I do not own BioShock or Frozen, they belong to their respective companies.
Here you go! Chapter 11! The last chapter of Papa's Snowflake. Thank you everyone for your support.
Speaking: "Hello" Thinking: 'Hello' Radio/Eleanor talking to Delta: "Hello"
Papa's Snowflake
Chapter 11: The House of Upside Down
Persephone
(Delta's POV)
Delta was anxious.
His heart pounded in his chest as he and Elsa descended down into the underwater penal colony, Persephone. And down to where Sofia was keeping his last daughter, Eleanor.
As the elevator continued down, Sinclair's voice exited their helmet radios.
"Persephone… we're finally here. Find Eleanor, son – and fast. Her momma's got all of Rapture dyin' to keep you three apart."
Delta did a quick check on all his weapons, inspecting them for any kind of damages they may have sustained during the grueling journey here. Elsa was doing something similar, checking the sharpness of her needle and making sure the valves were screwed tight.
The door opened, they hurried through a short, rubble filled corridor, and into a windowed lobby with a full view of the prison complex. They exited the lobby and entered a suspended glass tunnel leading into the main facility.
"Father, come quickly, I'm trapped in a cage... something's wrong…" The frightened and panicked voice of his second daughter made Delta immediately quicken his pace.
They ran out of the glass tunnel and into another rubble filled hallway, water cascading down from the ceiling. A Power to the People station was on the wall; Delta chose the last shotgun upgrade, and as they waited impatiently for it to finish, Sofia Lamb deemed it necessary to fill his ears with her opinions.
"I wonder, Delta, do you know why you are here? Have you any idea what my daughter has given you? As I watch you now, I envy your ignorance. You still believe."
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Believe what? That he will rescue Eleanor and take her and Elsa to the surface?
Delta didn't believe he will save his daughter, he knew he will save her.
'And nothing will keep me away from either of them.'
The machine dinged, Delta removed his shotgun, two tesla coils now gripping its side, and continued further into the facility. They passed an operating area, video screens loomed over the table and a little sister vent was nestled in the corner behind it.
Finally, they reached a large area, a glass room on the other side with four massive tubes filled with ADAM in front of it. Candles of all sizes decorated the front of the room, and the religious scribbles of the Family were all over the floor. Delta and Elsa ran up to the glass room and looked inside.
Half of the room was dark, the other half was bathed by the light emanating from a dozen video screens. And in that light, tossing and turning on her bed… was Eleanor.
'Eleanor…' Delta thought, tears forming in his eyes as he placed one gloved hand on the glass.
"Sis…ter…" Elsa's pained, haunting, two-toned voice echoed Delta's thought, as she too put a hand on the glass.
"That's her, you two: Eleanor Lamb. No matter what you may be feelin' right now – this is business. Get that cage open – she's comin' with us!" Sinclair told them.
Delta quickly found a button on the left side of the door and slammed it with the underside of his fist. Instead of opening immediately, like Delta hoped, an automated male voice informed them to 'please stand by' and wait for it to let them in.
"How will she remember us, after this moment? I have placed my pieces on the board, as expected – as have you. Is this what she hoped for? Mother and father, locking eyes, yet still we are blind. Goodbye, Subject Delta, young Elsa – and take heart, for you at least have escaped your legacies."
No sooner did Sofia Lamb finish her pointless speech, two flashes of purple mist appeared above them, followed by not one, but two shrieking big sisters.
'This is why there wasn't one at in the labs. Lamb was having them guard Eleanor!' Delta cursed himself for not being prepared for such an occurrence.
The sisters jump down in-between the pillars of ADAM and right into indent in the floor filled with water. Both father and daughter shoot bolts of electricity into the water, making the attacking sisters twitch sporadically. Elsa jumped up onto one of the tubes then dive kicked the sister on the right just as the electricity was leaving her system. Elsa slammed the sister into the floor, but she recovered and grabbed Elsa's leg, pulling her down too. They wrestled with one another not unlike in Siren Alley. Delta made for his spear gun, but was sent staggering by piece of hurled rubble.
The second sister had also recovered, and had an assortment of objects orbiting her. She hurled an old vending machine at Delta, which he narrowly dodged before catching a hunk of stone floor and sending it right back at the big sister.
It hit her in the helmet, but instead of making her fall on her back, she used the momentum to flip in the air once before landing on her feet and screaming at Delta. She charged him, needle raised, only for Delta to freeze her in a block of ice mid-run, then smash her to pieces with a drill back-hand.
Delta ran over to see if Elsa needed any assistance, only to see her kick the other sister off her and into the shallow pool of water they were electrocuted in. The water suddenly froze, trapping the big sister. A giant ice ball formed over the sister, it rose high up into the ceiling then came crashing down with such force it shook the building.
The sister died with a crunchy splat, blood splattering on the pillars and staining the pool crimson.
"Hurry now – quarantine chamber's waitin' on you! Get in there!"
Delta turned and saw the door was in fact open, he rushed inside the decontamination room, Elsa on his tail. Only for the door to close behind him, separating him and Elsa with bullet-proof glass.
She pounded on the glass repeatedly, vainly trying to break it, as disinfectant sprayed into the room.
"*Bzzzt*your signal's *bzzzt* up *Bzzzzzt* I can't see or hear a thing *Bzzzt* Some*Bzzzt* about that room's blocking me. *Bzzzt*"
The spray ceased, and sitting in an armchair behind Eleanor, Delta saw Sofia Lamb, casually smoking a cigarette. "Look at her, Delta. Ten years, and still she dreams of you."
"50 seconds remaining."
"Do you know why she brought you here? She wanted a father. So she found a way to restore you in body and mind."
Delta looked down at his daughter, still tossing and turning in her sleep. He needed to get in there, needed to get her away from Lamb.
"And she has been watching you ever since, exalting your every act as gospel."
"The girl on that bed is no longer my child, nor my life's work. She is a monster, shaped by you alone. Just like she always wanted." Sofia discarded the cigarette onto the floor and stood up.
"20 seconds remaining."
