AN: This is a story that is set post to the ending of Bioshock 2. Delta's Journey through Rapture resulted in Eleanor uncertain of her future with no path to guide her. She is alone in the world despite having spared her mother and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. Please feel free to leave reviews. I love feedback of all kinds. I have been a fan of Bioshock for years and have long wanted to write a fanfiction featuring the Bioshock Universe.
Beta Credit: Hannah (Thanks for putting up with my late night theory discussions of the possibilities of this story.)
Her legs hung idly in the water as she sat on the side of the massive metal lifeboat that was bobbing in the water of the Atlantic Ocean. The fingers of her hands were laced to together, the heavy gloves encasing her fingers pressed together. Her black hair hung limply around her head while her eyes looked down. Even now she could stain that the heavy fabric of her suit that had once been a faded off white was now nearly entirely red, stained so by blood of those she had killed.
She could hear footsteps on metal behind her but she did not turn back to look and see who it was. There was only one person left alive here besides herself after all. Her eyes glance to the side at the massive diving suit clad form of her Father his arm still dangling down into the water where he had died. She could not help the tears that even now minutes later after his passing continued to flow. Behind her the footsteps stopped.
"Eleanor. I know that you feel what you have done is right. You cannot help Delta's corruption of you any more than the laws of physics can stop the Earth from rotating on its axis. I admit I realize I was wrong in believing you could be taught to overcome his teachings. Despite my best intentions the bond between you proved your undoing from the start."
Eleanor Lamb could feel her anger towards her mother starting to build. Following her Father's example, she had saved Sofia Lamb from drowning as the escape craft had been rising to the surface. It seemed Mother had not grasped the message of what Eleanor had done for her. She had been spared to prove that her lessons had no hold over Eleanor and her Father, she had been spared in cruel mercy to watch her daughter walk away. But it seems Eleanor should have realized that after everything that had happened. Her mother would never let her just walk away.
"As I taught you the self needs to be eliminated for the betterment of mankind. I suppose it is only fitting that this lesson is one that applies to myself as well."
There was a sound and Eleanor froze, her mother really couldn't be doing what she thought she was. Slowly turning Eleanor looked through the limp strands of her wet hair as her mother held a pistol pointed at her daughter's head.
"Though it pains me to do this the removal of the Self for all mankind is more important than you or I. I had hoped that you would usher in the Age of Unity for all Mankind. If I am unable to remove my own selfish needs then how can I truly help eliminate the Self from man. For what it is worth my daughter I take pride in your abilities even as destructive and as dangerous to the future of Humanity you have proven yourself. Goodbye Eleanor."
Eleanor had just stared up through the strands of her hair at Sophia Lamb her gaze fixed on her mother unbelieving that her mother had sunk to yet another low. Eleanor had seen so much through the eyes of the little sisters in Rapture during the time she had acted through them while her mother had kept her constantly sedated as she had experimented on her. But this? Eleanor could not fathom or understand her mother's mind anymore.
Before her mother had been brilliant if incredibly misguided and wrong in her actions. But Eleanor could at least see the reasoning of her actions. Now though. Eleanor was lost as the unthinkable act of a mother willing to kill their own child, that Eleanor, even with all that she had seen through her Father's eyes, was incapable of comprehending.
She had little time though as her eyes flicked down from her mother's face where a single year was running down the deranged doctor's face. The focus of her gaze now on the pistol that must have been aboard the lifeboat. Her mother had her dead to rights and even with all of Eleanor's deadliness she had been caught off guard in her mourning for the loss of her Father. She could not use a Plasmid to teleport away nor with her hands still at her sides, could she summon any of her offensive plasmids to her aid. It was too close to dodge, too close to move. Eleanor simply closed her eyes and waited turning her head back to the front.
Then came the sound of the click of the firing pin striking, but there was no explosion of fire no death coming for her. Her eyes snapped open as the acceptance of her death was instantly replaced with her fury at her Mother who had killed her Father with her actions. There was the sound of more clicks as her mother pulled the trigger three more times but already Eleanor was rising to her feet pulling her legs from the waters of the Atlantic. She could hear her mother backing away, her shoes sounding on the metal of the lifeboat as she did so. Eleanor turned her gaze finding her mother and Eleanor glared with hatred at the woman who had given life to her.
