(Disclaimer: BioShock and all of its characters belong to 2K and Irrational Games. There is no profit made from this.

A huge 'Thank You' to my attentive betas Wrench Lurker, and AspirationRealized.) Cover art by Ben Lo.

The Big Daddy retracted his drill from Comstock's body as he collapsed to the floor with an agonized scream. The woman standing before him, her face covered in blood, raised her gaze at the creature whose helmet glowed with a not-so-different shade of crimson. Everything was perfectly still for that split second, save for the dying man's gurgling as he tried to crawl away from the scene with his last efforts.

Elizabeth eyed the hulk warily and began to take a tentative step backwards. The red lights did not flicker, instead he let out a terrifying howl and took an unmistakably aggressive stance, readying the drill that was still dripping with the fallen prophet's blood. The young woman did not flinch any further.

"I don't want to hurt you, you hear me? You don't need to do this." She knew well that reasoning with the beast would be futile, but her conscience urged her to at least try. Even as she spoke, a tear started to form behind the Big Daddy, a slice of cold space that would have appeared the deepest black if it were not for the otherworldly greyish shimmering.

The Daddy launched himself towards Elizabeth drill-first as the vacuum began to halt him in his steps. The tip of the drill, wildly spinning and shaking from the struggle against the elemental force, stopped merely an inch away from the girl's face who herself was gripping the latched cover of the vent, holding on for dear life. Even the deafening whizz couldn't shut out the giant's desperate cry, as he was sucked into the darkness with no chance of ever getting out. As he disappeared from sight, the tear closed itself like if it had never been there at all.

"I'm sorry," She said to nobody in particular as her feet touched solid ground again. The poor fellow didn't deserve this, she thought. Joey Thompson, 26 years old, had been convicted for smuggling Bibles in Fontaine's ring before he's been selected for conversion into a Bouncer. Loved painting and chocolate muffins. Would have died of ADAM deprivation 2 months later.

Perhaps killing him now really was a favor.

To Elizabeth, each and every timeline was an open book. Every outcome of every possible moment was at her disposal like mere footnotes in a catalogue. But the moment she herself gave them the tiniest of pokes, everything that was crystal clear before morphed into an impenetrable grey fog.

The Luteces called it the Arcane Variable. The one thing she couldn't calculate with. The twins made it seem laughably easy to just flick the right switches at the right junctions towards the desired outcome, but when she attempted to do the same she left a decapitated baby and a stray Comstock in her wake.

He was supposed to let her go. Anna was supposed to be pulled out of the tear in time. It shouldn't have gone so horribly wrong.

He had to pay. Blood for blood. He, and all the others. They are all going to pay and she will hunt them down one by one if need be. She walked along the reddened path that the still-struggling Comstock streaked on the floor and kneeled in front of him to give him a last, condemnatory look. It was a small wonder that the man was still alive with the gaping, gory hole where his stomach used to be. He stared into the girl's eyes as his own ones started to get more hollow with each second. He was trying to say something, but the blood that was still flowing from his mouth made it unintelligible. "Arghm..*cough*.. shoorr..*cough* .."

"It's not enough. Not by a long shot." Elizabeth's cold voice got even frostier with each syllable. "You stole that child from her father, and after you… murdered her you fled like the coward you are. Do you know what that baby felt when the edges closed around her neck? Do you know what Booker DeWitt felt when he was holding Anna's bloody remains close to his chest? Did you even care? DID YOU?" She shouted as tears were forming in her eyes. "He hung himself in his office two weeks later, while you were opening yours to start your glamorous new life here."

Comstock couldn't hold his head up any longer and so the woman straightened back up. Another rift opened beyond the near lifeless body, engulfing him in its reach. In the background stood a distinctly birdlike, massive metal skeleton surrounded by elaborate charts on boards and men clad in white. Elizabeth uttered her goodbyes, "Your debts will take a long, long time to get repaid, and your old friend Fink is a bit short of suitable specimens for his project. Consider this a chance to absolve yourself, prophet." The man couldn't even make a sound anymore, his fading eyes still fixated on the woman as the shrinking rim closed on him.

