Somewhere in Rapture

A man contemplated his next choice of words before giving the unfortunate news. The boss wasn't much for mercy and while he could be reasonable the man didn't want to be on the receiving end of his anger anytime soon. The man walked through the steel double doors into a large dark room lined with book shelves and dozens of monitors on the far end. The large leather chair in front of the monitors trailed a line of smoke as a hand reached over the armrest and shook the lit cigarette "This better be important," the boss said. The man gulped and took a deep breath "Sir…uh…3 of the gathers have been…killed," the man waited for the boss to respond gripping the folder he held tighter as the buzzing from the monitors added some tension. The man sitting down breathed out a cloud of smoke "Where?" The man hesitated a little before scrambling through the paper he held "Uh… one in Fort Frolic and two in Dionysus Park…" The boss tapped the cigarette again as the embers slowly went out as they hit the ground "Only two at the park?" the man hesitated a flipped through the papers thinking he had made a mistake "Yes sir only two, it seems," The chair creaked "I was told one the prototypes got its head pulled off a while ago…did that one not get counted?" The man froze as the boss stood up and turned to him. The man dropped a few pages "Well sir…that one had a successful regeneration, but it was one of the ones killed recently," The man smiled "You should have started with that bit of information," The man could only stare at the boss' face which seemed featureless in the dark room "About those new protectors running around…" the man felt like stepping back "…they wouldn't happen to have a symbol stitched to their chest would they?"

Persephone

The four protectors managed to make it safely back to Persephone with not much incident after the whole business with Big Sister and Alpha. As expected, the doctor was waiting for them at the entrance "It seems you ran into some trouble then?" Alpha looked at his damaged suit "Yeah, those things can be really strong," the doctor noticed the two Big Sisters with Alpha and Sigma "So have you asked why another Big Sister was at the park?" Sigma thought he should explain "She said the ADAM she brought was for me," The doctor looked perplexed and then was hit with a sudden realization "Is she the Big Sister from Hephaestus Sigma?" Sigma tilted his head "Yes, but what does that have anything…" "Let's patch all of you up before you go back out again," Sigma stared at the doctor until he was out of sight and looked at each other before shrugging. The sisters grabbed both brothers by the neck and pulled them toward the labs which made Sigma and Alpha share one last look of confusion.

Alpha looked around the small room after the men in white clothes left. He adjusted himself on the small bed he currently sat in waiting for his suit to be returned. The brother looked down at his arm where it was only being held together by strands of flesh after his and Sigma's fight with the monster. It wasn't much different from before, but now it held a lighter shade than the rest of his skin and had oddly shaped lines around it. He wondered if Sigma would have something similar where he was impaled with that thing's tail. He hoped they wouldn't take much longer since keeping Big Sister waiting was probably a bad idea… no not probably, is a very bad idea. The door to Alpha's room slowly opened and the doctor walked in with a small smile on his face "How do you feel?" Alpha smiled "Great!" the doctor was different the people in white coats in regards to how they treated the protectors. He never knew why the people in white would look at him the way they do, like if he was some kind of monster like the insane people of Rapture. He and his brothers were protectors; if little sisters were left alone there would be no trouble. The doctor placed his hands in his pants pockets and his face became serious "Alpha, I just spoke with Sigma about the one you call Other Sister," Alpha was perplexed, maybe it had something to do with the ADAM? "Is something wrong?" The doctor sighed and began pacing "Not wrong as you would think, but something I should be concerned about," Alpha guessed he knew what the doctor was concerned about "Is it about how Other Sister acts around Sigma?" The doctor nodded "Do you see how different she is compared to the Big Sister from Dionysus Park?" "She is very different, for one she only wants to be close to Sigma not touch lips," The doctor looked at Alpha with a furrowed brow "Do you mind repeating that again?" The brother blinked a few times "She put her lips on mine," The doctor's eyes grew wide "She…kissed… you?" The brother shrugged "If that's what it is then yes," The doctor stared wide eyed at Alpha, his shock so great that he couldn't find himself to faint.

Big Sister swung her new syringe, seeing how the new weapon differed from the old one. Overall there wasn't much difference between them; she even got a small supply of ADAM in the glass container. The sister walked the halls of Persephone to return to the Park. She wondered where all the Little Sisters were hiding since those beasts showed up. The laughter echoing around the halls answered her question. Big Sister decided to check up on Little Sister thinking Alpha would take a little longer based on the state of his suit. Big Sister went into a hall following the constant giggles and occasional squeal of delight. Big Sister looked inside of few of the rooms she passed noticing the different toys and crayons thrown about in each of them. A group of the little ones ran out from one of the rooms near the end of the hall laughing and stopped when their yellow eyes saw her "Big Sister!" one of the girls shouted. The group rushed to her and tried to tackle her down. Big Sister guessed they tried to wrestle her to the ground, but really they couldn't even manage to budge her. Heavy footsteps from the room they just came out of caught Big Sister's attention. The green light of a helmet and patch with an upside down V on his chest gave it away what this protector was. The brother waved at Big Sister which she acknowledged with a simple nod of her head. The Big Brother felt glad knowing the sister was like the one he knew at Fort Frolic. Maybe the doctor was right about his luck with the sisters so far, unlike Epsilon. The little sisters pulled on Big Sister's arm "Big Sister we were playing hide and seek with Big Brother," Another little one pulled her other hand "He is really good and this is his first time playing!" the girls pulled the protectors "We are going somewhere else to play since Big Brother keeps finding us in that small room," Big Sister looked back at the room where they all filed out of and remembered that it is larger than Little Sister made it out to be. She guessed Little Sister thought the room was too small to hide in instead of the brother's tracking skills.

