"We are here."

Darkness was all Hope saw. An endless pit of darkness. They were so deep and the water so dense it threatened to collapse their submarines in on themselves. She closed her eyes. Had she been doing magic at this moment, she'd bet she'd be able to feel some kind of connection with the sea. She tried not to think about it for too long.

"Come left a little," said Kaleb behind her. "She's right in front of us, eighteen meters. Fifteen… Thirteen... you should see it."

"Do you see it?" asked MG. "I don't see it... there!"

That's when Hope saw her. Their submarines' lights hit, illuminating the railings, then the enormous mass underneath. A fallen giant, rising from the shadows. Green rust clung to the eroding metal. She glowed a soft blue under the lights, but Hope couldn't stop herself from shivering. This ship had been the sight of a terrifying loss of life. But this ship was also going to make her rich.

The R.M.S. Titanic.

Their submarines hung above the hull, looking for the entryway inside.

"Okay, we're rolling," said Kaleb, pulling her camera to her eye.

"It still gets me every time," whispered Hope, voice thick with emotion.

"It's just the guilt from stealing from the dead."

"Thanks, Kaleb. Work with me, here."

From the corner of her eye, she saw MG fiddling with a camera.

"To see the sad ruin of the great ship sitting here, where she landed at 2:30 in the morning, April 15, 1912, after her long fall from the world above."

Kaleb snorted.

"You are so full of shit."

The two submarines continued down the length of the ship, past the bow. It was hard to imagine people wearing fancy dresses and jewellery walking along where now, there was nothing but rust and rot.

"Dive nine," said Hope. She picked up MG's camera herself and pointed it at her porthole. Pulling on her best teacher voice, she continued: "Here we are again on the deck of Titanic... two and a half miles down. The pressure is three tons per square inch, enough to crush us like a freight train going over an ant if our hull fails."

Their tiny submarine continued down the length of the hull, endless in this vast darkness. There was nothing else for miles, yet here she was, buried at sea.

"These windows are nine inches thick," explained Hope to her camera along with Kaleb and MG, "and if they go, it's sayonara in two microseconds."

Their submarine landed on the deck, next to the Officers' Quarters.

They were there, once again.

"Right. Let's get to work."

A small robot detached from their submarine. Kaleb pulled on the electronic goggles. Lucky bastard, he got to do the fun part. Though she also didn't mind watching the cameras as the robot continued on its merry way. The little robot started its descent into eternal night, guided by Kaleb's hands grabbing the joysticks.

"Walkin' the dog," he grinned.

The robot descended down a few decks, until it reached the First Class Reception area. Then, at a sharp horizontal angle, the robot entered the ship. It barely fit through a doorway that had once been made of glass, but the robot continued on its way down, past the staircase.

As the robot reached one of the decks, Hope saw glimpses of Titanic's luxury.

A chandelier glinting in the light. Bottles and glasses, forgotten for a long, long time. The discarded face of a child's doll, eyes and body gone. Darkness fell upon these fallen artefacts as the robot pressed on, never stopping.

They finally reached the room Hope was waiting for. A smile stretched on her face. Excitement bubbled in her stomach.

"Watch the door frame," she warned. "Watch it, watch it…"

"I got it, I got it."

The robot squeezed through the door frame. Barely.

"We're good, we're good."

A fish appeared in the light, ghostly and pale. The robot's light went past a fallen table to a mantle, still almost fully intact, with its clock in front of a mirror. A piano soon appeared, amazingly preserved, with its keys all fully attached. Everything was so peaceful, it was eerie.

"Right there, right there, right there…" Hope jumped up. She pointed at the screen. "Do you see it? Do you see it?"

"I see it."

Following Kaleb's orders, the robot crossed into the bedroom. They were getting closer. Hope could feel it. There, what was that, contrasting against the light? Yes, that was a bed frame! They were there.

"Okay, I want to see what's under that wardrobe door."

"Gimme my hands, man."

The robot's arms extruded from its body with a low hum. Its hands, shaped like pincers, reached for the fallen wardrobe. With extreme delicacy, Kaleb lifted the door. It fell away, lifting a cloud of dust. Hope held her breath. If anything collapsed, it was over. But she exhaled. Nothing moved. The dust settled.

Then, it appeared.

"Oh, baby, baby!" said MG. "Are you seeing this? It's payday, boys!"

Hope arched an eyebrow.

"Boys?"

"Guys. Ladies. People. Sorry."

Hope was too happy to be annoyed. Later on, everyone gathered on deck, joy spreading fast amongst the crew. It took them a couple hours to get back up and get to the safe from inside Titanic's hull. It landed on the deck with a thud! Someone patted Hope on the back. Someone else squeezed her arm. She wasn't sure who, but all of them showed the same wide grin she did. Kaleb even opened a bottle of champagne, covering everyone in bubbly goodness.

