Chapter Text
Chapter 5
Darker metal than Her.
Elisabet couldn’t hide how fond she had become of her young clone. The girl was smart, ferocious, and compassionate in ways that surprised her. She had emotional intelligence, something Elisabet had always struggled with. Granted, Aloy could be brash when dealing with something she didn’t understand, but she was never unnecessarily harsh or cruel.
Rockwreath seemed to be a ways away from Pitchcliff, so they set off once Erend was on his way.
“How are you with camping?”
Elisabet paused for a second, thinking through her options.
“I’m ok with it. It’s not something I used to do often but if I was working on site in a remote area that’s generally what I’d do”
“That’s good, because I wanna tackle Rockwreath early tomorrow morning, and it’s gonna take us the rest of today to get there”
“Not feeling like riding?”
Aloy hummed, her eyes squinting in the afternoon sun.
“Yes and no. We can ride up to the river but past that, if you’re still up for a walk I’d prefer to keep my arrival quiet. If the people at Rockwreath hear about a machine rider coming down the road they might pack up shop, and it’s the only lead I have”
“Good thinking. I’m up for a hike, we got enough supplies”
Aloy nodded, calling for her mount. The strider arrived, and she helped Elisabet on. Gripping the wires, Elisabet gripping the furs on her back, they set off southward bound.
The strider tossed its head as they advanced, and Elisabet thought about the videos of a younger Elisabet riding her horse that she had shown GAIA. The strider moved in pretty much the exact same way as old Ibis had. She was a good horse.
Aloy turned, and gave Elisabet a wide smile. She looked like her mother for a second, long hair sunbleached at the tips. The way her eyes crinkled at the sides, freckles that Elisabet had lost after her youth but Miriam had kept. Elisabet had braces when she was a child, something her grandparents couldn’t afford for Miriam, and Aloys smile revealed a crooked canine.
She was imperfect, a scar on her forehead and nicks from the fight previous. She was perfect, green eyes glinting in the sunlight. She brought Elisabet to near tears In resemblance of a mother she had lost.
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In the wilds, you learned to do everything by touch. This was one of Rosts lessons to her, blindfolded she would be told to run trails she had run hundreds of times with sight. It was getting dark now, they’d have to set up camp in the moonlight.
Aloy was thankful that one of the palace staff had the foresight to pack Elisabet a sleep roll, it was bound to be a cold night. They were walking now, chatting casually about different things, what they could eat, how Aloy learned to fletch arrows so well, the intricacies of AI ethics.
Light stuff.
Spotting a small cave, Aloy herded Elisabet toward it.
“Best if we camp in here, if it rains we won’t get soaked”
“It rains around here?”
Aloy laughed.
“Not really. Survival lessons I guess. Back in the embrace the weather changed so often I got used to being kinda damp, but when you’re sleeping getting rained on can be a death sentence”
“Any stories?”
“Once I get the fire going yeah”
Aloy watched Elisabets eyes gleam when she mentioned fire, but she ignored the memory of how Elisabet had supposedly burned down a tree. She sparked the tinder to light with the chunk of flint and back of her skinning knife.
“I’m surprised you didn’t go all…bow drill or something on me. Like a friction fire”
“Eh. I know how to but it’s easier to use this. You stay away from that though, I don’t want you burning anything”
Elisabet held her hands up in faux surrender.
“Right, I’m gonna go get us some food. What’re you thinking, boar? Fish? Goose?”
“Whatever’s easiest to get kiddo”
“Fish then, if I can find a creek”
She left to go hunting, the fire was far back in the cave for it not to be seen easily. No one would find Elisabet, not without a search. Man she really needed to refill her medicine pack, the side that the Oseram guarding Ersa had clobbered was stinging with abandon.
There was a creek, salmon for dinner, Aloy guessed as she lined up a shot.
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“We meet again… or we don’t.”
Elisabet was shocked halfway out of her skin.
“Wha-who-wha what the fuck?!”
The man in the corner laughed.
“I Came Here To Talk To My Favourite Huntress, Instead I Find A Woman wearing Her Face But None Of Her Prowess”
“Who in gods name are you?”
