Warning: This is the story where bishies come to DIE.

Under the dark water, bodies whirled and spun, some limp as dolls, others struggling spasmodically as the vortex sucked and tumbled them down. Riku rose, kicking hard for the surface, and placed his arm tightly around Sora, pulling him up. The surface was a boisterous chaos of screaming, thrashing people. Over a thousand men and women were now floating where the ship had once been; some were stunned, gasping for breath. Others were crying, praying, moaning, shouting, and yelling.

Riku and Sora surfaced among them. They barely had time to gasp for air before people were clawing at them, driven insane by the freezing water. A man pulled Sora under, trying to climb on top of him, senselessly trying to get out of the water. Riku punched him repeatedly in the nose, pulling Sora free and away from the scene. "Swim, Sora!" he yelled, dragging Sora behind him.

He tried, his lifejacket hindering his strokes. They soon broke out of the clot of people; Riku looked around to find some kind of floatation, anything to get Sora out of the freezing water. "Keep swimming. Keep moving. Come on, you can do it," he said, repeating it over and over. All about them there were tremendous wails, screams and moans—a chorus of tormented souls—and beyond that, nothing but black water stretching to the horizon.

Riku stroke rhythmically, the effort keeping him from freezing. "Look for something floating. Some debris or wood. Anything."

Sora tried to keeping moving. "It's so cold."

"I know, I know. Help me, here and look around."

Riku's words kept Sora focused, taking his mind off the wailing around them. He scanned the water, panting and barely able to draw a breath. He turned and screamed; a devil was right in front of his face. It was the black French Bulldog, swimming right at him like a sea monster in the darkness, its coal eyes bugging. It motored past him, like it is headed for Newfoundland. I'm sure you'd scream, too, if something that looked like an ass swam close to you. Or not..

Beyond it, Sora saw something in the water. "What's that?"

It was a piece of intricately carved wooden debris, and they made their way to it together. Riku pushed him up and he slithered onto it belly down. When Riku tried to climb onto it, it tilted and submerged, almost dumping Sora off, not big enough to support them both. He clung to it, close to Sora, keeping his upper body out of the water as best he could.

Their breath floated around them in a cloud as they panted from exertion. A man swam toward them, homing in on the piece of debris like an ant. Riku warned him back. "It's just enough for him. You'll push it under."

"Let me try, at least, or I'll die soon!"

"You'll die quicker if you come any closer!"

The man was all too calm. "Yes, I see. Good luck to you then," he said, swimming away. "God bless."

"Yeah, up yours, buddy!" Riku yelled, giving the man a rude gesture. I mean really, there's a characteristic of an adulterer if I've ever seen one.

The row boat was overloaded and half-flooded; men clung to the sides in the water. Others, swimming, were drawn to it as their only hope. Kairi, standing inside it, slapped her oar in the water as a warning. "Stay back! Keep off!"

Axel, exhausted and near his limit, made it almost to the boat. Kairi clubbed him with the oar, cutting open his scalp. The blood from his head blended into the color of his hair and slowly spilled out into the water. Nevertheless, his hope carried him on. "Please. I have to get to America," he said to her, reaching out his hand.

Kairi pointed with the oar. "It's that way!"

Axel floated, panting each breath in agony. The spirit left him as he lowered his arm back into the water. He watched Kairi in slow-motion death, yelling and wielding the oar, a demon in a dress. It is what gives children nightmares. His vision faded to black.

Let us take this moment to mourn the Death of Axel. Again. The guy just can't get a break, can he?

Okay! Moving on!

Riku and Sora were still stranded amid a chorus of the damned. Riku watched Demyx blowing his whistle furiously, knowing the sound would carry over the water for miles. "The boats will come back for us, Sora," he said, grinning confidently. "Hold on just a little longer. They had to row away for the suction and now they'll be coming back."

Sora nodded. He was shivering uncontrollably, his lips blue and his teeth chattering. "Thank God for you, Riku."

People were still screaming, calling to the lifeboats. "Come back! Please! We know you can hear us!"

In Boat Six, the first class women didn't say a word. Stunned, they listening to the sounds of hundreds screaming. Xigbar argued with Olette, the only entertainment for the members aboard the boat. "They'll pull us right down!"

