4

Medical Pavilion, Emergency Access Bathysphere Station

The two of them, Jack and Holly, passed through the stained glass doors and around the corner. Jack half-expected it to be sealed, just as it was when he arrived in Rapture for the first time. Yet, there it was… gates wide open. He repressed a sigh of relief and followed Holly to the bathysphere. The last thing that he wanted do have to do was run wildly around Rapture, opening gates and unlocking closed doors. Been there, done that. It wasn't great fun, either.

"I think Sapphire managed to find a way to lift Andrew Ryan's genetic lockdown on the bathyspheres not too long ago; other than the bathyspheres that make it to the surface. I think she wants to keep this place just as airtight as Andrew Ryan did, at least for the time being." Holly explained as she tugged the hatch open to the pod with a loud creak. She turned to Jack, and gestured to the inside of the bathysphere. "When you're ready."

Jack nodded and stepped into the pod, feeling it rock under his feet unsurely. Holly followed him in, closing the door behind them. She moved to the device in the middle of the bathysphere, pressed a button that lit up under her touch. With both hands, she pulled the lever beside the little stand. The bathysphere jerked and started to descend immediately.

Sitting in a seat on one side of the device that controlled the bathysphere, Holly standing on the other side, Jack peered over at the lit-up button. Atlantic Express Train Station. Well, that would be the day: Trains under the ocean. Of course, that's about as absurd as an underwater city…

That brought up a thought…

Why didn't he see the Train Station's button before? Surely, he would have seen it with all the bathyspheres he had to use. He thought about this, trying to remember why he hadn't seen it… and something occurred to him. When he first visited Rapture, he didn't really see any of the other possible destinations. The only time he ever really saw them to see them, was when 'Atlas' asked him to go to that destination. It was like he was blind to them until someone pointed out their names.

"Jack…" Holly started casually, breaking into his thoughts. She rocked on her heels, her hands held behind her back. Obviously, she was up to something. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Let's just get it out of the way… Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

Jack let out a huff of laughter and shook his head. "Not a chance, kid. That's not how this is going to work. We don't know anything about each other, and I'd like to keep it that way." Not to mention everything he had to say about himself seemed painted across Rapture anyways. And anything that these people didn't already know was none of their business.

"Oh, come on." Holly faced him, leaning against the sliver of wall between the door and the seats of the bathysphere. "We won't have to tiptoe around each other so much if we know a little more about one another. Do you need a nudge? I'll tell you a bit about me if you tell me a bit about yourself."

Jack sat back in his seat, crossing his arms. He gave Holly a somewhat exasperated look. "Listen, no offence or anything, kid… but I'm not really interested in hearing about your life, right now. I'm not here to make friends. I'm just here to stop that lady. What happened in your history is your own business, and what happened in mine is my business."

"Come on. What do you have to lose?" She looked at him expectantly, obviously awaiting an answer. When Jack looked away, out the large porthole window, she sighed. "Alright, I guess I'll go first, then." She folded her hands on her lap. "You can probably guess that I've never been out of Rapture. I was born here, but I don't remember all too much about what it was like before the War came to pass. I don't even remember who my mother was. Father rarely spoke of her. He told me she died early in the War, killed by Atlas' people. Father more than made up for her not being there. He was a wonderful man..."

Holly paused, as if waiting for Jack to respond. Jack glanced over, saw her staring at him expectantly yet again, and so he directed his attention back to the city as it passed by at a casual pace.

"Still not talking? Well…" She pursed her lips thoughtfully, as if debating on what to talk about next. After a few moments of eerie silence, she continued. "A couple of years ago, Lady Sapphire killed my father, as I already told you. She just… came in and attacked him. I remember I had been watching two of his dancers waltzing, and I hid when I heard the door to the flat open. I was used to having to hide from people who might want to kill either of us. Father was very good a protecting me. But… she just came in, and father warned her to not interrupt their dance. Without even waiting for him to finish, she killed the two dancers… and headed up to father's room. I didn't see it… but I heard her shoot her gun. She didn't even seem to know I was there. And when I came back out, father was dead."

Jack, who had his arms crossed, tensed his muscles. He tried to relax, but it seemed near impossible.

He killed Sander Cohen, not this Sapphire woman. What Holly just relayed… that's exactly what Jack did. So then why did Holly think that it was Sapphire who killed her father? Perhaps she had mistaken him for her. God knows how, but there was a chance. She said she hadn't seen Sapphire come in… Perhaps she just assumed.

