Chapter 3

I awoke to the sound of dry laughter and a clanging that made my head throb as a child screamed. Lifting my head hurt, the yellow tint in my eye combined with the way my head spun made me dizzy as I looked back. A horribly disfigured man was cackling as he bashed the bars of a cage fastened to my back, the child inside screaming as he did. I planted my hand on the ground, trying to shout at him-only a loud, rasping screech coming out as the man stumbled back, falling right on his bottom as he tried to crawl away.

"Big Sister! You're okay!" Said the little girl, her face stained with tears as the man opposite of me shook his head.

"N-no! I didn't mean to...I have custody! I HAVE CUSTODY!" He shouted, regaining his courage and brandishing a jagged pipe as he ran towards me, smacking it across my head with a clang that reverberated and rang in my ears, throwing me off my feet. My vision swam as I stood back up shakily, feeling his long-fingered hand close around my collar.

"You're gonna pay me back you whore! Every cent! Every drop!" He slashed at me, the hit sparking across my head as I lifted my arms, trying to push him off, but instead jabbing a long spear-like needle into his chest as he screamed.

Planting a boot on him, I kicked him off the needle, throwing him across the ground as he held the hole in his chest and panted. "I-I'll be back to collect what's mine! You wait!" Scrambling to his feet, he scurried away, shouting to himself as I got to my feet, holding my head and shaking it, trying to think, trying to follow my instinct, to follow that twitch in the back of my head...but nothing came.

"Big Sister! I thought you went to the angels...but you were just sleeping! Silly." The little girl in the cage giggled as my breath began to shallow. I held up my glove, the area underneath glowing with a circuitboard of yellow across my wrist.

I felt...empty. For the first time in a very very long time no unbidden thoughts or emotions came into my mind. I sat down on the porch, looking around. That plasmid had done something to me, but I wasn't sure what. My thoughts had all been knocked from whatever vault they had been locked away in, and now lay scattered in a thousand pieces around me. I tried to pick them up.

"Aww, don't worry Big Sister! We'll get lollies once we reach the castle!"

I was in Rapture, Good Girls Gather, my Little Sister is on my back, Good Girls Gather, Mister Bubbles was gone, ADAM was good, Good Girls Gather…my favorite color was...lavender...who am I? I am...a Good Girl...the name started with P...P...

My mind cried out with frustration and I screamed with it, smacking my fist against the porch as my brain refused to focus. It was all so hazy, but at the same time just out of my reach. I felt a hand reach through the cage and pet the back of my head.

"It's okay...I think your singing is pretty." Her hand passed over the gash in the metal that splicer had left and she gasped. "Oh no! The bad man scratched your crown! At least the eyes have all closed now that he's gone to the party."

I tried to calm myself down, rooting through my memories. That girl...the plasmid...she'd been purified, no longer a Little Sister, was it possible…? I looked down at my hand, it was the same as before, then turned my gaze to the girl locked tight in the cage behind me. Did I really cure myself? Was Lamb's voice really gone?

Reaching back, I unlatched the cage and opened it carefully, letting the little girl hop out. "Oh-do you hear the flap-flap-flapping? Is it angel time already?" She asked as I reached down to bring her a little closer, one hand tucked under her as the other glowed with proximity. She looked up at me vacantly, her yellow eyes piercing as she continued smiling that happy little grin.

Unsure of what to do, I raised my hand towards her head, gripping her forehead

as the glow started trickling into her body-making the network of veins across her being glow in sympathy. The light intensified, climaxing in a blinding flash as she gasped for air. The glare became too much, and I was forced to drop her to drop her and turn away, shielding my face as the very air around her sizzled.

Turning back, I saw a young girl looking down at her hands, turning them back and forth before turning her gaze up to me, her mouth dropping open, big green eyes focused on my helmet. Pressing against my knee, I stood up to my full height and vocalized, a metallic hiss that seeped out from under my head as she screamed, standing up as fast as she could and trying to run away before stumbling over a loose board and falling. Turning around, she crawled away from me, her eyes full of terror. Backing herself against a corner, she let out a trembling whimper as her body tensed for what was to come.

I ventured closer, slow and deliberate with my movements as I knelt down in front of her, trying to soothe her by letting out a quiet squeal of invitation, holding out my hand in offering. Her arms, at first packed tightly against her chest, started to loosen as she reached forward to touch my glove briefly before withdrawing it again just as quickly. Getting on her knees to look up at me, she reached up to touch the yellow glow of my eye.

