Hey guys, I'm back!...After three months...whoops. These last few months were really hectic for me, and I'm so sorry for leaving you guys like that. One of my pets died, we took a vacation to California for a few weeks, and I had finals to finish up with. But now that summer's here and I'm home free for a couple of months I'm hoping to get the last few chapters of AUA out, and in a timely fashion as well. To make up for it (kinda), here is a nice, long chapter. Hope you enjoy!
"So...do we have a plan, or are we just improvising? Because if it's the first one I'd really like to know what it is, and if it's the second one, we need to make one."
"Well, we find the last batch of Lot 142, and then we go kick Fontaine's ass. Of course, we have to find him first, but-"
"That's not a plan, that's a to-do list."
"Well, to be fair, I'm going to die pretty soon and I have the fate of a couple dozen little girls resting on my shoulders, so please excuse me if I haven't thought that far ahead yet."
Anna rolls her eyes, frowning. "Fontaine's not going to go down easily, and since we basically blabbed our current objective to him, I seriously doubt either one of those things is going to be as simple as it would have been. We need a plan."
"Fair enough," he shrugs. "So, a plan. What kind of a plan?"
"Uh..a successful one, obviously." She ponders the question for a second. "Well, the goals are obvious, but how to execute them...well, the next dose of the cure is with Suchong, yes? We're in Mercury Suites right now, but if we turn this corner-" here she gestures to the corner to their left, where Jack notes the pitter-patter of tiny feet. Anna doesn't seem to notice-or if she does, she doesn't care. "-and follow the path to the open area, we can head to the subway station and get back to Olympus Heights. From there we can head back to Mercury Suites, where his apartment is. We can start there, and if it's not there then it's probably in his lab. We should expect some company-Fontaine is sure to have sent some of his underlings to obstruct us. Are you fully stocked up on ammunition?"
Jack nods, a bit surprised at her knowledge of the place, considering Jack hadn't even heard of it until they got here. Then again, she'd admitted she'd been living in Rapture before it fell. Maybe she'd lived here? He snaps himself out of his thoughts before he can imagine that and nods. "Yeah, I've got all the regular ammo I could afford. It wouldn't hurt to get some alternate, though," he adds hopefully, side-eyeing Anna with a smile.
To his surprise, she nods, a contemplative look on her face. "That's a good point. What did you have in mind?"
Well, shoot. He had just wanted some Incendiary Bolts and Solid Slugs. They were far more effective than the regular shells, but more expensive…and no way was Anna going to let him waste his money on such "impracticalities," as she had said...but no way was he letting this chance slide. "I was thinking Trap Bolts. Maybe some Solid Slugs and Incendiary Bolts, you know, for backup ammo. I could use some more Electric Gel, too-"
"No Electric Gel," she cuts him off, and Jack frowns, about to protest. "It's too damn expensive, and we've got limited funds as it is. Besides, don't you have Electro Bolt? That works just as well."
Jack breathes a sigh of defeat, but continues on. "Okay, fine, no Electric Gel. Just the bolts and the slugs, then. Some heavy-armor and anti personnel rounds, too. Couldn't hurt."
"Jack. Limited funds."
"But Anna-"
An eyebrow raise and the look is all it takes to convince Jack that he's lost. "Never get anything fun," he mutters, crossing his arms and pouting.
"I let you keep the chemical thrower," she points out, and Jack frowns harder but doesn't argue.
"What if it's not in the lab, either?" he asks, changing the subject.
"Well, it has to be. I don't see where else Suchong would have kept it. Lord knows he wouldn't have trusted Fontaine with it, or Tenenbaum. If he had, Fontaine would have gloated and Tenenbaum would have given it to you before you left. It stands to reason that Suchong would have hidden it away somewhere-" she stops suddenly and her eyes go wide, her face becoming pale.
"What is it?"
