A Different Lighthouse

Chapter 11

The corner Ben situated himself in was dark, the whir of the disabled security camera no longer penetrating the silence and allowing him to hear every drop of water, every distant shout or gunshot, every step that his target took as they drew near. They muttered to themselves almost inaudibly, rifling around shelves and pushing aside records and music players in search of ammo, bandages, or, more likely, ADAM. Ben tightened his grip on his handgun, holding his breath as his target slowly rounded the corner, still mumbling under their breath. They didn't appear to see him for the moment, the darkness shrouding him, and he began to slowly rise from his crouch.

Before he could even cock his weapon, a small figure leaped down from the top of a set of shelves, tiny arms wrapping around the target's neck and startling a sharp curse from him as he tried to flail himself free. Ben scrambled to his feet, aiming and firing with a flourish. The target staggered back two steps, crashing into a display and sending merchandise scattering across the floor before crumpling in a heap. 

"Blue," Ben hissed tensely, holstering his handgun and giving the girl a stern look as she crawled away from the fresh corpse of Adam Ackbar. "I told you to stay hidden!"

"I was helping!" she insisted, frowning up at him with her lower lip pushed out as she smoothed out her dress. 

"I don't need you to help, I need you to stay safe," he snapped, before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. "You could have gotten hurt," he continued more calmly. 

"I could get hurt all the time," she reminded him, crossing her arms. 

Ben huffed, pursing his lips at her. "Well yes, but I'd rather not push our luck."

She gave him an equally stern look in return, before glancing at Ackbar's body. "Don't you have to take his picture for Mr. Tarkin?"

Ben knew she was changing the subject - the longer she spent without that slug inside of her, the more she became like a real child, and a smart one at that - but he let it go for now. He nodded, taking the camera slung around his neck and approaching the corpse. Feeling a bit ill, he snapped a few photos just in case Tarkin was picky, before turning away and leaving the record store as quickly as he could.

"Ben, didn't you say you'd never killed anyone before?" asked Blue as she followed close to his heels. "You said that to Armitage."

Ben blinked, glancing down at her as a strange feeling settled over him, almost like he'd forgotten something and had been reminded. "I... I did say that. What... what I meant is that I'd never committed murder. It's different."

He was lying straight through his teeth and doing a bad job of covering it up. He couldn't explain what he'd actually meant. When he thought about if he 'd ever killed before, his automatic answer was "No, of course not, never," but he had taken down plenty of Splicers since arriving in Rapture and... he hadn't really felt a thing for them... or for himself, having taken a life. It felt... well, it felt worryingly routine. And just now, killing Adam Ackbar, a man who hadn't even been attacking him first, he felt next to nothing putting a bullet in his chest. Part of him reasoned that it was because he was worried for Blue that he hadn't thought twice, but... he wasn't quite sure, anymore.

He was starting to understand what Hux meant, about people going funny in the head being in the dark for too long. His gut twisted as he worried for him, remembering what Tarkin had said about limited air supply while a Bathysphere is submerged.