#:d.....

- Buddy anon

✨ominous asf ✨

Short answer: He made a deal with Fontaine, unaware of the consequences that came with it.

Long answer: A hell of a lot of work. Timing had to be perfect, had to be vital, and most importantly; Atlas had to distance himself from possibly the only friend he could ever have in Rapture. What was the price? I headcanon it'd be the reassurance of a better life in the city, one where him and ordinary, lower-class workers could actually survive and eat proper. He didn't get angry over nothing and he wasn't going to pull a cruel stunt like this without getting anything in return. He was foolish enough to trust him with this, even if later on he did get his doubts, but he ended up cooperating anyways. Initially he had no intention of even caring for Jack, after all, he wasn't aiming to gain more followers or in general become involved with other people as he'd learned it was nothing but an endless string of events that induced anxiety to if he was genuinely liked. Without issues he pulled Jack's heartstrings by bringing up his sob story about the family he cared little about, exaggerating every single emotion he felt at the time of their death as well as before

Never really did he expect to come see Jack as something more than just another idiot who'd been unfortunate, becoming rather attached to his presence and the fact he finally had someone to talk to who wasn't biased on the topic of Rapture's politics, who could get to know him as a person. Over time he felt rather bad, and as Fontaine wasn't stupid, he'd anticipated on something like this happening, and when even the slightest compassion slipped out of the Irishman's mouth he began counting tally marks until --- to him, it'd become too much. So when Atlas finally finished his part of the deal---- getting Jack to kill Ryan and having Rapture fall in Fontaine's hands, he blocked Atlas' signal the second it was done, convincing Jack Atlas never actually existed (it convincing thanks to his history as conman) and locking him away in order to reassure everything would go according to his plan. Atlas was betrayed, angry, and incredibly guilty; but he blamed himself entirely for this part, well aware this was very likely to happen, his continuous rush into decisions that he'd trained himself proved to indeed not be convenient.

It took a relatively long time before people found him after Fontaine's death, him miraculously having survived, and he decided to go into hiding. After all, there was no war to be fought as both tyrants were dead and his position unstable. From a revolutionary to another poor man. All because of a failed deal.