Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She was supposed to be dead. She'd seen behind the doors again, seen the Ace in the Hole hijack the plane he was on and return to Rapture to kill Andrew Ryan and Fontaine and rescue Sally and the other Little Sisters. She knew how it all would end.

Elizabeth could remember the darkness crawling in as Sally softly sang to her, warm sticky blood flowing freely from the gash in her head. It was only when the darkness took over that everything went wrong.

Chapter Text

When Elizabeth drifted into consciousness for the first time she was awake long enough to see someone crouching over her. Behind the person was a room she recognized, the one that she and Booker had entered through the tear into Rapture for the first time when Songbird was killed. Everything swam in and out of focus along with a voice over statick-y radio seemingly arguing with the voice the person crouching in front of her. Unable to make out what was being said, Elizabeth closed her eyes and when she opened them again she was being carried in a strong set of arms. Her head lolled around and she weakly moans as sparks of pain shoot through her body before the darkness overcame her once again.

“I didn’t take you for someone of sentiment, sister.”

“With all that she’s done, don’t you think she deserves a happy ending?” Elizabeth knows those voices. She can’t see the Luteces but she can hear them.

“Considering what she gave up—“

“And what she’s suffered...”

“Third chances are a bit of a stretch, even for us. I thought something like this would go against your beliefs.”

“We’ve never been prone to giving so few chances, brother.” Their voices fade, and she’s left to the darkness once more.

Waking up for real is slow and takes every effort that she can muster. Elizabeth finds herself in a dimly lit room and atop a lumpy mattress. The pain in her head is a dull throb at the most, nothing like before at least. How odd. From instinct she reaches to touch where Atlas had swung that wrench into her head and oddly enough she's met with bandages instead of blood.

"Careful, your head might still hurt. Atlas said that ADAM stuff would help it." A deep voice and the sound of a match being struck draws her attention to the door of the room. And when Elizabeth looks she turns her head slowly, eyes narrowed as she takes in the figure leaning against the doorframe: a tall, stocky man clad in a blood-flecked cream-colored sweater and grey trousers. The match he'd struck lights a cigarette neatly placed between his lips and he just stares at Elizabeth which she only finds a tad bit disconcerting somehow. After dealing with Atlas and his thugs and even Booker she ought to be able to look any sort of brutish-looking man in the eye. Not that this guy looked brutish, but hey you never knew. She doesn't reply to his question and just gives a small nod, tongue heavy in her mouth. How long had she been out?

The guy is familiar though and Elizabeth closes her eyes for a moment to think. In that moment there's the sound of clothes rustling and heavy footsteps near the mattress she's laying on. When she opens them again he's looming right over her with his hands in his pockets. Now she recognizes him and she stiffens.

The Ace in the Hole. The stiffening of her body, hands clenching and the way her muscles flex, seems to make the Ace steps back, one hand immediately going to the back of his neck to rub it. He smiles just a bit with a bit of a sheepish expression and something mumbled around his cigarette. For a man built to kill he was nothing like Elizabeth had expected. Though she wasn’t sure just what she’d expect.

"Where...How long have I been out?" Perhaps his expression makes Elizabeth finally find her words as she pulls herself up to lean back against the wall.

Something else clicks in her head. Atlas. The very thought of that son of a bitch made her blood boil and she could pray that Sally had managed to elude him after Elizabeth's "death".

The Ace gives a small shrug and crouches down to get on eye level with her. "Since I found you? Maybe a little more than a day. Atlas says without ADAM you might've died." Elizabeth snorts aloud at that which makes the Ace frown for a moment.

"Thank you for rescuing me." It's curious to her about how fast Atlas and his men were able to get their Ace in the Hole out and back into Rapture in such a short amount of time. Or perhaps more time had passed than she thought. Her hand went up to her head bandages again and before her rescuer could say anything she'd pressed hard and barely winced. No pain. With a bit of fumbling she was able to undo the bandages and feel the area where she'd been wounded. No pain, no evidence that she'd ever been hit over the head in the first place. Other than the dry blood matting her hair in the first place, eugh. She was very much in need of a shower. The Ace was curiously staring at her, likely just as amazed as she was.