"Oh, knock it off! Come on, girls, grab your oars. Let's go."

No one moved.

"Well, come on!" The women wouldn't meet her eyes. They huddled into their ermine wraps. "I don't understand anyone of you. What's the matter with you? It's your men back there! We have plenty of room for more."

Xigbar's voice shook from the cold. "If you don't shut that hole in your face, there'll be one less in this boat!"

"You suck at math. There's already one less! We could at least replace the vacancy!"

In Boat One, Xemnas and Selphie sat with ten other people in a boat that was two-thirds empty. They were two hundred yards from the screaming in the darkness.

One man spoke up. "We should do something."

Selphie squeezed Xemnas' hand and pleaded him with her eyes. "It's out of the question," Xemnas replied. The crewmembers, intimidated by a nobleman, acquiesced. They hunched guiltily, hoping the sound would stop soon. Twenty boats, most half full, floated in the darkness, and none of them made a move.

Cruel bastards.

Riku and Sora drifted under the blazing stars. The water was glassy, with only the faintest undulating swell, the stars reflecting on the black mirror of the sea. Riku squeezed the water out of Sora's long coat, tucking it in tightly around his legs, his face chalk.

"It's getting quiet," Sora whispered.

"Just a few more minutes, Sora. It'll take them a while to get the boats organized," Riku assured.

Sora was unmoving, staring into space. He knew the truth. There wouldn't be any boats. Behind Riku, he noticed that Demyx had stopped moving. He was slumped in his lifejacket, looking almost asleep, dead from the exposure.

A dramatic tear fell into the water, the source of it unknown. That is how we respond to the death of a bishie.

"I don't know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about all this," Riku joked, his voice cracking.

Sora laughed weakly, but it sounded more like a gasp of fear. He found Riku's eyes in the dim light. "I love you Riku."

Riku took his hand. "No, don't say your goodbyes, Sora. Don't you give up yet."

"Goodbye? I said I love you, and you think I mean goodbye? Are you scared of commitment?"

"No, Sora."

"Damn straight."A tear fell from his eye. A full mood swing. "I'm so cold."

"You're going to get out of this. You're going to go on and you're going to have babies and watch them grow and you're going to die an old, old man, warm in your bed. Not here, not this night. Do you understand me?"

Sora shook his head. "I don't think some of the readers like MPreg, Riku."

"Sora, listen to me. Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me." Riku was having trouble getting the breath to speak. "It brought me to you, and I'm thankful for that, Sora."

Well, Riku didn't win the ticket, but I guess it must have sounded cooler or something. Or he forgot. Or he didn't want Sora to know he sacrificed a hat for the tickets. For shame.

His voice was trembling with the cold, but his eyes were unwavering. "You must do me this honor. Promise me you will survive, that you will never give up no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, and never let go of that."

"I promise."

"Never let go, Sora."

"I promise. I'll never let go, Riku," the brunette said, taking it in literal sense. "I'll never let go. That is unless less I have to scratch my ass or something, then you're screwed."

Sora gripped Riku's hand and they lay with their heads together. It was quiet now, except for the lapping of the water.

Saïx had Boats Ten, Twelve and Collapsible D together with his own, Boat Fourteen. A demon of energy, he had everyone hold the boats together and transferred passengers from Fourteen into the others, to empty his boat for a rescue attempt. As a women stepped gingerly across the other boats, Saïx noticed a covered figure in too much of a hurry. He ripped off the person's shall and found himself staring into the face of a man. He angrily shoved the stowaway into another boat and turned to his crew of three.

"Right. Man the oars."

The beam of an electric torch played across the water like a searchlight as Boat Fourteen came forward. The torch illuminated floating debris and a poignant trail of wreckage: a violin, a child's wooden soldier, a framed photo of a steerage family, and series of nude magazines with Saïx's naked body gracing the covers. One of his fellow crewmen fished one out with an oar and shoved it in Saïx's face with a smug smile.

Saïx refused to look the man in the eyes. "Uhhh... I was young. I ... needed the money..."

Then, their white lifebelts bobbing in the darkness like signposts, the first bodies came into the torch's beam. They were all dead, killed by the freezing water. Some looked like they could have been sleeping. Others stared with frozen eyes at the stars.

