Elizabeth XI

Elizabeth couldn't help but sneak a peek at her new traveling companion as he searched the corpse of a splicer. For someone who was to save the Little Sisters and bring an end to Fontaine, he wasn't all that impressive looking. Jack was decently tall, though still shorter than Booker, but that was the only thing that stood out about him -aside from the tattoos, that is. His choice of attire was very... normal as well, just a cream-colored knit sweater, jeans, and spectator shoes -all have which had already become thoroughly cake in dirt, grime, and blood. In fact, normal was a good word for the man standing beside her.

"Come on, kid, even you have to admit he isn't bad looking," Booker said.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Booker chuckled, "You didn't disagree with me."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Don't you have anything helpful to say?"

Jack looked up from what he was doing, confused, "Did you say something?"

It struck Liz that Jack did look like Andrew Ryan. Oh, he wasn't a carbon copy or anything but there was definitely a resemblance. They had similar jawlines, the same nose, and browline. Jack had lighter hair but, if one looked closely, they could tell they were related. The question was, did Ryan know? Jack certainly didn't. Whatever fake past Fontaine and his Suchong put in his head was still hanging firm.

Maybe Liz could shake something loose if she found the right pressure point to poke.

"Nothing, just... talking to myself."

The ghost of her father smiled sadly from where he was leaning against the wall. For as real as he could seem, for all the comfort he could give her, Booker wasn't there. Booker DeWitt was dead and gone and cold in that damn river, leaving her all alone in the universe again.

"Let's go, the emergency bathysphere should be docked ahead. It will take you to Neptune's Bounty," she said.

"What will you do once we get there?" he asked. "Are you still planning on splitting off to head to Arcadia?"

"... I don't know."

A mere hour again, Elizabeth had been sure about leaving Jack to his own journey. After all, she'd already seen the future of him saving the Little Sisters, so what good would her hanging around be? If anything, her interfering could lead to that ideal future never coming at all. And yet... the more she thought about it the more Liz was reconsidering leaving. She'd already interfered with Jack's path -they were never supposed to meet, never supposed to interact beyond that initial point- so, without her abilities, Elizabeth had no way of knowing what the future would hold. If she didn't go with Jack, maybe he'd die or find his way to Ryan's side or, perhaps worst of all, completely fall into Fontaine's manipulations.

"I'd be happy to have you come along," he said.

Elizabeth looked towards Booker, hoping he could give her some advice, but that man just lit a cigarette and cocked an eyebrow at her. It looked like even her own subconscious had no answers for her.

'We're playing this by ear then,' she thought.

"So I guess this is where we say goodbye then?" Jack asked.

He stood guard, gun at the ready and one eye on the door, as Elizabeth went over the wires and components of the bathysphere to make sure it was still up for travel. Even the best-made machines only lasted so long without proper maintenance and the last thing any of them wanted was the damn thing breaking down while they were in it.

"I supposed so," Liz said, fiddling with some wires under the control panel. "I'm sure our paths will cross again. There-" she reconnected two wires and slammed the panel close, "-that's the best I can do. It's not exactly brand new but it'll get you to where you need to be."

Jack frowned and went to say something but his mouth clicked shut as the radio crackled back to life. Elizabeth couldn't make out what was being said but could venture a pretty good guess.

'Hello there, Fontaine. How are you finding your 'Ace-in-the-Hole? Do you know who I am? I can't imagine you're too thrilled someone else got to him too. '

Elizabeth considered that he might be able to hear anything she said too. If that was the case then she'd need to be careful; the last thing she wanted was to accidentally reveal the location of Tenenbaum's safe house or that they'd revived Subject Delta. That being said, a few... well-placed jabs and comments would serve to knock him off-balance. If Fontaine managed to figure out that 'Birdie' was the same woman he thought he killed, then he'd undoubtedly be already figuring out a way to get rid of her.

"Well, it is a damn shame that you aren't coming along," Jack said, climbing up into the bathysphere. "I think we make a good team. It would be easier for both to do what we need if we stay together."

Elizabeth shook her head, "It's better this way."

She couldn't interfere further. The future she saw behind that door had to come true. Staying together could only mess with the natural order of things. She needed to focus on finding Sally. It was for the best that they part.

