XIV: The Daughters of Rapture
Part 2 of 2

Lieutenant Dan Reid could see that Melissa was frantic. He held her hand as the medic examined the wounds on arms and shoulder, but no sooner had the medic began to apply bandages the wounds healed on their own. Stunned the Medic reeled back in a panic, tossing his supplies and attracting more attention than Dan would have liked. “Calm down soilder. She’s on our side.” Or so he hoped. “Melissa, what happened? Where’s Karen?”

Melissa gathered her breath. “Dead. They’re all dead.” She huffed as she reached for a canteen. She guzzled the contents, spilling water everywhere. “I tried to get to Sergeant Smith and tell him. But Kate was too fast. She killed everyone in power plant. Smith, his men, everyone.”

“Kate? Karen’s daughter?”

Melissa nodded with a heavy face. “She’s coming. I know she is. But she’s waiting for Mike. They took him, she said she needed him.” She stood to her feet and finally notice the platoon around her. All eyes were on her, and most of them were holding guns at the ready, yet not fully aimed. She was making them nervous. She looked at Dan. “You need to get your men out of here. Save as many as you can.”

Dan adjusted his hat. “If only we could. I have my orders. Rapture is hereby under USA control. We’ll have to take out this little girl and whatever else that wishes to fight.”

“You aren’t listening to me. She killed her own mother! She intends to have a war and you are giving her what she wants. Kate is strong, and I don’t know how she…” A hand reached through a thin vale of red smoke. Every one jumped back as the female arm gripped Melissa by the shoulder and pulled her suddenly back into the red cloud. Melisa vanished before their eyes, and before she could even scream in protest. The world around her shifted, everything was dark and hazy as she slipped between the visual spectrum. This wasn’t a simple Houdini spell, an act of appearing invisible, this was far beyond it. She suddenly emerged beside a desk, laying on her back and cringing at the sudden transition. Her vision was blurry and her body tingled.

“Oh, you see, General. She’s fine.”

“You… could have… killed her.”

Melissa couldn’t see who was talking. She recognized the first voice, it was a young girl, and most likely the girl that kidnapped Mike. But the second voice, it was male yet heavy and faint and slow.

“No no silly. I’m the best at teleporting. I told you I could bring her here without Kate knowing.”

Melissa squirmed, struggling to get to her feet while her vision slowly returned. She felt the grip of a gloved hand on her shoulder and jerked away. She was sure it was a big daddy, and if the girl was with Kate than the girls big daddy was not a friend.

“Melissa… are you… okay?”

The voice she couldn’t recognize. It was deep and powerful, a man’s voice no doubt, but muffled. She recoiled back and hit a wall. She rubbed her eyes to help speed away the blurriness. Light was returning and soon she could make out shapes.

“She’s scared of you, General. She can’t see yet. The first time is always rough.”

The blurriness was getting better. She could see the thin silhouette of a young girl walking toward her. It was her, the girl that took Mike, and behind her stood a thin armored big daddy. His armored suit clung tightly to a man’s athletic frame. The helmet was a solo portal design and a golden light peered from within.

“Mike?” Melissa said.

“Yes… Melissa. They… she… saved me… I think.”

Her vision had fully returned. Unlike the normal large and heavily armored big Daddies, Mike was small, like his regular body, yet clearly he wore the traditional deep sea pressure suit of a big daddy. On his back was a smaller compact version of the life system that kept the living fluid of a big daddy circulating, and beside that was a rivet gun.

“I named him, General.” The girl smiled. “My name is Tasha. The General asked me to save you, so I brought you here. Took me a long time to find you.”

“Mike…” Melissa stood and walked toward him. “I’m… my God. I’m sorry they did this to you.”

“No… don’t be. Now… I can… help you. Like I… promised.” He looked over his hands, turning them over and over. “I still… feel weird. Like… a dream. It’s… scary… almost. But… I will… help you.”

Tasha smiled. “He can use plasmids with no side effects now. The suit preserves a natural balance between his blood and the effects of Adam. Although, if he takes it off, he’ll die.”

“What?” Melissa grabbed Tasha but the girl vanished in a puff of smoke only to appear on the other side of the room. “What do you mean he’ll die? Jack was able to take it off with only losing his voice!”

“Jack was born of Adam, born of Eve. He was a seed of Rapture, the child of Andrew Ryan himself, genetically altered by Lady Tenenbaum and Doctor Suchong. The General was but a man. Like all that dawn the suit, they must become one with the suit. But Kate and I were able to make him special. This suit is better than all, and far stronger than the Angel Big Daddies. The General can harness all plasmids without the ill effects.” She jumped over to Mike’s side and hugged him. “He’s our Angel! I love him so much! You’ll protect me, won’t you General?”

