Bioshock Infinite Story

Booker DeWitt's didn't fight. He could see clearly, even through the mud and grime of the riverwater, Elizabeth's face. He could see her eyes go red with tears as she held him under halfheartedly. It was really more that he'd lost the will to live than Elizabeth's grip that held him beneath the surface. He shut his eyes, furrowing his brow, he wasn't afraid of death. He welcomed it. He deserved it. In his mind's eye his journey through Columbia materialized before him, seeing his daughter for the first time after falling hard through the skylight, her beautiful, breathtaking blue eyes. He opened his own, locked his gaze on hers and mouthed two words: "Forgive me." Then he opened his lungs to the ice cold water and allowed himself to drown.

Elizabeth finally let go of the corpse at her feet, her protector, her savior and liberator, her father. She let the current take him, but it refused, it took him but a few feet from her, washing his lifeless form up on the shore of the hill, beneath the chapel. Slowly, hugging herself, shaking she walked over to him and fell to her knees, unable to control herself she sobbed, burying her face in his chest, wishing desperately that he would come back to her. She collapsed beside him and pulled his head up onto her lap.

Even in death, he's handsome. She thought to herself as she ran her delicate fingers through his wet hair, along his cheek, bent over him protectively as if at any second vultures would swoop down and devour the man she so loved. Like this she slowly drooped until she was lying on top of DeWitt's body, and still holding his cold flesh she fell asleep.

"She's still here."

"Well so are we."

"But we ought be, she ought not."

"She's opened all the doors. She's universal."

"No she's not. Her loop's been broken, she shouldn't exist."

"Well by that logic neither should we, but we do."

"Do we?"

"Needn't question it now, we do, and she obviously does too."

"I still think she shouldn't"

"Well you're going to have to accept it, oh look, she's awake."

Elizabeth's eyes fluttered awake, she grasped for Booker, at least for his body, and was relieved to find him still cradled in her arms. Groggily she looked at the ground ahead of her, there were two pairs of shoes, neatly polished, clearly out of place. Turning her head up she looked up at the forms of Robert and Rosalind Lutece, not sure if she should be surprised, amazed, or both, but she didn't care. She could have made them disappear, but she couldn't be bothered, she didn't want anything anymore.

"You seem troubled."

"I'd say she is Robert."

"If you've something to say say please Rosalind."

"I've a great deal to say, starting with Mr. DeWit-"

"STOP!" Elizabeth cried out, furious her emotions swelled at hearing Rosalind Lutece say his name out loud, she didn't deserve to! She wasn't allowed to! She was the reason he was dead! She was the one who made Columbia possible, the one who created that damned machine! The one who allowed Comstock to steal her away! She glared up at them, barely holding back tears of both anger and sorrow.

Rosalind stared back, albeit somewhat vacantly, before turning to her brother: "Really now, unbecoming wouldn't you say?"

"Very." Robert agreed, "and to think we want to help."

"We do indeed."

"Indeed we do."

"Well that's if she accepts our help of course."

"Of course."

Elizabeth, unable to find the strength to get up stared up at the two pleadingly; "How… how are you going to help? How are you going to… what can you do? What can be done? What can anyone do?"

The twins looked down at her simultaneously. "Not anyone-" said Robert, "-just you." Finished Rosalind.

The poor girl shook her head; "I can't, if I do, I can't, not another Comstock, no more Columbia, if he comes back… I… and he…"

"Oh don't fuss, really Rosalind what is it with you women, always fussing about the problems, and her problem's been solved already!"

"Oh do be quiet Robert. That choker you're wearing, the cage pendant-"

Elizabeth reached to her neck instinctively, feeling the the smooth blue stone and the embossed, gilded, cage. Booker had chosen it, Booker was right to choose it, her life was a cage, she couldn't fly free if she wanted to, she couldn't leave him, she couldn't bring him back. The entire universe awaited her through the chapel doors just up the hill and she was trapped here, at the site of her beloved's ultimate misstep.

"was chosen over a hundred times-"

"123 to be precise-"

"By Booker DeWitt-"

"Every time he came to save you." Rosalind finished.

Elizabeth stared up at the twins blankly, her fingers still on the pendant of her choker.

"She doesn't understand does she?" asked Robert.

"Doesn't she?"

"No. I don't!" Interjected Elizabeth, her head looking down at Booker's lifeless form once again.