"Big...Sister?" She asked curiously, running her hand around the metal frame of my head as I lowered it to give her easier access. "Is this really you? But why...how…?" She sat back down, leaning against the wall and trying to catch her breath as I turned around, hearing the rallied voices of splicers behind me.

Turning around, I unlatched the cage and let out a low hiss. She got to her knees and put her hands on the edge of the cage. "I...I don't know if I want to…" I let out a louder, more insistent cry, prompting her to crawl inside as I snapped the latch shut, running out of the alcove and swinging up onto a nearby ledge. I dashed towards the vent opening in the ceiling, my rescued Sister crying out with each leap in height. Moments later, splicers filtered into the hall, weapons drawn, scanning their surrounding wildly.

"They're here somewhere! I know it! Tear the place apart!" I watched them for a couple seconds, the girl behind me uncharacteristically silent before I slipped away, ready to reposition and try to get things figured out.

"Where are we?" The little girl asked, looking around at all the pipes running over the maintenance duct. "Who were those people? Where are you taking me?"

I chose not to even attempt to answer her, knowing it would do no good as I headed further from Prometheus. Disoriented as I was, I knew that we were now fugitives. I wasn't sure if Eleanor could tell her bond with the Little Sister had been severed, but if she hadn't, we needed to stay anonymous for as long as we could.

I managed to get as far as the large, lavish apartments of Olympus Heights before the desire to stop running and collect myself overwhelmed me, and I dropped below. Or at least I tried; looking down was...dizzying. I felt myself hesitate, and every time I told my legs to fall, they seemed to refuse unless I eased myself down from the roof. Managing to secure my footing on a banister, I scurried off of it into a nearby apartment. Once I'd scanned the room for unwanted company, I reached back to let my companion out again. She stepped down from the cage before recoiling at the sight in front of her; two rotting corpses-no doubt the apartment's previous tenants-lay slumped against the wall, their heads blown open, long since decayed. I watched her hold a hand to her mouth before she ran over to a nearby wall and dry-heaved, vomiting out a greenish-grey substance, probably residue from what used to be in her stomach lining. She wiped off her mouth, coughing and looking worse for wear, her mouth trembling as she tried not to look at the bodies.

I was surprised, ever since I'd started seeing Rapture for what it was once the conditioning weakened, I'd grown accustomed to the bodies. I've never seen a Little Sister react this violently before, though I suppose curing her had also removed the false pretense from what she saw.

Moving over to the bodies, I grabbed one of them by the shoes and dragged it over to the door, dropping it into the hall, I repeated the process with the second one. The stench of corpse was still present, but she seemed grateful for me doing so, removing herself from the corner and sitting on the couch, still jumpy with distress as I walked over to sit on the separate end. We stayed in silence for a while before she turned to me.

"I'm Jamie, what's your name?" I didn't answer; I had no answer to give. Turning, I studied her instead. Her skin looked much more flushed and alive now-and I could see that she had a smattering of freckles on her cheeks and nose, which extended down to her shoulders. Her eyes were expressive and radiated an innocence that I'd never seen before as her eyebrows knit together. "Can you talk?"

My response was more reminiscent of nails scraping a chalkboard than speech, startling her and causing her to cringe. "No? Can you understand me?" I nodded slowly. "Okay..."

Behind her, a thudding echoed through the hall, I half-stood and watched the door, waiting for a sign of some kind before the sound eventually stopped. The little girl, Jamie, was still trying to piece together what was going on. She noticed the yellow glow crawling across my forearm.

"Is that how you took it away? Did you cure me?" She asked, I looked down at my plasmid-bearing hand, which seemed answer enough for her. "Thank you."

Restless with paranoia that Lamb's thugs would burst through the door at any minute, I set to searching the apartment for supplies, leaving the couch behind as Jamie watched me. "Hey, where are you…?" She made to get up too before she saw that I was just rummaging through the cupboards and settled back down. "Oh. Let me know if you find any food."

I turned towards her. "Y'know, food? Food." Compacting her fingers, she pressed them against her mouth to simulate putting something inside. I turned back, unsure of how to respond as I pulled out empty rusted cans and vacant hypos. Under the sink, I managed to find a small dusty carton of revolver ammunition and a used first aid kit, both useless to me.

Heading back towards the couch, I noticed Jamie staring up at me. "Why are you wearing that helmet?" She asked, reaching towards it. "Are you scary underneath?" I drew back, snarling at her when the small fingers touched my eye, causing her to recoil in fear.

There was a freedom in the way I could lash out at her. Nothing told me not to, I wasn't forced to care for her anymore. Looking down, I realized I could leave her right here if I wanted to. After all, if it really did come down to fleeing from Lamb for the rest of my life, she would only weigh me down.

