Gosh, I sure hope that this story is good enough to warrant these super long chapters. As promised, the next chapter! Enjoy! And thanks again to Jared for the help!
"You were saying…"
Elizabeth jumps at the voice, grabbing her pistol and turning around, only to find Jack's adorably confused face mere inches from the barrel. He raises his hands in front of him in defense, clearly startled.
"Whoa, what the hell, Liz?"
Elizabeth blinks, lowering her weapon. She breathes a sigh of relief that Jack is moving again-but her dilemma hits her back in the face.
The Luteces couldn't stop her now. Or maybe they would. They might take greater measures. But Rosalind had said they were needed elsewhere.
And the universe collapsing, the timelines, the future…
Is Jack worth all of that?
...No, stupid question.
But is now the time? Maybe she should wait. Maybe she should wait just a little longer. Then she could confess everything about only herself, correct every lie. That wouldn't interfere with the future, would it?
She looks up at his face, still concerned even after she had lowered her gun. She could tell him now. She could if she wanted to.
There was no better time.
...So why was it so hard?
"Elizabeth," she says finally, "It's...my name is Elizabeth."
"... Are you okay?" Jack asks, the worry plain in his voice.
"Yeah!" Elizabeth clears her throat, holstering the pistol, "I just… yeah." She looks up at him, and opens her mouth as if to speak. But then she exhales, and looks away. "We should keep moving."
Without waiting for a response, she continues forward as Jack watches her, with a mix of bewilderment and concerned worry on his face.
"So, we have to build a bomb to get to Ryan? Why the hell?"
"We need to overload the core. Apparently, building that bomb and setting it off near the core will do the trick."
"Well, yeah, but why a bomb?"
"Do I look like an electrical engineer?"
"No, but you're probably smart enough to be one."
Elizabeth frowns at the blush that creeps up her cheeks. She ducks her head, trying to hide her face from her companion.
She looks up from the floor and to her chagrin sees Jack trying not to seem too pleased by her reaction. No doubt this was fun for him-it had been a while since he'd seen her so flustered.
He clears his throat, attempting and failing to look serious again, "Anyway. You were saying?"
Elizabeth narrows her eyes at him, but doesn't mention his cockiness. "We need that bomb to get to Ryan. Let's find the stuff and get it assembled."
"Ah... great. Another one of those missions. Alright, what's the first on the list?"
"Some R-34 Wire Clusters. We also need some cans of ionic gel. Those are the two things that we have immediate access to, anyways-we might as well get those first."
"Fine..." Jack says, sounding defeated. "So where are we supposed to find this stuff again?"
"Well, we should be able to find some R-34 clusters on a Big Daddy-obviously, we'll want a dead one. As for the cans of ionic gel, well-I'm not sure. Best to just start looking and hope we find what we're looking for."
"Should we split up again? I can look for the Big Daddies. I've taken down a few live ones before, as you know."
Elizabeth nods, remembering the countless times she and Jack had wrestled with the enormous monsters. "Are you sure you can handle them yourself?"
"I'll be fine, trust me."
"Okay then, I guess I'll take the ionic gel...whatever that is. Once I'm done, I'll help you finish the Big Daddies if I can. Just… don't get yourself killed."
"Will do. Keep your radio on, okay?"
Elizabeth nods.
"Alright, see you soon then. Hopefully," Jack smiles, as they head back to the small space from which they had entered.
"Okay, how are there no Big Daddies around? Seriously, every place we've been to before has been crawling with the bastards, but now, right when it would be most convenient, poof! They're all gone!"
"Just calm down, Jack. I know there's at least one-I heard him moving around in the background earlier. Again, you should probably search for dead ones-"
"What, exactly, do you think I've been doing?"
A pause. "You mean, you've only searched for dead ones? Jack, I hate to say it, but-"
"No, no," he sighs. "No. I've been looking for Big Daddies, dead and alive-but there aren't any. They just...disappeared."
"Well, like I said, I heard one earlier. Might wanna check it out."
"Yeah, okay. Good to know. What about you? Any luck?"
"Yeah, actually. I got one can, but we need one more to assemble the bomb."
