-I love the flashbacks. I love writing drama, although I'm not that good at it.

-Attention all readers: Please review. If you feel like I'm not giving you enough of what you want from this story, don't be afraid to speak up! More fluff, more fighting, more snarkiness, more banter, less fighting/snarkiness/banter, whatever! Feel free to contribute.

-So much happening this chap! I hope it doesn't seem like I'm rushing through…

W'P

Quote: "My soul is full of whispered song; My blindness is my sight; The shadows that I feared so long are all alive with light."-Alice Cary

Song: "Youth", Daughter (And if you're still breathing you're the lucky ones, 'cause most of us are breathing through corrupted lungs, setting fire to our insides for fun, collecting names of the lovers that went wrong...the lovers that went wrong. We are the reckless, we are the wild youth…)

-o-

10 January, 1959

Kiki walked with impatient, fearful briskness through the Medical Pavilion. In recent days, the district had been buzzing with countless admissions of those beaten and dying, overdosing on ADAM or some other horrible thing. It smelled sterile and of disease, like blood and alcohol. Nurses in white dresses hurried around in a rush, at least in the lobby, but once Kiki moved through the halls a little more, there wasn't as much traffic. She looked into various room, peeking at the door number or through the window to check for the person she was looking for. No one cared she was snooping—no one cared about anything anymore. At last she found the correct room and entered.

Susanne was sitting in a chair next to a hospital bed, a blanket draped across her knees. She held a small romance novella in her hands. Bloodstained bandages were wrapped tightly around her head, where her beautiful blond hair had been shaved away. Bruises were splotched across her fair skin, now pale with loss of blood and addition of medication.

She looked at Kiki as the woman entered, and her eyes lit up immediately. "Oh, Katy! Thank god, I was simply dying of boredom in this horrid place."

"Susanne." Kiki walked over to her friend and sat down on the bed. "How are you? It took me so long to find you, I was worried sick."

"Oh, dreadful thing, that." Susanne pushed herself to sit up more. "After that business at the Kashmir, everyone injured there got put right into the Pavilion here, me included. Couldn't talk with anyone outside, what with all this political business and Atlas."

"But what happened to you? I tried to find you…"

"I was trampled under the crowd, darling." At Kiki's concerned look, Susanne shrugged. "It's not so bad anymore, but, oh, Katy…my skull was cracked, they had to operate to fix it…"

"Shh, it's okay." Kiki patted her friend's hand and smiled. "It's all over. You're okay."

"Well, that's the thing, darling." Susanne's eyes brimmed with tears. She weakly pulled away the blanket on her lap to reveal a wheelchair. Her smooth legs were slumped lifelessly to one side. "Hit my head a bit harder than they thought, you see."

"Oh, Susy…" Kiki tried not to look pitying, but she had no idea how she should act in this. "Are...are you okay? Can I do anything for you?"

"Darling, please." Susanne smiled weakly as tears ran down her healing cheeks. "I'm still sexy as silk."

-o-

"Where the hell is he?" Kiki asked rhetorically as she and Jack walked back out onto the strip stage. Even as they did, someone's drunken mumbling could be heard in the direction of the bar. Looking over in disbelief, a man in a telltale, brightly coloured bird mask was sitting at the bar, drinking vodka from the bottle. On the counter sat a box of pre-made Molotov cocktails. Kiki quickly shuffled Jack back behind the corner, into the hall.

"We can avoid another Cobb incident this way." She whispered, loading a new bolt in her crossbow. She peeked around the corner. "Get ready in case I miss." Looking down the sights, Kiki focused in on Rodriguez's head. She took a slow, steadying breath, and pulled the trigger.

The sound of the bolt slicing through his skull was audible all the way where they were crouching. Rodriguez slumped forward in his chair, decidedly dead.

"Boom!" Kiki clenched a fist and pumped her arm once in victory. "Look at that! Crack shot. Damn, I'm good." She jumped up and ran over to the body, camera at the ready. "Wait, let me think…ah, I don't have a joke with this one. Knock knock? Who's there? Pyromaniac. Pyromaniac who? Fucking crossbow bolt in the head." Kiki took the picture. "That one wasn't one of my best."

"Good shot, though." Jack plucked the photo from the camera.

"Wasn't it? Damn, I'm good." Jack gave Kiki a look and she laughed lightly. "It was great, you have to admit. Damn good, in fact."

"You can stop whenever you feel like it."

"Sorry."

