The slug mean's she's now a Little Sister.
Part 1-2
Ven kicked his feet as he rested for a moment in space. He had managed to find several worlds, but he hadn't run across Aqua for a while. He was getting nervous. After all, she was a big sister to him and he wanted to talk with her, even if she would try to send him back to the Land of Departure. He hadn't even HEARD of her in months. The last place he knew she visited was Deep Space, and even that was vague.
“LOOK OUT!” Ven turned to see Terra barrel into him, before their keyblades unintentionally transformed and they fell towards the world with the lighthouse.
–
Ven groaned as he lifted his head up. Whatever his keyblade had done, it had protected Terra and himself as they had apparently barreled through fathoms of water and let them actually travel through glass and metal... it was Ven's only explanation on why he was sitting on a tile floor and wasn't already drowned. He rubbed his head, looked up, and was staring into the charred remains of a skeleton strung up on a cross. Ven shrieked and crawled backwards as fast as he could. Thud Ven jumped up and whirled around, Keyblade pointing at... Terra. A Terra who was staring at some more strung up corpses. “Terra, where are we?”
“Ven?” Terra turned and clasped his hands on Ven's shoulders. “We're not dead!... Where are we?”
“Apollo Square” Ven replied, staring at some point above Terra's head. “There's something over there about Rapture ID's so I guess Apollo Square is apart of Rapture.” Terra stood up, avoided a puddle of blood, and looked around.
“How do you know that?”
“There's a sign right up over there.” Ven pointed to a sign above the door. It said they were in Apollo Square, recommended they have Rapture ID's out and a poster nearby promoted an orphanage of sort.
“Why are they strung up?” Terra asked. The room looked like it used to be grand, but it hadn't just fallen to seed, the place looked like a wreck. The walls were scorched and half demolished, rubble was strewn everywhere, and some heavily used and sorched furniture appeared to be used as barricades. Then there was the corpses hung or crucified everywhere, and then some which just lay on the ground. “Ven, we need to get out of here.”
The two keyblade wielders started to explore the empty halls. They first entered a room that had upturned trains, trash, and walls covered with pictures of apparently those who had gone missing in... whatever had caused this chaos. The fact that only corpses and trash littered the halls made their hairs stand up on end. Well, it was almost empty.
“None of these other chumps will talk to me, think I'm a freak... To hell with them!" Terra flinched at the language, but Ven wanted to throw up at what he saw. A man with tumor growths and an eyepatch -and raggedy clothes- wandered in front of them. Whatever he-it-he was, the man wasn't an unversed. Terra stepped backwards, wanting to drag Ven away quietly- his hand rested over Ven's mouth to muffle any sound, but the clink of his shoes gave him away. The man turned. “You come to laugh at me, too?!”
“No” Ven insisted as soon as he took Terra's hand from his mouth. “We just-” But the man pulled out a gun and began to shoot at them.
"You call the cops on me?!"
“NO!” Terra insisted as he pulled his keyblade out to defend himself and Ven. Ven struck back by using a Thunder Surge as Terra managed to strike out. The man let out a bone chilling scream then dropped dead. He didn't disappear.
“Terra....” Ven choked out. The body wasn't moving, wasn't disappearing, blood was dripping from it's forehead, and Ven had never seen anything like it.
“Ven, move.” Terra grabbed Ven's arm. “I don't know what's going on here either, but I have a feeling being by this... if we don't clear out of here soon there could be trouble.” Ven closed his eyes and ran away, holding onto Terra's arm for dear life.
“I smell an Angel, let's catch it!” The line made no sense, but they were so happy to hear something innocuous they ran towards the sound. They turned a corner and saw
“Aqua” Ven muttered. But she was... off. Her eyes were glowing yellow- they could tell even from here. Her skin glowed gold too despite looking like she hadn't washed up in months, she was barefoot and her clothes were in tatters. A large diving suit was following her, its porthole glowing yellow too. Aqua was very giggly as she walked over to one of the corpses in front of the wrecked apartment building and stuck a large needle into it. Ven ran forward, but a hand grasped his shoulder.
“You move towards her, you die.” The voice wasn't Terra's. It was a woman's, with an accent. “You know her?”
“She's our friend, so stop threatening us.” Terra retorted, and Ven could sense he had summoned his keyblade.
“And if you Spliced up to give you that... weapon... then you are after her for her ADAM.” Ven turned around upon hearing that and saw the woman for the first time. She was old, and weary. Her brown hair was slightly striped with grey , her brown eyes were tired, and she held a rifle in her hand.
“I'm Ventus, call me Ven. And no, she's a friend. I don't know what ADAM is, but I've been wondering where she was. Her name is Aqua. She's taken care of me, a lot...” He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. He glanced back briefly to see Aqua leaving what was left of the room. Terra dismissed his keyblade.
