Unbroken: Those Left Behind Chapter 1: The Tyrant, a bioshock fanfic

Hi there, welcome to my new side story for Unbroken, though this one is going to be a little different from the others. Each chapter will focus on an individual who was touched in some way by Elizabeth's journey through Rapture and Booker's quest, both before and after events are altered by Booker's and Lutece's interference. The first segment is before Booker rescues Elizabeth, while the third is after she's saved from Atlas, and the second is merely an interlude as reality is rewritten.

Hephaestus, January 1959

The scribbling sound of a pen flying across paper fills the spacious office as Andrew Ryan signs form after form, the amount of paperwork generated by the chaos in his city truly staggering. It's been two weeks since the bombing at the Kashmir Club, and since then the founder of Rapture's been holed up in his office, directing the war effort.

But in the midst of the chaos, a certain young woman had resurfaced since he'd last seen her in the once-sunken prison of Fontaine's Department Store. The young Miss Elizabeth Comstock had been shoved out of a bathysphere by Atlas and his men, and had entered the laboratory of Dr. Yi Suchong. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of cameras or other surveillance equipment in the good doctor's laboratory. Only a pair of speakers, camera and display at the entrance of the 'Free Clinic', the very idea of 'free' leaving a bad taste in the tycoon's mouth.

The monitor near his desk still shows the hole in the wall left behind by the lumbering, foul-smelling behemoth and the pair of moppets following in its wake. Ms. Comstock had disappeared into the hole just after the sound of a drill had ended the life of Yi Suchong, and Ryan shakes his head; somehow, the mysterious young woman had succeeded where the good doctor had not, the bond between the Big Daddy and Little Sisters plain to see when the lumbering palooka had plowed through the wall with the girls following close behind. "I suppose I should thank the young lady."

Now, it's been some time since Ms. Comstock had disappeared into that very same hole, and Ryan can't help but feel some odd sense of disappointment. The young woman could have been something incredible, had she just listened to reason. Even the manner in which Ms. Comstock had appeared in his city is still a mystery to him, and little of import goes on in Rapture without Andrew Ryan noticing. "Such a unique, exceptional young woman could have gone far, if only she had the good sense to see the proper course. If only she'd accepted my help, she wouldn't have found herself in such a position."

Andrew Ryan glances at the monitor yet again, wondering if he shouldn't have tried to stop her once again. Watching her stagger from the doctor's office where the Big Daddy had left Suchong's corpse, obviously drugged and not in full control of her faculties, only to disappear into the hole in the wall. Never to be seen again. "Why young Ms. Comstock was so determined to rescue this 'Sally' of hers, I'll never know. One Little Sister…" Ryan shakes his head, turning his attention back to the forms requiring his perusal.

By now, Ms. Comstock has surely become yet another victim of Atlas, the area beyond the hole far removed from his surveillance network and thus the territory of that thug and his bandits. Since New Year's Eve, the uprising of the Parasites has rocked Ryan's city and claimed the lives of so many honest, upstanding citizens. And now, Ryan's certain that the young woman can now be counted as yet another victim of the Parasites, and specifically of their leader, Atlas.

"Watching Ms. Comstock stagger to her doom was indeed much like watching Isaac Newton dying in a house fire to save his cat, but perhaps there was something more to be done." Placing his pen down beside the stack of papers, Ryan rises from his chair and steps up to the monitor, touching a finger to the microphone that he'd pushed to the far end of his desk after watching Ms. Comstock disappear. It would've been a simple thing to stop the young woman, if only for a moment. But she'd cast her lot in with Atlas, and Andrew Ryan is not one to suffer rubes. "Though I wonder if Ms. Comstock was truly a rube… foolhardy, perhaps, willful, definitely, but a rube? Maybe…"

Once more, Ryan wonders at where Ms. Elizabeth Comstock came from. How she'd appeared in his city after he'd cut Rapture off from the surface, how she'd even learned of his city and entered without his invitation. Most of the citizens of Rapture had come to live here by invitation and in secrecy, all in an effort to preserve his ideals and purpose of the city. But this young woman had arrived in his city completely without anyone's notice.

Rubbing his eyes, red and stinging from reading papers and forms all day long, Andrew Ryan turns back to his desk and the microphone, recalling the first time he laid eyes on Elizabeth Comstock. It had been just after he'd sent Sullivan and his security forces to arrest that crook, Fontaine.

