A/N: Another new day, another new addition to the ever growing list. And given I've finished up making repairs to all of the chapters from the last time I posted this story, I'm ready to start making new ones now. It's been a long time coming and I can't wait to get that far to show you all what I got.

However, I'll keep the update rate stable so that everyone can ease back into it. It's not in my nature to just drop all the chapters at once, I'd prefer to lead everything up to the defining moment.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bioshock.

Monument Island was built like a large and beautiful park. Surrounded with various trees, flowers, fountains and sculptures that made the place seem very relaxing and peaceful for all those who visited.

In the center of the island stood the angel shaped tower that overlooked not only the island itself, but most of Columbia as well. The structure was surrounded by high walls and iron bar gates that were chained up tight to keep people from getting too close.

This was where Reece found himself as he looked for the best way to get into the tower and find Elizabeth. "Why the hell would they lock her up in this place?" he thought outloud while backing up from the locked gate in front of him.

He looked up at the large tower as he mulled things over. The things Comstock was spouting off when they talked sounded like a lot of religious BS that barely seemed to make sense. The guy had to be on some kind of power trip, and with the way he could sway the people of the floating city was downright unnerving.

If he could get someone to throw their life away in an attempt to kill him with just a few words...what else was the man capable of?

Snapping out of his thoughts, Reece noticed a lift hook attached to the side of a pillar above the locked gate. Seeing that it was the only way he could get in, he pulled out the sky-hook and activated the magnet in the hooks. Launching himself into the air and hooking the target before swinging forward and dropping down to the ground. Rolling with his landing to cushion the fall and standing upright again.

Swapping the sky-hook for the pistol. The teen walked up the steps before him and up to the large double doors that lead into the tower. "Alright." he said cocking the slide back on the sidearm as he prepared for a fight. "Let's do this."

He opened the doors, gun ready and Vigors powered up as he surveyed the empty foyer. A small-scale version of the tower sat in the middle of the room with crates stacked up on one side and a wall of lockers on the other.

Doing a quick walkthrough, Reece found mostly lab coats, rubber boots, gloves and gas masks stored in the lockers with a handful of personal belongings. The place was empty, and from the looks of things everyone who had been here had been forced to leave in a hurry.

The question is, why?

Putting that in the back of his mind, Reece crossed the room and through another set of doors that lead farther inside. Walking down a long corridor until he found himself in a room filled with various electronic devices with chalkboards and other data readouts lining the walls.

The board infront of him caught his attention. It showed four stages of a person's growth from 'Age 1', 'Age 5', 'Age 13' and 'Age 19'. The last part on the board was in the shape of a young woman with data surrounding each step from height and weight, to brainwave activity. "What the hell were they doing in this place?" he asked as he began looking over the rest of the room.

In the next half of the room behind the readouts, a large station was set up with electrical bolts coming out of the walls and striking testla coils at the top. Three lit levers sat in the front makking the teen curious. Approaching the one on the far left, he reached out and pulled the lever.

A light came on revealing a brown teddy bear inside a glass container. A label at the top reading 'Age 4: Companion'. Energy surged from the top of the station and stuck the stuffed animal making it shake and distort for a moment before dissipating.

The once brown teddy bear was now a redish/orange color making Reece's jaw drop. "How...?" he couldn't even form a sentence as he tried to comprehend what just happened. It was like some kind of transmutaion or something of that nature...what kind of place was this?

Shaking his head, he decided to keep going and moved around the station into another corridor that had several rooms. on either side. Going to each room, the traveler felt the blood leave his face the longer he looked around.

It was like a shop of goddamn horrors. Lab equipment, surgical instruments, chairs and beds with restraints, along with more read outs on the walls keeping logs on what progress was made with the 'subject'. "What were these fucking monsters doing to her?" he asked feeling his blood boil as he entered another room.

A dull red glow filled the air when Reece walked into what looked like a developing studio for film. Looking up, he saw black and white photographs of Elizabeth doing various things. And in certain ones she was in various stages of undress.

Without thinking, he conjured a small ball of fire to his hand and burned the pictures to ashes as he stomped out of the room, the red tint in his vision no longer the cause of the red light in the room.

