although his diary was waterlogged, he wrote one final entry into the middle of the book.

"Dear Diary

I am through with Chloé, I do not wish to see Father again. I cannot find Nathalie or Nino and I do not know where any of the other passengers are, not even Captain Turner or Miss Jolivet.

If I had lost you as well, I would not be writing this entry as a historical record for years to come. Thankfully, you were in my pocket when I left my old life for good two days ago and I can never be more thankful by this coincidence. The cat ring, surprisingly, was also in my pocket from when they found it in Marinette's shawl. I must have forgotten that I put it there and now I do not know what to do with it.

Lately, my dear, I have been pondering something else. But that still doesn't mean I won't go to war just because of Marinette almost drowning. It is something else, something more valuable than war and it's path of destruction and death.

Can you exchange one life for another? A caterpillar turns into a butterfly and a cat has nine lives. If a mindless insect or a smart animal can do it, why can't I? Is it any more unimaginable than the sinking of the Lusitania?

Whatever I choose, it is my life and I am going to spend the remainder of it with a loved one.

Goodbye for now,

Adrien."