Jack whistles, impressed. "Wow. That was fast. Well, what else do we need for the bomb? Maybe you could get that as well."
"Not likely. We need a charge of Nitroglycerin, which, I don't even know where the hell we would find that."
"Well, I don't know what the hell it even is. Maybe Kyburz had something about it?"
"Huh. Well, his audio diaries didn't mention anything about it aside from the name...wait. Where's his office again?"
"How the hell would I know?"
"Good point. Alright, I'll find it by myself. Good luck hunting down that Big Daddy!"
"Wait, Liz, what are you doing? Liz!"
But the radio doesn't respond.
Jack sighs. "Well, good luck to you too, then," he says to the radio, frowning.
Knowing Elizabeth, she's about to do something either incredibly brave or incredibly foolhardy.
He really hopes it was the first one.
In the distance, he hears the long, low groan of a Big Daddy, accompanied shortly after by the high-pitched tones of a Little Sister's song.
Looking towards the noise (and tightening his grip on his wrench), he takes a deep breath, grimacing. He bites his lip nervously before swallowing and heading towards the noise.
Elizabeth finally finds another can of ionic gel near the very place that she's been looking for. She adds the can to her inventory and cautiously approaches the door, making sure to look around for tripwires and traps.
When she first walks in, she doesn't see any-but just because she doesn't see them doesn't mean they're not there. She takes another step-and immediately regrets her decision.
A sharp, painful shock courses through her body, briefly paralyzing her. It's gone almost as soon as it came, but Elizabeth still feels the aftermath, her heart racing and her head pounding. She hyperventilates for a while, trying her hardest to catch her breath but failing. Her own scream still rung in her ears, making her sudden headache worsen.
Once she calms herself down, however, she curses herself for not seeing the trap bolt that was right in front of her. Deciding that she wasn't going to make the same stupid mistake twice, she pulls out her pistol and aims it at the next one she sees, firing at the bolt that holds the trap, disabling it.
She does this for every trap she comes across in the small space. Once they're all disabled, she's able to move freely around Kyburz's office, looking for the Nitroglycerin charge.
At first, when she doesn't find anything, she frowns, wondering if it's not here after all.
But then she sees the button on the side of Kyburz's desk, cleverly hidden away so that no one but Kyburz could use it. She grins as she walks over to the desk, preparing to push the button.
Wait.
She hesitates, her finger hovering over the red button, unsure.
She doesn't even know what it does. Should she really press it? After all, it could be a trap just as much as it could be the key to finding out where that Nitroglycerin charge is.
Taking another look at the button, she decides that this is her only option. She slams her finger down, hoping that she didn't just screw herself to hell.
Once the Big Daddy has been defeated (and the Little Sister cured and escorted safely to a vent), Jack sets about searching the corpse of his fallen foe.
He finds a considerable amount of cash, as always-and something that looks like an R-34 cluster.
Success.
He grabs it and stuffs it into his pocket, making sure that he's got the whole thing before abandoning the Big Daddy.
Thwack.
Her last crossbow bolt goes straight through the offending Splicer's head, pinning him to the wall behind him. Elizabeth barely has time to look away in disgust before she's fending off another Splicer's attack, quickly swapping out her empty crossbow for her shotgun. She fires a shell into the Splicer's face-but he's not close enough for his head to explode, something that Elizabeth is grateful for.
She fires a bolt of Shock Jockey at a splicer crawling on the ceiling. Elizabeth staggers back a bit with the force of the Plasmid-apparently she had forgotten just how powerful these things are.
The Splicer shrieks, falling from the ceiling and landing in a heap on the floor in front of Elizabeth. Elizabeth readies her weapon, aiming at the Splicer's head, but she rolls away at the last second, causing Elizabeth to hit the floor instead. Grumbling, she turns around, looking for the last Splicer.
But she's nowhere in sight.
Elizabeth holds her breath, making sure her weapon is loaded before poking around, trying to find her.
Nothing so far...
"She's still going to tell him."
"Perhaps. But there's nothing we can do anymore. It's in the hands of fate to decide."
"'Fate.' 'Destiny.' Are you sure you're feeling all right?"
"Humor was never your strong suit, brother."
