I'm alive guys, and the story is long finished. There have just been issues with the beta reading, there still are, but I decided to not hold the ending hostage anymore. English is not my first language, and even if I tried my damnest there are always inconsistencies and odd phrasings here and there, hence why I needed correction to begin with. So if something sounds weird, that's the reason, and accept my honest apologies. If these last chapters ever get properly fixed after all, I'll rush to update them. If not, well it would still be at least finished and free to read.
That said, the ending might not turn out to be what a lot of you would have expected (no kidding after the previous chapter, heh), it might even be upsetting, but feel free to throw those tomatoes in the reviews. It is not a subject for change, but I'd like to know what you think. Enough babbling now, enjoy the rest of the story!
Evening approached and so Tenenbaum set the table for the children's supper who jumped into their respective little chairs one after another. Being preoccupied with innocent childlike chatter and each other's teasing, even if they noticed their caretaker's grimmer-than-usual attitude they did not comment on it. She filled all the plates with the canned spinach that made up most of the safe-house's food supply, completing the menu with a bowl of apples. The girls stolidly set to their meal, more out of habit than of actual appetite. The doctor opened her own can of greenish excuse for a dish but stopped before pouring it out. Eating had always been a mere necessity to her rather than any kind of pleasure, but at this particular moment she found the notion especially appalling.
After a heavy sigh she pushed herself away from the empty plate and decided to check on their guest instead. Elizabeth had been holed up on the upper floor for the last few hours, preferring to be alone with her grief. Tenenbaum cautiously walked up the rusting stairs to find the young woman on the same spot she had left her, sitting by the wall on the ground and resting her head on her knees.
"You can come downstairs to eat, if you wish," she said, almost whispering. "We have enough to spare."
Elizabeth slowly moved to raise her swollen eyes at the biologist, her expression blank, like if she needed a minute to process that someone just talked to her.
"I will fix this," she mumbled, looking at the doctor but not quite addressing her.
"I beg your pardon?"
The younger woman blinked a couple of times, bringing her focus back from her obscure train of thought and back into the world she was currently in.
"I said, I will fix this."
The puzzled Tenenbaum softly shook her head. "You did everything you could, but you cannot bring Sally back. I'm sorry."
It was Elizabeth's turn to object. "No, I could still go out there and take that cursed Siphon out. I should have gone there first, I should have..." her voice broke before she continued after a sniffle, tears returning into her bloodshot eyes. "If I had been just a little less of a damn fool, I would have gone for that... that crap first! But I just had to run into the middle of everything and get her killed!"
She stood up so abruptly that Tenenbaum had to take a step back to give space for her furious back-and-forth march. If there had been any breakable object within the fuming girl's reach, she was sure it would be in pieces now.
"A Siphon, you say?"
Elizabeth halted. "Yes. Ryan's machine that keeps me from using my powers. Do you know where it is?"
"I do indeed. I could not fathom what he needed such a thing for, and I admit that I'm still not sure," she said, lifting an eyebrow questioningly.
The clue was not lost on the younger woman who placed her hands on her hips as an attempt to compose herself.
"I still owe you an explanation, I guess."
Tenenbaum crossed her arms, subtly signalling her to continue. The placid attitude her face usually radiated did not give away the crippling curiosity she had ever since that certain Morse message from the depths found its way to her.
Elizabeth looked her in the eye. "I'm not from this world, and not from this time, doctor. It would take the whole day to tell it all but... well let's just say I had an unfortunate run-in with applied quantum physics in my childhood," she bitterly rubbed the thimble on her pinky. "I'm still not sure of the exact reason, but I was granted powers that transcend space and time alike. The creature you've seen earlier is somethi-, someone I borrowed from a world I knew."
Tenenbaum did not try to cover the dumbfounded look on her face this time. "Other worlds? So it's true then... Tell me Fräulein, could you see all of them? Are they infinite?"