The bodies became so thick that the seamen couldn't row. They hit the oars on the heads of floating men and women accidently, and one seaman threw up. Saïx saw a mother floating with her arms frozen around her lifeless baby. He gulped. "We waited too long."

Riku and Sora floated peacefully in the black water. The stars reflected in the mill pond surface, and the two of them seemed to be suspended in interstellar space. They were absolutely still, their hands locked together. Sora stared upward at the canopy of stars wheeling above him. As the long sleep stole over Sora, he felt tranquility. The brunette's face was pale like the faces of the dead, and he seemed to be floating in a void. In a semi-hallucinatory state, he knew he was dying. His lips barely moved as he sang a scrap of the hymn 'O Ye What a Confusing Song This Is'.

The Milky Way was a glorious band from horizon to horizon. A shooting star flared, a line of light across the heavens. His hair was dusted with frost crystals. His eyes tracked down from the stars to the water. "Riku, I guess a soul has …just gone to heaven..."

The silhouette of the boat crossed the stars. Sora saw men in it, rowing slowly as the oars lifted out of the syrupy water, leaving weightless pearls floating in the air. Their voices sounded slow and distorted. The lookout flashed his torch toward the brunette and the light flared across the water, silhouetting the bobbing corpses in between. It flicked past his motionless form and moved on, the men quickly looking away.

Sora lifted his head to turn to Riku, his hair frozen to the wood under him. His voice was barely audible. "Riku." He touched Riku's shoulder with his free hand. Riku didn't respond. Sora gently turned Riku's face toward him; it was rimed with frost. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Sora could only stare at his still face as the realization went through him. "Oh, Riku."All hope, will, and spirit left him. He looked at the boat. It was much further away now, the voices fainter. He closed his eyes. He was too weak, and there just seemed to be no reason to even try.

But, only a moment later, his eyes snapped open. He raised his head suddenly, cracking the ice as he ripped his hair off the wood. I mean, it defies gravity anyway. He called out, but his voice barely made past a whisper. The boat was invisible now, the torch light a star impossibly far away. He struggled to draw breath, calling again.

In the boat, Saïx heard nothing behind him. He pointed to something ahead, turning the tiller.

Sora struggled to move. His hand, he realized, was frozen to his lover's. He breathed on it, melting the ice, and he gently unclasped their hands, breaking away a thin tinkling film. "I won't let go. I promise," he said softly, planning to drag Riku's body with his.

Something suddenly caught his eye. He turned, staring at a piece of a gold plate. His eyes widened in fascination. "Ooh… shiny…"

His hand released Riku's and he sunk into the black water, fading out like a spirit returning to some immaterial plane. Sora turned away from the shiny object to see nothing but small ripples in the ocean, Riku long gone beneath the water. His mouth fell open. "Oh my god! Shit! I let go! Damn it! There goes another damn promise!"

Sora rolled off the floating object and plunged into the icy water with a hiss. He swam as best he could to Demyx's body, holding onto his frozen body. He pulled the whistle from the man's mouth and started to blow into it with all the strength in his body. Its sound slapped across the still water.

In Boat Fourteen, Saïx whipped around at the sound of the whistle. "Row back! That way! Pull!" he yelled at his crew. Sora continued to blow, even as the boat came to him. He was still blowing when Saïx took the whistle from his mouth as they hauled him into the boa. He slipped into unconsciousness and they scrambled to cover him with blankets.

"Fifteen hundred people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us. There were twenty boats floating nearby and only one came back. Six were saved from the water, myself included. Six out of fifteen hundred."

It was now present day. Yuna, Rikku, Paine, and the others stared at him, completely silent. With his story, Sora had put them on Titanic in its final hours, and or the first time, they felt like grave robbers. Yuna, for the first time, had even forgotten to ask about the diamond.

"Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait. Wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come."

Boat after boat rushed through the water. Seifer sat in a trance, staring at the horizon. He was trembling, having not moved since hours before. On another boat, Kairi sipped from a glass offered to her by a stoker, her arms aching from holding the oars. In Boat Fourteen, only Sora's face was visible underneath the blankets, white as the moon. The man next to him jumped up, pointing and yelling. Saïx lit a green flare and waved it as everyone around him shouted and cheered. Sora, however, did not react; he stared numbly at the light bouncing off of his skin, floating beyond all human emotion.

