"Julie, we made a business deal, you and I, did we not? Money changed hands. Let me read to you from the agreement... Section 3, Subsection 4: 'Ryan Corp maintains exclusive rights to the creation, use, and exploitation of the Lazarus Vector'. Ownership is civilization, Julie. Without it, we're back in the swamp…"

"Mr. Ryan? No... Wait... No! Please! Mr. Ryan!"

Both Elizabeth and Jack watch in helpless horror as Julie Langford chokes to death inside her own office.

She scrawls four numbers on the window before her body crumples, a lifeless husk of the woman with whom they had been conversing only moments before.

"I'm going to be sick."

"Don't you dare."

"Liz, I mean it. I'm going to throw up."

"Then do it over there. Away from me."

Jack excuses himself fairly quickly, leaving Elizabeth to ponder the meaning of the four digits on the window.

"Four digits…" she murmurs. "Four digits. A code. But to what?"

"Maybe it's to her safe," Jack calls from wherever he is.

"What safe?"

"Saw a safe in there. Maybe that's the code."

"Huh. Are you done yet?"

"Uh, almost finished, yeah."

Elizabeth rolls her eyes and folds her arms across her chest impatiently, waiting for him to get back.

He does after a few minutes, and Elizabeth immediately regards him with suspicion.

"What?"

She doesn't say anything, waiting for him to get the hint.

"Oh, come on-yes, I washed my hands. God, woman."

She can't help but smile just a little bit at that. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get that damn safe open so we can see what was so important that she spent her last moments writing out the code."

"What the hell is this?"

Elizabeth takes the piece of paper from him as he looks inside the safe again.

"I have no idea," she admits. She tries to ignore Jack's huff of laughter following her comment.

"Oh, shut up. You didn't know either."

"Yeah, but I don't act like I know everything."

Elizabeth frowns, ready to retort, but she looks at the piece of paper again and reads the barely readable scribbles at the top of the page.

"Laz..Laz…" she tries to read aloud. She squints. "Lazar..Lazarus...Vector. Lazarus Vector. Says it can bring...oh. Oh. Jack. Jack!"

She tugs on his sweater, which startles him and causes him to bump his head against the safe. He pulls his head out, scowling as he rubs the spot that had been hurt. "What the hell was that for?" he whines.

"Don't be a baby. Look, it's the Lazarus Vector."

"Oh, that's...great."

A pause.

"Clearly I have no idea what the hell you're talking about."

"Oh my-look, it's that thing Langford was talking about."

At this, Jack takes the paper out of her hands and frowns.

"I can't even read this."

Elizabeth groans. "You are piece of work, you know that?"

He smirks. "I do know. What does it say?" he adds quickly, seeing the look on her face.

"Well, it's a list of ingredients, apparently. We get all of those, and all we have to do is go to one of those U-Invents and put them in. And voila, we have a Lazarus Vector."

Jack doesn't say anything for a bit. Then, "God, I hate these kinds of missions."

"Isn't there anything in this damn place those pagans won't steal? Paper towels, ink pots, witch hazel, chlorophyll solution, even my back issues of National Geographic. They're feathering their disgusting little shrines with it, I suppose. Sick bastards."

For the first bottle of chlorophyll solution, they head back to the first Houdini Splicer they killed. Sure enough, in one of his pockets, Jack finds a tiny bottle of green liquid.

"Bingo."

"Is that it?" Elizabeth asks, eyeing the bottle with caution.

"I think so, yeah. It has to be."

"In that case, we only need to find five more bottles. I saw one in Langford's office; we can grab that one on our way back."

Jack grins. "Perfect."

"Six down, one more to go," Elizabeth says as she plucks the second-to-last bottle off of the dead Splicer's corpse. She pockets the item, making sure her satchel is closed before turning to Jack. "What's the next ingredient?"

He looks at the list again, squinting, before finally giving up and handing it to his companion. "I can't read this. It's too damn messy."

She grabs the list out of his hands and looks it over. "Uh...we can either go for enzyme samples or distilled water."

Jack considers it for a moment before nodding his head. "Enzyme samples it is."

"Liz! Turn it back on!"

"It's Elizabeth, and I did! It has to take effect!"

"Damnit…"

"How many have you got so far?"

"Uh...three."

Elizabeth curses.

They're heading to some place called "Worley Winery" when Elizabeth stops in her tracks.

"Liz? What-"

"Shut up."

"What?"

"Shut up, okay? Shut up."