Mike angled his head down toward her and then looked to Melissa. “First… I need… the key… to Rapture.”

Tasha giggled. “Just like the stories!

“This is no story, Tasha.” Melissa huffed. “Kate is crazy, obsessed with a story that she never understood and is killing anyone that gets in her way. You think your war is just, but a war you begin is not just. It’s madness. People are dying because of what you three have done. She killed her own mother!”

“What?” Tasha was truly shocked. “Kate killed Lady Tenenbaum?”

The intercom buzzed, filling the room with a soft woman’s hum. “My dear, Tasha. Dear, dear, Tasha. Are you trying to keep our Angel to yourself?”

Christina’s voice giggled in the background. “Traitor, traitor… traitor. Tasha, you must be a traitor.”

Tasha wondered into the middle of the room. “No! Kate, you said the story would be the same. Our Angel would fight the evil!”

The intercom buzzed. “Tasha, for every Andrew Ryan, there must be a Frank Fontaine. That is the base of our story, the root of our war.”

Melissa shouted. “You killed your mother!”

“So does that make me Fontaine, the traitor to Andrew Ryan’s conquest? Or does that make me … Atlus the savior, hero to all of Rapture?”

Melissa voiced. “Atlas and Fontaine were one and the same. Atlas was not the hero, Kate. Atlas was the villain.”

Tasha shook her head. “Then you’ve made your choice.”

Christina giggled. “Oh, now we have our sides. Plain and clear. Atlas, Fontaine, Ryan and Jack. The players are on stage… dance puppets, dance!”

Kate huffed on the line. “So be it. We need evil. We need a hero. Everything is as it was prepared. Do you feel it, Tasha?”

“Yes.” Tasha smiled. “The excitement of it. And it’s real.”

“Do you love him?”

Tasha looked to Mike and held his hand. “He is my General. I will fight by his side.”

Christina laughed loudly in the background of the intercom. “And now we make our own tale! Two sides, one coin! Let the war begin!”

Kate huffed, her voice echoing all across the room. “You have one choice, but all the players are the same. Christina is going to fight the army, while I prepare to ascend to the realm of Gods! Can you stop us?”

The intercom cut off.

“What the hell does she mean? Ascend to the realm of Gods?”

Tasha looked at Melissa. “Where you killed Fontaine. We call it the Realm of Gods when we played war as kids.”

“What part of this didn’t you think was evil?” She yelled. “How could you plan this?”

“You have to understand, that after the Angel arrived, we had no plans. From here on the story is new. We were all on our own as soon as the General was hurt. I brought him here to change him. It could have easily been Kate or Christina, but I was the one he chose.”

“I… didn’t… choose.”

“You didn’t reject me. And here I am at your side.”

“This is stupid.” Melissa huffed. “You planned this all. Living a tale, causing a war, and now at the end, you divide? You three are insane.”

“I’m seventeen years old. I have lived my entire life underwater. I have listen to the story of Jack the hero all of my life, and hearing the tales of the little sisters was what we’ve dreamed of all our lives. Kate has chosen to be evil, just like when we played make believe as kids. When you choose to play war, you always pick sides. Kate killed her mother, because she knew she was evil the moment I brought the Angel here. This is our war, the war we’ve played all of our lives as we mimicked your story to the best of our imaginations.” She lowered her head and wiped a tear away. “But this war is real. Some of us are going to die.”

“Some… are already… dead.” Mike grumbled he began to walk toward the door, his heavy boots loudly thundering on the ground.

“What shall we do?” Tasha followed.

“I need… the key. Melissa… save the… marines.”

Melissa jumped in his path. “You can’t fight her! She’s too strong.”

“He won’t be alone.”

“Go,… Melissa. Tasha is… with me.”

“Do you even know how to use the plasmids?” Melissa asked and she watched as Mike’s body began to change from blue to red. From green to yellow, and finally gold to normal. He nodded toward her. “Tasha… taught me.”

* * * * * * * *

The bathysphere station was bustling with activity. Marines ran from place to place, readying their gear and ammo. Dan Reid strapped on his armor and secured his side arm. “Second Squad, you have point. COMM, radio top side and tell Second Platoon that we are advancing. Notify the Captain that he can start sending more troops.”

The rush of waves filed the room as a bathysphere emerged from the water. The round submersible bobbed a few times and then came to a sudden stop as the hydraulics locked it to the ramp. The door slid open with a mechanical whine and a young blond girl stepped out.

“Hello, bad men.” Christina smiled. “I’m here to kill you. Please, die for my war.”

Dan shouted. “Shoot her!” Several men stepped forward, but the young girl’s looks made them hesitate.

