At long last, Chapter 8! Sorry for the long wait, I had finals, and then I started on the next chapter without realizing that I hadn't posted this one! xD So, anyways, enjoy! Also, the original chapter was 31,000 + words long, so I decided to split it into two/three chapters. The next chapter should be up sometime later on today/tomorrow. Thanks again to Jared for helping me out!

"Do you really think this is going to work? "

"No. "

"Then why bother? "

"Well, we won't know if we don't try. "

"Have you forgotten our current state, brother? Of course we can know without trying. "

"Well, yes, but if she tells the boy everything- "

"Ah. I see what you mean now. The boy won't fulfill his 'destiny'."

"The future as we've seen it won't happen. "

"And the girl- "

The ride to Hephaestus offers another rare moment of quiet as the Bathysphere propels quietly through the water within Rapture. Neither Jack or Elizabeth speak on the way, both caught up in their own thoughts.

They face away from each other this time, looking out opposite ends of the viewport. In the silence, Jack's thoughts turn to Elizabeth, as they always seemed to be lately.

Though, this time, he feels wary.

The poster.

Something had been off about her explanation. It was possible, yet… he knew she was keeping something from him. He doesn't remember her from the crash… but then again, his memory has been more than fuzzy since then. Was it possible she wasn't on the plane with him? Why would she lie about it? How much of what she's told him already had been a lie?

He had been brushing it off for this long. Something about her makes it feel like he can trust her, like she genuinely doesn't mean him harm. He still sees her as his friend. But he can't shake the feeling that she had lied.

He wonders if he should confront her about it. She'd probably lie again, though. Or worse, she might have already been telling the truth, and he will have accused the only friend (besides Atlas, of course) he had down here.

No.

It was too big a risk to take. It probably didn't matter much anyway. If she had it out for him, he'd have been dead ages ago. He is just going to have to trust her.

And despite having every reason not to, he does.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is occupied with other thoughts.

Such as, Stop being a baby and tell him before you reach Hephaestus.

Damnit, she's trying.

But telling the truth is a lot harder than she remembered. Maybe because she hadn't stacked on so many lies beforehand. And he was her friend.

He's the Ace in the Hole. She had given him to Fontaine.

How could she keep that from him?

Simple.

She couldn't.

She had to tell him-she had to-

Suddenly, the bathysphere rocks, knocking both of them out of their thoughts.

Jack jumps, clearly startled.

"What-" he begins, but then seems to remember where they are.

"Shall we get going, then?" Elizabeth asks uneasily.

Jack nods. "Yeah. Let's get this over with."

"Watch yourself. Ryan's stirrin'. We'd best keep to our knittin'."

Atlas's voice crackles from the radio as Elizabeth and Jack head up the steps of the empty room, enormous metal gears thrumming from either side.

Once they reach the top, Elizabeth stops and admires a small model of early Rapture, the plaque beneath it reading Rapture, Nov 5 1946. One Man's Vision. Mankind's Salvation. Meanwhile, Jack inspects the corpse resting against it.

"It's time to either run the table, or go home empty. Ryan's got the genetic key to Rapture, we get that from him and we get out of this hellhole. We don't… then we're all ghosts. Now, would you kindly head to Ryan's office, and kill the sonofabitch? It's time to finish this. "

Elizabeth shudders as she hears Atlas utter those three words, though Jack doesn't seem fazed. He immediately stops rifling through the corpse's pockets and looks around, ignoring everything else.

Elizabeth's gut clenches unpleasantly, her stomach churning.

"Hey, Jack?"

Jack turns to her.

"Uh-we need to talk."

"Later," he says, before turning away and heading through the door.

As the large, automatic door closes behind him, Elizabeth can't help but feel an impending sense of doom.

-LINE HERE

" If we are to go through with this plan, then we must act quickly, Robert. I fear that, like her, we don't have much time. "

Robert hums. " I suppose you're right. "

" Well, then. Why are we still here when we should be there? "

Jack had hardly spoken on the way there. He had mowed down the Splicers and security drones, barely breathing a word to Elizabeth. As they walk through another doorway, she racks her brain for something to say. Anything to lead her into what he needs to know, and force herself into telling the truth.