"All the same, what will become of this timeline if she does tell the boy?"
"The universe has a way of righting itself one way or another. We must simply be patient."
Jack fires an Electro Bolt at the Big Daddy, which stops in its tracks, its body convulsing with the shock of the Plasmid. Jack raises his shotgun and fires a shell right into its face (or what Jack assumed would be his face, if he had one), causing it to stumble back, trip, and fall to the ground, dead.
Jack grins, victorious, but then the cries of the Little Sister reaches his ears. He looks on as the girl runs to her fallen protector, crying, "Get up, Mr. Bubbles! Get up!"
Jack sighs, knowing what he has to do next, and knowing that it won't be easy. He walks over to her, kneeling down so that he's eye level with the Little Sister. She screams, putting her hands over her ears and shaking her small head furiously.
"No! No, no, no! Leave me alone!" she cries. "You killed Mr. B! Go away!"
Jack takes a deep breath and slowly raises his hand, intending to put it on the girl's forehead.
She dodges his hand, though, and tries to run away from him-but Jack is quicker. He grabs her arm before she can move any farther and places his hand on her forehead-a bright, white light fills the room, and Jack knows that the girl has been successfully cured.
The blinding light recedes and in place of the Frankensteinian creature he had been holding stands a very small (and very frightened) young girl. She looks around wildly, apparently not used to her surroundings.
"Mr. Bubbles?" she asks, frightened. She then sees the dead Big Daddy not too far from her, and her eyes widen in fear.
"It's okay," Jack says to her, his voice soothing. "You're safe now."
He doesn't mention the For now, that he adds in thought.
"But what about Mr. B?" the girl asks, scared. She looks at the Big Daddy again, as if knowing that he was her former protector.
"Mr. B left," he lies, his heart breaking at the sad expression that crosses the child's face. "But Mama Tenenbaum is still here. She's gonna take care of you, okay?"
At hearing the name "Mama Tenenbaum," the girl's mood changes in an instant. Her face breaks out in a smile, and she wipes away the tears in her eyes, shouting, "Yay! Mama Tenenbaum!"
Jack smiles, holding out his hand for the girl to take so that he can escort her to a vent. "That's right. I'll take you to her, but you need to follow me, okay?"
The girl nods seriously, taking his offered hand and gripping it tightly. "Are we going to go through the hidey-holes?"
"You are," Jack tells her. "They'll take you to Mama Tenenbaum. I can't fit through them, though. I'm too big."
She giggles, as if Jack's just told the funniest joke in the world. "You sure are! I saw one awhile ago, Mister. We'll go to that one! Follow me!"
She tugs on his hand enthusiastically, tugging him along, and Jack, left with no other option, is forced to follow.
She swings her lead pipe at the frozen Splicer and winces as the Splicer shatters loudly, the noise echoing in the large, mostly empty room. She takes extra caution not to slip on any of the frozen shards that the action created, tip-toeing through the room and over to Kyburz's desk once more.
She looks around the room, disappointed. Is it really not here? Elizabeth had thought for sure that it would be.
Just as she's about to turn around again, something catches her eye; a round, glowing something. It takes Elizabeth longer than it should to realize that that's what she's been looking for.
She grins when she does, though, and hurries over to it, lest the secret panel close again. She reaches out to grab it, but then stops-she should probably get a cloth or something to wrap it in. After all, the thing could be radioactive.
She finds a cloth and carefully wraps it around the charge, which she then places in her satchel. After she's made sure that it won't fall out without her noticing, she heads out-but not before radioing Jack to tell him that she's done.
"Up you go…" Jack says, as he hoists the little girl up to the level of the vent opening.
The girl giggles, swinging her legs in the air before climbing in through lip of the circular hole. Before disappearing down the shaft, she turns around to look at Jack. "Thank you, Mister!"
"You're welcome," Jack smiles. "Oh, by the way, have you seen a Big D-I mean, have you seen another Mr. Bubbles anywhere around here?"
"I have, yeah!" she replies, beaming. "Over where the big, orange thingy is!"
"Big orange-you mean the core?"
The little girl nods enthusiastically. "Uh-huh!"
