I LIVE! Seriously too, since I had COVID between the last chapter and now.

Jack VII

"Did you know that visiting Arcadia used to be free?" Liz asked. "Stuff within it still cost money -food, paddle boat, and cabin rentals, stuff like that- but people could still come to have a picnic and take in the sights for free."

"That sounds nice," Jack said, thinking about a pond surrounded by willow trees near his house where he liked to take girls he fancied. In its prime, Arcadia must have been far more spectacular. Now though? Well, it was still an amazing sight, though more in a tragic sense. Like the ruins of some long-forgotten city.

He stepped over a fallen bit of rubble before turning to offer a hand to Liz. "So what happened?"

Liz's strong yet slender hand slipped into his, gripping it tightly as she scrambled over the half-collapsed wall. "What else? Andrew Ryan. He believed the service Arcadia provided warranted payment in return for enjoying it."

"That makes... some sense," Jack said slowly. "I mean, the upkeep for this kind of pace can't be cheap."

Liz scoffed, rolling her bright blue eyes. "Yeah and the fact that it was created by a team of botanical scientists on his payroll definitely had nothing to do with it."

Jack took the hint and shut his mouth. It wasn't a hardship, not like he had any allegiance to Ryan anyway. Best to change the topic now and avoid any fights.

"Do you know what happened to those scientists? If they're still around, they might be of some help."

"Chances are they're either dead or running around somewhere as splicers," Liz said.

"You don't know for sure?" Jack asked.

For some reason, that surprised him. While Liz hadn't spoken much of her life before their meeting, he'd always gotten the sense she knew what was going on around her. Maybe it was her partnership with Tenenbaum, whom Atlas said had fingers in a lot of the important pies of Rapture during the city's prime.

Liz shrugged, cocking her head to the side. "You've got to remember that I was in a coma for most of Rapture's civil war. I was there for the early conflicts between Ryan and Fontaine, but the majority of the city was still up and running when I went down. I only woke up after things had gone completely to hell."

Dread pooled in Jack's stomach at the thought of Liz laying in a hospital bed somewhere, dark hair spread across white sheets like some sort of modern-day Snow White. He swallowed hard. "What happened?"

At the simple question, his companion froze up -her body growing stiff as her eyes went wide. Worried that he overstepped and triggered some undoubtedly terrible memory, Jack started to stutter out an apology. "S-sorry! You don't have to-"

"I was... attacked by a Big Daddy while trying to get Sally," Elizabeth said, cutting him off. Her words were emotionless and came out slowly, like she was carefully choosing each one before she spoke. "It must have been her protector. I... wasn't paying attention and, well, he did what Big Daddies do."

Jack nodded silently, taking in everything he was learning. 'It makes sense. Why she froze up when we fought that first Big Daddy. God, that feels like it was a lifetime ago.'

And maybe, in some ways, it was. Jack was a different person than he was a day ago, this morning, or even an hour ago. His motivation had turned from just trying to survive, to trying to rescue Atlas' family, to deciding that he wanted to save all the Little Sisters and anyone else he could, to becoming determined to hunt Andrew Ryan down like the mad dog he was and put him down. And now, ever since that kiss he shared with Elizabeth, his mind had been flooded with thoughts of escaping Rapture with Liz. He imagined that they could return to the surface and start a life together. After all, who else could they relate to after everything they've gone through? It only made sense for them to stay together after everything.

"Thankfully, Tenenbaum was able to find me before I bled out," Liz continued. "She took me back to her safe house, patched me up, and cared for me until I woke up. That was probably... wow, I guess it has been close to a month now. Time is hard to track down here."

His mind was still mostly lost in a fantasy of a make-believe future, Jack just nodded again. "I'm glad she was able to protect you while you were healing."

"Yes. I still don't know how she found me, let alone moved me to her safe house. Maybe Tenenbaum had it set up from the moment she left Ryan's control? She is certainly smart enough to have seen the coming storm. But, even if she had prepared ahead of time, keeping a coma patient alive isn't easy. And that isn't even accounting for the traumatic brain injuries I'd suffered." Elizabeth leaned forward and pointed to her forehead. "Look, she even stitched me up well enough that there is barely even a scar."