The last room had a projection reel set up showing small clips of the girl doing daily routines in different rooms of where she was being kept. Reece's anger faded seeing the one he was looking for brushing her hair, singing, eating dinner, and painting something on a canvas. "Have they been watching her, her whole life?" he thought leaving the room and entering the doors at the end of the hallway.

The next room was lit up like a power plant. Electricity surged through the air and centered around a large device in the in the middle of the room. Large sub-woofers lined the walls emitting a low pulse that made a loud hum resound among the stone walls of the chamber.

Various signs were pinned up around the room. One that made him pause said; 'Warning: Siphon is Dangerous While Leeching Specimen.' a shutter ran through him at the thought of what 'leeching' meant and what it had done to Elizabeth.

"I'm getting her out of here. No matter what it takes." he told himself as he moved through the chamber with more purpose in his steps. Passing by signs that mentioned something about a '168 Hour Quarantine' and not touching the speciment as he entered an elevator. Slamming his fist against the switch as he rode it up the tower.

Taking deep calming breaths to ease the rage that had been flowing through him after seeing what they had been doing in this place. No matter what twisted reason these freaks might have had, that girl didn't deserve the life that had been forced upon her. Especially if she had been taken from her real home by Comstock.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to a clean room with black and white tiled floors. A sign saying 'Specimen Observation' sat above a metal shutter with a lever in front of it.

Reece put his pistol away and approached the shutter. Pulling the lever in front of him and causing the metal wall to slide apart and reveal an elegant room beyond.

But no one was there.

Looking down the hallway next to him, the teen moved down where a panel on the wall was set up. The names of various rooms listed on the panel with 'Specimen Location' on it. Reece pressed the button on the side and the light next to 'Dressing Room' lit up. "That's where she is." he said to himself as the steel door next to him slid into the ceiling allowing him passage.

Moving along the wooden walkway, he entered the next section of where they were keeping the girl and found another shutter with a camera set up next to it. "Sick bastards." he thought with gritted teeth as he pulled the lever in front of him. When the shutter slid open he gasped.

Elizabeth stood right in front of him. Her slim frame standing almost a head shorter than him with dark-brown hair tied back in a low ponytail wearing a long-sleeve white blouse with blue cuffs and collar. A blue ascot was tied loosely around her neck and a long blue skirt flowed down almost to her ankles.

Her light blue eyes looked right at him, but didn't seem to notice him meaning that this was most likely a two way mirror. Which would explain how the people that ran the tower was able to keep tabs on her so easily.

Though, all of this was lost on Reece who was openly staring at the girl as she seemed to be singing with a picture of the effel tower clenched in her hands. His green eyes trailed down when he saw something shine in the light and noticed that she was missing half of her right pinkey finger. The slight deformity being covered by a silver thimbal while she swayed her hips lightly back and forth in tendam with her singing.

"She's...she's beautiful..." he thought in awe as Elizabeth turned and skipped out of the room. The shutter closing not long after making him blink and get his head straight again. "Have to stay focused. Need to get her out of here." he reminded himself as he moved down the adjacent corrdor to another locator panel which revealed that she was now in the 'Dining Room'.

Following the open path to the next observation room, he opened the shutter to find Elizabeth gazing at a painting of the effel tower that she must have been working on. It was a pretty good piece of artwork, she must have been working on it for quite a while.

She reached forward with both hands looking like she was going to tear the canvas in half, then something started to happen. A small sliver a light started to brighten in the room making Reece lean in a little closer to see what was going on. "What is she-"

Elizabeth threw her arms out. Everything in the room was sent flying and the reinforced glass cracked around the edges from the force as a portal was ripped open revealing the outside of a movie theater. The marchi letters spelling something in french with the effel tower in the distance.

Reece's jaw hung low and his eyes buldged out. "What...the...fuck..." he said in awe.

What the portal was showing was all grainy, like a tv set that needed to be adjusted before it slowly came into better focus. Elizabeth gazed at everything shown in wonder before a set of headlights from a firetruck sped toward her.

The girl paniced and brought her arms together sealing the portal before the large vehicle could hit her. Putting her head in her hands, Elizabeth ran from the dining room as the shutter closed.

