Hey everyone! I'm back! I am SO SORRY this took so long. School started again for me last month and I've been really busy trying to balance out my working schedule with my writing schedule. This chapter is pretty short (sorry!) but I promise I will try and make the next chapter longer. Thank you to my beta Ronin and my writing partner Jared for helping me with this chapter! As always, enjoy!

Point Prometheus. That's where I need to go...

Jack walks towards the sign, intent on rounding the corner that it points to, when a sudden noise makes him stop. He stays silent for a few seconds more, praying that he heard wrong-but no, he still hears the security camera carefully sweeping the area for any sign of trouble.

He sighs. "Well, I guess I'm not going that way, then," he mutters quietly. Fontaine had reprogrammed the security cameras and turrets to start shooting on sight, without the delay that usually happens. He'd found that out the hard way about half an hour ago when he'd come across a turret and had mistakenly thought he had time to equip his Electro Bolt plasmid before it opened fire. Needless to say...he hadn't.

But if he prepares beforehand…

Jack inspects his shotgun, making sure it's loaded and ready to go before he cautiously pokes his head around the corner, gaining a visual on the camera before he steps out and fires his shotgun once, twice into the piece of machinery.

After that, it's a bit of a blur.

He had heard the security camera before he'd rounded the corner. He had heard the mutterings of the deranged splicer lurking nearby, dragging his tommy gun across the floor and occasionally shouting about someone named "Rachel." What he hadn't heard, but in retrospect really should have, was the heavy footsteps that only a Big Daddy could make, getting louder and louder with each passing second. At the sound of Jack's shotgun, the splicer turns, sees Jack, and screams, "WE WERE ON A BREAK!", raising his tommy gun and opening fire. Jack barely has time to duck behind the corner again before the bullets come flying at him, ricocheting off the wall and bouncing willy-nilly all over the place.

Jack takes a moment to breathe-he needs a plan. He remembers seeing an oil slick directly underneath the security camera-no doubt the splicer is near it, searching for Jack. While he can't do much damage to the Big Daddy with that plasmid, he can definitely take out the splicer no problem-and then he can worry about "Mr. Bubbles." He looks down at his hands as he equips the Incinerate! plasmid, creating a fire at his fingertips. The fire is dimmer than it should be, however-it's cooler than normal, and the flames are smaller, barely there at all. Jack sighs as he realizes what this means-he's almost out of EVE. He reaches for another hypo at his makeshift utility belt, but no such luck-he must have used his last one in Hephaestus, sometime before Ryan. He cringes at the memory that accompanies that name, but quickly shakes himself out of it, choosing to focus instead on the here and now.

Right. Almost out of EVE, but not completely-probably enough for one last shot. He pokes his head around the corner, preparing his shot-

The splicer spots him first. He points at Jack, yelling something unintelligible (though, even if it had been, Jack doubts it would have made much sense anyways) before firing at the wall once more. Jack reels back, just a bit-but he doesn't disappear completely from view. He steadies his hand, following the splicer's movements...just a little bit to the left...there! He prepares to snap his fingers, setting the deranged lunatic alight-but then he hears a guttural groan, big, lumbering footsteps speeding up as if running-and he realizes what must have happened as he peers around the corner to confirm his suspicions.

The Big Daddy is angry, alright-but thankfully, its anger is directed towards the splicer who is currently yelling in its face while trying to take it down with nothing but a tommy gun. Jack watches as the Big Daddy turns so that its back is to him, and yep, just as he had suspected: there's a hole in its oxygen tank where the ricochet bullet must have hit it. Jack doesn't wait to see what the metal monster is going to do to his attacker; instead he uses the distraction as an excuse to look for a vending machine or perhaps another dead body-anywhere he could possibly find more EVE. No such luck, however; though, there might be something back where the Vita-Chamber is…

His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of something heavy slamming into the wall right behind to him, and Jack jumps, immediately drawing his pistol and clicking the safety off as he points it to the source of the noise. His heart races as he sees the Big Daddy so close to him-he's suddenly very glad he'd moved away from his hiding place a few minutes ago.

The Big Daddy is slamming the splicer into the wall-repeatedly. Jack watches in horrific fascination as the splicer's head quickly becomes nothing more than a red stain on the wall, his headless corpse dropped by the creature once the job is finished. The metal brute then turns to Jack, its eyes red with anger...Jack holds his breath, his heart racing faster and faster…

...And then it moans, raising its drill threateningly. Jack backs away, not wanting a fight (and certainly not wanting to end up like the splicer)…and then it turns its back to Jack and walks away.

Jack sighs in relief as the lumbering brute disappears around a corner-he's safe (at least, for now). He takes one final look at his surroundings before he moves on, following the Big Daddy as quietly as he can. After all, what's a Big Daddy without a Little Sister?

