"And what is that, exactly?" Captain Hreira asked, overlooking the machinery.
"A Lutece device," Elizabeth answered, moving her hand over some controls. "Hunh... I've had plenty of time to read Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel, which explained how such machines worked, but this is much more complex in person..." Elizabeth said to herself, walking along the machinery and having a look at the various controls and features. She looked back up to the spherical Tear, but could not understand how it worked.
"Elizabeth, how's your back?" Booker asked.
"I'm alright."
"You sure?"
"I'm fine, Booker. Let me see if I can just figure this out..."
"Will it take us back...to Columbia?" Booker asked, keeping an eye out on those mechanical appendages that had entrapped Elizabeth. They appeared inactive, but Booker had a bad feeling.
"I don't know, but I think I can try opening a Tear," Elizabeth answered. She grabbed at the air, and huffed. Nothing. She tried again. Nothing, again. "Ughh! I still can't do it. Ever since we came to this world, my access to Tears is inconsistent."
"Speaking of Tears, how do you do them? My men reported you being able to summon blurry forces," Hreira spoke, most of his soldiers chatting in the background, or walking around making sure lying bodies were dead.
"Well, it's a form of wish fulfilment when I get anxious. They just happen. Not now, though," Elizabeth answered, looking up at the spherical Tear again. "Hmm... If this Tear is a portion of a reality, but contained, then...it was set up long ago... This Tear has been floating by itself for thousands of years..." Elizabeth whispered to herself, trying to figure it out. She could sense the doors, and what was behind the doors, but doing so was difficult, blurry.
"If the machine can't help us, we move on," Booker said.
"Huh. Well, I'm sure this machine can help us," Eleanor said, stepping forth and working on the controls.
"How? You know how to work it?" Booker grumbled.
Eleanor paused, turned her head, and gave him a mean look with her one eye.
"Yes, actually. I helped build one in London with Robert and Rosalind."
Elizabeth's lips parted, and Booker had a look of disbelief.
"You did?" Elizabeth and Booker asked at the same time, Eleanor nodded.
"But...how?" Elizabeth asked.
"It's a long story. Let's just say I'm pretty smart for a sixteen-year-old," Eleanor replied, experimenting with the machine's various controls. "This is similar to what I helped build, but quite...retro. Just give me a few minutes, and I'll have this figured out."
"Huh... Well, she's British, of course she's smart," Booker mumbled as Eleanor worked away.
Why does everyone think I'm British...
"Yes, she...she really is smart for a sixteen-year-old. Heh heh..." Elizabeth agreed, watching the teenager experimenting with the many complex configurations and things.
"She's younger, taller, and smarter than you, Elizabeth. Cuter, too," Booker rubbed in, Elizabeth crossing her arms, her intrigued mood disappearing.
"Har har."
As Eleanor worked away, she occasionally saw Booker checking her out. Even with just one eye, she could sense what he was up to. He was quite the rugged fellow, not in Eleanor's tastes, but that serious, rockhard look was alluring in its own way. Eleanor stroked her hair a bit, and continued working.
Booker could not help but stare at Eleanor. He felt like...he knew her? As if they had already met? But when, where?
Soon, the machine hummed louder, and produced an electric field, which took Booker out of his mental questioning. Zaps and sparks sometimes appeared here and there throughout the machinery.
Many of the soldiers stepped away from the strange contraption. Hreira kept a fixed pair of eyes on the machinery.
Elizabeth watched Eleanor work, impressed by the girl's abilities, and height. Slowly tilting her head, Elizabeth made a small smile, enjoying the tall girl's work. Eleanor noticed with her one eye.
"What?" Eleanor asked while Booker checked her out from her other side, something she did not notice. Elizabeth blinked, snapping out of her little mesmerization.
"Oh, nothing, I, uh...just...really want to get out of here," Elizabeth replied, eyes low, face blushing. She stroked her hair back, breathing slowly. Eleanor wasn't sure what her problem was, but continued working.
"You know what?" Booker asked, the two brunettes looking at him, "You two look alike."
Eleanor and Elizabeth looked at each other for a moment, then back to Booker.
"No," the two girls chirped at the same time. Booker chuckled, and Elizabeth smiled. It was so rare to see Booker smile, even if for a second.