Right?

Jack waved at her as the bathysphere began to close. She started to wave back but, at the last second, Liz stopped it.

"Wait. I'm coming."

"Thatta girl," Jack grinned, scorching to the side to make room. With the two of them, it was a tight fit. "Welcome aboard."

"It's just because you were right about saying together being the smartest course of action," she said. "Now, let's set a course of Port Neptune. Move over."

"Um, I don't really have anywhere else to move to. You'll have to sit in my... um..."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Jack's embarrassment as she settled on the man's lap.

"Don't get any ideas."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

There was something about close quarters and the darkness of the bottom of the ocean that made one quiet and contemplative. As they traveled to Port Neptune, neither Elizabeth nor Jack seemed to want to break the silence; it was like the fragile calm that engulfed them like a bubble could be broken with one more. More than that, despite trying to plan her next move and what to do after finding Sally, Liz's mind kept going to the feeling of Jack's hand on her waist.

'It's warm,' she noticed.

In the cold of the Rapture, the heat felt nice.

"Can you tell me about where we're going?" Jack asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Well, I only ever visited Port Neptune once," Elizabeth said. "But it is- was one of the most important places in Rapture."

"Why?"

"Because it was where most of the city's fishing businesses were located. Since seafood used to be a big part of the average Rapture citizen's diet, the port, and the related businesses were vital to the cities stability and survival." Elizabeth twisted around to look at her companion, "You really don't know anything about this place?"

"Only what I've learned from audio files, scattered papers, and what- people have told me," Jack said, his breath warm against Liz's cheek. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"Yes, the port eventually became part of the city's downfall. Smugglers, led by Frank Fontaine, used the port and turned into a massive fight between Fontaine's men and Andrew Ryan's Security -a conflict that would eventually boil over into a civil war for control of the city. As it turns out, a massive number of citizens -both lower and upper class- were involved in the smuggling ring. In the end, Rapture Central Council made smuggling a crime punishable by hanging. But, soon enough, not even that was enough for Ryan and he started having the bodies of smugglers put on display as a public warning."

"Yikes," Jack said. "I've heard some nasty things about Ryan but this Fontaine sounds like a character too."

"..."

"Birdie?" The hand on her waist tightened, ever so slightly. "Are you alright?"

"...I'm fine. And, yeah, Fontaine is a monster in his own right."

'I hope you heard that, Frank.'

One of the first things Jack and Elizabeth saw when they arrived at the station was a mutilated, mostly rotted corpse of a smuggler hung in a crucifix position. Dried blood was still smeared over it and the ground around it and the word 'Smuggler' was carved into the wall above it -announcing his 'crime' to all who saw. It was a truly macabre display of how Ryan was allowed to act as judge, jury, and executioner when it came to smugglers.

"Fuck," Jack whispered, grip tight on his shotgun. "For someone who claims to one a land without any gods, Ryan sure seems to have thought himself above everyone else."

"Well, you aren't wrong there," Elizabeth said, looking around.

On top of the dead body, the signs of the city's collapse were everywhere. There are piles of seized smuggling evidence everywhere, fishing crates with the contents long since emptied, and piles of debris blocking most of the passageways. The station's bathysphere schedule board long fallen from the ceiling and the trail of blood, a broken ADAM syringe, and the dead Big Daddy nearby told Elizabeth that it had likely killed a poor Little Sister

"You better get ready, kid," Booker said, looking around at their surrounding. "I can't imagine this is going to be a walk in the park."

"When is it ever?" Elizabeth sighed, lighting up a cigarette. ' Ahhhh... Sweet, sweet nicotine. Maybe you can be the one that gets to kill me.'

"What?" Jack asked.

"Nothing." She offered Jack a cigarette, which he took. "I don't know what we're going to meet out there. Are you ready?"

"Happy to be here, Birdie," he said, all unpolished charm false bravado.

He popped the cigarette in his mouth, fumbling around in his pants pocket for something. Elizabeth smirked at the display and pulled out her own, a devious idea forming in her mind. She leaned close, so close she could see the flecks of green and gray in Jack's blue eyes, and flicked it on. When they locked eyes, Elizabeth nearly dropped the lighter.