"But there is one detail of your mutual bond she failed to account for. Your body was designed to lapse into a coma when her heart ceases to beat."
Delta's blood ran cold as Sofia removed the pillow under Eleanor's head.
"Eleanor… forgive me." She covers Eleanor's face with the pillow.
Eleanor flails and screams, but her mother holds her down. Delta feels her pain and bangs on the glass to let him in, but when the door opens he can only walk three steps before his heart seizes suddenly and he falls to the ground, feeling weak. His eyelids become heavy, his limbs grow sore, he reaches up towards his smothered daughter but his strength fails him and his arm falls down.
Grunting, he slumps onto the floor. His ever slowing heartbeat echoing in his ears. The limp body of his daughter falls in front of him, her eyes closed and her chest still.
'Eleanor….'
Delta's heart slows and his eyes begin to close just as the world turns blue…
(Elsa's POV)
"PAPA!? PAPA!?" Elsa screamed, pain flaming inside her underused throat, but she didn't care. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she banged and banged on the glass door, demanding it let her in.
Her papa was in trouble. That monster had just killed Eleanor, her own daughter, Elsa's sister! And now, papa wasn't moving, he was lying on the ground completely still.
"What are you waitin' for, girl!? Teleport in and get your ol' man outta there!" Sinclair yelled over the radio, sounding just as panicked as Elsa felt.
Teleport! That was it!
Elsa focused hard on the inside of the room, her papa, the lifeless form of her sister, the bed, the screens, and Sofia Lamb. And with all her concentration and power, she urged herself into the room.
The cloud of blue snowflakes appeared and ensnared Elsa in its grip, making her a part of it. It traveled through the glass doors and into the room then re-solidified the blue sister right next to her papa.
Sofia's face had a rare look of surprise from Elsa's sudden arrival in the room. Elsa hissed at the woman venomously, desperately wanting to kill her, but at the same time, fearing what she might have in store for her. Her inner battle lasted a moment, her papa came before her want for revenge.
"Monster…" Elsa hissed, then grabbing her papa's arm teleported out of the room and into the operating area they saw on their way in.
Elsa placed her papa against the wall next to the golden vent, making sure he was comfortable. Then, using her powers, covered the windows and doorway of the room in meter thick walls of ice. She then summoned two of her snowmen outside the ice wall and ordered them to guard the room against any splicer that came near it.
With the defenses in place, Elsa ran over and knelt beside her papa. She tore off her helmet, throwing it to the side and pressed her ear against his chest.
Ba…..Bump
Ba…..Bump
Elsa let out a shuddering breath she didn't know she was holding. Tears of relief trailed down her pale face. Elsa suddenly embraced her sleeping father and began sobbing. Years of pent up anxiety, anger, grief and fear finally burst forth from Elsa like a tidal wave. Her released emotions had great effects on the world around them.
As she cried, the floors became slick with ice, the glass separator was coated in spiraling patterns of frost, the ice wall she had summoned grew spikes and gained a red hue; even the snowmen were effected. Icy spikes sprouted from their backs and elbows and their fangs and claws grew even sharper.
But Elsa was too far gone in her sobbing turmoil to notice. She was so scared, she was the only thing keeping papa alive now. They had been so close to escaping this nightmare, but now they faced a whole new array of problems. How long would her papa be asleep? How would they get out of here? What would they do about Sofia Lamb? Where was Sinclair?
'Sinclair!' Elsa's head shot up.
She released her hold on her comatose papa and grabbed her helmet, shoving it back over her head.
"-You out there, little lady? Can you hear me?" Sinclair's worried voice filled her ears.
Elsa could only give a strange mewling sound to let Sinclair know she was alright, her throat sore from the amount of speaking she just accomplished.
"Phew, thank the ol' mighty. I thought I lost you two again. Listen, Lamb's no doubt gonna send all manner of badness your way to finish off you and the chief. Now I need you to pay attention, my private bathysphere is docked down in Inner Persephone, it's our only ticket out of this place. I'm gonna be headin' down there soon to get the tub ready for launch, you've just got to wait until the big man wakes up, then head on down there to join me. Got it?" Elsa chirps. "Good, now I'll be goin' dark 'till I'm in the 'sphere, so you'll be on your own for a bit, but don't worry, I'll contact ya when I'm there. Keep your papa safe now, Okay little lady?"
And with that, Sinclair ceases contact, leaving Elsa in an ice covered room with her comatose papa. The sounds of muffled combat signaled the splicers had arrived, but Elsa was confident her snowmen would be more than enough. All she could do now was wait.
Elsa quickly went over to her papa's side and curled up against him, nuzzling her helmeted head against him and started to whimper.
'Please wake up, papa.' Elsa looked up at his bell-shaped helmet with begging eyes.
'Please don't leave me again.' Tears built up again in her eyes and her lower lip trembled uncontrollably, as she hugged her papa.
'I love you…' A simple phrase, but powerful too.
Elsa wished with all her heart she could tell him that. She knew that he loved her and Eleanor more than life itself, but did he know they loved him just as much? Elsa could speak, but the pain it caused made it impossible for her to speak just three words in a row without her sounding like a snarling beast.
She could easily just use her link to tell him, but Elsa felt it wouldn't be as powerful unless the words came from her own mouth.
Her mind was made up. If…. no, when they got out of here and reached the surface, Elsa would find a way to speak again. She would talk to her papa using her own mouth, telling and asking him so many things. Why he looked so different from when she was little, why he could now use plasmids, where she lived when he was… dead, what she and her little sisters did together, and all the amazing things she created with her powers.
But most of all… she would tell him how much she missed him. How she missed his calming touch and his soothing voice. How she missed playing with him and Eleanor and how happy she was to have such a devoted and caring papa.
How much she loved him…
'Please wake up papa.' Elsa sniffed. 'I want to see the sun with you.'
Thirty minutes went by, (though it felt like hours). The roars of her creations and the screams of the splicers, muffled by the thick wall of ice. Elsa just laid there with her father, holding him tightly like he might disappear at any moment. Sinclair had yet to contact her again and she was starting to get concerned.