Jack nods too, smiling. "Thank you…"
The little girl stares at him for a couple of seconds before evidently realizing that he wants her name. She sticks out her hand and says, "Emma! I'm Emma!"
"Hi, Emma," he says, taking her hand and shaking it gently. "Thanks for your help. Now, you know how to get to Mama Tenenbaum, right?"
She nods vigorously. "I do! Thanks for your help, Mister!"
And with that, she turns around and disappears in the vent.
Jack watches her go, waiting a minute before leaving himself, but for very different reasons.
This is ridiculous, Elizabeth thinks to herself as she rounds another corner and-as expected-no Jack.
Where the hell is he?
She doesn't know, but she hopes that he's not dead-he hadn't answered her when she'd radioed him to tell him she was done. She wonders if maybe his radio died.
God, she hopes not.
For once, the avenues within Rapture are quiet, devoid of gunfire, screeching Splicers, or the footsteps of Big Daddies.
She hopes that the absence of the loud, ominous footsteps are because Jack's already taken care of them.
It was surprising, honestly. She had never seen anything defeat a Big Daddy down here. Frankly, aside seeing the Big Daddies unlucky enough to fall beneath the shrapnel of the crumbling city, she didn't know it was possible to best them before Jack had done it.
Jack…
The thought of him makes her stomach churn-though, this time, it's unpleasantly.
What is she supposed to do?
She knows what she's supposed to do-she's supposed to let her friend, her only friend since Booker, walk right into a trap. She's supposed to lie, to deceive him-just as "Atlas" is doing right now. She's supposed to stand back and let him die, all in the name of preserving the goddamn timeline.
Well, screw that.
She's not losing someone else she cares about-not if she can help it.
She doesn't have much time to dwell on that, however-they have a mission, after all, and the sooner they complete it, the better.
With the objective again set in her mind, she pulls herself out of her thoughts. She suddenly hears the echo of distant gunfire, followed by a crash she can feel from the ground she is standing on. Inhaling sharply, she clutches her weapon tighter and sprints forward towards the noise.
That had better not be Jack, she thinks as she rounds the corner, and yep-just as she had feared, there he was, getting his ass handed to him by a Big Daddy.
"Jack!"
"Liz!" Jack manages, diving again out of the way as the Big Daddy obliterates the spot behind him. He whips his head around to face her, a look of panic on his face. "It's okay! I've got this under control-" He interrupts himself to lunge backwards, the Big Daddy swiping at him again.
Elizabeth scoffs. "Yeah, I can see that! Just hang tight, I'll be right there!"
The long groan of the Big Daddy drowns out whatever Jack says next, but Elizabeth figures he's probably trying to dissuade her from joining the fight. She pretends she didn't hear him and fires a bullet into the Big Daddy's helmet.
The Big Daddy whips around, its multiple red eyes fixating onto her. Elizabeth barely has time to think, Oh, shit, before it's lunging at her, the drill in its hand rotating violently as it draws his hand back and prepares to bash her face in.
Suddenly, a layer of frost appears over its body, and it halts in place barely a foot above Elizabeth's ducked head. Behind him, Jack lowers his hand as Elizabeth backs away.
"I told you to get out of here!" Jack says, pushing his hair out of his eyes angrily. His eyes flash dangerously, but Elizabeth isn't fazed...much.
"Like I'm going to listen to you," Elizabeth snaps back, equally pissed. "That thing was about to kill you!"
"And it was about to kill you too! I used the last of my EVE to freeze it thanks to—"
There's a sudden cracking noise, and the two of them immediately scramble away from the Big Daddy as it breaks through the layer of ice and turns to face them.
As the Big Daddy gives a deep, guttural growl, Jack and Elizabeth instantly forget their bickering. Elizabeth watches as Jack's face hardens-she can practically see his mind going into combat mode. He steps in front of her, his body shielding hers. That familiar feeling is back in her chest again-but she's quickly snapped back to present day as Jack fires off a pistol round.
Jack rolls to the left as Elizabeth leaps towards the right, and the Big Daddy swipes at the air behind them with its massive drill. For a moment after, it seems confused, as if it can't decide who to chase after first.
