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

What was taking so long? Epsilon was growing increasingly agitated as time continued to crawl by. She had expected these people to welcome them back after she and Davian had cleared out the splicers. Instead, he was practically kidnapped by armed guards the moment they arrived back at the Drop.

Even worse was the fact that she was now being held under watch by more troops. All the frustration she had worked off in the fight immediately came back with a vengeance.

Wren sat quietly in the only chair that had been provided for them. Not that it was a problem, Epsilon hardly felt like sitting right now. The little sister was toying with the purple ribbon she wore in her hair.

The guards eyed both of them with a fair amount of trepidation. It was clear that they had little experience dealing with a protector, but their weaponry looked like it had been heavily modified. Epsilon had no doubt that they were using armor-piercing rounds.

In order to distract herself and prevent a bloodbath, she checked on her earlier bullet wound. The skin around the injury was still raw and sore, but the hole itself had mostly healed over. By now, it looked like she had been stabbed by a needle rather than been shot. She was lucky. The bullet went straight through her ankle. If it had hit a bone, it might have become lodged in her leg. Such a thing would be excessively painful and it would force her to dig out the projectile through the slowly regenerating flesh..

Sometimes rapid healing was a pain.

She would have to repair the damage to her suit at some point. While the hole didn't detract much from its ability to stop bullets, it would be a death sentence if she tried to go outside without a fully air-tight rig.

At last, mercifully, she heard the sound of the door opening. A quick glance revealed Davian walking in with the crossbow wielding human. His expression was far from happy.

"Mister M! Your back!" Wren cried, jumping to her feet. He let out a muffled 'oomf' as she bowled into him. "Where were you?"

"I was just having a chat with the doctor." He choked, trying to lessen her grip on his midsection enough to draw in air. "She had some... well… questions that needed to be answered. Nothing for you to worry about though."

The remark seemed to satisfy her, and her stranglehold took on a less life threatening intensity.

Epsilon however, could see through the ruse easily. Something had happened in there that was bothering him. She was slightly surprised to find herself wanting to find out just what it was.

"Anyway…" He began, finally succeeding in prying Wren off. "Tenenbaum agreed to let us stay, at least for a while. Archer is going to show us to our rooms, and after that we need to meet with Tomas again. She didn't tell me why."

"That's right." Archer said, stepping forward with a confident grin. "I'm here to play babysitter while you get situated. Now pack your bags, and let's get going. We're burning daylight here."

Daylight? What was a daylight? And who was burning it? She couldn't see anything burning.

Irritatingly enough, nobody else seemed to be confused by his sentence. Davian and Wren both took up their respective supplies, while Epsilon was forced to follow behind them as they walked with Archer.

The young man seemed to be far too cheerful, strolling along at a leisurely pace with both a splicer and a big sister behind him. It had to be an act. Focusing on nothing else, Epsilon devoted all her attention to trying to pierce the veil of ease he had raised. She looked for even the slightest hint of tension or fear, but was unable to find anything. There was no way he wasn't faking was there? No sane person would be able to treat strangers like that.

Maybe he was just really stupid…

The group came to a sudden halt when a familiar face crossed their path. Looking rather ragged, and sporting a black eye, Stanley Poole had certainly seen better days. It was funny in a way, she had almost forgotten about him.

Upon seeing them, the battered man's face twisted into a snarl.

"You!" He hissed.

"Oh." Davian jumped back at the venom in Stanley's voice. "What are you still doing here? Weren't you gonna go back to that train station or something?"

His words seemed to drive their former hostage deeper into a rage. He shook with barely contained fury, while undoubtedly fighting the urge to punch Davian.

"There's something I want you to do." He snarled through grit teeth. "Go find the deepest hole you can, curl up at the bottom of it, and die!" With that, he turned and stormed off back the way he had come.

They all watched him go, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. Eventually Davian broke the silence.

"What happened to him?" He asked, turning to Archer.

"Turns out someone in the colony knows an awful lot about him." The young man replied. "A woman by the name of Grace Holloway went mental when she cornered him. It took three guys to pry her off. Tenenbaum wants to keep him 'under observation' until she decides if he might be an issue or not."

The image of Stanley being beaten on by some lady while three armed guards tried to hold her back did wonders to improve Epsilon's mood. Unfortunately, Davian didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. If anything he almost looked sympathetic to the man. Maybe someday he would learn to find humor in other's misfortune. Besides, the guy probably deserved it. Maybe.

"Here we are, room 104." Archer announced, bringing them up to a door that looked almost exactly the same as all the others around it. "This is where you three will be staying. We don't have a lot of extra room so you'll need to share, but we made sure to pick one with at least two beds. There's also a couch if the little tyke needs a bed to herself."

