Chapter Six

It'll Drive You Mad

Standing inside the train Shepard was busy going through her omni tool while Samara sat with the little girl entertaining her with a show of her biotics, and Jack stood at a window watching as they traveled through the underwater city amazed at what she was seeing. Sinclair was seated on the opposite side smoking a cigarette as he watched these people intrigued.

Shepard sighed as she closed her omni tool and rubbed the side of her temple slowly, it was as if all the information and everything that had happened since they got here was giving her a bad headache. What she wouldn't give to be back on the Normandy right now and lay on her bed and just rest. But it seemed as though Shepard was never destined to rest, no matter what time period she was in.

" He doesn't say much, does he?" Shepard questioned as she glanced over towards the door that led into the controls where Delta was.

Sinclair smirked. " Nah, he's more of the quiet type. " he said taking another puff from his cigarette.

" Can he talk, I mean that suit looks pretty heavy and from what I understand he's gone through some pretty shitty experiments." Jack added looking over from the window.

Sinclair slowly nodded. " Oh he can talk, he just decides not to I suppose. " he said.

" Silence is a source of great power." Samara added as she continued to entertain the little girl, glancing over at them.

"So, tell me about where ya'll are from, what's the future like." Sinclair asked as he put out his cigarette. " Is it filled with flying cars and robots and what not?" he asked curious.

Shepard shrugged slightly. " Flying cars? Not really. Well, I wouldn't call them that anyway... There's ships though, lots of them. "

"Well that's nothing new, we have ships now." Sinclair said almost disappointed.

"Flying ships in space?" Shepard asked.

"Ah, no. " Sinclair said with a small chuckle.

"Are you sure we should be talking about this with him? Isn't there something about changing things in the past make the future turn out totally different?" Jack questioned, crossing her arms over her chest.

"That's true, we wouldn't want to be responsible for changing any kind of events that may occur in the future which would be our present." Samara added.

"Fair enough, but tell me.. are there any who possess powers such as these splicers? Any existence of plasmids or EVE or ADAM?" he asked.

Shepard shook her head. " No. "

"Interesting." Sinclair said as he took out another cigarette and lit it.

"Why is that?" Shepard asked.

"Well, if it doesn't exist in the future and did it in the past, then that simply means Rapture, and everything it created was destroyed. " he said with a satisfied smirk.

Arriving at Fontaine Futuristics, the train came to a stop. They all got out slowly, Sinclair of course remaining behind in the train.

Shepard's team emerged after Delta did. Standing there, they were greeted by what looked like a floating television. It had the picture of a crazed man on it and he began sputtering nonsense at them but most of all he was threatening them. Shepard watched Delta as he seemed to be unfazed by anything that this floating screen just said.

" Ah, Gil Alexander. Once a brilliant man reduced to nothing but a madman from all the experiments that Lamb conducted on him. It's a shame to see really, but there's no time to dwell on it. He seems ta be controllin' this sector through that nifty screen he's traveling in. You need ta find a way to stop that. Good luck sport, I'll help ya out when I can." Sinclair said over the radio, relaying the message to all four of them.

It was just then that the little sister spotted Delta. " Daddy!" she screamed as she ran at him holding on to his leg.

They all watched as Delta slowly bent over and picked up the little girl. Patting her on the head gently he held her in front of him. "It's dream time Daddy." the little girl said as she rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn. Delta moved instinctively towards one of the vents as he held the girl in front of him and placed his hand on her forehead. A light engulfed them and the little girl let out a small scream.

Samara moved forwards as she began to glow blue but Shepard placed her hand on her shoulder stopping her. A few moments passed by and the glowing stopped. The little girls eyes weren't glowing yellow anymore and she appeared normal. Delta set her down and she began climbing into the vent, disappearing into the darkness.

Moving away from the vent, Delta continued on his path through the facility. The three women all exchanged glances, and it wasn't too long before a voice came over their communicator's. "Don't worry yourselves. What Delta did just there helped the little girl. He sucked out the EVE that was inside of her and cleansed her of the harm, absorbing some of it for himself. " he explained, answering their thoughts.

