Taylor remembered the first time she had laid eyes on her Little Sister. Her eyes were a perfect endless gold that made Taylor fall in love with the child the moment she saw them. She had the reverb and the way she had smiled at Taylor had made Taylor happier in that moment than she had in a long time.

She had been left screaming in agony days before, locked and forgotten. The pain growing from a mere discomfort to an all consuming agony that defined her. It was as if she was being flayed alive slowly with dull knives. Her screams had echoed until her throat ran with blood. If she had still been allowed to think of religion she would have believed she had been sent to hell.

She had paced around the room, her suit stolen, her hair shorn, and her scars laid bare. She had clawed and blasted the walls until her fingernails bled and ripped. She could have smashed her way through the door but she had been forbidden to. And she was a Good Girl.

The pain had vanished as if it had never been there when the girl who would be Rosie was led half stumbling into the room. The girl had stared at her with half open eyes and a wide tired smile. The mark of a Little Sister still being taught. Not fully a little sister or fully dedicated to the Rules, but close enough that the sight of her Big Sister caused a reaction of joy, not fear.

It was still joy that looked out those perfect eyes at Taylor as Rosie smile with her mouth full of food. The food was fresher than anything in Rapture. Though Taylor found she preferred the taste of angel's blood and skin to anything here. Grabbing a handful of the green jello she copied Rosie and ate it, more mechanically than anything. Taylor ate, but she didn't see the real point. Food was nice and tasted good but there was no need to eat. ADAM kept her from getting too hungry.

"You know you could use the silverware Taylor." The girl Taylor usually ignored, Mimi, said. Out of chance the table Rosie and Taylor sat at for meals, once they had been allowed out of their room for meals, was also one that hosted an oddly docile splicer and a quiet girl who was shorter than Taylor but taller than Rosie. Taylor wasn't sure what age she was and hadn't asked.

The quiet one on some days would watch Rosie play or talk quietly. But most days she stared ahead.

The talkative one seemed to have latched onto the pair and would wave wildly at them when she saw them enter the large room. At first she had ignored them until she had seen Taylor cook some meat she thought was too cold. Taylor rarely listened to a word she said but she never tried to touch Rosie and had even brought her a toy once so Taylor didn't mind her much.

"So anyway, my fuc-," She paused seeing Rosie playing with one of her dolls, "fricking tv privileges got revoked because I found out the password for the more 'adult' channels is just 'password' and," This continued with Taylor not paying attention, nor Rosie, nor the girl who stared into where dreams and angels laid.

Taylor looked down at Rosie whose face was a mess of different foods she had slammed into her mouth. Both of the sisters had long grown adjusted to a lifestyle of eating as quickly as possible. It made times like this awkward as no one else finished nearly as fast. Taylor considered going back to their room but Rosie was happy to play here so Taylor left it.

Leaning back on the plastic seat Taylor glanced around the room. Her mother would be here later and had promised to bring a movie to watch with Taylor and Rosie. Taylor was rather excited for that in truth. Her eyes glanced over to the window where the foul horrible white shit that she wanted to burn burn burn burn…

Her eyes closed and she placed her hands on the cold table and squeezed. She felt the pain in her eyes from them boiling over and the cold relief of the yellow retaking dominance. She needed to hunt. To kill. To hurt someone. She'd never gone this long before without it. Rosie had to be protected, she had to be kept safe. She had to.

Taylor recalled her time before Rosie. When everything had hurt and her mind burned with anger. She bit her lip. Was it coming back?

"Jesus, Taylor what did the table do to you?" Mimi asked and Taylor opened her eyes. She had molded outlines of her fingers into the table. She blushed, with her skin going to a leper yellow instead of red on her cheeks.

"Um…" Taylor tried to think of a response. It was a table, she look like she was Bad or dumb if she said it tried to hurt her or Rosie. Rosie hadn't even stubbed her toe on it. One of the nurses, a tall man with a thick canvas of black hair that reminded Taylor of a pile of seaweed, approached her.

"Is everything alright Taylor? Would you two like to head back to your room?" He asked kindly though she pulled Rosie closer to her nevertheless. She shook her head. She could do it. She could do it. She'd prove she was Good so she could go home to her mama.