She hears him before she sees him. The heavy clunk, clunk, clunk of his metal feet echo through the halls of Arcadia as he moves towards their position.

"Seriously, what's wrong?"

"Do you want to die?!"

"...No?"

"Then-wait, that wasn't a question. Why did you answer it like it was a question?"

"I just-"

"Nevermind. Just stay still and maybe he won't notice us."

"Who? The Big Daddy?"

"...Yes. Who the hell did you think I was talking about?"

"I...don't know."

"You don't seem to know a lot of things."

By this point, the Big Daddy has nearly passed by them, and Elizabeth sighs with relief.

"Wait...do you hear that?"

She listens. At first, no, she doesn't hear anything-but then she finds out what Jack is talking about.

"Hurry, Mr. B! Angels are waiting for our kisses."

"It's a Little Sister. So?"

No response.

"Jack?"

She turns to her companion, who looks like he's steeling himself for something nasty. "I'll be right back," he tells Elizabeth.

He begins to step out of the hiding place that Elizabeth had pulled them into, but Elizabeth pulls him back.

"Are you crazy? He'll see you!"

"That's the point, Liz."

"It's Elizabeth. And what do you mean-oh, no. No, hell no. I am not letting you get yourself killed because you think you're stronger than you actually are."

"Trust me, I can manage. I've taken down Big Daddies before, believe me."

"I don't and I won't. Listen, Jack, listen to me, please. You are going to get yourself killed. Please don't. Please, he's almost gone, just let him go-"

"Why do you care all of a sudden what happens to me?"

She knows why. She's not sure if she should tell him or not, but as he turns to continue his suicide mission she grabs hold of him again.

"Because you're my friend, damnit. And I'm not going to lose another person I care about over some stupid mistake."

She's begging now, she knows it; but she doesn't care. Anything she can say to keep him from going toe-to-toe with a Big Daddy.

He's looking at her now, quite strangely-a mix of wonder and surprise on his face. His face suddenly hardens and he tears himself away from Elizabeth.

"Sorry," is all he says before pointing his pistol at the metal monster and firing.

Immediately, the Big Daddy groans, turning towards Jack slowly. Its multiple eyes are red, and he charges at Jack, who dodges the attack with relative ease.

"No, no, no! Goddamnit!"

She's panicking again. She really hates it when she does that.

What to do, what to do, what to do...

She looks back at Jack, who has just fired another round of bullets at the Big Daddy. She knows he's about to run out of ammo soon-he had mentioned earlier that he needed to buy more rounds for the pistol. His other weapons are over here with Elizabeth, but most of them don't have any or very little ammo in them. Groaning, she decides there's nothing she can do but join the fight.

Grabbing her crossbow, she aims it at the monster's head and fires, still hiding in the nook that she had initially pulled Jack into. Almost as soon as she does, his attention is turned away from Jack, looking for the dumbass that just tried to take him out with a shot to the damn head.

Elizabeth winces.

Well, that hadn't gone according to plan. Mainly because she didn't have one.

She's eerily reminded of her father in this moment, and how half of the time he didn't have a plan either.

She really wishes she had taken after her mother instead.

Loading another bolt into the crossbow, she aims it again and fires another bolt at the Big Daddy.

This time, he groans in frustration at not finding the complete idiot who thinks they can take out a Big Daddy with a couple of pointy sticks.

Jack is still firing away at the metal monstrosity, and Elizabeth grins.

We might actually win this, she thinks, just as she hears the click of Jack's gun as he fires his last bullet.

They both hold their breaths, waiting for the Big Daddy to realize that Jack's out of ammo.

Or not, she thinks. Or not.

The Big Daddy charges.

Thinking quickly, Elizabeth jumps out of her hiding spot and fires another bolt at the Big Daddy's back.

She hears something pop loudly, and she realizes that she accidentally hit its oxygen tank on its back.

The Big Daddy seems to notice this as well, suddenly stopping its attack on Jack. For a few moments, it does not move.

"Liz, what the hell did-"

A loud groan fills the space, and Elizabeth nearly drops here weapon in surprise at the sound of it. Jack's hands drop his pistol and cover his ears, and as the moaning gets louder, Elizabeth is forced to do the same.

She can see blood dripping down the side of Jack's neck mere seconds before she feels the wetness of her own sliding down the sides of her face.

She looks at the Big Daddy, who is now desperately clawing at its metal head. Elizabeth almost feels sorry for the thing. It's a mere handful of seconds before the metal brute collapses to the ground, dead from a lack of oxygen.

