Translations at end.

"There is a tyranny in the womb of every Utopia."

-Bertrand de Jouvenel, Sovereignty: An Inquiry Into the Political Good, 1998

"Wha' do we know abou' these men? Besides being diplomats ta their home country." Atlas asked his informants. On the desk in front of him he had security photos of Jones, Honda, Beilschmidt, and the Italian. "Anyone find ou' his name?" He pointed at the Italian.

"When I was hanging around Jones, he called the kid 'Italy'. Said it was a nickname," John said.

"Good enough feh me. Any updates?"

Marissa spoke up. "Last I heard them was goin' towards Pauper's."

"Heard some commotion over at Med Pav yesterday," Rachel reported.

"Four broke in through the main doors to the surgical suite," David continued, "Big 'plosion."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Afterwards, the small guy"—she pointed at Italy—"was carrying Jones on his back. They went round a corner and I lost them."

Atlas stared at his goons in thought. "Who was tey with? Do we know 'im?"

David looked at Rachel. "You got a better look. It was a girl. Couldn't have been older than twenty."

"Tall, brown hair, some sort of bird mask, I think. Had blue veins down the side of her face," she said.

Atlas had seen the girl around. Probably everyone had at some point. She was a ghost. Always seemed to know everything that was going on. Also seemed to be in Ryan's pocket. If she was allying herself with these four, they were needed. Get them and you get her.

"Bring them ta me. As much force an' firepower ye need. Anythin' else I should know?"

"Sir," John said, "Jones wouldn't go down at New Year's."

"Wha' do ye mean, boyo?"

"He would get hit, then get right back up. Didn't seem ta notice too much, neither."

"Maybe they all like that?" Marissa asked.

"Double whateva firepower ye think ye was goin' ta use," Atlas ordered. "Bring Jones and Beilschmidt ta me alive. They have a Plasmid. We can use that. The other men donna matter. Bring them in alive or leave 'em fah dead. Bring the girl in alive. Got it?"

The four goons nodded and left to go gather forces. Sure, sometimes it was hard to get a bunch of people working together down in this dump, but with the promise of violence, most came running.

Alfred came to slowly. His head throbbed, but it was closer to the feel of a headache than an actual injury. His hearing was almost back to normal. Another few days, and it should return fully.

"Was goin' on?" he slurred, sitting up. He felt sticky, like he hadn't taken a shower in a few days.

Kiku moved over and helped him sit up. Once he was leaning against the wall, he handed him a bottle of water and a couple Pep Bars.

"We're trying to figure out how to get out of Rapture," Kiku said.

Alfred chugged the water and tore into a Pep Bar. "Bi' 'a-y sui'?"

"What?" blond guy (Ludwig?) said.

Alfred swallowed his food. "Big Daddy suit." He looked towards the girl. "Who are you?"

"Lena. Rapture." She didn't seem too happy to introduce herself.

Kiku looked at the others to see if they understood any more than he did. "I'm not sure I understand."

Lena stared at Alfred, not moving, waiting for an explanation. He explained, "We kill some Big Daddies. Take their suits. Walk to the nearest shore. Not like we can really die if we don't go without food or water for a few days, right."

"No," Lena said.

"What?" Alfred asked, shocked. "It's a great plan! Daring heroics! Sneaking past the guards while disguised as the guards. It's foul proof. Or do you mean the not dying thing? I'm pretty sure that was a thing."

Lena's frown grew more pronounced. She sent a shock to Alfred's leg. He yelped. "We're not killing the Big Daddies."

"Well why not?!" he shouted, throwing his arms up. It was a great plan. He came up with it, after all.

Lena jumped to her feet, arms rigid, hands fisted with fire rushed around them. Alfred shied back. Maybe he shouldn't piss her off.

"The Big Daddies care for the girls. Without them they get murdered or eaten or abused. And I can feel when the connections break. I can feel when one of them dies." The men were silent. It had been a very long time since they could feel the death of their citizens to that extent. With so many people, it was a dull roar in the back of their minds, but with so few important citizens, she must be hit harder at each death. "So, no, any plan with Big Daddies are off the table." She extinguished the flames and ran her hands under her mask and over her face.

"Next idea," Ludwig said.

"Tomato crate?" Feli suggested.

What the fuck? "Anything else?" Ludwig said, defeated.

"Does anyone have access to a submarine nearby?" Kiku asked.

"How would we get in contact with them?" Ludwig asked.

"Could we just swim?" Feli asked. "Like Alfred said, we can't really die, so what if we just open an airlock and start swimming. Once we reach the surface we can head towards shore."

"Even though we can't stay dead, we still need air. We still tire," Kiku countered.

"But sooner or later wouldn't we make it somewhere?" Feli asked.

"I don't think it's going to work, Feliciano-san, sorry."

"What if," Alfred started. This idea was brilliant. "We take a hallway and seal it up." They stared at him. "Then disconnect it from the main buildings. Strap an engine to one end of it and just ride it all the way to shore! Bam! Instant submarine!"

"That's stupider than the tomato crate idea," Ludwig deadpanned.

"Hey!" Feli and Alfred shouted.

"We don't have submarines," Lena said, almost to herself, "but we do have bathyspheres."

"We rode one of those down," Kiku remembered.

"We could steal one from that store that sells them," Alfred said.

"No, those have problems. And not that many citizens still have working ones," Lena informed them.

"So we're screwed," Feli said.

"The Welcome Center," Ludwig said.

"What about it?" Feli asked.

"Germany's right," Lena said, standing up and gathering their things. "The main bathysphere in the Welcome Center should work fine. It's frequently repaired and serviced. Until recently, it was used almost daily. We aren't far."

