Adrien came to the surface in the middle of a daylight nightmare. A roiling chaos of screaming, thrashing people. Over a hundred people and some debris were now floating where the ship went down. Some were stunned, gasping for breath. Others were crying, praying, moaning, shouting and screaming for help.

He scanned the horizon for Marinette and found her against the rubble. Her right hand was urging him to make a swim for it.

"SWIM, ADRIEN! SWIM!"

A large crate of furs was upset in the water. Marinette reached it first on the left while Adrien took the right. It seemed to be about as large as the dinner table in the Regal Suite. Adrien climbed onto it belly down, but when Marinette tried to climb aboard, it tilted, enough to dump Adrien off.

"Are you sure there's no room on there?" she asked.

"Only your upper half can stand this," Adrien replied regretfully.

So Marinette climbed aboard, heaving until at least her breasts and belt were above the water, clinging close to him. The broken halves of a nearby lifeboat proved useless for saving any lives that were still in the water, including Ivan, who had seen the two from his own distance and tried to put Mylène onboard a small half of the boat. Mylène, however, slipped and fell back into the water. Then she and Ivan swam off to look for another boat, blessing Adrien and Marinette along the way.

They saw Chief Officer Piper. He was blowing his whistle furiously, knowing the sound would carry over the water for miles. But the whistle had only reached a decibel over the cry of hundreds.

"I'm sure the boats will come back for us, Adrien," Marinette shivered.

A purpose swam right at Reverend. Henry Simpson like a sea monster from the darkness. It motored and played around him before heading to the Old Head of Kinsale. Junior Third Officer Bestic also attempted swimming to shore before he came upon a collapsible that was filling with water and used whatever flotsam he could find to prevent it. Thomas Percy Richards, a seven year old boy from second class, was fortunately old enough to swim by himself to the overturned Lifeboat 22 in search of his family.

A group of people still in the water were drawn to Collapsible A2 as their only hope, but Chloé and Sabrina slapped their oars into the water as a warning due to the boat's full capacity. Alya, exhausted and near her limit, made it just in time to miss having her head clubbed by Chloé, any closer would have resulted in the spoiled girl cutting open her scalp. Dazed, Alya climbed onto the boat, muttering before she slipped slowly into unconciousness.

"My...family."

Chloé and Sabrina kept on wielding their oars as they yelled, warning the swimmers to find another boat or face immediate pain.

The agonizing cries of death from a hundred throats could still be heard from Lifeboat 13. Gabriel had his ears covered against the wailing while the other occupants, carrying at least a few from all three classes, most of them second-cabin, listened. The seaman in charge of the boat, Frederick O'Neill, was concerned but at the same time, stubborn.

"As much as I like to help," he said to the passengers. "We are already full enough as it is."

"Then I personally suggest that we find another boat to transfer at least two-thirds of this capacity," Nathalie added. "Look! There seems to be plenty of room in that one over there."

Lifeboat 14 with about eleven of it's sixty seats occupied, was floating alongside them. But Gabriel, trying to shut it all out, was too traumatized to make a move.

At 2:40, First Officer Jones of Lifeboat 15, had already rounded up and transferred at least thirty five people to Lifeboat 1 and prepared to go back for more until both boats were full.

"If we find any more boats," he said to the others. "Empty or half-full, we'd better do it quick before heading to port...unless if another rescue ship comes."

The six successfully launched boats, among collapsible and rafts, floated as the sky shifted into an afternoon hue...waiting.

Marinette and Adrien drifted under the shifting sky of clouds and color. The water was glassy under the swell. Most the people had tried swimming towards the shore as their only hope. Others weakened by their injuries, chose to stay behind to die. A low moaning filled by some women in the water filled the air and were silenced the further they were away from Adrien's ears.

"It's so quiet out here," Adrien said glumly.

Marinette squeezed a few more inches of her upper body onto the crate. Her face was chalky and she tried to overcome the exposure.

"It will take a few more minutes...the boats will be organized...then we can leave together..."