"What of the little girl?" Samara asked.

"Those vents are all over Rapture, and they lead to safe areas. There's no where safer then in those vents. Don't worry. There's someone else that'll take care of them." he said, but didn't go into too much detail on who that would be.

The three woman accepted his explanation and followed Delta. Stopping along the way, they picked up weapons that were disregarded or left on bodies. The weapons they had were severely out dated and extremely different then what they were used to. Needing bullets and the like, it was a big adjustment. But, Shepard had excellent marksmen ship and was deadly with a gun, of any kind. Well, they would find out soon enough anyway. Samara and Jack still had their biotics, but they also had weapons. Samara opted for a close combat weapon, a bludgeon of sorts, whereas Jack was lucky enough to find a shot gun in which she was very comfortable in using.

Sadistic laughter surrounded them as they all stopped and searched for the source.

"Wonderful! Just wonderful ! " the voice exclaimed, it was Gil Alexander's. The T.V. floated through the room and disappeared through a hole in the wall. The doors around them opened and splicers appeared.

Instinctively, Shepard, Samara and Jack all got into position, back to to back, and began firing upon the splicers. Samara taking them out with her biotics at a distance and with the bludgeon when they got close enough.

Delta on the other hand, opted to use his drill and fire plasmid thanks to some EVE that he found on the way. It wasn't long before the deadly team had taken down all the splicers that were stupid enough to try and kill them.

"Splendid! What a wonderful display!" the voice sounded again, followed by another series of sadistic laughing. The T.V reappeared and floated in front of the three women. " You three will make splendid test subjects! Oh the ideas are just flowing out of me !" he said again. Shepard raised her weapon and shot at the screen, causing it to crack. "That's not nice! You need to be punished...punished!" he shouted as it disappeared and the doors all sealed shut. " An old friend is eager to see you, Delta." he said as noises sounded above and around them.

Still standing back to back the three women remained alert. Delta looked around also, searching for the source of the noise. Soon enough, the wall on the upper floor exploded as a large object came flying through. Landing on the ground it stood up and let out the notorious Big Daddy sound. It was one of them, but it didn't look the same as Delta. It was an ALPHA series.

The three women looked back and forth between the two. The ALPHA series seemed to completely ignore them as it headed straight for Delta and began attacking him. In response Delta began defending himself, using his drill to block the incoming attacks, and using his other arm to try and attack him back. Switching to electricity he stunned the ALPHA and attacked him with the drill. Delta couldn't use anything else, he didn't have time to switch it.

The ALPHA got an upper hand and threw Delta across the room slamming him into a wall, as debris fell on top of him. He moved towards Delta but before he could get far, the women were firing at him. Samara used her biotics to stop his movement and pull him back.

Delta used this opportunity to switch to his grenade launcher. Standing up he fired multiple shots at the opposing Big Daddy. That combined with the gunfire from Shepard's team took the Alpha down, rendering him useless.

"Shame. The next test shall be better. " Gil's voice echoed.

Delta approached the sealed gate. Aiming his electric hand at the power box on the other side, it fizzled and the gate opened. However it only led them into another dead end. There was a booth in the middle of the room that was sealed.

" You need to disable his mobile abilities. That means takin' that television out." Sinclair said over the radio.

" It has to be connected to some kind of circuit board. If we take those out then it should disable him." Shepard said. The others nodded and Delta headed off towards one of the doors. Bending down he began using his strength to lift it. Soon, it began glowing blue as Samara used her biotics to help him lift it.

Once the door was lifted they all walked through it and looked around. It was dark and the sound of constant dripping water filled there air. There was a cord that kept giving off sparks as it hung limply from the ceiling.

"Alright, I've taken a look at the layout and there's three places where these electric boxes need to be destroyed. Doin' that should stop his movin' around and also shut off any security measures he's got goin' on. " Sinclair said.

Shepard nodded. " Alright, we'll split up. Samara, you go with Delta and use your biotics to help move or lift anything. Jack, you and I will go the opposite way and look for the other box. When we're done with those two, we'll meet back here and move on the third one. " Samara and Jack both nodded. Shepard looked to Delta. Although he remained motionless, he turned and began heading off in one direction, obviously understanding and agreeing to the plan. Samara took off after him. Jack and Shepard headed in the opposite direction.