"In a sense, yes. But no matter how far apart they are, there are things that never change and cannot be changed. Not even by me."
The scientist brought her knuckles under her chin, no doubt thinking about the next question to ask. Elizabeth could tell that the scientist was dying to know more about her unique experiences in times beyond, yet she moved on to personal matters.
"You claimed that you owed the girl. What was Sally to you?"
The girl's shoulders slumped once again as she tore her forlorn gaze from the doctor.
"I was following a man here. A man who did something unspeakable to m-... to a child I knew, Anna. He fled here with her blood still on his hands and I swore to hunt him down. Each one of him." Her fists tightened just by the mention of Comstock. "I used Sally to fulfill my plan of vengeance, a girl he befriended in his time here. I could have saved her with a flick of a finger anytime I wanted, but his punishment and my blasted plan was more important."
"I presume you had not known about this Siphon," Tenenbaum interjected.
"No. The outcome of my journey here was a blind spot to me. I didn't understand why at the time but I was too stubborn to let it stand in my way. I wanted him to suffer, and an innocent child paid the price of my wish."
The tears came again, along with the wave of unrelenting shame.
The older woman handed her an embroidered tissue, waiting a few minutes until the cries lessened.
"Elizabeth, can your powers bring people back from the dead?"
She looked up at her unreadable, stoic face, unsure if the question had been a rhetorical one.
"No, they can't. But-"
"What you did here to that man... did it bring Anna back?"
The doctor's point was obvious, even if it failed to shake her resolve.
"I can't just sit back and pretend it never happened. There must be something I can do to make it right!"
Desperately flailing her arms in her tantrum, her palm brushed over the skirt's hidden pocket. She then remembered the note she stuffed in there ages ago; the obscure message from the Luteces' cake. The brownish sheet's two sides melted into one another after what must have been several times of getting soaked in her ruined clothes. The picture of Monument Tower and the three cage symbols were blurred, the wet paper tearing at her touch.
All it did was enraging her even further as she angrily ripped it to little pieces.
"Those damn twins knew this would happen but couldn't be bothered to lift a finger," she sneered, throwing sidelong glances around the room like she was looking for ghosts. "They were watching the whole thing. They still are. It's probably for the best though, I couldn't stand their faces right now."
"Fräulein, you're not making any sense. What twins?"
Elizabeth gave an exasperated sigh.
"That's... not important now. What matters is that I have to shut the Siphon down on my own. Only then would I be able to accomplish anything."
"Which brings you back to the question," Tenenbaum pointed out. "What will you do once it is down?"
This made the girl to awkwardly scratch the back of her head.
"I... don't know yet. But if my powers get restored, my vision would become clear again. I will see all the doors and what I could do to change this timeline. I could..." her thoughts trailed off for a second.
Wait. If I do reach the Siphon in the future, I could easily stop myself in the past from ever using Sally like that, but... I never did. I never met myself here. If it didn't happen, it won't happen. Or will not had happened...? Why? Does that mean I would never reach the Siphon alive?
"...I just have to shut it off or die trying. It's the only way."
The doctor submerged in her own thoughts, softly tapping her cheek with a finger before speaking again.
"Even if you cannot find a way to help this one child, with those kind of powers... you could wipe the whole city clean. All these children could be saved from this evil place."
Elizabeth's vague motivations only grew more uncertain by the minute.
"I guess you're right, but... I never even managed to sort things out in my own world, much less in another one. I don't even have anything to do with-"
Tenenbaum's slightly disappointed frown gave her a pause.
"Alright... alright. If I succeed, I would see to it that all the girls get out of here, safe and sound. You have my word."
The older woman eased up visibly. "Thank you."
"So," started Elizabeth. "Where is it located?"
"At Hephaestus. The southern end of the city. Under lock and key."
"Well... that's quite a distance from here. I can't use the Metro, the power is still out at the station."