Elizabeth takes a moment to catch her breath before letting her hands fall to her sides, now covered in her own blood. She looks at Jack, and her eyes practically pop out of her skull at what she is seeing.

Jack is moving towards the Little Sister.

She doesn't notice him; she is too busy mourning her fallen protector, screaming, "Mr. B! Noooo!"

Elizabeth tries to get his attention before it's too late. "Jack, what are you doing? Jack!"

Either he doesn't hear her or he doesn't care, because he continues to advance towards the Little Sister, who is still unaware of his presence.

"Jack!"

Jack doesn't respond, but the Little Sister does. She whirls around, coming face-to-face with Jack. She screams.

"No! Get away from me! You killed Mr. B! You killed Mr. B!"

It happens so fast, Elizabeth almost misses it. Jack reaches out, picks up the Little Sister, and places his hand, which has begun to glow, onto her forehead. She stills, going limp in his arms as a bright, white light fills the room.

When Elizabeth can see again, she sees Jack kneeling next to the Little Sister-except, she's not a Little Sister anymore. Elizabeth gasps when instead of an ADAM-crazed child, she sees a small, frightened little girl.

"T-thank you, mister," she stammers, barely audible. "Thank you for saving me."

"It's no trouble," Jack replies cheerily. "Hey, can I ask you a favor, though?"

The little girl cocks her head at him curiously, wondering what this kind stranger is going to ask of her.

"Can I have your ribbon?"

"Huh?"

"That thing in your hair." He points to make it easier for her. "My friend needs it." He points again, this time to Elizabeth.

The little girl follows his gaze to where Elizabeth is. Elizabeth suddenly feels rather self-conscious, and tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She waves.

"Oh! Sure, mister!"

She reaches back to untie the ribbon in her hair. When she's done so successfully (which takes a few minutes thanks to her insistence that she doesn't need help), she hands it to Jack.

He thanks her and stands up, holding out his hand to her. She takes it gladly, allowing him to lead her to the nearest vent. As he passes by Elizabeth, he hands her the ribbon.

"Here," he says as he drops it in her open palm. "I figured you might need that. Your hair is always getting in the way."

She nods. "Thanks."

The little girl is tugging at his hand now, and Jack turns to go. He stops at the last second, however, turning to Elizabeth once again.

"Oh, and by the way, you're my friend too."

She smiles.

Jack smiles back before he's practically dragged away by the little girl, eager to get back to wherever she came from.

As she watches them walk away, she sighs, putting her hair in the ribbon that Jack had given her before grabbing her crossbow and following them.

It's as they're walking back to Langford's lab to make the Lazarus Vector that she decides to finally bring up the question.

"Back there, with the Big Daddy...how did you do that?"

"You mean how did I kill it? Or, well, help kill it. Lots of practice, Liz. Lots of practice."

"No, that's not what I mean."

Jack looks at her, confused, before realization dawns on him. "Ah. You mean the Little Sister."

"Exactly."

"You wanna know how I cured her?"

"'Cured?'"

"Yeah. Cured. Tenenbaum gave me this Plasmid, you see. It 'cures' them of being Little Sisters."

"How?"

"I don't know. All I know is that it works, and that's what matters. To me, at least, that's what matters."

He doesn't say anything else for a few minutes, so Elizabeth assumes he's done talking. Which is fine with her; she isn't really in the mood for talking anyways.

Is that how he is going to do it? How he is going to save Sally and all the rest of the Sisters?

It seems obvious that the answer is 'yes'; after all, Elizabeth reasons, he had just cured a Sister right before her very eyes not an hour ago. But saving them all?

This man, the man standing beside her, is going to be the savior of every child whose childhood was stolen from them. Whose fate seemed to be to wander the streets of a forgotten utopia, forever living in a mass hallucination of a paradise.

She briefly entertains the idea that maybe Jack won't save them all-perhaps only some. But no-her visions have made it quite clear that Jack is the one and only savior of the Little Sisters, aside from Tenenbaum.

She had heard about Tenenbaum while she was living in Rapture the first time. From what she had heard, she was a geneticist who only cared about making the next scientific breakthrough. Now though, it seems as though she is another person entirely, whose only goal now is to save as many of the monsters she helped create as she can.

Elizabeth supposes that by doing this, Tenenbaum has somewhat redeemed herself of her past sins.

That doesn't make her a saint, however.