Epsilon frowned. How exactly was she supposed to remember where this was? How did the others differentiate it? He had called it room 104, but the only thing she could see to identify it was some strange symbols scratched into the surface. Had he actually counted, or did he just have them all memorized? With her shoulders slumping, she realized she would have to rely on Davian to find the room again.

"Anyway, you guys will probably want a pit of privacy." Archer said. "There are some spare clothes in there for you, so take your time and I'll lead you to Tomas when you're finished."

For a moment, all three of them stared at him uncomprehending.

"Wait, what?" Davian asked.

Archer just chuckled. "You didn't honestly think we were going to let you walk around the colony looking like that did you?" He asked, gesturing at them. "You and the little princess look like you just crawled up from the gutter, and she…" He pointed to Epsilon. "looks like she wants to murder somebody."

She did want to murder somebody. What was wrong with looking the part?

"There are plenty of outfits to choose from, so just pick your favorite and come on out when you're finished."

They all entered the room with very different attitudes. Wren was ecstatic about getting a new wardrobe, and immediately shot to the large pair of dressers to begin rifling through the choices. Davian was somewhat more hesitant. He seemed a bit suspicious of the arrangement for whatever reason.

Epsilon was torn.

On one hand, removing her armor in favor of more mundane clothing went against all her training for being prepared and ready for battle. Fabric did very little to stop bullets and she often wondered why splicers didn't look for better protection. At the same time, she could still handle herself without the armor. She was stronger, faster, and far deadlier than any of them could claim to be. It would also give her a chance to repair the damage her suit had sustained.

Maybe this would be a good thing. People tended to underestimate you if they didn't see something out of the ordinary.

Fine, she would play there little game. Let the humans think they are safe. It would make things much easier when, well… if; a conflict broke out.

By this point, Wren had gathered up a sizable pile of mismatched clothing, and disappeared into a side room to get dressed. Davian was picking over what was left, seemingly not wanting to commit to any one choice.

Epsilon turned her attention to removing her equipment. She would decide on an outfit once she was out of it.

Her helmet was the first thing to come off. It was the easiest to remove, and as soon as it fell away all her senses were assaulted by the smells and sounds of Rapture. Put mildly, it was less than pleasant. Unwashed bodies and the smell of decay weren't exactly her favorites.

Next came the harvester. She flinched at the sting of its IV feed being pulled out of her arm. With the massive needle removed, her arm felt unusually light. She hoped it wouldn't throw her off in a fight.

Now she began the long process of loosening all the straps that held her battle armor in place. While all the connections made it secure, they also served to make it very tedious to remove. It took a full ten minutes just to get all the ones on her limbs, and she still had to loosen the back ones. She hated those. You needed to bend your arms much too far in order to reach them.

Davian seemed to see her plight.

"Need some help?" He asked.

Normally Epsilon would have preferred to do it herself, but one of the straps was stuck on something and she couldn't see it. With a slight grumble, she nodded to him and gestured to the offending strip of leather.

As he worked, her senses became very conscious of the fact that she was letting a splicer not only get near her but stand behind her. Her muscles began to tense unconsciously with each tug on her suit. She had to actively fight the urge to whip around and beat him to the ground.

When at last Epsilon felt the strap loosen and his presence move away, she allowed herself to relax again. Davian went back to sorting through the provided clothing while she began the process of removing each part of her armor.

Gloves first, then boots, followed by her leggings, and finally the breastplate. She was careful to lay them all down in such a way as to avoid any part snagging on something. If the metal bent when she tried to put it back on, removing it again would be a major pain.

Satisfied with the condition of her gear, she started taking a look at the wardrobe choices. She didn't get very far before a strange choking noise interrupted. She turned to find Davian with one of the oddest expressions she had ever seen.

His face was frozen with his mouth half open, looking halfway between shocked and terrified. What's more, it couldn't seem to decide on going bright red or deathly pale. He was staring at her but she couldn't understand why. Had she done something strange? He had already seen her with her helmet off once so she doubted it was her face.

After several moments of silent questioning, he found his voice.

"Y-Y-You weren't…" Davian stuttered, apparently unable to speak in an understandable fashion. "You weren't wearing anything under that…"

Epsilon raised an eyebrow. Of course she wasn't wearing anything under her suit. It kept her warm enough by itself, and additional fabric would only hinder her movements. That and it would chafe.

Apparently he didn't see the obvious logic as his reaction didn't change. Instead, he forcibly ripped his gaze away and made a point of looking everywhere except at her while quickly heading towards the door.