Tenenbaum shrugged a little. "You can always use another one on the bathysphere line. This is the only area affected by the blackout so far. The nearest functioning station would be-"
"The Adonis Luxury Resorts," cut in Elizabeth.
"Correct," nodded the doctor.
"I don't suppose you have some sort of weapon to lend me...?" sounded the hopeful question.
"I have only a pistol myself, but..."
"No, it's fine. I wouldn't want to leave you and the girls defenseless. Guess I'll just have to get by somehow."
The scientist seemed to be contemplating something, though the minimal change in her expressions needed a keen eye to notice.
"Come with me," she said, turning back to the stairs. Elizabeth followed her to the ground floor where the four little girls hurriedly jumped into the bunk beds to continue their afternoon nap, obviously eavesdropping on the adults seconds before. The scene would have brought a smile out of her had the day been a different one.
Tenenbaum sat down on the edge of the damp mattress, drawing the children's shy gaze to her. She softly put her hand on the brunette girl in the green dress, the one Elizabeth recognized as the child she scared to death earlier in the docks.
"Ashley dear, I need you to assist Fräulein Elizabeth once again. It's very important that she would reach the Adonis station on the shortest way there is."
The girl's sheepish brown eyes darted between the two women.
"No reason to be afraid, child. She's going to help you all. You do want to go to the surface, nicht wahr?"
She perked up a bit at the sound of that, but still giving the stranger a timid glance.
"I... think I didn't make the best of impressions to the poor thing back in Neptune's," said Elizabeth, rubbing her neck. "Don't worry, I'll find my own way to that station."
"It's too dangerous out there on the open streets. Ashley is the eldest, one of the first Sisters. She knows the entire vent system of the city like the back of her hand."
Having a good look at her, the girl did seem a few years older than Sally and the rest of the children.
"Her guiding you is your best chance," Tenenbaum continued.
Elizabeth hung her head in shame. "She's not safe with me."
The little girl hopped down from the bed, new-found determination sparkling in her eyes as she tugged at the grown-up's shabby skirt and tilted her head towards the exit.
"She doesn't talk," added the doctor upon seeing the woman's perplexed face. "I'm not sure she ever will, but Ashley is a bright child. She will find her way back."
The Lamb released a weary sigh. "Alright. I'll be right behind you, Ashley."
Tenenbaum turned to the rest. "I will return in a moment," she said while Elizabeth bid her own silent farewell to the girls.
The three made their way out of the safe-house, back to the sewer entrance where the doctor stopped to shut the sturdy door behind them.
"Thank you for your troubles," sighed Elizabeth, looking the scientist in the eye through the narrowing gap. "Wish me luck."
She responded in a tone that sounded almost wistful to her ears. "You have already come this far, Fräulein. You have every chance to succeed. Viel Glück."
The gate closed with a low metallic ring.
Elizabeth lingered there for a couple more seconds before she noticed that her guide disappeared from her side, already galloping to the darkened square.
"Ashley, slow down!"
The girl threw back a glance but did not do as she was asked, darting towards the corridor where Elizabeth rescued that boy not much earlier. Opening her mouth for another plea, the woman quickly decided against the notion when she heard a distant guffaw ripple through the deserted station.
Okay, maybe I should just keep up. She seems to be sure about what she's doing.
Instead of running straight to Mercury Suites, Ashley took a sharp turn to the entirely black corner and waited for Elizabeth there. She could barely make out the child in the dark who then grabbed the woman's hand, pointing above their head.
"Huh. I never would have noticed there was a vent here."
The crazed laughs echoed closer.
"Come on, I'll boost you up."
Ashley weighed considerably more than Sally did, she concluded, but after a bit of a balancing game the girl hopped safely onto the edge, even helping Elizabeth pull herself up. The outside noises muffled behind them as they started the long crawl in the labyrinth's belly.
Soon covered by complete darkness, Elizabeth started to worry she would lose track of the mute child.