"Did one of those Splicers do that?" His tone is curious. Of course he doesn't know. Elizabeth isn't surprised Atlas had kept things from him. Her dislike (in kinder words) ran deeper and deeper for him every moment. So she just gives a nod and is about to speak when the signature crackling of the radio is heard. "Is the lass you found awake, boyo?"

Elizabeth stayed silent the Ace pulled the radio out of his back pocket and pressed a button to murmur a confirmation over to wherever it was that Atlas was holed up.

"Would you kindly keep n'eye on your new friend? She might be workin' for Ryan for all we know." Atlas' words form a pit of ice in Elizabeth's stomach and she can just imagine the smug look on his face. Just like she could imagine the one that might've soured his expression when the Ace had found her. "I'm not working for Andrew Ryan." Might as well speak up in her own defense. "I'm not working for anyone." At her sides her fists clench again as she glares at the radio in the Ace's hand. She expects Atlas to retort with some sort of nasty threat but he just laughs.

"Whatever you say, love."

The Ace, Jack as she comes to learn is his name, seems more than keen on keeping her with him on his journey to Neptune's Bounty. They could help each other out, watch each other’s backs. Two sets of hands and eyes were better than one after all. Elizabeth just goes along with it as they pick their way around the dilapidated halls of Rapture. She wonders, though, if tagging along with Jack will change future events. Will he still kill Andrew Ryan and Fontaine? He has to so Sally and the other Little Sisters can be set free. A lump forms in her throat at the thought of Sally and again she hopes deep in her heart that she's alright as much as a Little Sister could be in any case.

Jack is a silent fellow, Elizabeth comes to learn as they are guided on through the path to Neptune's Bounty by Atlas to help him with his family. (If he even had a family that is. Part of her doubts there's any authenticity to his pleas.) For her part she stays silent as well, only vocalizing murmured thanks whenever Jack helps her over some obstacle her heels would falter over on her own, such as when the tail of an airplane comes crashing through the tunnel leaving the Welcome Center lounge. The silence isn’t awkward at least, but what is there to talk about? The weather or lack thereof? Only after dealing with the Splicers (Brenda and Charlie, she remembers them in the months she spent with Cohen) in the Kashmir, or what’s left of it, does Elizabeth speak up.

“It feels like yesterday that all of this wasn’t so…trashed.” She trails off for a moment, staring down at the storage crate she’s looting through. Jack is behind her picking through the bodies of the Splicers for any ammo or cash they might have on them. Or food. (In a aching pang of nostalgia she’s reminded of Booker rummaging through bodies in a similar fashion.) They need supplies though so neither of them can exactly be picky where said supplies come from.

 ‘Trashed’ probably isn’t the best word to use but Elizabeth can’t think of any other word. Maybe it’s just the guilt starting to crawl into her stomach as she replays that audio log from New Year’s Eve 1958 over and over in her head. Funny, guilt was an odd thing to feel after all that she’d done. She doesn’t expect Jack to reply to her, though, and goes on searching through her opened crate, pulling out a couple packs of bandages and a Pep Bar. Tucking them away she straightens up to move onto another crate and turns to find that Jack is lurking behind her. For a big guy he could be pretty quiet. That could work to their advantage in the future if they needed to get the drop on some Splicers. Maybe.

“You’ve been here before?” His head is inclined to the right ever so slightly. Elizabeth gives a nod as she sidesteps around Jack to go through another crate. In this one she just finds cigarettes and a rotten apple. The former she decides to keep and the latter is tossed away. “I have. I lived here.” She vocally confirms, taking a seat upon the crate and fiddling around in her pockets for a lighter. Before Rapture smoking cigarettes was never something she’d considered. Cohen, his other disciples, and practically half of Rapture itself had smoked and it just was something Elizabeth had picked up. She finally finds her lighter, recently picked off a corpse of course, and pulls it out to light and offer Jack a cigarette. When he accepts it she lights another one for herself as he settles onto the crate next to her.