Rosie was looking up at her now. As was the quiet girl and Mimi. She felt their eyes like spotlights. She wanted to move or do something. Just to get away from being seen.

"I'm ok. Um… Mimi, what shows were you watching when you got caught?" She asked desperately for the attention to be on another. Little sisters were never supposed to be the center of attention. It was drilled into them from day one. Big sisters never got the attention because everyone ran the other way.

Mimi perked up. "Oh it was this sitcom about a parahuman detective or something, the effects were the worst but it was kind of funny in a way so bad it's kinda good, you know?" She said and Taylor went back to only half listening as her nurse backed away.

Taylor tried to think of when the last time the soon to be friends had visited. Had it been a week? She wasn't sure. She hoped they would come back soon. The smaller one had played with Rosie for an hour and the one in ugly armor had been very polite. He had asked her about her hobbies and what kinds of dances she liked and promised to bring her some music she could listen to.

In an attempt to be polite she had asked him about his hobbies and why he was being so polite. When she had seen the doll move she had assumed it was the result of a plasmid and considered if it would be rude to make the pair into angels. She had decided it would be since they wanted to be friends.

When she had asked where they got their ADAM, the words they had used had confused her. Something in their brain? That hadn't made much sense to Taylor nor had their powers made any sense. How did they do those things without ADAM? She briefly wondered what would happen if she drained someone else with powers like them. Would she get that person's powers?

She looked away from her memories and at the scarred splicer and the silent girl. "Mimi, how do your powers work?"

The burned girl grinned, her cigarette scars on her cheeks stretching. "I can make fire. Like how you do. Pretty simple-"

"Mine aren't like yours." Taylor said.

"Well ok then. But I make fire, and the more I see fire the more I want to make more and more." Taylor nodded. That made sense. Fire was useful and warm.

"And hers?" She said, gesturing at the silent blonde.

"Oh Elle? She can make really cool mazes and worlds. From what I've seen the longer she's in place the more the world around her is changed. I've seen some really cool stuff, like a hall of statues, a bedroom of sand, once an entire banquet hall, but you know kinda like a dream where the angles and stuff don't really make sense."

Taylor found that interesting. Was it like what a little sister saw? But able to make it real? She opened her mouth to ask Elle a question but realized the girl wouldn't answer in her current state.

"Could she make the world perfect and shiny and like a castle?" Taylor asked. Part of her wondered what Rosie might see then if reality matched the conditioning.

"Well I don't know about perfect but probably. You'd have to ask her though. I'm sure she'd do it as a favor since she's my best bud." Mimi wrapped her arms around Elle as she said this. Elle for her part didn't react to her "best bud" more or less hugging her.

oOo

Colin grasped the hand of the naval officer. "Good afternoon, Cpt. Whitley. I'm glad you were able to make it to the meeting." He said giving a smile he hoped came off as sincere. The navy was something of a joke in modern circles but he was hoping to get them to piggyback on his success.

"Happy to be here." The officer, a short ruddy faced man who likely should have retired a decade ago, said. "Now I believe you had an offer for me." He continued sitting down in the mahogany chair. Armsmaster's office was normally a spartan affair. Simple, cheap, and pragmatic. Today it appeared to be a theme of rainforest with the amount of mahogany. Well not real mahogany. Cheap replicas he had bought at the flea market and gotten kid win to help him polish the right color.

Light reading into Whitley's social media had shown a gaudy sense of decoration and approval for rich furniture. Armsmaster found it tacky but he was willing to change his sense of decor for the afternoon if it meant he could get approval for his project.

The official meeting wouldn't be until next week. There Armsmaster would be debriefing the PRT higher ups as well as the Coast Guard, The Guild, The Navy, and a number of other important officials. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that it may be the most important day of his life.

Three long months of study had led to it. Three months of stripping apart the device and putting it back together.

"Less of an offer and more of a proposal." He said pulling out the plans. "I'll cut right to the chase. What we're looking at is a major threat. A biotinker who has been able to give powers to others." Whitley straightened at that.

"Furthermore we have evidence showing that they have kidnapped several children and experimented on them to make them into living weapons. Two have been able to escape but we don't know about any others. Unfortunately the pair are mentally compromised and not reliable witnesses on what to expect. However we were able to figure out where they came from."