"...Jack?" Elizabeth speaks up, but her nervous voice is barely audible. As she clears her throat to try again, Jack finally speaks, ahead of her.

"...Oh no."

Startled, Elizabeth looks up at Jack, who had stopped after the next door slid open.

"What?" she asks, in her surprise, forgetting her plan to say something.

He swallows, emotion finally seeming to creep back into his face.

Elizabeth follows his gaze, and immediately inhales sharply at the sight.

Ahead of them, six rows of lights illuminate six corpses hanging from iron spokes suspended high in the air, three on each side of the room, the spokes plunging into each of their chests. In the center is a large bronze fountain of Andrew Ryan.

Jack slowly steps forward, and Elizabeth follows.

"...What do you think happened to them?" she muses behind him, looking up at each of the old, dried, hanging bodies.

"I don't know," Jack replies, then tilts his head as he notices an audio diary in the pocket of farthest right corpse, "...But this might be able to tell us."

He reaches up and plucks out the audio diary.

"I remember this name," he realizes, looking at the name inscribed on the back, "I found a few of her other diaries."

He pushes play, and the woman's voice crackles through.

"I had to go jungle-style with that filthy ape for three weeks, but he finally spilled the beans on how to get to Andrew Ryan. Generate a sympathetic overload in Harmonic Cor #3. That's simple. Now all I gotta do is figure out what the hell a sympathetic overload is, and for that matter, a Harmonic Core #3! Piece of cake for an electrical engineer. Too bad I design lady's shoes. Gonna go see the grease monkeys left alive in Heat Loss Monitoring, s ee what I can shake out of their trees."

As the diary ends, Jack looks up at the woman's corpse one last time. "Thanks… Anya."

He turns to Elizabeth, "This is it, this is how we'll get to Ryan. The Harmonic Core #3. I'll bet he's the one who killed Anya for finding this out. All of them. But this is perfect, once we find our way in, we can finally end—"

He falters when he notices Elizabeth's expression, as if she were almost disappointed.

"...Liz? Are you-"

"It's Elizabeth," she states coldly. "And yes, I'm fine. Let's just…" she bites her lip, looking away from Jack. She sighs. "Let's just get this over with."

-LINE HERE

"What happened to the lights?"

"Does it look like I know?"

"I can't even see you, Liz."

"It's Elizabeth. And shhh!"

The lights flicker back on, revealing everything to be the same as it was before.

"What the hell just happened?"

"It's a trap. Someone's about to get the jump on us."

At this, Jack looks around anxiously. "Ah. That...that explains it, then."

"Look around for anything out of the ordinary. Maybe a missing body, a weapon, anything like that."

Jack nods.

The two begin their search, but find nothing missing in the room between the enormous bronze gears turning within their supports.

Jack even counts the bodies, but he can't remember if there were five before.

"Anything?" He asks Elizabeth, but she shakes her head. "Okay… then I guess—"

The lights shut off again with a clang.

"Agh, crap. " Jack shouts, "Liz, are you still there?"

"I'm here. And it's Elizabeth," her voice declares. It comes through the darkness, followed by a loud crash.

"Crap, what happened? Did you trip?" Jack asks.

"Uh… that wasn't me."

"...Oh …Then—"

The lights suddenly come back on, revealing some sort of pressure canisters rolling across the floor towards Elizabeth.

"Um…" Jack manages.

"Be on your guard," Elizabeth says, taking out her crossbow.

"Like I'm not already," Jack grumbles, pulling out his own weapon, "Notice anything different?"

"No," Elizabeth quickly scans the room as they move forwards. "Same six corpses."

"Five," Jack corrects.

"No, six," Elizabeth says, "Count them."

"I did, just before the lights went out. There's only five."

"Well, clearly, you didn't. Unless—"

Elizabeth falters, and Jack stops. Together, they peer at the bloodied corpses on the ground.