She doesn't answer him right away, and Jack's about to ask again when she closes her mouth and shakes her head. "No, he wouldn't have put it there," she says shakily, shaking her head. "It's too far away on the other side of Rapture, which is an inconvenience for him, and both Fontaine and Ryan know about it, so it wouldn't be very secure there. Plus there weren't really any labs there, so it's doubly unlikely, unless that was the intent and he was hiding it in plain sight...still, if it's not in his apartment and it's not in his lab, I suppose we'll have to look there…"
"I...are you okay? You looked pretty freaked there."
She looks confused, first at his presence, and then at his confusion, before realization hits her and she nods. "Yes, I'm fine. I just-bad memories." She looks at him, and sighs at the surprised and expectant look on his face. "I…Suchong and I go back a couple years. I needed something from him to help Fontaine who had promised to help me-stupid, I know, but I was backed into a corner and had no other choices. Anyways, let me just say the experience was...quite unpleasant." She shudders, and, well, Jack was going to ask her more, but after he sees the look in her eyes, he decides it's best not to.
"And phase 2 of the plan?" he asks instead.
Anna, seemingly pleased that he's not pushing, nods. "After we get the second dose of the cure, you'll be back at full strength and we'll be able to go after Fontaine. We can't just rush at him unprepared like we usually do and expect everything to go our way, though. He's not a mindless splicer, so out of it he's only looking for his next fix, and he's certainly not going to go out with a couple of well-aimed shots. He's never done ADAM, he's completely mentally sound despite evidence to the contrary, and he'll have a plan. We need to be prepared for it. And we're preparing for it by hoarding ammo, coming up with a plan of attack, and executing it flawlessly. Got that?"
"Got it. So, what's the plan of attack?"
"Well, again, we have to come up with one. We have to know our enemy in order to defeat him."
"That sounds boring."
Anna rolls her eyes, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "You are adorably infuriating, you know that?"
At that, Jack's mind blanks out, and the only response he has to that is a stammered, "Uh-well-I-you-"
Another eyeroll, and Anna turns on her heel and walks away, turning the corner and disappearing from sight.
It takes a moment before his brain comes back online and he hurries to follow her.
"Gimme, gimme, gimme!"
"Here! Take it!" Elizabeth throws the syringe of EVE and barely misses his head, but that's not her fault-she's trying to remain hidden while the Spider Splicer is lurking not too far from her position, and her arm is already suffering from a previous bullet wound. She winces as she accidentally jostles her wounded arm too hard, but the pain passes in a moment. She looks over the overturned refrigerator and sees Jack hit the splicer with the classic one-two punch, dodging a meat hook thrown his way. Unfortunately, the splicer simply uppercuts him, and Elizabeth winces again as he falls to the ground, seemingly knocked out-or at least, pretending to be. She's close enough to the fight to see that his eyes are fluttering open and closed just enough to be noticable, but far enough that the splicer won't notice her if she strategically places a first aid kit not too far from Jack's position.
Unfortunately, before she can put her plan into action, the splicer moves to stand over Jack, gripping its meat hooks menacingly. Elizabeth knows what's going to happen before it does, and in an attempt to prevent it, screams "Hey!", and immediately regrets her decision.
The splicer turns to her, screams in rage, and bolts straight for her. Thinking quickly, Elizabeth grabs her pistol, aims for the head, and fires. It's only after she hears the pained groaning of her companion that she dares to look away, afraid that it might still be alive.
"You alright?" she asks, gathering the pile of syringes she had stored beside her for easy access. She then heads over to where Jack is still laying on the ground, smiling up at her with his traditional goofy grin.
"Did we win?" he asks, accepting her outstretched hand and grimacing as he uses it to pull himself up. "Ach, that's going to leave a bruise…"
"We aren't dead, are we?"
Jack nods. "Fair enough. Thanks, Anna."
She winces at the name, and as Jack moves past her to inspect the body, she figures, what the hell, and goes for it. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that."
"What?"
"Anna. I...I would prefer Elizabeth, if you don't mind."
Jack turns around, then, confused, as she had expected. "I thought you said your name was Anna."
"It is. But...it...I don't know. It just...doesn't feel right."
Jack still seems very confused, but after a moment, he nods, a thoughtful look on his face. "Alright then. Elizabeth it is. But just so you know, Anna is shorter."
