"The Ship of Dreams, they called it. And it was. It really was…" Over five days, the lives of Kai Wen and Jinora Gyatso became irreversibly entwined. But their adventure was not the typical love story, for the ship they met on was the RMS Titanic. From the moment the ship set sail from the Earth Kingdom in 177 AG, it was destined for disaster. [Kai/Jinora] Titanic!AU.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Korra, or any of its trademarked characters. I also do not own the plot of the movie Titanic: that belongs to James Cameron and his associates. I only own the story that you see written, and hope that you enjoy my spin on things.

Those in Peril on the Sea by boasamishipper

Chapter Twelve

177 AG

Kai looked up in astonishment as the Titanic sailed past the iceberg that had appeared out of practically nowhere, blocking out the night sky like a mountain. Fragments broke off it and crashed down onto the deck, and he yanked Jinora backwards several feet to avoid getting impaled or decapitated by flying chunks of ice. His heart pounding in his chest, he looked over at Jinora to make sure that she was okay while two officers behind them engaged in a shouting match, one yelling, "Smell ice, can you? You stupid bastard!"

Kai, closely followed by Jinora, leaned over the starboard rail in an attempt to get a closer look at the hull of the ship. "Looks okay," he finally said. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary." Then again, he didn't really know what he was looking for anyway, so it was a moot point.

Jinora, of course, was more logical. "Do you think it could have damaged the ship?"

"It didn't seem like much of a bump," he assured her. Behind them a few steerage boys that he vaguely recognized were kicking the ice around the deck, laughing and having a good old time. "I'm sure that we're okay, Jin."

A few more people walked up on deck—probably to see what all of the commotion was about. Luckily none of them were first class people, so Jinora didn't have to hide from them. As the deck started to get crowded, Kai and Jinora (holding hands so they wouldn't get lost) moved toward the steps from the well deck, climbing over the locked gate quickly. Before Kai could do or suggest anything, however, the captain rounded the corner, closely followed by a man that Kai assumed to be the ship's carpenter and the two people from the party last night, the ones that had thought him to be part of the Omashu Wens—Sir Varrick and his assistant, Zhu Li Moon. All four of their faces were grim and they moved right past them. Even Varrick barely glanced at Jinora.

"Can you shore up?" the captain asked Varrick.

Varrick, who was holding several maps in his arms, shook his head like his answer physically pained him. "Not unless the pumps get ahead." And with that, the inspection party went down the stairs to the well deck.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Jinora's question wasn't even a question; it was a matter of fact statement. At Kai's slight nod, she continued. "We need to go tell my mother. And LingShi too."

"Now it's worse," Kai replied, not even joking. The ship might have been going down but he'd take that option any day over having to come face to face with Jinora's fiancé.

"It'll be alright, Kai." Jinora took his hand again, and he wasn't as afraid anymore. He followed her through a door and into the ship.

Indoors, it was a lot warmer and far less chaotic, causing Kai to shiver in relief. However, his relief quickly dissipated when they crossed the foyer and entered the corridor, where LingShi's valet (Ransik, wasn't that his name?) was waiting for them. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he looked for all the world like a disappointed father—a very big and slightly terrifying disappointing father. "We've been looking for you, Miss Gyatso," he said, gesturing for them to enter the room where Kai assumed the rest of Jinora's family (and LingShi) were waiting.

Jinora swallowed, looking like she would rather be on the receiving end of a root canal than enter the room, but she walked forward anyway with her head held high. Kai followed her, Ransik so close behind him that Kai could feel him breathing down the back of his neck.

To add onto the horror of the evening, Jinora's mother and LingShi were sitting side by side together on a chaise lounge. Leaning against the wall and smoking a cigar was the Master-at-Arms, who stared at Kai with a curled upper lip and a visible expression of disgust on his face—two stewards that Kai didn't recognize were at his side. The silence in the room was suffocating.

Jinora broke it. "I presume that something serious has occurred."

"That's right," LingShi answered with a sneer. "Two things very important to me vanished earlier this evening. As one of them is back," he looked at Jinora with a predatory smirk, and Kai longed to put his hands around the man's throat, "I have a general idea where to find the other." To the Master-at-Arms, he gestured toward Kai and said, "Search him."

With a matching smirk, the Master-at-Arms stepped up to Kai. "Allow me, Mr. Wen." He pulled at Kai's coat roughly and Kai shook his head in dismay, shrugging it off to save time. Honestly, didn't LingShi have better things to do with his time than frame people?

"This is bullshit," he commented as the two stewards took turns patting him down.