Adrien was too focused on Marinette to look for any boats.

"I don't know about you," she continued. "But intend to tell the chairman of the Cunard Line to write a better submarine warning."

A sad smile formed Adrien's lips and a tear sprouted from his left eye as he whispered.

"I love you, Marinette."

"I love you too, Adrien. But neither of us can die just yet."

The cold truth coming in, Adrien dropped his smile and another tear came from his right eye.

"I'm so cold. I want to be over there."

He weakly aimed his left index finger in the direction of the Old Head of Kinsale, where it's lighthouse stood as the only black and white object of a colored world.

"And we will," Marinette soothed. "We'll live in Ireland, we'll make lots of babies, watch them grow into adults through school, college, grandkids...and then we'll die, warm in our beds...and not like this."

Adrien could almost see the broken ship lying at the bottom and the silhouette of the submarine heading north in his mind, his eyes registered anger and vengeance on it's occupants.

"The Germans will get what is coming to them...and I will make sure of that."

"You don't have to," Marinette added. "Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I am thankful for that, Adrien."

"This war has gone too far," Adrien muttered. "Why couldn't they let us be? Did they even know that our lives were worth more than that godforsaken ammunition?"

"Never mind them, Adrien," Marinette's voice was beginning to tremble, she too was the one crying. "Just promise that you will survive...this, the war and anything else that comes your way. Adrien, promise me now, and never let go of that promise."

Adrien gripped her left hand with his left and squeezed it with all the strength he had left. He placed his forehead against hers and spoke the following words before everything else returned to silence.

"I'll never let go, Marinette...I'll never let go."

By 5:00, silenced by the cold, by terror, injury or exhaustion, the cries from the water had ceased. Under the command of Skipper William Ball, Wanderer arrived at the scene of the disaster, taking aboard the occupants of Lifeboats 21, 11, 15, 1 and Collapsible A2 with a total of one hundred and sixty people. Two of the people they were able to rescue from the water were Nathanaël and second class passenger Sarah Rose Lohden, both of them having lashed themselves onto floating steamer chairs. The men hauled the two into the boat and other passengers began to revive them. Thomas Woods, amongst the seven crewmen, remembered it all too well.

"The saddest sight I ever saw in all my life." he would later tell the press. "I cannot tell you in words, but it was a great joy to me to help the poor mothers and babes in the best way we could."

Adrien and Marinette continued floating in the blue water, diluted by blood from injuries. The clouds were reflected in the lapping surface of the water, gave an impression that the two were floating in the sky. Both were still with their hands locked. Marinette looked down while Adrien looked up at the canopy of clouds rolling by. The long wait had overwhelmed him and in a tranquil moment of peace, he hummed "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere".

Turning his head away from the sun as he reached the fifth lyric, his eyes came upon a ship with a mast, carrying some people on board. Salvation had come at last.

"Marinette...there is a boat."

He tapped her right hand, but not too hard, for she seemed to be asleep. Her eyes opened with a yawn.

"MARINETTE!" he shouted. "There's a boat, Marinette."

"I heard you! I heard you! Can't I at least take a nap!"

Adrien, now determined, struggled to move after them. He pulled Marinette away from the board and swam over to Chief Officer Piper, who had already died of exposure and grabbed his whistle, he blew twice before he found the energy to scream "Over here!" with all the strength he had.

Skipper Ball whipped around at the sound of the whistle.

"Look there! I see you! Woods, pull us back!"

Adrien and Marinette waved their arms and he blew the whistle four more times before Ball pulled him in. He slipped into unconsciousness as they scrambled to cover him with blankets. The last thing he saw was the sun entering his eyes as he slept for another hour, playing back the recent events in his mind.

1,201 people went into the sea, when Lusitania sank from under them. There were six boats floating nearby, and all the rest were empty, flooded or overturned. Seven people were saved from the water, Adrien and Marinette included. Seven, out of twelve hundred. Afterwords, the seven hundred people in the boats and in the water had nothing to do but wait...to die, to live and wait for an absolution that would never come.