"Liz, then," she says, and her heart swells with that old familiar feeling when he grins at the nickname.
"That'll do," he concedes, and turns back to the body. "Aw, hell yes!" He bends down and reaches into one of the pockets, grabbing a handful of cash and inspecting it closely. "Cash! This should be enough for a couple of bolts, don't you think?" he asks hopefully.
"If you're paying, sure, but you're not touching my money," she says, half-joking.
"Works for me!" he says cheerily, and stuffs the money in his back pocket.
It's somewhat surprising how quickly the two of them went back to their old routine after everything that happened. Elizabeth isn't exactly sure why he suddenly has complete trust in her again-though something is definitely different this time around, it's more or less the same. She suspects that it's because he's keeping an eye on her-he doesn't like her wandering off alone and he gets suspicious whenever she shows signs of discomfort or he catches her muttering to herself. It's a bit annoying, but at least they're on good terms again-after everything that happened Elizabeth was sure that he would never talk to her again. She'll take a bit of monitoring over yelling and silence any day.
Soon enough, they arrive at the large junction that is the center of Mercury Suites. Elizabeth takes a deep breath and looks around, scanning the area. When she doesn't find anything out of the ordinary, she nods, turning to Jack. "Alright. Suchong's apartment is around here somewhere. Just look for his name on the gold plate by the doors."
Jack nods. "Sounds easy enough. Let's get to it."
"Liz?"
A correction is on the tip of her tongue, but after remembering their agreement, she bites it down. "Yeah?"
"I hear music. Do you hear music?"
"...Where the hell is that coming from."
"I think it's coming from over there." Jack points to a nearby apartment, where, indeed, it sounds like flowy, classical music is drifting from the slightly ajar door. The music carries through the air and reverberates through the hallway, attracting a couple of curious splicers and at least one Big Daddy without an escort. Elizabeth cocks her head curiously.
"Wait a sec," she tells Jack, who had been (possibly unconsciously) inching towards the apartment with caution. He stops in his tracks and turns to her, curious. "I know this song."
Cue Jack's best 'are you serious' face. "Are you serious?"
Elizabeth frowns. "This is one of Cohen's favorites. He used to make us listen to this to 'inspire our muse' and 'encourage our creativity'." She makes a face at that, scrunching her nose in disgust.
Jack seems surprised by that, turning to face her fully and frowning, but then he slowly nods his head as he remembers. "Right. You worked for Cohen…"
Elizabeth looks away, suddenly not in the mood for talking. Jack seems to understand, as he doesn't say anything else, and gestures to Elizabeth to follow him to the apartment.
As she had suspected, the nameplate beside the door reads "S. Cohen" in faded, rusty letters. She sighs, intending to grab Jack and walk away, but when she turns to him he's nowhere to be found. Elizabeth experiences a brief moment of panic before she hears his muffled voice, "Come on, Liz. Let's check it out." He pokes his head out from behind the door, grinning.
She folds her arms across her chest and gives him a blank look as she stares him down disapprovingly. "Jack. No."
He groans dramatically. "Oh, come on! The least that could happen is he's here, he sprouts some more nonsense, and we leave. Simple as that! What could-"
"Don't," she warns before he can finish his sentence. She sighs. "Okay, fine. Five minutes. I don't know why you want to so badly though."
Jack simply rolls his eyes and disappears again. With a dramatic sigh and a feeling of impending doom settling in her stomach, Elizabeth reluctantly follows.
As she crosses the threshold into the apartment, she notices a few things that seem a bit out of place in the dark, musty halls of Rapture-then again, one of Cohen's dominant character traits is out of place. The apartment is fairly well lit, using actual ceiling lights and lamps instead of the natural light that the ocean barely lets through. The furniture, though scarce, is in decent condition-though, she notes with a hint of disdain, the leather couches and chairs are motheatten, and more than one is missing a leg or two. Directly in front of her stands a poster-an advertisement for Cohen's latest album, she realizes, and a tiny, elevated stage with a microphone stand. She purses her lips, but elects to ignore it in favor of finding Jack-and there he is, on the other side of the poster, watching something with a mix of quiet awe and obvious confusion. She makes her way over to him and stops when she sees what he's looking at.
