'And if you go,
I wanna go with you
And if you die,
I wanna die with you
Take your hand and walk away.'
Lonely Day - System of a Down.

Chapter Three - Hold Your Breath.

Cody and Bailey walked through the door of cabin 8-101 to find their friend, and Cody's roommate, Woody Fink, lounging all over his bed reading one of his comic books.

It was getting close towards six p.m. and the ship had now left California and was well on its way through the fierce waves towards its next destination. As for Cody, he was just about due to start his evening towel boy shift up on the Sky Deck. He closed the door behind he and his girlfriend and placed his many calculus textbooks on his desk, wiping his brow.

"Man, it's hot in here," he complained, gaining Woody's attention, "It's only, like, sixty degrees out on deck."

"Well why don't you open the porthole?" Woody suggested.

"Because with the size of those waves crashing up against us it'd take two minutes for the ocean water to flow in and turn our room into an aquarium," Cody countered while he picked up Bailey's iPod that she had left on his desk, "Here ya' go, Bails."

"Thanks, Cody," she said, taking it from him and shoving it deep into her pocket, "I really gotta' stop leaving this thing lying around."

Cody smiled at her then grabbed his towel boy uniform and went into the bathroom to change.

"So, let me get this straight," Woody restarted, "you'd rather put up with the stuffiness of our cabin than swim in the cool ocean water?"

Shaking his head at the genuine tone of Woody's question, Cody did up his belt and decided to change the subject, "So what are you gonna' do tonight?" he called out.

"They're serving the Mexican Buffet on the Fiesta Deck again!" Woody yelled in excited reply.

Cody cringed as he buttoned up his shirt and walked out of the bathroom, "Maybe you should stay with Zack tonight. I mean, the humidity of our room plus your Mexican butt fumes could lead to one serious case of asphyxia."

Woody rolled his eyes, "You worry too much."

"Or maybe you just don't worry enough," Cody retorted. He took a quick glance at his watch, "I've really gotta' get going."

Bailey bit her lip and grabbed onto Cody's arm just as he was leaving, "Listen, Cody, maybe you should try to keep your distance from Zack."

Cody frowned, "How come?"

"Oh, no," Woody interjected, "don't tell me you guys had another fight."

Bailey nodded then redirected her attention to Cody, "He seemed really upset with you, is all."

There was a pause of silence before Cody laughed to himself and shrugged away from Bailey's grip, taking her hand, "Bailey, you don't know how it works between Zack and I. After an argument, we slip right back to normal just to avoid apologising to each other."

"Yeah, but, Cody -"

Bailey's lips pressed together as Cody cut off her rambling with a quick peck, "It'll be fine," he reassured her, "I'll see you later. Bye, Woody."

"Cya'." Woody nodded and waved to Cody as he disappeared behind the door. As soon as he had, Bailey turned around and exchanged a glance with Woody, concern still filling her eyes to the brink.

After about an hour and a half of folding, sorting and giving out towels to fussy passengers, the number of patrons enjoying an evening dip in the pool or spa began to rapidly decrease as Cody wandered over to the Easy Squeezy juice bar to take a well deserved break.

Zack looked up as he heard someone take a seat on one of the stools by the bar, but soon shot his vision back to the bench he was wiping when he found the person was his brother.

"Man, I swear," Cody began, "this job gets harder and harder every day."

Zack ignored him, continuing to wipe the same spot on the bench.

"I'll have a Banana Fofana, thanks."

Still remaining speechless, Zack put down his rag and quickly made Cody's smoothie, dumping it on the table in front of him.

Cody frowned, "You alright?"

Zack laughed in disbelief, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just sort of wondering why you're wasting your time spending it all around me."

Cody's jaw dropped, "Are you serious? Zack, I was just angry. We hadn't docked anywhere in ages, I was just looking forward to going on a date with Bailey where our food didn't slide all over the table every time we went over a bumpy wave."

"Yeah, Cody, you made that pretty obvious."

"Well, what do you want me to say?" Cody asked, scoffing vulnerably.

"I don't want you to say anything," Zack snapped, "I just want you to shut up and drink your drink, ok?"

Cody sighed, taken aback a little before scooping up his cup and sarcastically taking a long, noisy sip of his drink. Uncertainty still circling his mind, the younger twin's face suddenly screwed up in distaste, gaining him another glare from his older brother.

"What's wrong now?" Zack barked.

Cody took the straw out of his mouth and gazed at Zack nervously, "It's a little weak."

Zack licked his lips and sighed in annoyance. Without saying another word, the elder twin then took his pink, flavourless chewing gum out of his mouth and tossed it in his brother's drink, "There ya' go. Adds to the flavour."