Some of the children-their names escape her at the moment-are playing in front of her office, their conversation muted by the thick glass as they build high towers with their building blocks. The German scientist doesn't pay much attention, however-she barely even notices. She is too busy thinking.

Brigid Tenenbaum stands at her office desk, her arms folded and a frown on her face as she stares straight through the wall, past her sanctuary and beyond Rapture, to a far-off place where her mind can work in peace. Her moments of contemplation have always been like this; when she and Suchong had worked together, he had always found them rather annoying, and would often interrupt them, much to her dismay. Thinking about Suchong leads her to think about other things, things in her past that she would rather not think about.

But this isn't one of her experiments (although it's just as important). This is different; this is revealing a secret, a secret that will surely be difficult to explain, and Brigid Tenenbaum has never been good with those. But she has to try. If she doesn't, those strange people will, and she's not so sure that that would be a good thing.

She shakes herself out of her musings, turning from her desk and searching for the woman in question on the other side of the glass. She finds her huddled up in the corner, clutching her radio and speaking into it-belatedly, she realizes that she must be trying to contact Herr Jack. Briefly, she wonders if she's talking to him right now-but she quickly dismisses that notion at seeing Fraulein Elizabeth's worried face. Perhaps he has gotten himself killed again, Tenenbaum thinks, sighing mentally. He really must be more careful…

Tenenbaum makes a mental note to send some Little Sisters to check on his progress as she watches the woman sigh and put the radio down, setting her head down on her knees again. Clearly she had not been successful in reaching him; strangely, she feels nothing but pity for her.

The German scientist sighs again. Perhaps now is the best time to tell her, she thinks, watching as Elizabeth hugs her knees close to her chest once more, lifting her eyes a little to watch the Little Sisters giggle and play. Those...scientists...are right. If she is to tell Herr Jack the truth, it must be the whole truth. But where to start?

Well, she supposes she can start when those odd twins came to her and had asked her to do something so...so ludicrous that she wasn't sure if they were being serious at first. Or perhaps she can start when she asked one of the Little Sisters-Sally, if she recalls correctly-to lead her to this Elizabeth's corpse at their suggestion...and that isn't even the strangest part. From what little she's been told, this woman is very special…

Tenenbaum sighs once more, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. Now is as good a time as any, she supposes, and besides, it's not like she has anything else to do.

She walks to her office door and opens it, taking a deep breath before saying, "Fraulein Coms-Elizabeth?" she corrects herself, quickly noting the disgusted look on the woman's face and wishing it gone. "We must talk."

"About what?" Her voice is barely audible, and it sounds like she has been crying-Tenenbaum would not blame her if that is the case. Herr Jack is not someone one would wish to anger. "There's nothing to talk about, Tenenbaum. Jack was right, I…" she falters, looking away and biting her lip. She doesn't continue.

Tenenbaum purses her lips, tempted to look away from the sorry sight-but she doesn't. Instead, she says, "Herr Jack does not know the whole story. And neither do you, Fraulein Elizabeth."

Elizabeth looks at her then, furrowing her brow in confusion. "What do you mean?" At seeing the nervous look on Tenenbaum's face, however, her expression hardens into something colder, something that makes even the geneticist's blood run cold. "Tenenbaum...what do you know?" she asks, her voice now dripping with suspicion as she looks the older woman up and down.

"The truth," she responds cryptically, unsure if she should continue-after all, Elizabeth is in a bad place right now, and Tenenbaum isn't sure how she'll take the truth. Perhaps as well as Jack did-though, if that should be the case, Tenenbaum has a Luger pistol that will work quite nicely in calming her down should she get violent. But upon seeing the unamused look on Elizabeth's face, she sighs, knowing what she must do. She holds the door to her office open so that the (presumably; Tenenbaum has no idea how old she really is) younger woman may come in. "Come, into my office. As I said, there is much we must discuss…"

Elizabeth eyes the doctor warily, presumably wondering if Tenenbaum plans to murder her in cold blood before apparently dismissing that notion and moving to get up from the floor. "Like what?"

"Like…" Tenenbaum purses her lips, unsure of how to proceed. She decides to improvise, hoping for the best. "What do you know of your resurrection, Elizabeth? Do you know who was responsible?"

Elizabeth frowns at that, her eyebrows scrunching together as she thinks. "Well, I imagine it was the Luteces who brought me back to life. I don't know why. Maybe they wanted me to...to redeem myself? But I already did that, didn't I? What else could I have done that would require redemption?"After the first sentence, she speaks in a hushed tone, as if talking to herself rather than Tenenbaum. The latter decides not to comment, instead gesturing to inside her office once more.

"Come," she says again, this time more urgently. "I have much to tell you. My secrets...they can no longer remain as such, I'm afraid. It is time to tell you what I know."

"About?" Elizabeth raises an eyebrow, curious as she passes Tenenbaum and claims the only chair in the office for herself.

"You. Fraulein Elizabeth...I am the one who brought you back from the dead."