“My name is Brigid Tenenbaum” She still looked wary, but lowered her gun slightly.
“My name is Terra. I was raised with Aqua and I had noticed her absence too. She... can be a bit of a goody two shoes but she means well.” Tenenbaum glared at them.
“Her favorite food is lasagna, she knows how to cartwheel, and sews her own clothes.” Ven supplied. With this information, Tenenbaum looked relieved.
“So, you do actually know her?”
“yes.” Terra replied, his eyes flicking towards a fight two mutated people were having. “Now what happened to her?” Tenenbaum waited for a second, then grabbed their arms and pulled them towards a door.
“Follow me, I'll explain it when we get there. “
At least a half an hour later Terra and Ven were being waited upon by Tenenbaum and a gaggle of young girls. Tenenbaum finished with the pancakes, served the girls, that sat down across from Terra and Ven holding onto a cup of coffee.
“Your friend is a Little Sister.”
“That's impossible” Ven blurted out. “She's older then me! And she's around Terra's age!”
“That's not the kind of Little Sister I meant.” Tenenbaum sighed. “I'm sure you noticed that this place is Hell.”
“There were corpses.” Was Ven's traumatized reply. Tenenbaum smiled grimly.
“I helped cause this. A man named Andrew Ryan, he's dead now, was fed up with the world above the sea so he built Rapture as a place of his ideals. Only the best and the brightest would be allowed, and there would be no laws besides a few obvious ones.” She took a sip of her coffee now. “I was one of those. I came down here and discovered what ended up causing this place of Ruin. no.” She corrected herself after a moment. “It would have fallen anyway, but not this far, not this fast, and without as many casualties as you see now.” The only thing that was heard was the little girls' utensils scraping on the plate. “ADAM. It allowed the genes to do whatever you wanted. It's the find of the century and it caused this insanity. A side effect of ADAM usage IS insanity.” She took a sip of coffee at this moment.
“I doubt that's true...” Ven started to plead. “It's just being stir cra-” Tenenbaum had started to dig in a bag by her side, and pulled out some sort of a rectangular machine with a speaker of some sort that landed on the table with a CLUNK She pressed a button on the side and it creaked into action.
“The Wild Bunny by Sander Cohen: I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse! I want to take the ears off but I can't! It's my curse! It's my fu-”
Tenenbaum quickly switched it off. “ That was our greatest artist.” Terra and Ven stared at the tape recorder.
“That... that..” The echoing pain, the anger, it wasn't just a poem, for this 'Cohen' it was real. She pulled out another tape.
“Would you like to hear one of our doctors?”
“I'll... I'll pass.” Ven said nothing in response to Terra, but started to gnaw on a knuckle in distress.
“If only...But no one knew the side effects when we started. Steinman was using it for plastic surgery, others were using it to enhance themselves. The ability to shoot fire, run faster, to do whatever they want.” There was no mistaking the bitterness in her voice. “And while Ryan refused to control ADAM for safety reasons, there was a shortage. And that is where I cause your friends condition. I created the Little Sisters.” She placed her cup of coffee down, and rested her head in her hands as she muttered for a bit in another language. Terra and Ven let her talk, secretly sneaking some of the pancakes given them, as the little girls surrounded Tenenbaum and tried to comfort her. After a few minutes, Tenenbaum pulled herself together. “I found that implanting the slug that gives ADAM into a young girls stomach then making the subject regurgitate would increase ADAM yield.”
“But, Aqua's not a young girl.” Terra finally spoke up. “She's-”
“It means Sofia Lamb is desperate. I've been rescuing Little Sisters and whatever Lamb has planned it involves them. Aqua won't give as much ADAM as any of the younger girls, but she's one of the few operating now.” Tenenbaum sat back now, and pulled a white stick from a case, before putting it back. “I'm trying to quit.” She explained quietly. “I can't hurt my Girls, and they cough when I smoke.” This meant nothing to Ven and Terra, so they just nodded. “I can help you get Aqua back, and I can try to take the slug out, but I don't know about the programming.”
“Programming? Is Aqua a computer or something?” Ven asked. Tenenbaum gave a small smile.
“No, I wish it was that simple. They are locked up for a long time and shown images, put in experiments... the end result are little girls who are unaware of what Rapture looks like, are willing to drink ADAM from corpses they see as Angels, and only trust their Big Daddies. The diving suit you saw earlier.” She added upon seeing their confusion. “And the Daddies WILL kill you if they think you are going to hurt their Sister.” Terra finally spoke up.
“Who are the Big Daddies?” He tapped the worn wooden table. “If the Little Sisters are people, then who are the Daddies?”