Supporting himself on the console before him, Reece tried to wrap his head around what he had seen. "She...She just tore open a portal to Paris!" he shouted in his head. Then the details set in. A firetruck had been what scared her into closing the portal, and he knew damn well that vehicles that ran on fossile fuels wouldn't exist for another couple decades.

And even though he barely passed french in highschool, he knew full well that the sign on the theater that said 'La Revanche Du Jedi' translated to 'Revenge of the Jedi' which had been pretty big back in 1983 before the movie people changed the name to 'Return of the Jedi'.

That's when he realized; Elizabeth had just made an opening that tore through the fabric of space and time itself! Creating a bridge from here in 1912 to 1983 France!

Running a hand through his hair, Reece took a deep breath. "This...is too much for one fucking day." he muttered as he leaned back and looked at the ceiling. But something about the situation did make sense. If this girl could open rips in time, then it explained how he got there as well.

Someone or something must have done the same when he was dying in the ocean and brought him into the past. And if this was the case, then that meant Elizabeth was key to helping him get back home.

"I'll worry about this later, right now I better find Elizabeth and make our getaway." he said outloud as he went through the door on his left and followed the next section of path around the observation area and up a ramp to the next viewing station.

The shutter opened revealing a grand library. The walls covered with book shelves and filled to the brim with enough hardcovers his university would have been impressed with. The main floor had several comfy chairs and desks set up with writing equipment giving the impression that this was were she studied.

Elizabeth stood on a landing at the top of a flight of stairs, gazing out the window before her at the beautiful sky beyond. Her right hand resting on the glass as she watched the clouds pass by.

Reece found himself doing the same to the two way mirror in front of him. "She looks...so lonely..." he couldn't help but say. She was like the princesses in his sisters' old story books. Locked away from the world against her will in a tower that was unreachable by those who wished to help her.

Clenching his fist against the glass, he made a vow to take her far away from this place. And burn any son of a bitch dumb enough to try and stop him. That in mind, he turned to the next door and pushed it open. Putting a good amount of strength behind it as the heavy iron door opened up to a long corridor to another door.

Twisting the metal wheel, he forced the door open as it opened up to the outside of the tower. The wind whipping hard against him as he managed to get out in the sunlight, seeing almost all of Columbia from his vantage point.

"Holy shit!" he gritted out as he covered his face with his arm as he started moving along the small fenced off walkway that led farther up. "Safe to say it's game over if I take a spill out here."

Fighting against the wind, he walked up a set of steps slowly toward the Monument's head. Taking one step at a time so that he could easily maintain his balance and not get knocked off the high point.

Reaching the angel's cheek, Reece pushed another door open and slipped inside while slamming it shut behind him to keep the wind out. The interior within the head of the monument was the same as the rest of the tower, the door in front of him sliding up allowing him passage.

The next room lead to another door that was across a metal platform supported by chains. The teen's steel-toed boots echoed around the round room with each step he took, pausing halfway when he heard a loud groan coming from somewhere close.

Being a mechanic, he knew that any metal equipment making that kind of noise was never a good thing. Looking down, he felt the floor under him begin to shutter as the chains let out a rattling groan. "Oh Fu-" the chains broke and the ground collapsed from under him sending the teen plummeting down.

"-UUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK!" he yelled out. Arms lashing around trying to grab on to anything to stop his fall. Luckily, his hand managed to grab on to a railing that had been on his left. Reece hissed as the wound on his left arm flared up from the sudden stop as he dangled above the floor below him.

Reaching his other hand up to grab the railing, the teen began to pull himself up on to the landing, only to meet a pair of startled blue eyes looking back at him. "Uhhhh...Hi?" he said not knowing what else he could have.

Elizabeth screamed making him jump, letting go of the railing by accident and fall the rest of the way to the floor. Crashing through a wooden table in the process as he landed painfully on to the solid surface.

"Ohhhh...no more falling down..." he groaned as he slowly rolled over on to his hands and knees to push himself back up while trying to ignore the ache in his spine. That was easier said than done when a hardcover slammed against the top of his head. "OW! What the fuck?!" he shouted looking up.

Elizabeth chucked another book, then another, and another. Forcing Reece to cover his head and face while trying to dodge around the large projectiles. "Look-whoa!-Can't we talk for-OW!-A minute?! I'm not here to hurt you!" he managed to squeeze out.