Standing, I headed back towards the open window, making her jump to her feet too. "Is it time to go already?" I ignored her, drunk on my newfound free will as I stepped up onto the balcony, "Wait, why won't you answer me? Big Sister!" She ran forward, grabbing my hand and pulling it back towards the apartment. "Don't leave me! I can't do it without you!" Turning, I was about to shake her off before I saw her face. She looked like she was teetering on the edge of despair, her eyes glistening as her tiny hands gripped my glove with all the strength they could muster. Hearing the desperation in her voice, I realized that I was afraid too. And if I was afraid, I could only imagine what she was going through. Loneliness usually wasn't a problem for me, and I had no real reason to take her with me-after all she didn't produce any ADAM. But for some reason, I wanted to keep her safe. This wasn't the instinctual twitch I had been implanted with; it was just a feeling.

I sat down on the floor in front of her. She looked frantic, like she was about to break down at any second. Deciding I needed to do something about it, I reached into one of the pouches cinched to my leg and pulled out a pair of crayons, handing one of them to her. She stared at me curiously as I lowered my head. Understanding my intentions, she reached up to start tapping her crayon against the carapace, time passing before she let out a weak chuckle.

"Heh...I can't think of what to draw…" I felt her hands trembling and waited patiently before she finally started to sketch something on the domed surface. It took a few moments, but eventually she started to get more involved, putting her weight on my head and growing quiet as she focused on decorating me. I tilted my neck to the side, trying to get a more comfortable position before she scolded me.

"Hey! Don't move, all right? You'll mess me up." I made a low chuff of disappointment and maintained the uncomfortable position, wrapping my hands around my calves and trying to relax as she doodled. "You smell bad." She said, leaning forward to sniff my outfit carefully and covering her nose. "Don't you take baths?" What she smelled was likely the pheromone. With her mental conditioning removed, she now smelled me as a human would, and I often heard splicers complain about the Big Daddies' scent.

Looking down at the crayons, she looked as though she had, very suddenly, hatched an idea. "Oh! Maybe you can't talk, but can you write?" She grabbed one of the crayons, holding up my glove and dropping it in the palm. "Come on, you can write, can't you? Write 'hello'!" I grimaced inwardly, it had been a very long time since I'd written anything. I barely remembered how. The only maintenance of literacy I had was from reading the various scrawlings across the walls of Rapture and from what the Little Sisters wrote in their nursery.

Trying my best to grasp the crayon properly, I held it in the center of my fist, practically carving the writing into the floor. "H-E...L-O." She said as I wrote, I turned to her for accolades as she gave me a sympathetic look. "That's good! Maybe we can talk like this! Can you write your name?"

I moved the crayon underneath and placed it on the ground. I only knew one name that sounded familiar to me. But I'd long since forgotten it. I traced a line with a hump on top. "P?" Jamie asked, waiting patiently.

She was abruptly interrupted by a loud, deep low coming from outside. The thumping resumed, followed by a high voice joining in. "What's that?" She asked. I already knew, and didn't bother even looking up from the letter I drew. Were it splicers I'd have more concern, but fortunately, Big Daddies' conditioning made them steadfastly neutral to anything outside their sphere of influence.

Standing up, her curiosity lead her to the door, opening it a bit and peeking out before she gasped. "It's one of the big ones! And he's got a girl with him!" Turning back, she seemed to be puzzling out something before she came over to where I sat. "Hey, come on! You can use that power to save her, can't you? Just like you saved me!"

I shook my head as she grabbed my hand and tried to pull me off the ground. "Why not? She's just like me. We have to save her!" I pull my arm back, but she only tugs harder, straining with effort. "Mom...always-rrg-says to help people...so we need to help her!"

There was no way to tell her that it wasn't that easy; getting close to her would be impossible so long as her guardian was still alive. Jamie frowned at me, giving one last pathetic yank before giving up completely and frowning at me. "Fine! I'll bring her here then!" She huffed before marching stoically out of the room. I watched her go, groaning quietly in resignation before standing up. Little girl or not, that Big Daddy would tear her to shreds if she became a nuisance.

I left the room to see Jamie carefully approaching the hulking form of a Bouncer, which let out a long growling bellow, its hand clenching and unclenching. The thing's thick metallic body took up the entire hallway with its girth, and its glowing portholes shined through the dim hallway. A yellow-eyed child hid cautiously behind his leg, murmuring non-sequiturs to herself. Jamie approached them slowly, her confidence shot by the sheer size of the Big Daddy.

