21
An Atlantic Express Train Station
They made extraordinarily good time getting back to the station that they originally departed from, despite being tired and cold. Maybe it was because they were scared of the constant threat of being attacked by Sapphire's ruthless Splicers – or it could have been because they knew just how close they were to finishing their journey. Either way, when they stepped out of the air lock that they first traveled through, they wasted no time at all in getting out of their diving suits and hurrying back to the train station where their items waited for them.
To Jack, returning tiredly to the station was a lot like returning home after a long drive, or a short trip. Talking wasn't high on their priority list, clearly. They were just eager to hole up and get some rest before finally finishing what they've started.
As they were heading to the makeshift camp that they had briefly abandoned, the duo slowed carefully to a stop. They were just barely inside the Securis door, which was closing silently behind them. Ahead of them, movement could be seen inside the unused train that sat in its station. At this, Jack and Holly exchanged mute glances, and then slipped behind some sort of cover.
Jack, behind a sign that was just large enough to keep him hidden, heard a mumbling or humming of some sort coming from inside the train. It was a female Splicer. She seemed to be rummaging through the duo's things. Jack eventually recognized as the song 'Twilight Time'.
Holly looked over at Jack from her crouching spot behind a garbage can. She gave him a look that asked him if he planned to take action. But Jack, tired and without any weapons other than a Plasmid, would rather have just waited until the Splicer decided to wander off. Of course, that wasn't likely to happen.
"Hey!" Holly barked from her spot, not moving to peek around the side of the trash bin. "What are you doing?"
The rummaging and the humming stopped abruptly. Jack could just imagine the Splicer standing frozen on the spot, eyes wide open, with the posture of a meerkat.
"You're going to put back whatever you took, right?" Jack added on with a coarse, gruff tone. He wasn't in the mood to fight… If he could scare them off, he'd be happy.
A stiff silence passed. The only thing Jack could hear of the Splicer were the soft sounds of things being placed down. Finally, a response came. "I didn't take nothing. I was just looking… How many of you are there…?"
"Oh, tons." Holly responded quickly and firmly, shooting Jack a confident look. "So you'd better leave, or you're in for it…"
"Tons, you say…?" The voice tried to purr, though it came out more as a hoarse whisper. She cleared her throat. "I recognize you, y'know." She added curtly. "You're Coleman's little birdy, aren'tcha?"
"I'm not. And I wasn't." Holly responded harshly. Jack, watching the girl's face, didn't like the look in her eyes.
"No, not anymore… Sliced him up real good, didn't you?"
"And I'm about to the same to you if you don't get the hell out of here."
Footsteps sounded at the train. Looking around the side of the sign again, Jack saw the Splicer slowly stepping out of the abandoned aquatic locomotive. "Why not just kill me, sweetheart? It'd sure fit your, ah… reputation." The Splicer walked by the sign and the garbage can that Jack and Holly were hiding behind. Even though it was evident she knew they were there, she didn't glance back at them – she only continued forward, toward the Securis door.
"You're not worth our energy." Holly growled, not taking her eyes off the scarred and cancerous lady. "Now peel off, before I change my mind."
"I'm leaving… But you'd better hope they don't run into you, or your friend." The Splicer lady snickered as she started through the door. "Or there'll be hell to pay."
"Who're 'they'?"
"Atlas' people. They are, to say the least… unhappy." The lady answered simply as the door closed behind her.
Holly glared at the closed door for a few moments longer, nose flaring angrily. She turned on heel and headed towards the train. "Then it's a good thing that we're not sticking around this dump for much longer…"
Jack jerked forward, eyes snapping open. He hadn't realized that he had fallen asleep. He had meant to stay up to keep watch until Holly was rested enough to replace him, but fatigue must have gotten the better of him. What woke him up, though, wasn't the sudden realization that he'd slipped into unconsciousness. It was the realization that he could hear footsteps from across the station.
He grabbed his wrench, which he had lain across his lap, and quietly got to his feet. The makeshift campsite he and Holly had created was on the platform on the other side of the train, using the locomotive to block them from sight if anyone entered the station. This, in turn, prevented any intruders from being immediately seen. But they could be heard.
Stepping over the sleeping Holly, who had practically passed out as soon as she sat down beside Jack against the wall, Jack silently slipped through the half-opened train doors, staying low. He looked through the corner of one of the stained windows in the train car, scanning for the source of the footsteps. From his spot in the train car, he couldn't see anyone.
But what he could see was… confusing.
A knitted, beige sweater was draped over the railing just outside of the train right in front of the window he was looking through. It looked exactly like the sweater that Jack had lost when he was attacked by Sapphire's Splicer… except this one wasn't damaged in the slightest.
