Elizabeth IX
"Du Hurensohn, where did Subject Delta go?" Tenenbaum demanded.
"How should I know?" Elizabeth shot back. "I was with you checking on the crash!"
The scientist scowled, "You shouldn't have left him! We need that Big Daddy to save the Little Sisters!"
Liz flinched as the memory of the Big Daddy's drill tearing through the flesh of her body, splintering rib cage bone, and spraying blood everywhere. "I couldn't have stopped him from leaving if he really wanted to -you know that."
Tenenbaum sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I know, I know. I am just frustrated. So much is happening too quickly for me to properly plan around it. And, if you are right about Rapture's... new arrival, then we will have even more to juggle."
"To be totally honest, I'm not really sure why you think we need Subject Delta so badly," Elizabeth said. "I know he is the first real Big Daddy but what specifically can he tell us?"
The older woman bit her lip, brows drawn tight. "I... haven't fully explained to you what saving the Little Sisters would entail. Why do you think I allow their bonded Big Daddies to remain so close to my safe house?"
Liz cocked her head to the side, "Because they provide protection from splicers?"
"That is part of it, yes, but the second part is the that bond between a Big Daddy and their Little Sister is more than just an emotional one," Tenenbaum said. "It affects them both on a mental and physical level.
When separated, both parties suffer -though it is worse for the Big Daddies. Little Sisters rely on their Big Daddies for protection, security, and comfort; separation not only leaves them physically vulnerable but also causes high levels of stress and anxiety that can stop eating and sleeping properly. I've seen it get to the point where they are ripping their hair out and scratching themselves bloody.
Big Daddies suffer similarly. As you've seen, separation for their Little Sisters causes high levels of aggression but if the separation goes on long enough then it can literally cause them to break down. Their minds and bodies will slowly stop working."
Elizabeth's eyes went wide. "Really? That is insane! But, if it's true, then why didn't I see more dead Big Daddies laying around?"
"The breakdown can be staved off by contact with other Little Sisters. It is never as effective as it is with their original Little Sister, but it does work," Tenenbaum explained. "I want to find a way to break that bond in a way that is safe to the Little Sisters. It is the only way they could safely leave Rapture for life on the surface."
It didn't escape Liz's notice that Tenenbaum didn't mention wanting the Big Daddies to be able to safely withstand the breaking of the bond either but decided not to comment on it down.
"So you think that something about Subject Delta could help you with that?"
"As I said before, there is always something about the first," the older woman said.
"And now the first has gone off on a... a walk!"
"I know where the new Mr. Bubbles went."
Elizabeth and Tenenbaum both turned to see a red-haired Little Sister staring up at them, doll tucked in the crook of her arm. She was the same one -Nora, Liz vaguely recalled- who'd they'd asked to speak with Subject Delta on their behalf.
"What are you speaking of, Little One," Tenenbaum said.
"Mr. Bubbles said he needed to find his Little Sister. She was taken from him and now he needs to save her. That is why I showed him how to leave," the girl explained. The girl frowned, toeing the ground and looking up at them with a pair of pleading puppy dog eyes. "Are you angry with me, Mama Bri? I just wanted to help."
Tenenbaum sighed, "No, I'm not angry with you, Little One, but you know that you aren't supposed to open the safety door, Little One. It is dangerous."
"I'm sorry," the girl keened.
Liz gave the scientist an unimpressed look. "You're too soft on them."
But her comment was just waved away. "How Subject Delta left doesn't matter now, we just need to focus on finding and bringing him back."
"Well, you do have a place to start," Booker said. The ghost of her father was standing in front of the windows, green eyes watching a few small pieces of airplane debris float down to the seafloor. "The girl. Is she still around?"
"You're right, we do," Elizabeth said. When Tenenbaum raised a questioning eyebrow in her direction, she continued. "The Little Sister that Subject Delta was bonded with, what do we know about her? If they were the first successfully bonded pair then shouldn't there be something about her that is worth studying?"