"Sick! She's sick! I can see it, Mister Bubbles, she's not special anymore!" The Little Sister hissed, glaring at Jamie and pointing the ADAM needle in her direction..

"Hey, it's okay! I'm not going to hurt you, come here…" Jamie said, trying to sound soothing as she crouched down slightly and held out her hand to the other child, throwing glances up at the Big Daddy, which watched her with the many glass eyes poking from its helmet.

She took two small steps closer, her gaze fixed on the Big Daddy. It stayed quiet until her foot moved just a single inch closer, after which it decided she was close enough and roared. The portholes on its head flickered orange as his drill revved up, filling the hallway with a loud mechanical roar. Jamie tucked herself into a ball and screamed, covering her ears.

"Do it Mr. B! X her eyes! Bring out her roses!" The Little Sister instigated, hopping up and down as her Big Daddy raised his arm in warning. Jamie needed to distance herself, or he'd attack. But she was frozen with fear, huddled in a little ball on the ratty carpet. The Big Daddy, seemingly not wanting to waste fuel on such a small threat, raised his giant boot in the air, ready to bring it down on the young girl. Bolting out from the room, I drew back telekinetic energy in my hands, ripping chairs, cabinets, and doors around me in an orbit before lancing them at the Big Daddy full-force. The blast of debris knocked him off-balance, sending him stumbling backwards into a wooden wall, his weight crunching through it as though it were paper as he let out an echoing grunt of pain before ripping himself out of the wall and roaring, the portholes now bright red as he brought his drill to bare.

I screeched in challenge and readied myself, turning the wheels on my syringe to increase the flow of ADAM into my blood as I faced off against the Big Daddy. Jamie, having recovered her sensibilities, scrambled back, hiding in the doorway of the apartment as she watched.

Too busy watching her retreat, I left my guard down, allowing the Bouncer to move with more speed than I thought possible for something his size. Spinning up his drill, he smashed it in an uppercut against my body, the hit tossing me back, probably breaking something. Luckily I had the presence of mind to recover and managed to brace myself against the wall as he charged at me, drill braced.

Switching plasmids, I felt a chill run down my arm as icicles formed at my fingertips, and permafrost crawled up my wrist. I kicked off the wall as the Big Daddy barreled past me, using my momentum to grab his swim gear and hook myself onto his back. Planting my hand onto his shell, I encased him in ice, freezing him in his tracks. Scanning the surface for a port in his suit, I found my mark and and plunged my needle inside, draining his ADAM. He thawed faster than I thought he would, a huge meaty hand reaching up to pluck me off and slam me against the ground. I rolled to avoid the steel-toed boot smashing into the floor, creating a crater in the wood as his drill came down next, barely missing me, boring through the wood, splinters flying free as chips of drywall crumbled straight through the ground.

I teleported away as he came down for a second smash, re-appearing a short distance away. Feeling drained, I knew I didn't have much EVE left and resolved to conserve it as the Bouncer looked up. Seeing that I'd changed positions, he stomped the ground with his boot in irritation, drawing a loud creak from the entire building as dust showered from the ceiling. I ran forward, hoping to catch him off-guard, sliding under his drill swing and jabbing his undercarriage with my needle. He growled in pain at the hit, but I recovered too slow, and he turned too quickly. A huge gloved hand grabbed my helmet lifting me off my feet like I was a ragdoll.

I couldn't teleport, his mass too big to support both of us, my arms flailed weakley, trying to knock him off as he thundered victoriously, squeezing my head. The pressure became unbearable as I felt rivets pop and metal cave inward. Turning, he slammed me into the wall and revved up his drill, boring it into my abdomen, directly below my ribs. A shower of gore spilled loose as I screamed, feeling every blade as it spun around inside of me.

"Big Sister!" Jamie shouted in panic as the other Little Sister cheered encouragement. I was barely conscious, my body limp as the Big Daddy tossed me to the ground, bearing down on me. I looked around as much as I could with blood clouding my eye. Chum-like bits of my body littered the ground as the Big Daddy stepped between the holes in the floor he'd made, the wood straining under his boot. I weakly raised an arm, concentrated as much as I could, and fired Winter Blast directly underneath him. The next step he took forward, his drill raised to kill, came directly down on the snap-frozen ground and broke it instantly, sending him straight through the floor. The sheer weight of his body heavy enough to smash through three more levels before finally stopping when it hit the ground, unmoving, either unconscious or dead. My body wracked with coughs as I looked up, barely conscious. Jamie approached the Little Sister, who backpedaled, screaming out for Mr. Bubbles before tearfully shoving Jamie aside and dashing for a vent at the end of the hall. "I'm going to tell Eleanor's mommy on you!" She scolded, scrabbling back up into the darkness.

