Men Felt And Feared Thee Of Old

[Jade Harley]

There wasn't much that she could tell Rebecca on the subject of Rapture, locked up tight as the Dataverse files and the city itself were, but, sitting on the docks with her legs dangling over the side and the sun's rays beating down, Jade did her level best to explain all the same.

And, well. It was a biiiiiit pathetic, considering all that she knew could be named on a list of fewer than ten items! Those items, as it so happened, were:

1. Rapture was a city located somewhere at the deepest, darkest depths of the Vasty Deep.

2. It was advertised as a place of capitalistic freedom and entrepreneurship, hence the crumpled pamphlet Jade had managed to stumble upon in the streets.

3. Many public services were sacrificed to achieve the above. So, it stunk pretty bad if you weren't flagrantly amazing or wealthy enough to make a living.

4. Some guy named Andrew Ryan founded the place. No, Jade didn't know much about him, either.

5. Tearen had been there.

6. Tearen had found Rebecca there and removed her for reasons mostly unknown to Jade, although the predominating reason was that something was deeply wrong with the way 'Becca was being treated at the time.

All of these tiny things motivated Jade to want to pursue the thread and snip it off, so to speak, if only to save Rebecca the pain of recalling her experiences in full later on, when the nightmare was discovered to still be very much real and glittering menacingly from the ocean's depths. Still, although Jade was definitely raring to go, Rebecca seemed unusually subdued as she listened to Jade speak about the place she likely once called home, her hands fumbling at the ends of her dress and a crinkle in the middle of her forehead.

Watching her, Jade couldn't help the rush of thoughts as they occurred. Not for the first time, she wondered where Rebecca's actual, biological parents were, or if she'd simply been summoned just as she was for some unknown, heinous purpose. A deep sadness settled at the bottom of Jade's stomach, twisting along her insides until she kind of wanted to curl up and turn into a weepy, teary-eyed mess over it, but that just wouldn't do. No good ever came of sitting down and turning on the waterworks, her Grandpa had always said, and Jade wasn't about to start now. She had to be strong for Rebecca!

At long last, Jade finally ran out of things to say, panting like a dog and really feeling the heat of the sun searing through her dark clothes, sweat tickling at the nape of her neck. She felt a bit light-headed after doing all that talking, too; Rebecca had only broken her steamrolling by asking the occasional question here and there! Thankfully, it was now Jade's turn to turn her full attention on the Little Sister, waiting for the final verdict on whether Rapture was something she wanted to excavate from her shadowy past. She wanted to be there for her either way.

"Well?" Jade asked, trying to stifle a yawn with the back of her hand. She winked at Rebecca when she was finished, a slow, tired batting of an eye. "What do you think?"

"I want to go, I do! But— but I'm scared, Doggy Lady," Rebecca admitted, looking down in apparent shame, "The angels..." The little girl shook in what was almost a convulsion, shoulders hunching defensively and her eyes squinting tightly shut. Her lower lip trembled, eyes threatening to spill hot, tremulous tears.

Becquerel sat up with a whine, tail thumping against the ground as he set about licking the sadness from her face.

Jade panicked a little bit, having clearly lost a handle on the situation. "Hey— hey, it's okay! I won't let anything get you when we're there, if this is really something you wanna do," the young Witch's voice was tight with concern, and she placed a hand on Rebecca's back, trying to smooth away the child's terror with calming, slow rubs. "I'm tough, you know that! I can take on anybody! You don't gotta worry."

A wet sniffle was all she received in answer as the Little Sister wiped at her leaking eyes and nose. Ears drooping, Jade leaned down so that she was nearer to Rebecca's eye level and smoothed her hands away from her face.

When golden-yellow eyes finally met her emerald gaze, the dog-eared girl smiled warmly, buckteeth gleaming and on display. "Hey, there you are. You okay?"

Dragging her wrist across the side of her face to rid it of any snot (something which totally did not work, Jade noted, cringing internally,) Rebecca nodded, mouth still turned slightly downward.

Well... it was something! Jade sighed, gently tucking a few strands of the Little Sister's dark hair behind her ear. "It's okay to be scared, 'Becca. I mean, I'm scared all the time! I bet Bec even gets scared every once in a while, right Bec?"

At Bec's answering "Whuff!", Jade continued, "You just don't need to let it get you down. Fear is the mind killer, didn't you know? Your mind is too beautiful for that."

Now that got a reaction. Eyes wide, Rebecca turned to look at her with something akin to hope flickering in her expression, like the tiniest spark of sunlight shining along the furthest reaches of the pre-dawn horizon. "Really?"

"Yep!" Jade nodded, curls bouncing with every vigorous jerk of her head. "I'm not telepathic or anything, but I can 100%, 11/10 guarantee that your mind is simply the prettiest there is. Scout's honor, kiddo!"

A small smile worked its way onto Rebecca's face. "Okay," she said in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. Then, "Yours is the most prettiest, though."

Jade ducked her head with a loud snort, shaking with mirth.

"Well, I don't know about that, but thanks. Now, let's go find a boat!"