Chapter 53
Olympus Heights - Tramway outside the Bathysphere Station
Jack sat on a wooden bench, and watched through the glass. After everything, he wanted to feel pleased. He wanted to congratulate himself on surviving, and bringing about the end of the Rapture nightmare. But he couldn't.
Through the glass of the tunnel, he watched as the lights went out. The shock wave created by Hephaestus had toppled buildings like domino's, and the sea was growing murky with debris and dust. Yet still through it, he could follow as the loss of power was hitting the city, district by district. Some buildings were lasting longer than others, running off of emergency batteries for anything up to an hour before finally giving out. Already the familiar, soothing pulsing of the pumps had stopped even here in Olympus heights, and the humming of the air vents had stopped. How quickly the air was turning cold, soon it would be freezing.
Edward began to stir at last, laid out on the bench next to him. He groaned for a while, and pulled a hand up to nurse his cheek where Jack had hit him. Jack watched him as he woke. How helpless he now was, such a pitiful sight really. In a strange way, he felt towards Edward at that moment how he'd felt towards Grace when he'd sat by her bedside - as a victim. Certainly there was hatred and anger at him, but Jack could understand Edward was the product of a life in Rapture.
Edward slowly sat up, not even realizing for a moment he was sat side by side with Jack. His first care was to look through the glass and watch the city. He sighed, and looked on as some of the nearer buildings fell dark.
"How quiet it is." He murmured. "Everything is so calm, in the end."
Jack looked at the side of his face, and shared his mourning. "It had to happen you know. For that, I am truly sorry." Jack gently spoke, reaching out and laying a hand softly on top of Edwards. Edward didn't flinch, but looked down at the gesture. Returning his gaze to his dying city, he continued;
"I wanted it all to go, so differently."
Jack nodded; "I never doubted that you thought you were doing what was necessary. But you were still clinging to the dream of Rapture so tightly, that it obscured your view of what was really going on. What you were really doing to these people, to yourself." Jack wanted to shout at Edward, he so badly wanted to throttle him and curse him. He knew he had every reason even to kill him, as he had set out to do. But this wasn't the same Edward any more, this was someone else. This was a broken man, stuck in the dream of his past.
"But oh, what a dream it was. It was a dream worth every moment. Before the fall... before the war... There was once great happiness in Rapture, for some, at least. Including myself."
Jack took his hand from Edward's and lifted it onto his shoulder. "But for how long?"
"Long enough!" Edward raised his voice slightly onto to emphasize his point. "So many were so busy, rushing around so fast to make the next dollar and keep up with their neighbours, that they didn't ever stop to just look. To look at the beauty we had accomplished." He began to smile, and rose up from the bench, approaching the glass, reaching out to touch it, as if he could reach through and embrace the city. "Every day, Sheridan would be pouring over his diary, or a contract for some new venture he was embroiled in. I'd have to drag him from his seat to the window, to stand there with me. Just to look at this beautiful place."
There was a sudden boom, somewhere below, but close. The tunnel rocked violently, and the lights began to dim. At one end of the tunnel, Jack could see the buildings were beginning to sway in different direction, breaking the seal on the tunnel. Water began to seep through. The tunnel groaned loudly.
He looked back at Edward, who was walking away from him towards the Mercury Suites end of the tunnel. Catching him up, Jack took his arm in his hand to pull him towards the Bathysphere station. "Look... why don't you come back up to the surface with me?" He couldn't believe he was making the offer, but he had already lost too many lives to this city. This one, damaged soul could possibly still be worth saving.
Edward stopped, and turned to him with a smile. "That's kind of you, after all we've been through together. But I think I'm just going to go home now. I'm very tired." He pulled away, and began to climb the steps up towards Mercury Suites.
"Edward, the city is going, she's breaking up! The explosion - it's tearing up the ocean floor!"
Edward didn't seem to hear him at all. Sea water began to flood down the steps from the collapsing tunnel, and washed over Edwards feet as he climbed the steps. Still, he didn't flinch. As he reached the top step, he turned and looked down at Jack one final time.
"Do you think the world will ever know the truth about this place? What we accomplished?" He gazed up through the glass into the sea with a deep expression.
"I honestly don't know. There will always be rumors I'm sure..." Jack called up to him.
"Rumors will do." Edward then smiled at Jack again, and winked, once. Then he walked off into Mercury Suites.
Another explosion rocked the tunnel so badly this time that an entire pane of glass broke away, and a pillar of ocean came crashing down. Realizing he was out of time to pursue Edward any further, Jack rushed back down to the waiting Bathysphere. Beating the water by a few feet, He quickly set a course for the surface.
Atlantic Ocean - The Lighthouse
Jack's bathysphere had broken the surface into the sunlight some way from the lighthouse. The door was open, and the fresh air had filled the cabin. Jack lay on the floor, curled up, his knees tucked into his chest, as he cried. He screamed aloud and wept, for his father's city, and the thousands he had failed to save. He was free again, and so pleased to be, but that only seemed to build upon his guilt.
Gently, the ocean currant carried the Bathysphere closer to the lighthouse, and as it bounced and turned on the water, Jack came to look upon the worn, tired visage of the lighthouse. As he wiped away his tears, he noticed the tiny faces lined up along the steps. Each was smiling, pointing up at the sky and waving. Two taller figures waited at the bottom of the steps, their metallic suits discarded in pieces on the rocks.
Finally, he managed a smile. They looked so like his own daughters had done, all those years ago. They had been worth leaving Rapture for, and so too he knew these new girls would be. In time, he hoped that seeing the life he'd afforded these girls would help him absolve himself of his guilt. He would return to this place only one more time, to destroy the lighthouse and wipe this place off the map forever.
Fortesque Penthouse - Mercury Suites - Olympus Heights
The water was rushing around his knee's, and the lights were so dim now that Edward couldn't make out his surroundings. He was home, in the living room, standing in his favorite spot in all of Rapture, by the window that had once overlooked the entire city. The lights were gone, the view was gone, the city, was gone. The building around him was twisting, tilting, beginning to come down as it's worn aluminium foundations collapsed under the weight of the now flooded structure.
Despite the darkness that now surrounded him, Edward closed his eyes. Reaching out, he could touch the glass window, and in is mind, he could recall the beautiful view of Rapture below, lit up in all its glory as it had been that first day he had arrived. He smiled, at peace now, alone with his city.