Elizabeth wonders where the change of heart came from. Perhaps she got tired of doing such terrible things with her life. Perhaps it was revenge against someone.

Perhaps it was guilt.

Elizabeth laughs humorlessly, which causes Jack to throw a glance her way. At realizing that she's caught his attention, she shakes her head to let him know she's alright. Jack looks wary, but turns his attention away from her, continuing down the tunnel.

Elizabeth goes back to her musings, hoping that she isn't interrupted again.

Perhaps it was guilt, she thinks again. She feels the urge to scoff again, but refrains from giving in to it.

If it's guilt that motivates Tenenbaum now, then she and Tenenbaum have some common ground.

"Agh."

"What's wrong?"

"The damn thing isn't working."

"Is it broken?"

"No, I don't think so... hey, you know what might help? If you actually came over here and helped me try to figure this out."

"Ha ha."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I."

Jack grumbles, but doesn't say anything else. After a few minutes of fumbling, Atlas's voice comes through the radio.

"Would you kindly get this thing crafted already? Air's only getting thinner down here."

At hearing the phrase "Would You Kindly," Elizabeth gasps, keening over. Her right hand flies to her nose, which has already begun to bleed. She knows it's only a matter of seconds before the visions come…

A man. No, not just a man-the man that's been her companion for several hours now, the man whose back is currently turned towards her-the man that she's come to know as a friend.

Wait. A friend...is that what Jack is to her? Someone who can be trusted, who she knows would never hurt her?

She doesn't have much time to dwell on her newest revelation-the man's hands move. They curl and uncurl, becoming blue with the static of Electro Bolt.

"Would you kindly?"

The three words echo in her head, loudly-she thinks it's about to burst.

The image fades, and now the man-Jack-is staring down at something. Elizabeth turns to look and sees a Little Sister gathering ADAM far below them.

She has little time to look, however, as almost as soon as she does, the booming voice of Atlas says, "Would you kindly get this-"

This image also fades, replaced by an image of Jack swinging his wrench at a Splicer. He takes her down fairly easily, Elizabeth notes with some pride. As soon as the Splicer lies dead, Atlas speaks once more.

"Would you kindly find that-"

Jack is electrocuting a Splicer standing in the water.

"Would you kindly?"

A Little Sister, crying over her fallen protector.

"Would you kindly?"

Arcadia. Visions of it flood her mind now, and she gasps as Atlas's voice becomes louder and louder as the visions become shorter and shorter.

Suddenly, the flashing images stop, freezing on one image:

A board. That's all she sees at first; a big board, covered in papers. There is a picture of Andrew Ryan, she sees-and a thin, red line connects his picture to that of a woman's. Another string connects both pictures to one below both of them. Elizabeth is startled to realizes it's Jack, but she doesn't realize the significance until she's been staring at it for a few seconds.

Once she does, her eyes widen and she breathes out a "No…"

She doesn't have much time for disbelief before Atlas barks out another order.

"Would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill the sonofabitch?"

Slowly, the sounds fade, as do the visions, and Elizabeth is once again standing in Langford's office.

"You okay?" Jack asks. Elizabeth looks around and realizes that he's moved away from the safe and is at the U-Invent, holding what Elizabeth almost immediately realizes must be the newly-created Lazarus Vector.

"Y-yeah," she manages to say. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" he asks, still not looking at her. She hears the clunk of something heavy hitting the floor, and Elizabeth figures he must be crafting some ammunition of some sort.

Elizabeth is still reeling from the shock of the unexpected vision, so when Jack doesn't hear a response and turns around to find out why, she doesn't hear his startled gasp or his heavy footsteps as he rushes to her side.

"Oh my God," he breathes. "What the hell happened?"

"I'm fine," she insists. "Really, I'm okay."

"No, you're not, Liz. Your nose…"

Blood is trickling between the cracks in her fingers, she realizes, and her hand has done almost nothing to stop the flow of blood from escaping her nose. She's so distracted she doesn't even think to correct Jack on her name.

Jack moves to place his hand on top of hers, but at the last minute seems to decide against it. INstead he looks around the room frantically, moving papers and lifting objects and setting them somewhere else. Elizabeth has no idea what the hell he's doing, but she soon finds out, as he comes back to her and grabs her satchel.

"Hey!"

Jack isn't listening, or else he just doesn't care. A couple of seconds later, he shouts triumphantly as he pulls a first aid kit out of the bag.

Oh. Well, duh. Of course.