Something about her answer makes him frown and before she can ask what’s wrong he speaks up. “I thought, perhaps, you’d have been like me.”

“Like you?” She takes a drag on her cigarette, keeping her eyes on Jack as he stares down at his shoes. Part of her knows the answer to his question. He doesn’t.

“When I found you in the lounge back there I thought you’d stumbled onto this place like I did. You seem like you don’t belong here.” He glances at her as his own cigarette is raised to his lips. That quirks a small smile to Elizabeth’s mouth which causes his frown to deepen just a bit. She’s quickly figuring out that she doesn’t like when Jack frowns.

“No, no you’re right. I am out of place down here.” And she’s out of place in this universe as well. Or is it time? She can’t be sure if the building of Rapture is a constant that happens across all of the universes. “I think I arrived a couple months before all of this—“ Here Elizabeth waves her hand around. “Happened.” She conveniently left out that “this” was sort of her fault. If she hadn’t helped Atlas out his people might have not bombed the Kashmir and other places in Rapture. “I came here to look for someone.” For revenge, to make sure the last Comstock paid for what he’d done to her and especially to that Anna. It had been a grisly sight, simply and awfully horrible, that only fueled Elizabeth’s hatred for the man. Her thirst for revenge had blinded her to how her actions could hurt innocent people. Like Sally. But soon, hopefully, they would find her again and Jack would be able to save her and maybe Elizabeth would stop feeling the gnawing guilt that pulled at her insides.

Her companion just nods as he finishes his cigarette and stands up. “I hope you were able to find who you were looking for.” Jack says, dropping the remains of his cigarette to the floor and stubbing it out. He offers her a hand and she takes it, fingers curled around his and never letting go as they left the Kashmir to continue on to Neptune’s Bounty.

As soon as they exit the Kashmir through the hole in the bathroom to the Footlight Theater the crackle of the radio has the pair pause.

“Careful now…would you kindly lower that weapon for a minute?” Atlas’ voice is hushed and both Elizabeth and Jack look at each other and wonder how in the hell he could possibly see where they were. From down below a soft little voice can be heard singing and Elizabeth just knows what’s down there. The singing makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up and Jack’s grip on her hand tightens ever so slightly.

“Mr. Bubbles, Mr. Bubbles. Are you there? Are you there? Come and give me lollies, come and give me toffees. Teddy bears…teddy bears.”

 “You think that’s a child down there? Don’t be fooled, she’s a Little Sister now. Somebody went and turned a sweet baby girl into a monster.” As they creep along the catwalk, keeping care to not trip or step too loudly. Elizabeth tunes Atlas out and her eyes focus on the Little Sister down below. She’s not Sally, thank God, and the dark hair and purple dress makes it painstakingly obvious anyway. By the time Atlas has finished and the radio goes silent, Jack and Elizabeth are nearing the stairs. They descend and Elizabeth motions for him to stay where he is in the darkness and away from the glass.

They watch a Splicer enter the theater and attempt to attack the Little Sister. She screams, signaling for a Big Daddy to come barreling out of nowhere and pummel the Splicer with his drill. By now Elizabeth is used to the violent and gruesomeness that comes with the arrival of a Big Daddy but for Jack it’s the first time he’s seen the brutal retaliation of a Big Daddy. She hears his breath catch as he recoils and turns away from the sight of seeing the drill go through the stomach of the Splicer. And then the unmistakable sound of his retching can be heard and the remains of the Pep Bar in his stomach hitting and splashing onto the tiled floor.

As the Little Sister leads her Big Daddy away as if nothing had happened, Jack holds her hand a bit more tightly and Elizabeth just squeezes back.