Eleanor swam after Songbird, and Songbird swam after the descending monster. The yellow light from her helmet revealed tiles on the walls, with shapes of diamonds and slotted squares. Ten fathoms. A statue of an angelic man. Eighteen fathoms...
Songbird did not stop even at this depth. He clawed and writhed after the monster, Eleanor even feeling the walls shake.
Quite relentless is that Big Daddy bird…
Static and tuning hit her in the head. Eleanor groaned, hands smacking into her helmet, and convulsed. More yellow light beamed out her visor. Shaking, she scrunched up into a fetal position, and let herself sink down the passage. To make things worse, she felt extreme pain in her stomach, as if her guts wanted to erupt through her belly. She pressed a hand on her stomach, but could do nothing but sink facedown. Blood pooled against her visor, blotting out some light.
The static in Eleanor's mind became so fierce, she disconnected from reality. The shaking infrastructure, Songbird's underwater screaming, bubbles, the water itself...she could not sense anything except the damn static and tuning grinding her brain.
What's going on!?
'Don't let him get over your head.' That's what you told Booker, wasn't it? Spirry's voice gurgled in Eleanor's thoughts, warm, glowing blood bubbling out her mouth. I suppose he did better than you all along, hm?
Eleanor sharply inhaled through clenched teeth. "Whah...what do… What do you want?"
Home...the place you are supposed to be. The place you are meant to be. I want you home.
"Why?"
I am Rapture, Rapture is me. This also applies to you, doesn't it? And everything that you became applies to me. Everything that you will become is me.
Not if I forget all my memories, Eleanor thought.
Indeed. Come home before you lose everything, so that you gain everything. I am waiting. You will know where to find me. But, for now, sleep, and...dream into the darkness.
Eleanor just limply sank.
Well, this sucks…
Songbird screamed. Eleanor would have flinched if she could. Bubbles rose, followed by blood. Eleanor's body became enshrouded with blood. Down below, Songbird reached the monster, clutching it and spread its skull apart...
He sat up with a gasp, feeling warmth and moisture everywhere. He only saw blackness. Groaning, he stood up, wondering what the hell happened.
"Elizabeth? Elizabeth!? ELIZABETH!"
"Why are you yelling? I'm right beside you..."
"Oh. Sorry."
Elizabeth always had a knack for disappearing and reappearing no matter where she went.
"Elizabeth, you alright?"
"Yeah."
"Do you feel that? Feels like...wind?" Booker asked. Indeed, air flowed back and forth slowly, warm in one direction, and cold in the other.
"That's not wind, Booker. It's the monster breathing," Elizabeth corrected.
"Smells salty. Guess we'll have to dig our way out this thing."
"We are under the ocean, Booker."
"W-... You're right. So, what, we just wait for this thing to digest us?"
"Well, that would be slower than drowning... Let's just look around. I'll be able to open a Tear sooner or later."
Booker cast a mild form of Devil's Kiss, illuminating the place. Fleshy, pink, smooth surfaces surrounded them. Nerves and veins mapped the flesh, Elizabeth examining them as she walked around. They noticed water dripping here and there, one drop landing on Elizabeth's cheek and rolling onto her lips. She spat, and wiped her mouth. Occasionally, she tried to open a Tear, but it never worked.
Sometimes, the walls rumbled, but everything inside the monster was quite sound proof and insulated. Soft, squishy patting echoed farther down the monster's stomach, accompanied by a sliding noise and slow, heavy breathing.
"Something's moving," Booker warned. Since he lost his Brustgun from his fall, he only had his Broadsider to withdraw. Devil's Kiss intensified in his left hand.
"Booker, I don't think you should play with fire down here. I'd rather not drown in vomit."
"Uh, same." Booker's Vigor reverted to a mild form. He saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes ascending within the beast. "Aw, jeez! So they've got monsters inside of monsters now?"
The monster appeared to have the bodily shape of a human, but did not have skin or limbs. Its skull and jaw were quite long, and it repeatedly titled its head to and fro, neck making cracking noises. Its pelvis connected to a fleshy tube, and the fleshy tube came from within the monster's gullet.
