Ch. 29: Alpha and Emily

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

This is the third and last part of the updates that I spent the last few months working on so I hope you like it.

There is actually not all that much that happens in this one other than Emily's first appearance. So, basically, it is just a fluff chapter xDDD

Hey, we have to take a break from all the action sometimes :P

Remember that these three chapters were originally meant to be one but then I realized that I had greatly underestimated how much I would have to write in order to get to the part of the story that I wanted to stop at. In the future, I will do my best to set more realistic goals for myself to try to prevent something like this from happening again.

Anyway,

To my F.E.A.R. and Dead Space readers, I am going to start working on those stories again after I post this chapter. Hopefully, I can get them updated much faster than this one. However, if I cannot, I will make sure to keep posting regular updates to keep all of you guys in the loop instead of just dropping off the face of the planet.

I hope you all enjoyed your summer!

Read and review if you want! :)

Upon exiting the control room, I found the area beyond bathed in a blue glow as all the candles in the already dark space had already been extinguished by the water spraying out the large pipes that filled the room. With surely only moments before the force of the massive inflow of water that was overloading the pumps inflicted enough structural damage on the station to trap us inside of it, I began to rush back towards the exits that were located on the other side of the building as fast as my Alpha Series frame could move. I had only taken two steps before a loud metal groan filled the air for a moment until the water pressure in the closest pipe of the set that ran along the right wall in the middle of the room became too much and it ruptured along a seam near the floor.

The flood of seawater from the ruptured pipe was rapidly filling the area where the benches were located as I resumed making my way towards the pair of exits in the generator room at the far end of the pumping station. The broken bodies of the fallen Splicers floated past me as the current carried them down towards the pulpit. As I had to force my way through the corpses, I idly wondered how they would have felt about the revelation of how very little Sofia Lamb actually cared about them had they lived to see her destroy the "Temple of the Lamb" merely to prove a point to me. I doubted that even Simon would have remained loyal to her had he known the truth about her.

Sofia could wax philosophy all she wanted to but, in the end, she was no different than the rest of them. Fontaine had been a murderer and a criminal but at least he had not attempted to make excuses for his actions. Ryan had simply been the victim of his own intelligence and will power as he had incorrectly believed that normal people were as strong as him. Sofa, however, claimed to care about the people but she was really only ever interested in her own agenda. In answer to her question about whether or not I saw her as a "tyrant", despite everything that she had done so far, I still did not think that she was one.

I actually felt sorry for her. Lamb would probably fail to realize before it was too late that she had me all wrong. I was not some mysterious, difficult puzzle to be solved. I was simply just a man. I fought on like a stubborn old mule simply because I loved my brothers, the Little Ones, and Eleanor. I just believed in trying to do the right thing because I had seen too much hardship and suffering during my life to still have it in me to want to harm anyone else if I could help it.

As we were ascending the stairs through the center of the seats, I heard the Little Sister let out several slightly nervous but mostly excited giggles as she seemed to enjoy the situation that Sofia had thrust upon us. I could not help but smile slightly beneath my emotionless copper and glass façade at the spirit of the ever positive young girl.

After reaching the staircase at the back of the room, we were able to finally get out of the rising water as we began to make our way up the steps that followed a path that had been cut into the left wall of the ground floor. The stairs only had a small layer of water flowing down the center of their metal surface, which was due to a source flowing out of an ever widening crack in the center of the second of two large round metal structures that were in the ceiling above us, after they made a ninety degree turn to the right and continued up to the second floor walkway.

When we made it to the top of the stairs, we had to make another right turn, which led to an open bulkhead that allowed access to the second floor walkway beyond it. I made my way through the opening and saw the security door that led to the corridor that connected the inner section of the pumping station to the outer section to my right. For the first time, I saw that there was a functional Vita-Chamber just to the right of the door and also that there was an El Ammo Bandito Vending Machine against the far left wall facing towards the door. I only vaguely noting the painting against the right wall that appeared to be a strand of DNA that was turning into blue butterflies near the top of it as I passed by the piece of art while I made my way over to the security door.

As I neared the exit, I saw a middle aged man in a torn black business suit on his knees just past the door seemingly praying out of desperation in the direction of the pulpit. Meanwhile, it had been blocked by one of the large pipes before but I could now see a First Aid Station mounted to the wall behind the Splicer. The surge of guilt over the inevitable fate of the man was short lived as the sound of metal groaning filled the air as I reached the security door. As I stood before it not entirely sure what was about to happen or about what was causing the metal groaning, water suddenly burst out of the edges of the gears in the center of the watertight barrier when the door finally opened and, thus, allowed me to continue forward.

