While Sinclair was dealing with the majority of the girls, Atlas lingered by Delta. It might have been a matter of self preservation, knowing that he was unlikely to be attacked by anyone so long as Delta stood by him. However being by Delta brought with it some negative side effects.
Negative for him to witness at least, positive for most everyone else involved.
It was time that the young girl that had been nipping at their heels reach the end of her time in that freaky limbo the little sisters inhabited.
Atlas watched with his shoulder pressed against the wall as she came rushing out from the krauts den and straight up to her daddy. Delta took a smooth step back, taking a knee and offering his hand to her. Watching her so readily clamber into that open palm left Atlas feel a bit odd. That easy trust left him uncomfortable. Those girls gave trust with such ease but there was practically no one in Rapture that deserved it.
Delta was the best they had and the thought caused Atlas to smile with a soft snort.
Gently taking the girl up to his chest, Delta walked back down the corridor, heavy footfalls still trying to be soft in the small space they had to work with. Thoughtlessly Atlas pushed off the wall on impulse and trailed after Delta at his heels. Curious he tried to figure out where the metal man was taking the little tyke.
It never occurred to Atlas that Delta had a preference as to where the girls were saved. Some inbuilt instinct to find a safe place. Somewhere enclosed, close to an easy escape that only the girls could take. It should not have surprised him when Delta took her to the back of the train. A look up and Atlas caught sight of a vent.
The rusted hole was nothing like the prettied up vents the girls used. Instead it was an appealing, dirty looking indentation in the side of the train. Atlas knew the thing was supposedly water tight and so the train had to close up somewhere on the other side of that port. A place that Tenenbaum could open and close at will to let the saved girls into the train.
Once standing by the vent Delta carefully took the girl away from his shoulder, cradled gently in his arm as he let her down onto her own two feet. She was staring up at her daddy, expression one of curious bewilderment. Clearly wondering what her guardian was doing.
Atlas knew that look and his chest tightened sharply. He knew that emotion well enough - disgust. Guilt gnawed at him violently and his gaze was dropped as he took up a position against the wall behind Delta and the girl. Arms firmly crossed and eyes fixed on the ground.
Just as well he had kept his gaze averted because when the gentle giant placed his hand atop the girl's head in a way that mimiced how Jack had once soothed the girls, the world briefly turned white around him. A bright spark of light flooding out from under Delta's finger tips.
It was just the same as it had been with Jack. Glowing eyes burning gold and then a blast of light. A violent motion followed by soft quiet and momentary stillness.
A small act of kindness completed.
Slowly Atlas's eyes slipped back up, away from the dirty floor and over to the two figures ahead of him. Delta's massive form still hunched down to the ground with both arms carefully encircling the child. Atlas noticed only then the lack of the drill. Seemed a rather massive thing to just not notice, but he truly hadn't. Didn't realise those things could be popped off. But at least it meant Delta still had both his arms under there.
Then there was the girl. Her tiny form tensed up and dazed, then she was opening her eyes. Blinking awake. Her eyes no longer the empty yellow hued gaze of a little sister, but her own eyes. Clear and alive once again.
Despite himself Atlas stared at her. Maybe it was the contrast between her doe like brown eyes to the ones of a little sister. Maybe it was how much more alive she looked without that sickly hue all little sisters lived with. She did not look healthy yet, still weak and in need of mending time, but she looked human once again.
All these changes meant nothing to Delta who only gently ruffled the girl's hair. He had no face to see for sure, but Atlas felt he was smiling just as tenderly at the child he'd protected and would continue to defend. Being a little sister or not meant nothing to Delta. He was just a good person.
Doing the right thing and protecting children from those that would use them. Atlas's stomach clenched again and he knew some way or another he'd have to get over that reaction at some point.
What he wasn't expecting was the girl's voice to speak out. Without the little sistered trilled tone Atlas didn't recognise her voice for a moment.
"Thank you." She chimed, voice rough and tired, that of a child in need of rest, but earnest. "Thank you so, so much." With her tiny hands, the girl clutched Delta's large gloved fingers. Atlas could see her trembling on those bruised, dirty legs and wondered if she'd be able to stand much longer.
