-I want to do so many musical montages!

-I got lost in Hephaestus a lot.

Quote: "I felt like an animal, and animals don't know sin, do they?" -Jess C. Scott, "Wicked Lovely"

Listen to: "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want", The Smiths (So please, please, please, [let me] get what I want this time. Lord knows it would be the first time…)

-o-

14 February, 1959

Kiki pushed Susanne down the corridor in her wheelchair, which the latter had decorated with pink hearts and red tinsle. Kiki was looking around in paranoid fear, getting edgier ever since the start of the year. She felt a sort of hyper-protectiveness toward her newly crippled friend, and now their roles were reversed: she wanted to spend nearly every daylight hour with her, and Susanne wanted to be more independent.

"I hear there's a sale going on," Susanne chattered on. "Incinerate plasmid, you know, poetic sort of thing for Valentine's." She waved her arms in a rainbow arc and put on a dramatic voice. "'Set fire to your relationship, with Incinerate!' How delightfully campy, darling!"

"Are you sure you don't want to go back to your flat?" Kiki asked, jumping at what she thought was a scream but was really a loud laugh. "I can make a pie, it won't be nearly so dangerous, the riots are getting much worse. It's an arms race for plasmids and ADAM."

"Don't worry so much, darling. We'll be absolutely fine. Speaking of which, did you hear the dreadful news?"

Kiki sighed. "Yeah, I heard. That Little Sister was killed for the ADAM. Some people…"

"I just couldn't believe it, darling! You know something; I think Atlas is really going to turn this place around. Really! All that talk about the working man…I'm not among the wealthy anymore, darling! They don't like me now I can't walk, you know. Atlas doesn't care about this! He just wants Ryan and all his old, boring followers to stop oppressing everyone else! And a family man, just such a charmer!"

"I don't if it's so simple as that, love…" Kiki muttered.

"And what do you mean by that?" Susanne waved a hand and scoffed. "It's always so complicated with you, dear. Always an ulterior motive."

"Well…these days, everyone has an ulterior motive." The redhead sighed again. "I don't…I can't trust anything these days. Not these days."

-o-

Kiki froze in her tracks. It was so dark. There were no words for the sort of darkness that she was experiencing. It was more than simple darkness, in fact: it was utter and complete, abysmal dark. There was no light, at all. She could feel her hand a hair's breadth in front of her face, and still couldn't see it. Her breath felt very short, like it didn't extend for more than a few inches. Eyes squeezed shut or wide open, there was no change. Wavering splotches of colour floated around her eyes, like when she rubs her eyes too hard.

"Jack?" She whispered, gingerly probing outward with her hands. "Are you there?"

"Your right." He answered. Kiki turned and stepped face first into his chest. He wrapped an arm over her shoulders to make sure she didn't wander back off.

"Ah! Oh, good, it's you." She clutched his arm with bone-breaking tightness. Jack squirmed a little.

"Hey, ow." He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was a little amused. "Are you afraid of the dark?"

"No! Come on, Jumper Jack, I'm a grown woman. Fear of the dark is for children."

A man laughed in broken, crazed tones out in the hall somewhere, and Kiki started with a little gasp. She aimed her crossbow out at the hall with one arm, keeping the other tightly holding onto Jack. Footsteps clacked toward them, two pairs; one heavy and thumping, the other light and clipped like high heels. As soon as the footsteps got so close the breathing of the subjects could be heard, the lights came back on with a snap.

Two Splicers lunged at them, male and female. Kiki shot the man, dressed in fisherman garb, and she and Jack stepped away from each other to let the female fall flat on her face where they had been standing. Jack coolly shot her while down. He looked up at Kiki, and they chuckled a little.

The lights went out a few seconds later, plunging them back into total blackness. Kiki yelped and flung herself at Jack like he was magnitised. He stumbled a little, his balance thrown. "I would say there's nothing to be afraid of," He told her, moving her hand down his so that his arm would stay intact. "But that's not really true."

"I told you, I'm not…I'm not afraid of the dark." Kiki walked along after Jack, holding his hand and stepping carefully.

When they were about halfway through the room, the lights came back on. Kiki memorised as much of the room as she could. She stepped over to a Splicer corpse and poked him with her crossbow. "Have to wonder what happened to th—ah!"

The Splicer was not dead at all, but rather faking. He jumped up and shot at Kiki, who ducked and shot him in the knee. He screamed, and several other "dead" Splicers stood up around the room.

"Oh, shit." Kiki lifted up the bow and cracked it against the Splicer's head. "This is just fantastic. They're getting smarter!"

"And tougher!" Jack added, finally killing one of the bastards only after emptying his clip.

"Don't worry, I have a crossbow." Kiki shot the two last Splicers in quick succession and let out a breath once she realised there were no more. "Crossbows solve everything."