"Ashley, if we hit a junction knock once to turn right and knock twice to go left, okay? I can't see a thing in here."
She was not sure if the girl had heard her, but after some further creeping sounded two sharp taps on the metal surface, Ashley waiting for her at the left branch.
"Thanks," she breathed. "We might just work this out."
Elizabeth diligently followed the former Little Sister through the zigzags, the ups and downs of the narrow tunnel for a time that felt like hours to her grazed knees until Ashley unexpectedly came to a stop.
"What's wrong?"
She jumped a little when a tiny hand softly covered her lips, supposedly as a sign for silence. The tunnel slightly tilted upwards and Elizabeth could now see the dim light over the edges, growing brighter as they slowly crawled closer.
The area was not void of activity either, Ashley's prior act of caution suddenly making more sense. The girl peeked out of their vent, shortly ducking back again.
She plays it safe alright, thought the woman while they were waiting for the outside yammering to die down.
Some five minutes passed, and so did the noises. Finally, Ashley fumbled aside to let her out of the tunnel. Elizabeth almost forgot the child was not coming any further. She brought herself to a tightened crouch, grabbed the edges and swiftly dropped down the two-meter height.
"Thank you Ashley," she said, looking up to the girl who was about to turn back. "I won't let you down."
The child curtly nodded then disappeared into the darkness, her catlike movements undetectable for her ears.
Elizabeth found the interior of the Luxury Resort pretty orderly, save for some odd objects lying around. A sleazy couch here, half a slipper there, broken maritime ornaments scattered about, a wet bathrobe thrown over the foyer's central globe, the spas deserted.
She walked out of the complex uninterrupted, her eyes scanning the walls and ceiling for the sneakier attackers in hiding. Seeing no movement, she stepped down to the seemingly untouched bathysphere that would take her straight to Hephaestus, circumventing the tram line. The door opened to reveal a corpse sitting in the middle with fresh frostbite darkening his face and limbs, still holding the lever in a stubborn grip.
"Wonderful."
Peeling his frozen fingers off was not as easy as it first seemed, it took considerable effort and a lot of warm breaths to loosen the glue-like connection. Once the body was carried out and the door sealed, she could be on her way to Rapture's volcanic power core.
During the silent journey, she tried to come up with the best way to stay out of the sight of prying eyes and still manage to find the one thing she was looking for.
"I should have asked Tenenbaum to specify the location a bit," she muttered to herself. "But it will probably be behind some heavy door locked tight."
A realization hit her along this train of thought as she reproachfully slapped herself on the forehead.
I didn't bring any lockpicks! Fat chance of finding one in a power plant...
Meanwhile the bathysphere reached its destination; the door's quiet hiss introduced Elizabeth to the orange-lit hall of Hephaestus.
Well, let's just hope it opens with a hairpin.
Judging from the icy puddle she almost slipped on while stepping out, it was a safe bet that the unfortunate frozen fellow she had the pleasure to meet earlier wanted to escape this exact station. The burn marks on the floor and ceiling marked telling signs of very recent and very intense fighting.
Going through the first gate she was met with an elaborate network of transparent, glass-walled corridors cutting through the dark blue ocean, bathing the passing fish in their fluctuating light. The power seemed to have periodic highs and lows, as if the nearby geothermal plant could break down any minute.
She could hear echoes of shouting drained into a chaotic gunfight, but could not pinpoint which direction they came from. The first three-way junction had a signpost with quite many arrows glowing in the middle, immediately drawing her attention.
"Let's see... Hephaestus Core, Geothermal Control, Workshops..." she read aloud, stopping at the line: Andrew Ryan's Office.
"Could it be? Would he keep that thing right under his nose?" she wondered. "Not that I'd be surprised."
For lack of a better idea, Elizabeth went down the path leading to the dreaded founder's lair. Before she would have descended further however, another corridor branched to the right from her current route, one she was sure had not been highlighted among the signs.
