BIOSHOCK INFINITE DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. HOWEVER, I CAN STILL SHOOT LIGHTNING OUT OF MY HANDS, SO NOBODY TOUCH MY STUFF!

I gotta say, of all the things Booker had to go through in the canon game, I still think getting smacked in the head by a wrench by someone who's about half his mass is pretty pathetic.

Bioshock Infinite: Hell in Heaven

Chapter 11

Stupid Time-Travelers

I am really tired of getting knocked out. The first time was understandable, so was the second, but now it's just stupid. I groaned and put my hand to my head, wincing when I felt the bump; I hope I didn't have a concussion.

Then there was another groan, but it wasn't from me; it was Elizabeth! I staggered over and helped her to her feet; she stumbled and fell against me.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," she looked around, "but our airship isn't."

Well, shit, Songbird really did a number on the First Lady; I'm not sure how much of her survived, but from my position, it looked like half of it was just gone. I was yanked out of my observations when I heard an 'eep!' from Elizabeth. I think it registered in both of our minds that, due to our impromptu make-out session, Elizabeth's clothes were either on the ground or barely covering her.

While Elizabeth turned her back to me and started fixing her corset, I gathered up her jacket and my guns, which had fallen to the floor, but were thankfully undamaged. By the time I was done, Elizabeth had finished with her corset and was waiting for her jacket; I handed it to her with a small smile.

"What is it?" she asked, as she put on the jacket, "Why are you smiling?"

I didn't answer verbally; instead, I just gave her a quick kiss and led her to the door of the ship. I was moving some junk that had was in the way, when Elizabeth spoke up again.

"What was that for?"

"I dimly remember that we said that we love each other," I said nonchalantly, "Isn't that what people who are in love do? Besides, it's either we focus on that, or the fact that we're stuck in Columbia… again."

I glanced behind me to see Elizabeth's face was red, but she was also smiling; good, that meant that she hadn't just said that in a moment of passion… and that she took my advice about focusing on the positive.

"Booker," Elizabeth said, just as I had cleared the last of the crap in the way, "I think I hear music."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Geez, I didn't know that I was that good of a kisser."

"No! I mean I really hear a piano!"

I closed my eyes and listened; sure enough, there was a piano being played, but very slowly, like someone was just learning a new piece of music. I moved to the window and saw… what the fuck, it was the Lutece Twins!

Where the hell did they get a piano?

"Oh, no!" Elizabeth began tugging at the door, "Booker, we have to stop them!"

"What? Why?"

"It's the same song that summons him!"

Listening again, I realized that she was right; it was the same notes that played right before Songbird attacked us! Were the Luteces fucking nuts!? Bringing that monster here was the stupidest thing ever!

Desperation aided us in practically ripping the door off of its hinges, allowing Elizabeth to rush out.

"Stop!" she yelled, "You don't know what you're doing!"

"I don't think that's right," Robert said to his sister, as he leaned against the piano.

"Hmm," Rosalind hit the keys again, "What about now?"

"Perfect."

"Oh, no," Elizabeth whimpered, "he's coming!"

… Nothing happened.

"Um, isn't a giant death-bird supposed to be coming to ruin our day?" I asked, not that I was upset over Songbird's absence.

"The notes were correct…" Robert said.

"The instrument, however, was not," Rosalind finished.

"One needs both to get his attention," Robert added.

"But," Rosalind said, "if you know how to sing to him…"

"He will take you where you need to go," Robert said.

And now we're back to the finishing-sentences thing; have I mentioned that it's creepy and annoying when they do that?

Then I realized what they said. "So you're saying that anyone could play those notes, but only with a certain device? But… how does he know what to attack? Does the device also control the bird?"

Elizabeth looked at me with wide eyes, while the twins looked at each other and simultaneously said, "Smart one."

Deciding that meant that I was right, I then got a wicked idea. "If we could find the device, maybe we could control it! Nobody would mess with us then!"

"I never knew such a thing existed," Elizabeth breathed, her panic now replaced by excitement, "Where is it?"

"Perhaps you should ask the maestro himself," Robert said, holding out a piece of cardboard.

