You ever have one of those moments when you're just typing away, and suddenly bam! You get hit with a big wall of writer's block? That happened about halfway through this chapter. Here's to hoping it doesn't happen again anytime soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bioshock or any of the characters associated with it

Epsilon drifted in a sea of darkness. She couldn't remember what she had been doing, but right now it simply didn't seem all that important.

It was sort of nice to relax in this haze. It blocked out the constant weight of her duty to the dead city. Some part of her knew that it was dangerous to let herself be so exposed, but she didn't sense any immediate threats. Right now all that mattered was the nice feeling of resting her head on something soft.

Wait a minute.

Something soft?

Under her head?

That shouldn't be there, her helmet would have prevented her from feeling any object that she was laying on. As she tried to focus, she began to notice other things as well. Her nose was assaulted by the smells of the city around her, subjecting her to the rotten odor of death and decay.

In her foggy half-conscious state, Epsilon tried to make sense of the information. It was fairly obvious that her helmet was off, but why was that? Had she removed it at some point? What had happened to cause that?

As she struggled to remember, a peculiar sound greeted her ears. Nearby, she picked up the noise of tiny footsteps and childish humming.

In an instant, everything came roaring back to her.

The splicer, the fight, the explosion, and… Nothing. That was when the darkness had set in. She had been caught in the blast and knocked unconscious.

And her sister… What had happened to her?

With an incredible amount of effort, Epsilon forced her eyelids to open so that she could see where she was. Almost immediately, her attention was drawn to the figure directly across from her.

It was the same little sister that she had seen the splicer try to take. Despite what must have been a very traumatic event, she seemed to be none the worse for wear. As she stared, her younger sibling noticed that she was awake.

"Big sis! You're all better!" She shouted, dashing over to Epsilon's side. "I knew mister M would fix you. Wait here, I'll go get him."

Mister M? Who was mister M? She didn't have time to question the identity of this stranger before the girl was up and running to where this 'mister M' presumably was hiding.

Epsilon made to go after her, but as she tried to rise a clanking of metal signaled that she couldn't. Looking down, she realized for the first time that someone had wrapped her arms and legs in a clumsy assortment of metal chains.

The big sister let out a shriek of indignation. Who the hell had the sheer nerve to tie her up!? She didn't know whether to be enraged that someone wanted to keep her subdued, or insulted that they thought some measly metal links could hold her.

She decided on both.

Setting her jaw, she began to strain her limbs against the chains that held them. Little by little she felt the rusty metal begin to give under her strength. Just before she could break free entirely, she was distracted by the sound of voices.

"Come see! She's awake now, hurry!"

"Oh… Wonderful. Here I was just thinking about what would happen when she woke up. Let's hope my guess wasn't accurate."

A beautifully cunning plan began to take shape in Epsilon's mind. She could use her current position to her advantage. Whoever this was thought she was tied up. She would let him believe that, and the moment he got too close…

Smiling to herself, she relaxed the pressure on the chains so that they were no longer in immediate danger of breaking. She would teach this man to respect the agents of the family.

She didn't have to wait long, and the man who accompanied her sister was the last one she expected to see.

It was him.

The very same splicer that had tried to take the girl away was now walking side by side with her. She had assumed that he was killed in the blast, but apparently he kept up the trend of being infuriatingly difficult to get rid of.

Epsilon's mouth dropped open in shock. There was no way that this could be the one the girl referred to so fondly! He was a monster! No, he was worse; monsters didn't start out as people.

Her instincts screamed at her to shatter the pitiful chains holding her down and tear this thing apart. She would have too, if not for one small thing.

As she watched, the little sister took his hand and looked up at him with an expression of pure adoration.

An expression reserved for a protector.

Epsilon felt her blood grow cold. Somehow this freak had managed to convince the child that he was her guardian. The scene was so sickeningly wrong that she felt bile rise in the back of her throat.

If she broke free and killed him now, she could do irreparable damage to the trust her sister held for her. For the first time in years, she didn't know what to do.

"Well, look who's finally decided to join us." The splicer's voice sounded unusually weary. She had expected something a bit more sinister from the one who managed to survive their fight, but he didn't seem to be overly threatening at the moment.

"Are you just going to sit there staring?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "You can understand me right?"