He scrambles to get it open, grab some supplies, and give them to Elizabeth.

"Here," he says, shoving the items into her arms. "Take these. They should help. I'll be with you in a minute, I've got to put the Vector in."

He picks up the Lazarus Vector and heads to the Central Misting Control. He puts the Vector in, and almost immediately it produces a gurgling sound, like it's broken or something. Jack grins, however.

"It's working, Liz! I think. Is it supposed to make that weird noise?"

"Yeah, boyo. It's working, all right. Ah, listen to that damn thing gurgle and crank. How long is it going to take?" Atlas complains.

A different voice comes over the radio then; the voice of Andrew Ryan. "It seems Julie's death didn't provide a clear enough lesson to you. Perhaps this will suffice."

"Oh, great. What now?" Jack groans.

"Ryan's got your number. No doubt he'll be sending company. Best to head back to the lab entrance and seal her up...might be the only way to keep the Splicers out."

Jack sighs. "Fine. Thanks, Atlas."

"No problem, boyo. Now get to work! Those Splicers will be there any minute now."

Jack nods and turns to head to the entrance, but then he seemingly remembers that he's not alone in there. He turns to Elizabeth, who is now scraping dried blood from her face and fingernails.

"You'll be okay in here, right?"

"What?"

"I need to head to the entrance to seal it off. Will you be okay in here?"

"No. No, I'm coming with you!"

"Elizabeth, no. You're still recovering, you're-"

"I'm going. With. You."

"No."

"We know you're in there, hot stuff! Come out and play!"

Both Jack and Elizabeth look towards the door.

Jack is the first to look away, redirecting his gaze onto his frustrated companion. "Look, just-just hang tight, okay? I'll be back in a minute."

And with that, he races out of the office, leaving an indignant Elizabeth behind.

She stamps her foot angrily, looking around the tiny office before making a decision.

"'Hang tight,' my ass," she grumbles. She grabs her shotgun and heads out.

She gets to the entrance just in time to see Jack trying to fend off one Splicer while being approached from behind by another. Thinking quickly, she loads one shell into her shotgun, aims for the Splicer's back, and fires. The Splicer falls over, dead.

Before Jack can react to her presence, she yells, "Behind you!"

Jack swings around just in time to see the second Splicer's meat hook come crashing down on what would have been his skull had he not moved at the last second. He swings his wrench at his face, knocking him out cold.

He then turns to Elizabeth. "I thought I told you to stay in the office."

"I thought I told you I wasn't going to."

"Liz-"

"First of all, it's Elizabeth. Second of all, I'm not going to stand by while you put yourself in a stupid situation that could very well get you killed."

"Elizabeth-"

"Remember when I said you had a tendency to make stupid decisions?"

He shuts his mouth, instead electing to put a round of bullets through a Splicer that was trying to sneak past the both of them.

Finally, after countless Splicers have been put down and two more Big Daddies (and Little Sisters) have been dealt with, they're ready to leave.

They head to the Rapture Metro in Rolling Hills.

Once they're safely (or at least, as safe as Rapture can get, anyways) inside the bathysphere, Elizabeth finally has some time to think.

So.

That was Fontaine's plan.

Con Jack into believing he was a poor freedom fighter who had lost his family in a submarine explosion, then get him to kill Andrew Ryan as "revenge."

Elizabeth has to admit, that was quite a con.

She thinks back on what she saw-that board, with the words she so dreaded hearing written in red-whether it was blood or paint, she hadn't been able to tell. The pictures…

She swallows. Don't throw up, she tells herself sternly. Don't throw up.

She manages not to, but the thought of what those people have done to him makes her blood boil.

Of course, she is one of those people, isn't she?

It was her who had given Atlas the activation code, her who had sealed Jack's fate. And now she is going to pay the price-again. But it is a much different price this time, she realizes, as she turns her attention towards the man sitting next to her, staring once again. He looks away quickly, but Elizabeth doesn't comment.

And what of Jack? Elizabeth knows what Fontaine has in store for him-he's going to kill Andrew Ryan, and then dispose of him. She knows what has to be done, she knows she cannot stop it-but that does not make her feel any less guilty.

Here he is, her companion, her friend, and she is going to let him walk into a trap which will almost certainly kill him.

No.

She can't let that happen.

I'm going to tell him, she resolves, as the bathysphere docks in Fort Frolic. I don't care how much it screws up the future. I'm going to tell him.

She's going to tell him everything.