Title: The Obsolete Protector

Origin: Bioshock 2

POV: Subject Delta

Type: AU Bioshock 2

A.N.:

To anyone who takes the time to read this, I want to thank you in advance. This is my first Bioshock fanfic and my seventh story ever. I have been writing for F.E.A.R. for little over a year and I am not that great of a writer. So, I apologize in advance if this is sub-par.

Subject Delta is one of my all-time favorite characters and my favorite Bioshock character. I know most people have probably forgotten about him and the other Big Daddies because of the new timeline introduced in Infinite. So, I do not expect much feedback for this story.

Warning: This timeline is AU. The basic story is still intact but I am introducing a more in-depth backstory for Delta that will be revealed as he travels towards Eleanor.

I am also changing a few things to try to make it more realistic...for Bioshock anyway. Like no Vita-Chambers except the two in this chapter, convenient HUD, or massive amount of weaponry that he can somehow carry around and magically make pop in and out of existence whenever he wants to use them. He is only going to have his drill. He will have access to all the plasmids though. Drill Specialist xD

One last thing, the Delta in my story is still bound by his Protector Instincts. Being an Alpha Series, that does not alter him that much since they retain most of their free will except for when it comes to protecting their bonded sisters.

Speaking of the Alpha Series, I am going to have a deep connection amongst them. This chapter introduces what I mean. Needless to say, the Mass Produced Big Daddies are going to catch a lot of flak in this fic.

Again, this is outside my comfort zone as I have been writing for F.E.A.R. up until now.

So, thank you to whoever takes the time to read this. I appreciate it.

Sorry about using "drug" instead of dragged xD

Also, just for clarification, this first part is the true "present" in the story's timeline. The rest of the story afterwards is Delta remembering everything that had happened during his quest to get to Eleanor.

Disclaimer: Bioshock 2 and related characters are the property of 2K Games. I claim no ownership of Bioshock nor do I plan to profit from posting this.

Ch.1: Return of Subject Delta

"Wake up Herr Delta. The time for sleeping is over." The thick German accented voice of a woman roused me from my unnaturally deep slumber. Giving off a low rumbling groan, I opened my eyes. Taking in my surrounds, I saw that I was in a Vita-Chamber. The green arcs of electricity danced around my body yet I felt no pain. In the transparent surface of the concavo-convex Vita-Chamber door, I saw the reflection of the being that people called Subject Delta.

The monster that I had become looked back at me with its scratched, golden yellow oval eye that was divided into three sections by two narrow strips of metal. The rivet-covered copper skin of the diving helmet that was my face was dented and gouged in several places. Several of the rivets had been compromised but fortunately not enough to compromise my armored face. The left auxiliary light located below my eye failed to emit any light curtsey of the tip of an enraged Big Sister's needle-like weapon. The camera mounted on top of my head was crushed from when I had been unfortunate enough to enter a dual between another Alpha Series, a Big Sister, and a Rumbler.

The butterfly bolts running uniformly along the perimeter of my face were still intact, which I was grateful for because I could not stomach the idea of the world ever seeing the grotesque remains of the long dead man that I had once been entombed beneath the scarred face of Subject Delta. That man was dead. He had been murdered first by Andrew Ryan and then by Fontaine's butchers. This diving suit clad monster was all that was left of a ghost that had forgotten to die.

The heavy diving weight still hung down from my face by the two coils of rope. The tubes that were my nostrils were still secured to the sides of my face on either side of my eye and to my metal tank-like lungs located on my back. There, between my lungs was the metal tube crafted throne of my master. Unlike the tin men who dared to call themselves Big Daddies, we were designed for the express purpose of being perfect for our bonded masters. We certainly did not allow our precious daughters to walk the disgusting streets of Rapture as if they were common peasants. The once pristine blue canvas and brown leather skin of my body was covered with dried blood as well as scorched in several sections. The tube running down the interior of my heavily muscled left arm glowed with a brilliant blue color. Still attached to my left hip was my trusty non-magnetic brass diving knife.

My fully upgraded industrial grade drill, which was bigger and heavier than a man, remained attached to my right arm covered with dried blood, among other things, and poised to violently eviscerate anything foolish enough to cause my master to send me after it. At a point during my quest to return to my master's side, I had found that the drill's mounts had fused together from a combination of salt water and blood. As a result, my right hand was now permanently entombed beneath the razor sharp hardened steel industrial tool turned weapon of slaughter, forever doomed to grip the drill's controls without reprieve.