“Probably political prisoners. I never knew, and I never inquired too deeply.” One of the girls climbed up on Tenenbaum's lap, and she started to absently stroke her hair. “All I wanted was to rescue my girls.” Terra and Ven took a good look at the Girls for the first time. They all wore a straggly dress, but someone had obviously tried to fix them up with limited materials. They at the very least looked neat and taken care of. Some of the girls had taken to drawing designs on their clothes with crayons. In fact, crayon drawings papered the walls of the apartment like complex that Tenenbaum lived in. The drawings ranged from the odd – an upside down house- to angels to knights in shining armor protecting people. The only non Crayon drawings were a series of mathematical equations that were obviously Tenenbaum's. “If we're going to take down a Big Daddy, we need to plan”
“Why don't we just stop time?” Ven asked, but Tenenbaum glared at him.
“You spliced?”
“What?”
“ADAM, you spliced!”
“What? No! It's Magic.” Before he could go on, she had grabbed his arms and pulled the sleeves up on his arm. She then checked the other one, and then checked both of Terra's arms.
“What are you-”
“Track marks, from using the syringes.” Ven still didn't understand what was going on, but decided to keep quiet just in case. After Tenenbaum had satisfied herself they hadn't “spliced” up -whatever THAT was – she sat back down in her seat.
“You only want that one.”
“Yes, we only want Aqua.” Terra insisted. “She's our friend.” Tenenbaum opened her case, pulled out a white stick, then shut it with a snap.
“Follow me” she demanded and the two keyblade wielders did so. As soon as they left the apartment, Tenenbaum positioned herself outside of the door and pulled out a match to light the stick. She put it in her mouth to inhale, then let the smoke go. Terra managed to hold down his coughs, but Ven started to hack.
“I can't let them overhear, they're still fond of their Big Daddies. Unless some splicers attack Aqua's Daddy, we're going to have to kill it.” Ven tried to stop hacking to say something, but couldn't. Fortunately Terra knew what he wanted to say.
“We can't do that. We can't kill anyone, especially not someone who doesn't have a choice.”
“You already have blood on your hands, from the Splicer you killed earlier.”
“What's a splicer?” Ven managed to wheeze out. He backed up several feet away and finally managed to draw in cleaner lungfulls of air. Terra walked over to see if he was okay.
“One who alters their Genetic code with Plasmids to gain abilities. There are very few sane people in Rapture, even fewer Unspliced. Yes, I've spliced too... I made a plasmid that removes the slug without killing them.”
Terra was going to ask about the slug, only to feel a needle stick in his neck and hiss before he turned around.
“WHAT WAS THAT???” he finally roared.
“The Pheromone given to Big Daddies so the Little Sisters will be attracted to them. You're strong enough to hold off a Splicer attack. She's going to be attracted to you once the other Daddy is eliminated.
Tenenbaum finished her white stick, ground it under her foot, and walked towards the door. “As soon as my girls start reacting to you, Terra, we'll head out.”
**
About an hour later Terra, Ven, and Dr. Tenenbaum- wielding a shot gun that she looked more then capable with- surrounded Apollo Square. Terra covered Ven's eyes and ears while two splicers got into a fight, but he lost an argument with Tenenbaum to send Ven back.
“I can't take on a Big Daddy by myself in Apollo Square. And you DO want Aqua back.” Tenenbaum quietly reasoned, eyeing how far the Splicers were from their safe point behind some rubble.
“Yes, but Ven's.... Ven only knows the last few years of his life. He's really like your Girls. He's a keyblade wielder, but... Let's just go back, and do this in a bit.”
“He'd be murdered or lead the Splicers right to my girls. I'll take care of him when you get Aqua. But right.... Shhh...” Tenenbaum gestured for the three to hide behind the rubble.
“Hip Hop, Mr. B, no time to waste!” Aqua and her Big Daddy walked into the large square. She smiled when she saw the body, and gave a very girlish giggle and ran over. “Look, Mr. B, ADAM!”
“Now.” Tenenbaum hissed. Before Aqua could dig her needle into the body, the three vaulted over the rubble and swarmed the Big Daddy. The Big Daddy revved his drill as Aqua fell back a bit, cowering.
“UNZIP THEM, MR. B. UNZIP THEM!” Aqua screamed. Terra realized exactly what she meant and blocked the first blow aimed at Tenenbaum. Ven tried to cast Stopga, but the Big Daddy threw it off.
BANG Tenenbaum shot the Big Daddy, who reeled but charged towards Ven. Ven dodged and shot Firaga at the Big Daddie's back as Tenenbaum reloaded.
“KILL THEM!” Aqua shouted again, but all three ignored her for now. Tenenbaum aimed again, and right as she fired, Ven used Thudaga with Terra following up with Ars Solum. The Big Daddy fell flat. They barely allowed themselves time to comprehend what they did. Aqua ran towards the fallen body and fell next to it. She wrapped her arms around it.
“Wake up, Mr. Bubbles, Wake up.” Terra took front, while Ven and Tenenbaum defended him.