I had just passed through the opening when my radio once again powered to life. As I moved through the ankle-deep water past her now flooding former office and towards the stairs that led up to the next room, Sofia began as she addressed me with a piercing, frigid tone, "Subject Delta, I want you to commit this moment to memory for me…"

I ignored her as best I could while I ascended the stairs as she continued, "…this…howling, brutish slog through the dark."

By then, I had reached the top and was making my way towards the security door that led to the room with the painting of the tattooed man. The previously calm pool of water beneath the floor of the short, narrow path between the stairs and the door was now churning as if it was boiling due to the force of the jets of saltwater emerging out of cracks in the pipes along the walls of the passageway. Meanwhile, the Eleanor-controlled Little Sister continued to giggle as if she was going through a ride at an amusement park.

I had reached the middle of the corridor when Sofia finished with an uncharacteristically dramatic and slow manner that actually caught me off guard and sent a chill down my spine because of the level of raw unyielding conviction that was in her British accented voice, "This is who we are."

By then, I had reached the security door and, when it opened, I let out a prolonged grunt as a torrent of water impacted my frame that reached all the way up to my upper thighs until it finally settled to only be around knee-deep. As I forced my tree trunk-sized legs to propel my Big Daddy frame forward despite the sharp stinging sensation assaulting my nerve endings thanks to the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean, I entered the room beyond open bulkhead and found that the cause of the rapidly rising water level was that the two large pipes that ran overhead had both suffered significant ruptures in the underside of the section above the shrine of the Little Sister Gathering Needle that was towards the front of the room by the security door.

For the briefest of moments, I saw a pair of figures up on the second floor walkway upon entering the room. Despite the low light, I saw that the two individuals were wearing matching sets of waterproof clothing that consisted of double-breasted yellow raincoats, large yellow wide-brimmed hats, collared white shirts, impeccably tied formal green business ties, dress pants, and really old school, possibly hand stitched white shoes with leather toes. The twins seemed to be casually observing me as they were likely interested in seeing who would win the "bet" about the success of my apparently universally-fated mission to get Eleanor out of Rapture. However, the instant that I blinked, they vanished into thin air as if they had never even been there.

I still did not know what to make of the siblings. At times, it seemed as if they could pose a threat but, at others, they seemed to merely be keeping track of us out of boredom. With quantum powers, the twins could easily be able to be formidable opponents even for Subject Delta. Even with Eleanor's help, I had my doubts that I could effectively fight them if they stopped being simple observers. Elizabeth had still been a flesh and blood woman in the end but the twins appeared to be a different matter.

Essentially leaving the room the same way I had first entered it, I moved past the two paintings of the tattooed man where they were still mounted on the wall and then began to take the left path as I wadded through the now lower thigh-deep seawater with still relative ease due to my heavily built and spliced Alpha Series Big Daddy frame as I navigated towards the door.

As I did so, my helmet's built-in radio powered to life once again as Sinclair frantically advised me with his Southern accented voice, "Get outta of there, kid!"

Through her special bond with the Little Sister, Eleanor commented with a humorous tone, "You are quite popular these days, Johnny."

Having reached the door, I replied with my surgically modified voice, "You know me, El."

The watertight barrier opened to reveal that the water had filled the room enough to reach the middle of the two generators. Only the very top section of the metal platform between the two round devices was still visible above the surface of the rapidly rising seawater. The very real chance that one of the generators could blow out while we were in the highly conductive fluid drove me to push my frame even harder to get out of the pumping station as soon as possible. However, I had only just managed to get past the first room and was approaching the open bulkhead that connected the two rooms with the generators when the water level had reached what was waist-height for my more than seven foot tall Big Daddy frame.

While the generators used the force of the water flowing through them to generate power for the station, too much water pressure would cause them to overload and, just as in this situation, the resulting flood of power through its frame caused the device to my left to short circuit. The resulting huge bright blue electrical arc traveled through the air between it and the generator to the right of it, which caused the domino effect of short circuiting that one as well. The two generators were apparently the last two that were still functional because, as soon as they both shorted themselves out, the station was plunged into complete darkness as its power completely failed.

As the lights went out, the Little Sister cried out in fright before my helmet's automatic headlamp could activate. Her cry inadvertently riled Delta from the depths of my mind for a moment but the monster saw what was happening and decided to let me handle the situation for the time being. With our headlamps piercing the darkness of the room, Subject Alpha and I found that the previously unusable security door that led directly out to the stairway that allowed access to the entrance to the auxiliary pumping station was inexplicably operational. As the door opened, the water that was inside the generator room began to flow out onto the wooden floor of the section of the street outside the entrance to the pumping station. The torrent of frigid ocean water continued until the watertight barrier closed behind us after we exited the former stronghold of The Family.