"Who's the best?" asked Kaleb, wrapping an arm around Hope. "Say it!"

"You are, Kaleb."

He kissed her cheek and she pushed him away.

A saw hissed to life as one of the crewmembers set out to open the safe. Metal screeched against metal. Orange sparks flew.

"Well, here it is," she said to a camera, "the moment of truth. Here's where we find out if the time, the sweat, the money spent to charter this ship and these subs, to come out here to the middle of the North Atlantic... were worth it.

When the safe cracked open, brown liquid flooded out. Everyone groaned.

That fucking smelled .

Hope bit back her disgust. She reached inside. She touched rotten… stuff. What exactly, she wasn't particularly certain she wanted to know. Hope pulled out something. A large stack of papers, bound together. Something like a large sketchbook.

But no diamond.

Hope slumped in on herself. Disappointment settled in her gut.

"Shit."

"You know, Hope," said MG, not without an ounce of sympathy in his voice, "this happened to the Mechanist and his career never recovered."

Hope's eyes landed on the camera, pointed at her face.

"I hate you."

If Hope had made a bet to figure out how long it would take her investors to call about the treasure, she would have lost. Somehow, they called not even five minutes into their disgusting brown discovery. Cleo, their best technician, was analyzing the sketchbook using water, rubbing away a century of filth. She put on a brave face and her voice didn't shake when she said, putting a hand against her ear:

"Hi, Lanon? Jade? Alyssa? Look, it wasn't in the safe… no, look, don't worry about it, there're still plenty of places it could be... in the floor debris in the suite, in the father's room, in the Purser's safe on C deck…"

Something caught Hope's eye. She looked through the monitor at a zoomed-in version of the paper the technician was currently watering clean. A face appeared, beautiful, young, with short hair. He was… a man. A man who also wasn't… wearing anything, at least from the waist up. The rest of him - or what Hope assumed would be the rest of him - was still obscured by grime and dirt. Yet what really caught Hope's eye was the necklace the young man wore. Kaleb grabbed the phone and hung up on their investors. At her command, MG brought over a picture of the necklace.

The Heart of the Ocean.

Hope ran her thumb over a date that had been scratched in the bottom right corner. April 14, 1912. Next to two initials . B.B

The day of the ship's sinking.

"I'll be damned."


Bonnie Bennett was hunched over her pottery wheel. Somewhere in the kitchen, the television played, but she didn't particularly pay any attention. Her old hands, covered in spots, pressed against the clay, thinning the sides of the bowl. Then, a word reached her ear that sent chills down her spine.

Titanic.

"Treasure hunter Hope Mikaelson," said the announcer that Bonnie couldn't care enough to identify, "is best known for finding Spanish gold in sunken galleons in the Caribbean. Now she is using deep submergence technology to work two and a half miles down at another famous wreck... the Titanic. She is with us live via satellite from a research ship in the middle of the Atlantic. Hello, Hope?"

Bonnie turned around.

"Yes, hi," said a woman, holding a phone to her ear. "You know, Titanic is not just a shipwreck, Titanic is THE shipwreck. It's the Mount Everest of shipwrecks."

Grabbing her cane, Bonnie rose to her feet, slower than she used to, and crossed the room to the kitchen, where the television rested upon the counter. Josie and Lizzie, family friends of the family who were there to take care of her, spun around lunch half made of the counter.

"What is it?"

Bonnie waved impatiently at the television.

"Turn that up, one of you, please."

Josie quickly obeyed. Louder in her ears, the announcer was saying:

"Your expedition is at the center of a storm of controversy over salvage rights and even ethics. Many are calling you a grave robber."

"Nobody called the recovery of the artifacts from King Tut's tomb grave robbing. I have museum-trained experts here, making sure this stuff is preserved and catalogued properly. Look at this drawing, which was found today…"

The camera moved from Hope to a sheet of paper on a table.

"... a piece of paper that's been underwater for eighty-four years... and my team is able to preserve it intact. Should this have remained unseen at the bottom of the ocean for eternity, when we can see it and enjoy it now...?"

Bonnie squinted her eyes. Then, it dawned on her.

Oh.

Oh.

"I'll be damned."


Night had fallen around their ship like a blanket, full of twinkling stars and calm, cool waters. Hope watched, hands on her hips, as the submarines were being launched for another mission. She was going back for that necklace. At all costs. When someone tapped on her shoulder, she spun around, ready to tell them off. It was MG. She felt immediate relief at that. He'd never take "go fuck yourself" as a threat.

