Hello fellow reader's im glad we meet again in the tenth chapter of tales of a broken city, I never really thought that the story would get a good response from the website, but here I am now (not that im planning to quit, this story is going on whether you like it or not).
Before I go on, I want to thank Majora098 for helping me out, giving me ideas for the story and character development, he helped me out of a sort of writers block that had taken over me, but no thanks to him that's over and the story can go on.
"*Sight*….well let's get this over with!" I don't own anything from the Bioshock franchise, all rights are reserved for 2k games and irrational games, this is just a friendly fan-fic with entertainment purposes only I hope you enjoy it and PLEASE! Don't forget to review, all critics and tips are welcomed!
Chapter 10 A Forgotten Past.
The time that lapsed after the sister took off her helmet, was accompanied by an uncomfortable silence for both of them, Nicholas couldn't help but stare at her even though he knew his face was redder than an angered daddies' porthole. On the other side the sister's previous trust towards the boy was slowly being replaced by both anger and embarrassment she didn't know why she had felt so secure with him to the point of revealing her face.
Nicholas sensed this change of emotion in the big sister's face and tried to reassure her, the last thing he wanted was an enraged sister in a closed space.
"Look, I am as confused as you are, I don't know why you saved me…..or why I saved you!" the sisters neutral look was begging to change, her green eyes were starting to glow a crimson red "ok maybe that wasn't the best idea" thought Nicholas.
"The point is that I'm really thankful….i….don't know why you did it but I just wanted to repay you….b..besides t..those splicers would have shredded me to pieces if…..if it hadn't been because of you a.. an..d" the sister was not looking at him anymore, instead she was fixing her suit, struggling to pull the zipper up with her gloved hands.
"Hey i…I can help you with that!" Nicholas saw his opportunity to approach the sister once more but just as he was going to grab her hand the sister backed away pushing her back into the rear wall and hissed as a violent warning.
Nicholas stood up from the side of his former bed he had been lying on and slowly backed out of room, being sure not to take his gaze off the menacing Sister. This made the sister relax; she began to lower herself onto bed once more and curled herself into a ball, she would have to work out her feelings.
"Do I really want to protect him?...but why?" she thought "why do I want to stay close to him…..is it because he makes me feel this way?" she thought as another one of those weird warm sensations swept over her "I need to think this through….is he really good for me? Or will I have to kill him?" the big sister looked at the door just in time to see the boy closing it behind him, if she wanted answers she would have to look for them.
Nicholas stepped away from the door, "what was that all about?!" he said out loud.
"HISSSSS"
Another warning from the sister forced the boy to retreat once more, why was the sister so angry at him if she had already saved him two times?!
Nicholas shrugged maybe she just needed to calm down after all this was something completely new for both of them. He headed back into the living room of the apartment and was about to seat on one of the old couches when he noticed the two corpses of his parents and the deteriorated state in which the apartment was on, he had work to do.
Nicholas got to the old bedroom that used to belong to his parents; he needed to use the bed sheets for what he was now planning to do. The old room was probably the most deteriorated part of the apartment, a huge leak had made a hole in the celling, crack and dents from long exposure had crawled their way through the walls and the smell of moist and rotten wood was unbearable but Nicholas didn't care about the state of the old bedroom, he wasn't planning to use it anyway.
He grabbed the old sheets from the king sized bed and pulled them off, they were soaking wet on one side and covered in dust in the other, he was about to leave when something caught his eye, it was row of two shelves of books that used to belong to his dad, Nicholas approached the shelve and read scanned the cover of the books, they were mostly titles such as guide to the Allin brother's field, principles of electric engineering and industrial engineering. They were worthless now, but back in the old days before the city's fall into chaos and civil war, they had been his parent's most treasured possessions and now they were the only things that reminded him of them.
They were both engineers, his mom was from Australia and his father from Morocco, they had met and fallen in love despite their cultural differences and he had sprouted from that love. They became a very recognized couple in their field, receiving many awards and discoveries, until one day they received an unusual invitation. Nicholas was only four at the time Rapture had invited his parents to their underwater life, it was in 1956 that a man that had vanished from the face of the earth, came to their old house in London, his name was Andrew Ryan, and he was seeking aid from his parents in a project, in exchange, he would give them a life free of control, free of state and free of god.
