"Oh, Katy!" A wind chime-like voice sang out in the hall, turning a couple heads but other than that not attracting much attention. A woman with burning red hair draped around her shoulder turned to look. A floor-length, deep green dress was draped over her, with a long slit up the thigh. A mask like a white bird covered the top half of her face. She grinned widely at her friend, exposing teeth only slightly out of place, and held out her arms to embrace her.

"Susanne, good to see you. How have you been lately?"

"Oh, you know." The blonde waved a gloved hand, the blue earrings hanging nearly to her shoulders glinting. Her outfit matched the colour of the jewelry, short and exposing a white garter belt. There were red lipstick marks on her champagne flute, matching where she sipped. "Living the dream."

"You can say that again." Katherine looked around the room, admiring the hanging red velvet and beautiful people. More party-goers milled about, drinking and laughing, wearing masks like theirs. A man was on the piano, playing an upbeat tune.

"Beautiful, isn't it all?" Susanne mused, following her friend's gaze. Her own mask was that of a white bunny, covering most of her face but her mouth. Her light, fair hair hung in lovely waves down her back.

"We're so fortunate to be here." Katherine said. "I think we take Rapture for granted sometimes."

"Yes, I should think so." Susanne replied. "Aren't you supposed to be up there, doing what you do best?" She nodded at the man at the piano.

"Not my set. I have to sing, Fitz up there doesn't. I'll be up in about half an hour."

"Well, I'll make sure to stick around. Heard that cutie has a thing for little ol' you. Ooh, did you hear the news?"

"Wait, what…What news?"

"Jasmine Jolene just had Ryan's little brat! They're keeping it all very hush-hush but I have a friend who knows a guy who used to be friends with Ryan, and apparently they discussed it over a drink. Unlucky bastard."

"Susy!" Katherine chastised. "Language."

"Oh, right, sorry. A-a-anyway, it's a little boy. Haven't got a name yet, my contact didn't get that part. We probably know more about this than most of the city! Oh, I feel so sneaky. Like a secret agent!"

"I'm sure you do, love." Katherine smiled and finished off her champagne. "I'm sure you do. I hope Jasmine is okay with all of it. I've met her a few times backstage, she's really rather nice. A bit…shallow, but nice all the same. I suppose we all have purposes here in Rapture."

"So her purpose was to have Ryan's kid?" Susanne asked, her foggy blue eyes skeptical under the mask. "Never thought you for that type of thinking, dear."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I was raised in a Christian family, but…I don't know. Fate is an odd thing, if it exists. Is there a God? If so, did he make it Jasmine's sole purpose to have Ryan's child? If so, why would he care? I could ask these sorts of "if so" things all day."

"Oh, you have." Susanne laughed. She looked across the room and gasped, hurrying to stand behind Katherine. "Oh, my gosh, Katy! Look!"

The other party guests saw the same thing. There were murmurs of surprise, the crowd parting around the subjects of interest: a lumbering, gigantic figure in a shiny diving suit, and running happily ahead of him with a long syringe in her hand was a Little Sister, eyes glowing yellow. Her skin was pallid and sickly, her hair in greasy pigtails. The Big Daddy followed her closely, picking up the pace a little when she ran too far ahead. His left hand was a massive, threatening drill. They passed right by Katherine and Susanne, through the hall they were standing at the entrance to. The Little Sister even smiled amicably at the women as she skipped past. Once gone, the party resumed its previous tone.

"Wow." Susanne murmured, looking after the odd pair. "So that's them, huh?"

"Looks like it." Katherine muttered, doing the same. The Big Daddy turned a corner, and was gone but for lumbering footsteps and some unintelligible grumbling. "Strange seeing them at a party..."

"Well, monsters want to have fun, too, right?" Susanne joked. She seemed to notice something and downed the rest of her drink. "Love to stay, but I'm going to go put the moves on that absolutely delicious specimen over there." She purred, staring down a suited man standing off to the side with a couple friends.