Two Splicers are dancing a waltz, blissfully unaware of anything but each other as they sway in time to the music. Their movements are not exactly perfect, but they either don't notice or don't mind, because they continue dancing as though they were giddy spouses on a honeymoon. Elizabeth can't help but envy their ignorance.
A loud static interrupts the music then, and Jack jumps back as though he'd been burned-no doubt as surprised by suddenly being snapped back to reality as Elizabeth is.
"I hear your wings flapping in my home…" a familiar voice croons, and both groan. "Flip flap, flip flap, flip flap. Come into the light, my little moth, come in...and bring my darling Songbird along, won't you?" The Songbird in question curls her lip in disgust, something that does not go unnoticed by Jack-but oddly enough he decides not to comment on it. She probably wouldn't either if she had to deal with Cohen all of a sudden. "Fuck off, Cohen," she thinks she hears Jack mutter, but she can't be sure, as Cohen's voice starting up again muffles it.
"I see you're still testing your wings, little moth. Stay and enjoy the dance, if you wish...but don't you dare rattle their rhythm." With that, the static fades, leaving the classical music and the clacking of heels in its wake.
"I hate that guy," Jack moans, looking heavenward with an exasperated expression.
"Don't we all. Alright, we've seen enough. Let's go," she says, moving to grab his arm and pull him away from the still dancing couple. He shies away from her touch, however, and Elizabeth frowns. "Jack, come on. We have to find the second dose, we're running out of time. You wanted to check this place out, we checked it out. Let's go."
"Hang on, I wanna finish watching."
"Jack, they're probably not going to be done any time soon, and we've already wasted enough time as it is. We're leaving."
"Twenty more minutes."
"Jack."
"Ten, then! Just ten more minutes. You can look around here, I'm sure he has some great loot. You can stock up on money and maybe some health kits and EVE-hey, who knows, maybe he's got some Tonics lying around for us to steal. Come on, it'll be worth it. Please. Ten more minutes. You can go look around, and I'll stay here. I won't move a muscle, promise."
Elizabeth doesn't buy his act for one second, but she supposes that there might be some truth to what he says. If the old adage of "people never change" is true, then Cohen is bound to have loads of junk just lying around for the taking, and it would certainly be worth-while to take a couple of minutes to dig around. Though she's still concerned about Jack and wasting time, she nods, intending to just grab what she sees and go. That doesn't stop her from worrying, though. It shouldn't take too long, she thinks, reverting back to her old habit of squeezing her pinky. Just ten minutes, he said. That's not too long. We still have to find Suchong's apartment though...maybe we should just go now. No, no. I told him he could stay. Maybe he could stay here while I found the apartment? No, best not to leave him alone. God knows what kind of trouble he could get into...
She sighs and makes her way over to a corner by the door, turning it and walking down a dimly-lit hallway and winding up what looks to be the remains of a dining area. Clearly, she was right earlier about the niceness of the entrance area being a bit too nice-clearly it was a front for the crappy condition of the rest of the apartment, or maybe simply to make up for it. She makes quick work of this area, finding nothing amid the overturned chairs, partly smashed table, and piles of rubble (save for a dead body, which she shoots once or twice just to be on the safe side). Sighing again, she makes her way out of the room and heads back to the main area, where she finds an identical hallway right across from the first one. She decides that that's as good a place as any, so she heads to what she assumes is the kitchen, if the smell of rotting meat is any indication.
It's just as messy as the dining room, she finds-even more piles of rubble litter the area, and spoiled food is sitting out on what's left of the counter. She wrinkles her nose in disgust, turning away and searching for valuables in the fridge and counter spaces. Finding nothing yet again, she decides that the place must be as empty as she thought it was and makes the decision to head back to Jack when-
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
At first she thinks it's Cohen; then she realizes that the tone of the voice was not one of dementedness as much as it was panic and fright. Realizing that it must be Jack-Damn him, I knew I couldn't leave him alone for more than a minute-she hurries back to the entrance area, where the dancing Splicers have vanished. She looks around for Jack and spots him almost instantaneously, clutching his weapon for dear life and looking full of regret.