The lights flickered but didn't go out. Even so, Kiki made a choked gasping noise and started toward Jack. When it was clear the lights were staying on, she looked over to Jack. He was smirking. "Shut up." Kiki grumbled and kept on to the end of the hall.

The next room promised to only continue the labyrinth of metal corridors and factory machines. It took two hours—closer to three—of wandering around, getting lost, doubling back, fighting Splicers, listening to an audio diary, realising where they needed to go, getting lost again, wandering around some more, arguing about where to go, getting lost yet again, one-sided teasing on Kiki's part, going back where they had come, and finally leaving a trail of pistol bullets to find the correct crawlspace. It was a little door halfway behind some debris, which was why they couldn't find it. There was a short trail of smeared blood leading to it and handprints of it across the door.

"Well, that's cheering." Kiki crouched and opened the door, crawling inside and standing once in the little room. It was a workshop of sorts, with one visible workbench. Kiki walked up to it and looked it over, grabbing a first aid kit.

"Wow." Jack said. Kiki turned to see, and whistled.

"Wow is right." There was actually a second workbench, on top of which sat what looked like a very large bomb. "What the bloody hell is that thing?"

Jack rifled through some papers on the desk, looking them over. "Our key to Ryan." He held one up to Kiki, and she looked it over.

"Oh I see! This overrides that delightful little generator thing on the door. Very interesting." She stepped closer and set the paper aside. An audio diary was sitting on the desk. She picked it up and pressed play.

A man's voice, American, came from the player; probably the creator of the bomb. "The basic casing is ready; I've got one charge of nitroglycerin in my office, that will serve as a catalyst. Now I need four R-34 lead shield wire stubs to pass the circuit. Then a half-can of ionic gel—that's the pretty Betty of the mix. Should send the core into compensation mode, push power down the line and trigger the circuit breaker on Ryan's gate. That's the theory. It'll either work like a charm, or blow up half of Rapture. Nothing ventured..."

"If I heard that right, we need…four R-34 lead shield wire stubs? And a half can of ionic gel." Kiki looked down and picked up a flask of vodka. "I'm going to need this."

Jack plucked it away. "No. You don't. And I don't need you getting drunk."

Kiki scoffed. "Oh, Jumper, so concerned for my health. Don't worry, I handle my liquor very well!"

After a few seconds of judging her honesty, Jack handed the drink back. "Don't make me regret this."

A half an hour later, Kiki was pacing excitedly back and forth between workbenches, picking up paper and putting them down, chattering away. The flask of vodka was in her hand, and occasionally she would put it to her mouth like it had something in it, remember that it was empty, and do the same thing two minutes later. Jack was leaning against the wall, arms and legs crossed, watching her to make sure she didn't do anything stupid.

"I mean, this guy creates this obvious bomb, right, and right under Ryan's nose. Right there! Here, in Heph!" Kiki picked up some papers and tossed them back down. "The guy has some balls, I'll give him that, but Christ, he's an idiot! I wonder if he's hanging on that wall back there? Oh, probably. Right next to poor Susy…my best mate, she was, Jack. My best friend. And now she's dead, just like I thought she would be. All that bloody talk about revolution and Atlas, I just knew she would end up dead or worse."

Kiki stopped and put a hand on Jack's chest, patting his sternum. "You're my friend now, right? My best mate?" Again, the girl from the hall of the dead was back. The witty, smirking exterior was temporarily shattered to reveal a woman who was very, very scared. Her eyes begged to be reassured, to be told that she wasn't alone on an island surrounded by sharks.

Jack paused, and nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh, good." Kiki sighed with relief, and that confident person was back. She moved her hand to his cheek, rough with stubble. She watched him, and let out a drunken giggle. "I've got a boy friend."

Jack lifted her hand from his face and put it at her side. "You're making me regret this. You should sleep it off."

"Is that an invitation, Mr Wynand?" Kiki laughed stupidly and slung her arms around his neck. She was decidedly very bad at holding her liquor.

"No, that's common sense." Jack pulled her arms away, and held them at her sides. He gritted his teeth and glanced away. "Don't temptme, Katherine."

"Why not?" Kiki purred. She ran her free hand up his chest again, standing on her toes to be at least closer to his eye level. Her other hand still held the empty vodka glass. "I'm the Sssnake in the Garden, remember? Temptation is my sssspecialty."

The vodka flask shattered as it struck the ground, tumbling out of Kiki's hand and spraying glass across the tiny room. Her hands were instead resting on Jack's shoulders. The kiss was sudden and violent, like the flood bursting from the dam. His hands gripped her waist with an almost self-loathing tightness, his sober attitude washing over her drunken one. They broke apart for a brief moment and clashed together again. Kiki mumbled a little moan against Jack's mouth, her hands clutching his jumper.