…

Moving slowly through the underground city, the sound of their footsteps through the puddles and debris filled floor echoed through the empty space. Along the way Shepard stopped as she found several different recorded diaries. Playing them, it gave her a better understanding of what life was like in the underwater city.

Also coming across many different corpses scattered along the way, some were obviously splicers, others looked normal enough and were just rotting corpses. Shepard had seen many dead bodies in her day, most of which were because of her, hell she'd even seen walking corpses, but there was something about these corpses that didn't sit well with her. These weren't criminals, or deadly mercenaries, or terrorists or any of the usual enemies she often encountered, these were people. Me and and woman, and even children, that tried to live their lives. Tried to better their lives by creating this underwater utopia. Of course, by what she gathered, a lot of them were corrupt and they didn't go about creating their perfect paradise the right ways, but they didn't deserve this fate. Nobody did.

" There it is." Jack pointed as they turned a corner.

The electrical box was in a caged room. The door was jammed, blocked by tables an various other pieces of debris. Sparks showered from the jammed mechanism, dissipating into the pools of water below.

" Either this is a shitty coincidence, or those freaks got here before us and blocked the way." Jack said placing a hand on her hip. " I can use my biotics to move all this shit." she offered.

Moving closer, Shepard examined the area. Jack's biotics would clear the way indefinitely, however there was one problem." No. See that pillar in there. It looks weakened, and any added force from your biotics would destroy it causing the roof to fall in and block any access to getting to that terminal. " she said with a sigh.

" Fuck." Jack said, her arm falling to her side. " So now what?" she asked, looking to Shepard.

Looking into the room Shepard spotted a hole in the ceiling of the room. " There's another way in. We need to find some stairs and get to a higher level and into that room over this one. Once we're in, then you can use your biotics to push the debris outwards, instead of in." Shepard explained, Jack simply nodded.

….

The walk to the second electrical box was silent. Considering Delta never spoke and well Samara was a typically quiet person herself. Besides, she didn't know what they would have to talk about, and she wasn't going to chance talking to him only to be answered with nothing but silence. They both understood what they needed to do, so maybe there wasn't a reason to speak after all.

As they walked through the desolate and destroyed hallways, they were met with minimal resistance. A splicer here and there, but it wasn't anything that they couldn't both handle.

Reaching the room that the electrical box was in, there was an iron barred gate in front of it blocking their way. A blue glow emitted from around Samara as she activated her biotics to lift the gate. As Delta began making his way through, echos of laughter and the sound of metal scraping against metal sounded through the area as Splicer's began to close in on their location.

Delta turned to head back out of the room and help Samara, but she dropped the gate stopping him, and keeping him on the other side. Delta stood there looking at her as Samara stared back at him. " Destroy the box. I'll hold them off. " she said as she turned her back to him and pulled out the weapon she had picked up a while back.

Delta turned wordlessly and made his way towards the electrical box to destroy it. Taking down Alexander was important, he was sure that the blue fish looking woman would be able to handle herself. She displayed an odd source of power after all.

As he headed towards the box he could hear the sound of the woman fighting off the splicers. Their screams signifying the deaths that they met by her hands. Outstretching his hand he was about to destroy the box when the floor below him began to crumble and broke apart causing him to fall through the gaping hole, unable to destroy the electrical box in time.

Looking over her shoulder at the sound of the floor breaking, she saw that Delta wasn't able to reach the electrical box on time. Unfortunately, the moment she looked away she was hit hard by a splicer with a bludgeon similar to hers. Thanks to her kinetic barriers, it took most of the damage, but there was enough force that it caused her to crash into the wall behind her. And she felt that.

Rising to her feet, the splicer struck out at her again but she held up her hand using her biotics to throw him across the room. Causing him to crash into the far wall, breaking his back upon impact. Making sure there were no splicer's hiding, or any coming to attack her, she turned her attention to the electrical box through the gate. Using her biotics once more she focused it on the box and used her warp technique, destroying the box instantly in a shower of sparks.