Seemed Delta had the same thought because he offered both his arms out to the girl and this time when she clambered into them, there was a pause of hesitation. A human reaction, but the trust was given all the same.
A beast of Delta's size shouldn't have been able to be so delicate but he held the newly saved girl carefully, handling something of great importance that was terribly fragile.
Once in his arms the girl seemed to lose what little strength she had left, head dropping down against Delta's shoulder and letting her eyes slide shut.
Watching as Delta carried her across the room towards one of those makeshift beds Tenenbaum had made mention off, Atlas couldn't help but feel even more uncomfortable.
He'd seen Jack save children before, but that was across as screen. Felt disconnected, like he wasn't really seeing it at all, but now it happened right in front of him and he could see for himself the results. They'd never had this option when Ratpure was in the early days of its downfall. It was something only Jack and Delta had been able to do.
Despite this, Atlas couldn't say if he'd have done anything different if he'd had this path open to him during the war. That was what made it all the more disgusting.
For now he could only watch as Delta placed the girl down on the lumpy mattress. There were four or so strewn around but Atlas didn't feel much like fighting for one. His body ached and protested even the act of standing, but he was no longer in such a horrendous state that he could not live through a night on the train floor.
This was the only place these girls could feel secure. This train might as well have been as much their guardian as Delta deserved to rest here. Where they would be safe for a time.
They were providing that time and Atlas, like everyone else, could feel it beginning to run short.
Before that depressing thought could kick in Atlas was given yet another unexpected shock - again from the child. "Hey…" That tired voice spoke out again and Atlas only happened to glance her way as a knee jerk reaction. Not because he thought the kid was talking to him. But those big brown eyes were trained on him. Exhausted but focused.
Confused, Atlas stayed stock still. Like he'd just been caught doing something he shouldn't. That feeling went nowhere fast even when the girl spoke again.
"Thanks."
He wasn't able to process that. Delta had been thanked, that he understood. But when the girl threw gratitud in his direction Atlas wasn't sure what to do with it.
Briefly a furious heat welled up inside of him. He wanted to scream. To shout at her that there was nothing in this world he should be thanked for. She'd not thank him so quickly if she knew how red his hands were. To rage about how much blood he'd drawn and how, seven years earlier it could have so easily been hers.
The violent emotion raged in his mind for no more than a few seconds before he swallowed it back down and looked away from her. "Don't mention it, kid." He uttered stiffly, but received no answer. Figures she'd fall asleep just when he mustered the self control to answer.
Sighing sharply Atlas tipped his head back against the wall and tried to get himself to calm the hell down. He was a right mess but at least he knew it.
Abruptly he found the space next to him no longer empty. Tenenbaum had decided to leave her den and grace him with her presence once again it seemed.
Surprisingly Atlas didn't mind all that much. Too tired to get fired up again.
It helped that Tenenbaum seemed equally willing to let the bad blood between them lie dormant for a while in favour of rest for all. That did not mean Atlas was unwilling to speak to her.
"Kid has an accent…" He breathed in disbelief. Atlas was taken aback by that.
The kids he knew in Rapture all grew up with the same accent for the most part. Some inherited their parents tongue if they were lucky, but living as close as everyone did in their little fish tank - the accents all mixed and mashed until the kids sounded much the same.
So the fact this kid had a distinctly american voice was a small shock to Atlas's system.
That got him thinking once again. Thinking about his own conclusion that the city had dragged new children into its ever cannibalistic machine. He hadn't actually asked where it found these kids. The logical answer had unconsciously settled in his mind already but all the fallacies that 'logical answer' carried with it left him at a loss.
"Seven years." Atlas breathed and his gaze snapped back to Tenenbaum. "Where did these girls come from?"
A ghost of something miserable crossed Tenenbaum's face. He knew guilt and disgust perfectly well, he was also no stranger to shame.
"Snatched." She answered, her own accent thick in the word. "From the surface, by Lamb's monster. The little ones call it big sister."