They moved to rapture two days before New Year's Eve, in 1956. He remembered them waiting In the night on the middle of a beach for something.
"Mbarek, this is crazy!" said his mom "we have been tricked, he promised he'd be here an hour ago!...this is probably a hoax!"
"I know a man o trust when I see one" replied his father "and I know that Mr. Andrew Ryan would never lie to us, not after all those photos and blueprints he showed us!"
"Im telling you, the man tricked us! We should go back home this weather will harm Nicholas and…."
"SWOOOOSHHH"
She never got to finish her argument; they all turned towards the source of the noise and found themselves facing an emerging bathysphere a few feet from the coast. The bathysphere's crew helped us in bringing our few belongings into the diving machine, the last thing I remember from that night was the sound of water enveloping the craft as we began our journey towards our new home…..Rapture.
When he finally woke up the bathysphere was already approaching the underwater city, both of his parents were looking out one of the portholes amazed by the marvel that man's power had managed to build.
After they had established in what used to be one of the elite neighborhoods of the underwater city Andrew Ryan informed his parents about their new job, they were tasked with the maintenance and administration on one of the most modern marvels of the technology, Hephaestus the heart of the city! Andrew Ryan said that he had chosen them for their unique skills in the art of engineering and that their contribution to the city would not go unnoticed.
Nicholas returned to reality, he had not reviewed those memories in a long time, sometimes he thought that he had never seen the surface and that he had been born in this hell hole. Nicholas looked at his father's old books and stuffed them onto of the bed sheets he was taking. Time was something he could spare now and a few books would come in handy in order to make his life a little less depressing.
Nicholas placed the books on one of the living room tables, he would read them latter right now he had a duty which he had avoided for long enough. The boy opened one of the bed sheets and placed it besides the rotten remain of his parent's, he almost puked when he grabbed the bony limb of his mother…or was it his father? It was hard to tell after ten years of decay. Nicholas was not grossed out by many things, after living and killing for ten years, he had already gotten used to the gore, but they were his family for god's sake!
Finally after what had seemed like an eternity for Nicholas he was done, both his mother's and father's remains were separated and winded inside the bed sheets. Nicholas had never been a man of faith both because his parents had never taught him any of their two religions and because of the hell he had had to live for ten years, god had no place in Nicholas's mind, only survival and broken memories. So instead of giving them a prayer he showed them his feelings.
He cried, silently sobbing, he let out the tears that he had been retaining for over ten years. And while he looked at the remains of his former parents and cried, memories flashed thought him once more.
Being in charge of one of the most complex and modern power sources in the world meant that Nicholas didn't get to spend much time with his parents so since their arrival to rapture Nicholas basically saw his parents twice a week, they literally lived in Hephaestus until the civil war broke out and they were forced to take refuge in their homes, but Nicholas felt like he was living with two complete strangers and he found himself wishing his old nanny would return Mrs. Grace Holloway.
She was a great star in Rapture, and was also a close friend to him and his family that's why she offered to take care of him, but he lost all contact with her when the war began, the last he ever heard of her was that she had been working for the Rapture family.
Nicholas dragged the bodies of his parents down to the stone floor of the building's lobby, it had been hard, but his determination had kept him going, he was going to finally give his parent's remains eternal rest, Nicholas laid the bodies in the middle of the reception and placed a few pieces of wood from old furniture of the lobby over them. He then took out a box of matches that he had managed to scavenge from his old apartment and set fire to the old bed sheets.
Seeing the fire dance around the burning bodies of his parents made the boys mind display yet another flash of memories from his past that almost made him collapse.
When the war began to escalate most people stayed home, fearing that one of those ADAM addicts would come to get them but sometimes Nicholas managed to sneak out of the house. It was in one of these escapes that he met his first and only friends in the now crumbling city, he found them playing in the lobby with a small fire truck.
