The water was still now.
The air around it no different. Fontaine Futuristics had gone quiet, as if all the life that had once within had been drained from it once the heart that kept it alive was extinguished.
The splicers that lurked in the shadows had been cleared out or move on of their own volition. With no little sisters left in the area and the spotlight of the intruders gone - they had no reason to remain. The labs were all but empty now, leaving behind very few traces of life.
Now the only figure that stood in the remains of the labs was a single girl. Too tall to be a child anymore, but too detached to be an adult.
A big sister by title but not by blood. She was the only one of her kind in Rapture and her only kin the little sisters that were rapidly dwindling. Being taken from the family, torn from their very hands and stolen away.
Just as she'd taken them from the surface.
But, of course, the big sister knew that was not kidnapping. To take the girls from above the waves and bring them here, it was to bring them home. To the Rapture Family, where she could stand guard over them as Big Sister.
Slowly they were being taken away by an imposter father, and it was now her job to retrieve them. She had followed them here, to the remains of Fontaine Futuristics, but found herself arriving too late. They'd moved on again.
What they left behind was a grave for her to find.
The sister that stood under the gentle red glow the empty tank now, stared upwards, expecting at any moment the sea monster it had once housed would reamerge, manic words on his tongue for her again. But the silence persisted and eventually the big sister's gaze lowered, no longer waiting for the other monster to respond to her wordless patience.
Alexander's tank stood silent and still. The water no longer rippled or moved with the beast it had once housed. The blood had dispersed, the cries gone quiet - it may have even been peaceful.
If that was the word that the big sister chose to place upon the grave then that was what it would be.
Alexander had been many things in his many years, and the big sister had known him as one of their family. Estranged as he'd become once the ADAM took to him, but family nonetheless.
In her fragmented memory, the big sister even recalled the days she'd still been little and Alexander had still been a man. The days he'd spent sitting with her during the therapy sessions, holding her hand when the pinch of needles had her crying out.
Part of her might have hated him, associating Alexander with her own suffering. But at the end, he'd taken the burden of being the Rapture family's vessel onto himself. A volunteer before a sacrifice had to be found. The big sister found that, even now, she could not remain resentful of him.
Stepping towards the tank, the girl too big for her age, pressed a hand against the tank. Inside was the body of a man, his mind had left long before the body perished. But this was to be his final resting place now.
So, she mourned him for just a moment.
She mourned but did not feel sadness. If that was the inability to do so in this dissociative state, or because she knew that this was what the Alexander in her memory had wanted - she did not know.
Peaceful. That was what she had decided this stillness was. It must have been nice to be free. To finally be resting.
The big sister was drawn away from her moment of paid respects when she heard the distant but unmistakable sound of little hands and feet shuffling through a vent. Standing back from the tank Big Sister turned away from the grave and head towards the source of the sounds.
As she neared, the light from her helmet landed onto the cavernous mouth of the little sister's vent and sure enough, inside was a tiny body, big scared eyes staring back out at her.
The fear on the girl's face prompted Big Sister to look around for an outside threat. But the labs remained peaceful, not a splicer or monster in sight. Slowly she turned her attention back to the little one. Knowing that the little sister wouldn't exit the vent if scared, but not knowing what there was to be scared of.
Confused, the big sister stepped forward and this seemed to send the small girl scrambling back into the darkness, but not quite leaving.
Stepping up to the vent, Big Sister tipped her head to the side, light from her helmet flooding into the tight space and lighting up the girl further despite the distance she'd crawled back.
Quietly, Big Sister tried to beckon the girl out. The back of her knuckles tapping against the vent in a rhythmic little tune. Something the girls would come to when called. Either to this, or the heavy pounding of a big daddy's fist against the mental frame. Those calls meant it was safe for them to exit the vents and join their protectors once more.
But this child did not come to her despite the call. Still scared and well out of reach within the vent.
This frustrated Big Sister With their family so quickly losing children, the urge to usher this one out and into the safety of the cage on her back was nearly overwhelming.
There was no way to safely force her out, and truth be told, she'd never had to force her sisters to come to her. So Big Sister waited, at a loss for what else to do.
