Same disclaimers as before

Chapter 5: Perchance to Dream

Elizabeth had always had negative experiences with dreams. When she was a child, she sometimes would dream of life beyond the prison walls, or of her playing with the Songbird. As she got older, her dreams became more violent. She could remember the first time she dreamed about hurting the Songbird. She'd woken up and cried for hours, she couldn't even look her Songbird in the face the next day.

However, since Booker had saved her in Columbia, Elizabeth's dreams had become more-like memories, nightly visitations to points in her life.

Tonight, she was dreaming of her first kill. In a daze, she felt Daisy Fitzroy's warm blood splatter across her ripped shirt. The child she had been threatening ran to safety as Booker gazed at her sadly through the glass.

"Hmm," said a familiar voice behind her, "Fascinating. I would think that your mind would sooner jump to the first time you killed your father." Elizabeth spun around and raised the scissors clenched tightly in her hand. Their sharp tips were millimeters away from the exposed, pale neck of Robert Lutece. The man didn't move, nor did he seem to register he was being threatened.

Elizabeth frowned. This was wrong. "What are you doing here?"

Robert daintily pushed the scissors away from him. "I am here to warn you." Elizabeth folded her arms and waited. Robert remained tightlipped as he stood stock still.

Elizabeth threw up her hands impatiently. "Well?" she demanded, "What is it?"

Robert cringed. "I, ah, made an agreement with my sister, you see. I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly what I wanted to warn you about. All I can tell you is that I have to warn you about something."

Elizabeth stared at him. "So your presence here is entirely pointless?

"Mmm. Quite."

Elizabeth sighed and leaned against a pipe. She glanced at the window and saw that instead of Booker, Silas was now peering in looking totally confused. "Oh Christ," she muttered, "I'm dreaming, aren't I." Robert nodded with a smile. Elizabeth glanced up at him. "How are you in my dream?"

Robert cocked an eyebrow. "Is it a dream, though? Or is it a separate world that your consciousness goes to during a state of deep sleep?"

Elizabeth cracked her knuckles. "Don't mess with my head, Lutece. I'm not in the mood."

Robert gave a light chuckle in response. "Was that supposed to intimidate me? I exist in all places and all points in time simultaneously; do you honestly think that you could hurt me?"

Elizabeth nashed her teeth audibly. "Don't know, but I'm willing to find out."

Robert sighed contentedly. "It would appear as if the Elizabeth I knew in Columbia is long gone."

Elizabeth twirled the scissors like a professional knife thrower. "Why did you make that deal with Rosalind?" asked Elizabeth, "It defeats the whole point of warning me if you can't tell me what I'm in danger of."

Robert cleared his throat and grinned sheepishly. "My sister has decided to, how should I put this? Abandon you to your fate?"

Elizabeth grunted. "What does that mean?"

"That she is tired of dealing with all this 'inter-dimensional nonsense', as she said. She has elected to return to her home reality and stay there. She wanted me to do the same, but…" he trailed off, looking at Elizabeth with sad eyes.

"But what?" she asked.

Robert waved her question away. "It does not matter. She did, however, manage to convince me to limit my involvement in the affairs of the alternate realities. But I simply could not resist giving you a bit of a heads up as to your situation."

"But what's the point of giving me a heads up if you can't tell me what I'm in danger o? My life is constant danger, if you can't narrow it down for me, then what's the point?" There was a knocking on the window. Elizabeth and Robert looked over to see a very stern looking Rosalind Lutece standing where Silas had been. She glared at Robert through the glass and slowly walked away, trying to find a way in.

Robert quickly looked around, making sure they were alone for the moment. After he made sure Rosalind wasn't around to hear him, he leaned in close to Elizabeth. "Can you keep a secret?" he whispered. Elizabeth nodded slowly and cautiously as Robert gently touched her forehead.

Everything went white for a moment before Elizabeth found herself looking down on…herself. She was watching herself being tortured by Comstock's doctors and scientists as Comstock himself stood, silhouetted on a balcony above. "Remember!" cried the tyrant, "No anesthetic! No sedatives!"

"Yes Father Comstock." Replied one of the doctors as he flipped Elizabeth over on the table. The other man approached her with a massive syringe attached to a long hose.