"Father taught me that those who were no longer a threat, even if they had done me harm in the past should be spared. That was why I spared you mother."
She took a few steps forward her left hand igniting with fire while electricity began arcing between the fingers of her right hand.
"I spared you because I believe you were incapable of harming me ever again as I intended to leave you behind so that you could watch me forever walk away from you. But you have proven that you will always be a threat to me. And Father taught me exactly how to deal with threats."
Her left hand thrust outward flinging a concentrated ball of plasmid with force at her mother. The heated energy flying forward but missing Sofia Lamb by inches as the visibly terrified mother fell to the ground, the ball of plasmid burning its way through the glass of the life craft almost instantly, a terrifying display of just how much Eleanor's rage had fueled the intense heat of her attack. The ball of plasmid slowed by burning through the glass hit the metal deck of the interior of the life craft and began to burn its way through the metal while Eleanor's second attack of a bolt of electricity was shot from her suddenly out thrust hand like a lightning bolt from Zeus.
Her mother with nowhere to dodge was struck directly in the chest by the deadly attack and she screamed aloud as her body began to spasm as the concentrated electricity danced across her body. Eleanor was not content to simply let her mother suffer as her Father's teachings were at the forefront of her mind. When a foe refused to back down the only answer was pure and total overwhelming destruction of that enemy. Eleanor's right hand formed a claw and she telekinetically ripped a spar of metal from the exterior deck of the life craft free. The metal a long piece of dark steel was jagged at each end from where she had pulled it from its place. Raising her makeshift spear up above her in a two-handed grip as she stood over her mother that was still writhing with the electricity attacking her body.
Eleanor brought the steel spar down and thrust it through her mother's belly with such force that the jagged pointed tip pierced the metal decking beneath and drove in a few inches. Still even her ADAM given strength she could not drive it further in so she just glared down at her mother going so far as to spit in the face of the woman who had birthed her even as the quickly dying woman, at last freed of the electricity but still hoarsely screaming from the metal that had guaranteed her death when it had driven through her belly and pierced her spine lay there coughing blood amidst her screaming as her lungs slowly filled with blood and she slowly died before her daughter's eyes.
Eleanor just stood there looming above her mother as she loomed over her waiting and watching the woman's slow demise to make sure for sure this time that the woman would never be a threat to her ever again. When Sofia Lamb finally breathed her last breath only then did the hate filled gaze of her daughter finally soften and Eleanor slumped to her knees tears streaming afresh from her eyes. Her mother had forced her hand, her actions giving her no choice against the lessons her father had taught her in how to react to threats. Eleanor though was now a true orphan, bereft of both her Mother who she had hated, and her Father who she had loved.
She was alone.
Each of her parents had shown her a path in how to live her life. Her father in his rampage through Rapture had taught her by example in how he had harvested the Little Sisters but had spared the lives of Grace Holloway, Stanley Poole, and Gilbert Alexander that any cost was acceptable in achieving her goals but that if possible she should spare the lives of those of her enemies who were no longer capable of granting her any harm.
Her mother on the other hand had tried through both teachings and example, to try to eliminate the selfishness of herself, of the individual, to think only of the betterment of all mankind. But she had rejected her teachings when given the choice choosing to revive her father and help him reach her and help her escape so together they could leave Rapture for the surface. And despite her Father's death her plan if only for a minute or two had succeeded. They had looked upon the open sky and the surface of the ocean together in their final minutes. But he had refused to remain with her, to let her consume his memories to guide her forever. She was now lost and without compass. Adrift at sea in every sense of the word.
Eleanor's mournful musings were brought to a halt when there was a groan of metal through the craft beneath her. A moment later there was a muffled explosion from somewhere underneath her and she rose to her feet a frown on her face as she moved to investigate the vibrations and the noise. Her investigations brought her soon to the interior of the escape craft and her face fell with an expression of despair as she looked at where her concentrated ball of plasmid had burned a small hole perhaps three inches in diameter, into the decking of the craft and burned its way deeper. She could hear the sound of water rushing into the craft and she closed her eyes in frustration as she realized her anger had crippled the escape craft and was causing it to slowly sink.