"Well, you both have dark hair, big blue eyes, smooth faces, milky skin... Really look like sisters," Booker explained. Elizabeth smiled, lowering head, raising a hand to her mouth and thinking to herself.
"But her face is a bit more chiselled. I'm...hah, hah...quite baby-faced."
"It's okay, your face looks good on you," Elizabeth complimented. Ironic, considering Eleanor's shirt and face were rather cut up from all the fighting.
"I know," Eleanor said nonchalantly, then focused on the machinery. "Just a few more adjustments..." She seemed to figure out the contraption, and activated it.
By the wall of the pyramid, the underside of the top of the Lutece device heated up, and the machine whirred and groaned, shaking the pyramid. Blue electricity zapped ferociously around the Lutece device, and a radiating, rippling Tear formed. However, this Tear was quite big, taking up the entire space within the Lutece device, and gradually became spherical.
"Wayii! What in the hell is that?" Hreira exclaimed, many of the soldiers having a similar reaction.
"A Tear, I think. Remember when I explained them to you? If this is a Tear, it might be our way back home," Booker said.
"Hm. A rugam Tear..." Hreira mumbled.
"It works..." Elizabeth whispered, and then stepped back, as something different happened.
The new Tear shot forth, passing Elizabeth and Eleanor, and wobbling around randomly. It sometimes floated into the previous spherical Tear, but the two balls just bounced. Eight tubes writhed out the new Tear, each tubular extension writhing into the Tesla coils. The tubular extensions snaked continuously.
The soldiers took more steps away from the strange apparitions, many horses nickering or whinnying. Only Elizabeth, Booker and Eleanor remained amidst the strange Tears for now.
"Elizabeth, these Tears aren't like the ones we've seen..." Booker said.
"I know, but, but..." Elizabeth hesitated. She slowly raised her hands, and the Tear-ball lowered onto them. She stared into the giant extradimensional sphere, and it seemed to be staring back at her. Inside was just bright light, reminding her of stars.
Inside, Elizabeth could see many worlds, and reflections of worlds. Like mirrors facing each other with three-dimensional images, the sights Elizabeth saw were endless in all directions, yet every one was different.
"So, will we be going back to our world, or what?" Booker asked.
"Yes, Booker, we'll be going back. Hah! I just need to find it..."
"So that is your passage back to your world... We knew our ancestral pyramids were mysterious, but never would have guessed that they contained such powers. Black Sun must have been trying to learn them," Captain Hreira said.
He dismounted his horse, took his helm off and carried in under his left arm, and walked towards Booker. As he walked through the tubular Tears, they lifted, as if not wanting to be touched by him.
"It was an honour to fight by your side, Ruus'alor Booker, but I consider you an ori'ramikad: a supercommando." Hreira struck his gauntleted right hand against his breastplate, then grabbed Booker's hand and shook it strongly. Both men kept eye contact.
"We will forever remember you as a dangerous enemy and a true comrade. Ret'urcye mhi, Booker."
All the soldiers raised their weapons, their way of showing respect.
"Goodbye, Captain Hreira," Booker said. The two nodded, and let go. Hreira walked back to his men.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth continued thinking about the giant Tear. She did not know what it could be, but she felt something going into her body, her eyes, her mind, her thoughts... She soon saw the reflection of one world, and she could see herself, holding up the spherical Tear, the other sphere floating above it. Booker and Elizabeth kept looking around, unsure of what to do.
"Alright...can you take me back to my world, too?" Eleanor asked.
"Yes, I can, just let me..." Elizabeth said, and then one of the mechanical appendages arose from the floor. The tip formed a bright red light, beaming into Elizabeth's eyes. Her face went limp, and she seemingly felt herself zooming...into herself?
Her sight seemed to travel into the reflection of herself, and she heard a noise that sounded like resonating ripping, similar to when she opened Tears. She saw her irises, then the veins in her eyes, then her pupils, then brain, neural circuits, individual neurons...and then, electrical currents. As her vision slowly zoomed out, she beheld sights she never even dreamed of.
The vision was quite extreme, constantly shaking, and feeling like fire in Elizabeth's eyes and face. She saw lots of raining red, blood, perhaps, dropping from a sky of Tears. Strange machinery descended from the sky of Tears, swaying like suspended chains. Below the sky of Tears, an ocean of bubbling redness. An ocean of boiling blood? Machinery arose from the depths of the boiling blood, connecting into the machinery descending from the sky of Tears.