The young woman crossed the room with a large book on Quantum Physics cluched tightly in her hands ready to bring down on his head. "Who are you?!" she demanded.

Reece kept his hands up as a sign of surrender as he got back to his feet. "My name is Reece. And I'm a...friend. I've come to get you out of this place." he said reaching out to her, hoping she wouldn't try to hit him with the large book she was wielding.

"Get away!" she shouted pulling herself back and preparing to swing her 'weapon'. Reece brought up his right forearm and blocked the attack, then a second that sent the book clattering to the floor.

"Easy! I'm not here to hurt you, I promise." the teen said trying to calm her down. Elizabeth looked at the dropped book before looking into his eyes. And Reece had to admit that they were very hypnotic. Filled with innocence and fear, but also curiosity. Like she was looking at something that she had never seen before.

Reaching her hand out, her soft and delicate fingers lightly grazing the side of his face. "Are you...are you real?" she asked with a tremble in her voice while taking her hand back slowly.

Reece smiled seeing her no longer hostile with him, "The last time I checked."

Before anything else could be said, the gold statue of Comstock that had been set up beside the shelves next to them began to let out a whistling tune. Elizabeth gasped and looked downright terrified as she turned to her 'visitor'. "He's coming! Y-You have to go!" she whisper/yelled, pushing him back a few steps.

"Why? What's going on? Who's coming?" Reece asked looking around the room.

Her fear-filled blue eyes locked with his confused green ones as she trembled. "You don't want to be here when he arrives." A loud clank/whistling sound resounded through the whole tower making her look up. "Just a minute! I'm getting dressed!" she shouted to the ceiling.

The traveler didn't like this, or the feeling he got when he heard the noises. Whatever had just got here was big...very big. "We need to get out of here." he said as Elizabeth scrambled around the room in a panic trying to find a place to hide him so that whoever arrived didn't see him.

"There's no way out, trust me. I've looked." the sound resonated again making her jump. "STOP IT! YOU'RE TOO IMPATIENT, THAT'S ENOUGH!" she shouted at whatever was above.

Looking around the room, Reece saw a door on the other end of the library behind her. Large and reinforced, built almost like a vault door to keep the one that it housed inside no matter what tried to open it. "What about that door over there?" he asked walking around her and toward it.

"It's locked, always has been. And I don't know where the key would be." Elizabeth said as she continued to flitter around.

"Key?" reaching into his front pocket, he pulled out the key he had been given back at the lighthouse. Looking at the lock on the door, he saw the same symbols on the top and bottom of the lock that were on the handle. A bird and a cage. "What about this?" he asked showing her.

"What about it?" she demanded not paying attention.

"Is this the key?" Reece asked causing her to whirl around. Eyes locked on to the key before lunging at it like it was the most important thing on the planet.

"Give it to me!" she shouted snatching it out of his hand. Running over to the door and inserting it into the lock.

The traveler tilted his head as he walked after her, "Why would they put the lock on the inside? It doesn't make sense." he said in observation.

"I don't think they anticipated someone falling from the ceiling with the means to my freedom." she said glancing at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Touch'e." he admitted as the locks on the door came undone loudly and it swung open slowly. Elizabeth stood frozen for a moment, almost unbelieving at the fact that her freedom was within her grasp. Taking a slow step forward, she then bolted through the opening like a bat out of hell.

Being bigger than the newly freed prisoner, it took Reece a second to squeeze through the gap as she shouted back to him. "Come on! This way!"

They ran down the stairs on the other side when the walls around them shook violently. Almost like something had struck the tower like an angry giant sucker punched it. Reece caught up with Elizabeth at the bottom when the tower shook again.

"It's his job to keep me locked up in here!" she said before the question could leave his mouth.

"Then he's about to fail his job!" he called back as they began to back track on the path that he had taken to reach her. The monument kept shaking like a leaf on a tree. Whatever was on the outside was pissed and doing whatever was in its power to get at them.

"Who exactly are you? Why did you come here?" Elizabeth asked while they kept moving.

"I think we can save question and answer time for after we get out of the crumbling tower!" came the reply as the tower was struck again. They rounded another corner when another impact sent Reece sprawling to the ground. Ahead of him, the metal wall of the monument was carved into by a set of large talons like a hot knife through butter. Light spilling through the opening as a large shadow shot past.