The sounds of screaming Splicers and rushing water filled the air of the flooding area of Siren Alley as we began to make our way away from the entrance to the pumping station. The set of enormous metal pipes that were mounted into the side of the concrete wall beneath the second floor walkway that ended at the Vita-Chamber to the right of the exit had multiple jets of water erupting out ruptures in their thick, reinforced walls as the raw power of the water pressure easily punched through compromised sections of the worn out, old pipes. Meanwhile, what was almost literally a waterfall of frigid ocean water was flowing down onto the street right before the first step of the crudely constructed wooden flight of stairs that were placed against the wall of the apartment building off to the left of the exit out of what was easily a twelve inch long opening in the metal pipe that was mounted along the very top of the wall of the apartment building as it ran parallel with the walls that were on either side of the street.

From where I was standing, I could see all the way to the Little Sister Vent that was mounted into the exterior wall of the apartment building that was on the opposite side of the main, ornate street beyond the wooden section around the entrance to the pumping station. As such, I could see that the green metaphoric rock surface of the main street was already flooded and now resembled a raging, white water river that was only barely contained by the edges of the slightly higher building foundations that were all flush against the perimeter of the lower surface of the street. The river itself was actually turning a greenish red tint as the corpses of the Spider Splicers that we had simply left in the middle of the street and the chunks of the denizens that the Rumbler Mass Production Model had blown asunder with the use of an RPG from his shoulder-mounted Rocket Launcher were now all being carried downstream towards the flight of metal steps at the end of the street to our right that led up to the locked gate of the access tunnel for delivery carts that was cut into the concrete wall that separated the two sections of Siren Alley.

However, the horrible reality of the situation was temporarily put out of my mind as I saw the armored, lithe form of Jennifer standing at the top of the wooden flight of stairs to our left that led to the bridge that spanned the distance between the second floor of the apartment building and the walkway along the exterior of the auxiliary pumping station. Due to the fact that she was intended to function primarily as an assassin for Sofia, the Elite Big Sister was not equipped to transport her younger counterparts as her other Big Sister counterparts were with their mounted basket-like metal attachments. It was because Jennifer could carry her in a basket that the almost pristine black and white dress-clad Little Sister with a crimson red bow in her beautiful raven hair was standing just in front of her older sibling.

Upon seeing us, the armored young woman waved her gloved right hand while the Little Sister flashed us a pleasant yet reserved smile that I knew all too well. Sure enough, the Emily-controlled little girl then remarked to the Big Sister with an accent that sounded so familiar yet I could not for the life of me identify it and with a tone that was steady and full of confidence, "I told you that they would be alright, Jennifer. It will be a cold day in Hell before Papa Delta dies while he has a Little Sister with him, let alone one that is being possessed by Eleanor."

Subject Alpha audibly halted in mid-step behind me upon recognizing Emily's underlying voice and tone. As the controlled Little One made her way down to where we were, Eleanor informed my brother from where she was riding on my back, "This is only temporary and I am not sure how long Emily will have control over this Little Sister. The process is fairly painful but she has been smiling nonstop since we figured out how to 'gift' my ability…so make it count, Papa Alpha."

The veteran Protector remained silent as he was surely not yet willing to let his heart dare to believe what was happening as Emily continued to make her way to where we were while her sophisticated, mature mannerisms on full display with her carefully measured steps and unyielding stoic demeanor. Even her short fall over the side of the stairs to avoid the torrent of falling water at the bottom landing was executed with near perfection. All but spellbound by the raven haired child, I moved out of her way by stepping off to the left as I also rotated to continue watching the Little Sister as she approached Alpha.

However, she had only managed to take two more steps towards her Big Daddy Protector before her glowing eyes began to well up and her tiny body began to shake. For that brief instant, Emily's true gentle and sentimental personality, which had refused to be tainted by the horrors that she had already endured in her short life, rose to the surface as she dropped her façade.

I had not seen the Alpha Series Gatherer since the day before I had been killed but, even back then, she had been very similar to my brother. As with most of the girls that ended up in Fontaine's Little Sister Orphanages, the young child had already had a hard life before she had been forced into the program. Emily had never spoken much about her past even with Subject Alpha but she did not need to as the already present deep scars, which had clearly been acquired as a result of several years of abuse, on her otherwise almost impossibly beautiful porcelain doll-like face and her heavily callused hands and feet told the story for her.