The wayward Lamb stayed where she was for a few minutes longer, her empty gaze locked to the spot where the fugitive sinner had been lying. She was snapped out of her ruminations by a soft whimper coming out of the vent. Elizabeth swiftly returned, stepping onto the base to get a glimpse of the forlorn little face and speaking with all the tenderness she could muster, shutting the earlier gruesome scene out of her mind.

"Sally, you can come out now. Booker's gone. He can't hurt you anymore."

The petite Little Sister wasn't entirely convinced. "Where's Mr. Bubbles?" She asked with a high-pitched tone.

How could she answer this, really?

"He... he left, Sally. He won't be able to come back, but he told me to take care of you. I'm here to help, little one. Could you please just..." As Elizabeth grabbed hold of the girl's frail arm she immediately tried to back away, standing at bay against her pull.

"No, no, NO!" She was starting to get hysterical now, twisting her small body in the most absurd ways to get out of Elizabeth's grip. "Let GO! MR. BUBBLES!"

"Sally, please!" She kept her hold on her and yanked with all her might, finally getting the little girl out of her hidey-hole and into her arms. That did little to stop her tantrums though.

"HELP, MR. B!" She cried over and over again, not ceasing her fidgeting for a second. Elizabeth herself was getting more desperate by the minute. She couldn't lose her now.

"Shh, it's okay, I won't take your ADAM, you won't get hurt, I promise. Please, Sally."

At that, the girl gave her an accusatory glare with those inhuman, glowing eyes. "YOU made the hidey hole so hot, I heard you! You're a big bad meanie! LET GO!"

It hurt more than the child might have intended. Because it was true. Elizabeth cursed herself inwardly for her earlier disregard of Sally's safety that managed to float past her veil of bloodthirst so easily.

She suddenly felt disgusted with herself. That was something that had never happened before... had it not? She reminded herself of the coded note her future self sent her so long ago... Or was it just a day..?. She thought of her as the broken one, the one she had to do her utmost to avoid ending up being. Yet here she was, closest to that fate as ever, blinded by some twisted sense of justice that didn't leave an inch of space for rationality. Was it a constant? Was she destined to fail? No matter, she had to clean up the mess she had made, just like the broken one.

Just like Booker. The apple didn't fall far from the tree at all.

She didn't let go of the fidgeting little figure, and driven by a sudden instinct she hugged her close while softly murmuring in her ear.

"Shh, it's alright, you'll be okay, I'm sorry..." Surprisingly enough, Sally started to calm down in her arms, listening to her steady heartbeat, her cries slowly dying out.

"I want Daddy with me." She whispered into Elizabeth's shoulder through a quiet sob. "I know the feeling, sweetheart. I really do." She said, gently caressing the girl's back. "I'll help you get out of this nasty place, I know a nice lady who can cure you. I'll take you there now, alright?"

Sally struck a curious face at that. "Are we going to Lilly Poppy?"

"What's that, sweetheart?" asked the woman, eyebrows raised.

"Lilly Poppy! That's where all the angels are dancing! We'll make the lillies pop with Mr Bubbles. Are we going there?" Elizabeth didn't quite know how to answer at first, but she didn't want to risk getting the erratic Little Sister upset again. She looked into her hopeful yet haunting plain white orbs.

"Yes. You just have to hold on to me a minute longer. We're getting out of here."

She stood up while still holding Sally, prepared to open another rift in space-time, concentrating her thoughts on Brigid Tenenbaum's hideout.

She gave one last disgusted frown at the shoddy establishment and at her own blood soaked attire as she stretched her hand towards something only she could see. Or rather, what she should see.

Something wasn't right. She couldn't pinpoint the place that had been pictured in her head bright as day a mere minute ago. Elizabeth closed her eyes, furrowing her brows with the effort and clinching her teeth as her hand began shaking. A tear started to slowly crack open to reveal a grand city with the tallest buildings she's ever seen. It would have appeared strangely familiar. Is this New York?

