"ADAM improved every aspect of man, except his character. Perhaps there is a plasmid that can grow the spirit. Perhaps in your DNA this secret lies." – Bridgette Tenenbaum, BioShock

~*~

The Persephone was gone.

"He took it. He took it," Joan moaned softly. "God damn it."

The Big Daddy grunted, an echo of her cursing.

Joan slid down out of the behemoth's arms and peered into the bathysphere station, frowning in consternation. "All right. So, the sub's gone. Fine." She straightened and eyed her companion. "Mr. B, we need a radio. I've got to warn Momma and Jack. Do you know where we can find a radio?"

The Daddy was still for a long moment, looking down at her. At last, though, he turned and galumphed toward a wide, tall window. Joan followed, puzzled. When the Big Daddy halted, it lifted a ham-fisted arm and pointed out at the ocean.

"What is it?" Joan asked, drawing up to stand beside him. Her eyes followed the path of his point and, suddenly, her expression brightened. A neon sign shone from the side of a large building. KNO Radio. "Mr. B, you're brilliant!" Joan exclaimed. "Can we get over there?"

In answer, the giant divesuit reached down to take her up in his hold. Joan shook her head. "Mr. B, I can walk. We'll get there faster. Now, which way?"

Obligingly, the creature pivoted to the left and began to thump toward a bulkhead that would lead them from Neptune's Bounty to Arcadia. With ease, he dragged open the bulkhead's door and, with unfailing courtesy, waited for Joan to walk through before he did likewise. She patted his arm absently and fondly as she stepped over the metal lip of the doorframe.

Sealing the door behind him, the Big Daddy worked open the second, and Joan took in a soft breath of wonder as she walked into the lush entrance of Arcadia. "I remember this," she whispered. But it had not been so manicured, the last time she'd seen it. It had been wild then, the Saturnines sowing chaotic growth. Now, it was clean and the grass was clipped. The trees were pruned. The flowers bloomed brightly against the dim, amber shadows of the greenhouse that lay so far beneath the surface.

"Splicers couldn't have done this," Joany said quietly, walking to a rose bush and fingering a bloom carefully. "They couldn't have made it this beautiful."

Suddenly, the Big Daddy began to make a low keening sound. Joan turned her head, regarding him. "What is it?" she asked. The sound upped in volume and pitch. He was agitated, and getting moreso by the second. Joan moved back to him quickly. "What?" she asked again. The creature began to convulse, the movements jerky, as though he were trying to jump. "Mr. Bubbles! Mr. B!" Joan cried, confusion making her grab hold of her guardian to try and steady him.

"Oi! You!"

The voice came from above. Joan snapped her gaze up just in time to see a figure leap from a shadowed, wooden staircase. With a gasp, she clung to the Big Daddy. The figure landed almost on top of them.

"Splicer!" Joan whispered in terror.

~*~

"No contact for almost two hours," Jack said quietly. "What the Hell is going on down there?"

Tenenbaum did not reply, but her face was white. Jack regarded her and his heart ached. This was her worst nightmare come true. Losing a child to sickness, a car accident, that would have undone her…but losing her favorite child to Rapture was going to kill her. Why, why had he agreed to let Joany go down there?

"I'm going to tell those men to get the other sub ready, Mom," he said firmly. "I'm going to go down there and get her."

Jack rose and moved to leave the cabin. As he opened the door, he came face to face with one of the crew. The burly man eyed Jack without expression. "I'm afraid you're confined to your cabin, Mr. Ryan, until further notice."

Jack frowned, his eyes narrowing. "Why?"

"Mr. Court's had some unexpected circumstances, and he's asked that you remain here for your own safety."

"Get out of my way." Jack's voice was quiet.

"I'm afraid I can't-.."

But Jack shoved at the man. The fellow staggered back, recovered, and answered by charging Jack himself. The crewman barreled into Jack with a grunt and the pair fell to the floor. Jack reached to try and grapple his assailant, but the man was superior in youth, size and strength. Jack felt hands closing around his throat.

A crack of sound burst through the small cabin and the man's weight fell heavily onto Jack. With a wrenching pull, he dragged himself free of the body, and stared in amazement at the blood pouring from the fellow's temple.

Astonished, Jack looked up at his mother, who stood calmly with one slender hand gripping a pistol expertly.

"Jesus," Jack wheezed, getting himself to his feet. "Where did you get that thing?"

"I always carry it in my handbag," Tenenbaum replied. "Habit, from the old days."

Jack stared at his mother a moment, and then just shook his head, chuckling. "You're a wild old lady," he said admiringly.

"Let us go for rounding up the others, secure them somewhere, and try to find out what's going on," Bridgette said.

Jack nodded, and led the way out of the cabin.

~*~

"Get away from him!"

Joan's cry was wild, desperate. Her hands reached for the figure, trying to shove him, knock him back.

"Th' Hell I will!" came the reply. It was a man, an angry one at that, his own arms reaching past the Big Daddy to try and grab at her.

Joan ducked to the left, grasping the back of the Daddy's suit. "Get him, Mr. B! Get him!"

The creature turned his great head slowly to peer down at her, silently. Joan looked at him, and realized that he wasn't attacking, had no intention of attacking, and seemed to be determined to play interference between herself and the man that was still struggling to get to her.

"He's dangerous, Mr. Bubbles!" she implored, shifting to avoid a swiping hand. "Splicers are dangerous!" She remembered that much.

"I'm not th' bloody splicer. You are!" came a heated retort from the man.

"I'm not a splicer!" Joan bit furiously. The man snatched, and caught hold of her sleeve. "Anngh! Let go!"