"Calm down, kitty." Katherine chuckled, patting her shoulder as her friend fluffed up her hair, refreshing her lipstick in her hand mirror.

"Okay." Susanne snapped the mirror closed with a decisive click, tugging her dress around a little to expose more cleavage and adjusted her mask. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck." Katherine said sarcastically, watching her friend saunter off, blue heels clacking confidently on the tile floor. "You're gonna need it."

-o-

Kiki coughed, waking herself mid-dream/memory. She flinched in her tree, grasping a branch instinctively tight, putting her other hand over her mouth, and instantly regretting not making the short trip to her safe bed. Something was trickling down her skin in heavy droplets, making her eyes water, her nose burn, her skin slimy and her lungs strain. A faint hissing was humming through the garden. Green mist was spraying down from the ceiling. Leaves on the trees dried, crinkled up and fell off. Flowers withered and died in record time right before her eyes.

"No…the trees!" Kiki jumped from the tree, stumbling on the landing and coughing again. "Ryan, you great fuck!" She roared. "Stop this! Stop!"

Holding a sleeve to her mouth and nose, she ran from her Rolling Hills sanctuary into the Tea Garden, which she found was less affected by the toxin than the Rolling Hills. She suspected the Tree Farm would be worse, as Ryan was likely trying to get rid of the oxygen in Rapture.

Falling to her knees at the little stream, she snatched up greedy handfuls of water and rubbed it on any exposed skin: her arms, face, neck. She hacked up a glob of phlegm from inhaling the toxic gasses, gasping a few times and calming down, now only breathing heavily.

Standing, she turned around and saw Jack at the entrance to the Tea Garden, closing the sliding paper door behind him. She clenched her fists and marched up to him, pointing viciously as soon as he saw her. "If this is you, Jumper Jack, I swear to everything I know I will kill you here and now."

"No, it's Ryan." He explained, hands out to show he meant no harm. His plasmid had changed, and now he held an oozing blue ball, which she recognised as a targeting plasmid that you could throw at people, and watch as the security bots shot them to meat.

Kiki stepped up to him in a flash, glaring directly into his eyes, which she noted were a very dark brown. They watched each other, judging. "Fine." Kiki finally decided, stepping back. She took his chin her hand and turned his head around a little. "But just because you're some brand-new, good-looking bloke from up above doesn't mean I trust you. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. So watch it, mister." She patted his cheek and smiled. "Now let's go fix the trees before I kill everything here."

She whirled around, plucking her shotgun from her belt. Footsteps behind her told her Jack was following. "You don't seem to like talking so much. Not a problem, I can talk for both of us. So, how'd you get down to this hell hole?"

"My plane crashed en route to England."

"Really? Your plane crashed…in the middle of the Atlantic. Conveniently, so it happens, right at the gates of Rapture?"

"…Yeah. Why are you here?"

"I was selected to be a first-class citizen of Rapture because of my…contributions to the culture of the arts. Basically, because I can sing a couple songs. Doesn't matter now, does it? Miss the posh life. Anyway, I'm from Wales. God save the Queen and so forth. Miss it, especially now. Hm, let's think…okay, why were you going to England?"

"Seeing cousins."

"Neat. So, plan is this: we're going to go up to see Julie, because once she finds out about all this, she'll be frothing at the mouth." They walked through a couple glass halls and found themselves in a little entrance area with a sliding door at one end. Kiki banged on the door, hard, with the flat of her hand. "Julie! Julie, it's me, Ryan's trying to kill—"

"My trees!" Julie cried, her distressed face appearing on the monitor. "It wasn't you, was it? No…Ryan. I think I've got a way to save the trees, it's a genetic factor. Oh, who's that with you…? Never mind. Kathy, darling, could you find a sample of Rosa Galica for me? Do you know where it is?"

