Same disclaimer as in the previous chapter.

Chapter 2: The City in the Volcano

Elizabeth leveled her gun at Booker's face. There was no mistaking it; this was indeed Booker DeWitt. He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen, but his eyes were already filled with the same pain she had seen in Columbia. Unlike him, this Booker's eyes also contained the hope of youth. He had stubble across his chin and face and fewer worry lines than his alternate counterparts. Still, he was a DeWitt and must be killed to keep him from becoming a Comstock.

"So," muttered Elizabeth, angry at being tricked, "Were you hoping to kill me first? Or did you just want to distract me to keep me from ending you?"

Booker laughed heartily, which served only to increase Elizabeth's anger. She cocked the pistol with a loud click and Booker's laughter slowly died, but his smug grin remained. "Go ahead, kiddo." He said, holding his arms out to his side, "I can freeze the bullet in time. Or send it to another universe. Or make a tear to a universe where you don't shoot me. Constants and variables, remember?" Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Normally, she would spend time with the DeWitt and force him to confront the memories that had lead to his demise, but this one had frightened her, gotten into her head, so he would die as soon as possible. She pulled the trigger.

Time froze. The bullet halted abruptly in midair. Elizabeth tried to gasp, to move or blink, but nothing was working, her body was petrified. Booker didn't appear to have that problem. "Please," he said with a sigh, "If you're not the only one to be able to make tears, what makes you think you're the best at controlling time and space?" Booker grabbed the bullet from where it hovered and pointed it away from him. Time began again and the bullet flew off into the rock wall of the massive cavern.

Elizabeth stumbled back. "How did you-" she managed to gasp.

Booker waved her thoughts away. "It's not important. Listen, you hate me because alternate versions of me locked you in a tower and tortured you, right?" Elizabeth fumbled with her gun, her heart racing. Booker sighed and ricked the pistol out of her hand. "I hate you for killing me off for the last ten years. So we both hate each other. But the thing is that we share a common goal." Elizabeth scrambled backwards until her back was pressed against the rock. "We both want Comstock gone for good." Explained Booker, "But it'll take both of us to do it. And not alternate versions of ourselves, that won't work. It has to be us two." Booker held out his hand to help Elizabeth up. She refused his gesture and curled up in the fetal position, trying to process this. Booker sighed and collapsed to the ground next to her. For a few moments, they sat quietly, Elizabeth trying to stop her heart from cracking her rib cage, Booker waiting patiently for her to be ready.

"I was born here, you know." He said finally, "The whole city is actually carved into the inside of a super-volcano. It was 50,000 years overdue for an eruption, so the government carved out the cave to relieve the pressure, give the human race a few thousand more years." Elizabeth looked out at the city. It was a relatively flat city; the buildings looked like most of them didn't clear five stories. There were a few tall buildings jutting out here and there, but they were few and far between. The only defining landmark, as far as Elizabeth could see, was the massive pool of magma in the middle of the city. It looked to be almost a mile in diameter, and the heat from the lava was intense and could be felt even from several miles away.

"After they carved it out, the government had no idea what to do with it so they rented it out as a vacation hotspot, a stupid tourist trap." Continued Booker, "Course, it was only after the quarantine that people realized just how much of a hell hole this really was, no pun intended."

Elizabeth turned to Booker. "Quarantine?"

"Yeah, the heat is a great place for viruses to reproduce. Add that to shared EVE needles and an outside disease, this place became the Sprig capitol of the world."

"Sprig?"

"A disease. Shuts down your organs." Elizabeth reached for her pocket where she had a few more cigarettes. She drew one out. "I thought you said you were out." Commented Booker.

"Shut up." Was her curt reply. She was currently using the Incinerate! plasmid but needed more EVE. Fortunately, she had a spare cartage. She jabbed it into her wrist, wincing in pain.

"Careful with that," said Booker, "Plasmids and vigor are illegal now." Elizabeth gave him an inquisitive look as she snapped her fingers to lit her cigarette. "People didn't like that others could 'evolve' faster than them just by throwing money around." Booker explained with a shrug, "Anything that can artificially evolve you is now a Class A illegal contraband." Elizabeth grunted as she took a long drag. "You know, it's impolite to lie to your father, especially over a cig." Said Booker. He folded his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the wall.

Elizabeth took the cigarette out of her mouth and blew out a puff of smoke. "You talk too much."

Booker laughed. "That I do." He sighed contentedly and gazed out over Kiln City. With a grunt of effort, he stood up and cracked his neck. "We need to get moving. Our window of opportunity is starting to close, and even I can't manipulate time well enough to open it."

Elizabeth stood and brushed herself off. She bent to grab her gun and holstered it. "I don't trust you."