Jack helps it make up its mind by firing another pistol round into its back, sending the Big Daddy into a rage, barrelling after him. Jack whips out an EVE hypo and plunges it into his arm, causing it to freeze over with the effects on Winter Blast. He ducks behind an overturned dining room table, out of Elizabeth's sight. Fortunately for him (and unfortunately for Elizabeth), he's also out of sight of the Big Daddy, who, upon realizing that his target is no longer visible, turns its attention to Elizabeth.
Knowing it's going to charge either way, she lifts her crossbow and fires repeatedly at its metal head. The Big Daddy roars again, pointing its drill forward as it rockets towards Elizabeth. She dives out of the way just before it can hit her, but the shockwave of the drill's impact on the wall still jars her.
"Unzip 'em, Mr. B!" its Little Sister cries from her place on its shoulders, her tiny fists curled into balls atop the metal monster's head.
Elizabeth stops in her tracks when she hears the little girl, still screaming at her protector to kill them.
No, it can't be…
Just then, Jack's head peeks out from his hiding place, and, seeing the Big Daddy cornering Elizabeth, proceeds to snap his fingers, setting the metal monstrosity ablaze. Elizabeth jumps back in surprise as a couple of flames appear on the sleeve of her blouse. She quickly dodges the Big Daddy's drill swing, joining Jack in his hiding spot. She pats her sleeve until the fire dies down, and then turns to Jack.
"I thought you were out of EVE," she says, out of breath from not only being on fire, but also from the unexpected plot twist she had just discovered.
Jack, seemingly unaware of her sudden crisis, grins, holding up an empty hypo. "Found one one the corpse over there. Are you out too?"
"I don't splice, I told you that-" she stops when she sees the look on his face. "...Yeah, I'm out."
"Here, have the extra one. I'll be right back." He hands her another hypo and stands, the flames on his fingers dancing merrily as he snaps his fingers. Elizabeth hears the Big Daddy groan in pain, as Jack leaps over the table and rejoins the fight.
Elizabeth stays back, intending to catch her breath before aiding him. She clutches her stomach, breathing heavily.
"Hot! Hot! Hot!" the Little Sister cries, none too pleased with Jack's latest action. Jack himself yells something that might have been, "Sorry!", but Elizabeth can't hear over everything else that's going on at the moment.
Elizabeth cringes at the screams, remembering the last time that a Little Sister had uttered those words. She squeezes her eyes shut, trying to block out the memories that are threatening to resurface…
"Liz!" Jack calls suddenly, sounding frantic. "Could you give me a hand here?"
"Hot! Hot! Hot!" the girl screams, sounding scared. Elizabeth can hear her as she scuttles through the vents, trying to find an opening before she's burned alive...
"Liz! Help me out! I'm out of EVE! There's a hypo over there somewhere, I saw it-"
Jack is suddenly cut off by what sounds like the Big Daddy knocking him upside the head, but Elizabeth is too lost in her own world of regret and guilt to even hear him.
Cries of "Too hot! Too hot!" echo through the vents, increasing in volume as the Little Sister realizes that she's trapped with no way out. "I want out, I want out!" she cries, banging on one of the closed openings. "I WANT OUT!"
"ELIZABETH!"
A loud crash right next to her head is what finally brings her back to reality. Looking around, she finds that the Big Daddy has found her hiding spot and has split the table in two, leaving Elizabeth vulnerable to its attacks. Elizabeth barely has time to roll out of the way before it strikes again, this time much closer to where her head would have been had she not moved.
She grabs her crossbow and fires bolt after bolt at its head, not bothering to check if it's doing any damage or how much ammunition she has left. In hindsight, however, she probably should have, because one click later, and she realizes that she's out of ammunition.
She curses, intending to reload as fast as possible-but she realizes, to her horror, that that was the last of it. Thinking quickly, she thrusts out her hand, intending to at least shock her attacker-but then remembers that she doesn't have any EVE. Groaning, she looks for Jack, hoping that he'll be able to help her-and finds him lying unconscious by the wall a few feet away.
"Jack!" she shouts, beginning to run forward, then remembers the Big Daddy sure to tear him up if she lead it towards him.
