Eleven Months Ago
Rapture
.
The treatments had slowed since Elizabeth's departure. Mother must have sensed she had given up on escape and decided to ease off in order to fall back in line with her calculations.
Eleanor had gained strength, but she couldn't see a reason to try again. It was too dangerous to involve the Little Sisters after what had happened with Father. She knew bringing a dead man back to life would have complications, but she never took into account his ADAM-starved hostile nature. He could have killed them all if not for-
If not for Elizabeth.
The girl who quite literally came out of nowhere and saved them all. The girl who could somehow rip open universes and make a Big Daddy disappear as if it had never existed at all. She thought about Elizabeth often. Her offer especially. A near stranger offering to take her from Rapture without even seeing her face or knowing anything about her.
She couldn't get the picture of Elizabeth- halfway in the tear, blue eyes wide but determined, dark red cut across her cheek. The ribbon in her hair had come undone and her dress was dirty and torn from scrapes with the splicers, but she was standing there, elegant and fearless, tear waving behind her. The world at her feet.
How much Eleanor wanted to follow, she would never admit to herself.
..
.
Columbia
.
Elizabeth traced a finger over the small white scar on her cheek as she looked out over Columbia. She did not sing as she once would have. Instead, she plucked a rose from the balcony and did not flinch as a thorn punctured the pad of her thumb.
Her memories of Rapture were veiled in the haze of the tears, but she couldn't and would never forget the voice of the girl who saved her life. She could almost hear it in the back of her mind as she watched parts of Columbia shift to accommodate an airship.
It unsettled her how much she wanted to return to Rapture. How much she wanted to find Eleanor and drag her through the tear! How much she wanted to-
She stepped away from the balcony and fell through the floor.
..
.
Rapture
.
Eleanor had been rearranging her old school books in her bookshelf when the ceiling decided to explode, or at least, that is what it seemed as she was no longer looking at her own ceiling at all, but instead at one much grander and higher up. All around she could see sturdy bookshelves lining the walls and was that... sunlight?
She abandoned her own modest shelf and climbed on top of her bed to get a better look. It was blurry and hard to make out, but once her eyes adjusted, she nearly toppled over.
"Elizabeth?"
The girl was standing with her back to Eleanor but higher up as if Eleanor were looking up at her through the floor. She didn't seem to hear her either.
"It's me, it's Eleanor!"
Elizabeth turned, and, really, all Eleanor could do was watch as she walked herself off a cliff.
..
.
Rapture: Elizabeth
.
Falling through the floor was… new.
Elizabeth coughed and winced as she peeled herself off the concrete floor that seemed to have caught her. She started to stand slowly and tensed when she felt hands on her upper arms pulling her gently to her feet.
"Are you alright?"
Jarred as she was from the drop, Elizabeth would recognize that voice in a thousand cities, in any dimension.
"It's you."
Eleanor nodded just once before Elizabeth clung to her thin frame, hugging her like a magnet. "I can't believe I'm here. I… I was just thinking of you and now I'm here. With you!"
She let go of Eleanor and spun around, taking in the room. It was a bit on the childish side with the stuffed animals and pink rug, but it was Eleanor's, and she loved it.
Finished, she sat down on Eleanor's bed and smiled at the girl in the simple white dress standing nervously near the large window overlooking Rapture.
"You're taller than I imagined."
Eleanor smiled at that for a moment before glancing away at something. "Elizabeth… It's not safe for you-"
"Stop that," Elizabeth said, crossing her arms. "I can take care of myself."
Eleanor sighed but didn't argue. Instead, she took a seat on the floor. "At least get down. I don't want her to see you."
..
.
Rapture: Eleanor
.
As it turned out, when it came to Elizabeth, where are you from? was certainly the question to ask. Slight with her hesitation, it didn't take much to get her talking. The girl had lived all her life in a floating tower in the clouds with nothing but a giant metal bird to look after her. If not for her own specific circumstances, Eleanor might have laughed at the idea.
