(Chapter Nineteen: The Titanic)

The children all cheered at a table on the top deck, it was nice and sunny, but still cold. Those who could drink had a nice glass of fruity juice and clacked them together as a celebration to the success. Melody was the first to look back at the two adults who were simply chatting away about something.

"So, Melody- what did you do with Julia's music player?" Lynn asked, then she sipped her beverage.

The hatted girl smiled, "I left it back on the spaceship," she shrugged, looking back at the group "going to make it look like she did leave it there."

"Smart, smart.." the bow child nodded, looking off at the distance. "We still have to find that last timepiece though." Bonnie eyed her captain, wondering as to how they should do that.

"Last I checked, we got them all off the ship..." Melody looked at everyone at the table, a knowing look on her face "there's one more That's not on the ship but it's out of the spaceship's range to jump."

The group chattered on, Kero couldn't keep his eyes away from the two. Julia, his adoptive mother now has someone she can try to depend on. Does this mean Gabriele could be his dad sometime in the future? A mother and a father... would be nice to have again. Kero smiled, looking away off onto the distance when something caught his attention.

It was bright, shined like a star and seemed to be on an iceberg. From the start the ice made him feel uncomfortable, but all in all, the boat ride had been really fun! He pointed at the distance, grabbing everyone's attention.

"There's a bright thing over there.. is that your timepiece?" He asked, tilting his head.

The trio of girls quickly turned after hearing that, finding out that it was indeed true. It was a timepiece, the one they couldn't get to!

Melody smiled at the boy "Kero, you did it!" Getting up and running to the rail, she held her hat to make sure it didn't fly off. Everyone else soon joined her, looking off at the marvel.

From afar, Julia and Gabriele both looked up at the commotion. The children were all staring off at the glint of light from a pillar of ice. "So, that's another timepiece I'm assuming?" Julia looked back at the doctor nodding her head.

"Guess the children are trying to figure out how to get to it.." Julia mused out.

For once Julia was able to think of something else besides these hidden feelings she now understood but it still didn't stop her from thinking about that odd desert dream she had a few days back. Though that wasn't important now, what was important was this nagging feeling like she'd seen this kind of scenario before...

"Cruise ship, hundreds of people, Iceberg..." she mumbled out, and Gabriele gave her a questionable glance. The girl looked up at him, almost embarrassed that she was caught mumbling odd things. She just smiled at him "Oh! Don't mind me, I was just thinking..."

"About what?" Gabriele propped his head on one hand, listening to her.

"Uh? Oh..- Well," she hummed again, looking at her drink she had "I was thinking of something familiar to this situation... though not entirely- the ship is called 'literally can't sink', right?"

"Of course, what about it...?" All the doctor could think about was what she was getting at. What about the situation and the ship's name?

"Well.. there was this movie I can almost remember.. the major thing was the ship hitting an iceberg." Julia looked off into the distance, eyeing a large amount of ice floating by. "The titanic. Said to be the strongest ship to be built. Only to be taken out by a sharp formation of ice."

"Oh... well that does sound forbidding..." he then turned his attention out to the waters. Watching the icebergs.

The captain was strolling by on a short break, when he couldn't help but overhear the two as he passed by "don't you worry, as long as we stay on course, we won't even get near those things."

The two look at him as the captain adjusted his hat and made his way over to the far railing to smoke, a small seal with a silver tray with an ashtray on their head.

Gabriele whispered "smoking is going to kill that man.." looking away final "second hand will give that little seal trouble breathing in the future."

Julia hummed in agreement.

The two adults had lost sight of Melody and Bonnie, Lynn was seen chatting with Cooking Cat who was happily sitting with the Conductor. While Kero came shuffling over to her and Gabriele with a happy smile. Julia smiled back, open arms for her child. Kero was now sitting on her lap, and for once, the group looked like a happy family... despite two of them being living dolls.

Julia will not be making the same mistake as her father, she'll love Kero as much as her grandfather loved her.

"Okay Bonnie, you ready!" Melody sat at the helm of the ship, the seals didn't seem to mind so much that children were sitting in the captain's chair. They seemed to be happily pushing buttons and monitoring the ship.

"Ready, Captain!" Bonnie saluted, they both were ready to get the last Timepiece here. After this, they'll have to figure out how to get to the underground system. So far they do not know of it. "Are you? Piloting a boat is way different than the spaceship, Melody."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll do fine!" Melody waved at her friend.

Finally putting her hands on the wheel, she did her best to navigate. However, she wasn't expecting the turning to be so... quick. She panicked as she watched the seals who were sitting down get thrown off their chairs, Bonnie had to hold onto the railing to stop herself from flying as well.

Melody quickly tried to fix herself, but that only caused the ship to move the other way, throwing the seals around again. You could hear screaming and shouting throughout the whole ship.

"Hewwo! The captain had a mess-" the seal started to talk but was cut off when someone grabbed the radio.