“Aqua. Aqua, look at me.” he grasped her chin and gently pulled it up. “Come on, I'm here to take you home.”
“Y-y-you was sleepin' for ever, Mr. Bubbles!! Good morning!"
“I'm not Mr. B, but come on.” He turned around so his back faced her. “Get up on my back, okay? I'll take you somewhere safe.” Aqua squealed and clambered up on Terra's back as something started to gather towards the entrances.
“Terra, do you know your way back?” Tenenbaum asked as she loaded her gun.
“Yes... I think so.”
“Good, Ven and I will hold off the Splicers, you take her back to the other Girls.” Terra nodded and ran off into Rapture.
**
Aqua was significantly lighter then he expected, but it didn't take long before he grew tired, and lost. It didn't take long for Aqua to fall asleep either, and shortly after a very confused Terra was staring at a brightly painted wall covered with butterflies he had never seen before.
“So you have found my last working Little Sister.” A blond woman stepped out of the shadows. “How did you make it down here?”
“I don't know. Who are you?” Terra tensed, causing Aqua to stir. He couldn't fight, not with her clinging to him.
“I am simply a woman with an idea, and you have the tools to bring Utopia to Rapture.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Little Sister-”
“Her name is Aqua.” Terra growled.
“Fine then, Aqua. The ADAM that she gathers has the memories of those who used it before. Eventually everyone's self will be subjugated. We will all work for the greater good. Right now she is the only tool to make that happen, so hand her over.” Terra backed up slightly.
“No.” Terra firmly replied. He couldn't just fight her, she wasn't being threatening. And she didn't looked Spliced....
“Don't we all owe eachother a sense of brotherhood? Why are you denying others what could lead to their salvation? Your heart is like all others-”
“Terra.”
“Terra. See, you trust. You give yourself over to the idea of others willingly.”
“What do you mean my heart is like the others.”
“All humans seek power, you are not different. You seek your power over all others. How many people will you trample beneath your feet?” Terra fidgeted. Did she know how to defeat the darkness?
“So, what do you suggest?” He asked. He still didn't trust her but maybe she was right. And he HAD trusted Hades after all, so if he didn't Trust her, could she know a way out of the Darkness?
“The end of self. By eliminating your self – no, not suicide- you can quash all that you hold in your heart. Your power can be shared among all.”
“I.... it makes sense, but what does Aqua have to do with this? I know her well enough to know she wouldn't ask to be turned into this.” Then again... maybe she did? She could fight off almost anything. Aqua stirred on his back.
“As I said, she is the tool for Rapture's rebirth. Let her take your ADAM and return to the cycle.”
“I... I'm not Spliced.” the woman didn't look startled at this news.
“I thought that may be the case. Then help us in other ways. Maybe even Splice yourself so you can appreciate what others can give.”
“No. It's” it's tempting. Not just the power, but if he could figure out what he could do to... to stop... who? Himself? Vanitas? And to understand what people thought. Wasn't that partly why he tried to become a Keyblade Master? To help others?
“Sing me a Lullaby, Mr. Bubbles” Aqua tightened her grip on Terra's neck as she fussed a bit on his back.
“I'm already helping others.” Terra tried to sound confident.
“By helping Aqua, you are only denying salvation to others.”
“She's MY family. I'm not risking her safety for something I don't fully understand..” Terra growled. Where were the Splicers? Was Tenenbaum holding them back? Or this woman?
“Then I will teach you, and you can join our family to be redeemed.”
“I may have issues with my family, but redemption doesn't mean subjugating others will for your own gain.”
“But wouldn't your parents subjugate your will in order advance their own sense? You owe a sense of brotherhood, so hand over the little sister. It will give others redemption, they would do the same for you.”
“And what about Aqua? In your own philosophy she is to be helped. I don't see this form as helping anyone.”
“She will never be alone if she joins us.”
“Without a choice in the matter? To be just a number in... whatever you have planned.” Terra needed to leave, now. He was a sitting duck, and who knows what had happened to Ven and Tenenbaum.
“But her minor discomfort would create a greater good in all of the Family. They would be reborn in her and in Eleanor.”
“And in my family, the greater good means doing what your heart tells you.”
“Your family is flawed.” Terra felt the insult like a slap across his face.
“No, it isn't Master Eraqus”
“There, you see? MASTER He isn't your equal.”
“Of course not, he raised us.” Terra turned around, so his back was towards how he entered. He didn't want to be rude, but he may need to make a quick exit. “And I will not get rid of the family I have.”
“But will they support you forever?” Terra's heart almost stopped cold. “Sooner or later, they will abandon you. You did something they can no longer stand. If all you have is that family, what will happen then?” Terra started to take a step back. “Join the Family, eliminate your self, and be free to help others and be accepted for who you truly are.” Terra fled. The Blond woman had never said her name or raised her voice, but there was no denying both the truth she spoke, and how terrifying her vision was.