Curious, she decided to give it a try; the resounding bangs rippling from the office's way only reinforced her in this notion. The alley lured her ever further away from the rest of the complex, ending in a gate not unlike the usual Securis constructs in the city, its design just as unremarkable and nondescript except for trails of blood connecting it with two corpses on the floor.
Maintenance workers from the looks of them. Poor devils must have got cornered.
Carefully stepping over them, Elizabeth inspected the door's mechanism, as well as the four-digit lock on the side.
"No way I'm getting through this without the code," she sighed in exasperation, impatiently tapping on the floor for a solution to present itself. Instead of that, there was something else in the air now. The same feeling she learned to interpret as her sense of imminent danger. As she did not have any weapons with her anymore, she opted for an old trick she read in an adventure novel some odd years ago. Lying face down near the two dead men, she assumed a motionless position.
Her reaction was not uncalled for. A peculiar warping noise reverberated between the glass walls, and she could barely resist flinching when a filthy pair of shoes materialized out of thin air, right near her half closed eye. He stood there like that for suspiciously long; Elizabeth did not dare to draw breath, she could almost feel her face turn purple from the effort.
The swift kick in the ribs took her completely off-guard. It took all the resolve she had left to not let on the stars she was seeing in her brain, but remain just as stiff and unresponsive as a proper carcass would be.
"Fuckin' useless pile of junk..." mumbled the splicer, leaving behind a misty red aura after he disappeared. A violent cough burst out of the woman as she stumbled to her feet again, clutching her side in pain.
"Ugh... not having anything of value with me was actually a good thing. I hate this place so much."
Resuming to observe her previous problem, she stepped closer to the lock.
"So... four characters, numbers only. Let's try the obvious ones."
The current year, 1959 did not click, nor did the last one. Ryan's date of birth, 1911, was also denied. She now cursed herself for not doing a research on Suchong; there ought to be dates of significance to him she could use but was not familiar with.
"I can't believe I'm stuck because of a door."
As tired of the Luteces' passive meddling she was, a little nudge would not hurt her pride much at this moment.
"Could use a hint here..." she said aloud to no one in particular. "I swear these twins ar-"
Her tongue halted when the memory of the redheaded couple's last message came back to her.
"Cage. C-A-G-E. Four letters. All in the first half of the alphabet."
She turned back to the pad, entering the numbers 3-1-7-5. The door rolled open with a loud hiss.
"For the love of... I guess spitting things out as they are is just below their style."
What she had expected to be a room, turned out to be a mighty hall with an unusually high ceiling, its darkness only illuminated by the derelict, massive machine's blue arches of current.
"Here you are," she groaned with a vengeful frown, though she could not help but be somewhat amazed by the complexity of the contraption, never having the chance to see it with her own eyes before. The electricity was pulsating between the huge Tesla coils in what seemed like an irregular fashion, Elizabeth only now noticing the deranged state of the place and the lack of personnel. Aside from tables, chairs and various tools turned about, there were no dead bodies, burn marks or frozen puddles anywhere. Amidst the disorderly sheets of schematics and encrypted notes on the floor, she spotted an audio diary. With the owner's name on the device, she humored herself by listening to its content.
Yi Suchong
Fuses. January 2nd, 1959.
"Repression of phenomena by using the bothersome siblings' device proved to be... problematic. Charging phase unstable. Suchong think device is too strained. Need bigger capacity to handle young woman's hectic bursts. Fuses blow way too often for Suchong's comfort, will have to ask Mr Ryan for- Oh, there they go again. Suchong just changed the cursed things, it's- wait. Something happeni-"
The recording ended with a wild static wave, then continued with eerie silence until it stopped on its own.
"Huh. Wherever you ended up dear doctor, I hope it's not pleasant."
She returned to observing the Siphon, looking for a way to disturb its function without blowing the thing to bits, along with herself.