"Yes, I'll go get it now. This is Jack, topsider who stumbled in here earlier. Doesn't talk much." Kiki explained, shrugging to him.

"Oh, well, just go and get that rose sample for me and I can cook up that factor. Make it quick!"

Kiki saluted to the monitor and marched away with Jack in tow. "Come on, Jumper Jack. We're off to the Grotto for some of that rose."

She led him back through the Rolling Hills, winding through the trees and turning up a staircase. At the top, a Big Daddy was thundering into the garden beyond, his Little Sister hopping happily along behind him. In the corner of her eye, Kiki watched Jack load his shotgun with what looked like explosive shells.

"I wouldn't, if I were you." She warned seriously. "Those bad boys will knock you 'cross the room without a thought for just looking at the Sister funny." Jack simply walked up the stairway, disregarding her caution and loading the gun. "Seriously, really don't—"

BANG! The shells stuck to the Daddy and exploded on him, causing the massive creature to reel in pain, roaring loudly enough to make the ground shake. The Sister screamed, a terrified shriek. Jack simply reloaded the shotgun, the empty shell jumping aside, leaving a trail of smoke behind. The Big Daddy was on him in a moment, picked him up and threw him into the nearest wall.

Kiki rolled her eyes. "Dammit, man!" She grumbled, taking out her machine gun and putting in a magazine of armour-piercing rounds, aiming, and accurately pelting the Daddy with them. He waved his arms around, noticed her, and charged. Kiki ducked out of the way just in time, aimed and emptied the gun on the Daddy. Recovering from his charge, the bullets finally got through the thick armour, and he keeled over, unmoving.

Kiki sighed and walked up the stairs. She only got halfway when the Little Sister came stumbling down, crying loudly. "Mr B! Please get up, Mr Bubbles! Why won't you get up?" She sobbed. Kiki easily bent over and scooped the girl up, holding her firmly and continuing up the stairs. "No! No, no!" The Little Sister tried fighting away from her.

"Get up, Jack." She snapped, poking his leg with her toe. "We've got a little girl to kill because of you, now."

Jack groaned and stood, holding a hand to his side. His jumper was stained red on that side. He looked at Kiki, holding the struggling Little Sister. He held out his hands in a clear "give her over" motion.

"Fine. I hope you're ready to live with the consequences." She handed the girl over, who was still crying out in panic.

Jack's veins ran white under his skin as he set a hand on her forehead like he was checking her temperature. The Little Sister went limp in his arms, sighing. After a moment and a flash of light, Jack set her down on her feet and sat back against the wall.

"Thank you. Thank you, mister." The girl thanked. Her eyes had returned to normal, her skin less pale. She ran off, scampering up to the nearest tunnel and crawling inside.

"So…you going to tell me what that was all about?" Kiki asked, turning to him.

"Tenenbaum." Jack answered simply, grabbing the wall too drag himself to a nearby park bench. There was a smear of blood against an outcropped stone in the wall where the Big Daddy had thrown him.

Kiki sighed, taking a first aid kit from the back of her belt, kneeling next to him. "This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't made that Daddy angry. I swear…okay, jumper off." Jack raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you going to make me undress you?"

He sighed and struggled with the knit thing, getting the arm of his good side out, as well as his head, but freezing with a twitch of pain when it got to his injured side. Kiki sighed again and pulled it away, setting it aside. She focused on the first aid, picking up the little syringe and tapping the anesthesia inside. He was only wearing a white wife-beater, and Kiki refused to look at a half-naked man she just met.

She took his arm and injected the numbing agent into his blood, noticing a tattoo of three interlinked chains on his wrist. Jack relaxed, his head falling back against the wall and fists unclenching.

"Okay, shirt off, too." Kiki instructed, taking out the alcohol and bandaging. Jack gave her that look again, eyebrow raised. "I've patched up enough friends in the past year, male and female, to know what I'm doing. I will take your clothes off." Jack smirked, a cheeky little quirk of the mouth, and awkwardly tugged the tank away.