She quickly glanced around, she would not be able to stop it from flooding and sinking. She had no desire to join it as it made a return trip back to Rapture. With survival her goal even if only through the next few minutes she quickly looked around. The escape craft did come equipped with a radio but a quick examination showed it was damaged beyond repair at some point in the past, likely by her Mother's splicer followers.
She had no way to call for help and she knew Andrew Ryan had chosen a location in the Atlantic well off the paths of any shipping paths as he had not wanted any ships to accidently stumble on Rapture or its lighthouse. She went still and glanced to the side out the windows of the escape craft. The lighthouse was safe enough for now. She would be stranded there but at least it wasn't sinking and while the easily quarter mile distant stone pillar rising from the sea was too far to teleport to she could easily swim that short of a distance. Sadly, she was over a thousand miles from the coast of North America. Far too long a distance for her to swim on her own even with her ADAM strengthened body and her diving suit.
Glancing around she found quickly found an inflatable life raft which she ignored but next to it in a compartment was a large military green bag filled with survival gear. It would not last long but at this point anything was better than nothing. She glanced around looking for anything else and while she found a few hidden caches of money from the surface and schematics of Rapture technology over ten years old she left it all behind. Rapture's legacy was best left on the ocean floor where none would find it ever again.
Stepping out of the escape craft's interior she looked at the corpses of her Mother and Father. Soon they would return to Rapture and in doing so be given a burial at sea. There was nothing more she could do for either of them at this point. Their souls, if such even existed, were gone, all that remained were their bodies. Tears running down her face she found her removed helmet and reattached it to her diving collar before grabbing the survival bag and looping its strap around her arm she jumped into the water and began swimming towards the distant lighthouse.
Her powerful slender form quickly swam through the water just below the surface, resurfacing only now and then to peer through the faceplate of her helmet to be sure of her destination's position. It was only a few minutes of a swim for the last Big Sister of Rapture to reach the Rapture Lighthouse that had been the arrival point for many of Rapture's citizens. Now she had departed that city of the dead and the lighthouse formed her first safe refugee on the surface and she knew it would prove her home until such time that she could find a way to get to the mainland of North America.
Turning she took a seat on the first landing of the stairs and she turned and watched over the next few minutes as the escape craft that had brought her Mother, her Father, and herself to the surface. The age of Rapture was over and she was left with nothing to guide her life her mother and her father's ways of life by choice of herself or her parent, not fit to guide her. She was alone with no standard to measure her life by. And so, she had nothing to do but sit there on the polished stone steps of the lighthouse as she watched the craft slowly sink beneath the waves and take with it the bodies of her two parents.
And when it was finally gone the girl that was left alone let her head drop forward onto where her arms were crossed and resting on her knees. And cry as her grief consumed her.
It was hours before she moved from her spot on the stairs as in the west the sun was setting and an array of colors were reflecting on the overcast skies that had hidden the sun and blue sky from her eyes. She could not help but watch in amazement and wonder though as all the colors of the rainbow were on display for her for the very first time. Despite all the sadness and despair, she was enduring she could not help but feel a touch of joy and wonder at the beauty of the sunset sky.
Still though she had never before seen the sun she knew what a sunset was and knew that night was upon her. Rather than night to truly fall she turned and walked up the rest of the polished smooth steps of the lighthouse stairs until she reached the massive golden plated doors of the lighthouse's entrance. Pushing them open she entered. There were no lights to illuminate the interior for her as the lighthouse's power had come from Rapture and whatever generator had powered it no longer did so. However, her eyes long used to living far below the ocean surface were well adapted to little light. The massive amount of ADAM and the sea slug that was to this day still planted in her stomach all aided her in seeing in the darkness.
She looked up at the massive bust of Andrew Ryan that loomed over the entry way like a God of yore or an ancient King surveying his dominion. A sight that caused her lips to curl into a sad smirk as below she read the somewhat frayed banner that proclaimed the words, No Gods or Kings, only Man. Her eyes beheld the interior walls, the metal decorations that were plated in gold that were a symbol of the art of Rapture above on the walls before her eyes drifted lower to look at the low wall that surrounded a round opening in the center of the room.