Part 1-2
Ven kicked his feet as he rested for a moment in space. He had managed to find several worlds, but he hadn't run across Aqua for a while. He was getting nervous. After all, she was a big sister to him and he wanted to talk with her, even if she would try to send him back to the Land of Departure. He hadn't even HEARD of her in months. The last place he knew she visited was Deep Space, and even that was vague.
“LOOK OUT!” Ven turned to see Terra barrel into him, before their keyblades unintentionally transformed and they fell towards the world with the lighthouse.
–
Ven groaned as he lifted his head up. Whatever his keyblade had done, it had protected Terra and himself as they had apparently barreled through fathoms of water and let them actually travel through glass and metal... it was Ven's only explanation on why he was sitting on a tile floor and wasn't already drowned. He rubbed his head, looked up, and was staring into the charred remains of a skeleton strung up on a cross. Ven shrieked and crawled backwards as fast as he could. Thud Ven jumped up and whirled around, Keyblade pointing at... Terra. A Terra who was staring at some more strung up corpses. “Terra, where are we?”
“Ven?” Terra turned and clasped his hands on Ven's shoulders. “We're not dead!... Where are we?”
“Apollo Square” Ven replied, staring at some point above Terra's head. “There's something over there about Rapture ID's so I guess Apollo Square is apart of Rapture.” Terra stood up, avoided a puddle of blood, and looked around.
“How do you know that?”
“There's a sign right up over there.” Ven pointed to a sign above the door. It said they were in Apollo Square, recommended they have Rapture ID's out and a poster nearby promoted an orphanage of sort.
“Why are they strung up?” Terra asked. The room looked like it used to be grand, but it hadn't just fallen to seed, the place looked like a wreck. The walls were scorched and half demolished, rubble was strewn everywhere, and some heavily used and sorched furniture appeared to be used as barricades. Then there was the corpses hung or crucified everywhere, and then some which just lay on the ground. “Ven, we need to get out of here.”
The two keyblade wielders started to explore the empty halls. They first entered a room that had upturned trains, trash, and walls covered with pictures of apparently those who had gone missing in... whatever had caused this chaos. The fact that only corpses and trash littered the halls made their hairs stand up on end. Well, it was almost empty.
“None of these other chumps will talk to me, think I'm a freak... To hell with them!" Terra flinched at the language, but Ven wanted to throw up at what he saw. A man with tumor growths and an eyepatch -and raggedy clothes- wandered in front of them. Whatever he-it-he was, the man wasn't an unversed. Terra stepped backwards, wanting to drag Ven away quietly- his hand rested over Ven's mouth to muffle any sound, but the clink of his shoes gave him away. The man turned. “You come to laugh at me, too?!”
“No” Ven insisted as soon as he took Terra's hand from his mouth. “We just-” But the man pulled out a gun and began to shoot at them.
"You call the cops on me?!"
“NO!” Terra insisted as he pulled his keyblade out to defend himself and Ven. Ven struck back by using a Thunder Surge as Terra managed to strike out. The man let out a bone chilling scream then dropped dead. He didn't disappear.
“Terra....” Ven choked out. The body wasn't moving, wasn't disappearing, blood was dripping from it's forehead, and Ven had never seen anything like it.
“Ven, move.” Terra grabbed Ven's arm. “I don't know what's going on here either, but I have a feeling being by this... if we don't clear out of here soon there could be trouble.” Ven closed his eyes and ran away, holding onto Terra's arm for dear life.
“I smell an Angel, let's catch it!” The line made no sense, but they were so happy to hear something innocuous they ran towards the sound. They turned a corner and saw
“Aqua” Ven muttered. But she was... off. Her eyes were glowing yellow- they could tell even from here. Her skin glowed gold too despite looking like she hadn't washed up in months, she was barefoot and her clothes were in tatters. A large diving suit was following her, its porthole glowing yellow too. Aqua was very giggly as she walked over to one of the corpses in front of the wrecked apartment building and stuck a large needle into it. Ven ran forward, but a hand grasped his shoulder.
“You move towards her, you die.” The voice wasn't Terra's. It was a woman's, with an accent. “You know her?”
“She's our friend, so stop threatening us.” Terra retorted, and Ven could sense he had summoned his keyblade.
“And if you Spliced up to give you that... weapon... then you are after her for her ADAM.” Ven turned around upon hearing that and saw the woman for the first time. She was old, and weary. Her brown hair was slightly striped with grey , her brown eyes were tired, and she held a rifle in her hand.
“I'm Ventus, call me Ven. And no, she's a friend. I don't know what ADAM is, but I've been wondering where she was. Her name is Aqua. She's taken care of me, a lot...” He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. He glanced back briefly to see Aqua leaving what was left of the room. Terra dismissed his keyblade.
“My name is Brigid Tenenbaum” She still looked wary, but lowered her gun slightly.
