Off The Coast Of Maine, 1962

The rain fell heavily, over the raging coast. Jack held tightly, wondering how the couple managed to hang on and continue rowing under the current. He noticed that even after a week, they still wore the same attire they had since they met him. Did they not change? Putting the thought aside, he could only hear snippets of their conversation involving who should be rowing under the torrent. The rain wouldn't do well for his preferable wool sweater and his concern for it diminished as he spotted an eerie lighthouse in the distance. It looked different, than the one in Rapture, older and more dilapidated. He wondered if he were to return to that nightmarish place.

'I hate lighthouses. Is this another route to Rapture?' He cried out.

'Hopefully not, you would be going the opposite of where the intended destination should be by a very large margin.' The female spoke.

'It would be rather counter-productive otherwise!'

Jack scoffed at them as she gave him a box. There was evidence that a plaques used to be drilled into it but it was hastily removed. As he opened it, he noticed several vintage post cards depicting an angel statue, some coordinates that led back to New York, a key with a bird and cage on it and what looks like a vintage german pistol. Curiously, Jack fumbled with the weapon, it was unfamiliar and rather heavy compared to what he was use to. It had a very primitive look to it with its unusual magazine. There was also another strange card depicting a scroll, key and an upside-down sword with numbers on them. There was also something else that immediately caught his attention. A photo of a girl, almost the age of his oldest, Amanda, in what looked like early 19th century clothing.

'So, who do i have to am i get, exactly? Your grandmother who might looked aged over 30 years old by the time this picture was taken?' Jack said sarcastically.

'Oh! That's a new one!' the male chuckled.

'I assure you, Jack, the person you're looking for will be much younger.' His counterpart eyed him to shut up.

'Listen, i'm beginning to reconsider this if you can't explain why the hell i'm here.'

'All in good time! Before you know it, you'll be back to your little ones, crayoning or whatever you do to pass the time, just follow the instructions in that box and you'll be right as rain.' The male said happily as the intended pun was used in, in his mind, brilliantly.

'You do realise that won't exactly lighten his mood now would it.'

'Would it matter?'

'I suppose not'

Jack recalled how he asked a babysitter or two to look after them while he was gone. Now, he was unsure if he should have left, knowing full well that he might be abandoning them if he might die from this insane couple. All he could hope was that this grandmother of theirs wasn't a gun-toting psychopath.

As the tiny boat, edged closer to the lighthouse, the female turned his back to her companion and held out something, it was a doll head.

'Where hell did you get that?!' Jack exclaimed, forcibly taking it out of the palm of her hand.

'Never mind how i got it, it is vital to your mission-'

'And here we are! Remember, whatever you do don't mention anything about the current events or what the time period is. They don't well if they noticed anything has changed.' The man interrupted conveniently.

Jack just stared at them with a scowl, before he hastily ascended the ladder and looked at the rather shady ruin of what remained of the lighthouse. As he turned back, he saw the couple row back.

'Hey! Are you just going to leave me here?!' He cried out, almost restraining himself on whiping out the pistol at them.

'Shall we tell him when we'll be returning?'

'Will that change anything?'

'It might give him some comfort.'

'I suppose that's something we can agree on.'

'Will somebody at least be meeting me here?!' Jack yelled quickly.

'I certainly hope so!'

'It would be a terrible place to be stranded.'

Jack watched as couple rowed away, out into the gloomy fog. He cursed himself into being manipulated into this situation. How could they have easily fooled himself into thinking this had anything to do with the girls or even himself. This is just getting ridiculous. Considering the fact that he was already here, he might as well get over it before something else happens. He climbed the stairs that led towards the lighthouse. The one thing he did learn about his time with Rapture, he readied his pistol for what may come.

At first, Jack was curious what he found inside. A bowl was turned upside-down, broken frames scattered the floor as the most ominous thing caught his attention the most. What remained of a cotton needlepoint that was frankensteined together made a message that made no sense to him.

It read,'Plant thee sins from sodom, from eden, and lead thee...'

The message trailed off afterwards as thin red line leading from the floor led up to droplets from the stairs and into the next level. Jack had seen plenty of blood before as he slid the gun back, adjusting the hammer before ascending.

The room was trashed, the bed turned over, what looked like a kitchen had pans, pots and stoves filled with paper. A push-pin board hung loosely as a piece of string pinned on the precarious thing had pieces of paper that became evident that somebody had tried to rip a rather large page off of it violently. Jack examined the stoves, but all he could find were burned scraps or pages that were noticeably unreadable. There was nothing in the room that were of value, nor of usability before he decided it was best to move on after trying to piece together that whoever was here, tried to dump as much evidence as possible. He decided to move on, ascending the next floor.

The next room was worst as only one a small electric bulb was alight. Jack saw many horrors and displays of brutality especially against post-mortem corpses but what he saw was relatively new even from his experience in Rapture.

There was a man, or what was left of him, that seemed like he was picked to the bone. His remains knelt on the corner as it seemed old as moss, fungi filled the corpse from head to toe.

