Disclaimer – I'm going to point out again that I don't own the Bioshock universe, and that I want to own Bioshock Infinite. When's that thing finally coming out?

CaliforniaStop, Zero612, and TheBleachDoctor – Thank you all again for your reviews. Due to the positive response to the last chapter, I really didn't want to keep you hanging as long as usual for another chapter, especially as I've only been advancing the plot by small chunks at a time. So I tried to hurry up a little bit more with this installment.

Jack really needed a drink. Or a smoke. Or a needle to the vein. Or a snort of powder. Even another shot of that bluish-purply goo they called EVE. Anything to hold off the headaches and shakes and sweats for a little while longer.

The little bald man was laying various crude instruments out across a wooden bench. Jack and Teagan had been hung by their handcuffed wrists from a rafter so that their toes barely touched the ground. Even conscious for it, Jack was still unsure how the little man had been able to hoist them up this high. From this perspective, the short, fat man with the bushy wisps of hair on the sides of his bald head looked more like a troll than ever.

Jack heard Teagan moan as she regained consciousness, and he turned his head to face her. Sullivan had stripped them both down to their barest undergarments, and Jack had gentlemanly tried to avert his eyes from the young girl's nearly nude figure. Now, as her eyes opened and looked from the squatty troll to him in panic, he tried to fake a reassuring smile. He decided to say something, but the little man took his words from him.

"You're finally awake." He turned to Jack. "Now that you're both up, it's time for formal introductions. My name's Sullivan. What's yours?"

Jack just stared at him for a moment before spitting out, "Go to Hell."

Sullivan calmly pulled on a pair of black leather gloves, than he snarled and threw his fist, with all his force, into Jack's stomach.

Jack coughed and swung back on his chain.

"I don't like hurting people," Sullivan said. "At least, I didn't used to. Now I done it so much it don't really bother me that much anymore." A note of sadness crept into his voice. "In fact, sometimes I'm worried I'm startin' to enjoy it a little."

Then he shook his head and smiled, dismissing his moment of humanity with a sick little chuckle.

"I done a lot of ugly things. Lot uglier than this. But it's a small price to pay to put paradise back on track."

He punched Jack hard in the stomach again. Jack swung around on the chain, groaning in pain.

"Leave him alone!" Teagan cried out.

Sullivan slapped at her. He was just barely able to reach the corner of her chin. Her head swung sideways and she whimpered a little bit.

"Men are talkin' right now, sweetheart."

He turned, once again, to Jack.

"We don't have to do it the hard way. You can answer a few questions for me, then I can let both of you down and we can discuss this over a bottle like civilized people do. Now, who do you work for?"

"You bastard," Jack groaned.

"So that's how you wanna do it."

Sullivan punched him in the gut.

Jack coughed a few times.

"I'm not even supposed to be here," he said, choking the words out through clenched teeth.

"Well, that's somethin' we can both agree on," Sullivan said, massaging his fists.

"I'm supposed to be in Europe with my family. My plane crashed on its way over the Atlantic . . ."

"Liar!" Sullivan said, winding up for another punch. This time, Jack flexed his abdominal muscles in anticipation. "You expect me to believe that?"

The next two punches thudded off Jack's stomach as he held his breath.

"Well, now, the gloves," Sullivan said, literally tugging at the fingertips of the leather gloves, "come off."

He managed to reach up and find a spot between bones on Jack's arm, just above the elbow, and squeeze into it with his bare fingers as hard as he could. The pain was accompanied by the involuntary firing of tiny sparks from Jack's fingers.

"I see you favor Electro Bolt," Sullivan said. "It's a good plasmid. I just recently become partial to the stuff myself."

His hand began to glow blue.

"Too bad it looks like you missed a dose of EVE."

He put a hand on Jack's stomach, and Jack was racked with the electrical surge.

"These toys here," Sullivan waved his arm over the bench. "They're mostly just for show. I find most people realize they want to talk after they have a few volts sent through them."

Another surge.

"He doesn't know anyt'in'!" Teagan shouted.

Sullivan flexed his fingers and Teagan writhed in an electric current.

"What do you want from me?" Jack muttered.

"Just tell me. Do you work for Frank Fontaine?"

"No."

The electricity shot through Jack again, hotter this time.

"Frank Fontaine's dead," Teagan said. "E'ryone know's t'at. You shot 'im y'rself."

"Yeah, I shot him, all right. But I still haven't been able to find the body."

Sullivan grabbed Teagan's shapely bare leg, and she screamed as sparks flew up. Tears ran down her face, turning her makeup into ugly smears.

"Stop it!" Jack screamed.

Sullivan looked at Jack's concerned face and smiled. He laughed a little.

"Ooh. I see I've finally found the right pressure point."

He zapped Teagan again.

