OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: Woefully, I do not own the gem of a game that Bioshock is… Ah well, win some lose some.

REVIEW(S):

akiranakamuranura – Oops, my mistake. Perhaps I was getting a little ahead of myself, eh? And I'm glad you think so (maybe you can figure out who the "Polka-dot-man" was?), I put quite a bit of effort into little Jacqueline; it's nice to have one's toils appreciated. For future reference though, the three characters (Little Sister, Big Sister and OC) are all one and the same. And again, thank you (glad you joined). That's very sweet of you miss.

Savage theron – Again, thank you for the encouragement!

Nietig – Sorry, but whilst Kappa may receive more background info, it's… well. You'll see.

~oOo~

A/N: Morning all (at least, it is for me), I trust you've all kept well? I hope that the wait was worth it and I eagerly await any potential reviews. I'm sorry about the time and I'll spare ya any pointless excuses (aside from I'm lazy) and let you enjoy (hopefully) the chapter. Otherwise, why are you here?

Also, about the poof: I figured that there are no corpses in their Little-Sister-o-vision (henceforth "LSoV"), aside from Angels that is, so any "non-Angels" would render themselves non-existent in the Little Sister's eyes. If you didn't notice, I also switch from the LSoV to normal vision every now and then. Side-note, a friend of mine asked why Suki "talks so funny" whilst her sister (Juline and Suki are actual sisters, twins to be precise) doesn't. That's 'cause little Suki has a very bad lisp. Just an explanation for those that don't know.

The tranquil serenity of Arcadia's tea gardens was a highly sought after luxury in Rapture. The babbling brooks and rolling knolls, whilst artificial, offered some reprieve and time to decompress from the pressures of the underwater city. That is, for those that could afford it...

Gatherers and their Protector counterparts however, were not bound by the restrictions of monetary bonds and, being agents of the state, were allowed to come and go as they pleased. After all, who would be foolish or brazen enough to deny the Titan and his charge passage? Such is how the two found themselves aside the idyllic mounds of the tea gardens

However, as she was ignorant to both the concept of money and restriction regarding where she could go, Jacqueline played happily in the grass, chasing various flying insects.

Jumping after a large purple butterfly, Lynn giggled as it evaded her clasp once again before reinitiating her attempts to catch it. Kappa on the other hand was not jumping around like his daughter, though it warmed his heart to see Lynn enjoying herself. Instead he stood guard, ever vigilant, on the lookout for any wayward threats that might dare approach his beloved child.

But as of yet, his paranoia was unfounded as there were no splicers, no deranged murderers or even normal civilians for that matter. All was quite in Arcadia. That in itself was unnerving to Kappa. Arcadia was always occupied by at least one or two civilians trying to escape the stress of their lives or taking a prospective mate out.

But before he could speculate any more, Kappa was roused from his reverie by his beloved Jacqueline who held out her hands to him displaying a large purple butterfly, a Purple Emperor to be exact, smiling up at her Papa. The insect gently opened and closed its velveteen wings as if to bask in the awe of Lynn for a moment before it fluttered off on its journey.

Slumping, Jacqueline pouted that her little friend had run off but was distracted from her recent loss by the approach of some familiar faces. Her face lighting up, the small girl ran up to a large knight wearing silver armour and her bigger sister Suki.

Suki, who saw her little sister fast approaching, ran up to her and grabbed Lynn in a tight embrace.

Finally loosening her grip, Suki held Lynn by the shoulders. "I wanna show ya somethin'." She whispered secretively in her warped multi-layer voice.

"What is it?" Lynn questioned her big sibling, copying her secretive tone. "And why're we whispering?"

"'Cause I haven' told Papa." Suki confided quietly as their parents approached the two. "It's s'posed t' be a surprise."

Gasping with excitement, Lynn allowed herself to be led off by her sister to behind a small cluster of shrubbery where Suki revealed the surprise: Reaching into her apron pocket, her pulled out a small canvas of her Papa, armour and all, clutching Suki's hand.

The detail put into it was amazing. With oils and watercolours, Jacqueline felt that the image might come to life. "It's so pretty!" She exclaimed in wonderment much to Suki's delight and mild embarrassment.