And so, the pair of them stared at one another for the longest time.
The youngest of the sisters looked at her with an emotion Big Sister did not quite understand. Neither fear nor sadness. Something softer than that, studying her like a child would look at a wounded animal. Unsure if approaching was safe, but wanting to all the same.
Eventually, it was the younger girl that moved and when she began to withdraw deeper into the vent, Big Sister panicked. Trying to reach in after her even though she knew her arm could not reach far enough to catch the young girl. The loud clang of her armour striking the sides of the vent caused the child to jump in alarm and again those big frightened eyes were turned towards Big Sister.
Then, very quietly, the girl's timid voice echoed through the vent. "It's alright."
The girl's voice got Big Sister to stop straining to get her arm further into the vent, fingers going lax as her arm stilled and she listened to the little one's words. Even if she did not entirely understand.
"We can play another time, Big Sister." the little girl promised in a whisper.
With that the little one vanished into the depths of the vent, out the reach of everyone. Including Big Sister.
Once she could no longer hear the girl's movements, Big Sister withdrew her arm from the vent. Not sure what to do with that had just happened.
Finally Big Sister gathered herself, taking a deep breath before pulling away from the vent. She could protect her sisters by getting to the imposters that were ripping the family apart. Still, she'd wonder why the child had not come to her and taken the protection she provided. Perhaps Daddy was taking care of her in another part of the house? Even so, she could have at least allowed Big Sister to get her there safely.
Shaking it off, Big Sister took one more look at Alex's tank. Thinking that it didn't seem quite so grim anymore, but it could use just one last thing.
They'd left presents on graves before and so Big Sister reached back to her cage and snared one of the ribbons a sister had left on the bars, tearing it free.
It took some fiddling, but eventually Big Sister was able to make a bow from the fabric and take a knee before the tank. Placing the little bow down on the ground in front of it, they had no flowers to offer this time, but the little pink bow looked close enough.
And so, she said goodbye to Alexander and along with him, Fontaine Futuristics as a whole.
She had to get back to her family now.
…
…
"Look, all I am saying is that using a bleeding 'secret elevator' into an 'even more secret prison' is pretty inconvenient."
Atlas was complaining and Sinclair wasn't taking it would grace. Delta, on the other hand, was attempting not to get involved with the conversation. Just as well he physically could not get involved even if he tried. Small mercies.
"Oh, do forgive me." Sinclair drawled over the radio, irritation clinging to his words as he challenged the frustrating Irishman. "What would you have prefered?"
"How about something that we don't have to nearly die to get to?"
Sinclair was apparently not taking Atlas's valid and constructive criticism to heart and decided to talk right over him. Delta was far easier to talk to after all.
"Listen son-" Sinclair began but no sooner than the words have come over the radio, the elevator came to a rattling stop. Doors opening up and presenting the 'Persephone' entryway to them.
It seemed like the prison had fared worse than most of Rapture. Turned upside down long before water started leaking in. There was even an old trolly that was still on fire in the corner. Thankfully unable to spread when surrounded by pools of water and only able to make contact with large slabs of debris and concrete. But it wasn't the fire risk that caught Atlas's attention. It was the entryway itself.
'Persephone' was name etched into stone above the doorway, adorned with three large chain links.
Atlas stared at that sculpture in silence as Delta stepped, without hesitation, out of the elevator. Leaving Atlas behind for just a moment as he looked up at the entryway - his wrists aching.
Mercifully, Atlas's pause allowed Sinclair to get a few words out without his input.
Distantly Atlas listened as Sinclair introduced the prison to Delta, maybe in an attempt to make it appear less like a 'welcome home'. Better to act like Delta had never set foot in these walls before.
"This is the end o' the road, kid." Sinclair was telling Delta. "Persephone Penal. This here was Rapture's dirtiest little secret on a long list of dirty secrets. Utopia don't have much need for a political prison, now, do it? This place was proof positive that Rapture was nothin' but a pride dream, son...just like I told Ryan from day one. Poor Andy hated me for bein' right, but he couldn't let his political rivals go back to the surface an' tell the world. So he...he gave 'me to me. And I… I ah…"
Atlas's attention snapped back to the conversation. Hearing a hitch in Sinclair's speech. He recognised a scripted moment when he saw it, Sinclair was going through his little speech, bragging rights and all, but he'd stumbled. Atlas also recognised when someone's facade was cracking.