Booker raised his Broadsider, but then more water leaked from above. Songbird's wailing reached the monster, partly echoing down its throat. The monster slid backwards, disappearing in the darkness.
"Songbird!" Elizabeth exclaimed, half excitedly, half nervously.
"If he rips through the skull, water will pour in, and…"
"We'll die." Elizabeth looked at Booker, and looked frightened. "Booker, I… I don't wanna die like this…"
"We won't." They heard lots of water falling.
Elizabeth ran up the stomach, or tried to. She reached a torrent of saltwater mixed with blood flowing down the monster's esophagus. The monster shook, grumbling, stomach audibly churning. Songbird's screaming echoed again.
"Songbird! Stop!" Elizabeth cried while trying to climb up the walls of the monster's insides.
"That damn buzzard really doesn't know when to quit!"
"Wait, I'll just-" Elizabeth put her hands together, and opened a Tear. To her surprise, water blasted out the Tear, knocking her over.
"Close it! Close it!" Elizabeth did so, the water up to her ankles. The water was filling up the monster's stomach, Booker and Elizabeth soon knee-deep in cold water. "Ohhh, shhhit!" He holstered his pistol.
It was not long until Elizabeth and Booker resorted to swimming, clawing at the esophagus to stay afloat. Elizabeth kept yelling at Songbird to stop as more and more of the waterfall turned red, Songbird screaming like crazy…
Up above, Songbird fought the monster with all his might, eyes red. He ripped through the skull and made a mess of the brains and mouth. The monster could do nothing as Songbird burrowed into it. His violent behaviour soon destroyed a section of the vertical passageway. Songbird's body unraveled, wings and limbs spreading. He rammed his feet into the remains of the skull, talons gripping it, and began flapping his wings and swimming upwards, trying anything to stop it from taking Elizabeth away. The monster underneath him groaned, and shot up, but that did nothing against Songbird. Blood, brains, and chunks of flesh floated past Songbird.
Whatever his mechanical heart and mind could imagine, Songbird paused, then put his head down the monster's skull. Could he hear something? Or someone? His bond sensed something of Elizabeth's desires. Although constructed to protect her no matter what, his mechanical soul sensed something different. He stopped.
Yellow light appeared above Songbird. His eyes likewise turned yellow, and he looked up. Eleanor sank in a fetal position, visor yellow. She descended like a baby. He raised a paw, and let Eleanor fall onto it. He leaned in to take a closer look, unsure of what was wrong with Eleanor.
Songbird looked to the side, staring through the glass of the passage. The black entity appeared, howling, a massive volume of bubbles escaping its mouth, swimming like a giant eel. Songbird's eyes turned red. He covered Eleanor with his fingers and wailed, swimming forth to meet his foe.
The two monsters clashed, Songbird gripping the black entity's neck with his free hand and headbutting it repeatedly in the face. The entity's jaw extended and it bit over Songbird's entire head. The two exchanged claws and talons…
Back inside the skull monster, Elizabeth and Booker struggled to stay afloat.
"Elizabeth! Eliza-" Booker shouted, grabbing Elizabeth's wrist to pull her out the water, yet there was almost no space for air left inside the monster.
Coughing, Elizabeth desperately kicked and pawed. So much water ran down the monster's insides, that Elizabeth felt nothing but the waterfall. She could not breathe without water getting in her mouth.
I, I'm drowning!
Elizabeth found herself unable to breathe. She felt her entire body tingle and bite with coldness. She waved her arms through the water, but didn't know where Booker went. His Vigor extinguished, and now, there was just blackness. She felt his hand for a moment, but they lost each other.
"Mmm-mnnh!" Elizabeth wanted to scream, to say something, to do something. She at least wanted to say 'thank-you' to him before dying.