Jinora appeared to have found her voice again. "LingShi, you cannot be serious. We're in the middle of an emergency and you think that this is the proper time to blame Kai for something that he didn't do?"

Just as Kai was about to add onto Jinora's statement—with far more vulgarity than she had used—one of the stewards pulled the Eye of the Sea out of the pocket of Kai's coat, causing Kai's jaw to drop to his knees and his blood to coagulate in his veins. "Is this it?" he asked with the air of someone that had won the lottery.

"Yes," LingShi said, "that is it."

Jinora found her tongue. "He didn't take it," she ventured, sounding uncertain. The stunned disbelief in her voice felt like he'd been punched in the chest. "He couldn't have. There—there must have been a mistake."

"There most certainly was," LingShi agreed, rounding on Jinora while the two stewards and the Master-at-Arms wrestled Kai into handcuffs. "Yours, for inviting this thieving scoundrel into our family!"

"Don't you believe it, Jin," Kai told her fiercely. Damn it all, he wasn't about to let a pompous windbag like LingShi Zhang frame him for thievery. "Don't believe him!"

"He couldn't have taken the watch without my noticing," Jinora insisted, her voice stronger. "I was with him the whole time."

"Of course he could have," LingShi said, his voice low and cold. "Easy enough for a man of Mr. Wen's caliber. He most likely memorized the combination when you opened the safe and took the necklace while you were putting your clothes back on."

"They put it in my pocket!" Kai was desperate. If Jinora didn't believe him… "Jin, they put it in my pocket."

"It's not even your pocket, son," the Master-at-Arms remarked. Gazing at the words printed on the inside of the collar, he read, "'Property of Mako Lieng.' This was reported missing yesterday evening."

"Korra gave that to me when I went to the dinner party, remember?" Kai was beginning to grow uneasy. Jinora didn't seem to hear him. "Jinora, this is bullshit! I didn't do it, you know I didn't!" His words fell onto deaf ears. Jinora just stared blankly at him, unmoving and emotional. She looked like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water at her. "Come on, Jin. I wouldn't take anything from you, you know me!"

Jinora blinked just once. "Do I?" she whispered.

Kai looked at Jinora in shock, unable to comprehend what was happening. Where was the Jinora he knew and loved? There was no way that she actually believed that bullshit story that LingShi and his cronies had obviously concocted to make him look bad. Did she?

Across the room, Jinora felt like she was going to cry. She had trusted Kai, but now that Kai she thought she'd known was gone. And he had left in his place a huge, gaping hole in Jinora's heart. She was caught up in a twisting whirlwind of terror, not knowing who she could trust or what she could believe.

Kai had stolen her necklace. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized that she'd made love with him and he didn't love her at all. He didn't care for her. She'd been willing to run away with him and yet—he'd only cared for her jewelry.

She lowered her eyes, and looked away.

Kai seemed to realize that he was in serious trouble and he started struggling against the arms that bound him. "You've got to be kidding me! Let me go!"

"Take him away," LingShi ordered. "He's caused everyone enough distress."

"Jinora!" Kai cried out again desperately as Ransik held the door open for the stewards. "Jinora! You know I didn't do it! Jinora!"

Still yelling and cursing, he was manhandled out of the cabin and dragged off down the corridor.

"Why do women believe men?" Pema murmured, enveloping her daughter in a hug as the tears in Jinora's eyes finally fell.

It was all so horrible. Betrayal was what I felt—my heart had been broken not just by the man I was in love with, but also by, as I had once believed, a true friend. We had shared everything with each other, I had thought, and that was how he had chosen to repay me?

My mother had always told me that betrayal was common for men with no conscience, but I couldn't believe her statement to be true. Kai had more conscience than every man in first class combined. I had fallen in love with him, after all—even at that age, I never would have given my heart so willingly to a one-dimensional man.

Perhaps that I was why I later felt no surprise when LingShi indirectly revealed that Kai was innocent after all.

"Ransik, take me back to Jinora's room. I wish to see if that boy has stolen anything else from us."

After receiving a nod from a furious-looking LingShi, Ransik nodded and escorted Pema out the door. The moment that the door closed behind them, LingShi crossed over to Jinora. He regarded her coldly for a moment, his eyes conveying everything that words never could, and then he slapped her across the face. "I warned you, Jinora. I warned you about that—that street urchin and now you see what I mean, don't you? Don't you, you little slut?"

To Jinora, the slap and the furious words were inconsequential compared to the blow her heart had been given a few minutes prior.

LingShi grabbed her shoulders roughly. "Look at me, you little b—" The rest of his words were drowned out by a loud knock on the door and an urgent voice. LingShi swore. "Oh, for fuck's sake—enter!"