They walked back through the Plaza and the frozen hall, and once again found themselves in the atrium. Kyle was sitting sullenly by the stage, glaring into space, still securely bound, and towering above him was the masterpiece. Jack stepped up onto the stage for the third time and placed the picture in its frame. Cohen had nothing to say this time; everyone knew what was next, and no one needed to speak yet. Kiki took her pistol from its holster and pulled the hammer back. It stuck in place with a purposeful click. She put her finger on the trigger and turned to place the long, thin barrel against Kyle's head.

"Any last words, Kyle?" She asked lowly. Noticing now, her arm was trembling minutely.

Kyle looked up at her, eyes full to the brim with hatred. "I'm, not, sorry." He said each word with emphasis, drawing the sentence out with burning precision.

Kiki nodded. "You know, I should thank you. If you hadn't done what you did, I wouldn't have survived this long into the apocalypse. So thank you, Kyle Fitzpatrick, for being a disgusting, abusive, manipulative, slimy piece of scum on the face of the Earth. Goodbye." The gunshot made her jump, and his body slumped back against the stage, blood like deep scarlet oozing across the stage. When Kiki spoke again, her voice shook. "And good riddance."

She put the pistol away and reached for her camera, her hands now shaking more noticeably. Aiming at the body, she found the lens to be remarkably blurry. Jack reached over and gently took the camera from her hands. She heard the clack of the photo being taken, and the wobbling of the picture paper as Jack waved it out and put it in the frame.

"Oh, god," Kiki sat on the floor with a shuddering breath. Jack patted her shoulder and crouched next to her. "No, no, I'm just…I'm just being stupid. Silly old me." She whispered.

The lights went out very suddenly, and a dramatic drumroll ensued. Kiki stood, she and Jack standing near each other. Spotlights circled around the frozen masterpiece on stage. "It…is…finished!" A familiar, theatrical voice cried from the staircase by Fleet Hall, and they whirled.

With a large poof of smoke, a large spotlight shone down at the cloud. Bright confetti sprinkled down on a suited figure at the top of the stairs. He wore a black, gold-trimmed rabbit mask, but it was clear who it was. Cohen descended down the stairs, gesturing grandly at the lit-up masterpiece. "My god, my god, my god," He wept. "It's…it's beautiful."

He marveled in his "artwork", taking off his mask. His skin was pallid, painted white, and his black hair was slicked back. The tiny moustache on his upper lip accentuated the lines around his mouth. He turned and looked straight at the pair next to him. "You'll find your path to Ryan in clear. Tell him Sander said hello." He bowed deeply to them, and seemed to remember something. "Oh, yes. You may avail yourself upon one of my lesser works as a token of our time together."

He led them around the staircase to one of two pedestals enclosed in oval domes of glass. "If you had become my pair of true and loyal disciples, you might have been worthy of seeing inside the box of my most private muse. My most prized. But who knows if that man is yet even born?"

The dome of the pedestal on the right raised from a chain attached to the top. Inside was a white torso model, displaying a black rabbit mask. Sitting below was a blue Physical tonic. Jack took the tonic and regarded it a moment. The radio spluttered on, and Atlas' brogue came choppily through. Jack looked down and began tinkering with it to find the right frequency. Meanwhile, Kiki was staring up at the blank eyes of the white half-manikin. She stared for a few seconds and then, hesitantly, reached up and took the mask off. She gave it a long look, and placed it on her face, tying the straps on the back of her head.

"Go forth, my red butterfly." Cohen told her quietly. "Spread your artist's wings across Rapture for me."

Kiki nodded at him and turned back to Jack, making a gesture for the tonic. "Here, let me see." He handed it over and gave the radio a smack. Kiki dipped a finger in the tonic and tasted it. "This is Medical Expert 2, love."

"Take it." Jack nodded. "I had the last one."

Atlas finally came through, his voice faint at first but becoming clearer. "What happened to you? I've been trying to raise you for a dog's age! Never mind. Would you kindly leg it on over to the sphere and head on up to Hephaestus? It's time to settle with Ryan."

Kiki wiped her mouth of bluish tonic and shuddered. "Tastes like a hospital smells. You know how it is." She smiled a little weakly at Jack as they walked back to the entrance of the atrium. He gave her a somber look and put an arm around her shoulder. "I'm not cold anymore, Jack."

"I know." He left his arm where it was.

Kiki looked up at him. "I'm fine, Jack. Really, I am."

"No, you're not." Jack retorted, glancing at her. "It's okay. It wasn't easy, what you did."