"Hand me that microphone! Who's at the wheel!?" There was panic in the captain's voice, Melody and Bonnie gulped, refusing to say a word. "We're heading straight for an iceberg! All hands on deck!"

Gabriele quickly scratched around, the side of the ship had tilted and turned over onto its side. He held onto a ledge that had been destroyed by the iceberg they had it.

"Julia!" He screamed out "Kero!" He looked frantically at any location they might have been.

Julia and Kero had gotten thrown in different directions when the ship had hit, and he was unsure if they were harmed or not! A few screams rang out again, people doing their best to scale the ship to a lifeboat, or had landed on the ice itself. This was a disaster, but it was bound to happen, wasn't it?

"Mama! Where are you!?" A child's scream called out, Gabriele looked down. Kero was floundering in the cold water, Ice sticking to his fabric and making it difficult for him.

"Kero! Hold on, I'm coming to get you!" Gabriele yelled out, trying to slide down the wall. Though his hand had lost its grip, footing slipping, and crash into the cold water he couldn't feel. He was in, he might as well swim; Quickly making his way to the child, he grabbed hold of Kero.

"Where's mama?! I don't see her!" Kero cried, clinging onto the man who was holding him tight. Kero was having a panic attack, breathing heavily as the ice around him made him remember the terrors of Vanessa.

Gabriele quickly looked around, a lifeboat not too far but still out of reach. "Kero, look at me. Everything is going to be okay!" The doctor started swimming, ice was starting to form on him. "Keep your eye closed, and I'll tell you when to open them, okay? Just relax... I have you."

Kero whimpered, eyes closing and trying to forget that they were in the water.

Under the water, there Julia was, pant leg snagged in a sharp piece of metal. Her eyes snapped open as tiny bubbles escaped her mouth, trying to keep calm as the bites of frozen surrounded her. Julia did her best to tug herself free, but the fabric wouldn't rip off.

Damned, she was already in a situation like this, was water trying to get at her again? Was it angry that it couldn't kill her before? Julia cured Neptune's name, why was he so pissy?

A large tendril locked itself around her, pulling Julia free from her snag. Slowly being pulled up from the depths as to not suffer from decompression sickness. "I got you, spark!" The familiar voice of King grabbed her attention; As much as Julia wanted to smile she had to focus on herself not losing what little air she had managed to grab.

When they two breached, Julia was on King's head gasping for breath, and once she had enough air, the girl with the corrupted eye bellowed out:

"You cannot claim me, Neptune!" Julia raises her arms into the air, only to lay down on her back to keep breathing again.

"What a positive reaction!" King laughed, trying to find the nearest lifeboat for the girl "glad to see the static of drowning doesn't get you down!"

Julia laughed, she cheered for the large octopus "King, you're the best!" She sat up, looking around not that she could breathe again. The girl kept en eye out for Kero and Gabriele and preyed that they were okay, as well as the others.

"Captain this was a bad, bad idea!" Bonnie yelled running through the ship.

The two girls had been rescuing those who could help themselves, or had been trapped within the ships continued sinking. Both the girls held guilty faces as they ran back and forth. They shouldn't have touched the controls, they should have just taken a lifeboat! They could have rowed carefully around the icebergs. Instead, they crashed the ship, and now everything was a huge unfixable mess!

Melody hasn't been able to find Julia, or the others yet as she dropped off yet another seal on a lifeboat. The small babies Bonnie carried were now tightly in a life preserver, unaware of the horrible situation at hand.

They had more people to save!

Both running back into the boat she and her friend searched around. Once the first boat was filled, it rowed off to safety as they left. A hard to open door finally swung open from a blast that burst from the wall.

They traveled on the slanted wall of the ship, Icicles fell one from the iceberg they had hit. Carefully maneuvering around the hazards, the picked up a seal along the way. The two girls had jumped through a door that let them back to the top deck that was partly in the water now.

A whole new area was around them, and more people that needed rescuing. Bonnie spotted a lifeboat not too far, and she called out to grab her captain's attention. Once Melody could see the boat she ran to go place the seal they had saved down.

Bonnie had climbed around a smaller ice formation and rescued the strange fish surfer dude.

Once everyone they had found was settled, Melody and Bonnie split off again. The hatted girl had found the Mafia jar boss just inches away from the edge on a pillar. If he falls, he'll be a frozen jar with eyes! Melody swept in and grabbed him just as he was about to sway off from an explosion.

"Hatted child! What is the meaning of this!?" He yelled, shifting his eyes to look at the child "why has the ship crashed?!" But Melody didn't answer him, she was more focused on saving people.

More shouts from the boss as the child placed him down. She ran off and passed Bonnie who was carrying Cc and Lynn was not too far behind her, the bow child pointed off in a direction.

"The Conductor is stuck in the kid's section!" She yelled not needing to say more as her captain ran off to help. Figuring away in was rather tricky, only to have it present itself.

Once she was in, the Conductor called out to her. "Lassie! Over here!" He was stuck on the dome stained glass. Arms crossed to keep himself warm from the cold. "Ay nae understand what's goin on, but be careful!" He looked at the water as Melody hopped over "don't need yer to get hypothermia!"