"One of Cohen's performances, as I recall…" Thinking back, Ryan remembers being called upon by Sander Cohen to come and observe his newest attraction, his 'Songbird' as he called her. While Fontaine had been taken care of, there had been much to do in the wake of his removal, and Ryan had little interest in attending with the work piling up. But even the founder of Rapture and the head of the Council had to humor his most vocal supporter, and so Andrew Ryan had made an appearance at Cohen's concert at Fleet Hall.

Much to his surprise, Cohen's Songbird was a truly talented singer. Her song seemed to move the gathering of Rapture's elites, and even he'd found Elizabeth Comstock's performance enjoyable. However, he hadn't paid the young performer much mind, despite her talent; all he saw was a shining example of Rapture's purpose, where the artist would not be censored and given the chance to practice their art without fear of being dragged down by the Parasites.

"Perhaps I should have recognized her as someone who'd come to Rapture uninvited…" Shaking his head, Ryan glances again at the monitor, wondering what may emerge from the break in the wall. The Big Daddy, sans the drill on its arm, is lumbering towards the hole with two Little Sisters padding behind it, and Ryan wonders what purpose the beast could have in there. Perhaps it intends to retrieve Sally?

"Nothing worth my notice, I'm sure." Stepping away from his desk and the monitor, Andrew Ryan retrieves his putter and steps up to the artificial putting green. Dropping a golf ball, Ryan taps the dimpled white ball as he recalls the worries back then. Between all the preparations to turn Fontaine's Department Store into a prison for all of Fontaine's associates, far more than the Persephone Penal Colony could have ever held, and the increasingly concerning search for the missing Brigid Tenenbaum, Ryan simply had too much on his mind to concern himself with one mysterious if talented young woman; Tenenbaum's disappearance and opposition to the Little Sister program would do nothing but fuel the rumors circulating about her and undermine the public's morale. "If only I knew how talented the young lady was then, I'm certain I could have persuaded Ms. Comstock to come work for me."

A heavy, slow and steady thumping noise comes from the monitor, the telltale sound of a Big Daddy's footsteps drawing Ryan's attention. Stepping back to the monitor with putter in hand, Ryan spies the Big Daddy from before work its way out of the hole, carrying the Little Sister Sally in its arm. The metal beast retrieving the Little Sister doesn't surprise Andrew Ryan in the least, but as he peers into the monitor as the group approaches the camera, he raises an eyebrow in surprise; Sally appears to be crying, the distorted voice of the Little Sister coming clear through the speakers as tears roll down her gray, mottled cheeks.

"Exceptional indeed…" Ryan mutters as he strokes his mustache, surprised at the girl; Little Sisters were meant to be bonded to their Big Daddy, and should only be able to care in any measure about their imprinted Protectors. But this Little Sister has no Big Daddy, at least nowhere nearby, yet she's crying all the same. "How could Ms. Comstock have inspired such emotion in this near-mindless moppet?" According to Suchong, the Little Sisters should be living in some sort of dream world, completely oblivious to the harsh reality around them. Yet, this Sally seems to comprehend far more than the rest of her Sisters. Maybe there was something different with this one, or perhaps the conditioning of the Little Sisters did not make them as unseeing as Suchong claimed.

Standing there, watching the monitor while leaning on his putter, Andrew Ryan looks on in amazement as the Big Daddy, Sally and the other two Little Sisters disappear into the laboratory. The more he thinks on it, the more he's convinced that he'd both been right, and that he may not have known just how incredible the young woman truly was. This incredible young woman who is now most certainly dead, for this Little Sister to react as such.

"Farewell, Ms. Comstock." Andrew Ryan nods at the screen as he returns to his desk, resting the putter against the wall, "What a waste, allowing yourself to meet your end in such an ignoble, futile manner." It truly is a shame that they couldn't come to an understanding, that if she'd just come to work for him, both she and Rapture would be thriving. Instead, the singer lies dead in the dark, and Rapture's gripped in violence and unrest at the hands of her killer.

Shaking his head, Andrew Ryan turns his thoughts back to his paperwork, retrieving his pen and once more signing form after form, document after document. Work was the answer to his problems, it always was, and work is what Rapture was founded on. But as he works, his mind seems to go blank, everything around him rapidly fading as white light erases it all.

Rosalind Lutece watches in silence through a Tear as Andrew Ryan bids farewell to Elizabeth. "This man had tried to have the girl killed, and now he's acting as if he's fondly saying goodbye to an old friend?" She snorts as she shakes her head, stepping away from the Tear and closing it without a second thought. The man had founded a city not so different from Columbia with his own personal philosophy as law, and his hubris and the disdain which he treats those around him seem in bad taste to Rosalind.