"Oh fuck me..." he said with fear being injected into his blood. Getting to his feet he began to run after Elizabeth as another large cut was made into the tower causing a support beam to collapse down on to the wooden walkway and making a large gap.

Not stopping, Reece pumped his feet harder before leaping across the gap as he continued moving. "CALL THE ELEVATOR!" he shouted entering the next corridor.

"What?" Elizabeth asked back.

"PRESS THE BUTTON ON THE WALL!" he explained as they entered the last observation room.

As they waited, she took notice of the two way mirror and gasped in shock. Touching the glass as she recognized the room beyond as her bedroom. "What is all this?" she asked as if he would have the answers. "They were watching me? All this time...why?" she turned to him and grasped his forearms. "Why did they put me here? What am I? WHAT AM I?!"

Reece gently held her shoulders and looked her in the eye, "You're the girl who's getting the hell out of here. And nothing's going to stop that."

A large fist suddently punched through the door of the elevator sending them both stumbling back until they were pressed against the far wall. The hand withdrew and a large head peered into the room with glowing orange/yellow eyes with glass lenses covering them.

The creature looked roughly bird-like in nature, covered in thick leather straps from head to toe with sharp talons on the end of its arms and feet. One of the eyes seemed to zero in on Reece as it began to force its head into the door, its talons tearing into the walls and forcing the opening wider.

Elizabeth screamed while Reece drew his pistol and emptied a whole clip into the creature's head. Summoning fire blasts to his hand and he began throwing them as well as the monster began to get closer to them.

A ding resounded from the elevator call button drawing all attention in the room. Seconds before the lift dropped down from above striking the creature hard enough to dislodge it and sending it crashing down toward the floors below.

Taking a second to catch his breath, Reece reloaded his pistol and peered down over the edge to see dust and debris kicked up from the impacts. "That...is gonna lead to one nasty headache." he commented as Elizabeth came up next to him.

"Indeed. We should keep going, before he comes back." she said with a slight smile from his words.

Nodding in agreement, Reece took a few steps away from the opening before running and leaping through the elevator shaft and on to a landing on the other side, Looking back he put the pistol away and held his arms out, "Jump! I'll catch you."

Elizabeth looked hesitant, casting a glance down the shaft where the creature had vanished before making her decision. Taking a couple steps back like he did, she got a running start and jumped the gap. Landing into Reece's arms as he helped keep her steady. "You okay?" he asked as she steped out of his reach.

"Yes, thank you. Come on." she said leading him up a flight a stairs leading up.

They barely made it one floor when the tower began shaking again, this time much more violently then it had before. "Christ! What's that thing made of?!" Reece exclaimed as they double timed it up the steps.

"We have to hurry! He's going to tear the whole building apart!" she shouted as a beam came crashing through the floor above.

"ELIZABETH LOOK OUT!" the traveler shouted tackling her out of the way as he beam crushed the floor where she had been standing.

The young woman looked at him in shock as he helped her to her feet, "How do you know my name?" she asked as the tower shook again, the metal letting out a loud groan as supports began to strain from the damage.

"Later! Let's GO!" he shouted as they ran the rest of the way to the top. Stopping at a door, Reece twisted the wheel and tried to push it open and only getting it so far. "Give me a hand here!" he said as Elizabeth braced herself against the steel and pushed with him.

The door eventually the door began to open back outside. The wind slamming against the door and almost forcing it shut again. Reece braced himself against the frame and held it open allowing Elizabeth to pass through. "Where do we go?!" she asked over the sound of the wind.

"Up!" Reece shouted back slipping through the gap and leading her up the fenced in path. The strong wind nearly knocking the young woman over forcing the traveler to wrap an arm around her waist to support her as they ascended the tower.

Through the clouds, the two could make out the dark shadow of what looked to be large bat-wings "He's not going to stop..." she said barely loud enough for the other teen to hear her. Reece gritted his teeth, glaring at the shadow as it disappeared.

"I won't let him get you, I promise." he vowed as they reached the top of the monument.