She smiled and glanced at Dan. “You must be the leader!” With a snap of her fingers, Dan Reid and several men at his side erupted into flames. He pated the fire that was quickly burning through his armor and he ran toward the water’s edge. He screamed as he jumped in. With the flames extinguished, and his face taking the majority of the heat, Dan sank to the bottom under the weight of his armor. Above him he could hear the muffled sounds of rifle fire as his platoon fired on the young girl. Quickly, he ignored the pain of his burnt face and unstrapped his chest, back, and midsection armor. Then kicked hard toward the surface. When he broke water, he could hear the repeated laughter of a young girl as bullet rounds fired all about the station. Men screamed orders, asked where the girl was, cried out for their mothers and medics, and begged superiors to retreat. Dan swam over the surface and grabbed the edge of the pier. He pulled himself out of the water and dared to not touch his face. The pain was going away, but he knew that was only because his nerves had most likely overloaded. The pain would return a hundred fold, but he couldn’t worry about that.

Dan unclipped his side arm and motioned toward a nearby create with two marines hiding behind. Christina’s maniacal laughter filled the room as lighting and flames erupted all around the station. “We need to fill ranks.”

“Sir, we hit her but she won’t die.” One of the marines said, but he couldn’t look Dan in the face.

“Damn it. We need heavy weapons. Get on that .50 caliber. I’ll cover you.” Dan pointed toward a create with a gun position on top. The heavy caliber machine gun could cut a human in half, at the least it would slow the girl down. The two soldiers jumped up and ran for the .50 cal, while Dan hustled behind them. At his side, the water began to lap at the pier, and instinctively he looked into the dark water. What looked back at him gave his heart a reason to stop.

The red glow of four big daddies’ eyes leered back out of the water. They emerged with a thundering roar, leaping into the air and landing on the pier with four metallic thuds. The wings on their backs extended as chains dangled from them. One of the big daddies grabbed a chain off his wings and tossed it at Dan. He couldn’t get out of the way in time. The chain wrapped around him and Dan was pulled toward the big daddy with a quick tug. The big daddy’s roar was drowned out by the power of his attached drill. Water flung in all directions as the drill bit spun to full speed and impaled itself into Lieutenant Dan Reid’s chest. When Dan stopped screaming, the Angel flung his lifeless body to the side and ran toward the heart of the battle, each of its steps sounding as though a train were chugging across the station.

The two soldiers were able to load and fire the .50 cal. The first big daddy was cut down in a hail of rounds, its life blood sprayed all over the pier as its helmet light faded. But another Angel fired its rivet gun, killing both the soldiers and then stepped on the massive machine gun, leaving only a smoldering pile of metal.

“Christina!” Melissa shouted as she appeared in the center of the room. The red smoke that surrounded her gave the surviving marines pause, not knowing if she were friend or foe. She stood unprotected in the center of the room, and the marines watched her closely. “Show yourself!”

Two big daddies approached reluctantly. Their eyes glowed a blood curling red, but they did not attack. One swirled a chain in its left hand as a drill bit spun on its right. The other held a rivet gun at its hip, aimed and ready to fire. Melissa ignored them both.

“So you came.” Christina giggled. She landed at the side of the two big daddies. A third walked through a pile of moaning marines as they slide their wounded forms clear of the big daddy’s feet. Blood trailed behind one of the marines as he pulled himself clear. He was missing a foot and blood pumped from the gaping stump. The moans of the dying was all around, marine medics ran from body to body helping those that they could, while others lay in torn mounds of dead flesh; victims of the powerful big daddies or Christina’s madness.

Surrounded, Melissa only gave her attention to Christina. “Stop this. I’m only giving you one warning.”

Christina giggled. “I wasn’t going to give you any.” The lighting came first. It washed over Melissa in a rush, casting blue sparks of electricity all about her. Her body stiffened and convulsed as she lost control of her muscles. The sensation passed and she felt the massive weight of a big daddy plow into her. She flew backwards across the room, and her lungs exploded what air she had in them. When she hit the wall, blackness crept into her eyes. The pain was immense, but it was fading fast as her body rejected it and began to heal. When she moved to stand another big daddy was stalking toward her, its rivet gun hissed as metal slugs escaped its barrel. They were anti healing rounds, Melissa knew, and she couldn’t let them hit her. With a thought, she vanished, turned invisible and ran across the room.

“Hide, hide, big sister, sister. Run, run, from the big bad daddy. You won’t get far. My daddy is too strong!” Christina looked left and right as the big daddies returned to her side. The positioned around her, heads on a constant swivel for anything that would approach.

“Wise choice using Angels to fight for you.” The voice seemed to come from all over the room. “A true daddy would never fight a sister of old. But these new Angels of yours will fight me. Puppets stolen from Karen Tenenbaum.”