Instead, she keeps her distance and scans the room for the hypo Jack was talking about while trying to ignore the cries of the Little Sister. She finally spots it next to the side entrance a couple yards away, on top of an overturned refrigerator. She looks from the hypo to the Big Daddy, and plans her next move.
Taking a deep breath, she gets up and sprints as fast as she can towards the hypo. She doesn't stop, not even when she hears the Big Daddy angrily stomping towards her, its drill revving.
Almost there…
She trips at the last second, falling face-down on the bloody floor. That's the least of her worries, however-she can hear the Big Daddy's footsteps come closer and closer.
As Elizabeth scrambles back to face the Big Daddy, a bullet suddenly ricochets off of the monster's helmet. Elizabeth turns and sees a Leadhead Splicer at the opposite entrance, a gun in her hand.
For a few moments, the Big Daddy just stops. It takes another step towards Elizabeth, before the Splicer fires again at its back. Then, finally, it turns its attention behind it to the offending Leadhead.
"Where's your little ADAM girl, huh?!" she screeches, looking around wildly, as if the object of her desires wasn't right in front of her, clinging to the tin man's back. "Where is she?!"
Elizabeth, wondering what the hell the Splicer is talking about, looks up at the Big Daddy's back, expecting to see the Little Sister still holding tightly to her protector's back, her eyes shut tightly as they had been the entire fight.
But she's not there.
Frantic, Elizabeth scans the room for any sign of her-but she doesn't find anything. She makes to get up from the floor, but a stray bullet from the Splicer's gun pierces the floor beside her, causing her to scramble back against the wall in a moment of panic.
Remembering her previous objective, she looks around and, to her delight, finds that she's right next to the EVE hypo. Grinning, she reaches out and grabs it, not thinking twice before plunging it into her wrist and emptying it.
Immediately, she can feel her dormant Plasmids becoming active, her hand becoming blue with the pulses of electricity and and her ears filling with the crackle of Shock Jockey. Aiming for the Splicer, she pushes out her hand, praying that she doesn't miss.
The Splicer's subsequent scream and violent spasms confirm that she hit her mark, and she nearly screams hallelujah.
As the Big Daddy lumbers towards the sparking Leadhead, Elizabeth dives forward for Jack's shotgun, then gets up to aim it at the Big Daddy. She waits as the Big Daddy pummels the Leadhead into the wall with its drill.
It shouldn't take more than a few rounds of shotgun to finish off the damage she and Jack had already inflicted-at least, she thinks. They had done quite a bit of damage to it already, and with Jack's new modifications, his weapon packed quite a punch.
A bead of sweat rolls down the side of her cheek as she waits. After a few moments, the Big Daddy gets bored of drilling into the Leadhead's corpse and pauses.
Bracing herself, Elizabeth pulls the trigger.
The force of the shot catches her by surprise, and she nearly drops the gun, but remembers to grip it tightly. The Big Daddy roars in outrage, turning to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth stands her ground, clutching the gun tightly as she fires again, shutting her eyes tight, not daring to hope. A bang and a loud thud later, Elizabeth hears crying from none other than the Little Sister, whom Elizabeth finally spots as she emerges from her hiding space, rushing to the Big Daddy's side.
"Mr. Bubbles! Noooo!" the girl cries, falling to her knees and sobbing over the corpse of her metal protector.
Elizabeth tries not to let her knees buckle, becoming weak from being mere seconds of being drilled to bits… and from seeing her again, the whole reason she had returned to this dreadful place.
She slowly takes a few steps towards the girl as she cries. Elizabeth winces when she accidentally steps on a piece of glass; the noise attracts the girl's attention, and she stiffens, sniffling. She straightens, and turns to look at Elizabeth, fixing her with a look of utter hatred and heart-brokenness.
"Sally?" Elizabeth asks, still cautiously approaching the Little Sister, her arm outstretched, "We're… we're here to help. We… Jack can cure you."
The Little Sister is listening closely now, still looking at her loathingly, but now also eyeing her with curiosity. "Jack? Who's he?"
"He's going to save you," Elizabeth tells her, still creeping towards her ever so slowly. "He's going to take you home."
"Home?" Sally asks, now moving to stand up so that she and Elizabeth might be closer to eye-level. "What's that?"