The girl wiggled her fingers. Flame burst across her hand for an instant, but then quickly extinguished.

"So, you're one of those 'Incincerate' broads? It's a good plasmid, for a dame." While one of his hands continued to glow blue, the other turned into a glove of ice. "I prefer Winter Blast myself."

He prodded her belly with his icy touch. Teagan let out a few more whimpers of pain.

"Stop it! I'll tell you whatever you want!" Jack said.

Sullivan prodded Teagan with Electro Bolt again, and then caressed her stomach with Winter Blast.

"I hate that it has to be this way," he said. "But I know Andrew Ryan would say it's all worth it."

"What do you want me to say?" Jack repeated.

"I want you to tell me where Frank Fontaine is."

"I . . . don't . . . KNOW!"

Teagan's body writhed as the electricity from Sullivan's fingers shot through her again.

"Fine! I work for Fontaine," Jack said. "I work for Fontaine! I'll tell you anything you want to know. Please, just let the girl go."

"Where is he?" Sullivan growled, applying his icy hand to Teagan's scorched body again.

"Stop it!"

Jack worked up all the saliva he could and coughed it out onto the center of Sullivan's bald head.

Sullivan turned, his black eyes livid, his fingers clenched. As his hand glowed a more intense blue, Jack watched Teagan flex every muscle in her body, grunting as the flames bursting from her arms grew hotter and hotter.

Even as Jack felt more electricity crackle from Sullivan's hand, he tried to remain focused on Teagan, the iron binds melting off around her wrists. She must have been burning off the last tiny amount of EVE in her system.

She fell on her face right by Sullivan's bench. Her hands gripped the first thing she could reach, a long lead pipe. She swung it hard against Sullivan's head, and the fat little man went rolling across the ground like a ball.

A couple good swings of the lead pipe were enough to break the chain suspending Jack from the rafter and put him back down on his feet.

"Le's go," Teagan said, and they both started running.

Jack kept running, nearly tripping over the clothes balled up on the ground, not looking back until he heard a shout from Teagan. Turning back to see how far behind she'd fallen, Jack could make out two shadows cast on the wall. Sullivan had Teagan by the ankle. The lead pipe had apparently fallen and rolled away when she fell on her face. Sullivan was rising with, what looked like, in the shadows, a machete.

"Don't worry about me, Jack! Jus' save yourself. You've got to get Evelyn outta here!"

The machete thudded down on her back.

She was still kicking and struggling beneath Sullivan. Jack knew he had to go back and save her. He had to work out a plan. Quickly. Even if he could find a weapon, how could he get his hands back in front of him?

The blade came down again, Teagan still struggling and screaming beneath it, crimson blood splashing the wall the shadows were being cast on.

Jack started running towards the grotesque shadow puppet show, determined to tackle the squatty troll and save the fair damsel. The blade came down again. And again. And again.

Blood kept splashing the wall.

Jack stopped where he was standing. Teagan had stopped making noises. Her shadow had stopped flailing and kicking.

The only movement in her body was from the vibrations of the machete still hacking into her back.

Jack turned and ran, as fast as he could, never looking back this time. He felt sick as he heard the sound of Sullivan grunting and the machete slicing into soft flesh.

Jack managed to clamber up a flight of stairs and through a pair of heavy doors. He was back out in the garden. His head was spinning. His heart was pounding. His vision was failing.

Every part of him hurt.

He only stopped when he'd thudded into Mr. Touch. Touch grabbed him by one shoulder as Evelyn caught the other.

"S'rry," Jack said. "S'rry. Y'r s'st'r. I coul'n't . . ."

"Don't talk," Evelyn said. "You need to save your strength."

Jack could hear the sound of her voice, but her words didn't make any sense.

"I'm s' s'rry," he said, his face feeling nearly paralyzed. "Y'r s'st'r. Y'r s'st'r . . ."

"Where losin' 'im fast," Atlas' voice said.

Mr. Touch and Evelyn were dragging him forward.

"Quick! Get 'im to a Vita Chamber," the voice over the radio said. "Can ya hear me, boyo? Stay wit' us. Jus' a li'l further."

Vision was blurring around the edges. Everything was becoming darker.

"Nearest Vita Chamber's in Fort Frolic. I know it'll put ya smack-dab in Cohen's territory, but we don't really ha' a choice now."

Now everything was just blackness. Atlas' voice seemed to be coming from a different planet.

"Hurry up, now! We don't ha' much time. Get 'im into the Chamber before we lose 'im for good."

"Don't die on me now, Jackie," Evelyn whispered softly into his ear. "Jus' a li'l farther, now."

"I'm s'rry. I'm s' s'rry. I tried . . ."

"Get a move on!"

Atlas' last phrase echoed a few times in Jack's head, getting softer and softer, until Jack felt himself floating towards a light.

A/N – Not done yet. To be continued . . .