The door opened and one of the stewards that had taken Kai away put his head in. "Sir, I'm dreadfully sorry to interrupt whatever is…going on…but I've been ordered by the captain to ask you to please put on your life vest and come up to the boat deck."

"Get out this instant," LingShi snapped, his teeth gritted in anger from having been interrupted. "We're busy."

The steward persisted despite the threatening look from LingShi sent in his direction, and he entered the room, coming in to get the life vests down from the top of a dresser. "I'm sorry about the inconvenience, Mr. Zhang, but I have to follow the captain's orders. Please dress warmly; it's going to be cold tonight." Smiling, he gave Jinora a life vest too. "Not to worry, Miss Gyatso, I'm sure it's just a precaution."

"This is ridiculous," LingShi muttered, but he put on his life vest anyway. When the steward left, he helped Jinora into her life vest—not that she couldn't have done so herself—and said, under his breath, "Don't think that this conversation is over, Jinora."

Too tired and heartbroken to do anything else, Jinora nodded.

They exited the room and made their way toward the staircase, where a large number of first class passengers (all of whom Jinora recognized) had gathered near. Evidently they'd been standing there for some time and were beginning to get indignant about the situation. Finally, Korra snagged a steward that was passing by and said to him, raising her voice over the commotion, "What's going on, Officer? You told us all to come out to the staircase in our life vests and now here we are, cooling our heels."

The steward backed away, looking so frightened that he actually stumbled on the stairs. "So sorry, ma'am. Let me go and find out."

Jinora and LingShi made their way over to Pema, who was ordering Penga to turn on the heather in her room so it wouldn't be too cold when she returned. Jinora was about to ask her mother if she'd heard anything about why the stewards had forced them to do this, but then she noticed Varrick and Zhu Li conversing quietly a short distance away. The usual grin on the man's face had faded, and Zhu Li, usually stoic, looked as though she was going to cry.

Jinora, after glancing at LingShi to make sure that he was occupied, approached the two of them. "Hello," she said quietly.

Varrick looked up at her, a smile flickering on his lips and then immediately fading. "Hello, Jinora."

Jinora decided to cut to the chase. "Mr. Wen and I saw the ship strike the iceberg, Sir Varrick. I see it in your eyes, so don't beat around the bush, please. Please just tell me the truth."

Now Varrick looked as though he was going to cry, which frightened Jinora more than anything. He placed a hand on Zhu Li's shoulder. "The ship," he said, his voice hoarse, as though he'd had to purge the words from the very depths of his soul, "is going to sink."

The ship was going to sink.

For the second time in less than hour Jinora had been given a stunning blow. "Are—are you certain?" she stammered, trying to remain calm. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Varrick sighed in despair, now looking as heartbroken as Jinora felt. "Yes, Jinora. I'm certain. Zhu Li and I have done every calculation in the book, and—and there is no way around it. In about an hour—maybe more, maybe less—all of this…will be at the bottom of the ocean."

"…but—but aren't there any ships nearby?" Jinora asked, her blood nearly freezing in her veins at the implications of Varrick's statement. In less than an hour she might be dead. "Surely, surely there are ships nearby that are willing to help us, Varrick."

"There are," said Zhu Li, speaking up for the first time. "According to the captain, the Carpathia is making seventeen knots, full steam for them, and are heading this way. They're the only ones who have responded—the only ones that are close, at any rate. According to their captain," she swallowed, "they can be here in four hours."

"Four hours!" The enormity of it all hit Jinora like a blow from a sledgehammer. "Oh, Raava."

Varrick pulled Jinora closer, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Please, Jinora, tell only who you must. I don't want to be responsible for a panic. Get to a boat quickly—do you remember what I told you about the boats?"

Jinora nodded, squeezing Varrick's hand back. "Yes, i—I understand." An indescribable feeling had taken over her. "Thank you, Varrick."

With a final nod, Varrick (with Zhu Li at his side) went off; moving among the passengers and urging them to put their life vests back on and get to the boats. Jinora walked back over to her mother and LingShi, who were discussing the situation at hand. They don't know anything.

"Mother, LingShi," Jinora said, instantly getting their attention. "I just spoke with Sir Varrick. The ship is going to sink. There isn't a moment to lose, we need to get up to the deck and board one of the lifeboats. Now."

On deck already, there was a crowd of uncertain passengers in all states of dress and undress. Buttercup Raiko was barefoot. Others, like Asami, only wore stockings. The maître of the restaurant wore a top hat and overcoat. Others were still in their evening formalwear, while some were in bathrobes and kimonos. Women wore life vests over their velvet gowns and stiletto shoes. Some brought jewels, others books, even small dogs that the younger children on deck were playing with.