I'm his infinite kindness and stupidity, Atlas saved him. "And you got ousted by Sophia Lamb, yeah, I remember." Atlas spoke up loudly, taking the metaphorical shovel out of Sinclair's hands before he could dig himself a perfectly shaped grave. "Had you running scared for a while there, didn't she Augustus?"
And where did he hide then?
Atlas cringed, feeling a cold chill sweep over him as that thought slipped into his mind. Both his own and not his own. Atlas clenched his fists and tried to ignore the whole other life he had hidden in his head.
Stepping out of the elevator finally, Atlas approached Delta with a forced shrug and sneer. "The place has been a loony bin ever since. Some great business you had running here, Sinclair. Real stable."
Sinclair seemed to have caught back up, clearing his throat forcefully before speaking again. Atlas had bought him enough time to get his lies in order again.
Because they both knew Sinclair had held Delta in this place once and it was not a topic Sinclair wanted to approach. Atlas had saved him from that for a while longer. They could have a falling out later, when their lives weren't all on the line.
"Ahem." Sinclair broke in sharply. "May I?" he asked tightly. Passive aggression rolling off the words. Acting as though he was not at all impressed by Atlas's interruption. Heaven forbid he get a 'thank you' for that little save of his.
Atlas rolled his eyes with a smug little chuckle. "No, no, don't mind me, go ahead. Give your little speech."
After giving Sinclair free reign to go on as though he hadn't had that little hiccup, Atlas wandered over to the burning trolly, taking a moment to just try warming his hands. Rapture was frigid down here. Getting colder the lower they got. Getting his hands warm again was a nice little distraction. At least the cold down here was natural and not the uncomfortable icy sensation that raced along his veins when he got a bit too lost in his own mind.
"Well now you've just taken the fun out o' it..." Sinclair groused. Taking a moment to grumble to himself before finally picking up where he'd left off, more or less. Dodging the more unflattering aspect of it all.
"Persephone, we're finally here. Now we find Eleanor, son - and fast. Her momma's got all Rapture trying to keep you two apart…and I'm just dying to repay her for all her 'help' around here."
Spite. Atlas could get behind that.
Briefly the radio line fell silent, and Delta wandered up next to him. Atlas tossed him a studying look before turning his eyes back to the fire. Acting as though it were just a firepit rather than a trolly continued to crackle and burn.
"Can you actually warm up with all that armour on you?" he enquired when Delta copied his motions, hands set just above the fire to warm.
Delta took a moment before shrugging. Atlas wasn't sure if that was a yes or a no but decided not to push it.
"Come on, then. Pretty sure it'll get colder from here on in."
Atlas could have done with a few more layers on him, a jacket would have been nice. Somehow he doubted he was going to find a clothing store this deep down in Rapture.
Sighing, Atlas tore himself away from the fire and once he took three steps forward he felt all the heat sap away, like he'd never stood there, soaking up the warmth, at all. Had it not been such a massive drain on ADAM he would have used Incinerate to keep himself warm. But he carefully kept away from using his plasmids when he could help it.
Unfortunately Rapture kept forcing his hand by trying to kill him at nearly every turn.
Entering Persephone, Atlas took a moment to see if he remembered much of the place.
The entry point to the prison was vaguely familiar and he was sure if he truly went digging into his memories he could come up with a few unpleasant ones from his days as Fontaine. He didn't bother to look for them.
The entry point was fairly mundane, almost offensively so. A farce of civility in a place like this rubbed Atlas the wrong way. He could almost imagine the cheery smile that would have been positioned behind the check in point back when Rapture still had a working economy. There was even an inmate check in list left open at the front desk.
Now the place was leaking a rather substantial amount of sea water. Atlas avoided stepping into a large section of streaming water that stood directly ahead of the doorway. Stepping to the side he was able to look over the front desk properly.