However, despite everything that had been done to her, I had never seen the raven-haired Little Sister in a particularly downtrodden mood or heard her complain. On the contrary, just like Eleanor, she was always trying to take care of her sisters. Of course, Emily was not nearly as direct and vocal as the headstrong young Lamb but, between the two of them, they were the parental figures for their siblings whenever none of us were around. She really was a very kind-hearted girl that was fiercely loyal to those that she got close to but, like her beloved partner, she put up a stoic front to try to hide her true nature.

The possessed little girl finally could not hold herself back and she cried out for Alpha as she ran towards him with dark green, pure ADAM tears flowing down her pale cheeks. Her excitement was such that she even dropped her Gathering Tool as she nearly stumbled during the short dash to reach the man that had become far more than just her father figure and Protector while they had ultimately been left to stand alone together against the incomprehensibly horrific nightmare that the world around them had transformed into as the city became hell bent on killing itself. My brother dropped his Prototype Rivet Gun as he fell down onto his knees just in time to wrap his incredibly strong arms around the Little Sister as she launched herself into his armored chest.

The tiny child wrapped her thin arms around her Alpha Series Big Daddy Protector while her knowledge of multiple languages surfaced as she began to ramble in broken segments of various languages while she allowed herself to let go and lay her soul bare to the man that she loved in essentially every possible way that someone could love another person. Alpha held the Little One as gently as his heavily built and armored frame would allow him as he let out a low, rumbling grunt to calm his now grown Little Sister just as he had done for her when she was a little girl. As he did so, the golden yellow glow that was normally emitted by his segmented porthole and two auxiliary lights was replaced by a green light that flickered as the damaged bond between the two refused to be completely broken.

After a few moments, Emily managed to calm down and she moved back from Alpha. For a moment, they silently looked at each other while the veteran Protector gently held the Gatherer's much smaller hands between his massive gloved ones up in the air between the two of them. I could not help but smile beneath my emotionless copper facade. The bond between a Big Daddy and a Little Sister was not fake. That was something that the denizens of Rapture would never be able to understand.

Emily looked up at him with still shining eyes as the possessed Little One said with a soft, angelic voice while one last pure ADAM tear was rolling down her right cheek, "Aiya …I even promised myself that I would not cry. I did my best to try to be pretty for you so I hope you like it, mi amore."

In response, Alpha lifted his left hand up to gently cup the child's right cheek. Emily smiled as she returned the gesture as she reached up and then placed the palm of her tiny, pale right hand on the top of her Protector's hand. Upon touching the exterior of the small transmitter that my brother had mounted on top of his hand in order to be able to deploy his supply of Mini-Turrets, the Little Sister remarked as she took a step back to be able to fully examine the latest addition to her Big Daddy's arsenal, "Oh my…Daddy got a new toy."

The raven-haired Little One's fondness for tinkering with basically any device or gadget that she could get her hands on surfaced and she began to study the small object that had been salvaged from the corpse of the Rumbler Mass Production Model that we had encountered upon entering the Pink Pearl. As he calmly allowed Emily to examine the tiny device on his hand, Alpha began to get to his feet while he also retrieved his highly modified Prototype Rivet Gun from where it was lying on its left side a few inches to his right. The veteran patiently waited for the inquisitive child to finish as he quietly watched her from beneath the scratched glass surface of the segmented porthole of his weathered and dented copper diving helmet as the glow that was being emitted changed back to its normal golden-yellow color.

Moments later, Emily commented as she released her Protector's gloved left hand, "Ingenious…as expected of Doctor Alexander."

As he let out a quick grunt in agreement, Subject Alpha used the ported digits of his now free hand to will the Little Sister's Gathering Tool from where it had landed after she had tossed it aside through the air towards where she was standing before him until it was floating in front of her within easy reach. Emily took possession of the tool and then looked up at her beloved companion. The barest traces of a smile were visible beneath her now once again stoic façade as she held the cobbled-together, oversized needle that the grown Alpha Series Little Sister was all too familiar with before she said with the possessed child's edged voice, "Let's go out to play, Daddy."

Alpha affectionately patted his beloved charge on the top of her head with his gloved left hand. The loyal Protector then picked her up as gently as he could before he then lifted her back over his left shoulder so that she could ride on his back. While the young girl was situating herself on her throne, the nearby Securis watertight security door that allowed access into the now powerless pumping station let out a loud metallic bang as the exterior of the door began to bulge outwards. Small jets of seawater erupted out of the compromised seal between the frame and the door of the damaged piece of infrastructure seconds later as the barrier continued to try to hold back the water. Meanwhile, the water at our feet had reached the top of the round copper plate that served as the armor over the toe of my weighted diving boots.

I turned to face the wooden flight of stairs and then began to ascend up its creaking steps. As I did, Emily addressed me with her accented voice, "Oh dear, I have been so rude. Welcome back Papa Delta. It is an honor to see you again."