Rosalind, seemingly struck by a wave of compassion actually kneeled beside Elizabeth, her male counterpart still standing proudly, chin up.

"Elizabeth, Booker DeWitt is dead…"

The young girl's blue eyes narrowed angrily.

"…but he doesn't have to be."

"I know, but every reality where me and him can be is gone, now only Booker and Anna remain…" Elizabeth said, her voice trailing off.

"Not quite, you see the there is a handful of realities in which you, Comstock, Booker and Columbia all still remain."

Elizabeth looked up at him, anger and hopelessness swelling within her, everything had been for naught, even Booker's death was in vain, Columbia still existed, Zachary Comstock still existed! She opened her mouth to speak but never got the chance.

"You see," said Rosalind, "every reality which you and Booker went through together to get here wasn't destroyed because you still exist, and because you're omnipresent the reality matrix anchored in you doesn't allow that which you exist in to be destroyed."

"Else you'll be destroyed and that would destabilize space time, strangely enough." Added Robert.

"So the Columbia which Booker went through to find you, this Booker mind you," said Rosalind glancing down at the corpse without a shred of emotion, "still exists, but due to Booker's death the loop has been broken, therefore his fate is no longer pre-determined."

"Neither is yours." Said Robert, holding his hand out.

Rosalind grabbed hold of it and was helped up by her counterpart, back to her feet, strangely without a speck of dirt on her knees.

She stared at them somewhat confused, she'd understood what they said, but what could she do at this point? It was done.

"No you can't do anything directly." Said Robert as if reading her mind.

"But we can." Added Rosalind.

"With you, if you agree."

"Do you think she'll agree?"

"I don't know, but I refuse to keep a tally of it like we did with the coin."

"But it was very scientifically relevant, after all he did choose tails unlike the prev-"

"I agree!" Yelled out Elizabeth, "what do I have to do? Anything! What?"

"Do calm down."

"And don't interrupt."

"It's impolite."

"It is indeed."

"We can create a tear, and we can manipulate it to affect you in a manner that would otherwise not-"

"affect you." Stated the twins, finally ending in unison.

"It will remove you from immediate existence, but the Anna that was born and taken will still be born and taken."

"You will be born and taken."

"But with the loop broken-"

"DeWitt can save you."

"And he won't have to die."

"Again."

She thought of the possibility. Columbia all over again. "But won't I-"

"You won't. You won't be you, you won't be anything, you as you are will cease to exist." Stated Robert rather matter-of-factly.

"But you won't be dead, rather you'll be…"

"Reincarnated?"

"Reincarnated."

"Strange concept."

"Indeed."

Elizabeth stared at the odd couple, dumbfounded, was it really possible? Could Booker endure Columbia once more, save her once more, would they be together at last? Then the dark thought came to her mind. Could Booker endure Columbia once more? He failed 122 times before succeeding, what made her think that with his fate no longer certain he'd fare better?

"There is one risk."

"Just one."

"A big one."

"Very true."

"If Booker-"

"fails." Whispered Elizabeth, much to the twins' surprise.

"She does understand."

"Indeed she does."

"Do you think she'll agree?"

"I don't know, shall we leave it to fate?" Said Robert, procuring from his pocket a coin.

"Heads?"

"Heads."

Robert flipped the coin. Rosalind caught it.

Elizabeth didn't notice, she was busy, she was thinking, she was racking her brain, trying to decide. Did she trust Booker enough, would he? Could he?

He could. Of course he could! She hated herself for even considering the idea that Booker would fail. But without the predetermined fate she couldn't be sure he would succeed. She bit her lip and looked at the twins hopefully.

"Was it heads or tails?" asked Robert.

"I'll not say."

Elizabeth gently placed her love's head on the ground, to her he wasn't a father, he was truly her one and only love. She couldn't bear the idea of existence on any plane of reality without him. Just before getting up she bent down to his face and gently kissed his lips, ice cold as they were, then got up, her dress in tatters, filthy from mud and river water among all else that it had survived.

Standing up straight, proud, a posture and confidence befitting The Lamb of Columbia: "Do it."

The Luteces stared at the petite girl in front of them, Robert snapped his fingers and a tear opened, the bright white light engulfing Elizabeth. Time was twisted, it was reset, and just as Elizabeth ceased to exist, Booker DeWitt came back into existence, awaking and running from his baptism into an unknown future.