Morbidly curious Atlas peered over it. Not so much reading the names written down as much as he was counting their numbers. There had to be fifty on one page alone. And it was a thick book.
Running his finger over the list of names, Atlas idly looked for one he might know. Good or bad, it was probably best he didn't know. But Atlas was in the habit of wounding himself it seemed. Fortunately he didn't find a single name that stuck out to him, though they undoubtedly had boys in here that would have been smuggling for Fontaine. He never cared to remember the names of the lowest members in his crew.
Yet, Atlas had no moral high ground in that fight. He didn't remember the names of the men fighting for his revolution.
Sighing, Atlas saved himself the grief and snapped the book shut. A mistake on his part as the thud of the thick book closing sent a puff of dust flying into the air. It felt like every single particle found its into Atlas's lungs. Sending the man into a coughing fit that was entirely his own doing.
Over the sound of his coughing, Atlas hear a metallic clang of chains knocking together. Trying to stifle those coughs, Atlas followed the sound, rounding the corner and finding Delta fiddling with some cuffs that dangled from the wall. Used to hold prisoners while the paperwork was filled out.
It was almost impossible to know what Delta was thinking and feeling, but Atlas hoped there was no memory behind that idle fiddling. Maybe Delta was just reflecting on how this place must have been without truly remembering it.
When a few more aborted coughs managed to get free from Atlas despite his best efforts, Delta looked away from the chains in favour of approaching Atlas and patting him on the back a few times.
"Damn it… 'm fine!" he insisted, only to cough three more times as his body attempted to expel the years old dust from his body. Delta calmly pat him a few more times and Atlas allowed it.
It took a few more seconds for Atlas to get a handle on breathing again and they tried to keep walking as he struggled to stop coughing. They had a long way to go to get to Persephone's core after all.
The pair entered a long hallway, one of the many glass tunnels that lead through Rapture. Glancing at the windows and seeing their own reflection as they made their way deeper into Persephone, Atlas couldn't help but wonder how in the everliving hell a whale hadn't just demolished one of these pipe like pathways yet.
Come to think of it, Atlas was beginning to think an underwater city was a really, horribly shitty, idea to begin with. It was a miracle the whole place hadn't sunk already. Damn it, Ryan.
"Chin up, Atlas. You don't look too good." Sinclair chimed in across the radio and it was pure spite that had Atlas snatching up his own radio to answer. Even though he coughed in between words.
"Cram it, Sinclair! I'm perfectly goddamn healthy. Picture of health." and naturally he coughed another four times after that little assertion.
All he got was laughter on the other side. Groaning Atlas tried to move on. "Aye, where is Tenenbaum? She get that little girl safely?"
"Cindy?" Sinclair asked to confirm. Atlas was able to finally take a full breath, which he used to sigh in relief.
"Yeah, that's the one. She alright?"
"Right as rain. Tenenbaum is with her now. Once we're sure everything is safe, we're going to make tracks. Move the train up to meet you there. Shouldn't be more than ten minutes now."
Atlas hoped it would be sooner. They'd need another rest soon, but it probably be much safer to rest up in the train rather than out in the open.
"Alright. We'll meet you at the station."
There was not much of the hallway left and it took another minute to walk through. When they reached the end of the glass hall, both men stopped to stare at the passageway it lead to.
"Woah." Atlas announced dispassionately. "What a shit pile." and Delta cuffed him on the back of the head. "Well it is!" he insisted with a squark.
To Atlas's credit, the passageway between them and outer Persephone was in an extreme state of disarray. Sea life grew on every possible surface it could reach. Covering large, boulder life slabs of concrete that had been dropped into the tight pathway in one way or another. The logistics of it left both of them at a loss, but that just seemed to be a common thread in Rapture.
Naturally, the path was flooded, the water pooled around their ankles once stepping inside. Unlike the entryway, Atlas couldn't avoid getting drenched this time, not enough space left between the large chunks of debris to avoid the small waterfalls spotted around the ceiling. Atlas wasn't convince that this whole place wouldn't just drop on their heads half way through. Seemed about their luck.