More stillness passed the time, encouraging Jack to step out of the train. He truly wanted the sweater for no other reason than getting out of shirt Holly had found him. Wearing Sapphire's old logo made him increasingly uncomfortable, like it somehow made him vulnerable for control or defeat.
Jack had the wrench at the ready when he cautiously exited the train. He looked all around the room for whoever was the source of the footsteps, but, still, there was no sign of anyone, short of the sweater.
He checked the doors before heading back to the sweater. It definitely felt like a trap, but there would be no way of telling until he triggered it. So he quickly snatched the sweater off the rail, taking a couple steps back and listening. Nothing under the sweater, and no approaching sounds of anything. Some part of Jack felt disappointed – the only other explanation could be…
"You're welcome."
"Oh, good god…" Jack sighed inwardly before once again facing his strange followers.
And there they stood, as prim and proper as ever. Jack was really tired of seeing them. They usually only arrived when something unpleasant was about to happen.
"Are you done leaping at us?" Robert, standing beside his twin, tilted his head curiously at Jack. "Or do you instead plan on upgrading to throwing miscellaneous items at us?"
"That depends on how many straight answers I actually get from you two." Jack looked over the sweater. It was definitely a different sweater than the one he was wearing earlier, but of the same kind. "Where did you get this?" He asked, holding the sweater up.
"It's a sweater. Surprisingly, they happen to be in most wardrobes."
"Not this one." At that, the twins stared at him blankly. Their answer seemed final. "Fine… Will one of you at least tell me why and how you keep following us?"
"I'm fairly certain that was already answered."
"You tip-toed around the answer."
"To be fair," Rosalind defended calmly, "you did attack us."
"After you refused to answer, and before I found out that you had a hand in saving me from that Splicer."
"Among other things." Rosalind glanced at her brother with an expression of something close to amusement.
"The order of said things is unimportant, anyways." Robert shrugged at his sister, looking back at Jack. "Events and actions have a way of being skewed over time."
"Everything that is happening has happened and will happen. Correct?"
"Quite correct."
They paused, their eyes flicking to the sweater in Jack's hand, and then back to his face. "Do you need us to turn around, or did we retrieve that sweater for nothing?"
"I just want you to tell me who and what you are." Jack ignored the prattling of nonsense. They still seemed to struggle with the concept of stringing together a coherent sentence. "I don't get how you guys keep jumping around the way you do. How did you follow us into the laboratory?"
"Well, it's quite simple, really." Rosalind gestured airily. "We're scientists, you see."
At that, Jack let out a sharp laugh. The twins didn't seem taken aback – only mildly entertained. "I've seen more than enough scientists in this place, and you two do not fit the bill."
"Oh? I'm afraid you'll have to explain what you mean by that."
"Yes," Robert added, "I don't recall scientists ever having a certain appearance."
"Regardless," Rosalind started sharply as Jack started to say something about how most scientists were usually less than presentable in Rapture, "Your question has been answered."
"I sincerely doubt that you're some sort of scientists."
"Our credibility is authentic, I assure you. What else could we be?"
"I don't know… Sometimes ADAM is imprinted by its former users before harvested – or something like that… It's like seeing ghosts."
"Ghosts can't manipulate tangible objects."
"Good guess, though..." The brother seemed to be speaking more so to Rosalind than Jack.
"Now… You don't perchance have any more questions? Or are you just looking for sage advice at this point?"
Jack almost laughed. He had a lot of questions, but most of them seemed to be touchy subjects for the mysterious twins; like their origin, or how they keep appearing everywhere Jack goes. The answers they kept giving him aren't enough… So settling for something less would have to do.
"What do you know about Sapphire? Her plans. Do you know anything about her plans? Or weaknesses?" Jack wanted information that he could use to his advantage when he got to Sapphire. Anything would be helpful – even if it's something as simple as knowing how she plans to get rid of Jack, which is obviously her current goal.
"Plans?" Rosalind tipped her head. "Weaknesses?"
"Don't you think that's cheating? Just a hair?" Robert raised an eyebrow at the Ryan.
"You freaks have been following me around since day one – the least you could do is give me some information on who I'm about to risk my life in fighting."
They both seemed reluctant, quickly starting Jack back down the road of anger and deep frustration. Reading his body language seemed to motivate them to speak, though, as Rosalind gave Jack a tight-lipped smile – if it could even be considered a smile. "She's a curious subject, isn't she?"
"She's a surprisingly simple one, too, considering…" Robert trailed off, glancing at his sister as though finishing his thought silently to her.
"Yes, quite. Unfortunately, we can't tell you much. Nobody likes a cheater, you know."
"Her motives are pure, but her mindset is… scattered. She wants to be too many people."