The child nodded, she had been careful so far, no need to get worked up now. She held her arm out to the strange bird and carefully carried him off. Once back to the boat, they rowed to safety with the others. In the distance she could see Snatcher and MoonJumper carrying a few others to boats they couldn't reach.

Wait, Snatcher was here!?

Her attention was switched to the boat's loudspeakers, the captain of the ship called out. She and Bonnie realized the captain was still in there!

"Don't wait up for me, pup. Get in a boat and scream." He sadly announced, almost like he wanted this. "This is my dang ship, and I'll go down with it."

No, no! This was her fault, she couldn't let that happen! The Conductor yelled out to her, yelling about something she couldn't hear as she jumped back out to rescue the captain. Everyone called back for her except those who knew she could do it.

However, there was a mental timer and the ship could fully sink at any given moment. She ran like the wind, and launched herself back onto the boat via an ice hat board; she was unsure as to why that was there, but she wasn't complaining. Once aboard, she dodged explosion that could have knocked her off her feet but she kept on.

Past the dinner, into the kitchen that Julia worked so hard to clean, into the laundry room, where the captain sat. She smiled, though the timer still counted down.

The Conductor worried, looking at his clock. Bonnie paced in place and Lynn did her best not to freeze. In the distance, the mustached girl saw other boats coming there way, Gabriele, Kero and a few Mafia men sat aboard it, MoonJumper and Snatcher floated around to make sure nobody was left behind.

Julia was safe with her son as she stepped off King, shivering like mad. She must have fallen in the water. MoonJumper fretted over her and placed his coat around her. Gabriele looked at her concerned, he wished that he hadn't fallen in as well or that his coat wasn't stitched to his body, Otherwise, the doctor would hand her his as well.

"We have to go, everyone! pull out!" The Conductor yelled, trying to get everyone to a safe distance. The kid was taking to long.

"No! Just a few more minutes!" Bonnie yelled.

"Sorry, lassie, nae can stay." He pointed out "once that boat fully submerges, those waves could hit hard."

Bonnie looked off, saddened by that. However, in the distance, as they rowed away to a safer distance, they could see Melody running as fast as she could with the captain in her hands. Many on the people who saw this cheered her on, calling her over and waving.

Once everyone was gathered and save, the ship sunk, leaving them to row back to shore. The captain sighed, adjusting his hat.

"Pup, why wouldn't you just let me go down with my ship? I can't drown, but at least I could pretend for a bit." He looked at her, tired.

Melody held a somber face, kicking her foot into the ground, Bonnie looked away guilty as well. However, they didn't plan on telling anyone that they had caused the ship to sink.

"We need a captain..." Melody looked up at him, "the seals need their captain..." she pointed out, the little seals that were currently on this lifeboat looked at him, hobbling in place.

He huffed out, looking at everyone. "You're right. Without me, this crew'll never be able to get the lifeboats to shore." He sighed once more, looking off "Fine. Crew, let's go home."

"Thank woo, miss!" A seal called out to Melody, as well as did a few others with Bonnie.

Lynn clapped a hand on Melody's shoulder, giving her a knowing look, though, she wasn't about to throw her first friend under the bus like this. "I'm glad everyone's safe."

"Ey, thank you, lass. The little ones haven't learned ta swim yet!" The Conductor explained, giving her a small smile

Captain muttered under his breath "Hopefully our insurance covers this..." the turned back around to look at the kid "anyways, I can't give out refunds, but it looks like there's something shiny on that iceberg" he pointed, looking up at the blinding light. He then added "funny how our ship crashed right next to it. It's all your, pup."

Melody looked up, then to Bonnie who waved her on. She was exhausted; all she wanted to do was sit down. The hatted child nodded, hopping from boat to boat. A seal had placed it carefully on the last lifeboat for her to get it.

With that, all the Hourglass here were retrieved. At the cost of putting everyone at risk in the process. Let's hope no one finds out who really sunk the ship...

so ends the Arctic chapter, Nex leads to an arc I plan on making on my own. As stated before, the Metro will come last because I do have a few things planned for it, and it's rather lengthy. This next arc I want to try and dedicate it to Julia trying to settle down and probably making a few movies with the directors! I had something planned out like this for a while and I sure hope I can put all my thoughts together! So, expect that for the next few chapters! You'll probably see some returning characters and a new one to boot!

OPFan37: Hmm... yeah, I did my best with these two. As I said a while back I'm still getting used to spacing out romance and such, but I'm glad you liked it! I'm thinking a few others have as well! I had slight trouble with the name, but I'm happy a few friends could help me out with it! also, regarding Cooking cat and The Conductor- I guess their ship (SugerRush) is one I enjoy seeing around; Not saying the other ships aren't enjoyable, I just see this one as my favorite.

that's as much as I can answer, for now, and oh- you'll see Sweetie roaming about the story too. Count on it!