At the end of the passageway, there was light. A small yellow glow that got brighter the closer they came. At first Atlas couldn't make out what it was, but as he stepped out of the perilous wreck of a path, he realised it was a light pointed towards the wall. Illuminating a message. One meant for them.
'Daddy's Home'
"Looks like it's a warm welcome for you, tinman…" Atlas murmured when Delta pulled out of the untrustworthy path alongside him.
The message was placed under yet another large sculpture that aggrandised the correctional facilities name. But it palled in comparison to the message that they'd chosen to light up. Atlas might have appreciated that extra effort had it not been for the inherently uncomfortable feeling attached to the sight.
At the very least, they didn't have to deal with more of the mess that pathway behind them had. A quick glance around the place and Atlas decided their likelihood of being suddenly crushed under an unstable ceiling had lowered about forty percent. Granted,that still left them with a solid fifty to deal with.
However, as he looked around, Atlas quickly noticed a sign that demanded silence. 'Quiet' it ordered, 'No talking beyond this point.'
And without a moment's hesitation, Atlas turned to Delta and spoke. "I will completely understand and support you if you decided to destroy this place as we go through. Might be a therapeutic. Don't you think?"
Delta humoured him. In the most unsatisfying way possible. He looked to the closest easily accessible object, an old television that was no bigger that Atlas's chest, and casually pushed it to the ground. It wasn't even one. It didn't even shatter.
"You, Delta, are the most boring tank of a man I have ever met."
With a smug little shrug, Delta turned and walked ahead of Atlas, leaving him extremely dissatisfied.
Heaving out an annoyed sigh, all for show, Atlas followed after Delta.
Running along the wall besides them were more writings. Some directed at Delta, most just mad ravings about the family. Atlas was ready to ignore it all, until he noticed what seemed to be a child's drawing. An upside down house with Mommy at the top and Daddy in a room closer to the roof. A map. Not particularly useful with the lack of detail, but Atlas understood the general idea.
The upside down house that big sister supposedly lived in. Persephone…
That made sense and Atlas really wished it didn't. He recalled what Tenenbaum told him about this 'big sister', that it was the monster that snatched the little sisters from the surface. The last thing they needed was to bump into it if they were in its home.
Keeping those concerns to himself, Atlas caught up with Delta. It seemed like the 'correctional facility' translated almost perfectly to 'brain washing chambers'.
Atlas wasn't even surprised at this point. Almost entirely desensitised to the sight of gurneys with big leather straps and multiple monitors flickering in and out with propaganda. As they continued to pass through the hallway, Atlas took notice of a little sister vent in one of the rooms that had those equipment of torture and mental rewiring.
"Do you think there's any more little sisters here?" Atlas asked quietly, staring at the vent and pausing by the doorway. They had found a few of the girls before meeting up with Atlas and since then Atlas had found two more. How many had been taken from the surface?
Delta only passed Atlas a quiet look. Glancing between the vent and his companion. Eventually shaking his head a bit. Either he hoped not or knew they'd found them all. But Atlas had that gnawing concern that they might miss one. Leave a child behind if they didn't look hard enough.
So he lingered. Just pausing for a second to see if maybe, just maybe a forgotten little girl might come crawling from that vent. But all he saw were flickering monitors and blood smeared floors. The vent remained illuminated and serene, a little golden spot dotted with blooming flowers in an otherwise grim environment.
Eventually he gave up. Silently turning his gaze away and trying to ignore that little tug in his mind that insisted there was something to find in that vent. He tried to focus on one problem at a time. They had a different child to rescue after all.
Persephone got not less sinister the deeper they went. Soon he and Delta were standing before a new section of the correctional facility. Simply called the Control Room. Perhaps in any other place, Atlas would had dismissed such a place as a normal control room. Something used to manage temperature, power, gas. That kind of thing. Instead, he looked at the large sign above the door and could only think that it meant real control. The control of people.
But other than his discomfort, Atlas didn't think too much of it. Not until the doors slid open and they were met with a sight that stuck out more than anything else.