"Of course you don't, I gave you daddy issues. But you don't really have a choice. Try opening a tear." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and stuck her cigarette back into her mouth. She put her hands together and concentrated, focusing deeply on her old tower back in Columbia. She could see the door and, with a wave of her hands, she opened it.

She opened a tear into nothingness. She could see into the hole she had made, and saw nothing but inky blackness. Her jaw dropped and the cigarette fell to the ground, where Booker quickly put it out. "My tears," she whispered in horror, "What happened to my tears?"

Booker put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently, "This is my world," he murmured, "In this reality, I'm the only one who can open the doors."

Elizabeth brushed his hand off and swiveled to glare at him. "So you mean I'm stuck with you?"

Booker held up his hands. "Hey, you came of your own free will. I didn't force you to do anything. But we can discuss the semantics of your predicament later, now we need to get moving." He reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a futuristic-looking sky-hook. It was a gauntlet with curved gears and spokes, not the sharp and deadly devices that Elizabeth had encountered in Columbia. With his open hand, he grabbed Elizabeth and pulled her close to him. "Ready?" he nodded to a sky-line jutting out of the rock a few feet above them. Elizabeth followed its path, seeing how it wound through rock formations down into the city. She gulped and clung to Booker, lacing her fingers around his waist. "Here we go!" cried Booker as he took a flying leap, pulling Elizabeth with him. He landed easily on the sky-line and immediately began to fall through the rock towards the city.

Elizabeth felt the wind stinging her eyes as she hurtled downwards. Together, they wove through stalagmites and stalactites. Elizabeth's heart was skipping every other beat, every sharp turn causing her to gasp as the centrifugal force forced her grip to lessen. "Where are we going?" She called over the noise of the rushing wind.

"The quarantined zone!" cried Booker, "We need to find the Family!"

Elizabeth looked up at Booker, the wind buffeting her cheek. "The quarantined zone? Are you insane?"

He grinned down at her. "Don't worry, we're immune, I think! Now hold on! We're almost at the wall!" Elizabeth turned her head and gasped. A section of the city was blocked off by a tall concrete wall. The sky-line they were on lead towards the wall, but then sharply veered of to the side. Beyond the wall, Elizabeth saw the broken ends of what was once probably a connected sky-line but had been cut off due to the quarantine.

It was a good ten feet gap between the curve and the end of the sky-line. "We'll never make it!" Elizabeth screamed, but Booker didn't seem to hear her. He crowed with delighted excitement as he shifted his weight and jumped right as the sky-line began the curve. For a moment, they flew through the air, looking like they wouldn't make it. But Booker's sky-hook made contact with the metal and latched onto the sky-line. The force of the jump broke the last bit of grip that Elizabeth had and she fell downwards with a scream.

Booker tried to grab at her, but missed as he sped forward on the line. "Look for the Family!" he cried over his shoulder as Elizabeth landed hard on the shingled rooftop ten feet below. "I'll meet you there!" Elizabeth groaned as she stood up and rubbed her sore back. She was lucky that the roof of the small house she had landed on was only ten feet below the sky-line. She sighed and looked around. She was standing in what looked like this city's version of suburbia, with small, two-story houses evenly spaced with cobbled streets. But the streets were overgrown with dry weeds and long grass. The city appeared to be empty and silent.

As Elizabeth turned, she did a double take as she saw that she was not alone on the roof. Standing at the edge was a cloaked figure. "Hey!" called Elizabeth, running towards the figure. "Can you help-" The figure raised it's hand, cutting her off. Elizabeth approached the edge and got a better look at the person. It wore white rags and wrappings stained with soot from head to toe, covered only by dark green jacket and a raggedy, brown, hooded cloak. With a steady hand, it pointed down off of the roof. Elizabeth followed its finger and gasped.

The house they stood on looked over what was once an undoubtedly nice town square. A rusted fountain lay cracked and ugly in the middle of a small intersection overgrown with people's uncared for lawns. What stood out, however, was the lone figure shambling around the fountain. It was a woman in a short dress. The dress was cut and ripped, but she didn't have much skin left to reveal. Her epidermis was falling off her, missing in large chunks. Her face looked like cracked, dry clay and her hair was falling out with every step, leaving a trail of strands behind her.

"Corpses," said the figure next to Elizabeth. Its voice was mechanic and unnaturally deep, clearly filtered. "Decedents of splicers. There's more plasmid in their bodies than blood. Without regular blood, their immune system fails, making them susceptible to Sprig. The heat cooks their skin right off while their insides burn and roast." Elizabeth gazed down upon the poor woman. In all of her years traversing multiple worlds, she had never seen something quite so horrible. At least the little sisters were left human. This thing was quite literally a walking corpse.

"How do they live?" she whispered.