Walking forward she looked at the plaque mounted onto the wall and read the words her fingers tracing over the engravings as she spoke them aloud to herself.
"In what country is there a place for people like me?"
She drew silent as she could not help but ponder how true those words were to her. She was unlike any other human being in all of existence as far as she knew. Only Rapture had created others that might be called like her but with the city's death Eleanor found herself alone. The girl stood there silently for a moment until she turned and walked around the edge of the low wall and past the opening to the stairs that were beyond it. Her diving boots lightly sounded with each step she took and her keen ears could hear the echoes. Descending the stairs down to the Bathysphere chamber she walked all the way down the stairs passing first the decorative plaque that proclaimed Rapture's devotion to Science she descended all the way to the bottom where she found the decoration in devotion of Industry where she turned and looked at the empty round pool where once a Bathysphere would have waited.
Now the pool was empty and after a long moment of looking at the far side where in the shadows and darkness she could make out the R that was a sign of both Rapture and its creator Andrew Ryan, she turned and turning she completed her circuit of the lower chamber and ascended the stairs not stopping as she moved past the symbol of Rapture's love for the Arts.
Making her way back up to the main chamber she looked around for a moment at the small chamber that would be her home until she was freed of this place and set her survival gear pack down next to the wall by the stairs. Unpacking it she looked at what few supplies she had. A tent, matches, emergency flares, a blanket, a small first aid kit mostly of bandages and a small vial of morphine to go with it. She was quite happy to find a small purifier that removed salt from water via a filter. The filter would take time to be unusable and several were included as well as more immediately several sealed canteens of water. Finally, a small amount of canned and preserved food of questionable value given its age was included.
There was one more object that though it might prove the most important Eleanor had little hope in proving of use. A small portable radio, a few batteries for it were in a metal tin but the seal of the tin had proven bad and water had gotten into the tin making them of questionable use when combined with the radio. She inserted them in and tried turning the radio on but was unsurprised when no power coursed through the radio.
Looking across the laid-out supplies that were all of her possessions in the world she set to work. She quickly erected the tent in the main level of the lighthouse along the wall and laid out her blanket on the stone floor as a crude bed. Each of her possessions were carefully positioned and she moved to the lighthouse's doors that she pushed closed as the last of the day's sunlight disappeared beyond the horizon and with the doors closed she was engulfed in darkness. The ADAM that flooded her body had augmented her eyes to the point that she could see slightly in the darkness, it was shades of gray only but it was enough to find her way back to the tent and blanket where she proceeded to strip out of her diving suit and lay down and go to sleep for the night.
Morning quickly came after a restless sleep fraught with dreams that she would not remember when her eyes awoke beyond vague terrors that had haunted her past. But in waking she discovered herself alone in the darkness of the Lighthouse's interior. She dressed herself afresh in her diving suit before making her way to the doors and pushed them open. Confronted for the first time by the sun rising in the east she squinted against the bright light. Anyone else would have proven near blinded but her body was capable of adapting to almost anything, even though forced evolution of her body if need be. ADAM guided by her body's needs adapted her eyes that had never before seen the rising sun to handle the brightness of its light.
Eleanor like with the sunset was lost in the beauty of the rising sun as it emerged from the eastern horizon. Where before the sky had been overcast only playing with the shades of color on the crowds, now though she was witnessing a sunrise. Like before she took a seat on the stairs of the lighthouse's exterior and sat now facing the east watching the new and wondrous sight.
She sat there for more than an hour simply lost in the simple beauty of nature itself before rising to her feet. Heading back inside but leaving the doors opened wide she proceeded to search the interior of the lighthouse again though this time with different purpose. She knew that once the top of the lighthouse had been a beacon warning from the rock it stood on but also acting as a beacon of Rapture's position, odd for the city's secrecy but for the beacon to have been lit power must run to it. After searching diligently for a time, she discovered a blocked-up door that led to a utility ladder all hidden behind the wall of the lighthouse's interior.
She ascended the narrow ladder upwards and discovered a small room above the main entry chamber that was filled with machinery long forgotten by Rapture's builders. Exploring it in the darkness Eleanor stumbled about for a time until she discovered a small emergency generator. It was out of fuel but a blast of electricity from her hand started it for a time long enough to restore life to the lighthouse and its lights both inside and outside.