I took it; a diagram of something that looked kind of like a harmonica, as well as something that looked like a mechanical head.

"Who are you?" Elizabeth asked.

"We are… where we're needed," Rosalind said.

"And needed where we are," Robert said.

"Because that is so straightforward," I said, then looked up to see that they were both gone, "Of course; oh, and look, they left us the piano, politely put in our way!"

With a grunt, I shoved the piano out of our way; taking one last look at the burning airship behind us, Elizabeth and I continued forward. After a few seconds, we emerged into the light of early-evening; we must have been out for a good few hours.

"Booker, look!" Elizabeth pointed; I instinctively reached for my repeater, but Elizabeth wasn't pointing to an enemy, but a building in the distance that looked like a cross between a castle and a church.

"That's Comstock House," she said, "If we're going to find him, we should start there."

"So, that's our new goal?" I asked, "Finding Comstock and kicking his ass? Because if it is, I'm all for it!"

"That would be a bonus," Elizabeth said with a small smile, no doubt fantasizing about knocking Comstock's teeth out, "But I know he has an airship there."

"Cool," I said, giving her a grin, "we get to kick his ass and take his stuff!"

Despite almost getting killed for the umpteenth time, I was feeling pretty good; we were alive, we had a new goal, and all of time hadn't exploded because Elizabeth and I were together. Not bad, all things considered.

Keeping Comstock House as a landmark, we began moving forward; off to the side, ignoring us, was a small crowd of people trying desperately to get onto a small airship. The guards on board were trying to convince the people to drop their luggage; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to get everyone out of the city.

"Where do you think they're going?" Elizabeth asked.

"Wherever the Vox Populi aren't," I replied, even as I scooped up a small bag of silver eagles that one of those soon-to-be refugees had no doubt dropped.

I paused for a second, expecting Elizabeth to start blaming herself again; to my surprise, she only frowned, then nodded. She might have been sad, but she wasn't blaming herself; or maybe she was, but was coming to terms with it.

Regardless, I gently took her hand and we moved on.

For a few more minutes, it was pleasantly quiet out, save for the occasional explosion in the distance. That changed, however, when we encountered a squad of Vox; they opened fire, forcing me to take cover behind a stone wall. Their guns were powerful, and even my upgraded shield could get overwhelmed with enough firepower. Elizabeth opened a nearby Tear, letting in a flying turret; it distracted the Vox long enough for me to put them down. We quickly looted ammo, Salts and cash, then moved on.

A moment later, however, we found out why people were so desperate to leave Columbia: the Vox were executing people. We saw the bodies of men, women and children, almost all with gunshots to the head.

"I can't believe I thought that they were in the right," Elizabeth murmured.

I'm glad I never thought of them as such.

We got away from the bodies, but our path was blocked by a locked door; as Elizabeth got to work unlocking it, I struck up a conversation.

"What is it about that song that brings in the bird?"

"It always has," Elizabeth said, not looking up, "When I was younger, I used to be… excited when I heard it."

"Excited?" I echoed disbelievingly.

"He was all I had," Elizabeth explained, "He fed me, brought me books; he was… my friend."

"I'm guessing something changed?" I asked.

Elizabeth nodded. "I grew up; and then I hated him, because he was my warden. But he's just Comstock's pet, isn't he? Just like me."

"Songbird is his pet," I practically snarled, causing Elizabeth to snap her head up and look at me, "But you aren't; you're free, and I won't let that ever change."

Elizabeth stared at me for a moment, before turning back and finishing her lock-picking; once it was done, she walked up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. It only lasted for a few seconds; it wasn't like that wild, passionate stuff we did on the First Lady, but I could tell that she was putting a lot of emotion into it.

"Thank you," she whispered, after letting go. I gave a goofy grin, then walked inside.

Of course, the universe decided to ruin my good mood; inside the room, dozens of bodies were strewn about. From the look of their clothes, they'd been robbed after death; I shouldn't have felt bad about that, after all, I did the same thing, but I didn't murder innocent people!