"They don't. That's why I exist." The gunshot was a total surprise. Elizabeth had not seen the figure draw its weapon. The corpse below stopped moving and fell over, a smoking hole in the back of its skull.

Elizabeth turned sharply to the killer, who blew the smoke away from the barrel of its shotgun. "Was that necessary?" she demanded, one hand on her own gun.

The figure shrugged. "It was a mercy killing. Those things are in constant pain. Besides, if they see you, they attack you. They think regular blood can get them back to normal." The figure pulled back its hood and pulled the wrappings away from its face. It was a man with pale, calloused skin. He had ash black hair with a matching goatee. His face was angular and pointed, with defined cheek bones. "Name's Silas Ryan. I heard your friend say you were looking for the Family, right?"

Elizabeth looked down off the roof, trying to find the best way possible to descend. There was a metal pipe that probably once pumped water to the second floor that looked promising. "He's not my friend." She muttered absentmindedly while she slowly lowered herself to her knees and swiveled herself around so that she was hanging off the roof right above the pipe. "You say Ryan? Like Andrew Ryan?"

Silas leaned down and watched Elizabeth fall down onto the pipe. "Yeah. In a loose sense of a way, he's my great-grandfather."

Elizabeth looked up, speaking what was on her mind before she could filter it. "I'm sorry you have to be related to that monster."

They shared an awkward silence before Silas cleared his throat. "Well anyway," he said, "Finding the Family isn't exactly easy. They control the whole quarantine zone, but they stay hidden to protect themselves from the guards and corpses."

Elizabeth dropped down to the pipe and slid down slowly. She hit the ground with a grunt and drew her gun. "Guards?" she called up.

"Yeah, they patrol occasionally. Kill anyone they find." Silas hesitated, "You aren't from around here, huh?" He jumped from the roof and landed with a roll and a crouch on the ground.

Elizabeth wandered forward into the square. "What gave you that idea?"

Silas chuckled, "Well, your clothes for one. Not exactly practical for a place where the average temperature is in the mid-eighties."

Elizabeth wiped her brow, covering her sleeve with her sweat. "Point taken." She said, rolling up her sleeves.

"You didn't know about the guards, corpses, or the Family either, so it was really quite obvious."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Look," she said, "What is the Family?"

Silas grinned. "Well, truth be told, it's my family." Elizabeth glanced up in surprise as Silas shrugged. "Yeah, my mom, aunts, and grandpa came from Rapture and lived in the country for a few decades and when this place opened, they came here. Mom died in the quarantine, but my aunts, cousins, and I pretty much run this place." Elizabeth raised her gun towards Silas. "Hey! What?" Elizabeth fired, the bullet missing Silas by inches as it soared over his shoulder and into the head of the corpse that had snuck up on him. Silas turned around and stumbled backwards into the grass. "Um, thanks." He said, giving Elizabeth a strange look, "You handle that gun pretty well. You sure you're not from around here?"

Elizabeth swung around, looking for more corpses, but she didn't see any. "Yeah," she said, "I'm from Columbia. Listen, can you take me to your family? I need t find the man I was with to get home." Silas grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. "What?" she asked as he leaned down and stared deep into her eye.

He took a deep breath. "Listen, uh…"

"Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth, I really don't know how to tell you this, but," he hesitated. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. He sighed. "Columbia fell into the Himalayas back in the 70s'."

Elizabeth blinked and her jaw dropped in surprise. "How? The quantum particles were self-replicating! It was supposed to fly forever!"

Silas shrugged. "Nobody knows. The whole city just fell into Nepal, nearly demolished Everest." Elizabeth had to sit down and fell onto the soft, dry grass. She had been to thousands of worlds, but in every world there were certain things that had remained the same, constants. Columbia was always in the sky, Rapture was always under the ocean, and the Red Sox always won the 1915 World Series. Granted that she had never been beyond 1965, but she had figured that every universe in every time would have something constant, something to keep it grounded.

In the last half-hour, she had had her entire perception of reality twisted into unrecognizable conditions by a teenaged version of her father who had somehow copied and improved on her powers. Silas sat down next to her. "Hey," he murmured as he gently stroked her back, "Everything's alright."

Elizabeth shot him a glare. "Do I look like I'm crying?"

Silas withdrew his hand. "It wouldn't be a crime if you did."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "It's not what you think. There was nothing in that city left for me." Silas hesitated, unsure of what to say or do. Elizabeth sighed and stood up. She had been to many worlds with many differences, and if she had learned one thing, it was how to adapt. She just had to adapt much more than usual to this world. She motioned with her gun hand to Silas. "Would you kindly take me to your family?"

Silas grinned. "You think that little mind trick works on me? No, I'm not biologically related to Grandpa Jack, but I'll take you anyway, it looks like you need a family." He stood and pointed towards a street leading out of the square. "Shall we?"