The tower was struck again, this time a loud crunch was heard and everything started listing to the side. The two grabbed on to the railing as the monument split in half and began to fall. A second impact caused them to let go and began spinning through open air, screams ripping from their throats as they plunged helplessly through the clouds.

Struggling, Reece managed to right himself. Moving over to Elizabeth and grabbing her hand, pulling her close to his body and securing her to him. A flicker in his peripheral vision caught his attention and gave him an image that would haunt his dreams.

The creature was much larger than he though. Its large wings extended back before folding inward as it dived after them. Its glowing eyes locked on them like prey as it closed the distance quickly.

"No fucking way am I letting this thing get to us!" Reece looked around as Elizabeth burrowed her face into his neck shaking in terror. The light of the sun reflected off of something below them. The traveler's eyes widened when he saw the shining form of a sky-way come into view. "ELIZABETH! HANG ON TIGHT AND DON'T LET GO!" he shouted slipping his hand into his sky-hook and waiting for the right moment.

The girl's grip tightened on his torso as the creature chasing them was almost within grabbing distance. Reece shot out his arm and activated the magnet as he held Elizabeth's waist and held the sky-hook out.

His arm was nearly ripped out of its socket when the device latched on to the railway and took off. Elizabeth lost her grip and began to slip but was stopped when Reece's other hand grabbed her wrist before she could fall, making him wince as both arms were extended to their limits.

The creature zooming past them dissapeared into the clouds as the once beautiful monument behind them crumbled.

Biting his lip from the pain in his arms. Reece kept the speed trigger on the sky-hook firmly pressed as they shot along the skyway. An airship in the air ahead of them was sliced to ribbons as the monster made another appearence. All they could do was hold on for dear life as the sky-hook shot out a couple sparks from the weight of two people hanging from it.

They flew through an opening in a bridge with the creature shadowing them as the upper half of the monument fell away from the rest and went through the clouds toward the ocean thousands of feet below.

But not before one of the angel's wings connected with the bridge they were riding along next to. Destroying it and the skyway that had been attached to it. Everything slowing to a crawl as the sky-hook reached the end of the rail and launched both teens into open air.

Acting on instinct, Reece spun around and pulled Elizabeth's form against his like before. She wrapped her arms around him and gripped as tightly as she could with her head pressed to his chest as he turned so that she was on top of him and his back facing the ground as they began falling again. His body now shielding hers.

He looked over his shoulder and saw another island below them with a large body of water. Leaning down so that his mouth was next to Elizabeth's ear he told her to hold her breath as they slammed into the water and vanished under the waves, the debris of the destroyed bridge raining down around them moments later.

Now submerged, the two separated and began to kick with all their strength to get back to the surface. Avoiding the large chunks of debris that was decending around them as they drew closer to the sunlight.

That was until a dark shadow quickly began to grow on the other side until it began to take the form of a familiar shape. Reece had a split second to push Elizabeth away as a large clawed hand shot into the water and grabbed him.

The creature's upper half burst in soon after. Its head snapping to the left as it looked at the captured traveler with it's glowing right eye. The teen struggled as the talons gripped him tighter, crushing the air out of him making bubbles burst from his mouth and grinding his bones together.

Swinging his sky-hook encased arm, he struck hard as he could against the thing's eye as he tried to get free, the hooks spinning in the water churning it up while it grinded against the reinforced lens.

However, the creature shook of the hits and clenched its talon more. Reece felt one of his ribs pop making him cry out into the water in agony, unable to move from the pain or draw in breath his body started to fail him making the situation look grim.

Unknown to both, a large chunk of bridge fell down and crashed into the water, slamming into the creature's back hard enough to crack one of its eyes. Dark fluid spewed into the water around them as it recoiled cluching it's face before releasing him. The monster thrashed its head before backing off and shot back out of the water leaving a trail of blood-like fluid in its wake as Reece watched it disappear, his vision darkening and chest burning from lack of air and from the broken rib he'd gotten as he slowly began to drift toward the bottom.

Before his eyes closed completely, he could have sworn he saw an angel come down and take his hand.

A/N: One hell of a first meeting, if I do say so myself. But the question is how will things go one from here with Elizabeth's 'Guardian' now being thrown into the mix with a vendetta against Reece?

New update tomorrow!