With the lighthouse's interior now lit she was able to actually search the room more diligently. As a whole the majority of the equipment related to the lighthouse's function. The remaining equipment related to the air access pipes for Rapture routed through the lighthouse. Sadly, there was no radio of any kind. She did find another survival bag though this one proved without a radio as well as an ancient cot likely left behind by the builders of the lighthouse. Once Eleanor moved her possessions to the machinery room she was able to make a crude bed.
Once her new home was settled in Eleanor's days quickly began to blend together for her as she repeated the same routine over and over. days before becoming weeks. The girl alone to all the world made her home within the lighthouse where she was protected from the weather outside. She had no possessions but for what was in the bag she had when she reached the lighthouse and then what little she could salvage from within the lighthouse itself.
At first the lighthouse was very little to her but within the first few days of her stay there she revealed the hidden doorway that led upwards to the upper area of the lighthouse. She avoided the lower half and did not descend downward instead making her home in the lighthouse's interior in the mechanical room that housed the backup generator for the lighthouse light above. Her food was limited to what fish she brought out from the sea though luckily by perhaps pure miracle the lighthouse had included a machine to remove the salt from sea water to allow her to drink it.
And so, she survived alone for days then weeks that turned into months. Her days consisted of nothing more than waking in the morning, descending into the ocean twice a day to search for fish for her meals, and the rest of her waking time she spent trapped on the island of the lighthouse. There was little else she could do in such a confined place, she had no way to make it the hundreds of miles to land and would die if she attempted to make the trip. Her only past time was tinkering in the forgotten machinery she found in the lighthouse's hidden areas. It was all that she did apart from reading ancient operation manuals for how the machines worked.
Those machines that she could fix she did easily but she lacked the parts for most and was never able, or perhaps willing to make a radio that would call her rescue.
It was around noon one day as she sat in the interior of the lighthouse her attention and tired gaze fixed on a smooth piece of metal she used as a frying pan that she held in by its handle with her left hand her gaze on the filet of fish resting on the metal as the smell of cooking fish reached her nostrils. Her right hand was a few inches beneath the metal burning with flames all from her palm as she cooked her food as she did the same way for every meal.
It was as she was focused on the smell of the cooking fish with her nose and her eyes were studying its degree of doneness that another of her senses alerted her to something out of the ordinary. Somehow, somewhere, was coming the faint sound of music. Eleanor's head snapped up even as the flames consuming the palm of her hand cut out leaving the flesh of her hand as if nothing had happened to it.
Somewhere close by was coming the faint sound of music indeed. It seemed to be cutting in and out and it sounded strange, and old. But she recognized it for the sounds of a hymn. She remembered when her mother had brought Father Wales to her along with a few of his flock that were members of the family. Wales had once treated her to a worship service and during it while the daughter then aged twelve, had watched, the followers of the architect turned priest had sang a hymn.
It was not the same song but she remembered it nonetheless as this was very similar in its style of music. Rising from her chair to her feet the Eleanor rose and moved out of the lighthouse's maintenance room where she slept and lived and descended down the narrow ladder shaft to the main level of the lighthouse where the doors to the outside were closed. But the music was still not coming from outside but further down. She visibly frowned as she descended farther downward where the smell of the sea grew stronger as she approached the lighthouse's secret.
When she made her way down to the bottom level and the circular pool of water that descended downward she stopped as she saw the strangest thing. A ripple, or perhaps an aberration in the very air hung there and from it came the music. She couldn't see much as it was very narrow but she could hear the sounds of singing at their loudest yet and as she shifted to the side she froze as suddenly something that had not been there before came into view.
At first, she had been able to see nothing but when shifting to the side to examine it from a different angle she had seen several lit candles. Instantly she stepped back to where she had been looking to the far side of the disturbance in the air looking for those very candles but they were gone. Frowning she slowly moved back to where she had been before and saw the candles one more. Turning a bit more and leaning out over the water to view it from the side as she gripped the metal of the railing she saw the biggest surprise yet and it was one so great that she could not help but accidentally let go of the railing and in doing so fell forward into the water of the circular pool.