Elizabeth watched as her past self whimpered. "No." both Elizabeth's said, "No! No!" The syringe was plunged directly between her shoulder blades. Even in the dream, Elizabeth felt the phantom pain as the syringe almost pierced through her entire body. She remembered how badly she wanted to use her powers, to escape from the pain and torment. But the siphons in the corners of the room kept her in one place. Elizabeth watched as the doctors started to experiment with her. They injected her with various chemicals to see how her blood reacted with them. They hit her in various places to test her reaction time. They played with her severed pinkie, testing how it felt and what it had to do with her powers. They even began testing her body's most private areas to see if her powers affected her reproductive system.

In the dream, Elizabeth was hyperventilating from fear, pain, and an innate sense of helplessness. The dreaming Elizabeth just watched, hovering above her dream self. She wished that this torture had never happened to her, but she had long ago accepted it as something she could not reverse. Besides, she had already killed the doctors responsible for her torment, and, unlike with Comstock, she felt no need to search through multiple universes to find and kill them. It didn't matter though, because it was right around this point that Booker had come to save her.

Elizabeth turned towards the entrance expectantly. The door opened as she knew it would, but it was not Booker who stood armed and ready on the other side. It was the shadowy assassin. Elizabeth gasped in surprise as the assassin ran into the room, twin Huntsman Carbines in hand. With a few short bursts of bullets, both doctors lay dead. In the distance an alarm went off. The assassin dropped her guns and approached the sobbing Elizabeth. When she got to her, the assassin pulled back the wrappings around her face, but looked down upon the dream Elizabeth so that the dreaming Elizabeth couldn't see her face.

"Kill me," whispered the dream Elizabeth, "Just kill me."

The assassin sighed and caressed Elizabeth's cheek. "Don't ask me to do that." Elizabeth grabbed the assassin by the neck and screamed as the syringe in her back twisted. "Please!" she sobbed, "Do it!"

The assassin hesitated, but reluctantly drew a small syringe gun from the shadows of her clothing. She injected it into Elizabeth's shoulder. Above them both, the real Elizabeth was watching with a mixture of fascination and horror. This wasn't how things had played out; this wasn't how things were supposed to be. Where was Booker? The assassin whistled low and softly, a soothing melody that lulled the dream Elizabeth into a deep, drug-induced sleep from which she would never awaken. The assassin began to snivel and snort, crying with wordless sobs over the dream Elizabeth.

There was another flash of white as Elizabeth screamed. She sat bolt upright in bed and panted. She was back in the bedroom of Booker's safe house in Kiln City.

Elizabeth got out of the bed and walked downstairs, the memory of her dream fading with every step. Except for Robert's warning, that stayed with her.

Downstairs, Silas was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the large, empty room. A single candle burned with reverent peace before him. When he shifted his weight to the side, the flame followed him. "It's a meditation technique." He said without looking up as Elizabeth approached him, "Aunt Samantha taught it to me. She got way into Hinduism and yoga after Grandpa Jack undid her brainwashing." He hesitated, "It's supposed to guild the souls of the dead back to the hearts of the living." Even in the dim light, Elizabeth could see the puffy eyes and red cheeks that were tell-tale signs of tears.

She sat down next to him, mimicking his style of seat. "I'm sorry," she said, "About all this. It never involved you or your family."

They sat together in silence for a time before Silas spoke again. "Booker went to bed. But he explained everything to me." He gave a weak smile, "Not like I understood most of it, but there was something about time travel, and alternate worlds, or something of that general nature."

Elizabeth chuckled; it was good to see that he had a sense of humor about him. "So, did he tell you about the assassin?"

Silas nodded. "She's another one who can move between worlds. Apparently she works for a version of the guy you both have been trying to kill. She wants you dead so she can protect her master. He doesn't know how she can open tears in this world, though. He thought he was the only one who could do that."

"And the Big Daddy?"

"You mean that deep-sea diver guy? He's her assistant apparently." Elizabeth nodded and watched the fire as Silas controlled it's movements through his meditation. For a long while, they just sat together. Enjoying the presence of another human.