"What did you do?" she demands, walking up to him and putting her hands on her hips disapprovingly. When his response is to stutter indignantly ("What-I-no, I wouldn't-I-I mean-I didn't-") she rolls her eyes, grabbing his arm. "Come on. We've spent enough time here. We need to get going."
They're nearing the door when Cohen decides to speak again, his voice a thinly veiled mixture of fury and indignation. "When will you ever learn to take instruction? I'm coming down there, little ones...coming down there to teach you to dance."
"Frickin'-damnit, Jack!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I was just fiddling with it, and then there was an explosion and suddenly they were gone. I know I said I wouldn't move, I'm sorry, Liz-"
"Now we have to deal with the psychopath, which is going to take up valuable time, by the way, time that we could have been spending searching for that damn cure. Thanks a lot, Jack." She throws her hands up in exasperation, pulling out her crossbow and loading it with ammunition in preparation for whatever Cohen has prepared.
Jack huffs, just as pissed as he checks his shotgun for whatever had set it off. "Yeah. You're welcome," he spits bitterly.
There's silence for a few moments-moments that stretch into minutes, and just when Elizabeth thinks that they're safe after all Cohen makes his entrance by lobbing a fireball directly at her head. By some miracle, she manages to dodge, and fires a bolt at his head, which of course misses.
"How dare you come into my house and disrespect me! I'll show you!" he cries, aiming again. Elizabeth curses loudly as he fires at Jack this time, and actually manages to nick him on the shoulder. Jack reels back, nearly dropping his shotgun before steadying himself on one of the nearby bookshelves.
"Of all the people you could have pissed off, it had to be this guy," she grumbles, throwing him a first aid kit which he surprisingly still has the wherewithal to catch. He shoots her an apologetic look before he ducks behind an overturned table to bandage his wound, disappearing from the action for a few moments. With Jack gone from the battle, all of Cohen's attention is now on her, and she grimaces as he grins viciously.
"Oh, what did I do to deserve this," she sighs, and ducks behind an overturned chair just before Cohen throws a fireball right where she was standing. She takes a deep breath, trying to gain some semblance of a plan before he strikes again, another fireball lobbed right at her current position destroying what little cover she has. This time, she is not so lucky-she manages to roll out of the way, but not before the fire reaches her blouse and begins to burn the thin cloth. Swearing profusely, she tears the sleeve completely off, throwing it to the side, and stands up, grabbing an Incendiary Bolt-for once thanking Jack's preference for flashier ammunition-reloads, and fires at Cohen's head.
She doesn't miss, but he doesn't go down. He doesn't even seem fazed, merely turning his attention from the smouldering armchair to her. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Jack lying on the floor, his chin smeared with blood that's still dribbling out of his mouth, and even from here, she can hear him heaving heavy breaths-he must have taken quite a beating while she was hiding. With her acting as a distraction for Cohen, maybe now he can bandage himself up-hopefully there's still some supplies left from the last first aid kit she tossed him. She has just enough time to wonder how he had managed to get so beat up so fast before she's on her toes again, Cohen throwing fireball after fireball at her head as she struggles to reload her weapon.
"Gah! Why-" she takes aim and fires, once again hitting her target dead on, but somehow he still lives. "Won't-" another hit, but no dice. "You-" she fires again. She misses this time. "-Die?!" Another hit, but Cohen still lives. She screams in frustration, reaching for another bolt, only to come up empty. Her heart leaps into her throat as she realizes that she's going to have to switch to another weapon-which wouldn't be a problem if she had been reloading them from time to time. Such is her luck, the pistol that she grabs just so happens to be empty. She ducks behind a corner, elicitng a pained shout from Cohen, and makes to reload, her fingers slipping more than once due to her haste. She's halfway through when she hears a noise in front of her, and looks up to see Cohen ugly masked face staring right at her. She shrieks in surprise and fires, but he somehow dodges the point-blank bullet and socks her in the gut before disappearing in a cloud of red dust.