'How long was it there?' Jack told himself, trying to examine the corpse. It was a man who was hooded, shot through the forehead, relatively short ranged however there no evidence of a struggle nor signs that the man was forced to submit to the posture. Although it seemed implausible, Jack ruled it out as a suicide as he saw what looked like a German gun on the hand. If this was New York, he could try to discover the motives of the man but this was wasn't New York, It was in the middle of nowhere. The room was dim, and Jack spotted a lantern. He lit it with a remaining match before he almost was startled with what he saw.

On the wall, there was a final message written in a dark maroon stain as it read,' to hell.'

He didn't know what kind of problem this man had, but he knew that whatever led to him killing himself, it ain't a good thing. He put down the lantern before ascending to the final floor of the lighthouse.

There were three bells that had been etched with a scroll, key and the sword. Jack pulled out the card with similar symbols from the box and noticed how they were instructions. It read 9-4-2. Jack quickly assumed that the the number of rings the bell made would open up the lighthouse. As he rang the first bell 5 times, it fell off. He almost felt embarrassed if anybody was around as he picked it up and rang it for a final 4 times. After finishing the combination, the entire lighthouse lit up, although the signs of time, made it move slowly as sparks flew left and right. The skies boomed red, as a bellowing noise resonated across the sky, resembling the combination. A chair then ascended from the floor, however an arm rest seemed to have fell off in the process..

He became quite concerned if they expect if to sit on what looked like a dangerous contraption or what was left of it, especially if this turns out to be another bathysphere to Rapture. He didn't notice anything that seemed airtight, or pressure sensitive, so when he sat down, he seemed anxious. An arm restraint shot out from one his arms rests and before he knew, walls were erupting from the ground as he spun. He didn't know what is going on but he wasn't going to wait to find out. A disembodied voice, spoke something unintelligible. Trying to pull his arm or the restraint off, he remembered the last extra Electro Bolt plasmid he had reserved just in case he was in a bind. As the walls closed in, he took it from his pocket and shot the syringe through his arm one last time as he remembered how painful the entire process was. As what he noticed looked like fire that erupted below, as he stopped to face a window out, he noticed that whatever he was in, started to ascend. He screamed, as the plasmid started to charge inside him. The entire pod started to shake as he noticed he was up in the air.

The disembodied female voice continued to spu static as the vehicle flew dangerously higher, Jack managed to get his plasmid ready and shot off the arm restraint. As he flew higher, what he saw was impossible. Even after Rapture, he believed anything was possible, but this time, he was astonished all over again. A city under the sea might sound ridiculous but a city that flew was near bat-shit insane. What did those two gotten him into?

He flew past, buildings that looked like they belonged and remained in the early 19th century, completely different from the sleekness and vertical nausea of today or even Rapture, but the architecture looked softer, mainly built from bricks and emphasised curves. Dirigibles flew past him as the pod flew slowly across the floating city, the sunny sky complementing the clouds. He didn't know if he just died and went to heaven but he suddenly noticed the pod started to lose some thrust. As it edged towards stopping as he lost altitude, the pod began to rupture as a piece of the wall fell off. Jack hung on to dear life, wishing he never threw off the restraint as the entire pod flew harder. He noticed that he was about to crash towards a festival as the rest of the pod broke peice by peice. He then saw people running away, as he crashed in the middle of the square, and was thrown towards a man in a top hat, he blacked out.

Jack felt pain across his body, every inch of him, burned and became sore. In the darkness, he heard screaming and men approaching his general direction. He was too much in pain to move.

'Secure the area! No one makes it in or out!' A man called out.

Jack continued to hear scrambling, and people screaming.

'Sir!' A female then yelled.

'What is it, sergeant?!'

'Sir! Its Fink, I think his… I think his dead, sir.'

'Well... shit, the prophet isn't going to like this.'

'Sir! We found him!' A younger man's voice echoed through, closer to him.

Jack opened his eyes as he saw what looked like police and ornate masked men and women in blue suits with guns pointing at him.

'The prophet will want to see him.' As one of the policemen spoke.

'Take him.' The masked man commanded.

The next thing Jack knew, he was knocked out by a butt of the gun.

Jack woke up, strapped to a chair, unsure where he was in a dark room, a ringing in his ears. In front of him, two men, wearing black hoods held out what looked like sticks or swords stood side by side to what looked like a screen. The next thing he heard was a loud bellowing, disembodied voice of a man.

'You are not who i was expecting.''

Across from him, the screen lit up, and revealed a bearded old man yet for some reason, Jack couldn't place that his features did not his true age. He deducted that there wasn't any sort of aging or sense of time on his face. No wrinkles, no spots or even warts. He had older hair but the face of a thirty year old. As quickly as Jack could see who he was talking to, he glanced around the room quickly. He wasn't in a room but on one of their smaller dirigibles, as the sound of whirring and the engine accompanied the echo of the man.

'You've created quite a stir didn't you.' The man continued, the screen flickering a bit.