Jack frowned. "What is that supposed to mean? Who is she trying to be?"
"She wants to be Andrew Ryan's penultimate image; a savior, a king of sorts – in her case, a queen. She wants to be imposing, she wants control… she wants the fear that Frank Fontaine had earned from Rapture's citizens. And she wants the elegance of someone far more aesthetically delicate than her herself. All of which she has encountered major road blocks in achieving... She wants to see herself above Rapture's Great Minds, which is, frankly, ridiculous."
"Laughingly ridiculous." Rosalind emphasized. "It takes one to either be a bold moron or a delusional idiot to freely label themselves above a genius."
"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but that doesn't really help me much." Jack could throw insults at Sapphire as much as he wanted, but it might only serve to push her into a blind rage, at most. He'll be lucky if he she's even irritated by it. "Can't you give me something that I can actually use against her? A weakness?"
"Those were weaknesses."
"Besides that, her weaknesses are extremely apparent, and greatly outweigh her strengths. They are not hard to spot. Especially not for you." The brother made a point of his words. "Do you understand?"
Jack stared at the twins in an angry disbelief. Part of him hoped that staring at them long enough would prompt them into admitting the truth, because it felt like they were keep omitting something that they knew.
Robert let out a thoughtful "Hmm…" He looked to his sister once more. "This one needs more work."
Rosalind nodded. "Much more…" She agreed monotonously.
Fabric stirred from the other side of the train, and Jack heard Holly mutter something in a croaking voice. Jack didn't turn around. He squinted at the twins. "You're going to disappear once I turn around, aren't you?"
The twins stared right back at Jack. "Don't sound so suspicious… We could technically leave at any time. Turning around just gives us the chance to exit cleanly."
"Jack…?" Holly called out. The Ryan could tell from the erratic sounds and footsteps that Holly had hurried to her feet.
Robert pointed vaguely at the empty train car. "I believe you're needed."
As much as Jack didn't want to turn away from the twins, essentially ensuring that they vanish, he gave Robert and Rosalind one last narrow-eyed scan. They didn't seem eager to give out much more information anyways. Knowing he was letting the twins go, Jack faced the sound of approaching footsteps. Holly's head leaned through the train car doorway, and her eyes scanned the room, landing lastly on Jack. "What's going on?" She nearly whispered.
The twins had vanished, clearly, from the sounds of Holly's questions. Jack still glimpsed over his shoulder to make sure. Of course, they had seemingly evaporated. Not surprising in the least. "Nothing…" Jack grumbled, walking away from his spot of encounter with twins.
"That's your sweater…" Holly stepped back as Jack entered the train car, pushing past her to the other side of the train. "How did you get it?"
"It was just outside the train."
Holly followed close behind. "Was it them, again?"
Elaboration was not required. Jack knew who Holly meant. "Unfortunately…" He muttered, sitting down across from the measly fire pit, made from rubble and broken pieces of furniture, the duo had started hours ago.
"Well… what did they say?"
Jack looked up at Holly tiredly. He studied her for a moment, watching her curious expression, thinking. The girl hurried out of the train car, sitting on the opposite side of the fire pit, facing Jack. He changed into the sweater, tossing the work shirt from Sapphire's laboratory into the weak fire, before giving the girl as honest of an answer as he could.
"Just the usual; nothing but nonsense."
Ingrid Sapphire blinked slowly, looking away from the television screens on the other side of the room that broadcasted a live camera feed. She hadn't the faintest idea of who those two twins were, but she knew she'd never seen them before – not before Rapture was revisited by its most well-known escapee. And, in Rapture, it's rare to find someone you're total strangers to. Besides… they appeared in one place only to show up in another moments later. It was like they were teleporting, the way some of the Splicers in the city do. But there didn't appear to be any proof of this… They were simply there one minute, and gone the next.
And they seemed very keen on popping in to give Jack Ryan 'advice'. The things they say aren't exactly helpful, in some sense, but they have a roundabout way of making a point. Sapphire didn't like that. She didn't like not knowing who they were. She didn't like knowing that they could appear at any moment. And she especially didn't like how they were helping the man who wanted to kill her…
Sapphire straightened her back. Not that anything those strangers did would matter… She had the upper hand. She always would. She knew where the Ryan was ninety-five percent of the time, and could hear what he was saying so long as he was near a service radio, or a security camera that had a functioning microphone built into it. So it didn't matter what those strange twins said or did; Sapphire would always be one step ahead of the game.
Yet, what they said to the Ryan in their most recent appearance bothered her. It wasn't so much that fact that they had spoken about her so-called 'weaknesses', but it was because they were breadths away from revealing things that no one knows. It worried her…
What else did they know about?