"Oh, wonderful,' she manages, still winded. "He can teleport."
Is that how Jack had gotten beaten to hell so quickly?
No, she decides a moment later as she catches movement out of the corner of her eye, it's not.
The two waltzing splicers are back, and this time around Elizabeth notices that at least of them is Frosty Splicer. She groans internally-but she knows that if she plays it right he won't be any trouble at all. The other splicer, fortunately, looks normal, holding a lead pipe that looks like it's already seen some use, and Elizabeth can only imagine how much that must have hurt. She winces involuntarily. They must've snuck up from behind Jack while he was bandaging his shoulder. She makes a mental note to punch that one extra hard.
She finishes reloading as quickly and quietly as she can. She peeks around the corner, making sure that the Frosty is in the hair trigger-right at the head, too, because unlike Cohen she knows these things aren't as strong as they think they are. She fires a quick one, two, three shots, and thankfully, he falls over dead without much fuss. The other splicer shrieks, jumping back and twisting her head around wildly, looking for the source of the fire. Her eyes land on Jack, who is still looking the worse for wear (though he's moved since she last saw him-he's behind another overturned chair with the first aid kit spread out before him). She shrieks again and raises her bloody pipe-and with barely a moment's thought, Elizabeth jumps out and fires at her, shooting her in the shoulder. The splicer whips towards her and Elizabeth fires another bullet into her leg. The splicer is undeterred, and proves as such when she throws her weapon in Elizabeth's general direction. She easily dodges the attack, and the splicer disappears. Another teleporter...great.
"Are you okay?" Elizabeth asks, turning to Jack and giving him a once over. Aside from the blood on his face and the right hand, which she notices is bandaged up and looking right again, he doesn't appear to have any new injuries.
Jack coughs, specks of blood covering his bandages as he raises his fist. "Yeah. One of his lackeys got the jump on me and pummeled me into the ground. He was fast...even for a Splicer. Must've had a tonic of some kind. God, it hurts to breathe. Maybe we can find one of those healing stations…" he trails off, his voice wistful.
His companion sighs, rolling her when she's gone for only a second, that boy still somehow manages to get into more trouble than he's worth. Unbelievable. "You make it sound like we haven't passed dozens of those on our way over here. We'll find one and get you patched up. What happened to your hand?"
Jack looks down. "Oh. Yeah, it's alright I guess. I think I broke my wrist, but again. If we can find a healing station-"
Elizabeth nods. "Right. Those things are stocked with pure ADAM. A dose of that stuff should fix any injures you have and make you good as new...okay. Let's go find one and then we can finally get back to more important matters, like making sure you don't die before you kick Fontaine's ass."
Jack grins. "Now that, I can agree with. We just have to escape Cohen's notice...should be simple, right?"
"We are no longer taking suggestions on what to do from you, keep that in mind."
He laughs before wincing and holding a hand to his chest. "Yeah, fair enough," he breathes out. "So what's the plan?"
Elizabeth shrugs. "Dunno. I'm pretty sure he's invincible-he took five headshots and is still standing-so I'd rather not waste my ammo fighting him. Do you think you could make it to the exit without being spotted? I could try and create a diversion if you're seen."
Jack nods.
"Alright. Go."
He begins his slow but steady crawl to the door on the far side of the room, which had been blasted off of its hinges sometime during the fight. He's almost to the exit when he's spotted, by Cohen no less, who couldn't have chosen a worse time to reappear. He screams in fury upon spotting Jack's near escape, and throws himself on the unsuspecting man. Jack cries out in pain as Cohen starts raining down punches, and Elizabeth, realizing what she must do, throws herself into the fray again, readying a Plasmid with that little EVE she has left. She shoots an Electro Bolt at the pair, only to flinch as she hears Jack and Cohen's combined screams of agony as they writhe in tandem.
Okay, that's not going to work. Crap.