My thoughts raced inside my mind. Finally, after my dazed mind reoriented itself, my memories returned. I had died in Eleanor's arms. I remembered Persephone, my failure to get to Eleanor in time, my heart seizing painfully as my broken Pair Bond sought to send my body into a forced shutdown, my poor broken brothers in their decaying suits, Subject Omega, the bombs, and then carrying the weight of the ocean on my shoulders as the lifeboat carried us up towards the surface. A flood of intense cold erupted through me as I realized that something was missing. Eleanor!

In an instant, the golden yellow glow of my eye was replaced by a Hellish red as maddening, burning anger filled my entire being like molten lead. If she had been hurt, there would be Hell to pay! I would chase the culprits responsible to the ends of the Earth and beyond! I would ensure that they would never harm her ever again. The last thought that would go through their minds would be the question of how they could be so stupid to touch the daughter of the Big Daddy that even Big Sisters had learned to fear! "Herr Delta, it is alright. Easy, your body is still in a state of shock. Listen to my voice. It is Dr. Tenenbaum...you remember me...yes? You rescued all those little girls that Lamb had kidnapped...I owe you a debt Delta..."

'Dr. Tenenbaum? Wait...that is the woman who helped me...friend...no hurt...'

My ally continued to address me with a soft motherly tone, "Calm down Herr Delta. I have Eleanor here. She is safe." Her attempts to reassure me failed as my mind was too far gone and corrupted by the burning fury of my Protector Instincts. My rage-consumed mind translated her reassurances to have a different meaning entirely.

'SHE HAS ELEANOR!'

'KILL!'

I let out an ear-shattering guttural roar that would have filled even the strongest Big Sister with fright. Unable to control my actions completely due to my Protector Instincts, I mindlessly lunged forward against the barrier between my baby girl and me. With the sound of twisting metal and cracking glass, my assault succeeded in cracking the glass of the Vita-Chamber's door and causing its metal frame to bow outwards. One more assault would do it. Outside the chamber, I heard Tenenbaum yell, "Sigma! Someone go get Eleanor!"

I tightened the huge muscles in my tree trunk like legs and then threw my entire body against the weakened exit of my prison once again. The Vita-Chamber's door submitted to my assault and flew across the room to smash against the far wall of what looked like a scientific lab of some sort. Though it took me a moment to realize where we were, I finally recognized the room as being the one in Sinclair's Lifeboat where Eleanor had saved her mother, Sofia, like the gentle forgiving spirit that I had always wanted her to be, and then placed her gloved hand on the other side of mine as we neared the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Before me in the middle of the room, I saw an alert Tenenbaum stepping back towards the opposite side of the dome-shaped room. She had been through too much in her life to feel any fear, even for an enraged Big Daddy. Her intelligence filled eyes locked onto me as she calmly began to devise a solution for this new problem. Trying to fight against my programming, I stomped towards her, my weighted diving boots shaking the floor beneath us.

As I continued to stomp menacingly towards the aged scientist, suddenly, an Alpha Series with an almost pristine suit, though like me he too had scars of battle, rushed into the room. Though his visor was emitting golden yellow light, my brother moved to stand in front of her. In his grasp, he held a weird looking weapon that I had never personally seen before. However, it looked familiar. After racking my memory, I remembered that it was an Ion Laser. Only the rare prototype Lancer Big Daddies had those. He must have somehow found a way into Minerva's Den. I thought that it had been completely cut off from Rapture. Examining his hands, I saw the stamped symbol for "Sigma".

I gave off a threatening, rumbling roar to warn my brother to step aside as I moved closer to them. However, Subject Sigma remained in front of the scientist and replied with his own threatening call. The fact that he was capable of restraint indicated that he was just as sane as I was. Well, we were saner than our poor broken brothers that lumbered through the partially sunken ruins of Rapture in vain searches for their dead bonded sisters.

My poor brothers, I had known all of them before my demise at the hands of Lamb's splicers. We had all known each other. I had been viewed as the paragon of the Alpha Series. They looked up to me. I taught my brothers how to fight. I taught them when to use brute strength alone to win and when to use their wits to outsmart their opponents. With my leadership, we had become a formidable fighting force. Only our bonded masters could control us. Even gods among men like Andrew Ryan, though he was too proud to ever admit it, were afraid of us.

It had broken my heart to see what they had decayed into: barely sentient psychologically unstable shells that could not even control their own plasmids. The leather skin of their bodies were ripped open in sections to reveal the ADAM ravaged remains of the men that they had once been. Their cracked eyes were blank black stares. Their once formidable tools of our craft malfunctioned in battle due to lack of maintenance. What remained of the once proud Alpha Series were lumbering shells of our former glory.