"And this is where the Navy comes in?" Whitley asked, stroking a non-existent mustache.

"Correct. They used a submarine with an attached teleporter. I'll go in on it with an advanced team, with multiple sets of backup on standby. However the issue is that we do not know where we will end up. From the projection and limited tests it appears to be the Atlantic."

Whitley raised a hand. "That's not exactly a small amount of water to cover."

"Which is why I'll be installing a tracking device on the submarine we are taking. Further once the teleporter activates a small portal will open. I should be able to expand it so that a Navy submarine could follow after us."

"And therefore allow a team of Navy SEAL's to join you on the assault." That was not what Armsmaster intended truthfully.

"Perhaps. Though my original idea was for the sub to be in charge of demolitions and ensuring that no chemicals or tinkertech drugs were released into the Atlantic. The last thing anyone wants is a Nilbog situation spreading to every fish of the ocean."

"Wouldn't blowing up this lair risk more exposure? Hell I think it's easy to say that we could do it but causing a tinkered plague is the last thing we want."

"You're right. Which is why we will be securing any tinkertech we find, as well as research notes and once the lair is secure, the submarine will launch torpedoes on the facility to destroy it. The last thing anyone wants afterall is some other villain to use it as a lair."

Whitley drummed his fingers on the desk. "This isn't a bad plan. I'll have to speak to my superiors but if it comes down to it you have my support."

oOo

Rosie yawned as she crawled into the basket. The play had been fun but she was tired now and her Big Sister was too, though she tried to hide it. Pulling off the thick dark princess tiara from her eyes she winced at the light and glanced around the room. The two beds had been pushed together and slid over to one corner where Rosie had drawn on the smooth white walls. A box with a tiny play in it sat on an opposite corner and a number of soft things laid between it and Rosie.

The basket was covered in thick warm blankets on the inside and out, pillows, and stuffed toys. Rosie wasn't sure where in Rapture she was but it was much fancier than the ones before. There were so many more toys and new things to touch. Though the lack of angels was sad. She didn't say that though, she didn't want her Big Sister to think she had done a Bad job.

Though she had to be honest, she did it as a Rule, the big chanda… chandil… the big metal thing with the candles on it that hung outside seemed mean with how bright it was. She didn't like it much. Nor did she like the odd carpeting that had replaced the pretty green rug. It was far too cold and weak.

Snuggling down into the basket on her Big sister's princess dress she closed her eyes to dream of angels as her Big Sister pressed herself against the wall to watch over her while she slept.

"Rosie…" Her sister said, her voice muffled by the veil on her tiara. Rosie popped her head up stretching her arms.

"Yep?"

"Rosie… are you happy here?" Her Big Sister asked. Which was a silly question. As long as she was good and followed the Rules she'd be happy.

"Mhm! This part of rapture is super neat, silly. Why would I be unhappy, Big sister?"

There was a long pause.

"Rosie… do…you know what my name is?" Rosie paused at this. She was Rosie's big sister. And Rosie wasn't supposed to say. She'd be Bad if she did. Her eyes closed as she thought about what had happened when she had been Bad once so long ago.

"I… I'd break the Rules if I said." Rosie had known. Once. But it wasn't allowed. One big sister was the same as every other, the preacher had told her.

"It's… It's not against-" Her big sister paused, choking on a word. Was she trying to lie? Rosie had tried that once. It had hurt her head to try and had given her a bad headache.

"I won't tell. The liars aren't here." Rosie looked down into the basket and curled into it afraid to look out and face the world. The heavenly lights weren't there right now. Just the ugly nasty other world that appeared when she was afraid.

"It would just be between me and you Rosie. Just whisper it once so I know that you have the right name you can't say." Her voice sounded strained and tired. It bothered Rosie. Her Big sister was invincible. Perfect and unstoppable! What could make her sad?

Rosie pulled herself up and leaned in close to her Big sister's tiara. It took a long time for her to speak. And when she did it was a whisper of a whisper.

"...Taylor."

/\\\

An: Thanks for the support as usual and hope you all enjoy! Couldn't have gotten this done without BigBadBen as my beta

Also I never thought I'd see the day of some people suggesting a shipping of Gregor the snail and Annette.