"It wasn't." Kiki admitted. She climbed into the bathysphere and sat down on one of the cushioned seats with peeling leather. Jack pulled the lever to Hephaestus and sat next to her. "It's not like I'm not happy. The world is certainly better off without him. But…I don't know. It's hard to describe." She smiled then, a real smile. "And now it's off to Ryan, right? Brilliant. Well, I'm glad I came with you." She took Jack's hand, and after a pause, he smiled back at her.

They sat in content silence as the sphere rose to Hephaestus.

-o-

Kiki jumped a little as the doors opened to Hephaestus. Huge gears were churning away against each other on either side of the entrance hall, almost level with the sphere. She could say with complete honesty that she had never been to the district, and was now remembering why. It smelled of burning flesh instead of just rotting, and like hot metal.

"Watch yourselves." Atlas warned. "Ryan's stirring. We best keep to our knitting. It's time to either run the table or go home empty. Ryan's got the genetic key to Rapture. We get that from him and we get out of this hellhole. We don't, then all three of us are ghosts. Now, would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill that son of a bitch? It's time to finish this."

They walked out into a glass corridor. It was not peaceful and blue like the rest of the city, but rather glowing red like the cinders of a fire. Straight-ahead and looming above was the massive underwater skyscraper of Ryan Industries. Magma flowed through pipes on the outside of the corridor, which stank of gasoline. Bubbles surged up around the hall from the many pipes around its base. A whale sang far away outside, it's sad song cooing down into the hall.

"I see Cohen's lost his touch." Ryan finally decided to chime in. "If you knew him when…when he used to believe in his work, in the struggle. And now, he rots in that never-land, waiting for someone to come and tell him he's still got it. I suppose that's why he let you live."

Neither Jack nor Kiki were talking, as there were a few Splicers scavenging dead bodies in the hall, and they needed killing. Kiki's newly introverted mood had made both of them more somber, and they slaughtered the Splicers in relative silence.

The next destination was through a short transitional hall, where more gigantic gears ground at deafening volume and an orange something flowed through the pipes above their head, and Ryan decided to pop in again. "You can taste it, can't you? Andrew Ryan!"

In continued silence they walked through the halls. Steam hissed to fill the quiet for them, water mixed with gas splashing around Kiki's feet. The air was thick and heavy as they went. The next room, a large hall, actually let out a cloud of steam as the door opened, and Kiki held a hand to her nose and mouth as they stepped in.

"Oh, god." She said past her hand. Human bodies in various stages of decay were crucified on the pillars down the hall. Long poles of metal were shot through their sternum, pinning them right to the wall. Bloodstains ran down the white plaster. The bodies, both male and female, were illuminated with large spotlights. Kiki stepped in hesitantly, and Ryan chose that time to talk again.

"A worm looks up and sees the face of God! But look around...it's a regular convention of worms in here. They all had mothers, fathers, people who loved them. They got married, fucked their wives. What makes you think you're any different?" He paused. "I haven't chosen a spot on the wall for either of you yet. Let me know if you have a preference."

Walking through the hall in fearful, horrified awe, Kiki noticed a familiar body, curvy but with disproportionately thin legs. She made a noise of disgusted realisation and stopped. "Oh, god…oh, god…" For the second time that day, her eyes welled up, only this time she began to truly weep. "Oh, Susy…"

Kiki pulled her new mask off and held her hand over her eyes as she cried. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it…" She repeated over and over, shaking her head. "I knew it, I knew it…"

Jack put an arm gingerly on her shoulder, and when she didn't protest, pulled her closer so she could muffle her crying; they didn't need Splicers right now. Kiki sobbed into his jumper, letting out the stress of the past several days with a good, long cry. She hugged him as tight as she was able and for several minutes, simply wept with great gasping, body rattling sobs. Jack patted her head awkwardly, not exactly knowing what to do when confronted with a grief-stricken, crying woman.

When she had cried until her eyes hurt, Kiki pulled away with a new, steely determination to her. She tied the mask back on her face and loaded her crossbow with a new bolt. "Let's go kill Andrew fucking Ryan."

"Now that's what I call a helping hand, lass!" Atlas laughed. The radio stuttered, like two people were trying to hack in, but the Irishman got there first. "Maybe you won't be so useless after all."

"Can it." Kiki snapped. "I've half a mind to come after you when I'm done with Ryan."

"Oh-ho, I'm shaking in my boots." Atlas chuckled at her. "You don't scare me, girly."

"Maybe not. But I am with Jack. And I can reach the radio."

"Don't you dare—!"