"You'll see," Elizabeth says, finally reaching the little girl, who is still wary of the complete stranger (or so she thinks Elizabeth is, anyways) now directly in front of her. "Just come with me, and we'll go. Okay?"
Sally stares for a moment before she shakes her head vigorously, backing away from the woman who stands before her, looking a bit too eager for her liking. "No, I don't want to."
Elizabeth's brow furrows. "What do you mean?"
"I don't want to go. I want Mr. Bubbles!"
Elizabeth purses her lips, frowning. "I'm sorry, Mr. Bubbles can't… can't help you anymore. ...But Jack can. He's as tough as any Big Daddy, and he can protect you." She looks back at his unconscious body. "He's one of the only people left who cares about what happens in this sunken…" she trails off, trying to find a word slightly more withheld than "hellhole," but fails. "...hellhole."
She looks back at Sally and tries her best to smile despite the nervousness and nausea that she feels. "Do you want to meet him?"
The little girl hesitates, then nods ever-so-slightly.
"Okay," Elizabeth nods back, her faux smile in place for the little girl. "Just wait here and I'll wake him up."
Sally nods again and rests her head back on the Big Daddy's armor. Meanwhile, Elizabeth walks over to where Jack is, sitting unconscious against the wall, and shakes his shoulder, kneeling on the filthy floor so she can whisper in his ear.
"Jack, wake up."
He doesn't move.
"Jack," she tries again, shaking his shoulder again. "Jack, come on. Sally's counting on us."
Still nothing.
By now, Elizabeth is starting to panic, wondering if one of her worst fears has come true, if Jack is-
But then he gasps, his head snapping up to look around the empty room. His eyes scour the room, taking in everything that has occurred since he'd been knocked out. When he sees the dead Big Daddy and the Little Sister now looking at him curiously, his face adopts a panicked expression as he turns to look at her fully. The little girl cocks her head and furrows her brow, probably wondering what's wrong with him. Then Jack turns to Elizabeth, who had stepped back a bit once he had woken up, and his face instantly goes from panicked to calm as he gives her a cheeky smile.
"I don't suppose I somehow killed a Big Daddy in my sleep?"
"Nope," Elizabeth crosses her arms, "And now you owe me for saving your life."
"Well, that's embarrassing..." Jack grimaces and scratches the back of his head, but then he grins, his eyes twinkling proudly as he looks at his friend, "You did good, Liz."
Elizabeth smiles warmly in return, then remembers Sally, who is now watching their banter, and she turns bright red with embarrassment at having already forgotten the poor girl.
"Oh, Jack, there's somebody I want you to meet..."
A brilliant, blinding white light begins to fill the room as the tips of Jack's fingers glow with the tell-tale light purple light of salvation. Sally waits patiently as Jack places his hand on her forehead and tilts her head back, successfully purging her of her ADAM-induced fever dream.
Sally blinks as her eyes return to their normal blue, darting wildly around the room as she finally takes it what it actually looks like. A look of horror crosses her face as she quickly turns to Jack, who gives a warm smile as he kneels down so that he's eye level with her.
"Thank you," she finally says, after a moment's hesitation. She clasps her tiny hands together and shakes them in appreciation as Jack smiles at her.
"You're welcome," he says, patting her head.
Elizabeth watches the exchange from afar, the faux smile having returned since Jack woke up. Although she is happy she, Jack, and Sally are all alive, she can't shake the almost unbearable guilt she feels for being responsible for both of them in the first place. Judging by the look Sally is now throwing her way, she seems to remember her, too...
Their eyes lock and Elizabeth gets shivers down her spine as she stares into the eyes of the former Gatherer, no longer yellow, but restored to their former pale blue. Her look is hard, as if she remembers what the woman in front of her had done, what atrocities she had committed. Elizabeth stares back with equal intensity, losing the smile and replacing it with a deep frown.
And yet…
And yet Sally doesn't seem to know why she's upset with Elizabeth. Perhaps she only looks familiar to her? Perhaps she doesn't remember anything, aside from her face. But, then, that doesn't make much sense, because then her eyes wouldn't have suddenly lit up with realization as she begins to speak, with the clear intent of addressing Elizabeth.