A large carpet, rolled out to a chamber that was bathed in red light. The pillars around the chamber lit up the whole room. Flooding every inch of it with that red hue. But Atlas couldn't think of it as threatening. It seemed to almost glow. Welcoming even.
But what really kept Atlas's attention was that glass chamber.
"I know this…" he whispered. Voice faint and filled with disbelief. Delta looked to him but Atlas was already surging ahead of him. "This is it! Atlas told Delta almost feverishly. "I know this place, this is...this is Eleanor's room! I saw her in there!"
And like that, Delta was following him. Would have overtaken him had Atlas not been running. Taking two steps at a time as he raced to the door of the chamber.
His fist slammed against the outer wall of what seemed to be a decontamination chamber between the outside world and the child's room inside. A room that seemed frozen at a stage of life that Eleanor would have long outgrown. Atlas was giddy. Eager to take this next step, to return Elanor to her father figure and then haul ass out of this place. He was smiling from ear to ear.
However, gradually, Atlas's smile began to fade.
"Where is she…?"
There was no one inside of the chamber. No one at all. His eyes flicked back and forth frantically, scanning every corner of the chamber - but there was no sign of life inside.
"No...no, she was here! She was. I know she was...Fuck!" Atlas's voice rouse to a shout and he pounded his fist against the door in frustration. He had seen her in there. He knew this was the right place. This was it. This was where they were supposed to be and she was supposed to be here.
This was supposed to be over.
More furious words bubbled up in Atlas's throat, but they were not able to break to the surface before the more urgent voice of Tenenbaum came crackling through the radio.
"Herr Delta! Herr Atlas! She is gone!"
"Yeah I can fucking see that! Atlas shouted back, his frustration turning on Tenenbaum in record time.
"No! You do not understand!" Tenenbaum insisted. Almost as distraught as Atlas.
And the bad news just kept coming.
"It is Beatrice. She is gone. Missing. We do not know where she has gone!"
Atlas froze. Eyes wide as he stared unseeing, through his own reflection. "Bea…?" he whispered, mind thrown into a state of chaos as seemed as though everything began to collapse around them.
Eleanor was not here. Bea was not there.
They were no closer to being out of here. They'd taken several steps back and Atlas didn't know what to do.
In his state of disarray, a calm, unwelcomed voice cut clean through the air.
"Delta." Lamb's voice came through the air. Speakers carrying her cold words with inescapable clarity. "Ten years, and still she dreams of you. Do you know why Eleanor brought you back? Why she handed Miss White the tools to remake you? She wanted a father."
Lamb spoke, and Atlas could not even roar back at her to shut up. Voice caught in his throat. Leaving him speechless. In shock.
"And she has watched you ever since your resurrection. Exalting your every act as gospel. For that reason...I shall never allow you to find the little girl you unrightfully believe to be your child. Your body will lapse into a coma before long, if the madness does not take you first. But I fear, I cannot give you that long. You have done too much damage to my family. To our children. Stolen them from us."
Lamb paused, and something screamed.
The shrieking sound that pierced through the ear was loud enough that Atlas was forced to cover his ears as the screech filled the air. He had never heard anything like that. And it was close. Too close.
"You will steal no more." Lamb said softly over the speakers before she was overtaken by another shriek. Closer still.
Atlas didn't see anything. His eyes squeezed shut as he tried to block the violent sound out. But he felt it when Delta's large gloved hand grabbed his shoulder in a hurry. Again his muscle protested, a small spike of pain traveling up his spine and into his neck. But Delta's actions saved Atlas from a far greater pain.
Eyes snapping open, Atlas found himself being thrown back with more force that he expected Delta to use with him. But as he was flung backwards, moments before crashing into the ground, he saw why Delta had taken such extreme measures to move him. Standing in the place he had been not a second before, was the monster.
Tall and covered in armour that reminded Atlas of a big daddy, was a creature he had never seen before. On its arm was a large needle reminiscent of a little sisters, bigger and sharper than those already oversized needles. And it was buried into the place where he had stood before Delta ripped him out of the way. No doubt saving his life.
The creature screamed again and Atlas realised exactly what it was.
Big Sister.