“For Me Gods Name Is The Sun. I’d Ask Your Name”
“I asked first”
There was some noise from the mouth of the cave, Aloy was back. That was such a relief. Now she could get the strange man grinning in the firelight out of he-
“Nil?”
Aand of course she knew him.
“Hello Again.”
“You know I’d ask what you’re doing here but I have cooking to do”
The man, Nil, tilted his head like a confused dog, although he was more like a snake in his mannerisms.
“Who Is Your Tag Along?”
“Oh right. Elisabet, this is Nil. Nil, Elisabet Sobeck”
Elisabet waved awkwardly, and he bowed his head towards her. Aloy busied herself with the food, salmon and some assorted greenery. The man kept staring, unblinking, and when the campfire cracked Elisabet saw the rest of him.
It only served to send shivers down her spine.
With the food sorted, Aloy seemed to notice Elisabets lack of comfort.
“So Nil. What brings you round these parts? I don’t think I saw any bandit camps up north”
“I Was Chasing Down A Group, Through The Valleys”
“Any luck?”
Nil simply smiled, deeply unsettling Elisabet.
“It Seems That Our Paths Will Cross Again Some Day, But For Now I Must Leave. Goodbye Huntress, And Elisabet Sobeck”
He left, stalking off into the darkness.
Eisabet looked at Aloy, who was unborthered by the whole affair.
“Who the fuck was that?”
“….Nil?”
“I know his name. But who was he?!”
Aloy opened her mouth to reply.
“If you say Nil one more time so help me god..”
“Okay okay. I met him taking down a bandit camp back in Nora territory. He’s just… like that. Enjoys the hunt a bit too much but he’s harmless enough. If you’re not a bandit that is.”
“He’s a psychopath!”
“He likes killing bandits. At least he’s honest!”
“He likes killing people”
“So do I. When they deserve it. You know what bandits do right? Murder, steal, enslave. They’re not good people”
“Still, taking pride in killing people isn’t a good quality. Murdering a murderer means there’s the same amount of murderers in the world.”
“So kill two…”
Elisabet threw her hands up angrily.
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Rockwreath was one hell of a place, if you asked Elisabet. She was still a little miffed at Aloy, what with her association with psychotic murderers and such, but she couldn’t stay mad for long. The food was too good.
Nora food wasn’t as exciting as Oseram or Carja, but it was certainly comforting. Salmon stuffed with wild herbs and what she assumed was kale? It was delicious.
Aloy pointed at a spot, close enough to Rockwreath to have an idea of what was going on, far enough to run if need be. She hoped that she wouldn’t need to.
“Down there, see. That’s Olin.”
She squinted, years of staring at focus screens biting her in the ass.
“Yeah, jeez what are they digging up”
Aloy looked at her, concern evident.
“You don’t wanna know”
Elisabet nodded, and Aloy set off to fight. God this was nerve racking, watching the girl who was so much stronger than she expected go off to fight and kill men who would end the both of them without a second thought.
The argument last night had rattled them both. Aloys’ friend Nil, well it wasn’t like she enjoyed the guys company but she respected him enough. He reminded Elisabet entirely too much of a younger Travis Tate, though less chaotic and more murderous.
She had met Travis through Tilda, he had been at a bar and Tilda was all too willing to talk to the young man about various thinly veiled highly illegal actions. The way Nil and Aloy spoke, it seemed that Nil was more the Tilda in that situation, Aloys unapologetic brashness in the face of dubious morality.
There was quiet from below her vantage point, then screams of fury.
“SOMEONES HERE! SOMEONES HERE WITH US”
Aloy wasn’t even in position yet, but there they were, clutching the sides of their heads like Elisabet did when her Focus glitched. But Aloy, as intelligent as she was, had no idea about coding let alone how to crash a group of Focuses.
And when she lined up shot after shot, Elisabet was sure of one thing. Someone else was helping them. And neither of them knew who.
There was more noise, a groaning like a long dead beast coming to life once more, and Elisabet descended into her memories.