Golden light washed across the white boats that glowed in a calm sea, reflecting the rosy sky. All around them, like a fleet of sailing ships, were icebergs. The Carpathia sat nearby as the boats rowed toward it.

Sora stared at nothingness, his face blank as he was rocked by the sea. The letters Carpathia loomed above his head, visible on the bow of the ship. Seamen helped survivors up the rope ladder to the Carpathia's gangway doors. Sora, outside of time, outside of himself, made his way up to the ship, barely able to stand. He was given hot tea as he climbed the walkway and draped with more warm blankets. Seifer Almasy climbed aboard afterward, unable to speak. As he walked along the hall, guided by a crewman toward the doctor's cabin, he passed rows of seated and standing widows. Their accusing gazes pierced his soul.

It was the afternoon of the fifteenth of April. Kairi searched the faces of the widows lining the deck, looking determinedly for her lost fiancée. The deck of Carpathia was crammed with huddled people, even the recovered lifeboats of Titanic. On a hatch cover sat an enormous pile of lifebelts. She continued walking toward the stern. Seeing Kairi's elegant dress, a steward approached her. "You won't find any of your people back here, miss. It's all steerage."

Kairi ignored him and went amongst the wrecked group, looking under shawls and blankets at one bleak face after another. The brunette sat nearby, drinking hot tea as she unknowingly passed him. His head was completely hidden by the blanket as his red-rimmed, tired eyes watched her movements carefully. Sora's features hardened beneath the covering of fabric, clenching his jaw. The auburn haired beauty made only one trip around the deck, soon giving up and making her way back up the stairs to the first class.

That was the last time I ever saw her. She married, of course, and her husband inherited millions. The crash of 29 hit his interests hard, and he put a pistol in his mouth that year. His children and Kairi fought over the scraps of his estate like hyenas, or so I read.

Sora stood at the railing of the Carpathia. He gazed up at the Statue of Liberty, looking just as it does today, welcoming him home with its glowing torch. It was just as Axel saw it so clearly in his mind. The ship disgorged the survivors at the pier, and over thirty thousand people lined the dock and filled the surrounding streets. The magnesium flash of the photographers went off like small bombs. Several hundred police kept the mob back, pushing them forcefully. The dock was packed with friends and relatives, officials, ambulances, and the press.

Sora covered himself with a woolen shawl and walked with a group of steerage passengers. An officer steered him toward a holding area for processing, and he walked forward with the dazed immigrants. The boom of photographer's flashes caused Sora to flinch, the glare blinding. There was a sudden disturbance near him as two men burst through the line of police, running to embrace an older woman along the survivors. The reporters converged on this emotional scene and flashes exploded.

Sora used that moment to slip away into the crowd. He pushed through the jostling people, moving with purpose, and none challenged him in the confusion.

Can you exchange one life for another? A caterpillar turns into a butterfly. If a mindless insect can do it, why couldn't I? Was it any more unimaginable than the sinking of the Titanic?

He walked away, further and further until the flashes and the roars were far behind him.

Old Sora sat in his wheelchair, the room lit by the blue glow of the screens. He held the previously thrown comb in his gnarled hands.

"We never found anything on Riku. There's no record of him at all," Paine said, moving away from the computer.

Sora chuckled. "No, there wouldn't be, would there? And I've never spoken of him until now, not to anyone," he said, looking toward Tidus. "Not even your grandmother. A man's heart is a deep ocean of secrets, but now you all know there was a man named Riku Dawson, and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved… except mentally. He didn't make me smarter."

Tidus stood in complete shock. "Y-You're gay? And Grannie doesn't know?"

"So you went straight, to gay, to straight again?" Rikku asked, dumbfounded. The math didn't make sense. Sora just ignored her, closing his eyes.

"I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory."

Old Sora walked through the shadows of the deck machinery, his white pajamas blowing in the wind. His feet were bare and his hands were clutched at his chest, almost as if he were praying, which is a bad thing. Aerith is a perfect example of why people should never pray in open spaces.