Leaning against the wall, Samara was breathing heavily. Using a large amount of her ability in a small period of time had begun to take its toll on her body and she was feeling tired. Though she knew she couldn't stop now. She had to find a way to help Delta, and get back to Shepard and Jack.

…

" Clear. " Shepard's voice sounded as her and Jack rounded a corner at the top of a stair case. So far they weren't met with any resistance, which Shepard found odd and suspicious. Nevertheless, they needed to carry on and just deal with whatever showed up to face them. Although it was crucial in survival, they didn't really have much time to waste on being so stealthy and very cautious. They would in moderation, but they were pretty much just running head first into it all.

Which, for Shepard and Jack wasn't unknown to them.

There was an odd scratching sound that came from above them and caused both women to stop in their tracks. Looking up at the ceiling, neither of them saw anything. Looking at each other, they continued forward. The scratching sound came again, and after another quick look they still saw nothing.

" That sound is giving me the creeps." Jack finally said, breaking the silence.

Shepard spotted a door that appeared to lead into the room that was above the room with the electrical box. As they approached it the scratching sound came again but this time, a creature appeared in front of them. It was one of the splicers but it had blades on it's hands and feet and moved almost spider like.

" What the fuck is that!" Jack said pointing her shotgun at it.

It let out a weird sound, and then leapt forwards to attack the two woman. Jack then proceeded to fire the shotgun pumping shots into the creature, while Shepard held down the trigger on the antique machine gun that she had. The creature took a lot of hits, and also avoided them at the same time, crawling up the wall and disappearing into the darkness.

Shepard and Jack moved back to back and looked around the room, pointing their guns ahead of them.

" Where the fuck did that thing go ? " Jack questioned as she took the time to reload her weapon.

When the scratching noise resounded they both aimed their weapons towards the ceiling expecting it to drop down on them. They were half right, it dropped down on Shepard and pinned her to the ground cutting into her. Her armor had protected her from most of the attack, but it had managed to cut her arm and part of her face.

It wasn't too long before it was outlined in blue and lifted off of Shepard. Jack stood with one of her hands outstretched. Lifting the other she made a motion of her hands moving in opposite directions which in turn, ripped the splicer apart from the middle. Tossing the pieces to the side, she offered her hand to Shepard.

Getting to her feet, Shepard grabbed her machine gun and touched the cut on her face gingerly. " Thanks. " she said to Jack.

" Don't mention it. Let's just destroy this fucking thing and get the hell out of here. " she said as they made their way into the room.

Jumping through the hole in the ground they landed in the room with the electrical box. Using her biotics, Jack destroyed the box sending sparks flying.

Reloading her weapon, Shepard cocked it and turned to Jack. " You ready?" she asked her and Jack answered with a nod.

Using her shock wave technique, she dispersed the debris that was blocking the door way, and proceeded to hold up the damaged gate allowing Shepard through, and herself afterward. Moving back towards the room where they had all met up initially, Shepard quickly saw that Samara and Delta hadn't returned yet.

" We'll defend this position until they come back." Shepard said as her and Jack both got into position covering each others backs, and watching the entrances.

….

Making her way through a dark hallway, Samara had one hand raised in the air with a glowing blue energy around it providing her with some light. The hallway soon led to a staircase then went to the level below her, the level that Delta had to be on considering he fell through the floor.

As she descended the staircase, she stopped and turned hearing what sounded like footsteps behind her. There was nothing there however. Turning back around she continued down the stairs. As she stepped off of the last step, she heard a ' splash ' sound and looked down to see that there was water covering the floor.

Walking down the flooded hallway, the water began getting higher and higher. Turning to look at the staircase she thought about whether or not she should continue on. Helping Delta was important, and she knew that they would need him if they wanted to get out of here. Although the water was rising, it wasn't rising fast enough that she would be trapped. So, deciding to press forwards, she was now moving against the water as it was up to her knee's. Small waves were created by the force of her walking through it.