With that message obviously heard loud and clear, Zack smirked at the look of shock on his twin's face, then picked up his dish rag and walked over to the sink at the other end of the juice bar, leaving Cody stewing in confusion.

Bailey sat uncomfortably on her bed trying to concentrate on the book in her hands, but all the words either kept clumping together in the middle of the page or going straight over her head. There was far too much on her mind for her to successfully channel any of her scholastic abilities, and besides from that, there was a constant rumbling sound emitting from the ship's engine that was completely rocking her focus.

Amongst all else, London still hadn't returned from her day trip in Hollywood, though, that was no big deal - she was probably just off annoying Mr. Moesby or one of the ship's many other employees. But the twins, on the other hand, that was a big deal. Maybe it didn't seem that way to Cody, but there was something about the way that Zack had reacted after their argument that made Bailey worry. Zack was never one to get upset over a stupid, little fight.

Just then, as if on cue, Bailey looked up to see Cody barge through the door of her cabin.

"I cannot believe Zack!" he declared upon his entrance.

Bailey rolled her eyes, "What did I tell you?"

"I don't get it," he began, sitting next to Bailey on her bed, "he's gone an a total tirade just because of what I said to him."

Bailey frowned, "Do you even remember what you said to him?"

"No, but what does that matter? Either way, he's still lost it."

Bailey shifted in surprise at the tone of Cody's voice, almost insulted on Zack's behalf.

"Anyway, whatever," Cody went on, "Look, I've only got another half hour or so left of my shift, you wanna' come keep me company?"

Bailey sighed softly to herself at Cody's careless change of topic and opened her mouth to reluctantly accept her boyfriend's offer, but suddenly froze as an idea formed in her head. She smiled at her own genius and then leapt off her bed, folding her arms across her chest.

"You know, Cody, I do have other things to do tonight. In case you've forgotten, Miss. Tutweiller gave us, like, a stack of homework bigger than Grammy's new barn that we have to have finished by tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know," Cody replied slightly stirred by Bailey's abrupt change in attitude, "I just thought -"

"Yeah, well you thought wrong."

Cody's jaw dropped, "Bailey?"

"Ugh, God, Cody, we're not attached at the hip! We don't have to spend every waking second of the day together! Why don't you do me a favour and just leave?!"

"Bailey, I don't understa -"

"Stop."

Cody's brow wrinkled having being cut of by Bailey again, and his perplexity only increased as his girlfriend's expression then softened, as if the random outburst of anger had never even existed.

"That's exactly how you sounded to Zack."

Cody paused, both his physical self and his voice box completely frozen. His appearance then dropped as he finally realised what Bailey had been getting at throughout her spontaneous eruption.

"Oh my God, really?"

Bailey nodded sombrely.

Cody groaned and pushed his hair out of his face, extremely frustrated with himself, "Man, I gotta' go find him."

Bailey grinned to herself again as she watched Cody dash hastily out of her room on his way back to the Sky Deck in search of his brother. She tilted her head in confusion, however, while Cody impulsively turned on his heels and ran back into the room. Gently, he placed another kiss on her lips.

"Thanks," he spoke sincerely before about facing, running out of the cabin and up the corridor.

The brisk breeze up on deck was certainly a lot colder than it had been no more than fifteen minutes ago, but nothing was stopping Cody's quick pace as he sped amongst the various people on his search for Zack.

The ship rocked from side to side and continued to grumble along as Cody's eyes then fell onto the image of his brother slipping himself into his jacket and shutting up the juice bar for the night.

"Zack!" Cody instantly called.

The older twin looked up, rolling his eyes at the sight of his brother, as he then turned around and walked off in the exact opposite direction that he normally would.

"Back for seconds?" he yelled back while Cody insisted on following him.

"No, I came to apologise."

A glimmer of hope thrived inside of Cody as Zack froze at the unexpected apology and turned around.

"I didn't realise that what I said upset you so much," Cody went on.

Zack scoffed, "I'm not a fragile mess, Cody!"

"I know that, but it was still completely unfair," the younger twin argued, "and I didn't mean any of it."

Zack fell into silent hesitation for a moment, "Yeah, well, it's like you said; we're not going to spend every day of the rest of our lives around each other."

Cody's expression dropped, "So, what are you saying?"

Zack remained completely quiet.

Cody frantically searched his brother's exterior for any sign of what he was thinking, but his vacant appearance and the prolonged silence did nothing but eat away at the younger twin's initial feelings of redemption as it began to seem less and less likely that Zack was going to say anything at all.

"So, that's it?" Cody recommenced, "After everything we've been through; all that we've ever done for each other - this is really how you want to leave it?"

The panicked tone in Cody's voice caused Zack's face to soften for a brief moment. It wasn't like either of them to turn a stupid argument into such a huge upsurge, and as much as what Cody had proclaimed to his brother earlier may have originally seemed like exactly what he wanted and how he truly felt, there was undoubtedly a twinge of some sort in Cody's current state that told Zack totally otherwise.