"D'ya really think so?" She asked bashfully, hiding half her blushing face behind the artwork.

"Ouais!" Lynn assured her sister, still enamoured by the picture. "I think it's beautiful. You should give it to your Daddy."

"'Kay!" She said, back to her usual bubbly self and leapt out from behind the shrubbery and rushed up to her Papa, Jacqueline following closely behind. Holding out the canvas for her Father-in-shining-armour, Suki gave her armoured parent a wide smile.

Reaching out with his free hand, her Protector took the painting with his clumsy hands. Staring at the image through his visor, the man let his arm fall limp before opening his arms to invite his daughter for a hug. Eagerly, Suki, without a second's hesitation, skipped into her Papa's waiting arms and wrapped her arms around him.

Or at least tried to.

Letting her down gently, her Papa strode off to one of the many ponds littered across Arcadia and, wading out to the centre, picked out one of the beautiful Lotuses before wading out and approaching his daughter once more. Kneeling before her, the chrome knight delicately placed the large flower in her hair.

Gasping in delight Suki pounced on her Papa, flower toppling off its precarious perch as she grabbed her Daddy in the biggest hug she could muster.

Daintily picking the fallen blossom from the lush grass, Jacqueline drank in the beautiful colours of the lotus. Looking up at her sister, she couldn't help but feel a little envious. "Could I have a flower Papa?" She almost pleaded with her copper Daddy. "Please?"

Turning on his heel, Kappa marched into the same pond that subject Eta had retrieved the pretty flower and plucked one, albeit a little smaller and took it to his young charge.

Happily taking the presented flower, Jacqueline gave the flower she'd been holding to her big sister Suki who had finally disentangled herself with her Big Daddy.

Kappa had other ideas though and took the flower from the girl's hand and set it on Lynn's ear. Making a little twirl, Jacqueline's joy was interrupted by the rumbling of her stomach.

"Papa," She said embarrassedly. "Let's go look for some Angels!"

Back in her normal chipper state, Jacqueline grabbed her Big Daddy's wrist and tugged him along in search for some delicious ADAM. "Bye Jackie!" Waved Suki as her sibling went about on her wayward path.

"Bye-bye!" Lynn called back happily as the pair approached the gilded gates that opened to grant them passage.

— 0 —

"There was a rather tragic incident today I'm told. If the local gossip is to be believed, a mother of one of the Gatherers, a Tatyana Nikovaevna Grishin, attempted to "rescue" her daughter. She and her spouse had been send to Persephone by Ryan for the "dispersal of communist propaganda", with their daughter, Svetlana being handed over to us. After a period of around three, maybe four months? The lady, Mrs Grishin, managed to escape from Persephone, God only knows how. The unfortunate woman managed to find her daughter. It would've been better if she hadn't though. Sveta had already been paired with Subject Upsilon and when her biological mother attempted to take the little Miss with her, Sveta's Protector took exception to that…" There was a brief pause for a long, tired sigh.

"I'm honestly sick. I keep hearing of scenes like this. Relatives, family friends, colleagues, seeing what's happened to their children. Even Eleanor was confronted some time ago… I disgust myself."

— 0 —

Exiting the tea gardens Kappa and Jacqueline passed through the rest of Arcadia with little fuss, with Lynn stopping every now and then to marvel at the "prettiness" of the environment. As they passed through the halls, Jacqueline was surprise to see a conservatory to her right.

Intrigued, Lynn stepped into the room entirely made of glass, with her Papa right behind her, marvelling at the countless brightly coloured fish and gasped in wonderment as a huge whale passed their field of view.

"Look Daddy," The Gatherer said excitedly. "Look at all the pretty fishies!"

Her Papa nodded in agreement and uttered a comforting whale-like moan of affirmation. Pressing a large button that Jacqueline had previously not seen, the conservatory doors closed and the glass house slowly rose up off the sea floor and gently floated over the beautiful city.

For several minutes, Jacqueline stood with her face pressed up against the glass in stupefaction and Kappa, who for once had little to worry about, relaxed in the bathysphere; it's engine's thrum a reassuring constant.

In the midst of the beauty of nature, Jacqueline heard her tummy growl again and awkwardly held it shamefully.