“My name is Terra. I was raised with Aqua and I had noticed her absence too. She... can be a bit of a goody two shoes but she means well.” Tenenbaum glared at them.
“Her favorite food is lasagna, she knows how to cartwheel, and sews her own clothes.” Ven supplied. With this information, Tenenbaum looked relieved.
“So, you do actually know her?”
“yes.” Terra replied, his eyes flicking towards a fight two mutated people were having. “Now what happened to her?” Tenenbaum waited for a second, then grabbed their arms and pulled them towards a door.
“Follow me, I'll explain it when we get there. “
At least a half an hour later Terra and Ven were being waited upon by Tenenbaum and a gaggle of young girls. Tenenbaum finished with the pancakes, served the girls, that sat down across from Terra and Ven holding onto a cup of coffee.
“Your friend is a Little Sister.”
“That's impossible” Ven blurted out. “She's older then me! And she's around Terra's age!”
“That's not the kind of Little Sister I meant.” Tenenbaum sighed. “I'm sure you noticed that this place is Hell.”
“There were corpses.” Was Ven's traumatized reply. Tenenbaum smiled grimly.
“I helped cause this. A man named Andrew Ryan, he's dead now, was fed up with the world above the sea so he built Rapture as a place of his ideals. Only the best and the brightest would be allowed, and there would be no laws besides a few obvious ones.” She took a sip of her coffee now. “I was one of those. I came down here and discovered what ended up causing this place of Ruin. no.” She corrected herself after a moment. “It would have fallen anyway, but not this far, not this fast, and without as many casualties as you see now.” The only thing that was heard was the little girls' utensils scraping on the plate. “ADAM. It allowed the genes to do whatever you wanted. It's the find of the century and it caused this insanity. A side effect of ADAM usage IS insanity.” She took a sip of coffee at this moment.
“I doubt that's true...” Ven started to plead. “It's just being stir cra-” Tenenbaum had started to dig in a bag by her side, and pulled out some sort of a rectangular machine with a speaker of some sort that landed on the table with a CLUNK She pressed a button on the side and it creaked into action.
“The Wild Bunny by Sander Cohen: I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse! I want to take the ears off but I can't! It's my curse! It's my fu-”
Tenenbaum quickly switched it off. “ That was our greatest artist.” Terra and Ven stared at the tape recorder.
“That... that..” The echoing pain, the anger, it wasn't just a poem, for this 'Cohen' it was real. She pulled out another tape.
“Would you like to hear one of our doctors?”
“I'll... I'll pass.” Ven said nothing in response to Terra, but started to gnaw on a knuckle in distress.
“If only...But no one knew the side effects when we started. Steinman was using it for plastic surgery, others were using it to enhance themselves. The ability to shoot fire, run faster, to do whatever they want.” There was no mistaking the bitterness in her voice. “And while Ryan refused to control ADAM for safety reasons, there was a shortage. And that is where I cause your friends condition. I created the Little Sisters.” She placed her cup of coffee down, and rested her head in her hands as she muttered for a bit in another language. Terra and Ven let her talk, secretly sneaking some of the pancakes given them, as the little girls surrounded Tenenbaum and tried to comfort her. After a few minutes, Tenenbaum pulled herself together. “I found that implanting the slug that gives ADAM into a young girls stomach then making the subject regurgitate would increase ADAM yield.”
“But, Aqua's not a young girl.” Terra finally spoke up. “She's-”
“It means Sofia Lamb is desperate. I've been rescuing Little Sisters and whatever Lamb has planned it involves them. Aqua won't give as much ADAM as any of the younger girls, but she's one of the few operating now.” Tenenbaum sat back now, and pulled a white stick from a case, before putting it back. “I'm trying to quit.” She explained quietly. “I can't hurt my Girls, and they cough when I smoke.” This meant nothing to Ven and Terra, so they just nodded. “I can help you get Aqua back, and I can try to take the slug out, but I don't know about the programming.”
“Programming? Is Aqua a computer or something?” Ven asked. Tenenbaum gave a small smile.
“No, I wish it was that simple. They are locked up for a long time and shown images, put in experiments... the end result are little girls who are unaware of what Rapture looks like, are willing to drink ADAM from corpses they see as Angels, and only trust their Big Daddies. The diving suit you saw earlier.” She added upon seeing their confusion. “And the Daddies WILL kill you if they think you are going to hurt their Sister.” Terra finally spoke up.
“Who are the Big Daddies?” He tapped the worn wooden table. “If the Little Sisters are people, then who are the Daddies?”