We quickly made our way through the area, only stopping to collect a trio of Lutece Infusions; near the exit, a pair of Vox guys was standing guard, but they didn't see us. The last thing the first one heard was my shotgun going off; the second guy actually saw the gun pointed in his direction before he died.

As we left the building, Elizabeth asked, "You don't think anyone can actually see the future, do you?"

She had to be talking about Comstock, the so-called Prophet.

"Not really," I said, "but I would like to know how Comstock knew about my hand; he either knew about me, or it was the mother of all coincidences."

Outside, we were going to have to catch a sky-trolley thing in order to continue on. Thankfully, one was just arriving; unfortunately, it was full of Vox soldiers and a Patriot, though the Vox had dressed it up to look like Abraham Lincoln.

Fortunately, I saw them before they saw me; I lobbed a few fireballs into the confined space they were in, catching them all, before hitting the Patriot with a Possession. As the robot began mowing down its own allies, I sent in a swarm of crows; once the soldiers were all dead, I walked up to the Patriot and put a pair of hand cannon shots into its guts, finishing it off.

While I looted the bodies, Elizabeth got to work picking the lock to the control-room. While scrounging, I noticed an odd-looking gun; the barrel was so wide, it reminded me of a cartoon blunderbuss. I picked it up and found out that it only held one shot before needing to be reloaded.

"Hey, Elizabeth," I called out, "I'm gonna test-fire this gun."

"What gun?" Elizabeth asked.

"This huge freakin' thing!"

She turned around and stared. "Booker, that thing is huge!"

I might have made a dirty joke, but held my tongue in a remarkable display of self-control. I took the gun and aimed at a wooden board; I fired, and the recoil almost took my fucking arm off! The wooden target was completely destroyed, the remaining chunks now burning away.

"Wow, incendiary rounds," I said thoughtfully.

"Are you going to take it?" Elizabeth asked.

I thought about it; while it would probably kill anything it hit, I'd have to fire point-blank to hit anything. My shotgun could do something similar, but with a longer range and less recoil, plus it had more ammo capacity; the one-shot limit for the other gun was a little worrying.

"Nah," I finally said, tossing the gun away, "my old shotgun works fine, and I don't want to risk dislocating my shoulder with this thing."

"At least now you know what it does," Elizabeth said, getting back to her lock-picking, "this means you don't have to get shot first."

She had a point; now that I knew what this kind of weapon could do, along with how powerful it was at close-range, I'd make killing anyone who had one a priority. Or I could Possess one… hmm…

"Booker?" Elizabeth said, tapping me on the shoulder, "Are you all right?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."

Just picturing someone with that gun firing into a cluster of his friends… hee hee.

We entered the control-room and I pulled the lever to get us moving; a few seconds later, we saw a familiar pair of faces playing—I don't know, badminton?—with each other, each of them standing on a platform that we would come between.

Okay, I've figured out the Lutece Twins are time-travelers, though I don't know how they're doing it. Obviously not 'Doctor Who'-style, nor 'Back to the Future', but something else; maybe they're more like Q from 'Star Trek', and can just go wherever and whenever they please. Whatever they really are, it was a little weird having them appear so soon after the last time.

"Booker, I think I know who they are," Elizabeth said.

"Really? Do tell; I don't know squat about them."

"They—or at least, she—created the technology that allows the city to float."

I glanced at several of the floating sections of city around us and noticed the large, inflated bags beneath them.

"Giant balloons?" I guessed.

"Quantum particles," Elizabeth corrected, "suspended in space-time at a fixed height."

"So… not giant balloons?" I asked with a smirk.

Elizabeth returned it, then continued. "The strange thing is, my books said they disappeared several years ago."

"Oh, I bet it's 'cause they time-traveled to the future," I said, earning a look from Elizabeth, "What? It's not like time-travel is impossible; look at me!"

Then we passed another platform, and the Luteces were there again; Rosalind was posing for Robert, who was painting her portrait.

"I told you they'd come," Robert said, as our trolley moved close enough to hear them.

"No," Rosalind said, "you didn't."

"Right," Robert said, "I was going to tell you they'd come."