The city had forgotten us. We were once hailed as the saviors of Rapture as we valiantly protected our bonded partners with our lives so that there was a constant supply of ADAM. We were celebrities in a way. People would sometimes follow us at a safe distance to watch us protect our bonded masters. As Ryan's prisoners, we had been erased from existence, but as Alpha Series Big Daddies, we were the city's favorite sons. Eleanor and I especially drew a lot of admiration. Everyone knew the names Subject Delta and Eleanor. In a way, my beautiful daughter and I became a symbol of hope for the ADAM starved, war weary city. Then, we were heartlessly cast aside in favor of the hulking, monstrous, tin men called the Mass Produced Big Daddies: Bouncers, Rosies, and Lancers though they never left Minerva's Den.

We all despised them! They were a mockery to the title of Big Daddy. They were heartless foul-smelling brutes that did not care about their sisters. Every Little Sister was the same to them! We loved our bonded sisters! We truly wanted to be with them! We treated protecting our sisters as a privilege and honor. The Mass Produced Big Daddies treated protecting their Little Sisters as if it were a chore instead of a privilege! They only protected their sisters because their programming had rendered them will-less. We protected our sisters because they were our daughters.

Every time I killed one of the "superior" Mass Production Big Daddies, I felt no remorse or pity for them. Why would I? They felt nothing for their Little Sisters. They were hollow tin men. I was essentially killing a machine. I felt happiness in hearing their death bellows because I had avenged my fallen brothers once again. WE were the SUPERIOR protectors, NOT the tin men! We fought even with our dying breath. We stood ready to defend our beautiful daughters in that grim, blood covered sunken mausoleum called Rapture at a second's notice. However, despite our near flawless battlefield prowess, in the end, the once mighty Alpha Series decayed into barely sentient monsters; the final victims of the very thing that had made us so valiant and invincible in battle: our Pair Bonds.

As I continued stomping towards the pair, I let out another rumbling roar, but this one was more of a beg than a threat. I did not want to harm my brother. When my brother remained in front of the scientist, I felt a strange feeling of wetness that traveled down the sides of the dead man's face beneath the emotionless metal skin of my real one. It took me a moment to remember that the bizarre sensation was caused by crying. My brother had left me no choice.

I raised my drill and powered up its motor, causing a loud mechanical roar to fill the room. Then, I charged forward into Subject Sigma. My Drill Dash succeeded in disarming him, his Ion Laser flew out of his grasp and clattered onto the floor a good foot away, and sending him tumbling onto the ground. My experienced melee prowess was legendary in the sunken ruins of Rapture. Sigma would be incapacitated for a good minute. I did not want to harm my brother any further so I moved forward towards the woman and left Sigma on the floor.

Seconds later, I was before the scientist. However, as I lifted my drill up above my head with its still razor sharp point aimed downwards, four skinny, gloved hands grabbed my arms up around my shoulders. I let out an enraged roar as I twisted around to get free from my assailants. I caught glimpses of two lithe black and white diving suit armored adolescent girls. Big Sisters! As the ex-Little Sisters fought to restrain me, I saw that their large round eyes were green rather than their usual Hellish red. The observation puzzled me, but did not distract me from my rage-fueled quest to find Eleanor.

I pressed my left hand against my chest and discharged a blast of Electro Bolt 3. The Big Sisters screeched as the blue electric arcs around my body traveled to dance around them as well. However, as I had Electric Flesh spliced, I was unaffected. I swung my drill sideways and bashed the one to my right across the front of her bulbous head. The blow sent the defenseless sister tumbling to the ground while blue electric arcs continued to dance around her lithe form. I turned to face the other sister.

I raised my left hand up and grabbed her by her head. I lifted her up off the ground for a moment before throwing her like a baseball. The skinny adolescent flew towards the far wall, where, upon reaching it, she smashed into a pristine brightly lit Circus of Values vending machine. The impact crumpled in the front of the machine and, to my enjoyment, silenced the annoying voice of the clown. After the Big Sister fell onto the floor in front of the machine, I saw sparks begin to erupt out of the collapsed section of the device.

I turned back to the scientist to find that she was attempting to flee. I grabbed her by the back of her neck with my enormous left hand. 'NO! STOP!' Despite my attempts to fight against my instincts, I guided her over my shoulder and then threw her onto the floor. She hit her head during the impact with the floor. As she looked up at me with a dazed look in her eyes, I revved up my drill. As the room was filled with the sound of my drill's whirling, I sent the deadly extension of my right arm towards her face.