For a brief moment, Jack's eyes flicked up to the small line of dark pink skin that started above the left eyebrow and crept up to Liz's hairline. He'd seen it before, it and several other scars that dotted his companion's visible skin, but had never thought too much about it. He assumed, perhaps understandably, that she either got it fighting for her life as Rapture fell to pieces or whatever her job had been beforehand. Speaking of which...

"Uh, what did you do before... everything?" he asked. Quickly adding, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I guess it really doesn't matter, I'm just-" he gave a shrug "-hopelessly curious about you."

He said that last part with his most charming, boyish smile. It got him an eye roll, but Elizabeth smiled as well.

"It's fine. I was a cabaret singer mostly, though I did some recording work too." A soft, longing smile crossed Liz's face. "I used to dream of being a singer when I was a child."

"You did? I guess you achieved your dream then."

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to shrug. "Maybe, but I dream of being a lot of things as a child. A singer, a painter, a dressmaker, a professional codebreaker, a scientist... Oh, yes. Scientists! That's where this all started! I do know that the head of that botanist team was Dr. Julie Langford, and the last I knew about her was that locked herself down in Arcadia. But, as I said, that was during the early days of the conflict. Anything could have happened between now and then."

"Mmmhmm," Jack nodded. In all honesty, he wasn't paying much attention. His mind was too clouded by how close Elizabeth's face was, and the image of her singing while clad in some sort of slinky red cocktail dress. He didn't know much about cabaret singers, or even what a cabaret was, but he definitely liked the idea. Still, fascinating as it was, Jack forced it away. "So she could still be alive?"

As the pair pressed on, passing into an area named 'Rolling Hills' by a flickering neon sigh. "Theoretically. Arcadia has water, oxygen, and the means to grow plenty of food, but the violence and chaos would have still been enough to destroy anyone hiding here."

Before Jack could respond, a now familiar static crackle to life in his ear. "Eh, boyo, if you're still alive then you should still be getting to Rolling Hills soon. There should be a bathysphere there, get to it immediately. If it's still working, it'll take you straight to the devil himself. No more there pussyfooting around. No more breaks and detours. For all he may want to be a god, Ryan is just a man and you've proven yourself to be more than you appear. Take him out, then all debts will be paid in full."

'Debts...'

Yes, Jack supposed that he did owe Atlas a debt. After all, the man had been the only reason Jack survived those early hours in Rapture, his only friend until he met Liz. Still, he didn't like the use of the term 'debt.' He thought of Atlas as a friend, did the other man not think the same?

A hand touched the crook of his elbow "Jack?"

Jack jolted out of his thoughts, fiddling around with the volume knob of his little waist-clipped radio, turning it down. "That Little Sister you're looking for, Sally, do you have any idea where she might be?"

Elizabeth's brow furrowed, dark eyebrows drawing together. "...Little Sisters will typically gravitate to where the most dead bodies are, easier to harvest ADAM that way."

"Right, that makes sense," Jack nodded. Then... "But that leaves the issue of where that would be."

"Hmmm, no... But, in theory, people would gather where the most supplies like food and water would be. And if they gathered there, chances are-"

"That they die there," Jack said, catching on. He grinned, "There or somewhere close! And I'm guessing you have an inkling of where that would be."

"The labs, that is where most of the food was grown. On top of likely being full of plenty of other useful goodies -drugs and other medical supplies."

"Makes sense."

"Splicers will probably be swarming that place. It's going there will be dangerous," Elizabeth warned, her voice low and teasing. The young woman looked at Jack out of the corner of her eye in an almost seductive way.

"Danger?" Jack teased back. "I laugh in the face of- ow!"

Elizabeth blinked at him in surprise. "What?"

"Nothing, my foot just hit something." Jack looked down, seeing another recorder. He picked it up, letting it play. He always tried listening to any of these he came across, finding that they often had valuable information.

The player whirled, static popping loudly before the compressed voice of Dr. Bridget Tenenbaum filled the air.

"The augmentation procedure is a success. The slugs alone could not provide enough ADAM for serious work. But combined with the host... now we have something. The slug is embedded in the lining of the host's stomach and after the host feeds we induce regurgitation, and then we have twenty, thirty times yield of usable ADAM. The problem now is the shortage of hosts. Fontaine says, "Patience, Tenenbaum. Soon the first home for Little Sisters will be open, and that problem will be solved..."

