Isabella was on her way to the top deck of the Celestine, walking with purpose through the elegant corridors.

She had specifically asked Wren to meet her up there, mostly because she’d seen the observation deck yesterday after they’d returned from the summit and he’d gone to attend to his stepmother Diana’s ankle wounds.

Not that Isa minded him taking care of Diana... she actually found his attentiveness kind of sweet but when she’d explored that top deck area last night after everyone had gone to sleep, it had felt like the perfect place to talk properly.

It was somewhere private and beautiful, before they went bowling together or maybe even had breakfast, though she hadn’t decided which yet.

"Isabella, we still need to do the photoshoot..." her manager said from behind her, the older woman’s voice carrying that familiar tone of professional exasperation.

Isabella glanced back to see her manager adjusting her glasses while still wearing a full business suit despite being on a cruise ship in warm weather.

No matter how many times Isabella tried to convince the woman to dress casually since they were supposed to be on vacation, she absolutely refused to listen. It was almost comical at this point.

"I don’t feel like doing it right now," Isabella replied, letting her shoulders slump as if she was tired and hoping her manager would take the hint.

Her manager rolled her eyes in response. "But you want to spend time with that guy, right? That Wren guy?"

Isabella shrugged, trying to play it casual even though her heart had started beating faster just thinking about seeing him. "Ren-Ren is just a friend."

"That’s fine," her manager said, though her tone suggested she didn’t entirely believe it. "As long as you don’t let it progress past friendship. This is exactly how several famous people get caught up in cheating scandals and face heavy backlash from their fans and sponsors. Marcus is pretty big in the modeling and acting world, after all... You can’t afford the negative publicity."

Isabella sighed heavily, opening her mouth to respond, when suddenly some cruise staff member in a butler’s uniform came running past her toward the top deck at full sprint. He bumped hard into her shoulder without even slowing down.

"Hey!" Isabella called out after him indignantly.

He didn’t even look back and just kept running.

"Rude much?" she muttered, rubbing her shoulder. Though now that she thought about it, why was staff moving that fast? That seemed... unusual. Cruise employees were usually trained to maintain composure and never run unless there was an actual emergency.

A cold feeling of dread began forming in the pit of her stomach.

They arrived at the top deck observation area, and Isabella’s breath caught in her throat at the scene before her.

A man who looked clearly under the influence of something... drugs, alcohol or maybe both had his hands cuffed behind his back. Two security officers were restraining him while a third was reading him his rights.

The man was swaying on his feet with his eyes bloodshot.

Isabella immediately stormed forward.

"What the hell happened here?!" she demanded.

One of the cruise workers turned to her with his face looking pale and stressed. "This intoxicated passenger shoved a blonde-haired young man over the ledge during the brief period when the top deck observation area was changing security guards. We’re already deploying emergency rescue protoco—"

Isabella didn’t listen to anything after "blonde-haired young man."

Her heart literally dropped. Her face went pale, all the blood draining from it in an instant and her hands started trembling.

She immediately kicked off her expensive designer shoes without thinking, leaving them scattered on the deck.

"What do you think you’re doing?!" her manager shouted, grabbing at Isabella’s arm.

Isabella yanked her arm free with strength born of desperation.

"Ren-Ren can’t swim!" She shouted back as her voice cracked with panic. "He told me yesterday! He could die down there in the ocean!"

And without giving herself time to second-guess or think about the danger, Isabella ran toward the railing and jumped over the ledge, launching herself into the vast expanse of ocean below.

The dark water rushed up to meet her face as she dove downward, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst from her chest.

She could hear the distant shouts of her manager and the security personnel from above, but they sounded far away and dreamlike.

’This is all my fault...’ she thought desperately as she angled her body into a proper dive position, cutting through the air. ’This is dangerous even for someone experienced like me who grew up swimming and training in water. But for someone who doesn’t even know how to swim properly?! Why the hell did I ask him to meet me up there of all places?!’

She could have suggested meeting at the bar where they’d gotten drinks yesterday. Or the bowling room... Or literally anywhere else on this massive cruise ship that wasn’t next to a deadly fall into the ocean. Now because of her stupid ideas about talking somewhere with a nice view, Wren had been pushed off the fucking ledge—

Her thoughts scattered completely as she hit the water.