"An isolated, technologically advanced city far removed from the rest of the world, ruled by one man in the name of his personal creed." Thinking aloud, Rosalind steps over to the lighthouse door as she ponders the circumstances Elizabeth had found herself in, "While he at least seems more reasonable, Andrew Ryan appears to have much in common with a certain Prophet. No wonder the girl had spat at his offer." Rosalind's certain the girl had seen the parallels between Andrew Ryan and Zachary Comstock, and recalls something she'd said to the 'Booker DeWitt' she'd come for; just another set of fanatics with a different set of books.

The tycoon turned tyrant at least had no great ambition to destroy the world, and had started with seemingly good intentions. But the ideals he'd held had long ago been betrayed, and Rosalind can't help but wonder how exactly this Ryan fellow came to embody everything he'd despised.

"He'd called her exceptional and a rube. Andrew Ryan, you truly had no idea who you were talking to." A hint of amusement tickles Rosalind as she steps through the lighthouse door, appearing in the apartment of Booker DeWitt, many years and worlds removed from the events occurring in Rapture. The elderly Ms. Pearl naps in the chair behind the detective's desk with a lamp dying down, and Rosalind moves quietly towards the door to the other room. She'd promised her brother that she'd watch over the child while Robert led Mr. DeWitt through Rapture, and she'd do just that.

"If only Ryan knew just what the girl had experienced, just what she knew and had been capable of, I doubt he'd ever call her a rube. Exceptional, yes, a rube, unlikely. For all the power and knowledge held in Rapture, what the girl had once possessed puts it all to shame." Stopping at the door to Anna's room, Rosalind ponders how Andrew Ryan would react if he knew just what young Ms. 'Comstock' was, much as she'd wondered about the assembled elite at the opulent debut concert the girl had performed at. Perhaps events might have gone differently, but somehow, Rosalind can't see such a thing coming to pass.

Easing the bedroom door open, Rosalind slips quietly into the room where Anna rests. Looking upon the sleeping child, Rosalind heaves a sigh, "He holds his ideals as absolute truths even as he compromises them. Perhaps the greatest rube in Rapture is none other than Ryan himself."

The scribbling sound of a pen flying across paper falters for a moment, leaving the spacious office of Andrew Ryan silent aside from the nearly muted noise of machinery in the distance. Ryan rubs his stinging eyes, tired from filling out form after form, the amount of paperwork generated by the chaos in his city truly staggering. It's been two weeks since the bombing at the Kashmir Club, and since then the founder of Rapture's been holed up in his office, directing the war effort.

It's only been a short time since Ms. Comstock had disappeared into the hole, and Ryan can't help but feel some odd sense of disappointment. The young woman could have been something incredible, had she just listened to reason. Even the manner in which Ms. Comstock had appeared in his city is still a mystery to him, and little of import goes on in Rapture without Andrew Ryan noticing. "Such a unique, exceptional young woman could have gone far, if only she had the good sense to see the proper course…"

He'd watched her stagger from the doctor's office where the Big Daddy had left Suchong's corpse, obviously drugged and not in full control of her faculties, only to disappear into the hole in the wall. Never to be seen again. "Why young Ms. Comstock was so determined to rescue this 'Sally' of hers, I'll never know. One Little Sister… what's this?"

Surprise registers as a strange redheaded man steps through the hole, followed shortly by Ms. Comstock and another man, both he and the young woman leaning on each other for support. Where these two had come from, he has no idea, but a sense of déjà vu comes over Andrew Ryan. The man on Ms. Comstock's shoulder is quite obviously hurt, his body bandaged and bloody, but there's something about him that nags at the back of Ryan's mind.

"Where have I seen him before…?" Rubbing his chin as the odd looking redhead leads the struggling pair slowly towards the door leading out of Suchong's clinic, Ryan stares at the wounded man, who must have fought off Atlas and his bandits for Ms. Comstock to still be amongst the living. Then it comes to him, clear as day; his security forces had found the body of a man seen with Ms. Comstock, a private investigator within his city, a man by the name of Booker DeWitt. Though he looks much the same as the deceased detective, this Booker looks far younger than the dead man.