Epsilon's eyes narrowed in a glare as a warning growl rumbled in her chest. If he thought she would fall for the harmless act, he was dead wrong.

The two of them remained still, regarding each other while a very confused little sister tried to understand their expressions.

The splicer stood roughly six feet tall, with dull-red hair that had been cut short. His skin was pale and sickly, giving him the look of a walking corpse. Surprisingly enough, he had no tumors or growths like most other splicers.

His eyes were what held her attention the most. He had a calculating gaze that was constantly sizing up potential threats. Epsilon knew that look well, it was the one worn by those who always expected a fight.

If only she could oblige.

After a period, he turned away from her gaze.

"All right then." He began, sitting down on a nearby couch. "You don't look like you enjoy this situation, and I can assure you that I don't either. So here's how it's going to work. You're going to stay tied up until I'm sure you won't try to tear my limbs off again. Once we move past that, I'll let you out and you can go back to butchering homeless people or whatever it is you do in your free time. How does that sound?"

She continued glaring silently. He was a fool if he thought she was going to let him off that easily. Not only had he harmed an enforcer of the family, he had corrupted the mind of one of their gatherers.

When she gave no response, he let out a sigh, and rubbed his forehead. "Wren." He said, turning to the little sister. "Would you please talk some sense into our houseguest?"

The girl sat down next to her and gave her a pat on the head.

"Awww, it's all right big sis." She assured. "Mister M is really nice and stuff. He's a magician! He can make himself vanish, and then un-vanish somewhere else!"

Epsilon's glare only deepened. Was that how he had tricked her into hanging around with him? By using some cheap parlor tricks that any Houdini splicer could replicate?

Wren continued trying to pacify her, but she tuned out the girl's attempts. Right now she needed to figure out how to get rid of the splicer without alienating the one she was supposed to protect. It wouldn't be easy. She would need to do it quickly, quietly, and retrieve the little sister before she figured out what had happened.

Settling back into her bed of cushions, Epsilon prepared to start the inevitable waiting game. She could be patient. Sooner or later an opportunity would arise. And when it did…

She would be ready.

All things considered, the next few days were highly uneventful. Epsilon would wake up, wait for the others, and proceed to lie in place for the duration of the day. Every now and then Wren would try to spoon-feed her some unidentifiable slop that the splicer claimed was food. She would eat it of course, more to spite him than anything. It was clear he didn't like having to use resources on her, so she was happy to make him as uncomfortable as possible.

Her opportunity hadn't come yet either. Wren was always either by his side or nearby, so breaking out wouldn't get her anywhere.

What's worse, she feared the splicer might be getting suspicious. He hadn't seen her struggle against the chains once, and each time he looked at her his gaze was warier than before. She had assumed that he would be too ignorant to notice anything unusual, but this apparently wasn't the case.

He tried speaking to her occasionally. It was always the same things. He would check to see if she was ready to comply, and she would respond with silence. She had no other answer to give, since she had no intention of playing his game.

Nothing changed, but the tension in his household continued to rise. Epsilon had never been in a situation that had felt so… thick with unpleasantness. Every time the two of them were in a room together, it felt like they were standing on a trip-mine. Even Wren couldn't remain oblivious to the issues. She tried in her own way to ease the friction, but she didn't understand why it was there in the first place. After all, they were both supposed to be her protectors weren't they?

To make things even more miserable, she had to use the bathroom VERY badly. Her body was able to process much more of the stuff that went into it thanks to her Adam slug, but after a few days even her superior system had to get rid of waste products.

All of this added up to make her mood particularly volatile, and today the splicer had decided to antagonize her further.

She had been napping lightly for no other reason than it was the only thing she could do, when the grating sound of wood on metal forced her into awareness. Turning her head, she spotted the splicer dragging a chair into the room and positioning it in front of her. He took a seat, and for a while the two of them simply stared.

"How long are you going to keep this up?" He asked at last. "You have to know by now that I'm willing to let you go. All I want is for you to leave without killing anybody. In case you've forgotten it was you who attacked me."

Epsilon remained silent as always. Her defiant gaze bore into him making it very clear that she had no intention of compromise. This was a fight she would win no matter how long it took. If Wren wasn't sitting in the other room right now she would have snapped the chains and ended him then and there.

"You know…" He said. "You could at least show a little gratitude. I did go out of my way to ensure that you didn't keel over when those barrels exploded in your face."

