I begged Mr. Ryan to hand Fontaine Futuristics over to Atlas' boys as a peace offering, but the stupid sod won't listen to reason. 'Stead he's just splicing his mob up, giving them more and tougher Plasmids. There's an arms race on here in Rapture, but it's not about who can build the best guns and the biggest bombs. It's about who can become less of a man and more of a monster... - Bill McDonagh
"I think now would be a good time to review our plan before we move on." L stated, taking the squished and somewhat unrecognisable piece of cake from his bag and staring at it mournfully as he began to peel the cling film off.
"Well we can't accept Ryan's deal." Near said monotonously, holding Mello's jumper out for him to take back.
Mello snatched the jumper from Near without meeting the pale boy's eyes and pulled it over his head, happy to lean against the bathysphere without it freezing him. "Anyway, he was obviously bluffing. If Ryan had the power to stop us leaving then he wouldn't let us go if he had a gun pointed to his head. He's too obsessed with parasites or whatever finding his city." Mello added.
"Shouldn't we try to lock Ryan and Fontaine and everyone up for breaking the law? We can't let them carry on destroying people down here…" Matt asked twirling an unlit cigarette between his fingers.
"I'm not happy with the idea of allowing them to remain free down here but I doubt a normal prison could hold them and that is assuming we could even catch them. I have to agree with Andrew Ryan to an extent – no one can find out about this city." L answered, tearing pieces of cake off between two fingers and dropping them into his mouth.
"What are we going to do about the Big Daddies and the Big Sister?" Near asked, trying to move into a more comfortable position without damaging his leg further. L looked away from the injured boy guiltily.
"We don't really have a choice. They don't stop fighting until they are killed and there is no way to reason with them. Our primary goal is to rescue the girls and get out alive so we'll have to destroy them." L replied, his face showing how much he hated the idea of murdering innocent people.
"I have news." Tenenbaum spoke through the radio, her voice sounding slightly mournful. L picked up on the tone immediately and turned towards noise. "You kept saying that eight girls had been kidnapped. Well I have searched everywhere for them but I can only find seven. There are only seven new Little Sisters – not eight."
"Could one of the kidnappings have been a coincidence?" L asked the younger three boys who had researched the case a lot more thoroughly than he had. Matt shook his head.
"No. All of them reported sightings of the Big Sister."
Silence hung over the four boys as they realised what this meant. They were so wrapped up in Rapture that they hadn't considered the possibility that the girls were in danger. L sounded more tense than usual as he pushed the button of the radio. "Where should we go next?"
"There are four girls in Neptune's Bounty. That is one of the places Fontaine operates from so I am guessing that is why so many are situated there. The other Little Sister is in Arcadia. I'll leave you enough Plasmids to save the girls in the lower wharf but you can just follow the map to the machine. You can hide under the docks while you fight the Big Daddies if you wish – just be careful of the mines. There are pipes all over Rapture leading to my safe house that the girls are able to crawl through so they will not be in any danger."
The detectives wasted no time saving the girls after hearing that one of them may have died. Matt hacked the bathysphere, taking only ten minutes to do so, and once they arrived they immediately set out to save the girls, leaving Near behind in the bathysphere due to his injury. It didn't take them long to find the Gatherer's Garden machine and Tenenbaum had already left them some gifts. L's mouth watered at the sight of the shockingly pink lollypops and he popped into his mouth as they hunted for the Big Daddies.
All the way through Mello was struggling with an internal dilemma. He hadn't told L and he didn't even wanted to show Matt what he had found at the machine whilst they were rummaging through the gifts of ammo, sweets and cigarettes. In his pocket was a completely new type of Plasmid called Winter Blast – something none of the detectives had witnessed so far. He had that power right in his pocket and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it – he was already plotting how to do it without anyone noticing in time to stop him injecting it. He knew he was doing it for the right reasons but deep inside the dark corners of his mind he had other motives and he wondered which motives were stronger. He knew there was no point in having a discussion about it because the others would yell at him for even thinking about it but if he was doing it for the right reasons… Was he allowed to be the judge of what was right and wrong when he had a darker purpose too, no matter how much he buried it?
He knew Near would never agree. L would say no. Even Matt might think he was going too far. The Plasmid continued to press against his legs, burning a hole in his mind so that he was unable to concentrate and only just managed to dodge one of the mines that were aimed at him.
As he ran low on Eve and his hand blazed dimly he desperately needed more and became more irritable as he drank some 'Old Tom Whiskey' he found lying almost empty on the ground. Why shouldn't it be his decision to make? He was the only one not under the pretence that what they were doing wasn't absolutely vital. They could die at any moment – it didn't make sense not to try and gain all the strength they could. If other people were going to disagree just for political correctness then they were the deluded ones.
They saved their final girl in Neptune's Bounty and made there way back to the bathysphere. Mello had made his decision. He was going to do it. He just needed to find the right time…
Near tried to stand as they entered and managed to prop himself up using the wall of the bathysphere and his good leg. "Have you saved them all?"
L heaved an exhausted sigh as he sat on the seat in his usual position, his hands resting on his knees. "Yes. All four girls are now with Tenenbaum. Now we just need to go to Arcadia."
"Let me check your leg." Mello offered, bending down and pulling up the leg of Near's trousers so he could see the wounds he had sewn together. Matt narrowed his eyes slightly. He knew Mello didn't hate Near but he definitely didn't like him enough to care about his injuries. Matt opened his mouth to come out with a comment that would annoy the hell out of Mello and hopefully injure the blonde's pride but Mello spoke first.