As much as she loved being in the floating conservatory, she really wanted to get some delicious ADAM to eat. Thankfully, as if the structure heard her unspoken wish, the floating glass box started its slow, gentle descent back to the sea floor. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, Lynn craned her neck to see where she and her Papa would be set down.

Drifting down between the tall spires of Rapture, Jacqueline couldn't make out the signs that indicated as to what their current location was. No matter. Such a minor setback would not stop her from reaching more delicious Angels. The bathysphere, having arrived at its destination, docked with the building suddenly, a muted thud followed by the doors opening indicated the equalisation of pressure.

Before the doors were even half open, Jacqueline had squeezed herself through the entrance and rushed down a red-carpeted hallway having caught the distinct scent of an Angel.

Giving a groan of indignation, Kappa forced the slow doors open and followed his quickly disappearing daughter, his footfalls making loud clangs through the filthy material as he lumbered after the Gatherer, his daughter. Turning the corner, he found the little girl eagerly stooped over the splayed body of a splicer, her harvester needle jabbed into the corpse's chest, siphoning off the precious fluid.

The small alley that the body lay in hid a "Little Sister vent" and a fair amount of the Splicer's blood was sprayed across said vent in an eerily flower-esque fashion. It seemed that one of his brothers had come across the loathsome being and swiftly put an end to its cursed existence. Clearly it had been lying in wait for someone like his precious offspring.

Gently easing out the recently filled utensil, Jacqueline gorged herself on the delicious liquid. Looking up at her Papa, she smiled and held her arms up, indicating that she wanted her Daddy to pick her up. Happy to oblige, the bronze armoured knight lifted her up onto his shoulders and off the scum caked floors. Turning on his heel, Kappa felt his daughter wrap her arms around his neck as he lumbered down the street.

As they made their way down the deserted street, Jacqueline started singing to herself in the warped voice that was synonymous to the Little Sisters. Kappa was roused from his thoughtless walking as he heard a loud clang echo from behind him.

Spinning round, the Alpha series' eyes are met with an empty path. "What's wrong Papa?" Jacqueline asked blithely, taken by surprise by the sudden irregular motion.

Letting a whale-like moan, Kappa meant to reassured her that there was nothing wrong, but the weathered Protector wasn't fooling himself. He couldn't shake the feeling that there were people watching him. Specifically, people after his daughter. The mere thought made his skin crawl in disgust.

Giving the pathway another cursory glare, the Big Daddy reluctantly turned his back on it and hastened to make his way in the opposite direction.

Again, Kappa felt phantom footsteps following his and his daughter's passage and could swear that he heard whispers to his sides. Thoroughly spooked now, Kappa quickened his pace in a bid to escape with his charge. It didn't help his nerves that the corridor had seemed to only extend itself as he quickened his pace.

His steady pace was however interrupted by the sudden emergence of a figure stumbling out from behind a pillar in front of them. For a moment the two stared at each other in surprise and mild confusion, though fear was clearly more present on the deformed man's mind as he gave a pitiable whimper and awkwardly ran away from the intimidating figure of Subject Kappa.

As the moment of confusion passed, Kappa was, yet again, taken by surprise as the rattle of small arms gunfire came from behind him. The bullets piercing his back, he heard Lynn scream in pain as some for the lead projectiles had obviously hit the hapless child.

Roaring in fury and pain, Kappa revved his drill and swung round, batting the nearest aggressor away from and into the wall with a sickening splat.

Greeted with a small horde of Splicers, Kappa knew that they had several advantages over him: the first being range, the second being agility. As long as they could keep him at range, they could pump him so full of bullets he would eventually fall... So what? What?! The disgusting slime had hurt his daughter! Should he fall, his daughter would die.

'The Vent!'

He may fall no matter the outcome, but Jacqueline? She could make it out.

Charging forward, the grouped Splicers dived out of the way to avoid the raging brass colossus. They were surprised to see the Big Daddy run past them, completely ignoring them.

"Fuck," One of the Splicers uttered in annoyance. "The fucka's try'n t' ge' away. Gottah get that ADAM boys." Breaking off into a run, the less warped of the bunch set of running after the giant, spraying his firearm in its general direction.