Whatever the case, Jack didn't say a damn thing. He had no obligation to tell her the truth about it. If all of Holly's anger was directed at Sapphire because of a misconception, Jack wanted to keep it that way.

Holly noticed Jack's stiff silence, her brows twitching closer. "What's wrong?" She looked out the glass of the door, searching for whatever she thought Jack saw. "You seeing something out there?" She seemed genuinely worried, as if she had reason to believe that there was something dangerous out there.

Jack stood to look out the porthole as well. He was just as curious to see whatever it was he apparently spotted. The fact that Holly seemed so nervous made him worry that there was something they needed to keep an eye out for.

As if trying to intentionally cement that worry, the bathysphere suddenly rocked violently, creaking loudly. Holly let out a yelp as she and Jack were sent sprawling into the leather seats.

"What the hell was that?" Jack demanded as he struggled to his feet. The bathysphere shook again, this time more dangerously than before. Despite the random attacks, the bathysphere kept on course, determined to reach Jack and Holly's destination.

"Oh, damn!" Holly hissed angrily, pushing herself off the seat she fell onto. She looked out the glass, quickly moving from one side to the other, looking for something. "No…" She slowly shook her head. "No, no, no…" Nudging Jack aside, she urgently hurried to change their destination, pressing the Apollo Square button and yanking the lever. "OK…" She breathed softly, her voice breathless with fear. She seemed to be reassuring herself, forgetting Jack was even there. "We can make it to Apollo Square. If this thing can just last a minute or two longer…"

The bathysphere rocked again – this time, Jack heard a sharp creaking noise. It was the kind of noise a person never wanted to hear while they were in a submersible, fathoms under ice-cold water. "Holly?" Jack loudly prompted. She only shook her head, muttering something quickly under her breath. "Holly!" Jack barked, this time getting her attention. With wide eyes, she looked over her shoulder at him. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded. "What was that?"

She turned back to the glass door, looking out it frantically. She seemed genuinely terrified – not that it wasn't justified. "It,um… It could be anything. A shark, a-…" But, even as she spoke, Jack watched a dark shadow shoot by in the near distance. "Oh, this is wonderful." She looked back to him hesitantly. "Actually…" A couple more shadows flashed by the bathysphere porthole. Jack was just able to make out what looked like a webbed foot, resembling something like a frog's, except... much larger. Holly gripped the control panel to keep steady. "… I think it's one of Sapphire's Splicers."

"A Splicer!" Jack exclaimed incredulously.

"Or… multiple Splicers…" Holly muttered, her eyes on him as he moved to the porthole again, peering out of it.

They were quickly approaching Apollo Square, the massive building getting closer and closer. "How could anyone survive down here? If the cold doesn't kill you, the pressure wi—" Abruptly cut off, he was sent flying to the back of the bathysphere.

He and Holly both slammed into one of the seats as the attacker rammed into the glass of the pod. Jack grunted painfully and opened his eyes. They were starting to ascend the Apollo Square Bathysphere Station shaft.

But the glass in the door had a large crack in it.

"That's no good…" He muttered.

Beside him, Holly let out a tiny groan, and immediately started righting herself in the seat. She rubbed her shoulder. She must have collided shoulder first into the side of metal wall of the bathysphere.

"The pressure and the cold don't matter. Not to these guys…" Holly breathed, barely looking away from the glass. "I was really hoping they'd leave us alone…"

"You knew about those things?" Jack sat up, rubbing the back of his head. The bathysphere continued to ascend, and Jack turned his attention to Holly. "This is just great. Now what?" He gestured to the large crack on the glass.

"I-I don't—" She cut herself off, took a moment to calm herself down. She exhaled slowly, shaking her head and staring blankly out the porthole window. "We'll have to make our way to another Bathysphere Station from Apollo Square. I don't know about you, but I don't think this bathysphere will make it much further."

"Splicers…" Jack shook his head in disbelief. As if being out in the North Atlantic Ocean wasn't dangerous enough, Sapphire had to add Splicers to the mix. "Did that lady send them after us?"

"Sapphire? I mean… She does have a way of controlling them, I suppose. There's a chance that she sent them after us, but..."

"She monitors everything?"

"Everything in this side of Rapture, yes." She didn't look away from the cracked glass as the bathysphere started to surface. "If she sent them after us, then she's also got some of her little friends outside waiting for us."

Jack looked back out the window, water cascading down its surface. "Oh, good." He muttered sarcastically.

Alright, then. So this was it. He was ready. With a pistol in his waistband, a wrench in one hand, electricity buzzing through the other, all they had to do was wait for the bathysphere to finish its ascent.

They'll come out shooting.