I let my head drop onto the ground, the gaping hole in my midsection throbbing, I could almost feel the air blowing in my newly-opened cavity as it leaked blood and sour-smelling fluid everywhere. Jamie ran over to me, tears in her eyes, careful to circle around the hole in the floor.

"Big Sister! I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to-I just wanted to help!" She pleaded, her eyes glassy as she tried not to look at my wound, putting her hand on my shoulder. I increased the flow of ADAM to my body, accelerating my healing factor, and numbing the pain. Letting me push forward a little more as I propped myself up on one elbow, trying to get to my feet but stumbling. Jamie held up her hands, unsure of what to do. "No! No, you have to rest."

But I couldn't, I knew that Lamb would hunt us down. Anomalies in the Family were not accepted, especially not if they interfered with her flow of ADAM. I crouched down and touched the cage, indicating for her to climb in, which she did, albeit hesitantly, hands grasping the bars nervously as I used the wall to stand upright, heading back into the room towards the balcony. My quiet place was nearby, I could go there-Lamb didn't know about it. No one did except for me.

Stumbling across and onto the rim of the balcony, I tried not to look down lest my newfound self-preservation kick in and relied on my upper arm strength to drag myself up into the maintenance shaft. Half-crawling, half-dragging myself down the familiar pathways, I took frequent breaks to catch my breath before pushing onward. Jamie waited quietly behind me, her nervousness palpable as I found the dark exception in at the bottom of the vent, trying to lower myself down as much as I could before resigning to falling the rest of the way, almost losing consciousness as I hit the ground on my side, spilling Jamie out from the cage. She let out a hiss of pain before recovering, not badly hurt as she took my hand, helping me to the corner of the room and propping me up against the wall, the many leaks and drips in the room calming me down. My wound leaked deep red, staining the hand that I held over it as I lazily turned towards Jamie.

I felt my eyelids getting heavier as blood flowed freely, I was weak-my ADAM-given healing factor was draining my body as much as it could to keep me alive. My vision swam as Jamie gave me careful looks, her eyebrows knit. Those eyes...they had such empathy in them, nothing like the empty glowing orbs she sported before.

"...are you going to be all right?" She asked me, her voice nearly cracking with anxiety. "You can't leave me, don't become an angel. I don't even know your name yet."

Realizing that I could die here, I became resolute. Very slowly gathering all my strength, I lifted my arms to my head. I worked the seal above my neck, unlatching it and reaching up, trying to gather strength in my arms to remove my head. Jamie understood what I was trying to do as my hands slipped off, dropping to the ground.

I straightened my head as much as I could as she reached forward and put both of those tiny hands on either side of my head, gingerly lifting it off. When she got halfway up, I took a gasp of air, the exhale ejecting a cloud of mist from my mouth. I tasting the moisture in the oxygen, feeling it on my tongue and teeth for the first time in years and years. She lifted with all her strength, my head obviously heavy for her before she finally managed to remove the sphere completely. I looked at her, emotion welling in my chest as I saw the young girl without the cloudiness of the lens. Jamie's face was round, and her eyes were a beautiful brown, large like a puppy's. She rested a hand on my chest, the other cradling the metal orb in her lap. I raised a shaking hand up to cup her cheek, stroking it...it felt so smooth. I pushed back her hair as she swallowed visibly, those big compassionate eyes growing shiny with tears.

"You're beautiful." Suddenly remembering I could see, I turned to the side, peering into a clear, dark puddle of water. Inside of it was a face I didn't even recognize...her hair may have been a dirty blonde once, but was now filthy and greasy enough that only a hint of color showed through. She had dark eyebrows that contrasted her hair, and eyes that glowed faintly yellow as she studied me through the water. Her name came to me all of a sudden, my name.

I raised my arm just enough to scrape the needle of my weapon against the ground, Jamie turned and looked closely.

"P.."

I hesitated for a moment, my vision swimming before I moved on to the next letter.

"A…"

My eyelids felt so heavy, I wanted to sleep so badly...but Jamie grasped my glove to guide it and I looked at her, continuing.

"I...G…"

She and I finished the last letter together.

"E. Paige? Your name is Paige?" Jamie looked at me in a new light as I stared right back into her eyes. A second later she was on me, her arms thrown around my neck as she cried into my dirty hair, smiling as she sniffled.

I placed a hand on her back as she curled up beside me, feeling my strength leave as I leaned against her head, feeling her warm little body press up against mine as Rapture melted away.