She laughed. “Oh, so you talk to me? You talk the dance of death to the queen of the damned.” Christina spun, thinking she heard a rustling of footsteps. “Run , run, sister, sister. You die now. You die later. But no matter what, you will die today.” She turned again, as a laugh sounded behind her. The daddies turned as well. She giggled and smiled. “Coward, don’t hide. Face me! Play with me in my war, and spill your blood on this ground with your surface warriors! I smell your fear!” A knife stabbed Christina in the neck and she shrieked at the sudden shock of it.

Melissa stood at her side and whispered in her ear. “There is no fear in me. Only the wisdom of the last heir of Rapture.” She vanished before the big daddies could turn to face her, yanking the blade from Christina’s throat and sending blood across the room.

Christina laughed as the blood flow slowly stopped and the wound healed. “You forget, silly milly. You can’t hurt me!”

“Hurt you?” Melissa’s voice echoed about the room. “You wanted a war. I’ll give you your war. You wanted to play like the little sisters of old? We fought splicers. So let me tell you … little child. Splicers hunted for blood and Adam.” She laughed suddenly, a twisted bellow that was so terrifying that even the big daddies seemed afraid. It sent shivers down the backs of the marines hiding all around. “Oh, my dear sweet and tasty Christina. I’m going to cut you, burn you, shock you, sting you, and lavish in every scream you give me. When I’m done with you, little mouse, you’ll beg to die. You want a war. I’ll be your splicer.”

Christina did not laugh.

* * * * * * * *

The proving grounds lay ahead, Mike remembered how Melissa talked about it. It was where the Big Daddies were trained. Fitting for him to be racing along the corridor as a Big Daddy himself, yet there was no little sister to guide him, only a lost and conflicted teenager. Tasha was his guide, but no splicers attacked, no security bots or alarm drones awaited the short maze.

Tasha whispered. “We played here a lot as kids. All the dangers were taken away, but Lady Tenenbaum did not clean this section up. She left it barren, a reminder of the evil that dwelt here. She did not know we came here to play.” Indeed the path was barren, dark and desolate. Only a few lights remained to guide their path, and most of the light was from Mike’s helmet. He cast an eerie glow ahead of them as his helmet shined on the walls and the wet floors. A hole appeared ahead, a section that the big daddies did not fix, and a dead big daddy lay cold and covered with mold and rust; its life long passed.

“A … battle… happened here.”

“Yes. The battle to win the heart of a maiden, the older women say. Here, Jack defeated a big daddy that was angry with him, as a little sister guided him through the traps. As children, we had fear from the stories that Lady Tenenbaum told us, about what lies beyond this dead daddy. She said in her stories, ‘it was the room where evil and good collided, and cracked the heavens and made a man into a God. Yet Jack slew the evil God, and cast him down, and the sisters rejoiced and drank the Adam from the God’s fallen body. Yet his evil spirit did not die, and even today, the evil God Fontaine still dwells at the top of the elevator.’ That is why we call it the Realm of Gods.”

Mike walked ahead, stepping over the body and through the last door. Boxes lay over turned, mold and mildew and rust covered the walls. Yet the door to the elevator was clean. “Did… someone… clean it?”

“Often.” Tasha said. “We hated this door, feared it and loved it. We would dare each other to ride it to the Realm of Gods, but no one was brave enough. Until Kate pushed us aside and climbed it. Kate was the first of us to go up there. She changed that day. She told us nothing of what she saw, but said that it was beautiful and terrifying. It was that day that the first men came down from the surface. And it was that day we began our plans.”

Mike understood. She saw no God upon the top of the elevator. Kate saw nothing that made the stories Tenenbaum told her feel real, but she dared not crush the hopes of her friends. Kate knew the ugly truth of Adam and power. She saw death. Mike pushed open the elevator door and stepped in. Tasha hesitated, looking fearful and took a step back.

He offered her his gloved hand. “We must… see this… to the … end.” She grabbed his hand and stepped inside. She was afraid. He could feel her body trembling as she wrapped her arms around him. She was nearly as tall as Mike, but he was also much smaller than a big daddy should be.

“It changed her. Kate started this after she went up there. What if it is the evil spirit of Fontaine?” The stories of her youth, and the added change that took Kate, was making her fear the Realm of Gods more than it had as a child. Mike said nothing. He pulled her close as the elevator slowly ground to a metallic stop.

The door parted and light filled the room beyond the door. Tasha squeezed tighter around his chest, nervously looking into the room. The hum of machinery filled the air as Mike and Tasha slowly stepped into the clearing. Machines from days old buzzed and whirled and at the center of the room stood Frank Fontaine, arms stretched wide and perched on a cross with needles in his arms. Tasha gave a shout as her eyes peered at him, and she buried her head into Mike's shoulder armor. Her body was shaking in horror.