Yuna and Tidus ran down the stairs from the top deck. Sora reached the stern rail, wrapping his gnarled fingers over the metal. His ancient foot stepped up on the gunwale and he pushed himself up, leaning forward and staring down at the black water glinting far below.

Yuna and Tidus caught up to him shortly after, stopping only a few feet behind him. Sora turned his head, looking at them smugly. He then turned further, letting the object in his hand dangle as he prepared to drop it overboard.

It was the Heart of the Ocean, still as beautiful and bright blue as ever. The young treasure hunter saw nothing but her holy grail dangerously suspended in the air. Yuna's eyes went wide, her hand held outward for it. The brunette smartly kept it over the railing, threatening to drop it at any time.

"Don't come any closer," Sora said, smiling deviously.

Yuna was outraged, drawing her hand back. "You had it the entire time!"

Sora's eyes flickered. He remembered himself, a younger man, walking away from the pier as the photographers' flashes went off like a battle behind him. He placed his hands in his coat pockets, walking forward with determination. He suddenly stopped, feeling something, and he pulled out the famed necklace, staring at it in amazement.

Back on the deck in present day, Sora smiled at Yuna's incomprehension. "The hardest part about being so poor was being so rich. But every time I thought of selling it, I thought of Kairi and somehow, I always got by without her help." He held it out further over the water just as Rikku and Paine hurried over, quickly reacting to the object in his hand.

"Don't drop it, Sora," Yuna pleaded.

Paine whispered to her fiercely. "Get it!"

"It's his, you damn idiot," Yuna growled, looking back at Sora. "Look, Sora, I don't know what to say to a man who tries to jump off the Titanic when it's not sinking, and jumps back onto it when it is. We're not dealing with logic here, I know that, but please think about this a second."

"I have," he said, gazing up at the heavens. "I came all the way here so that I could return this to where it belongs."

The massive diamond glittered. Yuna took a step closer, holding out her hand eagerly once again. "Just let me hold it, Sora. Please. Just once."

She came ever closer to him, reminiscent of Riku slowly moving up to him at the stern of Titanic, only Sora wasn't ready to attack her. Instead, he calmly placed the massive stone in the palm of her hand while still holding onto the necklace. Yuna gazed at the mesmerizing object of her quest. It fit in her hand just like she imagined. Her grip tightened on the diamond. She looked up, meeting his now cold gaze. "You look for treasures in the wrong place, Yuna. Only life is priceless, and we must make each day count. Ha, I totally just quoted Riku."

Her fingers relaxed, opening them slowly. As Sora gently slipped the diamond out of her hand, she felt it sliding away like a lost child. Then, with an impish little grin, Sora tossed the necklace over the rail. Rikku gave a strangled cry and rushed to the rail in time to see it hit the water and disappear forever.

"Aww! That really sucks, man!"

Sora smiled and looked up at the stars. "I've seen him for years now."

"What?" Paine asked, looking away from weird couple dancing on the deck.

"Did I ever tell you I saw dead people? In my past life… it was weird, I was this kid… and there was this dead guy…"

"Sora! Get to the point!"

"Oh, right. I've seen him for years now. He has always been there to comfort me, never leaving me alone all these years. He, however, disappeared recently, and I haven't seen him since. I think he's just been sticking around for me. He's just been waiting, and I guess right around now, my Riku is getting ready. Ready for the day we truly die together."

In the black water below them, the Heart of the Ocean sunk, twinkling end over end into the infinite depths.

In Sora's cabin, the shelf above his bead consisted of carefully arranged pictures, memories of his life caught inside photos. One showed Sora as a young actor in California, radiant and full of energy. Another showed Sora and his wife with their two children in a studio publicity shot. The one next to it was Sora and Tidus at his college graduation and another with his children and grandchildren at his seventh birthday. It was a collage of images of a life lived well.

The image furthest to the left was a picture of Sora in 1920. He was at the beach, sitting on a horse in the surf life with the Santa Monica pier and its rollercoaster behind him. He was ginning at the camera, his eyes shining with incandescent happiness. Below the shelf of photos, Sora lay warm in his bunk, very still in the darkness as the words of Riku rang in his ears.

"You're going to get out of this. You're going to go on and you're going to have babies and watch them grow and you're going to die an old, old man, warm in your bed. Not here, not this night. Do you understand me?"