The older woman blinked. "...I'm afraid I don't know. When I first stumbled upon the information about Subject Delta, I wasn't interested enough to check. I may have developed the process that creates Little Sisters but I was never involved past that -I wasn't allowed to be. She would have needed to be part of the first runs of Little Sisters, though."
Liz bit her lip. She wasn't letting go of this lead just yet. "Are there any records of the bonded pairs?"
"Perhaps..." Elizabeth could see the wheels turning in Tenenbaum's mind as the woman lit a cigarette. "If they still exist, they'd either be with Andrew Ryan himself or, more likely, be in Suchong's lab, along with plenty of other secrets."
"How can you be sure?"
Tenenbaum shook her head, "It was always secrets with Suchong, always secrets and lies and ego. The man is dead now, killed by one of his own creations, but even now those secrets remain."
"From my run-ins with him, that doesn't surprise me," Liz scowled, remembering the arrogant scientist who'd didn't understand how simple kindness and empathy could create a bond that even science could replicate. "Well then, it looks like I'm heading back to Suchong's lab."
"Hast du eine macke oder was?" Tenenbaum snapped, looking at Elizabeth like she was mad. "Your last trip out into the city nearly killed you!"
"I was also able to get a lot of supplies that we needed," she pointed out. "We have no way of knowing when or if Subject Delta returned and, sees as I doubt you want to venture outside these walls, I am still our best shot."
.
.
.
"You are a very stubborn girl," the scientist sighed, messaging her temples. "But I suppose I can't stop you."
"No, you couldn't."
"The good news is that Suchong's lab is not that far away," Tenenbaum said, rolling a set of blueprints back out onto a table. The blueprints were old, stained, had many taped-over rips; if Elizabeth had to guess, they were probably scavenged.
'Which makes me worried about how accurate they are,' Liz thought. Her last trip out into the city had already proven that time and conflict had proven that parts of the city had crumbled and pathways were now cut-off. "Suchong's lab is hidden behind his free clinic, right?"
Liz didn't trust her memories anymore -she couldn't. Things she knew as undeniable facts in one timeline were inconceivable in another and now, after being cut off from the stars and giving up her power, Elizabeth wasn't entirely sure what was real anymore.
"Blood, guns, and booze, sweetheart," Booker whispered, peering over her shoulder to look down at the blueprints. "Even when things hit rock-bottom, I could always trust those."
"Yes, but you're a mess of a human being," she whispered back. Tenenbaum cocked an eyebrow in her direction but Liz ignored the silent question. 'It isn't like I'm much better though.'
"Yes, the man liked to tout himself of a paragon of charity and kindness to the people of Rapture -a falsehood his benefactors pushed as well- but, in actuality, it was created as part of a business venture and a breeding ground of opportunities rather than any true charity," the older woman explained. "Most of the working-class citizens of Apollo Square were unable to afford the cost of the Medical Pavilion and, to them, the clinic was a safe, reliable place to first aid and health care. Little did they know, for every injury Suchong patched and illness he healed, the man experimented on at least two of his patients. Not that they knew what was being done to them, of course."
"Like what?"
"Oh, slow-acting poisons, transfusing the wrong blood type, crude gene grafting, mind control drugs..." Tenenbaum said. "The things he put into the bodies of pregnant women would turn your stomach."
Elizabeth fought back a shiver, 'Good thing that asshole is dead, otherwise I'd be putting a bullet in between his eyes myself.'
By her side, Booker let out a low chuckle, " You get your bloodthirsty streak from me, kiddo."
Tenenbaum continued, "The clinic is located on the second floor of Artemis Suites of Apollo Square. It'll be dangerous, but I think you could use the maintenance tunnels to get to the building, at least."
"Why couldn't I use those tunnels before?"
"I booby-trapped or had the Big Daddies seal off all the ones connecting to the safe house. I was concerned about Fontaine or Ryan sending someone after me and the Little Ones," Tenenbaum said. "I couldn't do the same with the vents, we still needed the air, so it was the best I could do. You should be able to access them... here- " she tapped a nail against the paper "-near one of the sector's main water tanks. You'll have to walk, of course; the Metro system trolley has long since been destroyed, and, from what the Little Ones telling me, the entire area is in ruins. This little trip of yours will be stupidly dangerous."