Mike knew something was foul, Frank Fontaine was dead and if he lived someone would have known. A man like Fontaine would not keep himself hidden.

“Take me back! Take me back!” Tasha pleaded, sobbing as Mike continued to walk closer to the metallic cross.

“No… this isn’t… right.” He pushed away from Tasha as she backed away. Mike stepped on the lower step of the stairway leading up to the metal cross and looked closer at the body. “It's… a corpse. A dead… man.”

Tasha backed away, slowly, terrified of what horrors might be awaiting them. “General, please! Take me back! I don’t want to be here! We’ll leave Kate to her own devices. She’s more evil than…” A hand gripped her from behind. Tasha spun and shrieked.

“More evil than, Fontaine?” Kate said. “Not likely, but I was curious.” Mike turned from the dead body and looked back as Tasha pulled away from Kate.

“What… have you… done?” He stood ready for anything, preparing his plasmids to attack.

Kate looked up at Mike. “The armor suits you well.” She left Tasha alone and walked towards Mike. “When I first came up here, the room was dark, and filled with echoes. I found the combination to climb the elevator, my mother’s notes were not hidden well. When I walked in, his body lay here on the floor. The Adam within him left his body well preserved. I was so scared when I saw his eyes glaring at me that I ran away as fast as I could. But it was so dark, I couldn’t see. Do you remember that day, Tasha? When were still so young?”

“I do.”

Kate smiled. “I hid behind that machine, terrified, fearful that the body was moving in the shadow of the dark. All the tales my mother told me flooded into my head, all at once. The spirit of Fontaine was looking at me, calling to me, or so I told myself. After a while my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and I powered on the lights at the control station nearby. The body hadn’t moved, as I had feared. Then I explored more. This was the Realm of the Gods. This was the climatic location where Jack and Fontaine, a man and a God, fought for the rule of Rapture. Where Fontaine fell, he was still laying. My Mother never came back to this room, and I assume neither did Grandmother Tenenbaum.”

Kate lifted a probing rod from her back. The long needle still wet with coagulated blood and gel. “They even left their tools behind. Those sisters used these to extract the nectar of Adam from the dead. Imagine my joy when I first found this still stuck inside Fontaine.”

“That’s why you’re so strong.” Tasha said.

“I couldn’t resist. I had to know. The Ancient Adam within him, thick as jelly from ages past, was so pure that it made me choke. But I wanted more. I felt I grow fat from how much Adam was still in him.”

Tasha shook her head. “That can’t be. Our mothers drank the blood of Fontaine, they drained him till he died.”

“Silly Tasha, look at the body. It seeps with Adam, pulses with EVE, sweats pure Plasmids. His body lay lifeless, but they drank only what was within his blood stream. The Adam still flowed in his muscles, his bones, his brain. Over the years, his body began to break down, and the last of the Adam seeped into pools within his body. Thick as Jelly.”

“That… is why… you have him… here.” Mike looked back to Fontaine’s body on the cross with needles sticking in him, slowly extracting thick gels of aged Adam.

“No one comes here.” Kate continued. “No one except me. Every month I came and I drank. Giving my best friends only a sliver of what I had. I dripped it in your drinks, your food, your toothpaste, you never knew. Mother questioned, she wondered why you possessed strength like hers, but with Grandmother Tenenbaum dead, she had no way of verifying that the seed could not be passed on genetically. It was her only scientific observation. But mother was no true scientist.”

Kate sat on the step beneath Mike. “We can process the Adam, but we cannot produce it the way our mothers' could. But like normal humans, we can grow stronger, the more we ingest, yet we do not have side effects the way normal humans do. We do not crave it or get addicted.”

“You knew all of this.” Tasha gasped. “We fought our parents… killed aunts and uncles alike… for you.”

“Yes. For me. Frank Fontaine did not become a God. Jack did not stop a super being. Frank Fontaine was only a monster of a man. He had power, great power, and he let it corrupt him. I want that power. I’ll have that power.”

“Why?” Mike asked.

“Because, for every Jack, there must be a Frank Fontaine. For every Bridgette Tenenbaum, there must be an Andrew Ryan.” She looked at Tasha. “For every good, there must be evil. That is the way of all stories.”

* * * * * * * *

Puddles of blood formed around Christina. Her clothes dripped from wounds that had long ago healed. Two Angel big daddies had been slain by Melissa’s constant attacks, and now only one Angel and Christina remained. She was tired, so exhausted from the constant stabs and cuts and healing that she could barely keep her eyes open. The clothes she wore, which were once blue and white and pretty, were now red and pink and clung to her young immature curves. A tear dripped from her eye and she leaned against the Angel’s protective leg.