"HOOOOARRGHGHGHH!"

The corpses suddenly get to their feet and lunge towards Jack and Elizabeth.

"Mother—" Jack nearly jumps clean out of his skin, madly slamming on the trigger of his gun.

"Goddamnit," Elizabeth shouts, barely getting her shotgun out in time to shoot one of the Splicers in the face. She winced as his head exploded and blood got all over her face.

"Holy shit, " Jack gasps as he turns to Elizabeth. "How the hell did you do that?!"

"I don't know," Elizabeth confesses as she pumps a pistol round in another Splicer.

"Well however you did it, you'd better do it again," Jack grunts as he slams the butt of his shotgun into a Leadhead Splicer's face, causing the offending Splicer to reel back. Jack grins. "What, did we interrupt your nap?"

Elizabeth rolls her eyes, trying not to smile at his cheesiness and at the same time trying to ignore the by now familiar feeling in her chest.

The last Splicer hits the floor, assuredly dead this time.

"You know, these encounters are almost fun after a while," Jack says, after a moment.

"Really?" Elizabeth raises an eyebrow.

"Hey, I said almost."

Elizabeth smirks. "Good to know," she mumbles.

"Well… once we get the genetic key, we'll never have to worry about these Splicers again. We just need to head to Ryan's office and-"

Elizabeth nods, swallowing nervously. "Right. Um, about that, Jack-there's something I need to tell you."

She expects him to ignore her, honestly-brush her off like last time, not willing to listen until it's too late. No, she reminds herself. It's not too late. We haven't gotten to Ryan yet, there's still time-

"What is it, Liz?"

The nickname brings her back to the present moment-Jack is staring at her expectantly. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she says, "First of all, it's Elizabeth. Second-"

" Are you almost there, boyo? Remember, time's a-wastin'. Every second we lose our edge on Ryan."

Elizabeth resists the urge to scream. Every damn time, she thinks furiously. Every goddamn time!

"We're getting there, Atlas," Jack says, sounding as irritated as Elizabeth feels.

" You'd better. Ryan won't wait for us forever. "

The radio is silent once more, leaving both Jack and Elizabeth in an awkward silence.

Jack breaks it by clearing his throat and saying, "So, erm. What were you saying?"

Oh.

"I-I was saying that-"

"Don't you dare."

Elizabeth jumps at the newest addition to their conversation. She whirls around and comes face-to-face with a smartly-dressed woman with a tan coat and ginger hair.

"M-madame Lutece?" she stutters.

The female Lutece nods. "And my brother. I assume you remember him?"

Elizabeth looks at Robert, who nods, bowing a bit. "Elizabeth."

"What are you doing here?"

"We're here to stop you," Rosalind says plainly, peering over Elizabeth's shoulder at Jack. "He's rather small, isn't he, brother? Not at all what I expected."

Elizabeth, following Rosalind's line of sight, turns around, and sees Jack still staring expectantly at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. Only-he's not moving. At all.

She whirls around to face Rosalind once more, her eyes flashing dangerously. "What did you do to him?"

Robert speaks up, seemingly uninterested in the fact that Elizabeth looks about ready to rip the both of them in half. "We couldn't very well have had this conversation if he was still here. But, seeing as you were very reluctant to let him out of your sight-"

"Coupled with the fact that you were about to disrupt this universe's timeline-"

"-We had to step in."

Elizabeth raises a suspicious eyebrow-and is immediately reminded of her father, who had always done the same when the Luteces had told him something ridiculous. "Why?"

"Because-"

" Reasons. "

" Like? " She's starting to get sick of playing their game-but she thinks she knows why they've come. "You've come to preserve the timeline, haven't you?"

Rosalind nods. "Indeed."

"What's so important about this universe's timeline that you had to step in? It's one in a million-literally. What makes this one so special?"

"Well-you."

Elizabeth blinks. "I-what?"

"You," she repeats, in the tone of one telling a small child that they can't have a cookie before supper.

