behindmothersback | October 18th

October 18th

I hear beeping and voices. People talking, Eleanor this and Eleanor that, I don't understand any of it. All I know is the tone. The tone of people studying me, watching me, evaluating me. My heart pounds and my head spins and I hear the roar of water in my ears.

Rapture. I'm back in Rapture and you've captured me again, haven't you, Mother? Feeling the sting of needles in my arm, I rip them out, howling and screaming the defiance I was never able to show you before. I will NOT be anyone's experiment again. I will NOT be bent to anyone's will. I will NOT be poked and prodded and injected and ruined ever again. Alarms go off nearby and your splicers rush in, Mother, but I am ready. I pick them up with the power you gave me and I throw them out of the room, picking up the debris of machines and furniture, letting it spin around me as I dare anyone to try and trap me again.

Come and get me, Mother. I am ready.

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It was chaos. Chaos beyond what he had known in Rapture; that had been madness, lethal and horrible, but in the end Eleanor had been beside him through all of it, herself and aware, saving him just as much as he saved her.

Now the madness separated them, and he had no idea how to break through it and reach her.

They had been trying to push him away, get him clear so they could take care of her, but the need in his blood surged, bond or no bond, and he reached for her.

He couldn't decide if he wished he had his plasmids or was thankful that he didn't.

"Eleanor! Eleanor, stop!"

More of your helpers, Mother? I won't be stopped, but... I falter. My power flickers, and I have to let some of the items fall, but I still have most of my strength. I don't know what you've done, Mother, not this time, but I won't be stopped. I will fight and I will survive. I'll find Father again and together we'll stop you for good this time. No more mercy. No more oxygen.

This time you drown.

I lunge for the door, pushing your nurses and splicer-guards aside.

"I'm not your grand experiment, Mother! Do you hear me!?"

Bruce had come to the conclusion, through his research, that the control he needed to be with Kenzi was going to come from within. He had, however, made himself a promise that he was done looking for a cure. He was going to help people instead, keep the Other Guy under wraps that way. That path had brought him true serenity, and he wasn't about to give it up any time soon.

Still, in terms of helping people...he could do more.

He'd taken the job at Darrow Amalgamated to study his own blood during the power switch, but he'd put that study off for a while to refocus on the work he'd done in curing his condition...not for himself, but for the innumerable applications it could have in treating genetic diseases or even work on his original field of study: treating radiation toxicity and even developing an inoculation against it.

Today, that meant he was at the local hospital, picking up some blood samples being donated for medical research (thanks to all that admission paperwork with its waivers and disclosures allowing him to apply for a share of its patient stock). He was waiting for the nurse to locate his samples and find the custodial releases he needed to sign when a disturbance in the ER caught his attention.

He was just about to go through the door when a delicate female body collided with him, filling his arms with enough force to damn near knock him over. Reflexively, Bruce caught her, trying to take it all in without losing his cool. Things are flying, the girl is ranting...and she's strong, stronger than she should be...

Wordlessly, Bruce looks down into her wild face...and something he sees causes his control to slip, and a spark of primal green light to flare to life behind the narrow lenses of the reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

There's someone in the hall, someone watching me, someone... studying me. I know that look, I remember it well. It's someone looking to challenge, to attack. Someone looking for a weakness. You have that look, Mother, I've seen it on your face. I've seen it on the faces of splicers that wanted to kill Father to try and take me.

I'm sure it's on my face now, but I won't be taken. The power in my body isn't steady. It's waxing and waning like the waves of the ocean but I can survive it. I can use it.

Amid the screams and shouts of your minions and sycophants, I can feel myself smile. "Go ahead. Do what Mother says, try and stop me. I'll find Father again, and I'll stop you all."

He followed her, because he couldn't do anything else. He always had. Always would. Even now, with the sense of the world cracking apart all around him, facing the real destruction his own daughter was capable of.

He halted when he saw the man, one hand out as if he had the power to stop any of this. "Sir, be careful- Eleanor? Eleanor, you're safe. I promise. Your mother is gone. No one here will hurt you."

He stepped forward, praying that she would look at him and see. "Come here. Come back to me."

"I am NOT your savior!" I push the man back, stronger than anyone my size should be capable of, but then we both why, don't we?

As much as I hate it, I wish I had my suit. I had some protection there. You did this to me, I'm certain. The dizziness, the strange flux in my powers, you've done something. Are you trying to weaken me, Mother? I think you'll find, I'm much stronger than you ever bargained for.

I round on the other man, advancing slowly, "Get out of my way."

"I can't do that." Bruce replied, his pulse rate elevating along with his adrenaline levels. He had to watch them closely enough that he could feel it, the spike in his heartbeat, the vaguely sick feeling in the pit of his stomach...and he only had a small window in which to let the Other Guy out if an incident was imminent, a sliver of a chance to push some part of himself into the mind of the Hulk...

Tugging off his glasses with one hand, he folded them and slid them into the pocket of his pants, the only clothing he knew he'd probably keep. His control was sliding another notch, and to his horror, Bruce couldn't stop it. It was...

He could sometimes steer the destructive urges of the Other Guy. Now, it almost felt like the Other Guy was trying to steer Bruce.

"Eleanor, calm down." Bruce urged, glancing over to catch the other man's eye as he took note of the name. "Let us help you...there's still time."

Only there wasn't. Already it was happening, his eyes bright green now as he leaned back heavily against the wall she'd shoved him into. Every muscle was tense, every cell screaming at the edge of an incident, a transformation coming not because it was triggered...but because it was needed.

Unless they could make this young, impossibly strong girl stop.

"Time? Time for what? For whatever you've done to me to work?" I won't be stopped, I won't be your prisoner again. I'd rather die, do you know that, Mother? I'd rather you put that pillow over my face again and leave me dead this time. But you won't because you're perfectly incapable to think of anyone or anything other than your perfect Utopia. You're as mad as Ryan and Fontaine. All of you, you deserve Rapture.

"I will be free, do you hear me?! Even if I have to kill you all, I won't be Mother's Utopian ever again!" And with that, I lunge. For the exit or the men trying to stop me, I'm past caring which. I'll drown you all this time.

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October 18th

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