Heaving another sigh, Zack took a step away from Cody and opened his mouth, his breath of anticipated words gracing his lips, until suddenly, a roar was both heard and sensed from below them.

In what felt like a single second, the decks beneath where the boys were standing began to rumble and make the same unnerving growling noise as the ship's engine. In the next instant, before anyone on the S.S. Tipton had the opportunity to question the sick sounding clatter, an almighty explosion came from the ship's bottom most deck. Through the severe heat and flames that blasted from below, the intensified power of the engine set off a chain reaction throughout the boat, as deck by deck, the blazed combustion made it's way up the vertical base of the ship, destroying each and every floor board, wall and rooftop in it's path.

Cody coughed and spluttered, reluctantly lifting himself up from where he had fallen on the deck after the primary blast from below him. As he clawed his way up to his feet, using the side railing to assist him, Cody could sense that through all the fire, smoke and dust that all the passengers around him were in utter hysteria. Of course he wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but whatever it was, he was amazed that the bow and front half of the boat where he stood had remained afloat. The ear-piercing sounds of terrified screams rang throughout the twin's body as he stumbled forward, trying to see through the thick smoke, only to find in shock that he was dancing around the edge of the boat, barely keeping his balance above the fierce waves beneath him.

Before Cody had any possible chance to configure all the different fearful factors that surrounded him, his eyes abruptly widened in horror as he spotted the back half of the ship – now a good metre or two away from where he was placed – obviously completely detached by the explosion on a rapid descent into the ocean; his twin brother teetering over the jagged rim of the former Sky Deck.

"Zack!"

The older twin ran a hand over a fast growing lump on the back of his head as he sat up and opened his eyes, ultimately discovering the situation he was caught in.

"Cody!" he yelled back in equal fright.

Cody clambered as close to the edge of the ship's bow as he could get and stretched his arm as far out as humanly possible, "Give me your hand!"

Zack immediately obliged and imitated his brother's movement, extending his arm so far he could feel the extreme pulse and tract of all his muscles and tendons.

Cody held his breath, trying his absolute hardest to contain the raw emotion inside of him screaming to let itself free in the form of hot, scared tears. His heart skipped a beat, as did Zack's, when the twins felt the incredible sensation of their fingertips touching. The warmth given off from the other urged the two to push themselves that bit further to any extent possible for Zack's safety, but as they both immensely feared, the blissful sentiment was short lived.

As the fast rate of the submerging stern maintained its steady downward pace, much like the many other ill-fated passengers, Zack felt his grip slip ever so slightly away from his twin while he, too, disappeared beneath the murky, choppy ocean waves.

"No!" Cody cried, "Zack!"

Fallen debris continued to fly from the higher decks and more smaller explosions broke out around him as Cody watched the taunting bubbles from the stern of the ship blow up amongst the dark, salty water where Zack was quite probably still being swallowed and thrown about by the hash, foamy swash and backwash of the ocean.

Without stopping to think, Cody took in a deep breath and then lunged at the open edge of the ship, daring to dive in after his brother, until he was hastily yanked back by a strong grip from behind him.

"Cody!" Kirby shouted over the top of the many other noises on the destroyed cruise liner, "You need to come with me now!"

"No!" Cody screamed, "Not without Zack!"

"The engines in the front of the ship are still powering along and help is on the way!" Kirby urged.

"No!" Cody repeated. He snapped his head around and fixed his tear stained vision to the place where he had last seen his big brother as Kirby grabbed him around the torso, "I've got to save Zack! I need to save my brother!"

The higher most point of the ship then immersed beneath the water as both that and Cody's chances of Zack's well being vanished into nothing.

"Zack!!"

Without knowing what to say, I think I'll skip straight to an 'I'm sorry!'

I always knew this was going to happen, and I was dropping many little subtle hints as I went along, but to be completely honest, I was sorta hoping that no-one would see it coming. The rest of the story is kind of planned, but mostly not.

I decided to do this mainly because I really wanted a go of working with Cody. In my other stories (and since I do, admittedly, favour ZackieKins) I noticed that I include him in alot of main plot lines, or whatever. So now that he may or may not be out of the picture (without giving anything away :P) I'd like to see how I fair with writing around just Cody, who I do love just as much :)

I also find it necessary to mention that I know absolutely noting about ships or how they work. But they don't call it 'fiction' for nothing, right?

I'd love to know what you thought of this chapter - any questions, comments or flat out insults will be kindly accepted :)

Thanks for reading guys, I'll try to update as soon as I can, again, depending on which story I feel like writing for :)

Reneyyyyyyyy x.