She just rolled her eyes. Any damage from the blast would have been healed quickly enough by her slug, and she knew from her sister's description of the events that all he had done was give her an injection. That spot itched like crazy by the way. Just another reason for her to want him dead.

Letting her gaze drift, Epsilon's attention was suddenly drawn to a single object on the far side of the room. It took inhuman willpower to keep her face from betraying it, but she had finally spotted exactly what she needed.

Lying amidst a pile of discarded papers was Wren's harvester. The girl must have dropped it there after their last gathering outing.

Cautiously, Epsilon reached out with her telekinesis and was rewarded by the needle shaking slightly. She hardly dared to breathe as the tip slowly shifted until it was pointed at the splicer's back. He was currently looking into the distance, lost in whatever thoughts were going through his head.

She would need to be quick. If he had time to scream or cry out, Wren would likely come running. The shot would have to be instantly fatal. Once he was dead, she would take her sister away from this place and back to where she would be safe. The girl might be broken up for a while about leaving him behind, but she would get over it eventually.

Tasting victory, Epsilon began to raise the harvester into the air.

"Oh, that reminds me." The splicer suddenly said, snapping his fingers. The unexpected phrase broke her concentration, and only her quick reactions halted the needle before it clattered to the floor.

"I have something else for you to glare at. Wait here." With that, he got to his feet and left the room.

Epsilon wanted to scream in frustration. She was so close to being rid of him and he just left!? Closing her eyes, she forced herself to calm down. The harvester was still there, and he would be back. One way or another, this would all be over soon.

At the sound of his footsteps, she opened her eyes and got ready to endure whatever mockery he had decided to subject her to.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

As he stepped into the room, he carried her helmet under his arm. She had assumed that he had taken it as a trophy after their fight, and she had intended to take it back once he was dead. Why was he bringing it out now? Was it to gloat? That seemed oddly overconfident compared to how he had been reacting recently.

"This." He said, setting it down. "Is for you. It was banged up a bit and I've been working to get it fixed. I meant to give it to you sooner, but I wanted to make sure all the damage was fixed properly since you might end up going underwater with it on. Structural weaknesses can be a real pain when you're drowning."

Even if her vocal cords hadn't been the shredded mess that they were, Epsilon wouldn't have been able to find her voice. She wanted to pretend that he was lying to her, but she could easily see where the helmet had been cracked open and welded shut again. She could only assume that he had used an incinerate plasmid to do so.

But why would he do that? Did he think it would win her over? She couldn't find any logical reason to explain why he went through the trouble of repairing it.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go work on some other business. You can hang onto the helmet until you're ready to leave."

Without another word, the splicer got up and exited the room, leaving behind a very confused and very conflicted big sister.

That night, Davian lay in his bed battling with his usual insomnia.

The metal creature in his living room was becoming a major issue. Not only was she a threat, but she was using up valuable food and water that they simply couldn't spare. She was a draining their reserves faster than he liked, and would force them to leave their safe house sooner.

If she let them leave at all, that is. So far she hadn't shown any sort of cooperation.

Davian's concerns were interrupted by the sound of his door being inched open. This didn't worry him too much. Wren had crept into his room many times in the past after a bad dream had broken the peace of her sleep.

Something was different this time, however. As he listened, there was no patter of tiny feet moving across the floor towards him. There were no tears, or pleas for comfort from a fearful child. The only thing he could hear was the slight creak of the floor as the intruder drew closer.

There was only one thing in Rapture that could move that quietly…

Davian's eyes shot open, and he was assaulted by a sight directly out of his worst nightmares. Directly above him was a blood-red porthole. His body went unnaturally still as her gaze fixed him in place.

She had broken out of the chains. On some level he had known that she could, but he had allowed himself to hope that she was truly trapped.

All he could do was stare up in horrified anticipation of what was about to happen. Any minute now, she would raise the harvester on her arm, and he would be forced to fight for his life again.

But the needle didn't rise.

After an indiscernible amount of time, she turned away from him and stepped back through the doorway.

Davian watched her go in silence, his heart beating a mile a minute. When he was sure that it wasn't some trick, he turned to stare at the ceiling.

He didn't have the slightest idea what that was about, but he knew one thing.

He wasn't getting any sleep tonight.