"There's a satellite call for you."

"MG, we're launching," said Hope, annoyed at the moment. "See these submersibles here, going in the water? Take a message."

"No, trust me, Hope, you want to take this call."

"It better be good."

MG showed Hope to the phone they always kept on deck. He gave her the receiver, then made a comment about speaking up because she was "kind of old". Great. An old lady who called a treasure hunter's ship out in the middle of the ocean.

"This is Hope Mikaelson. What can I do for you, Mrs…?"

"Bennett. Bonnie Bennett," said MG.

"... Mrs. Bennett?"

A voice, shrivelled but full of teasing, spoke on the other side of the phone. Speaking in tones that meant she knew more than Hope. And she did.

"I was wondering if you had found the Heart of the Ocean yet, Miss Mikaelson."

Hope's eyes widened. MG laughed at her reaction.

"I told you you wanted to take this call!"

"Alright." Hope put her hand over her other ear, shielding it from the launch's rumbles. "You have my attention, Bonnie. Can you tell me who the man in the picture is?"

"Oh, yes. That was a man named Damon Salvatore. I can also tell you who drew it, too."

"Yes? Who did it, then?"

"The woman who drew that picture… is me."


It took them a few days to fly Bonnie Bennett to the ship. Anticipation grew amongst the crew, though Kaleb tended to keep it to himself. He finally confronted Hope about his foul mood the exact day when she was set to arrive. Or, more accurately, he pestered her all the way from her cabin's door to the top deck.

"She's a goddamn liar!" he almost growled. Wow, he'd really been holding that in for too long, huh? "Like that... What's her name? That Anastasia babe."

Hope rolled her eyes. Only Kaleb could call Grand Duchess Anastasia a babe.

"She says he's Damon Salvatore, right? Damon Salvatore died on Titanic. At the age of twenty. If he'd've lived, he'd be over a hundred now. And I bet she'd be, too!"

"One hundred and one next month," Hope corrected.

"Okay, so she's a very old goddamn liar. There's no sign of a Bonnie Bennett on the Titanic either. But I traced her as far back as the Twenties... she was working as an artist in L.A. A con artist I bet! She's just a lonely old woman who's been living in Mystic Falls a little too long and has to lie to entertain herself. Can't you see that, Hope?"

She stopped on deck and turned on him, index finger pointed at his chest.

"And everybody who knows about the diamond is supposed to be dead... or on this ship. But she knows about it. And I want to hear what she has to say. Got it?"

He didn't have anything to say to that.

When their helicopter landed on board, Kaleb and MG first helped Bonnie's wheelchair down. Kaleb pushed Bonnie away and MG carried her seemingly hundreds of bags while a little dog trotted after them. Hope offered Josie and then Lizzie a hand.

"Hope."

"I'm Josie and this is my sister Lizzie."

Hope was handed a fish bowl with two fishes in it, as she stared after Bonnie.

"What the hell is going on on my ship?"

Hope followed after MG and Kaleb to Bonnie's room. By the time she made it there, Bonnie was somehow finishing putting up a dozen or so old pictures, all in black and white, upon her dresser. Hope smiled. She actually liked the old woman. Even if she seemed a bit… quirky. Behind her, though, she saw Kaleb roll his eyes.

"Is your room all right?"

"Yes," said Bonnie. "Very nice. Oh!" She put her hand over Josie and Lizzie's hands, which they had gently put on Bonnie's shoulders a few seconds ago. With a sly smile, she said: "Have you met my young friends Josie and Lizzie? Friends of the family."

"Yes," said Josie, leaning over Bonnie's shoulder. "We met just a few minutes ago, Aunt Bonnie. Remember, up on deck?"

"Oh!" She waved her hand meaninglessly. "Yes."

Kaleb rolled his eyes again.

"There, that's nice. I have to have my pictures when I travel." She turned to the little dog, standing off to the side. "And Isaiah, of course. Isn't that right, sweetie?"

Isaiah barked. A high-pitched "waf!" kind of bark.

"Would you like anything?"

Bonnie's eyes lit up when she turned to Hope.

"I would like to see my drawing."


Bonnie didn't exactly… fit in the laboratory. Not that they weren't able to get her down there at all. They had a ramp and everything was wheelchair accessible; Cleo, Hope explained, had needed it months beforehand. No, Bonnie didn't fit in the laboratory because everything down here looked so… sterile. Meanwhile here she was, all soft greens and muted greys, with always that knowing smile on her face. She leaned over the tray of water in which the drawing was still submerged.