She ducks behind a corner, ignoring the indignant ramblings of the mad man, and begins to formulate a plan. Okay, so she can't use her Plasmids without hurting Jack as well, and true, if Jack was healthier he would probably survive, albeit barely. But even if one more shot of that stuff wouldn't kill him, she still wouldn't do it. No, there has to be another way-
Wait.
Maybe she can't use her Plasmids, but Jack. Jack can.
He's got a better vantage point anyways.
Her plan complete, she peeks around the corner and waits for Jack to be facing her. "Booker!" she calls, throwing him an EVE needle, which he almost doesn't catch with the way he's flailing. "Catch!"
Jack plunges the needle into his arm a moment later, the Electro Bolt Plasmid he has equipped coming to life once again, the unnatural glow of the ADAM in his veins setting them alight and causing his arm to spark with electricity. A quick flex of his not bandaged hand later, and Cohen is three feet away, convulsing violently on the floor. Jack quickly switches to Incinerate! and sets him on fire, once, twice, and with a final furious scream, Cohen lies dead. ELizabeth actually laughs in relief.
"Finally," she sighs, coming over to where Jack still lies on the ground, a smile on his face as well. "I've been wanting to do that ever since I started working for him." The memories that accompany that sentence somber her mood a bit, and she shakes her head. "Anyways. We need to find a healing station, and then we need to find the second dose of that cure."
Jack nods. "Right. I saw one by a Circus of Values earlier? We could head back there. I'm pretty sure you need more ammo, too. I told you, you should've bought some for yourself, but no-"
"Don't," she warns, holding up a hand, but her tone is joking. "Let's just go." She holds out a hand to him, which he gladly accepts, pulling himself up. "We've got a lot of ground to cover."
After they've purchased more ammo (and exactly three more first aid kits, all for Jack once they found that the health station he had mentioned had been busted to hell since they'd last passed it), they're on their way again. It doesn't take them too long this time to find one Dr. Yi Suchong's apartment-thanks to their recent excursion Jack is entirely unwilling to stray more than five feet away from Elizabeth, something that's proven to be a blessing and a curse. The door itself is shut tight, but Jack manages to find a crowbar to pry the door open.
The inside is flooded, and although the pair wasn't expecting that, they manage to wade through the water to search inside the apartment for the antidote. Though twenty minutes of thorough searching turn out to be fruitless, as they're about to leave Elizabeth notices something out of the corner of her eye.
"What's this?" she murmurs to herself, picking up the discarded Audio Diary on the desk. Though clearly it's seen some wear and tear since it was last used, it still appears playable. She waits until Jack has come to stand beside her before she presses play.
"Fontaine's become some kind of boogeyman in Rapture...that myth gives him power. But peel back flim-flam and the humbug, he's just another con man. And like all con men, he worries he'll end up on the wrong side of grift. That's why he commissioned Lot 192, the antidote to the mental control Plasmid. Fontaine said I better not tell anybody about the antidote, not even Tenenbaum. And Suchong...is inclined to listen."
Jack swears furiously. "I swear to God, if we meet that man, I'll tear his face off. Great. The antidote isn't here, obviously, so what now?"
Tenenbaum, who has been silent for the past half hour, decides that now is a wonderful time to speak up. "I knew there was something to that. Always secrets with Suchong, always secrets...he must have this Lot 192 in his labs near Apollo Squares. You must hurry before it's too late, Jack. You do not have much time left."
Jack grimaces. "Yes, thank you for reminding me. Okay. Apollo Squares...where is that again?" he asks, turning to Elizabeth. Elizabeth frowns.
"Uh. Not too far from our current position, I'd say. We could probably make it there in about ten minutes if we hurry. How much time do we have left, Tenenbaum?"
"I would say about forty minutes, Fraulein Elizabeth. Please make sure Herr Jack does not go wandering off on his own. I think we've both seen how badly that can turn out." The comment earns a whine from Jack and a chuckle from Elizabeth.
"Wasn't planning on it. Thanks, Tenenbaum."
"Thank you. And good luck."