Then, a pained groan echoed through the room…
(Delta's POV)
When Delta woke, he felt weak.
His joints were sore, his muscles ached, his vision was blurred and his head felt like it had been on the receiving end of a bouncer's drill.
His groan, sounding like a sick whale, echoed through the room he was lying in.
'Wait… How did I get here?'
All Delta could remember was desperately trying to save Eleanor' life, him falling on the floor, her lifeless body falling in front of him, then just… blue.
A loud mewling sound and increased weight on his side made Delta turn his head to see his daughter Elsa hugging him tightly and making little hiccupping sounds.
'Elsa?'
Delta suddenly remembered his daughter's recently acquired teleporting powers. She must have teleported into the room and grabbed him before Sofia could get her hands on him. The poor girl was no doubt terrified by what she just saw; her sister murdered in cold blood and her father falling into a coma.
Delta rubbed her back in an effort to calm his daughter down. He looked around the room they were in to find it completely encased in ice. The floor and ceiling was covered in frost, while the windows and walls were covered by a thick layer of red tinted ice. He could see shapes outside the room… moving, fighting, the sounds of battle were muffled by the blockade of solid water.
Delta tried to get up. He still needed to get his last daughter out of this hellhole. But when he tried to rise, he slumped back down against the wall he was leaning against with a grunt. Elsa tried to help him stand but Delta couldn't find the strength. The severing of his bond with Eleanor sapped a great of his energy and he didn't know how long it would take for him to regain it.
Eleanor….
Delta still couldn't believe Lamb did that to her own flesh and blood. It just didn't make sense. Sofia had went on and on about how Eleanor was the savior of Rapture and had done everything in her power to keep Delta and Elsa away from her. But to go so far as to kill Eleanor, her own daughter, just to break her bond with Delta?
He had no words…
And now, the only one he had left wa-
Static suddenly erupted in his helmet as the radio began receiving a signal.
"Father… sister… it's me, Eleanor." Delta's eyes went wide, and he heard Elsa emit a shrill, questioning squawk. "I'm so sorry. Mother stopped my heart, long enough to sever our bond. Elsa, you're the only thing keeping father from dying now… or worse. But I can still help you escape!"
A soft thump from his left made Delta turn to see a little sister standing in front of the vent he was lying next to.
"This little sister's brought you something that will allow you to take control of her, father."
The young girl walked over to Delta, her big, yellow eyes looking him over. Then, she jabbed her needle into one of the injection ports on his suit.
Delta could feel himself being sucked out of… something. Everything went black for a moment and then… everything was… different.
Instead of staring up at the faces of a little sister and the blue, cyclops-eye of his daughter's helmet, Delta was staring down at an alpha series big daddy, clad in a snow-white suit and golden armor.
Delta suddenly realized what Eleanor meant by take control. She didn't mean direct the child, she meant literally taking control of them.
He wasn't staring at just any alpha series, he was staring at himself!
Delta pulled the needle still imbedded in his consciousness body out and looked at his (hopefully) temporary body.
The dress he wore was pink and completely clean, the little sister's normally grim and cut covered feet were completely bare of any dirt or blemish. Delta then turned his attention from his new body to that of the altered world around him.
Everything was so different. The air had a brilliant golden shine that wrapped everything in a soft glow. The frost covered the room in beautiful ferns and the diamond colored ice was covered in branches of blue roses. Things that were never in the room now filled it: toys, bathysphere wagons, red curtains and so much more.
But what caught his attention the most was how Elsa appeared in the little sister's eyes.
She was not wearing her dirty, white suit covered in dozens of tight, brown, leather straps and navy blue armor plating, nor her heavy metal boots, needle, cage-basket, or helmet. Instead, she wore a beautiful, blue dress, encrusted with millions of shining ice crystals and a long, see-through, cape tinted the same light blue as the dress. She wore ice blue heels on her feet, and ice crystal gloves over her hands. And Draped over her pale face was a matching blue wedding veil, with only the glow of her eyes piercing the fabric.
Delta didn't have any words to describe how beautiful his daughter looked.
"I know this feels a bit strange, father, but now you can see the world through her eyes and tell her where to go. This is how I brought you back without mother catching on. Now… crawl through the vent there."
'She doesn't know the half of it…'
As Eleanor instructed, Delta went to climb up the vent. He was almost inside when he lost his footing and fell, only to be swiftly caught by a pair of slender, blue-gloved hands. He turned his head to see his daughter, Elsa, gently place him in the entrance of the vent. She gave him a little wave, to which Delta responded with a thankful smile, before he dove into the darkness of the vent.
He emerged in the room with the four ADAM tubes, but it was different from the room he had just exited from. Instead of blue ice, the walls, ceiling and floor were colored bright gold. The puddle of water in between the tubes was a little pond filled with water flowers. Instead of being a malevolent, eerie red, the ADAM was a soft, blue color. And at the left end of the pond, standing tall and proud was a massive golden statue of Delta himself.
"Good. Now, inside mother's office, there's a way to unlock the chamber she's holding me in. Find a way to slip in there." Instructed Eleanor.
Simple enough, Delta could see another little sister vent stationed right next to the locked doors leading into Sofia's office. He ran over to the vent and climbed inside. After half-a-minute, Delta emerged on the other side.
"You're in. There should be a lever in her office somewhere. Pull it, and it will unlock my cell." Eleanor told him.
Book shelves stocked to the brim covered the white drape walls of the office halls, rose petals and children's toys littered the floor. Delta came up to a room looking out into the abyss. Sitting in a chair looking out into it was Sofia Lamb, talking into a microphone. She failed to notice the possessed little sister behind her.
"Attention: Augustus Sinclair has been sighted in the facility. He will attempt to reach Subject Delta. All Family activates are hereby suspended until he is found." Sofia ordered over the intercom.
It would so easy. Delta could end this right here. Sofia's back was turned, she wouldn't see it coming. He could just sneak up and stab her through the neck with the needle and be done with it.