A wet sort of recognition dawned in Bonnie's eyes. She held her breath. Yes. There it was. Her drawing. She'd seen it on the television, but it was nothing compared to the real deal. When Bonnie closed her eyes, memories flashed behind her eyelids. Her holding a charcoal pen. A young man sitting in front of her, with only a necklace for clothes.

Bonnie snapped her eyes open.

Hope reached over for a tiny picture, which she showed Bonnie.

"Louis the Sixteenth wore a fabulous stone, called the Blue Diamond of the Crown," she explained in what Bonnie presumed was a seasoned University Professor's voice. "Which disappeared in 1792, about the time Louis lost everything from the neck up. The theory goes that the crown diamond was chopped too. Recut into a heart-like shape. And it became Le Coeur de la Mer . The Heart of the Ocean." She looked over at Josie and Lizzie, leaning over Bonnie's shoulder. Then, she continued: "Today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond."

"He told me…" Bonnie scoffed. "He told me it was a dreadful, heavy thing." She pointed at the picture. "I only held it for less than a minute. And he only wore it this once."

"You actually believe this is him, Auntie Bonnie?"

"It is him, dear. I'd recognize my own drawing everywhere! Wasn't he a dish?"

"I tracked it down through insurance records", continued Hope. "An old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claimant was, Bonnie?"

"Someone named Petrova, I should imagine."

Hope shared a glance with Kaleb. He looked at least interested in that.

"Petrova, right. Steel tycoons. For a diamond necklace his daughter Katherine Petrova bought in France for her fiancé... Damon... a week before she sailed on Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the sinking. So the diamond had to have gone down with the ship."

Bonnie nodded sagely, then looked away.

"See the date?" asked Lizzie. She pointed at the bottom right corner of the drawing, awe in her voice. "April 14, 1912."

"If your Auntie is who she says she is, she saw the last person wearing the diamond the day the Titanic sank." To Bonnie, Hope said, "And that makes you my new best friend."

They brought out artefacts from the sinking. Boxes upon boxes upon boxes of artefacts. What they thought were artefacts, to Bonnie, were objects she remembered Damon had touched, objects she remembered him interacting with. Her hand curled around a mirror's handle.

"This was Damon's. It looks the same as the last time I saw it." When she looked in the mirror, she almost laughed. "The reflection has changed a bit."

Her hand hovered above the objects. It landed on one. She lifted it. Reverently.

"This was Damon's ring." Her voice was thick with emotion.

Hope crouched down next to Bonnie. Her voice was soft when she asked:

"Are you ready to go back to Titanic?"

The young men Hope had said were Kaleb and MG showed Bonnie a dreadful video. While Hope had mentioned that maybe Bonnie didn't want to watch it, she said it was fine. Curiosity gnawed at her. It represented the Titanic sinking, how it had cracked in half, rose up vertically, then landed upon the ocean floor. Bonnie watched with a tight-lipped smile, unable to look away. For those people, this was fascinating. To her, it was…

"Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Kaleb and MG. Of course, the experience of it was somewhat less... clinical."

"Will you share it with us?" asked Hope.

Bonnie rose up from her chair and walked over to the wall of screens. Beyond were green ruins of what she had once known, maybe not as intimately as Damon had, but she had still been there. When she looked at the door, a flash appeared in her mind. Two men had opened the doors for her, on that night going to dinner in First Class. Bonnie's eyes flooded with tears. With one shaky breath, she buried her face in her hands.

It was too much. Too much…

A hand wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her along.

"I'm taking her to rest," said Josie, Lizzie nodding behind her.

"No! I can do what I want."

You should burn in hell.

Bonnie dropped her arms. Her eyes turned to green steel. She stared Josie and Lizzie down, remembering a time when men had told her she wasn't enough, couldn't be enough. Kaleb, gentle for once, pulled out a chair and Bonnie sat down. She took a deep breath.

"Okay, Bonnie." Josie and Lizzie raised their hands. "We'll listen."

She took a deep breath. Gathered her thoughts.

"It's been… eighty-four years…"

"It's okay if you don't remember everything," encouraged Hope.

Bonnie smiled at that.

"Do you want me to tell you the story or not?"

Everyone shut up.

"It's been eighty-four years…" Bonnie breathed in, "... and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. It was called the Ship of Dreams. And it was. It really was…"


So I was watching Titanic recently and I thought... "huh there are not enough Titanic Au's out there" Which means I have to write it for my all time favorite ship! So through a ridiculous amount of coffee and motivation, here it is! This is going to be taking a lot directly from the actual movie as well as added scenes by me :) Also I debated for a while but I decided Bonnie would be able to keep her magic while all other characters will be human. Also ALSO I will be updating this every Monday because most of it is already written. The title of this fic is inspired by "hoax" by Taylor Swift and other than that, enjoy! :)