'Well, all i wanted to do was drop in and say hello but your little rocket, certainly disagreed with me and decided to take over the show.' Jack responded sarcastically, his throat felt dry as he swallowed.

The bearded man gave a small chuckle. The hooded men continued to stare at him silently, their gaze never blinking.

'You have humour, whoever you are but considering you don't look like you belong here perhaps you would like to enlighten me a lot more.'

Suddenly, the hooded men stood side by side next to him and finally took whatever they were holding to hang dangerously close to his wrists.

'Like what?.' Jack responded.

'What year is it below?'

Don't mention anything about current events or what the time period is. Jack remembered.

'I don't exactly keep track of the date.'

'Yet you don't look like from this time.'

'Its a crime to wear clothes now?'

The bearded man pinched the bridge of his nose, transitioning from his light-hearted demeanor to something more furious.'

'Are you aware that not only did you interrupt a day that was meant to symbolise the birth of this city, wreaked havoc on Raffle Square, and killed one of the most important pillars of this society all in one convenient day?'

Uh...coincidence?'

'I hardly believe that's…just...coincidence. Charles and Rupert?' The bearded man said venomously.

The hooded men raised what now Jack had noticed as the gleam of swords, above him.

'I don't know if he sent you or if 'they' did but here's something i want you to consider, no one and i mean no one will take her away from me, especially some god-forsaken sodomite from down below and i'll be damned if she is taken away from me again!'

The bearded man tone grew more violent.

'Now, you will tell us everything you know or i'll let these two gentlemen hack every...limb...off... of you until you do.'

'How about...no?' Jack said with the same intensity as the bearded man, the Eve within him ready be unleashed.

'Very well, gentlemen? Would you kindly persuade our guest?

As the hooded men swung their swords, Jack had enough remaining Eve within him to shock both of them, conducting the hot sparks through their swords and frying them within before they even touched an inch of his wrists. Jack then burned off the rope restraints they had placed on him in the process, exhausting what was left of his Eve reserve.

'How the…?!'

Jack rubbed the restraints remains off, physically sore, exhausted and mentally fatigued but managing to lift himself off the chair as he leaned next to the nearest pillar.

'Who are you?!'

'Just a man passing through.'

Jack limbed behind the screen, until a door burst open and a flurry of gunfire burst across, lighting the room in blinding flashing light. One of the bullets struck the screen encasing the room again in black. Jack ducked down on the side using the cover of darkness in time, lying on the floor and dragging himself across to a closer piller.

'Sweep the area!.' One of the men cried out.

Jack continued to lie low before he noticed one of the men pass him. Kneeling low, he waited till two more men passed through before he jumped the man who just passed him first. Just as he had done that, he heard a whir behind him, and pushed the man behind him as he watched an explosion of blood erupt from the man's head. The other man who struck his colleague was so in shock, that by the time he knew what was going on at present, Jack grabbed the weapon he held and was embedded on the man's skull and threw quick jab at him, knocking him out. Before he knew it, the other two men opened fire, and Jack rolled forward, sweeping one of the men's feet with his leg knocking him down and gave a jab to his face with the weapon, leaving him on the floor moaning but leaving Jack in the open. The final man smiled but when he pulled the trigger, he realized he was out of ammo. Jack used one of the hooks on his contraption, wringed the edge of his rifle and threw it aside. The man raised his arms and but Jack threw the hooked weapon on his neck.

'Where is the exit?!'

'Its...its...its...right there!' The man pointed at the door that had become noticeably ajar.

'Where are your-' Just as he had finished his question, he accidently pulled the trigger on the damn thing and snapped the man's neck violently, with a loud crunch.

'Crap.' Jack told himself, letting the man slid out of the thing.

He ran for the exit and before he knew it, he was in the cockpit, and across him, standing on a flying platform, the bearded man spoke in a microphone. Around him, men in masks pointed guns at the exposed Jack.

'Holy shit.'

'Be cleansed in fire, heathen.' The bearded man said finally.

A hail of bullets was thrown against him, and the only thing Jack could do was retreat to the previous room. The entire ship was on fire, as the gas swept everything under an inferno but as soon as the dirigible felt it was about to fall off the sky, Jack noticed that the room's cargo bay door had just open, the bodies and chair falling into the abyss. It was either this or falling to his death. He jumped out into the clouds.

As Jack was falling face first into the sky, he noticed a thin, metallic line across and what looked like a rail in mid air. Out of instinct or desperation he pointed the metal contraption at it to see if he could catch it but strangely he felt it become attracted to it then be caught by chance as before he knew, he was sliding through the rail at a high speed. He saw behind him the airship, it burst into an explosive finale before descending into the clouds below leaving a trace of black smoke and orange heat behind.

In front of him, he saw the glistening angel statue that towered high above the city as it was depicted on the postcards and as he entered through the crazy pod, he thought to himself that if fate had a funny way of screwing with him, it would laughing its fucking face off right about now. Jack braced himself for what may come next as he approached the platform, as he cleared through the clouds.