Kiki leaned over and promptly flicked the radio off. "Ah." She sighed. "Blissful silence." She reached down and grabbed Jack's hand. "Come along, Jumper. We have a crazed dictator to kill." She paused. "I can honestly say that I've never had to say that before."

With Kiki back—at least slightly—to her normal self, things were less tense. In a metaphorical sense, she'd bled out the toxins and was now recovering from the blood loss.

"Heard about Hephaestus a little bit way back." She began, swinging her arm. "Not a lot of talk, though. Ryan spent a lot of time here, though now he's a practical hermit."

"Where is he?" Jack asked.

"My guess is at the top of the building." Kiki answered. She perked up at the sight of the doors at the far end of the hall. "Hello-o-o, what's this?"

At the far end of the hall, after the pillars of the dead, was what looked like a generator of sorts. Two large cables emerged from either side, leading up to either side of a door. Blue rivets of electricity sparked along the sides. The "generator" itself was a few feet tall and had a little lever on the front. Kiki wove and stepped curiously around the thing, observing it while cautiously avoiding the clearly dangerous, exposing wiring.

"What're you built for, lovely?" She tapped the top of the generator. "What's behind this door?" A hissing, burning noise stopped her from answering her own question. She and Jack both turned to see a door at the end of the hall being welded open by Splicers. Kiki felt a distinct sense of déjà vu.

"Time to kick ass and take names, Jack my dear." Kiki aimed her crossbow at the door, stepping down into the hall.

"Do they have names?"

Kiki snorted and laughed. "Not anymore."

The door slammed down flat and Splicers ran into the room, guns blazing and screaming as always. Kiki took down the first two with one bolt, which made her bark a disbelieving laugh. Jack mowed down the next few with fire and bullets which both roared with dangerous vengeance. Kiki's mood change was like putting a new light filter on a stage; even the fighting was more upbeat.

"Move aside, you sorry motherfuckers!" Kiki yelled, throwing her arm up and down to reload the crossbow. One Splicer, near dead, turned and began limping back the way they'd come. Her breath was ragged and blood trailed after her from a leg broken the wrong way. Kiki continued down the hall, shooting her nonchalantly in the head as she went. "This is going to be easier than I thought."

After that hall of the dead there was a small room, flooded and occupied by the corpse of a Big Daddy. A steady ribbon of water poured down over the morose figure. They skirted around him and into the next area.

There was really no way to describe it. Some huge mechanism was churning in a cavern ahead. Kiki walked to the rail and looked over into the maw of red rock and magma below. She felt a little, nonthreatening push on her back, and she flinched away from the edge. Jack was chuckling lightly behind her. Kiki turned and smacked his arm a few times.

"You, absolute, bastard!" She laughed between hits. Jack hopped away at each strike, even though it didn't hurt. He was grinning; it was a pleasant change. Kiki stopped with a chuckle and shook her head. "You should smile more." She beamed, as if to prove her point. "You look sad when you don't. It makes your face light up."

Kiki realised she was whispering, and she and Jack were standing quite close to each other. They regarded one another for a moment. She watched him, not even looking but rather watching, observing one of his pupils dilate outwards, pushing away the already dark iris. She blinked and stepped back.

"Yes, well, anyway." Kiki smiled quickly and patted Jack's cheek. "Smile more. Eat your veggies. And remember, fire spreads." She jerked her head and stepped around him into the next room. He followed her, after a short pause.

The next area was very large but compact, with rough, carved stone walls and flickering technology. It had two floors. Flickering neon signs directed them to the different sections of the place.

"This is…new." Kiki looked around. She hopped over the balcony and onto the stairs. "Let's head this way. Smells like clues."

They ended up winding their way through the orange corridors, doubling back several times and fighting off a few Splicers. Kiki got partially lost, and there was some conflict of interest regarding where to go. She felt like they were in a Charlie Chaplin movie, going in and out of doors and trying to follow Ryan, but he was always one step ahead, one door further down the hall.

"For god's sake, we've been down here already!" She exclaimed, spinning in a circle, arms out. "Read the signs!"

"I am!" Jack argued, looking up a staircase. "This is new, there's three floors."

"Ugh!" Kiki huffed, not liking being proved wrong. She stomped over to the door leading out and looked down the hall. At the far end was another door. The room was scattered with corpses and oil, and every few feet there was a large pair of gears jutting from the floor. "Fine, then. Fine. Let's go down here."

She took a few steps in the hall, Jack following, and was about to turn around when the lights went out.