They sat beside each other on the floor behind Eleanor's bed, shoulders touching. Elizabeth moved her hands with her words as if to add emphasis where none was truly needed. "I have everything I could ever need," Elizabeth continued, "but…"
"You want to see the world," she supplied. If anyone out there could possibly understand Elizabeth, it was Eleanor Lamb. It seemed whether the girl was stuck in the sky or beneath the sea, the feelings were the same.
"What about those tears of yours? You came here."
Elizabeth looked down at her hands."The tears are unpredictable at best. I never know what lies on the other side. Even a world with just one thing changed can be devastating."
"So it's sort of random?"
She nodded, but stopped short, "Yes, but I remember when I was younger… I could do more than just open them… I could create them. I could go wherever I wanted… but I always wanted to go back. I can't do that anymore, believe me, I've tried."
Eleanor nodded at that, not knowing what else to do. Elizabeth's power was beyond Rapture, beyond ADAM. She doubted there was a plasmid out there that could open doors between worlds.
The thimble on Elizabeth's pinky reflected the red glow of the light above the door. Eleanor felt her eyes drawn to it before she could think better of it.
Elizabeth nudged her gently, and Eleanor flushed. "If you want to ask me, ask me." Eleanor opened her mouth and closed it. She was floundering, but Elizabeth was graceful enough for the both of them. "It's alright. It's as much a mystery to me as anyone else… Maybe Songbird knows, but he's not talking."
As if on cue, a strange song started to chime softly from the city above. Eleanor looked up at the ceiling, at the moonlight streaming through the windows in Columbia. Elizabeth followed her eyes and sighed heavily, seeming to hear the music as well, "Speaking of… He's coming. I have to get back."
Just hearing the words formed something heavy in Eleanor's stomach, and it wasn't the ADAM slug.
Elizabeth got to her feet and brushed off her skirt. Eleanor had grown up in a world of splicers and men fused into protector suits, of little girls with glowing eyes and near-translucent skin. Elizabeth was none of these things. She was cheerful and so smart. There was no ADAM to ruin her in the ways Eleanor was so accustomed to.
"I-"
"Give me a boost, would ya?" she asked, climbing up onto the bed. When Eleanor didn't move from the floor, Elizabeth crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Hey, this is not goodbye, Eleanor."
Eleanor stood, unconvinced. "You said the tears were unpredictable. We may never see each other again. Doesn't that make you- Aren't you worried at all?"
Elizabeth reached out tentatively as if unsure of her own movements, but gained confidence quickly as her palm rested gently against Eleanor's cheek. Her eyes were filled with something so strong, Eleanor simply had to look away.
"You're all I've got, you know. I'll find a way, I promise."
..
.
Nine Months Ago
Columbia
.
And Elizabeth did, in fact, find a way.
She returned to Rapture only four weeks after her last departure and then again another week later. Every tear was a fight with some invisible force. Each time she thought she had the right one, it would close on her and vanish, but she was determined. It drained her to no end, but she never stopped trying. She couldn't. Eleanor was…
Eleanor was trapped there. A single room to live her life in. Splicers to deliver her food and escort her to her mother. And Elizabeth was not blind to the effects of whatever it was Eleanor's mother was doing to her. While Eleanor was always glad to see her, recently she had grown agitated and jittery during their visits, unable to keep herself in one place, always fretting about her mother catching them, saying things like: "She'll hurt you. No- No, she'll kill you, Elizabeth. She won't think twice."
And all Elizabeth could think to do to calm her was to reopen the tear and make sure Eleanor watched as she crossed back to safety.
Today, she hoped, would be different. It had to be. She couldn't lose Eleanor. Not like this.
Elizabeth leaped through her newest tear, trusting Eleanor to be waiting for her on the other side. Entering a room through a rip in the space-time continuum as she did wasn't exactly unannounced. Eleanor had once told her it was about as subtle as a brick. But none of that mattered as Elizabeth landed in Rapture, already leaning into Eleanor's embrace, forehead pressed to her collarbone. Eleanor's white dress was stiff under her touch. "Sorry I took so long."