“Tired, little mouse?” Melissa hissed. “Where are your cunning remarks? The invincible nature of youth? Are you afraid?”

“Please… stop this.” Christina moaned. Her voice was full of youth and fear and the uncertainty of what to do.

“No.” Melissa said as she stabbed Christina in the back. The young girl shrieked and clung to the big daddy’s leg. The daddy spun, roared and swung its drill. But this time Melissa did not retreat. She ducked the weapon, pushed the big daddy with a vortex of wind, and shocked him with an overload of electricity. His body feel lifeless to the floor; a smoldering husk of metal and fluid.

Christina had stumbled in the attack and was trying to crawl away, the knife still stuck in her back, blood dripped from the wound as it tried to close around the blade.

Melissa watched her as she sobbed and tried to crawl away. She almost felt sorry for the girl, after all it was not her doing that started the war, it was Kate. Christina was but a bystander of bad judgment.

Christina cried out. “Momma… please… momma! Help me!”

The words cut through Melissa’s heart. The girl had been reduced to a crying child calling out for her mother. She had not expected to her to fall this far in fear. This was the same little girl that killed men with no remorse only a few minutes ago. She walked closer to her and knelt at her side. “Poor child. Don’t you remember? Your mother was one of my sisters assigned to guard Central Control.” Melissa yanked the knife out of Christina’s back and the girl cried out and collapsed with a whimper. “You and Kate… killed them all. You killed your mother, just like Kate. Or had you even noticed her? I wonder.”

The girl didn’t respond. Melissa threw the knife away and watched the last wound in Christina’s back closely. When she fist attacked her, the wounds healed almost before the blade came out, but now, it was so slow. Like a snail crawl, it closed shut, blood pumping out with each heartbeat.

“Your Adam is almost gone.” She huffed. “Now you’re healing like a normal sister again. You had so much Adam, but no brain. So young and so stupid. It would be easy to kill you now. So easy.” She touched the open wound and rubbed some blood on her finger. She then stuck the bloody finger in her mouth. “I can barely taste the Adam anymore. Are you going to die, little girl?” She picked her up and held her in her arms. “Not yet. I think you should see how this war of yours ends first.”

In a puff of red smoke Melissa vanished and became invisible. Unlike Tasha’s unique Houdini ability, Christina could only run the way normal Houdini splicers could. She ran through the dim corridors, passing through walls and water, and oceans and tunnels, and big daddies and more walls, until she was tired and standing at the elevator that led up to Frank Fontaine’s tomb. Blood dripped down her arms as Christina’s blood drenched clothes dripped. One more puff of smoke and they were running up the elevator shaft and emerged in the room with Mike, Tasha, Kate, and the body of Fontaine.

“Christina failed.” Kate huffed as she watched the two of them appear. Melissa said nothing. She gently laid the little girl’s body on the floor.

"Fontaine!" Melissa voiced as she looked to the body on the metal cross. "Like before..."

“So now it is three against one.” Kate interrupted. “I guess I talked too much earlier, and now I stand alone. How will this tale end?” She looked at Tasha. “Here we are, at the end. And when this is done, one of us will have an amazing story to tell.”

“For generations to come.” Tasha seemed to smile at that notion.

Kate stood to her feet, and with her body as the epicenter, a bubble of air propelled outward. Mike was tossed away, flipping over the cross and landing on the empty tanks of Adam behind Fontaine. Melissa was thrown back, her head hit the wall of the elevator shaft, but she managed to catch Christina’s still unconscious form. Tasha vanished before the wave hit her. She appeared at Mike’s side and helped him to his feet.

“I’m not like Kate, I don’t have offensive abilities. I’m jut fast.” She watched as Kate jumped down beside her; her face a scowl of rage, twisted by the Adam that was boiling within her. Her eyes suddenly began to glow and pulses of electricity exploded from the ground, but it was not random. Tasha grabbed Mike and vanished just as a pillar of lightning surged under their feet. They reappeared at Melissa’s side.

Melissa had tucked Christina out of harm’s way. “Tasha, I need that Adam Probe that Kate has.” She pointed toward Kate as she walked from around the corner; stalking slowly toward them. “The only way to stop her is to remove as much Adam as we can, or wait until she runs out but that could take days! She’s too strong!” Mike stood to his feet, his armor changing color at random. “The General and I will keep her distracted.”