She let out a little air, bubbles leaving her mouth. Naturally, she swam upwards, clawing at the water, hoping to find an air pocket or something. Instead, there was just blackness and water. Her stomach felt sharply empty, then that crushing feeling expanded into her chest. Elizabeth gasped and convulsed, feeling herself sinking. She couldn't swim upwards anymore.
Is this it? But I don't...
Through squinted eyes and salty pain, Elizabeth noticed glowing yellow rising from below. It was that monster again, who leaned into her, the two face-to-face. Elizabeth screamed, bubbles leaving her mouth. In her panic, she thrashed and kicked, feeling the monster slide around her body. She would have screamed again, but forgot she was underwater, and sucked in a mouthful of water. Her teeth erupted with icy pain.
The monster's torso split open, its lungs and diaphragm writhing out and floating. Its intestines hung out and wriggled up, the slimy things wiggling up Elizabeth's skirt and over her face. One intestine split apart, then shot onto her mouth, much to her surprise and discomfort. She had another surprise when she felt the intestine suck on her mouth.
The monster turned, its glowing eyes revealing Booker convulsing, clutching his throat. The monster looked at him, and the other split length of his intestine extended, slipping over his mouth. He had no idea what was going on, but stopped convulsing, and his body relaxed a little.
Elizabeth realized she was...breathing? The monster slowly turned around, looking at her again. Her heart skipped a beat, then she felt her guts churning. Face illuminated by yellow light, Elizabeth reared as the monster examined her. It then descended, more of its fleshy tubes appeared and wrapping around Elizabeth and Booker, pulling them down with it.
Gigantic muscles bulged up above, which burst blood vessels and snapped veins, until the monster's throat sealed. The stomach gurgled and rumbled, and the water bubbled.
The monster turned, then its body retracted, and it pulled Elizabeth and Booker with it. They descended farther down the insides. The walls seemed to make a swallowing effect, transporting the two humans down a division in the passageway. They plopped down to a fleshy chamber, some water spewing after them, but they were no longer swimming nor connected to the fleshy tubes. Elizabeth went on her hands and knees, coughing, and shivering.
"Elizabeth!" Booker called, rolling over and grabbing the girl's back. Once she controlled herself, she looked at Booker. He chuckled, and tried to smile. "See? Told you we'd make it." Elizabeth chuckled.
"Not sure what that creepy thing was, but I am grateful he helped us. Nice to know that not every cthulhu wants to kill us. I hope Songbird is okay, I could have sworn I heard him screaming."
The two noticed yellow beaming onto them. They got up and looked around.
The strange monster that saved them squirmed out the wall, some water leaking. It arched towards the two, Elizabeth taking a step back from the grotesque thing. It did not have a mouth, only a series of vertical slits where its mouth would be. The creature seemed to be inhaling and exhaling at the same time.
The limbless creature's torso gradually closed, sucking its guts back in. Booker grabbed his pistol and stood in front of Elizabeth, unsure if something bad would happen next. The limbless monster extended, staring at Booker. It steadily became level with him. Its eyes made static and tuning noises, and blood dripped out its slits-mouth.
"Michael?" The monster's voice was monotonous, masculine, almost computer-like. It cocked its head.
"Uh...no? I'm Booker." Booker's hands relaxed over his pistol, he and Elizabeth surprised that the monster could actually speak. The monster nodded.
"Bookkeeper?" the monster asked; whenever it spoke, blood dripped out its slits. Booker raised an eyebrow. The monster turned, looking at Elizabeth. "Who are you? You look like her, the one from his dreams… Is your name Sympathy?"
"No, I'm...Elizabeth, mister."
"Which god?" The monster's question caused her to frown. She did not know what kind of question that was meant to be.
"Uh, what?"
"Which god is your oath?" Again, Elizabeth was unsure of what the monster was asking.
"Listen, pal, we just need to get out of here. You can help us, right?" The monster looked at Booker.
"Bookkeeper, do you serve a god?"
"No!" Booker turned, dismissively waving an arm at such a stupid question, but also irritated that the thing was not really cooperating. He took a few steps and put his hands on his forehead. He was tired of everything. Elizabeth went to him.