Suddenly, I heard the sweetest voice I had ever heard cry out, "Father stop!" The command caused me to halt the advance of my drill's spinning point mere inches from the surface of Tenenbaum's left eye. The maddening rage instantly left my mind and I was able to regain control of my body. After powering down my drill and returning it to my right side, I gently assisted the "Mother Goose" as she went to stand up.

As she stood before me, I kneeled and let out a mournful moan of regret. However, to my surprise, she gave me the faintest smile that I had ever seen and then assured me with a gentle tone, "Herr Delta, you have nothing to apologize for. Excuse me, I need to go look over a few things in my notes." She walked past me and towards a worktable to the right of the destroyed Vita-Chamber. I stood back up.

Remembering the voice, I turned my body around to look behind me. There, I was met by the sight of a dozen Big Sisters. I would have normally felt intimidated by the large number of "Lamb's Hand" but the sight of the helmet-less Big Sister standing out in front of the others caused me to let out a happy groan. Eleanor beamed back at me with a huge smile that reminded me of the smile that she gave me when she was a little girl. Her innocent beautiful, pale face was a stark contrast to the disturbingly sharp look in her blue eyes.

As I moved towards her, I gave off a quizzical groan. She smirked before she replied with her accented voice, "Dr. Tenenbaum managed to repair our bond while she was messing around with your genetic sequence. I told you before Father, I will be damned before I let Mother take you away from me again. Plus...you can't tell me that you don't want to rub it in Mother's face that no matter what she does, she cannot keep us apart." I gave off a kind of laugh in the form of repeated grunts. Then, I gave off another quizzical groan.

She pouted before she turned and pulled the nearest Big Sister into a hug. She turned back and looked at me with Bambi eyes while continuing to hug the Big Sister close to her. She said, "They don't have anywhere else to go, Father. Deep down, we are all still Little Sisters. Mother had convinced them that you were going to hurt me. They were just protecting their sister, Father. Please?"

I gave off a defeated groan, causing Eleanor to smile. As I reached her, she released her sister, who returned to where she had been moments prior while giving off strange noises that vaguely sounded like complaints and smoothing the wrinkles in her suit that Eleanor's hug had caused. Then, she threw herself into me. As she wrapped her thin arms around my massive chest, I gently returned the gesture with my free left arm. While we enjoyed our long overdue reunion, I reflected upon the events that had transpired to lead to this moment.

Awareness suddenly hit me in an agonizing wave of sensation. Eventually, the pain ceased and I was able to concentrate. When I did, I realized that something was wrong. I was floating in a choking black abyss. I tried to move but my limbs failed to respond. Panicking, I attempted to cry out but no sound escaped my numb body. Did I even have a body? For that matter, who was I? As if on cue, my mind's eye was assaulted by a memory.

As I fought against the effects of the Hypnotize Plasmid in my forced kneeling position, I berated myself for allowing a momentary lapse in focus to endanger my precious Eleanor. I should have seen that plasmid coming! I should have just killed that bastard instead of wasting time by trying to bore into him.

I could just imagine the Mass Production Big Daddies enjoying seeing me like this. The mighty Subject Delta, the original Big Daddy, paragon of the Alpha Series, and arguably the strongest Big Daddy in all of Rapture, caught off guard by something as idiotic as the Hypnotize Plasmid? Yes, those tin men would certainly enjoy seeing me like this. No matter, once the effects of the plasmid wore off, I was going to make them all pay for this.

How dare this woman touch Eleanor?! I glared at her with the face of the dead man these people called "Johnny Topside" as I fought against her orders. My real face lay on the ground where I had dropped it. Through the green tint that had covered my vision, I saw the heart wrenching frightened look on my daughter's face. I tried to give off a reassuring grunt but the plasmid's effects prevented me from doing so. There was no way that this woman was Eleanor's real mother. A real mother would never put her daughter through something like this. She was just another deranged splicer that I would put out of its misery once this plasmid wore off.

"Place the pistol against your head." With a shaking right hand, I raised the golden 9x19mm Luger P08 up against my head. 'Come on old man! Fight it! Just resist for a few more moments and the plasmid will wear off.' I could feel the effects of the Hypnotize plasmid wearing off. 'Yes! Just a little bit more!' However, I suddenly felt an intense feeling of fear wash over me that was so frigid that I felt the urge to vomit as I heard her say the final command in a disturbingly calm tone.

"Fire."