"You don't belong in this timeline," Robert explains, a bit more sympathetic than his sister. "And yet you're here. That alone wouldn't be a problem-"

"-but you're trying to intervene in matters which you should not intervene in." Rosalind finishes.

"Simply put, you are meddling in businesses that are not your own, and that is the problem."

Elizabeth scoffs indignantly. "So were you when you helped me and Booker in Columbia!"

"That is true," Rosalind admits, not looking fazed in the slightest by Elizabeth's outburst. "But we were not directly intervening, as you had done with Jack."

"As you are doing," Robert clarifies.

"And as you will have continued to do. Unless we had caught you at this particular moment in time."

"What do you mean?"

"Not only are you directly interacting with him-as we were with you-but you're also trying to prevent the future from happening."

"You've done so before, though I'm not sure you remember. Comstock?"

The memory flashes through her mind-her, standing on Comstock's side of the tear, screaming at him, begging him to stop, stop-but he doesn't, and poor Anna-poor, poor Anna…

She shudders at the memory, feeling sick all of the sudden. She looks to Rosalind for confirmation.

Rosalind nods. "I'm afraid my brother is correct. Your actions would greatly scramble the existence of this timeline."

"But why this timeline? What's so special about this universe as it is? And Jack?"

"Ah. Now you're asking the right questions," Rosalind says, nodding curtly.

"We have seen this timeline and its variants. Yet there are only two ultimate outcomes." Robert explains.

"Revolving around the choices of the individual who supposedly has none."

"Your...friend. Jack."

"And what you are doing will interfere with his path to either of them."

"For you know too much-"

"-And he is always alone."

"You may believe you are helping-"

"- But you are only keeping him from his…" Rosalind pauses, then makes a face, as if what she is about to say is not what she wants to. "'destiny.'"

Elizabeth scoffs once more, shaking her head in disbelief. "'Destiny?' Please. There's no such thing."

Rosalind nods in agreement, though she purses her lips as if not quite convinced that what she believes is true. "Perhaps. But there is such a thing as the future, and unless you want to destroy this universe, then I would suggest you not reveal the true nature of his origins."

"But I have to," Elizabeth growls, clenching her fists at her sides. "I have to, he's my friend. I can't let him walk into a trap! I can't! He'd never forgive me, he'd-"

"He'll be fine," Robert says, obviously trying and failing to placate her.

"In the long-term," Rosalind adds, "But there are always dominos to fall in a chain reaction." She stops, looking at her brother oddly. "Brother, we really should be going. We have things to do, do we not?"

"Indeed we do. Farewell, Elizabeth. Perhaps we'll meet again."

"Or perhaps not."

"Wait. What do you mean-"

But the lights have started to flicker again, and Elizabeth knows that in another second, they'll be gone.

Sure enough, when the lights come back on, the Luteces are nowhere to be seen.

Elizabeth swallows thickly, fighting back the tears that have started to form in her eyes.

She has to tell him. She has to, but-

But she can't.

She can't do it.

Why not?

Why can't she move her mouth, why can't she stop lying to him, why can't she just tell him the truth?

Why?

That old, dreaded feeling is back in her chest, that feeling of hopelessness, of panic, and she doesn't know what to do. She should tell him, she knows she should-and yet something stops her. Is it what the Luteces said, about her disrupting the timeline? She thinks, and she can't find the answer.

Or maybe she just can't find an answer she would like to admit.

Maybe in keeping it from him, the only person she's protecting is herself.

She had given him to Fontaine. She had given Fontaine the key to his mind. To his cooperation.

It felt impossible to keep it from him... And it felt impossible to tell him.

How would he respond to it? She was the reason he was down here now. And worse, she had been lying to him ever since then. She had lied about being in the plane. She had lied about Paris. She had lied about her poster. She had lied about everything.

Worse still, he believed her every time.

How could he ever trust her again, ever stand to be her friend after knowing how much she'd deceived him?

She's not afraid of Fontaine, or Andrew Ryan, or the Luteces.

It's Jack's disappointment that scares her the most.