A cry, one of the first sounds to emerge from her throat and mouth in weeks apart from the noises she did not know that she made in her sleep, and she looked up her eyes wide in shock in surprise. The thing that she had seen was gone from this angle but she had clearly seen it before she had let go. Somewhere, somehow on the other side of this thing in the air, this Tear. There had been people.
Slowly treading water her gaze still locked upwards Eleanor's eyes narrowed as determination set in for the first time since she had come to the lighthouse. Somehow, some way she would reach out to the people on the other side of the distortion and she would leave this place.
Eleanor quickly left the pool, pulling herself out of the water and gave the distortion a glance before quickly she made her way up to the maintenance room where she lived. Her actions became consumed by her new focus as she spent days just studying the aberration in the air. It was her new focus, her new obsession that filled her life though in all fairness there was little else for her to do.
After a period of observation of several days the she began to experiment with the visual and audio distortion. Her first interacts were throwing rocks and other expendable and worthless objects at the disturbance. When that failed to have any noticeable effect on the distortion in any way she began other experiments. From her finger tips she shot electricity, fire, and frost at the distortion to no effect. It was at this point that she used her diving suit to take a trip below the water that was her longest one to date as she only returned more than three days later.
Using the pair of survival equipment bags she began making daily trips beneath the ocean's surface that would last half the day and she would return with her bag filled with tools and machinery from beneath the water's surface. Within weeks she turned the entry to the lighthouse into a workshop and laboratory filled with machinery of all kinds that were devoted to her experiments with the Tear down below. Every day was devoted to a new experiment and a new observation. Her nights were short and she slept only when necessary just as she only ate when necessary as well.
Still eagerness and determination alone were not enough and weeks quickly turned into months for the girl. Eventually she stopped disappearing below the surface of the Atlantic with her half day long dives and instead only disappeared below the waves to occasionally hunt for her meals.
The day before her one-year anniversary of being trapped at the lighthouse was the breakthrough in her research of the distortion. She had managed to create a machine that when powered by the electricity that she generated from her hands managed to create a brief window of mere seconds that she could allow the Tear to be altered and interacted with. The culmination of months of work was realized when she was able to toss a simple stone through the distortion and it did not land in the water beneath but instead traveled to wherever the distortion led to. Mercifully there was no one on the other side of the distortion as the girl had long ago observed when people were located on the other side and were not. She had listened to the sermons of a distant preacher and had heard their words and knew that this preacher was not like the one she had known before in her own youth.
So unknown to her she did not needlessly attempt to interact with the people. But she still had continued working on the tear during the times of day when the people had not been present and when the songs of hymns had not been heard.
Still for all her success in breaching the disturbance in the fabric of reality she was still trapped to the lighthouse as the Tear was too small to proceed through herself. She needed to find a way to make it bigger. And so, she set out about herself again, given that she was slowly running out of filters to purify the sea water she drank she knew she was on a limited timetable if she wished not only to leave but also to survive. Her actions were more and more focused as she made further trips back down to Rapture plundering the city's miracles and horrors for the tools to create the machines that were needed to interact and augment the Tear in the lighthouse.
It was around this time after her first-year anniversary of living in the lighthouse that she experienced her first Plasmid induced 'ghost'. Of course, hundreds if not thousands of corpses had been harvested of their ADAM and injected into her by her mother over the ten years but unlike many up until now she had never seen such a ghost. She admitted seeing the sight of a young couple standing in the entryway of the Rapture looking up at the looming bust of Andrew Ryan and speaking of their future in Rapture caught her off guard and even shook her to some degree. Rapture had been the death of tens of thousands of those that might have proven better for mankind if perhaps fate had been different.
The ghosts had been a young couple, so hopeful of their future. Eleanor knew nothing of them, the names they had spoken to each other were unknown to each other all she knew of their fate was only that Eleanor possessed ADAM taken from one, and perhaps the both of them. It was a sobering thought that hope was such a fleeting thing.