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Whoever the mystery person helping them was, they had fantastic timing. The Focuses crashed the second Aloy popped her head over the ridge, and taking the group down was simple after that.
Olin was there, Aloy avoided shooting him. There was a sound like screeching metal and a group of corruptors rose. Her only thought in that moment was Elisabet, but she lined up shots regardless, something was to be said about automatic reactions.
The corruptor spewed explosions and weaponry, but the tearblast arrows were effective. One corruptor down, two, a third. She was on the back foot now, corruption burning the bare skin on her arms yet she remained calm and kept firing.
Aloy felt rock beneath her cracking, and firing her last tearblast arrow off at the last corruptor, she fell. Hard. Onto her left wrist. It hurt, badly, but she had taken down all of the enemies. Only Olin remained. She scrambled to her feet, avoiding using her wrist, but taking a threatening stance nonetheless.
“Follow me.”
Olin scrambled a bit, but Aloy browbeat him into following.
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The chariot line was a marvel of modern robotics, but that didn’t make them any less horrific. War machines, capable of using biomass as fuel. It was a nightmare come true. She should have stayed with Faro, maybe she could have prevented their creation. She should have killed Ted, then he wouldn’t have been able to be so arrogant as to not but a back door into his killer robots.
Elisabet had never actually been face to face with a chariot line robot, she’d seen the reports and the newspapers, the videos of Kopesh hordes using the biomass of still living but injured humans for fuel. The sounds haunted her days let alone her nights.
Zero dawn had soundproof walls, closets to hide in while the world went to shit, hidden nooks and a laissez faire view on prescription antidepressants.
She had been on 200mg of Zoloft, 4mg of Xanax and an unhealthy relationship with melatonin. That was pre Zero Dawn.
During ZD, she had turned to… less than legal ways of calming her nerves and stopping her mind from racing. She couldn’t afford the brain fog of Zoloft, nor the memory issues and sleeping problems. Drug use was all too common with the alphas, so much so that USRC had turned a blind eye to any illicit activities because they couldn’t afford to lose their entire Alpha team.
Seeing the Scarab rising from its grave, Elisabet wished she had taken the mysterious package Travis had left by her door when she went to shut the door. Whatever it was, it was better than the memories.
—————————
Elisabet was curled up on the floor when Aloy reached her. She had already spoken to Olin, threatened him more like. But he was a decent man in a bad situation, Aloy couldn’t help but think that if she were him she’d do the same. He was alive, she’d meet him at Spurflints.
Olin had dropped several huge pieces of information on her.
“Elisabet?”
A shaky groan was her reply.
“Hey, come on. Sit up”
Aloy had to manhandle Elisabet to get her sat up in a semi comfortable way. She was breathing heavily, but barely catching her breath. She made a decision, and gathered the shaking woman into her arms.
She hugged with as much strength as she could, letting Elisabet lean into her as much as possible. Elisabet froze for a second, before melting into the hug. Her wrist ached, sharp pains lancing up her arm as she held on, but Aloy held on.
Elisabet calmed down slowly, sniffling into her shoulder the whole while. When the crying stopped, Aloy waited a moment, then pulled away.
“Elisabet?”
The woman let out a shuddering breath.
“I’m back kiddo. I’m-I’m so sorry about that”
“Don’t be. Stuff like that happens sometimes. I didn’t think there’d be a corruptor there”
“Do…do you have any idea why they’re back? They should have all been deactivated by MINERVA”
Aloy twitched, looking irritated in a different direction.
“I was getting to that”, she said through gritted teeth.
She brushed herself off, wincing at her wrist again.
“Here. Took these off the Eclipse members I took down”
In her hands was a small pile of half broken Focuses, sparking quietly.
“Yes! Perfect thank you so much Aloy. Anyway who’re you chatting to?”
“Someone who’s NEVER GONNA GET TO TALK TO THE ONE LIVING OLD ONE IF HE DOSENT SHUT UP”
Elisabet laughed, and Aloy turned her head back to face her.
“Sorry, that guy is so annoying”
“Trying desperately to be suave and not reveal anything?”
Aloy nodded.