She interrupts her before she has the chance, though. "Do we have the last R-34 cluster, Jack?" she says, loud and sudden, startling both Jack and Sally.
"Er," Jack sputters reflexively, "Yes! Right, yes we do. I'll just...I'll just go grab it…" He briefly casts Elizabeth a concerned glance, then stands up and makes his way back to the Big Daddy in the middle of the room before he begins digging at its armor for the cluster.
Sally hasn't taken her eyes off of Elizabeth meanwhile. "I think I know you," she says, with a hint of uncertainty.
"I'm sorry, but you don't," Elizabeth says hastily, keeping her voice hushed. She glances over at Jack, who is still busy with salvaging the final item.
"I sang to you…" Sally continues, and reaches back into the folds of her dress. When she pulls her hand back out, she's holding something-Elizabeth's heart nearly stops when she realizes that it's the little doll with the blue dress and brown hair. Her name was Sarah, if she remembered correctly.
Elizabeth stiffens as soon as she sees the doll, painful memories, memories she wanted to forget coming back to haunt her-
A photo. Elizabeth holds it in her hands, looking almost disdainfully at the girl in the picture, holding the doll-Sarah-to her chest, grinning at the camera...
A Little Sister-Sally-stands terrified beside Atlas as Elizabeth approaches, clutching her precious, headless doll close to her chest as she struggles against the grip of one of his goons-
Comstock, holding up Sarah's head, showing it to the terrified child they're trying to lure out...
"It's okay, Sally...Look...look, it's Sarah! See, she's come to see you! We're going home…"
She, clutching Sarah's severed head in her hand as she smiles at the doll's owner, the world around her fading to black.
"Liz?"
Elizabeth gives a start as she's pulled from her reverie by a hand on her shoulder. A quick turn of the head reveals that, of course, it's Jack-and he looks worried. Elizabeth reallys hates it when he worries.
"I'm-I'm fine. And it's Elizabeth."
Jack doesn't look convinced, so Elizabeth tries again. "Really, I'm fine. Let's just get her to a vent, okay?"
He looks at Elizabeth, then at Sally, and back again. His eyes ask a handful of questions, but he doesn't say anything, only walks over to Sally and reaches out his hand, which she takes after some hesitance.
"Come on, sweetheart," he says gently, starting to lead her away from the Big Daddy corpse. "It's time to get you home."
At the word "home," Sally stops, casting a quick glance at Elizabeth before turning to look up at Jack with a curious expression on her young face. "Home?"
Jack nods, clearly not understanding the problem. "Yeah. We're going to see Mama Tenenbaum. You know who that is, yes?"
"Oh."
A pause.
"...Is she nice?"
"The nicest," Jack says, still smiling, apparently pleased that this was the only reason for her hesitation. "She's going to take good care of you, I promise."
"Did she take care of you?"
Elizabeth's stomach churns as she remembers the photo she had seen on the wall of Dr. Tenenbaum sitting next to an infant Jack, Dr. Suchong working in the background. Her stomach churns even harder when she hears Jack say, "No, she didn't."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because she showed me how to save you. She showed me how to save all of the Little… all of the little ones. She wants to see you all free, and saved. That's more than anyone else can offer down here… even Atlas, I guess."
"What about you?" Sally reaches out and points a finger at Jack's chest.
Jack grins fondly, "Well, me too I guess. And Liz." He adds, looking back at his companion. Then he looks to Sally again, "But we're busy right now. And Tenenbaum can take care of you while we are. And once we're done, then-"
"Then we'll see what we can do for you," Elizabeth chimes in, interrupting her companion. "And it's Elizabeth," she adds, with a pointed glare in Jack's general direction.
Jack averts his eyes a little too innocently for Elizabeth's liking.
"Anyway…" Elizabeth continues, looking back to Sally, "We should get you to a vent now so you can meet her. Do you know the way?"
Sally nods, holding Sarah tightly to her chest.
"We'll take you there then. Would you like that?" Elizabeth asks, donning her faux smile once more for the sake of the child before her.
"Yes, I would!" Sally exclaims, practically jumping up and down with excitement.
"Then what are we waiting for?"