More monsters. Just what they needed down here. Atlas had to push the thought of that water creature back down into the recesses of his mind. He didn't think Rapture could get much crazier but clearly it had in the last few years.
He couldn't imagine it, someone with a child of their own stealing other's babies. Lamb must have just been a sociopath dressed up in some altruistic sheeps skin. Despite himself, Atlas thought of his Moira and how avidly she'd defend her child. His chest tightened as it always did thinking of them and his mind turned fuzzy at the edges, not letting him back into those sweeter memories.
If it had been his Moira that Lamb had snatched a child from she'd be a dead bitch. Atlas couldn't help but smile faintly at that - it'd be a crime not to follow through with what Moira would have done. Anything for her kid.
Anything for his kid.
The wicked amusement drained for Atlas rapidly and while he held on to the idea it had spawned, he no longer smiled over it. Instead stared over at the sleeping girl, her guardian sitting his massive frame down by her tiny one, keeping watch as she slept. As he stared Atlas couldn't help but wonder if he'd done just the same as a father. If he'd sat at Patrick's side when he couldn't sleep and Moira needed the rest more than him. He wondered what his own kid's first word was.
He missed his memories. Thought Atlas wasn't sure if he really wanted them back either. Because what if he remembered that he hadn't?
Regardless of what he had and had not done, Lamb was in the process of taking over Ryan's good work and running this hell hole even further into the ground. They both took potential and twisted it until it was grotesque and self serving.
Now, Atlas knew damn fucking well Lamb was barking mad - but to hear that she apparently had the means of taking things from the surface, of reaching the surface at all and yet she was still here. In Rapture, of her own free will. That was a new level of insanity. No one should want to stay in this sink hole as it was now. The only logical thing to do was jump the sinking ship.
And yet…
Sighing for a second time Atlas glanced towards the ceiling again, listening to the train rattling and groaning its way through the underwater city.
"I was going to save this place you know." Atlas began unprompted, voice a thousand years away.
"From Ryan." He clarified after a beat of silence. Only for his gaze to drop down to his boots, looking at the collected grime, flaking blood. Wondering just how long these old boots had been serving him. Felt like part of him, like if he were to change clothes he'd suddenly no longer be himself. Like Atlas could be so easily peeled away.
Maybe he was just really that worn thin.
"Didn't plan for after that." Atlas admitted with a listless shrug. "Thought right up to the point Ryan was dead and then nothing else."
"Not the surface?" Tenenbaum asked slowly, always probing him for something or another. Atlas still wasn't sure what she was digging for.
"Yeah well, guess that was always there." He dismissed. The surface was obtainable but Alas never felt it was the goal. Just something he needed access to but...did he ever actually plan on leaving Rapture forever?
He sure as shit did now but during the war he'd wanted to save this city and as things dropped further and further out of his hands, he began focusing solely on Ryan. Like getting rid of him would fix everything.
"This place used to be so beautiful." He murmured, voice painfully wistful. He didn't know he was capable of that level of melancholy. "Could have been so much better."
"If you were in charge?"
Atlas snorted. "Do I look like the sort to run that sort of operation? No way." The answer felt mechanical. Something he'd said before but didn't quite believe. "Nah. I don't know. Just anyone besides Ryan."
This time he got no more questions or comments, just a steady hum from Tenenbaum. He had no idea what to make of that response. Positive, negative, impossible to tell. Just acknowledgement that he'd been heard.
Before he could find the right angle to get insulted by with that answer, Tenenbaum turned to look at him with the usual stare that seemed to go right through him. "You still require rest. Come, I have a place for you."
"Wait- really?" Atlas was truly taken off guard by that. Though he was less confused when Tenenbaum lead him away from the room that the girls clearly slept in. Made perfect sense that she wanted him as far from them as possible.
When he was lead through the train cart, almost to the opposite end of the train Atlas couldn't help but breathe out a small chuckle of disbelief. She'd made him a nest. In effect thrown a bunch of scratchy looking blankets onto the floor. She had said that she'd look for a spare blanket for him. This was more than he'd expected her to give him really.