'No! NO! Eleanor, please look away! Come on lady, have some decency! Don't make her watch this! She's just a child!' I fought to resist as hard as I could but my trigger finger slowly began to squeeze the trigger. A terrifying realization hit me. This was it. I was really going to die like this. Worse, I was leaving my daughter in the hands of this lunatic. I had failed the only person that loved the monster that people called "Subject Delta". I looked my baby girl in her beautiful glowing eyes as I mentally begged her, "Eleanor, please forgive Daddy! I love yo..."

She rushed forward as she screamed, "DADDY!" However, at that very moment, I squeezed the trigger. As the shot rang out, my vision faded into darkness from which there was no escape.

A bright white flash came over my vision. During the flash, I heard a woman's heavily accented voice as she contacted me through my built in radio, "Hello can you hear me? Your signal is very weak." I opened my eyes to see the two narrow strips of metal that segmented my eye into three sections. Beyond them, I saw the palm of my gloved left hand with its port that allowed me to use Plasmids. Letting out a loud groan, I shifted my weight to look over at my right hand. However, instead of gloved digits with metal fingertips, I found my trusty heavy drill still securely mounted over my hand. 'Eleanor...' I needed to find her and get her away from that female splicer.

I turned my left hand over and began to push myself up. As I did, I saw my reflection in the puddle that I had been lying in. My glowing, golden yellow eye and two auxiliary lights shined brightly. My riveted copper face was pristine and shiny. As I continued to rise to my feet, I noticed my tube like nostrils and metal lungs. Though the room I was in was dark, I also noticed how clean the blue canvas and brown leather skin of my body looked. I had to admit that I looked pretty good for a dead man.

Having pushed my huge bulk up enough, I dragged my weighted diving boot entombed left foot forward until I was able to reach a kneeling position. From there, I was able to stand fully upright. The drawback to my ADAM-enhanced Big Daddy physique was that the simple task of standing turned into a complicated process. The sight of the room that I was in could only be described as alien.

Aside from the round concrete pedestal in the center of the room with decorative plants and a metal globe with the blue colored words "ADONIS" and below that, "LUXURY RESORTS" located inside of it, the entire bottom floor of the room was flooded. Beneath my feet, the checkerboard patterned dark and light blue tiles with gold trim were covered with garbage. Against the far wall where the two staircases that allowed access to the upper floor met, I saw the white colored handwritten phrase, "FALLEN, FALLEN IS BABYLON".

The left staircase was collapsed and water was pouring down from the ceiling in the far corner. Meanwhile, the right staircase was encrusted with pink coral. The groaning of metal filled the air as if the roof would collapse at any second. The cry of some creature occasionally interrupted the groaning. If the sight was not glaring me straight in the face, I would have never believed that this place could look like this. This was Adonis? This place was high end and catered only to the richest citizens of Rapture! What happen to this place? How long had I been dead?

Moving forward, I entered the pool of water. I growled slightly as the icy sting of the Atlantic Ocean penetrated the canvas hide of my legs. Not wanting to remain in the frigid water for very long, I slogged my way towards the relatively dry landing of the staircase. As I reached the decorative pedestal in the center of the room, I paused as I heard a soft voice. It was a little girl. Moreover, I heard the strange edge in her voice that could only mean one thing: she was a Little Sister.

I failed to detect any telltale calls of a protector. She was alone? In a place like this? Concerned for her welfare in this icebox of a place, I moved faster towards the landing. I barely noticed the water flowing down the steps to feed the rising water of the bottom floor or the collage of people's photographs located on the wall below the "Babylon" message like some kind of memorial. Turning right, I trudged up the stairs past the pieces pink coral that I noticed seemed to have some kind of bioluminescence as they emitted pink light onto the stairs.

As I turned right once again, I saw a decorative Little Sister vent that had the strange design that reminded me of the sunflowers from the surface. A more intense feeling of concern filled me as I saw the water flowing down from the ceiling in front of the vent. Pushing my heavy frame as fast as I could move without falling forward onto my face, I rushed towards the vent.

Upon nearing it, my worst fears were confirmed when I saw the pair of glowing eyes appear just beyond the entrance to the vent. I gave off a reassuring groan to try to tell her not to be afraid. However, to my confusion, she retreated away from me and down into the vent network. The water flowing down from the ceiling caused an annoying echo inside my armored head as I passed through it. The lone sister was likely long gone through the vent network. I could only pray that she would come out through one somewhere warm and safe.

I went to turn and travel up the next flight of stairs. That is, until I caught the all too familiar scent in the air. My blood ran cold and I stopped dead in my tracks. That smell that came from that Little Sister sent a primal wave of fear through me. Eleanor! That was Eleanor's pheromone signature!