Tasha watched as Mike, the General, charged head first toward Kate. His speed nearly doubled as he lunged, shoulder first toward her. Kate threw a gust of wind, but Mike didn’t slow down and he plowed into her. She rolled back a few steeps but was on her feet faster than Tasha thought possible. Mike pulled down the rivet gun from his back and fired. Kate dodged, raised a tower of lighting up from underneath his feet. He froze in place, shaking, but soon returned to normal. Melissa through flames from her arms, but they never touched Kate. Mike was upon her thanks to the distraction. He trampled her under his heavy boots, but Kate did not scream. He then turned and looked at her with a stern gaze. Kate erupted into flames. Melissa was shocked; Mike had Kate’s instant plasmid ability, but not nearly her strength.

She stood and blew the flames off her with a wave of her arms. Lighting followed as Mike became more accustomed to summoning the ability of the Plasmids flowing through his armor. Kate deflected them. A wave of ice raced from her feet, tracking Mike as he dodged. Melissa threw flames to melt the ice and bought Mike a little breathing room. Yet that only seemed to attract Kate’s favor. She turned toward Melissa and a tidal wave of ice flowed toward her.

Tasha stepped forward, grabbed Melissa and they both vanished. Suddenly, Tasha was standing next to Kate. Kate snarled and blew Tasha away, but before she could hit the floor she was gone in a flighty puff of red smoke.

Kate turned back to Mike, only a bit too late. His shoulder landed against her head knocking her off her feet and back against a side rail. She flipped and landed in a stagnant pool of dark brown and moldy water. Unfazed she stood in the knee deep water and tried to find someone to attack, someone to kill. Her anger had peaked and she was tired of this game.

When the water around her began to glow, she knew she was in for a great deal of pain. She let out a shout as both Mike and Melissa tossed electricity into the water. Pain coursed her body, pain so intense she felt as though she would lose consciousness, but she quickly flash boiled the water. With heat so high, the water vaporized almost instantly. This was Kate’s true power. Her other skills with plasmids was nothing compared to the fire techniques she had learned; the very same flames that had burned her mother to ashes.

Kate’s clothes erupted in a flame around her. They turned to ashes instantly, leaving only her naked form standing before Mike and Melissa. She ran toward them, heat swelling off her body, yet she felt fine. Metal melted beneath her bear feet. Mike threw ice at her, but Melissa feared nothing would cool Kate’s flame, yet Kate slowed and pain filled her. She threw back a wave of heat, and Mike dived clear. Mike was able to hurt her, he really was strong with plasmids.

Tasha appeared again, this time floating above Kate’s naked form. As she fell she pointed the long metal probe downward, and before Kate knew what had happened the probe was stabbing downward into her shoulder. Tasha had taken it just before she had been blown away earlier. Blood and Adam swirled into the tank as Kate shrieked. A swell of air pushed outward, tossing Tasha and the probe off of her back. Tasha vanished and reappeared in front of Kate. She plunged the probe between her breasts, and more blood and Adam flowed into the long metal rod. Kate was in more shock than in pain. It was as if Tasha was in two place at once. She was too fast. Furious, Kate raised her temperature even hotter, and the probe began to glow red hot.

Tasha screamed as the searing heat burned her palm. She had to let go. In pain and cradling her hand, she didn’t see what was coming. A pulse of electricity formed on Kate’s hand and fired at Tasha, but she was pushed aside. She landed and looked up as Melissa stood motionless over her with a hole in her chest the size of a fist.

It was a strange sensation, Melissa thought as she slowly felt the life drain from her. Her life, as it was, didn’t flash before her eyes. She recalled stories of how people said they could see old friends and family members while on their death bed, Melissa had no such vision. There was no pain, only an immense exhaustion. She was so tired. She slumped forward to her knees and she thought of young Danny, her Sister’s that escaped Rapture and now lived on the surface, she thought of her small apartment and her mediocre job. She understood then, she didn’t have a life that could flash before her eyes. But as the weight of her eyes grew heavier, she saw Jack, his palm stretched out to her with the tattoo of a chain-link on his wrist. She smiled at that. She had come home, and jack was waiting for her.

Lifeless she slumped forward and into Tasha’s outstretched arms.

Kate pulled the probe out of her chest and tossed it to the side. “You lose.”

Mike caught the probe in mid air. Kate never saw his approach. He charged at a full sprint and slammed the needle into the base of her skull. She gasped a loose scream, but not even the heat being pumped into the metal probe was not enough to make Mike let go.

His glove began to smoke from the heat of the probe, he could feel the heat searing the skin under the glove, through the glove, the glove itself, but he never let go. Kate crumbled to her knees and her body began to cool. Her eyes grew heavy and she fell forward onto the metal floor. Her body turned charcoal black, a sure sign that the life Adam had given her was now too weak to keep her alive.