"Well," Elizabeth said, lighting the cigarette. "You better not disappoint."

When she pulled away, the cigarette nearly fell out of Jack's slack-jawed mouth. The man caught it between his fingers at the last second and swallowed hard. "...Wouldn't dream of it."

"Good."

Elizabeth turned away, heading out of the station. It was cruel of her to do this, flirt with someone just to get something -especially to someone who'd done nothing to deserve such manipulation. But... if Jack was the key to saving the city and, more importantly, the Little Sisters, then she needed to tie him to her. Liz knew he was likely already under Fontaine's thumb, even if he didn't realize it, and wanted to puts some dents in that.

Would it help anything in the long run? Who could say, but Elizabeth wanted to stack the deck in her favor as much as possible.

In the corridor outside, the half-collapsed, flooded floor gave way to widows that gave them the lovely view of corpses of drowned, decaying men tangled in the long strands of seaweed. The bodies gently bobbed as they floated in the ocean current like a twisted worm on a fishing hook. Each body hand chunks of flesh missing, eaten away by all matters of oceanic critters.

"Jesus, this place is a graveyard," Jack said.

"Just like the rest of the city."

The two pressed on, silent as they pressed on through the horror scene. But, despite the carnage, they were able to go an impressive distance before they met any resistance. Elizabeth doubted that luck would last long.

"What's that?" Jack hissed.

On the wall in front of them was a large, distorted shadow of a figure crouched over something. At his voice, the figure froze before twitching. A raspy but definitely female voice sounded out, bouncing off the walls.

"What crawls in my garden?"

"Be ready," Elizabeth said. Her hand was cold and numb around her pistol, pins and needles dancing over her fingers.

"Be careful with the trigger finger kid. You don't want to hit someone in an accidental misfire," Booker warmed. The specter of her father chuckled, "I actually knew someone who fumbled with their back during the war, ended up putting a bullet in their buddy's ass."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes but said nothing, eyes firmly fixed on the shadow as it leaped away. Jack inched forward, standing in front of her protectively. Under different circumstances, Liz would have found it sweet -good to know that chivalry wasn't dead after all- but now she could only be thankful that her efforts to endear herself to Jack.

That being said, Elizabeth didn't need protection. She could handle herself.

"That is the most coherent thing I've ever heard a splicer say," she said, coming to stand beside Jack.

"Same," Jack nodded. "It makes you wonder about how much humanity is left inside them. Think... whoever that was is still there?"

"We'll find out."

They rounded a corner and were greeted by the sight of a freshly killed corpse. The stench of blood hung hot and thick in the cold air. A sad sight but, in Rapture, not an unusual one. What was strange was the flower peddles floating down from the massive hole in the ceiling.

"Roses?" Jack asked, catching one in his hand. "What are roses doing here?"

Glancing up, Elizabeth swore she glimpsed someone scurrying away, knocking dirt and debris loose as they did so. 'Did she jump all the up there?'

Splicers were more animal than man, they could be inhumanly strong, but she'd yet to see one who could jump that far. Nor did she ever want to. They may be monsters but Elizabeth still took no pleasure in killing them.

She knelt down by the corpse, shuffling through its pockets for anything useful. She pocked a box of machine gun ammo. 'This guy was armed to the teeth, and something still managed to get him. We better be on high alert.'

"We shouldn't stick around," she said. "You mentioned your trying to find someone in Port Neptune. Any idea where they are?"

Jack said nothing for a moment, his face scrunching up like he was listening to someone talk. "Down in a submarine hidden in Fontaine Fisheries. Ryan stashed them down there."

"Really? That's strange."

"Why?"

"It's just a little odd that Ryan would use his enemy's old business as a place to hold hostages," Elizabeth said, giving a nonchalant shrug.

If she told Jack outright that Atlas was Fontaine and that he was being used, the man would never believe her. Worse still, there was the possibility it could cause the complete overload of the man's mind. To learn your entire life was a lie... Elizabeth had been there, and she wouldn't wish that on her worst enemy. But, if she helped Jack find the holes in Atlas' story himself, he might be able to arrive at the truth himself.

She hoped he'd survive it.