Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Bioshock, I'm just borrowing them for awhile. This story has spoilers for Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite. Part of this story was originally in my fanfiction Eternal City Crystal Tokyo.

Bioshock: Infinite Dimensions

Prelude

Columbia was burning.

Once the pride of the United States, the floating city had seen better days. The long and bitter civil war between the Vox Populi and the Founders had wrecked the city, burning down buildings and killing hundreds. But 'victory' in this war was quickly becoming a moot point, with the victor ruling over ashes and corpses.

Anna Dewitt crawled up the walkway, keeping her head down as bullets whizzed by overhead. Once upon a time in a different universe, she had been Elizabeth Comstock, called by some the 'Lamb of Columbia.' She had, through reality bending powers and time travel, eliminated that timeline and she thought had destroyed Columbia. But here she was...

The Vox appeared to have won, at least from the scattering of well dressed corpses. And the battered corpse of Comstock that was handing in the courtyard helped give that impression too.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bastard, in Anna's opinion.

But the surviving Founders were using a scorched earth policy, destroying buildings and factories as they fell back. The casualties were mounting on both sides, and neither group appeared willing to give in.

'And where the hell is Daisy Fitzroy?' Anna wondered as she carefully advanced through the broken and sometimes burning wreckage.

The leader of the Vox should have been front and center in the violence and chaos. The woman was dedicated to destroying the Founders, their families and anyone who stood in her way. She would normally be on the front lines killing with gusto. Yet there was no sign of her. What was going on?

Moving through Columbia was a trial in itself. Anna quickly scavenged a gun, and luckily she could 'feel' the rifts in space-time, again. Why were her powers back, too? Anyway, there was only one place she could probably get answers: The Lutece twins lab on Monument Island.

The giant 'angel' statue was back, hanging in the sky, and somehow the place was not in ruins, unlike the rest of Columbia. The trolley line was even back in operation, which made no sense, considering the secrets that the place held. Anna rode up to the statue, looking around warily, but there were no guards or police at all. Again, strange.

Anna retraced her steps through the building that once housed her, but it was not a fond trip back on memory land. The guards she had noticed were absent were here, and all quite dead. The halls were lined with the dead, walls splashed with blood. Also on the floor were a LOT of Vox troops, having sacrificed themselves to win through, somehow.

As Anna neared the Syphon room, she could see lights up ahead, and crackling noises. A odd... dread filled her as she walked on, but she knew she had to carry on. She rounded the corner into the main chamber then stopped, aghast.

A version of Elizabeth Comstock, a alternate version of HER, hung in the middle of a modified Syphon device. She looked, if not dead then near death, and her body was punctured by tubes and conduits feeding into the machines around her. She pulsed with light in a eerie pattern like a heart beat, even as she hung there limply. Nearby a open tear in space writhed and twisted, unholy light shining from it.

"About time," a woman's voice muttered weakly.

"Rosalind?" Anna recognized the woman she rushed over. She was battered but thankfully not too badly hurt, and Anna helped her sit up. "What happened?" she demanded.

"Daisy, pretty much," Rosalind Lutece admitted wearily. "She found out that Elizabeth was the source of much of Comstock's power, so she decided to take her."

Anna swore softly. She looked up at the limply hanging woman, "Is she...?"

"Clinically dead," Rosalind sighed. "Daisy drove a ice pick into her skull when she refused to cooperate. That also pretty much convinced me not to resist her," she admitted.

Anna wasn't impressed, but on the other hand she couldn't really blame her. "Where is Fitzroy?" she demanded harshly.

"Jumped through the tear," Rosalind answered tiredly.

Anna swore softly as she stared into the churning depths.

'Why is it always ME?' Anna thought irritably. 'Why do I always have to fix these messes? Why can't someone else do it, just this once?' she thought.

Yet with no more than a moment of hesitation, Anna leaped through the tear after her.

To be continued...

Notes: I will not necessarily be following Bioshock canon, exactly. Obviously. Though it should be noted that Burial at Sea appears to contradict Bioshock Infinite, so I feel reasonably safe in assuming there are still alternate Constocks and Elizabeth/Annas out there.