Continuing my ascent, I grunted in response, "Likewise, Emily."

By then, I had reached the top of the stairs. Turning my entire frame to look to my left, I saw that the bloodied body of the nearly mummified man clad in casual business attire was still undisturbed where it had been pinned to the faded green wall of the apartment building by a harpoon spear through the neck. After giving the corpse one last brief examination, I turned back to my right. The beginning of the bridge was only a few steps away and I began to make my way towards where it had been mounted so that it met the original second floor walkway of the apartment to form a continuous path.

As I did, I glanced at the apartment building that was across the now submerged street. The opening on the second floor that was created by the Rumbler naturally drew my attention and, as I looked through it into the war-ravaged room beyond, I was not all that surprised to see quick flashes of movement as the rats that had been nesting inside the interior walls of the residence were making a desperate break for higher ground as they sensed the rising water. Upon reaching the beginning of the bridge, the screams of the doomed denizens of Siren Alley became louder and more desperate as the true inevitability of their demise had hit home. A small wave of guilt flowed through me for a moment but I quickly forced it back down. I had a job to do and I would see it through to the end come literal Hell or high water.

Jennifer was just off to the left between me and the short bridge that ran above the main street between the two apartments buildings. The Elite Big Sister was leaning against the section of shiny metal railing that ran along the exterior of the walkway of the second floor with her elbows resting on top of it as she observed the rising seawater between the two war-ravaged buildings that had once been where the artisans and architects of Rapture had called home. Despite the chaotic sounds of screaming Splicers, crying rodents, the groaning of stressed metal, rushing water, and the cracking of wood filling the air, I could hear her humming the tune of "Rise, Rapture, Rise" with a satisfied tone.

Facing towards her, I grunted with my modified Alpha Series Protector voice, "Excellent work getting the Little One."

The lithe young woman stopped humming and then moved to stand so that she was facing towards me before she replied with her voice slightly muffled by her bulbous diving helmet, "Thank you, Papa Delta. I am glad that you all got out of there in one piece."

I let out a grateful grunt while Eleanor remarked with her British-accented voice, "Yes, it was quite the dramatic escape...however, it is good to see Mother finally getting into the spirit of things."

A series of loud metallic bangs filled the air as the pipes around us began to reach their limits and I turned back to face the entrance to the auxiliary pumping station. The still functioning light fixture above the bulkhead was glowing with a hellish red light and, as I quickly moved towards it across the bridge, I wondered if the smaller, backup pumps inside of the station could be activated to buy us a little more time. The Vita-Chamber at the far end of the concrete walkway to the right stubbornly continued to fill its interior with bright blue electrical arcs but its struggle would ultimately be in vain.

Upon entering the dark interior of the auxiliary pumping station, my diving helmet's built-in headlamp activated to reveal the corpse-filled room just beyond the bulkhead. The two large control consoles that were up against the wall on both sides of the room showed no signs of being functional and I made my way through the bodies of fallen Splicers that were still exactly where they had ended up on the hard metal floor after they had been cut down during the ambush inside the station. Within seconds, I had reached the open bulkhead on the other side and the damaged interior of the station loomed before me.

As I passed through the door frame and stepped out on the metal surface of the second floor of the pitch black pumping station, the sound of metallic groaning filled the air. I did not even have time to react before three large jets of water erupted out of the weak riveted joint of the massive pipe that ran underneath the section of the second floor that traveled along the perimeter of the wall to my left before ending at the securely gated entrance to another part of the station that was directly across from the top of the flight of metal stairs that led down to the first floor. As the jets of seawater grew to nearly be able to reach the ceiling of the station, showers of bright blue electrical sparks began to sporadically erupt out of light fixtures and other various electrical devices.

I forced myself forward through the darkness and began to make my way to the staircase to my left. However, I had only taken four steps before the sound of metal scraping along concrete drew my attention to the ceiling. As my brother and I both looked in the direction of the middle of the room, our headlamps revealed the lanky form of a Spider Splicer. The denizen let out a cry of shock upon being caught in the beams of light but he still continued to crawl along the ceiling towards us with his pair of glowing molten hot cargo hooks. The animal-like addict was clad in what remained of the undershirt of a business suit, tan dress pants, brown suspenders, and black formal socks and he glared at us with his one good eye while he flashed his few remaining small, pointed teeth.

I held my highly modified Drill at the ready while electrical arcs began to travel along the surface of my gauntlet-encased left hand. However, this time, my threatening growls were not the only ones that filled the air of the pumping station. Sure enough, the Spider Splicer had barely moved an inch closer before the high-pitched report of Subject Alpha's Prototype Rivet Gun rang out through the dark room. The denizen fell from the ceiling without even making a sound until he hit the surface of the pool of water that had already submerged the first floor dead as a doornail from the rivet that had been fired directly into his head.