But as much as he was tempted to do just that… Delta would not do it. He wouldn't use this child to get his revenge on Lamb. He wouldn't stain this innocent girl's hands with her blood. He wouldn't force someone else to do his bidding.
He wouldn't be Sofia Lamb…
Delta turned away from the woman and saw the lever that Eleanor spoke of. Delta quietly tip-toed over to it and flipped it, making the mechanism emit a chiming sound.
"What mother did to me left me very weak, or I would do this part myself. To get you and Elsa out of here, I'm going to have to change… to be like you. From here, you should be able to locate the pieces of a big sister suit. Please bring them to me."
Delta had just reached the foot of a flight of stairs when Eleanor finished, a grin plastered on his face at the thought of two big sisters fighting by his side. Delta and Elsa were strong on their own, but when they joined forces they became nigh unstoppable. With Eleanor by their side, the unstoppable duo would become an invincible trio.
Delta would be surprised if splicers didn't piss themselves at the mere sight of him and his daughters.
The stairs led up into what appeared to be a common area of sorts, (though Delta doubted that's what it really was). A few men and women were standing about, dressed in expensive and fancy clothes. But what caught Delta's attention the most was the red statue of himself pulling a man out of a giant serpent.
Delta walked up to the statue, and saw words painted on the floor in front of the display.
"Daddy Meets Doctor Alexander"
Why was this here? How could the sisters have known he had done this?
Delta's eyes widened as he remembered that Sofia told him Eleanor had been watching and judging every act he made during his journey to save her. Had his decisions effected the way the girls saw the world? And if so how did they?
Delta shook his head to clear his thoughts. 'I can think about this later. Right now, I need to find those parts.'
Delta turned left towards a doorway leading into another room. He entered and saw a corpse, laid down as if asleep, rose petals laid out in the form of a cross underneath it. Two white wings were painted on the floor underneath the corpse and blue butterflies danced all around it.
Delta came to realize rather quickly what made this corpse so special.
It was an ADAM filled corpse: an angel.
And though he still had plenty of ADAM thanks to the sisters and Elsa, Delta felt a compulsion to harvest the corpse. Unsure if it was the girl's subconscious or his own desire, Delta felt a desire to stick the needle in the body, drain it and drink the ADAM up.
Besides, it was right there. Why waste good ADAM?
He walked up to the corpse and stuck the needle at the base of the neck.
The whole world flashed.
The floor was not clean, the room was not bright, the toys were gone, the drapes had vanished, the roses became blood, the butterflies changed to flies, and the peaceful woman before him was now an ugly, dead splicer.
Delta pulled the needle out and the world changed back into the blissful illusion it was before.
He felt the little girl's heart pounding, his shock effecting her body. He remembered the audio diary he found that spoke of what happened to the little sisters as they grew older. How the mental conditioning breaks down and they turn into raging, feral animals.
Dread filled him as he realized what Elsa must have gone through in his absence. Watching the blissful world around her shatter into a disgusting and wretched parody of all she knew.
Delta felt a mixture of shame, pity and pride swell up inside him.
Pity, for what she had been subjected to at such a young and tender age with no one to help her.
Pride, for the fact she was able to retain most of her sanity despite the horrendous pain and psychological trauma it undoubtedly induced.
And shame, for not being there for her. For not being able to hold her and comfort her as her eyes saw Rapture for what it truly was.
'Elsa, I promise I will never let you experience something like that ever again. Papa's here to stay.'
Delta made his way down and up a few stairs, to the side was another statue. Him holding Grace Holloway bridal fashion. Like before there were words on the floor in front of the statue.
"Daddy Meets Aunt Gracie"
He made his way past the monument, and Eleanor contacted him again.
"There's a piece of the suit in here, father. Find the rest and bring them back to me."
Delta didn't have to look long. To the side he saw a room with a fire place inside. He entered and at the end of the room was a white dress. It was different from the blue one Elsa wore, simple, yet equally lovely.
Delta walked up to the dress and his surroundings once again changed back into what Rapture really was.
The dress was not a dress, it was the first part of the suit. It was unarmored, there were no leather straps, the oxygen tank was much smaller, and no cage was attached. Delta grabbed the suit and the world became the ignorant wonderland again. He made his way out of the room and Eleanor spoke to him again.
"Ten years, father, stuck in this… this fever dream. Mother kept me sedated in order to 'perfect' my mind with ADAM. To her, the ideal child is a genius, serving the common good without questioning it. You have saved me from that."
Pride filled Delta after his daughter finished. Pride in knowing he had rescued his Eleanor from a terrible fate. But he would celebrate this victory later, when they were on the surface.
Delta walked through a red-velvet door leading into a room with another statue.
This one depicted Stanley Poole, cowering before Delta and begging for mercy. But instead of his drill rushing to meet his body, the statue of Delta extended its hand out, not in a fist, but an open palm.
"Daddy Meets Uncle Stanley"
On the right of the statue was a table with several blue screens over it. On its surface was a white wedding veil, no doubt another part of the suit. He walked over to grab it and again the world changed.
The room he was in was a repair area, the table was a workbench, and the wedding veil was a big sister helmet. He grabbed it quickly and went off to find the last piece.
He passed a few men and women conversing with one another in a sophisticated manner as he traveled through the dreamland Rapture.
"The other sisters are made from me, in part. As they grow up in Rapture, I feel it all. When you were with the little ones, they trusted you as their father, because of me."
Soon after Eleanor finished speaking, Delta found the last piece of the suit.
A pair of white silk gloves that morphed into the needle mounted gauntlet used for extracting ADAM.
Delta quickly grabbed them and was just about to bring them to Eleanor, when he noticed an audio diary lying next to a big daddy doll. Curious, Delta picked up the recorder and played it.
"She's alive… Elsa's alive! After all these years she's still alive. My sisters saw her in the Fontaine Department Store, freezing a group of splicers then smashing them into bits. But what's important is that mother hasn't gotten to her. Elsa hasn't been subjected to the mental conditioning the big sisters go through. Her mind is her own. She doesn't have the same connection I have with the little ones though. But if I'm right, her bond will alert her when father comes back, and then… the Rapture Family won't stand a chance."