"But you didn't," Rosalind said again.

"But I don't," Robert said.

"I'm not sure that's right," Rosalind said, slightly confused.

"Something tells me there's more to them than they let on," Elizabeth said.

"Of course there is," I told her, "They're time-travelers… possibly crazy ones, but time-travelers all the same."

As the trolley moved on, I heard the last of their conversation.

"I was going to have told you they'd come?" Robert said in a confused tone.

"No."

"The subjunctive?"

"That's not the subjunctive."

"I don't think the syntax has been invented yet."

"It would have had to have had been!" Rosalind said, and at that point, I was starting to get a headache.

"Had to have… had… been?" Robert sounded like his own head was about to explode, "That can't be right."

"They seem to want to help," Elizabeth said, though she had almost gone cross-eyed from the exchange.

We passed another platform, where we saw the Twins dancing with each other; okay, now they're just showing off!

"They might want to help, but I'm starting to think they're also a bunch of goofballs," I said, praying I wasn't about to get a migraine.

"You know what's odd?" Robert asked.

"That we sometimes…" Rosalind began.

"Finish each other's sentences?" Robert finished.

Were they just noticing this now? I felt my eye twitch a little bit.

"Exactly," Rosalind said.

"It would be odder if we didn't," Robert said.

But it would save everyone around you a headache.

"How do you suppose they manage the moving around?" Elizabeth asked.

I groaned and held my head. "Still trying to figure out how a whole city can fly; I'll get back to that later."

Thankfully, the next few minutes were absent of Luteces; we spent that time leaning next to each other, occasionally sneaking in kisses. What can I say; it felt good to be loved.

Once we reached the end of the line, we got out; I had my weapons ready, and Elizabeth was crouched slightly, ready to duck at a moment's notice.

Near the end of the room was a large sign with a picture of a lamb on it; Elizabeth read the words beneath it.

"The seed of the Prophet shall sit on the throne…" she shook her head, "He was grooming me, wasn't he?"

"Comstock?" I took a moment to burn down the sign with my Devil's kiss, "Yeah, I think so."

"Then why lock me up?" Elizabeth asked.

"I guess you didn't want to be groomed," I said, "After all, you spent all that time trying to get out of that tower."

The rest of the station we were in was light on guards; only a handful stood in our way, so after a brief firefight, we spent the rest of our time there looting, though most of it turned out to be money.

Finally, we reached a locked door; Elizabeth opened the lock, and it was by pure luck that the bullet that flew through the door missed. Elizabeth dove out of the way, while I moved it and opened fire; there were only about ten or so guys, but I Possessed one who had a grenade-launcher, so that tipped the scales in my favor. After dispatching the last guy with a shotgun shell to the throat, I got a good look at our surroundings; we were in some kind of bar.

After searching around, finding some money and Salts, I found something really interesting: there was a button underneath the shelf in the bar. Elizabeth noticed, too.

"That could call in a Handyman for all we know."

"Or it could have tons of money, Infusions or other stuff," I argued, then pressed the button.

At first, nothing happened; then we heard a click, and we both ducked. Thankfully, nothing exploded; all that happened was that a door opened. I cautiously walked inside of the hidden room and found a ton of stuff, just as I'd hoped. There was ammo, money, and a weird-looking bottle, colored yellow and labeled "Return to Sender".

"See, what did I tell you?" I said, popping the top off of the bottle, "A new Vigor!"

"It could have been a Handyman," Elizabeth said, her bottom lip curled in an adorable pout.

"I guess after so many bad things behind doors, we were owed a good thing," I said, before downing the Vigor.

It tasted like metal; not the iron of blood, but more like licking a spoon. My vision blurred for a second, and then I saw the flesh on my arms melt away, exposing the bones underneath; I saw Elizabeth cover her mouth in horror. Before the flesh returned, I saw my bones covered in a gray, metallic substance; then it was over, and my arms looked normal again.

"So…" Elizabeth said, after composing herself, "What does it do?"