If the thick smoke hadn't been obstructing the view. Loud sirens and distant screams pierced their ears as they noticed the colossal lizard-like monster rampaging between the towering skyscrapers. Just as the fearsome creature turned its open jaw in their direction, teeth as big as swords, Elizabeth managed to shut the gate tight, panting heavily.

Sally didn't seem a least bit frightened or surprised. "That wasn't Lilly Poppy!" she said with a disappointed expression.

"N-No... it wasn't," stammered the still-dumbfounded woman who even forgot to blink for a few moments.

Something was definitely wrong. She tried to think of another place, another time, anywhere that wasn't here in this musty wreck of a store. They could try going back to Columbia if only until she could figure out what was going on. Somewhere at least relatively peaceful.

"Okay... let's try Battleship Bay." She raised her arm again, closed her eyes and focused every corner of her mind on the sunlit beach that became synonymous with 'freedom' to the once caged young girl.

Another tear began to form in front of them and this time it lead to an ocean of some kind, still water and gentle waves as far as the eye can see. Cold, salty foam poured to their feet through the opening until Elizabeth abruptly dismissed this one as well.

She couldn't reach it, couldn't bring forward what had been accessible to her before with a snap of a finger. It was just slipping further away from her each time she wanted to grab hold of it, becoming translucent like some elusive memory. Maybe it was indeed just that, a memory. She couldn't tell anymore. Something was missing and she couldn't quite grasp what it was exactly, a sort of link mayb-

Her eyes snapped open.

The Doors. She couldn't see the Doors.

In that exact moment, a television screen flickered to life on the far side of the store, the static of the transmission subsiding as the still image of a man's stern-looking face came into focus. A deep, imperative voice echoed from the damp walls as Andrew Ryan began to speak.

"Do you know what they call someone who enters a man's home uninvited, oh Lamb of Columbia? A thief. And I do not remember inviting you into my city."

Elizabeth could feel his gaze pierce right through her, even though the man's eyes were covered by the brim of his fedora.

The King and God of Rapture continued. "You see, protecting the ideals of this secret haven proves to be quite unpleasant when certain individuals, able to bend the very core of our physical world on a whim, are running amok. Real competition simply cannot exist between honorable lions and an underhanded virus. The good Mr. Suchong here was kind enough to provide a… solution for this problem, and plucked this little parasite out of the air to even the odds."

"How…?" The woman interceded, eyes narrowing.

"I have my means. You sure as well remember that, Miss Comstock. I don't claim to understand what you are, but I know that you're special. There is business we can do together, and so I give you a choice." There was a lengthy pause before he carried on, changing to a menacing tone. "Die a miserable and undoubtedly painful death by the hands of the inmates in this lovely prison you got yourself into, or work for me, and I'll send my best men to assist you in your plight and return you to the city for the valuable employee of Ryan Industries you are. Who knows, with your talents, you could easily rise high enough to be part of my Inner Circle, if not the Council itself…"

Elizabeth took a deep breath through her nose, a determined look on her face. "I don't know how you found out about me or my powers but if there's one thing I'm sure about in this godforsaken world, it's that I won't participate in your petty games, Ryan." She tightened her hold on Sally for good measure. "I'm leaving this wretched place with or without your consent and I'm taking the girl with me."

"If it's a Little Sister you want, that shouldn't stand in the way of commerce. I have dozens of them."

"I won't leave without her, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

The screen was crackling along with the rhythm of Ryan's laugh. "I already did, Miss Comstock…"

"Don't call me that," mumbled the woman through gritted teeth.

"I sincerely hope that you will be able to see reason before the wolves come for you, dear Lamb. There won't be a Shepherd jumping to your rescue this time."

The device went black with a quiet beep, leaving the two fugitives alone in the moldy installation yet again.

"Now we could use Daddy here for sure!" moaned Sally.

Elizabeth, too deep in thought to even listen to her, just nodded numbly.