Delta smiled, 'how right you were, Eleanor.'
He made his way back through the gold and white hallways with the equipment. His small frame forced him to drape the suit over his left shoulder and let it drag on the floor, while the gauntlets were held underneath his right arm and the helmet on his head.
The sight of a little sister running off with a big sister suit should have made the men and women suspicious. All they did though, was look briefly then go back to whatever they were talking about.
'That's right, pay no attention to the small girl running off with a diving suit. Nothing suspicious about this.' He kept thinking as he walked by the patrons with all the grace a six-year-old girl carrying deep sea diving equipment could muster.
Stealth was never a big daddy's strong suit.
"Mother was right about one thing." Eleanor began as she contacted him again. "I have been watching you, father… studying the way you have treated others. And now I know who I am…"
Delta had reached Sofia's office, the woman in question no longer present. The world flashed back into reality for a split second before returning to the synthetic paradise.
"I am free – after everything mother has done to me – I'm alive and sane enough to be curious about the sun. When you rescued my new sisters, I felt every one. And it gave me hope for the first time in years."
A proud smile formed on Delta's face from those words. He felt so happy to bring hope to his daughter after all she has been through. He came up to the door leading into the main room and found it unlocked.
With as much speed as he could muster in his tiny form, Delta ran towards the quarantine chamber and to Eleanor. He put the parts on the bed and turned around, not wanting to watch his daughter change.
After a good five minutes, Delta turned around to see Eleanor lying face up on the bed, wearing the full suit. She got up, looming over Delta in her new suit, the light from helmet glowing a soft, almost yellow, green.
"Now, I will do the same for all the others," Eleanor said, and proceeded to pick Delta up, "starting with this one."
Eleanor raised her right hand, a bright light emitting from it as she brought it ever closer to Delta's face.
Everything went blurry.
Then a flash of white light filled Delta's vision.
Followed by complete darkness…
(Elsa's POV)
'I hope your almost done with whatever it is you're doing, papa! I can't keep this up much longer!'
The splicers had been throwing themselves at Elsa's icy guards for over thirty minutes, and they hadn't even come close to even touching the ice covering the door.
But soon after papa left in the little sister's body, they finally wised up and brought in a flamethrower.
Her snowmen didn't stand a chance against the flame spewing machine, and now Elsa was the only thing preventing them from getting inside the room. Her hands were outstretched towards the door, snow and ice shooting out from both her open palms. The fire continued to melt the frozen water, only to have Elsa replace it with more ice almost immediately.
It was a battle of attrition, and neither side was willing to give up.
Then, two things happened.
Elsa heard her papa wake up, and a speeding figure ran past the ice covered window. The sound of fireballs being chucked came soon after, followed quickly by the pain filled screams of splicers. Then the flamethrower assaulting the door ceased spitting its flames at the iced over entrance.
A knock on the ice echoed from the other side.
"Elsa? It's me, Eleanor. Can you let me in please?"
Elsa's eyes widened and she quickly parted the ice covering the door, letting it slide open to reveal her sister in a big sister suit.
The suit wasn't complete however, it was bare of any armor, basket, or straps. The oxygen tank was much smaller too, her needle shorter and much thicker than Elsa's own, her helmet also seemed a bit smaller and its visor glowed a soft green instead of the hateful red of the fallen sisters.
"Elsa-" Elsa interrupted her sister's greeting by running up and embracing her in a hug. Elsa held onto Eleanor tightly, as if she was about to disappear. Eleanor gladly returned the hug, leaning into her elder sister.
"Sis…" Was all Elsa could muster to say, the pain in her throat making it too difficult to finish.
The two were then engulfed by the large, strong arms of their father, (who had regained his lost strength). The family stayed that way for a while, all three were reluctant to break the long awaited embrace. Not after all the hardships, obstacles and splicers they had overcome to finally achieve this very moment.
They were a family again.
And nothing was going to stop them from reaching the surface.
Eleanor was the first to break the embrace. She looked at Elsa first then to their papa. She pulled out a little pink plasmid vial and presented it to him.
"Take this plasmid, father. You can use it to call me to your side in a fight." She told him.
He took the vial from her with a grateful nod, and injected himself with its contents. With that done, the trio made their way back to the main room. Dozens of splicers were there to greet them with all the fireballs, bullets and brute strength they could muster.
Only for Elsa, Eleanor and their papa to wipe them out in a fifteen second long bloodbath.
Corpses were strewn all over the floor either, burnt, torn apart, impaled, electrocuted, and frozen.
When they finished, Sofia Lamb's voice echoed through the loud speakers.
"Subject Delta… I know you can hear me. You have stolen my life's work, and with it – my only daughter. But Rapture is the house of monsters. The surface will not have us. Tonight, we shall be buried as a family. Side by side."
"Oh god! She's going to drop this building into the trench… it's miles deep! We have to find Sinclair." Eleanor said, before speeding to the door on the right side of the room.
Elsa remembered that Sinclair said he would at the lifeboat waiting for them. Lamb's splicers were no doubt giving him trouble, and the longer they took to reach him, the more likely he'll either be killed or forced to abandon them.
'Hold on, Mr. Sinclair. We're coming!'
Elsa and their papa quickly followed Eleanor past the door and into a bulkhead leading into the deeper reaches of Persephone. Papa turned the wheel handle for the door, opening it with a hiss of air. Eleanor sped past him and into the other side.
"Upstairs! Quickly!" She told them before turning a corner and running ahead of them.
Elsa stayed at their papa's side, unwilling to leave him alone in this place, as they ran up the flight of stairs leading to the launch area. Eleanor was up at the large window looking out at a… thing. Elsa really wasn't sure what it was.
Eleanor provided the answer for them. "This is Sinclair's lifeboat, out the window here. It's our only chance of escape. From what I know of Sinclair, he wouldn't just abandon it."