Even with such a brief but sobering vision appearing before her she still continued to work. It took another month after she saw the ghosts of the couple in the main chamber of the Lighthouse that she finally managed to make the Tear large enough to pass through. Given that she herself was powering the machinery with her Electro Bolt Plasmid abilities she would have seconds perhaps a minute to pass through before it would close behind her. Eleanor was aware with a sobering degree of realization that this would be a one-way trip for her. With this realization she did not simply pass through immediately as she took another week to observe the people beyond the Tear.
She would be entering an unknown place. Possibly even more if her theories about where the portal lead to were true. She knew without a doubt that her diving suit would likely attract her only unwanted attention and questions. She would want to blend in unnoticed at least until she learned more about the place she was venturing to. After all Rapture had proven inhospitable to random unwanted visitors. Her Father had been a bold deep-sea diver and rather than welcome his bravery Ryan had only viewed him with suspicion that had led to her father's 'employment' at Fontaine Futuristics and later his existence as an Alpha series Big Daddy.
It wasn't hard to notice that all the people she could observe through the Tear seemed to be wearing austere white clothing. While Eleanor lacked such clothing in the lighthouse it only took a single trip down to Rapture to find a plain and modest white dress that seemed to match the style of clothing. Eleanor mentally noted that the clothing was quite conservative in its style though she simply put that down as to the religious nature of the place she was observing.
She spent two final weeks in the lighthouse observing the Tear and the people within, observing their mannerisms, listening to the few snippets of conversation she could hear that were not songs of worship. She heard little she could clearly use but she did hear mention of a Father Comstock who was a prophet of some kind. It was entirely possible this man was unknown to her given it had been a great many years since any had ventured down to Rapture and so there were few tales to be had of developments that had occurred on the surface.
Still eventually her planed date of travel finally came. She would take nothing with her but the clothes on her body. Though it might prove useful to have the other equipment if she had items that did not belong it would raise alarm bells for those that found her first and she did not believe she would be able to be unnoticed. While she assumed she would be able to escape if anyone attempted to detain her she did not wish to tempt fate as there were some situations even she could not escape.
And after taking a final check of all her assembled equipment and machinery she changed into the plain white dress much like she had worn during her time as her mother's captive and prisoner in Persephone in Rapture. Standing amidst her machinery before the unopened Tear she prepared herself mentally before summoning the raw power of lightning to both of her hands. Hand built generators on each side of the lower chamber awaited the lightning that rocketed from her hands, with a roar of energy they powered up briefly and she continued to send power into them draining her internal EVE reserves as she powered the machines with her electricity turning the dynamos of the generators until they built up enough of a charge to power the machines for long enough to safely pass through.
The electricity so continuously generated left her winded and fatigued, her head pounding despite her own prowess, her vision blurring momentarily she stumbled forward as she had seconds only to safely pass through. Taking stumbling steps forward she half jumped and half threw herself through the opening her eyes closed just in case she failed and hit the water below or the portal closed on her only part way through. Neither of those happened as she did not hit anything for a whole second until she landed hard un stone stairs. Unexpecting the stairs given the Tear had never allowed her to carefully study much beyond the people, she gasped and cried out slightly in pain of her landing. Her mind groaned in fatigue as she attempted to stagger to her feet.
From some distance away, she could hear a man's voice speaking with a slight Southern United States accent.
"Miss are you alright there?"
There was the sound of approaching footsteps splashing through shallow water somewhat quickly as she stood on weak and shaky legs but she did not look to the approaching man or even up at the Tear above her she had emerged through. Instead she raised a hand to her pounding head though she pulled her hand away as her fingers felt something wet. In the darkness lit by candles and sunshine faintly visible through stained glass windows she could see blood clinging to her fingertips. The sound of feet stopped just a few feet away.
"Miss? Are you alright?" There was a pause and the man she did not yet see spoke again. "Miss your nose is bleeding."
Her mind pulsing even more Eleanor turned her head to the man intending to speak but her vision faded to darkness even as she felt herself beginning to fall. She did not hit the floor though as strong arms wrapped around her catching her before she could fall all the way.
"Miss!" The man's voice though so close was quickly growing more faint as her grasp on consciousness quickly faded. "Help! This girl needs help!" She could hear him shouting. There was the sounds of response from others but by that point she was too far gone to know anymore as darkness took her completely and she fully passed out