Jack turned and pressed her against the wall where he had been leaning, his hands shifting up slightly so his thumbs were pressed to her hips. Kiki moaned again, louder and with much more conviction. Her fingers teased at the hem of his jumper, tugging lightly up.

Jack quite suddenly pushed her away, holding her at arm's length. "Stop."

"I don't wanna." Kiki slurred and kissed him again. Jack returned it for a moment, but pushed her away again.

"I don't want to take advantage of you." He argued, trying to get the point through her vodka-clouded skull. "That's what it would be."

"You're no fun." Kiki pouted, plucking at the collar of his jumper. She smiled coyly, yawned, and just like that was out like a light.

-o-

Kiki groaned and squeezed her eyes shut tight, curling up in a ball. Her head was throbbing like a hammer was banging away inside. A light wave of nausea touched her, but nothing major. Holding her temples, she straightened up. She was sitting in the little side room, against a wall. Across from her, Jack was sitting and silently cleaning his machine gun in just his wifebeater. Kiki flushed and looked away, seeing that his jumper was folded like a pillow where her head had been.

"…How much did I drink?" She asked after a pause.

Jack jerked his thumb at a very small pile of broken glass.

"Is that just the vodka?" Jack nodded, and Kiki sighed heavily and let her head fall against the wall. "Please tell me I didn't do anything mortifying. I can't remember a thing."

"Let's just say," Jack looked down the detached barrel of the gun for lingering grime. "I am never letting you drink again."

"Oh, god." Kiki bit her lip. "Did we shag?" Jack gave her a look. "I mean, not that I wouldn't like to—but, not that I do want to…" She sighed. "Did we?"

"No." Jack very subtly rolled his eyes, snapping the gun back together. "But almost."

"Oh, for god's sake…" Kiki slapped a hand over her eyes and shook her head. "Drunk Me is absolutely terrible." She tossed him the jumper and stood, leaning against the workbench. "I do not need a hangover in the middle of the apocalypse."

Making sure she had all her guns and Jack was properly dressed, she headed out of the crawlspace and back into the secondary "main" room. "Now, I'll go over…that way to look for a half can of ionic gel, whatever that is. You can check out over there for lead wire stubs or…whatever. Meet back in the room back there when we've found the stuff. Oh, and take the radio. I have enough problems with my bloody fucking head without that arsehole jabbering in my ear." She flicked the radio back on, and Atlas was back in just a few seconds.

"Finally!" He snapped, clearly irritated. Kiki made a "talking" motion with her hand, sticking out her tongue and crossing her eyes as Atlas went off. "I've been trying to reach you pair for the last day, where'd you run off to? Ryan could be building up his defenses as we speak, we can't afford to…"

"I'll let you take care of mother." Kiki gave Jack a thumbs-up and headed off down the corridor.

She wound her way through the maze of hissing, burning tunnels. Stepping around a corner, she quickly stepped back again just as a spray of bullets shattered the stone. There was a door there, locked and looking promising, but two turrets were guarding it.

Switching her plasmid, Kiki dodged around the corner and shocked both of the things. Running up to each, she reached into the complicated wiring and pulled and ripped at the technology until they were just hunks of metal.

Next was the door. There was a number lock that needed a combination, but with some clever manipulation of Electro Bolt, two years of practise and listening very, very carefully, she could hack it open—and did.

The sight that greeted her was something of a surprise. The entire room, which was not exactly small, was covered with electrified trap bolts. The glowing blue wires spider-webbed the entire room, sparking lightly. To make things worse, the room was partially flooded with water, about knee deep at the deepest. And the cherry on top—a can of something labelled "Ionic Gel" was floating in the water on the other side of the room.

Kiki squeezed her temples. "Shit, shit, shit…I do not need this."

Carefully, very carefully, Kiki stepped over the first wire. The floor under the water was slippery with slime. She kept her footing as steady as possible, turning a few degrees and crouching to ease through two parallel wires. The going was slow and steady, but eventually Kiki made it all the way to the gel can without getting seriously maimed. She leaned over and picked it up, brushing some snails off the label.

"Hello, beautiful." She whispered to the canister.

Kiki turned around and started back through the wires, holding the can tight. "Need help?"

Jack's voice made her look up and breathe deeply out. "Don't do that, you almost made me slip."

"You would deserve it." Jack stepped to the edge of the water and made a beckoning gesture. Kiki tossed the canister to him.

The energy used to throw, however, caused her to lean back. Her weight shifted on the one foot she had down, moving to her heel, which in turn slipped up completely. For a brief moment, time was suspended. Kiki's mouth formed a little "o" of surprise as she fell back into the net of wires. Jack's eyebrows were suspended mid-raise, still catching the canister of gel, possibly wondering if he had jinxed it.