As if in answer, a trio of guys showed up behind us and opened fire; as if on instinct, I held up my hand, and the bullets stopped inches away. Everyone—me, Elizabeth and the soldiers—stared at the floating bullets as they melted together in a glowing-orange mass, then flew back at the soldiers. Then the mass exploded, killing them all.

"Holy… fucking… shit!" I shouted; I looked at my hands, then at Elizabeth. "This is the coolest thing ever!"

Elizabeth shook herself out of her shock. "I guess you've found your new favorite Vigor?"

"You know it!" I flexed my left hand and watched a metallic substance coat my fingers before disappearing. "This is gonna be fun."

"Just don't go doing something reckless," Elizabeth said, as we started leaving.

"I won't," I said, "but I do want to try this sucker out some more."

Sadly for me, I didn't get my wish; the station was empty of any more guards. Still, it was good to get out of there—oh, shit! At the exit to the station, at least two-dozen Vox troops, along with a couple of Firemen and a Patriot, swarmed us. Only thanks to liberal uses of my Murder of Crow kept the Firemen from getting too dangerous, and my Return to Sender was a godsend against the Patriot. The rest of the soldiers were pretty easy to handle, and once they were gone, I was able to finish off the Firemen. It was then that I noticed that the Return to Sender ability required a lot of energy; while using it, I had to drink twice as many Salts to replenish it.

After we scavenged everything useful off of the bodies, Elizabeth and I headed to the exit, but the door was locked; unlike other locked doors, this one had something else than a simple padlock.

"Can you open this?" I asked.

Elizabeth walked over to it, leaning over to carefully inspect the thing. I couldn't help but notice her cute ass; since she'd never bent over like that, I couldn't help but wonder if she'd done that on purpose.

"Like what you see?" Elizabeth asked, not even looking up; guess I was right.

I walked up next to her, tilted her head in my direction and kissed her.

"Oh, yes I do," I said, giving her a wink, "but you really shouldn't tempt me, Miss Elizabeth; we don't really have the time right now."

Elizabeth gave that adorable pout again, then gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before returning her attention to the lock.

"It's a simple, dual-dial lock," she said, "My books said most fools keep the combination no more than twenty feet away."

"Well then," I said, straightening up, "let's hope that the owner of this lock is one of those fools."

While searching under a pile of books, I asked, "So, why all the interest in lock-picking and code-breaking?"

Oh, cool, the code was on a clipboard underneath the books; go me!

"If you lock up someone for long enough, they develop an interest in such things," Elizabeth said, placing her right hand over mine, "And I won't be locked up again, Book… Shh!"

Elizabeth dragged me to the floor as a golden statue began to make a whistling noise… a very familiar, very ominous whistling noise. Elizabeth and I looked at each other in horror, just as the building shook from something impacting against it.

A loud, mechanical hooting noise called out; as soon as it did, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around me, trembling. Beyond the counter we hid behind, the window shattered; I peeked above it for just a moment, just long enough for me to see the leather-and-metal head of Songbird. Thankfully, he didn't see me; one of his eyes turned orange and shined a bright light into the room. If I wasn't so scared of the thing seeing me, I'd have made a 'Lord of the Rings' joke in my head.

Oh, thank God; after a few more seconds, Songbird took off again, and I held a still-shaking Elizabeth in my arms for a few more seconds. Once she recovered, she got up and ran for the door; turns out that the door was really an elevator.

"Elizabeth, you…"

"Promise me," she interrupted.

"I will stop him," I vowed, thinking that was what she wanted.

"No," Elizabeth said, shaking her head, "That is an oath you cannot keep. Promise me that, if it comes to it…" she raised my hand, first against her cheek, then wrapped my fingers around her throat, "You will not let him take me back."

Whoa, what the fuck!? Is she seriously asking me that!? I'm not going to kill her; not after all of this!

"It won't come to that," I said sternly, "Okay? I will never let them lock you away again."

Elizabeth didn't look like she believed me, but she still nodded, then got into the elevator; I followed her in and just wrapped my arms around her. As the elevator went down, Elizabeth leaned into me, just wanting to be held; I obliged, occasionally stroking her hair.