Feeling the hot metal drill through his heavy suit, Kappa ignored the slowly increasing pain of the wounds as he cradled his whimpering daughter in his free arm.

"I'm scared Daddy." Jacqueline cried fearfully.

Feeling his rage ever rising, Kappa pushed away his first instinct to turn and annihilate the vermin and focussed on completing his set task. Then he would deal with the interlopers. How could someone even think of hurting an innocent child?

Reaching the end of the long pathway, the Protector finally reached his quarry. Holding Lynn up, he gently pushed the scared girl down into the safety of the Vent. Stubbornly, she peered out. "Where are you going Daddy?" She asked, ever the curious soul. "It isn't sleepy-time yet."

Moaning, Kappa gently pushed her down the vent again, trying to tell her that it wasn't safe out here yet. Second time lucky, Jacqueline obediently did as she was told this time and didn't rise from her hidey hole.

Hearing the pattering of footsteps come to a halt behind him, again, Kappa turned to face the lawbreakers, revving his arm-mounted drill.

Meanwhile, inside the Vent, Jacqueline was worried. 'Where was Daddy? Why did he put me here? Why can't I stay with you Papa?' And other unusually stressful thoughts such as this were occupying the little Delacroix's mind. 'No, he'll come back. Daddy always makes the monsters go away.'

She was pulled from her internal self-assurance as her Papa's lance made that strange roaring noise and the loud clapping noise those people had been making started up again.

'Daddy will win. He always wins.' She reaffirmed to herself as the sounds of singing and her Papa's lovely voice echoed down the Vent. Snuggling down, she made to get to sleep. She wasn't tired, but her Papa had put her here to rest, so it would be naughty if she came up tired. And she was not that.

~O0O~

The sun was setting on the surface of the ocean, but in Rapture, there was no sun to allow for the distinguishing between day and night. Thus, as Jacqueline yawned, rubbing the icky stuff from the corners of her eyes, she did not know of the position of the sun. In fact, to someone such as her, whether it was night or day likely had no bearing on their day.

Stretching in the cozy crawl-space, she listened for a noise from her Papa. Nothing. He probably didn't know she was up, so she crawled along the winding paths of the padded tunnel and, reaching the gilded 'porthole', she peered out to gaze at her surroundings.

A whole bush of bloody red roses had somehow grown overnight on the wall opposite her Vent. In fact, now that she looked, the floors were covered with petals that seemed to be falling from the sky. Looking up, Jacqueline saw that the roses on the far wall had reached the ceiling and, the large flowers laden down by their weight, were slowly shedding petals that rapidly fell to the ground.

In amongst all of this, large and small butterflies flitted around the telltale halo of an Angel, even resting on it once in a while.

This was all irrelevant as she saw, lying in the midst of this all, her Papa was leaned against the majestic gold of the hidey hole. Quickly pulling herself out, she dropped down onto the carpeted floors and shook her Daddy and said:

"Silly Daddy, wake up. It's time to get some delicious ADAM!"

With no response, she felt the almost ever-present hunger rear it's head again and she looked longingly at the Angel that was just a little ways away. She shouldn't go, but Daddy was right here and he must've been tired after beating up those baddies earlier... Doctor Grissom did say not to leave Daddy. But she wasn't really, it wasn't even six feet away, and she was really hungry...

Eventually, after another growl from her stomach, her hunger won in the internal struggle. "I'm just gonna have some ADAM Daddy, I won't be going far." She assured her 'sleeping' parent, more for her own sake.

Padding over to the splayed wings of the Angel, she knelt by the fallen creature and plunged Uncle Grissom's present into the Angel's chest, its body giving an involuntary shudder as the precious red fluid was extracted. Removing the sharp end, she drank deeply from the delicious mixture and wiped her lips after her little feast.

Getting up off her knees, she made her way back to her Protector's side and plonked herself by him, leaning against the wall like him. 'When have I seen Papa actually sleep?' The small child asked herself as she sat staring at the drooping, rose-heavy wall. Looking back she couldn't think of a single occasion she'd caught her Papa sleeping. Maybe he hadn't slept at all! That would explain why he hadn't got up when she'd called. Maybe he needed to sleep for a long time to get up? Mentally shrugging, she gave up her current train of thought and leant against her Daddy's armoured side.