Home sweet home, he supposed.
"Thanks, doc." He mused dryly. Despite his sardonic drawl he was actually rather grateful. If he had to stand much longer he was going to drop quicker than the little sister had.
"Once the train stops, you will continue with Delta."
With a curt nod Tenenbaum made to leave and purely on impulse Atlas turned in her direction and spoke. "Hey, doc." He regretted the words immediately but..well, he wasn't the sort to back out once he'd started something. "...thanks. I mean it. For all...this." He gestured vaguely to himself and the train.
As much as he might detest it, he did owe her thanks. Likely he'd be dead already without her. It did not make them friends.
The feeling was very much mutual between them and Tenenbaum only expressed surprise in the slight widening of her eyes before once again putting a firm expression back on her face. "Get some rest." She replied, voice hushed before she left. It was the softest he could expect from her.
Left alone in his 'room' Atlas looked back towards the blanket he'd been gifted. Not big enough to wrap around him fully so he'd have to either sleep with it under him to protect from the disgusting ground or sacrifice that in order to throw it over himself in the hopes it might keep him warm.
All these wonderful options, living in luxury wasn't he?
Biting down a third sigh, Atlas knelt down and began gathering the coarse material up in his arms. No point complaining, he could have no blanket at all. It took a bit of thinking and soul searching to decide what the lesser evil was and finally Atlas laid the blanket down on the floor. Trying to figure out the best way to position it to ensure he wouldn't roll right off during the night.
He could fold it just once to keep it roughly his length and to keep some of the chill from the metal floor at bay. No matter what the night was going to be a long and uncomfortable one. Of course there was no telling if it actually was night in here but Atlas had been awake too long. Been taking abuse left and right since he fell out of that Vita-Chamber, if he said it was night time, then it was fucking night time.
Laying himself down was a graceless, painful endeavour. A firm thud against the ground and sudden exhale of breath coupled with slight regret. He could have at least tried to throw himself down less heavily. But once he was on the ground all that fatigue rushed up to greet him.
Atlas felt his head swim, exhaustion creeping into his very bones. The moment he'd hit the floor his body had decided it was time to give out. He'd been running and fighting so much and his body had done it's best to keep itself running, but the moment he gave it pause, everything stopped working.
Even the act of rolling himself over onto his side was a difficult one. Limbs feeling like lead and mind turning fuzzy at the edges. It felt wrong to let his back face the doorway, but he told himself wearily that the only threats here were Tenebaum and Sinclair, both of which had made it pretty clear that murdering him was not on their short list of things to do this evening.
Maybe later, of course, but not tonight at least.
Admittedly knowing that Delta was on board as well helped to calm his nerves. Even if it hadn't his body was unwilling to rise again and this was just where he had to accept he was going to stay until he slept.
For a while he was left there, trying to ignore that there was still just a bit too much light in the train to make sleeping easy. Then, as he lay there he heard the sound of little pairs of feet running down the length of the train, excited whispers and giggles following the sound. Rushing to their own bedroom with more energy than Atlas could muster in his little toe.
Distantly he hoped they would wake up the new kid. He hadn't risked life and limb just for the girl to get harassed by a bunch of other kids. Not that he cared, mind you.
As those running steps passed by his room, little shadows passing over his back as they passed, a set of slower steps followed behind them. At a guess, it was Sinclair. Atlas kept his eyes closed, legs pulled up towards his chest and arms close as those lingering footfalls paused at his door. The shadow of Sinclair falling over him and stalling where the girl's hadn't.
Just as Atlas's mind began to prickle, began to wonder if there was some type of threat, he head Sinclair huff softly in that little chuckle of his and wander off after the girls. Atlas didn't try to decode what that sound had meant, he'd likely have just as much luck figuring that out as he had Tenenbaum's hum.
Instead he relaxed, comforted by the fact neither the doctor nor his drinking buddy had decided to kill him when his defences were down.
Now, he could finally sleep.