The machinery connected between the sky and ocean, growing into the shape of neural networks. The mechanical parts slowly burst open, revealing beating hearts, pumping lungs, eyeballs looking around, brains, veins transporting blood, spinal cords, dangling nerves, and fleshy masses, squeezing through the cracked machinery.
"Elizabeth!" Booker yelled, Elizabeth snapping out of her hypnosis, slapping aside the red-lighted appendage with a gasp.
Elizabeth collapsed onto her bum, knees flopping to the floor. She held her forehead, wondering what happened. She heard heavy static and tuning noises coming from around her, the mechanical appendages distorting, becoming greyscale. The eight mechanical limbs that constituted the contraption arose all around Elizabeth, moving inwards like a spider's legs. Yet, oddly enough, no one reacted to it.
In front of Elizabeth, a man-sized mechanical thing emerged, resembling the legs of a spider, or an eight-fingered hand with long, tapering, black fingers. At the centre was a large red lens, reminding her of one of Songbird's eyes. Just like the greyscale machinery, no one reacted to this giant eyed hand. Booker was walking through them as if they did not exist for him, sternly making sure the appendages were dead, and Eleanor examined the area.
The big red eye focused on Elizabeth, internal parts spiralling to get a better look at her. She looked back, feeling like her heart was going to burst through her chest. The red eye beamed red light upon her, causing blood to steadily drip out the centre of the lens, yet no one else reacted to any this.
This is a door...a frequency...that only affects me... Elizabeth thought to herself.
"Elizabeth... You have become quite the annoyance," a deep, gurgly, grinding, resonating voice spoke. She could not say anything, paralyzed by the sheer staring of this entity. She felt blood trickling out her nose, and then the veins in her eyes and under her skin glowed yellow. "Not even I could get around the prophecy foreshadowing your destiny."
What? I... I don't know anything... I, I just...what's going on? What did I do? Elizabeth thought.
"You will know everything you must, eventually."
Uhh... What do you want from me? Please, just stop staring at me... Her eyes entirely glowed yellow now, and her own flesh formed a yellowish aura. She felt blood amassing in her mouth, but she swallowed hard, the iron tinge of blood stinging her taste buds.
"Ah, dear little Elizabeth... When I lost you so long ago, I crossed oceans of time to search for you. I could not find you. And now, here you are. After all this time, when my will plunged into the abyss, you now came to me, a glimmer of hope..." the entity spoke, tilting side to side. "I was quite an old fool. I should have known that, no matter how hard I tried, I would not be able to find you on my terms; I cannot supercede a constance. After all, the ocean currents would, inevitably, lead you where you had to go, no matter how many whirlpools or tsunamis disrupted the ocean."
I-I, I, I just don't understand... What are you?
"What am I? I think you instead must ask yourself that question. Ah, wait, I see... You are not the Elizabeth I was expecting. You have not yet destroyed the Cipher, and so it is, you were unable to realize your full potential. But, this will have to do."
What's happening? Please, let me go... Elizabeth asked, feeling Booker waving his arm in front of her face, but she did not react to him. She could not even hear him yelling at her.
"It seems that people awoke the Enigma with their presence. My machines...they can sense Tears, and those connected to them. You had fallen into the embrace of the Enigma, and those who awoke Her were too afraid to approach you despite your suffering. But then, someone else destroyed the coils of my machine. The Enigma noticed, and then the coils reverted to their past state. Now, the Enigma is fully aware something is amiss. The Enigma, Elizabeth... She is thinking, She is coming, She is starving... She is waiting for you."
Let me go! Let me go! Elizabeth screamed at the walls of her mind.
"Very well, this exchange will be over. The Tear will allow you to go far away from the Enigma, so that you can have a headstart. I did, after all, leave the Tear behind for this moment. Oh, and my machine will play you a special song, this will allow you to enter my Tear without further ado..." The entity's red eye closed.
In her debilitated state, Elizabeth struggled to do anything, but Booker grabbed her arms and lifted her up, shaking her. Eleanor walked by, wondering what was going on. Gradually, Elizabeth's glowing yellow eyes and body diminished. The greyscale machinery tuned out of this reality, reverting to its original, inactive state.