The silence was broken a few minutes later by the sound of explosions; we looked out the window to see the Vox and the Founders going at it. I would have been content to just ignore them, but some jackass hit our elevator with a rocket, tilting it and shattering the windows; not wanting to fall to our deaths, Elizabeth and I jumped onto a nearby sky-line and zipped off to a nearby platform.

Around us, Vox and Founders were shooting at each other and at us; it seemed that everyone thought we were with their enemies. We took cover as the Vox rained down some heavy ordnance, killing the remaining Founders and a few of their own guys. With them gone, the Vox decided to come to us; thankfully, there weren't too many of them left at that point, and I was able to take care of them.

"Well," I said, "that wasn't so hard…"

"Booker! Handyman!"

"I totally opened myself up for that one," I said to no one in particular, then ran around, firing at the Handyman who'd shown up.

I'm not even sure what side he was fighting for, but I didn't care; I just kept shooting my hand cannon at his chest, hoping to hit his heart. Then I saw something that might help; thinking fast, I hit the Handyman with my Shock Jockey, stunning him for a moment, then dove for a rocket launcher that one of the Vox had dropped. I picked it up, aimed, and fired. The rocket blew a man-sized hole in his torso, killing him instantly.

"Okay," I shouted up at Elizabeth, who'd been taking cover on a higher level, "everyone's dead!"

Once that was done, I did a little shopping, finding a couple of upgrades for my Return to Sender; one increased how long the shielding effect lasted, plus reduced the amount of Salts I used, and the other one allowed me to gather together even more ammo before hurling it back. Sure, it was expensive as hell, but it was worth it.

After looting everything useful, we found a gate that would speed up our trip to Comstock House; of course it was locked, but Elizabeth went to work fixing that. Still, now that no one was shooting at us, I had something on my mind.

"Back there… what you asked me to do…"

"Let's not discuss it," Elizabeth snapped.

"No, I think we need to," I said sharply, "What did that thing do to you?"

Elizabeth took a breath before answering. "If he were to take me back… that's death, Booker, or something so like it I cannot tell the difference."

"Well, I'm still not going to let them take you," I said.

Elizabeth looked at me and sighed again, though this one didn't seem as depressed as the first. Once she finished opening the door, we went on our way; the next few minutes were spent on the streets, fighting our way through the occasional Vox patrol and looting anything that wasn't nailed down.

"Booker, look!" Elizabeth said, pointing, "It's the Lutece Laboratory!"

Sure enough, it was; unfortunately, it was barred shut. Nothing I or Elizabeth could do would open the door.

"Damn," I muttered, "I bet there's some sweet stuff in there."

Disappointed, we moved on; I took out my frustration on a couple of Vox soldiers who tried to stop me. Aside from that, it was fairly quiet again, until we found a small group of Vox and Founder trying to kill each other; unlike the last time, however, they didn't notice us, so I was content to sit back and let them kill each other. I ended up only firing a few shots from my repeater at the last guy, a badly-wounded Vox.

"Booker, are you all right?" Elizabeth asked afterwards, "You seem distant."

"Sorry," I said, looking up at the sky, which was getting cloudier by the second, "I'm just tired; I could use a nap."

"I can understand," Elizabeth said, a slight smile on her face, "Running for your life can get tiring."

"Hey, how come you're not tired?" I asked; while she did seem a bit down, Elizabeth never seemed to run out of energy.

"I kept myself fit," Elizabeth said, shrugging, "and I'm not the one who's always in combat."

Okay, that made sense, but still…

RIIIIP! The sound of tearing fabric caught my attention; I looked down to see that Elizabeth's skirt had caught on a jagged shard of metal, creating a rip in the side that went up to her mid-thigh.

"Damn it!" she growled, "I just got these clothes! Booker, can we stop for a second?"

We ducked into an abandoned building; while I took the opportunity to rest, Elizabeth went to work sewing up her skirt, using a needle and thread from a first-aid kit. While she did that, I glanced at her feet.

"Doesn't running in heeled shoes hurt?" I asked.