“Yeah I know the type. Gimme the night to fix these up and I’ll talk some sense into him”
“Hah! My threat is to never let him talk to you”
“Hey, I’m good at the silent treatment. Anyway what happened? You get Olins ass?”
“….Kinda? Let me grab a mount and we can talk about it on our way to Meridian”
“Sounds good”
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Mount grabbed, another strider, and they were off again.
“So,”
The wind rushed past fast enough to make Elisabet need to yell to be heard”
“What’s the sitch?”
“Uh, oh right the situation. Ok so, Olin; not evil. He was in an unfortunate circumstance. The Eclipse have his wife and kid. Can’t blame the guy”
“The Eclipse?”
“Right. You know how the Carja had that civil war, there’s folk now calling themselves the Shadow Carja, the ones loyal to Jiran or those forced to come along when they fled to Sunfall. Except there’s a cult in the Shadow Carja called the Eclipse. Worship the Buried Shadow from Carja mythology. But that’s… not exactly who they worship”
“Who is it then?”
“Don’t get upset”
“Who?”
“HADES. The guy I spoke to said that it’s a part of Zero Dawn. That you’d know what it is. Turns out it put a hit on me after Olin saw me at the Proving”
“Because you look like me and I’m the only one who could shut HADES down. Shit!”
“Yeah… also the guy who killed Rost is the leader of the Eclipse. Guy called Helis, Jirans old champion.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I mean, coming to terms with some stuff but yeah. Got other stuff to focus on anyway”
“That’s not healthy Aloy”
“Anyway Olin said he’d seen a picture, or something, of you in Makers End. It’s North and West. But more North”
“Once I fix these up I’ll be able to find it, don’t worry. Other than those revelations, are you alright?”
“Yeah. I’m good”
Aloy was ignoring how her wrist ached as she said that.
“We’ve gotta run to Meridian, check up on Erend and Ersa, pick up some supplies”
“Yeah. It’s barely noon. I thought you’d spend all day sorting that mess out”
The strider turned towards the road, and sped up with abandon. For a moment, Elisabet could pretend she was with her mother, riding Ibis through the countryside of her childhood home. Tears dotted her eyes, and she hoped Aloy had similar memories.
The plains were light, the air was cooled by the speed of the strider, and she was with the kid. Nothing could be better.
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Meridian town was the busiest that Aloy and Elisabet had ever seen it. A lot of commotion near the marketplace, Aloy commented about it perhaps being a festival. That seemed the case, what with the music and wooden stalls selling spiced brews and cured meat. They ducked and dodged through the crowd, making their way to the palace. A guard greeted them at the stairway, pointing them to the court.
“Aloy! Elisabet!”
It was Erend, running towards them and grasping them in a hug.
“You guys are okay!”
“How’s Ersa?”
Was the first question, asked by Aloy.
“She’s. She’s alive Aloy! She’s still asleep but the royal physician says that she should wake up in the next few days. That’s all thanks to you two. Avad wants to see you, all of us actually. Something about Dervahl again. You find Olin okay?”
“Yeah, he’s off to Spurflints. I’ll find him later, help him get his family back”
“Wait you- you let him live? Better than I would have done”
“I mean he never actually attacked me. The Shadow Carja have his family”
They walked into the room where Avad and Marad were talking, Avad animatedly waving his hands around.
“Aloy! Elisabet!”
Avad smiled widely as he saw them, Marad bowing his head respectfully.
“I hear you two are to thank for the safe return of Ersa”
Elisabet answered, pointing to her two companions as she spoke,
“It was these two who did most of the work, they took down the enemies in the camp”
“Humble as ever Elisabet. Please, before we move on to other topics, I owe you two a reward.”
Erend smirked, while Elisabet and Aloy just blushed.
“I’m giving you Olins apartment. It seems it was purchased by members of the Shadow Carja before the war. I feel it’s… appropriate to hand it off to you. If you are in need of any furnishings or repair, please see one of the local outfitters, and direct them to have it on the royal tab. I have furnished it with two beds, but you are always free to stay at the palace. As friends of the sundom”