Time resumed. Kiki toppled into a cluster of three or four trap wires, which lashed around her and shocked her in one go. She writhed and screamed, tearing at the now useless wires. Iron spikes, two per, stabbed into her skin. The pain of it was indescribable. It felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing her with burning hot knives. The water was now electric as well, and instead of cooling, the burning wounds excited the injured flesh with itching, searing, liquid electricity. White-hot agony was coursing through her veins instead of blood. Her throat hurt as well, but she was sure that was from screaming. After what felt like hours, days, weeks of horrible pain, her body decided enough was enough, and she blacked out.

-o-

Colours bubbled and burst at the edge of Kiki's consciousness. Voices mumbled in the background of her mind, conversing about the blurriness of everything. Kiki wanted to move, to tell them to shut up. It was annoying. She wanted to sleep. She tried to get up or open her eyes, but could not. There was, however, a pause in the conversation.

Another mumble. One in return. And then a prick, a tiny stab of pain in the formless shape of whatever Kiki was. She attempted to squirm away and again, couldn't. She made a last attempt at swatting away the pinprick of pain, and it vanished.

Once again nothing but thought, Kiki drifted away into sleep.

-o-

Kiki groaned and squeezed her eyes shut tight, curling up in a ball and getting a distinct sense of déjà vu. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was in the side room; Jack was sitting against the opposite wall in his wifebeater, tapping out a hypo of EVE that he prepared to inject into himself. Sniffing experimentally, she concluded she was lying on his jumper. After a few more seconds of taking in her surroundings, Kiki straightened up. She hardly even sat up before ropes of pain tightened around her body, and she held back a cry.

Jack looked up, seeing she was awake. He set aside the empty hypo and scooted over to her. "You okay?"

"Do I look okay?" Kiki growled, looking down at herself. Her body was wrapped in bandages, where lines of blood stained the slightly dirty cloth. Touching her hair, she found it to be greasier than usual. "What the hell happened?"

"You became a bigger problem is what happened." The voice in the background defined itself as Atlas. "Almost got yourself killed getting that ionic gel. Might've been better anyway! The boy wouldn't be held up patching you up."

"Thanks for the concern, mate." Kiki gave her best snarl.

"Okay, okay, calm down, Mad Kat." Atlas said lightly. "Glad you're safe, lass."

"No thanks to you." Kiki really didn't care at this point; she was just saying things that would cause him offense. She grunted and gingerly touched one of the bleeding splotches in the bandaging. "Couldn't you heal this with ADAM?"

"I tried." Using a little knife, Jack sawed open a can of beans. "It isn't working well. You may be building immunity. I couldn't waste any more, we're running low."

"Damn." Kiki accepted the beans and began to shovel them down. The can was snatched away almost immediately. "Oi! Don't deprive a girl of her food!"

"Take it easy." Jack gave her back the food, and Kiki continued eating, slower.

"So, how long have I been out?"

"Three days."

Kiki almost choked. "Three days? You're kidding. You have to be kidding, right? Right?" Jack shook his head. Kiki let out a disappointed huff, her hands dropping into her lap. "Three days…Christ…"

"'Fraid it was the ADAM that kept you down." Atlas added, the radio stuttering. "We thought it would help you out and get you going, but the more we gave you, the more you slept. This morning we stopped, and lo and behold! Back with the land of the living."

"So, I'm immune to ADAM." Kiki thoughtfully chewed on the beans. "I could just get a bigger dose, but that's how Splicers start. You know, more and more just to feel normal. Hmm…I guess no more diving headfirst into danger, guns blazing. Damn, that's fun, though…"

Kiki paused and looked down at herself, a veritable mummy. "So, you've pretty much seen me naked now, right?"

Atlas laughed heartily from the radio. "You should've heard him. Think he'd never seen tits before, the way he was muttering about indecency and such."

Jack blushed, but Kiki only shrugged. "I don't see what men find in breasts," She said, scraping the bottom of the can. "They just kind of…exist. Not really useful unless I've got kids, and they get in the way while I run. But men..." She made a noise like a laugh. "Come on. They're just tits!"

There was silence for a few seconds from both Jack and Atlas. The former glanced at the radio, but seemed to remember Atlas was just a voice, and went back to giving Kiki a perplexed look. This went on for a bit more, before the Irishman decided to break the silence. "Just tits?"

Kiki laughed, which hurt and led to her wincing. "Yes!"

"There's no such thing!"

"Oh, what. Jumper, you have to admit that sometimes tits are just tits."

Jack hesitated, seeming torn between getting smacked by Kiki or getting called something emasculating by Atlas. His decision finally was: "Well…" And he ended up getting playfully hit anyway, even though it stretched a burn on Kiki's arm.