Keeping my Drill at the ready, I continued forward towards the metal staircase. Fortunately, the Splicer appeared to have been alone and I reached the top of the stairs moments later without any problems. The sound of protesting metal filled the air as the entire building seemed to be just barely holding itself together as I began to descend the L-shaped staircase. I remained ready for anything as I reached the bottom of the staircase and then forced myself forward into the frigid, raging pool of ankle-deep seawater that had overtaken the first floor.

The open bulkhead that allowed access to the corridor that led to the entrance was directly across the room from the bottom of the staircase. The light fixture above the opening was somehow still emitting red light despite the cloud of sparks that almost continuously flew out from its damaged exterior. In addition, the yellow sign above the bulkhead that read "LITTLE EDEN PLAZA" still briefly managed to emit light. A river of water was rushing through the opening and into room from the corridor beyond but I was able to power my way forward through the torrent with the raw physical strength of my heavily built Alpha Series Big Daddy frame.

The small red wagon that Eleanor had sent along with her gift for us to find when we had first entered the auxiliary pumping station was nowhere to be seen as I entered the room beyond the bulkhead. However, the colorful chalk message of "Hope this Helps", which had been written above where the wagon had been placed against the wall to my left, was still visible along with the cartoon drawing of the Sun because the intruding flood of water had not yet reached it. In addition, I saw that the major sources of seawater were two ruptures along the length of pipes along the left wall to the side of the exit to the area of Siren Alley that was beyond the station and also a jet emerging out of the center of the security door itself through what must have been a crack in the seal around the middle gear.

I stopped as I realized that the area beyond was most likely completely flooded. I then instructed my companions, "End of the line...get ready you two."

After taking a few seconds to ensure that she had a good grip on her Protector, Emily called out, "Ready, Papa Delta."

A moment later, Eleanor said, "Let's go, Father."

I steeled myself and then moved towards the locked security door. With the watertight device in its automatic flood quarantine mode, I would have to use the two levers on the left and right side of the bulkhead to manually open the door. Upon nearing the door, I began to lift my gloved left hand up to be ready to grab the left lever. However, I was caught completely off guard when the device suffered a total structural failure and the door was blown right out of the bulkhead.

I let out a muffled guttural roar as the thick, heavy metal door slammed into my armored frame and the Atlantic Ocean rushed into the pumping station to completely flood the remainder of Siren Alley within seconds. Somehow, I managed to remain upright and had instinctively raised my left arm up to shield myself. Thus, I was able to use the inhumanly strong strength of my free arm to push the security door off of me and over against the wall to my left without much difficulty.

Through our unique, physiological bond, my daughter cried out in worry, 'Father! Are you alright?'

The muffled echoes of my weighted steps filled the ocean around me as I turned to check on my companions. Meanwhile, I replied with the gruff voice of my former human self, 'I'm okay, kid. More importantly, what about you?'

I was relieved to see that my three other beloved allies were all perfectly fine. The Emily-controlled Little Sister's body was now giving off the distinctive golden yellow glow that indicated when the sea slug had pushed the girl's cellular regeneration into overdrive.

Eleanor assured me through our link with her beautiful voice, 'The Little Sister and I are both fine, Father.'

As it did not seem that anyone was any worse for wear, I turned back to face the exit of the pumping station. The sight that greeted me was easily one of the eeriest that I had ever encountered as a deep sea diver. The entire section of Siren Alley before me was still illuminated by its slowly dying light fixtures and even the hardy Gene Bank and Gatherer's Garden Vending Machine that were directly across the street against the wall of the now completely flooded two story building that was less than fifty yards from where I was standing in the open bulkhead were still illuminated though now their lights were flickering.

Meanwhile, the light fixtures were all giving off a pulsing hellish red light that made the surface of the streets and buildings look far more sinister than they had previously. In addition, the familiar loud sounds of the chaos that raged inside the walls of the fallen, war torn city had been completely replaced by the near total echoing silence of the ocean floor. Making everything even more surreal was the fact that I was now inside what was the equivalent of a life-sized snow globe and, as such, light debris such as pieces of newspapers and the dust that had accumulated over the years since the civil war had combined to create strangely beautiful but still eerie "snow" that was slowly settling all around me. It was the floating corpse of a female Splicer that was gently rising and falling in place upside down a few feet above the surface of the street just off to my left, however, that proved to be the most disconcerting sight as I took in the transformation of Siren Alley.