"Booker?" she whispered, wanting to comfort him.
"Everything I keep seeing is more and more proof of a godless universe, that's for sure." The monster nodded, then looked back at Elizabeth.
"Oath-god, are you also an unbeliever?" She hesitated.
"I...don't know. I don't think about it much."
"Perhaps the bookkeeper and the oath-god will be born again."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Booker asked, facing the thing.
"To be reborn is to reach amalgamation and synchrony...of mind, body, and soul."
"Okay… What's the supposed to mean?"
"My god will show you, bookkeeper."
The walls of tissue moved, then sections here and there split open, nerves hanging and blood leaking out. Fist-sized eyeballs stuck out through the split flesh and leaking blood, all staring at Booker.
"What the hell?" Booker remarked.
"That's really, really gross…" Elizabeth commented.
One by one, the eyeballs faintly glowed yellow, tuning and static sounding from them. It was not long until Booker felt the sharp static and tuning in himself.
"Booker, you're bleeding…"
He touched his nose, watching the blood roll down his fingers.
"Listen," the monster requested. The tuning and static adjusted and whined before becoming stable.
"I am Mikha'el Va'Ahtar," Spirry's voice sounded from all around, distorted by the usual tuning and static. Booker and Elizabeth scanned the area, though the demon was nowhere in sight. "I'll ask you a simple question: should a man be driven by his blood?"
"What the hell is this? You better let us out!" Booker yelled, but the guide did nothing.
A Rapture ghost appeared, a man sitting on a chair and smoking a pipe. Booker instinctively raised his Broadsider and fired once, but the bullet passed through the Rapture ghost without doing anything.
"Is that something like your mother?"
"No. It's something else. Not sure what, though," Elizabeth answered.
"Yes, says Andrew Ryan, a man is entitled to his blood and sweat," Spirry's voice returned. The Rapture ghost disappeared, then several more reappeared, looking like soldiers.
"Yes, says the man in Columbia, our blood for Father Comstock."
"I don't give a damn! Are you gonna let us out of here, or what?"
The Rapture ghosts changed into various Splicers.
"Yes, says Dr. Sofia Lamb, the family is the blood."
"Hey! Answer me!"
The ghostly imaging turned into a large crucifix.
"Yes, says the man in Christianity, the blood of Jesus Christ for us."
The crucifix transformed into a hammer and sickle.
"Yes, says the man in Communism, we crave the blood of the nobility."
Neither Elizabeth nor Booker seemed impressed.
"I certainly understood such answers. Yet, I wanted to create not what was impossible, but what should not even exist…" The ghostly images changed into fleshy monsters and various man-sized organs with limbs.
The ghostly imagery disappeared. The wall of flesh split open by several feet, blood gushing, revealing transparent cartilage serving as a window. After passing rock formations covered with seaweed, starfish, and crabs, beyond rising bubbles, a few skyscrapers and glass tunnels became visible far down, illuminated by yellow lights beaming from the ocean floor and the sides of the skyscrapers. The rest of Rapture was lost to the abyss.
Most of Rapture's lighting was dead, the only sign with constant power being for the Finley company building. A few other ads flashed, but other than that, the beaming yellow lights provided the only illumination. How these lights had electricity was not known.
Booker frowned.
"A city underwater? Ridiculous."
"Hunh, seems...fascinating," Elizabeth remarked.
"If that's supposed to amaze me, it sure didn't work."
It was Elizabeth's turn to frown. As their ride continued, they saw a fleshy monster swimming along a tunnel.
"Wait, do you feel that?" Elizabeth asked.
The two felt heavy pulsating pass through their feet, consisting of two beats every few seconds. Even their bio-vehicle shook a little.
"But what did I create?" Spirry's voice returned.
Here and there in Rapture, minor Tears appeared, causing more lighting to phase into this world, illuminating more of the city and waters. All the lights turned towards the abyss, revealing a silhouette perhaps a hundred feet wide and tall.