Elizabeth looked down at her feet. "A little, but this is what women wear, and I am a woman."

"I noticed," I said, winking at her, getting her to blush, "but in the future, women often wear the same type of clothes as men."

"Really?" Elizabeth asked, surprised; I didn't really talk much about my time-period, so anything I did say was completely new to her.

"So, what else is in the future?" Elizabeth asked, sitting next to me before getting back to work on her skirt.

"Well…" I spent about half an hour regaling her about movies, food, politics and anything else I could think of.

"So these 'cell phones' are really small enough to fit in your pocket, but can let you talk to someone on the other side of the world?"

"Yep," I replied, "though Columbia definitely has the future beat with these Vigors; seriously, I've never seen anything like it!"

Elizabeth opened her mouth to ask another question, but a noise caught my attention; I grabbed Elizabeth and dove on top of her, not making a sound. Behind the low wall we were using as cover, a group of Vox marched past; thankfully, they were headed in the direction we'd come from, but if they looked over the wall, we were toast.

I let out a sigh of relief when I saw them leaving.

"Are they gone?" Elizabeth whispered from under me.

"Yeah, it looks like we're in the clear," I said, before looking at where I was; I was on top of Elizabeth, my hands pinning her arms. All in all, it was a pretty compromising situation, and Elizabeth knew it too, if the blush on her face was anything to go by.

"Sorry," I said, starting to get up, but Elizabeth grabbed me by my collar.

"You don't… you don't have to get up yet," she said, "I'm, um, a little cold?"

Okay, it was a little chilly out, and it was getting dark, but it was so obvious that Elizabeth was lying. Still, she wouldn't let go of my collar…

I lay back down, turning slightly so that Elizabeth's back was against my chest, then reached around and grabbed her hands; holy shit, she was freezing! That outfit she was wearing might have looked good, but it was useless for practical purposes.

We didn't do anything like back on the First Lady, of course; we were too exposed. Instead, we just lay there; I would occasionally rub Elizabeth's hands or kiss her neck, and she would tilt her head around and kiss my jaw.

It was almost enough to make us forget what had happened to us in this city.

…

After a little bit longer, I stood up, then helped Elizabeth to her feet; this earned me a kiss and an "I love you".

Around us, the sky was almost black from the clouds, and I could feel a few drops of water hit me; great like I didn't hate it here enough, now it was raining. Thankfully, we didn't run into any more bad guys on the way. When we finally did reach Comstock House, it was a mess; dead bodies littered the streets, and bullet-holes were everywhere. The front gate didn't seem damaged, however. I tried opening it, but to no avail; there was some sort of handprint thing on the front, but I had no idea what it was for. Then Elizabeth stepped forward and a mechanical voice spoke up.

"Lady Comstock, how lovely to see you!" it said, "Wonderful of you to make the journey, especially considering your painful death nineteen years ago."

"Lady Comstock?" I asked, looking at Elizabeth.

"The dress…" Elizabeth looked down at her clothes, "Lady Comstock wore something exactly like this; the security must think I'm her!"

Hesitantly, she placed her hand in the handprint.

"Your fingerprints do not seem to be your own today, Lady Comstock," the voice said apologetically, "Are you unwell?"

Wait, this thing was a fingerprint scanner? Just how advanced is this city?

"Wait, I think I can make this work," Elizabeth said.

"How?" I asked, "Lady Comstock is very, very dead."

"Yes, she is," Elizabeth said, steel in her voice, "and I think we should pay our respects; let's head to where she's buried."

"Oh, joy!" I said with fake cheer, "Let's go grave-robbing!"

This is probably the best place to end this chapter, since the next one is going to one long chase… oh, how I hate you, Lady Comstock!

Yeah, this chapter was mostly to develop the romantic part of the relationship, and to set up the next chapter, as well as give Booker time to tell Elizabeth about some future-stuff… I realize that I never did that earlier. Oh well.

Ackbar: All craft, prepare to retreat!

Lando: We won't get another chance at this, Admiral.

Ackbar: We have no choice, General Calrissian! Our cruisers can't repel muffins of that magnitude!