"Near, you're going to hate me more than anything." Mello said, his tone filled with resolve and fiery determination as he located the vein at the back of Near's knee.
"I don't understa–" Near began but stopped dead, his body becoming rigid as he stared down at Mello, his eyes wide with horror and disbelief as he felt a needle pierce his skin. Mello stared back completely guiltless as the youngest boy began to shake, his balance faltering as the Plasmid coursed through his veins, trying to get to his brain.
There was a nervous beat as Near hoped beyond anything that it had been some sort of sick joke on Mello's part. Then he felt the pain.
Near dropped to the floor, his hair covering his face, hiding his small, innocent frown from everyone's view. It was disturbing to watch. Even L had shouted out in pain but Near just stayed still on all fours, as silent as a corpse. Mello would have preferred it if he'd shouted rather than this. Slowly, Near's left arm started turning purple. The boy began to shake even more from the pain but still refused to give any sign to Mello of how much he was suffering. A thin layer of ice began to blotchily cover his arm as it turned a slick frozen blue colour. He felt a sharp, agonising twinge in his wrist and instinctively his fingers balled into a tight fist as shards of ice broke through the back of his hand which was so cold that he didn't even bleed as the transparent icicles stabbed through his flesh. A small sigh of anguish escaped his lips as he looked down at the alien form of his hand so barbaric it didn't even look human to him. And it was his arm.
He was a Splicer. Inhuman. Monster.
The wounds on his leg knitted themselves together, completely healing him and allowing him to stand without needing to cling onto something. It took him three minutes before he found the will to move. He looked up at Mello, his face blank but his eyes filled with more emotion than had ever been there before. He stared deeply at Mello's face, glaring at him with so much burning hatred and anger that Mello physically flinched away from the cold boy on the floor.
Near stood up finally and moved past Mello, making sure he didn't touch the blonde at all as he stepped out of the bathysphere.
"Near, what are you doing?" L asked.
"Now I can't go back." Near answered, his voice flat and empty. "I have to stay in Rapture until I get killed."
Mello grabbed Near roughly by the arm and dragged him back inside, throwing him heavily against the wall.
"Mel, chill out." Matt warned, worriedly. He watched Mello's every move, ready to stop him if he looked like he was going to attack. L watched the situation intently too, reading Mello's every emotion and secretly finding it more interesting than worrying.
"Are you fucking stupid?" Mello yelled. "Of course you're coming back!"
"NO." Near shouted back, stunning Mello slightly. L actually jumped. "You turned me into a monster, Mello, even though you knew I would rather die than use one of those Plasmids. You can't force me to go back up to the surface and I won't because I'm too dangerous. Things from down here should never be mixed with the surface, especially splicing. Just because you have the morality level of a psychopath it doesn't mean I share your values. You might have turned me into an inhuman creature that can only be used as a weapon but that doesn't mean I have to use it like that. I'm staying here and I'm not going to kill anyone no matter what they do to me."
"Near…" L began softly, not wanting to interfere with the argument. "You have to go back to Wammy's House."
"No I don't." Near replied. "Let go of me, Mello."
Mello was struggling to keep his temper under control, the word psychopath that had issued from Near's lips whirring over and over in his mind. "You're being completely ridiculous Near. Your wounds were going to get infected and you couldn't move anywhere so if you didn't take any Adam you would probably have died."
"That doesn't justify anything, Mello. You destroyed my body so that you could bring me down to your level. You weren't happy when Matt had one and you didn't and then you weren't happy that I was the only human left. Don't pretend you were doing it to heal my leg." Near replied, a fraction of his anger colouring his voice. He then lowered his voice to nothing more than a whisper that only Mello could hear as he stared into the older boy's eyes. "Loser."
Mello's fist collided hard with Near's jaw, sending his head crashing into the metal bathysphere wall. Matt jumped up to grab Mello and hold him back but Mello's hand was already ignited with rage and he was moving it towards Near. More of a reaction than conscious will, Near raised his hand in defence and coated the hot-headed blonde in ice as Matt jumped back.
Stood in the bathysphere was an ice statue of Mello, unable to move or speak. Near wasn't sure if he could even breathe. Matt shook his head in disbelief, his finger's crackling with agitation as he saw the frozen figure of his best friend. "I'll kill you Near." Matt muttered, flexing his fingers as he turned towards the pale boy. L jumped in the way, stopping Matt from shocking Near and trying to talk sense into him.
"Mello isn't dead. You can hear his teeth chattering. Just take care of him when the ice melts." L ordered, turning towards Near and hesitating as he reviewed his options. "Just be careful with Mello because he'll shatter if you pull on him."
He sighed as he turned towards the radio and moved it to channel eight, pushing the button in.
"Tenenbaum, is there any way to remove the Plasmids we've taken?"
"Ja, it is similar to the Plasmid we give the girls. It isn't well known because it was only used in tests – no one actually wanted to take it of choice."
"Well, we'll need those before we leave." L sighed with relief, even allowing a small smile to creep over his face. Cold water dripped from Mello's left hand to the floor as the ice surrounding him began to melt. Near absentmindedly wondered what Mello would do once he was defrosted but he didn't really care. Deep down he believed that Mello had deserved it.