The silhouette gradually formed glowing red cracks, looking like a vast network of glowing veins. Then, a pair of giant spheres near the top appeared, glowing yellow, beaming spotlights through Rapture, illuminating long sections of the ocean floor. Booker and Elizabeth could clearly see what appeared to be a beating heart the size of a house, with a dozen fleshy tentacles serving as arms, crawling along. A school of fish nibbled at it. Nearby were a few sunken military submarines and even a few battleships and destroyers, more strange things that bewildered the passengers.
Even stranger, was that the ocean floor had its own nervous system and veins, glowing bright pink. The endless, labyrinthine biology also stretched from skyscraper to skyscraper, as if flesh had grown throughout Rapture into spider web-like formations. Tumours, lungs, hearts, brains, livers and other organs sometimes the size of houses decorated Rapture and the ocean floor here and there. Even giant eyeballs the size of cars made an appearance on the ocean floor and sides of the buildings, all eyes glowing yellow and producing static, many staring back at Booker and Elizabeth.
"Witness my history… Apocatastasis," Spirry's voice narrated, then all lighting intensified again, with such force that tuning and static reverberated throughout the waters surrounding Rapture. Even smoke appeared above the lights.
Booker grabbed his head from the pain, Elizabeth covering her ears, both their noses bleeding. Their friend's eyes beamed like lasers, though he appeared untroubled by the struggling frequency.
Rapture erupted with dark bluish light coming from the abyss, causing many fish to swim away. A Tear-textured aura appeared from the dark bluish light, flowing upwards like northern lights. If it was one gigantic Tear, all it revealed was endless waters.
However, the explosion of light also revealed a mountain of translucent flesh that became transparent towards the top, where the two glowing spheres were inside. The spheres were upward-facing eyes set deeply within, similarly to the anatomy of a spook fish. Behind the eyes was the brain, emitting zaps. Glowing purplish-pink circles lined down the sides of the head, mixing well with the glowing red veins.
The lighting also revealed two elbows pointing up, forearms down, at either side of the head. Was the gigantic monster crawling out of the abyss? A series of immense mechanical columns connected to the oversized monster's skeletal structure, undoubtedly being greatly extended lengths of skyborne machinery reaching all the way to the bottom of the ocean. The monster's heart beat so heavily that all of Rapture must have felt it.
The beast groaned, shaking the ocean floor. Slowly, the monster tilted its head back, revealing a second pair of glowing yellow eyes at the front of its face, and a mouth shaped like that of an anglerfish. The sides of its mouth had a webbing of tissue lined with barbed spines, comparable to the cloak of a vampire squid.
"My god has begotten new life." Elizabeth and Booker looked at their guide, then back to the abyssal monster.
The huge monster convulsed, blood murking up the water in front of its face. It growled deeply, shaking Rapture and causing a torrent of bubbles to burst from its mouth. The monster then threw its head back, the static noise letting off a piercing screech sounding like a screaming baby.
A large Tear appeared over the monster's upper eyes, rippling violently and causing streaks of distorted light to beam out. The monster reacted as if a great force hit it in the head. A torrent of blood sprayed out its forehead, and some sort of glossy, hunchbacked-like appendage ten feet thick but sixty feet long burst through the Tear with a guttural screech, and subsequently, had burst through the skull. The tip of the appendage was somewhat shaped like a human face, the eye sockets empty but beaming yellow. Instead of a jaw, the monster had a suction mouth. Bright, glowing, purplish-pink circles lined down the sides.
With the giant monster having head injuries, the troubling static lessened in intensity, relieving Elizabeth and Booker of their pain.
Squirming like a giant parasite, the immense slug-like thing wriggled out the Tear, and it swam off, moaning like a whale. It dove into a lung growing out the ocean floor, affixing its mouth onto the lung, where it presumably began eating.
With much struggle, the monster put a clawed hand over the hole in its head, but the Tear remained. Several lengths of skyborne machinery erupted through the Tear, which the monster grabbed and ripped out. The holes in its head began healing rapidly.