That was Sinclair's bathysphere? How were they going to get into it? It just looked like a room half-filled with water to Elsa.
But Eleanor did raise a question that did worry Elsa.
Where was Sinclair?
He said he would contact them when he reached the lifeboat. But the fact he hadn't meant that he was either fighting off too many splicers to contact them or he was dead. Elsa really hoped it was the former of the two.
Suddenly, the lights blared red, metal bars fell over several entryways and a mechanical voice told them they were locked inside.
"This facility hangs over an ocean trench, Delta and Elsa." Sofia spoke over to the loudspeakers. "The Family has activated timed charges within its foundations. Surrender before detonation, or shall fall and be crushed in the abyss below."
Does this woman never give up?
"Mother has locked all of Persephone down, including the gangway leading up to the lifeboat." Eleanor told them. "We can reverse it from the holding wing if we hurry. Come on."
Elsa and their papa ran towards where Eleanor had pointed, when a purple flash from behind them made Elsa turn her head to see only a dissipating purple cloud where Eleanor was standing.
"Use the plasmid if you need me, father… I'm going to have a look around." Eleanor spoke over their radios.
Elsa felt a slight smile form on her lips from the action. Despite all that's happened, Eleanor was still the same explorer she was when they were little.
Only this time splicers ran away from her.
They entered another room, this one looked like another admissions area. The door leading further into the prison was locked. Elsa's papa solved that problem quickly with a hack dart and the door opened into a short, glass-catwalk-tunnel.
At the end was a type of screening room, its purpose eluded Elsa but from the camera in the room she assumed it was for taking pictures. Another locked door blocked their progress, but that easily fixed with the press of a button. The door seemed stuck however, as it did not open immediately.
The sound of heavy footsteps made Elsa and her papa look through the window next to the door. It was another papa-look-a-like, only this one wasn't deformed at all. It stumbled up to the window before pressing itself against the glass. Elsa could see something in its hand, but she didn't know what.
"Don't you recognize Sinclair?" Elsa blood ran colder at Sofia's words. "Now, he is what you should have been, Delta: One final alpha series, ready to die for the Family. As Persephone's former owner, he is the ideal man to put you back in your cage."
Sinclair then ran out of their sight, further into the prison. "Mother's controlling Sinclair, and he's got the master key! Catch him!" Eleanor said urgently over their radios.
The door opened and the two chased after their friend, swatting away any splicers that approached them.
"Kids… Lamb's in my head… I can't help myself… have to fight just to talk… left me my goddamn tongue to torture the bomb codes out of me… she wants me to stop you from leaving. I… I'm sorry!"
Elsa desperately wanted to tell Mr. Sinclair it wasn't his fault. That he didn't need to apologize. That Lamb was the only one to blame for everything that has transpired.
The pair chased after him, splicers attacked them by the dozen and died in scores. They were hampering their progress however, so papa called Eleanor to join them. They just entered what appeared to be a laundry room, and saw Sinclair running up some stairs, when Sofia's voice filled their radios again.
"Eleanor, I know you can hear me. I am inside Sinclair's lifeboat now. Delta cannot reach me here – but you and your sister can. You need not die with him. We… we shall return to the surface together, if you will only step inside and accept your duty. Remember, Eleanor, mommy loves you."
Elsa was beyond mad at this point; she was freezing with so much unadulterated rage that the room dropped in temperature by 50 degrees. There was not a single shred of doubt left in Elsa about Sofia now. She wasn't just crazy, she was absolutely and utterly INSANE! Did she forget that she smothered her own daughter just keep her papa from her?! Elsa wasn't just going to kill Sofia now, oh no… she was going to make her suffer. For every single act of cruelty Sofia has brought upon Elsa and her family, she would return it ten-fold! This, Elsa promised.
And Elsa was never a girl to forget a promise…
"Ah, yes… mother's testing me. One last game. Fortunately, by now I'm the world's foremost expert at breaking her rules. I've made my choice, father, Elsa… and if needs be – I'll die for it." Eleanor assured them.
They continued to follow Sinclair, killing splicers along the way. They entered a cafeteria and exited through the kitchen into the cell blocks. Sinclair was inside the watchtower of the area, looking out at them.
"I'm sorry… I've… I've locked you in here. Lamb's making me dance on her goddamn strings… I can't stop… you're going to have to break in here an'… an' put me down. Wish there was… another way… but I'd rather die a man than live like this…"
"God… he's right, father." Said Eleanor.
'WHAT!?' Elsa turned to look at her sister with eyes wide with shocked horror.
"We don't have a choice. Mother's betting you'll die in here, or that Elsa or I will abandon you before the bombs detonate. We can't save Sinclair now – we need that key from him! We need to find the code to the watchtower, or work out a way to draw him out."
Elsa looked to her papa for guidance in this. He stood there for a moment, his fists clenching and unclenching again and again, before he reluctantly nodded.
(Delta's POV)
Delta didn't want to do this.
Sinclair had been his and Elsa's guide through almost this whole ordeal. He was one of the few people Delta trusted besides his daughters and was the only one he truly counted as a friend.
And now he was forced to kill him.
Delta and Elsa began scouring the cell blocks, looking for some way into the watchtower. Eleanor had teleported off somewhere, hopefully to help search. Splicers and old alpha series big daddies were crawling all around the cells.
Delta didn't mind however, they were just something to vent his frustration and anger on.
The tortured voice of Sinclair reached his ears, two minutes into the search.
"Son… I built this place, an' I did rent you out to those plasmid trials at Fontaine… an' now now I'm paying for it. Wish I had time to make amends… I – take the lifeboat, it's all yours, just don't leave me like this…" Sinclair begged him.
'I won't Sinclair. I promise I'll make it quick.' Delta wished to assure his friend.
He heard Elsa squawk and turned to see her pointing frantically at something in one of the cells. Delta walks over to her and sees it's a map of the complex drawn on the cell wall. And on the map is a maintenance tunnel leading into the tower.