“Probably political prisoners. I never knew, and I never inquired too deeply.” One of the girls climbed up on Tenenbaum's lap, and she started to absently stroke her hair. “All I wanted was to rescue my girls.” Terra and Ven took a good look at the Girls for the first time. They all wore a straggly dress, but someone had obviously tried to fix them up with limited materials. They at the very least looked neat and taken care of. Some of the girls had taken to drawing designs on their clothes with crayons. In fact, crayon drawings papered the walls of the apartment like complex that Tenenbaum lived in. The drawings ranged from the odd – an upside down house- to angels to knights in shining armor protecting people. The only non Crayon drawings were a series of mathematical equations that were obviously Tenenbaum's. “If we're going to take down a Big Daddy, we need to plan”
“Why don't we just stop time?” Ven asked, but Tenenbaum glared at him.
“You spliced?”
“What?”
“ADAM, you spliced!”
“What? No! It's Magic.” Before he could go on, she had grabbed his arms and pulled the sleeves up on his arm. She then checked the other one, and then checked both of Terra's arms.
“What are you-”
“Track marks, from using the syringes.” Ven still didn't understand what was going on, but decided to keep quiet just in case. After Tenenbaum had satisfied herself they hadn't “spliced” up -whatever THAT was – she sat back down in her seat.
“You only want that one.”
“Yes, we only want Aqua.” Terra insisted. “She's our friend.” Tenenbaum opened her case, pulled out a white stick, then shut it with a snap.
“Follow me” she demanded and the two keyblade wielders did so. As soon as they left the apartment, Tenenbaum positioned herself outside of the door and pulled out a match to light the stick. She put it in her mouth to inhale, then let the smoke go. Terra managed to hold down his coughs, but Ven started to hack.
“I can't let them overhear, they're still fond of their Big Daddies. Unless some splicers attack Aqua's Daddy, we're going to have to kill it.” Ven tried to stop hacking to say something, but couldn't. Fortunately Terra knew what he wanted to say.
“We can't do that. We can't kill anyone, especially not someone who doesn't have a choice.”
“You already have blood on your hands, from the Splicer you killed earlier.”
“What's a splicer?” Ven managed to wheeze out. He backed up several feet away and finally managed to draw in cleaner lungfulls of air. Terra walked over to see if he was okay.
“One who alters their Genetic code with Plasmids to gain abilities. There are very few sane people in Rapture, even fewer Unspliced. Yes, I've spliced too... I made a plasmid that removes the slug without killing them.”
Terra was going to ask about the slug, only to feel a needle stick in his neck and hiss before he turned around.
“WHAT WAS THAT???” he finally roared.
“The Pheromone given to Big Daddies so the Little Sisters will be attracted to them. You're strong enough to hold off a Splicer attack. She's going to be attracted to you once the other Daddy is eliminated.
Tenenbaum finished her white stick, ground it under her foot, and walked towards the door. “As soon as my girls start reacting to you, Terra, we'll head out.”
**
About an hour later Terra, Ven, and Dr. Tenenbaum- wielding a shot gun that she looked more then capable with- surrounded Apollo Square. Terra covered Ven's eyes and ears while two splicers got into a fight, but he lost an argument with Tenenbaum to send Ven back.
“I can't take on a Big Daddy by myself in Apollo Square. And you DO want Aqua back.” Tenenbaum quietly reasoned, eyeing how far the Splicers were from their safe point behind some rubble.
“Yes, but Ven's.... Ven only knows the last few years of his life. He's really like your Girls. He's a keyblade wielder, but... Let's just go back, and do this in a bit.”
“He'd be murdered or lead the Splicers right to my girls. I'll take care of him when you get Aqua. But right.... Shhh...” Tenenbaum gestured for the three to hide behind the rubble.
“Hip Hop, Mr. B, no time to waste!” Aqua and her Big Daddy walked into the large square. She smiled when she saw the body, and gave a very girlish giggle and ran over. “Look, Mr. B, ADAM!”
“Now.” Tenenbaum hissed. Before Aqua could dig her needle into the body, the three vaulted over the rubble and swarmed the Big Daddy. The Big Daddy revved his drill as Aqua fell back a bit, cowering.
“UNZIP THEM, MR. B. UNZIP THEM!” Aqua screamed. Terra realized exactly what she meant and blocked the first blow aimed at Tenenbaum. Ven tried to cast Stopga, but the Big Daddy threw it off.
BANG Tenenbaum shot the Big Daddy, who reeled but charged towards Ven. Ven dodged and shot Firaga at the Big Daddie's back as Tenenbaum reloaded.
“KILL THEM!” Aqua shouted again, but all three ignored her for now. Tenenbaum aimed again, and right as she fired, Ven used Thudaga with Terra following up with Ars Solum. The Big Daddy fell flat. They barely allowed themselves time to comprehend what they did. Aqua ran towards the fallen body and fell next to it. She wrapped her arms around it.
“Wake up, Mr. Bubbles, Wake up.” Terra took front, while Ven and Tenenbaum defended him.
“Aqua. Aqua, look at me.” he grasped her chin and gently pulled it up. “Come on, I'm here to take you home.”