"Elizabeth! You there!" Booker yelled; Elizabeth shook her head, regaining herself, blood drenching her cleavage and shirt. "Oh, thank god... I thought you died."
"Booker? I..." Elizabeth whimpered, catching her breath, "we need to enter the Tear," she said, but then the spherical Tear shot upwards, the tubular Tears snaking after it.
The spherical Tear erupted against the ceiling, covering it with greyscale and rippling effects. Ripping sounds reverberated throughout the pyramid, and the ceiling peeled open, revealing a bright yellow sun directly above. The tubular Tears continued snaking into the sky. The shaking, and the pyramid ripping apart, frightened the soldiers and their horses.
"What the hell's going on!" Booker shouted, "Elizabeth! Stop the Tear! Or whatever the hell it is!"
"I can't!" Elizabeth yelled back, the shaking intensifying, everyone having to spread their arms and bend their knees to stabilize themselves.
The tubular Tears seemed to rip into the fabric of space-time, creating a massive black Tear that covered the sun. The sun now looked like a giant, smouldering, dark mass, as if shedding shadows instead of light. An immediate night-time came as a result.
Then, the Lutece device ringed aloud, playing a simple song. The notes were played slowly but loudly, thusly: C, A, G, E.
Off in the distance, something huge was breaking through trees, causing the jungles to shake and echo of splintering wood. Then, it broke through the canopy, shrieking with such intensity, its cries reverberated throughout the skies. The cries soon reached the pyramid, Elizabeth and everyone else looking up.
"That sounds like..." Elizabeth whispered, not having to finish her sentence, as the silhouette of an old friend appeared, diving into the pyramid, eyes red.
"Dammit! Here he comes again!" Captain Hreira shouted.
Dozens of soldiers raised their muskets and fired, but what would their firelocks do against the big buzzard?
"Booker!" Elizabeth screamed as he grabbed her and held her tight.
Eleanor threw a fireball at the incoming winged behemoth, Booker casting Shock Jockey at it. Nevertheless, it slammed down with great force, knocking many off their feet. Songbird powerfully but safely grabbed Elizabeth around the waist. She extended her arm to Booker who reached out to her, but the bird took off, Elizabeth feeling her blood rush down her body.
"Elizabeth!" Booker screamed.
Instinctively, Eleanor teleported, reappearing on the back of the behemoth's neck. Gripping it tightly, she formed fiery Plasmids through her palms, but even so, this did nothing. Songbird noticed something on his neck, so he spun around while flying, and Eleanor promptly fell. She teleported back to the flooring in the temple.
"Well, that didn't work..." Eleanor mumbled with a shrug.
Eleanor and Booker saw Songbird fly into one of the tubular Tears snaking upward. Instantly, Songbird got sucked into the Tear, then reappeared as if hurled out by great force, Elizabeth flying across into another snaking Tear and disappearing again.
The tubular Tears began lifting, several vanishing into others. It was only a matter of time before all the snake Tears vanished. Booker and Eleanor had an idea what the next step was.
"Nothing to lose now!" Booker exclaimed, running towards one of the tubular Tears.
"Ret'urcye mhi, Ori'ramikad Booker!" Hreira called.
"So long, pal!" Booker yelled back, then charged into the snake Tear, already feeling himself being sucked into it. "Aww-wwwww shhhit!" He was pulled upwards a few dozen feet, and soon disappeared into the tubular Tear.
"Alright, my turn," Eleanor said, but then she saw something big, apparently sitting atop the machinery. It looked like a glowing nervous system, and blended in well with the electrical zaps everywhere. "Ah, you..." Eleanor commented with a little smile.
"Ponoq, nemon," Eleanor's guide said, which she figured meant Goodbye, friend.
"Goodbye, friend," Eleanor replied with a nod, and then ran into the Tear. It pulled her up and she disappeared. Her friend silently took his leave as well, having finished what he promised to Elizabeth, even though she would never know it happened.
"There they go, back to their world, where they belong," Captain Hreira commented, then turned to face his men. "Verda! Mhi tsikador par akaan, mhi akaanir! K'oyacyi!" he shouted. All his men roared their battle cries and began their leave of the pyramid, bringing all the wounded with them, bloodied triceratops trudging along.
Always ready for battle, they would continue their wars against Black Sun and the Kondrikai as it always was for thousands of years!