As I stepped out onto the ornate wooden surface of the area just beyond the exterior of the station, the built-in radio of my Alpha Series Big Daddy diving helmet powered to life. With the scene of death and ruin before me, Sofia's British accented voice filled the inside of my helmet as she taunted me, "Look, Delta, it is the world for which you strive."

Lamb paused for a moment and my attention was drawn to my left as an adult Great White Shark appeared as it casually investigated its new hunting grounds while it slowly swam between the buildings. Sofia then finished with uncharacteristically dramatic tone, "You…alone…among the dead."

My radio deactivated and I was left in near complete silence once again. The shark moved on past me as it slowly swam over my head as it moved seemingly effortlessly down the street before then disappearing out of view. After pushing the psychiatrist's last statement out of my mind, I simply began to calmly make my way towards the airlock that allowed access into Dionysus Park. I, of course, made sure to go as far to the right of the corpse as possible in order to try to avoid another instance where a human body got caught up in my wake and followed me around before I then turned to my left and began to make my way down the completely flooded street.

As I walked down the middle of the polished, green metamorphic rock tiled surface of the street, I could not help but reflect on my memories of being a diver. It was said that if you love what you do for a living, you never work a day in your life. I guess that would explain why I never got tired of it even though it was very technical and physically demanding on top of the risk of suffering a cruel, brutal death at any given second. All in all, it was only perfectly fitting that I ended up being turned into the armored diving suit-clad Big Daddy named Subject Delta.

I reached the end of the street and turned right to begin making my way towards the exit of Siren Alley. As I did, I saw the corpse of a middle aged male Splicer in a tattered, worn out white business suit a foot or so away that was floating somewhat on its side with the open bloodshot eyes facing towards me while an expression of primal fear was frozen on its face. Beyond it, I saw that there was another male corpse further down the street that was floating upright beneath a flashing red light fixture in the center of the path that ran between the building to the right and the Mermaid Lounge to the left. In the middle of the street between the bodies, one of the metal grate-covered drain holes was erupting a plume of bubbles as the trapped air was slowly escaping out of the drainage network.

I paused briefly as I looked up through the arc-shaped glass ceiling nearly three stories above me at the nearby skyscraper-like buildings of Rapture around Siren Alley. As I did, Eleanor remarked with her sultry adult voice through our bond, 'I love it when you get like this…so intense and manly...it gets me all hot and tingly.'

After smiling slightly, I teased my beloved companion as I resumed my trip to the airlock into Dionysus Park, 'I'm pretty sure that it is just the Atlantic Ocean making your body go into overdrive, kid.'

The brunette goddess replied stubbornly, 'It is both…'

By then, I was passing by the open doorway of the entrance to the Mermaid Lounge. I was able to just make out the outline of the fallen Rumbler Mass Production Model, which was too heavy to be buoyant, where it still remained on the ground beyond the destroyed entrance of the corpse-filled establishment. As I did, Eleanor said with a proud and shameless tone in her angelic voice, 'I love you, my brave Woodsman.'

As much as I wanted to argue that I was not brave and was merely doing what was expected of me as both a man and an Alpha Series Big Daddy, I instead replied with an equally shameless tone in my gruff, weathered voice, 'I love you too, Eleanor.'

I took a few steps and then briefly paused to turn my body to the right. Beyond the far end of the side alley, I could still see the exterior of the sunken silent tomb that The Pink Pearl had been turned into by Lamb's retaliatory flooding of Siren Alley. After examining the lifeless brothel for a few seconds, I turned my body back to face in the direction of the painting of a plane crash at the far end of the main street before then continuing forward. The frigid water of the Atlantic Ocean stung at every square inch of my heavily armored frame like thousands of tiny needles but I forced myself onward through the literal sea of death.

Upon reaching the enshrined painting of the tail section of a commercial passenger plane that was surrounded by flames as it sank beneath the surface of the ocean with the Lighthouse in the background, I turned to my left to face the open airlock that allowed access to the seafloor beyond Siren Alley. The box-shaped metal airlock itself was open at both ends so I merely walked out of the sunken section of Rapture and out onto the sandy surface of the ocean floor.

As I made my way over to where I had to turn right beyond the metal support column for the Atlantic Express train track that ran overhead Siren Alley and into Dionysus Park, my attention was drawn to the exterior of Lamb's former home before me. There in one of the massive windows of the now drained section of the city was a Big Sister. Unlike her five siblings that we had encountered in Siren Alley, the lithe armored young woman's porthole was emitting a demonic red glow as she eyed us while also occasionally glancing off to her left to briefly look in the direction of the airlock entrance to Dionysus Park.