Standing in a doorway, she peered into a room on the right of her. Spotting what looked like a drill she thought it was Delta, and he looked hurt. " Delta, is that you?" Samara called out as she entered the room. Moving towards the drill, she realized that it was nothing more than that. A drill. There was no body, there was nothing else in the room.

Turning suddenly at the sound of the door closing, she saw what appeared to be a splicer on the other side laughing. Moving to the door as fast as the water would allow her she looked for a switch that would open it, but there was nothing.

"oooh how wonderful ! You've fell straight into my trap ! Yes yes yes ! It's so thrilling ! Now I'm going to watch as you die! You might want to hold your breath ! " the voice, which she recognized as Gil Alexander, cried out from one of the T.V screens in the room.

Water began to fill the room and the level was rising fast. Holding out her hands she was soon surrounded in blue energy as she tried to open the door, but it was no use. Half of her body was submerged and she couldn't focus well enough to utilize her biotics properly. Not to mention she had been using them a lot over the past couple of hours.

Swimming to the top she tried to get as much air as she could. Soon the entire room was filled with water and the only air she had left was the air in her lungs.

Looking around she tried to see if there was any possible escape. Unlike a human or any other species, she was able to stay under the water for a longer period of time. But eventually, she would run out of air and her lungs would give out and.. asari or not. She would drown.

Feeling that this may be her end, she closed her eyes and floated in the middle of the room. Concentrating she began saying a prayer in her head to her goddess. Her last words as a living being, preparing to exit this life and enter the next. Saying her final goodbyes to her friends, and her closest friend Shepard she could feel her lungs straining and her head growing light.

She knew she didn't have much longer.

The next couple of minutes were like a dream. Everything happened so fast...

Delta stood in the hallway, looking into the room that the blue woman was in. A splicer ran at him with a wrench, and he easily deflected the attack running his drill straight through it's abdomen and flinging him down the hallway. He knew that the blue woman didn't have much time. Revving his drill he brought his arm back and rammed it forward into the glass door. It cracked, but didn't break. The glass was reinforced, built strong just in case there was any flooding it would make sure it didn't get out. Again and again he rammed into the glass with his drill until he ran out of fuel and restored to using his shoulder.

Finally he was able to break the glass. It shattered and a wave of water rushed out and over him. Luckily, he was heavy enough that the force wasn't strong enough to knock him over. As the water rushed out it brought the blue woman with it. Outstretching his hands, Delta caught the woman as she rushed towards him. Holding her in his arms he headed towards the staircase.

The hallway was now flooded completely with the extra water from that room. As he ascended the staircase, he emerged from the water, Samara still in his arms. The water fell off of them like a waterfall.

Heading back towards the meeting place, he still held her in his arms and was cautious of any splicer's that would try to attack them. For once, none came after them. It was most likely that Gil Alexander was sending them all to protect the last electrical box.

Entering through the last doorway, he came upon the sight of the two woman, Shepard and Jack. They were exactly where she said they would be.

Delta slowly approached them and carefully placed Samara on the ground. Shepard rushed to her friends side while Jack continued to keep watch.

Holding her hand over Samara, Shepard's omni tool shone brightly in the darkness as she looked for any vital signs. Her heart was still beating and Shepard gave a sigh of relief. Pushing down on her chest she attempted to pump the water out of her lungs. Continuing to give her asari friend CPR.

Within moments Samara came to life as she began coughing up the water from her lungs, rolling to the side. Looking over Samara's view came into focus. " Shepard?" she asked her, almost in disbelief.

Nodding Shepard slowly helped Samara to her feet. " What happened" Shepard asked her.

" Well.. Delta fell through the floor so I went looking for him. I came upon a room I thought he was in and … I got locked in. I fell straight into a trap. The room began filling with water and.. I thought I was going to die." she said slowly. " But, he saved me." turning to look at Delta she smiled. " Thank you." she said to the big daddy.

Delta looked down at her, and a moan emitted from his suit, that of a usual sound from a big daddy. Samara took that as a ' You're welcome. '

" Well I'm glad your safe." Shepard said with a smile. " Now, let's get the last box and then find this bastard." Shepard said as the other women nodded and they started in the direction of the last electrical box.