After a while, Silas broke the silence once more. "Booker told me what happened to you." Elizabeth nodded, keeping her eyes on the fire. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Silas." Her legs were falling asleep. She unfolded them to let the blood course back through them. "How old are you, Silas?"

"25, why?"

"You were born after the city was quarantined then?"

Silas nodded. "Yeah, but not before they created the quarantine zone. Before they set up the wall, my mother would take me to the library everyday to teach me about the outside world."

Elizabeth hesitated but her damned curiosity got the better of her. "Did you know your father?"

Silas closed his eyes and gave short, hard breath. The fire went out. "A guard. He was killed by his comrades when he resisted the wall being put up." Elizabeth nodded, but nobody would know it. She snapped her fingers, using the last of the EVE in her system to re-light the candle.

"I'm sorry."

Silas smirked. "Are we just going to go back and forth apologizing to each other for things that aren't our faults?"

Elizabeth laughed. Not a snarky, sarcastic laugh, but a genuine, happy laugh. It was something she hadn't done in quite some time. It felt good; she should do it more often. "And I assume you can think of a better thing to do?"

Silas laughed with her. "Oh," he chuckled, "I think I can figure out a few things for us to do." Slowly, both of their laughs died down as they realized the vague innuendo of what they had just said. Without saying a word, both of them decided to forget what had just happened.

"There's one thing I still don't understand." Said Elizabeth, "Why does Booker need me to kill Comstock? I don't see why he can't just go to the first world and do it himself."

"Because I can't find the damn place." Said Booker. Elizabeth and Silas turned to see him coming down the stairs. "I can't see the worlds like you can, Elizabeth." He continued, joining them on the floor around the candle, "Every time I try, it gets all jumbled together and I can't figure anything out. But you," he pointed to Elizabeth, "You can see the universes individually, not just together. I can narrow it down to a cluster of dimensions, but I need you to show me exactly which one is the origin of all reality."

Elizabeth stared at Booker. "Are you serious?"

Booker glared at her. "You have killed every version of me you have ever come into contact with. I hate you with every fiber of my being. The only reason I would ever come to you for help would be if I was truly desperate." Booker stood and held his arms out wide. "Look at me, Elizabeth." He said, his face illuminated by the light of the candle, "I am a desperate man. If killing Comstock in the first world will end him for good, then I'll team up with the devil himself if I must."

Elizabeth stared at him and stood up. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. "Where do we start?"

Booker dropped his hands. "Where do you think? Where it all started." He clapped and ripped open a tear. Elizabeth peered in and saw a dock in the middle of a raging ocean. A path lead to a small island with a large lighthouse. Elizabeth felt at her side for her gun. After reassuring herself if was there, she nodded, ready to jump back into the space between worlds. Booker gave a mock flourish. "Ladies first."

Elizabeth nodded and stepped forward. "Wait," she said hesitating. She turned back, "What about Silas?"

"Well he's coming with us, of course."

Silas raised his hands defensively. "Whoa, wait. Hold on. I never said I was coming with you. I still have family left in this city. Some of my cousins probably got out safely."

Booker rolled his eyes. "Silas, in fifteen minutes, a long overdue eruption is going to destroy this entire city and cover the globe with ash, blocking out the sun and ending life as anyone knows it. You want to stick around for the apocalypse? Be my guest. But Elizabeth and I are going to need a Ryan, any Ryan. What it boils down to is do you want to live or not?"

Silas stared at him for a few seconds, incredulity playing across his face. There was a sudden rumbling under their feet. Elizabeth nearly fell over. It was over in just a few seconds, but everyone in the room was able to recognize an earthquake. "I choose life." Silas said quickly, standing up and stepping forward.

Booker grinned. "Atta boy, Silas." He stepped through the tear, abandoning the prospects of 'ladies first'.

Elizabeth put her hand on Silas's shoulder. "You're next. Be careful, your first time is always a little strange."

Silas grinned nervously. "Must…resist…sex joke."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Don't make me regret meeting you."

Silas cleared his throat. "Sorry." Elizabeth motioned him forward. He took a deep breath and took a running leap through the tear.

Elizabeth glanced around the room. "Good-bye, Kiln City, and good riddance." She stepped through the tear into the purgatory of lighthouses.