"Maintenance tunnel, yes… I remember. That could get you near enough to lure me out… Try it kid, hurry."
Delta studies the map quickly, then ushers Elsa to follow him with a grunt.
"Free will, Delta – Eleanor's gift to you, and with each decision, you twisted her into your own image. Sinclair has no such choice – yet in its absence, he serves the world unerringly. He is the better man." Sofia's taunt only served to strengthen Delta's resolve to grant his friend peace.
They found the maintenance tunnel, Delta pointed at Elsa and then at the tunnel, she nodded and crawled in. Delta waited by the main entrance of the tower, drill raised and ready, waiting for Elsa to flush Sinclair out.
Sinclair turns to look at Delta through the small window of the door.
"When you… when you do me in, kid… don't blame yourself…" Comforted Sinclair. "I won't be able to stop from tryin' to gun you down… but it helps to know that you'll stick it to Lamb after… an'… an' let your little girls see the sun…"
As soon as Sinclair finished voicing his request, Elsa jumped him. She pelted him with a barrage of hail until he ran out of the watchtower.
And right onto Delta's spinning drill.
The weapon went right through Sinclair, Delta could hear him coughing up blood. Sinclair raised his right hand shakily and placed it on Delta's shoulder. The two stated at each other through their visors.
"So long, kid cough… an' thank you."
And with those final words of thanks, Augustus Sinclair died.
Delta removed his drill from his friend's body as gently as he could and laid him down on the ground. He got down on one knee and delicately pried the key out of Sinclair's hand, before placing them both over his chest. Delta than rose up, his gaze never leaving his friend's lifeless body.
Elsa approached Delta with the cautious pace of a nervous cat, unsure if she should intrude on her father's mourning. Eleanor teleported next to her, making Elsa jump slightly in surprise. They both looked at him and he looked at them.
Eleanor was the one to break the silence.
"I'm so sorry, father. I don't know if you were close." Delta nodded his head, causing Eleanor to pause a moment before continuing. "He's in a better place now. When you're ready… use the key."
Solemnly, Delta walked into the control tower, followed by his daughters.
"Now, father, I'm afraid that ending the lockdown means releasing all the prisoners. So please, be ready before you use that key on the override switch." Warned Eleanor.
He nodded and looked around the room for something useful, quickly spying the upgrade station. He walked up to it and placed his spear gun inside the machine. After a few minutes he retrieved it, a little, metal, disk spinning at a high speed.
With that sorted, Delta turned his attention to the override switch, he walked up to it and after looking at both his daughters to make sure they were ready, he flipped it.
The lights went out, roars and screams of freed splicers and spliced alphas. Sofia Lamb's condescending voice echoed over their radios.
"Sinclair died a hero to the Rapture Family, Delta. Was he a friend to you, or just a tool? Can you even grasp the difference?" Delta clenched his fists so hard they were white under his gloves. "And you, young Elsa, your misguided affection for Subject Delta will be your undoing." Elsa hissed out loud at Sofia's rude remark. "And Eleanor… you have chosen Subject Delta over your mother, your people, and the duty of your birth. So be it. You believe this craft will carry Delta to safety, like a spoiled child with a new toy. I have no choice but to take it away."
The door chose that moment to open, letting a charging alpha series into the room. Only to have Elsa shove her needle into his visor and out through the back of his helmet. She pulls it out and lets the lifeless body fall to the floor with a thud.
"Oh, no – mother's turned her attention to the lifeboat – we must go there, now!"
Delta and his daughters made their way back to the lifeboat, killing any splicer or alpha daddy that hampered their progress. They were in the cafeteria again when Sofia saw fit to contact Delta with another taunt.
"Every moment tears Eleanor further from me, Delta. Soon, this father obsession will end her. You have left me without want… before you die, I will take all that you hold dear. Sinclair is just another body in your wake." Delta ignored her jab, knowing full well she could not fulfill such a promise.
They entered the catwalk over the launch room just as a cloud of smoke cleared around the window.
"I was afraid of this. Mother has bombed out the ballast compressors. The lifeboat will be too heavy to launch. Unless… let me think…" Eleanor fell silent as she contemplated how to solve their life or death predicament.
"I think I can boil away the water and get the lifeboat to rise, but I can't generate that much heat alone." Eleanor turned to face her father. "It's time to recruit the rest of mother's little sisters. We're taking them with us. Head to the pediatric ward."
Delta nodded and was about to go to the ward, when a Gather's Garden caught his eye. They had little time, so Delta chose only to purchase the final upgrade to his telekinesis, allowing him to grab and fling splicers at his leisure.
With that sorted, Delta and Elsa ran towards the wards. Eleanor had teleported away, saying she would try to stop some of the bombs from detonating, buy them some time. The splicers and automated defenses stationed to hamper them were swatted away like flies.
They entered the nursery area of the wards and found three little sisters, sleeping, oblivious to the crumbling world around them. Splicers and old alpha series were waiting for them and immediately attacked.
"When you've cleared them out, I'll need a signal – push the call button on the window there, and then I'll proceed."
Delta and Elsa fought wave after wave of Sofia's minions, falling them with bullets, fire, lightning, and ice. They fought the mix of splicers and deranged big daddies for about five minutes before they finally ceased coming. Not wanting to waste any more time, Delta quickly pushed the call button on the window.
Eleanor teleported into the room with the girls, and quickly began to curing them as Delta would.
"I'll wake the children up – they're stronger than they know. With their help, I should be able to boil off the water and get us all out of here. Go on ahead. I'll free them as quickly as I can, just as you showed me."
Delta and Elsa left for the second ward, knowing they would need more than just the three sisters here to boil the water. They had just left the ward, when Sofia contacted Delta again.
"You are not saving them, Delta, no matter how pure your intent. The surface is not paradise, but perdition. I would sooner see them drown."
All her words accomplished was to push Delta harder. To save these young girls from the horrible life forced upon them by Rapture's need for ADAM.
Delta and Elsa were still on their way to the second nursery, when Eleanor contacted him.