Kiki cleaned the wound up, rubbing the dirt and excessive blood away with cotton and alcohol. It might have burned, but the anesthesia probably helped a lot. After the wound, a large gash between his ribs, was cleaned up, she wrapped the bandages around his lean torso. Leaning over him, she noted that the same chain tattoo was both wrists. The final step was the small amount of ADAM, in a very little syringe of its own. She administrated it somewhat reluctantly; the chem was hard to come by, but he was no use to her with broken bones. The ADAM would have him healed up quick as a whip—or, at least, a lot faster than the body could do without it.

"Well, that should do it." Kiki sat back on her heels and inspected her handiwork. "Not bad, in my opinion."

"Thanks." Jack said, holding the injury.

"Everybody gets one." Kiki smirked. "So now that you aren't in immediate danger of bleeding out, care to elaborate on that Little Sister trick you pulled?"

"Tenenbaum," He groaned, sitting up straighter. "Gave me a serum. Takes the slug from their bodies, and gives me ADAM besides."

"That's really remarkable! This could fix all those poor creatures." Kiki thought about it for a moment. With even one person with that power, the Little Sisters could become normal again. "Hm, more on that later. For now, let's get you dressed."

With a bit of struggling, wincing and awkward closeness, they got his shirt and bloodstained jumper back on. Kiki folded the remains of the first aid kit up into its box and hooked it on the back of her belt again. "Mind if I borrow an EVE hypo?"

Jack handed it over. She injected into her wrist with a grimace, watching the blue sprint through her blood, and waited. Soon, the flesh of her arm folded and morphed into little hexagons of sticky honeycomb. Large, fat wasps crawled across her hand and up her arm. Kiki wiggled her fingers, smiling as the wasps buzzed not unhappily at her.

"Now that's done, let's get on. Have to find that rose." She helped Jack to his feet and, making sure he was all right, started off again toward the Grotto.

The halls of Arcadia had, in the past year, become overgrown with a particularly aggressive strain of vine that bloomed with large leaves and flowers both, the flowers being an obnoxious shade of magenta. There was so much of it, the walls were almost cushioned. It, along with the grass everywhere, gave Arcadia an almost claustrophobic sense; dark, humid, and more often than not now, stinking of blood and rot.

Even so, it remained one of the loveliest places in Rapture. That was probably the only reason Kiki stayed anymore. It felt more like home than her flat on the other side of the city ever had.

The Grotto was, in a sense, a hole in the ground. A wooden scaffolding-esque staircase wound around the turning gear in the middle of the room. Water had since flooded the Grotto, but only about ankle- to shin-deep. Splicers liked hiding out there, as it was dark, and the Rosa Galica made it extremely aromatic, which probably soothed the side effects of the ADAM overdose. Kiki didn't often come to the Grotto for just that reason, but every now and then picked a little rose to keep her peninsula of a hideout smell good.

On the same note, the rose itself was incredible. The Grotto had been part of the water distributing mechanics of Arcadia, to keep the plants fresh. A massive gear was in the centre of the room, and the rose had grown wild and untamed up the side of the machinery. The reaching arms of the plant stretched around the entire room and beyond, while the blossoms were, at minimum, the diametre of Kiki's hand, and at maximum, larger than her head.

"Wow." She said as they stepped inside, and took out her camera. "That rose is out of control. I guess that's why it's called…" She snapped a picture of the glowing pink rose. "Photo-synthesis."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"That was actually a pretty good one, you have to admit that much." Kiki grinned, waving the photo out to see how it looked.

"…"

"Oh, then bugger off. That was clever."

Jack laughed, a noise that made Kiki look back at him in mild surprise. However, it seemed to shock Jack even more. He blinked, perplexed, and looked like he was about to say something, when an ear-shattering rattle of gunfire went out instead.