"Hello?" asked the young Nicholas shyly "can I play with you too?"
The two kids looked at him; they were surprised to see another one of them.
"w..well I suppose" said the boy, a little big shorter than Nicholas "yo…you are not one of those crazy people that run outside are you?" asked the boy while he eyed his new companion.
"Well do I look like one?" Nicholas asked back.
"No….i didn't mean t.." the boy began to stammer but was but off by the girl that was playing with him.
"Look, my name is Aisha, he is Anthony and yes you can play with us, but don't yell or anything or you will alert our parents" the girl stepped back.
Nicholas was impressed by the girls for of handling the situation, she didn't seem like an eight year old. He eyed the couple, Anthony was really thin, he had raven black hair and used a pair of glasses that seem too big for him. Aisha was tall, she passed Anthony and almost reached Nicholas, she was also thin, and had a long black hair which highlighted her deep green eyes, and like all of them her skin was sickly pale.
"So are you guy's brothers or what?" asked Nicholas, this caused both of his new companions to laugh
"No, no we are just good friends" answered Anthony while he readjusted his glasses which continually slipped off his face.
Friend, the term seemed so odd for Nicholas, he had never really had any friends, nor in the surface nor in the underwater city, had he never been able to socialize completely because his parents were always moving around.
"Ok, are you two done chatting? Can we now return to our games?" questioned Aisha impatiently.
"Yeah sure, what were you guys playing anyway?" answered Nicholas.
"Well we were pretending to be firefighters but now that we are three, we could play tag or hide and seek" proposed Anthony.
"And how do you play tag exactly" asked Nicholas who had never been able to play with friends in this way.
"well like this you dummy" said Aisha as she shoved her hand into Nicholas's chest "TAG YOU'RE IT!" she declared and with that Anthony and Aisha ran away, Nicholas running after them not really knowing why.
They saw themselves many more times after that and none of their parents ever found out. As the conflicts escalated and grew into a full civil war so did their friendship.
Nicholas was snapped back into reality when the last of the fires had burned out, it was done, he had given his parents eternal rest after ten years of running away from the past nightmares. He stood up from the floor and headed back to the apartment, he felt like if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders, he feeled free.
As Nicholas approached the apartment he tripped into a metal piece that caught his attention, it looked like some sort of shoulder piece and it had and odd symbol imprinted in it which looked like a capital I, Nicholas recognized it as iota, the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. His ears were then able to get a glimpse of a noise coming from the apartment.
"Clank clank scrape"
It sounded like metal rubbing against metal and concrete; Nicholas slowly approached his apartment trying to find the source of the noise, he held his revolver at ready.
"Clank scrape scrape"
There it was again and it was definitely coming from his apartment. Nicholas entered the his old home and began to search for the source of the noise but instead something else caught his attention, an eerie red glow was coming from his room, the room from where he had left the upset Big sister.
Nicholas the realized something, the big sister had been observing him while he burned his parents remains and dropped the piece of armor that he now held when she headed back into the apartment! But before Nicholas could finish his reasoning, another sound coming from his former room made him react.
He quickly opened the door of his old room and entered, his revolver at ready, only to find nothing in it, there was no Big Sister! Nicholas began to wonder were the metal girl had gone to when a piece of the roof fell in his line of sight, forcing him to look up, and there stuck to the ceiling like one of the spider splicers was the Big Sister, with her almost complete armor on.
Before the boy could react the sister lunged at him, "This is it" thought Nicholas as he waited for the cold metal from the needle to pierce his chest, but it never happened, instead the sister passed over him, and landed behind him, he tried to turn around but before he could face the red porthole the sister snatched her missing piece of armor and shoved Nicholas aside.
Nicholas got back to his feet and ran behind her, but the sister was too fast and before Nicholas could make it to the staircase she had already leaped off and fallen in the lobby. But before the sister could make her escape the boy yelled at her.
"WAIT! IOTA WAIT! DINT GO!" but it was too late, the sister simply looked over her shoulder and sprinted out of the lobby.
Nicholas was alone, once more, abandoned to lead with his memories and past.