“Y-y-you was sleepin' for ever, Mr. Bubbles!! Good morning!"
“I'm not Mr. B, but come on.” He turned around so his back faced her. “Get up on my back, okay? I'll take you somewhere safe.” Aqua squealed and clambered up on Terra's back as something started to gather towards the entrances.
“Terra, do you know your way back?” Tenenbaum asked as she loaded her gun.
“Yes... I think so.”
“Good, Ven and I will hold off the Splicers, you take her back to the other Girls.” Terra nodded and ran off into Rapture.
**
Aqua was significantly lighter then he expected, but it didn't take long before he grew tired, and lost. It didn't take long for Aqua to fall asleep either, and shortly after a very confused Terra was staring at a brightly painted wall covered with butterflies he had never seen before.
“So you have found my last working Little Sister.” A blond woman stepped out of the shadows. “How did you make it down here?”
“I don't know. Who are you?” Terra tensed, causing Aqua to stir. He couldn't fight, not with her clinging to him.
“I am simply a woman with an idea, and you have the tools to bring Utopia to Rapture.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Little Sister-”
“Her name is Aqua.” Terra growled.
“Fine then, Aqua. The ADAM that she gathers has the memories of those who used it before. Eventually everyone's self will be subjugated. We will all work for the greater good. Right now she is the only tool to make that happen, so hand her over.” Terra backed up slightly.
“No.” Terra firmly replied. He couldn't just fight her, she wasn't being threatening. And she didn't looked Spliced....
“Don't we all owe eachother a sense of brotherhood? Why are you denying others what could lead to their salvation? Your heart is like all others-”
“Terra.”
“Terra. See, you trust. You give yourself over to the idea of others willingly.”
“What do you mean my heart is like the others.”
“All humans seek power, you are not different. You seek your power over all others. How many people will you trample beneath your feet?” Terra fidgeted. Did she know how to defeat the darkness?
“So, what do you suggest?” He asked. He still didn't trust her but maybe she was right. And he HAD trusted Hades after all, so if he didn't Trust her, could she know a way out of the Darkness?
“The end of self. By eliminating your self – no, not suicide- you can quash all that you hold in your heart. Your power can be shared among all.”
“I.... it makes sense, but what does Aqua have to do with this? I know her well enough to know she wouldn't ask to be turned into this.” Then again... maybe she did? She could fight off almost anything. Aqua stirred on his back.
“As I said, she is the tool for Rapture's rebirth. Let her take your ADAM and return to the cycle.”
“I... I'm not Spliced.” the woman didn't look startled at this news.
“I thought that may be the case. Then help us in other ways. Maybe even Splice yourself so you can appreciate what others can give.”
“No. It's” it's tempting. Not just the power, but if he could figure out what he could do to... to stop... who? Himself? Vanitas? And to understand what people thought. Wasn't that partly why he tried to become a Keyblade Master? To help others?
“Sing me a Lullaby, Mr. Bubbles” Aqua tightened her grip on Terra's neck as she fussed a bit on his back.
“I'm already helping others.” Terra tried to sound confident.
“By helping Aqua, you are only denying salvation to others.”
“She's MY family. I'm not risking her safety for something I don't fully understand..” Terra growled. Where were the Splicers? Was Tenenbaum holding them back? Or this woman?
“Then I will teach you, and you can join our family to be redeemed.”
“I may have issues with my family, but redemption doesn't mean subjugating others will for your own gain.”
“But wouldn't your parents subjugate your will in order advance their own sense? You owe a sense of brotherhood, so hand over the little sister. It will give others redemption, they would do the same for you.”
“And what about Aqua? In your own philosophy she is to be helped. I don't see this form as helping anyone.”
“She will never be alone if she joins us.”
“Without a choice in the matter? To be just a number in... whatever you have planned.” Terra needed to leave, now. He was a sitting duck, and who knows what had happened to Ven and Tenenbaum.
“But her minor discomfort would create a greater good in all of the Family. They would be reborn in her and in Eleanor.”
“And in my family, the greater good means doing what your heart tells you.”
“Your family is flawed.” Terra felt the insult like a slap across his face.
“No, it isn't Master Eraqus”
“There, you see? MASTER He isn't your equal.”
“Of course not, he raised us.” Terra turned around, so his back was towards how he entered. He didn't want to be rude, but he may need to make a quick exit. “And I will not get rid of the family I have.”
“But will they support you forever?” Terra's heart almost stopped cold. “Sooner or later, they will abandon you. You did something they can no longer stand. If all you have is that family, what will happen then?” Terra started to take a step back. “Join the Family, eliminate your self, and be free to help others and be accepted for who you truly are.” Terra fled. The Blond woman had never said her name or raised her voice, but there was no denying both the truth she spoke, and how terrifying her vision was.
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