As I approached, she let out a now all too familiar biological yet also mechanical sounding screech while she also raised the length of the giant needle that was mounted onto the exterior side of her brown leather and white canvas-armored left arm up into plain view. Then, as I paused to watch, the Big Sister thrust her lethal improvised weapon down behind her in a clearly threatening powerful motion before she then sprinted out of view as she was clearly traveling in the direction of the nearby exterior maintenance entrance to Sofia's former home.

I grimaced slightly beneath the now frigid copper exterior of my Alpha Series Big Daddy diving helmet. It was not because I was afraid of facing the dangerous young goddess but instead because I did not desire to harm the grown Little Sister.

My train of thought was derailed as Eleanor said with a saddened tone, 'It cannot be helped…we are a stubborn lot.'

Even though I knew that I did not need to say it, I still replied, 'I'll try to avoid it as much as possible, kid.'

I could sense my bonded partner smile through our unique physiological bond before she reassured me, 'I know, Father…I trust you.'

Before I could reply, the monster inside of me remarked to our mutual companion, 'I will hold back as much as I can, Master. However, if my hand is forced…'

Eleanor reassured the butcher, 'I trust you just as much as I trust Johnny, Delta.'

As I continued to make my way towards the airlock, I steeled myself for what lay ahead. I was a Big Daddy and, as such, I could not hesitate or waiver. Rapture was in its final hours and, by now, the reality of the situation had likely become obvious to most, if not all, of the remaining residents of the dying city. In a way, it was almost poetic that the end of the metropolis was at the hands of the forgotten freaks that had been discarded and left to rot after having been, at one time, heralded as the city's salvation.

Moments later, I reached the seafloor-anchored support for the Atlantic Express track that was running overhead. I walked around the corner of the corroded piece of the city's decaying infrastructure and, when I did, the sight of the now accessible maintenance entrance to Dionysus Park entered my field of view. I could not help but smile sadly beneath my emotionless copper diving helmet as I began to make my way towards the open entrance to the airlock. It felt as if it had been an entire lifetime since I had last set foot inside Dionysus Park. However, at least this time, it was almost certain that I would be leaving for Persephone of my own free will.

Sensing my thoughts through our bond, Eleanor informed me with her British-accented voice, 'You know, Father…Stanley is still alive.'

My smile faded as I knew where my grown Little Sister was going with the revelation. Sure enough, the goddess followed up by asking me, 'If you find him, what do you plan to do?'

I was silent for a moment before I replied with my gruff voice, 'You know me, Eleanor'

The brunette sighed before she then remarked, 'You are too kind for your own good, Johnny.'

By then, I had reached the middle of the airlock. I finally stopped after I had made it just slightly past the ship telegraph-style lever that was mounted against the middle of the right wall. I turned my entire heavily armored frame back to face the exit of the small device in order to check on my beloved allies. Sure enough, two or three steps away from where I was standing, I saw Subject Alpha facing in my direction as he returned my gaze. Meanwhile, the Emily-controlled Little Sister was still safely riding on the Protector's back and, at the moment, she was looking back behind her faithful guardian to watch Jennifer as the diving suit-clad lithe woman was showing off her swimming prowess by entering the airlock slightly above us while she was both facing backwards and rolled over so that her back was facing the somewhat barnacle-encrusted floor beneath us.

The incredibly powerful former Alpha Series Little Sister successfully made it into the cramped interior of the device and then gracefully landed flat on both of her weighted diving-boot entombed feet just on the other side of the airlock's cycle lever. However, she had landed facing away from me and, thus, Jennifer had to turn so that she would be facing in the right direction once the chamber drained and we were allowed access into Dionysus Park. While she did so, I reached out with my gauntlet-encased left hand and took ahold of the cycle lever.

After I had activated the cycle and the pumps began to drain the interior of the airlock, I began to turn my entire frame to face in the direction of the soon to be open entrance into the once flooded area of Rapture. By the time that I was facing in the right direction, nearly all of the water had been pumped out of the box-like device. Moments later, it had been drained enough to trigger the automated gate before me to begin to open. An almost painfully loud metallic screech filled the interior of the airlock as the years of neglect and crustacean overgrowth were nearly enough to prevent the watertight barrier from retracting into the frame of the bulkhead.

However, the worn out device managed to work one last time as the gate completely retracted out of our way to allow access to Dionysus Park. I paused for a moment as the sight of the wet, dark interior of the ruins of Lamb's former residence loomed before me. A brief wave of irritation rolled through me as I realized that it was just as cold inside the recently drained section of the city as it was outside on the seafloor. However, my mood was soon lifted as Eleanor remarked with her British accented voice, "Hey look, it is as dark and cold as Mother's soul."

I let out a short series of grunt-like laughs and then moved out of the airlock and into Dionysus Park.