I gave off a guttural roar as I returned to the vent. I balled my gauntlet-encased left hand into a fist and then pounded against the vent's surface three times. My blows caused the thin metal surface to hum softly after giving off a hollow thud. I returned my left hand back down to my side and then waited. I ignored the frigid water flowing down my back as I continued to wait. When there was no response, I panicked. Eleanor! Why did she flee from me? Maybe I could run into her at another vent.

I turned and rushed up the stairs to my right. Upon seeing the coral blocking the way out, I thrust my drill into the pink masses of calcium. After three thrusts, I had succeeded in clearing the doorway. The hallway beyond was in even worse shape than the room I had just left. Water poured into the low-ceiling passageway and an algae covered column had collapsed conveniently right where I needed to pass through in order to get to the open doorway on the far side of the hallway.

Luckily, I was just barely able to squeeze underneath the collapsed, fragmented column and I continued towards the exit. As I stood back upright, I saw the shadow of a little girl running away in the white light that was coming from the room beyond the open exit. Moving as fast as I could towards the open doorway, I let out a mournful cry as I begged her to stop. The scent in the air confirmed that it was my sweet little Eleanor. Why did she run? Had I done something wrong? Then, it hit me: she must have still been angry with me for failing her.

Still, why would she not stop for me? She must have been absolutely frozen from running around in this flooding resort. I had to get her somewhere warm! Granted, as a Little Sister, she was actually not aware of most physical sensations except for when she was gathering or when her innocent mind was suddenly ripped from the "Happy Place" and thrust into this dangerous reality. However, just because she was not aware of how cold she was, that was no excuse for me to skirt my responsibilities of being her father.

As I neared the light filled open exit, I heard an unusual noise. I had never heard anything like it. It was like the screech of some kind of animal that also had a mechanical quality to it. That was impossible. This was Rapture! There were no animals here other than family pets. With my drill poised at the ready, I went through the opening.

The room beyond was a large pool area. However, I barely noticed that as I was immediately drawn to the lithe creature near the top of the nearest left art deco column. It looked human, but as it screeched at me while boring into me with the large round Hellish red eye in the center of its bulbous head, I knew that whatever this bizarre creature was, it would be wise for me not to take a confrontation with it lightly.

As I watched, the creature jumped clear to the other side of the pool to the third column in the row of four. I heard a loud cracking noise beneath the sound of its continued screech. It jumped from the column but I lost sight of it as a large section the art deco structure that it had previously occupied fell free from the rest of the structure and impacted the surface of the deep end of the empty pool with a loud crash. Whatever that thing was, I did not want to stick around in case it changed its mind about fighting. The fact that it clearly had no fear of me, a Big Daddy, was enough to rattle me slightly.

At the far end of the enormous room, I saw the only other source of light in this place other than the natural light that was lazily entering the room through the three large windows in the ceiling above the pool and the occasional sparks emitting from the large generator in the far left corner of the room. It was a neon advertisement sign. Glowing with a light purple color, the advertisement was two words. In a fancy, cursive font, the top word was "Plasmid". Below it, in a plain but bold font, was the word, "THERAPIES".

Plasmids huh? If that thing came back, having a Plasmid or two would definitely help. I moved towards the far end of the room. My heavy footfalls echoed through the cavernous space as my weighted boots collided with the tiled surface of the path around the pool. As I neared the far right corner, I noticed a little can of fuel amongst what looked like some splicer's nest.

Handouts in Rapture were hard to come by so I grabbed the little can with my left hand and dumped what little fuel there was inside it into my drill's fuel reservoir. The hunchbacked Bouncers had a nearly endless supply of fuel for their drills thanks to the enormous tank on their back next to their oxygen tank. Unfortunately, my sleek design made such a large fuel tank impractical so I had a much smaller reservoir. Just as well, those Bouncers were more of a joke than anything else as they lumbered around looking like giant bloated fat men in their modified Carmagnolle atmospheric diving suits. One time as a prank, Eleanor and I had sneaked up behind one and pushed him over. We called it "Bouncer Tipping".

Having emptied the little yellow fuel tank, I tossed it aside and continued towards the Plasmid Therapies area to see if there was some plasmids that were still left. As I neared the door, I heard a woman's voice. She seemed to be yelling at someone as she said, "I need this! Do you hear me?" A single thought went through my head, 'Splicer.' With my drill ready, I traveled through the empty door frame.

At the bottom of the stairs before me, the path became a "T". Against the far wall, I saw a grime covered statue of what I could only guess was an angel. As I reached the top of the stairs, a can of what appeared to be peaches slowly rolled across the once shiny tiled floor from the left path. Unafraid, I casually descended the stairs.