Alpha was placing his equipment back on as the doctor sat on the bed rubbing his head as if he were in pain. The doctor kept mumbling to himself which Alpha couldn't make out, even when he tried to read the doctor's mind still didn't clear things up. His thoughts were going so quick all Alpha could do was pick up a few words mostly "how and serious". Alpha placed his new helmet back on liking the clear visor in front as he no longer had to worry about dried blood stains. Alpha took another look at the doctor "Well I'll be heading out again," The doctor looked up "Alpha wait," the doctor pinched the bridge of his nose "Did Big Sister… say anything to you," Alpha looked up as if in thought "Actually she did, but all she said was that I'm hers now," The doctor shook his head and began rethinking everything he thought about the protectors "Alpha listen, there are things that you still don't know, but I want you to understand something," Alpha cut in "Don't be mad, if what I did was wrong I won't do it again," The doctor placed his hands on Alpha's shoulders "Alpha listen, you have done nothing wrong… in fact you did something I didn't think was possible," the doctor smiled "Big Sister and everyone else are still there…I can still save them," Alpha didn't know what the doctor was saying, but all he knew was that he did what he was supposed to do "Oh and one last thing Alpha…what do you think of what Big Sister did?" the brother tilted his head to the side "What do you mean?" The doctor took one hand off his shoulder and pointed over his chest "Did you feel anything here when she did it?" Alpha touched the leather patch "Well…I was more confused than anything…was I supposed to feel something different?" The doctor let him go "Well considering things… I wasn't expecting you to," Alpha waved goodbye to the doctor when he spoke up again "Oh Alpha before you go can you tell Sigma to head back to Hephaestus, there have been some problems with the power that I want to make sure has nothing to do with the generators,"

The doctor quickly made his way back to his office knowing Tenenbaum should be informed of the new information he had just received. He guessed he should hold the whole "relationship" Alpha has with sister until the end or maybe it's best to tell her right away? Doctor Ellis was about to make that decision in the next couple of minutes whether he wanted to or not. He pulled his chair out and tuned his radio to the frequency Tenenbaum agreed to. The static coming from the other end stopped as he pressed the button to talk "Tenenbaum its Doctor Ellis," The static came from the other end for a few seconds before the woman answered "Yes doctor, is something wrong?" the doctor almost laughed "You aren't going to believe what I'm about to tell you," Tenenbaum could have sworn he sounded… happy "Alpha seems to have a curious new relationship with the Big Sister in Dionysus Park," "…What do you mean?" The doctor laughed "Going by what Alpha told me, she kissed him," The pause that followed was enough for the doctor to repeat his message thinking it hadn't gone through. The static cut "Doctor did you just say what I think you said?" The doctor smiled "Yes," Another pause before Tenenbaum laughed "So SHE kissed HIM?" "I know it stunned me too," The doctor imagined Tenenbaum rubbing her temples trying to process this when he heard her sigh "That's impossible, Big Sisters don't… can't form connections like that," Doctor Ellis shook his head "They received no treatment other than the ADAM in their bodies as they matured so it isn't impossible just nearly," The doctor looked at a screen with Big Sister playing with all the little sisters and what looked like Lambda "Besides they seem to get along with the little sister just fine," Tenenbaum breathed out "I guess, but it is still hard to imagine…wait what did the other one do about it, what did you call him… Alpha was it?" The doctor picked up a yellow folder with Alpha's symbol on the front "Yeah, unfortunately he and all the other brothers didn't have you to keep them safe,"

Tenenbaum leaned back on her chair knowing what Doctor Ellis meant. Even as the sisters grew and turned more violent she made sure none of her previous work could be reached to change them. At least then the sisters had a chance to return to normal like Jack did before "I don't know the details of the work the Big Brothers went through, but I will help in what I can," Tenenbaum heard the turning of pages as the doctor spoke "The boys had to be altered as they came of age…puberty so to speak…" Tenenbaum was familiar with the concept "…but they were far stronger and ruthless…4 of the staff had to be scrapped off a wall once," Tenenbaum opened a notebook nearby with all her notes of the sisters as they grew up "They were also extremely territorial, we couldn't even keep more than one in the same room without trying to tear each other apart," Tenenbaum had opened up the notebook to a page recording the damage of one of the sisters outbursts "What exactly was done to them doctor?" The doctor took a picture of a child restrained to a bed with glowing yellow eyes "Rapture took their future,"