The wreck of the Titanic loomed like a ghost out of the dark, lit by a kind of moonlight, a light of the mind. Inside, the echoing sound of distant waltz music was heard as the rust faded away from the walls of the dark corridor, transformed. Now the grand room, the door was gently opened by a young man in a suit. The music suddenly became clearer, the room populated by men in evening dress and women in gowns. It was exquisitely beautiful, like an old photograph come to life.

Around the room were many familiar faces, all of which were lost in the sea. Leon Leonhart and Cloud were the first recognized, beaming. A few elegant looking gentlemen and women passed, all remembered from Sora's world. On the right side of the staircase, Axel poked Roxas' sides while the blonde tried to look 'cool.' Young Naminé smacked the redhead on the hand, signaling the arrival of the new guest.

Said guest would have swept up the stair case illuminated in gold. At the top, a man would have stood with his back facing the crowd. He would have turned just as the new visitor was halfway up the steps, revealing himself to be Riku, his silver strands of hair lightly shimmering. Smiling, he would have held his hand out.

Sora would have gone into his arms, a boy of seventeen. On the second story, Cid and all the other officers, including Demyx, Zexion, and Marluxia, would have watched as they shared a kiss, Sora's hands reaching around Riku's neck. The passengers, officers, and crew of the RMS Titanic would have smiled and applauded in the utter silence of the abyss.

Yes, all of these events would have happened, were it not for the conveniently placed foot at the bottom of the grand staircase, courtesy of Axel. Sora did not make it up the staircase, he did not walk into Riku's arms, and no one applauded the eerie afterlife.

Instead, the brunette tripped over said foot and fell gracefully on his face.

Fail.

TITANIC

CAST:

Jack Dawson: Riku

Rose De Witt Bukater: Sora

Caldon Hockley: Kairi

Spicer Lovejoy: Cloud

Thomas Andrews: Leon Leonhart

Fabrizio De Rossi: Axel

Tommy Ryan: Roxas

Ruth De Witt Bukater: Yuffie

Margret (Molly) Brown: Olette

Captain Smith: Cid

J. Bruce Ismay: Seifer Almasy

First Officer Murdoch: Pence

Moody: Larxene

Lookout Fleet: Kadaj

Lookout Lee: Yazoo

Ship's Carpenter John Hutchinson: Loz

Chief Engineer Bell: Marluxia

Junior Wireless Operator Bride: Zexion

Fifth Offier Lowe: Saïx

Quartermaster Hitchins: Xigbar

Lightoller: Demyx

Quartermaster Rowe: Vincent Valentine

Fourth Officer Boxhall: Auron

Countess Rothes: Aerith Gainsborough

John Jacob Astor: Wakka

Madeline: Lulu

Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon: Xemnas

Lucile Lady Duff-Gordon: Selphie

Colonel Gracie: Merlin

Benjamin Guggenheim: Hayner

Madame Aubert: Fuu

Brock Lovett: Yuna

Lewis Bodine: Rikku

Bobby Buell: Paine

Lizzy: Tidus

Californian Cheif Wireless Operator: Nero

Californian Junior Wireless Operator: Weiss

Cora: Namine

Olaf: Setzer

Sven: Luxord

Maid Trudy: Marlene

Maid April: Denzel

Tsuki: I am very sad that this ended. Of course, I had to add the cast list just in case anyone got confused as to who was playing who. During the course of writing and editing this story for the second time, I had to watch the movie multiple times. I get this unbearable urge to do so whenever I work on this. Maybe others do, too, when they read this. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and maybe it will be better-written next year.

Ame: I'M FREE! BWAHAHA! MY CONTRACT THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST HAS ENDED! FREE! … Ahem… I'm totally kidding… adding random stupidity to random non-stupidity to create random-not-so-stupidity is my dream. (eyeroll) joking! I had fun doing this! … Reading what I just wrote… does that make ANY sense?... Does ANYTHING I write make sense?

Thanks to all our reviewers, people who added this story to their favorites and/or alerts, and of course, to our readers! We love you!

On that note. We did not mean to insult: KFed. Courtney Love. The French. The Media OR the Paparazzi. Okay.. Fine, KFed was intentional…

Smurf on, readers, smurf on!