"I laugh in the face of danger," Liz said dryly. "Is there anything else I should know?"
"Only to prepare yourself, while you slept through six months, Ryan had Apollo Square condemned in an attempt to contain Atlas's followers during the civil war. He wasn't quite successful but it did spur the sector's descent into chaos. Some of the people in this safehouse escaped from there and the stories they tell me..." the woman trailed off but she didn't need to finish, Liz understood perfectly.
"Got it," she nodded. "Now, where are my guns? And that lighter I had on me? I want that back."
"Back out into the belly of the beast then?" Booker asked, lighting up a cigarette with a smirk.
'You say that like we ever really left.'
"Ptsssss, Pretty Lady, I have a present for you."
A small hand tugged at Elizabeth's worn pants and the Little Sister, Nora, pressed a small case into her hand.
"What's this, sweetheart?" she said, crouching down to look the girl in her big, sad eyes.
"I'm not supposed to have them, Mama Bri says this stuff is dangerous," Nora whispered. "But I think you'll need it to help the new Mister B."
Now THAT got Elizabeth's attention. She turned the small cardboard gift box over in her hands; Little Sisters were strange creatures, their minds didn't work as a normal little girl's would, but they were still smart and aware that Liz highly doubted she was being handed a small stuffed animal or broken necklace.
"Open it," the girl urged.
Liz's eyes went wide at the set of five slender cylinders of blue liquid that were nestled inside the box and wrapped in old newspaper. "Nora, where did you get this much EVE?"
"It's a secret," the Little Sister whispered.
"Noraaaaaa," Liz pressed, cocking an eyebrow.
The girl rocked back and forth on the balls of her small bare feet, biting her bottom lip, more a moment. But, after a moment, Nora let out a little sigh. "One of the Mr. Bubbles showed me that, if you stab the right spot in the back of the vending machines, you can get the storage door open. Does that help you, Pretty Lady?"
"More than you know, Sweetheart. You are a very smart little girl to have figured remembered that," Elizabeth said, ruffling the girl's hair. "And you can call me 'Liz' if you want."
The Little Sister blinked at her owlishly, then her face split into a massive smile. "Big Sis Lizzy!"
Something deep inside Liz's damaged heart stuttered at the sweet nickname. It reminded her of a 'Sally... where are you?'
She knew the girl would be saved someday -soon, if her vision was to be believed- but that didn't mean Sally wasn't always Elizabeth's mind. That didn't mean the guilt of abandoning her wasn't still eating away at Liz's mind!
'I just wish I knew where she was. I wish I could tell her that things will be okay soon.'
Tiny fingers touched Elizabeth's cheek, wiping away a tear she hadn't realized was there. "Big Sis Lizzy? Are you okay?"
"I'm just... just worried about a friend of mine, kiddo," she said.
"Who?"
"Her name is Sally and she is actually a Little Sister, just like you," Liz said. Then a thought dawned on her, "I don't suppose you've seen her, have you? She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and was probably carrying around a doll that looks like me."
"Hmmm, none of my sisters here look like that, but... " Nora said, her tiny face scrunched up in thought. "I think I saw one like that gathering up ADAM in the medical pavilion!"
"Really? How long ago was this?" Elizabeth demanded, grabbing the Little Sister's shoulders.
"I- I-"
"Well, I've boosted both the transition and reception range of the radio," Tenenbaum said, rounding the corner to join them.
Seeing her coming, Liz shot to her feet and stepped back from Nora. "That's good. We'll need to stay in contact with me going further away this time."
"You know, there is still time for you to change your mind. Between the two of us, we could figure out a safer solution," the older woman said, holding out the radio. "And there is still the matter of-
"I've never known what is good for me," Elizabeth cut the woman off, taking the radio. "And we'll cross that bridge if we come to it."
'I'm coming for you, Sally.'
Check out me and some friends going a little insane as we read the infamously bad 'My Immortal'.
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