The man had last been seen entering Cohen's club in the company of Ms. Comstock, and had only later been found in the Toys Department of the sunken prison; he'd been run through by the drill of a Big Daddy, apparently left for dead by Ms. Comstock. So who could this mysterious man be? Andrew Ryan does not believe in ghosts, or in any superstitious nonsense, but there's little he can think of to explain the presence of this 'DeWitt'.

Reaching for the microphone he'd pushed aside, Ryan recalls the first time he'd laid eyes on Elizabeth Comstock. It had been just after he'd sent Sullivan and his security forces to arrest that crook, Fontaine.

"Perhaps I should have recognized her as someone who'd come to Rapture uninvited…" Shaking his head, Ryan clears his throat as he watches the trio on the monitor, wondering once more who these men are and where they came from as he flicks on the microphone. On the other end, Ryan knows that all those three will see is the image that always displayed whenever he made an address in this manner, but his voice would be heard clearly. He vaguely notices Ms. Comstock embracing the Little Sister she'd been so determined to save, Sally running off after a moment.

"Well, well," Ryan grins as 'Booker DeWitt' and Ms. Comstock come to a stop, looking around in surprise, "I never imagined I'd find you still among the living. You truly are an extraordinary individual, aren't you, Ms. Comstock?"

"Andrew Ryan." 'DeWitt' growls his name, Ms. Comstock turning to look at him with a touch more surprise than before, "What business do you have with us? Going to send more 'sharks'?"

Ryan frowns, the impudence of this stranger irritating him, "I have no business at all with you, just with the young woman who's supporting you. Though I must admit, you are a mystery yourself, Mr. DeWitt." As he speaks, Ryan wonders how these two managed to arrive just in time to save the young woman. The identity of the upstart glaring back at him through the monitor is indeed a mystery, and Ryan can't help but wonder if this man is truly the same as the dead investigator, "Tell me, how well do you know the young woman? She's far more dangerous than she appears. There was a Booker DeWitt in my city, a much older man than you. Young Ms. Comstock there led him away, and my men found him dead in the prison I had sunk far below."

The pair stare back at him silently, and Ryan chuckles at their discomfort, "It's quite simple, Ms. Comstock." While the men are mysteries, they still pale in comparison to the young woman who'd so piqued his interest. "I still want you to work for me. You've quite the journey to escape my city, and I guarantee that Atlas will return to finish you, if you aren't protected. I don't know why you went so far to save your Sally just to let her go, but one Little Sister doesn't much concern me. You're an intelligent woman, Ms. Comstock, and when you come to work for me, I'll even guarantee the safety of your friend."

Once he finishes, he sits back as he waits for the intriguing young woman to respond. But when she finally does, Ms. Comstock grins as she answers, "My name, Mr. Ryan, is DeWitt, and we don't have quite the journey ahead of us that you imagine." As he makes to retort, 'DeWitt' raises his arm, a device of some sort strapped to it. The young woman reaches up and touches it, and the pair of them step through the door.

Surprised and disconcerted by the young woman's confidence, Ryan quickly switches to a security camera outside the clinic, looking for the 'DeWitt' and Ms. Comstock. "She said DeWitt... hmm? Where are they?" The view of the clinic's exterior is barren of life, no mysterious 'DeWitt', no Ms. Elizabeth. It's as if they'd disappeared from the bottom of the sea, almost as if they'd stepped through the door to another world. How did they manage such a complete vanishing act?

"DeWitt. Ms. Elizabeth DeWitt…" Interlacing his fingers before him, Ryan ponders just how this man, the DeWitt who'd been killed and this mysterious, almost otherworldly young woman are connected. Could this 'DeWitt' and the young woman be lovers, or maybe family? It would certainly explain why this man would come to her rescue, even at the risk of such harm.

Shaking his head, Andrew Ryan flicks off the monitor and microphone as he heaves a disappointed sigh; whatever the case was, the young woman is no longer in his city. She'd been a truly exceptional individual, of this he'd been correct, but perhaps he hadn't the faintest about just how amazing the young woman truly is. "Such a shame; she would have been a truly unique business partner. What, I wonder, could motivate a being such as she?"

Glancing at the blank monitor, Andrew Ryan heaves another sigh, the missed, potentially amazing opportunity weighing on his thoughts for a moment, "Farewell, Ms. Dewitt."

Author's Note: First and foremost, I hadn't intended to start with Ryan at all, but after looking at the material I had, I figured Ryan's chapter would be a better fit for the first chapter. So I swapped Ryan and Cohen's chapter. Also, I'll be updating the list of characters with each chapter, so as not to give away too early what's to come. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.