"Interesting stuff this…ADAM…" Carlos and Sheva listened curiously to the audio log. 'The locals down here are all hooked on it, like it's their lifeblood. We found blueprints and designs scattered around, we took them back to our base we have here. There is a way to collect it, but…Well…We need children. Girls…And then we need subjects willing to protect the girls…Although." Her voice changed abruptly and became darker. 'Maybe they shouldn't be so willing after all…' Intrigued by thisnew information, they loaded the next log. "The program is starting to work…But we need more. The "Little Sisters" can only gather a certain amount of ADAM at a time. We need more Little Sisters. The damn Splicers are clawing at the walls of this base; they can smell the ADAM vats we have in here. They can smell it, but they can't get in. There are also many other technological wonders that are lying around this place, we've dispatched troopers to hunt them down and bring them back. Slowly , but surely, we're salvaging this place. Then bring it back to the surface.' They paused. 'All that ADAM…I wonder what these "Plasmids" are that I keep hearing about? Maybe it's time for more tests…"
Sheva and Carlos kept moving slowly, that was until they nearly collided into Melissa. Running from a Rumbler, with a little sister in her arms, screaming. 'Help! Help! Help!' she demanded.
'Ready, Shevs?' Carlos asked
'Lock and load.' Sheva replied as she loaded armour piercing rounds. After the Rumbler finally died, Sheva looted the body, Carlos scrounged around for more audio logs and Melissa sent the human little sister to Tenenbaum. 'Found one!' Carlos said as he picked it up.
"The little ones I have saved have already left me…Eleanor Lamb's little ones have also left her. Many years pass. Then…Girls start to vanish once more. So, I return to Rapture, in fear of what I already know. Americans are continuing my sins…Using the little ones to gather all the ADAM in the city. What they plan to do with it…I do not know." Tenenbaum's voice crackled on the log. "I am getting too old to save many little ones…Soon I know that I will be granted eternal peace. But there must be…some way to save the others. I cannot let them die here."
'Poor her.' Sheva replied as she heard the log finish. Suddenly they were cut off by an ear splitting, screeching shriek. 'What was that?' Carlos wondered. The shriek came again and Carlos covered his ears. Melissa knew too well what that sound was. 'Here comes the Big Sister…' she gulped.
'Burn, you bitch!!!' Sheva screamed as she threw fireball after fireball. Suddenly Carlos was telekinetically pulled off his feet and dragged towards the Big Sister's razor sharp needle. 'NO!' Melissa yelled and tackled her, dragging them both to the ground. They immediately began wrestling madly. Until with a triumphant yell, Melissa pulled the gathering needle off and rammed it through the glass of the sister's helmet. The Big Sister let out a dying shriek as blood pooled out of the hole. 'Bitch!' Melissa snarled as she stood up, flicked her hair back and kicked the corpse in the head. 'Mel, you need anger management.' Carlos said as Melissa pulled the needle on her arm and shrugged. 'What can I say? I don't want to see you get hurt, you're still my passengers.' She said before stabbing the needle into the Big Sister and sucking out what ADAM was in her. "The Big Sisters…" Tenenbaum began on the radio "They are what happens when a little one grows up with that parasite still with them. They cannot gather ADAM, but they become aggressive and violent, yes.'
'Really?' Carlos asked as he rubbed his pounding head. 'I thought they were what happened when a shop ran out of shoes. All that screaming…Like a permanent PMS.' Suddenly he stopped and looked around. 'Where's Alex?'
Alex's world shifted in and out of focus, bright lights shone down on him. His body was either tied down or wouldn't respond. He focused, drearily, on a woman's face as it came into view. Dressed in a white lab coat, her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. 'What's going on?' he wondered weakly.
'Shh…' the scientist whispered. 'it's going to be alright. I promise you, this won't hurt.'
'Wha-? What won't?' Alex asked, but she continued, ignoring him.
'…And if it does…You won't remember it.'
'You're going to wipe my memories…?' Alex asked, slightly shocked. She nodded. Immediately Alex tried a ruse. 'Please, don't do this…I have a family…I just want to go home…See my family…Play with my dog.' The woman stopped as she picked up a syringe. She looked at it for a second before putting it back down and walking over to him. 'I…I know.' She said as she ran a hand down the side of his head. Alex flexed a hand and she gently held it. The moment she did, Alex dug his nails in and the scientist began screaming in pain and shock as her hand and the shackle holding his arm down, froze over. Immediately she tried to pull away, but Alex held fast. The ice had started to cover her arm before she finally broke away and watched her arm defrost; she was suffering from serious frostbite. Meanwhile, Alex smashed the frozen, fragile shackle did the same to the other. As he slid off the operating table, his legs collapsed out from under him and he hit the ground, he started to drag himself forwards, hearing the scientist sobbing quietly from pain in the corner. He used a small cabinet to pull himself to his feet and willed himself to walk towards the door. Slowly, he was getting away. Then the alarm went off. Using her good hand, the scientist had hit the alarm and caused ten people in scrub attire to run in and restrain him. Alex fought desperately; he knocked out two of them, froze and shattered one. Then he felt the sharp prick of a needle, he tried to fight the sedative, but he slowly collapsed under their combined force.