Eleanor made a low humming noise and shifted to look at the door on the other side of the room. It remained locked as always, red light glowing above it to signify she was present.
"Elizabeth," she whispered, "take me to Columbia."
..
.
Columbia: Eleanor
.
Elizabeth led the way like she was born for the task, head-on in the way Eleanor had come to expect from her. Crossing through the tear set Eleanor's nerves on fire. She squeezed Elizabeth's hand tightly in both her own the moment she stepped into a ray of sunlight. She felt warm like she could stand there forever despite the pain behind her eyes from so much light. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.
"C'mon. You haven't seen anything yet!" Elizabeth said, pulling Eleanor along by their tethered hands, taking the stairs two at a time to the top.
The girl took a sharp left and disappeared when Eleanor stopped to catch her breath.
"Eleanor?"
"I think I'm lost," she called out, looking into another dark room.
"This way!"
Eleanor smiled to herself and followed the voice.
..
She found Elizabeth on a small balcony decorated with roses that had probably seen better days. Elizabeth had one in her hands when Eleanor approached.
She laughed quietly, then cleared her throat. "I guess I got a little careless."
"Doesn't sound like you."
"Well," she said, dropping the rose back into the planter, "I've been a little busy."
Looking for me? Eleanor would have said if she had not been so transfixed on the sight of Elizabeth leaning slightly over the ledge, breeze moving her dark hair, backdropped by a floating city no less.
She swallowed, nervous as always. For all she knew of Elizabeth, the world-bending powers, Monument Island, Songbird; she had confessed little of her own, and it was becoming clear to her that she was running out of time.
She moved beside Elizabeth and rested her elbows on the warm stone railing. The sun was sinking in the sky, touching the tops of the floating buildings.
"When I was-" she started slowly, shifting with the uncertainty of it. She trailed off, lost, but Elizabeth met her eyes and gave a reassuring smile. She clasped Eleanor's hands in her own. "When I was younger, Mother was arrested, and I- well, after some time with a guardian, I was stolen and sold to an orphanage."
Elizabeth's eyes widened. She ducked her head into Eleanor's shoulder and squeezed her fingers.
"In Rapture, children are not what they seem. They are a tool to produce and reclaim ADAM. Those girls you saved… I was like them once. Father, he protected me until… Until Mother returned for me. She killed Father and cast him away. She was so angry at what had been done to me. She did everything in her power to bring me back, but I couldn't be fully rehabilitated."
"What do you mean?" Elizabeth whispered.
"I don't fully understand it myself, but I am still like them… I can smell the ADAM moving around Rapture, I can feel it inside me. It makes me sick… Mother says it's a gift, that I'm some kind of bloody messiah for the future of the Rapture Family. The only time I can get it out of my head, even for a second, is when… when you're with me."
The admission left her vulnerable, warm with embarrassment, but there was no need. Elizabeth hugged her tightly as the sun sunk beneath the city to set for the world below.
..
.
Seven Months Ago
Rapture
.
"My child, why do you fight it? You have the potential… You simply lack the will."
Eleanor shot a hard look at the mirror, behind which she knew Mother stood speaking into the intercom. She would not allow Mother to force her into this… this prophecy she dreamed up.
"Very well. Something can be done of this yet."
Eleanor sat heavily on her bed. She was running out of time.
..
Six Months Ago
Columbia: Eleanor
.
She had been half-asleep when the tear appeared in place of the large ocean view window. Her body ached as she sat up. She felt weak, hopeless, infested. No doubt Mother's handiwork. What was it this time? A sedative?
Eleanor shook herself and stood. She waited for a beat, checking over her shoulder, before passing through into Elizabeth's bedroom.
It was much larger than her own, but plain apart from the various Paris posters and stacks of books. Elizabeth herself was sitting on her bed, hair shiny and loose around her shoulders. The book in her lap fell to the floor as she rose to greet her.