"Is that going to be safe?" Kiku asked.

"Should be. We have four health packs. Any of you injured? We can heal you up now. If we're sneaky, we hopefully won't have to do much fighting."

Alfred tried to stand, but everything still hurt. "Ow," he whined. "I feel like every nerve is trying to take off." Lena threw a First Aid Kit and hit him hard in the stomach.

Ludwig spoke up. "I'm also still getting aftershocks." Lena tossed him a kit. Whomever hit them with that electricity was pretty strong for the aftereffects to last this long.

"Italy, Japan?"

"I'm good. Thank you Lena-san."

Feli shook his head and gathered things into his backpack, leaving the wrench/flag out.

Alfred sighed at the rough treatment and dug into the First Aid Kit, pulling out the red hypo and injecting it into his arm right on top of a series of other half healed injection points. His healing ability had been on the fritz for a few days. The hypo got to work and the holes fully closed up. The other aches and pains dulled down to almost unnoticeable. His back still hurt a bit. Guess it can't fix everything.

"Anyone have any EVE left?" Alfred asked when he felt the healing finish. "I'm running on empty here.

Kiku reached out gently. "Alfred-san, I don't think that's such—"

"You don't get to tell me what to do," Alfred snapped, cutting him off, slapping the hand away. Kiku took a step back.

"He!" Ludwig protested.

"Cool it!" Lena shouted. "It doesn't matter right now. We'll get you both a couple EVE hypos, just in case. Once you're back home, you won't have any access to them, so no problem. Detox later. Be ready in case of a fight now. Leave any weapons you don't have ammo for." She shouldered past the men. "Let's go."

"Enter!" Andrew Ryan ordered.

"Sir," a female voice said, entering the room.

Andrew put down his pen and looked at the woman entering. She looked like she was geared for war. "Rachel. I see you've been busy."

"Yes, sir. Atlas is making a move on those four men and a girl."

"A girl?"

"Brown hair, has blue veins on her face."

"Lena. She's trouble. Do you know where they're going?"

"We have men stationed at all the main checkpoints. Atlas seems to think they may try to escape Rapture, so our biggest force is near the Welcome Center. They were last seen in the Medical Pavilion."

"Very good. What are your orders?"

"The men with Plasmids and Lena are to be brought to Atlas alive. He doesn't care about the other two."

"Bring those two to me, then. Alive, if at all possible. We can use them."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

Rachel nodded and left the office.

Interesting. Atlas was going to try and turn those two diplomats into his willing soldiers. And that bitch of a City. How dare she support a citizen of one of the countries that kept him down? Direct orders had worked on her before. They better work now. He wouldn't back down this time.

Francis slid down the last bit of the slope towards the front door of Kyung-woo Sung's house. He lived in a small home on the outskirts of the city. The closest neighbor was a good half hour away, and the front door was down a hill with crumbling stairs.

He knocked on the door. "Excuse me, Monsieur Sung?"

Something thudded inside the house. Someone stomped towards the door, but not close enough to open it.

"Kkeojeo!" someone, presumably Sung, shouted.

"Please," Francis begged. "I've been told you have information about Rapture." No further sound came from the house. "I have friends lost down there and—"

The door was wrenched open. "You should forget about your friends."

"What?"

"If they're in Rapture, they aren't coming back. Forget them. Make new friends." Sung was an older Korean gentleman. He had on ratty clothes that looked to be a month over due for a wash and greasy hair cropped short to his head. The most striking thing were the large boils trailing up his left arm. They looked like they hurt. Sung made no move to cover them when he noticed Francis' gaze.

Francis pulled his eyes back up to Sung's face. He stared coldly back at him, as he started to close the door. "Please, I need to find them." Francis was desperate. This was his only solid lead.

Sung sighed after a moment and opened the door wider, inviting Francis in. "It's a big place," he said about Rapture. "I should know. I helped build it." He prepared two cups of coffee, setting one in front of Francis.

"If you don't mind me asking, why aren't you there now?" Francis asked.

Sung explained, "I got into an accident right before they realized some of the workers would need to live down there too. To help run the place, you know, behind the scenes, while the big wigs live it up. I was sent to a hospital top side and told to never come back there again. Honestly a bit surprised they didn't kill me outright."

"Why's that?"

"No family left. It's not like anyone would miss me. I'd just be another death the city was built on."

Francis was silent as he drank some coffee. That was a painful thought.

"Listen. Your friends," Sung said, "Rapture is…a lot. So much happens in one day. The science they were doing." He shook his head. "It's not normal. You should forget about them."

Francis burst out of his seat. "I can't do that! So many people are counting on me to find them! Please, you don't have to come. I just need something. Coordinates, a docking site, anything."

He thought for a minute. "I give you coordinates, you leave me alone. Forever? You tell whoever told you my address to forget it, got it?"

"Oui, oui."

He sighed and took another moment, stealing himself. "63 degrees, two minutes north by 29 degrees, 55 minutes west. You can rent boats from the docks. Be careful. Those waters are known as the Frozen Triangle. Many boats and planes have gone missing."

Francis grabbed Sung's hands, headless of the injury, and shook them. "Merci. Merci beaucoup. I'll be careful. I'm grateful."

"Just leave me alone."

Francis agreed and left the house in a hurry, back to his car, and back to the docks. He had a boat to rent.

He: Hey

Monsieur: Mister

Kkeojeo!: Get Lost!

Oui, Oui: Yes, yes

Merci. Merci beaucoup.: Thank you. Thank you very much.