Upon reaching the bottom, I heard the same woman cry out. Turning my whole body, I looked down the left path to find another open door. Seconds later, a horribly disfigured woman with a lead pipe in her right hand retreated out of the room beyond. Despite her appearance, I was unaffected and felt nothing except the barest traces of sympathy for this poor individual. I had seen worse at Fontaine Futuristics. The lumpy, sore-covered, pasty skin was what ADAM did to a human being. There was no way around it. Once someone had been exposed to ADAM, there was no going back. There was no such thing as a "recreational user" when it came to the corrupting green slime like substance that had become the single most valuable commodity in Rapture. Everyone wanted it and everyone needed it.

I prepared to dispatch the oblivious "Thuggish" Splicer but before I could act, small caliber arms fire rang out. The woman cried out as several bullets stuck her from behind. The unarmored splicer's body jerked with each eruption of blood and bone fragments. Dying before she even hit the floor, she fell forward. As her corpse laid there in an unceremonious heap, her killer appeared.

The man had been a doctor according to the torn yellowed surgeon's jacket, doctor's mask, and the small flashlight secured in the center of his forehead by a strap. However, I noticed the weathered revolver in his right hand before I noticed his attire. The "Leadhead" splicer turned and looked at me. He raised his revolver at me, but before he could use it, I had rushed forward and thrust my drill into the weapon.

Sparks flew as my blow caused the revolver to fly out of the splicer's hand. The weapon clattered against the ground over by a Little Sister vent. Before he could react, I swung my drill sideways and bashed him in the side of his skull. The sound of cracking bone filled the air as he tumbled through the air with a trail of blood following him. With a sickening thud, he landed headfirst into the opposite side of the open doorway hard enough to dislodge small bits of the concrete structure. I moved over to him and towered over the broken splicer.

The side of his skull was cracked open and I could see the disgusting jelly-looking remains of what had once been his brain through the jagged edges of his wound. The splicer moaned as he lifted his head up to look at me. The ADAM in their system made outright killing the only solution for an attacking splicer. The deranged former doctor cried out, "Nurse! Where is that damn nurse?" I powered up my drill and then thrust its whirling tip into the splicer's face. Seconds later, it was all over.

I ripped my drill from the remains of the splicer's head and then entered the therapy clinic. As I did, my attention was drawn to the Gather's Garden vending machine against the far back wall as the imitation of a little girl announced, "My daddy's SMARTER than Einstein, STRONGER than Hercules and lights a fire with a SNAP of his fingers. Are you as good as my daddy, Mister? Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't! Smart daddies get spliced, at the Gardens!"

As I moved towards the machine, I noticed that there was a glowing red plasmid vial with a red bow tied around it. Puzzled, I entered the back area where the machine was located. As I crossed the threshold, a warm sensation of joy and peace suddenly erupted inside my mind. My vision was consumed by a bright white light that had a pink border. As the feeling of surreal bliss continued, a young woman's face appeared in the center of the bright light.

Despite the happiness that I felt, my instincts kept me wary of this woman and what she was doing to me. Moments later however, she silenced my concerns as she spoke to me with the most beautiful, will-dissolving voice that I had ever heard, "Father." Shortly afterwards, the woman, the light, and the feeling of bliss left me and I was once again alone in the cold, dark room with the Gather's Garden.

I twisted around in confusion but failed to detect any concealed individuals or any other means of causing what I had just experienced. Who was that woman? I was certain that I had never met someone that looked like her. She called me "Father" too. She was either completely out of her mind, confusing me with someone else, or, perhaps most unsettling, she really was my daughter. The latter was impossible. In my former life, I could vaguely recall having a family of some kind. Whether it was direct family or a created one, I did not know.

It was extremely unlikely that any true members of my former life's family had tracked me down to this place at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. As much as I wanted to dismiss the encounter as just a Splicer that had learned a new trick, I could not. Her voice resonated inside me in a way that only one other individual's did. However, that meant that the latter had actually been true. The reality of the situation hit me and I let out an agonized wail that vibrated the air inside the damp, dark, crypt-like clinic.

That woman was my Eleanor! My little girl had been forced to grow up in this sunken dead city without me. That meant that I had been dead for ten years at least. I faced the gut wrenching fact that everything that I had once held dear had likely long since been killed, vandalized, and left to rot somewhere in these sunken hallways. What cruelty was this? Was this some kind of sick revenge by some unknown party? Why was I back? Why?