'Alex!' a voice stirred him from his rest. 'Alex, please wake up…'
'Bella?' he wondered as he looked up. His younger sister was standing over him, dark black hair loose around her; blue eyes were wide and kind. But that was impossible, Bella was gone…Ever since the…But she was here, standing before him. Alex dragged himself onto his knees and smiled at her. 'You're awake!' she smiled cheerily.
'Bella…But, I thought you died…In the fire?' Alex asked. 'The one that destroyed our old home?' Suddenly he walked over to her and hugged her. 'I'm sorry…I'm so sorry.' He said. 'If only I could've been there.'
'But, Alex, you have to wake up.' Bella continued.
'Pardon?'
'Wake up.' She seemed to have suddenly developed a German accent. Then the dream world melted away. Reality came back with a crash and small footsteps. "Ahh…At last, you are awake." Tenenbaum crackled from the radio on the desk next to where he lay. His limbs felt strangely heavy. He guessed that he was tied down again. Beyond Tenenbaum's ancient voice, he could hear the scientist whispering to another person. '…Didn't expect him to use winter blast…Shouldn't have any more problems though…Old blueprints these…Think we've fixed the faults in it….Give the conditioning time to take effect.'
"I am grateful for you and your friends helping to save many of the little ones, more are returning to me by the hour, all saying their thanks to you and your friends, yes. But there are still many, many other little ones left shackled to their ADAM slugs. You cannot help your friends at the moment, but…" Alex focused as the sound of footsteps came closer. He suddenly felt small hands brush past him as a human little sister climbed onto the table and smiled at him. "This little one has brought you something, to help free you from your mental shackles" What Tenenbaum had just said trickled through Alex's mind, but didn't really lodge anywhere meaningful. 'Shh!' the little sister giggled before stabbing the needle into him and injecting some kind of plasmid or tonic. Her job done, she slid off the table and scrabbled back into a vent as Alex blacked out again.
Carlos emitted a sigh as he checked his watch. 'Five Am.' He muttered. 'Nearly sunrise.' He turned to look at the others, who were rifling through a large stack of presents Tenenbaum had sent them. Melissa had exclaimed that it was "Like having Christmas come early" 'Feels strange that we won't see it, doesn't it?' he asked and Sheva nodded as she stuffed a large wad of dollars into her already overflowing purse. The women didn't really seem to be paying attention.
'Nice view.' Sheva muttered later as they looked out at the cityscape through a window.
'Yeah.' Melissa replied. 'When you think this place could really have been something good.'
'Good, but eventually everything turns sour. Bit like my father really.' Sheva spat. 'What a drug addict he was.'
'Father…' Melissa muttered as she looked back at the body of a Rumbler. Little flitters of memories kept trickling back, memories she didn't want to remember. 'You okay?' Sheva asked.
'Yeah…Fine.' Melissa replied before looking hopefully at Sheva. 'Have you ever wanted to forget so much, so many horrible things, that you'd change anything about you to forget?' she wondered as she looked at her reflection, blonde hair was filthy and soaked, plastered all over her face. 'Not really, no. Why?' the other woman asked.
'I felt I needed to forget about-….Some things. Things to do with my father. So that's why I became Melissa Miller. I thought that if I could escape my old name, I could escape who I used to be.'
'And…Who were you before?' Sheva wondered. Melissa listened; she could hear the patter of leaking water in the distance. 'My name used to be Cindy Meltzer.' She added with the greatest effort it had ever cost her.
'My father would've loved to see me like this, all grown up.' Melissa continued to Sheva as the two women looked out, watching a Rosie wander around outside. 'What happened to your father?' Sheva asked.
'When I was younger…I was…kidnapped, I was brought here.' She glanced at the waitress. 'I was made into a Little Sister.' Sheva's eyes were wide.
'Really? Who saved you?'
'My…My father had to die so that I could be free.' Melissa stammered as she remembered it. The two Big Daddy's fighting, one of them falling. The other approached her, the mental conditioning and Eleanor's influence made her want to be adopted by the surviving behemoth. Melissa remembered gathering bodies, then being taken to a "Hidey-Hole". Crawling through darkness and emerging to be with other little girls, the room was warm and had bed, food and toys. 'The person who killed my father was the one who set me free.' Melissa finished.
Sheva nodded, Melissa could see tears in her eyes. 'That's so sad…'
Suddenly Melissa held up a hand. 'Shh!' she ordered to Carlos as he wandered over.
'Let's go find an angel Mr. B!' A Little Sister was getting close.
'How many are there?' Carlos wondered in a whisper.
AN: Yes, Melissa is Cindy Meltzer. As you've probably guessed by now, I'm what Bioshock wiki calls a "Pro-Rescuer" I have never harvested a little sis.