The tape ended, leaving a tight sickness in the pit of Jack's stomach. He looked over at Elizabeth, who wore her own discomfort in the way she bit her lip.

Jack swallowed hard and forced himself to speak. "Hey, how much... How much do you trust Tenenbaum? I mean, I know she saved you and all, but it seems like she had a hand in just about every terrible thing that happened in Rapture."

"And she'll admit that," Liz replied quickly. "And I won't deny it either. Tenenbaum did some horrible things, she has plenty of blood on her hands. But I don't think she did it intending to do so. Sometimes... sometimes when you can do something, you forget to ask yourself if you should do it. It's so easy to get caught up in the excitement of discovery and creation, of being able to affect the world. That you forget to consider how the dominos will fall as a result of your actions. I'm not making excuses for the things she did, I'm just saying that... I get it. I get what it's like to be lost in your own power."

Once more, Jack was struck with the thought that Elizabeth knew more than what she was telling him. What kind of power could a simple cabaret singer have had? Power to make men's head swirl, sure, but even that could only get so powerful.

'Ryan also offered her work,' a traitorous voice reminded him. 'She turned him down, but what kind of work did Ryan want her to do? And why has Atlas been warning me about her?'

He decided not to dwell on it for too long, now not being the time. Instead, the two pressed forward through the overgrown gardens of Arcadia. Even with his shotgun up, ready to start blasting away, Jack wouldn't help but admire the absolute beauty of the place. Lush grass carpeted the uneven floor, and thick layers of vines of ivy crept up the walls and ceiling, forming a thick canopy. Bright flowers bloomed in every direction, and the waterfall gave the air a thick, earthy smell. More striking still, was how far nature had already come in taking over every man-made surface of the place.

'Ryan may think himself a god, but how can he be one when nature overtakes what he's made so quickly?' Jack wondered, indulging in a satisfied grin as he took in the sight of a crumbling stone staircase that was half covered in vines and flowers.

The grin quickly vanished when the small snap of a twig cut through the quiet. Jack tightened his grip on his trusty shotgun, scanning the environment around him. "Is it just me, or has it been too-"

"Quiet? Yes, I was thinking the same thing," Liz nodded. She checked her hand cannon to make sure it was fully loaded. "Just stay close. We need to get out of the open as soon as possible."

Perhaps predictably, as soon as they turned a corner, the dark shadow of a humanoid figure scurried across the wall before vanishing from sight.

'Fuck!' he thought, glancing over Elizabeth. Her expression told Jack that she was thinking something similar.

They rounded another corner, this time coming face to face with a small table. At first glance, it looked like a simple workbench but, as they got close, Jack saw that it was decorated strangely.

"Is that a mask?" he asked, picking up the carved piece of wood. It looked like a crude art piece, eyeholes scraped out with sticks attached at the top to make it look like antlers.

"This looks like an altar," Elizabeth said. She poked at some of the other items on the table, some dead flowers and some bundles of dried herbs. There was a small wad of bills that she immediately pocketed. "Not one from any religion I recognize though."

"I thought religion was banned in Rapture."

"Organized religion was banned. Ryan degreed that individuals have a right to practice religion in private, but that there would be no formalize religion or public religious institutions like churches in the city. He's a devout atheist, but there were plenty who still practiced Christianity and Catholicism in private."

"I figured as much. ADAM, EVE, and Rapture... I was picking up a bit of a theme."

Elizabeth nodded. "Hard to get away from Judo-Christian influence, even at the bottom of the ocean. But, anyway-" she gestured to the mask in his hand "-I was going to say that, just because I don't recognize it, doesn't mean it isn't religious in nature. In times of crisis, people have been known to turn to religion for support and comfort -even if it's one they have to make up themselves."

Before Jack could respond, another snap! of a twig caused him to glance over his shoulder. Just in time to see a man in a wooden mask lunge at the pair with a raised knife.

Not a big chapter but this was more to get me back in the swing of writing these chapters. Still, I hope you liked it!