SPLASH!

The impact was brutal and absolutely devastating. Even with her diving experience and proper form that she’d perfected over years of training, hitting the water from that height felt like slamming face-first into solid concrete.

The force of the collision drove every bit of air from her lungs instantly and sent shocking, radiating pain through her entire body... her ribs, her shoulders, and even her legs. For several disorienting seconds she was completely surrounded by churning bubbles and turbulent water, unable to tell which direction was up or down.

But Isabella forced herself to focus through the pain and disorientation. Wren. She had to find Wren as right now... nothing else matered

She opened her eyes despite the intense saltwater sting that made them burn immediately, and looked around desperately in the murky underwater darkness.

The bright sunlight filtered down from the surface above in dancing, shifting beams that created an almost ethereal quality to the water, but everything more than a few meters away was shadowy, indistinct, and terrifying then she saw him, and her heart stopped.

Wren’s body was sinking deeper into the dark water below her, completely motionless. His arms floated limply at his sides. His blonde hair drifted around his head like pale seaweed. He wasn’t even trying to swim or struggle... he was just... sinking... unconscious... maybe already dead. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

’No no no no NO!’

Isabella kicked her legs as hard as she possibly could, pulling herself deeper into the water with powerful strokes born from years of swimming training. Her lungs were already starting to burn from lack of oxygen since she’d lost most of her air in the initial impact but she completely ignored the growing pain.

She followed his sinking form down, down, down into the increasingly dark depths where the sunlight barely reached. The pressure increased painfully in her ears and the water grew colder but she kept swimming, kept chasing him.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only fifteen or twenty seconds, she finally managed to reach him. Her fingers closed desperately around the fabric of his soaking wet shirt. She immediately wrapped both arms around his torso and tried to pull him upward toward the distant surface, kicking her legs with every ounce of strength she possessed but he was too heavy... so much heavier than she’d expected.

The waterlogged clothes clinging to his body and the complete dead weight of his unconscious form made him feel like he weighed twice what he normally should.

She pulled with all her considerable strength with her muscles screaming in protest but they barely moved upward at all.

In fact, they were still sinking.

The light from the surface above was gradually dimming as they continued descending despite her absolutely desperate efforts.

Her vision was starting to go dark and fuzzy at the edges from severe lack of oxygen. Her movements were becoming sluggish and uncoordinated.

’Come on! Come on! COME ON!’ she screamed internally in a wordless prayer to any god who might be listening.

She kicked harder than she ever had, applied more force than she’d ever used, and pushed her body beyond any limit she’d ever tested.

But it wasn’t enough. She could feel her strength failing... Her lungs were on fire now, burning with the need to breathe.

Genuine despair was beginning to set in... the horrifying realization that if she let him go... he was going to drown down here in the dark, that she’d failed, that Wren was going to die because she wasn’t strong enough...

Just when she felt consciousness starting to slip away, Someone suddenly grabbed Wren’s body from the side.

A professional rescue diver wearing full scuba gear, including a proper diving helmet with a functioning oxygen tank and emergency equipment, had appeared beside her seemingly out of nowhere. His strong hands gripped Wren’s other arm.

Together, their combined strength finally made real progress against the water’s relentless downward pull. They kicked in unison, pushing Wren’s limp body upward, fighting their way back toward the light and air and life.

They broke the surface together with a tremendous explosive splash that sent water spraying in all directions.

Isabella immediately gasped desperately for air, her mouth opening wide as her lungs screamed and burned for oxygen.

She coughed violently, sputtering and choking as her respiratory system tried to process what it needed. Saltwater streamed from her long hair and down her face, mixing with tears she didn’t even realize she was crying.

Her soaking wet clothes felt like they weighed a hundred pounds, trying to drag her back down.

But Wren.. Wren was still completely unresponsive in their grip. His eyes remained closed and his body was totally limp, floating face-up in the water between them like a corpse. He wasn’t breathing at all, not even a little bit.