Calmly, patiently, the Big Daddy reached and wedge the pair apart with giant hands. Both stared at one another, breathless. Now that the struggle had ceased, Joan got her first real look at the fellow. "You're not," she said, wonderingly. "You're not a splicer." She remembered what they had looked like: masked, deformed, mutated. This man…

The Big Daddy lowered his arms, and the pair settled, the man coming around to scrutinize her over carefully. "You're not, either," he said, marveling. "Look at you. But if you're not a splicer…"

"I'm Joan," she offered, candidly. "And I need to get to KNO Radio."

"Joan," he echoed. "Right. Well, I'll bring you over there. Sorry about earlier – the splicers are getting so desperate, they're attacking the Big Daddies now for their dive-suits. Lets them go outside to look for floaters that might have some ADAM still in 'em. Far as I can tell, Rosie here's the last of the lot."

"Oh, God," Joan said, aghast.

The man nodded and started walking through Arcadia, toward the bulkhead that would get them over to KNO. "It's not far," he said as Joan and the Daddy followed after him. "I admit to being more than a little confused, though. I've never seen this big lug take to anyone like this before – it took me months to get him to trust me." He paused and looked over his shoulder. "Would you kindly explain what you're doing here?"

~*~

"That's that," Jake said, coming onto the bridge and closing the door behind him. "They're secure in the galley. None of them would tell me what Henri's up to, though." He looked at the radio, than at Tenenbaum. "Any luck?"

Bridgette shook her head slowly. "Nothing. I am trying on all frequencies. If Court can hear, he does not respond. And Joany…" She couldn't finish the thought or the sentence.

Jack went and gently took the radio transmitter out of her hand. He depressed the button, speaking into the unit. "This is Jack Ryan aboard the Mistral. Mr. Court? Joan? Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"Keep trying, Jack," Bridgette pleaded. "Keep trying."

"This is Jack Ryan. This is the Mistral, calling Mr. Henri Court or Joan Tenenbaum. Do you read? Over."

Bridgette closed her eyes and bowed her head.

It was an hour later when they heard the faint crackle from the speaker. Tenenbaum started and looked over at her son. "Jack…" she breathed.

Instantly, Jack took up the transmitter. "Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

"…Jack?"

"Joan!" Jack almost screamed the word. "Joany, honey! Oh, God. Thank God."

"Jack, I'm okay," the voice said, faint but distinct. Bridgette shivered a little, listening to her daughter, hearing that voice that was safe…but so many fathoms away. "I'm okay."

"What happened?" Jack slid his chair closer to the speaker and Tenenbaum leaned forward.

"Court. Court lost his mind," Joan replied. "He saw lights on down here and decided to make a grab for some ADAM to take to the surface. He was going to have his men kill me, but…I ran into an old friend and his mining drill, and things got handled."

Bridgette smiled wanly. "I am glad to hear that there is at least something down there to keep you safe, my darling."

"Not just Mr. B, momma," Joan continued. "I met someone else. He's been a big help."

"Who, baby?" Jack asked.

"Atlas. His name's Atlas."

The panic that hit Jack was like a tsunami. His hands gripped the transmitter so hard, it almost cracked inside the grasp. "Joan! Joan, get away from him! You have to run. NOW!"

"What? Jack, I don't…" Joan's voice was bewildered, surprised.

"Get away! Get away from him! Do you hear me? Joan! Get away-…"

Bridgette Tenenbaum's hand moved forward, fingertips grazing the radio's buttons. The radio shut off with a soft 'click'.

"Joan?!" Jack's voice was ragged, near-crazed. He whipped his gaze to Bridgette. "What are you doing?! Are you crazy?"

"Jack," Tenenbaum intoned gently, tenderly. "She is all right. She will be all right."

"But Fontaine! It's Fontaine!" His mind was reeling. "We have to get her away from him!"

"Frank Fontaine is dead, Jack," Bridgette told him softly. "You know this."

"Then who…Atlas…." Jack slumped back, shaken, hysterical.

"Atlas is my son." Bridgette reached into her handbag to take a cigarette from a silver case. "My son with Frank Fontaine.

"What?" Jack's voice was cracked, dry.

"You were the first subject of the accelerated development experiment conducted by myself and Dr. Suchong. Atlas was the second." She set the cigarette between her lips, lit it, and took a slow pull from its filtered end before speaking again. "I had become pregnant by Fontaine three months before you killed him. He did not know. I told no-one. When you left Rapture with the girls, I stayed behind and had our son."

"That's…that's why you refused to come to the surface with us," Jack said, astonished.

Bridgette nodded. "I was alone. I had the child. I used the same techniques we had used on you, with some crucial modifications, including adjusting his genetic structure and combining it with yours. Within six months, he was developing five times as rapidly as you had, mentally. Within a year, he was a perfect boy of twelve years."

Jack swallowed. "What happened? Mom, why did you leave him?"

"He died," Tenebaum said simply. "He died, and there was not power enough to reactivate the VitaChambers. I tried. I tried very hard to get enough power from Hephaestus. In the end, there was nothing I could do. So, I buried him in Arcadia and came to join you here on the surface."

Jack stared at his adoptive mother. She had never said a word to him. She had borne a child, lost him, buried him and left him, and she had never revealed the sadness and agony that now etched itself across her features. "Mom…" he began.

Her eyes were bright. "I named him Atlas, after the hero in which Rapture had so naively believed, and who my other son had trusted. I wanted Atlas to be real. I wanted this man to exist, not to 'con' as Faontaine called it, but to inspire and lead. I had hoped for so much."

She closed her eyes, stubbing the cigarette out on the side of the bridge's control panel. "And so, the power has come back to Rapture, Joan says. The VitaChambers are online, and they read your DNA inside Atlas and bring him back from the dead. When? I do not know. But he is there and he will take care of our beloved Joan. This I know."