My agonized thoughts ceased when I noticed that the plasmid vial appeared to be a gift. Behind the vending machine on the wall was a crayon drawing of the sun. Beside it, I saw the crayon created message, "FROM ELEANOR". I was stunned by the message. Eleanor had left this for me?

A wave of renewed purpose filled me. Eleanor had left this for me so she must have needed me. That splicer that had taken her from me while also forcing me to kill myself must have been endangering her. 'NO! NO! WAKE UP YOU WORTHLESS OLD MAN! YOUR JOB IS NOT DONE SOLDIER!' The room was briefly illuminated with red light as I felt my dormant Protector Instincts activate and temporarily change the light that was emitted from my eye to Hellish red.

I laughed with repeated grunts as I let the sensation fill my mind. Whatever the reasons for this strange turn of events and whatever lay before me, one thing was certain: Subject Delta was back! As the sensation continued, I let out louder laugh-like grunts that echoed through out the sunken halls of the resort. Someone had tried to give me complete free will, I could feel that in my head. However, I did not want it.

I was an Alpha Series Big Daddy! The Protector Instincts provided by the Pair Bond gave me the edge in combat that I needed to protect my Eleanor! She was the most important thing in the world! I was nothing! The loss of my complete free will was a small price to pay to ensure that she was safe! I was going to tear this city apart to find her! I was going to show these broken denizens what happened when someone had the audacity to separate me from my daughter!

Eventually, the corrupting sensation died down in my mind but I could still feel it there like a presence inside me that refused to leave. Of course, I did not want it to leave. Why would I want it to leave? It felt so wonderful. I reached forward and picked up the vial of Electro Bolt with my gloved left hand. Realizing what had to be done and that it was presently impossible unless I did something that I would normally consider out of the question, I grunted in annoyance before I rendered myself defenseless by detaching my drill from my right arm.

I knew the agony that I was about to endure. I had already experienced it once before the first time that Fontaine's butchers injected me with the first prototype plasmid that they had picked me to be the first test subject. I used a hypodermic needle to extract some of the red liquid from the vial. With the needle in my right hand, I dropped the vial and prepared myself. Then, I plunged the hollow needlepoint into the port on my left arm. Steeling myself, I pressed the plunger on the back of the needle down and injected the plasmid into my body.

Instantly, I cried out in agony as blue electric bolts began to erupt out of my palms. Continuing to groan loudly in pure misery, I twisted around to face the entrance to the therapy clinic. I lifted my hands up towards my face as it felt like my body was going to explode. Any normal person or even a splicer would have blacked out from the onslaught of pain. Finally, giving off one final cry, I collapsed onto the dirty tiled floor.

My senses began to recover after a moment. Unfortunately, before I was able to recover completely, I saw a shadow creep towards me. A splicer! I used my arms to push my torso up so I could look at my assailant. My concern proved to be incorrect, however, as I was met by the sight of a blue and white dressed Little Sister. Because my vision was still distorted, I was unable to make out any significant features other than her glowing yellow eyes.

She addressed me with her almost robotic sounding voice, "Daddy was sleeping...for such a long time...and Eleanor has missed you..." My vision cleared and I was able to see her dirty brown hair that was tied up in the back by a white bow, pale almost green skin, the dark rings around her eyes, the dried blood on her dress, and the little Big Daddy doll in her arms. This poor Little Sister was a stark contrast to the clean, beloved ones that my brothers and I had protected. It pulled at my heart to see a Little Sister like this. Little Sisters were precious little angels that were to be cherished, not treated like garbage.

The neglected little girl moved closer until she was inches from my copper face. She finished, "...find her and you will be all better." This close, I felt like I was drowning in the smell of pheromones that she gave off. Her signature was nearly identical to Eleanor's. That was unusual. The likelihood of that happening by sheer happenstance was nearly zero. Perhaps, I would unravel that little mystery as I sought out my own, now grown, Little Sister. In the meantime, this little one needed an escort to the nearest dry section of the resort. I still could not believe that this little one was out on her own. This was typical Mass Production Big Daddy laziness and/or carelessness. What, did her protector get distracted by something shiny?

I went to stand but seemingly from out of thin air, the skinny bizarre creature from before rushed past me from behind and snatched up the Little Sister. The frightened child gave off a high-pitched scream before crying out, "DADDY!" I let out a furious guttural roar as my Protector Instincts flared inside my mind once again. Within seconds, I was upright with my drill once again mounted to my right arm. With the new addition of electric arcs dancing around my left hand, I charged after the foolish creature that dared to upset a Little Sister in front of me.