"I-I'll see if there's another room open to change in." He said, taking several pieces of clothing with him. His face had finally settled on a dark crimson shade.

Epsilon watched him go, thoroughly confused. None of her other sisters had ever reacted that way when she had removed her armor in front of them, so why had he?

Eh, it was probably just a weird splicer thing. Not worth worrying about.

She turned her attention to choosing a set of clothing from the leftover selections. Dresses, skirts, and other superfluous items were immediately tossed aside. They would get in the way if fighting started or if she needed to move quickly. Most of the more practical choices were too large, but she did manage to find a pair of slacks and a shirt that could be tucked in.

Epsilon gave a few experimental twists after getting dressed. They were a bit loose, but compared to the other options it was only a small annoyance. She stole a glance down at her bare feet. The only shoes she could see that would fit here looked both impractical and highly uncomfortable. Going without them wouldn't do her any real harm. Besides, it would be sort of like when she was a little sister herself. Walking down the elegant hallways… Singing nonsense songs… With her knight by her si-

Her moment of nostalgia was forcefully derailed as she brought herself back to the present. Epsilon growled at herself, annoyed by her willingness to relive past ignorance. Rapture wasn't a grand paradise, the corpses weren't angels. And her knight…

He wasn't coming back.

All of a sudden, she felt very alone. She wished that Davian hadn't run out like that. Especially considering she couldn't see a reason for him to do so.

Epsilon shook her head. Was this how desperate she had become? That she preferred a splicer's company to being alone? This was just getting sad.

"I'm reeeeadyyy!" Wren's voice filled the room without warning. The girl stepped through the side door, wearing a vast assortment of poorly coordinated clothing. Seeing Epsilon, she smiled.

"Hi E. Where's Mister M?"

Epsilon smiled back. That's right, she wasn't alone. She had her own charge now, and that was what mattered. Walking over to the child, she directed her back into the dressing room.

She wasn't about to let her little sister go out looking like that.

Davian was having a very hard time trying to calm down. His face burned furiously as he struggled in vain to focus on getting dressed. He couldn't get the image of Amelia out of his head. Her standing there, only a few feet away without any clothes on as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

It wasn't like he hadn't seen naked people before. Many of the dead bodies had their clothing stolen, and quite a few splicers were too out of it to notice if their attire had degraded. Even so, it still felt so… dirty. As if he had been spying on her while she was taking a shower or something.

Davian reminded himself again that she was the one who got undressed in front of him. Maybe she didn't understand what that kind of thing entailed. He doubted Lamb had taught the big sisters much about social etiquette.

Eventually, he managed to finish dressing himself in a somewhat subdued suit and pants. He kept his old shoes on, but other than that everything else was new. Not half bad he decided, at the very least it made him look less like a vagabond.

After making sure everything was in order, he stepped into the hallway to find Archer waiting for him. The young man gave him a quick glance, and a thumbs up.

"Nice." He said, grinning. "Looking like that you might pass for a normal person instead of a killer drug addict."

Davian rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome."

"I calls 'em as I sees 'em." He replied, chuckling.

It wasn't long before the door to room 104 opened up, and the two sisters stepped out. Both of the boys were left speechless.

Wren looked much nicer than she had before, but she wasn't the one that caught their attention. For Amelia, the simple change of attire had been a drastic transformation.

"There's no way…" Archer mumbled, more to himself than anyone. "This girl can't be the same thing that was tearing people apart earlier, can she?"

She was wearing boys clothing, but it seemed to fit her well. The shirt hung loosely on her deceptively thin frame, creating an illusion of vulnerability. Her pale skin and blonde hair were a far cry from the metal that had become her image.

Davian could hardly believe that it was her either. The yellow eyes left no doubt, but she still looked far too small to be one of Rapture's most terrifying creatures. From now on he would have to remind himself that there was a person underneath the armor.

Of course, thinking that brought up another image of exactly what was underneath. Davian quickly looked away, willing his face to stop igniting.

"I can safely say that the three of you clean up well." Archer said, breaking the spell. "Now we need to get you down to Tomas. He's got something special for you to see."

"Special?" Wren asked, perking up. "Like present special? Or birthday special? Or-"

"Like big shiny object special." Archer said, giving a conspiratorial wink. "If you are going to be staying here then you'll all need to see what we've been working on."

"I wasn't aware you were working on anything." Davian said.

"That's the point." Archer replied. "Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Let's just say that it's a very big deal."

Needing no further encouragement, or perhaps simply feeling impatient, Amelia gestured for him to get going.

With that, they set off to see just what Tenenbaum had in store for them.