"Bloody turrets!" Kiki swore, ducking behind a short wall of stone on the staircase one down. "I hate turrets…" She peeked over the edge, taking a grenade from her belt. Dust showered into her eyes as the turret shot at her again.

"Gotta be real careful…" She muttered, pulled the pin and tossed the grenade as accurate as she could over her shoulder. "Fire in the hole!" A great boom echoed in the room, but the gunfire stopped. "If that didn't get any Splicers over here, fuck me." Kiki grumbled, loading her pistol and tipping it back with a clack. "I'll get the Rosa Galica sample, you try and keep the Splicers off me without dying. So, on your marks, get set…"

A female Splicer screamed right on cue. "You call that a roast?!"

"Go!"

They leapt into action. Kiki sent out a preliminary swarm of wasps, which she could hear swarming angrily above her, and jumped over the edge of the wood fence. The distance to the ground was a little further than she anticipated, but she rolled to avoid any serious shin-smashing damage and hopped up, eyes fixed on the rose.

A Splicer with a pair of goggles ironically welded to his face pounced on her from the left, where he had been veritably hiding. Splicers were odd, they couldn't really hide or sneak, but they could be clever once in a blue moon if they were really, really intelligent before the ADAM. Kiki turned and promptly shot him once through the front of the head, not sparing him a second glance as she waded quickly to the Rosa. She grabbed a tin lunch box from her belt, where she kept nearly everything, ever, and carefully snipped one of the large roses from the stem. A thorn pricked her finger, but she hardly noticed, despite the thing being as large as the syringe to an EVE hypo.

Gently tucking al the petals into the box, she closed it with a clank and hooked it back on her belt. As she turned to walk back up the stairs, she grabbed a first aid kit from the top of a storage crate and hightailed it out.

"Come on, Jumper Jack!" She yelped, dodging a Splicer's attacks and shooting him, missing and getting his knee instead. "Let's get the hell out of Dodge!"

"Busy!" Jack snapped, swinging his wrench brutally at some random Splicer's skull. She screamed each time the heavy metal hit her head, getting tossed back and forth. Blood spattered on the wall to the right and the wood rail on the left.

"Too bad, let's go! She's done, anyway!" Kiki grabbed his wrist and tugged him out the door.

"Ah!" Jack hissed, putting his hand to his side.

"Oop, sorry. Woah now, not so fast!" Kiki switched her plasmid and froze a jumping Splicer in midair, about to crack Jack's head open with a piece of pipe. Jack looked back at him but kept running without saying anything.

"'Thanks for saving my life, Katherine!' 'Oh, no problem, Jumper Jack, just doing my job.' 'But how can I repay you?' 'Silly Jack, slaughter is it's own reward!'" Kiki imitated Jack's voice with heavy sarcasm as they crashed and slipped down the slick, vine-covered halls to the Rolling Hills.

She looked back to see his reaction and almost had to stop running at the expression on his face. The only way to describe it was a combination of amused, exasperated, and a sort of "are-you-kidding-me-this-is-not-the-time-for-joking" deal.

"Right, now, back to the watering hole. No, the Glens. Wait, no, Julie!" Kiki stopped in the Rolling Hills, making a couple turns on the spot to get her bearings straight before starting off again through the smoky, toxin-filled forest.

"Julie, Julie, we've got it!" Kiki slammed face-first into the door, getting a roll of the eyes from Jack, which she didn't see. "Here it is!" She opened the lunch box to show the lush specimen as the monitor flicked on.

"Lovely catch, Kathy." Langford complimented. "Just put it through the tube and I'll start on the genetic factor immediately. Come in if you want, the security is always down for you."

"Thanks, Jules, but I think I'm going to quick jump back to the Hills to patch myself up. Be back in two ticks."

"Don't take too long. I may need your help again. Knock if you want in, I'll be locking down again."

"Sure thing. Come along, Jumper Jack."