The gargantuan monster screamed, extending its arms and leaning backwards over the abyss, but it did not fall. A much larger Tear formed in its chest. Several pairs of glowing yellow eyes appeared, then several more of the giant slug-things squirmed halfway out the Tear. They seemed to get stuck, taking turns squirming in and out while writhing or wobbling, moaning like whales.
Booker was dumbstruck, and Elizabeth's jaw was left open.
"If those giant slugs are trying to leave a dry world by swimming against the force of the ocean…" Elizabeth mumbled, but Booker wasn't sure what to say.
The monster leaned forwards with a mighty growl. It violently raised its hands and grasped the waters near its head, then slammed them down. Two Tears appeared, each forming vortexes as the ocean began draining through them. The monster groaned, placing its hands together and ripping open a third Tear, which expanded without affecting the water. The Tear continued expanding until it covered the monster, plus about a hundred feet all around it. In an instance, all the water within the third Tear disappeared. The monster's chin slammed against the moist ocean floor.
Several more large Tears appeared within the monster's head, showcasing various locations of various worlds. Curiously enough, one of the Tears wiggled out the monster, launched a few hundred feet, and erupted, summoning a metal pyramid from somewhere. Another Tear extended, becoming tubular, and gushed out a slurry of blood both liquid and gooey. The slurry quickly moulded into shapes, and floppy humanoid things emerged, crawling around.
"What no artist could ever dream of… What no scientist could ever create… Greater than Rapture or Columbia or SHODAN... Not just a construct, but a living city. A city that is amalgamation and synchrony of body, mind and soul...and Tears. With your blood, you too, can be born again…"
Spirry's message finally ended. Booker and Elizabeth looked at each other, then back at their guide.
"I sense danger," the limbless thing stated, then screeching and wailing erupted outside.
The black entity and Songbird sunk up ahead, both grasping and clawing at each other, Songbird's eyes red. Songbird had finally busted his foe open, but likewise was cracked and leaking. Songbird was not designed for deep sea pressure, gradually being crushed by the pressure, but nonetheless fought on.
The black entity, untroubled by the deep pressure, overpowered Songbird and kicked him down. It then spun around, swimming towards Booker and Elizabeth, eyes locked on them.
"She no longer listens, her rage endless," the limbless monster said.
"She? That's a she?" Booker asked, then the black entity's roar reverberated through the waters.
"She will not struggle to break through this transport's walls," the limbless monster warned.
"Ohh, shhit!"
"C'mon, c'mon, work!" Elizabeth began opening a Tear, but struggled.
Spreading her arms, the black entity howled, but then something pulled her backwards. She let out a hiccup, a single big bubble leaving her huge mouth. Songbird had grabbed her tail, pulling her away from Elizabeth and Booker. With the advantage of surprise, Songbird managed to manipulate the entity's left arm with both hands, then snapped the elbow backwards. She howled, turning around to fight back. After the two balled up and exchanged claws, Songbird grasped her jaw and wrenched it, breaking it. He would have ripped the jawbone right off, but Songbird's left eye shattered. He grabbed his missing eye and convulsed, body gradually breaking from pressure.
The black entity spun around and swam away using her wings, tail and legs. She looked around, but Eleanor was nowhere in sight.
Songbird swam after his foe, but his hull creaked and groaned, bolts loosening, parts undoing. He turned around, seeing Elizabeth with both hands against the cartilage-window. He swam to her, slowly breaking apart. He let out a mournful cry.
Elizabeth tightly shut her eyes, warm tears squeezing out. She let her forehead lean against the window.
"Songbird… It's okay, I'm here…" Songbird gently placed his hand against the window, Elizabeth doing likewise. He leaned in, eyes turning yellow. "Songbird…" Songbird's eyes turned green, and he made a compassionate groan while softly pressing his head against the window. "Thank you, Songbird… Goodbye…"
Songbird's other eye cracked. He curled into a fetal position and sank, smoking and breaking. At long last, the ocean embraced him. He would never move again.