The crackling sound from the hall's corners halted her search momentarily, and when the before unseen television screens flickered to life, she knew with certainty who was about to give her his time of day.
"I must admit, I didn't expect you to get this far, Ms Comstock," boomed a somewhat miffed Andrew Ryan. "Even when faced by overwhelming odds, you pushed against the limits, against the forces that stripped you of your source of strength, and lived to fight another day. That is the line which separates parasitic opportunists from individuals of true greatness. This, I respect."
Elizabeth was not amused. "I bet this would sound a lot more genuine were you not the one who threw me to the wolves in the first place." The lights of the screens helped her spot a row of levers on the wall she would not have seen a minute earlier. The differently sized cables coming from their lower ends made it easy to guess which one of them was the main power supply. She crossed over to them at a leisurely pace, arms folded. "Actually...from where I stand, it very much sounds like overdue boot-licking from a beaten opponent." Grabbing hold of the biggest lever's grip, she afforded a smug smile to tug at her features. "Your many friends are no doubt banging on your front door as we speak. You're not in the position to bargain anymore. Game's over, Ryan."
She could tell that her reply ruffled the man's feathers quite a bit, but even so, he delivered his next line a lot more composed than a defeated egoist should.
"While you indeed have the advantage of being a mere inch away from victory, you will find that I seldom run out of reasonable offers."
Elizabeth was entirely sure she would not be interested in anything the desperate tyrant would propose, especially not when she undoubtedly had the upper hand, but simple curiosity was nagging at her to just humor him.
"However well-informed you may be about my city's many scientific breakthroughs, there is one very special project you cannot possibly be familiar with. You see, I happen to know what fate have befallen on that little... companion of yours as of late-"
Elizabeth's nails dug deep into the leathery grip. "You know nothing! Least of all about those you doomed to a fate worse than death!" she shouted, not being able to stay level-headed at the mention of Sally.
Ignoring the outburst, Ryan continued. "You see, the good doctor Suchong was a busy man. I entrusted him to construct an ADAM-infused device for personal use which he aptly called 'Vita Chamber'. A machine born from unrestrained Rapturian genius, able to revive a victim of recent violent death, without any harmful side effects whatsoever. There's only one operational prototype at one specific place, restricted to work with my own genetic material exclusively."
"You're bluffing."
"I'm never bluffing, Lamb of Columbia. You experienced firsthand what my city's technological marvels are capable of. For all your wild, unbridled power, even you cannot bring young Sally back from the dead. I offer you the key to overwrite the Chamber's lockdown, a chance to rectify your unfortunate failure with the girl. All you have to do is release that switch, and leave Hephaestus."
No matter how she would have wanted to deny it, Ryan was right about this one thing, as was Tenenbaum. She could never bring Sally back to life, not even with the leash off her neck. Her grip loosened a tad on the lever. If there was really a chance to make up for what she did to the child... how could she not take it?
No, no. That's exactly what he wants. If I go along, I'm stuck here forever, just as everyone else. A burial at sea. But... what if it works? I got this far once, I could do so again. I... I'd figure something out. On the other hand... if I pull it now, I could save everyone else. I could go to Paris, I could go wherever. But Sally... this Sally will stay dead.
From a far corner of her mind, a snippet of her past forced its way forth. Something she heard Booker say, so recently yet so long ago.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Forget. How do you... wash away the things you have done?"
"You don't. You just learn to live with it."
Elizabeth looked up to Andrew Ryan's waiting picture on the screen with a face as placid as she could manage. "I guess I ought to have my own turn of sonorous promises this time. You have created a living hell, down here in your kingdom of monsters. In this, you're not the first, and surely won't be the last. But you won't get away with it. I'll see to it that you'd go down along with this miserable place, and to give a chance to those whom you took it away from. On this, you have my word."
Her fist closed on the switch even tighter than before.
"No deal."
In one simple but theatrical enough motion, she pulled it down.