"Start the loading! Women and children, please, women and children!"

"Just you watch," Buttercup Raiko remarked to her husband. "They're going to put us in these silly little boats to freeze, and we'll all be back on board in time for breakfast. I do hope that they serve us those charming little scones again, those were just grand…"

"Families take precedence, everyone, make room for the families, please!"

"Ladies, please, step into the boat!"

Finally, Asami stepped forward, looking terrified, and got into the boat. She was followed by Buttercup Raiko and several other first and second class women. Teenagers corralled their petrified siblings into lifeboats. Husbands kissed their wives and children goodbye. Lovers and friends were parting. Eventually, the lifeboat dropped into the ocean—but with only twenty-seven passengers on a boat built for seventy. It had to be a mistake, Jinora thought. They probably just released the ropes too soon.

Nearby, Lin attempted to get Pema to board the lifeboat. "Come on, Pema, you heard the officer. Get in the boat."

Pema had only one thing on her mind. "Do you think that the lifeboats will be seated according to class?"

Lin swore under her breath, but much to everyone's surprise Suyin spoke up. "For Raava's sake, Pema, does it even matter? Which is worse, being seated with people of a different class than you or dying of hypothermia?"

Pema looked suitably chastened, but did not apologize. She merely held her head up high and boarded the lifeboat, squashed between a second-class woman and her daughter.

"It's alright, you can take my place," Jinora said to a family of four. The child, a girl of maybe six or seven, reminded her of the little girl that Kai had danced with at the party yesterday night. Spirits, was that only yesterday? It seems like it took place a lifetime ago. "There are plenty of boats, go on."

"Thank you ma'am," the mother whispered, grasping Jinora's hand in hers quickly before she let it go and boarded the lifeboat with her children. The girl that reminded her of Qin gave Jinora a quick hug before following her mother.

LingShi grabbed Jinora's arm with such a tight grip she thought that she would have a bruise in the morning. "What on earth do you think you're doing, Jinora?" he snapped. "Letting those people take your place on that lifeboat?"

"Families take precedence, LingShi, that's what the officers are all saying—"

"Damn those families, we are first class! Those spots are ours and we aren't going to let anyone take them—"

"There aren't enough boats, LingShi! Those families need them more than we do and you know it! If only first class boards the boats, then half the people on this ship are going to die!"

"That's what people DO!" LingShi's voice rose from a growl to a yell, and Jinora froze, terrified. She hated it when he raised his voice at her because that meant that he was going to hit her, not now, not in front of her mother— "The better half will live, Jinora, and that's all that matters."

Her heart nearly stopped beating as a realization hit her like a thunderbolt. Kai was third class, and so were Skoochy and Tahno and Jaya and little Qin and her family and hundreds of other people that were going to die because they weren't important enough to board the lifeboats. They didn't stand a chance. By the time they got up to the decks, all the boats would be gone. That was why they were releasing them with so little people. "You unimaginable bastard," she snarled, pushing away from him.

"Jinora, get in the boat!" Korra called. Out of the corner of Jinora's eye, she could see that Mako and Bolin were assisting the officers. "There's still some room left!"

She took a hesitant step back, shaking her head.

"Jinora, please!" Jinora couldn't remember the last time she'd heard her mother sound so frightened. "Jinora, just listen to us and get into the boat."

Jinora shook her head. She pulled free from LingShi's grip and walked away through the crowd to the sound of her mother yelling for her to come back.

LingShi, however, raced after her and grabbed her arm again. "You're going back to him, then?" he spat at her. His face was pale and gaunt, and he'd never looked more unattractive. "That's what you want? To be that—that street urchin's whore?"

Acting without thinking, she wrenched free from his vicious grip and slapped him across the face. "I," Jinora said through gritted teeth, "would rather be his whore than your wife."

And then she ran off breathlessly into the crowd, a furious LingShi only a few seconds behind her. She spotted two proper-looking men and ran to them. "That man tried to take advantage of me in the crowd!" she gasped, pointing at her now ex-fiancé. She saw them put the pieces together—her disheveled hair, her torn dress, LingShi's furious and somewhat hungry expression—and they ran forward, preventing LingShi from going after her.

Pushing through the throng of people coming out from the first class entrance, she was only visible for one more second…and then there was no proof that she had ever been there at all.

Two chapters left, everyone, and if this chapter is any indication, they are going to be a doozy.

Thanks for reading, guys, and don't forget to leave me a favorite, a follow, or a review!

Yours in Fanfiction,

-Boa :)