Perhaps inevitably though, her normalcy of near constant activity left her incredibly bored at their current state of static. Retrieving her baseball from her front pocket, she started fiddling with the silken string in the shining leather. That too also eventually became boring and she got up and went over to the cross in pathways, peering around the corners.

Nothing.

Giving an irritated sigh, she made to turn back only to hear a distant clanging. Snapping back round to her Papa, she saw that he was still on the ground and fast asleep. As much as she loved her Daddy, he couldn't help her whilst he slept. Rushing to his ironclad form, she desperately shook his slumbering body.

"Come on Daddy, wake up!" She cried, putting all her strength into waking his silent form. Looking back, she saw a large amorphous shadow slowly lumbering ever closer and, panicking, she abandoned her Protector and desperately hauled herself up the exquisitely carved gold of the hidey-hole.

Peering out, she peeped over the ridge of the Vent and watched as the large shadow slowly, with clanging steps and quick wet splashes, drew closer and closer until it stopped and a small girl dressed in a bright marigold dress came down the corridor, brandishing a utensil identical to her own. Jacqueline's fears were immediately thrown out of mind.

"Alice!" She cried out for joy at seeing her sister. Scrambling out of the Vent, she sprinted to her one-eyed sibling, who was equally happy to see her.

"Jacqueline!" Cried she, her right eye glittering brighter than its usual amber glow. "It's so good to see you!"

Embracing each other, Alice pushed away suddenly and asked, "What's that hard thingy in your pocket?"

Blinking, Lynn took a second to realise what her sister was talking about. "Oh!" She exclaimed in understanding. "It's my baseball. Do you wanna play catch?"

Nodding eagerly, Alice hurried over to the ovther end of the alleyway and caught the ball thrown once she had turned to face Jacqueline.

As the two siblings were playing, Subject Zeta was having an internal crisis. His fellow Protector was dead. That on its own wouldn't count for much, granted though, it was a shame. No, the problem was that his daughter, Jacqueline, was still living.

But he was only supposed to look after Alice... What would they say? They wouldn't like it if he left a live Daughter to die alone. And as he stared on at the corpse of Subject Kappa, his fractured mind wrestled with his programming. He wouldn't keep her. No, not for any extended period of time. Only to put her at the place where he'd met Alice.

But he wasn't supposed to do that! 'I am to protect only Alice!', his brainwashing mentally bellowed.

Looking up, the Big Daddy saw that the ceiling had been caked in unnaturally high volumes of blood, likely a side effect of being "drilled to death". Zeta looked to his fallen brother's child and saw that his own child was happily throwing a ball with her sister. Alice would be sad if Kappa's child died. He didn't like it when Alice was sad.

Giving a moan of lament at the prospect, he compromised with his instincts on the grounds "it was for Alice".

Calling to his Daughter, he lumbered over to the two girls and, with surprising agility for one his size, deftly caught the ball in midair. Earning a groan of "Daddy!", Zeta wailed in his whale-like voice and motioned for both girls to come closer.

Obeying, he held out the leather-covered ball to Jacqueline, which she gratefully took, and hefted Alice onto his vast shoulders. Unceremoniously, he grabbed Jacqueline under his left arm and began to stride away back to the bathysphere.

"Let go!" The captured Gatherer screamed, furiously beating her puny arms against his metal clad forearm. "I need to be with Daddy when he wakes up! Please, let go!"

Alice, clearly unhappy with her sister's distress sided with her sibling and proverbially rushed to Jacqueline's aid, haplessly knocking on his helmet.

'Alice, don't be mad. It's for Jacqueline's good.' Zeta thought, internally cursing that he could not speak as he approached the bathysphere. 'Daddy knows best...'

~000~

A/N: Well, after... quite some time, I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint. I realise that some of you may be lamenting over me killing Kappa way too soon, but you misunderstand. Jacqueline and Kappa's time together isn't the focus of this story.

Aside from any qualms, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did making it. Reviews really help with a story's progress too by the way. An author without reviews feels that their work is crass (which, granted, mine may be) and is likely more disinclined to continue the story. Just sayin'. That's all.

Hope y'all have a wonderful day: TGDB.