"Look, father, I know you may not have wanted daughters. But love is just a chemical. We give it meaning by choice. I will be damned if I let mother take you from us again, and I'm certain Elsa thinks so too."
Delta felt touched by Eleanor's words. To know his daughters loved him so much almost brought tears to his eyes. But Delta could not afford to focus on those words right now. He needed to find the rest of the little sisters and leave this underwater hell forever.
They enter the infirmary wing of Persephone just as the building starts shaking violently for a brief moment.
"The Family's detonated one of the charges, we don't have long." Eleanor warned them.
They made their way through the prison hospital, killing splicers left and right. Delta had just electrocuted a group of splicers in a flooded section of the infirmary, when Sofia called him again.
"Eleanor was to be a composite of all Rapture's genius. The first living Utopian, serving the world at large with no regard to herself. To force consciousness on such a being… is to tear its wings away. That is your gift to her, Delta… just as she hoped." She paused a moment. "You must be very proud." She finished with bitterness in her otherwise cold voice.
Delta felt a small amount of satisfaction in hearing the Mother of the Rapture Family speak to him with such open spite. As much as she may have hated it, Sofia was just as flawed as everyone else in the world.
They entered another nursery, and were once more set upon by its guards. The fight was a long one by Rapture standards, lasting nearly seven minutes before the Family finally relented. Delta pressed the call button and Eleanor quickly commenced curing these children as well.
"I think… yes, we're ready for the ballast tank. I can boil off the water and get us out of here. We need to return to the docking platform. Now." Eleanor teleported away with the saved sisters, while Delta and Elsa trekked back on foot.
"You granted Eleanor the will to choose. And now, like a plague, she spreads it to those innocents. To be self-aware is a curse, Delta… you are damning them!"
'I would rather be damned than be a slave.' He retorted in his mind.
After fighting off even more splicers, the pair reach the docking room. Eleanor then teleports into the ballast tank with the six sisters she had saved and contacts Delta. "I'm inside the ballast tank now, father. Come up to the glass when you're ready to begin. There's no going back once we start."
Delta goes up and bangs on the glass twice to tell her to start. They begin to wade into the water, oxygen masks covered the little girls' faces and slowly they all descended into the water. Steam quickly formed and clouded the window in vapor water, blocking any sort of view he might have.
Knowing this was going to be a lengthy process, Delta set up several cyclone traps along with some turrets. Elsa summons five of her snowmen golems and blasts his cyclone traps with ice, turning them into blizzard traps.
"You would rip my only daughter from her home and family and feed her to a world without hope. Though Utopia may die with her, I would sooner see us fall. Goodbye, Eleanor. Mother will be waiting for you."
"Here they come, father! Hold them off until we can bring it to a boil."
The prison rumbles again, splicers and alpha series pour out of every doorway by the blizzard traps freeze whoever stepped on them before shooting them up to crash against the ceiling, the turrets unleashed a hail of bullets from their tiny bodies and the snowmen wrestled with the equally large brute splicers.
"Nearly boiling…"
Elsa was dashing all over the room, stabbing, freezing and electrocuting every splicer and big daddy she could. Delta was holding of a tide of splicers with his machine gun in his right hand and his shotgun in the left. He stood right in front of the misted window, a semi-circle of corpses forming in front of him.
Delta then holstered his shotgun and grabbed a splicer in his telekinetic grip before sending him crashing into a group of five. He swapped out his machine gun for his launcher and fired at the dazed group, ending them in a fiery explosion of body parts and shrapnel.
Elsa was freezing splicers left and right, then throwing their frozen forms against the big daddies, shattering them to pieces. A brute tried to hit her from behind, but was tackled to the ground by one of her snow golems, who proceeded to smash the splicer's face in with its icy fists.
"It's boiling! I can help you now. Use the plasmid!"
Delta wasted no time. He summoned up the pulsing, pink, ball and chucked at a group of splicers. Eleanor appeared before them in a haze of purple mist and wasted no time in following her sister's example. Only instead of ice, Eleanor felled her foes with fire.
Father, daughters and snowmen continued to fight off the splicer hordes for what felt almost like hours as the water in ballast tank evaporated.
"We've done it, father! The ballast water is gone! Release the docking mechanism!" Eleanor spoke over the radio.
Delta grunted at Elsa, who turned her head to face him, then pointed at the lever on the second floor. She nodded and jumped up to the control panel and pulled the lever down. No sooner did she pull it however, the room shook from an explosion.
"The elevator to the lifeboat is flooded, father! We have to equalize the pressure in here, or the door won't open. Destroy those glass tubes to flood the room!"
Wasting no time, Delta turned his machine gun on the tubes, shattering them and flooding the room with water. With the room flooded, he made his way up to the second floor where Elsa stood.
Once he was next to her, Eleanor contacted them again. "…We… we've done it – we're launching! Get to the elevator!"
Wasting no time, Delta and Elsa made their way to the elevator leading to the lifeboat. They found Eleanor there, waiting for them. The elevator's ascent was short, but marked by the shockwave of another explosion.
"The bombs! We're falling! Run!"
As soon as the door opened, Eleanor bolted through it, followed by Delta and Elsa, who stayed by his side. Eleanor ran ahead of them but as soon as she turned the corner, Delta saw her try to halt herself.
Then everything slowed down.
Delta saw a pile of explosives, gathered right in front of the entrance to the lifeboat. Eleanor extended her hand out to him and Elsa in an attempt to reach them. But they were too far from her grasp, and she teleported away.
Delta then turned his back to the bombs, and used his own body as a shield for Elsa, just as he had done on the Atlantic Express.
Tick…
'Goodbye, Eleanor…'
Tick...
'Goodbye, Elsa…'
Tick…
'Daddy loves you both.'
The bombs went off and all he knew as darkness….
Author's Note: AND DONE! Man, I am honestly surprised by how well this fic went. This is now so far my longest written chapter yet. Thank you all so much for supporting it. Don't worry, an epilogue for the story will be arriving soon.
As always: please fav, follow and review. Thank You!
DeadRich18 Out!