Isabella’s heart dropped even further into absolute paralyzing terror. ’Please no, please don’t be dead, please please please don’t be dead, God please I’ll do anything—’

The rescue diver started pushing Wren’s floating body in a specific direction.

Isabella looked where he was heading and saw a lower deck platform that jutted out from the side of the Celestine... probably an emergency maintenance access point. The diver was guiding them toward it.

She immediately joined him, pushing Wren’s body through the water. Her arms felt like lead, they were exhausted from the dive and rescue, but pure adrenaline kept her moving.

When they reached the platform, Isabella placed both hands on the metal railing and pushed herself up with one arm while pulling on Wren’s body with the other hand.

The rescue diver helped push from below, and together they managed to heave Wren’s unconscious form up onto the deck platform.

Isabella pulled herself up after him, her soaking wet clothes clinging to her body and dripping water everywhere while the diver climbed up beside them and started to remove his helmet.

"Ma’am, I’m a professional rescue dive—" he began.

Isabella completely ignored him. She immediately dropped to her knees beside Wren’s body and started pumping his chest with both hands, putting her full weight behind each compression just like she’d been taught in the mandatory safety training all professional racers had to take.

Water came out of Wren’s mouth with each pump, but he still wasn’t breathing on his own.

"I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry Ren-Ren," Isabella kept repeating with tears starting to stream down her face mixing with the seawater. "Please wake up, please be okay, I’m so sorry—"

After several chest compressions, she made a decision. She tilted Wren’s head back to open his airway properly, pinched his nose shut, and leaned down to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She pressed her lips to his and pushed air into his lungs with controlled breaths.

The thought that she technically had a boyfriend didn’t even occur to her in that moment. All she wanted... all she cared about was saving Wren’s life right now.

She went back to chest compressions, counting under her breath, then gave him more rescue breaths.

She pumped as much as she could and breathed... over and over again and after what felt like an eternity once again but was probably only thirty or forty seconds, Wren’s eyes suddenly shot open wide.

He immediately shoved Isabella away weakly and twisted to the side, leaning over the platform railing. He vomited up what seemed like gallons of seawater with his entire body convulsing with the force of it then he started gasping desperately for air, his chest heaving as he tried to fill his lungs.

"Ren-Ren, are you okay?!" Isabella pulled him back from the railing carefully, terrified he might fall back into the ocean.

Wren didn’t reply. He couldn’t reply. He just stared at the vast ocean with absolute horror in his eyes as his whole body trembled. His face was pale and his breathing was rapid and shallow... he was clearly going into shock.

Isabella shook his shoulders gently with her own voice shaking. "Wren? Are you okay? Please say something!"

She was terrified too.

Wren finally swallowed hard, coughing again and choking on residual water in his throat and his voice came out as a raspy whisper.

"I want... I want to get out of here. Now. Please."

Almost immediately, as if on cue, a rope ladder was deployed down from a higher deck above them. A crew member’s voice called down.

"Climb up! We’ll pull you to safety!"

The rescue diver who’d helped Isabella nodded at them. "You should go now. I’ll follow behind."

Wren nodded shakily, though he still looked absolutely traumatized. Isabella climbed onto the ladder first, testing it to make sure it was secure, then started ascending. Wren followed behind her, moving slowly and carefully and the rescue diver positioned himself below Wren on the ladder in case he fell.

Every movement was agony for Wren. His arms felt incredibly heavy, like they were made of lead and his legs could barely support his weight. His hands kept slipping on the wet rope but he forced himself to keep climbing, one rung at a time while focusing on nothing except reaching the next handhold.

[Ding! Hidden Mission [IX] has been completed!]

[Have a target risk their life to save you!]

[Reward: 40,000 Credits]

[Host, you’ve been moving crazy... Completing 2 Hidden Missions in a single day? Ouuuu! That’s impressive!]

’Nyx, I almost died...’ Wren thought back bitterly as he continued climbing.

[Well, there’s nothing I could have done about it, Host. I’m just a system interface, not a physical entity who can—]

’Nyx, with all due respect, shut the fuck up.’

He was pissed off... Really, genuinely pissed off.