Together, they walked toward the library. Admittedly, it was Eleanor's favorite room in Elizabeth's tower. It was always bright and cool. They would sit together on the rug, and Eleanor would talk until she had no idea what she was saying because the world had grown so much since 1912, and Elizabeth usually had no end of questions.
But today she was quiet, thoughtful. She traced her index finger along the spine of her book, off somewhere far away.
"Are you alright?" Eleanor asked finally. She lifted the corner of Elizabeth's book to see the cover and nearly gasped. "Where did you get that?"
"I- I'm sorry." Elizabeth gave her the book. Her cheeks were red, flustered. "I took it from your room last time. I wanted to know about… you."
Eleanor swiped her thumb over the faded title: Fontaine Plasmids. Mother had taught her much of Rapture's history with ADAM and what could come from it. The amazing genetic modifications that pushed them eons ahead of the surface world. It was to be her future, after all.
But nothing Elizabeth could learn from any book would begin to describe Eleanor and what she was now, what she would be if Mother succeeded without killing her.
"It's alright," Eleanor said slowly, sincerely. How she understood the curiosity. "Here, you keep it. I don't need it anymore."
Elizabeth smiled. "Oh, thank you!" She bit her lip, as if still unsatisfied with herself. "I really am sorry. I should have asked you."
Eleanor didn't know what to say. No one had ever apologized to her for something so small or maybe for anything at all, she wasn't sure anymore. "Well, I will tell you anything you want to know."
True to form, Elizabeth lit up. "Can you really move things with your mind?"
..
Elizabeth laughed and spun with the swirl of books that moved with just a thought from Eleanor's head. Eleanor felt dizzy at the sight of her.
"Eleanor! It's- It's like magic!"
She had spent her childhood searching for angels. How was she supposed to know she would find one locked away in a tower in the sky?
..
.
Columbia: Elizabeth
.
Her cheeks hurt from smiling and she was willing to bet Eleanor felt the same way. She really did have a beautiful smile.
"What does it feel like? ADAM, I mean," she asked, linking her fingers through Eleanor's as she returned the last of the books to the shelf. Eleanor stilled, and Elizabeth suddenly felt the shock of what she had asked. "Sorry, I didn't… Sorry."
Eleanor nodded once before dropping her eyes to the ground. "Back when I told you to stay away from it? I meant it because it always ends the same way. It ruins people, Elizabeth. I shouldn't have pretended it was any different."
"Okay," she said softly as Eleanor leaned heavily against the wall as if she didn't mean to. Elizabeth helped her to the floor and sat in front of her, hands on Eleanor's knees.
"Mother- she believes I can be 'perfected' with ADAM. She wishes for me to continue her work, but I won't be me. I'll be her glorified science experiment. Because of this- because of ADAM, my life doesn't belong to me."
Elizabeth was lost for words, for senses, for everything. Eleanor was all she ever thought about. She couldn't go five minutes without searching for the next tear. She needed to be where Eleanor was, wherever that may be. It never occurred to her that one day, no matter how hard she looked, she may never find her again. She felt a sharp ache in her sternum. It was almost enough to take her breath away.
"You're all I have, too." Eleanor looked up, hair in her face, eyes glistening. "She's going to take you from me just like everything else."
"Then don't go back," Elizabeth said gently, gently, gently. "You're safe here. We can-"
She shook her head. "I can't. You don't understand."
Elizabeth pushed the hair from Eleanor's eyes. Her fingertips lingered, soft and slight on her cheeks. "Then explain it to me."
"I have to protect them. If I don't return, Mother- she will… she'll kill them. She'll harvest their ADAM and start over."
Elizabeth wanted to be selfish. She wanted to refuse to open the tear to send her back to that awful place, but that would mean sacrificing the lives of the Little Sisters, innocent children caught in the wrong place. In any world, she couldn't even begin to consider it.
There had to be another way.