Mike didn’t remove the probe, instead he had turned his attention to Melissa. Tasha held her, both on their knees; one crying and one lifeless. He didn’t know why Tasha was crying; either for the life of the one that had saved her, or for her childhood friend Kate, or perhaps for the joy of still being alive. He didn’t know. Mike only knew that he wish he could have shed a tear for Melissa, but from inside the suit he had no tears to shed.

After gathering himself, Mike carried Christina’s tiny body and laid it next to Melissa. She was awake and had seen everything that had happened in the final fight of ‘their’ war. She was in a silent shock, immobilized by the trauma that she had just experienced. Tasha had assured him that without Kate, Christina would be harmless. He then carried Kate’s cold stiff body and placed it at the cross beneath Fontaine’s feet. He would not let the mistakes of the past occur again.

With Christina, and Melissa dead form, Tasha wrapped her arms around them both. Mike placed a hand on Christina’s shoulder and waved a burst of electricity toward an explosive charge he had set. His specialty was blowing stuff up, and that was how this whole nightmare had started. The charges ignited and before the explosion washed over them, Tasha teleported all of them back to the Bathysphere station.

When they emerged they were greeted by fearful men and military medical teams. Soldiers aimed their rifles but Tasha and Mike raised their arms and surrendered without a fight.

* * * * * * * *

“You see, back in those days, men from the surface feared the people of Rapture. The magic they had, the power they possessed. Those who were left after that war did not want conquest or hate, they wanted peace.” The middle aged woman continued. She sat before a gathering mass of children. All around stood adults and computers lined the walls with video screens and pictures of Rapture. Adults and teens walked amongst the video screens and looked at the pictures, reading the stories written and displayed as the woman continued to talk to the children.

“The day the General came, was not the happy day it should have been. There was pain, and crying, and many people were hurt.” She sat forward, her silvery blonde hair fell from her shoulder and she racked it back. At forty years old, Christina had grown into a beautiful woman. She had given birth to children and traveled the world. Speaking to the children before her, and remembering how Lady Tenenbaum’s story had affected her, she chose to tell a more realistic story than those she heard as a child, where heroes often died, and evil was sometimes misguided. Children still loved the tales of adventure, though she told an ugly tale; a tale of pain and sorrow and regret, a story of wisdom and sacrifice, children loved the truthfulness. “The sister was so powerful, that she was blind with it. And so it was that everyone fought her for fear of what she may do to the world.”

After telling the tale of Kate’s fall, and kissing some of the children goodbye and sharing words of advice to some of the parents, she walked away from the library and stared up at the beautiful son overhead. Her husband pulled up in his car, a black shiny new vehicle that the Australian Government had loaned them. “You ready. I’m starving.” Danny said. He was five years older than Christina, the son of a Little Sister that had been saved by Jack with Melissa.

They had first met when Christina first appeared as an author. She wrote books of undersea tales, and in that first book she told the story of Melissa. At the time, Danny was young man and had cried when he found out how his favorite aunt had died. “She was so alone,” Danny had said, “and all she wanted was to belong. My mother said she went back to Rapture to find herself.” She felt sorry for his loss and they stayed close over the years, and eventually they were wed. She never told him how she and Melissa had fought the day of her death, but she did tell him that Tasha was alive because of Melissa’s sacrifice; just as it was written in her story.

Returning to the present, she walked around the car and kissed him, deeply and passionately. She was a wife and a mother, her life changed thanks to the punishment she received at Melissa’s hands. The nightmares still plagued her, but she had grown accustomed to them. Before she could get in her car, a young girl ran up to her.

“Miss Christina! Can you autograph my book? I love your stories.” The girl smiled. In her hand was a toy stuffed Big Daddy; with feathery wings and a sword in his hand. And in her other hand was a hard digital book pad. On its cover was the title “Rapture: A tale of War.” Christina autographed it and waved as the girl ran back into the library. She climbed in the car and closed the door.

Danny kissed her once again. “Hard to believe what the world thinks of your story. And they are going to make a movie out of it. If only they knew that it is all true.”

Christina smiled. “I wrote a story about a world at the bottom of the sea. With magic and heroes and villains, all torn between the world powers. I’m a story teller, nothing more. Everyone knows of Rapture, but my story… to them… isn’t real. Flights of fancy, the US government calls it, telling everyone that Rapture is abandoned and lifeless and has been for more than sixty years. ”

“Yeah. Well, one day you and my mother will have to take me to this magic world beneath the sea. Let me see the General, the great Guardian of Rapture, and your older Sister Tasha, the Spirit mother of the wind. It all sounds so fantastic.”

Christina huffed. “You know the truth of it Danny. Let the US military have there secret, and I’ll tell my story. I will never take you to that place. There is nothing down there but pain and death and dark memories best forgotten.”

The End.